明白了,我会开始翻译"奉身"第五章的内容.请稍等片刻,我将尽量保留原作的悬疑氛围和细节描写.
Here is the translation of Chapter 5 from 奉身:
Chapter 5: Floating Fragrance
Lin Qishan sat on the seat next to the window, the window half open. The early summer breeze swept through the car, lifting the ashes from the cigarette he held between his fingers. His eyes, dull and lost in thought, gazed out at an old building in the distance, the original headquarters of the Xiangci Shelter. Now abandoned, its windows and doors half-open, revealing a sense of decay.
He had been sitting there for nearly two hours, not saying a word.
Soon, a black car drove into the yard. The door opened, and Pang Yunxiu stepped out in a light gray suit. His hair was neatly combed, and he looked gentle, but there was a hint of an unspoken gloom beneath his polite demeanor.
Behind him, two men in dark suits followed, one of whom Lin Qishan recognized. He was one of the young men he had encountered during the dinner, the one who had almost clashed with him. His eyes were dark, and there was a fresh scar on his cheek, which now seemed to burn with a deep intensity.
Lin Qishan crushed the cigarette with his fingers, opened the car door, and got out.
Pang Yunxiu saw him, raised an eyebrow, and smiled faintly. "Mr. Lin, what a coincidence."
Lin Qishan's tone was calm. "Mr. Pang, did you specially come here to wait for me?"
Pang Yunxiu gave a slight smile. "This place was funded by my father many years ago, but the plans for the redevelopment didn't go through, so it has been abandoned. I came here to take a look today." He looked at the dilapidated old building. "I don't suppose you're interested in this place as well?"
Lin Qishan didn't respond. His gaze shifted to the red and black incense burner in the yard. It was broken, its base shattered, and the fragrance that once filled the air seemed to have dissipated.
"No," Lin Qishan replied, his voice flat. "I'm just passing by."
The two men behind Pang Yunxiu looked at Lin Qishan, their eyes scanning him briefly. One of them walked toward the old building, while the other stayed back, seeming to keep an eye on Lin.
Lin Qishan was about to turn and leave when he saw a woman sitting by the laundry room outside. She was dressed in blue work clothes, and her eyes were focused on the needle and thread in her hands, stitching a torn towel. Her skin was pale, and there was an old scar around her neck, like a mark from being strangled. When she noticed someone approaching, she quickly withdrew her hands, and her eyes instinctively shifted downward.
He stood there for a moment, and the woman seemed to sense something. She looked up briefly and met his eyes. Her gaze wasn't pleading or fearful. It was more like an animal assessing the wind.
Lin Qishan nodded at her as a courtesy. She didn't respond but simply placed the half-sewn towel into a cloth bag and turned to walk into the laundry room. Just before the door closed, he heard her whisper, "Don't take pictures of me… I'm afraid the gods will take my photo away."
His stomach turned cold.
On the way back, he turned into a narrow alley. The alley wasn't wide, but at the end of it, a crowd had gathered. Lin Qishan had thought someone had fainted, but when the crowd parted, he saw a man being pushed out, covered in blood. The man bumped into Lin Qishan's shoulder, and Lin Qishan sidestepped, almost slipping on the wet ground.
"Catch him! He stole the donation box from the healing station!" someone in the crowd yelled.
When Lin Qishan looked up, he saw three young men in work clothes chasing the bleeding man. He was about to leave but was stopped when someone grabbed his arm.
"Are you with him?" The man pulled out a baton.
Lin Qishan's eyes grew cold, and he didn't respond. Instead, he quickly raised his arm to block the baton, then used his legs to push the man away. The man stumbled and hit the wall. Lin Qishan took a step back, and his eyes seemed to glide across the scene, like the wind sweeping over an empty field.
The situation was quickly brought under control by the nearby patrolling officers. No one questioned his actions, and no one asked who he was. The three young men in the work uniforms merely glanced at him, as if they had memorized his face.
Back at the company that night, Lin Qishan opened the audio file "XGCI-0024" again but found the link was no longer active. The system only showed one message: "Content not authorized for review, automatically archived."
"Did you delete it?" he asked He Qizhou.
He Qizhou glanced at him, then said, "If you ask again, I'll start thinking you really want to find her."
Lin Qishan didn't respond. He turned over the blurry photo on his desk, and there was a line of text written on the back:
"ID 0024, female believer, unidentified, death record suspicious."
He stared at the text for a moment, as if hearing an old dream whisper in his ear.
He Qizhou suddenly walked over and looked at the photo thoughtfully. "Huh, this woman… isn't she the one you deleted back then?"
Lin Qishan's gaze suddenly became sharp, as if the wind had torn through the landscape. He slowly looked up and realized a long-forgotten expression had returned to his face—fear.
(End of Chapter 5)
Summary of Chapter 5:
In this chapter, Lin Qishan continues his investigation into the mysterious "0024" case. He visits the old Xiangci shelter, where he encounters a woman with ties to the number "0024." He uncovers disturbing clues and begins to realize that the shelter and its leaders are entangled in a far-reaching and dangerous conspiracy. The chapter ends with Lin facing unsettling truths about his own involvement and the web of secrecy surrounding the case.
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