Little Jiang, Your Guess Was Right!

"Why did you say, 'You're in big trouble'? That remark could work against you. What made you say it?"

"And when he gave you your change, why did you grab his hand?"

Looking at the situation at the time, those two questions did seem extremely out of place, and pretty suspicious. Officer Han didn't need to rap his knuckles on the table to pick out those two key points.

"If I tell you the truth, Officer Han, you might think I'm making it up."

"Heh. Let's hear it. And don't be nervous. If all you did was grab the other guy's wrist, without making any other move to attack him, then even if he was up to something, to be fair, you wouldn't be much at fault."

"I wasn't trying to attack him at all. I noticed something was off about his palm lines."

Sometimes the world was just that fucked up.

The more honestly you told someone what happened, the less likely they were to believe you.

Take Officer Han, for example. The amused smile on his face made it clear he was deeply skeptical of what Jiang Yue had just said.

"Officer Han, I know this sounds a little far-fetched. But it's the honest truth."

Jiang Yue's expression was utterly calm. His composure was so unfeigned that Officer Han couldn't help wavering a little.

"You mean there was something wrong with his palm lines?"

"That's right."

"What was wrong with them? Can you tell me?" Officer Han leaned forward slightly.

Jiang Yue pressed his hands gently against his forehead twice, easing the weight on his mind. He took a deep breath, driving away all the pent-up frustration inside him.

"Officer Han, don't write down anything I'm about to say. If you want to use it as legal evidence, I won't say a word. But if we're just chatting, then once I walk out of this room, I'll deny everything. Is that all right?"

Officer Han gave a slight start. Jiang Yue looked no older than seventeen or eighteen. Even if he was unusually mature for his age, wasn't this a little too mature?

Honestly, he'd met all kinds of people in his line of work. But he'd hardly ever seen anyone in this situation speak with the police as if they were on equal footing.

Anyone who could sit there steadily without fidgeting had excellent nerves.

"Haha, Little Jiang, now you've made me even more curious."

Officer Han closed his notebook and set down his pen.

"Go ahead. I'm listening. You can deny it all once you leave this room."

"You saw what happened to my neighbor, Sister He, earlier, right? I took a quiet look at her palm. Her palm lines were about the same as the driver's. There was a distinct black line on her lifeline. But Sister He's line was fainter than the driver's. So I guessed her symptoms would appear later, and might be a little milder."

"The nurse at Second Hospital said one of their employees had a similar case. If my guess is right, that person's palm lines were probably the same."

"Now that I think about it, the taxi driver who called the police was probably in a similar situation to Sister He, right? His symptoms likely started earlier and were more severe?"

Those words sent a sudden chill through Officer Han, though it was the middle of the day. Cold sweat ran down his back.

Given what he knew, his first thought was also an infectious disease.

If this was contagious, then as someone who'd had close contact with them, wouldn't that mean...

Of course, Jiang Yue had inferred the taxi driver's situation based only on their conversation. The effect that had on Officer Han was no small thing.

But his professional role demanded that he stay calm no matter what happened.

There were only the two of them in the room, yet the air seemed to have frozen.

For a while, Jiang Yue said nothing, and Officer Han asked no more questions.

After a long silence, Officer Han finally said, "Wait here a moment. I'm going to make a call."

Jiang Yue didn't need to guess. Officer Han was going to call Star City Second Hospital to confirm whether the employee there had anything unusual on their palm.

Less than ten minutes later, Officer Han pushed the door open and came back in. His expression was extraordinary, and he looked at Jiang Yue differently now.

"Little Jiang, your guess was right."

Officer Han rubbed his cheeks vigorously with both hands. He felt as though his worldview had been overturned. He'd always regarded palm reading as feudal superstition.

The idea that palm lines could be read with such accuracy, enough to predict a person's future and what they'd encounter, was even more like something out of a fairy tale.

In the past, Officer Han would never have believed it.

If anyone else had told him this, he would have scoffed.

But now, reality was right in front of him, brutally forcing him to learn a lesson.

Jiang Yue had expected this result.

"Little Jiang, is there some necessary connection between the three of them? What caused this strange illness? An infectious disease? Poisoning? Radiation exposure?"

Officer Han certainly had an active imagination.

Jiang Yue hadn't even considered poisoning or radiation exposure.

"To be honest, I can't say for sure what caused it. But one thing is obvious: all three of them went to Star City Second Hospital."

"The driver went there too?"

"He did. And I'd guess it was on the trip right before mine."

"So their problems were caused by Star City Second Hospital? That's going to be tricky. I'll have to report it. The CDC might need to step in. If radiation is involved, the environmental authorities will have to get involved too."

Officer Han was in a difficult position.

What Jiang Yue had said hadn't been put in writing. Reporting it without solid evidence could also get him into trouble.

"I don't think it's radiation. If it were, there wouldn't be only these three victims. It would have spread on a much wider scale."

"As for an infectious disease, like that doctor said, there doesn't seem to be any known disease in the world this bizarre. And given how quickly the symptoms appeared, if it were contagious, we should have come down with it by now."

"That's hard to say. What if they're contagious, but their illness hasn't progressed to the point where they can infect others? Then whatever infected them in the first place must be highly contagious, right?" Officer Han had his own way of looking at it.

Jiang Yue knew the other man's theory didn't hold up, but he didn't argue.

After all, Officer Han knew far less than he did about what had happened and the details involved.

If you told someone who'd never doubted the normal world that it wasn't normal, and that supernatural, inexplicable things were happening, their first reaction would surely be disbelief.

They might even think you'd lost your mind.

Most importantly, the police had their own procedures. They were being polite by listening to his opinion. They had their own methods and way of thinking, and didn't need him telling them how to investigate.

So Jiang Yue tried to put things as tactfully as possible.

"Officer Han, if you're willing to hear some suggestions, I have a few."

"Go ahead." Officer Han was quite receptive.

"I suggest you send people to Second Hospital now to investigate the three of their movements and put together a timeline. If you can find out whether they had any connections, or were in the same place at the same time... those are the key things."

That was standard investigative procedure. Officer Han had more or less thought of it himself. When he'd gone out to make calls and look into the situation, he'd also told his subordinates to do exactly that.

Jiang Yue's suggestion was right in line with his own thinking.

"Little Jiang, I didn't expect this from you. You're young, but you've got real potential in our line of work. How about it? Any interest in joining us someday?"

"If that day ever comes, we'll talk..." Jiang Yue sighed softly.

"What do you mean?" Officer Han asked in surprise.

Jiang Yue smiled but didn't explain. He'd never imagined that talking about the future could become a luxury.

"Officer Han, I know you have your rules. But there's something I'd still like to ask."

"Hmm?"

"Why was traffic being controlled near Star City Second Hospital today?"

Officer Han looked uncomfortable. For a moment, he didn't know how to phrase his answer.

"If your rules mean you can't tell me, that's fine. It's just that I'm worried Sister He and the others won't be the last. If this keeps happening and spreads, you won't be able to keep a lid on it."

Officer Han was speechless. Was that really what "that's fine" sounded like? It was clearly more like, "If you don't tell me, this is going to blow up."

Normally, Officer Han would have sent him packing by now.

But Jiang Yue's deductions and what he'd said had just left Officer Han deeply shaken.

His instincts told him this young man was no ordinary person, and could be a great help with the investigation.

"Little Jiang, do you think there's a connection between the two?"

"Whether there's a connection can only be determined after I know the general situation. Making blind guesses would be irresponsible. I can't just make things up and interfere with your investigation."

Officer Han was wavering.

After a moment's thought, he lowered his voice. "Actually, the details that taxi driver spread were fairly close to what really happened. But there were some witnesses at the scene. To avoid causing unnecessary panic, we controlled traffic so we could keep things contained within the hospital."

"Traffic control won't be enough. If you really want to contain the fallout, you'll need to control the internet and communications too." Jiang Yue couldn't help shaking his head. The authorities' thinking was far too rigid.

"Traffic control wasn't only meant to keep the news from spreading. More importantly, it was to stop that patient from leaving the hospital by car."

So that was the truth.

"So the patient really was in the ICU? He really did jump from the eighteenth floor? And there really was no blood or body at the scene?"

"That's all correct."

"You're sure he jumped? He didn't slip out from another floor?"

"Impossible! There were surveillance cameras at the scene, and the windows on the other floors were intact. Unless he could turn into a fly, how could he have flown into another floor? There was also a real crater in the ground. And there were witnesses."

"What did the witnesses say?"

"It all happened too suddenly. The witnesses didn't get a good look either. They heard a terrifying crash, then a dark shape vanished from the spot. They didn't even have time to figure out what was going on."

"The cameras must have caught it, though, right?"

"The cameras couldn't make it out either. It happened too fast. They couldn't capture even a single clear frame."