Porcelain Doll

Leon woke up first, and pretended that the night cuddle never happened, slowly moving his arm away as to not wake Wolfe.

As he did, he made himself breakfast of coffee and pancakes. The fridge was full and their parents really provided them with everything.

He bet they'll even go so far to send them groceries every week, which would be pretty embarassing for two grown ass men.

As he ate breakfast alone, he took out the porcelain doll to examine it.

He had took notice of the words written all over the clotheless doll since the start.

'Wood' on the back of the head, 'water' on the left arm, 'fire' on the right arm, 'metal' on the left leg, and 'earth' on the right leg.

These were the Wu Xing, or the Five Phases/Elements. It relates often to the cosmic and metaphysical relation with the human body, particularly the internal organs.

It was also employed in divinations like Yi Jing or I Ching, which was the character written on the torso of the doll.

On the back of the doll was also the word Mien Xiang, which was face reading, another form of divination which was associated with studying a person's face to fetermine their future fortune and demeanor/ capabilities.

The girls did mention an astrologist, but Leon couldn't make sense what this doll really was suppose to be for and what it means for the case.

If they were eating children, what has divination have to do with it?

Were they picking specific children only based on natal charts and horoscope and all that occult mambo-jumbo? Then that would mean it would take a while for them to pick a kid, and that's not how fast-food restaurant works at all.

You can't be picky with your chicken if you needed to mass produce them. Well, you can pick generally good quality ones, but you won't spend hours studying the birth date and time of the chicken to know that it's good quality.

He frowned at this, deeply concentrated as he pieced the doll together.

Now that it was complete and standing there, looking like an androgynous little child, it unnerved him more.

Stuff like this that deals with people believing in the occult and supernatural always gives him the creeps. And he had encountered far too many of them.

Like that Xing man.

Mickey Xing still gives him nightmares even when knows that creep must be in a nuthouse or dying in a cell right now.

There was nothing he regretted more than meeting that insidious, disgusting, vile little rat---

"Was the doll's mouth always opened?"

He almost knocked the doll down from surprise when he heard a voice just come up behind him. After thinking about Mickey Xing, his paranoia just goes off the wazoo.

"Wolfe Fang, can you not just come up behind me like that?" Leon complained.

"What? Who else would come up behind you, I'm the only one here. I also live in this house now, you know." Wolfe frowned, taking down his cup of coffee and sitting beside him with crossed legs.

Leon noticed ice cubes on his coffee. "You're drinking cold coffee in the morning?"

"Yeah, because I used to drinking too fast and I'd rather not burn my tongue off." Wolfe said. "Anyway, look at its mouth. I felt like I heard something click too."

"I'm literally holding it, how come I didn't hear the clicking?"

"Maybe you're just deaf then."

"Hahaha, you should be a comedian." Leon rolled his eyes, and checked the doll's mouth.

It does seemed like it was slightly open. He prompted it a bit with his finger.....

And the jaw completely opened, with a new word inside.

"What does it say? I forgot to wear my glasses or my contacts." Wolfe asked him, leaning far too close for Leon's liking.

He edged away, giving him a side look. "It says Zhufu. Blessing, like the restaurant that will be demolished now."

"Well that's really helpful." Wolfe sighed, sipping his coffee.

Leon tried to observe this new revealed part. They couldn't have just revealed this for nothing. It only came out when he assembled the pieces.

Should he just smash the doll and see if there were more things inside?

That could also be dangerous, as there might be some sort of weird technology that might alert them of their location or turn out to be a bomb. Many things were now possible in the 2040s because of technology.

"I need a screwdriver." He said, just gesturing with his hand to Wolfe.

"I'm not your servant, go get it yourself."

Leon made a face, and he picked up the doll's head---

And smashed it to bits!

He cut himself in the process, but it turned out to be worth it as there was a roll of linen that had a QR code printed on it inside.

"Are you an idiot, Leon Mo!? Slamming it with your hands right on the table!?" Wolfe exclaimed, taking his bleeding hand. "You could have used a hammer, you brainless brute!"

"Well, you wouldn't get the screwdriver. Plus it's just a scratch, don't be so dramatic." Leon waved him off, and took the QR code to scan it with his phone.

Wolfe took his phone away. "We do that later, after you take care of your wound. You're not even setting up a firewall in case we get hacked by that code."

Leon just found his concern ridiculous. "Why don't you do that now? I'll just wash this off and it'll be fine."

"... Is that also how you would take care of your it if you get stab wounds or shot by bullet?"

"Unless it hit me critically in the fatal parts, I just suck it up like a man." Leon said.

Wolfe rubbed his forehead. "How do you even not get infection at this point? Fine, I'll take care of it since you insist on being a stubborn baby."

Wolfe Fang dragged him to the sink to wash the blood off, take the medicine kit put disinfectant, and placed a bandaid on the very small scratch on his index finger.

Leon just watched at it, speechless. All that trouble for a wound that kids would have just even sucked on and get through with.

He stared at Wolfe for a while, who's eyes shifted uncomfortably. "W-What? You wanna thank me? You're welcome."

Leon sneered. "For someone who hate my guts and would do anything to get back at me... you certainly give me too much attention, Wolfe Fang."

Wolfe pushed him aside. "Just give me your goddamn phone and that QR code."

Wolfe managed to secure that nothing would go wrong with them scanning the code and the moment they connected to it.....

A notification popped up for an app installation.

[Would you like to install Xiao Nezha's Guide to the Jade Palace? ]