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Chapter 13
Bai Sheng said pleasantly: “Why do you think Xiao Ming’s grandfather lived to be ninety-nine?”
Several hours later, on the highway.
“The Quanshan County Health Center was established in the 1980s, near the mountainous area of the county, with very backward conditions. Three years ago, a late-night fire caused by aging circuits resulted in heavy casualties.” The woman in a white medical coat sitting in the passenger seat held up some documents, raising an eyebrow. “After that, the health center was completely abandoned, and there were even rumors of hauntings in the local area.”
To avoid attracting attention from the locals, they switched to a smaller car after entering the county town. In the back seat, Bai Sheng arrogantly stretched his long legs, occupying two seats. Shen Zhuo was squeezed against the car window, pretending to be asleep with his arms crossed.
“Shui Ronghua, the forensic examiner from the Shenhai City Supervision Office, is three years my senior,” Chen Miao said as he drove, introducing them with enthusiasm. Then he pointed her thumb at the back seat. “Bai-ge.”
Bai Sheng, seemingly pensive, rubbed his chin, looking the forensic examiner up and down. “I’ve noticed that your supervision office has quite a tight network of connections. Inspector Shen is a senior, the forensic examiner is a senior, and the vice-captain is a junior… Are your civil service positions still practicing academic hereditary systems?”
Shui Ronghua’s long, curly hair was tied up at the back of her head. She was mature and charming, yet professional. She smiled and said, “Our research institute was originally engaged in genetic engineering. Five years ago, when the evolution occurred, all the meteorites in the country were sent to our institute, causing many students to evolve overnight. Even Yue Yang and Fu Chen…”
Shen Zhuo moved slightly.
Shui Ronghua’s voice suddenly stopped, and after a while, she smiled and continued, “They are also alumni of our research institute. Considering the connections we have, we often recommend each other for job opportunities.”
Bai Sheng smiled and gestured toward the metal collar around Shui Ronghua’s neck. “Beauty, are you an A-class?”
“I’m not combat-oriented, just a weak A.” Shui Ronghua blinked, “If we encounter danger, remember to go first. I’ll give you this mission’s field allowance, okay handsome?”
Bai Sheng modestly replied, “Oh, how can I accept that? As an outstanding member of the New Era Male Virtue Class, if I hide behind a lady in danger, I’ll be subjected to physical eunuchization. By the way, how about giving me a referral opportunity, Miss? I bet Inspector Shen is now thinking about kicking me out of the car. It’s been too long since I couldn’t find a job…”
At this moment, the car stopped, and a supervisor from the front car came over, knocking on the window. “Captain, we’re here!”
In front of them were undulating hills and forests, and a charred and dilapidated building stood on the open field. The upper floors were mostly burned, leaving only the cement framework, while the ground floor was still recognizable, barely reflecting the architectural style of the 1980s.
Shen Zhuo got up and opened the door, but didn’t immediately walk out. Instead, he turned around with his one hand supporting the car door, looking steadily at Bai Sheng.
“The recruitment requirements of our place state that formal employees must have a master’s degree or above in science, engineering, liberal arts, or history. Philosophy graduates are not accepted. I apologize, Mr. Bai.”
The air stood still.
Bai Sheng looked incredulous, as if he couldn’t believe his ears. After a moment, he took a deep breath and said solemnly:
“‘Philosophy is the pursuit of knowledge in its broadest and most general form; philosophy is the mother of all sciences’—Albert Einstein, 1905.”
Shen Zhuo politely responded, “Philosophy is dead. 2010, Stephen Hawking.”
“………”
Shen Zhuo added, “Please convey my condolences to your mother.” Then he slammed the car door and walked away.
Though it was claimed to be in the county town, in reality, it was on the outskirts, near the mountains. With population migration and land degradation, the surroundings appeared even more desolate.
The charred walls were exposed, and the shattered old-fashioned glass windows seemed like hollow eyes, resembling a quiet tomb under the vast sky.
The fire three years ago was said to have started on the third floor, causing more severe damage as it went higher. The ceiling boards were all curled up and spread out like large fish scales. The cracked ground was filled with charcoal-like debris, and the walls of a corridor on the second floor were covered with chaotic black handprints, likely left in a panic during escape.
“They didn’t make it out.” Shui Ronghua gestured for Shen Zhuo to look at the corner of the stairs, where the handprints disappeared, and a small, curled carbon-like shadow was imprinted on the wall.
That was the last trace left by the people who were trying to escape.
“Three years ago, the health center was burned down, and three years ago, the Noda siblings were expelled from the Round Table. Is there any connection?” Chen Miao rubbed his chin in thought. “Could the fire have been set by them?”
Shui Ronghua pragmatically reminded him, “But the fire occurred a month before they were expelled from the Round Table.”
“Well, that doesn’t make sense either. An abandoned health center with rumors of hauntings—not even the locals come here. How did she know about this place? What could attract the interest of an extremist evolutionist?” Chen Miao suddenly had inspiration and turned to Shen Zhuo with a nervous look. “Senior, do you think there might be some ultimate weapon capable of destroying humanity hidden in this health center!”
Shen Zhuo turned slowly to stare at him, his eyes unmoving and his face expressionless.
Everyone was familiar with this scene. Back then, Professor Shen, at the age of twenty, looked at a group of Muggle students in the institute with the same expression.
“…” Chen Miao said consciously, “Okay, Senior, I’ll think about it again.”
Looking out from the window, the four supervisors they brought had already parked the car downstairs and were rapidly searching the entire building, using instruments to carefully survey any subtle abnormal energy fluctuations around them.
Bai Sheng sat in the car with a thoughtful expression, holding his phone and seemingly searching for something. A supervisor happened to pass by and, upon taking a closer look, was surprised. “Bai-ge, why are you searching for the Rebirth Mantra?”
“For the spiritual liberation and passage of my philosophical mother.”
“… “
“By the way,” Bai Sheng said coldly, “I had planned to invite all of you to a three-star Michelin restaurant for lobster tonight, but now we’ll have to make do with plain water and vegetables to mourn my mother.”
From the second-floor window, Shen Zhuo: “…”
Shen Zhuo held his forehead in silence. At this moment, another subordinate hurriedly came up the stairs, saying, “Supervisor, Captain Chen, can you come downstairs and take a look?”
Chen Miao asked, “What’s wrong?”
“We found many unusual traces in the corner ward on the first floor.” The subordinate seemed very puzzled. “Many… footprints.”
At the end of the first-floor corridor was a small and dilapidated ward, with walls covered in a mix of black and yellow. There was a wire bed against the east wall, and the wind howled through the dusty, broken glass windows.
The large pieces of the scorched floor were peeled away, displaying dozens of shoe prints in a crisscross pattern.
“The sole pattern resembles that of women’s flat shoes, with a foot length between 25.5cm and 26cm and a foot width ranging from 10.5cm to 10.8cm. By calculation, the person’s height should be…” Shen Zhuo stood up from the floor, “around 167cm, matching the physical characteristics of Yoko Noda.”
Chen Miao, who was crouched nearby to record, exclaimed, “Oh! Is it really her?”
“Judging from the clarity of the shoe print edges, it should have been left within the last half month.” Shen Zhuo glanced at his watch. “To be precise, 13 days and 19 hours ago.”
Chen Miao was immediately shocked, “You can tell all that?!”
Shen Zhuo didn’t answer.
“Senior, you’re amazing! Is it really this accurate? How did you figure it out? Do you really have no abilities at all? Senior, senior!”
Ignoring the questions, Shen Zhuo walked past as if he hadn’t heard anything. Behind him, Shui Ronghua sighed and used her phone to pull up the weather records from the past half month, showing them to the dumbfounded Chen Miao.
“14 days ago, at noon, Quanshan County experienced a strong wind of level 7. The shoe prints wouldn’t have been left before that, as the edge imprints wouldn’t be so clear. Around 11 p.m. the same night, there was a sudden rainstorm, so the tread pattern near the window is covered with radiating raindrops. From the diameter of the droplets and the angle at which they fell, we can calculate the wind speed, direction, and precise rainfall amount at that time. In summary, Yoko Noda’s arrival at this health center is very certain, between 4 p.m. and 11 p.m. that day.”
Chen Miao: “…”
Shui Ronghua approached and whispered to him, “There were rumors that during the time you were working on your master’s thesis, Shen Zhuo took high blood pressure medication every day. Is that true?”
“…That’s not true!” Chen Miao was very aggrieved, turning back and shouting, “Senior! Tell me you didn’t take blood pressure medication!”
Ignoring him, Shen Zhuo squatted down to observe something on the ground, his eyebrows slightly furrowed.
“Senior?”
Curious, Chen Miao approached, furrowing his brow to observe for a moment before realizing there were faint, long marks on the ground leading toward the door. “Is this… tire tracks?”
“Wheelchair,” Shen Zhuo whispered.
“—Huh?”
Chen Miao was greatly surprised. He lowered his head for a closer look, nearly bumping into Shen Zhuo’s hand. But then, a tremendous force from behind nearly lifted him off the ground, and Chen Miao struggled to turn around and say, “B-Bai-ge!”
Bai Sheng, with a single hand on the nape of his neck, asked with a pleasant expression, “Do you know why Xiao Ming’s grandfather lived to ninety-nine?”
“…” Chen Miao asked: “Did Xiao Ming’s grandfather not care about whose wheelchair marks were left on the ground?”
Bai Sheng said, “Because Xiao Ming’s grandfather knew to maintain a reasonable distance from his senior.”
Struck by lightning, Chen Miao looked back at Shen Zhuo for help, only to find his senior staring at the ground without saying a word, as if he had evolved some kind of superpower to block out all abnormal actions and words of Bai Sheng beyond his sensory perception.
Bai Sheng, still holding Chen Miao like a little chick, turned around with a playful smile and said, “Inspector Shen.”
“Mm.”
“Have you seen the shadow on the bed?”
The wire bed was already charred, leaning against the corner of the wall. Unless you knelt by the bed and observed carefully, it was hard to see the shrunken, lying black figure on the ash-black wire springs, with a semblance of a head, torso, and limbs.
It was a charred body.
Shen Zhuo stood up and sighed silently. “—Mr. Rong.”
“Half a month ago, Yoko Noda didn’t come here alone. Along with her was the true owner of the evolutionary source, Mr. Rong. Because this person had a disability in both legs, that’s why there are wheelchair marks on the ground.”
“There’s something we got wrong. Yoko Noda isn’t an accomplice of Liu Sanji; she belongs to Mr. Rong. Liu Sanji was probably caught for stealing the evolutionary source, so Mr. Rong coerced him into doing something. This explains why Liu Sanji dared to risk a life sentence or even execution and actively ran onto the overpass to stop my car.”
Bai Sheng gestured to the wire bed with his chin, “And what about this unfortunate guy?”
Shen Zhuo frowned, took a moment, and said, “I have a suspicion… but it’s hard to confirm unless we can see the scene at that time.”
“?”
Bai Sheng didn’t understand his meaning, only to see Shen Zhuo extend his hand.
Shui Ronghua immediately understood and walked up from nearby.
“Shui Ronghua’s ability is very special. She was once possessed by an unknown creature, but that entity was ferocious, almost killing over a hundred people in one go. So, I managed to establish a contract with this unknown entity, sealing it in the depths of Shui Ronghua’s subconscious mind. Only I can release it when needed.”
Bai Sheng was very curious, “Unknown creature?”
Shen Zhuo explained, “Yes, a purely mental creature. The research institute once believed it came from an extraterrestrial civilization.”
Bai Sheng, scratching his chin, didn’t quite understand. Then he saw Shui Ronghua spread her right palm to Shen Zhuo. However, she hesitated for a moment and said sincerely to Bai Sheng:
“Maybe, occasionally, Xiao Ming’s grandfather also shakes hands with his senior for work purposes.”
Chen Miao sprayed out his mouthful of water, “Pfft!”
Bai Sheng burst into laughter, “Hahaha—”
Xiao Ming’s grandfather’s senior closed his eyes and took a deep breath, and Chen Miao immediately hid behind his Bai-ge.
But Shen Zhuo ignored the two of them, extending his right hand from top to bottom, covering Shui Ronghua’s palm, and softly calling out the name of the summoned:
“I release you, Witch Italdo!”
An invisible and powerful energy emanated from the clasped hands of the two.
Immediately, a terrifying transformation occurred on the right half of Shui Ronghua’s face. The skin dissolved, covered in bloodstains, exposing bizarre bones as if corroded; the right half of her body mutated rapidly, with muscles turning blood-red, and densely packed blood vessels covering her arm and right leg like metallic armor.
At the same time, her intact left side also underwent noticeable changes, becoming enchanting, radiant, and vibrant. Her curled red hair hung down to her waist like dense seaweed in a bloody sea. Numerous intricate patterns extended from her left half, resembling ancient talismans, spreading to her left arm, left leg, and even her left eye pupil.
No one could escape the deadly attraction of the left half-witch, but at the same time, her right half could make anyone’s heart shudder.
The ultimate combination of beauty and terror.
Witch Italdo.
“Ah…” The witch let out a relieved, seductive moan.
Shen Zhuo immediately tried to release their intertwined hands, but she grabbed it forcefully. Then, like a seductive snake, she approached, lifting Shen Zhuo’s chin gently with her fingertips:
“Missed me, Supervisor Shen?”
Subsequently, she leaned in, her charming cheek almost sticking to Shen Zhuo’s face with a teasing smile full of implications: “If you set me free, perhaps we can go to a place with no one. I can make you experience a lot of pleasure, and—”
Her voice suddenly froze.
A small silver controller appeared in front of her eyes, and Shen Zhuo coldly said, “And a lot of high-voltage electricity.”
With a loud bang, Witch Italdo quickly retreated, almost knocking over the tables and chairs.
“Humans!!” She gnashed her teeth, trying to pull off the metal collar around her neck, but no matter how hard she pulled, she couldn’t remove it. She could only glare hatefully at Shen Zhuo, and her blood-red eyes revealed undisguised malice: “One day I’ll make this collar lock around your neck, one day—”
Shen Zhuo sneered, “So many evolutionists outside want to put this collar around my neck, so what? They can only dream.”
“…”
“Recreate the scene in this room from three years ago; don’t make me give the order a second time.”
Bai Sheng turned his head and quietly asked Chen Miao, “Have you been shocked before?”
Chen Miao, covering the collar, looked shocked. “How is that possible? I’m so docile and obedient!”
“…”
Witch Italdo cast a hateful glance at Shen Zhuo. Gripping the collar, she raised her blood-red and bizarre left hand, pressing it onto the wire bed, and murmured something hoarse.
The pronunciation was very obscure, like some ancient lost incantation or a language that had never appeared on Earth.
Following closely, the scene of time and space reversing rushed in like a roaring flood.
The charred walls were restored, the cracked floor tiles healed, and the shattered glass windows miraculously closed on their own—everything before their eyes returned to the state they were in three years ago, before the big fire happened. The room was dimly lit, emitting the smell of low-quality disinfectant.
On the steel-wire hospital bed, a figure appeared silently.
He was a very thin man, seemingly still quite young, but years of coma had taken a toll on him. His face, devoid of expression, appeared dry and withered, and the scent of death permeated the air.
It was impossible to tell what he originally looked like.
Bai Sheng squinted slightly, “Could he be…”
“Mr. Rong,” Shen Zhuo whispered.
Following Shen Zhuo’s gaze, a figure silently appeared next to the steel-wire bed. A bedside card was clipped to the bed railing, with the name hastily written in ballpoint pen–Rong Qi.
Bai Sheng casually draped one hand over Shen Zhuo’s shoulder, leaning over to scrutinize the bedside card: “This brother looks pretty miserable. The conditions at the rural clinic aren’t great, huh? What’s wrong with him? Vegetative state? Not brain dead, is he?”
Shen Zhuo was about to say something when, at that moment, a strange, smiling voice came from behind the crowd:
“Guess what illness they say this poor guy got, Fu Chen?”
—Fu Chen.
As if by a silent thunderclap, Shen Zhuo’s pupils suddenly dilated.
His pupils turned dark and cold, and Bai Sheng distinctly felt the slender shoulder under his palm tense up. After a moment, Shen Zhuo slowly turned around, and the Fu Chen from three years ago stood at the door of the ward, crossing through life, death, and time to appear before everyone.
The room fell into dead silence, and everyone was stunned.
Bai Sheng frowned and pressed Shen Zhuo’s shoulder, whispering reassurance and a reminder in his ear, “Inspector Shen.”
Three years ago, Fu Chen had his back to the daylight outside the door, but his exceptionally handsome features were still evident. It was the kind of appearance that would attract a lot of attention on campus, and he wore a metal collar with an S-shaped mark on his neck.
“Not interested,” he said with his arms crossed, glancing at the hospital bed for a moment, then shifting his gaze away. “Let’s go, Su Jiqiao. I made an appointment with Shen Zhuo at the airport at nine tonight. If we’re late, he’ll be waiting.”
A slender figure emerged from behind Fu Chen, surprisingly a beautiful young man. His voice was soft and pleasant, and as if just realizing something, he apologized with a soft “Oh”:
“What should we do, Fu-ge? If Senior Shen finds out that the two of us came out alone, he won’t be mad at you, right?”
The author has something to say:
Hawking didn’t mean that, ahhhhhh.
The one burned to ashes on the hospital bed is Rong; it’s not that complicated, just an infinite regeneration ability starting from residual cells.
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