This was something that Lin Chen felt many times. In fact, if there was no Wang Chao, they would spend a lot of time on useless data retrieval in the process of handling a case, and the efficiency would be much lower. But as long as there was a teenager with a high IQ who was always online, very often they only needed to ask questions or pose ideas, and they would quickly get an answer, which indeed was quite convenient.
And this was probably one of the reasons why Xing Conglian always brought Wang Chao with him.
“A’Chen, do you see any milk tea shops over there? On the southeast corner, there’s a Hong Kong-style milk tea shop. The perspective in front of that milk tea shop should be very good.”
The teenager’s brisk voice came through. Lin Chen couldn’t help but look at the time. The time he spent thinking and searching was only about twenty seconds. He truly didn’t know where Xing Conglian had found this African child.
“I see it,” he replied.
“I sent you a software to crack the Wi-Fi password to your email. If the owner of the milk tea shop doesn’t give you the Wi-Fi password, you can crack it yourself!” Wang Chao added.
“Aren’t you from Africa? How does a milk tea shop do business if they don’t provide Wi-Fi?” Xing Conglian scolded.
“It’s possible they won’t give it to you if you don’t buy something!”
“Isn’t it enough to show your ID?” Xing Conglian responded.
Lin Chen quickened his pace as he walked toward his destination. Listening to the two voices on the other end, he suddenly felt that even if there was a problem, it could be solved.
“But if you crack it, wouldn’t it be cooler and more technical?” Wang Chao retorted in dissatisfaction, and then proudly explained to him, “A’Chen, do you know why you need to connect to the Wi-Fi? In the event of a large-scale accident, with so many people at the scene, the cell signal would be easily clogged. However, if the internet facilities aren’t violently damaged, their speed will be smoother to use. If your phone signal doesn’t work, you can always use the internet. What do you think?”
“I think your worries are making me panic,” Lin Chen replied.
“Aiya, A’Chen, don’t be afraid. No matter how dangerous the situation is, our Captain has experienced it. You have to believe that I will protect you in this kind of trivial matter!”
Lin Chen tilted his head slightly and walked along the periphery of the crowd to the milk tea shop. Has Wang Chao ever been in a dangerous situation before?
After thinking for a bit, he asked in a low voice, “How dangerous?”
“For example, rescuing a group of precious cultural relics under the pressure of air raids, in the desert, or from terrorists all around the world!”
“What are you, writing a novel?”
On the other end of the line, Xing Conglian had given Wang Chao a smack.
Lin Chen smiled. It really was like a novel-like life.
Suddenly, he felt Li Jingtian’s singing stop.
At the end of the song, the singer stabilized his breath, and his panting sounded rough.
The audience began to scream, and the occasional excited shouts were particularly abrupt against the black background sound.
When the singer let out a low laugh, the scene instantly stopped.
He said, “Thank you very much for coming today…”
His voice was low. Although Lin Chen couldn’t see the stage clearly, he could clearly feel an unusual sadness of the scene.
Logically, he should have stopped now and listened carefully, but inexplicably, he began to jog towards the milk tea shop that Wang Chao had pointed out.
“Do you know which floor the mall’s broadcasting room is on?” He asked Wang Chao. “I need to get to the broadcasting room.”
“I don’t know. According to their website, Ansheng International doesn’t appear to have a broadcasting room. I’m also looking for it, but it’s either on the top floor or the negative first floor. Do we want to take a gamble?”
“Gamble what? Cut directly into the broadcasting system.”
“Captain, can you be more civilized? How can we just casually cut the broadcasting system? Do you think we’re hackers?”
The two of them continued to argue on the other end of the line again, but Xing Conglian obviously no longer had the intention of joking with Wang Chao. He said coldly, “Do whatever I tell you to do.”
“Okay, okay. No need to get so fierce.”
“Transfer the floor plan of the mall to another computer. I’ll take a look,” Xing Conglian continued.
At this time, Lin Chen no longer had the energy to listen to them. He found that no matter where the broadcast room was, he might not have time to get there.
Li Jingtian was still talking on stage, and he couldn’t see the specific situation on the stage because of the crowd.
“I know something happened recently that made you worry about me. I’m really sorry. Although the timing is out of place, I still want to come out and thank you all…”
The singer on stage was showing his true feelings.
Lin Chen looked around. Luckily, there was a row of dining chairs for people to rest on right outside the milk tea shop in front of him. He quickly dashed a few steps and climbed onto one of them. Because the shop assistants were all crowded around the railing to watch, no one stepped forward to try and stop him.
What was even more fortunate was that the Wi-Fi password of the milk tea shop happened to be written on the door of the shop. He connected to the wireless network and glanced at the signal, which became full again.
He hung up the phone and switched his communication method. As he stood on the chair, he looked down towards the lobby.
“Don’t say that. Don’t be like that, Jingtian!”
“Come on, we all know Jingtian!”
Taking advantage of his pause, the girls responded one after another.
As their tender and sincere voices rang out, flashing lights on the scene exploded like fireworks.
The singer suddenly looked up with a bright smile on his face. He grinned, showing a row of white teeth and a sweet dimple on his left cheek. He bowed sincerely, and said, “Actually, it seems that I have said too much, that it might feel deliberate. I just want to say you’re free to judge right or wrong. Thank you very much for your support. I love you, really.”
“Jingtian!!! Jingtian!!! We love you!!!”
The girls frantically waved their props as they shouted and screamed. Some even burst into tears in excitement.
The mall became noisy again as a brisk prelude sounded from the stereo. Unlike the previous two bitter songs, this seemed to be a light and sweet love song. Li Jingtian waved his hand to the audience and said with a smile, “This song is dedicated to you. It’s my confession.”
He gave them another sweet smile, which caused the fans to scream again.
The scene became loud. Some people were clapping in harmony with the rhythm, some bobbed their heads, while others continued taking pictures.
Lin Chen pressed his phone against his ear. Wang Chao seemed to be reporting something to Xing Conglian.
“Captain, it’s calculated. The flow of people on the scene is 200% over capacity.” The person on the other end of the phone paused, as if he had seen an incredible sight, and shouted, “Shit, why is Director Zheng letting people in again?!”
Hearing this, Lin Chen’s gaze moved to the stage. The atmosphere on and off the stage was good. The fans were singing briskly to the music.
Where is the problem?
He looked at the row of black-clothed guests in the audience. Huang Ze and the others seemed to be getting up and preparing to leave. At the same time, the fans in the audience were waving support lights. There was a girl in a red dress standing on stage with a bouquet of flowers in her hand. She seemed to have been arranged by the staff to go on afterwards to dedicate flowers to the singer.
It was a bouquet of green roses, wrapped in pure black and gold paper. The girl wore a mask, and most of her face was covered by her long hair, making it impossible to clearly see her.
Wait a minute.
Why is the girl who’s offering flowers wearing a mask as if she didn’t want to be photographed by others?
Don’t fans occasionally go on stage? Is it normal for them not to want to take a photo while hugging their star? How is it reasonable for her to cover her face at such a moment?
“Xing Conglian, call Director Zheng right away!” Lin Chen restrained the urge to jump down from the chair and rushed to the railing as he shouted to the other end of the phone.
As he spoke, the girl in the red dress who was holding a bouquet of flowers in her hand stepped on the stage to the brisk melody.
The singer on stage saw someone walking towards him with flowers. During the interlude, he whistled along with the melody and looked gratefully at the girl in a red dress. His eyes gleamed, looking a bit shy.
The entire audience almost fell into the sweet atmosphere full of love.
The distance between the two was getting closer. The breathing between them seemed clearly audible. Li Jingtian saw a bunch of green roses that covered most of the girl’s face. He saw the girl’s eyes glowing, full of enthusiasm. His gaze fell on the bow hairpin on the top of her head. He thought to himself, if he hugged her, his chin would rest right on top of the hairpin.
“Thank you.” He took the bouquet of green roses handed to him by the girl and looked a little embarrassed in response. Before he could carefully observe the rose in his arms, he was hugged by the girl. As expected, his chin nestled right against the top of the girl’s fluffy, soft hair. Between his nose came a rich scent of refreshing lemon shampoo mixed with roses, creating an intoxicating smell.
He didn’t know if it was because of the sudden embrace of the two on the stage that there was a commotion under the stage. In the crowd, his fans began to scream. The way the girls expressed their excitement was only through screaming.
He put his arms around the girl’s back and felt that the person in his arms suddenly stood on their tiptoes. He was surprised to see slightly rose-scented lips approaching for a kiss. He wanted to avoid it, but it was too late.
The next moment, he felt something wrong with his neck. The girl’s white fingers slipped from his neck, and in a trance, he felt himself being pushed away by the girl. Despite being a big man, he became unstable when he was pushed.
Under the stage, chaos erupted as screaming filled the air, but the emotions from the scream changed.
No longer did they sound excited, but it shifted to fright and loss. The voices were harsh, like a giant hand was wrapped around those sweet throats, making the voice hoarse and scared.
Is it fear of death?
What happened?
Li Jingtian regained his senses and looked for the girl who had presented the flowers to him just now, but he only saw the girl’s figure jumping down to the back of the stage. Her black hair drew a graceful arc in the air, and then her figure disappeared into the emergency exit corridor.
He gazed back at the flourishing roses in his hand while the other hand touched his neck. As if he had touched something wet and slippery, he wanted to open his mouth, but suddenly felt he couldn’t make even half a syllable.
His microphone fell heavily on the ground, creating a deafening roar from the stereo. Countless people covered their ears.
A drop of bright red blood dripped down from his neck.
A beautiful Sunday came, but Yin Ren didn’t manage to play the game.
He had specially planned that if Lu Xiaohe or Sun Qinghui contacted him, he would pretend to have twisted his ankle or be absent. However, the person who contacted them was Fu Xingchuan—his top boss, the strongest combat power in Haigu, and the Minister of the Emergency Management Department.
Today, Haigu was sunny and cloudless. There weren’t many people in Shian Park like usual.
At this moment, Yin Ren was standing with Zhong Chengshuo on Shian’s training ground. Lord Ghost King seemed to be stretched so thin that one poke from a finger would make him collapse.
He knew that Shian would pay overtime, but he would rather stay at home.
Yin Ren looked at Zhong Chengshuo recently. If this person hadn’t reported Ge Tingting’s situation on Saturday, the two of them would be happily playing games right now instead of being dragged to the training ground.
The training ground was a vast dirt field, surrounded by exceptionally thick cement walls.
In front of them, Fu Xingchuan was dressed the same as always, but this time, he was empty-handed and didn’t have his long knife.
“I’ve learned about the general situation, and I’m pretty sure that the girl is a rogue corpse servant.” Minister Fu rolled up his sleeves. “Corpse servants are difficult opponents. They are good at physical attacks, so you need to get familiar with them in advance—especially Zhong Chengshuo.”
Zhong Chengshuo humbly sought advice. “But she hasn’t received formal training.”
“Anyone can become a corpse servant as long as they have the talent coupled with hard training. Even if rogue corpse servants have no one to guide them, their talent can’t be underestimated.”
Yin Ren: “Then we should find Qin Ge to spar with…”
Fu Xingchuan smiled. When he snapped his fingers, it caused the ground to suddenly move.
Above the trembling soil, smoke and dust accumulated as mud splattered. On the grassless ground, a three-meter-high wolf made of bones quickly took shape.
Rat bones, bird bones, snake bones—countless fine bones were flying in the air.
The smell of soil and bones mixed together and quickly bonded into strong wolf claws and sharp fangs. The huge skull was pieced together by countless small skulls. The tiny eye sockets turned into dense black holes that overflowed with a strong evil qi.
The bone wolf circled Fu Xingchuan for a while, then stopped by his right hand and lowered its head obediently.
On Fu Xingchuan’s left side, a human corpse emerged from the dust.
The corpse was wrapped in a linen robe full of talismans and iron chains. Its flesh clung to its body, showing an abnormally dark blue color. Its hair was thinning, its eyes were shriveled and cloudy, and its nails were frighteningly long. Its deformed mouth was slightly open, stuffed with a dark red object that they couldn’t tell whether it was a cloth or stone.
Compared to the humble “bone wolf”, this corpse that had just stopped by Fu Xingchuan’s left side wasn’t as subservient.
“Proficient in both the abilities of a ‘ghost master’ and a ‘corpse servant’ and integrating them, this is a ‘ghost general’—the rank I happen to be in.”
Fu Xingchuan lit a cigarette and slowly blew up a mouthful of smoke.
“Today, I’ll only use the ability of a corpse servant to fight you.”
The ten fingers of the human corpse were slightly open, allowing its nails to reflect a metallic-like light. The giant wolf leaned down, assuming a position as if it were ready to pounce at any moment.
‘What bullshit,’ Yin Ren thought. In principle, the two of them hadn’t had any combat training. Forget himself, Zhong Chengshuo would be beaten to the ground in an instant.
“There’s equipment on the other side of the table. I’ll give you ten seconds for you to pick one. Ten—”
Zhong Chengshuo: “That corpse…”
“Former colleague who donated his corpse as a teaching aid… Five, four, three—”
The two rushed to the table.
Zhong Chengshuo picked up a gas mask, while Yin Ren casually grabbed an umbrella.
Fu Xingchuan made no comments. When the two stood still, he picked up his cigarette and made a gesture.
The giant wolf let out a silent howl and rose into the air, trampling on Yin Ren’s umbrella and instantly bending it. It spread out its ribs at the same time, causing countless extremely thin bones to drill towards Yin Ren’s mouth and nose.
Yin Ren floundered symbolically, then allowed himself to be stepped on by the wolf’s paw and started coughing frantically.
At the same time, the human corpse flashed behind Zhong Chengshuo.
Zhong Chengshuo’s movements weren’t chaotic. He sidestepped, blocked with his hands, and took advantage of the attack to kick the corpse in its knee. As a result, the corpse didn’t even buckle, and he only reaped pain in his toes.
This distracted him, which the corpse took full advantage of to bully him further. A sharp fingernail tip had poked a hole in Zhong Chengshuo’s neck.
As long as it wanted, it could easily tear open Zhong Chengshuo’s throat in an instant.
The whole battle lasted less than ten seconds.
“Do you know what you did wrong?”
Fu Xingchuan’s cigarette burned only for a short time. He chuckled as he approached the two lying in the mud and looked at them from top to bottom.
Yin Ren spat out a bone in a daze with blank eyes. “I should have run away.”
Fu Xingchuan glanced at him speechlessly. “…And Xiao Zhong?”
“I chose the wrong opponent.” Zhong Chengshuo was still lying down as he contemplated. “Judging from the props we chose, it was more appropriate for me to deal with the bone wolf and Yin Ren to deal with the human corpse.”
“Bullshit,” Fu Xingchuan said. “Do you think your opponent is a meal waiting for you to casually select it?”
He stretched out his hand and pulled the two of them up. The smell of smoke sprayed all over their faces.
“The strengths of corpse servants may be different, but their weaknesses are uniform. They’re good at manipulation, but they can’t be distracted from casting spells, and can’t protect their bodies… Now, I’ll give you two minutes to discuss tactics. Nothing will change when we resume again.”
Fu Xingchuan flicked the cigarette butt away and stood back in his original position.
Yin Ren didn’t want to suffer this kind of torture again. Zhong Chengshuo was staring at the mud on his cuffs and seemed to be thinking about a similar problem. A few seconds later, the two of them took a step forward almost at the same time.
“I have an idea…” “We’ll wait…”
“You first…” “Ah, no, you should speak first…”
In the end, it was Zhong Chengshuo who spoke first. Just like the game yesterday, the two’s tactics were immediately in sync.
The two minutes passed quickly. The bone wolf and the human corpse attacked again.
This time, the two acted together. Yin Ren took the lead in pouncing on the corpse. With a turn of his feet, he hooked the neck of the corpse with the end handle of the umbrella and held it back. “Zhong Ge, hurry!”
Zhong Chengshuo didn’t hesitate for half a second. He put on the gas mask, slid underneath the giant wolf, and rushed straight to Fu Xingchuan.
The giant wolf instantly jumped back and tried to bite Zhong Chengshuo. At the same time, the bone fragments on its body spread out again and rushed towards Yin Ren.
Yin Ren was still trying to hold the corpse back. Seeing the bone fragments coming at him, he buried his face directly into the corpse, pressing his mouth and nose on the linen clothes of the corpse.
Wasn’t it just the smell of corpses? He could endure it.
In a sense, was this like the underworld version of <It Takes Two>? Lord Ghost King was having fun while suffering.
Zhong Chengshuo seemed to have encountered a tough opponent. He was rolling around, and his clothes were torn up. He seemed quite panicked. However, the giant wolf couldn’t hold him down. Zhong Chengshuo managed to evade it and successfully rush to Fu Xingchuan.
Then he was swept to the ground by Fu Xingchuan.
“Good, you catch on quick,” Fu Xingchuan commented with satisfaction. “If you really want to fight that girl, as long as you can get close, you’ll have a considerable advantage—ah, remember to be careful of knives and stun guns.”
“The training is over?” Yin Ren slid down from behind the corpse and asked hopefully.
“What are you thinking? It’s only been a few minutes.”
Fu Xingchuan bared his teeth.
“Continue. Practice until you can grab the cigarette in my mouth.”
“You, uh, aren’t you busy?” Yin Ren moaned. “We already grasp the concept. Can’t we just go back and practice by ourselves?”
“Practice with what? Air? You must practice in a real combat situation with the threat of death. I just happened to have the day off. Let’s see… It’s 10 now, so I’ll accompany you until 4.”
Yin Ren grimaced. It was hard to hold back, saying, “You call this a day off?”
“And,” Fu Xingchuan glanced at him lightly, “aren’t you completely useless, ghost master?”
……
At 4 in the afternoon, the training ended.
Zhong Chengshuo finally grabbed the cigarette from Minister Fu’s mouth. It had to be said, the number one powerhouse of Shian was like a flood—from beginning to end, in addition to only using the abilities of a corpse servant, Fu Xingchuan only dealt with Zhong Chengshuo with one leg.
The training lasted for most of the day, but Fu Xingchuan only used his hand to light his cigarettes, pull people up, and snap his fingers.
The strength of the cultivators in Shian couldn’t be underestimated.
Yin Ren was paralyzed at the refreshment bar outside the building, making no effort to hide the exhaustion on his face.
With Fu Xingchuan watching him, he was forced to use a little evil qi and try his best to act the part of “a ghost master without a ghost” as naturally as possible.
Throughout the battle, Yin Ren had to pay attention to controlling his strength and suffered just as many blows as Zhong Chengshuo, who was repeatedly beaten. Lord Ghost King was full of grievances and ordered three ice cream sodas in one go.
As for his partner… After training, Zhong Chengshuo went to wash himself in Shian’s bathroom for over an hour. Given the state of the training ground’s hygiene, Yin Ren suspected Zhong Chengshuo intended to scrub his skin off.
By the time Zhong Chengshuo finished cleaning himself, the horizon was already stained with a red haze.
“Are we still going to play games when we go back?” Yin Ren sucked up the last bit of cream in his soda and asked pitifully.
He really needed a little leisure to comfort himself.
“There’s no time. I have to run at night after dinner.”
Yin Ren: “…Didn’t we exercise enough?!”
There were obvious bruises on Zhong Chengshuo’s neck and shoulders. Although Fu Xingchuan sent them special medication for bruising, Comrade Zhong Chengshuo didn’t look like he was okay.
“But the night run must be done three times a week. It’s already Sunday today. Anaerobic exercise is not the same as aerobic exercise,” Zhong Chengshuo explained.
Yin Ren: “……”
What aerobic and anaerobic? Yin Ren only felt that his partner was slightly ill.
Would most people be so cruel to themselves? Having said that, Fu Xingchuan seemed to be the same way. Was the corporate culture at Shian like this?
“I see. You can go.” Yin Ren finished the last sip of soda wearily. “I plan to go out for dinner tonight, so don’t wait up.”
“Bring your phone and don’t go too far.”
“Yes, yes,” Yin Ren replied listlessly.
Zhong Chengshuo stared at him for a while. “…I’ll play with you for a bit before going to bed.”
Yin Ren’s spirit lifted. Not bad, Comrade Xiao Zhong. It seemed that <The Art of Communication> occasionally had positive effects.
……
That night, Yin Ren decided to try luosifen, which was prohibited from takeout by the “household rules”.
He had staked out a luosifen shop near Ping’an Manor in advance. Since Miss Hu Tao didn’t like this kind of food, she couldn’t give him any recommendations and could only make a few references.
“Put on your mask and tie your hair into a bun… Yes, it looks more low-key. Choose a corner of the shop. If someone tries to take pictures of you, scare them by claiming you’ll sue them for portrait rights.”
“I remember. Thank you.”
“Nn, remember to turn off sleep mode on the tablet and keep the automatic continuous broadcast.” Hu Tao replaced Yin Ren and was sitting upright in front of the tablet.
Facts had proven that luosifen did have a strong smell, but in the end, it was nothing compared to a pile of rotting corpses. The rice noodles were fragrant and smooth, and the soup had a spicy and sour taste. Yin Ren had a lovely time slurping it up.
However, at the moment he stepped out of the shop, his shoulders sank inexplicably.
From the corner of his eyes, Yin Ren saw two ghost hands on his shoulders. The ten fingers of the ghost’s hand were as long as a human arm and were sticking firmly to him. The surrounding scene seemed to be covered with fog, and the neon lights became cold and dim.
The human voices in his ears disappeared instantly, leaving only a low, empty laughter. His limbs appeared to be bound by something and dragged to move on their own.
This visitor wasn’t good.
Yin Ren felt for a moment that there were five evil spirits attacking, and they all had good morals. He sensed the smell of a ghost master, so it wasn’t easy for him to add them to his meal.
Yin Ren himself was dragged away, gradually stepping into a dark and desolate area, and finally walking into an abandoned bungalow.
He wanted to see what kind of medicine in gourds these little kids were selling.
At the moment he walked into the bungalow, the windows and doors on the four walls of the empty place suddenly disappeared. The entire room turned into a gloomy, closed box, with only a little blue light of unknown origin left.
There were two-meter-tall “people” standing in each of the four corners. They were pale and thin and stood facing the corner, mumbling endlessly. Those raving words seemed to have substance, sealing the room’s surroundings tightly.
Yin Ren’s shoulders lightened, and the next moment, an evil spirit flashed in front of him.
When he raised his eyes, he saw three smelly, black holes.
That evil spirit had a baby-like head, no beads in its eyes, and no teeth in its mouth. Its body was deformed, extending two meters long. A pair of withered arms grew from the ground, and its lower body was like the tail of a snail that had been torn off. Its innards and flesh were rolled together and mixed into a ball of oozing, wet mucus.
This thing was strong, but it couldn’t compare to Shian’s Xiang Jiang; it was probably on par with Fang Yuanyuan.
There was a nervous look on Yin Ren’s face as he secretly made a judgment in his heart.
“Ghost master, Yin Ren.”
The evil spirit approached a little closer. Its voice was cold.
“…It’s not easy tracking the insect corpses of a corpse servant.”
“Insect corpse? What insect corpse?” Yin Ren gulped and decisively played dumb.
The ghost smiled but didn’t respond. Its three holes were still staring straight at Yin Ren.
Yin Ren took two steps back and continued to spout nonsense. “Not to mention this, but why are you looking for me? I’m just a newcomer and don’t even remember who I am. Let me go.”
There was a ghost master behind these evil spirits, and with him hiding his strength, Yin Ren couldn’t distinguish if they were enemies. Yin Ren didn’t intend to fall into the traps of others.
“Newcomer. Haha. Newcomer… Well, you’re certainly a newcomer with great abilities. Don’t you have a purpose for joining Shian?” The ghost’s dark eyes rushed towards Yin Ren. “It’s better to join forces with us… We can help you.”
“Help me? Who are you guys?”
“Now that things have come to this point, don’t act like you don’t know.” The ghost snorted. “Let me say this one last time. Don’t play dumb.”
In an instant, more than a dozen fingers popped out from the surrounding walls and firmly grabbed Yin Ren.
Yin Ren: “……” He felt wronged. He really had no idea the origins of these evil spirits.
The ghost approached again, its rancid breath spraying on Yin Ren’s face.
It whispered seductively, “We don’t care about your purpose. It doesn’t matter what you want to do… Join us. Money, status, women—we can give you things that Shian can’t…”
“Are you willing to stay at Shian and climb up little by little? With Fu Xingchuan and Li Nian in charge, you will never reach the top. Why reject what’s near and instead seek the far?”
Yin Ren suddenly came to a realization.
Yin Ren: “I see. You’re poachers.”
Ghost: “……”
Yin Ren: “I have no plans to change jobs for the time being.” He didn’t need money, status, or women. He just wanted Shian’s cafeteria.
He took out his cellphone and gripped it tightly.
“What a fool. Pity he doesn’t know what’s good from bad!” The ghost laughed angrily. “There’s no talisman paper. I’d like to see how you—”
Yin Ren had gotten proficient at typing with one hand.
[Yin Ren: @Hu Tao Jie, SOS.]
[Yin Ren: There are perverts.]
Ghost: “……”
Ghost: “?” What kind of strange summoning method is this?
Evil qi started to overflow, creating a fishy storm.
A female ghost covered in blood emerged from behind Yin Ren. Her robe was soaked in black blood, and the edges were full of tear marks. Her face was severely distorted, and her long, black hair fluttered in the wind, covered with broken flesh and blood scabs.
Evil qi and resentment exploded in the small room, causing the temperature to plummet.
The four ghosts at the corners turned around in an instant. They raised their heads, which didn’t have any facial features, and all “looked” at Hu Tao as they continued to whisper loudly. The ghost retreated to the base of the wall as more fingers poked out of it.
Did this kid actually form a pact with such a powerful ghost? The ghost tightened its grip on Yin Ren’s body while its dark eyes turned toward Hu Tao.
If he were allowed to develop in Shian, it would be better to kill the grass before it roots.
Hu Tao, making her grand debut: “……”
Hu Tao: “Didn’t you go out to eat luosifen? What the hell is this place?! What’s going on with that wall? So gross! It’s like popping blackheads. Urgh, I’m gonna be sick…”
Yin Ren: “Please, sister. I’ll buy you milk tea later. Don’t worry, they are all weaker than you.”
“Leave it to me!” Hu Tao floated valiantly to the middle of the room.
One second, three seconds, ten seconds; everyone remained motionless.
Hu Tao turned her bloody face and said, “Okay, now what should I do?”
Yin Ren, Ghost: “……”
Yin Ren: “Attack them?”
“Oh, I’m not very good at fighting.” Hu Tao laughed awkwardly. “I just died and didn’t receive continuing education after death…”
“Sister, just treat them like they’re your enemy.”
Yin Ren felt helpless. He put his hand behind his back and quietly performed a spell. He decided to give Miss Hu Tao some help—if it was just a small illusion, it shouldn’t be too noticeable.
Seeing the ghosts in front of her gradually change their appearance, Hu Tao stopped laughing. She slowly tilted her head and stared at the ghost closest to her without saying a word. The blood on her body was getting thicker.
With strong evil qi accompanied by cold killing intent, Hu Tao felt like a severe winter storm, especially with her clothes and hair swaying violently. In the next second, she flashed in front of the ghost and grabbed its chest.
Ghost: “Wait—”
Squish.
Hu Tao tore open the ghost’s chest. The “flesh and blood” full of evil qi were torn by her like a vegetable leaf.
Under her hands, the thousands of fingers were like grass being ripped up with a slight pinch. The sound of flesh being torn was endless.
Squish.
The four faceless ghosts weren’t spared either, as they were torn meticulously by her. Hu Tao looked like she was sorting out her clothes as the remnants of those evil beings were neatly packed into a pile by her.
Squish.
She tore the ghostly remains into small pieces and chewed and swallowed them carefully. She hummed a small tune as the room’s walls gradually turned black and red.
When those eyes full of hatred turned around, Yin Ren had already stepped back without leaving a trace.
…What exactly did she see?
It seemed that compared to Zhong Chengshuo, he still needed to get to know this one better. Yin Ren sighed and lifted the illusion.
“…Enough, sister. Calm down,” he said. “That’s enough.”
On a bloody Sunday, except for the five ghosts, only Zhong Chengshuo was injured.
When he came back from his run that night, Yin Ren was already waiting upright in front of the game console. Zhong Chengshuo finished tidying up, and he sat down beside him. Out of some kind of habit, he subconsciously sniffed when he was close to Yin Ren.
Zhong Chengshuo: “……”
Zhong Chengshuo’s face distorted a bit. “…What did you eat tonight?”
“Luosifen mixed with 82-year-old evil spirits.”
“……”
“I’m just joking.”
At the other end of Haigu, upstairs of “Xiaohe Supermarket”.
Lu Xiaohe helped massage her mother’s body with a smile. “Mom, let me tell you, my new colleagues are so fun.”
Xiaohe’s mother leaned quietly on the bed. Under the torture of cancer, she was a little thin and out of shape. However, her facial features were quite similar to Lu Xiaohe’s, and her eyes were full of brilliance.
“Happy with work?” Xiaohe’s mother’s tone was relaxed.
“Yes, today I even saw them wail in the group chat, saying they wanted to get off work early so they can play games—haha, I told you my position isn’t hard, right? I don’t have to work overtime like they do.”
Hearing “game”, Xiaohe’s mother smacked her lips. “It’s a pity your father is out. Otherwise, the three of us could still play poker.”
“He can’t get off today.”
“Let’s play for a while?” Xiaohe’s mother propped herself up. “What kind of games are there in the store? The one where we can play together like we used to.”
“Oh, <The Legend of Resurrection>, right? I’ll get the console.”
Lu Xiaohe got up to get the console.
<The Legend of Resurrection> was released eight years ago and was relatively unpopular. In a sense, it could be described as a failure.
The plot was simple—a prince was taken away by Death. Players needed to collect various materials and hand them over to the palace magician so he could resurrect the prince’s soul.
It focused on “offline scenes” and was mainly a game aimed at families and gatherings. The management, exploration, and combat systems were comprehensive, but the process was too long and didn’t meet the actual needs. At first, many small shops bought the console and planned to rent them to students to play, but the business was bleak.
Xiaohe Supermarket was one of the unlucky businesses.
Lu Xiaohe kept the game. Starting a few years ago, they would play together on weekends. Later, when Xiaohe’s mother’s health deteriorated and Lu Xiaohe joined Shian, they forgot about it.
“When did we last play this?”
After turning on the console, Lu Xiaohe slowly checked the save archives.
“Yes, yes! Haha, we haven’t finished the novice village mission yet. Come on, mom. It’s time for us to rescue the ‘harassed girl’… Do you remember the controls?”
“Who do you think I am? Of course I remember.”
On the rough screen, two characters stepped into the mission scene. Beside the girl NPC with braided hair, a rogue NPC was laughing…
[Haha, bitch. You’re here now but want to go back?]
The author has something to say:
Comrade Xiao Zhong asked for help overnight: What should I do if my partner is marinated in luosifen? Help!
This time, they finally arrived on the 9th floor safely. Li Han’er’s group suitcases were still at the entrance to the stairs. The six of them found their own rooms. Dong Zhi laid down on the big bed lazily, not wanting to move.
However, he was the leader of the team and had things to do. After thinking about it, Dong Zhi picked up his phone and called Zhong Zhicun to tell him what had happened just now.
When Song Zhicun heard that they beat up people from the British and French teams, he didn’t reprimand him but instead said, “I’ll let someone deal with the appeal. You can just continue the meeting and don’t worry about it.”
“Boss Song, it was our impulsiveness that caused you trouble.” Dong Zhi didn’t think beating someone wasn’t that bad, but he still had to pretend to be good in front of their leader.
Song Zhicun laughed. “If they attack, you can only respond. I’ve been to the exchange conference before. I know what their faces are like right now without you telling me. This is a world that respects the strong. We have only participated in five sessions, so our foundations with them aren’t deep. They don’t understand our strength, which comes with some benefits, but they will also underestimate you. This requires you to give full play. However, because you’ve offended some people, you’ll definitely be targeted, so be careful.”
Dong Zhi smiled wryly. “If you have too many debts, you’ll stop worrying about it. We’ll focus on one thing at a time first.”
After hanging up, Dong Zhi slept for a while, then got up and took a shower. When he changed clothes, there was a knock at the door.
Outside the door stood William, the deputy head of the United States, whom they had just met.
William smiled and said, “I didn’t bother you, did I?”
Dong Zhi: “I’m just about to go eat.”
William: “Just in time. I haven’t eaten either. Shall we?”
Dong Zhi said, “Sorry, I need to be with my team members.”
William’s face was probably thicker than the walls of this hotel. When he heard Dong Zhi’s response, he still smiled and said, “Dong, don’t do this. What happened just now really has nothing to do with us. As the organizer, it’s impossible for us to use such childish methods to tease other teams. Otherwise, what kind of prestige will there be in the future? You can’t vent your anger on them at me!”
Dong Zhi curled his lips. “What’s the point of saying this now?”
William laughed. “Indeed, we can only move forward, but regarding this exchange competition, you must have learned more news in advance than the other countries. How about we exchange information? Our leader asked me to come over, hoping that we would have a chance to cooperate with each other.”
Dong Zhi glanced at him. “Then shall we eat together?”
William’s smile immediately brightened several folds. “Yes!”
Dong Zhi called Liu Qingbo and the others. He asked William to take everyone downstairs for dinner and give them a list of good restaurants nearby, then asked about the situation of the other teams—since the grunt came to deliver goods, it was best not to waste it.
He had to admit that it was good to have thick skin. It was difficult to smack someone with such a smiling face. After their meal, William gave them quite a bit of news, and everyone’s impression of him had reversed, so much so that they couldn’t put back on their cold faces.
As the organizer and deputy leader, William knew a lot of gossip.
For example, there were two powerful new members on the French team this year. One of them also assisted Group 51 in eliminating the plague demon. The other was said to have an aristocratic background. The family had been demon hunters for generations. They even had several archbishops in their lineage and had close ties to the Vatican.
Putting it in Chinese words: the French were feeling snarky this year, and they walked with wind*. They were the second group to arrive at the hotel. After that, they launched two pranks on the Russian and Nordic cultivators, picking on the soft persimmons. The French had heard about the mystery and horror of the dark arts masters of Southeast Asia, so they didn’t dare provoke them.
*Describing walking with gusto and giving off an elite, powerful vibe. || In this context, it’s basically saying the French, having two elites in their group this year, is quite arrogant and was putting on quite a bravado.
Dong Zhi found that the French leader didn’t instruct his members to prank them. It was George on their team who was pursuing Grace from the British team. Hearing that Grace hated the Chinese, he called a few friends and wanted to teach them a “lesson”. Who knew they would get beat up instead.
“That guy George lost too much blood, so he was sent to the hospital for treatment. Although his life can be saved, it’s estimated he won’t be able to participate in the competition!” William showed a bit of gloating. “But this matter is all their own initiative. Their leader, Galan, the person you met just now—he regretted it a bit. He asked me to tell you that both parties should go through the appeal channel so that the competition remains fair and competitive.”
Liu Qingbo sneered. “They started things, and now they want to cry to their parents after getting beat up? Nice try!”
William shrugged. “I’m just the messenger. It’s up to you whether you want to do this or not. However, those ghosts weren’t created out of thin air. There are more evil spirits on the third floor, which is why the entire floor is empty. They just happened to use it. Speaking of which, I have to thank you on behalf of the hotel for helping solve a big problem. It seems we can spend the next year in peace again.”
These were just trivial matters. Dong Zhi was more concerned about the competitive segment.
“William, how much do you know about the competition?”
“Not much, but maybe a little more than you. After all, we are the organizers, so it’s impossible to keep it completely confidential.”
William thought he was being cute as he gave a wink, but no one was buying it. Liu Qingbo waited impatiently for him to continue. It looked like he would be beaten if he didn’t elaborate, so William could only continue. “There will only be one winner in the competition, but the process has a variety of challenges. It will be difficult to complete with just one team. We hope to form an alliance with you guys. What do you think?”
Dong Zhi questioned, “Alliance?”
William smiled slyly. “It’ll be a limited alliance. In the process, if we need to cooperate, we can’t take action against each other until the difficulties are resolved. How about it?”
Dong Zhi: “Why us?”
William smiled and said, “Because your team has the most potential out of all the teams at the moment. The others are too weak. Though the group of dark arts masters is very powerful, they’re not good when it comes to fierce battles. It’s hard to imagine they can curse powerful monsters.”
Dong Zhi suddenly showed the same cunning smile. “So, you must know what the content of the competition is?”
William said, “I don’t know much. I only know that the venue will be on an island in the Atlantic Ocean.”
Dong Zhi: “We already know this. It can’t be considered a secret, nor can it be included in your agreement.”
William: “…Dong, you’re quite shrewd. You should be a businessman. What a waste to go into this profession.”
Flattery had no effect on Dong Zhi. “Continue.”
William: “Then the theme may be related to a golden apple.”
Dong Zhi: “What golden apple?”
William: “In Greek mythology, Gaia, the Goddess of the Earth, gave it to Zeus and Hera as a wedding gift. Later, Eris took the golden apple to instigate discord between Hera, Athena, and Aphrodite, the Goddess of Love*.”
*Clarity: The mythology behind the golden apple is that Eris (the Goddess of Discord) inscribed “to the fairest/most beautiful” on the golden apple and tossed it during the feast of the gods at the wedding of Peleus and Thetis as a prize, thus sparking a vanity-fuel dispute among Hera, Athena, and Aphrodite that eventually led to the Trojan War.
Dong Zhi suddenly realized. “I remember a very famous story. You mean, the golden apple may be the last prop we’re looking for?”
William snapped his fingers. “Smart!”
Dong Zhi: “This information is useless to us. Props are originally what we are looking for. Even if you don’t say it, the organizing committee will announce it before the start of the competition.”
William: “Well, the Senluo Islands are composed of four uninhabited islands in the Atlantic Ocean. They are shrouded in fog year-round. There’s a research base from Group 51 there. It’s difficult for ordinary ships to enter, but it’s not a problem for us. Have you heard of Gullinkambi*?”
*From Norse mythology. It is a rooster who lives in Valhalla. Apparently, it is one of three roosters whose crowing is foretold to signify the beginning of Ragnarök.
He dipped his fingers in water and wrote it in English on one of the tables. Liu Qingbo and the others searched the internet and immediately found it.
This thing was a creature in Norse mythology. It was a big black rooster and was said that its cry meant the final battle was coming, so it was regarded as awakening the “twilight of the gods”.
William said, “Rumor has it that the person in charge of planning this year is a lover of Western mythology, so the competition process will incorporate many elements of Greek and Norse mythology, such as this ancient Gullinkambi and the harpies*.”
*A half-human and half-bird personification of storm winds.
Dong Zhi was shocked. “Where can they find so many ancient monsters?”
Even in China, it wasn’t easy to find a Wuzhiqi for a test. Not only that, a Wuzhiqi’s intelligence was equal to that of humans, so getting them to cooperate was also a different matter.
William shrugged. “As long as you find them, give them satisfactory conditions, make a deal with them, and then let them stay on that island for a while, you can reap the benefits. This is easy to understand, no? Just like your Chinese dragon, it’s a legend to ordinary people, but you know it must be real, right?”
Dong Zhi was speechless.
William said, “But the unpredictable factors are also there! Although the monsters have spiritual wisdom, they don’t cherish human life, so they don’t know how to do things in moderation. Once there’s a battle, your lives will easily be in danger. I bet the number of deaths this year will be higher than ever before. I suspect the organizing committee’s brains were kicked by donkeys. Why did it happen during our turn!”
He complained angrily. Seeing that Dong Zhi looked calm, he couldn’t help but suspect they didn’t know anything about the origin of these monsters.
“You have heard of a harpy before, right?”
Dong Zhi shook his phone. “I do. The internet is well developed now. Legends say that it’s afraid of the sound made from beating bronze. At that time, just have a few bronze objects on you.”
William: “Please. Legends are just legends. Who knows if that’s true or not! Well, what do you think about the alliance I mentioned?”
Dong Zhi said, “I’ll discuss it with my teammates first and give you a reply later.”
William: “Then answer me before you go to bed tonight.”
Dong Zhi was puzzled. “Do you need to be so anxious? Isn’t there still a few days left before the competition?”
William said, “You don’t understand. The signal on that island isn’t good. Basically, you can’t use your phone to contact others. If you agree, we will provide a special communication method at that time, only between our teams.”
Dong Zhi: “Okay then.”
After sending William away, Dong Zhi asked his teammates who had been silent.
“What do you think? Xiao Zhang, say something.”
Zhang Song: …… He had the urge to murder the captain of the team.
“The British and French are unreliable, and the Americans are not much better. In case they have an accident, we have to rush over to save them. When we have an accident, they will pretend they’re dead, and we can’t do anything about it!” Zhang Song answered in a deep voice.
Liu Qingbo liked to disagree with Zhang Song the most. When he heard this, he said, “But even if we agree, it won’t be a loss for us. The Americans must know more than we do, so there must be information that hasn’t been said. If we meet, we can cooperate with them all the way to the end and eliminate all the obstacles, then fight again to get the prop. Isn’t it better than being headless flies trying to break in?”
Dong Zhi set his sights on Li Han’er and the others.
Li Han’er thought for a while and said, “There’s some truth in what Daoist Liu said.”
Liu Qingbo became smug. “See, I’m right!”
Yang Shouyi and Liu Si then said, “We have no opinions and will leave it up to the captain to decide.”
In the end, Dong Zhi patted the table. He would first agree with William, and then wait for them to arrive on the island to see what happens.
Just as they were eating, other teams also came over.
The news of the French prank failing and getting beaten up had already spread. When most people passed by Dong Zhi’s table, they looked at them strangely. Many others took the initiative to come forward to greet them. The Russian girl, Anna, brought her friends, and the Nordic team that had been maliciously pranked also gave them a warm greeting.
Dong Zhi felt as if they were like rare animals on display at a zoo. They didn’t get to eat much as they were constantly patronized and greeted. They had to deal with the strange questions of these people from time to time. For example: Do Easterners know how to use magic? Are you the top group of spellcasters? Do all Eastern practitioners fly on dragons? and so on that made Dong Zhi and the others dumbfounded.
It could only be said that these people’s understanding of the East was quite shallow.
However, it seemed that they knew Dong Zhi’s group prestige well as the next few days when they stayed in the hotel, no one dared to provoke them.
But naturally, this didn’t apply to creatures other than humans.
Late at night was the time to “party” at the hotel.
Both Dong Zhi and Liu Qingbo chose rooms with balconies by the swimming pool. As a result, they heard laughter and splashing from it in the middle of the night. It was so noisy that Liu Qingbo ran to the balcony and shouted, “Shut up”. It did stop for a while, but just as he was about to lie down, the sound of laughter rang out again. The hotel had been chartered off by the organizers, and he didn’t see any figures around the pool. It was so late that there couldn’t possibly be anyone having a party there.
If this was an ordinary person, most likely they would have been scared to death and perhaps it would even leave a psychological shadow on the city of Los Angeles on them.
However, this time it was the turn of those unlucky unknown creatures.
The British, who were staying on the 7th floor, threw a few crosses down, which quieted the pool for half an hour before it resumed back to its old state.
The Japanese onmyouji, who stayed on the 4th floor, released several shikigamis, who ran all over the pool and fought against those unknown creatures. The results were even more noise, which attracted the dissatisfaction of all the guests, forcing the onmyoujis to retract their shikigamis.
Finally, the Americans who stayed on the 10th floor fired a few shots into the pool. After some screams, most of the night resumed its peacefulness.
Dong Zhi heard that their bullets were special. It had some exorcism materials added to it, but the formula was confidential. The Americans had never disclosed it to the public, but they had been at the forefront of the world in research on the combination of high-tech and spiritual magic.
Dong Zhi and Liu Qingbo had no intention of being in the limelight. Thanks to the Americans, they had a good night’s sleep. Early the next morning, Yang Shouyi, Li Han’er, and the others looked a bit weak. After asking, they found that they had spent the night feeling like they were inside an American blockbuster.
While the swimming pool stopped, other places didn’t.
When Yang Shouyi took a bath, he released a tank full of blood. He let the water drain without any change in his expression and decided to take a shower instead. When he was halfway through the shower, the water in the shower head started to turn into sticky blood. A woman appeared in the mirror with a hideous face and wanted to pounce on him. As a result, Yang Shouyi had put his sword by the sink. The murderous aura from the ancient sword suppressed the evil spirit in the mirror, so it didn’t make a move.
“After washing for half a day, I still feel the bloody smell on my body!” During breakfast, when everyone was talking about last night’s experience, Yang Shouyi couldn’t help but complain. He was a bit of a clean freak. Later, he had to light sandalwood in the room to suppress the smell of blood.
Dong Zhi asked, “Then how did you solve it later? Did you just kill her?”
Yang Shouyi: “No, she found she couldn’t do anything to me, so she changed from being fierce to sobbing. She told me a lot of things, like how she died tragically and wanted to find vengeance. You know my English isn’t good. After listening for a long time, I couldn’t understand, so I told her to go to the 7th floor to find the British. I told her they would understand her, so she happily left.”
Pfft!
Zhang Song spurted out a mouthful of coffee.
Liu Qingbo, who was sitting opposite him: ……
Although Zhang Song lowered his head in time, the coffee still splashed on the cup and plate in front of Liu Qingbo.
“Zhang Song, are you crazy?! How can people eat this!” Liu Qingbo said angrily.
“Calm down, calm down. The image of our country!” Dong Zhi suppressed his smile, but his shoulders kept shaking. It wasn’t because Zhang Song sprayed coffee, but rather because of what Yang Shouyi just said. “Lao Yang, you’re quite good. It seems those British people didn’t get a good night’s sleep. Liu Si, Daoist Li, did you guys encounter anything?”
Liu Si smiled and said, “Those things probably sensed that I’m not human, so they didn’t bother me.”
Li Han’er said lightly, “I seemed to have encountered a pervert who was peeping at me while I was taking a bath and changing clothes. I directly sent them to see their God with a talisman.”
Zhang Song yawned. He didn’t get much sleep last night. The main reason was because there was a ping-pong noise coming from upstairs. He didn’t know if the Americans were fighting evil spirits or if the evil spirits were having a party.
While they were chatting, a group of people came up to them. Grace, the familiar red-haired woman, was part of the group.
They looked at Dong Zhi. The British all looked tired, with dark circles under their eyes. Dong Zhi’s group didn’t have to think about it. They knew that the British had encountered much more noise and trouble last night than them.
Just as Grace and the others passed by, Liu Qingbo suddenly sneered. “Some people didn’t sleep well last night. Don’t worry, they will definitely sleep worse in the next few days!”
Grace stopped suddenly. Her hand suddenly grabbed the back of Liu Qingbo’s neck. She moved so fast that almost no one could see clearly. Only Dong Zhi, who was closest, saw that her nails were long, like a sharp blade. Because of the speed, the air around it ignited traces of white smoke.
However, since Liu Qingbo dared to curse, naturally he was prepared. He dodged to the side abruptly, casually pulled off the tablecloth, and shook his wrist. All the cups and plates on the table were lifted up and dumped towards Grace!
Dong Zhi’s sunlight talisman and Li Han’er’s talisman shot almost at the same time. The two talisman fires pounced on Grace head-on. While she kept attacking Liu Qingbo, she stretched out her hand to wave away the two talisman fires. Who knew that there was something hidden in the talisman fire? The moment she touched it, it exploded with a bang. Grace screamed in pain as the cups and plates immediately smashed into her face, causing her to fall to the floor.
Grace’s companions were about to take action when they saw this, but the man who looked like their captain of their group acted.
“Stop!”
In the restaurant, the other teams came around.
The Russians were the first to speak up. “We all saw it. That British woman moved first!”
“Yes, that British woman!”
Dong Zhi jumped ahead and said, “Did you hear that? It was your companion who attacked mine first. If he hadn’t reacted quickly, he would have been injured just now! First the incident from yesterday, and now this? Are you guys trying to finish us off early to win the competition? Sorry, you might lose a couple of your team members to achieve your goal!”
The captain of the other party’s face turned blue for a while. Yesterday there were a few witnesses, and most of them were French. They still had room to clear suspicion. Today, they did it in full view of the public. In any case, their actions couldn’t be justified. He knew Grace despised the Chinese because of her sister’s death, but he also warned her not to act on personal matters; he didn’t expect that she couldn’t restrain herself.
“Grace, apologize!”
Hearing her captain say this, Grace still had a cold face. “I won’t! I wish I could send all these yellow-skinned pigs to hell! They shouldn’t exist on this earth!”
Liu Qingbo sneered. “How terrible. Not only is she a racist, but she also wants to commit genocide!”
The captain of the British team took a deep breath and asked his companions to forcibly pull Grace away. He then said to Dong Zhi’s group, “Sorry. Our teammate is too impulsive and can’t control her emotions. We will reconsider letting her continue to participate in the competition!”
Liu Qingbo sneered. “You must let her continue. Otherwise, we won’t have a chance to teach her another lesson!”
The other party was obviously much calmer and smarter than Grace. He still apologized politely, expressed his willingness to compensate for all the losses caused in the restaurant, and asked people to bring injury medication to Dong Zhi. In fact, no one was injured on Dong Zhi’s side, while Grace was burned by two talismans just now. Her arm was still bleeding when she was pulled away.
Seeing as there was no more excitement to watch, the people around dispersed one after another. Dong Zhi couldn’t continue to be aggressive. Otherwise, public opinion on them would reverse.
“After all, this is a personal vendetta. We understand it, but we also hope that this kind of personal behavior ends with her. This is an exchange conference to foster friendship, so there should be fair competition in the arena, don’t you think?” Dong Zhi said.
The other party smiled and took the initiative to extend his hand. “Of course. We’re determined to stop Grace’s behavior. My name is White. It’s nice to meet you.”
Dong Zhi shook hands with him. “I’m Dong. This is twice now that Grace has crossed with us. I hope you understand that there won’t be a third time. My companion has a bad temper. Grace might die next time. As captain of your team, I don’t think you want this to happen.”
“You’re right. Leave it to me to solve the matter with Grace. I hope this will not affect the friendship between our two countries or teams.” White was cultured. He didn’t get angry when he heard this kind of provocation. It could be seen that he was quite shrewd.
Dong Zhi smiled at him. “Of course!”
Onlookers expressed disappointment that the opening scene of guns and fires ended peacefully. Many of them wished that the two sides would fight and directly eliminate each other from the competition so there would be fewer competitors.
Everyone had just eaten half their breakfast, so they had to change tables after the mess. Liu Qingbo said in a bad tone, “Captain, who did you say has a bad temper?”
Isn’t it you? Dong Zhi thought to himself but said, “Naturally, it’s me!”
Young Master Liu couldn’t respond to such an answer.
Looking at the hot quiche and milk that were remade and served, Dong Zhi smiled and said, “I can finally have a healthy meal!”
The author has something to say:
A small theater that has nothing to do with the text:
The complaints of the Evil Spirits of the hotel.
Evil Spirit A: Yesterday, I met a group of people who came to stay at the hotel. Oh, I have never seen anything so terrifying. My buddy just peeked at an Eastern woman taking a bath and he was beaten and sent directly to hell!
Evil Spirit B: Who asked you to provoke the Easterners? They don’t understand English, so I went to play with the British last night, hehehe.
Kinky Thoughts:
For all you interested in Greek mythology. What sparked the Trojan War was the golden apple. As the three goddesses fought for the golden apple, Zeus delegated it to Paris to judge who among the three was the fairest/most beautiful. Each goddess tried to bribe Paris by giving him a gift in exchange for awarding it to them. Hera offered to make him king of Europe and Asia Minor, Athena offered him wisdom and skill in battle, and Aphrodite offered the love of the most beautiful woman, Helen of Sparta, who was already married to King Menelaus.
Paris chose Aphrodite, a decision that sparked the Trojan War and eventually led to the destruction of Troy and Paris.
Man, this makes me want to reread the Iliad again.
Given that the golden apple often represents discord, there’s a lot of symbolism here if this is truly the prop the teams are fighting for.It seems to me like they’re staying at the hotel in The Shining.
Lu Xiaohe showed them the analysis report. Today, she was wearing a t-shirt that said [Community Animal Land*].
*It’s a homonym for the idiom “put yourself in (other people’s shoes)” (设身处地), which means empathize with other people’s situation.
“The physical manifestation of the mark is similar to that of an indentation, which is why Xiao Zhong could observe it with the naked eye. As for the cause, it’s most likely the effect of anomalous phenomena… As for the meaning of the mark itself, there’s no record of it in Shian’s database.”
Yin Ren also didn’t recognize the mark. It was rare that his expression was as serious as Zhong Chengshuo’s—as long as he didn’t have to fight with Excel, he was willing to listen to whatever Lu Xiaohe said.
Zhong Chengshuo spoke with resignation. “If only there were a few more observers. Lu Jie, does your drone have a camera function?”
“No,” Lu Xiaohe said. “Even if there is, it’s unlikely Shian will let me use it.”
“Why?”
“Some concepts are quite important. As a veteran employee, it’s necessary for me to emphasize this with you two. Do you know why the rear command must be a science post?”
Yin Ren meekly shook his head.
Thousands of years ago, mortals were more or less superstitious. There were very few people like the “science post”, let alone forming a large organization. To him, every rule of the science post was brand new.
Zhong Chengshuo answered as if he were reacting to something. “In order to stay as sober and objective as possible?”
“Correct.” Lu Xiaohe put away her smile, and her expression became serious.
“As the rear commander, I cannot access conventional visual and auditory information. In my case, they will be converted into infrared imaging, data text, or waveforms. Coupled with the innate resistance of the science post, this will block ‘unknown influences’ to the max.”
Zhong Chengshuo remained silent.
Lu Xiaohe normally acted casually. However, in an actual situation, data, text, charts, and images would flood in over a short period of time. To make an accurate judgment, the rear commander had to have strong computing power, concentration, and excellent reaction speed.
This job really wasn’t something a newcomer could do.
Lu Xiaohe continued, “In case the field science post loses their judgment for various reasons, the rear commander is the last line of defense. Once the rear commander also falls…”
She didn’t continue, but both of them understood. If the last line of defense also collapsed, the field team would be in dire straits.
“Well, that’s the gist.” Lu Xiaohe clapped her hands. “And Xiao Zhong, I heard people say you seem to be quite reckless all the time, eh?”
Zhong Chengshuo: “Uh…”
“This is the second point I want to make. Your indicators are very good, but don’t think you’re absolutely safe from anomalies.”
Zhong Chengshuo sat upright with his knees together, pretending to be listening attentively. With interest, Yin Ren drew his feet together and slid closer with his swivel chair.
Lu Xiaohe: “The principle of this thing isn’t easy to explain, so let me give you an analogy.”
“You can think of everyone as a computer, and your thinking patterns as the system. In this way, ‘non-science posts’ and ‘science posts’ are two types of systems. Do you get it?”
Zhong Chengshuo: “Yes.”
Yin Ren: “Uh… Yes.” He actually couldn’t quite wrap his head around the concept, so he felt a bit guilty.
Lu Xiaohe nodded. “The ‘influence of unknown phenomena’ can be compared to a pile of data—for some systems, it’s equivalent to a computer virus, which can damage or paralyze the system; but for incompatible systems, it’s just junk data and won’t cause much damage.”
“Of course, everyone sees the world differently. The ‘two major systems’ are only roughly divided. In actual situations, everyone is affected to different degrees.”
“But Zhong Ge’s indicators are top-notch,” Yin Ren interrupted.
As long as he was proactive enough, no one could tell whether he really understood or not, Lord Ghost King thought confidently.
Lu Xiaohe rubbed her face and smiled gloomily. “It’s true that Xiao Zhong brand computer will not be affected by the virus at all, but if it were smashed by a mallet, thrown into the bottom of the river, burned into pieces… Do you think this computer can still turn on?”
Zhong Chengshuo, Yin Ren: “……”
“Listen, according to Shian’s records, even in abnormal cases, more than 90% of them have living people intervening behind the scenes.”
“It’s true that Xiao Zhong won’t be possessed by evil spirits, but he could also be attacked by villains with ulterior motives. The number of records of people harming people is tens of millions of times more than that of evil things harming people… I know he’s young and strong and can fight, but what about this?”
Lu Xiaohe stretched out her right hand and made a gun gesture. The “gun muzzle” was pointed directly at the spot right in the middle between Zhong Chengshuo’s brows.
“Bang!” She mouthed the word.
Zhong Chengshuo leaned back cooperatively. “I’m dead.”
Lu Xiaohe: “See?”
Yin Ren: “……” Is this guy still a kid? How enthusiastic.
Yin Ren changed the subject. “Xiaohe Jie, how are your indicators?”
“Well, it’s barely in the upper middle level. So, about average.” Lu Xiaohe scratched her head and resumed her lively tone. “I used to burn incense and pray for luck before my entrance exam, so I don’t have a steel will like Xiao Zhong.”
“Isn’t this job quite troublesome for you?” Yin Ren was a little confused.
Regardless of the intensity of work, Lu Xiaohe had limited mobility, so it was difficult for her to escape if she encountered danger. She wasn’t as durable as Zhong Chengshuo either, so the possibility of her being affected by anomalies was higher.
If she wasn’t careful, she would lose her life.
Lu Xiaohe answered straightforwardly. “Shian has a high salary, and it’s close to my home. I need a lot of money.”
Zhong Chengshuo: “Why?”
“Xiao Zhong, this is private. You shouldn’t just ask so casually.” Lu Xiaohe gave him a sideways glance. “Forget it. We’re in the same boat, so it’s best we get to know each other.”
She moved her gaze back to the complicated operating table.
“It’s not a profound reason. My mother is ill, and I just want her to live better. Because of this, I also… believe in it a little. I want to believe that there’s something after death.”
……
When it was almost time for them to get off work, Zhong Chengshuo’s phone vibrated. Seeing the name “Sun Qinghui” on the notification, Yin Ren’s hair almost exploded.
However, when the call was connected, Officer Sun’s voice was like heavenly music.
Sun Qinghui: “It’s the weekend. Let’s have a meal together after you get off work. My treat.”
Zhong Chengshuo quickly glanced at Yin Ren. “Uncle Sun doesn’t need to. We can pay for ourselves.”
Sun Qinghui picked a Sichuan restaurant close to Shian.
The decoration of the restaurant was a bit old-fashioned. It focused on Jianghu cuisine, which attracted mostly middle-aged and elderly people in the neighborhood. Sun Qinghui wore the same black leather jacket as usual. When he saw the two people enter, a smile appeared on his straight face, and his brows relaxed quite a bit.
Like Liang Shan, Officer Sun also booked a private room in advance.
“Hope you’re hungry. The food here is great. It’s the weekend, so it’s time for rest and relaxation.” Though Sun Qinghui said this, he didn’t order any alcoholic beverages for himself but instead stuck with cans of coconut juice.
Zhong Chengshuo was holding a menu in his hand, but his mind wasn’t on ordering food. “Uncle Sun, have you found anything yet?”
“Hey, so quick? Let’s chat while we eat.” Sun Qinghui checked the fresh pepper chicken. “Don’t be nervous. I’m not here to have a meeting with you two. I just want to hear Shian’s opinion.”
“Shian submits case analysis reports regularly,” Zhong Chengshuo said suspiciously.
Sun Qinghui chuckled. “Reading reports is different from chatting with living people. Don’t worry. You two have authority, so don’t stress about breaking the rules.”
Yin Ren, who was sitting next to Zhong Chengshuo, was busy ordering a few more dishes—he was witnessing a Hongmen Banquet* while discovering new dishes! Lord Ghost King was crying tears of joy and pain.
*It’s a metaphor nowadays used to describe superficially inviting someone to a meal, but the host has some ulterior motives. It comes from the historical event of the Hongmen Banquet where Xiang Yu tried to have his rival Liu Bang killed during a feast. || In this context he’s happy because he gets to try new food but in pain because Sun Qinghui’s invitation to a meal was all a ruse to discuss work (which he hates).
The restaurant quickly served their orders. All kinds of small pots and plates were quickly filled in front of the three of them.
The duck blood was steaming hot, the fatty intestines and taro chicken were dyed bright with red oil, and the boiled pork slices were sizzling in the heat. Classic laziji, twice-cooked pork, and other Sichuan dishes weren’t missing; they filled up the entire large table.
Sun Qinghui’s eyes almost popped out when he saw all the dishes that could feed up to 10 people.
He resisted the urge to delve deeper into the matter and said, “Do you have any ideas about this case?”
Zhong Chengshuo: “At the time of the crime, in addition to Wu Tao, who’s deceased, and Wu Pengpeng, there should be two more people at the scene. One of the two is a woman, but we haven’t determined the relationship between these two people.”
“I see. Good points. We also thought this too. The ‘target woman’ who was attacked by Wu Tao is somewhat suspicious, but it’s difficult to dismember an adult male in such a short period of time if she was alone.”
Officer Sun’s thinking was obviously more logical.
“On the other hand, we also visited all of Wu Tao’s enemies. They either have an alibi or didn’t meet the conditions to commit the crime. However, during the investigation process, we found some clues about the ‘target woman’, but we haven’t conducted an in-depth investigation… Ah, let me tell you first.”
Zhong Chengshuo paused the motion of his chopsticks. “What clue?”
Yin Ren, who was gnawing on a bone in his hand, also slowed down.
“Wu Tao sometimes publishes women’s private information on a hidden forum.”
When he said this, the corner of Sun Qinghui’s mouth slightly frowned, and the disgust on his face couldn’t be concealed.
“He’s very cunning. He only goes to that forum at internet cafes and always uses other people’s ID to register. If it weren’t for us carefully checking surveillance and internet records, we would have probably missed this… Here, take a look, you two.”
Sun Qinghui took out his phone and handed it to them.
Wu Tao’s ID on the forum was “Emperor Wanxing”. He was very active in this hidden forum that was called “The Emperor” by others.
He posted photos and short videos of women, mostly with their faces exposed. They were young and looked confused, some delirious, and the surrounding environment was dirty and dim.
Just a few days before he was killed, Wu Tao was still interacting with people on the forum.
On July 8th, he replied to a photo in a post called “Haigu Women Appreciation”, with the comment: [Look, dear friends. What score would you give her?]
The photo was taken from a candid perspective and was very blurry. Many people clamored that they couldn’t see it clearly, so they asked him for more “HD uncensored”.
That night, Wu Tao posted a few more photos. The photos were still from candid angles, without a clear picture of the girl’s face. Only a tiny bit could be seen.
The following reply was as unsightly as expected.
[New harem? When will you be spoiled?] [It’s alright, but tender enough, junior high maybe high school.] [Your Majesty, get it done soon and share more. A good man lives a safe life.]…
Zhong Chengshuo furrowed his brows while Yin Ren slowly put down his hand and scratched the meat bones. For the first time after waking up, Yin Ren suddenly lost his appetite.
The girl in that group of photos was less than 1.6 meters tall, with shoulder-length hair and a thin body. Her face was beautiful and dainty, with a pair of phoenix eyes that didn’t look too bright.
The clothes she was wearing didn’t look like they fit her, and she lacked youthful vigor between her brows. It looked as if she suffered a lot.
“Our comrades from the anti-pornography and anti-illegal activities department are following up on that forum. We also found the internet café registration of the little girl in the photos.”
Sun Qinghui took back his phone and looked for something for a while before handing it over again.
“According to the background of the photo, it was located in a small internet café on Wanxing Road. The internet café owner had some impressions of her, but unfortunately, the ID card she used wasn’t her own.”
According to the ID number, the police found the information of the relevant person…
Ge Jiaojiao, 19 years old. Born in Gejazhuang, Shouguan County, Haigu.
In the photo of Ge Jiaojiao, she had a long face and a large mole on her chin. Her appearance was about half as similar to the girl in question, but it was obvious they weren’t the same person.
“Can you contact Ge Jiaojiao?”
“It took a lot of effort, but we did. This Ge Jiaojiao is working in Province F. She hasn’t returned to Haigu in over three years. She said she had lost her ID once.”
Sun Qinghui scratched his head, looking a little uncomfortable.
“Ge Jiaojiao’s parents passed away more than ten years ago. Her family lives on subsidies, and only her grandmother and younger sister are left.”
Yin Ren took the initiative and inquired, “Sister?”
“Yes, named Ge Tingting, from listen obediently1. She said her parents wanted to name her Ge Tingting2, but they had a heavy accent and were illiterate, so they registered her name wrong.” Officer Sun forced a smile. “Although the evidence isn’t sufficient, Wu Tao’s target was most likely Ge Tingting.”
1Her name [Tīngtīng] (听听) derives from listen obediently (听话的听). 2Clarity: Her parents actually wanted to name her [Tíngtíng] (婷婷) which means graceful. Since her parents had heavy accents (the first and second Tingting have different accent marks in them) and were illiterate, they registered her name as [Tīngtīng] (听听) instead of [Tíngtíng] (婷婷).
“I see. We’ll also pay attention to this person.”
“Our people are already looking for her. It stands to reason that this child shouldn’t be difficult to find.”
Sun Qinghui sighed heavily. “Ge Tingting is actually only 16 years old, with only a middle school education… and she’s deaf and mute.”
……
The next day, the two ushered in their first weekend after entering Shian.
Zhong Chengshuo was busy in the kitchen, as there were, in a rare event, leftovers heating in the pan.
“It’s surprising you didn’t finish eating everything.” Zhong Chengshuo served the laziji as he glanced at Yin Ren on the sofa.
Lord Ghost King glanced back at him. “I felt like vomiting after seeing all those disgusting people.”
“Oh.” Zhong Chengshuo thoughtfully looked at Yin Ren for a while, then turned back to the kitchen. “As far as finding someone, the police are more authoritative than Shian. Don’t worry too much about it.”
“I know. Sun Qinghui is a good policeman.”
Yin Ren was able to “see” this in a literal sense based on the righteous aura around Officer Sun.
Smelling the aroma of food, Yin Ren rolled in a half circle around the sofa, changed to a lying position, and continued to watch his show on the tablet—Zhong Chengshuo had completely given up on the idea of taking back his tablet, and silently bought a new one.
“What are your plans for today?”
Zhong Chengshuo: “Eight hours of sleep, five hours of reading, three hours of entertainment, three hours of housework, two hours of exercise, two hours of cooking, and one hour of laundry. How about you?”
Yin Ren: “……”
Yin Ren: “…I plan to lie down all day.”
Originally, he wanted to ask this person to go out for a stroll so he could get a feel of the city in a new era, but after hearing Zhong Chengshuo’s terrifying arrangement, Yin Ren decided to reconsider.
“Three hours of entertainment.” He tried to pick the least scary part. “What entertainment?”
Zhong Chengshuo paused his movement of serving rice. “I’m going to play a game. Do you want to join me?”
“Yes!!!” Yin Ren let go of the tablet and did a kip-up on the spot.
After their meal, Zhong Chengshuo struggled for a bit before handing Yin Ren a controller. Yin Ren sat on the soft cushion as he excitedly pressed it.
It wasn’t like he hadn’t played simple mobile games, but this was Zhong Chengshuo’s collection, so the play style should be more interesting than those small games.
Zhong Chengshuo pulled over a cushion and sat next to Yin Ren after finishing his struggle.
It didn’t take long for a movie-like picture to appear on the big screen. The antiquate Yin Ren exclaimed loudly, clucking with excitement.
“This game is called <It Takes Two>, and it requires two people to play,” Zhong Chengshuo explained patiently. “It’s a cooperative game, which is good for us to work on our teamwork and understand each other better.”
Yin Ren stared at him suspiciously.
“…Also, I didn’t have someone to play with before,” Zhong Chengshuo looked away as he added solemnly.
To Yin Ren’s surprise, the game style was quite childlike but interesting. He thought Zhong Chengshuo would like the style of a scientific disaster movie, but he didn’t expect such a fresh side to this person.
Unfortunately, with Zhong Chengshuo’s explanation, the cute style of the game changed a bit.
“In terms of setting, we’re a couple preparing to divorce, and we have to find love through various levels.”
Zhong Chengshuo said in a serious tone, “Do you want to be the wife or the husband?”
Yin Ren: “…You mean which one to ‘choose’? Why not choose the one with glasses? It’s easier to recognize.”
“Okay, then you’re the husband.”
“Partner. Partner is fine. No need to stick too closely to the setting.”
“Okay.”
The game started.
Even when it came to entertainment, Zhong Chengshuo’s expression was still unusually serious. He sat cross-legged, motionless. If it weren’t for the controller in his hand, this person would look like a monk meditating in a temple.
Yin Ren was different—this was the first time he came into contact with a large-scale game. Lord Ghost King was extremely excited.
“Is this ability real?” He clenched the controller tightly, and his body staggered with his character’s movements. “Can a fuse really run away with long legs? …Ah, what does this prompt mean?”
Zhong Chengshuo tilted his body and stretched out his hand. “Press this button.”
“You pulled my hair,” Yin Ren hissed.
“Sorry.”
……
Except for the initial hiccup, the cooperation between the two was quite good. Since they needed to work together, the room was livelier than usual with dialogue.
Yin Ren had to admit that he hadn’t been this happy for a long time. Even Zhong Chengshuo’s brows were stretched out, and a faint smile hung on his face.
During the game, Yin Ren peeked at the bookcase filled with games and wished he could stick himself there seven days a week. This kid, Zhong Chengshuo, seemed quite ascetic, but he seemed to enjoy it a lot.
Time seemed to disappear in an instant. When Zhong Chengshuo stopped, Yin Ren hadn’t even reacted.
“It’s already three hours?” Yin Ren looked at the sky in shock.
“Yes, I have to go clean.”
“But where in this room is it dirty?” Yin Ren continued in surprise. Zhong Chengshuo would simply clean up every day. In his opinion, their residence could be photographed right now and be an illustration in a magazine.
“Potted plants have to be maintained, the floors have to be mopped, and the bathroom and kitchen have to be cleaned carefully.” Zhong Chengshuo had already started wiping down the controllers and the game console. “There’s still a lot to be done, such as the carpets, towels, and the like. The mites need to be removed…”
Back in the day, Yin Ren would casually lay down in the wilderness or on mountains of corpses or a pool of blood, so hearing this made him at a loss—before hearing what Zhong Chengshuo said, he had never considered the existence of such a problem as ‘removing mites’.
Speaking of which, what was a ‘mite’? Sure enough, he still had many things he needed to learn.
Yin Ren nestled back on the sofa. “Continue tomorrow?” He really liked these new toys called “games” very much.
“Okay. I’ll play for another three hours tomorrow.”
“Are the ones in your bookshelf all fun? I didn’t know you had this kind of hobby.”
“Well, they’re all kind of similar games.”
Zhong Chengshuo slowly closed the cabinet.
“Choose an identity, go on an adventure, and finally get an answer. They have fixed goals and endings and are more likely to bring satisfaction than the uncertainty of reality.”
“Fixed goals and endings…”
Yin Ren stretched out on the sofa and narrowed his eyes. The afterglow of the setting sun poured diagonally into the window and trickled down from the ceiling, causing the walls to reflect a faint golden red.
“I thought people didn’t like things like ‘destiny’,” he murmured softly.
“What did you say?” Zhong Chengshuo looked up when he heard Yin Ren’s voice. He was busy tinkering with the vacuum cleaner, so the room was full of mechanical rumbling.
“…Nothing.” Yin Ren picked up the tablet again. He touched the fried chicken box on the table, grabbed a drumstick, and bit into it as he replied vaguely.
……
In the corner of the city, a narrow, dark internet café.
A girl sneaked back into the cubicle. She ducked down and took out a small, braised chicken leg from a plastic bag and two pieces of bread.
“I’ve tasted it. The chicken’s a bit sour, but it can still be eaten,” she whispered, carefully tearing off the meat from the bone and stuffing it into the dried bread. “Let’s make do. We have to keep up our strength.”
“I’m sorry.”
The girl didn’t raise her head. “There’s nothing to be sorry for.”
“……”
“Okay, hurry up and eat.”
“I never thought we would run out of money so quickly. If I had known, we should have taken those things…”
“Shhh.” The girl glared at the other. “It’s not right to take it. Trust me.”
“…I see. I’ll listen to you.”
“Don’t worry. I’ll help you,” the girl said. “Didn’t we agree that I’ll help you to the end?”
“Thank you.”
“What’s all that noise?!” There was a loud shout from not far away. “You’re annoying me with all your gibberish! Fucking creepy!”
Soon a clerk came running over. “What’s wrong, brother? What happened?”
“The two of them!” The young man who scolded them stood up and spat. “Why did you let psychos in here? Do you know how to do business?”
“This… Haa, how about I give you a bottle of coke? Don’t worry about them.”
“Not worry? Listen, they’re saying weird shit again! Listen to it yourself. Isn’t it creepy?”
The girl looked coldly at the young man. She turned to her companion, slightly moved her lips, and softly uttered some words.
“Don’t worry. It’ll be fine,” she whispered.
“Burn the meat to death and seize the oil from the mud,” they heard her say.
“Did you hear that? Those two have been like this all this time. The stuff they say is all full of crazy nonsense.” The young man pointed to the girl’s nose. “They might have escaped from a mental hospital. You may not care, but I’m going to call the police.”
He even dialed 110 on the interface and deliberately shook the phone in front of the girl.
The girl stood up silently and bowed her head at the young man. She raised her hand and showed her phone screen, which had a line typed on it.
[Sorry for disturbing you.]
“Tch, can’t even open your mouth to apologize.” The young man rolled his eyes and sat back down while muttering.
The girl’s shirt was loose. When she bowed her head, the collar slid down slightly, revealing a little dark mark below her collarbone, like the corner of some kind of mark.
The author has something to say:
There is a part in here that makes me uncomfortable. I hope that all Wu Tao throughout the world is cleaned up as soon as possible.
——————
Xiao Zhong and Xiao Yin are playing <It Takes Two>, a very cute game.
Because of the same reason as Xiao Zhong, I haven’t played it yet…_(:з”∠)_
Lin Chen was stunned for a moment until the anxious shout of Xing Conglian on the other end brought him back.
“Nothing. I just saw an acquaintance,” he replied as he looked at the straight and meticulous figure in the lobby.
“Who?” After asking this question, Xing Conglian paused.
Judging from Xing Conglian’s reaction, Lin Chen probably knew who Xing Conglian had guessed, but he still answered, “Huang Ze.”
“Who?” Xing Conglian raised his voice.
“Huang Ze.”
It was the grand opening of his family’s landmark building, so it was reasonable for Inspector Huang to be present.
On the other end of the phone, Wang Chao hurriedly shouted, “Damn it, A’Chen don’t greet that dumbass Huang Ze. His stupidity is contagious!”
But Lin Chen didn’t have time to reply.
On the stage below, the general manager of Ansheng International put down his phone and walked on stage. The man had the iconic look of a typical middle-aged man, with a beer belly and signs of balding. Lin Chen wasn’t sure if this was the manager the director of the police station in the CBD area communicated with, but judging by how the other party was acting, he was obviously obsessed with completing the opening ceremony.
Huang Ze sat at the bottom of the stage with his usual arrogant and indifferent face, seemingly like he was reluctant to be here. Of course, it was also possible that the surroundings were too noisy and the air too dirty, which displeased the young master.
“Welcome to the opening ceremony for Ansheng International Mall. I am Huang Wei. Today, we are extremely honored that our special guests and fans have attended. Please allow me to express my warm welcome and heartfelt thanks to everyone!”
Mr. Manager’s lines were truly short, which was followed by a round of loud applause from the audience. He subconsciously glanced in the direction where Huang Ze was sitting and then made a quiet gesture and said, “In order to repay you for your love, our shopping mall will strengthen management, standardize operations, and strive to make Ansheng International Mall a world-class, influential, elegant, and of course affordable shopping mall. I hope our service will satisfy everyone!”
The applause from the audience became sparse. Although his speech was short, it was so terribly cliché that the onlookers didn’t buy into it.
Seeing this, Mr. Manager looked around and suddenly smiled. Seeing his smile, the surrounding teenage fans seemed to realize something.
He paused again, then suddenly raised his voice. “Finally, once again, thank you all for coming. Let us welcome our Ansheng International Ambassador, Mr. Li Jingtian!”
The lingering sound was still there, echoing through the four walls as it rippled throughout the building.
But in an instant, the scene calmed down.
The girls around the stage seemed to sense something as they all took a nervous breath. Some even closed their eyes, leaving only the sound of electric waves in the air.
A deep male voice emerged from the silence, as if he were singing a song that sounded like black velvet rubbing against the rim of a glass. The sound was moist, and the air was damp and cold, wrapped around a soundtrack that was thin, sounding like hoarse whispers, as if they were in a dark bar and everyone was whispering to each other with wine glasses in their hands, but they were all strangers.
The pushing pressure behind Lin Chen suddenly became lighter, allowing him to stand up straight and listen carefully.
Suddenly, it seemed as if a window was gently pushed open and the sound of singing poured into the room like the tide, soaking every pore in moist sea water. The light shone down from the surface of the water, swelling everything as the sea reflected endless clouds and tree branches shot frantically out of it towards the sky. Everyone was so immersed in the song that suddenly came on that no one noticed someone was slowly stepping onto the stage.
It was an extremely thin-looking man. He was wearing a wide white t-shirt and simple light blue jeans, which was a stark contrast to his harsh and chilling singing just now. His face was soft to the extreme, and his body carried an aura of modesty and calmness, like a sparse wind or gurgling water, or rather, it was apt to describe him as a spring breeze.
Unconsciously, with the singing, Lin Chen felt his mood, which had become irritable due to the surrounding environment, gradually calm down. He looked at the singer, who was controlling the audience on stage and the people mesmerized by him and felt faintly uneasy again.
This was a very strange feeling.
It seemed that there was a dark tide hidden under the calm sea or hail in the spring breeze. Taking advantage of everyone calming down, he took a few steps back and squeezed out from the railing.
“Lin Chen, are you still there?” When he left the crowd, he heard Xing Conglian’s voice again.
“I’m here,” he replied.
“What happened just now. Has Li Jingitan started singing?”
“Yes.”
“Seems like he’s singing well. Has the crowd calmed down?”
“It’s not good, but also very good…” Lin Chen gripped the toothbrush in his pocket. There was no noise around him as all the fans seemed appeased, like a herd that was peacefully dormant.
He didn’t know how to describe his feelings. If it was like usual, he would be silent and observe for a while, but the other party was Xing Conglian, who had told him he could tell him anything and he would always be happy to listen.
“Do you believe in a sixth sense?” Lin Chen turned around and continued looking around at the railings on the fourth floor to find a location with a better perspective.
“Don’t you psychologists say that the sixth sense is the instinctive response of humans when they encounter danger since ancient times? It sounds reasonable…”
“Well, there’s no solid scientific basis to prove this, but my current sixth sense is telling me something will happen.” He thought for a while, then spoke truthfully. “I’m not sure what will go wrong. I don’t have any evidence. This is purely a sixth sense. The only thing I’m sure of is that this sixth sense started when I heard Li Jingtian sing.”
“Speaking of which, it wasn’t this that made you worried about the opening ceremony, so you used the pretext of buying Wang Chao his toothbrush to go to the mall and have a look, right?” Xing Conglian pointed this out mercilessly.
Lin Chen had no choice but to find an excuse. “Well, a more scientific way of putting it would be that my subconsciousness prompted me to come back here again.”
“Then going by what you said, A’Chen, my sixth sense started when I saw that poster?” Wang Chao suddenly inserted himself into their conversation.
“Then my uneasiness…” Xing Conglian suddenly stopped.
“Hm?”
“Then, my uneasiness started from knowing that you were in the mall.”
His voice was so gentle that it caused Lin Chen’s heart to skip a beat.
It was quite ill-timed.
……
Xing Conglian was sitting in front of the computer and found that Lin Chen hadn’t replied. He swept his gaze over the dense flow of people in the mall. Although the mall was crowded, because of the excellent performance of the singer on stage, the crowd had become much quieter.
His gaze then turned to the surveillance video of key passages outside the mall.
It could be seen that the traffic police around the CBD had to rush in for support, and they were able to ease the pressure outside the mall.
The crowd that had encircled the mall was gradually dispersing. Except for some girls in red shirts who still insisted on entering, the situation inside and outside the mall seemed to be moving in a good direction.
Thinking of Lin Chen’s words, he said to the teenager beside him, “Wang Chao, check on this guy, Li Jingtian. Why did the opening ceremony of the mall suddenly flood with so many of his fans?”
“Twitter!”
After a moment of silence, Lin Chen asked, “Do you have any explanations from Director Zheng?”
Although Lin Chen’s tone was calm, Xing Conglian could sense hesitation in his words.
The maintenance of order in public places was obviously not within the purview of the police criminal division. Furthermore, the situation on the scene didn’t show any signs of deterioration. That meant they weren’t in a position to speak, which was why Lin Chen phrased it like so.
“His phone is still busy.” Xing Conglian thought for a moment and then asked Lin Chen, “If there was a problem in this mall, where do you think it will be?”
“In densely populated places, whether it’s a sudden fire or any emergency, the highest fatality rate will be from a stampede…”
“Make an emergency response plan.”
Hearing what Xing Conglian said, Lin Chen suddenly stopped in his tracks. He never expected that Xing Conglian would propose such an emergency plan so simply.
It wouldn’t be out of place if the situation was urgent, but since Li Jingtian appeared on the stage, it seemed as though water had flowed into the magma, and the boiling scene became much calmer. Lin Chen believed that the CBD precinct police wouldn’t make such a judgment given the current situation.
At this time, if a criminal division police captain from a different precinct suddenly ordered an emergency response plan, not only would it look arrogant, but it would also seem superfluous and stupid.
Fortunately, only the three of them knew about this stupidity.
At this moment, Xing Conglian’s phone rang.
“It’s Lao Zheng. Wait a minute,” he said to Lin Chen.
Lin Chen took two steps back and walked to a relatively quiet place. He didn’t know what Director Zheng said to Xing Conglian and only heard Xing Conglian reply, “I suggest you evacuate the crowd as soon as possible, Lao Zheng. In case there’s a stampede, it’s you who will be held responsible. You don’t want to carry this pot for those businessmen, right?”
“How’s the situation now?” Xing Conglian’s voice was a little cold. “It’s okay now, but if it suddenly turns bad, can you control it? Ansheng International Mall has just opened. Have you organized emergency evacuation training for the employees there?”
Anyone who was questioned this way would be angry. Lin Chen guessed that Director Zheng probably hung up quickly after being questioned by Xing Conglian. Soon, Xing Conglian’s voice returned to their line.
No longer seeking his opinion, Xing Conglian said to Wang Chao, “Start estimating the flow of people and the overall load of the mall.”
“Fuck Captain, how can you be so rude? Aren’t you being a little too nosy?” Wang Chao interjected.
This time, Lin Chen didn’t hear any wailing coming from Wang Chao, who quickly silenced himself. Lin Chen thought most likely that his captain’s serious expression must be terrible right now.
“Consultant Lin, I have to trouble you to stay longer until the pressure from the crowd drops to 60%, then I’ll let you know when to leave.”
“No problem.” Lin Chen paused, then said, “Can you have Wang Chao tell me where the best view is or where the blind spots are? I’ll go and fill in that position.”
When he received a call from Xing Conglian, Lin Chen was squatting in front of a shelf, staring at an entire row of toothbrushes.
There seemed to be a DJ specially tuning music in the hall downstairs, as dance music could be heard. The electronic beats that were mixed with the screams of fans were so imposing that, despite being two floors away, Lin Chen almost couldn’t hear what Xing Conglian was saying on the phone.
“Are you okay?” Xing Conglian’s voice sounded a bit cold.
This shouldn’t be a daily greeting. Lin Chen assumed that Xing Conglian was worried about something bad because of the tone of his voice and the meaning behind his words.
“Yes, for now. Is something wrong?” As Lin Chen replied, he carefully scanned the toothbrushes that were hanging on the shelves.
As expected of Maji, they truly deserved to be the favorite daily necessity brand among the bourgeoisie. Even their toothbrushes were dazzling.
The rows of toothbrush heads in front of him were all different sizes, and they even had distinct softness and hardness on their bristles. He picked up the label of each toothbrush and read it carefully, finding that he was at a loss. Truly Wang Chao was a rising Virgo*, which was quite troublesome.
*Describes people who have a strong ability to appreciate objects and discern subtle objects at a level far beyond what the average person can perceive.
“Here’s the situation. Our colleagues just returned from patrol and heard that the mall crowd exceeded the standard, which could make the situation quite dangerous.”
“I came to the mall twenty minutes ago. Since I walked in, the flow of people hasn’t reached the level of serious overcrowding. I can’t say if it’s a dangerous situation, but there are indeed a lot of people here.”
“Did you see anything suspicious?” Xing Conglian asked.
Hearing this, Lin Chen stood up from the shelf and looked outside the store through the floor-to-ceiling windows.
From his position, he could see a lot of people surrounding the handrails of the corridors on the third floor. There seemed to be a steady stream of people walking towards it.
Because there were so many people gathered, they formed a dense human wall. His sight was completely blocked by this wall, so he could only vaguely see the green canopy on top of the coconut tree in the hall on the first floor.
Looking at what was hanging under the canopy, he said, “There’s a problem.”
“What?” Xing Conglian’s voice sank.
“Hand Wang Chao the phone first.”
After he finished speaking, he heard silence on the other end, then the sound of the phone being handed over. “A’Chen, are you okay?” Wang Chao’s voice was even more serious than Xing Conglian’s. “You must tell me if anything’s wrong, and I’ll help you!”
“I’m fine. I just want to ask you, what model of toothbrush do you want, and what are the requirements for the hardness of the bristles?”
“Ahhhh! How can you still care about this?!” Wang Chao shouted.
Lin Chen squatted down and said to the teenager, “Well I would feel that it was pointless if I went through all this trouble and didn’t buy the right toothbrush.”
“Size S, medium hardness,” the other end replied.
After Wang Chao finished speaking, he let out another cry. It was obvious that he had been “educated” by Xing Conglian again.
Lin Chen plucked through the row of toothbrushes, then picked the one that Wang Chao designated and asked another question, “Are there any requirements for the color?”
“Indigo! Indigo!”
Sure enough, he guessed it right.
He looked at the indigo toothbrush in his hand, turned around, and walked towards the cashier. “Okay, don’t return the phone to your captain just yet. I have something to ask you. What did you say to the police chief yesterday?”
“Captain, did you hear? A’Chen asked me to answer something. Let go!” Wang Chao shouted on the phone. Lin Chen could hear a few running steps, as if he were avoiding Xing Conglian, and then he heard a gasp before a loud reply came through, “You mean Director Zheng? Director Zheng is very nice. He said he would notify the mall and rectify it immediately. What’s the matter?”
Lin Chen frowned.
He handed the toothbrush to the cashier, who scanned the price tag and said, “Hello sir. Your total is 99 yuan. Thank you.”
What an extravagant child.
Lin Chen took out a 100-yuan bill from his pocket to pay. He watched as the cashier gave him his change, then said to the person on the phone, “I’m afraid the effect of rectification isn’t very good.”
“Why isn’t it good? Didn’t Director Zheng call? Was the poster not taken off?” Wang Chao’s rapid-fire questions emerged again.
Lin Chen took the change handed to him by the cashier and put it in his pocket along with the toothbrush.
He tilted his head slightly and looked once again at the canopy of the giant coconut tree. Several steel wires vaguely passed through the canopy, indicating that there was something under it.
It was a huge poster that stretched across three floors. Lin Chen squinted his eyes and could even recall the face of the singer on the poster. He had many conjectures in his heart as he spoke to the person on the other end of the phone, “I think, maybe for some reason, Director Zheng’s order wasn’t executed immediately.”
There was another struggle for ownership on the other end of the line. After a while, Xing Conglian’s voice came through again. “The poster wasn’t taken off?”
“No.”
While he spoke, there was a dense sound of drums in the hall downstairs. He didn’t know what the host had said or what the people had come to see, but the violent bass sound made his internal organs vibrate.
“I’ll check with Lao Zhang. If you can, try to get out first,” Xing Conglian said.
Lin Chen didn’t answer him.
The glass sliding door automatically slid open as he walked out of the shop. The oncoming people’s voices made him feel that the floor seemed to be shaking. The air seemed to be filled with something boiling, exciting and lively, anxious and irritable. It seemed that the opening ceremony of Ansheng International Mall should have achieved the desired effect.
“Hey, why is it so noisy?”
It wasn’t until he walked out of the Maji shop that Lin Chen discovered that his estimate of the flow of people had deviated.
In fact, he recalled that in order to choose a toothbrush just now, he stayed in the store for more than fifteen minutes. Within these fifteen minutes, because the opening ceremony was approaching, the flow of people in the mall increased at an exponential rate.
“Xing Conglian…”
Lin Chen walked a distance along the hollow corridor and chose a location with a better view.
From where he was standing, the entire four-story hollow corridor surrounding the lobby was packed with people along the handrails. There were only a few spots on the fourth floor that were slightly empty. He couldn’t see the situation in the lobby clearly because he couldn’t reach the handrails. Judging by the constant upward flow of people along the escalator, the situation in the lobby would only get worse.
“I’m here. Tell me.”
“I may not be able to get out for the time being.” He looked at a certain spot in the fourth-floor cloister that had a good view, then said, “I can’t get a handle on the situation in the lobby for now. I need to go upstairs.”
If this were an ordinary person, he would probably say, “Don’t go. It’s too dangerous.” Even Lin Chen heard Wang Chao yelling on the other end of the phone, but Xing Conglian was Xing Conglian after all. He pondered for a bit before replying, “Don’t hang up the phone. Stay safe.”
Lin Chen chuckled almost inaudibly.
He then continued to observe the situation on the scene. The escalator was severely overloaded, and judging by that, the situation at the elevator might be even worse. At this time, the emergency exit was the best choice.
He looked up at the signs and continued forward. “Just in case, please help me bring up a floor plan of the mall first.”
“Already done, A’Chen!” Wang Chao’s brisk voice came through.
Although he couldn’t hear the usual clacking keyboard sound because his surroundings were too noisy, he still imagined it. Just as he was looking at the signs to find a route, Xing Conglian had already thought of this in advance and switched the call to an audio power amplifier.
“Wait a minute. I have to bring up the camera. A’Chen, how much power does your phone still have? If it’s not good, go and buy a portable charger!”
“Don’t be too nervous. Nothing has happened yet…” Lin Chen said calmly. He turned left along the corridor and walked into the emergency exit passage. “And fortunately, I recharged my phone before I went out.”
There were relatively few people in the emergency exit corridor, so the surrounding area instantly quieted.
Lin Chen heard the sound of a tapping keyboard, and it gave him a strange sense of peace. “A’Chen, now’s not the time for jokes!”
“Don’t worry. I’ll be careful.”
Xing Conglian’s voice cut in again. “Consultant Lin, I just talked with Lao Zheng. He said that he had indeed notified the mall and it should be that the mall didn’t rectify in time.”
“How’s the lobby?”
“Judging from the cameras of several channels, the flow of people has indeed exceeded the standard. The wide-angle view of the lobby isn’t clear because the poster covers up the stage. What the hell is with this Li Jingtian? I see a ton of fans wearing uniforms and holding something in their hands.”
“That’s a fan prop for support, Captain!” Wang Chao interrupted.
“I don’t know much about this stuff either. Li Jingtian should be a famous singer, right? Are all the people at the scene fans?”
“Is he holding a concert in Hongjing? Why are there so many people?” Xing Conglian asked.
“I don’t know.”
Lin Chen quickly walked out of the emergency exit corridor and headed to the location he had staked out.
The feeling of his internal organs vibrating came again. As he got closer to the top of the hall, the feeling became more intense. Lin Chen touched his chest and clenched the phone tightly as he squeezed past several people and finally managed to touch the edge of a handrail.
Looking down from the fourth floor, there were densely packed heads as far as the eye could see. A large area around the front stage was surrounded by a barrier, with security guards standing shoulder to shoulder in a full circle outside the barrier. Inside the barrier were full of fangirls in uniform.
The girls had fair faces and were wearing uniformed red dresses. They looked like rose petals that were spreading out in separate layers as they chanted their idol’s name. Because there were so many overlapping voices, all the noise became indistinct on the fourth floor.
Most likely, they were shouting, “Jingtian! Jingtian!”
Due to the crowd inside the barrier being too large, the people outside couldn’t see the performance on the stage clearly, so there was a constant flow of people rushing forward trying to break through the wall of security guards.
“How’s the situation around the stage?” Xing Conglian asked.
“Very bad,” Lin Chen said coldly.
At this moment, the song ended, and the DJ on stage stopped moving as the host took the stage again.
“Is everyone high?!”
“High!” The fans in the audience replied frantically.
“Are you excited?!” The host pointed his microphone in the direction of the audience.
“Yes!” the fans replied in unison.
“Who are you here for today?!”
“Jingitan! Jingtian! Li Jingtian! Ahhhhh!”
The shouts of the girls rang out in unison, causing the transparent roof of the mall to tremble.
“Isn’t this crazy? How many people are here right now?”
The enthusiastic calls from the fans had already reached Xing Conglian’s ear. It seemed that the fans’ crazy voices alone were enough to frighten him.
“It’s hard to estimate. Does Zheng Suo have anything to say?” Lin Chen frowned. He raised his voice and was no longer speaking at a normal volume.
“Lao Zheng said that his men are already outside diverting the flow of people to prevent them from squeezing into the mall.” Xing Conglian paused. “Lao Zheng hung up on me after saying this. He’s probably overwhelmed right now.”
Unknowingly, Xing Conglian’s voice had also become louder, matching Lin Chen’s volume.
“If the police divert the flow of people on the outside and stop them from entering the mall, it will easily cause congestion on the outside, which means the people inside the mall will also be unable to get out, right?” He asked.
“That seems to be the case. Tell me more about the situation.”
Lin Chen could feel that more people were starting to crowd around him. He looked at the hollow cloister around the hall again. The places that were originally empty were now filled with people.
The host was still on stage, firing up the crowd. “I know who you are here for! Tell me, what’s his name again? Say it loudly!”
“Jingtian! Ahhhhhh! Jingtian! Ahhhhhh!”
Just as the girls were shouting, Lin Chen was pushed onto the railing as the people behind him continued to push forward. His upper body had unknowingly leaned out of the railing, which caused him to grip the railing tightly so he wouldn’t lean further forward.
The temperature at the scene became so warm that a thin layer of sweat appeared on the palms of his hands.
“Okay, I hear you. I know who you’re here for: Li Jingitan, right?”
“Yes!!!”
The voice of the host once again suppressed the screams of the crowd. He shouted, “But today, before that person shows up, you still have to give our mall a little time and let us finish the opening ceremony, alright? Answer me loudly!”
“Okay!!!”
The host’s ability to mobilize emotions was truly good. After several back-and-forth questions and answers between him and the girls in the audience, the atmosphere of the scene reached a new level.
When the girls finished shouting, the host held up his hand and made a quiet gesture, then said, “I promise the time we spend will be very short!” After he teased, he suddenly stood up straight and said respectfully, “Next, let us invite Mr. Huang Wei, General Manager of the Ansheng International Mall, to give a speech. Don’t worry, everyone. I have just seen the Boss’ speech. It’s very short!”
He made an invitation gesture to the bottom of the stage after he finished speaking. Following his gesture, Lin Chen saw, in front of the fangirls dressed in red, a row of elites wearing suits and ties. They looked like they were leaders and relevant people on the board of directors of the shopping mall.
Then, it was like a premonition coming true or an inevitability by chance.
Among the elites, he saw a figure in a suit that was very familiar to him.
The sun was setting, making the factory building dimmer. The window behind Peng Ge gradually became stained with night, making the head without any bumps look like an actor dressed up as a monster in a haunted house.
The unrealistic head looked as if it were forcibly connected to a living body.
A twisted smile showing eight teeth was painted on his head, and his moist eyeballs became even more bloodshot.
Peng Ge seemed to want to sit down or throw himself forward. He was swaying back and forth, but unfortunately his feet didn’t seem to work and he was stuck firmly to the ground. He looked like a clown in a box, springing back and forth.
This was something a living person couldn’t do.
“Haha.” He sputtered intermittently. His voice was to the point of almost wailing. “Haha…!”
Seeing this unusual scene, several policemen became nervous, but none of them backed away. They watched with bated breath as Zhong Chengshuo, the “professional,” prepared to rush up and save them if there was any trouble.
Peng Ge swayed and wobbled back and forth until he got within two meters and stopped in his tracks.
He stopped almost face-to-face in front of Zhong Chengshuo, still repeating that sentence over and over again. His voice was high but also low, hoarse, and distorted, like a broken, repeating soundtrack.
“Haha, bitch. You’re here now but want to go back? Haha…”
Zhong Chengshuo remained still. “Actually, I plan to go home after getting off work in half an hour.”
“Also, please don’t swear,” he added belatedly.
Peng Ge: “……”
He stopped raving and his body froze, as if he didn’t know how to react to this.
Yin Ren didn’t hold back and laughed out loud. “Hey, Zhong Ge, what does that person look like in your eyes?”
“In his twenties. Face is pretty bad, looks a bit dehydrated. It’s best to send him to a hospital for rehydration as soon as possible,” Zhong Chengshuo said succinctly, as if he were only speaking facts.
He didn’t seem to see the abnormality on Peng Ge’s face.
At the same time, Lu Xiaohe’s drone popped up. “The concentration of evil qi around the target is 0.24~0.28fR and it’s increasing. There are no signs of evil qi spreading. Preliminarily, it’s judged to be a non-infectious anomaly so personnel from the science post can approach normally.”
As soon as Lu Xiaohe’s voice fell, Zhong Chengshuo’s figure flashed.
Like a panther jumping on its prey, Zhong Chengshuo’s sense of oppression exploded in an instant. He completed a set of attacks within the blink of an eye. After being kicked in the knee, Peng Ge let out a sharp “ha!” sound. The unknown force failed to support his body this time—Zhong Chengshuo took him down and kneeled on both his knees.
Peng Ge squirmed, and his joints twisted and clicked. His head flopped around frantically as he struggled to escape, creating an extremely unsightly scene. Zhong Chengshuo ignored it and just held him firmly in place. Peng Ge was a little over 1.8 meters tall and looked quite strong, yet he didn’t know how Zhong Chengshuo could hold him down with so much force.
Officer Sun spoke up hesitantly. “That man’s face…”
Zhong Chengshuo: “I don’t see anything wrong. If you think something’s off, there may be hallucinogenic gas or mold nearby.”
Officer Sun suddenly reached an epiphany and gave quick instructions. “Go up and help! Listen, the environment is unsanitary, so pay careful attention.”
Two minutes later, all three gangsters were taken to the police car.
Peng Ge was restrained and taken by 120 to Haigu People’s Hospital. It seemed there were people in the hospital who were aware of Shian, as when the medical staff came to pick him up, their expression was unusually calm as they looked at the flat face.
“Send him directly to the security zone.” He ignored Peng Ge, who was frantically struggling, and made a quick decision. After saying this, he also skillfully performed a special disinfection.
When everything was wrapped up, it wasn’t even dark yet.
As Zhong Chengshuo expected, they got off work on time. Yin Ren stopped by and bought some roujiamos recommended by the local ghost. With each holding one, they found a secluded corner on the side of Wanxing Street and ate dinner face-to-face.
The bun was crispy and fragrant, and when the sauce hit the tongue, it burst into a mouthful of flavor. The roujiamo went straight to his belly, causing Yin Ren’s remaining unhappiness to dissipate with the night wind.
He really hadn’t tried this kind of life before. Now he was busy with his work, but he didn’t have to worry about food or clothing, and he even had someone he was close to.
It was quite novel. Lord Ghost King, who remembered eating but not beating, was satisfied and decided to buy two more roujiamos later as a midnight snack.
Since it was a while after dinner time, Zhong Chengshuo was quite hungry and ate faster than usual, which was unusual since he didn’t like this kind of thing. Zhong Chengshuo suddenly froze as he was eating and began to pant quickly.
Lord Ghost King didn’t hold back and smiled gloatingly at him. Zhong Chengshuo glared at him reproachfully and silently turned his back to him.
Yin Ren didn’t mind. “Do you want to eat mung bean shaved ice? It’s just a few steps away, and I heard it’s very healthy.”
Miss Hu Tao sincerely recommended it. She said that she often ate it when she was trying to lose weight. Being a calorie control fanatic, Zhong Chengshuo shouldn’t resist this.
Sure enough, hearing this suggestion, Zhong Chengshuo turned back around. “Okay.”
……
The next day. Haigu People’s Hospital. Shian Area.
After a night of treatment, Orange Head finally regained some sanity. Seeing Yin Ren and Zhong Chengshuo talking at the door, he subconsciously shrank to the corner, but thankfully didn’t try to escape.
Orange Head’s name was Qian Zhicheng. He was nineteen and had just muddled through high school. He currently worked in the back kitchen of a restaurant.
According to Qian Zhicheng, he hadn’t “mixed in with society for long”, and he was still at the initial stage of feeling it was “cool” to be unemployed. He was taken in by Wu Tao and learned many bad things. Now that this kind of thing happened, Qian Zhicheng didn’t even bother to take care of his hair. He let his orange hair stick to his scalp, making him look like a drenched Pomeranian.
“The police just left,” he said timidly.
“The focus of our inquiry is different from that of the police.” Yin Ren gave him a kind smile.
Seeing that beautiful, smiling face, Qian Zhicheng froze for a moment and became a bit tongue-tied. “Ah, okay. You can ask.”
After confirming the question, Qian Zhicheng wrapped himself in a blanket and started to tell the story in a stumbling manner…
On the night of Wu Tao’s death, Qian Zhicheng was indeed in the closed area, but they didn’t act together.
At the time of the incident, Wu Tao only had Peng Ge by his side.
“Peng Ge”, whose real name was Wu Pengpeng, was related by blood. In terms of seniority, he was Wu Tao’s nephew. This pair of uncle and nephew were famous gangsters on Wangxing Street and were considered “partners” in a sense.
“Peng Ge is young, so he’s not as courageous as Tao Ge… Ahem, not as courageous as Wu Tao.” Qian Zhicheng’s face turned bitter. “That night, Wu Tao said he wanted to take Peng Ge to ‘taste some excitement and open his eyes’. He said he had been watching someone who was clean and wasn’t troublesome.”
Yin Ren: “When the two of them left, they didn’t take you?”
“No, he does that often when he goes and does his thing. Wu Tao suspected that we were too young and was afraid that if we were questioned by cops, we would spill everything.”
“What is ‘doing his thing’?”
“I already told… the police! It’s looking for women to play with, but I wasn’t there, so I’m just guessing. I don’t know anything else. I really don’t!”
Qian Zhicheng hesitated and became a little emotional. As if he remembered something, he began to tremble violently again.
“Peng Ge ran back alone in the second half of the night, looking ghastly like that. Who the hell would dare go up and ask questions?! A few of us wanted to run, but no matter where we ran, we would always return to the vicinity of the factory… Thankfully the factory had some food and drinks left, so we stayed there and as far away from him as possible until the police came.”
He scratched his hair hard as his eyes darted around. He started to mumble frantically, “I don’t know anything”, “Why aren’t you afraid” and so on.
If this guy were to see Wu Tao’s death, he might actually collapse on the spot.
“That’s good.” Zhong Chengshuo stood up and said, “Have a good rest and drink plenty of hot water.”
Qian Zhicheng: “?”
Yin Ren knew this person’s “Art of Communication” illness had struck again. He glanced at Qian Zhicheng sympathetically as he dragged Zhong Chengshuo out the ward.
Next door to Qian Zhicheng was “Peng Ge” Wu Pengpeng.
Wu Pengpeng was fixed to a special patient restraint bed. There were several IV bags hanging from the infusion rack around him. In Yin Ren’s eyes, his facial features were still flat, and this “strange disease” seemed to be spreading—Wu Pengpeng’s nails had become flat, like they were painted on his fingertips.
There was a cold-eyed nurse in the ward who had a black seal on her clothes, unlike the other nurses.
“Fifteen minutes.” She waved her hand at them. “This person shows no signs that the evil qi is weakening. He’s very weak and isn’t suitable for long-term inquiries.”
Wu Pengpeng turned his head with difficulty as he tried to move his fingers. “…Ha…”
Zhong Chengshuo: “His literacy?”
“Not normal. Right now, he can’t understand words or drawings, let alone be actively writing.”
The nurse frowned slightly.
“He responds to sounds but will only answer in the same sentence. Be careful, you guys. The patient is emotionally unstable and can’t be stimulated too much.”
She skillfully changed the IV bags and took away the empty bags. Her right ear had a Shian headset, which Yin Ren could hear the call inside: [1103, 1103. Ward 4 Guo Laifu self-harming behavior suddenly appeared. Please deal with it immediately…]
“I’ll leave for a while and come back in fifteen minutes.” The nurse’s eyes were still cold as she pushed away her medical trolley. She left quickly, leaving only the sound of the bedside machine beeping softly. The smell of medicine in the ward had faded a bit.
“I have a few questions I want to ask you. Can you understand what I’m saying?” Zhong Chengshuo opened the notepad app on his phone.
Wu Pengpeng cranked his neck, looking as if he was about to nod, but that movement only turned into a weird twitch in the end. He tried to blink again, but unfortunately, his “flat eyelids” didn’t listen.
“…Ha…Ha…Bitch…” Wu Pengpeng’s voice was full of despair.
Zhong Chengshuo was unmoved by the tragic image. He continued calmly, “It seems that you can still make noise, so one ‘ha’ means yes, and two ‘ha’ means no. Let me ask again, can you understand me?”
Wu Pengpeng: “……”
Wu Pengpeng: “Ha.”
“Are you twelve years old this year?”
“Ha ha.”
“Very good.” Zhong Chengshuo nodded. “In the early morning of July 13th, did you walk around in the closed area with Wu Tao?”
“Ha—”
“Were you planning to attack women? As far as we understand, Wu Tao claimed to have been watching someone who was ‘clean and not troublesome’.” Zhong Chengshuo was direct. “Wu Pengpeng, you’d better not lie. Between the ‘status quo’ and ‘going to jail’ you should know which one is worse.”
Wu Pengpeng’s lips trembled. “Ha…”
“Did you act with Wu Tao the entire time?”
“Ha.”
“Did you come into contact with Wu Tao’s goal?”
“…Ha.”
“There are no other traces at the scene. Wu Tao’s attack should have been unsuccessful. Let me change the question. Did you witness Wu Tao’s death—”
“Wait, don’t—” Yin Ren didn’t have time to cover Zhong Chengshuo’s mouth.
Hearing the words “Wu Tao’s death”, Wu Pengpeng convulsed and started struggling frantically. He trembled as he tugged on the restraints, moving so fast that he even left afterimages. There were gurgling sounds coming from his throat at exact intervals, as if he had been wound up by someone. The heavy hospital bed started to shake, knocking on the floor loudly.
“Hahahahaha!” His grin became wider and wider as he cackled madly at the ceiling. “Hahahahaha, bitch!”
The evil qi around Wu Pengpeng became disordered.
“Alright, there’s no need to ask.” Yin Ren sighed. “Didn’t the nurse say he couldn’t be stimulated?”
Zhong Chengshuo blinked in confusion. “But I didn’t stimulate him.”
Yin Ren faintly glanced at him with eyes full of regret. He shook his head and walked to the hospital bed.
Fwip.
Something being torn sounded as Wu Pengpeng’s hospital gown was ripped open by Yin Ren.
Zhong Chengshuo was stunned. “What—?!”
Even Wu Pengpeng, who was going crazy, was also dumbfounded by this act. He froze naked on the hospital bed, as if a pause button had been pressed.
Yin Ren didn’t care. He loosened the shackles on Wu Pengpeng’s side, lowered his body, and carefully observed Wu Pengpeng’s back.
“I’ll hold him down. Go and take a picture of what’s on his back.” Yin Ren gestured to Zhong Chengshuo.
Zhong Chengshuo: “…How do you know there’s something there?”
Yin Ren: “By observing the flow of evil qi. Chapter one of the Book of Exorcism. While this man was in a frenzy, there was something collecting behind his waist. Move quickly. We can’t let this thing disappear.”
Zhong Chengshuo hurriedly acted and took dozens of photos in a row.
Yin Ren’s judgment was correct.
There was a weird palm-sized mark on Wu Pengpeng’s back. As Wu Pengpeng calmed down, it rapidly faded.
While one was holding down Wu Pengpeng, the other was frantically taking pictures. At this terrible juncture, the cold-eyed nurse opened the door.
Nurse: “…” This seemed to be different from the “inquiry” she imagined.
She was expressionless and said nothing as she cracked her knuckles.
The next moment, Zhong Chengshuo and Yin Ren felt something tight wrapped around their necks and then saw their vision spinning as they were dragged out of the ward by their collars. They both fell to the ground, and before they could speak, the door to the ward was slammed shut.
Yin Ren gazed at the ceiling and slowly spread out his arms. “Not bad for a Black Seal of Shian. They certainly have a few tricks up their sleeves.”
Zhong Chengshuo was trying to get up. “We have to send the image to Lu Xiaohe.”
“No rush.” Lord Ghost King slowly and methodically got up. “Let’s check something else and submit it together before the end of the day. Right, I have a favor to ask of you.”
Five minutes later, in an empty ward.
Zhong Chengshuo assumed a standard stand-up pose. When he spoke, his voice was cramped. “…Help with what?”
In front of Zhong Chengshuo, Yin Ren was sitting in a hospital bed. He had already untied his shirt and had his back turned to Zhong Chengshuo.
After the Gao Mengyu incident, Yin Ren fell in love with loose black shirts. The way he was undressing was a bit different from the norm—right now, Yin Ren didn’t take off his shirt completely, but only took off one sleeve, leaving the sleeve to hang loosely slanted across his skin.
A large part of his back was exposed, allowing the shimmering sunlight to bask his white skin. Yin Ren had beautiful back lines that fit his muscles perfectly; delicate and smooth like a swimming fish.
To make sure his back was exposed, Yin Ren lifted his long hair and pulled it to the front of his shoulders, faintly revealing the slender back of his neck.
The faint fragrance that made people slightly drunk reappeared, but it was more obvious than last time.
Zhong Chengshuo held his breath as he asked again, “…What do you want me to do?”
“I need you to poke at the location of the mark just now,” Yin Ren said casually. “It’s one thing to see it, but it’s different to feel it.”
“…Why do you need to feel it?”
“To study the flow of evil qi when he goes berserk,” Yin Ren answered sincerely. “Since we were driven out, I can only analyze it using myself.”
Wu Pengpeng had poor proportions. He was tall but short-legged. Yin Ren couldn’t figure out the exact location of the mark because of this. Given that he was currently surrounded by people of Shian, it wasn’t convenient for him to use one of his extra-long arms to poke himself.
Lord Ghost King didn’t want to take his work home, and it wouldn’t be a loss to ask his partner for help.
Zhong Chengshuo pursed his lips and walked over slowly. He stretched out his index finger, hesitated for a few seconds, and gently tapped Yin Ren somewhere in the back of his waist.
“Wu Pengpeng’s mark is here.”
Yin Ren’s skin was cool and smooth to the touch, but Zhong Chengshuo felt as if his fingertip had contracted a fever. A wave of numbness rippled through him.
“Sure enough, it’s really a bit off.” Yin Ren hummed in response and started to calculate the flow of evil qi in his head. “Draw to the lower left a little bit. Move slowly and try to follow the muscles.”
“……Okay.” Zhong Chengshuo moved his fingers imperceptibly.
His fingertip movements were slow, like a drop of warm water sliding on skin.
The room was quiet. Yin Ren had missed a few strands of hair that were still hanging around his back, which shook slightly with his movements.
“Actually, we’ve asked a lot of things already,” Zhong Chengshuo suddenly said.
Yin Ren divided his attention from his calculations and responded, “What?”
“The murderer’s behavior is somewhat inconsistent,” Zhong Chengshuo whispered. “Wu Tao was choked to death by insect corpses. This was due to the hand of a corpse servant, but looking at Wu Tao’s death, his murder seems ritualistic, and his corpse was handled very delicately.”
“Indeed.”
“Assuming that the clues provided by Wu Pengpeng are correct, Wu Tao attacked a woman that night, but the police had checked surveillance records and found nothing.”
“If she was a simple victim, there’s no need to avoid surveillance… The possibility of her being killed by the murderer is also very low. After all, Wu Pengpeng is still alive as a witness.”
“I understand what you want to say.” Yin Ren let out a low laugh. “If she’s a corpse servant, this matter doesn’t make sense.”
Zhong Chengshuo’s eyes flashed. “Yes.”
“Let’s see. If she was really attacked suddenly, it’s understandable that she would fight back with the insect corpses. Her first reaction should be to flee rather than remain in that location and cut up human flesh.”
Yin Ren adjusted his sitting posture, and his tone became more relaxed.
“Either that, or she has long been eyeing Wu Tao and wanted to use his corpse as a background, but then she didn’t need to use insect corpses and leave clues behind to reveal her identity.” They had all entered a new era. Wasn’t a stun gun just as good?
“You sound like you have your own guess,” Zhong Chengshuo stopped his movements.
“Probably the same as yours.”
Yin Ren turned his head. His eyes were glowing faintly red in the sun. He curved them as he smiled slyly.
“…There may be two murderers. At least when Wu Tao was killed, there were at least two people at the scene, excluding Wu Pengpeng.”
“Nn.” Zhong Chengshuo began to slide his fingertips again. “The woman who was attacked was most likely an unregistered corpse servant. When she was attacked by Wu Tao, those insect corpses were her self-defense in a moment of panic.”
“When Wu Tao was struggling, another person intervened and divided his body up by some means. It’s very likely that Wu Pengpeng witnessed all this and was affected by it, showing mental abnormalities.”
“In this way, that inexplicable sense of division made sense. The problem is, what’s the intention of the corpse splitter… It’s not clear to me why the death scene was set up like that. I can’t draw any conclusions from it.”
“It’s only been two days. Don’t worry.” Yin Ren became a bit drowsy from the sun and yawned. “Hey, hey. Stop. Where you were just now, remember to take a picture for me.
“What? Oh, this—”
Before Zhong Chengshuo could finish, the door to the ward was opened. The cold-eyed nurse was staring at the two of them expressionlessly.
Yin Ren glanced at himself, who was exposed, and quickly laughed. “Uh, I can explain…”
Bang, bang.
This time, the two of them were thrown directly into the elevator.
“…Zhong Ge, now we can submit our work report.” Yin Ren casually pulled on his shirt and checked the time on his phone.
Zhong Chengshuo continued to struggle to get up, finally showing a trace of grievance on his face.
……
That night. Room 601, Building 4, Ping’an Manor, Zhong Chenghuo’s home.
“Night run?” Yin Ren was holding a large bucket of rum ice cream with a spoon in his mouth.
“Yes. I run at least three times a week.” Zhong Chengshuo replied while changing into his running shoes. “I’ll be home before eleven. My dad made braised knuckles with rock sugar, so I’ll bring some back when I return.”
“Thank uncle for me.” Yin Ren’s tone was extremely sincere.
“Do you want to go for a run together?”
“No.” Lord Ghost King climbed back to the sofa and continued hugging his ice cream bucket. “Leave me and let me gain weight alone.”
He was really too lazy to move but had to put on a show for it. In fact, even if Yin Ren ate all the people of Haigu, he wouldn’t even gain a single pound.
Zhong Chengshuo didn’t try to persuade him and went out by himself.
It was just that his night run deviated a little bit from the normal route.
More than an hour later, Zhong Chengshuo was standing in front of the warehouse again. He wiped his sweat and entered the basement. He rummaged through a box at the top of the shelf, picked up a glass tube carved with runes, and took out a case of sample protectant.
After finishing his preparations, he took out a small bag from his pocket.
The bag was similar to the glass tube and was also painted in dazzling runes. It wasn’t until Zhong Chengshuo opened the bag that the contents inside were revealed.
It was a handful of dark hair.
Zhong Chengshuo sealed them up, pulled out a pen, and quickly wrote a line on the label.
[Yin Ren (?), July 13, 20xx]
The broken hair lay quietly in the sample protectant, as black as the bottom of the abyss.
Zhong Chengshuo carefully examined it for a moment, then put it in the sample basket on a certain level of the shelf. Under the pale light, countless strange specimens floated and sank in glass tubes.
A trace of minced meat, a tooth, a piece of strange-colored skin… Roughly speaking, the contents weren’t the same.
However, at the moment he was about to leave, Zhong Chengshuo hesitated.
After a few seconds of stagnation, he turned back to the shelf and picked out the hair sample again.
He stared at it quietly.
After a long time, Zhong Chengshuo let out a soft sigh. He removed it from the computer desk and placed it in the most conspicuous position.
With a click, the lights went out.
Everything sank back into darkness.
The author has something to say:
Nurse 1103, at this moment, surpassed Fu Xingchuan and became the strongest combat power in Haigu (×
Working overtime on a rest day was naturally painful, and it was even more difficult for normal people’s biological clocks to overcome this pain.
When Xing Conglian got up in the morning, he could clearly hear all the electronic equipment of his little colleague next door beeping.
Rock music, electronic music, game soundtracks, and even the sound of sawing wood…
Why was there even sawing wood?
He walked out of the room in his slippers and was about to kick the door in when he saw another colleague standing in front of his room with his finger curled up and raised in the air, as if he was thinking about something.
“Are you going to knock on the door?” Xing Conglian asked.
“No, I haven’t knocked yet,” Lin Chen replied.
“Why?”
“I don’t think there’s any point in knocking.” Lin Chen pulled down his hand and answered back.
“Makes sense.” Xing Conglian glanced at his brand-new wooden door, looking it up and down, and felt that it wasn’t cost-effective to kick it open. The ringing inside the room was still blaring to kingdom come, but there didn’t seem to be any movement from the person inside.
“Well, it’s not my salary that’s getting deducted, right?” Xing Conglian said.
“Indeed.”
“So, breakfast?” Xing Conglian asked. He yawned and looked at Lin Chen, who was wearing neat clothes.
“Okay,” Lin Chen replied.
The so-called breakfast naturally meant going out to eat.
Even though the old streets and alleys in Yanjia Lane had been renovated, there were still many famous hole-in-the-wall places deep inside the alleyways, some of which had been passed down for several generations and were still bustling with people.
The morning was all clear blue skies.
After brushing his teeth and washing his face, Xing Conglian found that Lin Chen had already changed his shoes and was waiting for him at the door.
Lin Chen had good living habits. Perhaps this was because he used to be a dorm manager and had to routinely get up at six every day. When he had a task, he would get up early and analyze cases with Xing Conglian. If he had nothing to do, he would organize files. In short, Lin Chen didn’t like sleeping in.
Well, this was probably the natural life of a self-disciplined single dog.
“Where are we going today?”
Xing Conglian walked to the door and heard Lin Chen ask him as he stood under the eaves.
“It’s Consultant Lin that has more say in where to eat for breakfast,” he replied.
Thinking about what he thought earlier, Lin Chen’s taste had always been good. Although he usually had no requirements for lunch and dinner, he was frighteningly picky when it came to breakfast. He frowned and didn’t speak when he didn’t like the taste, so this made Xing Conglian afraid to choose a place to go for breakfast for them.
However, as a big fan of breakfast and a regular early riser, after Lin Chen had tried all the breakfast restaurants within two kilometers of Yanjia Lane, he no longer had to worry about where to go for breakfast as the person who led the way had already changed.
“Have something light?” Lin Chen asked as he walked.
“You decide. I’ll listen to you.”
“Okay. How about the bakery at the entrance on Lujia Alley?”
After walking a few steps, they passed by a gallery. Lin Chen nodded at the unruly painter who was squatting at the entrance brushing his teeth, then looked back at Xing Conglian and casually said, “Wang Chao likes their soymilk a lot.”
“Their soymilk does taste good, but why bring it to that kid?”
“Why else would we go so far?”
“I thought you wanted to take an early morning walk with me, Consultant Lin.”
“That’s indeed one of the reasons,” Lin Chen replied.
Although he was obviously teasing, upon hearing his answer, Xing Conglian suddenly felt his mood lighten.
Last night brought some spring rain, so the streets and alleys were clean and tidy. Even the river on the side was much clearer and bluer. This was a peaceful and comfortable life that didn’t make people feel bogged down by their lives.
“Are you really going to the mall to buy that toothbrush for that kid later?”
“Yes, is there a problem? After all, it’s true that I touched his belongings without his consent,” Lin Chen said.
“But why do you think he’s so obsessed over a toothbrush? Is this considered a fetish?”
“Not so much. It probably gives him a special sense of security, or it’s purely habitual.”
“No major issues?”
“Not that I can see for now.”
As they talked, they saw an old man in front of them leading a big yellow dog out for a walk. Most likely, it was a golden retriever mix, and it was old. It was lazily lying under a tree by the river, and they weren’t sure how the old man was going to drag it away from its spot.
Xing Conglian yawned and saw Lin Chen quicken his pace. After greeting the old man, he stretched out his hand and scratched the big yellow dog’s chin.
“Have you ever thought about what you’ll do after retirement?” Seeing Lin Chen squatting under the tree and happily petting the big yellow dog, Xing Conglian suddenly felt he wanted to ask him this question.
“Isn’t it more important for a person like me, whose life isn’t very good, to work hard to live until retirement?”
When Lin Chen answered him, his expression was calm, as if he wasn’t joking.
“Consultant Lin, I find you’re very pessimistic.”
It probably had something to do with the surrounding environment.
At that moment, under the willow tree, Xing Conglian listened to the sound of flowing water and the panting of the big yellow dog and looked at the calm and indifferent face of his friend and colleague underneath the rising sun. He suddenly wanted to ask him, ‘What happened that made you lose your sense of being alive and make you so pessimistic?’
What?
Why do you still insist on living now?
However, that thought was fleeting, as Lin Chen had stood up and answered his question about “retirement”.
Lin Chen said, “In fact, I think that my current life is my ideal retirement life.”
“Even if you have to go through cases and cases every day?” Xing Conglian found it interesting, so he inquired further.
“Well, even if my heart desires world peace, there won’t be such a thing in the world.” While they were talking, they had already turned the corner, and the faint aroma of fritters filled the air. There were already many people lined up in the alley in front of them. Lin Chen squinted, as if he were smelling the fragrance, then said, “So the cases that should happen will always happen. The things that should be handled by me will be dealt with. Things that are bound by fate will happen whether you retire or not.”
Xing Conglian laughed. “Why are you still blaming fate?!”
“Because life is too hard. If you don’t blame fate, you can only blame yourself, but blaming yourself will make you more prone to developing psychological issues, so it’s better to blame fate.”
Psychologists always had strange and reasonable theories of self-adjustment. Xing Conglian nodded and moved two steps forward to accompany Lin Chen as the line shifted.
The line to the bakery looked long, but it moved quite fast. When it was their turn, Lin Chen paid twelve yuan familiarly. The owner of the bakery glanced at Lin Chen and asked, “The usual?”
“Yes, please.”
Their conversation was familiar, and even the owner’s movements were even more familiar.
Xing Conglian suddenly remembered that sometimes when he didn’t get up in the morning, occasionally he would see the same configuration on the dining table after he washed up. Although sometimes Lin Chen would buy some other breakfasts, the proportion of these four items was the highest. It seemed that he was just using what Wang Chao wanted to eat as an excuse.
As he was thinking this, he saw Lin Chen sit down in the bakery with his meal.
With the bakery full of the smell of oil and fried dough, which was quite strong, not many people would sit inside the shop to eat. After all, how many people would find the leisure to sit in the shop and have a relaxing breakfast?
Except, of course, for those who had a special pursuit for breakfast.
Xing Conglian carried the bag with his breakfast and sat down opposite Lin Chen. He reluctantly inserted a straw into the soymilk container and lamented, “Consultant Lin, you really have a pursuit for breakfast.”
“Because having a good breakfast will make you feel good throughout the day.”
“This is an old saying. We young people generally don’t eat breakfast.”
Hearing what he said, Lin Chen paused, then looked at him with dark, bright eyes and asked, “Since Captain Xing thinks he’s young, why did he ask about retirement just now?”
When Xing Conglian heard this, he glanced at Lin Chen unexpectedly.
Lin Chen was quietly tearing open his fritter while remaining expressionless, as if he were just asking a casual question at random.
But his level of insight into the human heart was too high. If Xing Conglian wasn’t careful about his answer, he could be seen right through.
“I just want to exchange life views with Consultant Lin and promote friendship,” he said.
“What’s the result of the exchange?”
“Heh, I think it’s quite coincidental in how we think.”
“What do you think?”
“I also think that, presently, this is my ideal retirement life.”
—-
Too bland of a retirement life could make people feel that there were no expectations. He certainly couldn’t get through the days with just reading, drinking tea, playing chess, and walking the dog every day.
Then it was a good choice to go to work and occasionally deal with social evils to realize the value of life.
At least that’s what Xing Conglian felt.
That day, he didn’t take Wang Chao with him to work. After all, he couldn’t always spoil his children. Everyone had to pay a price for their actions and take responsibility for them.
He felt that he really resonated with Lin Chen in this regard.
When Wang Chao arrived at the police station, it was almost 10 a.m.
Xing Conglian had just come out of drinking tea in the director’s office when he saw the kid rushing into the office, groping at the fingerprint scanning machine, and finally almost passing out with a desperate groan.
It seemed that after he left, Lin Chen really didn’t wake Wang Chao up.
Tsk, how cruel.
“Captain, you’re too much!”
Seeing him walk into the office with a teacup in hand, Wang Chao threw down his backpack and flew over, pulling on Xing Conglian’s collar as he scolded him. “Do you know how crowded 227 Road is in the morning? How clogged up Zhongshan Avenue gets? Why didn’t you call me!”
“Comrade Xiao Wang, you can’t blame me for this. After all, your boss has to support a family, so I have to punch in on time.”
“Is there any connection between having to punch in on time and not waking me up? Why didn’t you wake me up?!”
“Your logic is good.” Looking at the flushed face of Wang Chao, Xing Conglian felt his mood got better. He took a sip of his hot tea and said, “Your brother A’Chen and I agree that a growing boy like you needs more sleep.”
“My brother A’Chen wouldn’t join forces with you!” Wang Chao said and took out the already cold fritters and sesame balls from his backpack. “My brother A’Chen still left me breakfast on the table.”
“That’s because you just don’t know him too well…” Xing Conglian said as he patted the teenager’s head.
“Piss off!”
As Wang Chao cursed, he knocked away Xing Conglian’s hand. Two patrolling officers had just walked into the room, saw Wang Chao fuming over the punch-in machine, and instantly guessed what had happened.
“Comrade Xiao Wang is late again. You young people are so energetic.” One officer patted Wang Chao on the shoulder.
“Lao Geng, what you said is wrong. It should be said that young people just need more sleep. When you get older, you can’t sleep even if you want to!” The other officer echoed.
This made Wang Chao even angrier.
Xing Conglian greeted his two helpful colleagues with satisfaction and asked, “How is it today?”
“Nothing big. What can happen in our area? However, I think the CBD is having difficulties.”
Thinking about Ansheng International Mall made Xing Conglian uneasy. He frowned and asked, “How difficult?”
“Isn’t there some kind of celebrity fan meeting at their opening ceremony? It’s said that the flow of people far exceeds expectations…”
“How could it exceed expectations? Isn’t the number of people in each gathering estimated in advance and then approved?”
“I don’t know about that. I was just listening to part of it in the car, as if they were asking for support, but for the time being they haven’t requested anything from us.”
Xing Conglian suddenly had a bad premonition. He turned around and was standing in front of Wang Chao, who had just punched in, and saw that his face had turned from red to blue.
Seeing Wang Chao’s reaction, he roughly knew, but he still held on to some sense of hope and asked, “When you went out, did you go with Lin Chen?”
“I, A’Chen…” Wang Chao started stammering.
“Speak slowly. Think clearly, then say it.”
“A’Chen and I went out together. He said he was going to buy me a toothbrush. I went out at a quarter past nine. Now it’s 9:50. It takes 20 minutes to walk from our house to Ansheng International Mall. A’Chen might be at the mall by now.” Wang Chao asked nervously, “Nothing bad will happen, right Captain?!”
Yin Ren didn’t intend to report his findings. What a joke! He was just an innocent entry-level ghost master, and such a rookie wouldn’t be able to see such exciting information.
Before the smell of the Evil Spirit completely dissipated, Yin Ren deliberately placed the insect corpse on his phone.
His phone instantly became excited. “Woof woof woof!”
…It was no coincidence that the phone responded to him back then.
It was strange. He didn’t know how to feel after sleeping for a thousand years, and now there were Evil Spirits and detectors for them everywhere. Of the six sealed evil Evil Spirits plus Yin Ren himself, only seven had emerged in a thousand years. Could it be that an eighth would come soon?
Yin Ren decided to reserve his opinion.
Evil qi wasn’t easy to hide. As soon as he emerged from the seal, the metaphysical institutions within a radius of 800 miles were completely under martial law. This was the result of his deliberate suppression of power.
If a new Evil Spirit were born, it would be impossible for Shian to remain silent. There could be no other secrets in it.
Considering that it was time to get off work, Lord Ghost King didn’t want to think too much about it. He chewed on the milk tart as he knocked on Zhong Chengshuo’s bedroom door.
“What’s the matter?”
“Do you have scissors? I want to trim my hair,” Yin Ren said.
His hair really needed a touch-up. His bangs and sideburns were long, which was fine a thousand years ago, but now the rate of people turning heads to look at him was too high.
Yin Ren could theoretically shorten his hair on his own, but that would be a bit too suspicious. Taking a step back, Zhong Chengshuo was monitoring his spending. Not only that, if “parts” of an Evil Spirit were to land inside a barbershop, the owner and subsequent customers would suffer eight lifetimes of bad luck.
Thus, he could only do this himself.
As usual, Zhong Chengshuo didn’t let him down. “I have special scissors. I can help you cut your hair, but you have to wash it first.”
“You know how to cut hair?”
“I don’t like barber shops.” Zhong Chengshuo stood up and grabbed a small toolbox. When he opened it, there were a myriad of hair scissors, clippers, and an old-fashioned shear inside.
“Why don’t you like the barber shops?” When Yin Ren asked this, Zhong Chengshuo had already put on disposable gloves and tied a bib on Yin Ren.
“Haircuts are getting more expensive, and the hairdressers often talk a lot.” Zhong Chengshuo held a hand of Yin Ren’s long hair and said, “Do you want to cut it short? How short?”
“Not short. I just want to trim the front.”
Yin Ren liked his long hair dearly. They could ensure that even when he was lying on the sofa, the tips of his hair could reach food on the coffee table, which was quite convenient.
Zhong Chengshuo didn’t say anything else.
He adjusted his glasses and started to cut Yin Ren’s hair. The cold metal occasionally would touch Yin Ren’s face, giving a feeling of coolness that was covered by warm breath, which felt wonderful.
Yin Ren suddenly realized that this was the first time in his life that he had “cut his hair”.
At some point, Zhong Chengshuo replaced the scissors with a sharp razor. He drew the razor close to Yin Ren’s face in a smooth, clean motion. The blade scraped against the black hair, making a soft rustle. It seemed as if the razor came to life in his hands. The light of the blade was like a dense, cold rain, creating a faint chilling air that slid down the blade.
This kid is really good with knives. Yin Ren lowered his eyes.
The piece of metal brushed against Yin Ren’s long hair and lightly rubbed against his skin. Then it followed Yin Ren’s cheek all the way down to his neck. In the mirror stained with water mist, the contrast between metallic gray and pale skin was quite conspicuous.
Yin Ren didn’t seem to notice that he was staring calmly at the mirror as his body moved up and down to the rhythm of his breathing.
The delicate blade rubbed against his skin; the touch was cold and thin, like a light kiss. Finally, the sharp blade became like a steel butterfly and gently rested on Yin Ren’s neck.
That was the location closest to the artery.
In the mirror, Zhong Chengshuo’s face was hidden by the mist; only a pair of black eyes were extremely dazzling.
Both of them were motionless, and neither of them spoke.
Yin Ren narrowed his eyes. He didn’t have the slightest anxiety in his heart—even if this kid cut off his head on the spot, he could instantly grow three back. If things really came to that point, the one who would die wouldn’t be him.
More than being nervous, Yin Ren was more curious about the next development.
The small room was silent for more than twenty seconds.
“…Is it okay to have your sideburns in this position?” Zhong Chengshuo asked softly.
“Yes,” Yin Ren replied casually.
Zhong Chengshuo hummed and started to move his hand again. After a while, the razor was replaced by a hair dryer.
Yin Ren had to admit that Comrade Zhong Chengshuo’s skills were quite good. Though he still had long hair up to his waist, as long as it was tied up in a ponytail, the heterogeneous feeling of being out of time disappeared instantly. Now, with his bangs and sideburns cut just right, he looked light and sprightly.
“Done. Personally, I suggest you take a shower and wash away all the hair debris.” Zhong Chengshuo nodded and took off his disposable gloves. “I’ll clean the place. Remember to take out the trash tonight.”
“Nn.” Yin Ren tied up his long hair with satisfaction, ruffling through the freshly trimmed strands.
There was no need to take out the trash. The excess hair would decompose into evil spirits and be recycled by him. After all, the garbage men were innocent, and these hairs were still dangerous goods…
And much more.
Yin Ren picked up a pinch of wet, broken hair.
Perhaps because of the separation from his body, the evil qi in the broken hair was extremely weak, and the degree of vitality had also decreased.
Yin Ren was actively suppressing it at the moment. The evil qi in the broken hair hadn’t been exposed. This subtle difference in “freshness” could only be vaguely noticed by Yin Ren, the owner.
If Yin Ren didn’t control it, the evil qi in the broken hair would spread unscrupulously, contaminating everything it encountered.
For example, a small insect corpse.
Yin Ren let go of the hair causing it to fall back to the floor.
It seemed like it may be the birth of a new friend. He felt that there was something off with the smell on the insect corpse, and now it seemed that the evil qi wasn’t fresh and strong.
Most likely, the source wasn’t “original goods”.
Depending on the degree of change in the odor, the insect corpse could have come into contact with two kinds of things—either a small fragment of the Evil Spirit’s body or objects that were seriously contaminated by the Evil Spirit.
According to Shian’s information, there were six Evil Spirits still under seal. It was impossible for anyone to obtain fragments of their body, but if it was an object that was affected by an Evil Spirit, it could give off their smell… It was hard to say.
Unfortunately, after he became an Evil Spirit, he didn’t have time to smell his six predecessors, so he couldn’t tell which of them lost something in the garbage dump.
‘How unfortunate.’ Yin Ren couldn’t help but feel a bit sad.
What about the promise that a newcomer’s work was similar to <Approaching Science>? First the gap, now a part of an Evil Spirit. It was more like “Approaching Hell” instead.
……
Facts proved that the overtime the police put in was more intense than that of Shian. The next day, a lot of information appeared on Lu Xiaohe’s display.
“Officer Sun has made some progress. On the night of the crime, Wu Tao deliberately avoided all the cameras and stayed at the edge of their blind spots in the closed area.”
Lu Xiaohe had changed into a t-shirt with “Hair comes back after it’s gone” printed on it. Her tone was full of energy.
“Wu Tao recently got very close to a few gangsters on Wanxing Road. According to the investigation, they often move around the closed area, so most likely they are doing something shady.”
After all, except for a few small numbers of homeless people, no one lived in the closed area.
“The preliminary analysis of the trace inspection has come out. There are traces of a fight scene that were fresh, but it didn’t look intense, and they were not able to find biological samples of another person.”
Zhong Chengshuo: “Are there any new discoveries from forensics?”
“New discoveries? In order to figure out Wu Tao’s circumstances, forensics had to call in all their pathologists in the middle of the night. I have a few friends in that circle who were complaining about blood and tears, saying that their blood pressure will rise whenever they see minced meat now.”
Zhong Chengshuo: “…” So that means there are no new clues.
“But Xiao Yin’s point yesterday was very good. I have made some metaphysical discoveries.”
Lu Xiaohe bent down and took out a large book from her backpack by the table.
The book looked older than everyone present combined. The pages were conspicuously yellow, as if they had been soaked in tea, and it was thick enough to be used as a murder weapon. The book cover was made of a dark yellow material, and on it was printed <The Book of Exorcism> by “Zhong Yi”.
Zhong Chengshuo: “This is?”
“A No. 1 must-read for senior cultivators.” Lu Xiaohe put the book on her lap and flipped through it. “For fear of missing details or miscommunication, there’s no vernacular book for this thing, so it’s not easy for me to check it.”
Zhong Chengshuo’s gaze stopped for a while on the word “Zhong Yi”.
“I have never heard of this author,” he said.
“I don’t know about other places, but the non-science posts in Shian call him the ‘Great Heavenly Master’. They say he’s a super fierce man who was able to seal six Evil Spirits alone. It’s said that many cultivators worship him at home, similar to merchants worshiping the god of wealth.”
Lu Xiaohe tapped on her keyboard, and an ancient painting filled the screen.
In the ancient painting, there was a black-faced man with big arms and a round waist. He was dressed in gold and jade battle armor, with a long beard, a fierce face, and muscles so swollen they were about to burst out. The painting portrayed him stepping on a headless ghost, holding a long-handled broadsword, as he glared angrily outside the painting.
Yin Ren exclaimed, “Wow.”
The glaring was so intense that it seemed as if his eyes were about to fall out.
“In the historical records, Zhong Yi hated evil with vengeance. He killed all the demons and ghosts in the world, leaving behind numerous records of evil beings for later generations. This person was loyal to the imperial court at the beginning and had the backing of the Huaji Division—you can regard them as the predecessor for Shian.”
Lu Xiaohe sighed.
Zhong Chengshuo: “Are we public* now?”
*Clarity: As in a part of the government that serves the public.
“Not exactly. The group has its own business. For example, a classmate of mine is engaged in technology in the department next door. They developed a new AR technology that’s selling pretty well this year. She’s also a neuroscientist and is a red seal here and has brought a lot of data on evil beings in the past.”
The same kind of neuroscientist, Ms. Lu, spoke full of admiration.
Zhong Chengshuo, Yin Ren: “……” It appears that using the experience of fighting ghosts to improve the realism of AR produced satisfactory results.
“Forget it. We’re getting off topic.” Lu Xiaohe patted the book. “Anyway, this book has been revised several times as many cultivators have added their own insights and experiences. You can think of it as an encyclopedia of the metaphysical world.”
She closed the imposing ancient painting and replaced it with a scanned page from the book filled with text.
The words in the article were extremely obscure. Being a top student, Zhong Chengshuo could handle it, but Yin Ren felt dizzy after reading it. God forbid, his literacy and reading skills were extremely limited, and he had never read any serious books before.
Lu Xiaohe thoughtfully translated it. “In the middle of the Gong Dynasty, Linzhou—now near Lincheng in Province V—had records of a rogue corpse servant. The person was a peasant woman who lived in the village. Her husband died young, leaving her with a blind sister and a son and daughter.”
“There was a drought in Linzhou in the past year. Seeing her situation, a kind neighbor came to deliver food, feeling pity for her young children, but discovered a faint smell coming from the house. When he went to check, he saw the woman eating at the same table with three mummified corpses.”
“The three corpses were shriveled and rotting, but they moved as flexibly as if they were living. Two of the corpses were children that clung to the woman silently, as if they were acting coquettishly. The woman looked as thin as a twig, but she left the food to the corpse children around her arms. The neighbor was so frightened that he dropped the bowl of food. When the woman noticed the guest, she hurriedly greeted him, but what she said was incomprehensible… Basically, the original text said ‘talking crazily in some ghost language that wasn’t human speech’.”
“What happened afterwards?” Yin Ren propped up his chin and listened with relish.
The version he heard was just “people went crazy”, and as far as how crazy, he didn’t know the details.
“Later, the people in the village were so scared that they beat the woman to death and burned all four bodies along with the house.”
Yin Ren: “…Isn’t that going a bit too far?”
“Who’s to say?” Lu Xiaohe shrugged. “Coupled with Qin Ge’s case, it’s very likely there has been a huge change around a rogue corpse servant, such as the death of a relative. This can be regarded as a direction for your investigation.”
“What about the dicing technique of the living?” Yin Ren was still brooding about this matter.
“No clue.” Lu Xiaohe laughed dryly.
“First, follow the clues we have. Today, you two don’t have to go out in the field. Let’s go dig through the deaths in Haigu in the past six months. I have divided it equally and sent it to your emails.”
Although he was mentally prepared for this kind of carpet investigation, Yin Ren became more shriveled as more time passed on his investigation. He wasn’t allowed to eat in the office area, which made him agitated that he had to maintain this human form.
“What a long table.” Yin Ren dragged his mouse painfully as he titled his head to lie on the table.
When his seal broke, he had imagined many possible opponents but didn’t think there would be one named “Excel“. He and Zhong Chengshuo sat for most of the day but didn’t even go through half the list. They saw all kinds of modern diseases and methods of death.
After lunch, even the tender lamb and fatty roasted goat failed to dispel the numbness in Yin Ren’s eyes.
Was this the legendary “easy civilian job”? Fortunately, he didn’t insist on choosing the civilian job. Yin Ren even thanked the stars that he managed to narrowly avoid a catastrophe.
Time passed, and with each minute, Lord Ghost King felt an imminent collapse. Just when Yin Ren was about to slide under the table, Zhong Chengshuo spoke up, seemingly unable to ignore his state any longer.
“Don’t bend your waist. Be careful that you might slip a disc and get a hernia.”
Despite it being almost the end of the day, Zhong Chengshuo’s sitting posture remained the same.
Yin Ren ignored him and wilted his head. “Just in time. Let me ask, I can understand drunk driving, but what’s drug driving? Can people still drive after eating poison*?”
*Clarity: The term used here is drug/poison (毒). This is why Yin Ren is confused, as the modern usage refers to something much different than in the past.
There were too many strange diseases and terms, and Yin Ren was too lazy to look them up one by one. He gave up the manual search and instead used his partner as a voice-activated search engine instead. Anyway, their mouths were idle, and Zhong Chengshuo didn’t mind answering his questions.
Unfortunately, Lord Ghost King had to wait for his answer as Zhong Chengshuo’s cellphone rang.
“Hello, Uncle Sun? ……I see. Let’s go now.”
Yin Ren groaned. “Spare me. There’s only half an hour left before work—”
“Emergency field work.”
“What kind of work?” Lu Xiaohe and Yin Ren asked at the same time, the former’s tone being curious while the latter’s was lifeless.
“Uncle Sun is trying to track down the few gangsters who are familiar with Wu Tao. So far, they’ve managed to track them to the closed area, but there’s something wrong with the police dogs—they seem to all go on collective strike and are unwilling to approach the closed area.”
Zhong Chengshuo adjusted his glasses and straightened the folds on his clothes.
“The detectors have also failed and can’t be used properly. If they were to solely rely on manual investigation, the workload would be too large. Uncle Sun hopes that Shian can provide technical support.”
Yin Ren: “…What’s the hurry? You’re a science post. It’s not like you can help much even if you go.”
“I’m your partner, and I must act with you. Aren’t you going to go?” Zhong Chengshuo said it with surprise.
Yin Ren: “……”
Yin Ren’s facial expression twisted. “I’ll go.”
While muttering, he quietly opened Coffin Nails: [@Hu Tao, Is there anything delicious near Wanxing Road? Urgently need 😫]
He even ding* her mercilessly.
*Basically, a reminder notification you send.
……
Fortunately, things weren’t as troublesome as Yin Ren had imagined.
Shian was experienced in dealing with such matters and had a complete set of existing plans. The group’s work roles were quickly assigned to everyone.
Yin Ren could detect the path of the evil qi, Zhong Chengshuo was frighteningly good with directions, and Lu Xiaohe’s drone had a strong anti-interference function. One checked for evil qi, one created a route, and the last scanned the premises. It could be that they didn’t want to work overtime, so all three of them cooperated very smoothly.
In less than two hours, the group found the gangsters.
Compared to the middle-aged and elderly homeless people who were usually alone, the four young men stood out conspicuously in the scan results.
The lookout had dyed orange hair, pimples on his face, and metal piercings on his ears, nose, and lip. He looked around with bloodshot eyes and an air of unruliness.
Looking at Officer Sun’s complicated expression, this was probably someone who regarded the detention center as his main home.
However, this time, seeing Sun Qinghui’s police badge, he didn’t show any resistance. As if meeting an old friend from thousands of miles away, Orange Head’s nose turned red, and tears gushed down his face.
“Comrade Policemen!!!”
Orange Head scrambled over and knelt down, clinging to Sun Qinghui’s legs, refusing to let go.
“Help, comrade policemen—!”
Seeing the gangster cooperate so enthusiastically for the first time, several police officers looked at each other in puzzlement.
“We’ve been trapped here for two days!” Orange Head was sobbing, with tears and snot flowing everywhere. “Our phones have no signal! I can’t walk out. No matter where I go in this shitty place, it’s like ghosts hitting the wall*. Wuwuwu… Peng Ge also has a strange illness. He’s so sick that it’s fucking scary. Wahhhhhhh—”
*(鬼打墙) Idiom referring to one’s self-perception getting blurred, so you don’t know where you’re going and end up walking in circles. When you tell someone about this experience, it’s difficult for them to understand, so it ends up being “ghost hitting the wall” (as in, a ghost is supposed to pass through a wall, but somehow ends up hitting it instead).
Sun Qinghui: “…You, get up first. Don’t panic and speak properly.”
Officer Sun took out the thermos cup he was carrying and poured a cup of tea for Orange Head. Orange Head was obviously thirsty. He swallowed the tea in three gulps and even licked the bottom of Sun Qinghui’s cup lid.
Sun Qinghui sighed and handed over the rest of the thermos. “Drink.”
“I, ahem, I was outside looking to see if there was anyone around, hoping to find someone to ask for help.” After he drank the entire thermos, Orange Head finally had the strength to speak. “There are three brothers inside, one of whom is very sick… Let me tell you, it’s really scary, but we dare not send Peng Ge out for fear that he will die, so we’ve been staying here…”
He spoke incoherently, and his eyes were full of fear.
Sun Qinghui frowned and turned to two young policemen. “Xiao Ai, Xiao Zhang, you two contact 120. The rest of you follow me. Young man, lead the way.”
Orange Head frantically nodded. He wiped the tears and snot from his face, shivered, then looked around for a while before he suddenly jumped.
“Can’t you guys see him?” He pointed to Yin Ren and screamed, “There someone there! That one! ……No, that long-haired enchantress*!”
*(妖精) Depending on context, it can be translated in different ways, but the overall meaning is a gorgeous supernatural being that’s very alluring.
Sun Qinghui: “……”
Sun Qinghui: “…Don’t be nervous. We can see him. He’s a third-party appraiser comrade who cooperates with us.”
It seemed that Orange Head’s spirit was on the verge of collapse. His eyes darted wildly as he kept nervously looking at Yin Ren from time to time. Yin Ren snorted and adjusted his work ID in the most conspicuous position.
After making sure that the people around him could indeed interact with Yin Ren, Orange Head was finally willing to lead the way.
These gangsters had found an empty factory building and established it as their base.
The factory building was spacious. The ground was full of ruins mixed in with crushed beer cans and to-go containers, which attracted dozens of flies that were buzzing around. The walls were painted with unsightly graffiti, and there were spray cans piled up in the corners.
The other two gangsters hid among the paint cans, where they nearly buried themselves in them. Even seeing that someone was coming in, the two didn’t dare to come out and just continued to stare in a certain direction…
It was near a window.
Below the window, a few camping mattresses were laid out in a mess. The mattresses were covered with suspicious stains, and there were a few dirty condoms lying around.
In the center of the pile of mattresses, a young man was lying upright.
The man was quiet. He faced the window with his back to the group, as if he were admiring the sunlight. Sun Qinghui shouted “hey” a few times, but the man remained motionless.
“Don’t go over there.” Seeing Officer Sun about to step forward, Orange Head hurriedly grabbed him. “Don’t. Don’t go over. There’s something seriously wrong with Peng Ge. None of us dared approach him… You, be careful!”
Zhong Chengshuo decisively gestured to Officer Sun. Before he could speak, Zhong Chengshuo had already taken the lead and stepped forward.
At first, the person lying down didn’t react at all, but when Zhong Chengshuo stepped within two meters of the man, the man’s body shook and he suddenly sat up, like a zombie.
He turned his head and looked at Zhong Chengshuo.
When Yin Ren saw the young man’s face clearly, he felt dizzy for a moment. It’s over. It’s impossible to get off work on time today.
The young man’s eyebrows, nose, and mouth were all “printed” on his face.
They were fine and vivid, but they lacked bumps, as if they were all on the same plane, like a ball wrapped around a poster of a human’s face. When the man blinked, Yin Ren saw the changes in the line without any undulation in his eyelids, giving him a sense of incongruity like a valley of terror.
Yin Ren felt that this feeling was a bit familiar. Thousands of years ago, craftsmen made puppets for children. Their facial features were carefully painted on the wooden balls used for their heads, which bore an uncanny resemblance to what he was seeing now.
“Haha…”
“Peng Ge” turned to Zhong Chengshuo stiffly and took the initiative to speak. His voice was hoarse, and there was almost a desperate cry in his laugh.
Zhong Chengshuo subconsciously became vigilant and lowered his center of gravity. “What?”
“…Haha, bitch. You’re here now but want to go back?”
Peng Ge’s eyes were bloodshot as he moved forward, crying and laughing.
“Haha, bitch. You’re here now but want to go back?”
“Haha, bitch. You’re here now but want to go back?”
As policemen, they probably had the occupational disease that came with it. If it wasn’t a professional habit, when one was idle, who would care about the coverage of surveillance cameras?
Naturally, ordinary policemen didn’t have such leisure. Except for Comrade Xiao Wang Chao, who couldn’t stop his brain, no one would notice that a huge advertisement actually covered a wide-angle camera somewhere in the mall.
“Comrade Xiao Wang, I find that you care very much about public facilities. This is something to be praised,” Xing Conglian patted Wang Chao’s furry head and said with relief.
“Is that okay?” Wang Chao was a little puzzled listening to such relaxed words, so he tried to confirm as he looked at the camera above.
“Of course it matters.” Xing Conglian raised his head and circled around the huge coconut tree. “However, this matter isn’t in our jurisdiction. Then, now that you have this problem, Comrade Xiao Wang, think about it. Within the scope of your authority and responsibility, what is the solution to this matter?”
It was probably true that people’s mood would improve after eating. Xing Conglian didn’t scold Wang Chao to mind his own business but instead humored him.
After thinking carefully, Wang Chao replied, “Send a rectification notice to the security department of the mall so they can fix it?”
He didn’t say something like, “Captain, let’s drag the chairman out and educate him” or “Captain, let’s hack into their system and send a notice to the security department”…
Rectification notice…
It was indeed an appropriate method in terms of procedures.
Lin Chen glanced at Xing Conglian and saw him smile at Wang Chao affectionately. It was obvious he thought the result of his education wasn’t bad, so he continued to ask Wang Chao, “Well… In whose name?”
“The safety supervision department?” Wang Chao answered tentatively.
Hearing this, Xing Conglian didn’t immediately rebuke but pondered for a while and then asked, “What reason?”
“Uh, security risks?”
“What are the security risks?”
“I… I…” Wang Chao started stammering. He held back for a long time and finally shouted to Xing Conglian, “Captain, I don’t know.”
Xing Conglian raised his head, looked at the smiling singer on the advertisement poster, and lengthened his tone. “Comrade Xiao Wang, look. There’s going to be a large-scale gathering here tomorrow. Isn’t the safety of the crowd a top priority? Shouldn’t the shopping mall do its best to maintain order at the scene and protect the safety of the public? So, if the wide-angle camera that overlooks the hall is obscured…”
“It’s a major security hazard for the gathering!”
Wang Chao snapped his fingers.
After he finished speaking, he happily followed Xing Conglian around, then suddenly stopped. “But Captain, the security supervision department isn’t under our control. Should I enter their system and send a notice?”
When Xing Conglian heard this, he almost choked. “What system are you entering? Can you be more civilized, Comrade Xiao Wang?”
“Then what should I do?”
“Think about it. Which department oversees security for large-scale gatherings?”
“The local police station?” Wang Chao suddenly realized. “We have to tell the local police station?”
Xing Conglian nodded and said, “I happen to know the director of the dispatch office in the jurisdiction here, so…”
“So you’ll call the director and ask him to tell the mall to take down the poster?”
Xing Conglian rubbed his chin and shook his head. “No, this problem was obviously discovered by Comrade Xiao Wang. Of course, I can’t take away your credit.”
Wang Chao pointed at his nose as he asked, “Me?”
Xing Conglian nodded. “Of course you.”
“I-I-I-I don’t want…”
“You’re welcome, Comrade Xiao Wang. Give him a call later.” Xing Conglian patted him on the shoulder and then walked forward. “Maybe he’ll even give you a pennant. In case you get a bonus, remember to invite me and your brother A’Chen for a meal.”
“Captain, you weren’t like this before!” Wang Chao was stunned for a second, then caught up to Xing Conglian. “Why are you being like a mother-in-law all of a sudden?”
Xing Conglian angrily responded, “How am I being like a mother-in-law?”
“You’re always nagging. Go through this procedure, go through that procedure… You used to do things very quickly.” Wang Chao’s complaints sounded from behind.
Xing Conglian ignored him.
Lin Chen suddenly felt someone standing beside him.
“What’s wrong?” the gentle male voice rang in his ears.
Lin Chen withdrew his gaze from the huge poster and looked at the people beside him. “I don’t know.”
“It’s not some kind of bad intuition again, right?” Xing Conglian asked.
“No.” Lin Chen turned his head and looked at the troubled teenager behind him and said, “Your captain just wants you to try to deal with problems by yourself and communicate with other people.”
Wang Chao was momentarily shocked. “Why should I communicate more with others?”
“Because you’re human.”
“Yes, is there a problem?” Wang Chao said seriously.
“People are social animals.” Lin Chen smiled and looked at him. “But do you realize that in your life, there’s only me and your captain?”
“There’s also Uncle Wang and A’Huang!”
“Who’s that?” Lin Chen asked Xing Conglian.
“Uncle Wang’s big yellow dog. He’s our gatekeeper at the bureau. When you were off these days, he went to A’Huang for lunch every day at noon and ignored me.”
It seemed like such a thing existed.
Lin Chen understood the helplessness of Xing Conglian. The issue of education still had a long way to go.
“Let’s put it this way. Perhaps it isn’t appropriate.” Lin Chen paused, then continued, “Maybe one day, you encounter something that makes you unable to use the abilities you’re proud of, and your captain or I urgently need your help. You have to find a way to try and deal with other people for us.”
“For example?”
“For example, if your captain and I were kidnapped by someone and you have to rescue us.”
“A’Chen, are you putting up flags*?”
*Foreshadows, hints. Basically, he’s saying, are you foreshadowing something?
“Consultant Lin, it’s not good for you to say such scary things, right?” Even Xing Conglian had to chime in.
“It’s just an analogy.” Lin Chen thought for a moment and decided to change his words. “Or maybe your captain was kidnapped, and you couldn’t contact me.”
“Hey, this example doesn’t seem to be any better, no?” Xing Conglian sighed.
Wang Chao quickly answered, “Oh, to hell with him!”
“Uh… Hey!”
Xing Conglian reacted, but Wang Chao had already quickly ran ahead. Despite that, he was still caught by Xing Conglian after a while, and then there was another flurry of “full-time education”.
Lin Chen decided to ignore the two and looked back at the celebrity poster that stretched across the three-story building.
He really hoped that it wasn’t a flag.
—-
Although he was unhappy, on their way home, Wang Chao eventually asked Xing Conglian for the phone number and ran away alone, hiding under a small bridge, as he called it.
The alley was peaceful. Occasionally, they could hear laughter coming from both sides or the dialogue from a film or drama. Those sounds were mixed with the incoherent voice of the teenager as he spoke on the phone, giving the night a down-to-earth touch.
“Do you have anything to say to me?”
Lin Chen looked up at the moon and suddenly heard Xing Conglian ask him this.
He raised his head slightly and looked at the handsome face of the person next to him. Xing Conglian’s features were softened by the night, making Lin Chen a bit dazed.
Then, Lin Chen realized that Xing Conglian was continuing the unfinished question in the mall just now.
What’s wrong?
What were you thinking just now?
Is something wrong?
These simple words contained many questions. Lin Chen felt that he even wanted to say: “You need to be more honest with me, and you can talk to me about any problems you have.”
It wasn’t that he wasn’t being honest. He just didn’t think it was a big deal.
“The mall where we ate just now is called Ansheng International Mall.”
“What’s wrong with Ansheng International Mall?” Xing Conglian still looked confused.
“Have you heard of Huang Ansheng?”
“Who?”
“Huang, An, Sheng.” Lin Chen said each syllable slowly.
“Wait… Huang?” Xing Conglian was in disbelief.
Lin Chen nodded.
At this moment, Wang Chao hung up and ran back from the distance like a small animal, looking quite happy with himself. “Captain, Captain, I finished calling them. Your friend is so nice. He’s not like you at all. He said they would immediately notify the mall to rectify it!”
When he ran in front of Xing Conglian, he suddenly stopped and stared at him for a while, then said, “Captain, why do you look like you ate something bad? Was that rice noodle dish tainted?”
Xing Conglian curled up his finger and flicked Wang Chao’s forehead. “It’s your fault!”
Wang Chao rubbed his forehead and shouted incomprehensibly, “What’s my fault?”
“You’re the one who was clamoring to go get rice noodles.”
“But the rice noodles were delicious!” Wang Chao angrily said. “You even finished all the soup.”
Xing Conglian was speechless for a moment. He paused, then adjusted his tone and said slowly, “Then do you know who opened that shopping mall where we ate the rice noodles just now?”
“I don’t care who opened it. I just wanted to eat rice noodles. Who cares about who owns the mall. Just like when I eat eggs, do I have to care who raised the chickens that laid them?” Wang Chao spoke confidently, as if this logic was common sense.
“Oh, that mall is opened by your dear brother Huang Ze’s family.” Xing Conglian put his hand in his pocket and spoke righteously. He then patted the teenager’s shoulder and continued walking forward.
Wang Chao was momentarily stunned before he reacted. “Fuck. Huang Ze, that big dumbass!”
He took three steps forward and heavily slapped Xing Conglian on the back. “Don’t add the word “dear” before that dumbass Huang Ze’s name. Captain, why didn’t you say so earlier! I feel like puking now!”
“It’s your brother A’Chen who kept it from us.” Xing Conglian wanted to vomit blood when he was slapped so hard. He bent over and pretended to be seriously ill and coughed a few times.
“A’Chen, why didn’t you say it earlier!”
Lin Chen looked at the two people who were reacting as if they had just encountered a great catastrophe and said helplessly, “But it’s me who’s hated by Huang Ze, no?”
“No, no, no. It’s that dumbass Huang Ze that’s hated by everyone.”
“Your business is our business,” Xing Conglian agreed.
“A’Chen, you don’t know, but it took a lot of effort for us to get rid of that dumbass Huang Ze. The captain is a scheming dog. He asked me to drive Huang Ze away…” Before Wang Chao could finish, Xing Conglian glared at him, which made him obediently shut up.
Lin Chen’s gaze wandered past the secretive faces of the two of them. They were obviously hiding something from him.
Thinking of that day, he also asked Xing Conglian why Huang Ze would let him off so easily. Xing Conglian’s response at the time was that he had possibly found a conscience.
But how could “finding one’s conscience” just fall from the sky…
“Ah, let’s talk about the book list. A’Chen, when shall we go to the library?”
Seeing that Lin Chen was silent, Wang Chao hurriedly switched topics.
Although it didn’t feel good to be kept in the dark, the reaction of these two was unexpectedly cute. What was more, how many friends could he have that would share the same hatred with him and even secretly solve his annoying problems for him?
Truly, he was thankful.
Lin Chen looked at the two people bathing under the bright moonlight and decided not to delve further.
“Go tomorrow?” he asked.
“Not tomorrow. We have to work overtime!”
“Aren’t you off Saturday?”
“Speaking of which, Captain, we also have to blame that dumbass Huang Ze’s family for having their mall’s grand opening tomorrow and making us work overtime.”
Xing Conglian touched his chin. “It seems they are indeed to blame.”
“What a terrible coincidence.”
“Indeed,” Xing Conglian lamented.
—-
To put it another way, what should happen would inevitably happen in various forms.
Before going to bed that night, as Lin Chen was making the bed, he suddenly heard a scream from the bathroom. When he opened his door, Xing Conglian had already kicked the bathroom door open.
He saw Wang Chao squatting in front of the toilet, holding a toothbrush while crying.
“Brother, what’s wrong with you?” Xing Conglian asked impatiently.
“My toothbrush… My toothbrush has become like this!”
Wang Chao was holding a green children’s toothbrush with a small frog-shaped handle while he wailed.
Lin Chen was a little surprised. He didn’t know what the problem was. “I went to the supermarket and thought this toothbrush was cute, so I changed it for you.”
“No… A’Chen Gege… No…” The boy’s posture had changed from squatting to lying down as he called out Lin Chen’s name sadly.
Lin Chen frowned and glanced at Xing Conglian. He wanted to say what constellation this little brother was born under because he was so nitpicky with the things in his daily life.
“Pisces, rising Virgo.”
Before he could ask, Xing Conglian had already answered.
“The bristles of your toothbrush were already bald, so I changed them for you,” Lin Chen explained.
“My toothbrush belongs to Maji. There’s no place in Hongjing that sells it, so I haven’t changed it. My Maji!”
Wang Chao was still shouting in despair, causing Xing Conglian to lose his patience. “It’s just a toothbrush. What kind of man are you to be so particular about a toothbrush?”
“But Captain, I have used Maji since I was a child!”
“Oh, then from today onwards, you can change it.” Seeing that he still wasn’t getting up, Xing Conglian kicked Wang Chao in the ass. “I remember you saying you wanted to be independent when you were 18, so you went out and lived alone. Letting you come back so you can mooch off the elderly is a great mercy. Your brother A’Chen change your toothbrush for you, yet you’re still being picky and whiny.”
“No, this was indeed my own fault.” Lin Chen interrupted Xing Conglian. “Maji seems to have opened a shop in Hongjing. Shall I buy one for you tomorrow?”
“Really?”
Hearing this, Wang Chao resurrected quickly and with vigor. “Why don’t we go now?”
“Brother, have you seen the time? It’s half past ten now. What shopping mall is still open?” Xing Conglian kicked Wang Chao’s ass again, then turned to Lin Chen and said, “The newly opened Maji shop, is it in Ansheng International?”
“Yes. Is there something wrong?”
“No, no, no. Not that dumbass Huang Ze!” Wang Chao shouted from the ground again.
Hearing this, Xing Conglian nodded solemnly.
“It’s just a shopping mall. The shops that are open inside have nothing to do with Huang Ze himself.”
“But what if you get tainted by Huang Ze’s stupid aura!”
“Do you still want it?” Lin Chen lowered his head and asked.
“Yes, A’Chen Gege, please,” Wang Chao replied weakly.
The author has something to say:
I feel like people really don’t trust me very much…
Am I the kind of person who… gets into trouble at the drop of a hat?
Kinky Thoughts:
I mean, mentioning flags in the chapter itself… Can it be more obvious?
Kinky Translations 