The next day, Amuro woke up very early.
The bedding was hard and uncomfortable, and he wasn't used to it.
More importantly, the weirdness from the previous night still lingered in his mind.
—He'd dreamt of a giant rat hiding in the car, chewing through the tires. In the dream, after recovering from the initial shock, Amuro captured the bizarre mutant rat and sent it to the national research institute. The institute then discovered a brand-new zombie virus in the creature... After that, Amuro spent the whole night in his dream fighting off zombies, only to wake up in a cold sweat, surrounded on all sides.
By the time he jolted awake, it was just barely dawn. Technically monk wake-up time, but still way too early for regular folks.
Amuro Toru tried to go back to sleep, but it was hopeless—the gnashing teeth of mutant rats and zombies kept replaying behind his eyelids like a horror rerun.
With no other choice, he sat up groggily, dark circles under his eyes.
He glanced enviously at Jiang Xia, who was sleeping peacefully beside him, then got up to check if the car he'd called for had arrived.
But just as he passed the dining hall, he suddenly heard a faint, muffled scream.
Amuro froze, then immediately dashed toward the source.
Due to the unfamiliar layout and the scream being some distance away, he couldn't quite pinpoint where it had come from.
On the way, he ran into two little monks—one emerging from the dining room, the other from the kitchen. The two exchanged a glance, then made a beeline toward the confinement room, clearly knowing something.
Amuro followed, puzzled. Even if they knew the temple layout like the backs of their shaved heads, how could they instantly tell where the scream came from?
The detective instincts in him kicked in.
Combined with the little monks' weird "...two years ago" comments from last night, Amuro was convinced—this temple definitely had a problem. And not a small one.
Soon, they arrived at the confinement room.
A senior monk was already sitting collapsed at the doorway, legs like jelly. When he saw others arrive, he shivered and pointed upwards. "I-I saw the door was open, so I peeked inside, and then…"
Amuro stepped through the door and looked up. His expression turned grim—the ceiling was nearly ten meters high, and hanging from a beam was the old abbot, swaying like a slab of smoked jerky.
…
Five minutes later, Amuro had already called the police and was now waiting for them to arrive.
He'd been worried the monks might try to stop him or that someone might sneakily cut the phone lines.
Fortunately, neither happened. That eased his nerves a little—if he could contact the outside world, then this probably wasn't some big conspiracy serial murder. It might just be an old monk's suicide, or a one-off homicide.
If it was the latter, then the killer was likely hiding among these four seemingly innocent, good-natured little monks.
Before asking any questions, Amuro headed back to the guest room to wake Jiang Xia.
If he worked hard to find the truth and then the killer turned around and grabbed his pig-headed teammates as hostages... well.
It wasn't paranoia. Amuro had been through this sort of thing too many times—whether with the police or the Organization.
The difference was that with the public security, he'd always risk his neck to save his colleagues. But the Organization…
Well, let's just say there's a reason few people in the Organization ever wanted to partner with him.
Jiang Xia, currently, could be considered an "accomplice" of the Organization. But Amuro had hope—maybe, someday, he could be a proper colleague. So he couldn't just leave him to get stabbed or kidnapped.
"Jiang Xia," Amuro said, pushing open the guest room door. "Get up. Someone's dead."
After that, he turned to leave. But two steps later, there was still no movement.
Frowning, Amuro walked back to the door and peeked in. Jiang Xia was curled up under the blanket, completely still, clearly not planning to get up.
Amuro was startled.
Even though it was still early, it was already light out. People in light sleep would usually wake when someone calls their name—especially if that name was followed by "dead."
Besides, Jiang Xia wasn't just any guy. His alertness should be way above average.
After a moment of silence, Amuro's heart sank.
Wait… was he not "sleeping like the dead," but actually dead?!
Could someone have killed him right next to me in the middle of the night—and I didn't notice?!
His mind flashed back to that mysteriously burst tire yesterday. A chill ran down his spine.
He rushed over to the bed. "Jiang Xia!" he barked, and shook him hard.
He half-expected to find a wound on Jiang Xia's neck—maybe one just like the tire's damage. But there was nothing.
He checked again—warm skin, pulse steady.
"…" Amuro's eye twitched. A faint blue vein pulsed on his forehead.
He grabbed Jiang Xia and shook him harder. "Wake. Up."
After several seconds of intense jostling, Jiang Xia finally opened his eyes.
Looking at his half-lidded, exhausted expression, Amuro suddenly had a wild thought—was this guy tired because he secretly did something shady last night? Like, say… hanging the old monk?
But he quickly dismissed the idea.
He was confident in his own awareness. Jiang Xia had gone out briefly last night, but he came back soon after. Definitely not enough time to hang someone. Plus, after that, he hadn't left the room—he had neither the time nor the motive to kill.
After coming to that conclusion, Amuro sighed. Why was he being so paranoid today?
He released Jiang Xia and stood up. "Come to the main hall. There's been a murder in the temple."
*Goal #1: Top 200 fanfics published within the last 30 days by POWER STONES.
Progress: 17/50(approx) for 10 BONUS CHAPTERS*
Glossary:
cadre – originally a political term, used here sarcastically to refer to someone overly serious or "official"
pig teammate – incompetent partner who drags everyone down