"Night Wolf's teeth. That sounded awfully familiar." Jianmen scratched his jaw and asked while being rolled out from the basement by Josephine Wong: "That's something from the folklore right?"
"Not exactly a folklore, it's a children's story, a fable." Josephine Wong answered while recalling old memories of hers while she was young: "My parents used to tell that story to me when I was young, it's a pretty popular story at the time."
"Okay, what is it about?" Jianmen nodded and asked: "And what's special about the teeth?"
"Well, it's a story about a young hunter living in a mountain, whose father was also a hunter, and his mother a handy rug weaver who makes wonderful rugs out of the hairs harvested from their game and fiber from stems of flowers and long weeds." Josephine Wong rolled Jianmen into the Diner again, and poured him another cup of coffee: "And one day, all of a sudden, a Night Wolf appeared and gravely injured his father. The young hunter broke off three teeth from the Night Wolf, and decided to forge three arrows with those teeth and avenge his father with it, because their normal bows and arrows could not do much damage to the Night Wolf. Then when he finally tracked the Night Wolf down and injured her with two arrows, he realized that she was only trying to protect her sick child. So the young hunter showed mercy, laid down the final arrow made with the Night Wolf's teeth and even brought healing herbs for the Night Wolf to heal her child. Eventually, the child of the Night Wolf recovered, and she took her child away and left the mountain."
Jianmen was sipping coffee while Josephine Wong was telling that story, and waited for a while when she was done, but finally came to the realization that it was the whole story: "... wait, that's it?"
"Yeah that's it. What else do you want?" Josephine Wong laughed and shrugged with her own cup of coffee: "It's a child's bedtime story about the value of mercy and forgiveness, not exactly Shakespeare."
"But what about his father though?" Jianmen asked: "He's gravely injured right? What happened to him? Did the Night Wolf bring him some kind of precious mythical healing mushrooms for his wounds, or wild game or food at least?"
"No, no. Come to think of it, no." Josephine Wong frowned and sat down: "It was quite long a story in its full version. And to be honest, I think for most kids and their attention span, their focus wouldn't be on the young hunter's father by the end of the story."
"Hmm." Jianmen thought for a short while: "So… I'd assume that for most people who grew up listening to this story, the teeth of the Night Wolf would be symbols of forgiveness and mercy?"
"Hmm… no." Josephine Wong thought for a few seconds and then shook her head: "The teeth or the arrows were mostly symbols of the story. But mostly people refer to the story as a symbol of mercy and forgiveness. It doesn't really translate like that."
"Okay. So that might be our clue here." Jianmen put down his coffee cup: "Since its meaning is indefinite to the general audience, then it would be something specific for the intended audience."
"So you're saying - find out whom this codex was intended for." Josephine Wong smiled and raised her cup and Jianmen: "Already on it."
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After telling the owner of the coffee shop and the barista to file police reports, Detective Lee and Detective Kuhn split up, each taking a former Detective Chaver and a temporary paranormal consultant who could cast spells with them.
Detective Lee left with Aimee and Jason and headed back to a crime scene, which was an old apartment complex, while Detective Kuhn took Thomas and Caroline with him and headed towards an area of dive bars and nightclubs for some more information and witness statement gathering.
Detective Lee's car was a second hand car, with a pretty rugged interior and a broken air conditioning system. All along the way to the apartment complex, Aimee couldn't help but tease him a little about his owning this same car since he was a detective. Detective Lee just responded that he was trying to save up money for retirement and save for a rainy day because of his parents' health. Hearing Detective Lee's answer, Jason couldn't help but start to carefully rethink about what his parents, and his younger brother Mack would do as his cultivation progresses.
"We're here." when Jason was still drowned in thoughts, Detective Lee's car stopped in front of an aged seven story apartment complex. The metal gate was full of rust and the paint was cracked up.
"Detective Lee." just this moment, an old man who was watching the gate came over and greeted them: "What brings you here?"
"Mr. Hoang." Detective Lee shook hands with the old man, and introduced Aimee and Jason: "This is Ms. Chaver, she was a detective at the SJPD, and this is Mr. Lin, he's our consultant. We would like to come and take a look at that apartment again. Is this a good time?"
"Sure, sure." Mr. Hoang shook his head and coughed: "The sooner you solve the crime, the sooner the owners can rent it out. The door is still open because all the police tapes are still there. Just help yourselves."
"Thank you, Mr. Hoang." Detective Lee nodded and led the way to the elevator.
Their destination was on the fourth floor, Apartment 431.
The moment the elevator door opened, Jason smelled a gush of bloody smell coming right at him. And as he walked into the aisle, the smell became thicker with every step he took towards the apartment.
"Fucking hell." looking at the inside of the apartment with dark and blood red smoke roaming in almost every corner, Jason cursed.