Chapter 46 Part 1
After Shi Yan’s death, Shi Xu inherited his estate. In return for this generous gift, Shi Xu gave Shi Yan a meager funeral.
Shi Yan’s crime of harboring pollutants was made public. Overnight, he went from being a respected philanthropist to a reviled capitalist. As his son, Shi Xu was inevitably caught in the crossfire, the public’s anger directed at him as well.
Shi Xu didn’t care. He had anticipated this.
He was the one who leaked the information, wanting to expose Shi Yan’s true nature.
To protect his siblings’ reputations, he didn’t reveal their stories.
With Shi Yan disgraced, he didn’t have to pretend to grieve, holding a simple, private funeral, burying his ashes in a remote location.
He didn’t invite anyone. After the brief ceremony, he sat before Shi Yan’s tombstone for a long time, looking at the photo of his contorted face, his heart strangely calm.
The sound of snapping twigs made him turn. Director Shen, dressed in black, stood by a locust tree, his aged face etched with grief.
“He’s dead. Do you still hate him?”
Shi Xu scoffed. “Did you come here to persuade me to forgive him?”
Director Shen sighed, shaking his head. “I just came to see him. We had a falling out long ago, but we were friends for two years. I wanted to say goodbye.”
He walked to the tombstone, his expression changing upon seeing the photo.
Photos on tombstones were usually of the deceased smiling, a comfort to the living. Shi Xu, however, chose a photo of Shi Yan’s most gruesome moment, a disturbing image.
“Why do this?” Director Shen sighed, averting his gaze, unable to look at the horrifying face.
Shi Xu smiled faintly. “No one comes here. It won’t scare anyone.”
He actually wished countless people could witness Shi Yan’s ugliness, even in death.
“When I first met your father, he wasn’t like this. He was a kind and gentle man…”
But people changed, corrupted by greed.
Shi Xu: “You were his friend, and you founded the Anomaly Management Bureau. You must know when the world rifts first opened, right?”
Director Shen looked at him intently, then smiled. “What will you do with that information?”
“Nothing,” Shi Xu said calmly. “I just want to know why he hid it.”
He thought Director Shen wouldn’t answer, but he did. “Thirty years ago.”
Shi Xu was surprised. “That early? Why don’t others, besides you and Shi Yan, remember?”
Director Shen: “Not just us. The first generation of espers, those who awakened thirty years ago, remember.”
Shi Xu: “Who erased their memories?”
Director Shen: “The world rifts.”
Shi Xu looked confused.
Having already started, Director Shen didn’t mind revealing the secret. “The rifts contain countless treasures, tempting humans with their greed. Ordinary humans die in the rifts. They see the rifts as evil, not realizing the rifts protected them, erasing their memories of the carnage, the unchecked greed, preventing more senseless deaths…”
Shi Xu: “I don’t understand. Why not erase everyone’s memories?”
If everyone forgot, no one would know how to open the rifts.
According to Gu Sui, high-level pollutants had no desire to invade the human world. If the rifts remained closed, there would be no temptation, no tragedy.
Director Shen: “I never said the world rifts are benevolent. They have two sides, like a scale, maintaining balance, protecting both humans and pollutants.”
Shi Xu couldn’t understand, but that was normal. The rifts couldn’t speak, they had no human consciousness.
Or perhaps they did, playing both sides, maintaining a false balance.
Shi Xu: “Then why didn’t they erase our memories seven years ago?”
Director Shen: “Thirty years ago, there was no Anomaly Management Bureau, no Esper Monitoring Department. Humans and pollutants weren’t equal. Now, with balanced power, there’s no need to erase memories. The carnage of thirty years ago won’t be repeated.”
The world rifts sought balance. Like Director Shen said, they were like a scale, maintaining equilibrium between humans and pollutants.
Did they think they were gods?
Shi Xu didn’t voice his thoughts.
“But Shi Yan didn’t have any abilities,” he suddenly realized. “Why did he remember?”
Director Shen: “He once had an ability, but it disappeared. Perhaps that’s why he became like this.”
Training espers, choosing and molding promising children, sending them into the rifts to retrieve the golden egg that could fulfill his dream.
Shi Xu finally understood Shi Yan’s obsession.
His lost ability.
How ironic.
Director Shen: “We had a falling out long ago. I didn’t know he did those things to you, to your siblings… If I had known, I would have stopped him. Then your brother and sister wouldn’t have…”
He stopped abruptly, realizing his words would only upset Shi Xu.
Shi Xu stared blankly ahead, his eyes filled with a fleeting sadness. “Do you know what he was looking for in the rifts?”
Director Shen paused, as if learning this for the first time. “He always volunteered to send people to help us eliminate pollutants. I thought he just hated them, or perhaps he wanted to improve his public image. I didn’t know he had ulterior motives. I’m sorry, I don’t know what he was looking for.”
“I see.”
Shi Xu arrived home just in time for dinner.
He had ordered Gu Sui to stay home and watch Sui Sui.
After just one day apart, Gu Sui was like a wilting flower, clinging to him the moment he saw him.
“Wife, didn’t you… say… I could be… your little tail? Why… didn’t you… take me?”
“When did I say that?”
“You let me t…” He was silenced by a slap.
Shi Xu covered his mouth, his eyes threatening.
Gu Sui blinked, mumbling incoherently, seemingly pleading for mercy, but actually using the opportunity to kiss Shi Xu’s palm.
Shi Xu, seeing through his ruse, grabbed a golden tentacle hidden behind him, pulling it hard.
“Ow!” A cry of pain echoed through the living room.
He had discovered this secret himself. No matter how much he tormented the transparent tentacles, Gu Sui didn’t react. But the slightest touch to a golden tentacle elicited a strong reaction.
He finally found Gu Sui’s weakness.
“It hurts!” Gu Sui’s eyes reddened with tears, his voice filled with a pitiful plea. “Wife, I… wrong! I won’t… say it… again! Don’t be angry… please…”
No one apologized faster than Gu Sui.
Shi Xu, still holding the tentacle, smiled faintly. “Do you really want my forgiveness?”
His fingers gently caressed the golden tentacle, knowing exactly where to touch to elicit a reaction.
Gu Sui’s already flushed face turned crimson, his eyes clouding with desire, a look Shi Xu knew all too well.
Whenever he indulged Gu Sui, this look appeared, a predatory hunger that was both terrifying and irresistible.
“No…” Gu Sui’s throat bobbed, his voice husky. “Wife, don’t… forgive me… Touch… more… I like… Wife… touching…”
Shi Xu, hearing his plea, lost interest, releasing the tentacle like a heartless playboy discarding a toy.
Gu Sui whimpered, hugging Shi Xu’s waist, the golden tentacle twining around his wrist, its tip pushing between his fingers, forcing him to continue.
“Wife, it… wants… you to… touch it… more!”
“It?” Shi Xu scoffed. “Isn’t it you?”
“It is me, I am it. Wife, we… both… want you… to touch…”
Another golden tentacle wrapped around his ankle. Gu Sui’s lips brushed against his ear, his voice seductive. “Wife, don’t… you… want to?”
“I… grew another… tentacle… last night… Bigger… than before… Don’t you… want to… play?”
Shi Xu’s eyes darkened, his body sinking into Gu Sui’s embrace…
Three hours later, he returned to the living room. Before going upstairs, Sui Sui and Little Black had been sleeping soundly in the cat bed, the windows closed. Now, a window was open, Sui Sui happily munching on something black.
Still slightly dazed, Shi Xu mistook it for Little Black, rushing over and prying Sui Sui’s mouth open.
Sui Sui looked up at him, confused, then, realizing what Shi Xu wanted, offered him another piece of the black thing. “Little dad… eat.”
Shi Xu: “…”
He recognized it now, pulling his hand away, taking the black thing from Sui Sui.
It was a piece of a pollutant’s body, torn into a seaweed-like strip.
According to Gu Sui, Sui Sui, being half-pollutant, enjoyed eating pollutants, not live ones, but their corpses, always sharing his spoils with Shi Xu.
Shi Xu found it repulsive.
