Lying in a hospital bed, Harry stared blankly at the small table at the foot of his bed. On it, three tiny three-inch-tall figures were happily dancing. As they danced, one figure pulled from the side, and another small figure appeared out of thin air. Now, five of them held hands and continued dancing.
Harry fixated on the new figure.
"I am your daddy."
The little figures ignored him and kept dancing. Harry sighed inwardly, 'it's not responding. Must be another hallucination.'
Next to him, a nurse was changing his IV drip, completely unaware of the dancing figures. Compared to others, Harry's symptoms were considered mild.
On the adjacent beds lay Keith and Kai, both were also receiving IV fluids.
As soon as the nurse left and closed the door, Kai Qiyan let out a frustrated sigh.
"I should've known better than to have dinner with you. I had a feeling something would go wrong and drag me down with you."
"How is this my fault? Have you figured out what happened yet? What's the situation?" Keith slapped his leg, loudly protesting, though there was a hint of guilt in his tone.
"Investigations are underway. What we know for sure is that the old chef definitely didn't intentionally poison us. If that was the plan, he could've just added some deadly mushrooms instead."
"So what happened, then?"
"The current conclusion is that the chef genuinely believes his cooking was flawless. Something must've affected him."
"But so far, our team hasn't found any traces of him being influenced. Plus, there's nothing wrong with anything in the restaurant either."
At that moment, Kai's phone rang. After a short conversation, his brow furrowed even more.
A few minutes later, he spoke up.
"News came in, we can now confirm that our poisoning was purely accidental—no one was specifically targeting us."
"What happened?" Ke Ting sat up immediately.
"So far, there have been six cases of food poisoning at that restaurants across three neighboring provinces. And it's not just isolated incidents."
"The chefs involved have all been cooking mushrooms for at least twenty years. They don't believe they made any mistakes, and we haven't found any signs of outside interference."
"But their judgment seems severely compromised."
"When asked to prepare the dish again, they still fail to fully remove the toxins. But when they follow the guidelines step-by-step, they manage to cook non-toxic dishes.
"Even though they know the correct method, they're still stuck in self-doubt, believing that their original cooking method was the 'authentic' one."
Listening in on the conversation, Harry felt a it was similar, to something that had happened recently.
This pattern of something being lost, only to be recovered, was eerily similar to what had happened with the chef at the Paradise Restaurant.
Harry had visited the Paradise Restaurant twice more since then. After the owner grudgingly followed his instructions, they added a version of the Water-Boiled Beef that involved pouring hot oil, giving customers the option to choose between versions.
The more Harry thought about it, the more convinced he became, 'It has to be the Soul-Devouring Beast.'
Previously, Harry had thought that it was tolerable if the beast had merely stopped devouring human souls and switched to devouring the soul of food instead.
But now, it seemed even the act of consuming the soul of food could lead to dangerous consequences.
Thankfully, the poisoning hadn't been severe, and they hadn't been eating anything like poisoned pufferfish.
Harry mulled over how he could relay this information to Kai Qiyan in a way that would be taken seriously.
Kai was, after all, the head of the Scorching Sun Department for the county. As the director had explained, the Scorching Sun Department handled all abnormal events, such as the dried corpse phantom incident Harry had encountered at the Serenity Funeral Home.
The mortuary didn't just handle the bodies of ordinary people. It also assisted the Scorching Sun Department in disposing of abnormal entities through cremation, including but not limited to physical bodies, objects that could be burned, and items containing non-corporeal anomalies.
'But how can I tell him? It is obvious, I will be the main suspect in that way.'
'And admitting that I dreamt about Soul Devouring Beast is also isn't a solid evidence. But, I don't have an option, do I?'
While he was pondering, Kai Qiyan, noticing Harry's deep thought, turned to him.
"Harry, what do you think?"
"Huh…" Harry looked up at Kai Qiyan. From his perspective, Kai's face was bathed in colorful neon light, with two tiny figures perched on his forehead, pulling a rainbow-colored rope.
Harry's expression became strained, clearly uncomfortable.
Kai didn't bother asking about the hallucination. Instead, he pressed on.
"What do you think this could be? Just say whatever comes to mind. There isn't a wrong answer to it anyway."
Harry glanced at Keith, who nodded encouragingly from his bed.
"Go ahead, Harry. Young people see things differently than we do."
"I think… it's like they've lost their soul."
"???" Both Keith and Kai Qiyan exchanged confused glances.
"It's like how young people talk online these days. For example, there's this song that's been really popular recently. The lead singer's voice cracked, but it's that crack that gives the song its soul. I can't explain it well, but that's the feeling I get."
Though Kai didn't fully grasp the concept, he noticed Keith was deep in thought, looking serious as he stared at the foot of his bed. So, he nodded and jotted down Harry's thoughts.
That evening, after confirming the poisoning wasn't too serious, Kai Qiyan was discharged to deal with more pressing matters.
Back at headquarters, he sat in his office, coordinating tasks. That evening's news would report on the mushroom poisonings, along with instructions on how to cook mushrooms safely.
Everyone in the county would receive text alerts, and inspections would be carried out the following morning.
Once the meeting concluded, Kai looked over the priority tasks. The Soul-Devouring Beast was at the top of the list, with detailed notes attached about the clues they had uncovered from strange objects.
[Trait 1: Devour — Devours souls.]
As Kai read this, he called over his new assistant.
"Hey, Kevin, what's this 'soul' that young people keep talking about online?"
Kai repeated Harry's explanation, "They say young people like to hear songs with cracked voice because it has 'soul' to it?"
His younger assistant quickly understood and pulled up a video for him, a performance by a band where the singer's voice cracked during the chorus. Sure enough, the comments were flooded with, "The crack is the 'soul' of the song."
Kai now understood. The voice crack wasn't a flaw but rather the perfect touch to convey the singer's unyielding spirit.
As he looked over the files on his desk, he tapped his finger on the word soul.
"Do you think this 'soul' might not be what we traditionally understand as a soul?"
"Sir, you mean…" The assistant looked puzzled, but after hearing Kai's explanation, he caught on.
Kai's face grew darker as he muttered to himself.
"The Soul-Devouring Beast has definitely arrived. We can't afford to be complacent."
"We haven't found anything unusual because we've been looking in the wrong places."
"We can't overlook any possibilities, no matter how far-fetched they seem."
"Notify everyone—we're holding a meeting. Make sure the younger team members are there, and no one is to skip it."
Half an hour later, Kai was still hooked up to his IV, holding a video conference from the meeting room.
When the others arrived and saw him, no one dared to complain.
Kai's expression was serious as he tapped his finger on the table.
"You all know what my mission is here. I've pulled some strings in other departments to get the necessary support when needed."
"Now, look at the information in front of you. We need to discuss something."
"Is the 'soul' mentioned in our clues the same as the 'soul' we understand?"
"Feel free to speak your mind. There's no right or wrong."
The meeting lasted for an hour. Freed from their mental constraints, the team members began brainstorming, generating more theories.
By the end of the meeting, Kai tapped his fingers on the table again.
"Expand tomorrow's operation. Prioritize investigating other chefs to see if they've experienced anything similar to what happened with today's chefs."
"Meanwhile, investigate every other lead. Report anything odd immediately."