In the half-deep night, the streetlights lengthened the shadows of people. The sound of water on the street was clearly audible in the quiet night.
Lin Chen and Xing Conglian walked on the stone road. It was only after seven in the evening, yet most of the small shops on the street were already closed. In a sense, Hongjing was really an unproductive city.
Yanjia Lane was still narrow and a bit long, and the only thing that had changed was the shops on either side.
According to Xing Conglian, during the period when he was missing, the municipal government transformed Yanjia Lane. The houses on either side were repaired and rented out to students. They wanted to start a business catered to the literary and art circles so some of the old houses were converted into coffee shops and teahouses, while others became art studios.
The original yellowed walls were now covered with fences and flowers. Cats could be seen napping on the floor-to-ceiling windows. Overall, the old street had become much warmer and had a more human touch.
The yellowish light reflected the old house number and two people who were squatted pitifully in front of the old wooden door.
Lin Chen followed Xing Conglian, who came to a stop.
Xing Conglian said to the two squatters in a helpless tone, “If you’re like this, the neighbor will call the police when they see you.”
A certain young comrade who was addicted to online games raised his head. His eyes were glistening. “Ah, what kind of police are you calling? Captain, why is your wifi turned off? I had to crack the password of your next and the next next door neighbor. Can you let me in for a bite to eat?”
The other person who was squatting alongside didn’t speak.
Lin Chen looked down at the other party only to see that the man’s eyes were slightly red and his gaze stunned, as if he couldn’t believe what he saw in front of him.
Lin Chen’s softened his tone and said helplessly, “Hey, didn’t we already talk on the phone two days ago?”
Before his voice fell, the man jumped up and hugged Lin Chen tightly. “Shixiong, I’m timid. Don’t scare me like that again!”
——
After reuniting with him, Fu Hao took his arm and wouldn’t let go.
As soon as they entered, Lin Chen’s ears were full of Professor Fu’s endless nagging. He was silently thinking, ‘Is this the legendary coquetry?’
Xing Conglian stood by the door and turned on the door light. The moment the light came on, Professor Fu’s nagging abruptly stopped.
In front of him, there was a classical courtyard with lush plants and trees. The ground lamps glistened brightly as they lit up. There was a cobblestone path that connected the front door to the main hall. On the left side of the courtyard, there was a turquoise pond whose surface was shimmering with a cold floating light.
Fu Hao was completely stunned and could only spit out, “What the fuck?” After he finished, he took two steps back, like a ghost, and walked out the door and looked at the number plate, then rushed back in and grabbed Xing Conglian. “You have nothing better to do than break into other people’s homes? As a public official, you should know the law and you’re breaking it!”
Hearing what Fu Hao said, Xing Conglian remained silent.
Lin Chen had no choice but to explain it to him. “The municipal government renovated the entire old street as part of a project.”
“For such a project, they change his house?”
“The house he used to live in was next door and it’s rented to a gallery, so he moved here.”
Professor Fu was in disbelief. “Based on how old his house was, why would the government give him a place like this? Isn’t this a garden?” As he spoke, he walked to the edge of the pond. There were several elegant rockeries stacked on the edge. A stone arch bridge spanned the water, and he saw bright red koi swimming around, creating ripples on the pond’s surface. “Shixiong, look. There are koi!”
“Well, do you want to pay your respects*?” Xing Conglian asked with a smile.
*Clarity: Koi is symbol of wealth and luck so often times people pay respects in hopes of getting good luck.
“Lao Xing, let me tell you, you can’t touch money that shouldn’t be touched.” Professor Fu suddenly turned his head with an awe-inspiring expression. “You must always remember your identity and don’t be knocked down by the sugar-coated bullets of capitalism.”
Xing Conglian couldn’t laugh or cry. He asked Lin Chen, “Did your shidi switch to teaching political science?”
“Lao Xing, be serious. You’re a criminal police officer. If you live in such a house, it must not be known by Inspector Huang. Otherwise, he’ll take off three layers of skin, provided you don’t die first!” Fu Hao admonished harshly.
Although Fu Hao was rambling, his words were full of concern. Sensing this, Xing Conglian said sincerely, “Professor Fu, don’t worry.”
The three of them were talking by the pond; though mostly it was just Fu Hao nagging while Lin Chen and Xing Conglian would tease him from time to time.
Suddenly, there came a wailing in the main hall. “Captain, I’m hungry!” Wang Chao, who had long ago rushed into the house to play games shouted out to them.
Xing Conglian raised his voice and told the young comrade in the house, “Instant noodles are in the first cabinet on the left side of the kitchen.”
“But I don’t want to eat noodles anymore,” Wang Chao continued to shout back.
“Order takeout.”
“I’m tired of eating all the takeout in this neighborhood.”
They walked into the main hall.
The little comrade Wang Chao was weakly lying on the table, as if he had just lost a game and had no love for life.
“What do you want?” Xing Conglian asked.
Hearing this, Wang Chao’s eyes lit up, and Lin Chen saw his gaze floating over.
“A’Chen, will you cook for me, yeah?” After he finished speaking, he licked his lips and said, “I really want to eat home-cooked food.”
Lin Chen found this funny. “Why did you pick me?”
“Captain pass! Professor Fu is used to eating in the cafeteria, so also pass! Therefore, you must be very good at cooking since you lived alone before!”
In fact, there was nothing wrong with Wang Chao’s analysis. The only problem was that a man who was only familiar with various instant noodle flavors wouldn’t have the necessary ingredients to show off his cooking skills.
Lin Chen stood in front of the sink, rinsing wilted vegetables. The instant noodles were boiling in a pot and, as usual, were beef flavored.
Xing Conglian leaned against the cooking table and said to the little comrade, who was checking the refrigerator, “Don’t look for it. You’ve eaten the last piece of ham the day before yesterday.”
“Why don’t you go grocery shopping!” Wang Chao looked back angrily.
“Because I work hard every day,” Xing Conglian replied naturally.
Wang Chao was choked speechless. He slammed the refrigerator door and ran back to the computer angrily, ready to continue two more rounds of his game.
——
The instant noodles with vegetables and eggs tasted like the usual beef flavor. There was nothing new that could be done.
After dinner, in order to avoid Fu Hao’s ideological and moral education for Xing Conglian, Lin Chen took them to the balcony for tea.
The spring breeze was semi-cool. The balcony faced the river. The lights along both sides of the river reflected the water, giving it a more sparkling hue.
Professor Fu was a worldly person, but when he was sitting in a comfortable armchair, holding a cup of hot tea, he felt so comfortable that he couldn’t help but want to let out a relaxed sigh.
“Shixiong, did you make up your mind to stay here?” Professor Fu half squinted as he asked Lin Chen.
There was the sound of running water all around and everything was quiet.
“Nn.”
Fu Hao looked at him, stopped talking, and finally said, “Then you must never be as brave as before.”
“Yes.”
“Regarding Feng Peilin, I understand that you wanted to cheat death so you could escape surveillance. Although hiding isn’t always a good solution, it’s still better than constantly being harassed. The highway robbery, I know you accidentally ran into it, but despite how unrealistic it was, this is just too dangerous. The drug cartels could murder an entire bus full of people at once and even dare to install sucker bombs under a police car. This is no longer something that even bold can accurately describe. If it weren’t for Huang Ze suppressing things, you would have become famous again. If you’re targeted by the drug cartels, what can you do?”
Professor Fu was worried. Lin Chen listened helplessly and had to comfort him. “It’s okay. The police have a witness protection program.”
“You’re not paying attention to this matter at all!” Professor Fu put down his teacup and raised his voice.
“But what do you want me to do?” Lin Chen asked depressingly.
As soon as Fu Hao heard him say that, he hurriedly comforted, “It’s okay. It’s fine just the way it is now. You just live with Lao Xing. In case there’s a robbery or attempted murder, he can protect you.”
The subject matter changed instantly. Lin Chen had to admit that, in terms of experience, his shidi definitely had the upper hand.
“When you put it like that, it gives me a bad feeling.”
“Hey, who told you life isn’t very good?”
“Then does Professor Fu have any transfer methods?” Lin Chen asked with a smile.
“I think Xing Conglian’s luck seems to be good. Looking at the government construction project, he was able to nab such a good place to live. I heard that some people are born with a difficult fate, but they have good luck. Hurry up and rub it all off of him.”
“Okay.”
Lin Chen didn’t speak anymore. Except for the sound of water, there was no other noise.
Fu Hao seemed a bit uncomfortable. He scratched his hair and suddenly remembered something. “By the way, shixiong, the day after tomorrow is the old man’s 60th birthday. That…”
“What’s the matter?”
“Are you going to go?”
“Professor Fu’s meaning is, do you want me to go or don’t want me to go?” Lin Chen asked.
“No, of course I want you to go. Even if I don’t want you to, the old man does. It’s just that the old man has peaches and plums all over the world*, so there will be a lot of classmates there…”
*(桃李满天下) Idiom referring to many talents or students that are all over the world.
“So?”
“So, let me just tell you, many of them want to take advantage of the old man’s birthday to have a class reunion. Hell, do you remember that bastard, Zheng Dongdong? He wants to recommend for you be the host for the reunion, saying that since you had good grades and abilities before, you must now be an elite in society, making you the most suitable host. I think he’s the villain in the group. He’s just trying to find an opportunity to mock and humiliate you…”
“I don’t remember,” Lin Chen interrupted Fu Hao.
“Don’t remember what?”
“I don’t remember who Zheng Dongdong is.”
“It doesn’t matter if you don’t remember or not. He’s just a small character. He used to be in the next class, and he makes me sick. To tell you the truth, it’s not bad if you don’t go to the old man’s birthday. We can just visit the old man’s place at night, and it’ll be more convenient to talk then.”
“No, that’s not what I meant.” Listening to what Fu Hao said, Lin Chen lifted the kettle on the coffee table and poured some hot water into his cup. “Since I don’t remember who he is, is it important to even consider what he thinks, says, or does?”
“It’s not… But the reunion will…”
“You’re trying to say that now our classmates are all successful in their careers, but I, who had the best grades, have only gotten worse. I can only be a small-time consultant for a city’s police force, and this will be uncomfortable when meeting with our old classmates again, right?”
Fu Hao thought for a while and held the words back in his throat. In the end, his face turned a little red, but under Lin Chen’s burning gaze, he could only nod.
“Since this job was chosen by me, I’m happy to do it. Why should I have low self-esteem?”
“Mr. Lin, I will ask you some questions below. Please answer truthfully.”
“Nn.”
“Is your name Lin Chen?”
“Yes.”
“Are you from Fengchun?”
“Yes.”
“Regarding this polygraph survey, are you willing to answer my question truthfully?”
“Willing.”
Lin Chen was sitting in an interrogation room with several clips on his index and ring fingers. A blood pressure monitor was wrapped around his arm, and some wires were connected to his chest to the screen on the laptop.
His heartbeat, breathing, blood pressure, skin electricity, and other parameters were gathered into complex lines on the screen and were slowly advancing forward.
Opposite him was a staff member of the Inspector’s Office, but of course it wasn’t Inspector Huang himself.
Since the “Candy Bandit” case, for some unknown reason, Lin Chen had never seen Huang Ze again, and for some unknown reason, Huang Ze actually sent someone to go through the approval procedures for him to become
a police consultant. Of course, before that, he still had to explain some unexplained things clearly.
Passing a lie detector test was naturally part of the procedure.
Across from him, a polygrapher looked away from the data monitoring screen. The person’s gaze was slightly condensed. After the non-threatening neutral question was over, it was time to move on to the main point.
“In the course of handling the case, have you ever used your authority to help criminals?”
“No.”
“In the process of assisting the police in handling the September 10th serial murder case, did you intend to help the suspect Feng Peilin jump into the river and escape?”
“No.”
The data cable on the screen began to fluctuate, and the polygrapher quickly scanned the screen, and then moved back to gazing at Lin Chen with a hint of disappointment. “What happened after you and Feng Peilin fell into the river together? Is Feng Peilin alive or dead?”
“After falling into the river with Feng Peilin, we were washed away by the river. I don’t know if he is still alive.” Lin Chen held a glass cup with hot tea. A thin layer of tea leaves floated on the water. He stared at the rotating leaves as he gave his reply.
“According to you, since you were fine, why didn’t you go back to the police and report on your situation, but instead tried to sneak away?”
Hearing this question, Lin Chen raised his eyes slightly, as if he was looking at the polygrapher’s face, but he was seemingly looking at the one-way glass behind him.
“Since Feng Peilin’s goal has always been me, I was afraid that my reappearing would cause unnecessary trouble for the police.” He paused before he continued, “And some very powerful people are always looking to cause trouble for me. I wanted to cheat death to avoid these troubles.” His breath was very steady, and his voice was very calm, despite sounding extraordinarily frank.
Even without looking at the complicated lines, just from the tone and attitude of his speech, anyone who heard this would feel that there was nothing wrong with such a reason.
Xing Conglian stood on the other side of the one-way glass. He had his hands in his pockets and was wearing a standard police uniform. Unlike Inspector Huang, who was always meticulously dressed, the corners of his clothes were a little wrinkled and the top button wasn’t fastened, giving him a casual look. But perhaps it was because his eyes were so deep and the color green, as he stared into the interrogation room, he gave off a quiet and stern feeling that didn’t match the casual image.
However, that kind of tranquility and profound look only lasted for a short time. After hearing a very reasonable answer, the corners of his mouth, which he had originally wanted to keep serious, were gently raised and ripples appeared in his dark green eyes. He then smiled and looked at the polygraph on the table.
All the indicators were very stable, so his smile deepened.
The polygrapher turned a page and suddenly asked, “Have you ever been in a relationship?”
Lin Chen was taken a bit aback by such a question. “Huh?”
“Answer the question,” The polygrapher cleared his throat and said solemnly.
“No.”
“Have you ever liked anyone?” As if he thought this answer was too strange, the polygrapher added another question.
“No.”
At this moment, the various data on the monitoring screen finally fluctuated. The person who answered the question quickly realized that he had lied about the answer.
Lin Chen frowned slightly. As if he hadn’t expected that he would have a problem with this answer.
But in the end, what went wrong?
Although the person had begun to struggle, the polygrapher quickly turned to a new page. After all, who didn’t want to have some privacy?
The polygrapher continued back to the main topic. “From the file of the Candy Bandit case, it was pure accident that you appeared on the bus that was hijacked by her, right?”
“Yes.”
“Where were you going?”
“On a trip.”
“What a coincidence…”
At this moment, Lin Chen finally couldn’t help but let go of the hand holding the teacup and said, “Sorry, please allow me to interrupt you.”
“What’s the matter?”
“I just listened to the questions you asked. I think this polygraph test you’re using should be the CQT method*. “
*Control question test. It’s a technique used in criminal investigation where irrelevant questions are asked to establish a baseline. Relevant questions to the crime and past behaviors are also included too, with the aim being to elicit a strong physiological reaction from the examinee.
The polygrapher turned to the first page of the document and looked at it with a little embarrassment.
“The standard polygraph method is divided into four parts. Neutral questions, standard questions, related questions, and off-topic questions. For example, asking for name and age are all neutral questions. The role of the neutral question is to establish a normal response level. Therefore, during the questioning process, please try to let the subject answer a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ question. Otherwise, there will be problems with the baseline.”
The polygrapher closed the file and listened helplessly.
“At the same time, when you ask questions about the case, please try to write the questions you ask in a way that the subject can answer yes or no. The two questions you asked at the beginning are good, but then it became an interrogation. After all, there’s a difference between interrogating and lie detecting.”
The polygrapher opened his mouth and found himself speechless.
However, Lin Chen’s was obviously not finished. He continued, “In fact, in a set of CQT polygraph questions, it’s best to only involve one aspect of one question, and through repeated inquiries, determine whether the subject has lied or not, so the case of the Candy Bandit is another matter. You’d better put it in the next set of questions and ask me again.”
Lin Chen’s counterattack was quick and merciless.
Xing Conglian almost laughed out loud. The way some people became angry because they answered the wrong question was too cute.
“Mr. Lin, I understand.” The polygrapher sighed and stood up. He took off of the wires stuck to Lin Chen’s body. “If you lie sincerely, even the instrument can’t detect it.”
“……”
“This is just a routine procedure. Just answer a few more questions and we’ll call it a day.”
“Go ahead.”
“I read the file on the ‘Candy Bandit’. As a temporary negotiator, you’ve done a great job in persuading Fang Aizi, but at the same time, you are also one of the last people in contact with Yang Dianfeng. After that, Yang Dianfeng was escorted away in a police car and it blew up. Under such circumstances, do you think Yang Dianfeng had time to give criminals the information about his arrest?”
“It’s impossible. He didn’t have an opportunity to use any communication device like a phone at that time. Yang Dianfeng knew very well that once he was arrested, seeking police asylum was the only way out.”
“Because the criminals reacted very quickly at that time, since it wasn’t Yang Dianfeng that notified them, I can only make an inference that among all the personnel at the scene, someone passed the information directly to them, which led them to be able to react quickly and silence him.”
“I don’t rule out that possibility, but it could also be that Yang Dianfeng himself was closely monitored by the criminal organization. Once there was an issue, they decided to finish him quickly.”
“Please answer my question directly and whether I can make this inference.” The polygrapher suddenly interrupted Lin Chen solemnly.
“Okay.” Lin Chen was silent for a moment before replying.
“Continuing with the question just now, you’re an expert who has received the most professional and systematic psychological training. At the scene of the crime, did you notice anything strange at that time, and among all of them, who do you suspect is most likely to pass this information on to the criminals?”
Hearing this question, Lin Chen suddenly raised his head.
The two questions in this sentence were truly the style of the Inspector’s Office. It was full of intrigue and traps, and it was even very likely that these questions themselves were drafted by Inspector Huang himself.
Originally, the Inspector’s Office existed to supervise whether the police exercised their powers correctly and appropriately in the process of handing cases. Of course, since the Inspector’s Office suspected that someone inside the police had leaked secrets, it was necessary to start an investigation, but the inference based on the possibility required a certainty. As a result, it was a bit cruel to use such blatant questions to encourage whistle-blowing.
“I do have professional psychological training, but I’m not a professional facial recognition expert. Even the most professional facial recognition expert still needs to observe and talk carefully to find abnormal problems. You’re asking me that during the time I was facing Fang Aizi, when all the police officers were hidden in the reeds, if I could find anyone suspicious at the scene, then I can only answer you that I don’t have such abilities.”
——
The vetting process was always long and tedious.
When Lin Chen walked out the door of the police station, it was already dark. The wind was soft as the stars blotted the sky on an early spring night.
Xing Conglian was leaning against a stone pillar at the entrance, smoking a cigarette. Seeing Lin Chen, he slowly stood up straight. “Did it go well?”
Lin Chen shook his head and handed over the results he had just obtained.
Xing Conglian’s expression sank. He bit his cigarette butt and quickly opened the report. His gaze fell on the last line.
The word “Approved” was clearly written.
Xing Conglian couldn’t help but put his hand on Lin Chen’s head and ruffle his hair. “Hey, isn’t this passing? Why are you still shaking your head?”
“Didn’t you ask me if it went well?”
“And you passed. Was it not smooth?”
“I just think it’s weird that Huang Ze would suddenly let go and really let me pass this vetting process.”
Looking at Lin Chen’s slightly worried face.
“What if he discovered a conscience?” He took out another cigarette as he asked with a meaningful smile.
Kinky Thoughts:
In fact, polygraph tests are not accurate and can be passed even if you’re lying. This is why they’re not admissible in court. For someone like Lin Chen, he could easily lie and pass the test.
Interesting that he passed the question that asked if he’s been in a relationship. Perhaps Huang Ze isn’t his ex after all.
To celebrate my 1-year anniversary of danmei translation I have decided to release the entire 3rd arc of Criminal Psychology. Happy reading.
Shian would deduct their first month’s salary, and their punishment would be publicly notified within the company. Considering Shian’s generous salary, this punishment wasn’t light.
As for the internal public notification, for two guys with thick skin, it made no difference to them.
There were clear punishments and rewards in Shian. Since the two of them had saved Gao Mengyu, they were approved to become regular employees ahead of schedule.
After the incident, the two were taken into the lounge of the small round building and stayed there for five days. It was determined they had no psychophysiological problems before they were released from quarantine.
Being able to return to Shian put Yin Ren in an extremely good mood. Previously, he had planned ahead, searched frantically for the review book, and even worked out the content of his review. Now it seemed that he had escaped disaster for the time being.
Lord Ghost King binged on food and drink while watching movies in the lounge. At the end of the observation period, it took a lot of effort for the staff to dig him out of the room.
Within a few minutes, Yin Ren received a transfer notice from Fang Yuanyuan.
However, when Yin Ren was taken to the conference room, he didn’t find Zhong Chengshuo’s figure. It was strange. Was it possible that Shian had changed their mind and was going to fire Zhong Chengshuo?
Yin Ren quickly took out his phone and clicked on the apple avatar.
For safety reasons, the isolation observation room would block external signals, so they hadn’t contacted each other for five days.
[Fruit Knife: When will you transfer?]
Two minutes passed, and there was no response from Zhong Chengshuo.
[Fruit Knife: ?]
[Fruit Knife: Did you get fired?]
Ten minutes passed and there was still no response from Zhong Chengshuo.
[Fruit knife: ……?]
[Fruit Knife: Ge, are you okay? 😠]
Then his phone was gently but firmly confiscated by Fang Yuanyuan.
Fang Yuanyuan’s sweet smile looked murderous. “Don’t play with your phone during the meeting! What I just said was very important. Come on, repeat it.”
Yin Ren sighed and repeated it quickly…
After officially entering the job, he would be assigned to the formal investigation team. Each investigation team started with three people and must have at least two atheists.
Only then did the murderous intent of Fang Yuanyuan disappear.
She clasped Yin Ren’s phone in her hand as she continued to explain, “There must be a science post on the scene and the science post in the rear to assist in command. After all, those in the science post are not easily influenced so they can make more sober decisions.”
“As for the civilian job you expect… Unless there are special circumstances, for non-science posts, you have to be at least 40 years old to apply for civilian jobs.”
The 1,400-year-old Yin Ren: “…”
He was just a little younger-looking! Even after deducting more than 1,000 years of sleep, he was still 360 years old.
“Why is there an age limit?” Yin Ren was unconvinced.
Fang Yuanyuan smiled. “The amount of exercise on the scene is intense, so some Black Seals are too old to bear it. The group needs to give priority to them.”
“There are many specialty restaurants in Haigu. Shian will reimburse all meals for on-site attendance.” She paused for a while before adding this sincerely.
Yin Ren: “Okay, when can I go on-site?”
“Wait until your group finishes registration.” Fang Yuanyuan pushed over a tablet. “According to regulations, there has to be a senior employee in your group. We happen to have a surplus of science posts, so she will serve as your rear commander.”
Hearing the word “surplus”, Yin Ren subconsciously became vigilant. “If I may ask, what about her previous group…?”
“Disbanded. The science post in that group, well, the Red Seal collected enough field data and intends to return to the big factory to work on a project. The Black Seal is too old and recently applied for early retirement.”
Yin Ren breathed a sigh of relief. Fortunately, it seemed the field work wasn’t too dangerous.
He picked up the tablet in front of him and saw the header: [C-Level Investigation Team] Field Partner Combination—Individual Intent Registration Form.
There were only a few names to choose from. Yin Ren saw Zhong Chengshuo and Lao Bin, who were the newcomers, at a glance. Below each name were five options: [Not considered for the time being], [Unfamiliar], [General], [Cooperative], and [Much Appreciated].
Since Zhong Chengshuo’s name was still there, it meant he wasn’t fired.
Yin Ren happily checked [Much Appreciated] under the name [011-Zhong Chengshuo], and then marked [Not considered for the time being] for everyone else.
There were only three newcomers this session, including Yin Ren. It would be troublesome if he chose someone like Luo Bin, who didn’t look capable at first glance, or a senior employee who had lost their partners for various reasons. No matter how he thought about it, Zhong Chengshuo was the perfect choice.
When she received the form, Fang Yuanyuan laughed out loud.
“You two are very interesting. The way you choose people is exactly the same. Okay, it seems that there’s no need for reconsideration. Your partner will be Zhong Chengshuo.”
“He has already gone through the formalities?” Yin Ren said in surprise.
“Nn. However, Minister Li has other arrangements on his side, so Xiao Zhong is probably busy right now.”
……
On the other side of Shian Park.
Zhong Chengshuo stepped into the elevator with Professor Li. When the elevator descended to the fifth floor, his phone signal disappeared. Zhong Chengshuo began to feel that something was amiss.
“Mr. Li, is there an underground area in Shian?”
“Yes.” Li Nian still had his same unsmiling look.
Zhong Chengshuo said, “Oh” and didn’t inquire further.
Only the humming of the mechanical elevator sounded.
Ten seconds passed before Professor Li spoke up. “You’re not asking where we’re going?”
Zhong Chengshuo replied calmly, “Well, it’s already too late to turn back.”
Professor Li: “……”
Professor Li: “When you decided to intervene in Gao Mengyu’s case, what did you think of the danger of phenomenon C-C19? After all, the clues were limited at that time. Tell me about your thoughts.”
[Phenomenon C-C19, gap “cat”.
Unknown creature with some intelligence. It’s physical, non-toxic, has weak physical destructive power with a strong cognitive pollution ability. The creature’s willingness to attack isn’t strong, and it can induce incomplete gaps.]
The above were the record entries added by Shian professionals. As witnesses, both Zhong Chengshuo and Yin Ren had signed the file.
Zhong Chengshuo pondered for a moment.
“’Cognitive pollution’ is a kind of camouflage, and creatures with strong camouflage are usually not good at frontal hand-to-hand combat. At that time, the people who went before you to Fanghua were only cognitively polluted and not poisoned, which made it evident that it wasn’t highly toxic.”
“It can live in an apartment for a long time and use smaller ‘gaps’ to hide itself. This indicates that it’s not physically large or good at shape-shifting—which will rule out the possibility that it’s too large or has a hard shell.”
“’Cats’ like to eat brains. Gao Mengyu had bought 10 pounds of pig brains every day, and there was still a lot left in stock in the refrigerator. Either it didn’t eat too much, or it only needed specific substances contained in the brain. It’s unlikely that such a creature that ate very little will have a mouth that can swallow people.”
After speaking, Zhong Chengshuo looked at Professor Li quietly.
Li Nian: “Continue.”
“In summary, as long as I can resist its cognitive pollution, it’s just an ordinary creature with low defense. There are certain risks, but it was worth trying.”
Professor Li chuckled.
“You’re really something else,” he said.
“Do enough investigation before you act. This is the basis of research.” Zhong Chengshuo’s tone was flat and stiff, like a primary school student who was called out by his teacher.
“Indeed.”
The elevator stopped slowly, and the elevator door slid open.
“I don’t think you’re a person who’s easily hot-blooded. Today, I brought you here to show you the ‘basis’ of Shian—Phenomenon A-A3, Evil Spirit.”
“Must we watch it live?” Zhong Chengshuo pushed up his glasses as he asked seriously. “I can look at a video or pictures or something…”
“You have seen the abnormal photo of the ‘cat’.” Li Nian took Zhong Chengshuo deeper into the corridor. “The existing machinery we have is still not able to process images of certain creatures. The appearance of the ‘cat’ will only turn part of the image into a black area or create a messy code.”
“But a proper Evil Spirit is capable of blowing up any existing camera equipment, and pictures aren’t enough to describe. Text and language would barely work, but many details are lost.”
“……”
“It’s hard to understand, right? When you go out later, you can take a look at the cats Gao Mengyu drew when she hadn’t recovered—the dogs, hamsters, and tigers she drew were all normal, but the ‘cats’ were a mess of irregular lines.”
Zhong Chengshuo knew this.
Lin Bei was so frightened by the cat that Gao Mengyu drew that she pulled Gao Mengyu into the cooperative group chat and kept taking pictures of it and asking about it. Yin Ren patiently comforted the two of them and then added a cat emoji pack.
Speaking of which, Yin Ren wasn’t here. No wonder why Zhong Chengshuo felt something was missing.
“Since the Evil Spirit can only be seen on the spot, why did you call only me? Yin Ren and I are both parties to the incident.”
“You have a good relationship with your partner. Despite the situation you’re in now, you can still think of others.”
Professor Li put on a somewhat mean smile.
“To be honest, the science post is better. If a person in a non-science position directly observes the Evil Spirit’s body, on the light side, they will lose their ability to think, and on the heavy side, they will die of cerebral hemorrhage on the spot. If I were to bring Yin Ren down, you’ll have to change partners on the first day of employment.”
I see.
Zhong Chengshuo said no more questions and obediently accepted the goggles handed to him by Professor Li.
There was only an extremely long corridor outside the elevator that was empty on both sides with only cold white walls. The goggles were thick and heavy, but there was little change in his vision after he put them on.
There was a door at the end of the corridor that led to a huge hall, similar to one inside a concert hall. The entire hall was milky white, and there were a few suspended floors inside with hundreds of people busying themselves in front of various machines.
Just looking at the atmosphere, it was like a giant beehive.
Zhong Chengshuo honestly followed Professor Li through the hall while he desperately peered around from the corner of his eyes.
Unfortunately, their destination wasn’t far away. Professor Li took him into a sightseeing ladder-like elevator in the corner. The elevator opened horizontally, and the two quickly fell into darkness.
When light appeared, Zhong Chengshuo thought they had arrived in another world.
In front of the two of them was a huge observation window with extremely thick compartments embedded in it. The world on the other side of the window seemed to be in the middle of a rainy night. The sky was gloomy, and there were dark clouds sprinkling light rain. The forest was wrapped in a circle of trees, and the vast lawn was blown by the wind in waves.
An ancient courtyard stood at the edge of the forest.
Under the eaves, a family of three dressed in ancient costumes were talking and laughing while enjoying the rain. A black dog circled them happily, wagging its tail and jumping around from time to time.
If it weren’t for knowing that they were deep underground, Zhong Chengshuo would have thought this was some kind of drama scene being filmed by a film crew.
Professor Li was expressionless. “Do you see anything wrong?”
Zhong Chengshuo: “That dog… doesn’t have a leash around its neck.”
The back of the dog’s neck was connected to a crimson “umbilical cord”.
The umbilical cord-like thing was very long, dragging on the ground for hundreds of meters, and at the end it gradually rose and disappeared into the dark and gloomy sky.
Seeing Zhong Chengshuo’s face full of doubts, Professor Li smiled. He took out a delicate radio. “Raise the brightness to level 4.”
The dark “sky” was illuminated a little. It no longer resembled the night sky but was closer to an uneven cloud. The end of the umbilical cord was something funnel-shaped, connecting to a squirming object in the sky.
“How about now?”
“Nothing special.”
“Raise the brightness to level 3.”
“Now?”
“It’s okay.”
“…Level 2.”
“If you feel uncomfortable, you should tell me. This isn’t the time to be brave.”
“I don’t feel any discomfort.”
“…”
“…Adjust the position of the elevator and increase the brightness to level 1.”
When the elevator rose higher, Zhong Chengshuo could clearly see this time.
Over the artificial landscape, a large group of dark red creatures were floating. It looked a bit like a giant coral reef gathered in groups, with irregular shapes, and it twitched nervously from time to time.
Roughly speaking, its surface was embedded with pink barnacle-like things. Those “barnacles” were close to one meter in diameter, and the roots were light yellow bones with something growing out of them. Zhong Chengshuo wiped his glasses and squinted…
Those were twisted and deformed hairless dogs’ mouths.
They bore horizontal and vertical fangs from the open snout. The deformed mouth opened slightly, as if it were breathing, and pale red mucus dripped from these “long mouths”, turning into a never-ending rain underground.
This thing was gigantic. Comparing the courtyard to it, it wasn’t even the size of a small rice grain. Even if the light were turned on, he could only see a small part closest to him.
“It can’t get any brighter,” Professor Li said in a deep voice. “This is the source of evil qi we use to appease anomalies, Shian’s Evil Spirit.”
The source of evil qi used to appease anomalies… Zhong Chengshuo thought about this and repeated it several times in his head. He suddenly felt a bit enlightened. It turned out that this was the case. Shian was collecting the Evil Spirit dogs’ hair to pay wages for evil beings in their group.
But Professor Li’s aura was so fierce that he didn’t dare say this or ask about it.
Zhong Chengshuo decided to change the subject. “That family of three just now…”
“They are all remotely controlled high-tech simulation machines. The grass and trees are also artificial. This thing is surrounded by an extremely toxic poison that makes it inaccessible to living things. Of course, biological toxins are the most insignificant ability of this Evil Spirit, and it is the weakest Evil Spirit in existence.”
“……”
“It’s now in a semi-conscious state, thinking it’s a dog. Did you see the work hall just now? The work of those people is limited to two goals: ensuring that the ‘dog’ is in a good mood and suppressing it as soon as possible if it gets out of control.”
Professor Li’s eyes were sharp as he looked directly into Zhong Chengshuo’s eyes.
“Zhong Chengshuo, you have a talent. Next time you face evil things, I hope you will think more thoroughly. The world you want to step into is much more than what you think… Is there anything else you want to ask?”
Zhong Chengshuo looked at the black dog jumping up and down, and his eyes became complicated. “If I understand this correctly, it… used to be a dog?”
“It was transformed from an evil creature whose original body was a dog. We can only be sure of that. I remember giving you the information yesterday—Evil Spirits are all transformed from evil things, but we don’t know the conditions for their transformation.”
“I see.” Zhong Chengshuo kept staring at the dog. “Will an evil being that’s originally a human turn into an Evil Spirit?”
“There has never been such an Evil Spirit, and I don’t think there will be in the future.”
“Why?”
Li Nian didn’t answer immediately. He raised his head and looked at the huge thing floating in the air. There was a “barnacle monster mouth” extremely close to the two that was panting sharply, spraying a small piece of white mist onto the compartment.
“The fiercer the Evil Spirit, the more primitive the original body. This is their way of existence… A mind with thinking ability can’t bear it. You will understand later,” Professor Li said softly.
“Even if there’s a one-in-a-billion chance, that person must be very, very crazy.”
The author has something to say：
Xiao Yin’s civilian pension plan was completely shattered—
It’s too bad for Xiao Yin, but at least you can eat at all kinds of delicious restaurants.
Shian’s Evil Spirit has appeared. It’s a dog leash!
Kinky Thoughts:
This marks the end of the first arc. Hope you enjoy the arc. This marks the end of the anniversary release. I will be taking a break for the rest of this month, so releases will be extremely sporadic until at least January. Thank you everyone for your support, comments, Ko-fi donations, and help throughout the past year. Here’s hoping for more danmei in 2023. Wishing everyone an (early) happy holidays.
As always, I will provide an arc summary for each arc.
The seal to the human world was broken, allowing Yin Ren to enter from his 1,000-year-old slumber. He woke up in a mental health hospital and escaped from it with the help of one of the patients. Outside, he was caught by a “Samaritan” who claimed to be Zhong Chengshuo and was escorted to the police station.
While at the police station, they were transferred to Shian Corporation, a company that works for the government to protect the world from “abnormal phenomena”. That night that Yin Ren was released, they were watching over Haigu in preparation to deal with an Evil Spirit that could be released. Though they didn’t find anything, Minister Fu went through all the anomalies that happened that night and suspected there was something fishy with Yin Ren and Zhong Chengshuo and had them brought to Shian for an interrogation from the police station.
Yin Ren feigned amnesia in order for him to skate by without knowing much of the modern world. His only goal after escaping the seal was to become a layabout and do nothing but enjoy food. He is then recruited to join Shian and undergoes an entrance exam, which he passes. Things didn’t go as he had hoped as instead of being recruited for a civilian job, he instead joins the special squad and, due to being short staff (because of him), he and Zhong Chengshuo are partnered up and whisked away to investigate a disappearance case.
Their investigation uncovers that a gap had formed in the apartment of Gao Mengyu, the person who had disappeared. Gao Mengyu recently moved away after breaking up with her long-time boyfriend, who later died in an accident, because he strangled her cat to death. She later adopted a new “cat”, which turns out to be an evil being from “the other side”. In order to protect Gao Mengyu from the retaliation of her dead ex boyfriend’s family, it sucked her into the gap and hid her away, causing her to “disappear”.
Gao Mengyu’s ex, who died, had turned into a ghost and was haunting her as “Mr. Rose”, the persona he created that went viral in order to try to win her back, but he was unable to exact his revenge because she was protected by the “cat”.
The “cat” was an evil being from the other world who was wounded and wandered into the human world. In order to survive, it used cognitive pollution, changing humans’ perceptions of it as a harmless, cute creature. While trying to protect Gao Mengyu, it inadvertently mobilized Shian’s forces. To ensure the cognitive pollution didn’t get worse and leave a permanent effect, Shian was going to cleanse the entire building Gao Mengyu resided in to clear up the gap and the cognitive pollution.
Zhong Chengshuo and Yin Ren intervened in time and saved Gao Mengyu before the cleansing, while the “cat” had fully recovered and returned back to its world.
Despite disobeying orders, Yin Ren and Zhong Chengshuo had proven themselves and were expedited to become regular employees of Shian without having to go through the probation period. Now, they have formed a team and will be investigating anomalies around Haigu.
From the outside of the building, unit 1413 was no different from others. There was no trace of light in the entire apartment, as if the dilapidated and huge building seemed to be asleep.
Many Shian employees patrolled the perimeter, and the temporarily installed surveillance camera circled around.
Zhong Chengshuo changed back into his sweater and sneakers and had an extra canvas school bag on his back. Yin Ren put on a black shirt and neatly tied up his hair. The two took Xie Baocai and sneaked around to the rear of Fanghua Apartments.
“Is this really possible?” Xie Baocai clutched his cloth bag tightly as he looked at all the surveillance cameras plastered on the wall.
Yin Ren pressed his index finger to his upper lip and made a “quiet” gesture to Xie Baocai.
Zhong Chengshuo straightened up his clothes, turned his back to Xie Baocai, and hung his work ID around his neck. He took two steps forward and stopped the patrolling staff.
The male staff member looked at Zhong Chengshuo’s work ID for a while and gave him a puzzled look. “What are you doing here now?”
“I heard that this place will be indiscriminately cleaned for the second half of the night.” Zhong Chengshuo pushed up his glasses as he spoke in a low voice. “We came to investigate before, and I lost a USB flash drive here. I heard that the cleanup operation would affect data storage devices, and the research data inside the flash drive is very important to me…”
Before they came with Xie Baocai, they had made sufficient preparations.
Zhong Chengshuo went to the Public Security Bureau to investigate Gao Mengyu’s potential enemies to see if there were any familiar faces, while Yin Ren went to investigate what “indiscriminate cleaning” was…
Shian would set up large-scale spells outside the building that would attack any evil objects in the building indiscriminately.
Such an attack would not destroy things that were dead, but it would be harmful to ordinary creatures, and even data storage devices could be damaged.
Not to mention the tenants of the apartment—even cats and dogs in Fanghua had to be transferred out by Shian. A few hours before the cleanup began, there would be no living things in the building.
The preparations for the cleanup had been completed, and Fu Xingchuan had set up a dense array of spells around Fanghua Apartments to ensure that the pollution wouldn’t overflow. Fu Xingchuan himself had arranged a treatment plan and was immediately transferred to another site.
This was a great opportunity to sneak in.
As the two expected, the staff pressed their temples. “The gap hasn’t been found yet, and there are only two hours left before clean-up. Don’t wander around. Where did you lose it? I’ll go get it.”
“I’m really sorry. I left it at a tenant’s house, and I specifically found someone to open the door. We can just take them with us so we don’t have to trouble you.”
As Zhong Chengshuo spoke, he pointed at Yin Ren, who was shaking his Black Seal and work ID, and Xie Baocai.
Xie Baocai quickly picked things up. “Ah, yes. Please let us in. We’ll be quick about it.”
The staff hesitated for a few seconds. “Okay, open all your bags.”
Zhong Chengshuo opened his school bag cooperatively. There were only a few bundles of safety ropes that were attached to metal hooks.
“There’s a gap inside, and we’re afraid of encountering danger, so this is used for escape,” Zhong Chengshuo said nervously.
Seeing that he was about to be checked, Xie Baocai became flustered. “Check what! I’m kindly helping them, and you’re searching me like a thief. It truly doesn’t pay to be good! Are you a policeman? Do you have this kind of authority?”
He took a few steps back and straightened up his waist with a flushed face. Zhong Chengshuo looked at the staff apologetically, giving him an expression of “I can’t help it”.
“Alright, alright.”
The staff felt like he was getting a headache. He glanced at Xie Baocai’s deflated old cloth bag and waved his hand.
“Hurry up. You have up to an hour. Pay attention to the time. When time’s up, you’ll only have two endings—either you’ll be swallowed up by the gap or you’ll get axed.”
Zhong Chengshuo took off the protective clothing as he nodded like a chicken pecking rice.
The staff opened the chained back door and repeatedly said, “Go and hurry back.”
Fanghua Apartments was dark. The only light source came from the green emergency exit sign and the pale sensor lights that kept coming on and off. The elevator was still in operation. The group of them went straight to the fourteenth floor.
As far as they could tell, the fourteenth floor was no different from the other floors.
The apartment doors were all densely packed and neat, like a row of coffins embedded in the wall. Except for each other’s footsteps, the three of them couldn’t hear anything else.
“Didn’t you come to find someone? Why are we wearing this?” Xie Baocai grabbed at his protective clothing suspiciously.
“Gao Mengyu sprinkled pesticides in the corridor,” Zhong Chengshuo said in an undulating tone.
In terms of acting skills, Yin Ren had a subtle admiration for this person’s lying abilities.
Xie Baocai chuckled but didn’t ask more. It was fine with him. With this thing he was wearing, blood wouldn’t get on his body later. The clothes he was currently wearing were worth hundreds of dollars and were bought by his precious nephew.
The three of them quickly reached unit 1413.
Zhong Chengshuo and Yin Ren looked at each other and nodded.
In order to facilitate the investigation, the door of unit 1413 wasn’t locked. Zhong Chengshuo grabbed the doorknob and opened the anti-theft door slowly…
Everything was quiet inside, and the furnishings remained the same as last time. Xie Baocai was the first to rush in and look around.
“What the hell? Where’s that girl surnamed Gao?” He couldn’t hold back his anger, and his eyes were surging as soon as he entered the apartment.
With a loud bang, the anti-theft door closed behind him.
All three of them entered the small apartment. Moonlight poured in from the large open windows. Although there wasn’t any light in the room, it was still bright. The silver brilliance brushed over the floor tiles, giving up a hazy and calm feeling.
The strange thing was that although everyone could feel the oncoming evening breeze, the curtains were motionless, as if they were frozen in the air.
“You’re fooling around with me! There’s no one here!” The apartment wasn’t big. Xie Baocai hurriedly scanned the room and then spoke with a shrill voice.
Zhong Chengshuo ignored the old man and stood between Xie Baocai and the window as he faced it.
After a while, he cleared his throat.
“Uncle, Xie Chao died so tragically. Do you want to kill Gao Mengyu?”
Xie Baocai’s hand clutching the cloth bag tightened. He spat out his spit and bared his browned teeth. “Yeah, and? Shouldn’t that bitch deserve to die?”
The corners of Zhong Chengshuo’s mouth twitched as if he were about to show a smile.
Unfortunately, his back was facing the other two, and from this angle, Yin Ren couldn’t see his expression.
“Meow…”
As soon as Xie Baocai’s voice fell, a soft mew sounded.
Immediately afterwards, there was a strange booming sound in the air, like a scalpel cutting through skin, and suddenly a gap opened out of thin air in front of the window.
A grayish-yellow mucus dripped slowly down the gap, attracting sticky filaments in the air before melting silently into the floor. The fat, fleshy limbs drilled out like loaches, moving completely symmetrically from left to right. Within five seconds, the weird “flower” bloomed again.
The “flower’s center” was facing the three of them.
In the thick darkness, fourteen dots of red light flickered and would move from time to time.
The soft, fleshy limbs danced lightly in the room; their rhythm matched the beat of the heart. As the fleshy limbs “opened the screen”, brain-like folds glowed in the moonlight.
Xie Baocai stopped yelling and stared blankly at the behemoth stretching along the wall before gradually revealing a disdainful smile.
“Hahahaha. I thought it was something, but it turns out that bitch is still obsessed with raising cats…”
The old man seemed to lose interest in what was in front of him. He turned to Yin Ren, who was closest to him. “Didn’t you say that you wanted to take shots of Gao Mengyu? Where is she? If you really deceive me, I’ll sue you for tricking me into coming here and even lying to the police…”
Was this cognitive pollution? Yin Ren observed with interest.
At least for now, Zhong Chengshuo seemed to be okay.
This “cat” wasn’t weak in strength. Compared to other evil things, its methods had been thoroughly investigated.
Yin Ren lowered his head. His black hair hung down, and his eyes glowed with a bright red light.
At this moment, in Yin Ren’s eyes, Xie Baocai was like a sprouting potato. Translucent tumors gradually emerged from the old man’s eyes, nose, and mouth, and even many joints appeared.
Those tumors burrowed densely out of his skin and grew and elongated as they stretched towards the ceiling.
They were half-imaginary, half-real, with a texture close to the fleshy limbs of a “cat” but they looked like a deformed brain. At the root of the tumor, the capillary-like, thin roots were wrapped with evil qi and stretching into his body.
The problem wasn’t large.
Removing these things in time and killing the roots that had penetrated into the body as soon as possible would still cure him.
However, it was just a bit unsightly.
Yin Ren’s eyes quickly returned to their original state, regaining a relatively fresh field of vision. He took a deep breath, then shivered and shouted, “Zhong—Zhong Ge, be careful. There’s a big monster in front of you! Something’s wrong with Xie Baocai. Let’s run away—”
Xie Baocai cooperated conscientiously. “It’s great that young people have many eyes and hands. When laozi was young, I also had seven or eight hands and feet…”
When he said this, the old man’s movements were extremely distorted and weird.
He no longer stood on his legs but had prostrated himself on the ground in a strange posture. His limbs stretched awkwardly, as if he had grown invisible limbs.
When he laid down firmly, Xie Baocai turned his head into a posture that almost broke his neck. The old man rolled his eyes upward and fixed them on Yin Ren. Then his voice got louder.
“Looking down on an old man, huh? When you get old, your eyes will fall off too. Quickly, bring Gao Meng Meng Meng Meng Mengyu over here!”
Xie Baocai spit all over. His voice was hoarse, and his saliva kept flowing down the corners of his mouth. As his body squirmed, the cloth bag rubbed against the ground, causing the knife to fall out and onto the floor.
The old man bit down on the knife with his mouth, and his lips were cut by the blade. Saliva and blood dripped together. Miraculously, somehow his voice was still clear and he was able to speak.
“Hateful slut slut slut! Hateful slut! Kill kill kill kill the slut. Kill everyone. Kill, slut, kill, kill, slut, slut, kill, hateful, slut—”
Yin Ren: “……”
Wow, the style of the new era was so fierce that it even shocked this thousand-year-old Ghost King.
Yin Ren had seen enough. He lowered his body and grabbed the knife. “Uncle, this is a controlled knife. You can’t just take it out casually.”
Xie Baocai’s mouth was full of blood. “Kill, kill…”
“Murder is against the law,” Zhong Chengshuo added calmly.
Xie Baocai: “……”
He began to crawl towards the “cat”, raving wildly at an inhuman speed.
Yin Ren stepped on the corner of Xie Baocai’s clothes with one foot, stopping the old man from continuing his dying steps. He hid the knife behind him and said, with a frightened tone, “Zhong Ge, take a look. How many eyes do you think we have?”
“Two each.”
Zhong Chengshuo turned his head back and then to the monster that was dancing with its soft limbs.
“Don’t panic. I can see what’s in front of me. It should be some kind of animal visible to the naked eye.”
“You don’t think it’s a cat?” Yin Ren added “nervously”, deliberately making a loud swallowing noise.
“I think it’s a brand-new species that can be published and make front cover.”
Zhong Chengshuo spoke in a steady voice with a deep regret in his tone. He didn’t take a step back and just stood there in front of the huge monster, looking a little… excited?
“I understand why the seniors at Shian are worried. Unfortunately, my major isn’t in zoology.”
Zhong Chengshuo was staring straight at the “cat” with a strange compassion in his gaze, as if he were reading a paper to be published.
“Don’t panic. The protective clothing from Shian can protect against any toxins. Generally speaking, since this thing is good at misdirection, its own attack shouldn’t be strong.”
Yin Ren almost applauded his partner. Comrade Zhong Chengshuo’s courage was truly amazing. Maybe 90% of the space in his stomach was given to courage.
But based on his experience, Zhong Chengshuo’s judgment wasn’t wrong.
“But—but this is really scary!” Lord Ghost King yelled earnestly.
“Meow… Meow!”
Seeing that the two of them weren’t contaminated, the cry of that thing gradually became more rapid.
The sound continued to float out from the depths of the crack, and the crack suddenly widened a little. The rhythm of the soft limbs all over the room moved faster. Two of the limbs bounced along the side of Zhong Chengshuo’s face, heading straight for Xie Baocai.
It didn’t intend to let Xie Baocai go.
“Pop.”
The two soft limbs hadn’t even halfway reached the old man yet but were caught. Zhong Chengshuo grabbed them tightly with one hand; his grip was extremely firm and forceful.
“We got that old man under control. Shian will ensure Gao Mengyu’s safety.” Zhong Chengshuo tried to persuade it. “Let Gao Mengyu go. If this continues, she will be killed by you…”
But that thing didn’t listen.
Before Zhong Chengshuo could finish speaking, he received a fleshy slap on his face. The “cat” had angrily slapped Zhong Chengshuo, almost knocking off the mask he was wearing.
“Unable to communicate. The attack power is equal to that of an ordinary adult male.”
Zhong Chengshuo took two steps back and raised his voice.
“Yin Ren, stimulate Xie Baocai again!”
Yin Ren: “?” Do you think the “cat” didn’t beat him hard enough? Will beating him some more make it feel good?
However, in order to pretend to be in a state of confusion, Yin Ren picked up Xie Baocai and broadcast emotionally, “We’re both friends of Gao Mengyu, and we’re here to teach you a lesson!”
Sure enough, Xie Baocai’s neck veins protruded, and the old man broke free from his clothes like a slug. He crawled all over the floor while his mouth kept muttering faster and faster. He spoke clearly, but unfortunately, none of the things he said could be connected to words. The two of them no longer understood what was coming out of his mouth.
The “cat” also went crazy.
The sound of cracking continually sounded as the original rift expanded into a round black hole.
Centered in this huge black hole were dozens of small and large black holes that appeared inside the apartment, as if the entire space had been poked with countless holes. More soft limbs drilled out of the black holes and poked around.
Xie Baocai’s behavior became more bizarre. He was completely naked and was twisted into a knot. The old man’s limbs were strangely intertwined and kept stretching on the ground—he seemed to be looking for his knife.
Yin Ren mentally clicked his tongue.
If he continued to dawdle, healing Xie Baocai might no longer work. The old man was vicious, but he hadn’t had time to kill anyone. In case Xie Baocai really went crazy here, the two of them would really have to bid farewell to Shian.
Perhaps thinking the same thing, Zhong Chengshuo glanced at Xie Baocai, who kept crawling all over the floor. “You, take the old man out. Help me fix the rope outdoors and don’t come back in.”
“You…”
“There’s a flaw in the movements of those soft limbs.” Like a fish swimming in water, Zhong Chengshuo deftly dodged the attack. “There’s a place where the movement is irregular, and the number isn’t right. It should be protecting something… These black holes are gaps, right?”
Zhong Chengshuo spoke while avoiding the soft limbs. He tied two climbing ropes firmly around his waist and flung them casually. One was firmly stuck on the guardrail outside the window, and the other one he threw to Yin Ren. “Fix this on the anti-theft door next door. Hurry!”
This kid wants to take the initiative to enter the gap.
Yin Ren took the rope and just sighed. He didn’t even have time to feign fear.
“After you go in, no matter what you touch, don’t open your eyes.”
Zhong Chengshuo paused for a moment.
“Just an intuition. I think I remembered something just now.” Yin Ren clenched the hidden knife tightly. “Go, great hero.”
Zhong Chengshuo nodded at him. He yanked the slippery, fishy soft limbs away and dashed towards the target black hole.
The next moment, his figure was engulfed in darkness and completely disappeared from the apartment.
As if the pause button were pressed, all the soft limbs all over the room froze. The “cat” seemed to be confused for a while, and then it fell into a rage. Countless soft limbs wrapped around the ropes; some trying to pull on the hook stuck to the window rail while others grabbed the fixed end of Yin Ren’s hand.
Yin Ren didn’t leave according to Zhong Chengshuo’s instructions.
With a casual kick, Xie Baocai was kicked to the wall and knocked unconscious. Yin Ren smiled at the “cat”. In front of it, he slowly sent the rope hook into his chest and abdomen.
The rope hook passed through the gap in his shirt and was embedded into Yin Ren’s skin, as if an umbilical cord were protruding out of him.
With the rope hook fixed, Yin Ren took out the knife and twisted his hand into a flower. “It’s so much easier now… Ah, I forgot, you don’t understand human language.”
[How about this. Can you understand now?]
Yin Ren didn’t open his mouth when he “spoke” but instead an uncomfortable vibration echoed in the room.
[Let that person take Gao Mengyu away. There’s more to talk about—I tied this rope to my spine. You can’t take it away.]
The “cat” hesitated for a moment, and its fourteen eyes darted around frantically. It no longer meowed but instead started making a discordant growl that was full of resistance and anger.
[…Is this animal sane?]
“Squeak Ahhhh—Ahhhhhhhh!!!”
The “cat” hissed loudly, and its soft limbs unfolded like a screen, revealing dense and treacherous patterns in them. They kept changing moment by moment, almost sticking to Yin Ren.
It eventually stopped nesting in the gap and exposed its entire body.
At the intersection of countless soft limbs, there were fourteen crimson spheres stuck together. The sphere had soft, grape-like pieces of black and gray flesh that were covered with dark holes that were as thick as a finger.
Among them, a large piece was lighter in color and slightly lacking in shape, like newborn tissue that hadn’t yet grown.
However, even with this almost messy appearance, it was still a symmetrical beauty. At first glance, this thing looked a bit like a corrupted “ten-foot curtain” flower or a thin rib cage of some kind of animal.
…In short, there was no resemblance to a creature like a “cat”.
When it came out, Yin Ren narrowed his eyes.
[It’s not good to use one trick repeatedly. It’s easy to see through—if you want to pollute cognition, you must first parse their memories. Come, I’ll open my memories up to you.]
Yin Ren didn’t move. The room was full of soft limbs swarming all over, squirming frantically as they wrapped Yin Ren into a cocoon.
A few seconds passed.
Then, a noise sounding like a scream emerged. All the soft limbs seemed to have touched fire as they all shrank back and retreated abruptly, then they froze in mid-air.
[Is my memory very interesting?]
“Squeak… Ahhh… Ah… Ahhhhh…”
[What did you say? There’s someone guarding outside? It’s okay, I’m not going to use my evil qi.]
Yin Ren stopped playing with the knife and instead muttered a string of syllables. Those syllables were rapid and rhythmic, like a ballad passed down from ancient times.
If Fu Xingchuan was present, the cultivator would recognize it as soon as he heard it. It was undoubtedly an orthodox technique that humans could use.
Yin Ren’s long hair had fanned out and was frozen in mid-air. There was a stomach-churning distortion that appeared in the air, causing the furnishings of the apartment to shake slightly and make subtle rattling noises.
Suddenly, the chanting stopped.
[Wait. I don’t want to use my own blood.]
Yin Ren moved to Xie Baocai, who was unconscious, and slashed the old man’s arm with the knife while he kept grumbling, “It’s not that I’m afraid of pain. It’s really because you young people are too impulsive and scream bloody murder at every turn. The little girl didn’t even do anything wrong. This is just a scratch. Consider it compensation for other people’s spiritual loss…”
Scared “cat”: “…………….”
Putting away a handful of blood, Yin Ren stood back in his original position and put on his solemn expression again.
As soon as he loosened his hands, the blood turned into a pea-sized blood bead and spread out in the air. The rhythm of the ballad suddenly accelerated, and the blood beads in the sky spit out countless filaments that wrapped around the soft limbs like a snake and then suddenly tightened.
Weird blood silk hung in the air, and like this, the “cat” was completely bound.
Yin Ren’s black hair was still floating, and his eyes were red. He squeezed his hands as he gave a smile that was so pure it was frightening.
[You’re not from “this side”, are you? I have heard of things like you.]
Since people could stray into gaps, something on the “other side” could get lost too. Their fate was not much better than that of those who entered the gap—if they couldn’t find supplies in time, they could only die in despair in a strange world.
Of course, there are evil things that could survive and form communities on this side of the world, and thus they were dubbed monsters by the inhabitants of this world. This one looked like it had good essence, which meant Gao Mengyu had raised it well.
Based on its current performance, it had the strength to “go home.”
[Don’t be afraid. I won’t kill you.]
The “cat’ trembled and made weird growling noises from time to time. Yin Ren leaned closer and touched the stiff, soft limbs of the “cat”.
He put his hand on the “wound” that wasn’t the right color.
A gentle evil qi brushed over the piece of flesh and blood, which gradually became full and flat. All fourteen human-sized eyes turned to Yin Ren, and all twenty-eight pupils were locked on him.
The “cat” stopped growling and stayed in place in confusion.
[Okay, now you can go home faster.] Yin Ren petted the nearest eyeball.
“Meow.” The cat purred from the thin hole in its flesh.
[Knock it off. After that person leaves, you must immediately return to the other side of the gap and never come here again. As for Gao Mengyu, we’ll take care of her—we have the ability to do so.]
“……Meow.”
……
When Zhong Chengshuo poked one hand out of the gap, it had been less than thirty minutes since they entered unit 1413.
Yin Ren quickly pulled out the rope hooked inside his body and let it fly on its own towards the neighboring door. He yanked a fleshly limb and wrapped it around his waist in an effort to look moribund.
“Cat”: “……”
It could only resign to its fate and cooperate.
Zhong Chengshuo tightened the rope and crawled out of the gap with great force. His entire body was filthy and covered with gray-yellow translucent mucus, and a thin girl was tied behind him. The mucus on the girl’s body was thicker, and her long hair was tangled in a ball as her head was hanging limply.
Her body was slightly undulating, but it could be seen she was still breathing.
As soon as Zhong Chengshuo crawled out, he saw Xie Baocai unconscious and his partner was entangled hard by the soft limbs. His hair was disheveled and covered in blood, and he looked as if he could no longer hang on.
“Zhong Ge, I can’t anymore—you run—don’t—don’t mind me—”
Zhong Chengshuo gritted his teeth and cleanly retracted the rope. He used the rope to form a noose and directly put it around Xie Baocai’s ankle. He then immediately rushed towards Yin Ren, grabbed him by the waist, and abruptly pulled him out.
After saving him, Zhong Chengshuo carried Yin Ren on his shoulder, causing his glasses to knock askew. Gao Mengyu was tied to his back, while Xie Baocai was dragged by his hand as he rushed towards the corridor elevator.
Yin Ren: “…” As expected from a young man. His physical strength is really good.
Yin Ren’s head was facing behind, and he could see unit 1413 when he looked up.
[Go.] In the shaking field of vision, Yin Ren ordered silently.
A limp limb stuck out the door, waved at him, and then shrank back.
When they rushed into the elevator, the atmosphere of unit 1413 completely disappeared.
The gap was completely closed, and the “cat” had left.
The moonlight was bright, and the uninhabited room was quiet. There was still blood and mucus on the floor. All the knickknacks in the apartment were smashed into a mess by Xie Baocai, but fortunately, there was no serious damage.
There was only one thing missing in Gao Mengyu’s apartment.
The books on the table were scattered all over the place, and the pen had fallen to the floor with a little bit of ink leaking out. Only the cat-patterned tablecloth was missing.
……
The indiscriminate cleaning plan was launched on time that night, and all evil spirits in Fanghua Apartments were cleaned up and the last remnants of the gap disappeared. The twelve-hour observation period had passed, and the tenants gradually moved back in.
Xie Baocai was taken by Shian and underwent interventional treatment for cognitive pollution. The old man himself wasn’t seriously injured, and the treatment was timely, but due to his age and physical fitness, he probably would get some minor sequelae, such as physical fatigue or being particularly afraid of cats.
Xie Baocai didn’t have time to hurt others, and he was too old to be dealt with legally. However, the Haigu police sent a special personnel to check on the situation, and the two parties decided to discuss follow-up measures.
Gao Mengyu was taken to Haigu People’s Hospital. She wasn’t injured, but her body was severely deficient. After a period of recuperation, she would make a full recovery.
Her disappearance was characterized by the outside world as “accidentally stuck in the gap of the old building”, while they explained to Lin Bei that she “was haunted by an evil spirit, but the corrupted thing has been eliminated”.
Although she was cut off from water and food for nearly a week, it was unknown whether the environment in the gap was special, but that night, Gao Mengyu regained consciousness.
She opened her eyes in a trance and saw Lin Bei beside her. Gao Mengyu struggled a bit and subconsciously tried to get up.
“It’s okay.” Lin Bei’s tone was blunt, but she still helped tuck Gao Mengyu in. “Don’t panic. That old man won’t harm you again.”
Gao Mengyu opened her mouth, and some tears flashed in her eyes.
She hesitantly stretched out her hand and grabbed Lin Bei’s clothes. Lin Bei pursed her lips, and her expression became a little stiff. After a while, she breathed a sigh of relief and bent down and put her mouth close to Gao Mengyu’s ear.
“Your cat? Didn’t Qiqi die a while ago… Um, the wounded cat you rescued? I see. I’ll help you get in touch.”
Lin Bei called the Shian Cooperation Group and directly initiated a multi-person call.
Soon, someone joined the call.
“What’s the matter?” The voice on the other side was brisk and pleasant. It should be Yin Ren.
“Mr. Yin, Mengyu woke up. She’s looking for her cat. Did Shian find anything?”
“Don’t worry, Miss Gao. We have properly housed your cat and arranged for special treatment.”
Gao Mengyu didn’t show a relaxed expression. She mustered all her strength to force her voice from her throat.
“Can… Can you give it back to me? I know it may be a bit… strange… but…”
Gao Mengyu had a sensitive mind, and after being scolded several times, she noticed some abnormalities.
But this was her only friend.
In those nights where she was on the verge of collapsing, Gao Mengyu would hold it tightly and bury her head in those soft limbs. The cat was reluctant at first, but as time passed, it would separate those soft limbs and pat her gently on the back.
It was her giant, quiet, soft cat.
Yin Ren was silent for a moment.
“It has a home, Miss Gao,” he said softly. “It always wanted to go home.”
“I know. I know… Cough. I was going to wait for it to heal and let it go… Can I take a look at it…”
“You should rest first. Someone from our company will talk to you about it later.”
Gao Mengyu’s cognitive pollution must be treated as soon as possible. It was only a matter of time before she knew the truth. On this point, Yin Ren didn’t intend to prevaricate.
Gao Mengyu stopped talking, and just as Yin Ren was about to end the call, she suddenly spoke up again.
“You’re more professional than me,” she muttered cautiously. “It… doesn’t hate me…”
“I heard from our leader that it hates video equipment like cameras because it doesn’t want to be discovered by too many people. If it doesn’t want its picture taken, there’s nothing you can do about it.”
Yin Ren smiled.
“But it still left you a picture.”
“Why…?”
“Why what?” Lin Bei was confused.
Yin Ren, however, understood. “Things like that cat have always been sensitive to emotions. Maybe it just thinks you’re very similar to it.”
“…After all, to it, our world is equally terrifying.”
That was why it tried to pollute the cognition of people nearby and defined itself as a “cute and harmless” creature in the eyes of most people.
In a strange environment, there were weird beings going about their business everywhere. It waited in place to heal its wound, hiding in this vast world, trying to find a safe haven.
It was equally fearful, helpless, and lonely.
99% of human emotional analysis of monsters was self-serving. However, there were no absolutes. There were still 1% of “other possibilities” in this world.
Gao Mengyu was silent for a long time as the tears in the corner of her eyes became a little heavier.
“I understand,” she said weakly. “I’m sorry. I caused a lot of trouble for everyone…”
“It’s okay. I wish you a speedy recovery.”
The call ended.
“You’d better take care of yourself first and take care of your business while no one is looking for you,” Lin Bei said. “Speaking of which, I happen to have a Mr. Rose project in my hand, and I’m going to write a powerful proposal.”
Lin Bei was peeling an apple and had a sneer on her face.
The truth could also attract a large amount of traffic. Besides, the company of “Mr. Rose” originally planned to abandon the account, so there wouldn’t be too many opinions.
“The patient can’t eat yet…”
Seeing Lin Bei peeling apples, the nurse raised her concern in a low voice, but before she could finish speaking, she heard a crisp crunch and saw Lin Bei take a bite of the apple.
Nurse: “……”
Gao Mengyu: “Pfft.”
“What are you laughing at?”
“I never thought you would come see me.” Gao Mengyu stared at the ceiling of the ward. “I know, you actually have been…”
“We’re friends now,” Lin Bei interrupted Gao Mengyu and took another bite of the apple. “I admit, my personality isn’t very good. Anyway, let’s go out for a meal once you get discharged.”
“Beibei.”
“Hm?”
“……Thank you.”
Gao Mengyu recovered quickly and was discharged from the hospital a week later. The police gave her a hand-stamped apology from Xie Baocai and promised to arrange a safer—or at least one that the Xie family couldn’t find—residence for her. As for the deposit and the cost of moving, Shian would fully cover it.
After all, two impulsive kids messed up her home.
Shian arranged professional psychological counseling and comprehensive cognitive therapy for her, with which Gao Mengyu fully cooperated. Seeing that she wanted to get some fresh air, Shian released her early and returned her to her daily life.
In order to consolidate her cognition, Shian specially made a cognitive rehabilitation webpage for her…
Cats have one head, two ears, two eyes, a nose, and a mouth.
Cats have an undivided cylindrical torso, four legs, and a tail.
Cats usually do not exceed one meter in length, and their posture is similar to that of cats such as tigers, lions, cheetahs, ect..
Cats cannot speak or walk upright. The normal cat diet is 100-200g of cat food per day.
Please listen to the cat’s call in the recording in time and compare it to the call you hear.
Please log in to the website every day and watch 30 minutes of cat videos. Pick out 10 cat pictures and upload a hand drawn cat sketch.
※Note: Please check the completed entry above. If you find that your cognition doesn’t match the description of the entry, do not check it.
After a week had passed, Gao Mengyu completed her rehabilitation, and her cognition recovered. Now she could distinguish between a “real cat” and “that thing” in her memory.
Gao Mengyu walked into a pet adoption center.
Dozens of cats were sitting or lying in cages, making soft purring sounds. They had small, furry bodies, soft paws, and two pointed ears.
Gao Mengyu stood between two rows of cages and ticked off the numbers on the webpage one by one.
She had already sketched a standard cat picture, but to this day, her finger still stopped in front of the number 1 entry for a few seconds.
“Qiqi,” she called in a low voice.
That was the name she gave to her deceased cat, as well as “that thing”.
She wondered if it liked it.
With a tap on her finger, Gao Mengyu checked off the number 1 entry and stared at the “confirm correct” pop-up window. If today’s rehabilitation self-test could be completed, she would be judged as being “fully recovered” by Shian.
She didn’t like to lie, but she really wanted to leave a little… warm souvenir.
Gao Mengyu took a deep breath and clicked “yes” on the pop-up window.
Another pop-up window appeared.
[Shian Corporation congratulates you on your recovery and wishes you a happy life.]
“Hello!” Gao Mengyu put away her phone and waved to the staff.
“Hi miss. Do you want to adopt an animal?”
“Yes.”
“Which one do you want to adopt? Do you want me to introduce you to some?”
“No, I’ll take this black one. Black cats can calm the house.” Gao Mengyu smiled. “I want to name it ‘Qiqi’.”
In Gao Mengyu’s eyes, the cats were attracted by the voices of the two and turned their heads one after another.
It was bright there, and all together, they blinked a total of fourteen eyes, full of curiosity.
……
As for the “two impulsive kids” at the center of the incident…
On the night Gao Mengyu woke up, as soon as the call ended, Yin Ren and Zhong Chengshuo were sitting in separate interrogation rooms.
Yin Ren: “It’s all my fault. I wanted to get a better performance, so I went with Zhong Ge. If I hadn’t encouraged it, Zhong Ge would certainly not… Haa…”
Yin Ren: “Don’t fire me. Isn’t the result quite good? I can write a review. I don’t have a salary, and there’s no other place I can go… Please understand…”
Yin Ren: “Uh, a monster? I did see it, but I’m okay now. Maybe it was too focused on attacking Xie Baocai.”
At the same time, in another room.
Zhong Chengshuo: “It’s all my fault. Yin Ren was willing to help be the lookout, but I should have refused. Why did I think this? Well, Gao Mengyu still had the possibility of being alive, and the facts proved that I was right.”
Zhong Chengshuo: “I didn’t intend to obstruct the ‘indiscriminate cleaning’ from the beginning. From the time we entered the building to the time we came out, it was only 35 minutes and 12 seconds. It’s just that we had to lie about getting a USB flash drive, but actually went in to save someone… In this matter, the only thing I feel guilty about is Yin Ren. It’s fine to punish me. Please don’t fire him.”
Zhong Chengshuo: “I saw the monster… It should be some kind of terrestrial mollusk, but unfortunately it has disappeared, so I can’t give a firm conclusion. Impact? It didn’t affect me.”
The two each said the same thing. Their description of the incident was clear and consistent.
The two of them thought Gao Mengyu was still alive, and based on the path taken by the Public Security Bureau, they identified Xie Baocai as the suspect. The two used Xie Baocai to lure out the monster, and Zhong Chengshuo took the opportunity to rush into the gap and rescue Gao Mengyu.
Then the indiscriminate cleaning spell was activated, and the monster was successfully eliminated, which sounded reasonable…
…My ass.
Something was wrong with these two boys. If it hadn’t been for the defeat of several Black Seal veterans by that “cat”, Fu Xingchuan might still buy it.
But he couldn’t think of what else they could do. Could it be that the “cat” had recognized Xie Baocai and then ignored everything else?
Fu Xingchuan was pacing up and down in the office and almost tripped over Professor Li’s outstretched leg.
“Lao Li, what are you doing?”
“There’s something obviously fishy about those two, and it may not be due to the influence of the unknown Evil Spirit.”
Professor Li took a sip of his tea and narrowed his eyes.
“Fu Xingchuan, if you were a freelance cultivator and this same scene appeared before you, would you single-handedly go and save someone?”
Fung Xingchuan clicked his tongue. “Would.”
“Do you think Liang Shan would?”
“That kid definitely wouldn’t. He can’t handle it…” Fu Xingchuan suddenly paused halfway through speaking. “Lao Li, let’s pass this. There are so many people who act bravely for good, but you can’t say that ‘nothing bad will ever happen to them’.”
“To save strangers, the person who’s doing it must have at least a little certainty. However you look at it, those two boys did not have this level of confidence—after that kind of experience, Zhong Chengshuo’s mental stability is a bit abnormal. And how did Yin Ren, who you said has average talent, survive the cognitive pollution without protection?”
“Uh, because that thing just wanted to deal with Xie Baocai…”
“They couldn’t determine this in advance, but they still acted anyway and even succeeded. To say that both of them are foolhardy and hot-headed… Fu Xingchuan, hot-headed people can’t pass Shian’s entry exam.”
Fu Xingchuan was silent.
“Two people with no experience in cognitive pollution. In addition to being ‘reckless’ there’s another possibility.” Professor Li’s face was calm. “No one in Shian knows this possibility better than you—”
“It may be the ‘confidence of the strong’.”
Fu Xingchuan wiped his face a few times. “But you have no evidence.”
Li Nian: “Yes, everything is just my inference. Of course, they may have just joined the company and want to show off. I’m just reminding you.”
“Just tell it to me straight. You’re not one to gossip.”
Professor Li put down the thermos and looked out the window. At this height, he could see half of Haigu.
“I do have an idea,” he said.
“Fu Xingchuan, Yin Ren is a Black Seal. You can figure out how to check on him yourself, but Zhong Chengshuo is my subordinate, so I should be qualified to suggest it.”
“I applied for him to observe ‘Shian’s Evil Spirit’.”
The author has something to say:
Xiao Zhong: A man who has not only seen an Evil Spirit, but also eats and lives with an Evil Spirit and even carries it on his back.
Xiao Yin, lost the opportunity to visit his same kind!
Half an hour later, at the self-service buffet grill.
“Okay, I probably understand the situation.” Liang Shan sighed. “You’re at the nearby barbecue restaurant, right? Send the phone directly to the Public Security Bureau. I’ll report it immediately, but don’t have too much hope.”
Zhong Chengshuo’s phone was on speaker, so the sigh coming from the other end was clear.
“Gao Mengyu has been missing for nearly a week, and she has no fresh water supplies, so she’s in danger. Evil things can feel emotions such as ‘fear’ and ‘hostility’, but it’s difficult for them to understand the concept of ‘death’. Even if that unknown evil thing really has the intention to protect Gao Mengyu… guarding her body is considered protection for it.”
Zhong Chengshuo was silent.
“Xiao Yin should be fine. Xiao Zhong, can you understand?”
“Yes.”
Zhong Chengshuo’s answer was given with great certainty. Liang Shan was a little surprised. He paused for a while before continuing, “There was an accident in Fanghua Apartments last night. That evil thing is very difficult to deal with. In order to ensure the safety of the people around, Shian is likely to perform an ‘indiscriminate cleaning’.”
Yin Ren leaned closer. “What happened at Fanghua last night?”
“Don’t you know they sent the big guns to room 1413 last night? They all developed cognitive impairment at the same time, and they all saw that their companions had a few more eyes and hands. As a result, they almost attacked each other.”
Liang Shan lowered his voice.
“Listen up, you two. Those guys were equipped with anti-illusion equipment. Minister Fu stamped it—Phenomenon C-A1, ‘Cognitive Pollution’. It’s even more harmful than the gap.”
Zhong Chengshuo: “The difference between it and hallucinations…”
“Take the ‘cat’ you found as an example.”
As if he were afraid the two newborn calves weren’t afraid of tigers, Liang Shan’s tone was particularly serious.
“Have read ‘Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio’*? Evil things either physically turn into cats or use magic to confuse you. The latter is the classic illusion. Your perception of the ‘cat’ has not changed, but your senses are blinded.”
*Also known as Liaozhai, is a collection of classical Chinese stories by Qing dynasty writer Pu Songling.
Zhong Chengshuo: “Oh…”
“But ‘Cognitive Pollution’ is different. What you see is the original appearance of the evil thing. It replaces your perception of the concept of ‘cat’.”
“You think it’s a cat. The cat in your memory will look like it, and even a normal cat will look like the evil thing… But your brain’s feelings about cats being ‘cute’ and ‘lovely’ have not changed.”
“Once it is completely contaminated, you won’t notice anything strange. If you don’t intervene in time, the effect of cognitive pollution will be permanent.”
“But the actual size of a real cat is different, and so is the touch.” Zhong Chengshuo frowned. “Even if the cat in Gao Mengyu’s eyes is a monster, the movements of others touching the cat would be unreasonable if she wouldn’t see the problem, no?”
Liang Shan suddenly laughed.
He seemed to think of something and was laughing to himself on the other end of the line for half a day before he adjusted his mood.
“Perception is transmitted to the brain through various organs, and that thing directly rewrites your brain. You see, many people experience confusion in taste and smell when they are sick—it’s not that the taste of things has changed, but there’s a problem with the brain itself, so vision and touch are affected.”
“Well, I can understand now.” Even though he knew Liang Shan couldn’t see him, Zhong Chengshuo still nodded.
“Okay, you guys behave yourselves. I still have work to do over here—”
Just then, Yin Ren opened his mouth slowly. “Liang Ge.”
“Hmm?”
“Why did you laugh just now?”
“……”
“Haha, I’m just thinking to myself. Guess why I was assigned to the Public Security Bureau as a civilian?”
Liang Shan’s laughter was still hearty, but at this moment, this heartiness made people’s hair stand up.
Yin Ren: “Um… No, I can’t guess.”
“I have poor metaphysical talents, but Shian was willing to give me a Black Seal just because I have an ability that’s not worth mentioning.”
“I see the world in which the human eyes are ‘vertical’.”
“I only realized this after Shian intervened… I should have been contaminated by Cognitive Pollution when I was a child.”
“Working in the Public Security Bureau, I occasionally come into contact with suspects or corpses with ‘normal’ eyes. Whenever this happens, I can report it to Shian as quickly as possible—after all, I only have the concept of ‘human’ contamination. No matter what those things are, they aren’t humans.”
Yin Ren: “……”
Thousands of years had passed, and the evil in the world had become like this. Yin Ren had never heard of this practice where people would compete to see who could enact their illusions more smoothly.
Zhong Chengshuo stared at the phone that was still on speaker while lost in deep thought.
Finding that the two of them were silent, Liang Shan said, “Hmph. What? Scared—”
At this moment, Zhong Chengshuo suddenly said, “Ah, I get it. It’s like using someone who’s lactose intolerant to identify the authenticity of milk.”
Liang Shan: “…” This light atmosphere was suddenly spoiled.
Liang Shan cleared his throat. “Well, that’s that. If you don’t want to become like me, you two should be good and go back to the hotel.”
However, Zhong Chengshuo didn’t let Liang Shan go. He raised his voice. “Mr. Liang, does ‘indiscriminate cleaning’ mean killing that creature? Even if Gao Mengyu is still alive?”
“Shian confirmed that it has no communication ability, and it was clearly hostile throughout the whole process. It’s completely uncontrollable and may cause large-scale Cognitive Pollution at any time.”
Liang Shan’s voice sank a bit.
“You two, don’t just characterize this as ‘protection’. It protected Gao Mengyu as an objective result, but not necessarily as a motive. Never use human emotions to speculate on the idea of evil beings. Judging from the current case, 99% of the results is human-made.”
“…Got it.”
Zhong Chengshuo hung up the call.
“Yin Ren, you go back to the hotel to rest first.”
Yin Ren didn’t answer directly. “Why? Haven’t you given up yet? Do you think that thing is protecting Gao Mengyu?”
Zhong Chengshuo: “I don’t care about its motivation, but Gao Mengyu may still be alive… According to Miss Fang Yuanyuan, my type is minimally affected, so I have the capital to negotiate with it.”
Yin Ren squinted at Zhong Chengshuo. “You’re a really nice guy.”
A very wonderful person who obviously wasn’t good with people but harbored unnecessary enthusiasm.
“Those are two lives.” Zhong Chengshuo smiled. “And I already have a direction.”
Yin Ren stuffed the end of the ice cone into his mouth as he thought for a few seconds and returned with a brighter smile.
“We’re partners. For your sake, I must follow suit—don’t look like that. I’ll just be your lookout. I’ll run away as soon as something goes wrong.”
“…Okay.”
……
Near Fanghua Apartments.
Xie Baocai sat in the shade on his foldable chair as he stared at the entrance to the apartment.
The woman had been missing for almost a week.
That bitch broke the old Xie family’s legacy and killed his nephew—Xie Baocai had two brothers, but Xieo Chao was the only male in the younger generation. Although Xie Chao didn’t like studying, he had a competitive personality and had earned a lot of money.
He was such a good child, but he was killed because of that person surnamed Gao.
He heard that Gao Mengyu broke up with Xie Chao because he accidentally strangled her cat to death, causing Xie Chao to chase her for several months. As a result, on his path to win back that woman, Xie Chao died in a car accident.
His good nephew never stole or hurt anyone, but it was all because of an animal… Just because of an animal!
Now that Xie Chao was gone, that bitch couldn’t afford to pay, even if she had several lives. Xie Baocai’s teeth seethed with hatred.
Knowing what had happened to Xie Chao, Xie Chao’s father almost suffocated and was bedridden. Even Uncle Xie Baocai had nightmares for a long time; his dreams were full of his good nephew crying and suffering.
Even during the day, there were vague whispers in his ears, sounding like Xie Chao.
This was a death in vain! Gao Mengyu must pay with her life.
Anyway, he had turned 75 and had a tumor. Xie Baocai planned to turn himself in after killing Gao Mengyu and then give a good cry for repentance. He had already done some research. Even if the police caught him, it would be difficult for them to give him the death penalty.
As a result, he finally found Gao Mengyu’s address. He didn’t know if that girl saw the knife he was wielding, but that bitch suddenly disappeared out of thin air.
How was this possible? If someone was living, they had to exist, and if someone was dead, they would leave behind a corpse.
But Xie Baocai was patient.
He had no wife or children, and the last thing he lacked was time. Since Gao Mengyu had disappeared, he had been squatting nearby almost seamlessly, even sleeping in the utility room opposite the apartment.
Gao Mengyu had vanished into thin air. This bizarre event was the topic of discussion all around. Recently, the building had been closed off and groups of people had gathered. The first thing Xie Baocai did when he woke up every day was to inquire about Gao Mengyu with the old men and women who were watching the excitement.
But today, he seemed to have had a strange encounter.
Xie Baocai was smoking a cigarette casually when a young man came over. That person was good-looking and wore glasses. He seemed to be a simple student.
“Hello, are you Mr. Xie Baocai?”
“Yes, who are you?” Xie Baocai became vigilant.
“Xie Chao’s colleague, Xiao Zhong.” The young man scratched his head nervously. “Xie Chao showed me your picture, so I felt you looked familiar… Do you live nearby?”
“Sorta.” When he heard that this was his baby nephew’s colleague, Xie Baocai relaxed a bit.
“Are you also here because of Gao Mengyu?”
Xie Baocai narrowed his eyes. “Oh, not really. There’s lots of people watching the excitement.”
“I heard through the grapevine that the police want to catch Gao Mengyu,” Xiao Zhong said in a low voice. “She seems to have lost her mind a few days ago and was hiding in a garbage chute without saying a word, so the anxious apartment manager called the police. They found her two days ago. She was unwilling to leave even if she died and threatened to blow the whole building up.”
“Tsk, tsk—” Xie Baocai clicked his tongue loudly.
The tenants were quickly evacuated, and professionals brought advance equipment into the venue, which lined up with the developments that he saw.
Xiao Zhong: “Now the police have found that there aren’t any explosives in the building. They plan to arrest her in the middle of the night.”
“Why are you telling me this?”
“We want to sneak in to make a video, so we should work together—you’re also a relative of Xie Chao, so it works out. Uncle, we know Xie Chao died because of her. That woman was scared of ghosts knocking on her door, so she went and gone crazy.”
Crazy? Xie Baocai swallowed.
So what if she’s crazy? She still has to pay with her life.
“Okay, uncle will go with you. Uncle also wants to talk to that little girl.”
He fumbled around in the bushes for a while and pulled out a cloth satchel, which contained his sharpened boning knife.
“You don’t need to take the bag. It’s too heavy. We can buy whatever you need.”
For some reason, Xiao Zhong’s tone was a bit odd, and there was a subtle hint of regret in it.
“It’s a little knick-knack that I always bring with me. I’m used to it.” Xie Baocai grinned as he spoke slowly and stickily.
“Young man, when are we leaving?”
At the same time, room 1413.
A dark gap opened in the void.
The gap was hanging in the air, and countless jellyfish-like soft limbs protruded from the edge of the gap. There was no hair on the soft limbs, and the color was close to rotten meat. Its surface was full of layers of precise folds, looking like brain grooves.
Its dozens of soft limbs were as thick as a human leg, constantly stretching, almost filling the room. They were perfectly symmetrical, and at first glance, they looked like a deformed flower, emitting a creepy geometric beauty.
In the depths of the darkness, at the roots of countless soft limbs, fourteen red lights of uniform size lit up one by one.
“Creak… Creeeaaakkkk…Creak…”
It seemed to sense something, making a noise as if nails were scratching on a blackboard. Several seconds passed, and the sharp sound gradually became distorted and mellow.
“…Meow,” it whimpered.
The author has something to say:
“Full Server First Kill”
When Xu Yue woke up, he found that he had become a monster.
To the left, there were two slimes—the old couple next door. To the right, there was a young dragon—the junior high school student downstairs. They all met and were equally bewildered by their different races.
It wasn’t until Xu Yue accidentally opened his personal status bar.
(Former) Game Developer Xu Yue: ……
His game successfully launched, but something seemed off.
A holographic game in which a whole community is trapped in, striving to find a way out (?).
Kinky Thoughts:
The author note is a sneak peek for her next work, Full Server First Kill (title roughly translated). It hasn’t been released yet as of now. Most likely, she will start on it once Evil As Humans is completed.
This is the last of the free chapters on jjwxc. If you’ve been enjoying the novel so far and are able to, please consider supporting the author by buying the raws. You can use Google Chrome with their auto translate and this guide on how to buy novels on jjwxc. Remember, only with your (financial) support can artists continue to produce more great works.
The bed was too soft. Yin Ren slowly turned over and changed his lying position. He ignored Liang Shan and clicked on the first chat history forwarded by Lin Bei.
It was easy to find Gao Mengyu. Her avatar was a hand-painted winged cat, and her WeChat name was also “Feather Cat”.
The group chat started normally. Everyone talked about their cats and dogs. After the dog owners finished talking about dog food brands, cat owners also began to exchange their experiences with raising cats. The atmosphere in the group was quite harmonious, and from time to time, someone would send photos of their pets.
Perhaps it was this peaceful atmosphere that moved Gao Mengyu. When the topic was cats, she couldn’t help but interject.
[Don’t Forget Your Original Intention: Haha, I prefer white cats.]
[Don’t Forget Your Original Intention: [picture]]
[Yunyun Loves To Eat Whoppers: So cute! My family is a big orange~ It’s too fat, so I won’t post a picture~]
[Feather Cat: So cute.]
[Feather Cat: How many eyes does your cat have?]
No one spoke in the group for a while.
A few minutes passed.
[Kyle: You’re very funny.]
[Kyle: By the way, what do you guys think of Royal Cat Food? Has anyone bought this brand?]
[Kyle: [picture]]
[AAA~Robbery: Expensive.]
Someone started a new topic, so the chat proceeded as normal again. People invariably ignored Gao Mengyu, and she didn’t speak out again.
Yin Ren: “Huh.”
He then clicked on the second chat history.
This time, it was different. It was still the same group with a similar topic, but they were talking about how to pet a cat.
[Yunyun Loves To Eat Whoppers: My family likes it when I scratch its chin, but I prefer the belly, hahaha.]
[KK*: Pinch its paws!]
[Super Xiaobin: It must be the tail.]
[AAA~Robbery: Don’t like being touched.]
[Feather Cat: I like to touch the place where many of its legs meet.]
[Feather Cat: What’s that part called?]
[Kyle: ….]
[AAA~Robbery: ? Is there a psycho in this group?]
[AAA~Robbery: What kind of B* did you raise. Send a picture.]
*Slang for pussy. This is originally in English for the word [bi] (逼). In this sense, it’s also a double entendre, as pussy can also refer to a cat.
[Yunyun Loves To Eat Whoppers: Don’t make noise~ Look at my little milk cat~]
[Yunyun Loves To Eat Whoppers: [picture]]
[AAA~Robbery: Don’t interrupt. If you’re sick, you need to be treated.]
[AAA~Robbery: @Feather Cat, send pictures or you’ll be kicked from the group.]
[Feather Cat: I’m going to take a picture right now. I just picked it up, and it’s a little shy.]
[Xixiu, Tian Tian?::*&1111 kg 7{![Picture?Film]]
[Feather Cat: It doesn’t really like cat food. I’m going to try raw meat.]
[AAA~Robbery: …]
[KK*: This joke isn’t funny.]
[Super Xiaobin: @Aizhen Clinic, Dr. Song, can we kick this person? You have to be sick to send this kind of thing.]
[Yunyun Loves To Eat Whoppers: @Feather Cat, everyone is chatting nicely. What are you doing? Is this funny to you?]
[Feather Cat: What’s wrong? The picture I sent is the same.]
[Feather Cat: My family just has a different skin color.]
[Feather Cat: It may be because I just picked it up and it’s a little weak. It doesn’t want to go out, so I can only raise it slowly.]
[Yunyun Loves To Eat Whoppers: [chat history of group chat]]
[Yunyun Loves To Eat Whoppers: You, take a good look at these normal cats. What do you mean the pictures we sent are like yours?]
[AAA~Robbery: I can’t transfer the picture posted by this woman. It’s weird. It’s all garbled code.]
[AAA~Robbery: Can you do it?]
[KK*: The forwarding here is also garbled. I can’t save screenshots of the photos or do screen recordings. The files are all broken.
[KK*: Toxic.]
No wonder the records forwarded by Lin Bei were all garbled.
Yin Ren then clicked on the third chat history. It was normal compared to the first two. The content was generally “AAA~Robbery”. This person posted a video of Mr. Rose in the group. They were talking about the “ex-girlfriend” and the wording was very unpleasant. Gao Mengyu didn’t hold back and jumped out to refute their words as an “acquaintance of the ex-girlfriend”.
AAA~Robbery’s mouth was poisonous, and he directly cursed her out and mocked her for her previous abnormal messages.
At this time, the group admin finally came forward and kicked out Gao Mengyu, who was “mentally troubled”.
According to Lin Bei’s supplementary explanation, the contributor was AAA~Robbery. He claimed that Feather Cat was an acquaintance of the woman, sent all her messages to Lin Bei’s assistant, and kept asking how much he could get paid for it.
The abnormal pictures in the records could only be displayed on AAA~Robbery’s phone. Lin Bei had made an appointment with that person, but this matter was too weird that Lin Bei herself didn’t want to go.
“Zhong Ge, shall we go together tomorrow? Do you want to tell Liang Ge first?”
“Uh, huh…?” Zhong Chengshuo rolled over and let out a drowsy grunt.
This guy actually ignored the messages and went to bed early!
Yin Ren felt that he wasn’t being lazy enough, so he tossed his phone to the side and decided to talk about the matter at dawn.
—-
The next day, Liang Shan looked at the empty hotel room and threw a middle finger into the group chat. Though he was still angry, he dutifully dictated a few hundred words of caution.
His tirade ended with “For the sake of your lives, don’t go near room 1413 of Fanghua Apartments anymore.”
Yin Ren didn’t have time to respond to him.
In order to avoid rush hour, Yin Ren and Zhong Chengshuo had left early and were already sitting in a self-service BBQ restaurant opposite of AAA~Robbery.
AAA~Robbery’s real name was Wang Qiang. He had no job, no money, and usually made ends meet by doing mundane daily work. He spent most of his time in internet cafes. Wang Qian was thin and dull. He had shrewd eyes that kept darting around. His hair was long and greasy, as if he hadn’t washed it in a long time.
According to Lin Bei, this person didn’t have a pet but worked part-time in a pet clinic.
“Tsk, that rich woman said buffet, so I thought it was one of those high-end buffets.”
Wang Qiang filled up his plate full of meat, and there was a pile of beer bottles at his feet.
“Let me start by saying that the contribution price and the interview are separately calculated. Don’t fool me. I know you guys play short videos and make lots of money… Hehe, you’re with that rich woman, right?”
When he said this, he stared casually at Yin Ren with a wretched look of “I get it”.
‘If this guy dies, he might become part of a Grievance Basket,’ Yin Ren thought with some malice.
Still, his lamb chops were more important.
The tender lamb was grilled on an iron plate. The aroma of scorched fat rushed straight to his nose. The lean meat was marinated in a garlic sauce, and juices flowed out as it sizzled on the fire, revealing a delightful, tender flavor. Yin Ren casually glanced at Wang Qiang. He didn’t respond and continued to concentrate on grilling the meat.
“What’s that look supposed to mean, huh? Laozi* is annoyed by sell-outs like you.” Wang Qiang stretched his neck, and his face tensed.
*It’s an arrogant way to refer to yourself. Translated would be like I, this great one.
His spit splattered indiscriminately, and a few drops splashed onto Yin Ren’s lamb chops.
Yin Ren’s smile froze, and his chopsticks clicked as he pinched them together. Lord Ghost King had to bid goodbye to his lamb chops with a sorrowful gaze as his mind ran through 108 ways on how to take care of Wang Qiang.
Forget it. Killing was against the law, so he had to think of a more roundabout way…
Zhong Chengshuo: “Apologize.”
Seeing Zhong Chengshuo suddenly speak up, Yin Ren turned his face quite unexpectedly.
“Why? Is he your concubine?” Wang Qiang grinned at Zhong Chengshuo.
Zhong Chengshuo remained calm. “Wang Qiang, born on March 16, 20xx. From Province D. In 20×4 and 20×6, was detained twice for sexually harassing women.”
Wang Qiang’s expression changed drastically. He pointed to Yin Ren’s long hair tremblingly. “You two are cops? Impossible. Cops don’t look like him.”
“That’s a wig,” Zhong Chengshuo stated solemnly.
Yin Ren: “?”
Zhong Chengshuo pushed up his glasses. “We’re not police officers, but we work closely with them. This time, we’re conducting inquiries and providing remuneration in accordance with regulations. The entire process is recorded, so please be cautious with your words and actions.”
“I’m sorry. I’m sorry, comrades. I wasn’t thinking when I opened my mouth. I’ll be sure to keep this in mind.”
The color of Wang Qiang’s face disappeared in an instant. He shrank back into his chair and even moved his chopsticks more uniformly.
Yin Ren discovered a shocking thing—as long as he didn’t get closer to the other party, Zhong Chengshuo was very good at communication in a sense.
“Comrades, look, this is the photo sent by that crazy… person.” Wang Qiang felt like he was sitting on pins and needles as he took a bite of his meat while holding his phone to show them.
Wang Qiang’s phone screen was dirty and had cobweb cracks on it, making it difficult to see things. Even so, it couldn’t; hide the weird feeling of that picture.
[Feather Cat: I’m going to take a picture right now. I just picked it up, and it’s a little shy.]
[Feather Cat: [image]]
[Feather Cat: It doesn’t really like cat food. I’m going to try raw meat.]
The picture was a selfie of Gao Mengyu. She covered her face with a smiley sticker. In the photo, Gao Mengyu was leaning against the door of the bedroom that was facing the living room. There was sunlight in the picture, showing that it was obvious that it was the day when it was taken.
However, there was no light in the living room.
On the other side of the bedroom door, it was as dark as a tomb. That darkness was neat and regular, without the usual fuzzy edges, and looked extremely unnatural.
Gao Mengyu used one hand to take the selfie while the other was stretched out in the direction of the living room, as if stroking something from the other side of the door. Her hand was engulfed in that darkness, and the border line at her wrist was neat, like it was dipped in thick black ink.
Coupled with the cute smiley face she covered herself with, this picture made people feel uncomfortable all over.
“Isn’t this scary?” Wang Qiang muttered. “I don’t know what that woman is thinking, posting a picture like this. It’s not that I won’t send it to you, but I can’t get this broken picture out. There must be some kind of virus on it.”
“We need to take this phone away, and we will compensate you for 150% of the market price of the new phone.”
“This picture is very important. You have to at least add…” Wang Qiang paused halfway as if he remembered something, and his tone changed. “Look at me. You’re doing this for business, so can’t you just double it?”
Zhong Chengshuo gave him a deep look.
“…Okay as much as you stated!”
After receiving the payment, Wang Qiang quickly pulled out his SIM card from his phone and gave them a toothachey smile. “Comrades, I still have something to do, so I’ll go first.”
When Wang Qian’s figure disappeared, Zhong Chengshuo pinched two napkins and used them to hold up Wang Qiang’s phone and carefully put it in the evidence bag without touching it.
Yin Ren had already finished four plates of garlic lamb chops and was happily roasting diced beef.
Zhong Chengshuo: “Your guess is right. Gao Mengyu did raise something. According to the timeline, she should have raised this ‘abnormal creature’ a month ago.”
“Mm-hmm.” Yin Ren chewed happily as he nodded.
“All the kinds of raw meat are a preference for that thing, and so far, it seems to like brains the most. Looking at what she said in the chat room, she seems to think she was saving a cat.”
“Indeed… Zhong Ge, do you want ice cream? I’ll go get some.” These were all guessed by Yin Ren. While he listened with his ears, his eyes drifted elsewhere—the sky was the limit when it came to the evil things he had seen, but this was the first time he saw an ice cream cone.
Zhong Chengshuo turned a deaf ear as he pulled out his phone and skillfully traced the timeline.
Gao Mengyu discovered an unknown evil thing a month ago, treated it as an injured cat, and bought it all kinds of meat.
But the pressure from Mr. Rose was too great, and this incident didn’t successfully distract her.
Four weeks ago, Gao Mengyu and Wang Qiang quarreled in the pet group. Nearly three weeks ago, Xie Chao died. Two weeks ago, Gao Mengyu told a “horror story” in a entrance exam small group chat. Nearly a week ago, Gao Mengyu disappeared, and Lin Bei was harassed by the ghost of “Mr. Rose”.
Zhong Chengshuo didn’t touch the roasted meat. He was frowning at the timeline. Yin Ren had already stuffed two pounds of meat into his stomach and was going to the dessert area to make an oversized ice cream cone. When he sat down, humming a little song, the potatoes in front of Zhong Chengshuo had gone mushy.
Yin Ren’s hand holding the cone trembled a bit.
“The potatoes are burnt.”
“I got it.”
The two spoke almost simultaneously.
Yin Ren: “…You go first.”
Ice cream didn’t wait for anyone, and he couldn’t be bothered to vacate his mouth for the time being.
“There was a place I couldn’t figure out before. Gao Mengyu said, ‘I don’t dare to go out. It’s so cold outside and it smells like roses everywhere’, but Lin Bei was the one that was continuously harassed by anomalies and couldn’t rest properly… It wasn’t that the anomaly didn’t want to do anything to Gao Mengyu, but that it couldn’t enter her home.”
“The ‘cat’ rescued by Gao Mengyu was living in her apartment. Whether intentionally or not, it protected her.”
Zhong Chengshuo took a bite of the roasted potato and chewed on it mechanically. Yin Ren couldn’t bear to watch anymore, so he replaced the potatoes with freshly roasted sweet corn.
Zhong Chengshuo chucked up the corn and continued to speak. “That ‘cat’ can keep anomalies out, but the watcher in her ‘horror story’ was a living person. If it really intends to protect Gao Mengyu, what will it do?”
The values of other creatures were different from those of humans. Just like real cats would offer dead mice or cockroaches to people like they were sharing prey, humans may not want or need it.
Considering the angle of that “cat” trying to protect Gao Mengyu was to hide her…
“Gao Mengyu might still be alive.”
The author has something to say:
Unexpectedly, the chat history can really be seen!
Municipal Public Security Bureau, conference room.
Shian’s work ID was easier to use than the two of them thought. Perhaps it was because the case itself wasn’t big that the police quickly retrieved the information and agreed to Yin Ren’s application to meet with the guest here.
However, when the two checked the information, there were always two public security officers present in the conference room.
At two in the afternoon, Lin Bei arrived as promised. Compared to yesterday, she looked quite refreshed. Before she sat down, she glanced at the two officers.
“What, such a big gesture? Do I have to call a lawyer?” Lin Bei said it half-jokingly.
Her posture was very relaxed, and she didn’t seem to be guilting them. Yin Ren smiled and said, “Bei Jie, we have a thought, and we need your help.”
“Say it.”
“You said before that you took over the work of ‘Mr. Rose’s death’. Has the project started?”
“No. It’s still in the topic selection stage.” Lin Bei was slightly surprised. “Why are you asking about this?”
“Your studio’s account has a lot of influence in Haigu, right?”
“One of the best.” When it came to her work, Lin Bei exuded an overwhelming confidence.
Yin Ren looked at Zhong Chengshuo and motioned for him to speak.
Zhong Chengshuo cleared his throat. “Miss Lin, Mr. Rose is indeed Xie Chao. We hope you can take advantage of this topic selection opportunity to collect clues from fans about ‘Mr. Rose’s girlfriend’.”
The smile on Lin Bei’s face stiffened instantly.
“I’m sorry. I don’t quite understand.” Her shoulders tightened, and her tone became more defensive. “Do you want Gao Mengyu to be exposed? You two have seen the remarks made by Mr. Rose’s fans. Even if Gao Mengyu can be found, she can’t bear what will happen next.”
“Moreover, this behavior is just pretending to be helpful in disguise. I personally think it’s inappropriate.”
Zhong Chengshuo: “No, I don’t need any clues about her. Your company only needs to let fans provide online discussion or debates related to the ‘ex-girlfriend’, and at the same time pay for contributions… This part will be reimbursed by Shian.”
Things had progressed to the point where Yin Ren didn’t understand what he was hearing.
Was this a meeting? It was much more boring than he thought. Yin Ren’s expression looked solemn, but his eyes were empty. He was secretly searching for the keyword “shark” under the table on his phone.
This was the word that he unintentionally typed wrong, and it was a type of fish that he didn’t know about, so he was a little curious.
While Yin Ren was distracted, Lin Bei clearly understood everything…
“I get it. You’re soliciting chat records on the topic of ‘Mr. Rose’s ex-girlfriend’?… You want to know if any fans have contacted Gao Mengyu?”
“Yes. She often visits Mr. Rose’s homepage and once pretended to be someone defending the ‘ex-girlfriend’. Before she disappeared, she was on the verge of an emotional breakdown, and she might have had a confrontation with someone online.”
“But if it’s a crazy fan that committed the crime, it’s impossible for the culprit to jump out and provide clues on their own.” Lin Bei frowned.
Zhong Chengshuo didn’t respond as he continued solemnly, “Gao Mengyu is introverted and timid. She would never pull someone into a one-on-one fight. Her exchanges with strangers usually occur online in multi-person discussions, so it’s very likely there are people who know about it.”
Lin Bei smoothed out her hair. “Your guess has quite a lot of details.”
“This is an analysis, and I have proof—she has already done so.”
Zhong Chengshuo pushed the laptop over.
Looking at the pause screen on the tablet, it was an interrogation video recorded by the police station’s surveillance. The subject of the inquiry was a young woman who looked very upset.
“Gao Mengyu is missing? I—I don’t know anything. I have no personal relationship with her.”
“I admit that I didn’t pay attention to what I said that day… but that was half a month ago. She wouldn’t think about me because of that. That’s just too far off!”
The girl’s name was Zhai Jing, a junior preparing for graduate school.
The story wasn’t complicated.
She and Gao Mengyu were in the same local graduate school entrance exam group.
Gao Mengyu was a little out of place in the group. She was too old, had no family support for her exams, and she had just broken up with her boyfriend. In every sense, she could be considered truly alone. Not only that, but she also wasn’t very good at socializing. The students in the group would chat on Twitter, but she never said anything.
However, while Gao Mengyu didn’t have a strong presence, she had a good temperament. The people in the group weren’t interested in being friends with her, but they had no ill feelings towards her either.
The conflict started in a group voice chat.
Zhai Jing’s club was going to hold a summer night horror story meeting. She specially pulled everyone in the group so she could draw materials from.
The atmosphere was good at first until Gao Mengyu spoke.
Gao Mengyu usually just listened on this kind of occasion and never spoke when a person should have. Seeing her take the initiative to participate, everyone was a little surprised, but they all calmed down and listened to her.
Gao Mangyu’s story was extremely strange.
She said she heard a rumor from a friend…
Friend A once came back from shopping for groceries and saw an unfamiliar old man on the street. The old man stood quietly there with an uncomfortable deadness in his facial features.
A didn’t think much about it and went home with her food.
Every day after that, A would see the old man whenever she bought groceries. First on the street near the farmer’s market, then at the entrance to the community near the apartment, then at the entrance to the apartment building.
The old man would do nothing, but every time A noticed the old man, the old man would always be looking at her.
Until one day, A got up and opened the curtains.
The old man was standing at the entrance of her apartment, looking expressionlessly at her window.
The story ended here.
The stories told by the first few people were all a bit grim, with blood and ghosts. Compared to those exciting tales, this story was particularly dull and boring.
“It’s kind of boring. Is this story true?” Zhai Jing was the first to comment. “Your friend seems overly self-conscious.”
Gao Mengyu: “Isn’t it scary?”
“How is it scary? Anyway, it’s not nearly as exciting as a murderer counting each floor of his victim.”
“…Is it really not scary at all?”
“Are you a voice recorder on repeat?”
“You didn’t have to be unpleasant about it.”
“Am I scolding you?”
Zhai Jing had always been blunt when speaking, and usually Gao Mengyu would keep silent to avoid making something small into a big deal. Who would have thought that she quarreled clumsily with Zhai Jing that day, during which Zhai Jing said, “Auntie is still taking the graduate entrance exam like a little girl”, which caused Gao Mengyu to directly withdraw from the group.
Since Gao Mengyu had no friends in the group, no one defended her. Afterwards, Zhai Jing felt that she had said too much, but she didn’t make any specific apologies and left the matter alone.
Lin Bei was covered in sweat after hearing this. “That story, could it be that it was happening to Gao Mengyu herself…”
“I’m not sure, but it’s very possible.” Zhong Chengshuo took back the laptop. “She has a normal relationship with her family and broke up with Xie Chao. She also resigned from her job and didn’t seem to have many friends as she didn’t have a common language with her colleagues. While she had some acquaintances, I’m afraid none of them could be considered close friends, as they only made superficial talk at most.”
This was why she confided in Lin Bei, who wasn’t even a friend.
“This matter may have been partially made up by her, so it can’t be accepted in full. She was probably trying to get feedback from the others in her exam group—she needed to make sure that she wasn’t ‘being too paranoid’.”
Lin Bei pursed her mouth, looking a little sad.
“Three weeks ago, Gao Mengyu knew that Xie Chao was Mr. Rose. At that time, she should have been quite stressed out…”
Because of Mr. Rose, the internet was full of insults against his “ex-girlfriend”, and Gao Mengyu was already helpless as she was. If that horror story was true, she couldn’t even call the police for help.
After all, the old man hadn’t done anything yet.
Gao Mengyu was timid by nature, and with wave after wave of gloomy encounters, what would she think?
“I’ll find a way to cooperate with the topic selection you mentioned before.” Lin Bei smiled stiffly.
“The two of you set the meeting place here because you want to show your legitimacy by using the police… I trust you.”
She looked at Zhong Chengshuo.
Zhong Chengshuo was wiping his glasses and seemed to feel Lin Bei’s gaze. He hurriedly raised his head. “Yes, we have always abided by discipline and the law.”
Lin Bei’s thought of shaking hands was killed in the cradle. She understood that she shouldn’t expect any normal cooperative feedback.
“And this is your business. We don’t want to kidnap you morally. If it’s inconvenient for you, we’ll find another way… Ngh!”
Yin Ren instantly dropped his cellphone that was full of shark pictures and smacked Zhong Chengshuo’s mouth. He lowered his head and whispered at high speed in his partner’s ear. “She has already promised us. What are you doing, trying to throw it back. Besides, it’s impossible for Bei Jie to do serious business with us just as a favor—”
Zhong Chengshuo said in a muffled voice, “Well, I’m afraid she won’t understand.”
“This is something that someone who’s semi-comatose will understand better than you!”
Lin Bei: “……”
The self-blame and depression in her heart had turned into speechlessness.
“Mr. Rose’s recent emotional topic selection is a case I personally worked on. The stress on Gao Mengyu is also partly my fault,” she said softly. “…Please believe in my professionalism. Xiao Yin is right. I don’t make decisions about serious business so casually. I have my thoughts.”
“Okay, Bei Jie, let’s add each other on WeChat and make a group so it’ll be easy to update each other on the progress.”
Yin Ren struck while the iron was hot, and he pressed Zhong Chengshuo’s head down as he leaned forward with his phone in hand.
Lin Bei couldn’t laugh or cry. “You’re really not afraid that I’ll poach you.”
She readily agreed and operated quickly.
After a while, a cooperation group called “Shian-Flower Bud Studio Cooperation Group” was established.
[LadyBud: When there’s progress, I’ll send the relevant materials here.]
[LadyBud: I hope everything goes well.]
[Fruit Knife: Hard work Bei Jie. We’ll definitely get Mengyu Jie back 👍*]
*He’s actually using thejiayou emoji, which I can’t find.
Zhong Chengshuo gestured for a while, feeling that it wasn’t good to copy and paste directly. He pondered for a bit and finally decided to be innovative.
[Final Fruit: 🙂]
Although he wasn’t familiar with using these emojis, this emoji ranked first among all others and was also a smile, which meant it should be very general and friendly.
Zhong Chengshuo pulled up the chat history and clicked on Yin Ren’s avatar. At noon, this person was still using the default avatar, but now he had changed his picture. Maybe he could infer something from Yin Ren’s past based on the avatar that he chose…
The large picture of the avatar had just loaded, and it was an IKEA shark with its belly turned over and lying on the sofa.
Zhong Chengshuo closed the WeChat app blankly.
He had no intention of trying to analyze the meaning of this avatar.
……
That night, after taking a shower, the two of them got into bed. Their mobile phones shook at the same time, and new message notifications appeared in the two groups.
Shian-Farmer’s Orchard:
[The River Flows Eastward: Holy shit, are you guys still awake? Something happened at Fanghua!!!]
[The River Flows Eastward: We actually miss a big boss.]
[The River Flows Eastward: @Everyone you two, don’t go running around.]
[The River Flows Eastward: Don’t go anywhere tomorrow. I’ll pick you up at the hotel.]
[The River Flows Eastward: Things are getting complicated. I guess you’ll have to go to headquarters for a medical checkup!]
Shian-Flower Bud Studio Cooperation Group:
[LadyBud: @Fruit Knife @Final Fruit Are you two there? Excuse me. I got a message here. That person sent several group chat records. I confirmed the WeChat name and avatar, and Gao Mengyu was in it.]
[LadyBud: It’s a pet clinic group. Because of Mr. Rose’s topic, she quarreled with the contributor and was kicked out of the group four weeks ago.]
[LadyBud: [chat record of group chat]]
[LadyBud: [chat record of group chat]]
[LadyBud: [chat record of group chat]]
[LadyBud: I’m a little scared. The contributor is in Haigu. I have already contacted them, so take a look!]
[LadyBud: @Fruit Knife @Final Fruit Did Gao Mengyu go crazy a long time ago?]
The author has something to say:
“The Thousand-Year-Old Ghost King was lazy when he searched for shark pictures during the meeting at the Public Security Bureau”
I didn’t expect that after a few years, I would actually be writing such an outrageous plot that seemed too drunk.
Xiao Yin, looking at you (?
Kinky Thoughts:
How is it that Yin Ren is this cute?
Just a note, I’m not familiar with WeChat and what kind of emoji it uses, so I’m just googling the description the author is giving and plugging in that emoji. For those that I can’t find (like in the case of jiayou), I just plug in an emoji that I think comes closest to the intention.
Here’s some fan art of Yin Ren in an Ikea Shark costume:
He stood quietly in place, waiting for the opponent to take action. However, the hostility only faintly persisted. There were a few eyes watching him from extremely close. Yin Ren could smell their vigilance.
Was this a test?
He gradually narrowed the range of his murderous aura, and the air in the room seemed to freeze under the heavy oppression.
At this time, if Zhong Chengshuo was at the scene, even he could detect something was off—Yin Ren’s maroon eyes completely turned bright red, as if they were like sparks in the dark night. His long black hair was blowing in the wind, creating a halo of light around him.
Five seconds.
Thirty seconds.
One minute.
The thing behind Yin Ren didn’t stop releasing its killing intent, but it didn’t take action either. The subtlety of being watched hadn’t disappeared, and the source of those gazes seemed to be a little far away.
It was avoiding him.
“Got a bit of brain.” Yin Ren smiled.
He pretended to have found nothing, pulled back his murderous aura, and then stretched his waist.
He had seen this kind of thing they called a “gap” thousands of years ago. He only saw it as a swamp beneath the turf; a crack in the ice—just a hole for the unlucky. He could just go around, so why bother with dead things?
The gap naturally didn’t possess eyes that could gaze, which meant something was using it, like a viper lurking in the swamp.
Evil things also have their own ways of self-cultivation. People usually stay away from dangerous things like this. In other words, if there was an evil thing that wanted to take advantage of the gap, it must possess at least some skills. There were Shian employees everywhere, yet it still chose to entrench itself here, which was enough to explain certain problems.
The evil thing in this apartment wasn’t weak, wasn’t very hostile, and didn’t seem aggressive.
There was work to be done, but he was just a weak and helpless rookie ghost master. Yin Ren decided to learn his lesson from last time and hand over the matter to the professionals.
After finishing what he wanted to do, Yin Ren moved himself and opened the door happily.
The hostility in the room dissipated instantly, as if it had never existed. Although before it dissipated, there was a lot of “what’s the matter” feeling of doubt mixed in with the hostility.
Zhong Chengshuo, who was guarding the door, asked him when he came out, “Did you feel anything?”
Yin Ren: “I feel, hungry.”
Zhong Chengshuo’s expression became a little more complicated.
“…Do you want to eat ramen?” He didn’t press the matter after that and just glanced at the time.
Now they could move freely in Haigu. Although it was still far from noon, it wasn’t as if they couldn’t have lunch.
“Eat!” Yin Ren readily agreed. He had been coveting the beef ramen next to the apartment for a while now.
“Have you been here all this time?” A voice interrupted suddenly.
The two of them turned their heads at the same time and saw Fu Xingchuan’s solemn expression.
Fu Xingchuan was dressed in a weird outfit. He had changed into a long coat and switched the color from ochre to magenta. He wasn’t wearing any protective clothing, was holding a long knife in his hand, and the dark circles under his eyes were even worse than the last time they saw him. In addition, there was a strong smell of smoke coming from his body.
Zhong Chengshuo: “Yes. We’re continuing to investigate the scene.”
Fu Xingchuan gave a non-committal response. He glanced at the empty room and turned directly to Yin Ren.
“What about you? Did you find anything unusual?”
Yin Ren stood at attention and said with a heavy tone, “Yes, I suddenly felt chilly just now, so I deliberately stayed in the room alone for a while. Then…”
Fu Xingchuan and Zhong Chengshuo both looked at him.
“Then I felt the hairs on my back straighten.” Yin Ren looked serious. “But I think it might be an illusion. Maybe it’s because I’m hungry and I was thinking about it, so I came out and asked Zhong Ge to go for a meal.”
Fu Xingchuan didn’t show a relaxed expression.
“What did you do in the room?” he asked calmly. “There was a very strong killing intent nearby just now.”
‘Great,’ Yin Ren thought. This was the effect he wanted.
Yin Ren glanced at Zhong Chengshuo and spoke with a bit of hesitation. “I didn’t do anything special… Just now, Zhong Ge deduced that Gao Mengyu looked out for some unknown reason, so I kept looking at the window.”
“Did you touch anything?”
“I didn’t,” Yin Ren replied sincerely.
The clues that should be given… Well, he gave out all the work reports that needed to be given. As a human, Fu Xingchuan could perceive his murderous aura, which meant his level was acceptable. Since he was tasked to take over the matter, Yin Rin felt relieved by this.
So he added in a good mood, “Is there such a mysterious thing as killing intent in the world? Minister Fu is incredible. Where can I learn this?”
Fu Xingchuan’s eyes wandered. “When you’re strong enough to be 007.”
Yin Ren: “…” Is it good to be that straightforward? Do you still want to recruit new people to Shian?
They handed back their protective clothing before they headed downstairs. Yin Ren whispered to Zhong Chengshuo, “Do you think Minister Fu’s knife is a controlled knife?”
He missed his dagger. Back then, he said he had picked it up because he was in a desperate situation. Now, it couldn’t be regarded as a spiritual weapon and was handed over to Shian to be labeled as a first-class national cultural relic.
He felt very wronged.
However, as soon as he finished muttering, Fu Xingchuan shouted from room 1413, “My knife has no blade, so it won’t cut anything living!”
Yin Ren instantly responded back, “Wow, our Minister Fu also has good hearing. Is this a top-notch master?”
Zhong Chengshuo: “…”
Zhong Chengshuo made a serious face. “You may have been a social worker before if you could recall this kind of stuff.”
……
The isolation zone of Fanghua Apartments wasn’t withdrawn, which only made the number of passersby watching the excitement grow. The old men and women who had acquired a rare pastime set up their table downstairs and drank tea while they played mahjong.
As he passed through the crowd, Zheng Chengshuo’s eyes swept around. Yin Ren didn’t know what he saw, but he suddenly stopped for a moment.
“What’s wrong?”
“Nothing.” Zhong Chengshuo retracted his gaze and shook his head.
The ramen store had few customers since it wasn’t lunchtime yet.
It was a chain store, and the inside was clean. The interior decoration of the store had unique characteristics. The back kitchen and the restaurant were separated by a layer of glass, and the customer could see the cook slapping the noodles on the white table. The kitchen was steaming with the fragrant aroma of beef sauce that was stewing in the pot.
Zhong Chengshuo ordered a bowl of noodles accompanied by beef sauce and vegetables. Yin Ren asked for the “Big Mac” sea bowl, added sweet rice wine, and ordered 30 lamb skewers—this was a rare opportunity, so he didn’t want to eat vegetables.
When the ramen hit the bowl, it was filled with steaming bone broth. Thin slices of radish were decorated with chives, then topped with sliced beef that was neither thick nor thin and was half covered with orange and red chili oil. On the whole, it was full of color, fragrance, and flavor.
Without Liang Shan’s heated atmosphere, Zhong Chengshuo didn’t say a word and just quietly ate. He ate carefully without missing a single item. Even the chives in the soup were eaten clean. Yin Ren was busy with his meal, so the two of them didn’t talk for a while.
However, even though Liang Shan wasn’t there, his spirit still was. As soon as the two of them were halfway through eating, their phones vibrated at the same time.
Taking a closer look, the name of their group chat was changed by Liang Shan to “Shian—Farmer Orchard”.
[The River Flows Eastward: @Final Fruit @Fruit Knife Did you two go to Fanghua in the morning?]
[Final Fruit: ?]
[The River Flows Eastward: Minister Fu recruited several Black Seal bosses to Fanghua! Isn’t this still looking for evil spirits? Things are definitely not simple. Do you know what’s going on?]
Yin Ren raised his brows, daring to believe that this senior had interrupted their lunch break for gossip.
[Fruit Knife: There seems to be some corruption in Gao Mengyu’s apartment 😱 😱 😱]
[Fruit Knife: Minster Fu also said he felt a shark.]
[Fruit Knife: Killing intent.]
After a few days of pondering, Yin Ren had initially grasped the usage of pinyin, but he was still a little jerky*.
*Clarity: The common way to type text in China on cellphones is in pinyin. This is why Yin Ren mistypes killing intent [shayi] as shark [shayu] since he’s not familiar with it.
[The River Flows Eastward: Impossible. Absolutely impossible!!!]
[The River Flows Eastward: The investigation of the gap is very intensive. If there are evil things, it would’ve been discovered long ago. Besides, our people have entered the gap. Why would evil things still be there?]
[Final Fruit: Guarding of course?]
[The River Flows Eastward: ……]
[The River Flows Eastward: Anyway, don’t meddle in this matter. Maybe it’s a new kind of evil being. You can’t handle it.]
[Fruit Knife: 🙏]
[Final Fruit: 🙏]
Liang Shan stopped responding. Yin Ren hurriedly continued to eat to eat his ramen—after chatting for a while, the noodles became a bit too soggy.
“Under what circumstances do you think people will take inventory of their food?” Zhong Chengshuo suddenly asked.
Liang Shan had dragged his thoughts back to the case, so Zhong Chengshuo began to think about Gao Mengyu’s behavioral logic again.
“Either when they pack it up or to pick out the bad stuff and throw them away. Or, if grain… food is insufficient, they estimate consumption.” This kind of thing had been around since ancient times, so Yin Ren could answer it smoothly.
Zhong Chengshuo paused his hand holding the chopsticks.
“Gao Mengyu was flustered at the time. The meat had been frozen for a month, so it wouldn’t be bad. It shouldn’t be that she suddenly wanted to clean house. There’s a market near Fanghua Apartments and there’s always takeout or express delivery, so it’s reasonable to say lack of food isn’t an issue, unless she decides to stay behind closed doors.”
“According to what you said, the anomaly is in her room. If she was to avoid ‘evil things’, normally she would try to escape from the apartment, right?”
“You seem to misunderstand. Not all evil things want to harm people.” Yin Ren stared at Zhong Chengshuo’s face, which was beginning to turn pale, like his heart was slowly being drained of blood. “Maybe people’s ‘anomalies’ aren’t involved in this matter. Didn’t Miss Fang say before there’s also a possibility of ‘the living picking a fight’?”
Zhong Chengshuo stood up suddenly. He knocked against the bowl, causing the soup inside to almost splash out.
Yin Ren quickly reacted, and he protected the bowl from spilling. “Speak clearly if you have something to say! Speak clearly if you have something to say!”
“Come with me to the police station in the afternoon.”
“Why? I’m not carrying a controlled knife.” Yin Ren became vigilant.
“I’m not trying to turn you in. I have a suspicion, but a lack of evidence. At least the knowledge on Shian’s side isn’t enough.”
“Okay, okay. Let’s eat first.”
Zhong Chengshuo paused. A few seconds later, he sat down, muttering “for shame on being wasteful”, and stuffed noodles into his mouth as if he had no desire to eat.
Five minutes passed.
“What do you suspect? Why are you so excited?”
Yin Ren finished eating his food in a flustered manner, and his mouth was finally empty. Opposite him, Zhong Chengshuo drank the last of his soup in one gulp and let out a long sigh.
“You’re right. Gao Mengyu has an average resume and isn’t special like you. This incident may be able to eliminate the ‘abnormal phenomenon’—Gao Mengyu saw something outside the window, so much so that she firmly believes it would be dangerous to go outside.”
Zhong Chengshuo’s eyes were focused. Locked on by those dark eyes, it made Yin Ren feel a little uncomfortable.
Yin Ren recalled for a bit. “But I have seen the information. In the past week, there hasn’t been any abnormal situation nearby—not even a neighborhood conflict.”
“The ‘dangerous situation’ encountered by Gao Mengyu may seem to others to be a trivial matter, and such a situation may not have happened for the first time. Otherwise, she wouldn’t have reacted so severely.”
Zhong Chengshuo stressed his words.
“…A person who’s afraid will definitely vent their fear in certain ways. She may have left behind some kind of clue. Relevant personnel should have been investigated by the police, and there should be a comprehensive record at the station.”
As Yin Ren thought about it, his fingers wound around the end of his hair unintentionally. Zhong Chengshuo rarely talked at such length. He took a sip of tea and looked at Yin Ren seemingly short of breath.
“Good idea, though it seems a bit simple.” Lord Ghost King smiled lightly. “It’s rare for us to have a favor in our hands, so it’s too wasteful not to use it.”
He shook his phone and immediately dialed Lin Bei’s number.
“Hello, Bei Jie*? It’s me, Xiao Yin from Shian.”
*Sister (姐). Similar to ge but used to refer to an older woman as a sign of respect/closeness.
“Chengshuo and I need your help with something. Yes, can we meet? At two in the afternoon. Is it convenient for you to come to the Municipal Public Security Bureau?”
The author has something to say:
Damn it, Xiao Yin and I are different. I really need leafy veggies.Yesterday, I counted the inventory of my freezer while dividing the (hard-to-get) meat. What is an immersive experience_(;””∠)_
At first, when he heard that they could take a break, he wasn’t happy.
They came up with this idea over dinner and spent the rest of the time running wildly in the wrong direction—at least Shian thought it was wrong. The investigation was stopped only after a few days, and during that time they also went AWOL. Would Shian really exempt them from the probation period?
Zhong Chengshuo was filled with a sense of loss. After returning to the table, his eating movements were much more stagnant.
After the meal, they exchanged contact information. Lin Bei still had work to do, so she took a taxi and returned to the studio.
“Let’s go for a walk,” Yin Ren suggested.
The restaurant was facing the river, which reflected the lights from thousands of homes. The cool river breeze was slightly alluring. More importantly, Zhong Chengshuo was like a cat that had just gotten all its fur shaved. He was in a state of half-daze, half-deep thought.
As Yin Ren expected, Zhong Chengshuo didn’t refuse. He surmised that even if he were to say, “Let’s jump off a building,” Zhong Chengshuo would subconsciously just let out an oh.
“There’s something I don’t understand from what Liang Shan told us.” Yin Ren was soothed by the night breeze and casually started a topic. “What does ‘be on standby as support staff and wait for the outcome of the incident’ mean?”
Zhong Chengshuo contemplated a bit. “It should be regarded as some kind of paid leave.”
“They aren’t punishing us for acting without authorization?”
“We blocked the attack on Lin Bei before. The police determined that we were righteous and brave, so our merits even it out.” Although they were given a lecture because they chased after the culprit instead of calling the police.
In short, it was good that they didn’t lose their job.
“Paid leave…” Yin Ren chewed on these words for a while and felt they were as refreshing as the summer night breeze.
But Zhong Chengshuo had on a solemn expression. He looked at the river in the dark night, and Yin Ren couldn’t guess what he was thinking.
Since he didn’t understand, he asked, “Unhappy?”
After all, Zhong Chengshuo was the one who took the lead in “acting without authorization and pursuing on his own”, so shouldn’t he be relieved to know that Shian wasn’t holding him accountable?
“…I was just thinking about Gao Mengyu.” Zhong Chengshuo didn’t seem quite comfortable with this conversation, as he hesitated for a bit before answering.
“Why?”
“Phenomenon C-B4, ‘gap’. According to Liang Shan, if Gao Mengyu enters the gap, she won’t ‘come back’. The primary goal of Shian may not be rescue but prevention and control.”
Yin Ren thought for a bit before saying, “I think so too.”
It had been about six days since Gao Mengyu disappeared without a trace, so she had probably entered the “can’t come back” kind of “gap” by mistake. Rather than aimlessly search and try to rescue her, it was more urgent to control the gap.
“I don’t want to give up now. That’s a human life.”
Zhong Chengshuo lowered his gaze.
“The timing is too coincidental. Looking at Shian’s reaction, the appearance of this gap isn’t normal.”
“Although there’s no evidence that her disappearance is related to Xie Chao, it can’t prove that it’s ‘irrelevant’. I want to do some more research. If you don’t…”
“Sure, let’s both do it together,” Yin Ren readily agreed.
Zhong Chengshuo paused his steps.
“Well, you’re the one who mentioned the gap and the one who caught that knife-wielding thug. If I were to be lazy again at this point, it’d be like I’m deadweight.”
After all, the matter of him seriously wounding that ghost couldn’t be exposed. Not to mention that the ghost didn’t have any language skills, even if it opened its mouth to confess, Yin Ren was ready to cry about being wronged.
Adding up, he didn’t need to do anything.
Thinking of this, Yin Ren’s tone was as firm as iron. “If I do such a bad job right when I start working, I will really have no face!”
Zhong Chengshuo pondered for a moment. He couldn’t think of what kind of face a person with amnesia needed.
Then he gave Yin Ren a sideways glance.
Yin Ren walked closer to the river and would stop from time to time to look at the various facilities. Tonight, was a formal occasion, so Liang Shan had given him a high-end black shirt. His long hair was tied up in a low ponytail and braided a few times. His hair was soft, and right now it looked low-key and untidy, as if it were part of the evening breeze.
The lights were dimly lit, which gave Yin Ren’s outline a warm edge.
‘The fruit dessert was delicious, and this person was truly good-looking,’ Zhong Chengshuo thought to himself. Except for the occasional short circuit in his brain, he couldn’t find any faults in his partner.
So Zhong Chengshuo decided to lighten the mood. “Thank you. You’re a very good person.”
Yin Ren: “……”
Yin Ren: “…Thank you too?”
The next day, the two went to Fanghua Apartments early.
Unlike yesterday, the entire apartment was evacuated, and there was a bright yellow barrier erected outside. An official sign was planted at the entrance of the apartment notifying everyone that part of the building was aging and cracking, so an emergency safety inspection was required.
The regular employees of Shian were dressed up with detection machines in their hands as they carefully explored every corner.
The case was taken over by the regular army, and Liang Shan had returned to his civilian job at the police station, where he could only answer their questions through text.
[Final Fruit: Mr. Liang, can we still enter Fanghua Apartments?]
[The River Flow Eastward: Just show your work ID. You can enter the places that have already been checked.]
[The River Flows Eastward: I personally suggest you take a two-day break and take the opportunity to recuperate from your injuries.]
[Final Fruit: We want to check again.]
[The River Flows Eastward: …Well, I understand. Go ahead. Say hello to Shian for me.]
[Fruit Knife: Thank you, Liang Ge 🥺]
[Final Fruit: Thank you, Liang Ge 🥺]
[The River Flows Eastward: ……]
Zhong Chengshuo withdrew the hand that he used to copy and paste and opened the door to the apartment.
Room 1413, Gao Mengyu’s residence, was the first place to be investigated. Shian’s investigation team had worked all night, and the 14th floor was the first to be classified as a safe area.
Seeing that the two of them didn’t rest in the hotel, the staff in charge of the 14th floor was a little surprise.
“Go ahead. We’ll give you an hour. The ‘gap’ is estimated to still be moving nearby, so don’t stay too long.”
She patiently helped the two of them put on protective clothing.
They all knew that Gao Mengyu’s apartment had been carefully inspected by veterans, so it was quite interesting to see these two wanting to do another check. However, the staff member didn’t mention this and just smiled gently.
“If you find a clue, remember to report it!”
The rancid smell of room 1413 had long since dissipated. There were no longer any traces of the sewage on the ground or the flies buzzing around. There was only warm and tidy furniture left in the home. The windows, bedding, and other debris remained as they were, as if their owner had only temporarily left and could return home at any time.
Zhong Chengshuo stood at the entrance. He took a deep breath, then walked into the bedroom with his eyes closed and lay down on Gao Mengyu’s bed.
Yin Ren: “???”
Let alone someone else’s bed, this was also a girl’s! Isn’t this bad?
Not only that, Zhong Chengshuo’s steps were strange—they became light and slow, as if he were possessed by something.
“She woke up in the morning, poured a glass of water, and then opened the bedroom curtains.” Zhong Chengshuo opened his eyes naturally and got up from the bed. He walked towards the window where the curtains weren’t drawn and gave a false pull.
His movements were still light, with a little caution and a bit of softness.
Yin Ren finally came back to his senses and realized that Zhong Chengshuo was imitating Gao Mengyu.
“She finished washing up and ate a few cookies, then went to the table to study.” Zhong Chengshuo was talking to himself in a slow and solemn voice.
Slender fingers brushed the cookie package that was opened, and after a short pause, Zhong Chengshuo sat down in front of the desk.
Facing the desk was another small window. The window was half opened, and the curtains on the pages of the book were gently swaying in the wind.
“At an unknown time, she walked to the vicinity of the refrigerator and began to organize the meat in the freezer.”
Zhong Chengshuo pushed away the chair he was sitting in and walked towards the fridge. Halfway through, his movements suddenly stopped.
Yin Ren was watching with fascination. “What’s the matter?”
“Something’s not right.” Zhong Chengshuo slightly frowned. He looked at the window in front of the desk. “Why is she opening the window?”
“Ventilation in the summer?”
Zhong Chengshuo took out his phone. “On the day she disappeared, the temperature in Donghe District was 35℃. It was dry and windless. Opening the window would only make it hotter. Even if she really wanted to open the window to breathe, she wouldn’t open the screen window with it—not to mention the summer mosquitoes, she has raised cats for years.”
Yin Ren murmured to himself. These details were indeed subtle, but it wasn’t subtle enough to be suspicious. This was the 14th floor. It was fine for him since he knew how to fly, but that was something that was impossible for Gao Mengyu to do.
While Zhong Chengshuo stared affectionately at the air, Yin Ren bypassed the desk and leaned his head out the window.
From this angle, he could see the vestibule and the entrance of Fanghua Apartments. The barrier blocked the curious passersby outside. When he poked his head out, many people looked up at him, and some even raised their phones, which made Yin Ren shrink back quickly in fright.
“What’s the matter?” This time, it was Zhong Chengshuo who asked.
“No, there are quite a lot of people watching the excitement.”
Zhong Chengshuo was stunned for a moment, then he stood up suddenly and lay down on the windowsill.
The 14th floor was quite high, but if he used the camera function on his phone as an aid, he could manage to barely see the people from below. Zhong Chengshuo quickly turned on the camera and zoomed in on the screen, scanning the scattered crowd downstairs.
“That’s right. Her phone was on the porch at the time. Maybe she saw something from the window and wanted to go out, and she couldn’t even wait to close it.”
Zhong Chengshuo grabbed his phone and walked to the door, put down the phone on the shoe cabinet, and made the action of putting on shoes.
“But she suddenly changed her mind, hurriedly returned to the fridge, and took out all the frozen products she was storing—there are live photos the police took of the fridge showing that the inside was well taken care of. Yin Ren, regardless of the non-scientific possibility, she was probably checking her inventory.”
The things she had in the fridge were everyday items that could be recognized at a glance, but considering that she didn’t eat much meat and didn’t often use the freezer, it wasn’t surprising that she had to make an impromptu inventory.
Then, in the process of checking the inventory, she disappeared.
This time, Zhong Chengshuo demonstrated Gao Mengyu’s actions fluently—she first looked out the window, then rushed to the door. Just as she was about to put on her shoes, she seemed to have thought of something, and she even forgot to take her phone as she rushed straight back to the front of the refrigerator.
Unfortunately, he could restore the trajectory of her actions but not her motivation. Zhong Chengshuo was squatting in front of the freezer, poking at the door of the fridge with a deep expression.
But there was another entry point in this matter.
“What did she see nearby…” Yin Ren rubbed the wall. “Zhong Ge, can you go out first?”
Zhong Chengshuo looked at him in confusion.
Yin Ren: “I’m going to do some feudal superstition activities.”
Zhong Chengshuo: “…”
“Do you want to watch me do the Great God dance?”
“Do you remember how to do the Great God dance?” Zhong Chengshuo said it in surprise.
“No, it’s just an expression*. I just had a kind of spiritual induction just now, and I want to meditate here… Mediation requires the environment to be quiet.”
*Clarity: Yin Ren is saying (sarcastically) do you want to watch me do a ritual dance (跳大神) to which Zhong Chengshuo thought he really could, but he’s saying it in a joking way. (跳大神) is a folk ritual dance handed down that must be completed by two people. Nowadays, it’s considered a feudal superstitious activity and folk art.
Due to the short video platform, he didn’t know how many fashionable excuses he had learned from it. Sure enough, Zhong Chengshuo didn’t ask any more questions and honestly left. He didn’t even forget to gently close the door before leaving.
‘Such a good trick,’ Yin Ren thought with relief.
He then went to the middle of the room and stood there.
The entire building was staffed by Shian. Not to mention evil qi, he couldn’t even use ordinary evil spirits and spells, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t do anything.
Evil things were always sensitive to human emotions, especially negative emotions. As the saying went, people were three points afraid of ghosts, and ghosts were seven points afraid of people*. Strong emotions such as hatred and fear were especially easy to be exploited by evil beings.
*This saying is basically saying people fear ghosts 30% while ghosts fear people 70%. It boils down to people are afraid of the unknown (like ghosts) and are just an imagination made up by people because they don’t conform to science and common sense. More than anything, a ghost is probably more afraid of people (if they are righteous and blessed by God and can ward them off). There’s also a more Buddhist aspect to why the 3/7 points are assigned, but I won’t go into details about that since it’s too confusing for me.
Yin Ren closed his eyes and slightly bent the corners of his mouth.
In the next instant, centered in room 1413, a strong killing intent suddenly exploded.
The majestic, murderous qi of the King of Evil encircled the entire Fanghua Apartments. The pressure was like a battlefield of 10,000 people in deep winter; the thick soil was soaked in blood and ice. It was like a swamp that had devoured countless corpses, full of cold and viscous evil.
This wasn’t just evil qi, but pure murderous intent.
Letting this murderous intent spread for a few seconds, Yin Ren opened his eyes and looked at the window expectantly…
As long as there were any evil beings that were still here, they would react to this level of “demonstration”.
He was only half right, it turned out.
The half that he guessed right was that the evil being in his conjecture did exist, and in the face of such murderous intent, it subconsciously responded with hostility.
As for the wrong half…
The source of that hostility wasn’t outside the window, but behind him.
The author has something to say:
Xiao Yin, it’s rare to be so cool for three seconds (?
Unlike the last time when she looked weak and panicked, Lin Bei’s eyes were now clear, and her brows showed the ability of a manager.
“I wanted to meet you guys because, first, of my situation and Shian’s reputation with the supernatural. Second… I know that someone has been stalking me recently, but as soon as I approached the police, he stopped showing up.”
“I really can’t help it. I used you two to lure him out. I didn’t expect him to attack you with a knife… I’m really sorry.”
She lowered her head and made a standard apology gesture.
“As compensation for you two—this is all the information on Mr. Rose. I have asked someone to sort it out. Next, I’ll use my resources to fully cooperate, and I hope to help you both.”
In the end, she was a shrewd businesswoman who was completely airtight*.
*(滴水不漏) Idiom describing doing something meticulously and impeccably without a single flaw.
As the main recipient of the apology, Zhong Chengshuo was more concerned about the information. “It’s okay.”
He stared at Lin Bei’s cellphone, as if intending to dig out the information with his gaze.
Lin Bei waited for a while, expecting something more, but found the person really didn’t intend to say much else. She gave a self-deprecating smile and straightened her posture.
“’Mr. Rose’ isn’t signed by our studio. He was registered in November of last year…”
The story this time was different from Lin Bei’s previous statement.
In actuality, Lin Bei had looked down on Gao Mengyu.
When she was a student, Gao Mengyu had a weak temperament, and years later, she still hadn’t grown out of it. She was still working as an on-call servant for Xie Chao. Lin Bei listened to her whining for three years, and it wasn’t until her cat was strangled to death that this obedient little girl finally thought about breaking up.
Gao Mengyu’s only redeeming quality was her kind heart. She liked to rescue stray cats and dogs and was even willing to pay to get them neutered so they could be put up for adoption. Seeing that she knew Haigu’s pet resources well, Lin Bei reluctantly kept in touch.
At first, the two would only talk about cats during their free time, so they could only be considered acquaintances at most. Later, she didn’t know whether Gao Mengyu had no one to talk to or if Gao Mengyu thought she was “worldly”, but she started to talk about her life troubles. However, the more she talked about it, the more annoyed Lin Bei became.
Perhaps Gao Mengyu didn’t know that the suggestion of taking the “postgraduate entrance exam” was just Lin Bei’s perfunctory rhetoric.
Lin Bei had intentionally alienated Gao Mengyu when she insulted Xie Chao. If it hadn’t been for Gao Mengyu’s disappearance four days ago, Lin Bei would’ve almost forgotten the two of them, but then she suddenly became entangled with strange things.
“If Xie Chao is Mr. Rose, everything would make sense. He knew me when he was alive, and of course he could find me when he’s dead… Looking at the time, this account was probably created so Xie Chao could try to get her back. His brain was the type that could come up with this kind of thing.”
Lin Bei had obviously studied Mr. Rose. All his most famous video clips had been edited and were displayed with great skills…
Mr. Rose wore a suit and a small top hat and always held a bouquet of bright roses. In the short video, he would always stay at an unrecognizable intersection and stare quietly at his true love.
The only images taken were the bouquet of flowers and the quiet street at night, which made for a beautiful composition. Mr. Rose occasionally interacted with fans and sometimes revealed his “sad love”, and other times he would answer the love troubles of his fans, like a late-night radio anchor.
As a senior salesperson, Xie Chao was someone who had a way with words and naturally knew how to create topics. In the video, Mr. Rose was courteous, and his voice was processed to sound extra gentle and sad.
The conversation was smooth. His voice was silky, with just the right amount of mystery. Although the connotation in “Mr. Rose’s” speech was slightly lacking and the literary flavor felt rushed, for the platform audience, this kind of image was “extremely charming”.
In Lin Bei’s file, there was a collection dedicated to Mr. Rose’s self-narrated love story.
He said that they had been dating since high school, and both their first love and youth were given to each other. He said he understood her loneliness and that he was too busy and wasn’t considerate of her before. He knew that it was his fault.
He said that now he wouldn’t disturb her life but just wanted to wait for another chance.
At first, there were only a few bystanders. However, as the days passed, his fans gradually increased.
Last Christmas, the account was discovered by the local media and became a complete hit. At the beginning of the year, “Mr. Rose” officially became one of the leading anchors in Haigu, earning a ton of money.
Zhong Chengshuo counted the days, and it was around the time when Gao Mengyu moved to the apartment.
“But Xie Chao had a car accident two weeks ago. Didn’t Mr. Rose just die of illness a few days ago?” Yin Ren silently muted the video. All those strange and weird noises were giving him a headache.
“Do you know how much that account is worth?” Lin Bei didn’t answer directly but asked a question instead.
Yin Ren was at a loss. He subconsciously turned to Zhong Chengshuo but didn’t expect him to have the same blank expression.
Lin Bei sighed. “After he became viral, Mr. Rose signed with a marketing company. The account is estimated to be owned by that company. Two weeks ago, Mr. Rose’s live broadcast stopped for a while, and they said it was because of health issues… At that time, their company suddenly began to recruit a senior emotional anchor, so we guessed that Mr. Rose had quit.”
Having said that, she suddenly fell silent and looked out the window.
“If you can’t find a suitable replacement, instead of waiting for them to fade out in the public’s eye, it’s better to arrange a tragic ‘death’ for the account and take the opportunity to milk it.”
Zhong Chengshuo: “Are these your conjectures, or…?”
“I have worked with them and planned three of the four live topic selections for Mr. Rose. This time our studio also took over and is responsible for getting ‘Withering of the Rose’ hot.”
Lin Bei smiled dryly, and her expression became a little ugly.
“Mr. Rose died of illness, had been infatuated all his life, and was waiting for his first and last love. Pfft, there are so many gimmicks nowadays, but it just so happens Mr. Rose’s account is mysterious, so no one can figure out who he is.”
Naturally, no one knew the truth.
The expensive dishes were served one by one, but Lin Bei didn’t reach for her utensils. “It’s no wonder Gao Mengyu was under so much pressure. She used to like to watch short videos. She did complain a few times recently, but I thought it was just…”
When she was halfway through speaking, Lin Bei stopped.
This time, Yin Ren was still confused, and Zhong Chengshuo frowned.
It was inevitable to cut the speeches of the participants into collections. Mr. Rose became popular, and naturally, the discussion of the “mysterious woman” never stopped. A milder person would regret that she missed such a rare, good man in the world, but those who were more radical would inevitably yell and curse.
This account allowed him to make money with his left hand and put pressure on his ex-girlfriend with his right hand, which was truly like killing two birds with one stone.
This would explain the ambiguous conversation they had on WeChat three weeks ago…
If Gao Mengyu were to explode from Mr. Rose and reveal herself, it could indeed cause the value of the account to plummet, but if she did this in front of his supporters, what awaited her would be harassment and abuse that directly involved her private life.
After all, Haigu was just that big.
She seemed to have no choice but to bear the pressure silently.
“We will entrust our superiors with checking the identity of Mr. Rose.” Zhong Chengshuo nodded solemnly. “The clues you have provided are very valuable. Thank you very much. Yin Ren, we…”
The words “should go” were stuck in his throat.
In the shadow of the dining table, there seemed to be several hands that grabbed at his ankles.
Zhong Chengshuo looked down suspiciously but found nothing strange. When he looked up again, Yin Ren was sitting next to him, eating his steak without looking away.
This person claimed to have amnesia, but his skill with a knife was very good. He saw the blade of the knife glint, and then the meat was cut cleanly. The meat was tender and red, with juices flowing out. Yin Ren was casually eating it and chewing quietly with a look of satisfaction on his face.
Unfortunately, Zhong Chengshuo didn’t care to watch. He paused and then tried to get up. “Yin Ren, let’s go back first…”
It was there again. Something was pulling at his feet, trying to fix him in place. Zhong Chengshuo lowered his head again at the speed of light but still didn’t see anything.
Zhong Chengshuo: “…?”
He looked deeply at Yin Ren, who had just finished eating his steak and was now dealing with the plate of creamy risotto. His partner was eating attentively, with a serene atmosphere surrounding him.
Was he seeing things?
Zhong Chengshuo bent down and carefully checked if there were any protruding items nearby. Unfortunately, when he reached down and grabbed around, he touched nothing—he even hit his head on the corner of the table when he got up due to his inattention.
Zhong Chengshuo grunted in pain and held his head as he curled up slightly in his seat.
Yin Ren hurriedly leaned over. “Sit still, Zhong Ge. If you don’t finish this meal, Miss Lin will feel bad—come on, try it. The fruit dessert is very delicious.”
He even shared what was on his own plate with Zhong Chengshuo, but his movements were mixed with a strange kind of reluctance.
“It tastes really refreshing. It’s not very sweet either,” Lord Ghost King especially emphasized.
Yin Ren temporarily put a few hands on Zhong Chengshuo’s ankles to “retain” his partner, but he quickly shrank them back, and thankfully with the dim lighting, Zhong Chengshuo probably didn’t notice them.
Lin Bei knew nothing of what was happening under the table. “Mr. Zhong, don’t worry, and please eat with peace of mind. I still have a second batch of materials to sort out, and I can explain them to you later.”
Zhong Chengshuo was finally willing to stay in his seat obediently.
He scooped up the fruit dessert with a small spoon and carefully put it in his mouth, then his entire temperament softened.
…Well, it’s really delicious.
If he ignored the complex emotions in Lin Bei’s eyes, the current atmosphere was relaxed and peaceful. It was just that this calm didn’t last for even ten minutes. Zhong Chengshuo’s phone kept vibrating, and notifications kept prompting on his cellphone.
When he turned on his phone, he saw Liang Shan’s message pop up at a glance.
[The River Flows Eastward: Have you finished eating?]
[The River Flows Eastward: Is it convenient for you to answer the phone?]
[Final Fruit: Inconvenient.]
[The River Flows Eastward: I have something urgent to tell you. Hurry up and find a place to answer the phone.]
[Final Fruit: Then why would you ask us if it’s inconvenient?]
[The River Flows Eastward: ……]
[The River Flows Eastward: @Fruit Knife]
[The River Flows Eastward: @Fruit Knife Yin Ren look.]
Five minutes later.
[The River Flows Eastward: @Fruit Knife ??? You there?]
[Fruit Knife: Liang Ge, it’s already time to get off work 🥺]
Comrade Liang Shan couldn’t stand it any longer and called Yin Ren’s phone directly. The two had to leave the dining table and run to the nearest bathroom.
“Are you still checking on Xie Chao?”
“Yes,” Yin Ren replied with a wilted voice.
“No need to investigate. You’re not responsible for this matter.” Liang Shan sighed. “There are incomplete traces of ‘gaps’ in Gao Mengyu’s apartment. Starting tomorrow, Minister Fu will lead an investigation team to follow up on this matter.”
Yin Ren was stunned. “But we found out clues about Xie Chao…”
“You found out that he’s Mr. Rose, right? The ghost has already been captured, and someone recognized his image. It is indeed rare for a newly deceased person to be transformed into a ghost of this level, but this is not without precedent. Now the focus is on the ‘gap’—the danger level of the ghost is completely incomparable to it.”
Zhong Chengshuo took out his phone. “But Miss Lin can testify that Gao Mengyu has also been affected by this ‘abnormal phenomenon’.”
Liang Shan: “Think about it, if it wants to kill Lin Bei, it can only use evil qi to influence her spirit and bewitch her enemies to murder her. Even if it really attacked Mengyu, it doesn’t have the ability to make her disappear from the world.”
The two didn’t answer.
“…Don’t be discouraged. That’s what our investigation is like. It’s normal that you sometimes head in the wrong direction. At least the idea of the ‘gap’ was given by you two, so you did a good job.”
Kinky Translations 