"No..."
I knew in my heart that Si Jiangchen was right.
Killing evil people was a good deed.
However, I still couldn't bring myself to accept it.
I was human. How could I eat my own kind?!
Just thinking about the scenes in the TV series where zombies devoured humans made me feel nauseous...
"Xiao He, don't listen to him!"
Du Peilin was a traditional and upright Taoist priest. He always took saving the world and helping others as his principle and completely disagreed with Si Jiangchen's words. "Everything is predestined. The evil they've done will surely bring retribution upon themselves sooner or later."
Si Jiangchen suddenly let out a cold laugh. He squinted at Du Peilin. "Such words can only deceive pedantic guys like you. Since ancient times, 'those who build bridges may go blind, while those who do evil may have prosperous descendants.' We can't always wait for them to be punished in the underworld!"
"Fallacy!"
Du Peilin was usually glib-tongued, but he really couldn't argue with Si Jiangchen. He was rendered speechless by just a few words from him and could only stamp his feet angrily.
"Xiao He, do you know why Du Peiyun and the others haven't been punished by heaven for so long?"
Si Jiangchen turned around, put his arm around me and said, "Because they even spare no dead people. They either refine souls for their own use or destroy the spirits that should have been reincarnated. Xiao He, no one knows about them, and no one will avenge their disappearances..."
"Do you know why you have the ability to devour souls?"
Si Jiangchen gently ruffled my hair. "Bu Huagu is almost a divine being. Although your parents did evil, they unexpectedly made you meet me..."
"What do you mean?!"
I was confused. He was of the same kind as me now, and I had also seen him devour people until there was nothing left!
"Xiao He, when I eat people, both their bodies and souls are destroyed. You're different from me. You can let them live and be judged..."
Saying that, Si Jiangchen took my left hand and pointed remotely at Du Peiyun. "Think about those innocent people who died unjustly. Think about how miserably you and Du Wenzhong were harmed by him. Si Tong's parents were also burned alive in order to protect the virus from spilling out because of his ambition!"
Si Jiangchen's words were like incantations, lingering in my ears. My head buzzed as if countless images flashed through my mind like movie scenes. Sometimes it was the charred corpses in Du Yang Town, and sometimes it was the refugees in the City God Temple who had been drained of their blood...
A burning pain welled up in my heart, and my fingers couldn't help trembling slightly.
"Du Xinghe, you can't go against the will of heaven. Devouring people's souls is already a great sin. I'm a registered Taoist priest, and you... You're even more guilty!"
Du Peiyun seemed to know the fate that awaited him. He roared while desperately hiding behind Du Peilin.
"Hehe..."
A cold laugh escaped my lips. It didn't sound like my own voice at all. My palm had already reached over Du Peilin's shoulder and landed on Du Peiyun's head.
Du Peiyun's eyes suddenly rolled upwards, and his young and handsome face turned ashen.
He was locked by the handcuffs with a spell cast by Du Peilin and couldn't struggle at all. I only saw three wisps of faint white mist rising from the place on his skull where I pressed, faintly condensing into Du Peiyun's figure. Then I reached out and grabbed it. With a shrill ghostly cry, it turned back into white mist, coiled around my fingers a few times, and then suddenly drilled into my skin and disappeared!
"Xiao He!!"
All this happened in an instant. By the time Du Peilin grabbed my wrist, the white mist on Du Peiyun's head had already disappeared completely between my fingers.
"You fool!! Spit him out!"
Du Peilin was so anxious that he reached out to pinch my jaw. It seemed that he really wanted to dig Du Peiyun out of my mouth. How could Si Jiangchen allow me to be touched by Du Peilin? He had already raised his hand and pinched Du Peilin's wrist, making him stagger.
"Si Jiangchen, you're ruining Xiao He! She's just an ordinary human now. Aren't you afraid that her body won't be able to bear it and will be backlashed if you let her devour a living soul?"
Du Peilin was a good man. From being hostile to me before to caring about me now, it was all completely from the bottom of his heart.
Si Jiangchen just smiled faintly. Facing his accusation, he said casually, "Xiao He even devoured the One-Eyed Buddha Mother. What can't she tolerate?"
"You you you!!!"
Du Peilin was rendered speechless by his words. Si Jiangchen then pointed at Sun Liren, who was huddled under the office desk, and said, "Du Peilin, Ji Chen has already sorted out all the evidence of Deputy Director Sun's crimes. I hope you can give my good friend Lin Fangyu an explanation!"
"No!! No! Mr. Si, please spare me!"
Sun Liren had already been scared out of his wits when those walking corpses rushed in from the corridor. He saw several colleagues he had dined with before, rotten and mixed in the corpse horde, charging towards him... They were almost all the guys who had opposed Du Peiyun's appointment as the director. After that, they had all taken leave and never came back to work again.
Now that he thought about it, it was probably Du Peiyun who had controlled their bodies and refined them into obedient living corpses!!
"I'm just a small fry. I just listened to Lin Shuya and Du Peiyun..."
Du Peilin didn't even bother to listen to his plea. He had already raised his hand and called two policemen over to put handcuffs on Sun Liren too.
His handcuffs were also specially made.
The policemen didn't want to check the corpses one by one in the corridor at all. Immediately, they escorted him downstairs.
"Officer Du, I think our business here is done."
Si Jiangchen put his arm around me and followed them downstairs. My head was feeling dizzy, as if I had alcohol poisoning after drinking.
Behind us came Du Peilin's shout, "You guys! You can't leave... We still need to take your statements!"
"Chief Du, I'm here. I'll follow you and be at your call at any time. The statements and testimonies will all be fine."
Ji Chen's voice came from behind. "Also, here are the videos and testimonies of the car accident case three years ago. They're all very clear. Please handle the case together..."
...
It wasn't until I got into Si Jiangchen's car that I suddenly felt extremely weak. I had been desperate to avenge "Dong Dong", but I found that the people who had harmed him had already been dealt with properly by Si Jiangchen. Even the unsolved cases from several years ago and the Du family's pursuit that had haunted me all my life had been easily resolved...
I felt like I had gathered all my strength but had hit the air all of a sudden. The emptiness and weakness in my heart made me almost not want to open my eyes.
For many years, I had been used to solving all problems by myself. Suddenly, there was a person who was countless times more capable than me and whom I could rely on. I actually suddenly felt that I had no place to use my skills...
Was I just born with a "hardworking fate" and couldn't enjoy this kind of carefree life without having to worry about anything?!
"Xiao He, let's go pick up Tongtong."
Seeing me curled up in the seat, Si Jiangchen put his right hand on my forehead. "If you're not feeling well, just take a nap first."
"...Si Tong doesn't know that Lin Shuya is the bad guy who killed his parents, does he?"
Although I didn't like kids, I still wanted to take Si Tong's feelings into consideration. After all, it would be hard for anyone to accept that a person they had called aunt for three years was actually the murderer of their own parents.