Chapter 26: CH 26

After accidentally meeting Xiao Kexin’s stepmother at the subway station, Xiao Jinyu had been thinking about what the strange sense of discord he had felt from the young woman was.

He was sure now— 

No one would keep their head up while picking things up.

He didn’t realize this at the subway station because the stepmother had just bent down to pick things up and she had only bent down halfway before Xiao Jinyu took the initiative and helped her pick it up.

In other people’s eyes, it was just a woman who had her hands full of vegetables who was going to bend down to pick things up before suddenly standing up straight.

“She doesn’t want to bow her head.” 

Xiao Jinyu was very resolute in this idea.

Considering the angle Xiao Kexin’s stepmother had bent down at, she indeed could not bow her head then and look down when she bends down more. However, whether a person is going to bow their head or not, can be seen from the curvature of their chin, the amount of force on their neck, and the twisting of the shoulders.

—And Xiao Kexin’s stepmother, even if she bent down more to pick things up, would never bow her head. She even seems like she’s avoiding looking down.

This was the judgment given by Xiao Jinyu.

Eleven o’clock at night.

Xiao Jinyu took the last train and walked out of Changjie Station.

Qi Simin was already waiting at the entrance of Changmei Community for a while.

The capable and short-haired woman wore a light brown leather jacket, her expression cold, and her eyebrows wrinkled. Seeing Xiao Jinyu, she waved her hand. The two soon met up. 

Without saying a word, they both went directly to the guard booth at the entrance of the community.

The young police officer, Wu Yuan, wasn’t on the night shift today and the one guarding in the booth at night was the more experienced police officer, Lao Wang. Lao Wang had already received the task from the Institute and in the morning, several experts from the Children’s Crime Department went to Xiao Kexin’s home to see, yet they didn’t find any problems. But now, they found some abnormalities and planned to come to see again. Lao Wang was then arranged to bring the experts to their door.

“Two experts, this way.”

Lao Wang, dressed in a navy blue, cotton police uniform, took a baton and a flashlight from the guard booth. 

The three rushed into Changmei Community.

When Xiao Jinyu called to inform Qi Simin, he had already heard from her that after Li Xiaotong ate hotpot, he returned to his hometown. His hometown was in Haidu City. Now that it was late at night, the subway trains between the two cities have stopped and Li Xiaotong wouldn’t be able to return until tomorrow.

Even though it was only a reward of five thousand dollars, Qi Simin and Li Xiaotong didn’t slack off. They would definitely complete their tasks.

Li Xiaotong already bought tomorrow’s tickets and would arrive early tomorrow morning. 

“We’re here!”

In the silent community, the voice of the old police officer sounded in the wind.

Xiao Jinyu looked up at the dark residential building.

In the next second, the three walked into the stairwell. 

Xiao Kexin’s stepmother hadn’t slept yet.

She wore purple coral fleece pajamas and the yellow light of the living room peaked out from behind her, turning the purple pajamas into a solid black. She looked at the police officer and experts in shock and froze for a few seconds, her heart skipping a beat.

Qi Simin smiled and the solemn expression on her face softened a little: “There are some things I would like to ask again. Can we go in?”

Foolishly standing there for half a day, the stepmother finally smiled bitterly and gave way: “Please come in.” 

Once Xiao Jinyu and Qi Simin walked in, they immediately went to the little girl’s room.

The obedient and cute girl lay on the bed with her eyes closed. Her steady breathing indicated that she had been sleeping for a while.

—There was nothing wrong with this girl.

If guests had come over, then the stepmother should have poured tea for them. But the newly married young woman had already lost her strength. She sat down on the couch, disheartening covering her face with her hands, and her hair was as disheveled as dry grass. She wasn’t like that when she had opened the door, the disheveled hair was done just now by her. 

Seeing Xiao Jinyu and Qi Simin come out of Xiao Kexin’s room as if something had burst within her, she stood up suddenly and asked: “Do you suspect I’m abusing her? She says I’m weird, but where am I weird?

“What did I do?! Where the hell am I strange?!”

For an entire half month, the woman who was tortured by her stepdaughter to the point of a mental breakdown finally couldn’t help it and painfully cried out. However, her last sob was lowered, for fear of waking up her stepdaughter who was sleeping in her bedroom.

Xiao Jinyu looked at this red-eyed, exhausted woman. He pursed his lips and swiped across his eyelids. 

A minute later.

“Miss Chu, could you come to the hospital with us? Perhaps it’s just a physical problem.”

The exhausted woman immediately froze. She looked up at the speaking young man.

A glimmer of hope appeared in her eyes. 

Chu Wenting: “Ok.”

The police officer Lao Wang informed the neighborhood committee and arranged for someone to come to Xiao Kexin’s house to take care of her, as to prevent the sleeping child from waking up at night, looking for her stepmother. At the same time, he took the initiative to drive the police car and sent the three to the hospital.

The subway was out of service and it took them twenty minutes to bypass contamination area 81 and reach the nearest hospital.

Under the arrangement of the police officer, the poor and desperate woman began a series of physical examinations. 

Blood tests, ultrasounds on the neck, whole-body CTs, MRIs…

In the beginning, Xiao Jinyu and Qi Simin had concluded on the phone.

If the problem didn’t come from logic skills or polluters, then it was very likely that Xiao Kexin’s stepmother had a physical ailment. When Qi Simin talked to her in the morning, she clearly stated that she didn’t feel unwell, except that she was upset by Xiao Kexin saying she was strange, and that there were no problems with her mental health.

But what if there was a problem with her body? 

Xiao Jinyu knew about a rare condition called spinocerebellar ataxia. Patients with this disease will gradually lose control over their bodies while they were conscious. Unable to walk and unable to use their limbs, they would gradually become paralyzed, stuck to their beds, and eventually lose their ability to speak. They could only lie in bed until their control over their heartbeat is lost and then die.

And losing some of the body’s instinctive responses is the initial symptom of this disease. For example, when falling, normal people will subconsciously reach out to catch themselves with their hands, but patients with this disease will only fall to the ground in a daze and land on their faces.

Although this symptom wasn’t the same as what Xiao Kexin’s stepmother exhibited, it might just mean that she had another type of rare disease.

Under Policeman Wang’s help, Kexin’s stepmother’s examination was much faster. As if guessing that she might have developed a terminal illness, the young woman laughed at herself, saying, “if I have an illness, then no one would say that I’m abusing my stepdaughter anymore”, while covering her face and crying. 

No one wanted to be sick, but for the past half month, she was forced into a desperate situation with no way out.

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“Everything is very normal.” The old doctor rushed through the report, “Blood test, EEG, ECG, CT, MRI… Chu Wenting’s reports all have no problems.”

Xiao Jinyu was silent for a moment: “Could it be a rare disease?”

Xiao Jinyu didn’t want a woman who was only in her early twenties to suffer from some extremely rare disease, but he had to ask this question. 

The old doctor still shook his head: “That probability is very low. Our hospital is the top hospital in Zhongdu City and even has some prestige in all of China. Unless you want to send her to the capital’s hospital for a check-up. But in my opinion, this girl isn’t sick. Even if you send her to the capital for a check-up it’ll be useless, she is very healthy. She just has some sleeping problems and her anxiety is a little serious, she just needs to rest well.”

The doctor gave the reports to the group, then turned around and left.

In the empty corridor, Xiao Jinyu and Qi Simin looked at each other. Officer Wang rubbed his hands in anticipation and said anxiously: “There shouldn’t be a problem now, right?”

After a brief moment of silence, Xiao Jinyu said: “Although there aren’t any problems with the check-up, but…” 

“So there’s nothing wrong with me!”

Xiao Jinyu’s voice stopped abruptly and the three of them turned around in unison to look at the woman who had come out of the examination room at some unknown time.

Chu Wenting strode in front of Xiao Jinyu and grabbed the reports in his hands.

“Everything is normal… It says everything is normal! Let me go, I really didn’t do anything!” 

The young woman yelled out in rage.

Abruptly, Xiao Jinyu’s eyes flashed and he suddenly reached out and gently pushed the woman in front of him.

The next second, Chu Wenting’s body fell back. Her eyes widened in shock as she raised her hands and wrapped them around the back of her neck, holding her head.

The young man’s hand appeared behind her and caught her. 

This scene happened very suddenly and no one had expected that Xiao Jinyu would suddenly push Kexin’s stepmother and then catch her himself. However, Qi Simin’s expression immediately sank.

Officer Wang watched from the sides in surprise. After a few seconds, he let out a surprised “eh?” sound.

“Miss Chu, what happened to your neck? Why would you touch your neck if someone pushes you?”

No one would just fall face-first into the floor, just like how no one would, when they’re pushed by someone, not only not find something to support them, but instead protect their necks. 

But Chu Wenting wasn’t able to explain.

“I don’t know.”

This was her only answer.

She didn’t know why she would subconsciously reach for her neck, protecting her head. Her hand had just suddenly done that. 

Quickly, Xiao Jinyu found the doctor and had a detailed examination done on Chu Wenting’s neck.

The answer didn’t change, there were still no problems.

Officer Wang and Chu Wanting stayed in the examination room. Their eyes were wide open, not knowing what was going on.

Xiao Jinyu and Qi Simin came to the end of the hospital corridor, looking at each other. 

“Do you think it’s a logic skill?”

“I don’t know.” Xiao Jinyu shook his head, “I just awakened my logic skill this week and I hardly know about any other logic skills. Are there any logic skills that can make people care so much about their necks?”

Qi Simin: “Logic skills that make people care about their necks…”

Looking at the woman thinking seriously in front of him, Xiao Jinyu was calm and seemed to casually say: “But I think that this Miss Chu’s reaction didn’t seem like touching her neck. Don’t you think so too? She seems… like she’s afraid her head will fall off?” After saying this, Xiao Jinyu observed Qi Simin’s reaction. 

When she was picking things up, she leaned her head back, and when she was pushed, she protected her head…

What Xiao Jinyu said was the truth. No matter how you looked at it, she seemed like she was afraid of her head falling off.

Qi Simin thought for a moment and agreed: “It really seems like it. If this is related to a logic skill, then there must be conditions related to the human neck on the logic skill. This task is no longer a regular task anymore, we should contact the User Committee.”

Not wasting any time, Qi Simin opened the Grow Some Brains APP, contacting the User Committee. 

Xiao Jinyu closed his eyes.

Images appeared in his mind.

Chu Wenting looking up as she picked things up, protecting her head as she fell…

The smooth fissure in Meat King’s neck… 

And his mom.

Under the warm, yellow light, the windpipe, arteries, vocal cords swayed in the slightly bloody air…

Xiao Jinyu opened his eyes: “I remember a case.”

Qi Simin just finished contacting the User Committee and when she heard this, she turned her head: “Huh? What case?” 

“Meat King.”

Qi Simin froze.

Under the cold light of the hospital corridor, the youth looked into the examination room in the distance, seemingly looking through the glass at the woman, who was being comforted by Officer Wang as she cried.

Xiao Jinyu: “Perhaps you’re not clear on Meat King’s case, he died from a polluter. I won’t say any more about the specific situation, but the point I want to bring up is that Meat King was strangled. But an hour after his death, his neck was cut by something…” After a moment, “No, it wasn’t cut. It left a section of flesh attached. This wound was extremely hard to find and it even took Meat King’s wife, a level five user, her whole strength to separate Meat King’s head and shoulders, revealing the fissure.” 

Xiao Jinyu looked up at Qi Simin: “Do you think that if Meat King hadn’t been strangled to death, he would have died due to that fissure in his neck?”

Qi Simin opened her mouth and after a few seconds, she narrowed her eyes.

“Once someone is killed, they’ll die. Once a person’s neck is broken, they definitely won’t be able to survive. But what you said is correct, this is a fissure that requires a level five user to break open. This is naturally not a part of the normal world but a part of the world of logic skills.”

Xiao Jinyu didn’t reply, only calmly looking at the crying woman in the distance. 

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Qi Simin thought for a while and picked up her phone again: “A level five user. Xiao Jinyu, you really make it hard for other people.”

“En?” He turned around.

Qi Simin sighed: “Zhongdu City isn’t much better than Haidu City. In the entire city, there is only one level five user affiliated with the government.”

Xiao Jinyu thought for a moment: “Is it the captain of the Extermination Team?” 

“Yes, it’s Zhongdu City’s Extermination Team’s Captain, Wang Tao. Sigh, we can only ask him to come for this task.” While contacting people on the Grow Some Brains APP, Qi Simin said: “But Wang Tao’s strength isn’t as good as Water Punishment’s. That woman is the best of all level five users… let’s just hope that Chu Wenting’s situation has nothing to do with Meat King’s.”

No one wanted this poor, newly married woman to be related to the horrifying user murder in Haidu City.

Just like how no one hoped that…

This woman’s neck was broken. 

Xiao Jinyu was surprised at how Qi Simin could find the captain of Zhongdu City’s Extermination Team, but he didn’t ask too much about it.

Qi Simin and Li Xiaotong said that they never took extremely dangerous tasks, but their relationship with the government seemed to be linked in countless ways. At least Xiao Jinyu knew now that Li Xiaotong’s sister worked in the government and they knew Zhao Hen.

They waited for about half an hour.

Officer Wang was still comforting Chu Wenting in the examination room as a big burly figure walked down the hospital corridor. 

Even with one glance, Xiao Jinyu was sure that this tall and vague man was the captain of Zhongdu City’s Extermination Team.

He was way too bulky.

With a figure close to two meters and arms as thick as an adult’s waist, he stomped on the hospital’s tiles with a boom, nearly occupying half of the corridor.

Such a sturdy person was wearing a suit, which was contrary to his looks. It seemed like the suit was going to burst at any more. 

Qi Simin: “Long time no see, Captain Wang.”

Wang Tao walked in front of the two and stopped. He first quickly glanced at Xiao Jinyu before turning his head to look at Qi Simin. Without greeting them, he got to the point immediately: “Where is the person you’re talking about?”

Qi Simin pointed: “Examination Room Number Two, where that man in black is standing.”

Man in black? 

Xiao Jinyu looked at where Qi Simin was pointing and his gaze froze when he saw the man.

A few seconds later, the three came to the door of Examination Room Number Two.

Wang Tao slightly nodded: “Colonel Su.”

Su Jiuzhou stood in front of the glass window, looking at Chu Wenting, who was silent in the room. Hearing Wang Tao’s voice, he turned around, his gaze freezing on Xiao Jinyu. Dark eyes fell on the youth, the corners of Su Jiuzhou’s lips lifted: “Are there logic factors on her?” 

Xiao Jinyu: “…”

“No.”

Su Jiuzhou: “So it’s like that.” He smiled: “What a coincidence, Meat King didn’t have any either.”

Xiao Jinyu glanced at him lightly: “En.” 

Qi Simin didn’t react to the name of “Colonel Su”, she seemed like she didn’t recognize Su Jiuzhou.

Su Jiuzhou asked casually: “Then why do you guys think that a woman who can speak and breathe normally, with no abnormalities from head to toe… would be like Meat King, whose neck was broken?”

Xiao Jinyu told him about his findings.

“Your reasoning is very good.” Su Jiuzhou said jokingly: “Xiao Jinyu if you became a level two user just one day after you awakened, I wouldn’t be surprised.” 

Xiao Jinyu: “…”

Is this mockery?

Mocking him for not leveling up in one day.

Xiao Jinyu didn’t get angry, he only calmly looked at this strange level six user. 

However, Captain Wang who was on the side was shocked.

He had never seen Colonel Su praise anyone, so serious at that too.

Seeing that he was misunderstood by the youth, Su Jiuzhou smiled but didn’t explain himself. He just casually left a sentence behind, “You should reflect on why you didn’t upgrade in one day,” and didn’t continue the topic.

Wang Tao thought for a moment, then said: “According to your deductions, I confirmed with Haidu City’s Extermination Team. The fissure on Meat King’s neck can be opened by Luo Sheng. Two level four users can also open it. I’m not as strong as Luo Sheng so I won’t be able to pull it apart by myself, though Colonel Su is here so there isn’t a problem. But Qi Simin, you guys now have to consider the most important problem…” 

“The fissure in Meat King’s neck wasn’t detected by the medical equipment or the naked eye. If he hadn’t died and his neck hadn’t formed bruises, the forensic doctor wouldn’t have been able to find it. Only a level five user using all their strength could pull it open.

“And this girl…”

Wang Tao looked at Chu Wenting.

“The only way to prove that her neck is broken is to pull it open. But after either Colonel Su or I pull open her neck, do you think she can still calmly be the way she is now? And.. 

“Can she even live after that?”

In the empty and silent corridor, Wang Tao’s question weighed down on them.

Ten minutes later.

The examination room’s door opened with a click. 

Officer Wang and Chu Wenting looked up at the group of four at the same time.

Two more people suddenly came?

The two couldn’t help but wonder.

Qi Simin walked forward and smiled: “Right now, there aren’t any problems with the examination. We’ve already contacted the doctors in the capital and they’ll be here in two days. However, during this time I hope that Miss Chu can come with us to prevent any changes from happening.” 

This was the four’s final decision.

Wang Tao proposed that they ask the Capital’s Logic Research Insitute for help.

Logic Research Institutes throughout the country were specifically established to study logic skills and polluters. Among them, the Capital’s Logic Research Institute had the strongest research strength.

The proposal was approved by Su Jiuzhou. 

Officer Wang let out a sigh of relief and patted Chu Wenting’s shoulder: “See, there’s definitely no problem. Just relax and listen to the experts.”

However, Chu Wenting didn’t respond.

The woman who was tense and crying uncontrollably, was silent at this moment and lowered her head, not saying a word. Her thick bangs covered her expression and Qi Simin couldn’t help but ask: “What’s wrong Miss Chu? Is there a problem?”

Chu Wentinh raised her head, her eyes bloodshot: “Expert, you just said my examinations had no problems, but then you also invited experts from the capital to consult and you also want to take me away from supervision… You all obviously don’t know whether I’m sick or not but you all still want to take me away for supervision. You all already know what the hell is going on with me, right?!” 

Qi Simin froze.

Xiao Jinyu didn’t expect that this weak and suffering woman’s thinking would be so meticulous. Keeping her under supervision was just in case it was a logic skill. They were worried that if she was left alone, it would cause horrible consequences.

Even with so little information, she was able to find a problem with it.

Xiao Jinyu quickly remedied the situation: “Yes, we think that you’re sick.” 

Chu Wenting looked at him.

Xiao Jinyu’s expression didn’t change: “From the start, I thought that you were sick. When we were at your house, I told you that I thought you were sick, do you remember? But we don’t know exactly what sickness it is.”

Chu Wenting stared at him without saying a word.

After five seconds, that woman suddenly stood up. 

“Yes, she said I was weird. For half a month! For an entire half month, I was pointed at by people wherever I went. My colleagues at school thought that I was abusing my stepdaughter. Someone else said that I might have a mental disorder! Until now, I don’t even have the right to know what disease I have?”

Xiao Jinyu was slightly embarrassed and a little dumbfounded.

Su Jiuzhou raised an eyebrow and he suddenly bowed his head and said quickly into Xiao Jinyu’s ear: “See if there are any logic factors on her.”

Xiao Jinyu froze and immediately activated Fourth Perspective before looking at Chu Wenting. 

…There still wasn’t any!

Tears pouring out of her eyes, Chu Wenting looked at the whispering experts and said while crying and smiling: “I also understand what Officer Wang said. Yes, I might be sick, the type that when someone is pushed, they don’t want to stabilize their body but instead they only want to protect their head. I secretly tested myself when I went to the bathroom just now. Of the five times, there were three where I subconsciously held my head as I fell instead of stabilizing myself.

“Even I’m not aware of this problem myself. But the two times where I didn’t hold my head, it didn’t fall off!

“The strangeness that Xiao Kexin mentioned, was it this?” 

Xiao Jinyu’s eyes were fixed on this woman.

No matter if it was the colorful logic factors or the black pollution factors, they didn’t appear on this woman.

“Then if I don’t hold my head anymore, I won’t be afraid of it falling. Then what if I even take off my own head?”

Once this sentence was said, everyone froze. 

Even Su Jiuzhou looked at Chu Wenting in surprise.

In the next second, they watched as a crying Chu Wenting pressed her hands under her neck and like she was lifting a box, lift her own head up.

She really was forced to this point.

This feeling of being wronged, unable to refute anyone, and unable to tell anyone of her innocence even if she recorded it, drove this twenty four year old woman crazy. 

No one felt that Chu Wenting’s behaviour would cause any serious consequences. Just now, when she was talking, her head also moved many times and there weren’t any abnormalities.

How could anyone think that there would be humans that could easily lift their own heads off?

Even a level six user wouldn’t make such a conjecture.

Then. 

“What really is the sickness I have… sha sha…”

Su Jiuzhou’s expression turned cold. A figure flashed by and before anyone could see clearly, he stopped in front of the woman with tears on her face.

Chu Wenting’s hands that had lifted her head also stopped.

—She saw her own neck. 

It was empty save for the red blood vessels, vocal cords, and trachea swaying in the air and the thin layer of skin barely keeping her head and shoulders together.

“Sha sha…”

Su Jiuzhou pressed down on the top of her head and pushed her head back.

Chu Wenting moved her hand away from her neck. 

The fissure on her neck had already disappeared and not a drop of blood nor was the bloody smell left behind. Under the white glaring hospital lights, she stood quietly there as if she hadn’t just taken off her own head.

In the examination room, everyone silently looked at her.

A few seconds later.

The young woman cleared her throat and after her head was put back, she looked at the people in front of her and said another complete sentence— 

“So I really am strange.”

Next.

She stopped breathing.

Translator’s Note: 

I was informed that the ‘du’ at the end of ‘Zhongdu’ and ‘Haidu’ is part of the word for city, so now there are three choices:

1. Leave it as it is and cut off the ‘du’ part in any new cities that pop up

2. Change Zhongdu/Haidu City to Zhong/Hai City, leaving them in pinyin

3. Change Zhongdu/Haidu City to Middle/Ocean City, the English names 

Voting will end when the next chapter is posted so in ~5 days!

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