Pure Darkness

Chapter 28

When he died, it was very sad.

As he always wanted.

He is the most beautiful man I have ever seen. She has blacker and more supple hair than any girl's, and she reportedly takes very good care of her every day. His skin was so smooth that a single whisper of wind would tear him apart. When I touched it, it felt smooth and soft, like gelatin.

His most beautiful feature was his eyes. Clear and deep, like clear autumn water*. Even someone like me, who had no romantic feelings, would be moved and excited with just one look into his eyes.

*T/N (qui shui) – autumn water; traditional description of a woman's beautiful eyes.

However, she was too beautiful, and also too arrogant. As a result, he was always unable to get along with others.

No one likes it. Regardless of the men who want to fuck her, or the women.

However, he never let just anyone touch him.

……

After he died, fresh blood flowed from his pale, thin, and weak chest.

I saw blood coloring the sea.

It is as if recording the sins and evils of our generation.

Desire is sin, and going with the flow is evil.

So says the teacher.

……

I raised my head and saw a vast expanse of blue sky. Under the stage were several scattered spectators. They noticed my strong and vibrant appearance, and constantly held up their phones to take pictures.

I raised my sword to my shoulder and looked down at the cement floor, but it was like looking at a field full of corpses. I looked at the concubine across from me. His brows were black like many, and his purity was like fire. The red dress hid her snow-white and delicate body. He timidly walked over and gave me a glass of he huan wine *

*T/N (he huan jiu) – \= wedding, suitable; \= happy; lover; \= wine. refers to a glass of wine shared by husband and wife in the wedding ceremony. An old wedding custom was to have 2 glasses of wine tied with red silk thread. Couples would exchange glasses and drink wine.

I laughed out loud, like a true general.

Although in reality, I was just a programmer who would start working in a small company, on stage, I could become a famous general*.

*T/N (yi jiang gong cheng wan gu ku) – this is a line from the poem《 ⁇ 》by the Tang Dynasty poet Cao Song ( ⁇ ). Literally, the fame of a general ( ⁇ ; one; \= general; \= fame, achievements) rests on the bones ( ⁇ ) thousands ( \= 10,000) army that is one requires the sacrifice and bloodshed of thousands of soldiers to be considered as generals ‘hebat’. (See https://zhidao.baidu.com/question/71721868.html)

Come to think of it, we're actually not much different. A thousand little things can force us to give up our dreams.

However, I also really like this world where dreams can be created.

I received a glass of wine, exchanged glasses with him, and finished the glass in one gulp.

After this, I had to carry it, thus ending the cosplay show that was not able to attract this many people.

I can't move.

I felt severe pain in my chest and stomach. It was as if my deepest veins had been attacked and ruptured. I heard gasps in the middle of the sound of the audience taking pictures, I held my throat and desperately wanted to vomit.

When I raised my head to look, his face was the same color as mine. He held a table nearby to prop it up and his eyes were terrified, just like mine.

“In the water . .” I hoarse, and fell to the ground.

He fainted too.

After that, everything ran away.

In the midst of the fog, I was like hearing the cheers of the audience.

I really want to curse them, fuck it, it's not kidding, it's real.

We were poisoned to death. We are dying on the stage we love, the last stage we put on before we let go of our dreams.

After some time, I could hear the startled exclamations of my colleagues backstage, as well as the commotion of the audience.

Lately, I haven't heard anything.

——

While Bo Jinyan, Jian Yao and Fu Ziyu were searching around the low buildings, they saw activity beside the small stage not too far away.

“What happened there?” Jian Yao looked in that direction.

Fu Ziyu was the first to run there. At this moment, any movement of the grass due to the wind was enough to make him worry.

Bo Jinyan and Jian Yao chased after him.

They never thought that they would see the real corpse in this place. And, two of them, at that moment.

It was late and most of the visitors had already left the stadium. The small stage while outside this stadium still attracted a lot of people. Several cosplayers in ancient costumes, all of them looking shocked, stood beside the corpses. The spectators whispered to each other as they stared at the two bodies on the ground, afraid to get close.

Fu Ziyu quickened his pace and rushed over to the corpses. He checked the breathing and pulse of the man and woman, then shook his head towards Bo Jinyan.

Bo Jinyan said to Jian Yao, “Thanks to the alarm.” After that, he crouched down beside the corpses to observe them, at the same time instructing the three cosplayers next to him, “Stand there only; do not move and do not touch anything.”

The audience whispered back.

A female cosplayer explodes, “Did they die?”

A boy asked, “Who are you all?”

After Jian Yao called the station, he took out a police identity card and showed it to them. “How can this happen?”

The third boy, in a trembling voice, replied, “We are from the same group. . . Just now, they were performing, and suddenly. . . This has happened.”

Jian Yao discovered a few tapes and quickly sealed off the entire small stage and surroundings. More and more spectators gathered until it seemed like the tension would subside. Fu Ziyu's professional instincts took over as he seemingly put Han Yumeng on the back burner for now. He carefully examined the corpses, and said gently to Bo Jinyan, “My initial suspicion is that they were poisoned by XXX*, and they died instantly.”

*T/N Ding Mo did not name the poison!

——

At this time, the illustrious Deputy Head of the Special Crimes Unit (Criminal Psychology) of the Ministry of Public Security, Fang Qing, was visiting a movie set in the suburbs of Beijing.

However, the situation seemed a little different from what he had anticipated.

He deliberately threw away his usual jacket, because Jin Xiaozhe disliked it, calling it old-fashioned. She even went shopping the day before, bought a new T-shirt and got her hair done. This morning, while looking in the mirror, she felt very excited, and went to buy a bouquet of baby’s breath. He got on a bus, moved to the subway, then took another bus, finally reaching his supposed filming location.

Bouquet Baby’s BreathUnfortunately, she did not expect the tight security around the set that kept a slacker like her in place.

It’s true, apart from him, there were at least a hundred ‘fans’ outside the cordoned-off area. They were just young girls, but there were also quite a few guys. They loudly shut down Jin Xiaozhe’s name, all the while waving banners and raising their flower baskets in the air. If there was even the slowest movement at the filming location in the distance, it was enough to steer them into a frenzy of screaming and shouting.

Fang Qing might have been the tallest person there, but he was clearly a fish out of water. Several young girls looked at him and giggled while commenting that he was still really handsome. Another girl struck up a conversation with him, asking “Uncle, are you also a ‘golden fan’?”

Fang Qing shot her a glory. What ‘golden fan’, he was the ‘golden master’ (i.e. her husband), ok?

His initial plan was to sneak quietly to the back of the set, hide behind ‘the van*’ nanny and surprise Jin Xiaozhe when he had finished filming for the day. Looking at the current situation, this plan would not work.

‘Nanny’ Van and . . . Guess who?*T/N (bao mu che) – literally, ‘nanny car’ or ‘nanny van’. These tend to be 7-seater SUVs that are used as a means of transportation for a celebrity and his entourage (stylist, manager, etc.). See the example above and see if you can recognize a celebrity

It's not that he's not considering using his police identity. With that, he was confident he would be able to prevent the ‘small’ security guard and break through the location. However, Jin Xiaozhe had always hated him for being arrogant, so he hesitated to do this.

Finally, he left the crowd and found a place in the shade. While crouching, he held a flower in one hand and smoked a cigarette with the other.

His wife really is ‘panas’.

Upset, yet wanting to laugh. Looking up, he could vaguely see a camera mounted on an empty plot of land, and some human figures. Just this and nothing more, yet it was enough to make a man's heart warm and satisfied.

After pondering for a while, he took out a pen and paper from his pocket, wrote a note, and pasted it between the flowers. Then, he secretly went to look for a security guard who looked honest, persuaded and harassed her, slipped her a hundred yuan, and handed her the flower with instructions to place her in Jin Xiaozhe's ‘’ babysitter van.

The security guard agreed after several back and forth pushing flowers.

As he jumped onto the bus to return to the city, Fang Qing received Jian Yao's phone call. “Understanding. I'm on my way.” Holding up the phone, he turned to look, but he only looked at the crowd and the building; he could not see the supposed location.

It was almost dark when the crew finally decided that day and a group of them returned to the ‘nanny’ van. The assistant exclaimed in shock and said, “Why is there a baby breath bouquet here?”

The manager laughed and said, “I want to know which crazy fan is secretly tucking this in here, and how does he know that our Xiaozhe loves baby breath the most.”

“There is a note here,” the assistant was pointed.

“Just waste,” said that manager, “nothing interesting in it.”

A hand as pale as jade took the note. After a while, it was put in a pocket.

The Special Case Unit, as well as the city's criminal investigation team, quickly gathered at the scene.

“The basic facts of the case have been ascertained,” reports the officer in charge of the on-site investigation. “The two people who died were Lu Ji and Rong Xiaofeng. Together with their friends Xu Sheng, Jiang Xueran and Wen Xiaohua, they were members of the anime community. They were all graduates of Nan Hua University. Today, they participated in the cosplay show Animation Convention. The poisonous water that Lu Ji and Rong Xiaofeng drank came from their community studio. The event happened very suddenly. Lu Ji and Rong Xiaofeng were performing on stage when they drank water and died instantly.”

“Where is the studio?” asked Fang Qing.

“It's in the north corner of the animation park.”

“Seal it immediately.”

“Ya.”

“How about fingerprint?”

“Glass of wine is a commonly used item from the studio. From the initial forensic investigation, the only fingerprints on the glasses were those of two people who died. We haven't finished checking all other areas for fingerprints.”

“Take nail clippings from the three of them as well as the two deceased and send them for analysis.”

“Ya.”

Investigators at the scene began working methodically and regularly. The curious spectators also gradually dispersed.

An Yan sat on one side, compiling surveillance footage to see if there were any cameras in the square that managed to record the entire incident. Fang Qing walked to Bo Jinyan's side and asked, “What do you think?”

“The culprit is not an outsider.” Bo Jinyan commented heartlessly.

Fang Qing nodded. “The killer is familiar with the settings in the studio, familiar with their work habits, and even with the show flow.”

“What I am thinking about right now is. .” Bo Jinyan said, The “True the case took was very clear even from the start, the killer was very stupid, or . . . . .very confident, and able to escape our detection.”

Shocked, Fang Qing raised his head and followed Bo Jinyan's gaze to where Xu Sheng, Jiang Xueran and Wen Xiaohua were being interrogated by the police. The three of them had already wiped their makeup off. Xu Sheng was a tall, thin, and ordinary-looking girl. He also looked as if he was slow to speak. Her cosplay persona is a female witch. Jiang Xueran looked intellectual, with golden-framed glasses, and looked the calmest among them. His cosplay persona has been a noble since ancient times. Wen Xiaohua was smaller in size, and also had a darker complexion. He looked the most puzzled; his face, while answering the police officer's question, flushed red.

At this point, Bo Jinyan noticed that Jian Yao was standing some distance away with her back facing them, motionless.

He walked closer. “What is it?”

Jian Yao lowered her phone, her heart beating faster.

Just now, when he called the police, he was in a great hurry, and therefore did not open the text message he received.

He handed over his phone, his eyes dark and grim.

Bo Jinyan picked up the phone and quietly looked at it, then raised her head to look at him.

Jian Yao shook her head slowly, indicating that she did not know who sent her the message.

Bo Jinyan turned around and threw the phone at An Yan. “Check.” An Yan caught the phone and glanced at it, and was shocked in silence. Beside him, Fang Qing stuck out his neck to look at the phone, and immediately looked at Bo Jinyan and Jian Yao.

‘You definitely can't go to the animation convention’

Is this a warning, or a challenge?

Jian Yao said, “Jinyan, I am very confused. This . .”

“No need to be confused.” He placed his hand gently on Jian Yao's shoulder. “Behind all things dubious and confusing, there will be clear and obvious reasons. Although they may overlap and be built on top of each other, we just need to start from here and now, and find the truth step by step. ”