They burst through the apartment door, half-running, half-stumbling.
Lu Zizhen bent over, panting.
"Bad news, Boss! The monkeys are coming up the mountain!"
Dòu Táng, who had been lounging on the sofa, froze mid-sip of tea.
"…?"
He blinked. Stay calm. Play along. "You mean the monkey-faced, thunder-mouthed monk?"
Wait—why are you actually playing along with that meme?
But Lu Zizhen answered with absolute seriousness.
"No. Black-haired woman, yellow coat. Looks like Sadako after a wardrobe upgrade. Great
figure, though. If she finds you, I'm guessing she'll drain you dry."
What kind of conversational trajectory is this?!
Dòu Táng stared at her, expression flattening into pure Jerry-the-mouse confusion.
Lu Zizhen twirled her sword hilt idly. "There's an evil spirit roaming the neighborhood. Judging
by the aura, she's connected to those damp wraiths we've seen lately—and she can think."
Dòu Táng shot to his feet, instantly alert. He crossed the room in two strides, grasped Huaiyin's
shoulder, scanning both women head to toe.
"You're both fine? No injuries?"
Lu Zizhen rolled her eyes. "Please. With me around? But the three Tang Beans you gave me
are gone. Can you sense them remotely? If that thing's toast, we should go check. We left all
the groceries behind."
"Hope no one swiped them. Those were discounted eggs—the last batch of the day."
…Is now really the time to care about eggs?!
Dòu Táng tried to sense the beans—but nothing. The three clones linked to them had vanished
completely, like they'd never existed.
"No response," he muttered. "Tch. Something's off."
He pulled up the Crown Game tracker. It could detect any target within five hundred meters.
Only Huaiyin's marker appeared.
He frowned. "Let's go. Together."
They stepped out into the night. Lu Zizhen clipped her retractable sword to her belt.
The little residential street was quiet when they arrived—eerily so.
Only two bulging grocery bags sat on the ground, untouched.
The pavement glistened with moisture, puddles everywhere, as though it had just rained.
Yet the air stank faintly of the sea—salt and rot mingled together.
Dòu Táng crouched, frowning. "Nothing left. Not even lingering resentment."
Unbothered, Lu Zizhen squatted beside the bags, checking for missing items.
Huaiyin seized the distraction, tugging her brother's sleeve. He leaned down; she whispered
near his ear, voice trembling.
"Brother… that spirit said the word Crown."
The Crown.
A term from the Game—spoken by an unknown spirit.
That made everything both more complicated… and, in a way, clearer.
A thinking spirit.
A Crown Game participant.
Strong enough to wipe out three clones and retaliate.
Trouble.
Killing intent stirred in him like a blade unsheathed.
Huaiyin felt it immediately—the air freezing around her, every breath tight.
That familiar aura of death.
It never cared who stood nearby—living or dead. It simply enveloped everything.
It made her want to shrink, to vanish.
Then, as quickly as it came, it vanished.
Dòu Táng straightened, forcing a smile. "Don't worry. I'll handle it. Honestly… this might even
be a good thing."
He ruffled her hair—something he almost never did unless they were sleeping side by side.
For a moment, she forgot to breathe.
Behind them, Lu Zizhen sauntered over, triumphant grin in place.
"That exhibitionist didn't take a single thing! Ha!" She hoisted the grocery bags.
Dòu Táng sighed. "Let's head home. We'll think it through there."
At the end of the street, he cast one last glance back.
The puddles still shimmered faintly, and the fishy sea-scent lingered like a warning.
Back home, life went on.
No matter how shaken they were, people still had to eat.
So Dòu Táng and Lu Zizhen cooked, while Huaiyin sat in the living room catching up on her
online lessons.
She hadn't attended school in over a year, but she still studied diligently—one of the few pieces
of normalcy left.
As steam rose from the kitchen, the two compared notes.
"That spirit wasn't possession-type," Lu Zizhen said, scrubbing a duck in the sink. "It had its own
body—more like a youkai. And that endless water trick? Creepy as hell."
"Could you not make everything sound dirty?" Dòu Táng muttered, washing vegetables.
Still… curiosity itched. "Seriously, though—do things like youkai really exist here? What are
they exactly?"
Lu Zizhen shot him a look. "You do realize you qualify as one, right? Anyway, monsters like that
are rare now—ever since firearms went mainstream."
"What's that got to do with guns?"
She turned, one eyebrow raised. "Ever read Notes from the Thatched Cottage of Close
Scrutiny—Yuewei Caotang Biji?"
He shook his head. "No. Should I have?"
"It's an old Huaxia collection of supernatural accounts," she said, waving a duck leg like a
professor's pointer. "People like us—those who actually deal with ghosts—know most of the
stories are real."
She rapped the bone against the counter for emphasis.
"It records that all monsters fear firearms. Says ghosts do too—because both belong to the yin
side. You get it?"
Dòu Táng thought for a moment. "Because monsters and ghosts are yin, they fear yang-aligned
weapons?"
"Exactly!" She nearly splattered him with duck blood in excitement.
"Didn't expect you to be this cultured, Dòu Táng—you even understand classical Huaxia!"
He ignored the praise. "So what does that have to do with monsters disappearing?"
"Think about it!" She grinned. "Ghosts—you can't see 'em, can't touch 'em. Guns don't help.
But monsters? You can see them. You know where to aim."
She brandished the duck leg like a cannon.
"So what do you do? Fire the cannons and blast that bastard!"
Dòu Táng blinked, utterly lost.
"Not with modern guns," she continued, gesturing wildly. "Those just fire chemicals. You need
the old stuff—muskets, cannons—burning pure yang powder! After centuries of bombardment,
most monsters were blasted to bits. The survivors learned to keep their heads down."
Dòu Táng stared, speechless.
"…So by your theory, what you met today was one of the survivors?"
"Not exactly." She grinned, flicking water off her hands.
"More like something between a youkai and a wraith.
Either way—some nasty underworld crap."
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