"You, just wait to get scolded by Iron Hammer when you get back. He's still excitedly tidying up his room—I bet he won't be able to sleep tonight." Harvey let out a couple of cold, faint laughs.

After hanging up the phone, Henry Clark finally had the mood to turn his head and look at his partner. He saw Grace Miller with both hands resting on the steering wheel, her eyes still utterly dazed.

"Hey, it's just a fox, is there any need to be so nervous?" Henry Clark didn't think there was anything odd about what he said.

"A fox?" Grace Miller dragged out her words as she looked at Henry Clark. "Is there such a big fox? And it has three tails?! Why didn't you tell me earlier you were going to meet a fox spirit? Then I wouldn't have joined in the fun!"

"Come on, look at yourself in the mirror. With the way you looked at me back there, like I was some pervert, even if I had ten mouths I couldn't explain myself. Enough with the nonsense, hurry up and drive. Do you know how to get to the western suburbs?" Henry Clark was in no mood to waste any more time here. He checked his watch—there was still over an hour until midnight.

"I looked at the map before coming, I remember the route clearly. Do you think I got into the Security Bureau through connections?" Grace Miller replied with disdain, started the engine, and finally regained a bit of composure.

Strangely enough, just a few ordinary exchanges with Henry Clark could make even the hardest things to accept seem easy to forget. Maybe it was simply because this person was so annoying—annoying to the point of being unforgettable...

The little "Mary" coughed out black smoke as it got back on the road, heading toward the western suburbs.

The whole way was unusually quiet. Grace Miller didn't say another unnecessary word, focusing on driving. Henry Clark was even quieter, no longer in the mood to leisurely enjoy the scenery, and instead was especially alert. It was as if a drunkard had been tied under a showerhead, with icy water pouring down.

For Henry Clark, that "cold water" was this strange "job" of his...

But Henry Clark didn't know that this job was unlike any he had ever done before...

Terror was beginning to slowly devour this pitiful city...

Chapter 8: The First Gift

Time ticked by. After the speeding Mary entered the outskirts, the road became easier to drive, but there were pitifully few cars around. On the twenty-meter-wide asphalt road, only this old car was moving. Whether it was a route issue or just to save money, there wasn't even a single streetlight. Occasionally, a car would pass by, startling them like a ghost in the night.

Grace Miller, gripping the steering wheel, kept getting startled by the headlights flashing in front of her, causing her to jerk the wheel and swerve in an S-pattern—showing a more vulnerable side of herself...

But it wasn't just Grace Miller who was scared. Henry Clark was also clutching the overhead handle tightly, his seatbelt strapped so tight he looked like a criminal. More than once, Henry Clark had the urge to grab the wheel and drive himself—maybe that would be safer?

The journey was thrilling but ultimately safe, except for when they forced a van into a roadside pond and the car's front got a little scraped. Mary bravely survived Grace Miller's driving and stopped by a clump of grass at the roadside.

"Where... where did you learn to drive? An amusement park? Did you buy your license?" Henry Clark only dared to speak after the car had stopped, his voice still trembling.

"Is it my fault? Ever since I saw that monster, I haven't been at ease. We just passed three cemeteries—I kept feeling like something was circling around me!" Grace Miller shouted in frustration.

"It's not just circling you, one of them is even clinging to you." Henry Clark corrected Grace Miller's misunderstanding.

"Ahhhhhhh!" In an instant, Grace Miller flung open the car door and bolted out, frantically slapping at her back as if trying to get rid of a slug, flailing her arms and legs wildly.

"Poor woman..."

Sighing, Henry Clark got out of the car, ignoring his partner who was acting like a lunatic. He took the car keys and opened the trunk, rummaging through it.

"Catch."

A few minutes later, Grace Miller turned around to see Henry Clark tossing something her way, which she instinctively caught.

The moment she held it, her body suddenly felt refreshed. Curious, she opened her palm—it was a smiling Maitreya Buddha pendant necklace.

"What does this mean?" Grace Miller didn't understand and looked at Henry Clark in confusion, only to find him looking just as odd—he had changed into a white sleeveless tight shirt under his trench coat, covered in black snake-like patterns, which looked quite ugly. He also had a heavy golf bag slung over his back, as if he was going to play golf.

"Put it on. Since you're afraid of ghosts, it's for warding off evil." Henry Clark said lightly.

"Put it on...?" Holding the Maitreya Buddha up in front of her, Grace Miller's eyes were full of grievance. This thing wasn't even jade, just a piece of ordinary green plastic, so crudely made that even kids wouldn't want to wear it—she'd be too embarrassed...

"What? Dislike it?" Henry Clark shot her a disdainful look. "I picked this up last time I went to a monk's temple on Mount Wutai, from under a giant Buddha statue. It's been there for at least a year or two, bathed in incense every day, surrounded by scriptures, blessed by the Buddha himself. Its power to ward off evil is way better than those so-called master-blessed jade Buddhas. If you don't want it, give it back..."

Henry Clark stepped up to Grace Miller, reaching out as if to snatch it away.