Chapter 100: The Weight of Truth

The moment the barrier dissipated, her phone vibrated urgently, its signal bars flickering back to life. The long-lost network connection brought with it a fleeting wave of wistfulness for Su Mian.

Her hands trembled slightly as she lit the screen, her gaze sweeping past countless unread messages and app notifications. Her fingertips, however, moved unerringly towards the two names pinned at the top of her contact list.

For her father’s number, a prolonged wait was met only by a cold, polite mechanical female voice: “The number you have dialed is temporarily unavailable…”

What about her mother’s?

Undeterred, she redialed, once, then twice. Yet, the only sound from the receiver was that same unsettling, heart-wrenching silence.

Finally, the last glimmer of hope was crushed, and her heart sank heavily within her chest.

She took a deep breath, then found Su Baixue’s number and dialed.

“Beep—beep—”

After only two rings, the call was abruptly cut off. A short, sharp busy signal pierced the silence.

She redialed, but the result was the same.

She tried a third time, then a fourth, until the screen simply displayed “Call Failed.”

Suddenly, a horrifying possibility surfaced.

She had been blacklisted.

Su Mian’s fingers, clutching her phone, trembled. Her former home, her once-intimate family—now, in a single night, their lives were uncertain, their connection severed, and even the last door to them had been slammed shut in her face.

She lifted her head, looking at Xiao Moyuan, who had been standing silently by the entrance hall.

The main light in the living room was off, leaving only the city’s neon glow from outside to cast shifting shadows across his profile. He seemed distant, yet at this moment, he was her sole anchor.

“I… I want to go back and see.”

She heard her own voice, dry and hoarse, carrying a plea she hadn’t even realized was there.

“There are no cars now… Could you, could you take me back?”

Xiao Moyuan’s gaze lingered on her pale face for a moment. Without any unnecessary words, he simply uttered two: “Let’s go.”

He turned, opened the door, and his back was resolute.

Su Mian quickly followed him.

Stepping into the apartment corridor after so long, the sensor lights illuminated in response. The familiar scent of a public space wafted over her, stirring a strange sense of unfamiliarity and apprehension.

She trailed behind Xiao Moyuan, step by step.

Having been confined by Xiao Moyuan for so long, she had grown unaccustomed to venturing outside.

Mainly, there were simply too many things to face out there.

Her parents’ situation, Shen Zhixia’s situation, her own identity…

The car sped into the night, merging onto the highway that led to Su Mian’s home.

The interior of the car was quiet. Xiao Moyuan hadn’t even turned on any music.

Su Mian turned her head, watching the blurred scenery flash past the window, trying to organize her chaotic thoughts.

However, the sky outside the window soon captured her attention.

There was no moon tonight, and the clouds hung heavy, yet the city’s distant lights still cast a faint halo across the skyline.

Just above that halo, at a level imperceptible to the average eye, she saw something else.

Clusters of gray-black “air currents,” varying in depth, like murky smoke, swirled and congregated in every direction above the city.

Some were as thin as gauze, others as thick as ink, slowly writhing and merging.

In the past, before her full awakening, she had occasionally glimpsed them, but had simply dismissed them as smog.

Now, the heightened perception granted by her awakened bloodline allowed her to see them with startling clarity.

They were by no means natural.

“What… are those?” she couldn’t help but ask, her fingers unconsciously pressing against the cold car window.

Xiao Moyuan glanced in the direction she indicated, his tone calm and unruffled:

“Demonic energy.”

Su Mian’s heart tightened.

“Wherever demonic energy gathers, there must be demons lurking or active.”

He continued, his voice exceptionally clear in the enclosed car compartment.

“The higher the concentration, the stronger the demon, or the greater their numbers.”

He paused, his gaze sweeping over Su Mian’s instantly tensed profile.

“In the past, while there were still some in the city, it was never this lively.”

He revealed the truth to her.

“The change began the day you fully awakened your demonic form.”

Su Mian spun her head to look at him, her pupils slightly constricted.

“You mean… these demons, they gathered in the city because of me?”

“To be precise, there’s something about you that holds an irresistible attraction for them.”

Xiao Moyuan stared straight at the road ahead, the lines of his profile appearing somewhat stark in the faint glow of the dashboard.

“It could be your bloodline, or a certain aura that leaked during your awakening.”

“To demons, it might be the ultimate delicacy, a chance for a breakthrough, or something else entirely… In any case, it’s a fatal temptation.”

He fell silent for a moment, then spoke again, his voice slightly deeper:

“I’m afraid your parents’ misfortune is also inextricably linked to this.”

The last sentence stole Su Mian’s breath.

Su Baixue’s desperate, broken scream on the phone echoed in her ears once more—

“Mom and Dad are like this all because of you!”

A wave of self-reproach threatened to drown her.

Her throat felt as if something was tightly constricting it, making it difficult to breathe.

Was it because of her… Was it truly because of her?

Was she a harbinger of disaster, not only transforming into a monster herself but also bringing calamity upon her adoptive parents?

“This isn’t your fault.”

Xiao Moyuan’s voice suddenly cut through her self-doubt, carrying a reassuring strength.

“The fact that you were raised as a normal human in the mortal world is abnormal in itself.”

He analyzed calmly.

“Your parents—I mean Su Shan and Lin Xiangwan—are both registered demon hunters.”

“They knew your identity better than anyone.”

Su Mian froze, catching the crucial point in his words:

“You said… they are both demon hunters? But, but how can a demon be a demon hunter?”

Xiao Moyuan seemed momentarily choked by her overly naive question. He turned his head, casting a glance at her as if she were an idiot:

“Naturally, they cannot.”

Those three simple words, however, acted like a key, unlocking a door Su Mian had long refused to face.

She wasn’t their biological child. Su Baixue’s hateful words during the Mid-Autumn Festival weren’t spoken in anger alone, but were the truth.

In that last phone call, Su Baixue’s accusations were filled with fear and unfamiliarity. ‘Not biological parents,’ she had said, yet she didn’t know that this monster was not human.

Her heart seemed to be clutched, aching intensely.

If even the parents who had raised her for eighteen years were not blood relatives, then where did she truly come from?

Where were her real parents?

Why did Su Shan and Lin Xiangwan, knowing her identity, risk adopting her?

Behind years of seemingly ordinary family life, how many secrets had been hidden from her?

And now, what had happened to them?

Innumerable questions flooded her mind, giving her a splitting headache and making it almost impossible to breathe.

She pressed her forehead against the cold car window, closing her eyes, trying to stem the torrent of emotions.

The car plunged into a long silence once more.

***

Five hours later, the car finally entered the quiet residential complex where Su Mian lived, stopping beneath her familiar apartment building.

Xiao Moyuan did not get out of the car.

He turned off the engine and leaned back in the driver’s seat, his gaze fixed on the familiar window.

“Go up yourself,” he said.

“I’ve been here a few times these past days, but found nothing.”

“However, there were large splashes and spills of blood in the room, fragments of furniture and cracks in the walls from an intense struggle, and residual, chaotic fluctuations mixed with familiar demonic energy.”

“The Demon Extermination Bureau has already conducted an initial sweep of the scene, taking away some evidence, but the sense of tragedy and the mystery of their disappearance still permeate the air.”

Su Mian pushed open the car door.

She ascended the stairs, step by step, her pace growing slower and heavier.

Her hand trembled violently as she inserted the key into the lock, taking several attempts before it finally turned.

The moment the door opened, the scene in the living room froze her entirely in the doorway.

What greeted her eyes was utter devastation.

The once cozy fabric sofa was ripped open with a massive gash, its stuffing scattered across the floor; the coffee table was broken in half, glass shards carpeting the ground; the walls bore several deep scratches, as if raked by immense force; and the floor itself had several cracked and sunken areas, their edges stained with dark brown, dried marks…

Those weren’t just stains.

Su Mian sniffed, her gaze fixed on those brown patches, her breathing almost stopping.

That was blood.

Was it Su Shan’s, or Lin Xiangwan’s?

Or… both?

“Dad… Mom…” she murmured unconsciously.

No response.

In the vast house, only her own breathing and heartbeat echoed, disturbingly clear and loud in the deathly silence.

She stumbled into the living room, avoiding the debris on the floor, her eyes hollow as she scanned every familiar corner—

The smiles of their family of four on the photo wall were still radiant, though the glass frames were cracked; her mother’s meticulously cared-for potted plants lay overturned, soil spilled everywhere; her father’s favorite rocking chair was toppled by the balcony door, one armrest broken…

Finally, her legs gave out, and she collapsed onto the only relatively intact single sofa, curling her body and burying her face deep into her knees.

No sobs escaped her, but her shoulders trembled uncontrollably.

Time flowed slowly in the deathly silence and heartache.

The sky outside the window gradually brightened. Morning light pierced through the gaps in the torn curtains, illuminating the room’s wreckage.

After an unknown amount of time, a faint rustle of footsteps reached her from the doorway.

Xiao Moyuan had come upstairs at some point. He didn’t enter the room, but leaned against the open doorframe, lighting a cigarette.

He showed no expression, offered no催促 or comfort, simply stood there in silence, waiting for Su Mian to accept the truth before her.

After another long while, Su Mian slowly lifted her head. There were no tear tracks on her face, only a pallor that bordered on numbness.

She looked at the figure in the doorway, her voice hoarse as she asked, “You know Su Baixue, don’t you?”

Xiao Moyuan exhaled a puff of smoke and nodded. “She’s studying at the Demon Extermination Bureau. Her talent is quite good.”

“Then… can you take me to the Demon Extermination Bureau?”

A faint glimmer of hope ignited in Su Mian’s eyes.

“I want to see her. I want to know the progress of the Bureau’s investigation into my parents’ disappearance…”

“Yes,” Xiao Moyuan replied without hesitation.

“As my shikigami, it is permissible for you to enter certain areas of the Demon Extermination Bureau with me.”

Just as Su Mian was about to sigh in relief, she heard his tone shift.

“But not now.”

“Why?” she asked, confused and urgent.

Xiao Moyuan extinguished his cigarette butt on the lid of the trash can by the door, his gaze turning to her.

“My main mission is not yet complete. The initial objective was to investigate and capture the special-grade demon who transformed Shen Zhixia into a bloodkin.”

He paused, then stated clearly, “Based on my judgment, that special-grade demon is Xia.”

“Xia?!”

The name exploded in Su Mian’s chaotic mind like a sudden clap of thunder. The mixed-blood transfer student? The one who seemed handsome and elegant, even making her once mistake his sexual orientation?

“This… how is this possible?” She shook her head in disbelief, her voice trembling. “He clearly…”

“Clearly seemed like an ordinary exchange student?” Xiao Moyuan finished her sentence, a hint of coldness in his voice. “What did you think you encountered that day in the haunted house?”

Su Mian’s breath hitched. The terrifying memories of that day in the haunted house instantly resurfaced—the crimson eyes, the cold, inhuman aura…

“That wasn’t Xia,” Xiao Moyuan confirmed her suspicion. “He used the chaos to lure you into a separate room; his target was you.”

“The reason you escaped was because of the necklace I gave you—that spiritual artifact severely wounded him at a critical moment.”

“He was seriously injured, and his subsequent disappearance was to recover from those wounds.”

All the clues instantly connected. Xia’s unsettlingly focused gaze when he looked at her; his sudden ‘leave of absence’ and disappearance after the haunted house. Lu Yang had said he never returned to the dorm… It wasn’t a coincidence after all, nor was it some ‘gay’ misunderstanding.

A chilling wave of belated fear surged up her spine, leaving her hands and feet ice-cold.

She had actually shared a room with such a dangerous, inhuman monster, and had even once thought he was ‘a good person’?

“You… you knew all along?” She looked at Xiao Moyuan, her voice dry. “When you gave me the necklace, it was to guard against him? Since you suspected, even confirmed, why didn’t you just… deal with him then?”

“The necklace was initially to guard against Shen Zhixia losing control,” Xiao Moyuan calmly corrected.

“As for Xia, before the haunted house incident, I only had suspicions. The means by which high-level bloodkin disguise themselves as humans are among the most advanced of all demons.

Had he not been unable to restrain himself from attacking you, thereby completely exposing his demonic energy and intentions, I wouldn’t have been able to confirm it definitively.”

Su Mian processed this information, a complex emotion welling up within her. She pursed her lips, her voice dropping, carrying a hint of petulance she hadn’t even noticed herself.

“Even if it was just suspicion… you still felt comfortable letting me live in the same dorm as him? If I hadn’t coincidentally been out of the dorm those few days, I might have already…”

“Coincidentally?” Xiao Moyuan interrupted her, letting out a soft chuckle. The morning light perfectly illuminated his deep eyes, which reflected her bewildered and terrified face. “Do you think that was truly just good luck?”