Illusion Report

Considering there were less than three hours left before it expired, and the longer she waited, the less she’d get for it, Jin Xueli went ahead and sold the remaining half-can of soda to the first Hunter who’d decided to buy it. No matter how you looked at it, she had at least cut her losses by three or four thousand on this trip.

"I didn’t drink it directly from the can," she said enthusiastically as she took the money. "Don’t worry, go ahead and drink it! It’s pretty good, just probably a little flat by now."

The Hunter gave her a look, his expression hard to read, and hurried out the door with the soda.

"I hope you’re not planning to scrounge up the rest of the money for me right here on the spot," Morando said from the side.

"Of course not," Jin Xueli said, turning around. She was too embarrassed to look up at her, instead lowering her head to dig around in her bag. She pulled out an envelope and handed it over. "Twelve thousand. You can count it."

The fingers that took the envelope were slender and fine-boned, with short, round, clear nails.

"...Do you have some major objection to electronic transfers?" Morando asked, tapping the envelope lightly.

"I haven’t found anyone willing to launder money for me yet, and all I have at home is cash," Jin Xueli said, her eyes on Morando’s deceptively powerful-looking hand. "If you have any suitable candidates, send them my way."

For some reason, Morando was always smiling. ’When I first met her, I thought she was the quiet type,’ Jin Xueli mused.

Jin Xueli had also figured Morando would be the type to put the money away without a second glance, but to her surprise, she emptied all the bills onto the counter and began slowly putting them back into the envelope one by one.

"What are you doing?"

With her hat off, Morando suddenly turned her gaze on her. Her eyes were a startling blue, like a sky frozen in arctic ice, a sea set ablaze by extreme cold. They were so pure they seemed as if they had never graced the Human World.

Everything in the mortal world, even gender, seemed to have nothing to do with Morando; and yet, there she was, holding a banknote in her hand.

After she had examined it carefully and put it away, she said, "...Seven. Of course I have to check them carefully. How would I know if you slipped in any counterfeits?"

’Where would anyone even get counterfeit money these days?’

Jin Xueli decided to just order a drink for her and let her play counterfeit detector in peace. Morando smiled and said to the bartender, who looked like a Shar-Pei, "Right, that’s her. She’s the one who witnessed the Vulture incident."

’Huh? Vulture?’

The bartender nodded and said to Jin Xueli, whose attention was now piqued, "Just a few hours ago, a Family Faction notified me they were looking for information on Vulture. You can call him. You can also negotiate what you want in return."

He wrote on a slip of paper and handed it to Jin Xueli.

"Chaisi Monroe?" She thought for a moment. "Never heard of him. Is he a Hunter? Which Family Faction?"

The bartender stared at her for a second or two. "No, not a Hunter... You don’t know who Chaisi Monroe is?"

"Am I supposed to?" Jin Xueli was even more baffled than he was.

"Never mind, you don’t belong to a Family Faction," the bartender said, finding an excuse for her with a wave of his hand. "No need to remember all these people from the factions. Anyway, just tell him what you know and try not to upset him. For Chaisi Monroe to get involved personally, this must be very important. Otherwise, it’s usually a Kai Family Hunter who contacts me."

"The Kai Family, huh," Morando interjected, her tone unreadable. "...Thirty-one."

’Very important...’ Jin Xueli mulled over those words.

The Vulture resident’s actions were abnormal and had become dangerous, but it hardly seemed important enough to warrant a key figure from a Family Faction personally seeking information—especially not the Kai Family’s second-in-command, from the sound of it.

’What could make Vulture so important?’

Jin Xueli glanced at the time on her phone. She had long since cleared those hundred-plus messages, which vanished along with Anthony’s existence. It was now 10:23 PM on November 18th.

She had encountered the Vulture resident in the early hours of yesterday morning, and today a Family Faction was already asking about it.

She clicked her tongue, amazed at how well-informed the major Family Factions were. ’There must be more to this Vulture business than I know,’ she thought.

’Has anything been going on in the Hunter community lately?’

Jin Xueli pondered for a moment, then tried to subtly probe the bartender for more information, but he only told her things she already knew. "Anything recent? Nothing particularly noteworthy. The biggest news was Westley’s death. Weren’t you here the day that story broke?"

’...Westley?’

Jin Xueli, clutching a plain cola she had just ordered, stood frozen with her mouth half-open. For a moment, she couldn’t believe she had overlooked such a massive anomaly.

’No, no, I had just narrowly escaped death from that whole true-or-false Jin Xueli mystery. I was still shaken and my mind was a mess. It’s normal that I missed it...’

When she woke up on the museum floor, that resident had been watching history within a candle.

To be precise, it was watching Westley’s history in the candle.

But after it copied her, when it touched the candle, it should have been Jin Xueli’s history that appeared. Why Westley’s?

And it must have been important; the resident was completely engrossed.

What was her connection to Westley? How could Westley possibly be related to her?

’I guess I’ll have to go back and look at the candle to find out, right?’

"What’s wrong?" Morando glanced at her. "You suddenly look hopeless."

"I... I might have to go back to the Nest again," Jin Xueli said. The mere thought of having to jump off that building again made her feel the blood drain from her face.

’Isn’t there any way to do this without going back to the Nest?’ she thought, rubbing her temples hard.

The history the resident was watching back then... it seemed to be from May.

Yes, she remembered a large section of the candle had melted into lake-like Candle Tears. In the "lake" not far from the resident was the scene from the night she met Anthony, when a bodyguard crashed his car into the back door of the bar.

That was a new history created by the resident, and the only version of history that had actually happened.

Jin Xueli’s head snapped up. 𝑓𝑟𝑒𝘦𝓌𝑒𝑏𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝘭.𝒸𝘰𝑚

She grabbed her phone and quickly found Amber in her contact list. After a few rings, Amber answered on the other end. "Hello, Xueli?"

"You remember that car that crashed into the bar back in May?" Jin Xueli got straight to the point. "Did you ever hear anything about that bodyguard’s convoy afterward?"

Amber paused, not answering immediately. "Why are you suddenly asking about this?"

"...You know something," Jin Xueli realized.

"No—I wouldn’t say I ’know’ anything." Amber sounded somewhat troubled. "Um... I wasn’t trying to hide it from you forever. I briefly mentioned what happened that night to my Family Faction. I didn’t think it was a big deal, but after a while, our faction’s Hunter Chief came to see me."

Amber took a breath and continued, "He instructed me to keep what happened that night a secret and not to tell anyone. I don’t know much, and I didn’t see why it needed to be secret... but it was an order from the Family Faction, so I had to obey."

This was the biggest reason why Jin Xueli never wanted to join a Family Faction: why should her actions be dictated by others?

She didn’t even know the Kai Family’s second-in-command, so she certainly didn’t know who the Morgan Family’s Hunter Chief was. She asked, "Who’s your Hunter Chief?"

"Fu Tailan," Amber said.

Her tone was so flat that for a moment, Jin Xueli couldn’t tell if Amber was just used to it or if she truly didn’t know how renowned the name "Fu Tailan" was in Hunter circles.

’...When did Fu Tailan join the Morgan Family?’

While Jin Xueli was still reeling from the shock, Amber seemed to misinterpret her silence. "You’re not planning on asking Fu Tailan about this, are you? He won’t tell you anything. Besides, our Family Faction is in total chaos today, busy and disorganized. He’s about to lead a team into the Nest..."

"What happened?" Jin Xueli asked reflexively.

"A squad we sent into the Nest last week seems to have been wiped out somehow. Not a single one has come back yet. The squad leader, a guy named Jonah, is the only one we know is still alive, but he needs immediate rescue before it’s too late... Some woman who just got out of the Nest, I forgot her name, she’s the one who brought the news to our family."