The Real Heiress Just Wants to Be a Lazy Fish - Chapter 26

Chapter 26: Borrowed Fate

The place where Jiang Hong lived was the best nursing home in Hai City. Its level of luxury even surpassed Jiang Zitan’s villa. Following Jiang Zitan into this place, which was comparable to a secluded paradise, Tao Yitong finally understood why the teammates responsible for monitoring this location grumbled every day.

Jiang Hong’s quarters were situated in the spot with the best scenery in the entire facility. Surrounded by lush mountains and clear waters, Tao Yitong actually thought about moving in here after retirement!

However, once she inquired about the price with the staff, she instantly regained her composure. Forget it, forget it. If Jiang Zitan ever decided to stay here, she might be able to scrounge a guest room.

Jiang Zitan arrived at the door of Jiang Hong’s room. She knocked, and an ancient voice from inside permitted them to enter.

Following behind Jiang Zitan, Tao Yitong raised her hand to rub her face, trying to make her expression look a bit more natural. She glanced at her messages still no reply. She couldn’t contact Zhou-zhou, so she had to put it aside for now.

After finishing their meal, the landlady’s husband was heading to Taoli Village to restock. They caught a ride directly to the village. At the entrance, several elderly people were sitting on small stools chatting. When they saw the two young women get out of the car, all eyes fixed upon them.

“Little Tongtong is back!” Most of the elders here had watched Tao Yitong grow up, so they recognized the village’s most likable child at a glance.

Tao Yitong greeted the elders one by one. Soon, someone noticed the strikingly beautiful Jiang Zitan standing behind her. One elder squinted, looked repeatedly, and exclaimed: “They look so much alike!”

When the elder said “alike,” they were naturally referring to Tao Yitong’s adoptive mother.

Flashback: The Bureau

A brief silence fell over the office. Tao Yitong seemed to hear a faint creaking sound; looking closely, she saw that the Director’s desk had cracked.

“The files regarding your grandmother are in Archive Room 1.” Director Mo provided a reference number, his voice tinged with suppressed fury. “I intended to tell you this earlier, but the missions were urgent, so it was delayed until now.”

Archive Room 1?

Tao Yitong hadn’t expected to hear that term. This archive room was special—it was essentially a place for relics, as the files kept there belonged exclusively to colleagues of the Special Affairs Bureau who had died in the line of duty.

Her grandmother’s records being kept here meant… she was once a member of the Bureau?! Tao Yitong’s eyes widened slightly.

“Your grandmother was the Captain of Team One for the H-Province Special Affairs Bureau. She was the one responsible for the mission to clear out the faceless Deviant Demons. So many things happened in those years; I’m afraid certain people took advantage of the gaps.” Director Mo looked at Tao Yitong.

Back then, if the situation hadn’t been so dire that they were powerless to attend to anything else, how could they have let the Captain’s biological granddaughter wander outside?

So that was it…

It took a long while for Tao Yitong to hide the shock in her expression. Her grandmother was truly formidable.

Wait. If she was the Captain of Team One twenty-seven years ago, her sacrifice certainly wasn’t a simple “car accident” on the surface! However, seeing Director Mo’s foul mood, Tao Yitong didn’t ask further. She would go to the archives herself to find out what happened back then.

Following the number given by Director Mo, Tao Yitong found a thick stack of dust-covered files in Archive Room 1. They recorded her grandmother’s life as an esper. During her tenure, Hai City was at its most turbulent. Every night in those years required the Bureau to dispatch specialized patrols. The faceless Deviant Demon incidents occurred in the early period, when her grandmother still had the strength to clear them out.

But later, when the cannibal case occurred, Hai City encountered another unprecedented crisis. This event was kept a secret, so outsiders didn’t even know that the elites of the Special Affairs Bureau had been diverted elsewhere.

This crisis concerned an ancient seal. Suppressed beneath this seal was the soul remnant of a ferocious beast that previously only existed in myths. The ancient sages had used unknown means to seal the monster, but the seal began to show signs of cracking. Although the Bureau worked non-stop to repair it, they couldn’t keep up with the rate of its decay. Eventually, the beast broke the seal, revealing its true form to the world.

That ferocious beast was Taotie.

There is a second Taotie in the world?

Heh…

The Interrogation

“Later, I accidentally heard from my family that there was a person who could change our constitution, so I came looking.” The monster’s words were nine parts truth and one part fiction. It knew being caught by the Special Affairs Bureau meant a sentence, so it tried to portray itself as a victim forced into becoming a monster and forced into cannibalism.

Regarding this content, Tao Yitong habitually maintained an attitude of not believing a single word. “Was that person named Jiang Zitan?”

“You’ve heard of her too?”

“Tao Yitong displayed a “nuclear-kind” smile while suppressing her rage. “So, you came here without telling your family?”

“Yes.” Cold sweat inexplicably broke out on the monster’s forehead.

“Eating her can change your constitution?” Tao Yitong followed up. By now, there was no warmth left in her eyes; the blood-red glare in the darkness made even the monster feel terrified.

The neighbor girl said the two parrots she kept suddenly learned to say “Help” for a period of time. For a long while, they said almost nothing else, just repeating those two words. Tao Yitong guessed that these two parrots, who stayed home all the time, had likely heard a victim’s plea for help.

Tao Yitong walked over expressionlessly and gave the monster’s head a light tap. It immediately fell into a “baby-like” sleep. She sent a transmission to the Bureau, telling them to come quietly and take it away for strict interrogation. This fellow was a coward; a bit of real pressure would make it spit out everything it knew!

After finishing this, Tao Yitong turned on the lights in the basement. The neighbor was still fast asleep. Since it wasn’t convenient for her to see the scene just now, Tao Yitong could only apologetically let her sleep a bit longer. The two parrots, who had bruised their heads hitting the monster, were huddled beside her.

Tao Yitong bent down and picked up the two injured parrots, then took out some medicinal powder and sprinkled it on their heads. “Good job. I won’t scold you two next time.”

The parrots were still the same two vengeful birds; despite being injured, they still insisted on pecking Tao Yitong twice.

Tao Yitong heard the voice of Taotie again after a long time, but the entity only let out a cold laugh before falling silent again.

Alright, it seemed she had guessed wrong. It was the same Taotie.

When the Taotie soul remnant first broke the seal, it was severely wounded by several S-class espers working together. It then fled. The wounded remnant was originally no match for her grandmother, but on the path of pursuit, she encountered a car. In that car was a pregnant woman about to give birth.

The Taotie soul remnant brought disaster. The anomaly between heaven and earth looked like the end of the world winds howled and lightning flashed. But she still heard the wailing of the pregnant woman in that car. That was her daughter.

The disaster caused by Taotie was quickly suppressed. The car successfully delivered the woman to the hospital, but the people inside never knew the price paid to settle that catastrophe.

Everyone thought the Taotie soul remnant had been completely eradicated by the Team One Captain at the cost of her life. However, Tao Yitong’s appearance years later let them know just how cunning that Taotie was.

To survive, Taotie had parasiticized its last bit of power onto the fetus in the woman’s womb and went into hibernation. But Taotie hadn’t expected that the fragile human child would be so troublesome; after all these years, it was actually the one being suppressed!

“It was you who killed her!” Tao Yitong gritted her teeth, using her power to grip the thing deep within her soul. The entity did not back down, striking back with sharp teeth.

I would have loved to kill her myself! Unfortunately, she sought death on her own. If she hadn’t shared her life-preserving power between the two of you back then, she wouldn’t have died.

“Is—is this the baby who was switched with you back then?” After getting confirmation from Tao Yitong, the elders showed looks of realization. “They look alike, truly alike. Just as beautiful as your mother. Are you two here to pay respects to your parents?”

The elders here spoke in a dialect. Jiang Zitan didn’t understand a word and could only turn to Tao Yitong for help.

“The elders are asking if we’re here to pay respects to Mom and Dad,” Tao Yitong acted as translator.

“Mhm.” Jiang Zitan felt a bit uncomfortable at the elders’ enthusiasm.

“Good, good. You’re both good children. Just in time; the path up the mountain used to be hard to walk, but so many young people from out of town have been coming here to play lately that they’ve actually trodden a path for us. You won’t even need to cut grass if you go now. But remember to go at high noon; absolutely do not go too late…” an elder leaning on a cane warned.

“I don’t even know what to say about those young people! Of all the places to play, they just have to run up the mountain in the middle of the night! The graves of our ancestors for generations are up there! They shouldn’t disturb the departed.” Another elder spoke in a severe tone. Jiang Zitan didn’t understand his words, but his tone sounded like he was scolding someone.

The Nursing Home

The crow cawed twice. In its single eye, it revealed a human-like, venomous expression.

“Do you think it’s her?” Jiang Hong’s ancient voice carried a hint of playful, deliberate inquiry.

By now, all the listening devices in his room had been destroyed, so he didn’t have to worry about his words being leaked.

The crow flapped its wings angrily. It hadn’t detected anything unusual about Tao Yitong, so who else could the Special Affairs Bureau’s mole be this time?! Ever since they cleared out over a dozen Bureau eyes last time, the Bureau had gone quiet. But while it looked quiet, the crow leaned toward the belief that the current mole was simply hiding very well.

It took flight, soaring toward the sky that looked heavy with dark clouds. However, as it flew, the phantom of a giant beast closed its mouth. The crow didn’t notice it had flown into a maw; in the next second, its vision turned into total darkness.

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