Hui Tian Ch37

Chapter 37

The tortured Yang Xiaodao

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Shenhai suburbs, Xingye Village back mountain.

Abandoned paper mill.

One after another, vans pulled up in front of the empty factory gate. The doors opened, and several different teams began unloading their camera equipment.

“Good thing we found such a great spot before. High mountains and far from the emperor’s reach, convenient for dealing with ‘big livestock’,” a “producer” said, a cigarette dangling from his lips as he walked familiarly towards the factory building, chatting with a cameraman. “Too bad there are fewer chances to film ‘big livestock’ these days. No one dares to mess with cows or sheep. Last time, we got a chick to deal with a big dog. Damn, she just couldn’t bring herself to do it. Serves her right for being destined not to make big money!…”

“Hah!” The cameraman, shouldering his equipment, sighed and shook his head. “What money can you make filming small things now? Crushing goldfish and turtles, rabbits, cats, and dogs… who pays for that anymore! Only last time when Old Zhang got someone to gut a live cow on site—the steaming entrails were pulled out while the cow was still screaming in pain, and its calf was kneeling beside it, crying too—that video was something else. It sold for tens of thousands!”

The few people behind them all laughed.

“Old Zhang always has ideas, this time too,” someone nearby chimed in. “When he mentioned something about one meter seventy in length and over a hundred pounds in weight, I thought it was a person! It scared me so much I quickly clicked in to check, turns out he got a pony! Hahaha—”

The producer’s face lit up. “You don’t get it, do you? That’s called a gimmick! We’ll use that as the title when we get back. He’s totally mastered the clickbait code…”

A motley crew of a few dozen people walked to the courtyard gate. The producer pushed the gate open. “Old Zhang, Old Zhang! Everyone’s here, hurry up and—”

His voice trailed off.

In the dilapidated factory courtyard, a young girl stood with her back to them in front of a nearby door. Hearing the noise, she turned and gave them a sweet smile. “You’re here?”

“Yo, where’d this girl come from?” The group instantly became excited. “Is she an actress Old Zhang hired?” “A JK uniform with white socks! We’re gonna make a killing on this one!” “How’d you get into the business, little sister? Where’s Old Zhang?”

The group swarmed into the courtyard, looking around, only to see the girl smiling sweetly at them with a hint of innocent charm. “Zhang Zongxiao, you mean?”

She yanked a chain in her hand. “He’s right here.”

The chain rattled, and from behind the door came the sound of something stumbling closer, like a pig, dog, cow, or sheep, or perhaps the pony they had planned to film today.

Everyone froze.

A shadow emerged from the darkness, crawling unsteadily on all fours. A spiked iron collar was fastened around its neck, and its wails were muffled by a horse’s bit in its throat, leaving only desperate whimpering sounds.

It was less a person and more some kind of grotesque horse, its bones broken and bent into shape.

It was Zhang Zongxiao.

A chaotic explosion of screams, gasps, and angry shouts erupted. Some rushed forward, some backed away, and most instinctively tried to flee. But before they could escape the courtyard, the iron gate slammed shut with a boom! as if locked by an invisible force.

“Don’t be in such a hurry to run,” Chu Yan said, turning around. The girlishly sweet smile was gone, replaced by a cold, condescending tone. “Isn’t this what you all like?”

“The main event hasn’t even started yet.”

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“Chu Yan, B-class, sixteen years old.” Chen Miao’s voice came through the noise-canceling headphones, cutting through the roar of the helicopter’s propellers. “Former student of the Central Research Institute’s youth class. Took a leave of absence six months ago and began volunteering at various rescue groups. She has a gentle and peaceful disposition, loves small animals, and has long been helping to care for the elderly and children in welfare homes. Her evolution mark is on her left chest, so she hides her identity as an Evolutionist from the public, preferring to live like an ordinary human.”

The helicopter flew over the mountain range. Below was a vast, lush green expanse of mountains. The location of the offline event Chu Yan had organized should be just ahead.

“What a sin—” Bai Sheng sat in the back of the helicopter with his legs crossed. He habitually reached out an arm to wrap around Shen Zhuo, but Shen Zhuo dodged him with a blank expression. Unsuccessful, Bai Sheng resentfully pulled his arm back and started flipping through Chu Yan’s investigation file, the pages rustling loudly. “To push a ‘gentle and peaceful’ little girl to become a killer, how much worse than pigs and dogs must these people be? Their deaths would be no great loss.”

Shen Zhuo asked, “What is her ability?”

Chen Miao didn’t come this time; he was holding down the fort at the Shenhai City Supervision Department with the Witch. With his senior not around, he was like a free-spirited golden retriever, brazenly propping his legs on his office desk while drinking milk tea. “Well, the problem lies with her ability—at first I thought it was an intelligence-based ability, but after checking her file, I found out it’s animal empathy.”

An intelligence ability is different from intelligence evolution. Every evolutionist’s IQ increases to some extent, which is a basic evolution like enhanced physical fitness. But an intelligence ability is a very rare and specific power. When this ability is activated, it could turn Yang Xiaodao into Shen Zhuo on the spot—the chasm between them shows how vast the difference is.

Chu Yan is indeed a child who could make people mistake her for having an intelligence ability. All her report cards can be described as dazzling. She skipped four grades in school and was admitted to the Research Institute at fifteen after winning a major international award, becoming their youngest student that year. She was truly a child of great promise.

However, six months later, she applied for a leave of absence because her ability had become an unbearable burden.

There were too many lab animals in the Research Institute.

The institute’s strongest field is genetic evolution engineering, and it’s impossible for that major not to use animals for experiments. For her, it was like torture by a thousand cuts, making it impossible to continue her studies. However, for a child with her intelligence, there were many paths she could take even after dropping out. Her advisor suggested she switch to nuclear physics, and the Central Supervision Department also sent people to contact her, hoping she would join the special intelligence department and use her ability to communicate with animals for intelligence work.

Chu Yan refused all invitations.

She returned to Shenhai, lived anonymously like an ordinary person, volunteered to care for the elderly and orphans in welfare homes, and helped private rescue groups look after stray animals, living a peaceful and uncontroversial life.

For some people with extraordinary intelligence and high sensitivity, feelings of helplessness and confusion that no one understands can sometimes arise, especially for a sixteen-year-old child like Chu Yan. If this simple, down-to-earth life had not been disturbed, this gentle and peaceful girl could have quickly regained her peace and found her direction for the future.

However, half a month ago, the animal abusers, seeking their own doom, ran into her.

Zhang Zongxiao posed as an adopter and tricked the old woman at the rescue shelter Chu Yan had been helping, taking a small stray cat. He blackmailed them for money and explicit photos, then brutally tortured the kitten to death and sold the bloody video for profit.

This group ignited her long-suppressed frustration and anger.

“How did she get in touch with Rong Qi?” Shen Zhuo asked with a frown.

“Hard to say. We’ve traced her movements many times, but we still don’t know how she found Rong Qi,” Chen Miao said, sipping his milk tea while quickly scanning the dense data on his computer. “The worst-case scenario is that Rong Qi, in order to recruit followers, has already developed a secret network among low-level Evolutionists. Those who share his ideology, extreme social Darwinists, or children like Chu Yan who need revenge but are powerless—if they search for it, they can find the clues Rong Qi has put out and will naturally be drawn to him.”

Rong Qi himself has an extraordinary ability to bewitch people. Combined with the instinctive obedience of low-level Evolutionists towards a top-tier one, it’s incredibly easy for him to recruit allies.

“Continue investigating in this direction,” Shen Zhuo said, exhaling. “We must cut off his path to expanding his influence. His power cannot be allowed to grow any further.”

“Yes, sir!”

“I mean, how did that guy Rong beat us to it?” Bai Sheng rustled through the file, genuinely pained. “She could have come to us for such a small matter. As long as she’s willing to tutor Yang Xiaodao with his homework, she wouldn’t have had to deal with those perverts herself. Just blow a whistle and Yang Xiaodao would have charged out, right?”

“…” Yang Xiaodao turned back from the front passenger seat, clearly having a realistic self-assessment. “Are you sure she wouldn’t want to kill me more by then?”

Shen Zhuo took the file from Bai Sheng’s hands and placed it beside him, stopping him from playing with it. “I suggest you first think about what exactly Rong Qi exchanged with Chu Yan.”

Bai Sheng raised his eyebrows high. “What could they exchange? Candid photos of the Shenhai City Supervisor?”

“…”

Shen Zhuo said, “Don’t judge others by your own standards. What Rong Qi wants is HRG, and you are indeed the biggest obstacle. All his actions are tied to the goal of ‘suppressing causality’. You should be careful, he doesn’t have Chu Yan come after you.”

Bai Sheng was shocked and a little moved. He took the opportunity to reach out his hand. “My dear, I didn’t think you cared about me so much…”

Shen Zhuo immediately held up a single index finger, signaling him to keep his distance.

“…I’d die happy now,” Bai Sheng said sincerely, gracefully taking Shen Zhuo’s finger in both his hands.

In the front, Yang Xiaodao covered his eyes, his face twisted in an expression of someone who couldn’t bear to watch. From the pilot’s seat, Luo Zhen patted him sympathetically.

“Chu Yan deliberately left cat and dog fur on the first two people to lead us to discover Zhang Zongxiao and then track her all the way here. She very much wants us to meet her.” Shen Zhuo forcefully pulled his finger back from Bai Sheng’s grasp, shook his wrist, and said, “This young girl has a meticulous mind and acts quickly. I suggest you don’t underestimate her.”

“Huh? Not at all,” Bai Sheng said with a grin, his legs crossed. “The little lady has already proven with her actions that anyone who looks down on her will one day kneel at her feet and cry—and the reason I’m more relaxed is because.”

He tilted his head with a bright, sunny smile, his white hair sticking up defiantly. “Philosophy major Evolutionist have a resistance to mental attacks. Complete immunity to anything below A-class.”

Very good, very Bai Sheng.

“…” Shen Zhuo said, “The opponent is Rong Qi. It’s better for you to be more cautious.”

He paused, about to give a couple of warnings, when his gaze caught something outside the helicopter and froze. He patted Bai Sheng. “What is that?”

Following the direction he indicated, the distant mountains rolled on, lush and green.

Bai Sheng didn’t even look. “My wild and untamed secret love and longing for you.”

Yang Xiaodao: “…”
Luo Zhen: “…”
Shen Zhuo said calmly, “I think all you’ll ever be able to do in this life is long for it.”

Bai Sheng was startled and immediately stopped shaking his leg. He sat up straight and looked intently. In the distance, deep within the mountains, a patch of forest was faintly shimmering with a faint blue light, almost imperceptible to the naked eye under the daylight. At the same time, a subtle energy fluctuation emanated from ahead.

It was an ability.

Bai Sheng’s expression changed slightly. He dropped the talk of his secret love and longing. “Turn, turn, quick.”

Luo Zhen immediately changed the helicopter’s direction. Bai Sheng stared intently at the approaching forest in the distance, concentrating for a moment before saying, “Mental-type ability signature. Very aggressive. The little girl has made her move.”

Luo Zhen immediately radioed the other two nearby helicopters, confirmed the location, and then turned back to shout, “Don’t worry, Supervisor, we’ll speed up and fly right over!”

“At this distance, even if you speed up, it’ll take a while. By the time we land, it will be too late.” Bai Sheng unbuckled his seatbelt with a click. Luo Zhen asked in alarm, “Bai-ge, what are you doing?”

“What do you think I’m doing? Going for a workout.” Bai Sheng slid open the helicopter door with one hand and extended the other towards Shen Zhuo, asking sarcastically, “May I ask, esteemed Supervisor, if a civilian volunteer can have the honor of giving you a ride that requires no official position and no salary?”

Shen Zhuo turned to the front with a blank expression. “Take me into the mountain. Now.”

Yang Xiaodao: “Okay.”

Bai Sheng grabbed Shen Zhuo’s arm and asked Yang Xiaodao in disbelief, “Have you no sense of market economics? You’re trying to one-up me when there are only two of us?!”

Yang Xiaodao couldn’t take it anymore. “Is there any possibility that I’m just a normal person with a functioning brain?!”

Bai Sheng: “You’ll never find a wife in this lifetime!”

Yang Xiaodao: “I’m still a minor!! I…”

The teenager’s angry roar vanished behind them in an instant. Bai Sheng, with one arm around Shen Zhuo, leaped from the helicopter. They plummeted a hundred meters with a whoosh, landing on the top of an ancient pine tree, then plunged into the deep mountains like an arrow.

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The pine forest surged like a sea, the lush canopies receding swiftly beneath their feet.

Bai Sheng always had the playful mentality of an alpha wolf teasing a younger one. While holding Shen Zhuo with one hand, he flew forward, intentionally staying ahead of Yang Xiaodao without completely losing him. Every time he saw the boy fall behind, he would deliberately slow down for a few steps. The moment the exasperated teenager caught up, he would suddenly speed up again, leaping across a mountain stream and leaving only an arrogant silhouette behind.

“Stop playing around, you overshot it!” Shen Zhuo shouted into Bai Sheng’s ear against the wind.

Bai Sheng looked down, let out a “Yo,” and executed a sharp drift-brake in mid-air to return the way they came, knocking an unprepared Yang Xiaodao head-on out of a tree.

On the ground not far away, a dilapidated factory building sat at the intersection of a mountain road and a stream. Bai Sheng leaped down from an abandoned high-voltage wire, landing like a hawk on the factory eaves. He glanced down at his feet and only let go after making sure Shen Zhuo was steady.

In the empty factory yard were dozens of figures. He took one look and couldn’t help but say, “—Huh?”

There was no fighting or bloodshed, no self-cannibalism.

On the dusty concrete floor, a travel-worn group of people with camera equipment were sitting, standing, or kneeling on the ground. All of them had their eyes wide open and dazed expressions, like dozens of frozen stone statues.

The only one who could move was Zhang Zongxiao. His bones had been broken and forcibly bent into a crawling position on all fours. He was covered in blood, a gruesome sight, with a horse’s bit stuffed in his mouth, letting out muffled whimpers of pleading.

A girl in a school skirt sat cross-legged under the eaves. She was slender and fair, with a slightly upturned nose, possessing a mixed aura of innocent charm and cold indifference. Her eyelashes were lowered as she gazed at the human statues on the ground, her eyes betraying no hint of emotion.

“…Chu Yan,” Bai Sheng said softly, narrowing his eyes.

“I’ve been waiting here for you for a long time, wondering what I would do if you couldn’t find me.”

Chu Yan pushed herself up from the ground with one hand, dusted off her uniform skirt, and looked back at Bai Sheng and Shen Zhuo on the factory roof. Her eyes were clear, the whites and blacks distinct. “Good thing you finally came.”

“You have to trust in the wisdom of adults sometimes.” Bai Sheng slung an arm over Shen Zhuo’s shoulder, standing with his long legs at an angle, and asked with a grin, “Did Rong Qi tell you to lead us here?”

Yang Xiaodao, who had been knocked out of the tree, climbed onto the roof covered in dust, like a young wolf standing guard at the front of the pack. He scanned the surroundings vigilantly, afraid that the legendary Rong Qi might suddenly appear from some corner, so he could immediately follow up with his luck value when his guardian activated causality.

But unexpectedly, Rong Qi was not there. The distant mountain forest was vast, with no trace of any unusual aura.

“No, the person named Rong Qi just made a deal with me.” Chu Yan was unexpectedly calm and frank. She said, “He lent me an ability. In exchange, he wanted me to try and use ‘Daydream’ to launch a mental attack on the S-class Evolutionist, Bai Sheng.”

Bai Sheng shot a sideways glance, briefly exchanging a look with Shen Zhuo.

“But I have my own plan,” Chu Yan paused and said. “I want to see Supervisor Shen.”

“I want to make a deal with Supervisor Shen that you absolutely won’t lose out on.”

Shen Zhuo frowned slightly and showed no intention of speaking, but Bai Sheng’s interest was greatly piqued. “What kind of deal?”

“Help… help… woo…”

Zhang Zongxiao crawled on the ground with his broken joints, desperately raising his head to cry for help from Shen Zhuo and Bai Sheng, blood and tears streaming from his empty left eye socket. But the next moment, the girl’s expression didn’t change as she stomped her foot down, pinning his entire head to the ground. The back of his skull immediately made a horrific crushing sound under her shoe.

“Ahhhh—ah!!”

The abuser’s screams echoed through the mountain forest, but the girl paid them no heed. She only looked up at Shen Zhuo on the roof, her tone as calm and composed as a little girl asking for a piece of fruit or a dessert:

“Do you want to kill that person named Rong Qi?”

“I know his hiding place. I can help you eliminate that warmonger with terrifying ambitions.”

“In exchange, I really want to achieve a second evolution. I hope to have the honor of entering the once-shelved HRG project under your command.”

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