The Smell of Blood

Chapter 22: The Smell of Blood

The quiet street, which he had thought had already fallen "asleep," was now full of tiny sounds coming from the buildings on either side: conversations, televisions, and phones. Plenty of people were still awake.

The street, which he had thought was completely empty, was now teeming with movement in its corners and shadows, and in the gutters. Insects and small animals scurried about.

A few days ago, he'd needed to focus to pick up sounds like these. Now it was almost impossible not to hear them. The sounds and smells had become part of his sensory "database," forming the basis of his understanding and experience of his surroundings.

Compared with hearing, his heightened sense of smell brought a much stronger feeling of novelty and unfamiliarity. There were many scents he was smelling for the first time.

He needed to identify the sources of these smells and tag them, "entering" them into his "database."

Every adult had their own sensory "database" for smell and hearing—what people called experience. If they suddenly smelled rotten eggs in a crowd, they knew someone had farted. If they heard footsteps upstairs, they could tell whether the person was wearing high heels, slippers, or nothing at all.

Now that Xiang Kun's senses had improved so dramatically, he needed to "update" his "database." Only then would his heightened senses truly be useful.

Xiang Kun suddenly stopped and looked toward the street corner to the east.

It was 11:47 p.m. Some streets were still bustling at that hour, while others were nearly deserted.

The area he was in was relatively quiet. There weren't many shops or residents, and several old houses awaiting demolition stood empty. After ten at night, few people walked around, and the only ones he occasionally saw were delivery riders gliding by on electric bikes.

He had already planned to head that way. The quieter and darker a place was, the more sensitive his senses became. With the noise and smells unique to the city out of the way, it was easier to train in a focused manner.

But now he hesitated. He'd caught a faint scent—that of blood, and quite possibly human blood.

A few days earlier, he'd encountered a young couple being attacked downstairs. Combined with his recently heightened sense of smell, that experience had given him the ability to tell human blood apart from rabbit's and chicken's.

Still, from this far away, with so many other smells in the air, he couldn't be completely sure the faint scent of blood he'd picked up was human.

If it was human blood, had something happened over there?

Xiang Kun wasn't keen on getting involved in any more trouble. Last time, the incident had happened right below his apartment, right in front of him, and the victims were people he could at least say he knew. He hadn't been able to stand by and do nothing.

But this time...

If there was trouble in that direction, he could just go the other way. He had no idea what had happened there, so it wasn't as if he'd be abandoning someone in need, right?

Besides, maybe no one had actually been hurt and bled. Perhaps he was mistaken and it wasn't human blood. Or maybe someone had been fooling around, fallen, and scraped themselves.

With that in mind, Xiang Kun took two steps in the opposite direction. But two seconds later, he let out a long sigh and headed toward the place where he suspected he'd smelled human blood.

He knew that if he didn't go and check what had happened, the question would keep nagging at him. He might not be able to let it go for months, or even years. It wasn't that he'd feel guilty about possibly missing a chance to save someone. He was mostly just curious...

The source of the smell of blood was only about thirty meters away. Xiang Kun hurried around the corner and saw a figure lying among a pile of construction debris by the roadside.

It really was a person?

He didn't have time to congratulate himself on how accurately he'd identified the smell of human blood. He pulled out his phone and dialed 110 as he carefully surveyed the area, then slowly approached the person on the ground.

Based on Xiang Kun's senses, the attacker was no longer nearby.

The police arrived soon afterward, followed by an ambulance. As the first person to discover the crime scene and report it, Xiang Kun was naturally kept behind to answer questions.

The officers who first arrived simply confirmed his identity, asked him how he'd found the scene and called for help, then told him to wait.

A little while later, a detective arrived. Xiang Kun recognized him: he was Officer Chen, who had taken his statement after the young couple downstairs had been attacked.

Officer Chen clearly recognized Xiang Kun too. It would have been hard not to; he was quite distinctive.

"Do you know the victim? How did you let the attacker get away?" Judging by Xiang Kun's abilities, Officer Chen figured he should have been able to put up a fight, even if the other man had been armed.

Xiang Kun quickly replied, "I don't know the injured man. I just happened to be passing by, heard something, and came over to take a look..."

Officer Chen asked, "Where are you headed this late?"

"Oh, I was going to Fuxiang Street to get some barbecue," Xiang Kun said.

"You still live on Huawen Street? You walked all the way here? That's quite a distance," Officer Chen said in surprise.

"It's late, and I'm not in a hurry, so I thought I'd walk for some exercise," Xiang Kun replied.

Officer Chen nodded, then asked him again to describe how he'd heard something and found the injured man. This time, his questions were far more detailed than those of the first officer.

In fact, Xiang Kun hadn't heard anything. By the time he smelled the blood, the attacker had probably already left. With his hearing, there was no way he could have missed the sounds of an assault.

But if he didn't say that, there was no way to explain why he'd been there. The place was rather isolated, and he had no reason to come that way. Was he supposed to say he'd come out to relieve himself?

This time, Officer Chen didn't take Xiang Kun back to the station to give a formal statement. After questioning him, he gave Xiang Kun his number and said, "We may need your help with the investigation later. I'll call you. If you remember anything, you can call me too."

Xiang Kun agreed and prepared to leave.

As he answered Officer Chen's questions, he noticed another officer checking the ATM across the street. Thanks to his keen hearing, he also picked up the officers' conversation and learned that the victim had withdrawn cash from the ATM shortly before the attack. The attacker may have followed him from there.

Xiang Kun initially planned to retrace his steps, but after walking a few paces, he changed his mind. He'd suddenly thought of something he wanted to try.