SIATOWITF Chapter 43
by Volare“I refuse to volunteer information, but you can ask me questions.” Xuan Bai struggled for a moment, then pitifully released Ji Mo An’s waist.
“At most, three questions.” He wagged his finger.
“Okay.” Ji Mo An glanced at Yang Ji, still lying in the bathroom.
“He won’t wake up, don’t worry about him.” Xuan Bai reluctantly wrapped the quilt around himself.
“Let’s start with a test question, just in case you misunderstand.” Ji Mo An watched the bad snake wrap himself into a silkworm cocoon.
“?” A blank look flashed through Xuan Bai’s golden eyes.
You can do that?
So he gave the answer in advance.
“Choose B.”
“What choose B?” This time it was Ji Mo An’s turn to be confused.
“The price of the shirt is nine pounds and fifteen pence.” Xuan Bai swayed back and forth on the bed.
“That’s a familiar sentence, your scope of study is quite broad.” Ji Mo An’s lips twitched slightly, “Let’s get serious.”
“Test question: the limitation preventing you from stating the reason, is it yourself, or your organization and world, or because of our world?”
“Because of you.” Xuan Bai tightened the quilt, leaving only his head outside. “Your world has too many restrictions. Some things humans shouldn’t know. He never welcomes outsiders.”
“Some say that after death, people turn into core hearts waiting for reincarnation, but your organization takes away the souls of some deceased humans. My question is, do you actively take away humans who shouldn’t have died, and fabricate their cause of death to make it seem like a coincidence?”
As he spoke, Ji Mo An’s heartbeat began to accelerate, and he could even clearly hear the thumping sound from his chest.
“Ah?” Xuan Bai made a puzzled sound.
“Do you actively kill people?” Ji Mo An said it more bluntly this time.
“…” Xuan Bai’s expression became a little interesting, “Your imagination is too strong, don’t make wild accusations.”
“So that’s a no then.” Ji Mo An felt a little relieved.
“I know what they’re thinking.” Xuan Bai rolled his eyes, “But the truth is quite the opposite, we are more cautious than anyone else, so cautious that we let them pin labels on us.”
“Before that day arrives, [Prohibit interference in the human world, prohibit influencing human behavior, prohibit intervention in human development], this rule has existed since our birth.”
“I can assure you that we have never harmed a single human, a living person.”
“Including me?” Ji Mo An pinched his chin, carefully looking at those golden eyes so close at hand.
The snake’s eyes showed no guilt.
“Then the second question.” Ji Mo An didn’t wait for Xuan Bai’s answer, and directly started the next question.
“The members of your organization have appeared all over the world in recent decades. Some only left photos, while others caused varying degrees of damage to the local area. According to what you said, you won’t influence humans, so what is the purpose of their coming here?”
“This…” Xuan Bai’s voice was a little muffled, being pinched by the chin.
“I told you, you have to believe me, oh~”
“You speak first, and then I’ll choose whether to believe it or not. Let’s see if we’re being narrow-minded, or if you’re hiding it too deeply.” Ji Mo An narrowed his eyes slightly. Snakes are indeed annoying, but that handsome face is really to his liking.
His index finger slid from the snake’s jaw all the way to the cheekbone, making it look like Xuan Bai was leaning in his palm.
Beauty is in both bone and skin.
“Because of instability.” Xuan Bai rubbed against Ji Mo An’s hand following the force, “They don’t want to come, no companion would break into the human world for fun.”
“Companions, like the six-winged archangel… put your tongue back.”
Ji Mo An paused, while he was pinching the snake’s face, the snake also stuck out its tongue and wrapped it around his finger.
Cool, sticky, yet excessively ambiguous.
“The fallen archangel… the six-winged angel Sacranus.” Xuan Bai blinked, his golden eyes slightly red, and even the corners of his eyes were slightly watery.
“Although his fall became a laughing stock throughout his hometown, it’s the humans’ fault.”
“Our fault?” Ji Mo An raised an eyebrow.
“Suddenly falling into an unfamiliar world, fortunately he found a few anime conventions to cover up his bizarre costumes. He changed three anime conventions in three days to hide, was squeezed for photos by countless humans, and finally, after enduring to the end, a snot-nosed kid grabbed a bloody feather from him.”
“So he was exposed, more humans went to take pictures of him, and he had to smash a building to leave, but isn’t the attribution the humans’ fault?”
“…” Unable to refute.
Ji Mo An was equally annoyed by mischievous children.
“This… indeed… wait a minute, why are your eyes so red?” He suddenly realized that something was wrong.
In just a few seconds, those eyes had changed from slightly red to bloodshot.
“Is that so?” Xuan Bai leaned back slightly, breaking free from his hand, “There’s one last question, it’s late… I’m sleepy.”
“Third question, I can confirm that my car accident was related to you, but before that, did you already know… Xuan Bai!” Ji Mo An suddenly saw a patch of bright red on his palm, and the bloody smell gradually filled the air.
“Crap…” Xuan Bai muttered in a low voice, he wrapped the quilt tighter and jumped off the bed straight to the window.
Blood beads fell on the bed with his movements, and the snow-white sheets were stained with specks of red.
“Stop!” Faster than his brain reacted was his muscles. Ji Mo An ran over in two steps, grabbing the quilt with one hand and pressing on the window with the other.
“What happened to you?” His tone carried a panic that he didn’t even notice himself, and his fingers brushed against the quilt, leaving several bloodstains.
“It’s nothing, it’ll be fine in a while.” Xuan Bai lowered his head, trapped in the corner with nowhere to escape.
“Is it because of the questions I asked?” Trembling hands held the snake’s face, seeing two lines of blood flowing down from the corners of his eyes along his skin, merging with the blood flowing from the corners of his lips and dripping onto the quilt.
“It’s okay, it doesn’t hurt, it’s just not very pretty.” Xuan Bai wanted to push Ji Mo An’s hand away, but he couldn’t even hold onto the quilt.
All that could be seen was that all the exposed skin was covered with long and short wounds, which was frightening to see.
Blood flowed from every wound, not only wetting the pale skin, but also staining the eiderdown quilt red.
“How could it be so serious…”
The medical kit in the room was not enough at all. Ji Mo An looked at those wounds that kept gushing blood, feeling his tongue dry and his breathing beginning to become difficult.
“It’ll be fine in a few minutes.” Xuan Bai pulled the quilt and hid in the corner. He squinted his eyes, but all he could see was a red blur.
This is bad… That damn consciousness will be staring at him every day…
The snake suddenly felt a little tired, uncontrollably turned into a chopstick snake, and fell on the quilt.
“Ouch, ouch.” The chopstick snake’s brain was not enough, and immediately forgot to persevere and began to tear up.
“Don’t move.” Ji Mo An saw the snake shrink, and immediately reacted.
He directly poured out the entire bottle of hemostatic powder and sprinkled it on the snake, and then pried out small emergency first aid pills and stuffed them into the snake’s mouth.
“I’ll bandage you…”
“No, no, it’s so ugly! So ugly!” The chopstick snake squirmed its body, refusing Ji Mo An to sprinkle medicine powder and bind cotton cloth on him.
“Don’t move.” Ji Mo An frantically tore open the sealed bag of the medical kit, and his trembling hands failed to pull it open several times.
“Ugh… so wet…”
A sudden noise came from the bathroom. Yang Ji, who had fallen into a deep sleep, gradually woke up due to the snake’s weakness.
Crap… The snake twisted its tail and raised its head. The whole room was a mess, the quilt almost dyed red was thrown on the ground, and there were red blood spots everywhere.
“I told you not to move.” Ji Mo An gently put the snake on the table and ran to the bathroom without looking back. He felt light all over, as if his body was acting on its own rather than being controlled by his brain.
“…So dizzy, oh my god, you…” Yang Ji just rubbed his head and sat up, and saw Ji Mo An standing in front of him covered in blood, raising his hand.
Before he finished speaking, the raised head of the cane slammed Yang Ji’s back of the neck, shaking the silver ornaments and making a rattling sound.
“I’m sorry.”
Ji Mo An threw the cane back on the ground, and the red ink that had not yet dried smeared another layer of red on his leg.
Yang Ji and the snake howling in the hemostatic cotton cloth were as quiet as chickens.
The subsequent treatment was much smoother than before he knocked someone out. The chopstick snake stiffened into a strip, letting Ji Mo An apply bandages to the wound.
A dark and windy night is the perfect time for murder and arson.
The bloody master bedroom, the bathroom with a paralyzed unconscious man, Ji Mo An rolled up his sleeves, and even his glasses were splattered with blood.
Not a murder scene, but better than a murder scene.
Xuan Bai, tied with a bow tie bandage, nestled in the corner, watching Ji Mo An calmly wash his hands, change his clothes, go out and bring back a mop and a suitcase.
“Brother, do you have some side hustles or something…” The snake watched Ji Mo An put the blood-stained bedding into the suitcase, and started cleaning the blood stains on the ground with a mop.
Why are your movements so skilled? The snake didn’t dare to make a sound and shrank back.
“Shut up.” Ji Mo An was trying to stuff the red mop into the suitcase. He tilted his head slightly, and a flash of silver light flashed from the lenses.
Can’t fit it in…
He turned around and walked to the desk, the snake was as quiet as a chicken and shrank its head hard.
“What are you afraid of.” Ji Mo An opened the drawer and took out scissors, cutting all the cloth strips from the mop head and stuffing them into the suitcase.
I thought you were going to kill the snake and silence it… Xuan Bai stuck out his tongue and didn’t dare to make a sound.
“Okay.” Ji Mo An clapped his hands, looking satisfied at the bedroom with no red spots at all.
“Then what about him?” Xuan Bai pointed to the bathroom with the tip of his tail.
“What to do?” Ji Mo An snorted softly, he tore off a sticky note and wrote a few lines, then stuck it on Yang Ji’s sunglasses.
“He slipped and fell and hit his head, and I can’t help him up. I can’t let the servants come in to move him, right?”
[…I’m going to find Grandpa to ask for help, the medicines are all on the table, please contact me as soon as you wake up. 193649…]
The snake poked its head out, only seeing the last two lines on the sticky note.
“Let’s go.” Ji Mo An changed into a windbreaker, put the snake in his chest pocket, and took out a few bottles of high-concentration wine from the small refrigerator.
“Are we going to destroy the evidence?”
“What nonsense are you talking about, the quilt is stained with red ink, and it can’t be washed clean, so it’s better to burn it directly to save trouble.” Ji Mo An looked calm as he pushed the suitcase and locked the door.
The snake was silent, silently shrinking into its pocket with a bow tie on its head.
“Young Master An, why aren’t you asleep so late? Are you going out?”
Ji Mo An walked in the corridor and met a security guard patrolling at night.
“Yeah. I left something at the hotel, I’ll be back in a while. Oh, right. I’ll bring Xin Xin back to the hotel to stay tomorrow afternoon, tell Sister Na.” Ji Mo An nodded to the security guard, “There will be a lot of people at the banquet these days, hard work.”
“Oh, it’s not hard, it’s not hard, you’re the one working hard. I’ll tell Sister Na now.” The security guard’s originally tired expression immediately hung with a smile.
“Don’t rush, tell me tomorrow.”
“Okay, okay, take care.”
Ji Mo An watched the security guard walk away with the corner of his eye, and walked to the elevator with the suitcase.
He was silent all the way, until he walked into the backyard forest without even a light, he sighed softly and sprinkled the wine on the blood-soaked bedding.
The pungent smoke filled the air, merging with the night.
“Xuan Bai.” Ji Mo An touched the little snake’s head.
He said,
“Maybe I really went to another world, and then forgot some things.”
Because this series of movements was as skilled as if he had done it thousands of times, and he didn’t even need to stop to think for a second or two.
“Hiss~”
The snake didn’t speak, just poked its head out and licked the man’s trembling fingertips with its small tongue.
The wind blew, leaving only a pile of ashes.
……
“How long did I stay there… never mind, don’t answer.”
“Hiss…”
The snake climbed into his palm, curled up and formed the number 6.