The Sound of Heaven 4

Chapter 55

'The Invitation Letter! Give me the Invitation Letter!'

Zhou Xiangzhe listened to its voice. 'Why is it so fixated on the Invitation Letter?'

He looked over at Shen Wang. 'Do you have an Invitation Letter?'

Shen Wang was quiet for a second, then shook his head. 'No.'

Hound actually laughed out loud.

He'd heard it with his own ears — Lan saying that Shen Wang had gotten an Invitation Letter because he met the conditions, and had come in a step ahead of everyone else. Lan had also said that no one else could get one, that only his little brother could qualify.

Shen Wang definitely had an Invitation Letter on him.

Shen Wang glanced at Hound and thought: I do have an Invitation Letter, but there's no way I'm pulling it out for Zhou Xiangzhe to see right now.

After all, he'd tucked the Invitation Letter into the painting specifically so the Contaminant couldn't snatch it. Now the painting and the Invitation Letter had fused into one — take it out and he'd blow his cover instantly. He'd have to be out of his mind to admit to Zhou Xiangzhe that he had one.

'Neither of you? Is there really even an Invitation Letter?' Zhou Xiangzhe frowned. 'None of the Observers have ever received an Invitation Letter from the Lost City.'

'But the Invitation Letter definitely exists.' Hound said with a grin. 'Lan said so — only people with the right talent can receive one.'

Zhou Xiangzhe looked at him. 'What talent?'

'Musical talent.'

'Music?' Zhou Xiangzhe turned to Shen Wang.

If it was musical talent, Shen Wang was the most gifted person Zhou Xiangzhe had ever met.

After the apocalypse the entertainment industry had collapsed. Without basic physical safety, the arts could barely take root — what little survived mostly described suffering and the drive to keep going.

And yet, Shen Wang had loved music since he was small. He was always in the director's office, listening to that old battered radio, listening to the music tapes the director brought back, playing them over and over again. The director used to say Shen Wang was born in the wrong era — in the old world he'd have been a genius musician.

Later, Zhou Xiangzhe had collected a lot of music for Shen Wang. Shen Wang had loved all of it.

'If even Shen Wang doesn't have an Invitation Letter, then it's true — most people really can't get one.' That's what Zhou Xiangzhe said.

Hound felt like laughing again, because Shen Wang absolutely did have an Invitation Letter.

And yet Zhou Xiangzhe, supposedly one of the sharpest minds among humanity, had a complete blind spot right here and simply believed what Shen Wang said.

So this was what love did to a person.

The Contaminant in the distance had vanished, and Blood Moon had returned to its usual shape — but the eye inside it swung toward them a moment later.

Blood Moon was far away, and the eye inside it was twisted and wrong, but the instant it looked over, everyone felt it. It had found them.

They'd been spotted.

Shen Wang grabbed Zhou Xiangzhe and pulled him back. On the other side, Hound had already retreated behind a pipe.

'Once it sees you, it starts smashing everything around it.' Hound said, almost amused. 'What's the best way to let moonlight reach every corner? Simple — knock down all the buildings. Turn the whole world into one big flat plain. Then nothing's in the way.'

Zhou Xiangzhe gave him a look and started thinking.

Shen Wang said, 'Aren't you a Grade S Aberrant? Go hit it.'

'I'd love to, but I don't have that kind of ability. I'm a support type.' Hound said. 'You ever see a tracker dog beat a blade or a gun with anything other than its nose and teeth?'

He laughed at himself a little as he said it.

The Science Academy's three generations of experimental subjects each had their own purpose.

Sacrifice was created for Grade-S Contaminants — his entire reason for existing was to eliminate the high-level Contaminants that threatened humanity.

Precognition was considered the strongest. By that point human life had started to stabilize, and the Science Academy was trying to create the most powerful experimental subject the world had ever seen — a benchmark for humanity, something that might even surpass Zhou Xiangzhe. Unfortunately, Lan wound up defecting outright and becoming an enemy of humanity.

Hound, then, was the Science Academy's answer after learning from Lan's example — a 'tracker dog,' no blade or gun, just sharp 'instincts' and a set of teeth.

A tentacle of condensed black fog slammed into the pipe with a thunderous crack. The pipe shattered. Zhou Xiangzhe grabbed Shen Wang and they bolted out of the way.

'Give me the Invitation Letter!' Moonstealer drifted and surged through the air, shrieking.

Moonstealer had always wanted the Invitation Letter, but Shen Wang still didn't know what it was actually for, or why Moonstealer wanted it so badly.

Hound had just said that only people with musical talent were invited — so who had sent the Invitation Letter?

Was it his mother?

That struck Shen Wang as strange. If his mother had sent it, why would Moonstealer want it this desperately?

So Shen Wang suddenly spoke up. 'I'll give it to you.'

Shen Wang spoke again. 'I'll give you the Invitation Letter.'

Everyone in the vicinity froze for a moment.

Moonstealer's black tentacles went still. It stared down at Shen Wang, its blood-colored eyes flickering.

'You'll give me the Invitation Letter?'

'That's right, I'll give it to you.' Shen Wang said. 'But you have to tell me what you need it for.'

'I'm the one who was invited in — the Invitation Letter is proof of that. If you take it and do something you shouldn't, what happens when the organizer comes looking for me?'

Moonstealer's shredded mind couldn't hold together long enough to actually follow what Shen Wang was saying. What little remained told it one thing: say what you want to do with it, and you get the Invitation Letter.

It wanted the Invitation Letter.

'To go to Tianlai City.'

'Half of me — my soul — is stuck in Tianlai City and can't get back.'

'I need to go to Tianlai City and take my soul back!'

Then it was shrieking again. 'Give me the Invitation Letter!'

Tianlai City?

So his mother was in Tianlai City.

The moment Shen Wang had what he needed, his expression shut down completely. He grabbed Zhou Xiangzhe and ran. The second Moonstealer saw them run, it flew into a rage and gave chase.

Moonstealer didn't have much mind left, but it remembered clearly: Shen Wang had an Invitation Letter. It had sensed exactly where he'd put it — and then the trace just vanished. But he had to have it on him. He had to.

Hound stayed where he was and watched Moonstealer chase Shen Wang and Zhou Xiangzhe out of sight. He clicked his tongue.

'Looks like that Invitation Letter really is something. Even a pseudo-Grade-S Contaminant wants it.'

With the lure of the Invitation Letter dangling in front of it, Moonstealer completely ignored Hound. Hound didn't care. He turned with a grin and headed the other way, and after maybe five minutes he spotted someone walking toward him.

The man moved without any particular hurry — tall and lean, a shadow hanging around him. Someone who didn't know better might mistake him for easy to push around.

Hound thought, with some amusement: these two brothers both look perfectly harmless on the surface, but they're rotten to the core, the pair of them.

Lan was carrying his book, same as always. He walked over, his dark eyes reflecting Hound's silhouette.

'How'd it go?' Lan asked.

'Your little brother ran into his boyfriend. Right now they're busy dodging Moonstealer.'

'I keep saying I haven't recognized that relationship.' Lan opened his book, but before he could read a single line, Hound set a card on top of the page.

Lan stopped. He picked up the card, turned it over a few times, and slowly worked out what it was.

They looked at each other for about three seconds.

Lan pocketed the card and went back to his book.

That was too much for Hound. 'Hey, the least you can do is say thank you. There's ten thousand yuan on that thing, and I still owe Zhou Xiangzhe two pieces of information!'

'No need to pay.' Lan had never intended to give Drifting Fish any money from the start.

The truth was, of the two brothers, Shen Wang took more after their mother — he had her musical talent, and though his personality had a mean streak, he was still more or less a decent person. But Lan took after their father. He had an inborn coldness; outside of family, he had no particular feelings toward other humans, and toward Contaminants he carried a matter-of-fact cruelty.

In Lan's mind, every Contaminant was a tool — mobile Contamination Talent that could be put to use.

The way he saw it, humanity had no shortage of rotten people, but most Contaminants were rotten too.

Except his father.

Drifting Fish was a Grade-S Contaminant. He was responsible for the expansion of an entire Grade-S Contamination Source, which had led to three Contamination zones appearing, tens of thousands of people contaminated, and everyone in Zone 3 going missing without a trace. By the body count, he didn't quite measure up to the Deer God back in the day — but he was already well past any Grade A Contaminant.

The fact that Lan hadn't dealt with Drifting Fish the moment he opened the passage was practically an act of charity.

'Breaking your word is the worst quality a person can have.' Hound looked at him with distaste. 'Even toward a Contaminant.'

'Fine.' Lan gave him an indifferent nod. 'Pay it then. It's not my money anyway.'

'Thank you for the card, big spender.'

Hound was finally satisfied. He stood there with his hands on his hips for a moment.

'If you'd said no again just now, I would've bitten you!'

Lan looked at him strangely. 'You think your teeth can actually reach me?'

'Why wouldn't they? As long as you keep me around, I'll always find a way to bite you. I'm confident about that.' Hound snickered and jogged over, sidling up next to Lan to look at the book with him.

Even though the book looked completely blank to Hound, he studied it like he was genuinely absorbed.

Lan simply could not understand how Hound's brain was wired. He'd never met anyone like it.

Was staring at a blank, wordless book actually fun?

Was scheming to take a bite out of someone you couldn't beat in a fight actually fun?

Hound didn't care one bit that Lan didn't get it. He asked with full enthusiasm, 'Right, what's the Invitation Letter actually for? Your brother's been chased pretty hard because of it.'

'The Invitation Letter is the key to entering other places.' Lan answered. 'A person who has one was invited in by the Lost City itself — meaning they have the right to go anywhere. Walking Corpse Village, Tianlai City, anywhere at all.'

'The Invitation Letter is basically a VIP all-access pass.'

'It lets Shen Wang move freely. Wherever he goes with it, that's where he's meant to be. It's the biggest golden finger he has.'

Hound nodded. 'So — the Contaminant that's even stronger than Moonstealer is in Tianlai City? It said it lost its soul there.'

'Yes, she's in Tianlai City.' Lan said. 'But we need to make a stop at Walking Corpse Village first.'

'Why?'

'To find her name.'

Lan said it plainly. 'Her name has been hidden for too long, and she's been asleep for too long. You have to call her name to wake her up.'

Wanted List No. 1 — Mermaid. Her name was nowhere on the Wanted List, nowhere in the classified files. Even Lan didn't know her name.

Because her name was an absolute taboo.

After the apocalypse she became the incarnation of bewitchment. Everyone would fall desperately in love with her — her image, her voice, her name, all of it could drive people to madness.

So the Anti-Contamination Center had destroyed every record of her from before the apocalypse. They cancelled her birth certificate, deleted her songs, burned her posters, and buried every trace of her existence.

After she escaped the Anti-Contamination Center she met their father, and eventually they came together out of love. Then she had him and his little brother.

But how could the time she spent as a mother and a wife ever compare to the time she'd spent simply being herself?

The People's Sweetheart [***] — who had parents, friends, and a lover, who'd set the whole world on fire, who was called a genius musician.

That was who she really was.

/

Even a pseudo-Grade-S Contaminant was hard to deal with, even now that it had barely any mind left.

Because no mind meant no control — only instinct. And a Contaminant's instinct was to corrode and spread. If the Lost City hadn't been containing it, there was no telling how many people it would have contaminated.

Thinking about it that way, the Lost City's existence was actually a good thing.

Shen Wang and Zhou Xiangzhe were crouched behind a building, holding their breath as Moonstealer drifted past along the road in front of them.

Only once it was gone did both of them let out a breath.

'We need to get out of here as fast as possible.' Zhou Xiangzhe said. 'It's too dangerous.'

Shen Wang played dumb. 'How dangerous?'

'Do you know what the Year of Divine Vanishing was?' Zhou Xiangzhe asked.

Shen Wang nodded.

'The Year of Divine Vanishing was a very unusual year. Every single Grade-S Contaminant disappeared, and along with them, a number of Grade S Aberrants from the early days of the apocalypse.' Zhou Xiangzhe said. 'Before I came in here, I attended a meeting run jointly by the Anti-Contamination Center and the Science Academy. They said the Year of Divine Vanishing was man-made.'

'One Grade S Aberrant sacrificed in exchange for eliminating one Grade-S Contaminant.'

'And now the Aberrant who led the sacrifices is dead. The Divine Vanishing Plan has failed. This place is where one of those Grade-S Contaminants was sealed.'

There was something Shen Wang had always been curious about, and since Zhou Xiangzhe had brought it up himself, he went ahead and asked.

'What you're saying is — the sealed Grade-S Contaminant could very well resurface. So, now that the Divine Vanishing Plan has failed, will those Aberrants who were sacrificed come back?'

Zhou Xiangzhe looked at him. After a moment, he shook his head. 'No.'

'And the Anti-Contamination Center won't allow them to come back.'

Shen Wang was surprised. That wasn't the answer he'd expected.

Not that they'd already died. Not that they were unable to return. But that the Anti-Contamination Center wouldn't let them.

'Every Aberrant's Contamination Level rises over time — no exceptions. The active Aberrants now are already several generations removed from the old ones. Grade S Aberrants rise more slowly, but they still rise.'

'More than twenty years, plus being that close to Grade-S Contaminants for all that time. If they came back, they'd be right on the edge of a Contamination Burst.'

What humanity would get back wouldn't be a powerful Aberrant capable of holding back Grade-S Contaminants. It would be one more Grade-S enemy.

Shen Wang let out a quiet breath. 'The Anti-Contamination Center always does things like this. Cruel things.'

'In conditions like these, a moment of softness means catastrophe for all of humanity. They don't have the luxury of being anything else.'

Shen Wang looked at Zhou Xiangzhe. His dark eyes held Zhou Xiangzhe's reflection.

He was a genuinely good person — almost embarrassingly good — and yet, in certain ways, he agreed with the Anti-Contamination Center's decisions, even the ones that looked cruel from the outside.

'Zhou Xiangzhe.' Shen Wang asked suddenly. 'Do you hate things that bring disaster to humanity as a whole?'

Zhou Xiangzhe looked at him. 'What do you mean? Contaminants?'

'Contaminants, sure, but more than that.' Shen Wang looked up at the sky. 'Typhoons, floods, droughts. All of it, including Contamination. Do you hate those kinds of things?'

'My responsibility is to protect human safety. Those with ability bear that responsibility.' Zhou Xiangzhe said. 'I don't know that I actually hate anything. You know my mental abnormality is always interfering with my judgment — all I can really say is: at least try to do the right thing.'

The right thing?

Shen Wang smiled.

He thought: himself and his family probably didn't fit what Zhou Xiangzhe would call 'right.'

Lan had always said the two of them weren't suited for each other, because there was something between them that love alone might not be enough to bridge.

And in that moment, Shen Wang finally understood, in a vague way, what Lan had been worried about.

Shen Wang was the opposite of what Zhou Xiangzhe called 'right.'

Zhou Xiangzhe looked at him, puzzled. He tilted his head, silver hair falling over his shoulder — a deceptively beautiful picture.

'Why did you ask that?' he said.

'Just a passing thought.' Shen Wang said. 'The way you think about things feels a little different from the Xiao Qi I knew.'

'Because I grew up. People are always different from how they were as kids.'

Zhou Xiangzhe answered him in a gentle voice. 'But how much I love you — that's the same as it always was.'

He had once thought he'd changed. Raised by the Anti-Contamination Center, he'd become the Anti-Contamination Center's shape. Every scrap of warmth the director had taught him — he thought he'd given it all back, that he could no longer feel pity or love. Then Shen Wang came back into his life, and Zhou Xiangzhe understood: he hadn't changed at all.

He'd given all of his love to Shen Wang, because Shen Wang was still the same as before — so he had to be, too.

Even knowing Shen Wang might be connected to Lan, he couldn't bring himself to blame him.

How could it be Shen Wang's fault?

Whether it was real or whether he'd been deceived — what did his Xiao Shiwu ever do wrong? He only wanted a family.

'That's what I wanted to hear.' Shen Wang smiled. 'Remember that.'

'No matter what happens — love me the same.'

Zhou Xiangzhe nodded, and Shen Wang reached out his hand.

'Pinky promise.' Shen Wang said. 'Like when we were kids.'

The Child was innocent — the kind who'd believe whatever anyone told her.

They truly believed that locking pinkies made a promise real — so they'd sneak promises in the dark of night, hoping best friends would stay together forever.

Not until the Grade-S Contamination Source leveled the orphanage did they learn that wishes don't just come true because you make them.

But now, Shen Wang still wanted to make a promise with Zhou Xiangzhe this way.

A ripple moved through Zhou Xiangzhe's golden pupils, and he reached out his hand. He hadn't been wearing his combat gear when he left the conference room — just a loose white jacket — and as he extended his arm, the sleeve slid back, baring the silver bracelet at his wrist and the silver Ring between his fingers.

Their pinkies hooked together, warm skin against warm skin.

A simple promise. No ceremony, nothing exchanged.

And yet Zhou Xiangzhe couldn't keep his heart from racing. He thought: his expression was probably completely transparent, that love written all over him like a new shoot pushing up through the soil in spring.

Because Shen Wang had kissed him.

It was a brief kiss — the kind that felt like a spontaneous impulse, like Shen Wang had just felt like teasing him for a moment. Or maybe because this really wasn't the place for it.

But Zhou Xiangzhe's heart was still going.

'So wholesome.'

Hound, who had caught a bit of that from not too far away, furrowed his brow. 'This relationship is way too wholesome.'

Lan, who had nearly torn his book apart beside him, shot Hound a dark look. 'So what kind of relationship did you think it would be?'

'There's a massive gap between those two.' Hound said immediately. 'One's the guardian of Central City, a killing god who's taken down Grade-S Contaminants on the evening news. The other's your little brother — with a wanted criminal for a big brother, how clean can he be?'

'With that dynamic, the romance should be toxic as hell. Like: 'I want to destroy you, and then keep your body in my room.'

'So why are those two acting like they're in a coming-of-age drama? Who is this for?'

Lan said quietly, 'I could kill you first and stuff your body in my freezer.'

'What would killing me even accomplish?' Hound was baffled. 'The only people who'd clap are the Science Academy.'

'It's only interesting if the two sides actually oppose each other.'

Lan: …

This guy was completely immune to threats. Where on earth had the Science Academy found someone this unhinged.

'So what now?' Hound asked. 'Are you going to pretend you don't know Shen Wang?'

'You poor thing — having to hide the connection even in front of strangers. Ah, is this what it's like being a lonely bachelor with no one?'

'Say you want to die and I'll take it seriously.' Lan fixed him with a stare.

Hound threw up his hands.

'We're going to kill Moonstealer.' Lan said, perfectly calm. 'Moonstealer is just a shredded remnant Shadow. It's controlling the whole of Blood Moon Manor, trying to get the Invitation Letter so it can re-enter Tianlai City — but its other half is long gone from Tianlai City. It's nothing more than a fixated consciousness.'

'Kill it, and what's left in Blood Moon Manor is just that stolen Shadow. That Shadow belongs to her, and it'll respond to the Invitation Letter.'

'Then we can go straight into Walking Corpse Village.'

Hound nodded. 'Then I'll take you to find what's left of Moonstealer's actual body.'

Lan looked at him, surprised. 'You know where its body is?'

'Of course. This is exactly what I was made to do — isn't it normal that I'd know?' Hound mimicked Lan's manner of speaking, shameless as anything. 'From the first second I stepped in here, I already had a fix on its location.'

Lan raised an eyebrow slightly.

Well — setting himself aside — the two experimental subjects the Science Academy had produced were genuinely powerful.

Whether it was Sacrifice, who had held a Grade-S Contaminant in check for over twenty years, or Hound, who could casually locate a Contaminant's true body — they were both top-tier Grade S Aberrants. If they truly served humanity the way the Science Academy intended, they really would make humanity measurably safer.

It was a shame the Science Academy never grasped the obvious: not everyone is willing to become that 'powerful Aberrant.'