Chapter 58

Chick Among Chickens [小鸡中的战斗机 Xiǎo Jī Zhōng De Zhàn Dòu Jī] is the fifty-eighth chapter of Tong Yao's Guardians of Night.

Summary
The chapter begins with a flashback: two and a half hours before Wang Shengli received the phone call regarding Ximen's condition, Wuren notifies Ximen Guanren of a new clue regarding the murders and presents him with surveillance footage of the resort. He mentions that all the victims kissed a person of the opposite gender within two hours before their death. When Ximen asks why they were not provided this critical intel earlier, Wuren informs him that the resort's popularity as a place for hookups would be ruined if the video was made public. The two then watch the footage of the latest victim kissing a man. However, due to the vacant beach and the camera being positioned too far, it was only able to capture their silhouettes, preventing Wuren and Ximen from discerning the man's facial features, though the latter notes that the information is enough.

Some time later, Ximen Guanren and Wuren walk by a couple being intimate. Ximen says that couples are their main targets for the investigation as he proceeds to pluck a feather from Ximen Chicken and make it float onto the girl's hair. Noticing another pair, he plucks another feather off the chicken and tosses it onto the girl's hat. As he notices another couple in the distance and plucks one more feather, Wuren inquires him of his actions. Ximen explains that Ximen Chicken maintains a spiritual connection with its feathers even when they are removed from its body. By leaving a feather on the woman of every pair of lovers and recording the couple's characteristics with the feather's serial number, the chicken can alert them to a death by convulsing when one of the feathers senses the aura of death nearby. Ximen Chicken immediately begins to spasm as Ximen concludes his explanation, signalling that someone is about to die. Ximen Guanren then asks the chicken of the feather's number and position, with the chicken responding by drawing on the sand, much to Wuren's amazement. The chicken informs them that it is feather number 16 that is sensing death, which is located 500 meters to their northeast.

The two rush to the location and see a crowd of people gathering, with a girl shouting that someone went into shock. Pushing past the crowd, they see an unresponsive blonde girl wearing a green swimsuit lying on the sand, with the girl next to her explaining that she was fine a moment ago but suddenly went into shock. Ximen concludes that the unconscious girl is already dead and proceeds to flip through his records. Finding that feather 16's boyfriend has purplish-red hair and wears blue swim trunks, Ximen looks around and spots him nearby, walking away from the scene.