Hunter of Mysterious Creature-Chapter 353 - 20: Scented Diffuser Bottle_2
All that remained in sight was a desolate scene of ruined walls and broken structures.
Sun Hang turned his head towards the spot where the "old woman" had just stood, only to see some pale skeletons occasionally visible amidst the overgrown weeds.
"Is this the ruins of Maoyun Town..." Sun Hang glanced around, and at that moment, he unexpectedly discovered that all the abilities he had lost had suddenly returned.
Sun Hang felt an itch on his brow, as if there was something stuck there, and as he reached out to scratch it, a yellowed leaf unexpectedly floated down.
"What’s this? ’A leaf blinds the eyes’?"
Sun Hang walked forward, and the once person-sized stage now was mostly reduced to remnants surrounded by wooden posts. On these posts, he could vaguely see marks from knives and axes, along with dark stains—whether these were remnants of paint or blood seeping deep into the wood was unclear.
"Whatever, it’s none of my business." Sun Hang wiped his hand on one of the posts. "Eating people is just eating, it’s not different; at least you all know to spit out the bones after you’re done."
Sun Hang turned towards the town’s outskirts to leave.
Yang Qi’s SUV was still parked in its original spot, but the muddy path had long dried up and was overgrown with weeds past the ankle. As Sun Hang stepped on them, the dried leaves issued crisp rustling sounds.
The distant rusty steel structure guard tower was still there, but the "meat mushroom" coiling around it was gone. Only a dilapidated dummy sat slumped at the base, gripping a police baton.
The rubber coating on the police baton had aged and cracked, revealing the rusty steel pipe within.
Sun Hang walked straight to the SUV, but as he opened the car door, his movement suddenly paused.
The next second, he closed the door and walked around to the left rear side of the SUV.
There were a few unobtrusive fingerprints on the rear side window, and judging from the dust accumulated around them, these fingerprints appeared to have been placed recently.
Sun Hang pressed a few of his own fingerprints onto the window to compare them—these fingerprints did not belong to Sun Hang.
Yang Qi’s SUV had a small issue, the left rear window could never be shut tightly. Pushing down on it with a hand would lower the window.
However, given that Yang Qi rarely left anything valuable in the car, and that Celestial City was littered with cameras, no thief who was tired of living would dare steal from a car bearing the Mysterious Creature Research Institute emblem. So the minor issue remained unaddressed.
Sun Hang opened the back door and leaned half his body in, searching under the rear seats.
Soon, he felt a flat, rounded hard object.
He took it out—this was a glass aromatherapy bottle, with the cap used for sealing nowhere to be found. The seal at the bottle’s mouth was densely pierced with dozens of holes by something like a toothpick, while the bottle’s inside was empty, its original contents unknown.
"With Yang Qi’s character... wouldn’t place aromatherapy in the car, right?" Sun Hang pondered.
Yang Qi wasn’t one for aromatherapy or perfume, not even much for makeup, always going in and out of the institute with a bare face—luckily her natural beauty meant she wouldn’t undergo a transformation from human to ghost like some influencers once their glamour filters were off and the makeup removed.
Sun Hang had never smelled any fragrance on Yang Qi, at most it was the scent of laundry detergent or shampoo.
As for Sun Hang himself, he would never buy such a thing.
"Who put this thing in the car?"
Sun Hang held the bottle, a peculiar thought surfacing: Since I can trace human memories, can I trace the memories of inanimate objects?
As soon as this thought emerged, a blurry image began to form in his mind.
The image was very unclear, the camera shaking wildly, but Sun Hang could still recognize that the scene was in the underground garage of the Celestial City Mysterious Creature Research Institute, where he parked his SUV.
A sneaky figure appeared in the image, glancing left and right before quickly walking over to the SUV and pushing down the left rear window.
Then, he took out the aromatherapy bottle from his pocket, swiftly unscrewed the cap, and tossed the bottle through the car window, before returning the window to its original position.
"Who the hell is this?" Sun Hang replayed the images repeatedly. He did not recognize the person who threw the aromatherapy bottle into the car... but strangely, Sun Hang felt the person’s facial features seemed somewhat familiar.
"Can’t I trace back a little further?" Sun Hang complained.
As soon as he finished speaking, the image suddenly shifted to a finely decorated study, where a balding middle-aged man walked in.
Sun Hang knew this man; it was Lu Hongming, a member of the Celestial City Management Committee, who previously sought him for a "talk."
Sun Hang remembered clearly that after a series of subsequent events, Lu Hongming was stripped from his position as a committee member and given a trivial associate position—Yang Qi even specifically talked to Sun Hang about this, although her main purpose wasn’t to inform Sun Hang about Lu Hongming’s demotion, but to warn him against threatening a Federation Government official in such a manner.
After entering the study, Lu Hongming hesitated for a few seconds before quickly walking to the desk.
On the center of the desk, there was a package wrapped with a cardboard box, with a label written in black marker: For Mr. Lu Hongming.
"A package for me? Why is it on the desk?" Lu Hongming turned towards the door, seemingly about to call his family, but the next moment he abandoned the idea, taking a box cutter from a pen holder nearby and slicing open the tape sealing the box.
There were only two items inside the box. 𝒻𝑟𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝑛𝘰𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝘤𝘰𝘮
A mostly full bottle of clear liquid aromatherapy, and an envelope.
Lu Hongming unfolded the letter.
Although Sun Hang couldn’t make out the text from the blurry images, as Lu Hongming read, the content of the letter simultaneously surfaced in Sun Hang’s mind.
"Committee Member Lu Hongming, Greetings.
I need a small favor from you.
Please, before XX:XX on the Xth month, place this bottle of aromatherapy inside the SUV with license plate number XXXXX in the underground parking lot of Celestial City.
The rear left window of this vehicle has a fault, unable to lock, and can be opened and closed using hand pushing.
After completing these tasks, you will regain everything you lost before. Additionally, the Hunter named Sun Hang will completely disappear from your life.
Please don’t reject my request, don’t trace the origin of this letter, and definitely don’t take the contents of the aromatherapy bottle for testing, such actions will lead to very dire consequences for you.
Trust me."
At the end of the letter, a detailed account statement was attached.
This account statement was peculiar, each line only had a date and a number of items—like Xth month Xth day, XXX liquor bottles X; Xth month Xth day, gilded censer one, Hetian jade pendant pairs two, and so on, with no detail on the origin, destination, and purpose of these items.
Yet for some reason, after seeing this account statement, Lu Hongming’s expression suddenly turned mournful.
"This account statement... wouldn’t be your old bastard’s record of embezzlement, right?" Sun Hang paused, instantly guessing the correct answer.
As for who wrote the letter, although it was unsigned, Sun Hang had already deduced who it was from.
Anna Demosheva.
Though it’s unclear why Anna, with her abilities, would need Lu Hongming to do this, except her, no one else could lure Sun Hang to this place.
Along with the glimpse at Xu Dasheng’s home, this was almost signaling it explicitly.
The letter and the aromatherapy were provided by Anna, and the person likely carrying out the task was Lu Hongming’s son... As for Anna’s purpose behind this, could it be to let me appreciate the local customs of Maoyun Town?
She seemed to be communicating something... Sun Hang recalled his conversation with the old woman, where one sentence invoked deep thought in him.
"This is the place you should return to... For you, this land truly deserves to be called ’homeland’."
