Chapter 687: Whispers of Evil, Part One

After lunch, or more precisely, after a bowl of thin and bitter wheat porridge, Chadwi and Hauser led their group to settle on the highest, or perhaps most remote, level of the tunnel. It was not far from the nearest surface exit, yet far from the other local "residents." Glover's violent intrusion had made them unpopular.

Catherine, who had finished surgery, lay on bedding and slept deeply. Chadwi stood beside her and prayed in a low voice. Ralf still leaned in the corner, looking at the scene with a complicated expression. Dorothy set up the stove and cooking pot, while Aunt Gadama stood with hands on hips, directing Vorniak and Bobo as they huffed and puffed to arrange the other bedding. As for Glover, he rummaged through a pile of old goods, or rather garbage, trying hard to find a weapon.

"This is everything you pried out of her mouth?"

Beside the fire, Hilley and Thales spoke in low voices. The former angrily questioned the young man.

"One stupid nickname: Lausanne II?"

Thales's expression turned awkward.

She fainted after the surgery. What was he supposed to do?

"Not only that."

The young man did his best to salvage a little dignity.

"At least we... what did you want to know?"

"Too much!"

Hilley spread her palm and tapped one finger after another.

"When was the last time she met someone from the Iris Flower? What orders did she receive? What exactly did she do? What suspicious points were there? What exactly happened to the Blood Bottle Gang? How did Secret Intelligence strike them? What is Zayen planning..."

Thales's head swelled under her scolding, but just then, Srimanny's voice sounded from across from them.

"Hey, Master Magician! Young Wya and Lady Wyanna, have you thought it through? Where do we go next?"

Thales and Hilley turned their heads together, their expressions displeased.

Srimanny was crouching on the damp ground, at a complete loss before a roll of dry straw bedding, uneasy and awkward.

"We'll leave once it's dark. Don't worry, this place is very safe..."

"Stop brushing me off!"

Srimanny raised his voice.

Clearly, what he had experienced today had left his nerves strained.

"The person who came down just now was Jade City's 'good neighbor,' the Blood Bottle Gang's Phantom Blade Catherine."

Srimanny stared fixedly at Catherine on the ground.

"I know her. I remember! When I was still in the police station, her little brothers often came in to 'drink tea.'"

Thales and Hilley exchanged a glance.

"What?"

Uncle Hauser, who was busy with his work, turned back when he heard this and stared at Srimanny's obviously pampered hands and body.

"You used to be a copper?"

"That's right. Yes."

The defense attorney was somewhat embarrassed at first and instinctively drew in his stomach and stuck out his chest. But then he seemed to think something through and smiled bitterly.

"I know. I don't look like one, do I? I went onto the streets less often."

"Exactly the opposite."

Hauser snorted and turned back, unable to hide the disdain in his words.

"You look too fucking much like one."

Hauser's attitude left Srimanny awkward. He moved closer to the fire and glared angrily at Thales.

"Please. A gang leader fleeing here, plus her two blood-covered thug hoodlums... you have to tell me what exactly happened."

Thales looked at Hilley. The latter shrugged, indicating that he should go first.

All right.

The young man could only sigh.

"Put it this way. Catherine's current situation is very similar to yours. The difference is that you were luckier and met us."

"Similar to me? But I was..."

Srimanny looked doubtful, then was startled.

"Even the boss of the Blood Bottle Gang... oh no, the duke, Lord Zayen, has he gone mad?"

"Maybe he's only anxious."

Thales thought.

"With his life hanging by a thread, of course he has to thrash desperately."

The more Srimanny thought, the worse it became. He was terrified and uneasy.

"No, no, no. People are dying in Jade City. Emerald Palace is silencing people everywhere. Even the Blood Bottle Gang... Jade City is going to fall into chaos, right?"

Hilley came back to herself, her eyes cold.

"So the earlier you cooperate and tell us everything you know, the more likely we can still turn the tide."

"Turn the tide? Stop joking. With just you?"

Srimanny's mood was unstable, and he became increasingly furious.

Hilley raised her eyebrows.

"Not us, but our master. You know, he has noble status and excellent methods..."

Thales sighed helplessly from the side.

"Enough. Your master is the root of the chaos."

Srimanny had clearly exhausted his patience, and his speech grew faster and faster.

"From that wine merchant to the wool merchant to now, everything began after he came! If he hadn't come to Jade City, none of this would have happened! I wouldn't, wouldn't..."

Srimanny buried his head in his hands, extremely dejected.

Thales raised his eyebrows.

"Are you certain?"

"Of course!"

Srimanny raised his head indignantly.

"I've been in Jade City for so many years, from Duke Lenster to Duke Zayen, and it has never been this bad!"

Srimanny sniffed. He raised his head and looked around.

"The heavens know how I came to this damned place! This gutter is full of rats and roaches, cold and wet and dirty and dark..."

Clang!

A sharp metallic impact suddenly rang out, frightening Srimanny into trembling.

"Don't forget, this damned place and this gutter saved your little life."

Gadama walked past behind them, a pot on her back and a spoon in her hand, her expression deeply sarcastic.

"Of course, most people here don't have lives and fortunes as precious as yours, 'my lord.'"

"Of, of course."

Srimanny realized his current situation and hurriedly changed expression.

"Oh, I mean, thank you! You are all good people!"

The old woman's expression and tone were rather frightening, especially when paired with the dim environment. Srimanny swallowed.

"Wait, this place was opened by Priest Chadwi, right? For charity and relief?"

Uncle Hauser, whose back faced them, sneered.

Srimanny hesitated.

"Did he take in these, these..."

"You want to say monsters? Or deformities?"

Vorniak, who had just finished work and sat down across from them, snorted coldly.

"Sorry."

Srimanny's expression changed, and he quickly lowered his head.

"No, I wasn't thinking that."

"Really?"

Hilley sneered, intentionally or unintentionally shaking her gloved hand.

"Then look around: dwarfs, fools, tumor people, seal people, lobster hands, hairy people, brainless people, two-headed people, and of course, many-fingered people..."

"Wyanna!"

Thales pressed down her hand and shook his head.

Hilley silently looked back at him.

Several seconds later, she withdrew her hand.

Vorniak snorted unhappily from across from them.

"No, Chadwi didn't take them in. Look at our ages. Does it seem like it?"

Uncle Hauser turned back and chuckled.

"At most, he helps from the side."

Srimanny frowned.

"Then this place..."

"It was a very long time ago."

Hauser sighed.

"Some Duke of South Coast, heavens know which one, wanted to imitate the capital and rebuild the sewers. In the end, the project was abandoned halfway. After a long time, people began living in the half-built tunnels. Or to put it simply, deformed monsters began living here..."

Thales turned to look over the tunnel. The residents' incomplete figures appeared indistinctly. Many people were very sensitive to gazes. Seeing Thales look over, most quickly lowered their heads, turned around, or shrank deeper into the darkness.

Thales suddenly thought of the abandoned house many years later, and of Morsa, who guarded it without interest in life, muddling through the days and having no expectation of returning to the Brotherhood.

Uncle Hauser sat by the fire. The way he used his little hands to drape a blanket over himself was rather comical.

"Over so many years, the more prosperous and wealthy Jade City became, the more it expanded and grew, the more people were added to this tunnel. From lepers to deformed abandoned infants, from the disabled to the mad, from those paralyzed by workplace injuries to those with incurable diseases, this tunnel became a complete stinking shit pit. Countless abnormal, unwanted 'people' not welcomed by the world above would be thrown here, or forced here, forgotten by others, left to live or die on their own..."

Vorniak snorted angrily, and the giant tumor beside his neck looked even more glaring.

Srimanny looked at the dark tunnel, and his smile gradually disappeared.

"So the people on the surface don't have to see them, for the sake of Jade City's civilized cleanliness?"

Thales said absently.

"More than that."

Hilley chuckled and rubbed her hands.

"To expel the 'abnormal' from the 'normal.'"

Thales gently furrowed his brow.

Srimanny was silent for a while.

"Then the people here, how do they live?"

"They do all kinds of work."

Uncle Hauser pointed at the pile of old goods behind him.

"I do a little refurbishing of old goods. Gadama does fortune-telling and sells fake miracle medicine. Dorothy goes to the trash heaps thrown down from above to collect junk. As for people like Vorniak and Bobo, they perform comedy in circuses, jump through rings of fire, or stand for a day at freak shows before coming back at night. Of course, more people, lepers and the like... hmm, they just count the days."

Srimanny forced a smile.

"Oh, then at least... at least you support yourselves. You are very... self-reliant?"

"Don't misunderstand. This place was far less 'normal' in the early days than it is now."

In the firelight, Hauser stared at the tunnel that vanished into darkness.

"A long time ago, those 'people' forced here were twisted in more than only body."

"What do you mean?"

Aunt Gadama sat beside Hauser and tucked in his blanket.

"Have you seen a seven-year-old child kill a sixty-year-old man just for a pot of rat meat? Or a deaf man pressed headfirst into sewage and drowned just because his sleeping spot was better? Even the legend of water ghouls was not without traces. At that time, even the Black Street Brotherhood's territory was better than this place."

Gadama sneered, then looked at the frowning Dorothy and Vorniak.

"Don't look at me. I heard it from Old Bo."

"We know."

Vorniak shook his head.

"You've told it back and forth more than ten times."

"Really?"

Srimanny's face looked ugly.

"Then now... it shouldn't be like that anymore?"

"Thanks to Sister Yirshaga."

Hauser sighed.

"She discovered this place a long time ago. For decades, she paid without regard for cost, treated the deformed as people, not only insisting on relief, but also working hard to rebuild, heavens know how she did it, order within barbaric chaos."

Hauser nodded.

"Most importantly, she did not leak this place outside. Instead, she gave the people here... the last little bit of pitiful dignity."

"I still remember the last time she came down with a cane, supported by Lord Chadwi. Yirshaga gave me her hairpin and said her years were almost over, and she would no longer need it."

Aunt Gadama's voice became somewhat heavy.

"It's hard to imagine Matron has been gone for so long."

"I went to bring flowers to her grave the day before yesterday, before the gravekeeper chased me away."

Uncle Hauser patted his wife's hand.

"May the setting sun bless her soul."

Vorniak, Dorothy, Hauser, even Bobo, who only understood "woo woo woo"... the original residents of the tunnel all performed a prayer gesture together. Their movements were neat and uniform, even more standard than clergy in the temple.

Thales looked at this scene with some surprise.

It seemed that Matron Yirshaga had brought not only dignity, hope, and order, but also faith in the setting sun.

But...

"Working hard to let people live more like people, instead of the opposite."

Thales said with feeling.

"Perhaps this alone means she surpasses the vast majority of officials and lords in the kingdom. This matron was worthy of the setting sun faith."

If the people here were saved by followers of the setting sun, then what was wrong with that?

But Thales noticed that Hilley beside him did not move at all. She merely curled her mouth and stared at the fire.

"You know..."

Srimanny suddenly spoke, but this time, his tone was low.

"I once had a child, but when that child was born... she had no back of the head."

"No... back of the head?"

Vorniak looked surprised and instinctively touched the back of his head.

Srimanny looked at the fire, his expression sorrowful.

"Yes. The doctor said it might have been malnutrition. The child had not developed properly in the womb..."

"Your child, malnourished?"

Gadama examined his fine clothing with suspicion.

Srimanny patted his clothes, extremely embarrassed.

"I... I was very poor then. I worked as a temporary clerk in the police station, running errands and delivering letters. Jade City's prices were so high. My wife could only squeeze into a short-term rental room with me, one meal hungry, one meal full..."

"But you lived on the surface."

Dorothy said quietly.

Srimanny's words stalled. He sighed and closed his eyes.

"When our child was born, the midwife was scared out of her soul. She said that in all the children she had delivered, she had never seen such a deformed child. A monster with only half a head."

Thales listened quietly. The tunnel fell silent for an instant.

"Not a monster."

Vorniak suddenly spoke. He shook his head, as if the person he wanted to convince was not only Srimanny.

"Not! Your child was only, only, only not very lucky."

His voice trembled, and his gaze was sorrowful.

Srimanny froze for a moment and slowly lowered his head.

"Yes. Only, only not very lucky. Not very lucky."

Just then, Priest Chadwi's voice came over.

"The form every person is born with is both the goddess's grace and a test."

Everyone turned back. The priest, exhausted, walked closer and joined their conversation.

"She is a little better. I'm very sorry for involving you all..."

"Don't mind it, Lord Chadwi."

Aunt Gadama said respectfully.

"As you said, Brother Mohasa said: a healer does not abandon a terminal disease."

Chadwi paused.

"Thank you."

He then asked Srimanny:

"Your son, what happened later?"

Srimanny reacted.

"Daughter."

The defense attorney said dejectedly.

"Our child, she was a daughter. For several weeks, we found every method we could find... but in the end, she still died young. I, I could only work hard to comfort my wife."

Everyone fell silent.

Chadwi sighed deeply.

"The setting sun has mercy."

Srimanny chuckled.

"But that wasn't the end. One day, my landlord came to find me. He stuffed money into my hand and begged me for help."

He spoke hatefully.

"His son had learned bad things from a group of Blood Bottle Gang thugs. After drinking, more precisely after taking drugs, he caused trouble and entered the cell. He needed me to go into the police station and switch out the confiscated evidence, a certain bag of drugs."

"I was only a temporary errand worker in the police station. How would I dare? But... but he threatened me. If I didn't do it..."

Srimanny took a deep breath and forced down his emotions.

"He would write an anonymous letter reporting me, and incite the neighbors, saying that we country bumpkins worshipped demons, used spells, invited evil, gave birth to such a deformed monster, and even kept her at home..."

"What?"

Thales could not believe it.

"I know. Absurd, right?"

Srimanny gritted his teeth.

Amid everyone's whispers, Priest Chadwi sighed.

"After the Bloody Year, Jade City had a bad period."

The priest spoke heavily.

"There were too many people, not enough food, and all kinds of businesses were waiting to be revived. People's lives, especially those at the bottom, were terrible. Over time, all kinds of rumors and nonsense appeared. For example, that our city had become so bad because it was cursed, brought by outsiders during the war."

"The water ghoul's curse?"

Thales asked.

Chadwi shook his head.

"That was only one of them."

"In short, for more than half a year, the whole city became feverish. From good citizens to the unemployed, from the Blood Bottle Gang to little thugs, from vagrants to beggars, everyone was enthusiastic about attacking cult superstition and eliminating demon worship, especially among outsiders. It was as if once they threw those people away, Jade City would become better and return to the past..."

The priest's words made everyone's mood sink.

"My cousin died like that."

Aunt Gadama was gloomy.

"She used to be a famous fate reader across ten li and eight villages. With only a bowl of tea leaves, she calculated quickly and accurately... until she was reported, accused of cursing a neighbor's field, cuffed, and taken away..."

"That's not bad. I fled here during the Bloody Year. Back then, what was popular here was cracking down hard on 'foreign forces.'"

Hauser sighed.

"If you dared complain that prices were high, someone would ask whether you, an outsider, had taken foreign money and planned to subvert Jade City from within."

"Fortunately, Duke Lenster came forward in time, stopped this farce, and hanged several rumor-mongers."

Priest Chadwi glanced at Srimanny's grief-stricken expression and shook his head.

"But the damage already done..."

The priest fell silent.

"Then your landlord, did he report you?"

Dorothy asked carefully.

Srimanny shook his head.

"To protect myself, I had no choice but to agree. I went to the police station. I stole the evidence room key..."

The defense attorney sighed in pain.

"But that was only the first time. That landlord grew greedier and began asking me to do things for him. For example, before the police station went out for inspections, I had to notify him so he could hide unregistered households and illegal workers, as well as resell antiques and so on. He also forced me to accept the money he stuffed at me, as if that could pull me onto his boat. And if I refused, he would mention my daughter..."

"Pah, despicable."

Vorniak said indignantly.

"And you just let him bully you? Just because you had an... unfortunate child?"

Srimanny fell silent. When he spoke again, his words were full of hatred.

"You are right. How could I forget? Hah?"

He gritted his teeth.

"How could I allow him to use my child to extort and threaten me? While my wife was still waking from nightmares every night, crying as she held the empty cradle?"

Thales felt his heart sink.

"So, when he came to find me for 'work' one last time and hinted openly and secretly at my 'dead child,' I made my decision and wrote an anonymous report."

Srimanny breathed deeply.

"I sent him and his hopeless thug son to prison together."

Thales frowned.

"And afterward, he..."

"Hanged."

Srimanny answered, his tone so calm that it startled everyone.

"The charges were drug possession and trafficking, as well as evil worship."

Hauser frowned.

"What?"

Srimanny nodded, his brows painfully tangled together.

"The most powerful and decisive evidence was a carefully preserved, embalmed infant corpse hidden under the floorboards of his rental property... one with no back of the head."

Everyone was startled.

Dorothy covered her mouth.

"That was..."

Srimanny closed his eyes and nodded in a daze.

The tunnel fell silent.

Chadwi sighed deeply.

"A test from god tests not only the person himself, but also those connected to him, and even the goddess's believers."

"You did the right thing."

Hilley suddenly spoke.

"Your daughter helped you take revenge."

Thales frowned slightly.

"Right. A tooth for a tooth. That landlord should have thought of this day when he hurt people. He deserved it!"

Vorniak gritted his teeth.

"But this is also... too sad."

Dorothy's voice trembled.

"Woo woo woo!"

Bobo unhappily waved his arms.

"Quiet."

Hauser suppressed the chattering crowd with his eyes, then turned back to comfort Srimanny.

"It's all right, friend. At least, at least everything ended."

Srimanny opened his eyes.

"Yes. I thought, I originally thought that was the end. I could finally return to my life. But..."

He paused for a while, and the color in his eyes only became darker.

"But in the police station, my superior, more precisely, his superior's superior, somehow found out about this."

Srimanny spoke blankly.

"He took out that anonymous letter of mine and said that for someone doing miscellaneous work, my writing was not bad. He even smiled and said not to worry. Not only would he not pursue it, he would promote me."

Vorniak's eyes brightened.

"Isn't that good?"

But Thales frowned.

"Yes, very good."

Srimanny's laughter was desolate.

"Provided I passed a test: write a case-closing report about a case where a high official's nephew violated a common woman."

"I don't understand?"

Vorniak was confused.

Srimanny covered his face and snorted softly.

"That case was a hot potato. No one wanted to do it. That superior neither wanted to offend people nor make a mistake, so he pushed me up. If the report caused trouble, the person who wrote it would be the scapegoat: a substitute-duty clerk, a temporary worker..."

He scratched at his hair.

"But I could not refuse. The superior had my handle. I accepted bribes and conspired with that landlord, including... framing someone."

Thales sighed softly.

The tunnel quieted, and only the sound of trickling water could be heard.

"When the test comes, demons will whisper, and evil will murmur."

Priest Chadwi recited scripture, his words solemn but his expression compassionate.

"In a language we cannot understand."

Srimanny took a deep breath and weakly shook his head.

"There was no way. I could only do it. I could only rack my brains and use every bit of grammar I learned in clerk school to write my first police case-closing report. The heavens know how much I had looked forward to that moment before that day, until it truly arrived. I wrote it flawlessly, without leaving openings: 'The involved party is a young woman of marriageable age. The incident occurred at dusk. She was out alone, dressed lightly, with complete makeup. The flowers she carried were inspected and may have contained aphrodisiac effects... during work, she had close relations with multiple men... whether it was voluntary between man and woman still requires further evidence...' Ha, I swear, I did not write a single lie on it. All of it came from investigated conclusions. But when it was presented in court as evidence, anyone who read that report would think the girl had improper conduct, suspicious identity and occupation, went out alone at night, and perhaps it was a money dispute afterward..."

"What?"

Dorothy understood and was furious.

"How could you?"

Srimanny looked ashamed and somewhat afraid to raise his head.

"Yes, I know. Many people knew it was low. But if I didn't do it, my superior, my superior's superior, he would expose me. I, I had no choice..."

Everyone fell silent, and no one knew how to respond.

"But you did. You always did."

Hilley suddenly said,

"You only refused, or did not dare, to admit it."

Srimanny opened his mouth to speak, but in the end only lowered his head dejectedly.

"Demons whisper thickly, evil murmurs busily."

Priest Chadwi sighed.

"Those whose hearts are unsteady will always meet disaster. Those who linger and look back will find the road ahead difficult to lengthen."