Monster - Chapter 66

Chapter 66: A Reason Not to Die

The phone alarm had been ringing for nearly five minutes before Lin Sandie groggily reached out to turn it off. Perhaps because she had been so exhausted, she had slept more soundly than usual. After silencing the alarm, she pressed her face against the pillow again, a thought echoing in her mind: Lin Sandie, you have an absolute reason not to die.

Not to die? ...Lin Sandie mumbled the thought that always seemed to appear when she woke up recently, and opened her eyes.

"Morning~ Lin Sandie~"

The "good morning greeting" she had grown used to hearing the moment she opened her eyes was absent. The surroundings were silent. Lin Sandie turned her head to look beside her. Lou was gone, and the pillow next to her showed no sign of having been slept on. Only the lingering scent of her in the air reminded Lin Sandie that she hadn't been an illusion.

"..." Lin Sandie buried her face back into her pillow, staying like that for a while before reaching for the phone she had just tossed aside. She saw more than a dozen new messages.

Aside from one spam message and one from an unknown number, the rest were all from Lou.

After glancing at the spam message and deleting it, Lin Sandie opened the one from the unknown number first:

I'm Kang Yi. Pack up. Someone will come to pick you up tonight and take you to Disorder Land. Your younger brother is there too.

Below Kang Yi's message was an attachment. Lin Sandie opened it and saw a photo of her younger brother, Lin Youceng. In the picture, Lin Youceng had an uneasy expression as he stepped out of a dilapidated van.

After losing her family, the only person Lin Sandie cared about now was her younger brother, Lin Youceng. He was her only remaining blood relative in the world. Kang Yi seemed to know this and had thoughtfully given Lin Sandie a reason to go to Disorder Land.

Lin Sandie stared at the photo of Lin Youceng in silence for a moment. In her eyes, the Lin Youceng in the picture was already a monster. The so-called expression was just the result of her trying Lou's suggestion to observe carefully.

The more she looked, the more disgusted she felt. Lin Sandie closed the photo. She still couldn't face the matter of monsters as calmly as Lou could.

She opened the other messages, and a tone unique to Lou washed over her.

: I left at 1:32 AM. I suspect someone is controlling me. Took your car, btw. I'll most likely end up in Disorder Land next. If we get a chance to meet again, can you properly fulfill your duties as the top? I've tried to seduce you so many times, but you just ignore me. Lou Lou is hurt. Lou Lou is doubting her charm. Lou Lou is about to cry...

"I know you're trying to seduce me, but so what?" Lin Sandie grumbled to herself.

: Morning~ Lin Sandie. I'm getting ready to go to Disorder Land. That group of people made me register and took down all my information. But luckily, a lot of it isn't unlocked yet, so what they know isn't complete. I think this is how they tricked some of the other Sentinels and Guides into giving up their info. They have related laws, but I've also figured some things out. The laws in Center City are probably even stricter. It's not that they don't want to make a move on me in Center City, it's that they can't.

"In other words, Lou hasn't unlocked more of her mysterious definitions yet. She only registered her existing skills." Lin Sandie analyzed, following the information Lou had sent. And even though Lou had ruined so many of Kang Yi's group's plans, they could only act against her by dragging her to Disorder Land? What was the basis for that?

: By the way, Lin Sandie, you cried in your sleep last night. What did you dream about? I held you and hummed you a song, and you didn't even wake up. Aren't I great? Quick, say thank you, Lou Lou!

"...Whatever I dreamed about has nothing to do with you anyway." Lin Sandie felt embarrassed. Being with Lou was just too dangerous. Didn't she sleep? She could discover everything Lin Sandie did.

Lying on the bed, she finished reading through all of Lou's messages one by one. Then, Lin Sandie opened the memo app on her phone and typed in the thought she'd had upon waking. It already contained many of the thoughts she'd had recently upon waking, such as "You have a child named Little Fool," "Learn how to cultivate rice," "Pay attention to child psychology," "Must sleep on time," and "Appropriately extend sleep duration," etc.

Lin Sandie typed "Lin Sandie, you have an absolute reason not to die" into the memo and stared at her phone, a little dazed.

She could guess that she had encountered something strange and interesting in her dreams, but upon waking, all that remained of those memories was a short message. However, Lin Sandie knew herself. These messages, strung together, were clues her dream-self wanted to leave for her waking self.

Based on the clues now recorded in her memo, Lin Sandie knew that her dream-self had gone to a strange world called Aztec. There, she was raising a child. From the information, she inferred it was a rather primitive world, since she had to plant various crops herself. And the child she was raising, named Little Fool, seemed to have some psychological issues. But her dream-self must have been very fond of her.

So, her absolute reason not to die... was this Little Fool?

As Lin Sandie thought about it, the corners of her mouth couldn't help but lift. She had no real sense of these dream matters, nor was she sure if it was all just an illusion, a trick her brain was playing on her. A sign that she was about to go mad? She certainly had no way of knowing what this dream person, Little Fool, looked like...

But Lin Sandie never expected such a message to appear in her mind. After losing her family, could she really still have an absolute reason not to die?

After dealing with these trivial matters, Lin Sandie finally got out of bed to get ready. While brushing her teeth, she saw Lou's toothbrush was still in the cup. She picked it up, ready to throw it in the trash, but then, as if possessed, she remembered how Lou had mistakenly used her toothbrush back in Center City, and she put it back in the cup.

"She probably won't be back anyway. I'll throw them out together next time I clean." Lin Sandie finished brushing her teeth and put her own toothbrush in the cup as well. One red, one white, arranged to face the same direction by the obsessive-compulsive Lin Sandie.

"Sandie, are you up yet?" Just as Lin Sandie finished getting ready, she heard Wang Lirou knocking on the door.

"I'm up, Mr. Wang." Lin Sandie opened the door and saw a neatly dressed Wang Lirou, who was wearing his black suit again today.

"Lou Lou sent me a message saying she had to leave early on business and took the car. How are we going to get back to Center City?"

"There's a bus station here. We can buy tickets and go back that way," Lin Sandie said with a smile. At this moment, Wang Lirou didn't seem as sharp as before.

"Tsk, I hate taking the bus."

"Then let's rent a car to go back." Lin Sandie took out her phone to book one. Now, everything was meaningless to her; money, cars, and houses no longer mattered. Just like how Lou had driven off with her car worth several hundred thousand without a word, and she hadn't even batted an eye.

But just as she finished booking the car, Lin Sandie's phone rang again. It was Xing Meilu.

"Good morning, Officer Xing."

"Sandie, where are you now?"

"In my hometown. I just finished my parents' funeral," Lin Sandie replied, having a good idea why Xing Meilu was calling her so early in the morning.

Sure enough, Xing Meilu on the other end of the line continued, "Then it's best you don't return to Center City for now. Yan Ting's family has been watching your residence lately."

"Okay, I understand." Yan Ting had left all her personal property to an outsider like Lin Sandie in her will. One could only imagine how furious her family would be.

If Xing Meilu hadn't called to warn her, Lin Sandie had actually been thinking of showing up in front of that family just to provoke them.

"Do you have somewhere to go?" Xing Meilu asked with concern.

"I do, Officer Xing. You don't need to worry so much about me." Lin Sandie's voice held a hint of a smile. She had a very good impression of Xing Meilu and was genuinely grateful to her. "I can take care of myself."

"That's good. Has Lou contacted you?"

"She told me she went to Disorder Land." Lin Sandie maintained her model citizen persona, revealing a piece of information that was true but insignificant.

Lou had gone to Disorder Land, but the Inspectorate couldn't do anything to her anyway.

A long sigh came from Xing Meilu's end. "Lin Sandie, you should contact her less. If you have to, change your phone number. Don't end up like with Yan Ting, getting dragged into whatever happens."

"Mm, I understand. Thank you, Officer Xing," Lin Sandie thought, In fact, I'm already inextricably linked to these things. "You're always so considerate of me."

Hearing Lin Sandie's reply, Xing Meilu fell silent, feeling a bit helpless. Lin Sandie had always been like this—seemingly gentle and polite, speaking in a refined and proper manner, yet she was lukewarm towards people, never getting too close to anyone, and unwilling to rely on others in the slightest.

Xing Meilu wasn't sure if this was the effect Yan Ting had left on her, but now that Yan Ting was no longer alive, she hoped Lin Sandie could break free from that state of being controlled and face the rest of her life properly.

"Officer Xing, Yan Ting gave me a lot of money before. I'm thinking of putting it into a trust to be managed, so that the innocent people who were harmed because of me can receive some money each month. What do you think?" Lin Sandie brought up.

"You didn't kill them," Xing Meilu first stated her position. "But that's a good idea. I'll ask a colleague who knows about these things."

"Okay, and please also look into a list of the victims. There's a lot of money."

"...Aren't you keeping any for yourself? You still haven't finished paying off the mortgage on your house, have you?" And she probably couldn't go back to work at the red wine company.

"I'll handle it." Lin Sandie didn't specify how. She now felt weary of the things she had once longed for.

Soon, she would have to go to Disorder Land and could no longer return to her previous state of commuting to and from work like a walking corpse. The house that had held her hopes when she was still Yan Ting's "property" would probably be sold in the end, but Lin Sandie didn't feel much regret.

In the end, this trip to Disorder Land had a hint of a death wish to it. Or perhaps, as Lou had said, she was truly beginning to walk towards her own magnificent palace, searching for what she truly wanted.

Lin Sandie felt she had nothing left to lose, so she would go to Disorder Land to see those people who still wanted to control her life. Even if she couldn't get revenge, she would do everything in her power to tear a piece of flesh from them.

It was just that after one night's sleep, her dream-self had left her a reason not to die. Thinking about it, Lin Sandie found her own life quite ridiculous.

Coming and going, going and coming, like a donkey futilely pulling a millstone, going in circles in the same place over the same thing.

"Are you still busy investigating the serial killer case? Lou mentioned it to me before. She said she wasn't the killer, but she was tracking them, and that the killer is probably also a woman." Lin Sandie changed the subject.

"What else did she say?" Xing Meilu asked subconsciously.

"Nothing else. She said the killer was too skilled, and she couldn't figure it out no matter how much she investigated." As Lin Sandie said this, she found it a bit funny. When they were discussing it, the crow that always followed Lou was there, and the look on its face was filled with unmistakable disdain for Lou.

"I have some leads on my end," Xing Meilu answered vaguely. She had some theories, but they weren't suitable to share with Lin Sandie, who wasn't part of the Inspectorate.

...

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