Something Strange

"Got it!"

The moment Qin Ran reacted so violently, Lu Xin immediately understood.

Being held at gunpoint was naturally frightening. Even though he had a gun too, Lu Xin saw that Sister had appeared beside Qin Ran at some point and was staring at his head, so he no longer felt worried. He merely adjusted his sitting position slightly.

"It wasn't me."

He looked seriously at Qin Ran. "I came to investigate whether anything had gone wrong with you recently."

Chen Jing had sent him to check whether there was something wrong with this man named Qin Ran, but Lu Xin genuinely had no idea how to investigate.

So he might as well ask him directly.

One had to find the right method of working to save time and effort and get results.

"Investigate whether there's something wrong with me?"

Qin Ran's eyes hardened. His thumb hooked open the safety, and he raised the gun slightly, aiming it at Lu Xin's head.

His gaze was vicious. "Are you from the Guard Department?"

"I'm not from the Guard Department. Don't get nervous..."

Lu Xin wondered how to put him at ease, but being held at gunpoint was uncomfortable no matter what.

Moreover, he could tell that this Qin Ran looked calm on the surface, but his mental state was actually terrible. It was as if a string inside him had been pulled taut. With someone like that holding a loaded gun, no one could guarantee that some particular sentence wouldn't provoke him into impulsively shooting. Thus, he glanced at Sister.

A strange smile appeared on the face hidden beneath Sister's hair.

Seeing Qin Ran pointing his gun at her brother, she suddenly reached out and flicked his hand.

Caught off guard, Qin Ran lost his grip. The gun immediately flew from his hand straight toward Lu Xin. Lu Xin caught it, clicked the safety on, put it into his bag, and only then looked up at Qin Ran.

"I'm not investigating whether there's something wrong with you either. I'm investigating whether you've encountered any problems."

By this point, Qin Ran was drenched in cold sweat. He looked around tensely, but saw no one.

Then his gaze locked onto Lu Xin, and his voice trembled slightly. "You... how did you do that?"

"Don't ask. Even if I told you, you wouldn't be able to learn it!"

Hugging his backpack, Lu Xin asked again, "Have you encountered anything strange or not?"

"I..."

Qin Ran grew inexplicably flustered under his questioning. In particular, he felt that Lu Xin, who was sitting before him, was far too calm.

In both appearance and temperament, Lu Xin looked like an honest, ordinary young man from the city.

But precisely because he was too calm, he instead began to seem somewhat strange.

If one couldn't suppress the other's presence, there was a chance of being suppressed in turn.

Thus, after hesitating for a moment, he slowly asked, "What kind of problem?"

Lu Xin thought for a while, then slowly said, "For example, those few lives?"

"You..."

The moment he was asked about that, obvious panic appeared on Qin Ran's face.

His gun had been inexplicably taken away, and now he had no weapon in this office while Lu Xin had two. Lu Xin should have been the nervous one, but unexpectedly, after his initial panic, Qin Ran stared fixedly at him, and an excited expression gradually appeared on his face. He suddenly cursed loudly, "Fucking hell, I knew someone else understood this stuff! I knew there was no way I was the only one who'd encountered it..."

Then he stared at Lu Xin with bloodshot eyes. "I don't know which side you're on, but I... really did encounter it!"

Lu Xin immediately grew tense as well and hurriedly asked, "What?"

Qin Ran spoke one word at a time. "Someone came after me for revenge!"

Lu Xin was somewhat surprised. For someone like Qin Ran, being sought out for revenge shouldn't count as anything strange...

"It wasn't ordinary revenge..."

Qin Ran drained a cup of tea that still looked rather hot. Staring fixedly at Lu Xin, he seemed to have gone through a bout of inner struggle, but in the end, fear won out. He slowly said, "The kind that no one would believe if you told them..."

Seeing how agitated he was, Lu Xin urged him, "Take your time."

Qin Ran slowly let out a breath. He seemed to want to read something from Lu Xin's face, but gradually lost heart. After a while, he said, "It started fourteen days ago. I don't mind telling you. My business isn't limited to hauling goods. Too many people die in this line of work, and there isn't much money in it, so I do all sorts of shady businesses to make money. The Guard Department knows about it too."

Lu Xin could only nod, putting on an expression that suggested he understood very well.

"It all started with a packet of Little Bear Pills that day!"

The blood vessels in Qin Ran's eyes seemed to multiply, but his voice became somewhat subdued. "At the time, I was trading with Old Cui from the west side of the city. That bastard's name is Cui Wang, and he specializes in selling this stuff. We'd worked together a few times, but that day, I didn't expect him to come alone for the deal. He was really treating me like some kind of good person. How could I let such an opportunity pass? So I killed him while I was at it..."

"I took the whole packet of Little Bear Pills back with me. It was enough to earn me tens of thousands..."

"Tens of thousands?"

Lu Xin was startled.

"The important part comes next!"

Qin Ran glanced at him and continued, "I cut Old Cui's body into several pieces right there and fed them to the wild dogs. I thought that would be the end of it, but I didn't expect a woman to show up a day later. I didn't know her at all, yet she said her name was Cui Wang. She cursed me for having no honor, demanded that I pay with my life, and told me to hand over that entire shipment..."

Lu Xin's expression changed slightly. Now he was genuinely interested.

"I had no idea what the woman was playing at. I assumed she was Old Cui's mistress, so I killed her too!"

Qin Ran spat and said, "I put the body in the concrete. See that newly built weighbridge over there?"

Lu Xin listened expressionlessly.

Qin Ran continued, "But afterward, I felt that something was wrong, so I had someone investigate according to the description. As it turned out, that woman was named Wang Ting, and she was a worker at a clothing factory in the south of the city. Apparently, she didn't know Old Cui at all. Tell me, isn't that fucking strange?"

Lu Xin could only nod along.

"But the stranger part came afterward..."

The more Qin Ran spoke, the harsher his expression became. "Two days later, two more people suddenly came looking for me. One was an old man, and the other was a beggar of seventeen or eighteen. One claimed to be Cui Wang, and the other claimed to be Wang Ting. They both came after me, demanding that I pay with my life. Even though they were surrounded by so many people around me, they rushed forward and fought to the death without saying a word..."

As he spoke, he drew a finger across his neck. "I killed them too!"

"Four people..."

Lu Xin was slightly startled.

"And then came the part that gave me an even bigger headache..."

Qin Ran spoke in a low voice. "I had someone investigate the identities of those two. I found that they seemed to have no connection at all with Old Cui or that woman named Wang Ting. But they fucking came anyway, and... and the most sinister part was... was..."

At this point, he couldn't help swallowing. His voice sounded hoarse. "Four days later, four more people suddenly showed up. I didn't know any of them at all, but they... they actually sneaked into my house and immediately started strangling me... Fuck, all four of them looked completely insane. One claimed to be Old Cui, one claimed to be Wang Ting, one claimed to be Uncle Zhang, and one claimed to be Wuzi... They were crazy. Every last one of them was fucking crazy. Their eyes... they were terrifying..."

Only then did Lu Xin finally become somewhat shocked. "What about those people?"

"I didn't dare kill them..."

Qin Ran's eyes were bloodshot as he said in a low voice, "It felt too sinister, so I locked them up, but..."

He said "but" twice without continuing. Instead, he spoke quietly to Lu Xin. "Come with me."