CH 3

Huai Shi woke up screaming from his bed, seeing his messy bedroom.

It was a nightmare.

But the gruesome death in the nightmare was so vivid that he still felt phantom pain from being torn apart on his neck.

He touched his neck, feeling cold sweat in his hand. Despite being tired, he drank some water and lay back on the bed, closing his eyes.

In a daze, he seemed to have become a night security guard, taking a smoke break outside the door when he heard footsteps approaching in the hallway.

In the darkness, someone was getting closer.

When he turned around to ask what was going on after putting out his cigarette, he saw a blood-stained mask of a ferocious ape - the Savage Ape - grinning at him.

And then he died again.

Huai Shi woke up screaming again, seeing his messy bedroom again, along with the dust that fell from the ceiling due to his screaming.

He was breathing heavily, touching his stomach.

Another nightmare.

This time, he was directly cut open from the bottom up, and his neck was pulled out...

"F*ck... I must have seen a ghost."

He breathed heavily, lying on the bed. He had originally planned to stay up all night, but he fell asleep again as soon as he closed his eyes.

This time, he became a chubby man who had just finished singing and washing his hands in the bathroom, ready to change his clothes and go home, when he saw blood seeping in from under the door.

The sound of footsteps in the pool of blood was getting closer.

Someone pushed the door open.

And then he died again.

"F*ck, I must have seen a ghost!"

Huai Shi angrily opened his eyes, wrapped himself in the blanket, and turned over: "I don't believe it!"

He closed his eyes and... had nightmares all night.

Until almost dawn, he finally returned to normal and fell into a deep sleep. Before he lost consciousness, he saw a pair of blood-red eyes staring at him quietly in the deepest part of the shadows of the layers of dreams.

...

At three in the morning, Ai Qing heard the phone ringing downstairs. The sound stopped soon after, and soon someone knocked on the door.

"Miss, it's a C-class alarm."

Ai Qing sighed, "Help me change clothes."

A woman in a tight-fitting suit came in, helped her up from the bed, changed her out of her pajamas, and put on her bra on her bare, fair body.

The thin girl was supported by the woman, standing in front of the mirror, leaning on a crutch.

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"Which one should I wear today?"

"The black one you bought a few days ago, with a long skirt. Remember to bring a blanket."

"Okay."

Fifteen minutes later, Ai Qing, sitting in a wheelchair, was pushed by the umbrella-holding woman into the car. The car drove all the way in the pouring rain, finally showing the documents outside the isolation zone and entering the scene.

The heavy rain had washed away the outdoor bloodstains, leaving only white sheets covering the bodies. But the indoor scene was still intact.

Someone came to greet them when the car arrived.

The car window rolled down, revealing the slightly pale side of the girl's face due to lack of sleep: "What's going on?""It's a special crime," the person outside said. "According to regulations, we must notify the local prosecutor of the Astronomical Society for processing as soon as possible."

"Sure enough..."

Ai Qing sighed wearily and patted the assistant of the wheelchair. The female driver holding an umbrella lifted her wheelchair and the young girl carefully and placed them in a place where the rain couldn't reach.

"What's the situation at the scene?"

As if it had nothing to do with her, Ai Qing asked coldly, "Are there any survivors?"

"No."

The people at the scene shook their heads. "Golden Luxury Bath, a newly opened club, had no living person from the customers, to the girls, to the security guards. The deliveryman found out about the situation. When we arrived, it had been an hour... Then, a police station in Qingpu District was attacked, but no one was injured."

"I see."

Ai Qing didn't ask anything more. She just looked up and said to the capable female driver behind her, "Push me and let me take a look. I haven't visited a brothel before."

The scene wasn't big, with four floors and a basement.

There were only bloody footprints and gruesome broken limbs. In the rest room, the several beautiful corpses had various brutal marks that were too painful to look at.

After Ai Qing finished looking, she yawned expressionlessly. "Is there any surveillance footage?"

"It was taken away. All the cameras were broken, but there were records in the traffic cameras around."

"Let me take a look first."

Ai Qing tapped the armrest of the wheelchair with little interest.

The people at the scene sighed helplessly, not angry but instead gestured for the engineer to transmit the surveillance video.

The first thing anyone noticed about Ai Qing was her face, which was drawn to her eyes that were calm to the point of being cold.

Then it was her wheelchair, and then people felt pity from the bottom of their hearts - it was a very cruel thing that such a beautiful girl had a disability.

Even though she had a strange and cold personality and had never smiled at anyone.

After working together so many times, the people in charge of the scene had long been used to her coldness and were no longer surprised.

There weren't many clips in the surveillance footage, most of them were just a flash of a black shadow flying by, and people were torn apart. Only at the end, when the figure came out of the door, was a frontal outline captured by a traffic camera on the opposite side of the road.

Nothing could be seen clearly.

"They're all useless things. No need to look," Ai Qing moved her gaze away and looked at the people at the scene. "What's the situation with the other police station? No casualties?"

"Yes, because it attacked the evidence room, it directly broke through the wall. The door was locked at night and no one was on duty, but there was a recording."

The people at the scene quickly brought up the recording and played it.

In the video, the evidence room was silent, followed by a loud noise, like an earthquake. The walls shook, and then a crack appeared.

Translated by @lilacmoonlight (Twitter)A hunched figure slipped in and made a mess of the place before smashing open a cabinet and taking something out. They then threw something away after looking at the surveillance footage, and the screen went black.

Ai Qing reached out and paused the video, rewinding a few seconds. The person facing the camera wore a monkey mask, hunched over with something in their arms...

"Zoom in," Ai Qing said.

Her eyes widened as she leaned closer to the enlarged image and the box in the person's arms.

"What is it?" the person on site asked, equally confused. Their own absurd speculations made them feel foolish.

After a moment's thought, Ai Qing asked, "Are there any records of the items in the evidence room?"

Soon, a locked management catalog was sent over, and they found a photo of the strange iron box, the police report, and the crime scene file.

"A body?" Ai Qing frowned. "Whose body was found when the report was made?"

"A local ex-convict named Liu Eryou, with a drug record... The information is here, and we saw him on the surveillance footage before the club," the person replied.

All the files were sent to Ai Qing's phone. First, a criminal with a history of drug abuse was found dead in an alley after soliciting a prostitute. Then, the whole nightclub was bathed in blood, and the evidence room was attacked.

Finally, the attacker took a small box...

Ai Qing rubbed her forehead in annoyance. "Another border relic?"

She tapped the armrest impatiently. "What do the border customs people eat? Why do they keep throwing this kind of garbage into the realm? This is the sixth case this year... Also, if that's the case, the daytime port explosion case must be related, right? Why didn't anyone inform me?"

The middle-aged man on site was stunned, then looked bitter. "I'm not sure. Maybe they're still going through the process?"

"If they like the process so much, why didn't they go through it a little more tonight when things got so chaotic?" Ai Qing's tone was mocking. She knew all too well about the locals' distrust of the Astronomy Society. "It doesn't matter. If we put ourselves in their shoes, who likes a young, handicapped girl pointing fingers at them?"

The middle-aged man could only force a smile and curse the idiots above him in his heart. After the people on site brought her a cup of hot coffee, Ai Qing wrinkled her nose and took a sip before setting it aside.

"Instant."

"It's really late, and I couldn't get the one you wanted..."

"Okay, stop pretending to be pitiful."

Ai Qing glanced at him uninterestedly and tapped the screen. "There wasn't much surveillance at the time of the crime, but there must have been some before that. Who reported the first body?"

Soon, the image on the screen quickly rewound to the front door and stopped on a slightly disheveled teenager.On the screen, he turned back to look at the police station behind him and revealed his face.

Silently, Ai Qing bit her finger and said nothing.

"Tsk..."

As if it were an illusion, the middle-aged man heard her extremely displeased voice.

...

After the stormy night, the morning came with the faint sound of birds outside the window and the scent of grass and trees blowing through the gap in the window. Huai Shi, who had a nightmare all night, finally woke up from his long-lost otaku happy dream.

He opened his eyes.

Then he saw the dark barrel of a gun.

The room was already crowded with soldiers wearing bulletproof vests, face masks, and armed to the teeth, all pointing their guns at his face.

"Brother, don't shoot, we're on the same side..."

Huai Shi was stunned for a moment, swallowed his saliva, and slowly raised his hands.

Who the f*ck are you calling "on the same side"?

Although the leader didn't say anything, his eyes showed absolute disdain. Then, Huai Shi felt someone jab a needle into his neck.

After that, everything went black, and he didn't know anything...

"What's your name?"

"Huai Shi..."

"How old are you?"

"Seventeen..."

In the interrogation room, Huai Shi was slumped in a chair, wondering if they were going to ask him about his experience as a prostitute.

What the hell is going on?

What's happening?

He felt like his face had turned into a classic reaction meme, and eventually became the unremovable black man question mark.jpg.

What the f*ck is this?

A group of people took turns questioning him, asking where he was and what he did yesterday, and who were the black and evil forces behind him.

They treated him like a heinous criminal.

The interrogators took turns, from solo to team, using good cop/bad cop tactics, and various torture techniques that left no visible injuries...

In the end, Huai Shi was about to collapse.

"Come on, guys, give me a break." Huai Shi cried, lying on the table. "I confess, I confess everything, but can't you at least tell me what I did? I'm a good citizen, a really good citizen. I even reported a murder scene yesterday! You can't frame me..."

Behind the one-way mirror, Ai Qing watched the whole process expressionlessly, and only spoke when the commanding middle-aged man became impatient and waved for the heavy punishment.

"If it really involves border relics, even if you torture him, he probably won't say anything. Besides, can't you tell if what he said is true or false?"

"But we only have this one lead..." The middle-aged man was also forced to be helpless. "What should we do?"Ai Qing shook her head, took out her phone, opened her contacts, and finally found a number: "Although there are not many registered Sublimators in the local area, there are still many willing to cooperate with the government. However, due to the delay in your internal process, will the Astronomy Society bear the cost of hiring them? You understand, right?"

"I understand." The middle-aged man sighed, "It's only mid-year, and there is still a lot of budget left. I'll double it for you, okay?"

The phone rang.

Ai Qing straightforwardly asked when it was connected, "Special Affairs Department, in 15 minutes, okay?"

Soon, someone was brought in by the guards. It was obvious that it wasn't their first time there. They greeted Ai Qing familiarly, "Ms. Ai, long time no see. Why don't you come to my place for a visit?"

"Too dirty."

Ai Qing expressionlessly handed over a file and pointed to the teenager behind the one-way mirror who was shouting to expose on Weibo, "Make him talk. Can he do it?"

"It's a small matter."

The newcomer grinned, ran his hand through his hair, and pushed the door open.

But when he saw Huai Shi's face clearly, he froze.

Huai Shi was also stunned.

"Wait, why is it you?"

He looked at Niu Lang, who had once taught him to follow the rules, with amazement and shouted in despair outside the room, "I understand now. You're all in cahoots! And you said you don't hire prostitutes here! I just didn't sell my body, is that so bad?"

In the awkward silence, only the teenager's angry roar echoed:

"Are you trying to force me into prostitution?!!!"