Chapter 6

Chapter 6: Relic

His sister's abdomen was cold and slightly swollen.

Ji Huan's eyelashes quivered slightly.

Taking out the beautifully packaged dress he had bought that afternoon from a shopping bag, he stepped forward with his long legs and leaped onto the cold autopsy table. Then, Ji Huan knelt between his sister's legs, using his own body to cover hers. He unfastened the first button, then the second...

His sister's body, which had always been concealed by the hospital gown, looked pitiful.

But at this moment, Ji Huan couldn't afford to worry about his sister's condition. His focus was entirely on her stomach.

He lifted his head to look at his sister again.

She could no longer smile at him; she lay stiffly on the table, her face pale and her lips a deathly purple.

Lifting his sister's body, Ji Huan put the floral dress he had bought with Grandpa's money over her. As he slid the dress over her, he touched her abdomen again.

Just then, as Ji Huan placed his left hand on his sister's abdomen, he felt a sudden jolt against his palm!

Something! There's something inside Sister!

Ji Huan's slender eyes, hidden behind his bangs, widened slightly.

He removed his hand and, in horror, saw Sister's slightly swollen belly pulsating violently as if something was struggling within, trying to force its way out through her thin abdomen!

Even with Ji Huan's bravery, he was startled by this sudden movement. In an instant, he instinctively tried to jump off the bed. However, at that moment, he heard his sister's voice again.

"Little Hua."

Amidst his panic, Ji Huan saw his sister suddenly sit up straight, as if she had come back to life. She raised her right hand, curling her middle finger, ring finger, and little finger into her palm while keeping her thumb upright. With her index finger, she placed it between her lips, then pointed at herself.

More precisely, she pointed at her belly.

Sister wanted him to take away what was inside her belly!

Yes, this was the true message that Sister had been trying to convey in the "dream."

Standing by his sister's bedside that afternoon, watching her for the last time, Ji Huan suddenly understood her true intention.

Grown up alongside his sister, they had their own secret code of communication. Ji Huan could always decipher her hints, and this time was no different. Although he didn't understand why his sister wanted him to keep it a secret, if that was her wish, he would do his best to fulfill it. Since she wanted him to take whatever was inside her womb...

With a grim determination, Ji Huan pressed firmly against his sister's abdomen!

The entity seemed to resist, and the instant he applied pressure, he felt a counterforce – a significant one. For a moment, Ji Huan had a terrifying illusion: if he couldn't suppress it, "that thing" would burst through his sister's belly!

This thought was too horrifying, and without thinking, Ji Huan increased his grip.

Realizing it couldn't go upward, the entity shifted downward.

Ji Huan keenly sensed its descent.

In that instant, his mind went blank.

Quiet and introverted, despite being almost 180 centimeters tall and appearing mature, he was still just seventeen years old. Facing his sister's death alone in a big city for the first time, he was lost and bewildered. The series of bizarre events had drained his remaining mental energy.

There had been too many strange occurrences over the past two days. After encountering so much weirdness, he had become somewhat numb. Now, with another surreal event happening right before his eyes, Ji Huan's mind was empty. His thoughts were straightforward: first, he needed to retrieve what his sister wanted him to take; second, he couldn't let "that thing" rupture her stomach.

Unconsciously pressing on his sister's abdomen and stomach, sealing off upward and outward paths, he forced the entity downward.

Then, Ji Huan witnessed his sister's legs tremble unnaturally, as if... something... had nudged them apart...

With quivering hands, he lifted the floral dress from his sister's body, and then...

He saw dark blood, along with a tiny, black mass that rolled out from between her legs.

The object was incredibly small and of a color similar to the surrounding blood, so much so that Ji Huan initially failed to notice it.

No... That's not right...

It wasn't an "it," but rather a "he."

As he reached out tremblingly, Ji Huan suddenly felt his fingers grasped by something damp and warm...

And then, he heard a barely audible cry.

The cry of an infant.

"Little Hua." Almost simultaneously, Ji Huan heard his sister's voice again. He jerked his head up and saw his sister lying on the autopsy table, her position unchanged, still stiff and cold. Then, Ji Huan accidentally caught sight of his sister's right hand. In that instant, his pupils dilated slightly!

Her right hand had unexpectedly returned to the position he'd seen in his dream!

"Little Hua, hurry, go! Go now!"

He heard his sister's voice once more.

With a pale face, Ji Huan rolled off the bed, facing his sister. Step by step, he retreated, taking one last glance at her before bolting out of the morgue without looking back.

With a stiff expression, he bid farewell to the attendant and walked briskly out of the ward, then out of the hospital. As he left, he noticed a car parked at the entrance of the hospital.

It was those men in black!

At this thought, Ji Huan's heart tightened. He veered to the right, instantly disappearing into the crowd.

He was walking so fast that he didn't notice the spots of blood dripping from the item in his pocket along the way.

However, as if wiped away, those bloodstains slowly vanished.

***

As the black-clad figures entered the ward, the bloodstains had just been cleaned up, leaving only a few remnants around the bed.

The leader of the group headed straight for the direction where Ji Huan's sister's corpse lay on the bed.

"Damn it! Her bone marrow was a perfect match, and we offered such generous terms! How could she have turned down such a godsend opportunity?" The man slammed his right hand down hard on the autopsy table.

Silence reigned over the corpses.

"I heard she was pregnant and didn't want it to affect the child…" another black-clad figure suddenly said.

"Pregnant with what? The medical exam showed there was nothing in her belly!" The leader, no longer the polite man he was in front of Ji Huan, was now furious, resembling an evil spirit. "I specifically told you to be gentle when staging the accident. Now look at her body – it's ruined, making it impossible to utilize her remains!"

"And who notified her brother? We could have harvested the bone marrow while she was alive, but this relative pops up and screws up my plans!"

Moving around the autopsy table like a rampaging dinosaur, the man suddenly looked up. "Right, she has a brother. Find someone to persuade him to take a test; maybe he'll be a match too…"

Thoughts racing, the leader suddenly perked up, looking eagerly at his companions. However, their expressions left him confused.

"What? Why are you all... staring at me like fools?" He glanced at his comrades, irritation evident in his tone.

"Boss... Y-you behind..." The previously responding figure in black looked at him with a deathly pale expression, his hand trembling as he pointed behind the man.

"What are you pointing at me for? Is there a ghost... oh?" The man frowned and turned around, falling silent the moment he saw what was behind him.

At that moment, an unknown man had somehow appeared right behind him.

The attire on the man was familiar to him - it was the outfit given to the deceased in this hospital. Moreover, he could recall the man's appearance; he was the boyfriend of the woman who tragically died in a car accident after being targeted by the man's orders.