Paintings of Terror

Chapter 179: Two Souls

“Let’s go see this woman in the afternoon,” Qin Ci suggested.

Su Benxin said, “Let’s do it separately. It would be a waste of time for everyone to go see the old lady.”

“Then let’s move freely in the afternoon, and gather at the cafeteria before dinner time.” Mu Yiran had already finished his lunch.

The crowd nodded in agreement.

Qin Ci was really tired and decided to take a nap after lunch.

However, this precious lunch break was still disturbed by Xiao Qinxian. Qin Ci opened the door and looked at Xiao Qinxian, who was standing on the other side. The nurse on the side hurriedly explained, “After a few hours of observation, Miss Xiao has recovered, so we agree that she can move freely for a while.”

“It’s okay, she’s my friend.” Qin Ci waved his hand and asked the nurse to leave first.

Xiao Qinxian had returned to her former uncongenial demeanor, and even her mushroom hairstyle was returned to order. “I think this is a game.”

“Come in and sit down.” Qin Ci let Xiao Qinxian into the room, but his seemingly peaceful expression implied that he was scrutinizing this woman.

“We seem to be following the rules of the city step by step. For example, you’re the doctor, Ke Xun is the policeman, Luo Wei is an outsider, and my character is actually a damn patient.” Xiao Qinxian stood by the corner of the room, her arms crossed.

“Your situation last night was indeed scary. First you fainted, then you became hysterical and made a scene,” Qin Ci reminded Xiao Qinxian.

Xiao Qinxian’s eyes became a little dazed. “I don’t remember doing those things…Lion scared everyone last night, and I don’t believe that the others aren’t afraid.”

Qin Ci didn’t say anything but directly grabbed the stack of medical records on the table and handed them to her. “Take a look first and see whether these things are true.”

Xiao Qinxian picked up the medical records and glanced down at her name written on the file. Her expression was a little nervous, but as her eyes scanned over the things written on the file, her expression lightened and she let out a small chuckle. “I thought you made a mistake and I was right. This isn’t my medical record at all.”

Qin Ci’s expression was full of doubts.

“My blood type is type B, but what’s written here is type O. The blood type is wrong. How can people believe anything written after this?!” Xiao Qinxian threw the medical records back onto the table.

“Is your blood type really B?” Qin Ci asked in a serious tone. This wasn’t something that could be ignored. The hospital couldn’t have made such a low-level mistake.

Xiao Qinxian shrugged her shoulders and sneered. “Blood type isn’t something that can be changed at will. It’s set at birth and cannot be changed, just like fingerprints.”

“Would you mind doing another blood test?”

She wanted to be unreasonable to make trouble, but in order to prove herself, she nodded. “If you want to test, then test. I don’t want you to treat me like a patient, or someone with a mental illness.”

Qin Ci had already opened the door with the medical record in hand and walked into the hallway. Xiao Qinxian followed him. “This world is really insidious. It’s probably trying to turn each of us into a lunatic.”

Qin Ci didn’t seem to hear Xiao Qinxian’s complaints and simply asked the question he wanted to ask, “Do you smoke?”

“I smoke occasionally, but it’s not anything close to an addiction.”

“Have you done drugs before?”

“….” Xiao Qinxian rolled her eyes and sneered. “Ha!…This black-hearted hospital really put untrue labels on people. Drug addiction? My God…!”

Like this, Xiao Qinxian once again took a blood test. However, the medical staff in charge of blood analysis said that it would take three hours for the result.

Qin Ci frowned. “It’s just a blood type test, how long does it take?”

The medical staff smiled with embarrassment. “Sorry, Dr. Qin. There are too many blood samples today. We have to do them in order.”

“Okay, then. Let’s go.” Qin Ci also didn’t want to demand special privileges due to his status as a doctor, so he and Xiao Qinxian waited in the lobby for a while before meeting Ke Xun.

Ke Xun, Mu Yiran, Wei Dong, and Luo Wei, all were veteran members.

“Where’s Haowen’er?” Qin Ci asked.

“He doesn’t believe in that kind of spiritual nonsense, but he and Zhao Yanbao had gone to observe the beast’s soul reposement ceremony, and Su Benxin also followed them,” Luo Wei said.

Qin Ci showed a complicated smile. He didn’t believe in that kind of spiritual nonsense, yet he still went to observe the soul reposement ceremony? This…

Zhu Haowen was actually worried about Su Benxin. Zhao Yanbao and Su Benxin could be regarded as nodding acquaintances. They were both also familiar to some degree with Lion. Therefore, Zhu Haowen wasn’t comfortable with leaving them both to their own device.

“What the hell is going on? What are we going to do?” Xiao Qinxian asked. Ever since she was mistaken for a mental case, she always felt that these people were plotting against her.

Ke Xun said succinctly, “There is an old lady at the train station who probably has yin and yang eyes, so maybe she can see the signature.”

“Oh.” Ke Xun’s statement was indeed very tempting. Xiao Qinxian nodded and decided to go with them.

They walked out of the hospital and directly called a taxi. Ke Xun got into the passenger seat, while Wei Dong, Qin Ci, and Xiao Qinxian sat in the back.

“Aren’t they coming?” Xiao Qinxian asked.

“We’re acting separately. The two of them wanted to know more about the rules of the station.” Ke Xun didn’t explain too much.

After lunch, they had a meeting and they all agreed that the information at the train station was incredibly valuable. Since this city placed great emphasis on the inside and outside of the city, there might be clues at the city boundary. Maybe they might even find the signature there.

“If Luo Wei isn’t going with us, what if we couldn’t find the old lady?” Qin Ci looked at the street scene outside the car window, a little worried.

“He gave me the location very clearly, so there won’t be any mistakes.” Soon after, Ke Xun called the car to a stop. “I just saw her.”

Right next to the flower bed at the entrance of the ticket window was a simple fortune telling stall. A blood-red cloth was spread out on the ground, indicating that the stall was open for business.

The fortune telling stall mostly went ignored, and so it was far less prosperous than the stalls selling snacks, toys, and small jewelries.

Ke Xun, Qin Ci, and Wei Dong walked forward slowly, followed by Xiao Qinxian.

Behind the blood-red cloth, sitting cross-legged, was a silver-haired old woman. Looking at the wrinkles on her face, she seemed to be 120 years old.

The old woman’s eyes were closed, seeming to meditate, as she muttered in an incomprehensible language.

Hearing footsteps, she slowly opened her eyes. Although they had heard beforehand that her eyes were different colors, everyone could not help but be surprised. This old face had a pair of extremely clear eyes, like the eyes of a young child. This pair of bright eyes were strangely colored, with the left eye gray and the right eye red.

Of those eyes, only the gray eye moved, while the red seemed to be dead.

With that gray eye, she glanced at Ke Xun, who was closest to her. “Need your fortune told? 10 yuan for palm reading, 30 yuan for fortune-telling.”

Fortunately, Qin Ci’s salary advance from the hospital was quite generous, and it was more than enough to spend.

Ke Xun squatted down. He locked gaze with the gray eye of the old woman in front of him and said nothing.

The old woman’s gray eye rolled. “Maps are 5 yuan a piece. I can sell them cheaper here than at the station.”

Ke Xun still didn’t speak.

The old woman opened the shabby bag in front of her and pulled out a few city maps and a few small glass jars.

She approached Ke Xun and said with a mysterious hiss, “I have some treasures here. Sir, would you like to see them?”

Ke Xun looked at the glass jar clutched in between the woman’s two hands.

He? subconsciously shot Qin Ci a look. Could this old woman really see through people at a glance? Why won’t she say anything about outsiders now? Did she regret revealing too many secrets that morning?

Xiao Qinxian found that the old woman had beasts for sale, and so she squatted down and looked at them with some interest. “How many beasts do you have? How much are they? Can they be exchanged for other beasts?”

The old woman shifted all of her attention to Xiao Qinxian, and what was even more frightening was that her red eye suddenly turned, as if it was looking at Xiao Qinxian up and down.

Xiao Qinxian was naturally terrified. She nearly fell to the ground and subconsciously clutched Ke Xun, who was next to her, for support. She hurriedly took two steps back, wanting to stay far away from the old woman.

The old woman’s blood-red eyes kept following Xiao Qinxian. A few minutes later, the old woman suddenly laughed like an old owl, “Hehehe…If you are willing to exchange your beast, I can introduce a client with a more advanced beast to you.”

Xiao Qinxian broke out in a cold sweat and hid behind Ke Xun’s tall figure.

Ke Xun hid his companion behind him and asked the old woman, “Ma’am, can you see anything? Can you see the beast in her body?”

The old woman didn’t say anything, but her blood-red eye continued to move, seeming to be following Xiao Qinxian in a protruding manner.

Wei Dong’s mouth dropped open in shock. This was just an old chameleon in human skin. Only a chameleon’s eyes could turn like this…

“It stands to reason that the beast only appears when a person dies. At this time, the hospital has instruments that can also detect the beast in the body of the deceased,” Qin Ci said.

“What I can see are also beasts of the deceased. I’m a person of this city, so naturally, I cannot open my heavenly eye,” the old woman said.

“The beasts of the deceased? But…” Qin Ci felt that this statement was really scary.

“You made a profit.” The old woman giggled. She lit a homemade cigarette and said in a hoarse voice, “You’ve made a profit with an extra beast from the deceased. What’s more, it’s still the best one yet.”

“Can you speak clearly?” Ke Xun asked directly.

The old woman tilted her head, her red eyes still focused on Xiao Qinxian behind Ke Xun. “She’s not alone. She has two souls in her body. That woman looks a bit like her, and has been following her for several years now. I’m confident in my accuracy. I’ve helped many people drive away evil spirits.”

Xiao Qinxian trembled behind Ke Xun.

“It’s not her that you should be afraid of now, it’s the other woman in her body.” The old lady held the cigarette, her expression a little arrogant. “I’ve subdued a lot of such lonely and wild ghosts in my youth.”

Qin Ci understood her and asked, “That is to say, if I use the hospital’s special equipment for examining beasts, I can find the exact location of the beast in her body?”

The old woman took out a rusty little dagger from her shabby pocket and said, “That would be too troublesome, and the medical bill would be too expensive. I can cut it out for you here, but you’ll need to give me half of the beast…Hehe…”