Monster - Chapter 83
Chapter 83: Silver Stone City - The Truth Beneath the Ice
It was only when Lin Sandie was sorting through her mother Zhao Zhi's belongings as an adult that she discovered she had been a graduate of a famous university's law department. Her mother had married her father, an ordinary man in every respect, and had no contact with her own family. Naturally, Lin Sandie had wondered if her mother had run away from home or eloped for love.
In her limited childhood memories, her father had been exceptionally good to her mother. She had never seen them argue. Her mother was a kindergarten teacher, always greeting people with a smile, her voice gentle and pleasant. She would tell Lin Sandie all sorts of interesting stories—this was Lin Sandie's most profound memory.
Until one day, her father suddenly told her that her mother had passed away from an illness.
Then came her mother's funeral.
At the time, Lin Sandie didn't understand what death was. In the beginning, she didn't feel much sadness. But as the days passed, grief and fear gradually washed over her like a slow tide creeping up the sand, submerging her. She came to understand what it meant to be gone forever, what it meant to never see her mother again.
Even after she grew up, that thorn remained embedded in her flesh, impossible to remove.
Her mother had died of illness, yet she had no memory of visiting her in the hospital. Lin Sandie suspected her mother might have met with some kind of accident, and her father, considerate of her feelings, had not gone into detail. Lin Sandie never pressed the matter, nor did she dare to.
Just let everything stay as it is. Even with her doubts, this is what Lin Sandie told herself.
But when she learned that the brooch found among her mother's belongings was actually the Legislator γ brooch, the cause of her mother's death suddenly became suspicious.
Lin Sandie could accept her mother dying from an accident or an illness, but she could never accept that she had been murdered.
When she returned home for her father and stepmother's funeral, Lin Sandie had searched through her mother's belongings again but found no useful information.
"The brooch has changed hands many times. Even if you ask me who holds it now, I can't be certain," Julian said. As expected, she knew about the brooches.
"The last person you knew to possess it."
"Zhao Jie."
"Who is he?"
"An Upper House Councilor. He's the kind of person who holds significant influence in Leviathan," Julian paused. "My advice is to refrain from looking him up for the time being."
She had gotten the information she wanted from Julian, along with a B-class item and 5,000 points.
Name: A Small Piece of Human Temporal Bone
Class: B
It appears to be a rather old piece of temporal bone.
Positive Effects:
Enhances physical defense, especially for the head. Duration: 30 minutes.
Negative Effects:
If worn for longer than 30 minutes, the user will be unable to stop themselves from speaking their thoughts aloud.
【Usage Method】
1. Place the temporal bone above the ear for immediate protection.
2. Remove and store the temporal bone. It can be worn again after 1 hour to avoid the negative effects.
Although a human skull fragment was a bit disgusting, it was probably so old that it had become yellowed, thin, and light. Moreover, the negative effect could be completely avoided by simply taking it off within thirty minutes and waiting an hour, making it a very decent item.
"Do you want the points or the temporal bone?" Lin Sandie asked Lou, who was driving, as they left the cemetery.
"You're splitting it with me?"
"Although I was the one who deciphered Madam Lilo's last words, making it public will likely fall to you. I can't bear the risks that would come with announcing it right now." Lin Sandie sighed softly. She was too weak. If she ended up on some bounty list, she couldn't handle it the way Lou did. So, she tried her best not to take too much advantage of Lou. "When we get Madam Lilo's legacy item, that will be yours too."
"That's fair~ I'll take the points, then. Defense isn't that useful for me." Lou made her choice without ceremony, pulling up a light screen to receive the 5,000 points Lin Sandie sent over.
"Thank you," Lin Sandie said in a low voice.
"Does that make you feel better, Lin Sandie?" Lou asked with a smile.
Lin Sandie glanced at her and put the temporal bone into her Space Bag. The light screen immediately showed that she now possessed a B-class item.
"Let's go back to the hotel first. We need to discuss how to reveal the secret of humans mutating into monsters," Lin Sandie said, ignoring Lou's teasing and turning to more important matters.
"What are your thoughts?"
"...I'll lend you the temporal bone. You can wear it and go to a podium where many people can hear you and announce our findings." The temporal bone could protect her from a headshot, but if she really were killed by a headshot, that wouldn't be so bad either.
On one hand, Lin Sandie restrained the urge to harm Lou by offering her the bone; on the other, she felt it was a good opportunity to kill her.
"Good idea. It's settled then." Lou agreed immediately. "It's still early. We just got a lot of points. Shouldn't we go shopping?"
"I want to go back to the hotel and catch up on sleep."
"Alright then."
After dropping Lin Sandie off at the hotel, Lou left Crow Miu behind and actually went shopping alone. She didn't return until evening, laden with bags big and small. Instead of going to her own room, she went to Lin Sandie's to show off her spoils.
"Lin Sandie, look! I bought two sets of pajamas. Mine is a rabbit, and yours is a little bear. Aren't they cute?"
Lying on the bed and absently looking at her phone, Lin Sandie lifted her eyes to the one-piece pajamas Lou was holding up. One was a white rabbit, the other a brown bear.
"...Lou, let me borrow that red phone for a moment." After hesitating for most of the day, Lin Sandie finally made a decision and made the request.
She was going to use Yan Ting's phone to look into matters concerning her mother, Zhao Zhi. This might lead to an answer that would shatter her, but Lin Sandie could no longer ignore the thorn that had been embedded in her flesh for so long.
"Can I watch?" Lou handed the red phone to Lin Sandie and sat down beside her.
"...Go ahead." Lin Sandie took the phone and opened the search software.
The first person she searched for was: Upper House Councilor, Zhao Jie.
The results came back quickly. Upper House Councilor Zhao Jie was sixty-seven years old and had been elected for five consecutive terms.
Next were numerous entries listing Zhao Jie's titles. Lin Sandie scrolled past them to look up his family members.
Wife, Liu Xiaonan, deceased 25 years ago in a traffic accident.
Only daughter, Zhao Jin, deceased 25 years ago in a traffic accident.
Lin Sandie felt the blood rush through her body. She touched her cold neck with a trembling hand, forcing herself to calm down before searching for Zhao Jin.
Normally, information about the family of a powerful figure like Zhao Jie would be inaccessible. But Lin Sandie was using Yan Ting's legacy item, which had a function unique to her in all of Leviathan: access to the entire Leviathan database.
When Zhao Jin's photo popped up on the phone, Lin Sandie's breath nearly stopped. The person in the photo was her mother, Zhao Zhi.
"..." Clenching the phone tightly, Lin Sandie used immense willpower to keep from making a sound. The 'Scorpion' devoured her emotions, but despite that, her face turned ashen. She continued to the next search.
Cause of death for Lin Zhenshuo's first wife, Zhao Zhi.
Zhao Zhi (Zhao Jin), died from a gunshot wound. Close-range shot, resulting in a penetrating wound to the chest, ruptured lungs, acute hemorrhage, and instantaneous death.
The short line of text appeared before Lin Sandie's eyes. She stared at it for a long time, so long that Lou, who had been sitting beside her, began to wonder if she had become Bedeviled.
"I've figured some things out." Lin Sandie blinked and calmly handed the phone back to Lou. "I'm going to the bathroom."
"Lin Sandie..." Before Lou could say anything, Lin Sandie had already gotten up and walked toward the hotel room's bathroom.
Lou frowned slightly, looking at the search results displayed on the phone.
Lin Sandie's mother had been murdered.
"Do you know who killed her?" Lou asked the phone softly.
The phone gave no response.
Lou tossed it aside and lay down sideways on the bed, waiting for Lin Sandie to come out of the bathroom.
Several minutes passed, but Lou heard no sound from the bathroom. Nothing at all—not the shower, not the toilet flushing.
Bored, Lou stared at the hotel room ceiling, counting the raised patterns along its edge. She shifted positions on the bed a few times until she had counted all the patterns around the ceiling. Only then did the sound of the bathroom door opening reach her.
The sun was setting outside, and faint light filtered in through the window, casting the room in a dim, dreary glow. Still, Lou could clearly see that the rims of Lin Sandie's eyes and the tip of her nose were red.
"Are you hungry?" Lou tilted her head to look at Lin Sandie. Her head was now at the foot of the bed, her long black hair fanned out messily across the white sheets.
"Not really." Lin Sandie sat back down on the edge of the bed and reached for the red phone Lou had tossed aside, wanting to search for more answers.
Lou said nothing. She sat up, straightened herself out, and lay down beside Lin Sandie, silently fiddling with the hem of Lin Sandie's untucked white shirt from behind.
Lin Sandie ignored her and continued to search for one thing after another until the sky outside was completely dark. The room was pitch black, save for the cold light of the phone screen illuminating her icy face.
After an unknown amount of time, Lin Sandie finally looked up from the screen and turned to look at Lou, who had her eyes closed and was sound asleep.
The desire to kill Lou and the desire to hold her rolled back and forth in Lin Sandie's mind. She watched Lou's sleeping face for a long time before finally putting down the phone, taking off her shoes, and getting into bed to hold her.
"Let me hold you today." Lou's gentle voice echoed in the hotel room as she pulled Lin Sandie into her embrace.
Stunned for a moment, Lin Sandie sighed softly, closed her eyes, and hugged Lou tightly. Her knuckles turned white as she gripped Lou's clothes. And though she said nothing, Lou seemed to hear her thoughts. A terrifying killing intent radiated from every inch of Lin Sandie's body. She would find those who had killed her mother. She would tear them to pieces, grind their bones to dust...
Even in such sorrow, Lin Sandie remained silent. She even had to sneak into the bathroom to cry, afraid of others seeing her vulnerability, afraid of their pity.
"Lin Sandie, when my first Guide left me, I used to hide under the covers and cry all the time," Lou whispered into Lin Sandie's ear, hoping it would make her feel better. "Even now, I sometimes feel like crying when I think about it. So it's okay if you want to rely on me for a bit. We don't have to be strong all the time. And I will never betray you."
"Because I am another you."
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