Chapter 7

Chapter 7: Three Smiles

The man shielded his girlfriend with his body as he lay dying, and he perished on the spot. Unfortunately, his sacrifice was in vain, as the woman also died just two days later.

Like her boyfriend, the man had no parents. His death wouldn't draw much attention, but now, how could he be alive?

No... It wasn't possible. The man's death was gruesome; his entire body was mangled beyond recognition. There was no way he could have survived!

The black-clad men were horrified to find themselves locked in the man's gaze! Just as their companions were about to abandon them and bolt for the door, the man suddenly materialized right before them!

"Gh... Ghost!" They shrieked in terror, their legs giving out as they plopped down onto the cold morgue floor.

Then, they witnessed the tattered man crack a smile. Under their watchful eyes, his face distorted, stretching his body into an elongated form, eventually transforming into a monstrous creature beyond human comprehension.

"...Explosion in Hospital Morgue Claims Five Lives." - This headline graced the society pages of newspapers the following day, not major but certainly intriguing: If it was a morgue, how could five living men have died inside? Were they staff members? If not, what were they doing there so late at night?

"Major Organ Smuggling Ring Finally Busted!" - Three days after that headline, another more prominent one dominated the society pages.

While investigating the identities of the five victims, the police inadvertently discovered that one of them was a key suspect in an unsolved organ smuggling case! Following this lead, they unraveled an entire criminal syndicate and thirteen unresolved murder cases. For a time, the society pages were inundated with these cases, causing the origin of this chain of events to slip from public memory.

However, this indeed exceeded the scope of police jurisdiction.

Newspaper reports were always what the societal managers "wanted the public to know." If there was something they "wanted known," then naturally, there were also things they "didn't want exposed."

"It was a monster's doing. The creature self-destructed." The already desolate hospital morgue was now even more deserted, reduced to ruins.

The destruction was partly due to the explosion, and partly to cover up any traces of the monster's existence. Specialist cleanup crews had triggered a secondary blast for that purpose. Amidst the rubble, a group of people were still bustling about, attending to the final touches.

Two men in police uniforms walked through the center of the wreckage, inspecting their completed work. It was one of them who had just spoken. As they conversed, a young man approached from a distance, holding a playback device. With a serious expression, he reported to the two officers:

"Report! I've retrieved the video footage from the room. It only shows five men who perished in the explosion, with no image of any perpetrator..." Here, he hesitated, "Those five individuals exhibited highly unusual behavior, as if... they were seeing ghosts..."

"Oh? Simply hand over the records to us, and you can go on with your other tasks," said one of the taller men with a smile.

The young man saluted, honestly handed over the items, and then left.

Gazing at his retreating figure, the man laughed again, "This young one must be new to such occurrences, huh? He seems utterly bewildered by the situation..."

Monsters are elusive beings; they inhabit this world yet remain invisible to human cameras or video recorders. Many of the so-called "ghost encounters" throughout human history can be attributed to their mischievous handiwork.

"Given a few more missions, he'll figure it out," the other man said generously.

"But one of the corpses in the morgue was actually the target the neighboring team was searching for," the tall man remarked suddenly. "Poor woman, she didn't even know she had been impregnated with a demonic fetus, thinking it was her own child."

"It's a sort of mercy that she died, sooner or later, death comes to all," the other man shook his head. "But at least now, all the demonic fetuses on our list have perished."

"I heard the woman had family left. We should send her ashes back to them when we can."

The conversation between the two men then shifted.

Although they had learned from the hospital that the monster and the woman were brought in together, and had heard the speculation about their relationship, they remained unconvinced by such theories.

It was impossible for a monster to have any connection with a human. The only reason an adult monster would be with a woman was because of the demonic fetus inside her – it was a great source of nourishment for them.

To avoid being tracked, Ji Huan had taken a roundabout route, hiding in two different places before finally returning home. By the time he arrived, his sister's ashes had already been delivered to their house.

As twilight fell, Ji Huan returned home and pushed open the door. Upon entering, he switched on the light to find his grandfather sitting alone in the main hall. Just as he was struggling to find the right words to speak, his eyes landed on the shrine behind his grandfather, where he immediately noticed an additional plaque. There used to be only two plaques, but now there were three.

"Old man..." Ji Huan's lips moved, producing a voice that was incredibly parched.

"Little Hua has returned, then." Grandfather, however, rose to his feet, slowly and unsteadily making his way up from his seat. In the process of standing, he inadvertently knocked over his chair. Ji Huan hurried over, strides long, to support the elderly man. It was only after he helped the old man regain his balance that Ji Huan noticed the cloudiness that had seemingly increased in the aged eyes.

"Grandfather, your eyes..." Ji Huan grew slightly panicked.

"No worries, it hasn't been functioning well before, right? It seems its time has come. These past few days, I can barely see anything clearly, only vague outlines." Facing his blindness, the old man maintained an excellent mindset. He gently rubbed his grandson's shoulder, and with his bony palm, he gave two firm pats.

Ji Huan was dumbfounded.

The old man patted him twice more before retrieving an envelope from a drawer in the five-drawer cabinet behind him. "I received this shortly after you left. It's a letter from your sister, with someone reading to me that it contains a photo of her and her boyfriend. Take a look and tell me, is he good-looking?"

The elder held the paper bag up to Ji Huan. Startled, it took Ji Huan a moment to take it. He opened it and found a photograph inside, just as described.

When Ji Huan saw the photo, he was taken aback once again.

In the picture, only his sister was present, with no one else by her side.

Demons were invisible, leaving no trace in human photographs.

Of course, Ji Huan was unaware of these details at the moment. However, he could see the smile on his sister's face in the photograph.

She was beaming with happiness, seemingly content and leaning slightly as if there was someone standing beside her to support her.

Ji Huan studied the smiling figure intently before softly responding, "Yes, he looks decent, quite spirited actually."

"Is he worthy of our Little Hei?" Grandfather chuckled, pressing further.

"Decent enough, he's quite tall, just a bit on the darker side," Ji Huan continued.

"Tallness is what matters, a little darkness in a man is nothing. Little Hei wasn't all that fair to begin with," Grandfather replied, his amusement growing.