That Person

"G...di what?" Zhang Hongbing's face was shrouded in smoke again, his voice coming through the smoke-filled respirator.

"Hss..." A sharp inhalation rang out. The smoke inside the protective suit was sucked away, revealing Zhang Hongbing's face again. "Underground?"

Everyone who was working gathered around and carefully examined the words on the corpse, all of them frowning.

"Wasn't it found in the woods on Cloud Mountain? Could there be something underground on Cloud Mountain?"

"Maybe it says 'dong,' as in a cave. When I was little, the elders in my family told me there used to be an imperial tomb inside Cloud Mountain, with a palace underground."

"Could he have been trying to write a location, like XX, but only managed to write 'di' before he died?"

"What do you think this is, Detective Conan?"

The group was seriously debating the possibilities when Li Fan took out a fragment of a subway card and said:

"It could also be 'subway.'"

Liu Dalong shook his head.

"That can't be right. Think about it: they found this thing inside Cloud Mountain. If it had escaped from the subway, it would have had to cross half the city. How could no one have noticed?"

Li Fan glanced at the subway card fragment in his hand and nodded slightly.

It had to be the subway. Several of the corpses had hands sticking out, and there were clear traces of subway dust on them, including grease.

Wu Qian said from nearby:

"Everyone, think hard. What other words start with 'di'? Come up with as many as you can and put them in the report. Give the Research Department and the Bureau something to think about."

Everyone immediately started putting their heads together. They came up with "tunnel," "map," "earthquake," and "Earth," and eventually even "sweet potato" and "land mine."

After all, abnormal incidents couldn't be judged by common sense. What if one of their ideas proved useful to the Research Department?

Li Fan didn't continue dissecting the female corpse.

He had already examined it with a windproof lighter, and there was clearly no trace of abnormal infection left, let alone an abnormal infection source.

None of the corpses filling the room had an infection source.

There was no point in continuing the dissection.

He took a few samples from the corpse more or less perfunctorily, submitted the test report, then pushed it back into the morgue cabinet and left the main dissection room with Ke Ke.

After decontaminating himself, taking off the protective suit, and changing into his regular clothes, Li Fan went to the break room and sat down. He lit a cigarette, took a deep drag, and let out a long breath.

The Unity Society really was like a ghost that wouldn't leave him alone.

This time was different from the previous incidents. They hadn't found an abnormal infection source at all.

What made Li Fan most wary was that the Unity Society had caused so much trouble in succession. They certainly weren't acting randomly or without purpose.

There had to be some hidden motive behind it all.

But what was that motive?

What Li Fan hated most was that their actions might disrupt his plan to stay undercover until retirement.

This was going to kill him.

He had to find them.

He'd get his people on it as soon as he got home.

As he was thinking, the aroma of coffee drifted over. Ke Ke handed him a freshly brewed cup, looking a little embarrassed.

"Li Fan, h-have some coffee to perk you up..."

Li Fan took the coffee and had a sip, smiling.

"It's good. Thanks, Ke Ke."

"It's just instant coffee. What's so good about it?" Ke Ke covered her mouth as she smiled, her eyes curving into crescents. Then she sighed and looked at Li Fan earnestly. "Honestly, I don't even know how to repay you. I'm so useless. All I can do is little, ordinary things. Li Fan, if there's ever anything you need me for, you have to tell me. I'd do it even if it cost me my life."

Li Fan's expression grew serious as well. Looking Ke Ke in the eyes, he replied sincerely:

"Ke Ke, like I said, it was nothing. You really don't need to take it to heart. Since you put it that way, fine. If I ever need you, I won't hold back. First, I need you to take good care of yourself and stop staying up late to work."

His serious tone made Ke Ke's eyes curve into crescents again as she smiled.

"Look at you, Xiao Fan. You're already telling your subordinate to take care of herself like a proper leader... Don't worry. I invested the money. Since it was an interest-free loan, the returns are already making up for what I used to earn from working."

Li Fan froze, then said nervously:

"You didn't put it into one of those, uh, P2P investment schemes, did you? Those are all scams. You absolutely can't touch them..."

"What are you thinking?" Ke Ke shot him a look, then smiled warmly. "They're all principal-protected. Besides, I graduated with a degree in finance. I know a thing or two. Look how worked up you are."

As she spoke, she picked up a tissue and wiped the sweat from Li Fan's forehead.

"Ahem. This job today really took it out of me. Finally got it done, and I'm exhausted. I need a massage." Zhang Hongbing's voice came from the doorway. He and several colleagues had just changed into their regular clothes and come to rest in the break room.

Ke Ke quickly pulled her hand back, her cheeks flushing red.

The colleagues really were exhausted.

They had dissected the corpses assigned to them from head to toe, examining them carefully for ages, but still hadn't found an infection source.

Only then had they submitted their reports.

The group gathered in the break room to smoke, drink tea and coffee, and chat. It was already four in the morning, and they were dead tired, but not one of them suggested going to sleep.

They were all waiting to go to Xidelong.

"Hey, speaking of which, those victims really had it rough this time. They were all crumpled up into balls..." Zhang Hongbing said, taking a dissatisfied drag on his cigarette.

Ma Lihua nodded beside him. "I've come into contact with some strange infected bodies before, but I've never seen anything this awful. Abnormalities... The world's getting more and more abnormal."

"Tell me about it. I remember we only had a few dissection jobs a year, a couple of years ago. Why have there been so many more these past two years? It's only been a few days, and we've already had three jobs."

"Life is unpredictable. All we can do is do our jobs as well as we can, let the dead rest in peace, and give their deaths an answer. Just do what we can."

"If these abnormalities occur naturally, that's one thing. But if someone's creating them, that's downright inhuman. I can't imagine what kind of bastard would do something so vile."

"Those victims' families have it hard. Because of the confidentiality agreement, many of them don't even know the real cause of death..."

The dissection specialists, fresh from finishing their work, rested and talked about the day's abnormal incidents, sighing with emotion. The whole break room grew heavy with gloom.

Just then, Wu Qian's voice came from the doorway.

"Guys, let's hit Xidelong!"

"Yeah!"

The Southwest Bureau of the Anomaly Administration, the director's office.

Behind a massive redwood desk, Zhao Yifeng, director of the Anomaly Bureau, leaned back in his chair with his eyes closed, listening to the report.

Standing in front of him was Hong Tao, captain of the Third Detachment, who had just returned from the scene.

"We can basically confirm it was Gluttony. As for the guy wearing the Sunflower Mask and planting corn, we haven't found any information about him yet. There's no one like that in the Cleaning Association's existing files, but we can be sure he's no weaker than Gluttony."

Hong Tao spoke quickly. "The corn planted by that Sunflower Mask was tested by the organization. It contained a small amount of human brain cells. The reason we misjudged the location of their gathering was that the corn emitted mental radiation similar to that of a human for a short time. It was convincing enough to fool us."

"Director, do you think we should raise the alert level for the Cleaning Association?"

Zhao Yifeng still hadn't opened his eyes. He slowly shook his head.

"Raising the alert level won't help. Gluttony's appearance is frightening, but it's something we can just barely accept... What's most frightening... is that person..."