Chapter 3: CH 3

“Hello, student. According to our investigation you have a connection with the murder case in the financial district two days ago. Please come with us.”

The police officer in charge spoke in a cold, hard voice, and his eyes were as sharp as a falcon’s. He stared closely at Zong Yan’s face, not letting any hint of expression escape his notice.

Two days ago. The financial center. It all pointed to the same incident.

Zong Yan thought he’d taken enough steps to conceal himself. He didn’t expect to be caught the first time. It was really kind of embarrassing.

Although he had some powers ordinary people didn’t have, Zong Yan considered himself to be pretty low-key. If it hadn’t been for the star vampire, a genuine threat to human life, Zong Yan never would have dared to openly fly in a rainstorm, which could expose his abilities at a glance.

He had nothing to do with the corpse drained by the star vampire. On the contrary, he’d upheld justice, performed good deeds, and accumulated virtue. He busted his chops to cut down that creature with his wind knife, eliminating a menace to the public. And because of that, he’d also missed the exam.

It had to be said that Zong Yan was an innocent person facing false charges.

But if you weren’t guilty of anything, you wouldn’t be afraid of ghosts knocking at your door.

“Okay.”

He nodded quietly and didn’t make a move, cooperating with the police.

Although he looked calm on the surface, Zong Yan’s heart was in turmoil.

He was just a poverty-stricken student. He studied hard until 3:00 AM and made progress every day. Although he didn’t have any parents, he’d grown up with his grandma. The only difference between him and other people was that he possessed superpowers.

But the heavens could see the conscience of everyone under the sun. Zong Yan had never done a single bad thing with his abilities.

If he had done something bad, he wouldn’t be so poor.

“Take him away.”

When the police captain saw Zong Yan’s cooperation, his expression relaxed a little. He waved his hand and the officers in back surrounded Zong Yan in a cross shape. Each one looked alert and on guard. It seemed that if Zong Yan pulled any sudden moves in the middle of all these people, they’d immediately pull out their guns or just come in for a chokehold.

The whole thing was utterly weird.

Zong Yan’s thoughts were a mess.

He still hadn’t figured out how he was exposed. Obviously he’d detected every camera and shielded himself with an electromagnetic pulse in the elevator. There was really no reason to be caught like this.

What’s more, the degree of severity was shady as hell. Why the need for such a big show of force against a student? Generally speaking, if a minor was suspected of a crime, weren’t they supposed to protect his privacy?

Zong Yan began to speculate and made a frightening guess.

—Maybe they’d known for a long time that this seemingly ordinary second-year student had unusual abilities.

In any case, he was all set to go.

“Mr. Officer, could there be some kind of misunderstanding?”

When the police took Zong Yan into custody and were preparing to walk out of the room in full view of the class, the physics teacher suddenly came over, trembling, and broke the silence.

“This is my student. I know his character and temperament. I guarantee on my life, there’s no way he would ever have something to do with a murder.“

Zong Yan’s head jerked up. There was a complicated light in his eyes.

The physics teacher of Qingyang Senior High year two was a balding old man surnamed Liu. The students called him Grandpa Liu to his face and “old devil” behind his back.

The nickname was born because of his unparalleled academic rigor, and also because he carried a ruler with him. Students who didn’t listen would be called up in front of the classroom and really get their knuckles rapped. It was said that this was the old man’s practice going back decades. Doctoral students who graduated from Qingyang High School and came back to visit their alma mater said that the reason they’d learned physics so well was because of the pain of having their hands slapped at the beginning.

The old devil had previously been a front-line teacher who only taught graduating seniors. He couldn’t count how many top students he’d groomed for the college entrance exam, and he was utterly famous in Jiangzhou. Two years ago, he’d retired to enjoy his sunset years, but later the school leaders with immense respect invited him back to teach.

But when he returned, he said that his body wasn’t as strong as it used to be. Coaching seniors year after year took too much of a toll on his health, so he applied to follow the same group of students for all three years starting from senior one. He just didn’t expect to meet such an unenlightened blockhead as Zong Yan when he came back. He was lucky the rage didn’t give him high blood pressure.

Most days, Zong Yan’s relationship with the old devil bristled with tension. After all, he was a repeat problem student who never changed his ways. Although he didn’t go so far as to blatantly contradict the teacher in class, when the old devil told him to stay late, it went in one ear and out the other. Zong Yan was still the first to leave when class was over.

Zong Yan had always been at odds with the old teacher. He never thought the man would speak up for him at a time like this.

“Also, this arrest obviously isn’t following the normal judicial process. Zong Yan is our classmate. His character’s obvious to everyone. We can all vouch for him.”

A clear, crisp voice came from the first row.

Zong Yan looked back and met the eyes of a black-haired girl. She froze for a moment, then bit her lower lip and somewhat awkwardly averted her eyes.

Zong Yan was stunned, too. Without changing expression he looked away.

He really didn’t take much notice of his classmates, but he knew this girl.

Xia KeYan.

The school flower of Qingyang High School, she had good looks, good grades, beautiful calligraphy, and played the violin. She was versatile and talented.

Not to mention that she came from a famous family of scholars in Jiangzhou. It was said that the principal of Qingyang High School was a family friend. Every school commencement ceremony, the principal personally awarded her a prize.

Although Zong Yan didn’t pay much attention to things like that, the old devil couldn’t resist comparing them all the time. After enough repetition, he remembered her name.

But Zong Yan clearly recalled that he’d never said a word to this girl. He didn’t expect her to come forward now, standing up to injustice.

She must feel camaraderie for a fellow Chinese student.

“Me too. We’re all classmates…”

“I can also promise…”

“Me too….”

After Xia KeYan spoke up, most of the students in the classroom followed suit.

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For most of them, don’t mention their names, Zong Yan didn’t even recognize their faces.

But now each of these unfamiliar students, whom he barely knew, were gazing at the police officers with sincere eyes, speaking up for a classmate they didn’t know that well.

Zong Yan suddenly wondered if his usual anonymous bystander-like personality wasn’t as bad as he thought.

“Please excuse us.”

The police captain frowned. “It’s true this isn’t standard procedure. I regret that I’m unable to explain it further. However, I will tell you that we only need this classmate’s cooperation to record a statement. This isn’t a direct arrest of a suspect. Please don’t worry. We won’t wrong any good person.”

Now that the police had said this, it was difficult for them to say anything more. They could only watch as the troop of people took Zong Yan out of the classroom.

When he got to the door, Zong Yan stopped in his tracks and turned around. The police on both sides immediately put their hands on their guns, watching him warily.

“Thanks, everyone.”

The black-haired teenager in the faded school uniform simply nodded towards the classroom, bowed briefly to the physics teacher, then turned and left without hesitation.

“Holy sh*t, Ye Ge. That kid’s really out of luck this time…”

The little follower craned his head to peek out of the window as the police escorted Zong Yan down the long hallway. Each classroom along the corridor was shocked by the show of force. One after another, students stared in disbelief.

“What in the world was that? What a show. If I didn’t know better I’d think they were shooting a movie.”

Ye JingMing was a little pale, but the scene where Xia KeYan had spoken up for Zong Yan was a bit too eye-piercing for him to endure, so he reflexively sneered, “Sixteen is old enough to be criminally responsible. He knows what he’s done.”

He didn’t lower his voice, so even the students in the back row heard him clearly. The class leader frowned. “Ye JingMing, pay attention to what you say. We’re all classmates. How can you slander someone for no reason?”

“I didn’t—”

Ye JingMing saw Xia Keyan had also turned away, and the expression on her face wasn’t good. His heart immediately thudded.

He was about to say a few words in his own defense, but his voice was drowned out by a sudden roar.

What was that?!

The noise was so loud it shook the windows of the entire classroom. The teacher’s impassioned lecture was nearly inaudible in an instant.

When they looked outside, they saw a dark helicopter suddenly fly over the grounds of Qingyang High School. The huge rotor rumbled and roared in the air and swirled patterns into the neat fake turf of the football field. Gale force winds gusted below.

The helicopter was black, and a golden dragon with open teeth and claws was painted on its body. The smooth lines and dark projections below the small wings on its sides indicated that this wasn’t an ordinary civilian helicopter but an actual military helicopter.

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Many of the physics teachers in Qingyang High School were military enthusiasts. They immediately recognized this was the most recent WZ series. They were red-faced with excitement and ran down the hallway to take photos.

The sudden arrival of a helicopter made everyone a little confused.

The police officers who escorted Zong Yan to the side of the playing field had clearly expected this. Their faces were serious, but their eyes revealed a faint bit of excitement.

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Clunk—

The helicopter’s door sliced open. The man who jumped down wore a solid black military uniform outlined with pale silver thread. On his chest was the same dragon emblem with teeth and claws, and his trousers were neatly tucked into brightly polished military boots.

“Dragon Group Special Operations Unit, pleasure to meet you.”

The uniformed man nodded to the police captain and showed his ID. “According to my orders, this person’s statement and the follow-up investigation will be transferred to us for processing.”

“I’ve heard a lot about you.” The captain took a deep breath. His furrowed face wore a serious, even reverent expression.

Everyone within the establishment had heard of the “Dragon Group”.

In fact, their fame went far beyond that.

Internationally they were as well-known as the U.S. Navy SEALs, the 22 Special Air Service regiment of the United Kingdom, and the GSG9 der Bundespolizei of Germany. They were also one of the pivotal forces guarding the great land of China. Although they were relatively low-profile in their home country, in the eyes of military buffs they were the patron saints who guarded the nation.

Every year, countless young people joined the army. Many dreamed of someday passing the Dragon Group’s youth pre-training selection and becoming a member of their reserve.

But this wasn’t the most important thing. What was most important was that everyone knew that each member of the Dragon Group wasn’t an ordinary person.

“Not an ordinary person” was an ambiguous term. Although everyone knew there were no ordinary people in the Dragon Group, exactly what aspect wasn’t ordinary had never been officially defined.

The police captain had retired from the front line of the army to the reserves. He knew more about the Dragon Group than most.

There was a one in a million chance a person would have something that others did not. These extraordinary talents were called Awakened Ones.

The threshold to join the Dragon Group Special Operations Unit was to be Awakened.

The captain had developed some vague conjectures in view of the autopsy results, so he’d specially transferred additional personnel and applied to go beyond the judicial process. Now that the truth was confirmed, he still couldn’t help but take a deep breath.

Since the Dragon Group was involved, the nature of the incident was unmistakable.

This teenage boy who was still in school, the sheriff surmised, was no ordinary person either.

There was a high probability he was an “Awakened”.

—

A while later, class ended with a flurry of activity, and the hallway was crowded with a dark mass of students.

All the students who heard the news came to have a look. After all, Zong Yan was pretty famous in the school. To this day there were popular photos of him on the school forum.

School was like a pool of stagnant water. As long as there was anything to stir things up, the ripples would spread everywhere.

Meanwhile, the talks between the two sides went smoothly.

According to the rules, the Dragon Group could intervene in any case, especially when they found an unregistered “Awakened” person, and they could intercede without any conditions whatsoever.

“Don’t worry. Although this incident is related to the Awakened, it’s not something a student could do.”

Since the person in charge of the Dragon Group said so, the police captain felt relieved.

There were certain things the Dragon Group wouldn’t reveal too much about, just like the incident this time. But cases involving the Awakened were few and far between, and the Dragon Group didn’t have time to immediately rush over, so the police captain followed orders and didn’t ask many questions.

He was well aware that if this student was Awakened, the matter could no longer be handled by ordinary public security institutions.

So the two sides exchanged pleasantries for a few moments on the playground of Qingyang High School. After they saluted each other, the police officers negotiated with the principal who arrived to ask questions, and then they left the school.

Zong Yan was successfully handed over to a mysterious organization called the “Dragon Group Special Operations Unit”. Neither the police nor the school authorities made any objections.

Anyway, the three sides all decided to go their own way. None of them had any intention of asking the opinion of Zong Yan, the person concerned, as if he’d been convicted with a rubber stamp.

Although Zong Yan had never heard of the Dragon Group Special Operations Unit, he still knew what special operations were.

Deploying special forces? That was outrageous!

“I just need to make a statement, right?”

Zong Yan didn’t wait for the members of the Dragon Group to speak. “If you don’t have any solid evidence to prove I’m a suspect, that’s all I have to do. I have civil rights.”

“Ah, yes.”

The leader of the Dragon Group was obviously stunned for a moment. He immediately revealed a smile and extended his hand.

“Don’t be so guarded, little brother. Here, my name’s He Yuan. Let’s be friends.”

Zong Yan: …

He stared at the other person’s hand, which was clad in a half-fingered combat glove. The inside of the thumb was covered with thick calluses, which were marks left by routine use of some kind of weapon.

“That wasn’t the only reason we invited you.”

He Yuan was very sensitive to the complete disbelief on the teen’s face, so he hurriedly explained, “You can rest assured that our Dragon Group is by no means an unofficial organization. Even if we stood here for a long time it would be hard to explain, so—let’s get on the chopper first, then we can take our time to explain.”

Zong Yan was thinking that it sure didn’t look like they just wanted a friendly chat when they made a huge scene and were being all fierce and evil ah.

But when you were under someone else’s roof, you had to bow your head. So he looked at He Yuan without speaking, made a “please” gesture, and took the lead to climb into the helicopter.

Helicopter gunships were fighter aircraft designed for combat, used for anti-tank and air-to-air missiles to suppress enemy firepower by creating air control points on the battlefield. They could be transformed into mobile air batteries anytime and anywhere.

Such air fighters made the best use of every inch of room, and helicopters were known for their lightness, so the space left for the crew was greatly reduced. Aside from the pilot, the aircraft could only accommodate four or five people.

There were miscellaneous items stacked at the tail end inside. If you looked closer, you’d find there were all kinds of guns, and there was even a half-assembled sniper rifle. The weapons were left there like cabbage sold on the street, casual as anything.

In the cabin, in addition to the pilot, there was a man wearing sunglasses in the co-pilot seat.

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His military uniform was exactly the same as He Yuan’s, but the rank on his shoulder was clearly more senior.

Zong Yan quietly withdrew his gaze. He lowered his head and sat in the farthest corner in silence.

“Boss, we’re here.”

He Yuan pulled the door of the helicopter closed behind him, and the light in the cabin suddenly dimmed.

“Let’s go.”

The man in sunglasses gave a slight nod, lifted his eyes from his tablet, and the helicopter’s main rotor began to spin again, taking off rapidly from the playing field and skimming away into the distance.

TL Notes:

busted his chops – 九牛二虎之力 – the strength of nine bulls and two tigers – tremendous effort; an immense amount of energy; all one’s might; all one’s strength

WZ – 武直 – WuZhi – a medium attack helicopter. The WZ-10 was introduced in 2012

patron saint – 守护神 – Alternatively: guardian angel

Glossary of world terms—new in this chapter:

Awakened – 觉醒者 – Alternatively: Awakened Ones, Awakeners

Transliterated names, titles, and places—new in this chapter:

He Yuan – 贺远 – Hè Yuǎn

little brother – 小兄弟 – xiǎo xiōngdì

boss – 老大 – lǎodà

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