Chapter 146: Silhouette in the Rain 8
The entire process of Pei Zheng’s kidnapping was roughly consistent with the investigation team’s previous judgment. While wandering around the music festival market, he was recommended Dong Feifan’s album. When he went to a nightclub party, he further met more fan friends, including Xiang Xinxing, an enthusiastic, proactive, and talkative peer. During casual conversation, the other party quite naturally revealed that “the fan group would have a surprise activity the next day” and asked if he wanted to participate.
Since he came to the music festival to relax, Pei Zheng predictably didn’t refuse.
“Because that bus had the music festival’s official logo, and everyone on board was indeed a fan, I believed it,” Pei Zheng said. “It wasn’t until the vehicle drove into the deep mountains and they started talking about evolution that I sensed something was wrong, but it was already too late.”
So he witnessed that terrifying death with his own eyes.
Liam’s appearance was like that of a deity. Even though he wasn’t actually tall and his appearance had nothing extraordinary about it, he still received almost fanatical worship from Xiang Xinxing and his group, simply because he was an S-class evolver and came from that invisible giant that countless people flocked to. Based solely on the MaximeE-S marking on the packaging, drugs of unknown composition were injected into their bodies without hesitation. Then they sang Dong Feifan’s songs together, singing until their voices were hoarse, like a doomsday carnival.
“They didn’t seem like fans, more like a cult,” Pei Zheng said. “While waiting for the drugs to take effect, I was very worried I’d also be forcibly injected, but Liam told me to stay calm, saying it wasn’t my turn yet.”
“Wasn’t your turn yet?”
“Yes, that’s exactly what he said.”
As for when it would “be his turn,” well, by the time he was rescued by the action team, Pei Zheng still hadn’t been exposed to any drugs.
“Did you see this person at the villa?” Zhuang Ningyu handed over a photo of Roman.
“He came on the first day,” Pei Zheng said. “Then he disappeared.”
After the questioning ended, Yi Ke personally drove to hand him over to Pei Yuan. Andao Medical Center was currently surrounded by what could only be described as a mountain and sea of bodyguards—some hired by Pei Yuan, and a large portion hired by Song Yang. After learning that Pei Zheng had been safely rescued, he cried more emotionally than the child’s own parents. On the spot, he announced in the “Super Perfect Human Praise Group” that he would invest huge sums to commission a famous musician to compose a new piece to express his gratitude, and asked everyone with connections to actively recommend candidates.
Zhuang Ningyu: “What weird stuff is your group spamming now?”
Yi Ke: “Nothing, nothing.”
…
When Qin Ya woke from her coma and faced interrogation, her first words were to distance herself from the Pearl Mountain murder case. She confessed, “Liam only asked me to further brainwash those young people as a Dong Feifan fan, to make them more fanatical about evolvers. On the day of the incident, I was home sleeping the whole time, until Roman called me in the afternoon and told me to go to the Lingyun Villa district.”
“What about Roman?”
“I don’t know. He’s my boss. He doesn’t need to inform me when he does things. My only task was to take care of Pei Zheng.”
“What about that rule zone at Lingyun Villa?”
“I don’t know that either. Liam is the bigger boss.”
“Did Liam inject Pei Zheng with any drugs?”
“No, but he was preparing to. He once said that as long as MaximeE-S was injected into Pei Zheng’s body, Andao Medical would join his team.”
Andao Medical would join his team.
Pei Zheng’s parents’ research direction had always been evolvers and non-evolvers, which completely contradicted the pure blood ideology that Liam advocated. Logically speaking, what he should do was stop related research, not have them join.
Join to research what?
In the conference room, a colleague analyzed: “Could it be to research some kind of anti-evolution agent? For example, the current ratio of evolvers to non-evolvers doesn’t satisfy Liam, so he needs to take some special measures to further maintain the scarcity of the group.”
“Theoretically, it’s indeed possible, but from a practical standpoint, how would he give anti-evolution shots to so many evolvers worldwide?”
“…Uh, it doesn’t necessarily have to be injection, inhalation could work too? I’m just giving an example.”
Zhuang Ningyu leaned back in his chair, his ears listening to his colleagues’ discussion, but his mind was thinking about something else. Whatever Liam needed Father and Mother Pei to research for him, first of all, he must have an experimental site. So in choosing an experimental site, there were three options: first, Andao Medical; second, having Father and Mother Pei board a ship to some high seas laboratory. But the former was too uncontrollable, and the latter would expose coordinates—neither was a perfect choice. So if he were the kidnapper, he would definitely choose option three—have the Pei parents enter a rule zone and establish the laboratory inside the rule zone.
And since Liam could easily establish passages between various rule zones, that meant that no matter where Father and Mother Pei entered from, they could ultimately reach the place Liam wanted them to reach. For Liam, controlling rule zones was definitely much easier than controlling the real world.
“So does the Lingyun Villa rule zone have such a passage leading to his real destination?” a colleague asked. “Or is it just his escape tool?”
“I lean toward it being an escape tool, because it has no ‘door’—anyone can easily enter,” Zhuang Ningyu said. “But if the other end of the rule zone really connects to Liam’s true purpose, connects to his laboratory, then he should at least set an entry condition, like the previous New Gene Biology, limited to invited guests only. That way it would be much safer for him.”
The manhunt on Pearl Mountain was still continuing. Days of heavy rain had triggered landslides and mudslides of varying degrees. The weather was terrible, the terrain complex, visibility extremely low, and combined with Liam’s physical abilities having evolved to be no different from a wild beast, Huo Ting said with a headache: “If we can’t find him in three days, he might already be out of the mountains.”
And now it was already the fourth day.
The case was global, so attention was already high. Moreover, Liam was the “chief director” of this incident, so in just a dozen hours, millions of netizens of all skin colors and languages had flooded Jincheng Order Maintenance Department’s social media, questioning and urging why the suspect hadn’t been found yet. Reportedly, colleagues in the new media department were cursed at in an average of eighteen languages per day, wishing they could also drill into the mountains to search for people themselves.
At the same time, various videos of Zhuang Ningyu were also trending internationally, tagged with completely unrelated hashtags like #Invisible Giant# and #CrazyLiam# and other case-related tags, being crazily reposted by melon-eating netizens. No one knew which unethical tourist started it, but the first video gained massive traffic, immediately attracting a large group of imitators riding the popularity wave. For a time, Team Leader Zhuang giving New Year greetings was everywhere around the world. The comment sections generally divided into four factions: the confused faction asking who this person was and what his relationship to the invisible giant was; the amazed faction exclaiming that this Eastern beauty was intoxicating, this modeling-level perfection proved AI could never defeat humans; the Chinese-speaking faction explaining that this was just a staff member of Huaguo’s Order Maintenance Department giving New Year greetings to everyone; and the foolish faction asking why give New Year greetings, didn’t they remember their New Year was in February?
Ludwig (Vienna, Composer): I once wrote a song for this beauty, and I heard he really liked it.
Zhuang Ningyu sat cross-legged on the sofa, holding his phone high with both hands, eyes showing deep confusion. After watching for a while, he turned to complain to Yi Ke: “This old man looks all suited up in photos, like Beethoven. How is he also chasing this low-level clout? When did I ever like his songs? I don’t even know him!”
“What?” Yi Ke lazily leaned his head over. After just one glance at the screen, he immediately sat up straight and snatched the phone from his wife’s hands with lightning speed, speaking righteously: “Didn’t we agree you wouldn’t look at these things anymore?”
“The heat has died down a lot, and I’m not being cursed at either. Just watching for fun.” Zhuang Ningyu took his phone back and wanted to continue watching, but Yi Ke had already pressed down on him, reaching out to hug him, bumping his head forward, successfully occupying the phone’s position.
Zhuang Ningyu: “You know you only act like this when you’re guilty of doing something wrong, right?”
Yi Ke: “I know, but I’ve decided to apply this position in a multi-layered, all-around way from now on.”
While saying this, he turned over again, brazenly resting his head on his lap, to show he wasn’t guilty at all, while changing the subject: “Just now the Fuxing Garden Street Office called again, urging you to go sign.”
Sign the document confirming the house had been cleared. Zhuang Ningyu still had a few boxes of old books in his house. He originally planned to sort through them when he had time, but never found the right moment. Now that the demolition of the residential area was imminent, he couldn’t delay any longer. Yi Ke said: “If you’re too lazy to deal with it, should I drive over first and move everything back for you?”
“Don’t. Those boxes haven’t been opened in seven or eight years; they’re all dusty.” Zhuang Ningyu tugged at his face. “Let’s go. No time like the present. Uncle Huang, who collects recyclables, hasn’t moved yet, so we’ll roughly sort through them first, and let him take the rest away with the old furniture.”
Yi Ke really didn’t want to give the old furniture to Uncle Huang. He deeply regretted missing out on his fragrant wife’s past life, so last time at Fuxing Garden, he loudly questioned why Uncle Huang could own the stool you sat on when you were eight, but I can’t? I don’t agree! I must move this stool home! Then he righteously sat down, trying to declare ownership through action. As a result, the aged stool couldn’t bear the weight and shattered into pieces. Yi Ke sat in the pile of broken wood, tears streaming down his face. Wife, my butt seems to have a nail stuck in it.
Because of this, Zhuang Ningyu lost another afternoon of moving time, because he had to take him for a tetanus shot, and after the shot, buy an ice cream to comfort him.
The move was dragged out infinitely by various small scattered matters like this, but both enjoyed it. And now, the moving game was finally entering its final countdown. Yi Ke comforted him: “It’s okay, wife. If you like playing, we can also go to your parents’ house and move your luggage back again.”
“Can you not always fixate on this?” Zhuang Ningyu didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. He cupped his face with both hands, lowered his head and kissed him. “Let’s go. We have some time this afternoon. After we finish tidying up, I’ll treat you to beef hotpot.”
Yi Ke grunted, not at all discouraged. The days ahead are long—there’s no way I’ll let my wife’s drool bib stay in the suburbs forever!
…
They hadn’t come for a week, and the Fuxing Street area was already covered with red “demolish” characters everywhere, looking full of the joy of everyone getting rich together. Police tape was strung up haphazardly. Seven or eight engineering survey drones were “buzzing” in the sky. Whether or not they’d survey the residents too, they certainly didn’t look safe. So after the two entered, they first pulled the curtains closed before starting work. Zhuang Ningyu pulled out a wet wipe to clean the dust off the boxes, while Yi Ke, for once, didn’t cause trouble and obediently received and shelved books, finally playing a positive role.
“Buzz.” Halfway through organizing, a sound suddenly came from upstairs.
Zhuang Ningyu looked up in confusion, wondering if there was still a household that hadn’t moved, when another round of “buzzing” came densely over—this time from Yi Ke’s phone on the coffee table. After connecting, the other party had a very good attitude, even somewhat ingratiating: “Is this the owner of license plate Jin A111111Y?”
Yi Ke frowned: “Who are you?”
The other party replied with a smile: “I’m sorry, I just scraped your car. The, uh, rearview mirror fell off. Bro, I’m really sorry. The rain was too heavy, I was a bit distracted.”
Yi Ke: “…”
Zhuang Ningyu: “…”
Parking spaces in the old neighborhood were like a treasure hunt game. With the recent large-scale demolition and construction vehicles taking up space, parking spots were even scarcer. Yi Ke had specifically chosen a large vehicle for moving, parked diagonally by the roadside with most of the body exposed—it was indeed easy to hit.
“Go take a look,” Zhuang Ningyu said. “I’ll finish tidying up this little bit.”
The car was parked three streets away, quite far. The sky under the rainstorm was very dark. Yi Ke walked over with an umbrella, but from afar he saw there was no other car next to his, and no so-called “car owner” waiting around either. He puzzled, pulled out his phone, called up that number, and was about to dial back when he suddenly realized something. He broke into a run back, running while dialing Zhuang Ningyu’s number.
No signal.
He cursed and threw away his umbrella, sprinting wildly through the wind and rain!
“Bang!” A gunshot rang out by his ear!
The bullet struck sparks on the scaffolding. This commotion was indeed rare in Huaguo, so the surrounding workers had no reaction at all, just looking very confused at this handsome guy running in the rain. It wasn’t until Yi Ke shouted “Get back inside, someone’s shooting” that they all ran back into the rooms in shock. Yi Ke drew his service weapon, hid behind a construction truck, and based on the position he’d just determined, decisively pulled the trigger. The rapidly flying silver bullet penetrated flesh and skull. The man hiding in the small shop fell to the ground, blood gushing from his head and flowing down the steps. The police officers from the nearby station also rushed out at this moment. Yi Ke handed the scene over to them. Without time for more explanation, he continued rushing toward Fuxing Garden.
In the living room, Zhuang Ningyu finished organizing the last book, stood up to stretch his sore muscles, and picked up his phone wanting to ask how Yi Ke was handling things over there, only to find it showed no signal.
Did construction dig up the cable? He thought puzzled, wanting to see if there was a repair truck on the street. But the moment he pulled open the curtain, he happened to witness white mist rising!
He understood almost instantly what that phone call had been about, quickly turned and opened the security door, but the stairwell was already filled with white mist!
The workers on the street watched with their own eyes as a white fog wall “whoosh” rose up, taking only the blink of an eye to wrap Fuxing Garden airtight and impenetrable. They immediately cried out in shock. What shocked them even more was that in the one-thousandth of a second before the white fog wall rose, a black figure seemed to shoot out like a bullet from a chamber, wrapped in violent rain and wind, crashing fiercely inside!
Footsteps came from the stairs. The next moment, Zhuang Ningyu, standing at the door of Room 201, was forcefully pulled into an embrace.
Yi Ke’s chest heaved violently. Fear left him speechless. He could only hold the person tighter, though his arms were still trembling. Almost—he had almost let him be trapped alone in a rule zone again.
Zhuang Ningyu looked at the damp white mist sweeping down from the stairs, exhaled with a headache, and reached out to rub Yi Ke’s head.
“It’s okay,” he said. “We’re together.”
