Artifact Report

Chapter 197: Chasi: The One Who Lost by a Hairline
The right eye was blocked, and the vision was blurry and white.

Chai Si could only vaguely feel that there were several tiny tentacles moving and expanding in front of his eyelids, like fingers reaching out to him again and again; occasionally, once or twice, the tentacles even licked the skin under his eyes.

He still sat there, not moving, letting the small piece of snow-white porcelain float in front of his eyes.

Jin Xueli beside him had already turned her head. In her peripheral vision, her eyes widened as she stammered, "W-what's going on? While I was chatting..."

Chai Si turned his head to avoid the small piece of white porcelain with tentacles, picked up the wine glass from the table, took a sip, and sat back down.

"Can't do anything, right?" he asked calmly.

Nengmian Han Liuyue said nothing.

There was a small piece of chin missing from that snow-white, bulging face.

"If you control me, I'll lose my value as 'Chase Monroe' and you'll just be another puppet." Chase took another sip of his wine and smiled. "Even if you had my phone and my card... would you transfer the money? Would you use an artifact?"

"Han Liuyue" still didn't speak, but the answer was clear.

She didn't even know how to eat or drink, and she thought that to quench her thirst she needed to stick her fingers into the bread.

That was when Han Liuyue had just returned; now, this "Han Liuyue" didn't even feel thirsty. Being further away from humans meant she had to rely more on Chai Si.

"Anyway, if you prick someone with the splinters, it won't hurt you, right?"

Jin Xueli put down her phone and tried to smooth things over: "Why bother getting so angry? Just consider it a favor. Besides, this will also be beneficial to your plan."

"Han Liuyue" turned his eyes, which were like small black holes, towards her.

"Think about it, someone wants to kill him now, and they're in the dark while Chai Si is in the open. What if they succeed before you even see the mayor? What will you do then? Lure them out first, get rid of them, and then Chai Si will do the work for you. Isn't that the only way to be foolproof?"

...Five thousand dollars was worth it.

When Jin Xueli is willing, she can truly be described as considerate.

"Han Liuyue" sat motionless for a long time, without even a hint of breathing, like a giant puppet.

After a long while, she finally spoke: "...This is taking advantage of me."

"How can it be exploitation? It's a win-win situation." Jin Xueli said sincerely.

After being silent for an unknown amount of time, the small piece of snow-white fragment finally turned around slowly, left Shibashi's eyelids, and swam back to the chin of the "Noh mask".

The tentacles swayed, as if sending a signal, and several more tentacles emerged from the broken edge to respond; they entangled and gradually moved closer, and the snow-white fragments and the "Noh Mask" were restored to one.

It looks like... the tentacles didn't seem to penetrate Han Liuyue's body, unlike the controlled hospital staff.

Maybe it's a blessing in disguise.

Chai Si took another sip of wine.

As if nothing had happened, he turned to Jin Xueli and asked, "How's it going?"

"I think it's probably fine."

Jin Xueli looked at her phone and said, "Qiao Xiyue was online just now, but as soon as your location message was sent, she became offline within a few minutes. I suspect she went to contact Molandao. Why am I so sure? Because last time, a friend asked me to find out..."

"Okay, you don't have to go into so much detail. I understand."

When she didn't speak, Chase felt like his brain was swimming; when she spoke, he felt a little dizzy. "I trust your judgment."

Jin Xueli's face lit up. "After getting to know you better, I realized you're actually quite a nice person. It's just that your marketing isn't very good."

Praise makes people feel uncomfortable.

Even if Morandao knew that he was in the "Backlight", whether she would tell the person behind the scenes, and whether the person behind the scenes would take action tonight, were still two things beyond Chai Si's control.

He could only use himself as bait and wait quietly for the other party to take the bait.

Fortunately, hunters are patient.

"So boring,"

Jin Xueli looked like she had bugs on her body. In the space of a few minutes, she had already moved her butt around Chai Si four or five times. "There's nothing interesting on the phone. Do you really have to wait here? Sigh, you're not much of a chatterbox..."

"Then you talk to her." Chai Si said patiently.

"You know you can't—"

Unless necessary, Jin Xueli would not even look at "Han Liuyue"; Chai Si was the same in this regard.

Jin Xueli was halfway through complaining when she suddenly raised her eyes and said, "Oh, someone else came in. They're doing really good business tonight."

The new guests were a man and a woman.

The man had a soft, fair face, and his expression was shrouded in fatigue; it didn't seem like he hadn't had a good rest, but more like he was busy dealing with life and was constantly being chased by fate.

The woman next to her seemed to be in the "backlight" for the first time. She turned her neck back and forth, her eyes sparkling and overwhelmed, as if she couldn't see enough of everything.

It's like he just got out of prison.

It wasn't just because she was curious about everything she saw; it was also because it looked like she had just cut her hair with scissors, and her clothes were just randomly picked. Not to mention the matching or style, she even wore pants under her long skirt - in Blackmore City, perhaps only those in Blackmore Prison had the qualifications or pressure to take care of their appearance.

But after a closer look, it seems impossible that she has ever been to prison.

She possessed a gentle, profound demeanor, a calm and composed presence; it was as if standing next to her could allow one to gradually relax their tense muscles and speak at their leisure. After all, she felt very... very kind?

Isn't that right? This word can't be used to describe young people, right?
Chai Si reflected on his vocabulary.

The two of them weren't unusual among the bar's crowd of hunters, so Chai Si glanced past them and forgot about them. They seemed to recognize him, too; before ordering, they even glanced at his table a few times, pretentiously,—he wasn't surprised to be recognized, so Chai Si pretended not to notice.

"Why haven't they come to kill you yet?" Jin Xueli muttered softly, "I'm suffocating to death. They are going to kill me..."

The napkin was rolled and folded back and forth in her hand until it was almost turned into powder.

To pass the time, she craned her neck, acting like she was nosy, her eyes wandering from table to table to see what others were doing or saying. Suddenly, she hunched her neck and whispered, "Hey, that table is selling fakes."

She was referring to that man and woman.

Selling artifacts through "Backlighting" is probably a lone hunter who does not have the support of the family's channel network.

"I can't see what it is...it's quite small."

Jin Xueli was so bored that she became a live broadcaster for others selling fake images, not caring whether Chai Si next to her was interested or not. "Oh, that man who looks like M seems to be very concerned about the fake image--"

What does it look like?
Chai Si refrained from commenting.

"They called Megan over," Jin Xueli continued the report. "Oh, big deal, they left with Megan!"

"So what?" asked Chai Si.

He rarely even came to "Against the Light" in person, and he didn't know what special meaning there was in following the waiter.

"They must think their artifacts are valuable, which is why they're reluctant to take photos and upload them here. There's a small office behind the bar, and generally, anything more valuable is taken there for negotiation."

Jin Xueli was quite experienced in this area and explained it clearly: "Talking in the back is not only discreet and protects privacy, but it also has another benefit. After the fake image information is uploaded, if the owner doesn't want to return to the bar, they can take the fake image and quietly leave through the back door - this way, they can reduce the risk of being targeted."

"Are you afraid of being robbed? Then isn't it the same if someone waits at the back door?" The one who asked the question was Han Liuyue.

Jin Xueli refused to look at her and said, "I said 'reduce the risk'."

Seeing that the time was almost up, she opened her phone and took a look.

"Oh, it came out. It's a lipstick."

Chai Si took the phone and looked through the fake photos and information.

"Will this thing be useful to the mayor?" Jin Xueli leaned over, her hair and warm breath floating on his arm. "If you can make the mayor think you have no ill will towards him..."

When he heard the word "mayor", Han Liuyue stretched his neck and floated his head in the middle of the table.

"That won't work either. This lipstick's target is humans. Even if it fools the mayor, it can't fool the fake image inside him."

Chase said, thinking for a moment. "But maybe I should buy it."

"why?"

He didn't respond - the reason was actually very simple, he just didn't want to say it.

As long as the lipstick was out there, there was a chance that Fu Tailan would get it. His talent for lying definitely didn't need lipstick to enhance it.

"Let's go,"

Chai Si stood up first and motioned for another waiter to take him to the office. To avoid any misunderstandings or complications, he even took Jin Xueli's phone and showed her the lipstick information she had just uploaded. He said, "I want to buy this. The owner is right here in the back, right?"

"Yes, if it can be sold to the Kai family, the price must be good," the waiter walked ahead happily and led the group of three into a short corridor.

Unfortunately, the waitress named Megan said that the owner had just left.

"They suddenly left in a hurry, not knowing what news they had received. I heard them say, 'We don't want to get involved in this mess,' after they left the office. I don't understand what they meant. If you hurry up and go now, you should be able to stop them."

Megan thought for a moment and added, "The back door is just around the corner in the corridor. I'll go with you. It'll be more convenient."

Of course, although Megan was once a hunter, she would definitely not be willing to act alone with "Han Liuyue" - she was weak and could not walk fast.

Chai Si naturally turned his attention to Jin Xueli.

"You and her go and call the person over. I'll wait here."

"I really can't let you go. They might just shoot you." Jin Xueli muttered as she quickened her pace and rushed to the back door with Megan.

Chai Si heard the footsteps of the two people and quickly rushed to the end of the corridor; a door was opened.

Megan made a faint cry, as if asking the people outside to wait - they seemed to follow her out the door, because the next moment, the door was slammed shut and the corridor became quiet again.

At this moment, all the warm and active people left, and only "Han Liuyue" was left beside Chai Si.

After a while, in the pale and narrow corridor, the latter slowly turned his head towards him.

"...That's not right." Han Liuyue said. "Whether we called them or not, they should be back by now."

Chai Si said nothing.

Han Liuyue raised her snow-white, swollen face, pointed it towards the back door, and remained silent for a few seconds.

"I think there's something outside the door," she said flatly.

　My updates are just like my schedule, getting later and later... I'm afraid I won't be able to make it to 12 o'clock tomorrow.

　　I had a dream last night. I was trapped in a hallway in a haunted hospital. A tall, dark figure was following me. If I repeated certain lines of a song, it wouldn't attack me, but it wouldn't leave either. It kept following me...

　　It was a very oppressive dream...

　　
　
(End of this chapter)