Chapter 44: 44

Chapter 44: A Murderer

[Weak.] The phone answered like this.

Yin Ren silently exited the interface and quickly checked the modern definition of “weak”. He looked left and right, but he didn’t see any brand new meaning that he didn’t know of.

Lord Ghost King pondered on it for a while.

[Then, according to your definition, what about yourself?]

[A stronger, weaker person.] It answered immediately. The words disappeared quickly, as if it feared Yin Ren would see them clearly.

Yin Ren: “……”

Yin Ren: [Then what about Zhong Chengshuo? You know who that is, right?]

Phone: [The weakest at the bottom.]

[How do you classify this?]

[Feeling.] The speed of the phone’s words became slow, as if it were holding a guilty conscience.

Yin Ren was speechless. In just a few days, his evaluation plummeted from “Dragon of Destruction” to “weak”, while Zhong Chengshuo’s was even more outrageous; directly changing from “Death” to “weakest at the bottom”. Despite being an Evil Spirit, he received a world of difference in definition.

Whether Dog Thing was reliable or not, this feeling was familiar. Yin Ren was reminded of a third-rate app that only had junk features after paying for it.

The power of the Evil Spirit qi had been paid, so he could only gather his last patience.

Yin Ren: [Why are you in Shian?]

Phone: [There’s an “Evil Spirit” underground, and I want power.]

[How are you going to come into contact with Shian’s Evil Spirit?]

[I don’t know.] The battery of the phone was slowly falling.

[Do you want enough strength to go home? How are you going to go home?]

[I don’t know.]

Yin Ren slammed the phone on the sofa. No wonder this thing fell into the pile of debris at Shian’s warehouse. With its worthless IQ, it was truly suitable for staying there.

The 1,000-year-old Evil Spirit was brutally deceived by telecommunications fraud, and his Evil Spirit qi account suffered. Yin Ren pounded his chest and stamped his feet for a while, then picked up the phone wearily.

[Alright, Dog Thing.]

[Siren.] The phone reminded him.

[A name referring to a dead person is too unlucky, but Dog Thing is quite good. Starting today, you’ll be Dog Thing.] Yin Ren declared solemnly.

[Siren.] The phone’s power quickly dropped to 1%.

Yin Ren ignored it. He switched to the latest episode of his drama on the tablet, opened the app store, and started to search for anti-fraud apps for the elderly.

……

Compared with some time ago, the work this week was surprisingly light.

Ge Tingting hadn’t joined yet, and there were no weird cases around him. The “good treatment” that Fang Yuanyuan spoke of finally began to take shape.

For example, today, Yin Ren and Zhong Chengshuo visited Feng Qi in the morning and then attended class until 3:00. The rest of the time, they were free to do as they pleased—whether they studied on their own or simply slacked off, Shian wouldn’t interfere.

Feng Qi lived in the Shian dorm area, so the two didn’t even need to leave the campus.

Someone from Shian came forward to help the boy complete the inheritance-related procedures, and at the same time he also transferred schools. During compulsory education, Feng Qi would study in a “special school” within Shian.

As for the arrangements after graduation, that depended on the boy’s grades—even if he had the ability of a Black Seal, Feng Qi could choose to receive education in the direction of science. Shian also had ordinary external departments, so he didn’t have to embark on that dangerous path.

But right now, Feng Qi didn’t need to think so far ahead.

His dorm was in the underage area—male division—and he was assigned a roommate with a mild temperament. When the two entered the door, the boy was lying in bed staring at his tablet with his legs swaying from side to side.

Feng Qi was wearing large headphones while he was clicking his stylus on the tablet. His expression was very focused as he would write something on the tablet from time to time. The black dragon doll was holding the game console that was placed next to his pillow.

“Little adventurer, we’re here to see you.” Yin Ren smiled brightly.

“The brother who gave me the dragon!” Feng Qi took off his headphones and bent his eyes with a smile. “And the brother who gave me an apple!”

“What are you doing so seriously?”

“Ah, it’s to consolidate my abilities.” Feng Qi wiped his nose, with a little hidden pride in his expression. “After I came back from the different world, I still retained a little superpower—I can understand what others can’t, and everyone says this ability is very powerful.”

Yin Ren wasn’t surprised.

That night, he removed most of Feng Qi’s evil qi, and “the ability that shouldn’t belong to the boy” disappeared. However, Feng Qi could withstand the corruption of the evil qi, which meant he himself was indeed talented.

Yin Ren had carefully read the reports from Unit 7. When talking to “Ibby”—that was, Feng Qi himself—Feng Qi could still express himself in normal language.

Now that there was no cognitive pollution of the “different world”, it wasn’t strange that he could interpret normal language and the ravings of the unknown at the same time.

Yin Ren glanced at Feng Qi’s tablet. For some reason, the child chose the color of blood red, and the tablet screen was filled with “Mom, Mom, I’m so scared”, “Help, help”, “I’m scared. I’m scared…”

Coupled with the little boy’s smiling face and the bright sunshine, the visual impact was quite amazing.

“…What are you using to strengthen your ability?” Yin Ren’s smile froze for a moment.

Feng Qi blinked. “The recordings that were sent to me? I’m responsible for interpreting them. They say I can help a lot of people.”

Yin Ren took two steps back and whispered to Zhong Chengshuo, “Zhong Ge, is Shian eliciting child labor?”

After getting Shian’s legal textbook, he first read “Labor Laws” intensively.

Zhong Chengshuo: “……”

Zhong Chengshuo: “…Didn’t you read today’s report at all?”

“I have read the table of contents.” Yin Ren spoke confidently.

Zhong Chengshuo speechlessly pushed up his glasses. Wasn’t it a bit too outrageous that he could be cursed by this kind of person without any traces?

Perhaps he should consider other possibilities, such as a problem with his own health.

“There’s a detailed list in the file. Considering personal privacy, the people in those recordings are all death row prisoners. Except for one of them, the rest have been executed,” Zhong Chengshuo explained.

“It’s really more of a competency exam than a collection of information.”

“Except for who?”

“Guo Laifu, a wanted serial killer. He has five lives on his hands. He fled to Haigu a while ago and was arrested on the day we met.” Zhong Chengshuo stepped back to the door, trying to lower his voice. “It’s said that this person is completely insane and is still undergoing treatment. The other death row prisoners only showed symptoms of madness, but they had no mental problems.”

“Guo Laifu is also a death row prisoner?” Yin Ren murmured, “But he’s still being treated specially?”

“Yes, according to regulations, he can only be executed after his sanity is restored.”

Yin Ren looked at the words written on the tablet again.

What Feng Qi interpreted were all short sentences, full of fear between the lines, without any exception. In a sense, this could be considered karma and retribution from the heavens.

He didn’t delve any deeper and accompanied Feng Qi to play with the black dragon doll for a while.

“Come on, little bud. These are all confidential documents. Maybe you can dig up a big case.” Before leaving, Yin Ren muttered mysteriously to Feng Qi.

Feng Qi’s eyes lit up. “Nn!”

……

After the afternoon class ended, Yin Ren stretched out lazily. With the warm sunlight basking on his body, if it weren’t for the conditions, he would have wanted to sink into the chair.

With Zhong Chengshuo taking notes like Superman, Yin Ren didn’t even need to seriously listen to the class. After a few classes, he received the ire of the teachers. However, the 1,000-year-old Evil Spirit had gained, aside from other things, extremely thick skin…

“Lend me your notes before the exam?” Yin Ren lay on the table as he turned his head lazily. “Zhong Ge, I’ll treat you after the exam.”

The corner of Zhong Chengshuo’s eyes twitched. Seeing this person half-rolled on the desk, a strange sense of loss of strength spontaneously emerged, and the curse on him seemed to dissipate a little.

“I’ll lend it to you.”

After entering Shian as “King Yama” from the Nightwalkers, Zhong Chengshuo hated that he even had to carefully control the number of breaths. Right now, he really couldn’t understand—an “evil being” had mixed into Shian just so he could be lazy at work and take naps in the classroom?

What exactly is this guy doing here?

“Zhong Ge, my hero!” Yin Ren’s spirit was refreshed, which he followed up with a loud yawn. “Let’s go to the refreshment bar and get some ice cream—”

Zhong Chengshuo: “I’m going to the library.”

Yin Ren: “Then let’s have ice cream together before going. I want to go too. I’ve never been to the library. Xiaohe Jie said the environment is good there.”

Zhong Chengshuo’s heart moved slightly. He could probably get a glimpse of a person’s personality based on the book that he borrowed. This was a good opportunity to test.

“Okay.” Zhong Chengshuo unprecedentedly agreed.

Shian’s library was indeed a good environment.

It was independent of the Shian building, had four floors, and looked more like an art museum on the outside.

The main tone of the interior of the library was original wood color and huge floor-to-ceiling windows that had a lush view. There was a faint smell of ink in the air, which was mixed with the smell of old paper, giving birth to a kind of strange magic that calmed people’s hearts.

The design of the stairs and reading area wasn’t rigid and had some arbitrariness, similar to that of an ancient garden.

Glass and wood vaguely surrounded the corridors that twist and turn thousands of times, but not so much that people would get lost. There were reading areas that were staggered and nestled in various places, like new shoots on a branch, giving a sense of space and privacy.

The pair split up and returned to their seats with books in their arms after a while.

The reading area they chose was located by a window with semi-open café-style seating. Ambient lights hung from the ceiling, giving off a soft glow. Outside the glass walls of floor-to-ceiling windows, there were leaves being blown by the wind, making a vague rustling sound.

The books Yin Ren borrowed were stacked by the window, and the title was dimly obscured by the shadow of the tree.

Zhong Chengshuo took note of the titles of those books one by one—this time, he selected a few ordinary history books and also picked up a biography of the founder of Shian. There were a few thin books interspersed among the pile of large books; most likely, these were read for leisure.

“The environment is really good,” Yin Ren commented.

There was a certain distance between each of the reading areas, so the sound insulation was superb. Although people would walk by from time to time, as long as they weren’t laughing or yelling, the sound wouldn’t spread too far.

At this moment, Yin Ren was still looking at the wide and atmospheric library. As he watched people come and go in the book forest as they talked in low voices, Yin Ren’s face faded from its usual ease, and his eyes showed some complication.

For a moment, Zhong Chengshuo had a peculiar feeling—the “thing” in front of him was picturesque, but there was a strange, old, and solemn aura around him. However, in the next second, the subtle aura disappeared.

What was Yin Ren thinking?

Unfortunately, Yin Ren didn’t bring up any topics. He just looked around silently for a moment, then returned to his book, being unusually quiet.

Yin Ren lowered his brows, and his long hair slid down his shoulders. Coupled with the heavy old books in his hand, the picture suddenly had a bit of a quaint feel.

This person is still hiding a lot of secrets. Zhong Chengshuo narrowed his eyes.

The heavy killing intent, the fleeting complex temperament. Forget if this person “remembered something”, it was hard to say if he even lost his memory in the first place.

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Seeing the posture of the other party wanting to read wholeheartedly, Zhong Chengshuo lowered his head and began to read his book seriously.

……

Ten minutes passed.

Zhong Chengshuo had sorted out the notes on the contents of the first five chapters and raised his head again. Yin Ren’s reading progress had just reached the main body of the page.

Yin Ren stared at his book blankly. His ochre-red eyes straightened, and he looked as if he were distracted. There was nothing left of that transcendent temperament just now. Looking at him, this person was more like a middle schooler who refused to work on his homework.

Zhong Chengshuo: “…Are you uncomfortable?”

“What? Oh… I was just lost in thought for a bit.” The drowsiness in Yin Ren’s voice was strong.

Zhong Chengshuo rubbed his forehead. “Don’t force it if you don’t want to read.”

“Make sense.” Yin Ren shook his head vigorously, trying to shake the sleepiness off his face. “At least I tried.”

In a dignified manner, he took out a thin book that was sandwiched between a larger book. It was a picture book called <How Can I Have Bad Thoughts?>.

Yin Ren used the other book as a cushion to prop up his chin and read it happily.

The man was pasted to the table as if he didn’t have a bone in his body. From time to time, he would smile at the pages, with “what to eat tonight” clearly written on his face, completely losing the previous perceived style.

Facing such a scene, Zhong Chengshuo’s mood became extremely complicated. In the end, he couldn’t hold back, and the corners of his mouth hitched.

Perhaps because he perceived a wrong breath, Yin Ren’s gaze instantly turned. “What are you smiling at?”

“I wasn’t. I just remembered something that happened while I was studying,” Zhong Chengshuo quickly came up with an excuse as his face stiffened. “There are many people like you in the school library.”

“Because some books are just hard to read,” Yin Ren muttered empathetically. “You’re not allowed to eat or drink, and you can’t even read something interesting. What a waste of such an environment.”

After he spoke, he seemed to suddenly think of something. “When you were studying, did you also have this kind of library there?”

“Nn, the library of A University is quite good.”

It was modest to say it was quite good. As a super-first-class university in China, the library of A University was just as good as Shian’s.

Yin Ren was speechless. “They all say that you can’t read books unless you borrow them, but this is too exaggerated… It turns out that you used to come to places like this a lot. No wonder you’re so skilled.”

He glanced at Zhong Chengshuo’s neat notes, then looked at the messy pile of books in front of him again with a slightly bitter expression.

“I like the library very much,” Zhong Chengshuo said honestly.

“I heard that your university has dorms, but my guess is you spend all your waking time here, right?”

“Pretty much,” Zhong Chengshuo replied solemnly. “Later, the dorm was closed, so I applied to move out of campus. After that, I went to the library less often.”

Yin Ren paused. “Ah, I have a little impression.”

His roommates set up a prostitution ring that was later busted because Zhong Chengshuo called the police. After that, naturally, the dorm would be closed down.

Yin Ren’s sympathetic gaze was too obvious. Zhong Chengshuo put down his book and added, “I don’t think there’s anything wrong with it. I live by myself. It’s a lot more convenient to watch movies and the like… At that time, I lived very close to the public library. Although it wasn’t as big as A’s, it wasn’t bad.”

To be honest, in addition to watching movies, it also made studying evil things a lot easier. Although he had to commute every day, Zhong Chengshuo was generally satisfied.

He took orders at home to investigate and run experimental projects when he incidentally killed evil beings. It could be said to be a very peaceful and beautiful time.

That was exactly seven years ago, when “King Yama” emerged.

Recalling this, Zhong Chengshuo had a bit of regret.

Had he known about this, he wouldn’t have used random letters as his name. The Nightwalkers had varying degrees of academic qualification, and they had all kinds of messy pronunciation. Over time, they took their own initiative and gave him the nickname “King Yama”, which made him stand out.

As soon as he recovered from being lost in his memories, Zhong Chengshuo saw Yin Ren’s smiling face.

Yin Ren propped his face to the side; his eyes were sly, and his brows and the corner of his mouth were rising higher.

“What are you smiling at?” Zhong Chengshuo asked cautiously.

“Nothing. This is the first time you have taken the initiative to talk about yourself. It’s quite refreshing.” Yin Ren leaned on the cushion with a smile. “Look, now that I know that you love to read books, when I give you a gift next time, I have other options.”

…This turned against him.

The information wasn’t spied on, but instead he gave it away due to his own volition. This time, the curse not only burned Zhong Chengshuo’s ears but also ignited the back of his neck.

Zhong Chengshuo hung his head, somewhat shriveled, and closed his mouth tightly as he continued to read his book. At least the books he chose were practical and safe and weren’t likely to reveal anything at all.

However, his ears remained hot, and he couldn’t concentrate well. Zhong Chengshuo tried to steady his heartbeat as he countered, “Then what do you like? Other than food.”

“Me?”

“Yes. You never talk about yourself.”

“I like everything you like.” Yin Ren avoided the heavy gaze and gave a deep nod, recalling Zhong Chengshuo’s large bookcase full of entertainment. “If I must say something, I like shopping. The livelier, the better.”

“But this is something that can’t be gifted.” Zhong Chengshuo compared his “hobby items” and “hobby activities” in his head.

“You want to give me something?”

“I don’t…” Zhong Chengshuo subconsciously wanted to refute but felt that something was off. “I don’t… plan to give it soon. I’m just asking.”

Yin Ren smiled. “How about you give me a gift on my birthday?”

Zhong Chengshuo was startled.

“Anyway, I don’t remember, but everyone has a birth date, so you can justifiably celebrate it—how about you gift me something without even spending a penny.”

“You can come up with it yourself.” Zhong Chengshuo averted his gaze and didn’t look at Yin Ren.

“Isn’t this thing the same thing as a name? It never feels right if you do it yourself.”

“Then July 15th.” Zhong Chengshuo stared at the edge of the table.

Yin Ren’s smile slowly froze. “Change it. That day has already passed.”

“Then why not just come up with the date yourself?”

“But I want to have my birthday this year—”

Zhong Chengshuo took a few deep breaths. He finally raised his head. This time, he looked directly into Yin Ren’s eyes. “Then the 29th of the lunar year. You can celebrate for two days along with New Year’s Eve.”

Provided if at that time you haven’t shown your fangs yet.

……

After work hours, Shian Building.

Fu Xingchuan looked at the latest observation report speechlessly.

Zhong Chengshuo and Yin Ren visited the Shian library today. Zhong Chengshuo read <Preventive Cardiology> all afternoon, while Yin Ren read books such as <How Can I Have Bad Thoughts?>, <Life is Fun>, and <A 100-Year-Old Life: Life and Work in the Age of Longevity>. The latter borrowed a lot of serious history books, but he didn’t seem to read them.

These two people… not only had unpredictable interests, but they were also inexplicably subtle, which made it hard to read them.

Fu Xingchuan suddenly felt very tired.

Fortunately, Haigu was calm at the moment, so he had time to take a breather. Even Professor Li spared some of his time to go to a university to give a serious lecture.

Minister Fu fell back on the sofa and picked up the travel magazine. He closed his eyes and began to imagine that he was in a prairie—

His phone vibrated. Director Zhou from the Municipal Public Security Bureau was calling him.

Fu Xingchuan picked up the phone in pain.

“Hello…?”

As he listened, Fu Xingchuan’s laziness disappeared. He frowned and sat upright on the sofa.

“Wait, Director Zhou, what do you think is going on?”

“Someone surrendered to the police this morning. This person claimed to have murdered seven people in the past six months and wanted to play a game of “finding the bodies” with the officials.” The other side repeated.

Fu Xingchuan: “……”

What’s wrong with criminals nowadays? Is it bad to just behave like peaceful human beings?

“He calls himself a ‘Nightwalker’ and specifies that you need to intervene. Our comrades have already launched an investigation. Xiao Fu, call your team over here. They don’t need to be too strong. Last time I heard, Xiao Sun said that Unit 9 is quite reliable.”

Unit 9 Class-C Special Investigation Group.

The official members were Lu Xiaohe, Yin Ren, Zhong Chengshuo, accompanied by a trainee, Ge Tingting.

Fu Xingchuan recalled for a moment the bizarre book list and laughed. “Okay, I’ll send Unit 9.”

……

Within the Municipal Public Security Bureau.

A young man was sitting in the interrogation room. His hands were handcuffed, but his legs were arrogantly crossed with a relaxed posture.

He was wearing a brightly colored, over-the-top t-shirt. He had a long face and thick brows accompanied by big eyes, but unfortunately, he was born with single eyelids. His dark eyes turned upward, looking extraordinarily mean.

The young man’s dyed head of yellow hair flowed briskly. Most likely he hadn’t taken care of it in a while, as the roots of his hair had grown black.

“If you can’t find the body, you can’t close the case, right?” He said it playfully, with a tone full of provocation. “If this wave is successful, I’ll definitely be comparable with ‘King Yama’.”

The policeman who was interrogating him obviously didn’t like his attitude. “What King Yama? Even if there’s nobody, the chain of evidence is complete enough. You can’t run away.”

The young man rolled his eyes and looked at him for a while.

“Well, to be honest.”

He clicked his tongue.

“Why don’t you guys look for them, huh? If you can find them, I’ll lose. If you can’t, I’ll just play around and open your eyes.”

“Seven people.” He said it with a frozen smile.

The author has something to say:

Laughing to death. A salted fish doesn’t have fangs√

Xiao Zhong: This person is neither good at work nor at studying. Why did he come to Shian?

Xiao Yin: The cafeteria.

——————

<Preventive Cardiology>, <How Can I have Bad Thoughts?>, <Life is Fun>, and <A 100-Year-Old Life: Life and Work in the Age of Longevity> are all real books, but they are not very well coded. In order to clarify the personalities of the characters, I simply wrote them directly.

So I’ll emphasize it again, overhead background*~

*It’s a term used referring to the setting the author creates in their novels that is completely different from history or reality. It borrows things from real history and reality but has nothing to do with reality (AKA the setting is purely fictional but takes stuff from real life).

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