Part 2
Shards flew. Shi Danxing clutched his head in pain. He wanted to get angry, but facing his strange and hideous wife, he lost his nerve.
“That’s everything. I’m really not hiding anything else.”
Jiang Si said, “I want to look at other places.”
Shi Danxing couldn’t wait to leave the room and hurriedly led the way out. Once they were out, Jiang Si stopped him and asked, “Think carefully. Is there anything related to that ‘soulmate’ of yours currently in your house?”
“What? What does this have to do with her?” The forty-year-old middle-aged man, with blood on his head, looked incredibly ridiculous as he stubbornly argued without regard for his life.
It was hard to imagine a person of his age and status could still be so “purely in love.”
Jiang Si had once read a book with a very vivid metaphor. It compared a sudden encounter with love in middle age to a tube of toothpaste that was almost finished suddenly having a large glob come out—you think it’s a surprise, but it’s actually just the residue from the end being squeezed up with force.
There was no such thing as a sudden love in this world. If there was, it was most likely a honey trap.
Jiang Si stared at him fixedly. “The tumors on your body are called Infant Head Gu. As the name implies, they are a Gu refined from the flesh and blood of your own biological child. After this Gu is refined, it will instinctively find its father and crawl into the father’s body.”
Shi Danxing’s expression went blank for a moment. “What are you saying?”
“Exactly what you heard.” Jiang Si shrugged. “You’d better think carefully about what’s in your house that’s related to her.”
The crestfallen Shi Danxing led him to the study, pointing at the scrolls laid out on the table. “These were all given to me by her.”
“She loved calligraphy and wrote very well. I always felt she was my red-chamber confidante, able to ‘add fragrance by the red sleeves’… how could it be like this…”
Jiang Si sneered: “She truly gave her heart and soul to you; you didn’t lose out.”
He stepped forward and unrolled the scrolls one by one, testing them with fire. He didn’t find any issues even after finishing all the scrolls.
“These are all normal paintings and calligraphies. No problem.”
Shi Danxing’s eyes lit up. “Then she’s innocent, right? Maybe she was tricked or harmed by someone. She might not even know what the child’s body was used for.”
“…” Jiang Si said expressionlessly: “The child used for the Infant Head Gu must be alive. You know what that means, right?”
Shi Danxing stopped talking. He seemed to have suffered a severe blow, stumbling back several steps and crashing into the antique cabinet behind him. His back hit it painfully. He braced himself against the cabinet edge and hurriedly steadied a Tang Sancai figurine that was wobbling.
Jiang Si watched coldly. After circling the study and finding nothing unusual, he headed downstairs.
At that moment, Hai Di sent a message asking when he would be home. Jiang Si looked down at his phone and replied: Might take a bit longer. I don’t have many leads on this end yet.
Hai Di felt helpless and advised him to come home if he didn’t find anything, saying there was no need to stay.
Jiang Si sent an “OK” emoji. He went downstairs, with Shi Danxing following closely behind.
The man finally seemed to remember he hadn’t hosted his guest properly. He belatedly said, “Mr. Jiang, why don’t you sit and rest for a while? I’ll go pour you a cup of tea.”
Jiang Si didn’t refuse. He put away his phone and focused his gaze on the hanging painting on the wall. The interior of the Shi family home was mostly a classical Chinese style, but here was a semi-open abstract painting that looked completely out of place.
It depicted stylized, twisted human faces shattered across the ground, with heavy, rich colors splashed on like blood, occupying most of the frame. The content was very rich, and there seemed to be many details, but it was incomprehensible.
The sound of Shi Danxing’s footsteps grew closer behind him. Jiang Si was about to ask who the artist was.
“Mr. Jiang, your tea.” Shi Danxing’s muffled and thick voice sounded behind Jiang Si.
The voice was right next to him, but the shadow on the wall Jiang Si was facing showed only his own.
Quicker than words could say, the moment he realized, he leaned to the side. A fruit knife grazed his head and stabbed directly into the painting frame.
The sharp metal shattered the glass of the frame, letting out a piercing grating sound. The tip of the knife plunged deep into the blood-like clump in the painting. It was easy to imagine that if Jiang Si hadn’t dodged in time, the knife would have plunged straight into his brain.
Jiang Si braced his hand against the wall. Using his long legs, he kicked the person flying with a single strike, the hem of his shirt drawing a sharp arc in the air.
Shi Danxing fell heavily to the floor, spitting out a mouthful of black blood. He struggled to get up, but Jiang Si pinned him down again.
He pulled the knife out and stabbed it into the wooden floor right next to Shi Danxing’s hand.
Jiang Si looked down, his hair slipping over his cold, pale forehead and obscuring half of his eyes, making him look extremely fierce. He shouted coldly, “Get out of his body right now.”
Shi Danxing’s two slightly cloudy eyes had actually turned completely black. He stared at Jiang Si with compound eyes like those of an insect.
After a long while, he suddenly gave a weird chuckle. “Papa—Papa—”
Jiang Si, who was suddenly being called “Papa”: “…”
“It won’t work even if you call me ‘Grandpa.’ If you don’t get out now, I’ll rip his stomach open and dig you out myself.”
Jiang Si’s eyelids lifted sharply, his tone showing he wasn’t joking at all. He held the knife, gesturing over Shi Danxing’s body as if considering where to start.
Seeing that the thing was still chuckling, Jiang Si struck with the knife. The tip pierced through Shi Danxing’s clothes, the cold edge already pressing against his skin.
Suddenly, Shi Danxing’s mouth seemed to be sliced open by a sharp tool. The corners of his mouth stretched wider and wider, and a black, viscous liquid couldn’t stop overflowing from his mouth, spreading over his cheeks and reaching Jiang Si’s feet.
His flat abdomen simultaneously bloated up like a balloon being constantly inflated, getting larger and larger.
The tense Jiang Si retracted his knife in time, preventing the tragedy of the bloated stomach being sliced open.
But even though Jiang Si had avoided his body, Shi Danxing still couldn’t escape his fate.
As his abdomen bloated, Shi Danxing’s entire body fell into convulsions. His fingers clawed at the floor so hard his nails nearly broke, and blood flowed.
His two black eyes stared roundly and directly at Jiang Si, a constant “Heh-heh—” sound coming from his throat.
Jiang Si took two steps back, sensing things were going south. He immediately called for help.
Before the call could connect, a small, pitch-black hand suddenly reached out from Shi Danxing’s mouth, which was stretched to his ears. This was immediately followed by a small head.
A dark infant, about the length of a forearm, crawled out of his mouth.
Shi Danxing seemed to regain a bit of rationality. Realizing his current situation, he stared at Jiang Si, begging for help, “Heh-heh—heh—”
The infant’s soft body crawled from his mouth down to his chest. Only then did Jiang Si see that the infant’s abdomen was actually connected to a long, deep-red, umbilical-cord-like strip of flesh.
And the other end was swallowed inside Shi Danxing’s mouth.
Jiang Si knew that even if he called for people now, they couldn’t save Shi Danxing. He had to act himself. He moved quickly, taking a gamble. He aimed his knife and slashed at the infant’s umbilical cord.
This was the only place connecting it to Shi Danxing. If he wanted to save Shi Danxing, he had to break their connection first.
Blood sprayed across Jiang Si’s face. The infant let out a pained “Waa—” and was tossed to the floor by him.
Without the nutritional supply from the father’s body, the infant’s cries gradually weakened, and its body rapidly shriveled, shrinking into a black block the size of a fist.
“Wu-wu-wu—” Tears and snot flowed down Shi Danxing’s face. Finding he couldn’t speak, he could only push against the floor, struggling to beg for help.
That strip of flesh, whose nature was unknown, still hung at his throat. Blood flowed out profusely, soaking his clothes in no time.
“Shut up and save your strength.” As Jiang Si spoke, he took off his jacket and wrapped it around the wound.
Just then, the phone he had tossed on the floor connected. The speakerphone voice echoed in the ears of Jiang Si and Shi Danxing.
While Jiang Si steadied Shi Danxing’s struggling body, he raised his voice and shouted, “Hurry, save a life!”
As he was speaking, Shi Danxing’s eyes suddenly widened. He kicked his legs with all his might, trying to pull Jiang Si’s attention back.
“Wu-wu—heh—”
Look behind you—
A pitch-black humanoid figure peeled away from the wall behind Jiang Si, manifesting into a solid form. It moved step by step toward the unsuspecting Jiang Si.
Translator’s Note:
DINK stands for “Double Income, No Kids.” The mention of “red sleeves adding fragrance” (红袖添香) is a traditional literary trope referring to a beautiful woman accompanying a scholar while he studies. Also, “Leopard Coral Grouper” (东星斑) is still a luxury item, and seeing it ruined like that… poor fish.
Hope you guys are enjoying the tension!
Recommended Reads
