Monster - Chapter 21
Chapter 21: The Detective
While Lin Sandie was mired in endless sorrow, Lou and the crow, Miu, were carrying out a mission entrusted to them by Zhou Ren of Glory Road: to investigate whether Yan Ting was connected to Xu Yao's death.
Today, Lou was dressed in a pink chiffon fairy dress adorned with embroidery and sequins, which perfectly accentuated her waist. Her long, straight hair, originally dyed ink-blue, was styled in an updo, with just a few strands left to hang along her slender neck. A pair of gold-framed glasses rested on her beautiful face, giving her an appearance that was at once elegant and sweet.
As her study of Lin Sandie deepened, the aura she projected grew increasingly similar. However, thanks to a bank card with no credit limit, her attire became more fashionable and luxurious. While her style might have resembled Lin Sandie's, the... price tags were very different.
"Miss, we've arrived," said Feng Chenggong, the driver Lou had hired, his voice trembling slightly as he drove the recently purchased luxury car.
He had no idea what madness had possessed the young heiress in the back seat. After hiring him online, she had immediately given him money to buy this luxury car, telling him it would be his to drive from then on. This was Feng Chenggong's first time behind the wheel of such an expensive vehicle.
"You should get out and open the door for me," Lou instructed. Feng Chenggong, accustomed to driving taxis, instantly understood. He hurried out of the car and opened her door with a smile. "Miss, we've arrived."
The monthly salary Lou paid him was more than what he earned in three months of driving a taxi. For that kind of money, he wouldn't have minded being a human stool for this rich, beautiful, and slightly clueless young woman.
"Good, wait for me here." Lou was rather pleased with herself, flashing the driver a sweet and lovely grin.
Lou had arrived at Xu Yao's last known residence, an old residential building.
It was located in the old district, where buildings were typically only three or four stories high and housed mostly elderly residents. Perhaps due to having more free time, nearly every household had some potted plants. It was March, and the air was full of spring. Many of the small potted flowers were in bloom, dotting the moss-streaked buildings and creating an elegant and leisurely atmosphere.
Lou got out of the car and looked up at the three-story building before her. Clothes hung outside to dry, fluttering gently in the wind. On the top floor, she could see a railing made of pot-bellied ceramic vases. The vases that formed the barrier were covered in colorful patterns and cracks, and she wondered why anyone would use them for a balcony railing.
It was the first time Lou had seen a building of this architectural style, and she was a bit unsure of what to do. After looking around, she finally found a simple staircase on the left side of the ground floor.
However, an iron gate blocked the entrance to the stairs, and it was locked.
Lou grabbed the lock on the gate and shook it hard a few times, causing the gate to rattle with a loud "bang, bang, bang."
"Young lady, who are you looking for?" an aged voice called out from behind her.
Lou turned to see an old woman, dressed simply and wearing dark plastic slippers. She was at least close to seventy. Though time had left its marks on her face, she wasn't stooped over like many elderly people. She was thin, but she stood perfectly straight, watching Lou.
Lou glanced at her before turning back to yank on the lock. "I need to get up there!"
Her voice was strained from the effort.
"What for?"
"To see Xu Yao's residence."
"Xu Yao? You know her?"
"No, I just want to have a look." Lou realized that in this world without the aid of magic, she was indeed easily thwarted by a lock that looked like it would break at any moment. Resigned, she stopped pulling, puffed out her cheeks in frustration, and blew away a strand of hair that had fallen across her face.
Just as Lou was about to pull out the pistol holstered on her inner thigh and shoot the damn lock, she caught sight of the old woman slowly pulling a set of keys from her side pocket.
Lou immediately trotted over to her.
"Grandma, you had the key all along! You should have said so~"
The old woman glanced at Lou, thinking to herself, You never asked.
She walked slowly to the gate, inserted the correct key into the lock, and prepared to open it.
But just before she turned the key, she suddenly grabbed Lou's wrist. Her once-cloudy eyes grew bright as she tilted her head back and stared straight at Lou, carefully studying her face.
"What is it?" Lou asked with a smile, simultaneously scanning the old woman before her.
Name: Xu Siqian
Age: 66
Gender: Female
Current Status: Ordinary Citizen
Bio: Formerly a Ruler, code name ξ (Note 1). Stripped of her position as Ruler in Mirror Year 2020.
Isn't ξ Xu Yao's code name? How did it end up with this old woman? Stripped of her position in 2020, that was four years ago, and Xu Yao was murdered three years ago...
Lou sensed something was off. Just as she was about to speak, the old woman named Xu Siqian released her and went back to opening the gate.
"Caw." Perched on a nearby utility pole, Miu let out a cry, both keeping watch and alerting Lou that it, too, had noticed something was amiss with the old woman.
Lou decided she would talk to the old woman later. The moment Xu Siqian opened the gate, Lou squeezed past her and headed up the stairs.
The entrance to the apartment where Xu Yao had lived was on the balcony. So, upon reaching the third floor, Lou found herself on a large platform. Many green plants lined the perimeter; long untended, some had withered and died, while others grew wild.
Under the eaves near the main door sat a worn-out armchair. Though it could still be used, it didn't look like it had much life left in it.
Of course, Lou had no interest in these traces of time's passage. She stared at the locked door and once again fell into the mistaken belief that she possessed powerful magic. Grabbing the lock, she shook it with all her might, and the poor iron door began to rattle loudly once more.
It was no use.
Lou looked back and saw Xu Siqian still climbing the stairs at a turtle's pace. Anxiously, she began to jog in place.
"You can do it!" Lou cheered from the top of the stairs.
When Xu Siqian finally made it to the top, Lou immediately ran to her side, pumping her arms with clenched fists as she jogged in place. "Hurry up!"
"Countless people have been through here already. Don't expect to find anything." Xu Siqian, completely unaffected by Lou's impatience, continued at her own pace to the apartment door. She unlocked the outer iron gate, then switched keys to open the inner wooden door.
Without a shred of courtesy, Lou squeezed inside the moment Xu Siqian opened the wooden door. The old woman didn't follow her in, instead sitting down in the armchair under the eaves to rest.
The entrance opened into a study filled with stacks of law books. Since it had been uninhabited for a long time, a thin layer of dust covered many surfaces, though some areas showed signs of having been disturbed.
Once inside, the previously impatient Lou grew calm. She walked to Xu Yao's desk, where the first thing she saw was a small piece of paper tacked up above it. The paper had yellowed with age, but the elegant script on it was still clearly legible:
In the face of a powerful foe, be without fear,
Loyal and upright, rather die than yield,
Protect the weak, and violate not the laws of heaven!
My sword shall strike at injustice and cruelty,
My shield shall protect the weak and the just!
If I violate the oath above, may the gods deliver a fitting punishment!
Lou tilted her head and studied it for a moment before reaching out, pulling the small note down. She read it to herself once more, then put it away.
Based on the information she had gathered, the power structure of this world was a mess. The power held by the upper echelons was granted by a tree and embodied in a brooch. The power of a Ruler was a "sword and shield" brooch, while the power of a Legislator was a "scales" brooch.
Xu Yao's original code name, ξ, represented the power of a Ruler. Therefore, the declaration on the small piece of paper was likely the oath she had to swear upon receiving her brooch and assuming her post.
Lou walked around the study and saw that many areas had been thoroughly ransacked. Books had been pulled from the shelves and thrown on the floor, and some of the plaster had even been pried from the walls. Just as the old woman at the door had said, it was unlikely there was anything of value left for her to find.
However, after scanning Xu Siqian, Lou couldn't say the day had been a complete waste.
Humming a tune, Lou decided to continue playing detective for a while longer. She would use her "meticulous" reasoning to trick and ambush the 66-year-old "comrade," Xu Siqian, to get the information she wanted.
Just as Lou was delighting in her plan, Miu's warning suddenly sounded in her mind. "Someone's coming! Get out of there, now!"
"Why?" Lou asked in return.
That matter-of-fact "why" struck Miu to its very core. It had never encountered such a shameless Sentinel. As the word "why" echoed in its mind, it roared, "Because your damn face has most likely been exposed, you idiot! You savage!"
"Oh~" Lou brought up her hands, lightly tapping her right fist into her left palm with an expression of sudden understanding.
She hadn't been particularly careful about concealing her identity, so in this Tower World with its advanced surveillance, it was indeed likely that she had been exposed.
She quickly retreated from Xu Yao's study and saw Xu Siqian sitting by the door, leisurely tending to a potted plant she had pulled over.
Lou kicked the plant aside, shouting, "Grandma! There's no time!" She then dropped into a "fierce tiger landing" pose, kneeling with her back to Xu Siqian, grabbed the old woman's hands, and hoisted her onto her back.
"What are you doing!?" Startled by the sudden movement, Xu Siqian quickly wrapped her arms around Lou's neck and cried out.
"Someone's coming! We have to get out of here, fast!"
"What? Who's coming?! What does that have to do with an old woman like me?!" Xu Siqian shoved at the back of Lou's head, trying to make her let go. "You crazy girl! Put me down!"
The shove forced Lou's head forward, but she kept a firm grip on the old woman's legs and dashed downstairs.
She had no choice. The people from the Inspectorate had arrived at the worst possible time. She still had many questions for the former Ruler, Xu Siqian, and if she missed this opportunity, it would be difficult to get close to her again.
Besides, she had just noticed an unusually high number of surveillance cameras around the building. This most likely meant that whoever had murdered Xu Yao was also monitoring Xu Siqian, who had been close to her.
"Fuck! They saw the luxury car you idiot just bought! One of them is questioning the driver, and two more are running this way! Don't go west—run for that alley to the east!"
"Roger that!" Carrying Xu Siqian on her back, Lou didn't slow down. She descended the stairs like a whirlwind and, following Miu's directions, ran east.
After sprinting for about a kilometer with Xu Siqian on her back, Lou finally flagged down a random taxi. She was about to unceremoniously shove the old woman into the back seat when she noticed her face was pale and she was clutching her chest, gasping for breath.
Lou quickly put on a pitiful, tear-streaked mask. She sat down next to Xu Siqian and slapped the back of the driver's seat. "Driver, hurry! Get us to the city center hospital, quick! Sob! My grandma is dying!"
"Oh! Okay!" Seeing her distress, the driver frantically slammed on the accelerator.
Xu Siqian, who had just managed to catch her breath, heard Lou declare that she was dying. A rage boiled up inside her. She took off the one slipper she hadn't lost during the run and began to whack Lou over the head with it.
"Who's your grandma?! Bullshit! You're the one who's dying! Where did this crazy girl come from, ambushing an old woman like me!"
The car's interior was cramped. Lou dodged a few times but found the slipper sole increasingly difficult to avoid. She quickly grabbed Xu Siqian's wrist, flashed a completely harmless smile, and uttered a single word that made the old woman fall instantly silent:
"ξ."
The slipper fell from Xu Siqian's hand. She stared at Lou, stunned and disbelieving. "You... how did you know?"
"Because I'm a detective," Lou replied in a low voice.
"Detective my ass," Miu, who had already turned back into a brooch, chimed in.
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