Wu Rendi was holding a root of some unknown plant, still covered in a thick layer of soil. If it weren't for the dirt, just judging by its shape, I would have mistaken it for a radish. As soon as Yang Xiao saw the root clearly, his voice exploded in a near-roar:
"Didn't we agree that you would ensure my wife's reincarnation goes safely? Was I not clear enough? I gave up on the Earth Pearl! So why did you still go out to retrieve it? What if something happened while you were gone? What about my wife then?! Do you have any idea someone almost made it to the fourth floor just now?!"
Only then did I understand—this radish-like plant root in Wu Rendi's hand was what they had been calling the Earth Pearl. Ever since Yang Xiao joined the Bureau of Paranormal Investigation, I'd never seen him dare speak to Director Wu like this. Yet Wu Rendi remained completely indifferent, as if nothing had happened. But what surprised me most was that Director Wu didn't mock Yang Xiao with his usual sarcastic tone—he simply let Yang Xiao yell at him without interruption.
Eventually, I couldn't bear to watch any longer. Everyone knew how quickly Director Wu could turn hostile, and Yang Xiao—Old Yang—should quit while he was ahead. I turned to Yang Xiao, whose face was flushed with anger, and said, "Old Yang, this can wait—go upstairs and check on your wife first. She might have already given birth."
Hearing my words, Yang Xiao froze for a split second, then snapped back to his senses and bolted upstairs. To an ordinary person, it would've looked like he was flying up the staircase, feet barely touching the ground.
But just as he reached the landing on the fourth floor, his body suddenly jerked to a halt. It was as if someone had punched him in the gut—he flew backwards and came crashing down into the lobby on the first floor.
Thud!
Yang Xiao slammed into the ground, rolled several times, and just as he was trying to stagger to his feet, Wu Rendi was already standing before him. In that signature flat, detached tone of his, Wu said:
"What was it you said earlier? 'What happens to your wife when I'm not around'? Now you know, don't you?"
After a short pause, he added,
"And by the way—I said I would guarantee the safety of your wife's soul during reincarnation, not her childbirth. That's your mother-in-law's job. I don't think I need to supervise that, do I?"
Although Yang Xiao wasn't seriously injured from the fall, his body was covered in fresh wounds. A few of his older injuries had just begun to heal, but the impact had reopened them, especially the gash across his chest. It tore open again, exposing slivers of rib beneath the flesh.
He pulled out one of those small pills—the same type he'd given me earlier for both internal and external use. Without bothering to apply it externally, he shoved the entire thing into his mouth, chewed a few times, and swallowed it down with his saliva.
Moments later, his complexion started to return to normal. When he spoke to Wu Rendi again, his tone had softened considerably. With his eyes lowered, he mumbled:
"Director Wu, I lost my mind just now. I was talking nonsense—please don't take it to heart. Punish me later if you must. But my wife's due any moment now. Would you let me go take a look?"
Wu Rendi gave him a half-smile and said,
"You'd better not. It's too late."
Yang Xiao froze.
"What do you mean 'too late,' Director Wu? What are you saying?"
Just as he spoke, a commotion erupted from the fourth-floor ward. Even though the first-floor lobby had just been a battleground, the upstairs ward had remained eerily silent—no noise, no movement. (Yang Xiao had previously said he would cast a spell during the reincarnation to make everyone in the ward fall asleep.) But now, all of a sudden, chaos had broken out.
And then—a sharp, clear cry of a newborn baby rang through the air.
Yang Xiao was stunned. He stood frozen in place until Zhao Boss came running out of the ward.
"Master Yang!" he shouted. "She's given birth! My granddaughter's here—six pounds, eight ounces! Mother and child are safe—wait... Master Yang, what happened out here?"
He stopped mid-sentence, finally noticing the extensive damage in the hospital.
Zhao Boss's shout seemed to snap Yang Xiao out of it. He didn't respond. He simply turned and looked at Wu Rendi, who gave him a slight nod.
"Go," Wu Rendi said. "But I'll say this upfront—the child has just been born. She carries the imprint of her past life, but your aura is too dangerous. Be mindful of what your presence might do."
Yang Xiao hesitated, then said,
"I'll just take one look. Then I'll leave."
With that, he turned and hurried upstairs to the fourth floor.
Since Wu Rendi had arrived, Sun Fatty had been quietly observing him the entire time. Now that Yang Xiao had gone upstairs, only the three of us were left in the lobby. Sun Fatty stared at Wu Rendi and suddenly asked,
"Director Wu, no offense—but could you explain something for me? When exactly did you get back?"
Wu Rendi glanced at him and replied casually,
"A while ago."
He tilted his chin toward the pile of decayed bones in the corner—the remains of the mysterious attacker.
"I came back when he entered. I've been standing at the door the whole time. Just didn't step inside."
Honestly, I had my suspicions too. It fit perfectly with Wu Rendi's usual way of doing things. But the more I thought about how I'd been chased around like a dog while Wu Rendi stood at the entrance enjoying the show, the more pissed off I got.
Just as I was about to start complaining, a question suddenly popped into my head. I pointed at the pile of rotted bones and said to Wu Rendi:
"Director Wu, this guy seemed like he was here for you. Who is he? Do you know him?"
Director Wu snorted and said, "Plenty of people want me dead. He's not the first, and he won't be the last. I can't possibly know them all."
His response didn't surprise me. I pressed on, "Just now, Yang Xiao mentioned something called a Heavenly Principle Diagram—he used some kind of Human-Ghost Fusion technique. Director Wu, what exactly is this Heavenly Principle Diagram? And what's that fusion technique all about?"
Director Wu looked at me, a faint smile suddenly appearing at the corner of his eyes. "The Heavenly Principle Diagram… you've seen it before."
His words struck me like lightning. I had long suspected that the strange experiences I had during my blackouts were somehow connected to Director Wu. Now that he finally admitted it, I was stunned. My eyes locked on him, and just as the puzzle that had haunted me for months was about to be solved, I found myself at a loss.
Sun Fatty was completely confused. He leaned in and asked, "Lazi, what's this Heavenly Principle Diagram? Why don't I know anything about it?"
"Don't interrupt," I said. "There's a lot you don't know." Even as I responded to Sun Fatty, my gaze remained fixed on Wu Rendi. Director Wu seemed unbothered, smiling casually, the amusement in his eyes deepening.
Talking to Sun Fatty gave me a moment to collect myself. I took a breath, forced down the shock, and said to Wu Rendi, "Director Wu, I'd appreciate some answers."
Wu Rendi turned to glance at Sun Fatty. "Fatty, go upstairs and see if Yang Xiao needs any help."
Sun Fatty clearly wanted to stay and listen, but Director Wu wasn't someone you could defy easily. He reluctantly headed upstairs.
Once he was gone, Wu Rendi said slowly, "I thought maybe you hadn't come to me because you'd already figured it all out. Why wait so long to ask for answers?"
Who was I supposed to ask? A little hint wouldn't have killed him—hell, even a vague clue would've helped. My frustration nearly boiled over, but I could only say, "You're right. Please, go on."
Wu Rendi continued, "Remember how we only found half of Xiao Sanda's body under the river? And no matter what we tried, we couldn't locate his soul?"
Something clicked in my mind—I was starting to understand what was really going on.
Wu Rendi said, "That's because his soul was in my hands."
I recalled the scene and hesitated. "But Director Wu, I remember you saying you couldn't find his soul either."
Wu Rendi shot me a sideways look. "And you believed what I said back then?"
There was no point in arguing with him. I lowered my head and kept listening.
"To be precise," he said, "Xiao Sanda's soul had already shattered. What I had was just a fragment—the part that held his memories. Even that was slowly disintegrating. To preserve it, I had no choice but to fuse it with your soul."
"You mean… you put Xiao Sanda's soul fragment inside me?" A chill ran through my entire body. I finally understood—it wasn't time travel. The reason for those strange experiences during my blackouts was because Xiao Sanda's soul was inside me. I was entering his memories while unconscious, our souls overlapping. The thought that another soul lived inside me made my skin crawl.
"What's the big deal?" Wu Rendi said casually. "It's just a soul fragment. It won't hurt you. Eventually, it'll dissolve and be absorbed by your soul."
"How long is 'eventually'?" I asked.
He looked up at the ceiling, thinking. "Not long—twenty or thirty years."
I swallowed hard and said, "Director Wu, let's be honest. You didn't put that fragment in me just to store it, did you?"
A sly smile crept across his face. "Took you long enough to get to the point."
He glanced at the skeletal remains nearby, a chilling expression settling over his features.
He went on, "There was something Xiao Sanda had—something I needed to find. But under the circumstances, he had to die. So I gathered his soul and stored it in someone. Xiao Heshang was too close to him. If he experienced Xiao Sanda's memories, he'd lose his mind. That Sun Fatty is too cunning. You were the best option."
"The Heavenly Principle Diagram?" I suddenly recalled what Yang Xiao had said earlier.
Wu Rendi turned his gaze from the skeleton to me. "That's right. This time, you guessed correctly."
"So what exactly is the Heavenly Principle Diagram, Director Wu? Even you seem deeply interested."
"Me, interested?" Wu Rendi suddenly chuckled as if he'd heard something absurd. "Of all the people in the world, I'm probably the least interested in the Heavenly Principle Diagram."
He was about to continue when Sun Fatty came down from the fourth floor. He peeked around the stair rail, clearly looking for us. Wu Rendi instantly lost all interest in continuing the conversation. No matter how many times I asked, he turned away and refused to respond.
Just when everything was about to be explained, it all came to a halt because of Sun Fatty. I was seething and shouted, "Weren't you going up to help? What are you doing back down here?"
Sun Fatty was clearly annoyed too. "What do you think? They're feeding the baby. What's a grown man like me supposed to do—stand there and watch the live show? You should've seen the way that whole family looked at me, like I had 'pervert' stamped on my forehead. What's worse, I was standing right next to Old Yang, but they only focused on me, like he was invisible!"
He paused and turned to Wu Rendi. "Director Wu, can I go now?"
Wu Rendi nodded. "If you really want to stay up there longer, I won't stop you."
Sun Fatty bolted down the stairs, reaching the first-floor lobby in seconds. When he saw Wu Rendi walking toward the pharmacy and lab with what looked like a giant radish, he ran over to me and whispered, "Well? What did Old Wu tell you?"
I gave him a sour look. "If you'd stayed upstairs ten more minutes, I might've even learned Old Wu's childhood nickname."
Sun Fatty looked wounded. "Lazi, you think I wanted to be up there? The kid was screaming from hunger, and Old Yang's mother-in-law refused to nurse the baby with me in the room. I tried waiting just outside the ward, but they drove me all the way to the stairs and even posted someone to watch me. Seriously, Lazi—do I really look like a pervert to you?"
I was half amused, half exasperated. Just as I was about to tease him some more, Wu Rendi came out of the lab holding a large chemistry beaker. Sun Fatty rushed up, grinning, clearly wanting to help. "Director Wu, this must be the Earth Pearl, right? Let me take care of it for you."
To his surprise, Wu Rendi blocked him. "Who told you this is the Earth Pearl?"
Sun Fatty opened his mouth, thought for a moment, then said, "Didn't Old Yang say you went to collect the Earth Pearl? So this…"
Wu Rendi didn't respond. He set the beaker down on the information desk in the lobby. Holding the root-like object over the beaker, he began to shake it. With some unseen force, the dirt on the root started falling into the beaker. The moment the soil hit the bottom, it began to meld together. Soon, a mud pellet the size of a tennis ball had formed inside.
The root in Wu Rendi's hand—now stripped of dirt—turned out to be an actual green radish. I finally understood: the Earth Pearl wasn't the radish, but the mud ball forming in the beaker.
Wu Rendi casually tossed the radish to Sun Fatty. "This Earth Pearl's for you. Go play with it."
Sun Fatty laughed awkwardly, holding the radish. "If Director Wu says it's good, it must be good. I'll take it home and boil it with some lamb meatballs."
I leaned closer and pointed at the mud ball in the beaker. "Director Wu, this is the real Earth Pearl?"
He nodded. Using a finger, he drew a line across the middle of the mud ball. Instantly, it split in half—silently, without resistance. But in the next moment, the two halves were drawn together like magnets and fused seamlessly back into a single sphere.
Wu Rendi watched with a cold, evaluating gaze, seemingly satisfied with the Earth Pearl's maturity.
Just as Sun Fatty and I were about to ask more questions, Yang Xiao came down from the fourth floor. His eyes were slightly red. He looked at Wu Rendi and nodded. "The soul has fused with the baby perfectly. Thank you."
Wu Rendi gave a lukewarm glance. "Don't mention it." Then his gaze abruptly shifted toward the hospital entrance. "Which one of you informed the Bureau?"
The three of us—me, Sun Fatty, and Yang Xiao—were stunned.
Just then, two cars pulled up at the entrance. Five or six people stepped out—none of them strangers. Investigators from Division Two, under Old Qiu. Leading them were two familiar faces I hadn't seen in a while: Xiong Wanyi and Ximen Lian.