Tribunal Head

Wei Shu had not expected that the case involving the seemingly ordinary boy named Gu Shen... would draw such enormous attention.

The hospital's blazing white lights were dazzling.

The long corridor was silent, echoing with the crisp, synchronized tread of Iron Boots.

Behind the not particularly tall Wei Shu followed more than a dozen burly men, each with a grim expression and an aura as sharp as a blade, cold and hard as iron. Beside him was the Tribunal Head responsible for the entire Qinghe District Prison Institute. Compared to the towering group behind him, the Tribunal Head was not tall at all. On the contrary, he was somewhat small and hunched. Beneath his black peaked cap, his face was as craggy as stone, with a terrifying, centipede-like scar winding across the bridge of his nose.

The Tribunal Head was reading Wei Shu's handwritten files as he walked slowly.

The burly men behind him all slowed their pace. They were as quiet as needles, their footsteps soft.

Wei Shu was so nervous he could hear his own heartbeat... These people had merely come to accompany an "interrogation." Their target was only a seventeen-year-old boy, yet this terrifying formation looked ready to storm a bunker. He had no doubt that, with a single order from the Tribunal Head, these men could blast through even a ten-centimeter-thick steel plate!

"Interesting..."

The Tribunal Head murmured softly. Wei Shu noticed that the Tribunal Head's gaze did not linger long on A-009's file. Instead, it settled on the second case file.

The Great Fire that had occurred twenty-eight hours ago.

That Great Fire had caused considerable negative repercussions for Da Teng City... Public pressure from the Outside World was immense, and the authorities had yet to find a suitable explanation for the sudden blaze, as well as the simultaneous power and network failures.

But the most noteworthy name in the file was "Gu Shen."

The explosion had begun in Gu Shen's residence. He himself had merely fallen unconscious. Judging from the scene... he had survived only because an utterly unreasonable downpour had extinguished the fire.

But everyone knew that was bullshit.

Wei Shu knew very well that this had been a supernatural incident. Someone had launched an assassination attempt against Gu Shen... Yet they had all died. Two bodies had been discovered near the rooftop. One had been brutally dismembered into eight pieces, while the other had been consumed by flames and burned into charcoal.

Wei Shu could not imagine that this lucky boy, who had escaped A-009's attack, could awaken such terrifying supernatural power... With his clearance, he had searched the Deep Sea's Deep Water Zone and found only one or two similar cases in Da Teng City's past thirty years that could compare.

This was an extremely dangerous existence.

Now even the Tribunal Head had been alarmed and chosen to personally intervene. The fate of this boy named Gu Shen... would likely be grim.

Wei Shu sighed inwardly... He did not know whether Gu Shen would be placed under controlled observation or imprisoned outright.

"We're here."

Wei Shu spoke very softly, feeling sorry for the boy.

The door was gently pushed open.

Completely unlike what Wei Shu had expected, the boy in the hospital room had long since awakened. He sat propped up in bed, reading a physical newspaper. The window was cracked open, and a faint breeze drifted in, stirring the daffodils by the bedside.

The Tribunal Head entered the room with his hands behind his back. The interrogation team crowded the doorway, and the mere expanse of their tall shadows was enough to make one struggle to breathe. Yet the boy only raised his head slightly before returning his gaze to the newspaper—

The room was astonishingly quiet and peaceful, making it hard to bear disturbing it.

The Tribunal Head glanced at the window without showing any reaction.

"Gu Shen, on behalf of the Da Teng City Prison Institute, I hereby inform you."

Wei Shu came to the bedside and began by habit. "You are involved in two supernatural incidents. You will next face a strict interrogation... The Constitution requires me..."

"The Constitution requires me to inform you of the following rights. You have the right to remain silent, but every word you say may be used as evidence in court. Before trial, you have the right to appoint one person, who may accompany you throughout the entire questioning process." The boy looked up and smoothly finished the sentence for him. His face still held a sickly pallor, but his eyes were as clear as a lake. He smiled politely. "Long time no see, Mr. Wei Shu."

Wei Shu froze.

The words "long time no see" sounded somewhat sarcastic.

Yet they truly gave Wei Shu the illusion that years had passed.

Only around thirty hours had elapsed since their last meeting, but Gu Shen's temperament was now completely different. Wei Shu found it difficult to believe that the incomparably calm boy sitting on the hospital bed had, during the previous interrogation, been terrified out of his wits and wildly gesticulating like a clown.

This kid... had he been acting before?

After sending Gu Shen away, Wei Shu had always felt that there was an inexplicable problem with the interrogation record. For example, according to Gu Shen's account, the period when the carriage surveillance malfunctioned had been when he was locked in a standoff with A-009.

That was A-009, an out-of-control individual with immense destructive power. They had remained locked in a standoff for a full twenty minutes. The carriage had not been damaged, yet the surveillance had conveniently failed... It was far too unreasonable.

There was only one explanation—

This fox-like, cunning boy had seen through the lie about the lost carriage surveillance from the very beginning and had thus chosen to conceal what had truly happened to him in the carriage.

So... Gu Shen had not been the clown. He had.

"The Adjudication Court's people just left, didn't they?"

The previously silent Tribunal Head finally spoke.

"That Old Fellow must have taught you how to deal with the interrogation to come..." He suddenly smiled. His voice was rich like aged wine, magnetic enough to make people instinctively like him and lower their guard. "Right?"

"What are you talking about?" Gu Shen looked completely bewildered, his acting convincing enough to win Best Actor. "I don't understand."

The Tribunal Head smiled.

He raised a hand, and several burly men filed into the room.

"...Take him away."

"Name."

"Gu Shen."

"Age."

"Seventeen. My birthday is in one month and one day..."

"Gender."

"???"

The familiar opening questions.

But this time, Wei Shu heavily rapped the tabletop and snapped irritably, "Be honest. Confess already!"

"Female... would you believe that?"

Gu Shen pointed at his hospital gown, equally displeased. "I'm in the hospital, I just got out of bed, and I was carried here... Can't you show a little humanitarian concern?"

"Gu Shen... this interrogation is very serious. You'd better cooperate." Wei Shu lowered his voice and leaned in viciously. "Do you know who the person outside is? He's the Tribunal Head in charge of all Qinghe District!"

Tribunal Head?

Gu Shen shrugged, indicating that he had no idea and no fear whatsoever.

"Regarding the fire twenty-eight hours ago..." Wei Shu pulled back and coldly asked, "The point of ignition was in your bedroom. Why were you able to survive? Why were you on the rooftop at the time?"

"Mr. Wei Shu, I'm a survivor and a victim. It would make me very sad if you put it that way." Gu Shen looked utterly innocent. He raised his head toward the surveillance camera and spoke unhurriedly. "As for why I was there... It was going to rain, so I went to the rooftop to bring in my clothes. That's reasonable, isn't it?"

That was not reasonable at all!

Who went to the rooftop at three or four in the morning to bring in clothes?!

Yet Wei Shu could not find any grounds to refute him... because it really had rained.

Knock, knock, knock.

The Interrogation Room door opened after three light knocks. The moment Wei Shu saw the Tribunal Head, he immediately rose to his feet. He wanted to say something, but the old man gently patted his shoulder. "Wei Shu, I've finished reading the files. You did very well. You've worked hard these past few days."

Wei Shu ultimately sighed and tactfully got up to leave.

Thus, only Gu Shen and the Tribunal Head remained in the interrogation room.

"Gu Shen, I've just finished reading the case files."

The old man sat down casually and placed the files on the table. He raised a hand to signal for the surveillance to be turned off, and the light on the camera in the corner of the room dimmed.

Gu Shen narrowed his eyes.

He knew what that meant... No third person would know the contents of the following interrogation.

"Now, there are only the two of us here. Relax."

"Before a certain annoying Old Fellow arrives." The Tribunal Head raised both hands and rested his chin on them, smiling. "Let's have an honest talk, shall we?"