“Welcome to the Morning News Briefing. Today is the first day of 2026, and I’m delighted to be with you once again here on Youth TV. I’m Liang Ming Yue.”
“New Year’s Eve celebrations across the country drew another enormous wave of visitors. Jiangcheng’s fireworks show along both banks of the river also ranked impressively high among trending topics, with tourists taking out their phones and cameras to capture the dazzling, romantic spectacle of New Year’s Eve.”
“But beautiful as fireworks may be, they also carry considerable safety risks. First, let’s turn to today’s breaking accident reports. In the southern part of the city, a ten-year-old boy secretly played with a sparkler and accidentally set his hair on fire…”
“And finally, a police bulletin. At 4:10 this morning, a serious assault occurred at Blackhearted Paper Effigy Shop, located at the corner of People’s Square and the pedestrian street. The victim, a man surnamed Zhang, is currently incoherent and unable to provide useful information. Nearby surveillance cameras were unexpectedly damaged, making it difficult to identify or locate the suspect, who remains at large.”
“Police are asking anyone who witnessed anything near the pedestrian street to come forward with information. Members of the public are urged to remain alert…”
At that, Qin Shu, who had been lazily eating breakfast, abruptly pricked up his ears. He dug the television remote out from between the sofa cushions and turned the volume up several notches.
“Zhaozhao, I just saw this on Little Potato! Someone at the scene said the shop owner lost every single finger on both hands. They were cut off without one left.”
Elio’s Notes: Little Potato is the name used in the novel for the social-media platform Qin Shu is scrolling through.
As Qin Shu spoke, he put down his soy milk and quickly squeezed closer to Pei Zhao, eagerly showing him his phone. “Look. Nobody knows who cut them off, but apparently the shop owner completely lost his mind afterward. People say he kept muttering all sorts of terrifying nonsense.”
Pei Zhao tilted his head to glance at the screen, then looked into Qin Shu’s eyes. “Following something like this first thing in the morning. Your appetite seems pretty good.”
“Of course! I slept especially well because you were there. When I sleep well, I eat well. Last night was the best I’ve slept all year.” Qin Shu’s lips curved upward as he secretly savored the memory of waking up and discovering himself wrapped around Pei Zhao.
Pei Zhao, meanwhile, had quite a few complaints about Qin Shu’s ridiculously impressive sleeping ability. A whole swarm of third-rate malicious paper effigies had broken into the house and flown around everywhere, yet this person had somehow kept snoring away without a care in the world…
Some things could not be explained to him just yet, however, so Pei Zhao merely said flatly, “Today is the first day of the year.”
“Oh. Right! I genuinely forgot.”
Realization dawned on Qin Shu. He shifted even closer to Pei Zhao and casually picked up a xiaolongbao with his chopsticks. “Smart Zhaozhao, have another one. The xiaolongbao from this place are amazing. Everything they use is really fresh.”
Elio’s Notes: Xiaolongbao are small steamed buns with thin wrappers and juicy meat fillings, traditionally containing hot broth inside.
“…Fine.” Pei Zhao opened his mouth and accepted the bite Qin Shu fed him.
Their breakfast that morning came from a shop near Qin Shu’s home that he passed every day on the way to school. It specialized in steamed buns, steamed dumplings, and brown-sugar mantou and was extremely popular with the neighbors. Anything with filling came generously stuffed beneath a thin wrapper, while even the plain buns were delicious in their own way.
Elio’s Notes: Mantou are steamed wheat-flour buns without a savory filling. Brown-sugar mantou are lightly sweetened with brown sugar.
Qin Shu had been craving the shop’s xiaolongbao for several days, but too much had happened recently for him to feel like deliberately standing in line. Only because he had finally slept well last night did he throw on a coat first thing that morning, rush outside, and come home carrying breakfast in bag after bag.
Besides the neighborhood breakfast shop, he had stopped at McDonald’s for burgers, hash browns, and a small soft-serve cone, bought freshly fried youtiao from a roadside cart, and picked up a large bag of piping-hot roasted chestnuts.
Elio’s Notes: Youtiao are long strips of deep-fried dough commonly eaten as a Chinese breakfast food.
The soft-serve was for Pei Zhao. Qin Shu had accumulated plenty of experience by now: as long as Pei Zhao got to eat whatever he was craving, he became much easier to coax afterward, and Qin Shu could persuade him to eat more of everything else.
That evening they had to return to No. 2 High School for the New Year’s Day festivities, with performances, student charity stalls, and an entire night-market strip. By then the place would be packed like a can of sardines. Worse still, high school seniors did not get the third day of the holiday off. Tomorrow was Monday, which meant they would have to obediently return to school…
Qin Shu was a firm believer in balancing work and rest. He therefore chose to eat, drink, and have as much fun as humanly possible right now, squeezing every last bit of enjoyment out of the weekend.
Although he temporarily did not dare watch another movie, television was still perfectly safe and entertaining. Jiangcheng’s local Youth TV, for example, was popular throughout the city and had programs suitable for practically every age group.
Its crime-investigation special Detective for a Day seemed to have maintained a long-running partnership with the Jiangcheng police. The show had been around for years and occasionally aired live weekend specials as well. Qin Shu had watched it since childhood and knew the regular hosts’ names by heart.
For example, Liang Ming Yue, who presented the morning news, was also one of the regular hosts of Detective for a Day. She was in her early thirties now, an energetic older-sister type who clearly loved life and always seemed full of vitality.
Qin Shu flipped through several channels before eventually returning to Youth TV. He left it playing as background noise while clearing away the breakfast trash and once again began sorting through everything that had happened recently.
They still could not contact Liu Yang Yang in Yuncheng, but Qin Shu had bought several jin of harmless wild mushrooms from the young wholesaler there. The seller immediately and enthusiastically let slip that the shaman back in their village had finally been unable to resist and secretly performed bamboo divination the previous night. According to the result, Liu Yang Yang’s life was not in danger.
Elio’s Notes: A jin is a traditional Chinese unit of weight; in modern mainland China, one jin equals 500 grams. Bamboo divination here refers to the village shaman using bamboo pieces to divine whether Liu Yang Yang is alive and safe.
That settled one problem, which meant they could turn their attention to the smaller matters. First came the black briefcase Qin Shu had brought back from Yunli Metro Station and the equipment inside that he had yet to examine carefully.
The mint tea was good quality, but Yuanbao had already secretly eaten more than half of it, so Qin Shu simply dumped the rest into the little centipede’s nest.
Yes, Yuanbao had built itself a nest, using Qin Shu’s old white knitted hat and the fluff from a pair of childhood earmuffs. The round little nest now hung beneath the outdoor porch like a large ball.
Whenever bedtime came, Yuanbao actually preferred squeezing out through the gap under the door and keeping watch outside on its own.
Qin Shu could not be bothered to interfere. Instead, he proudly showed Pei Zhao the sharp spring-loaded knife. “What do you think? Pretty cool, right? That foreigner tried to ambush me with it, but I turned the tables and robbed him clean instead. Hehe.”
“Very cool.” Pei Zhao paused, his gaze landing meaningfully on the gray-white eyeball. “Next time, remember to bring more helpers. Bring a few more eyes too. Don’t give anyone the chance to ambush you successfully.”
“I know! Yuanbao and I are connected mind to mind, so it can pass information to me faster than a person could. It and Sister Qian will help keep watch.” Qin Shu poked the round, visibly uneasy eyeball on the coffee table and could not help chuckling. “The fact that Sister Qian can get fatter means she can keep getting stronger too, right? Eventually she might be able to smash bad things to death outright. That’s pretty reassuring, isn’t it?”
“Is that so? Good, then. I just hope she’s careful and doesn’t eat until she bursts.” Pei Zhao’s faintly smiling expression made the eyeball shudder on the spot before it obediently burrowed into Qin Shu’s pocket.
Qin Shu completely missed the undercurrent between them. He folded the sharp knife closed again and placed it in Pei Zhao’s palm. “Oh, right. You can have this. I probably don’t need a weapon to kill ghosts anyway, so keep it for self-defense. It should be great for opening packages too.”
“…Thank you.”
Pei Zhao paused, slightly surprised, but he never bothered being polite with Qin Shu. He readily accepted the knife, then turned his attention to the only item left inside the briefcase.
A pair of black gloves.
They were as thin as cicada wings. Once stretched over the hand, they clung perfectly to every curve of the palm and fingers and became almost completely transparent, yet somehow remained exceptionally well sealed.
Qin Shu tried them on and dipped his fingers into a glass of water several times. Not a single drop seeped through. The material itself repelled water as well, turning smooth and dry again almost immediately.
“Zhaozhao, I think these are perfect for me.” Qin Shu tested them over and over, fascinated. “Don’t you always say I come back smelling like ghosts after I kill one? If I wear gloves when I fight them, wouldn’t I stay much cleaner?”
“But I like you better when you smell nice. You’re pleasant to smell.”
Pei Zhao answered with complete seriousness.
Qin Shu froze, heat creeping into his face. “Cough… Okay.”
Pei Zhao gave him a puzzled glance, then gently caught the hand Qin Shu was trying to withdraw. He rubbed the nearly transparent fabric over Qin Shu’s fingertip and said thoughtfully, “Of course they’ll keep you clean. They’re a magical artifact. They resist virtually all poisons and provide a certain amount of protection.”
“A-a magical artifact?! I can use one too?” Qin Shu instantly came alive. Delighted, he laced their fingers together and pulled Pei Zhao straight into his arms. “Good Zhaozhao, tell me more.”
Pei Zhao had been absorbed in inspecting the gloves and failed to react in time. His face ended up crashing directly into Qin Shu’s chest.
The warm, firm, slightly yielding sensation silenced Pei Zhao for a moment. He carefully shifted himself a few inches away before continuing as though nothing had happened. “You can use any magical artifact that doesn’t require spiritual power to activate, just like talismans made by someone else. These gloves were made by a professional artifact refiner. The craftsmanship is still somewhat rudimentary, which actually makes them quite suitable for you…”
“Artifact refiner,” Qin Shu repeated, his eyes lighting up. “Learned something new. So that’s an actual profession? That’s amazing… Can I learn it?”
“No.”
“Oh.”
“The foreigner you beat to death was obviously an amateur. He didn’t understand the magical artifacts used here, so giving him something like this was a waste. But you can bind it to yourself with blood. A drop from your fingertip is enough. Put it here, close to the wrist. Once it recognizes you as its owner, nobody can take what belongs to you unless they kill you first.”
Pei Zhao explained everything carefully, hiding none of the details and simply laying out each fact at an unhurried pace. Qin Shu listened closely, but gradually the look in his eyes changed. “Zhaozhao, I need to say two things.”
“Mm. Go ahead.”
“First, let me clear something up. I didn’t kill that guy. I only punched him once. Seriously. Then he gouged out his own eyes and released this huge pile of disgusting things. It was basically a suicide attack.”
Remembering the writhing maggots inside the man’s head, which had hatched into a swarm of enormous green flies, Qin Shu still felt a chill crawl over his scalp.
“Origin Release. That was a technique… something like a divineability, not suicide. If he had killed you, he would have eaten you and used what he gained from you to restore his own life force. But you destroyed the creatures he summoned at the cost of his life, so he died very quickly.”
Elio’s Notes: Origin Release (本源解放) is the term used here for releasing or expending one’s fundamental life force to fuel a supernatural technique.
Qin Shu’s scalp tingled even harder. He poured himself a glass of water to settle his nerves. “People still eat other people these days? That’s sick. No matter what happens, you can’t eat people.”
“Ha.”
At Qin Shu’s remark, Pei Zhao seemed to laugh almost imperceptibly. He looked at Qin Shu with an unreadable, faintly sardonic expression that bordered on mockery.
But that sharp flash of emotion lasted only an instant before vanishing.
Pei Zhao returned to his usual indifferent tone. “When we were in Living Water Village, your Ama Wuli asked me at the table whether I wanted raoba huo or hegu lan. Remember?”
Elio’s Notes: Raoba huo and hegu lan are gruesome euphemisms for human flesh. In the usage invoked by the novel, the former refers to tougher flesh requiring prolonged cooking, while the latter refers to tender flesh that can be cooked together with the bones.
“…I remember. Those… those meant human flesh?” Qin Shu immediately realized something was wrong and thought of all the ornaments made from human bones inside his wardrobe.
“Tough old flesh from grown men that needs to be stewed hard over a fierce fire, and tender children’s flesh that only needs a little boiling before it can be served,” Pei Zhao explained expressionlessly. “She told me she could make either one for me.”
Qin Shu fell silent. The fashionable, gentle yet perpetually strange village woman in his memory had apparently been far more disturbing than he had imagined.
One could even say she seemed more like an evil spirit than the evil spirit who was supposed to be the story’s sole villain.
Living Water Village… it couldn’t really have been an organized cannibal village, could it? Qin Shu thought, waves of cold creeping through him.
After all, the film had been made with reference to a real case. Living Water Village itself had long since ceased to exist, and so much time had passed that hardly any younger residents of Haicheng had even heard of what had happened there.
The scapegoat case had originally been buried extremely thoroughly. It was only after the gaming streamer unexpectedly made Strange Happenings in Water Village popular again that some unknown but formidable person exposed the old case.
Discussion about finding the real murderer had already spread online. The retired judges and prosecutors involved in the original case had also been called back in for renewed questioning, but too little time had passed for anything further to come of it yet.
“If they really did eat people… then being slaughtered by an evil spirit was the retribution they deserved. My guess is that the director knew something about what happened back then.”
“Mm. We’ll wait for the investigation results and keep an eye on it.” Pei Zhao paused, then turned toward Qin Shu. “You said you had two things to tell me. What was the second one?”
“…Oh, right. I have a question. Zhaozhao, how do you know all of this? Artifact refiners, binding artifacts with blood, Origin Release and divine abilities, even coded cannibal slang.”
Qin Shu still had one arm around Pei Zhao’s waist. The two of them were nestled together on the sofa, with Qin Shu deliberately keeping the distance between them extremely small.
Pei Zhao blinked. “Because I’ve always been able to see ghosts. Unlike you. Your Heavenly Eye only opened last week.”
“But who taught you all of that?”
“Why would I need someone to teach me?” Pei Zhao asked in genuine confusion. “Once you’ve seen enough and spent enough time observing, you can infer the rest by analogy. It’s no different from studying for the national college entrance exam. Give me enough information and I can tell at a glance what’s going on.”
Qin Shu stared blankly for a moment before realizing that this logic… apparently made perfect sense.
To someone with a brain like Pei Zhao’s, seeing enough things eventually meant understanding almost anything. Even when confronted with an unfamiliar difficult problem, he could derive a new solution from what he already knew.
Yet even someone this intelligent still had not managed to deal with the evil spirit attached to him. Whatever that vicious entity was, it had to be exceptionally troublesome.
Qin Shu drew a deep breath. “…Zhaozhao, I’d like to apply for one more question.”
“Mm. Ask.”
“Daoist Xu refuses to teach me any of this. He says my fate pattern is extremely unusual, but his own spiritual attainment is too shallow to interfere casually with my karmic cause and effect. He avoids me like I’m a plague.”
“Mm. So?”
“I’ve observed him several times this week, and I’m pretty sure he’s actually afraid to become my teacher. I messaged him and asked whether wild oranges grow in the mountains near Longmu Temple. He said they do. But then I asked whether oranges grow on trees or on vines… He obviously knew the answer, but he absolutely refused to tell me!”
“Mm. Sharp little old man.”
“He’s afraid I’ll drag him down with me. He’s afraid that becoming my teacher and teaching me things will cause some terrifying consequence.” Qin Shu stared straight at Pei Zhao and emphasized every word.
Pei Zhao gave a slight nod. “Mm. And?”
“Zhaozhao… why aren’t you afraid?”
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