Chapter 3 You're in this together!_1

Huai Shi screamed as he woke up in bed, and saw his bedroom in complete disarray.

A nightmare.

Yet the brutal death in the nightmare felt so vivid, so vivid that his neck still bore the phantom pain of being torn apart.

He touched his neck with a lingering sense of dread, only to find it slick with cold sweat. Despite feeling overwhelmingly sleepy, he drank some water, lay back down, closed his eyes.

In a hazy state, he seemed to become a security guard on the night shift, sneaking out for a smoke in front of the door, when he heard footsteps in the hallway.

In the darkness, someone was approaching.

As he put out his cigarette and turned to ask who it was, he saw a gruesome mask stained red with blood—the Ferocious Ape—with a slight smile on its face.

The next instant, he died again.

Huai Shi screamed and sprang up from the bed once more, saw his bedroom in disarray, and the dust shaken from the ceiling by his scream.

He gasped for air violently, then felt his stomach.

Another nightmare.

This time, his stomach was ripped open directly from bottom to top, then his neck was yanked out…

"Damn it... saw a ghost."

After catching his breath for a while, he lay back down, intending to stay up all night, but as soon as he closed his eyes, he fell asleep again.

This time he became a fat man who had just finished his swaggering and was preparing to go home. He was washing his hands, singing a song, ready to change clothes and go home when he saw blood seeping under the door.

The sound of footsteps in the pool of blood drew closer.

Someone pushed the door open.

And then he died again.

"Damn it, saw a ghost!"

Huai Shi opened his eyes in anger, wrapped up in the blanket, flipped over: "I don't believe this!"

He closed his eyes, and then... had nightmares the whole night.

It wasn't until almost dawn that he finally fell into a normal, deep sleep. Just before succumbing to the drowsiness, he saw in the deepest shadows of the layered dreamland, a blood-red pupil quietly gazing at him.

.

.

At three o'clock in the morning, Ai Qing heard the phone ringing downstairs; the ringing stopped abruptly, and soon after, there was a knock on the door.

"Miss, it's a Class C alarm."

Ai Qing sighed, "Help me get dressed."

The woman in the tight-fitting suit came in, helped her up from the bed, changed her out of her nightgown, and then put on her underwear over her naked, pale body.

The slender teenage girl got up with assistance, standing in front of the mirror, leaning on a crutch.

"Which one to wear today?"

"That black one bought a few days ago, with the long skirt, and remember to bring a blanket."

"Alright."

Fifteen minutes later, Ai Qing, sitting in a wheelchair, was pushed into the car by a lady holding an umbrella, and in the pouring rain, the car drove all the way to the scene, after showing credentials outside the quarantine zone.

The downpour had washed away the bloodstains outside, leaving no trace, with only white sheets covering the bodies visible. The indoor crime scene remained intact.

As the car approached, someone came to greet them.

The car window rolled down, revealing the pale profile of the teenage girl, who looked tired from lack of sleep: "What happened?"

"It's a special crime," the person outside said, "According to regulations, we must notify the local prosecutor from the Astronomical Society to handle it immediately."

"Figures..."

Ai Qing sighed wearily, patted the armrest of her wheelchair, and the lady driving the car held an umbrella over her as she carefully lifted Ai Qing's wheelchair out of the car, along with the teenage girl, and placed them where the rain couldn't reach.

"What's the situation at the scene?"

As if it were none of her concern, Ai Qing asked coldly, "Any survivors?"

"None."

The person at the scene shook his head: "Jin Hao Bath House, a newly opened club—customers, prostitutes, security guards—from the inside out, not a single survivor. A delivery person discovered the situation, but by the time we got there, an hour had already passed... Then, a police station in Qingpu District was attacked, but there were no casualties."

"I see."

Ai Qing didn't ask anything more, just looked up at the competent female driver behind her and said, "Push me around to take a look, I've never been to a brothel before."

The scene wasn't large, just a four-story building with a basement.

There were only bloody footprints and horrifically mangled limbs, and the bodies in the lounge bore brutal and unbearable signs of mutilation.

Having seen everything, Ai Qing yawned expressionlessly: "Any surveillance?"

"It was taken down, all the cameras are broken, but we just found some footage from the surrounding traffic cameras."

"Let me see it first," she said listlessly, tapping the armrest of her wheelchair.

The person at the scene sighed helplessly, not angered, but rather gestured for the engineer to transfer the surveillance footage.

Anyone seeing Ai Qing for the first time would be struck by her face, drawn in by those calm, almost indifferent, eyes.

Then they would notice her wheelchair and feel pity from within—the sight of such a beautiful girl with a disability was a true waste.

Even though her personality was odd and detached, and she had never smiled at anyone.

The person in charge at the scene was used to Ai Qing's cold demeanor after cooperating with her so many times and didn't find it strange anymore.

There wasn't much footage in the surveillance, mostly swift shadows darting past and people being ripped apart, only at the end, as the figure exited the main door, was a frontal silhouette captured by the traffic camera across the road.

Nothing was clear.

"All useless, no need to look further," Ai Qing said, turning her gaze away. She looked to the person at the scene: "What's the situation with the other police station? No casualties?"

"No, because it targeted the evidence room. They went straight in by breaking through the wall. The place was locked and unstaffed at night, but there was video."

The person at the scene hurried to pull up the footage.

In the video, the evidence room was quiet, then suddenly there was a roar, as if an earthquake struck, the walls shook, and then a crack opened up.

A hunched figure slipped in, taking advantage of the brief moment before anyone arrived to ransack the place, then smashed open a cabinet, took something out, and upon seeing the surveillance camera, threw something at it, and the screen went black instantly.

Ai Qing reached out, paused the video, and rewound a few seconds.

In the frame, the person facing the surveillance camera wore a monkey mask, was hunched over, and was holding something in their arms...

"Enlarge this," she commanded.

Ai Qing's eyes widened slightly; she leaned in closely, intently studying the magnified image and the box in the person's arms.

"What is this?" she asked.

"Don't know... Magic Cube?" The person at the scene was also puzzled, and then felt silly for the absurd guess.

After pondering for a moment, Ai Qing asked, "Are there records of the items in the evidence room?"

Soon, a locked management record was brought over. They flipped to the last page where they found a photograph of a strange iron box, along with dispatch records and case files from the crime scene.

"The bodies?"

Ai Qing furrowed her brows. "Whose body was it that was found when the police report was made?"

"A local ex-convict named Liu ErYou with a history of drug abuse... The details are here; we saw him in the surveillance footage from before the incident at the club."

All the files had been sent to Ai Qing's phone.

First, a former drug addict with a criminal record died in the alley after visiting a prostitute, and then the entire night club was bloodbathed, and the police station where the evidence was kept was also attacked.

In the end, the attacker took away a small box...

Ai Qing rubbed her temples irritably.

"Another Border Relic?"

She tapped the armrest discontentedly. "What the hell are the border customs people eating? Why do they always dump this kind of trash into Current Circumstances? This is the sixth case of this kind this year... Also, given the circumstances, the explosion at the port during the day must be related, right? Why has no one informed me?"

"..."

The middle-aged man coordinating on the scene was taken aback, then his expression turned bitter. "I'm not sure, probably still going through the procedures?"

"They like procedures so much, why didn't they follow them a bit longer when such a big mess happened tonight?"

Ai Qing's tone was not without mockery; she already knew all too well the local distrust of the Astronomical Society: "No matter, I can understand when I think about it. Who likes a disabled girl under twenty bossing them around?"

"..."

The middle-aged man could only grimace, offer a forced smile, and then cursed the idiots above in his mind.

After getting someone to buy a hot coffee for her, Ai Qing took a sip with a frown and then disdainfully tossed it aside.

"Instant coffee."

"It's really too late, couldn't get the one you like from that place..."

"Enough, no need to act all pitiful."

Ai Qing glanced at him uninterestedly and tapped her screen. "There isn't much surveillance footage at the time of the incident, but there should be some from before, right? Who reported the first body?"

Suddenly, the footage on the screen rapidly rewound until it paused on a disheveled-looking teenage boy.

On the screen, he turned his head to look back at the police station behind him, revealing his face.

In the silence, Ai Qing bit her finger, not speaking.

"Tch..."

It was as if an illusion, the middle-aged man heard her distinctly displeased voice.

.

.

The morning after the storm passed.

Faintly, the sound of birds chirping outside the window could be heard, and the scent of wet grass and woods drifted in through the gaps.

After a night of nightmares, Huai Shi finally woke up from the long-missed blissful dreams of a homebody.

He opened his eyes.

And then saw the dark barrel of a gun.

The soldiers who were packed in the room, all decked out in bulletproof vests, faces covered with cloths, and armed to the teeth, were aiming their long and short guns directly at his face.

"Bro, don't shoot, I'm one of us..."

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

Who the fuck is one of us.jpg

The leader didn't say anything, but his eyes betrayed utmost disdain. Then Huai Shi felt a prick on his neck.

After that, everything went dark, and he knew no more...

.

"Name."

"Huai Shi..."

"Age."

"Seventeen..."

In the interrogation room, Huai Shi slumped in the chair, head hanging low, wondering if this damn place also hired cowherds.

What the hell!

What's going on?

How am I gonna deal with this?

Huai Shi felt his face had become an expression board for classic memes, eventually turning into the unblendable black question mark .jpg.

What the fuck is this?

A bunch of people had taken turns questioning him several times, asking where he was yesterday, what he did, and what black evil forces are behind him.

They obviously treated Huai Shi as if he were some extremely vicious criminal.

The interrogators took turns, going from solo to team raids, coercion mixed with small talk, good cop bad cop routines, and all sorts of indiscernible torture techniques for intimidation...

In the end, Huai Shi was about to break down.

"Heroes, just give it to me straight." Huai Shi begged with tears as he leaned on the table: "I confess, I confess to everything, but at least you gotta tell me what I did! I'm a good citizen, a really good citizen. I even reported a murder scene I stumbled upon yesterday! You can't frame me like this..."

Behind the one-way mirror.

Ai Qing watched the process with an impassive face until the middle-aged man commanding grew impatient and motioned for harsher measures before she finally spoke.

"If it really involves a Border Relic, even if you torture him, he probably won't talk. Besides, can't you see whether he's telling the truth or not?"

"But this is our only lead..." The middle-aged man was also pushed to the brink, "What do we do then?"

Ai Qing shook her head, pulled out her phone, browsed through her contacts, and found a number: "Although there aren't many registered Sublimators here, there are still quite a few willing to cooperate with the authorities. But given your department's procrastination causing this case, the Astronomical Society won't bear the employment cost, understood?"

"I got it." The middle-aged man sighed, "We're only halfway through the year, and more than half the budget is left. I'll give you double, okay?"

The call connected.

Ai Qing cut straight to the chase: "Special Affairs Department, fifteen minutes, OK?"

Soon, the call ended.

Fifteen minutes later, someone was escorted in by the guards, obviously not his first visit, and he casually greeted Ai Qing: "Miss Ai, long time no see. Why don't you visit my place?"

"Too dirty."

Ai Qing, expressionless, passed over a file and pointed to the boy behind the one-way mirror, slumped over the table and shouting about blowing the whistle on Weibo: "Make him talk, can you handle that?"

"Piece of cake."

The newcomer grinned, flipped his hair, and pushed the door to enter.

But as soon as he saw Huai Shi's face, he froze.

Huai Shi was just as stunned.

"Wait, it's you?"

He stared incredulously at the Cowherd brother who had once taught him to know his place, angrily shouting toward the outside: "I get it now, you're all in this together! And you say you don't hire cowherds here! I just haven't sold myself, is it really necessary?"

In the awkward silence that followed, only the young man's bitter cries could be heard:

"—You're forcing a decent person into prostitution!"