“That guy just now thought he had it in the bag, blabbering a bunch of nonsense.”
“He listed off my supposed crimes, saying I ruined her plan to get close to you.”
At this point, Dean gave his brother Sam a subtle nudge.
Dean’s face wore a sympathetic expression, but the corner of his mouth was twitching harder to suppress than an AK-47.
Sam, however, revealed a look of “Actually, I already knew.”
“What was her plan?”
“To use you two as bait to lure your father out, then take care of your entire family.”
Hearing this, the two brothers finally understood.
While they were tracking the demon’s trail, it had also set its sights on their family.
“I don’t think that plan would have worked. He won’t even answer his phone.”
Hearing this, a flicker of anger crossed Dean’s face.
“He has no idea where we are or what’s happening to us!”
“Let’s put that aside for now. The child of the demon Dad’s tracking was already so hard to deal with. If we actually faced off against it, we wouldn’t stand a chance.”
Surprisingly, Sam seemed a bit calmer than his brother Dean at this moment.
“Su, how much is one Five Thunder Talisman?”
The destructive power of thunder against demons was immense; just one could reduce one to ashes.
With a powerful enemy watching them closely, they had to arm themselves.
Maybe get five or six to start.
That was Sam’s plan.
“Ten thousand dollars.”
The hopeful flame that had just ignited in Sam’s heart was immediately extinguished by this cold reality.
Five or six Five Thunder Talismans would be fifty or sixty thousand dollars.
Where could they possibly get that kind of money in such a short time?
“Ahem… could you, maybe, give us a discount? Could we get a loan or something?”
Sam felt a bit embarrassed even saying this.
Su Fan had helped them solve so many troubles for free recently, and now they were trying to haggle.
But avenging their mother was urgent, and they had to try even if they were short on funds.
“It doesn’t have to be that complicated. I happen to be dealing with a certain demon recently. You two can come help me set things up when the time comes. I can give you a discount.”
“No problem!”
The moment Su Fan finished speaking, he heard Sam’s prompt and resolute reply.
Sam then quickly looked at his brother Dean.
Following his cue, Dean also hurriedly nodded in agreement.
“Can I ask what the discount is?”
“Fifty percent off.”
Hearing this price, a sense of foreboding flashed through Dean’s mind.
A demon that a high-level exorcist like Su Fan needed to deal with… would it be a simple character?
But right now, they didn’t seem to have many better choices.
If they didn’t agree this time, the debt of gratitude they owed might never have a chance to be repaid.
“So, next…”
“Back to Hollywood.”
——
“Has Su gone out to solve another problem?”
Karl took a sip of coffee from his cup, looking at the antique shop with its “Temporarily Closed” sign.
After joining the police force and getting a promotion, he now had a stable monthly income.
With his financial situation significantly improved, he’d even started drinking coffee.
Don’t get the wrong idea.
He had zero interest in pretending to be some Wall Street elite. He did it simply to ensure he had enough energy for his afternoon patrol.
Today happened to be his shift covering the Hollywood Walk of Fame area, so he had taken a moment to come see Su Fan.
He just happened to find him not in the shop.
“Officer Karl, we should get going. We still have a few more blocks to cover.”
A young-looking police officer pulled up in the patrol car and called out to Karl through the window.
“Alright, I’ll be right there.”
He responded, took another glance at the antique shop, and then headed towards the patrol car.
After settling into the passenger seat, they continued their patrol duties for the day.
Although Karl hadn’t been on the force long, thanks to a detective’s recognition and his own sense of justice, he had quickly made a name for himself.
Not only that, his forthright personality had earned him the goodwill of many colleagues.
Taking on new recruits, a troublesome task, shouldn’t have fallen to him, but Karl had proactively volunteered to be a temporary partner for the rookie.
Special treatment was never a good thing, and besides, he wanted to teach the rookie a few things.
“I wonder when we’ll get promoted to plainclothes or detective. Patrolling like this every day is really… a bit dull.”
Driving slowly down the road, the rookie officer spoke up.
“Do we just keep doing this kind of thing in the neighborhoods forever?”
“Isn’t there, you know, that kind of case? You know what I mean.”
Hearing this, Karl’s mind flashed back to what had happened at the welfare institute before, and he shook his head.
“I know all rookies want to work on big cases, or catch dangerous criminals, but this area isn’t as simple as you think.”
“When you really encounter a serious situation, you’ll understand what I’m saying.”
Some things truly weren’t something small-time officers like them could handle.
But the rookie officer just smiled.
His superior here, who had just joined the force, had assisted a detective in solving two murder cases and one child brainwashing case at a welfare institute all in a single day.
Young, capable, approachable, just liked to scare newcomers with this kind of talk.
Seeing the rookie’s dismissive look, Karl knew he hadn’t taken his words to heart and didn’t press further.
They drove on, entering a residential community.
“The public order here is pretty good. No gang activity to speak of. Let’s just take a quick look around and move on.”
Karl scanned the area generally.
No tents of homeless people, no groups of youths causing trouble, no addicts having fits and attacking people.
Mostly middle-class residents with decent lives, well-behaved kids.
The peacefulness of this community had left a strong impression on him.
Because he could always just take a quick look and leave, without running into any trouble.
“Copy that, Officer.”
The rookie shifted gears, but just then, Karl suddenly spoke.
“Hold on a second…”
The rookie quickly eased off the gas.
“What’s…”
He started to ask, but Karl signaled for him to be quiet.
Not far away, in front of a residential building, a young boy was walking with a child.
The boy seemed normal enough, but something about the child made Karl feel increasingly strange the more he looked.
The long blonde hair, the slightly curving chest line—both indicated this was a girl just entering adolescence.
But her facial features were as if she had some congenital cranial development issue, making it hard to tell if she was male or female.
A weird chill crept up Karl’s spine.
Something’s off.
Just as the two kids were walking, two figures appeared from a nearby house.
The figures didn’t notice Karl; they were intently watching the two walking, seeing them off with their eyes.
Watching the teenage boy and girl leave, Karl took out his service pistol in the car, checked it, chambered a round, took the safety off, and put it back in its holster.
“Come with me.”
His grave tone immediately put the rookie on edge. He quickly repeated Karl’s actions and got out of the driver’s seat.
One behind the other, they swiftly approached the house where the figures had been and knocked on the door.
Shortly after, a man and a woman came to answer.
“Los Angeles Police Department.”
Showing his badge, Karl’s tone was polite and gentle.
“Sorry to bother you. The neighborhood seems a bit unsettled lately.”
“Could you cooperate with us for a brief investigation?”
As Karl spoke, he quickly assessed the two.
“Of course.”
The man smiled.
“Before we begin, let me confirm: you are the owners of this house, correct?”
“No. This is my aunt and uncle’s house. They’re on a long trip and left it in our care.”
“When did you move here?”
Karl asked while subtly glancing around at the neighboring houses out of the corner of his eye.
Corners, windows, doorways, second-floor attic windows…
All these places had figures moving about.
“About a month ago. I don’t remember the exact date.”
“Could I see your driver’s licenses?”
The rookie officer stepped closer.
The man patted his clothes pockets.
“I don’t have it on me right now. Should I go inside to get it for you?”
Hearing this, Karl suddenly spoke up.
“That won’t be necessary. We’re just checking for potential security issues. Sorry for disturbing you. Thank you for your cooperation.”
With that, he turned and left.
As he left, he gave the rookie officer’s shoulder a firm pat.
The rookie seemed to grasp something and quickly followed.
“Is there a problem?”
“Don’t look back.”
Karl’s lips moved slightly, his voice hushed.
“We’ll talk once we’re out of here.”
The rookie didn’t dare ask more and kept pace behind Karl.
But he noticed Karl seemed to be walking faster and faster, almost breaking into a jog by the time they reached the section of the road with the patrol car!
The rookie kept up, yanked open the car door, started the engine, shifted gears, and pulled away.
“Why so tense, Officer Karl?”
“This place is very abnormal.”
Karl picked up the radio on his shoulder, started to say something, then put it down, taking out his phone instead.
He spoke while starting to compose a text message.
“Just now, while I was talking to that couple, all the neighbors around were watching us from the shadows.”
“At this time of day, kids should be in school, adults at work. There shouldn’t be that many people in the community.”
“That’s the first abnormal point.”
“Their clothes didn’t fit right, style or size-wise. Clearly not the kind of thing people their age would choose. The only explanation is they’re wearing someone else’s clothes.”
“Maybe they just didn’t bring enough changes of clothes?”
“Would ordinary people just put on other people’s clothes for no reason? Especially clothes that look like an older person’s?”
“…”
The rookie felt a shiver run down his spine from Karl’s words.
“Not only that, they had smiles plastered on their faces the whole time they were talking.”
“Think about it. When we patrol officers knock on doors, when do those folks ever give us a friendly smile?”
This statement made the rookie see the light.
People in these kinds of neighborhoods often had a taxpayer’s arrogance; many disliked the police.
Why would they smile and welcome them?
As he drove, the rookie recalled.
That man’s face with its fake smile… the more he thought about it, the more chilling it seemed.
“I suspect that place has been taken over by some kind of weird cult.”
“They outnumber us. If we’d kept questioning, even with guns, we probably wouldn’t have made it out of that community.”
“It… it can’t be that exaggerated, can it?”
The rookie thought Karl was being alarmist.
“And how do you know it’s a cult?”
“The evidence is this…”
Karl pulled something from inside his jacket that the rookie had never seen before.
It seemed to be made of yellow paper folded over, with some kind of symbols on it.
“What is that…?”
“A protective talisman. It protects people from being invaded by evil forces from outside.”
Hearing Karl’s words, the rookie suddenly felt it was absurd.
As members of law enforcement, believing in such things.
Instantly, Karl’s image in his mind plummeted.
“You’re new, so it’s understandable you don’t know. But I’m telling you, the world isn’t as safe as you think.”
“Besides science, there’s a whole other set of rules operating that you’ve never encountered.”
“If you don’t believe me, you can ask other officers. Anyone who went through the welfare institute case would agree with what I’m saying.”
As Karl spoke, he unfolded the talisman.
The yellow paper bearing the symbols and power was now crisscrossed with cracks, and then, right before Karl’s eyes, it shattered into paper fragments!
