The white slipper—no, the white pickup truck—sped down Fenglin Street at fifty kilometers per hour, following the little green dot on the map. The kid deliberately stuck to narrow side streets and alleys and moved so fast that Shang Lu could only see his location on the tracker; he still hadn’t caught sight of Fang Huan Xing himself.
In the rearview mirror, two black SUVs followed close behind, drawing nearer and nearer.
In the middle of all this, Shang Lu found time to ask the DAIC AI assistant on his watch, “Diva, translate this sentence for me. Сколько вас пришло?” Diva responded instantly in a young female voice. “Russian detected. ‘How many of you came?’” Shang Lu memorized the gist of it, though his pronunciation could only generously be called passable. “Мы уже окружили это место.” Diva translated, “‘We’ve already surrounded this place.’”
Just as he’d suspected.
The kid had simply ditched him and run.
“Little bastard,” Shang Lu cursed.
Diva said regretfully, “It appears you require backup. Would you like me to connect you to the Dispatch Center? Friendly reminder: according to current availability, only Investigation Action Group Three is free. If I remember correctly, you and their team leader have had some minor disagreements.”
Of course she had to bring up the one thing he didn’t want to hear.
Shang Lu switched off the AI with a sharp click.
Then he stomped the accelerator all the way down.
The two SUVs had clearly been modified. Their acceleration was so fast that, in almost the blink of an eye, one slammed into the bed of the pickup.
The poor pickup was already giving it everything it had. No wonder the kid had looked down on it and refused to keep the keys even after stealing them.
When they reached an intersection, Shang Lu quickly turned onto another road, but the two SUVs did not follow him.
Shang Lu reacted immediately. He wrenched the steering wheel around, sent the pickup through a clean drift to reverse direction, and chased after the SUVs instead. The little green dot on the map was blinking behind a building on the other side, while the two SUVs were closing in on it from different directions in a pincer movement.
BANG!!!
The white pickup slammed heavily into one of the SUVs, trying to force it to stop. Several commuters farther down the road screamed and ran, while the other vehicles on the street hurriedly swerved away.
Bang-bang-bang—!
Bullets poured toward him from up ahead, and the pickup’s windshield instantly turned into a spiderweb of cracks.
Shang Lu ducked low. The pickup hurtled down the road in an S-shaped weave, bearing straight toward pedestrians at the street corner.
AAAAAAH!
At the last possible second, Shang Lu leaned out and fired twice, then quickly straightened the steering wheel. The front of the pickup barely skimmed past the screaming pedestrians.
One bullet struck the SUV’s tire. The other hit the driver squarely in the temple. His precision was almost computer-like.
The modified black SUV overturned in an instant and crashed into a building with a tremendous boom.
Shang Lu multitasked effortlessly. Pulling his gaze away from the rearview mirror, he called the police. “Emergency on the stretch between Fenglin Street and Quping Second Street. The suspects are driving black SUVs without license plates and are armed. We need the road closed and immediate backup!”
Out of the corner of his eye, he spotted Fang Huan Xing sprinting through an alley with his blue backpack bouncing behind him.
Shang Lu hung up and shouted, “Kid—!”
Fang Huan Xing ignored him completely. He climbed onto a trash bin with practiced ease and vaulted over the wall.
Apparently, he was committed to distrusting Shang Lu to the bitter end.
A shrill screech of brakes sounded. The other SUV had stopped abruptly, and three heavily armed men jumped out, spraying bullets at the pickup as they ran toward the wall in pursuit.
Shang Lu glanced at the map and floored the accelerator toward the green dot.
The roads were slick from the rain, and the overcast surroundings looked as though someone had turned down the brightness, making everything hard to see clearly. The pickup tore past building after building as Fang Huan Xing’s running figure appeared and vanished between them.
Shang Lu had never seen anyone run that fast.
Behind the pickup, the black SUV caught up again.
The enemy had plenty of firepower. The pickup’s side mirror exploded, and several times Shang Lu felt bullets whistle past his ear.
They had clearly split their manpower and were determined to eliminate him, the moving obstacle in their way.
Finally, they copied his earlier tactic.
Several bangs rang out as bullets struck the pickup’s rear tire. The vehicle shook violently, but Shang Lu steadied the wheel and forced it onward.
The poor wheel rim scraped against the road, throwing sparks and shrieking as the pickup slowed further and further.
The SUV accelerated to catch up—exactly what Shang Lu wanted.
He cranked the wheel all the way left. The pickup suddenly swung sideways, and before the SUV could react, the two vehicles smashed into each other.
BANG—!
Elsewhere, Fang Huan Xing grabbed a railing and vaulted over it. He knew the area well, and with Shang Lu delaying his pursuers, he had finally gained a little breathing room.
Hearing the tremendous crash and people shouting, he spared one second to look back.
The white pickup had shot off the road, plowed through the landscaped strip, and crashed into a row of roadside shops that had not yet opened for business. The entire front end had caved in. The hood had burst open, thick smoke pouring out as flames licked up from beneath the vehicle.
That guy from the Anomalous Case Department was dead.
Fang Huan Xing reached his conclusion.
Without any change in expression, he jumped down from the railing and concentrated on calculating his next escape route.
The road on the left led to a small plaza, and police sirens could already be faintly heard from that direction.
Can’t go that way.
A sudden rush of air came from behind him. His body reacted faster than his mind, and he bent sharply at the waist, barely dodging the attack.
Before he could even see the attacker’s face clearly, agony tore through his body and he collapsed, convulsing.
The road was muddy, and rain soaked the teenager’s hair and plaid pajama pants. Mud mixed with moss smeared across his pale cheek, while his flesh trembled under the electric current. Even after losing the ability to move, he stubbornly tried to lift his reddened eyelids and keep struggling.
The attacker stood nearly two meters tall, a blond white man built like a bear, holding a Taser.
Fang Huan Xing’s gaze grew unfocused and his eyelids gradually fell shut. His body curled involuntarily from the pain, leaving him on the verge of being completely at the man’s mercy.
“You can’t get away, Nova.”
With that, the blond man bent down, intending to haul him up and carry him away.
Unfortunately for him, the moment he caught both of the teenager’s wrists, Fang Huan Xing’s eyes suddenly snapped open.
The next second, a tree branch that seemed to come from nowhere drove straight into the man’s eye.
AAAAAAH!!!
Blood sprayed as the man let out a horrific scream and staggered violently backward.
Fang Huan Xing forced himself upright with all his strength. His back trembled uncontrollably as he knelt on one knee, but his eyes were vicious and perfectly clear. Muddy water ran down his narrow jaw and dripped onto the back of the hand supporting him.
All ten fingers on those two hands were long and slender. Looking closely, however, every finger pointed in the same direction.
They were two left hands.
And his right hand was unmistakably still pressed over his abdomen.
The teenager had two left hands. Both were equally dazzlingly pale, with the same raised blue veins across the backs. They rested side by side against the ground, grotesque and unnerving beyond description.
Slowly, the two hands seemed to draw toward each other like overlapping afterimages. They vibrated at a frequency too fast for the naked eye to follow, gradually merging into one.
The man continued howling in agony as blood and damaged tissue from his eye streamed through his fingers. He was already badly weakened, and Fang Huan Xing should have taken the opportunity to finish him off and eliminate the threat for good. But more pursuers were arriving, so Fang Huan Xing decisively abandoned the fight and staggered away.
Traffic flowed steadily along the main road, and the teenager’s sudden arrival threw the lanes into chaos.
Rain blurred the street. Lights flashed everywhere, while written information assaulted his eyes from every direction.
[Route 13: Minyuan — Tianjiao Street]
[Xinxin Flower Shop: Grand Openings, Weddings, Balloon Parties]
[DONG A3768F]
[DONG G32X11]
[Time-Honored Knife-Cut Noodles — Traditional Flavor]
[← Quping Second Street | Fenglin Street →]
[Red-Light Countdown: 10 seconds, 9 seconds, 8 seconds]
…
Word by word and sentence by sentence, the information forced its way into Fang Huan Xing’s vision and brain. At the worst possible moment, his mind began reading it all against his will.
Police sirens rose from every direction. Before he could be surrounded, Fang Huan Xing made his decision.
He pushed through the crowd and ran with all his strength toward a closed construction site ahead.
No one saw the strands of rain above the construction site shift out of alignment for a single instant.
The street had descended into chaos, and the police had begun closing roads. On what should have been an ordinary morning, the little city of Xueping had been thrown completely into disorder.
“Anomalous Case Department. Shang Lu.”
Filthy and disheveled, Shang Lu produced his identification and explained who he was. Only then did he finally manage to extricate himself from the situation.
Nearby, the pickup was still burning fiercely beside the completely totaled SUV. In the driver’s seat of the SUV, a bullet hole pierced the center of the man’s brow. His disbelieving expression had frozen on his face, and his finger was still curled around the trigger he had never gotten the chance to pull.
At the last possible moment, Shang Lu had rolled out of the pickup and killed him with a single shot. If the landscaped strip had not cushioned the impact, Shang Lu himself would have been seriously injured even if he survived. He certainly would not have gotten away with only a handful of scrapes.
Only after confirming there were no other armed attackers nearby did Shang Lu put his gun away and quickly explain the situation to the arriving police.
“Two armed suspects are still at large. One fled toward Quping Second Street, the other toward Xiling Building. There are weapons inside the SUV. Secure the scene and get the fire under control as quickly as possible.”
After speaking, Shang Lu looked toward the fenced construction site nearby. He had personally seen the kid run inside. “What is that place?”
The officer hurriedly answered, “A hotel. It’s called Xianlu Hotel. They’ve been renovating it recently.”
“Construction stopped?” Shang Lu asked. “I don’t see anyone inside.”
“Yes.” The officer seemed to notice how sharp Shang Lu’s observations were. “Two workers went missing, and a few days ago another worker jumped from the building and died.”
Shang Lu’s expression tightened.
It was the officer’s first time dealing with someone from the Anomalous Case Department, and he had almost put Shang Lu in handcuffs earlier, so he was a little nervous. “Team Leader Shang, don’t worry. We’ve already sealed off the surrounding roads. We’ll send people in to make the arrest immediately. The suspect inside won’t get away!”
“No need,” Shang Lu said. “The person who ran in isn’t a criminal. I’ll go in myself. Please keep watch over the hotel exits and don’t let anyone leave.”
The officer quickly nodded.
Shang Lu stripped off his jacket, which had been torn beyond saving, took a few steps, then came back. “By the way, could I borrow your handcuffs?”
The confused officer handed them over.
Didn’t he just say the person inside wasn’t a suspect?
Shang Lu had already lost several minutes. He walked briskly toward the construction site while taking out his phone to confirm Fang Huan Xing’s position. On the screen, the little green dot in the tracking app was still inside the construction site, moving very slowly.
With the police there, the immediate danger had temporarily passed. Shang Lu could more or less guess why Fang Huan Xing still wanted to hide, but he could not understand why the kid had chosen to run into this construction site.
Then again, Fang Huan Xing’s behavioral patterns were different from most people’s to begin with, so his intentions were difficult to predict.
A conspicuous red sign had been pasted across the corrugated metal fencing around the site:
[WORK SUSPENDED PENDING CORRECTIVE ACTION — NO ENTRY]
One lower corner of the fencing had been bent upward, with a fresh handprint left behind.
Shang Lu crawled in through the same opening.
Construction materials were scattered everywhere inside. In front of the hotel lobby stood a fountain that had been shut off, with several large characters rising from the empty pool:
XIANLU HOT SPRING HOTEL
The hotel doors stood wide open. Several scaffolds seven or eight meters high filled the lofty lobby. Only about a third of the old wall panels had been removed, the front desk was completely wrapped in dust covers, and footprints crisscrossed the dust-coated floor.
The moment Shang Lu entered, he sensed something was wrong.
His unusually precise instinct for anomalous conditions told him immediately that the construction had not stopped for anything as simple as the officer had suggested.
He raised his wrist. “Diva, search Xianlu Hot Spring Hotel, Xueping County.”
Diva answered, “Xianlu Hot Spring Hotel in Xueping County began renovations two months ago and was completely shut down and sealed off one week ago. According to those who reported the incidents, the location is haunted. People frequently encounter a ‘ghost wall,’ becoming disoriented and trapped walking in circles. Since construction began, two people have disappeared and one person has died by suicide. Extremely strange and terrifying.”
Elio’s Notes: “Ghost wall” (gui da qiang) is a Chinese folk expression for mysteriously becoming disoriented and repeatedly circling the same area, traditionally attributed to supernatural interference.
Diva supplied her own eerie sound effect for the latter half.
Shang Lu ignored the completely unnecessary attempt at humor. “Was the case transferred to the Anomalous Case Department?”
“I found no relevant record,” Diva replied. “Are you planning to take this case too? Reminder: you still have four unresolved cases, and one of your team members is that useless intern who gives you headaches. I suggest you avoid biting off more than you can chew. Think about how long it’s been since you last slept.”
Just then, a wet, sticky chewing sound suddenly came from somewhere inside the silent lobby.
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