Chapter 31: Ancient Spiritual Artifact
Two more days passed, and Su Yanjun only arrived at work unhurriedly after sleeping past the Chen hour (7-9 AM).
Now that Liu Sheng was here, and seemingly picking things up very quickly, she could finally relax and slack off.
Coming to work a little late wasn't a big deal; Liu Sheng could cover for her anyway.
Having a colleague was truly great!
But upon arriving at the Ten Thousand Affairs Hall, she saw her good colleague hunched over the counter, writing something, with a thick stack of books bearing the Hidden Scripture Pavilion's seal piled beside her.
"What are you doing?" Su Yanjun asked in surprise. She had no idea that this was part of a Menshi's job.
Liu Sheng continued writing diligently, without lifting her head.
"I'm writing an article."
Su Yanjun leaned over to look, only to see a jumble of complex spell formations, runes, and intricate analyses.
She immediately felt dizzy: "Why are you writing these? Shouldn't this be something for the people from the Anomaly Research Department?"
Liu Sheng smiled and said, "Not necessarily. I just want to write an article to submit to "cultivation theory."
She had gained considerable insight from modifying the analysis instrument recently, and even without disclosing the high dimension analysis version, she could greatly improve its performance.
Su Yanjun had been in the Qinghe Weaving Institute for many years and generally knew the standing of the publication "cultivation theory."
She had only heard of people from the Anomaly Research Department publishing articles in it, but even then, it took countless hours and research Materials to produce one, and she recalled those people being quite old, some even bald. She couldn't connect this with the young girl in front of her.
But she also couldn't bear to discourage Liu Sheng. She was already stimulated; what if another blow made her completely dejected?
"This... it's difficult, isn't it?" Su Yanjun said cautiously.
"It is a bit challenging."
Liu Sheng nodded, speaking earnestly.
"However, I just published an article there last month, so I have experience."
Su Yanjun: ...
It turns out I'm the one who's discouraged.
Liu Sheng wrote for a while, then the first customer of the day arrived.
Liu Sheng glanced at Su Yanjun, who was engrossed in reading a storybook, and put away her manuscript into a drawer, then stepped forward to greet the customer.
The customer was a pot-bellied middle-aged man, dressed in a python-patterned brocade robe, with glittering gold ornaments on his hands and clinking jade pendants at his waist. His family background was likely not poor.
As soon as he sat down, he eagerly spoke without even drinking the hot tea Liu Sheng offered: "Young lady, please save me!"
"Please don't rush, first tell me what trouble you've encountered?"
"I feel... my wife... is not normal..."
He seemed to recall something, pulling out a silk handkerchief to wipe the cold sweat from his forehead.
Liu Sheng had grown somewhat accustomed to the exaggerated style of customers seeking help these past few days. She quietly pushed the hot tea closer to him.
"My name is Fu Youcai, and my family has been in the quarrying business for generations."
Fu Youcai took a sip of hot tea, calmed himself, and slowly began to speak.
"Things started to go wrong about ten days ago. One day, my wife suddenly slept until noon. Normally, she would wake up at the rooster's crow to serve my parents-in-law, and she hadn't missed a single day since she married into the family ten years ago. But that day, I saw that she looked quite unwell after waking up, so I didn't scold her too much."
"Of course, you didn't need to scold her..." Liu Sheng mumbled softly.
"What did you say?" Fu Youcai asked, puzzled.
"Nothing, please continue."
"Oh, and then, she was incredibly hungry as soon as she woke up. Even after eating lunch, she wasn't satisfied, so she had the maid buy two large bowls of pig offal from the street, and she ate them with great relish."
"Pig offal is indeed delicious. Perhaps your esteemed wife ate a bit too much. What's strange about it?" Liu Sheng thought of pig offal stewed until incredibly tender with ginger, spring onions, star anise, bay leaves, and cooking wine, then dipped in chili. She couldn't help but swallow.
"But she used to be most afraid of the smell of pork! She would never eat pig offal! Even if I secretly ate a bite, she would despise me!" Fu Youcai said excitedly, "Later, she had to eat it every day... not necessarily pig offal, she ate beef and lamb offal too. Anyway, she had to buy internal organs to eat every day."
"That would be fine, she initially ate them cooked... but recently! I only recently discovered that she's started secretly eating them raw!"
"That night, I drank too much wine and woke up in the middle of the night to relieve myself. I happened to see her sneaking towards the back kitchen. Seeing her strange behavior, I secretly followed her, and then I saw..." Fu Youcai's face was filled with horror, and he bit his lip, as if recalling something extremely terrifying.
"It's alright, take your time, speak when you're ready." Liu Sheng comforted him.
Fu Youcai took another sip of tea, taking a deep breath: "I saw her directly gnawing on raw meat in the kitchen, especially those internal organs. She held them in her hands, eating with her face covered in blood..."
"I didn't dare to startle her, but I'm truly getting more and more scared. Her gaze towards me has been strange lately, as if I'm a meal on a plate!" Fu Youcai's face jiggled with fear.
Su Yanjun had also woken up and sat nearby, listening with concern: "What's happening now?"
"Now I'm so scared I don't even dare to go home. I've also had my parents move to the rural estate." Fu Youcai patted his belly, making a slapping sound. "That scene was so disgusting that I haven't been able to eat meat for several days; I've lost several catties."
Su Yanjun's mouth twitched upon hearing that.
"This matter requires understanding some details for us to better classify it. Can you think of anything unusual before she fell into that deep sleep?" Liu Sheng continued to ask earnestly, "For example, did she go anywhere, eat anything, or touch anything?"
Fu Youcai tried to recall: "Go anywhere? Probably not. I don't really let her go out. I'm still quite traditional; I can earn money to support her, so why should she expose herself? What kind of propriety is that?"
Completely unaware that his words would offend Liu Sheng and Su Yanjun, who were out and about every day, he continued: "What she ate was pretty much the same as what I ate... I didn't see anyone else in the backyard either..."
Then, his eyes suddenly lit up, and he remembered something: "The day before, my mother, thinking she worked hard caring for my parents-in-law, wanted to give her a family heirloom bracelet. She even specifically asked for my opinion. I thought that although this bracelet was an ancient artifact and very valuable, she was my wife after all, so I gave it to her."
"That's right, she was wearing this bracelet when she fell asleep!"
With that, the situation became very clear.
This time, Su Yanjun directly contacted the Weaving Institute's Exploration Division, explaining Fu Youcai's situation. The Exploration Division also found it a bit strange and immediately arranged for personnel to go to Fu Youcai's home.
...
When the Cultivators from the Exploration Division returned, Su Yanjun saw their blood-stained clothes and curiously stepped forward to ask.
"Are you injured?"
"This isn't our blood, it's that woman's." One of the Cultivators said coldly. "She's already been killed; her consciousness was completely eroded."
"It was indeed that bracelet that was problematic. It's not just a simple ancient artifact; it's also not a weird objects. It should be a spiritual artifact. Wearing it might trigger a craving for blood, and the specific trigger mechanism still needs to be examined by the Anomaly Research Department."
Another colleague from the Exploration Division was quite familiar with Su Yanjun and was willing to say a few more words.
"One can only say that ancient spiritual artifacts are truly extraordinary."
Liu Sheng listened from the side, deep in thought.
This chapter has been heavily revised, please refresh.
Preparing to start a new instance, the transition is over, the next instance will be a long one.