Gao Ming Got a New Job

"Headquarters is taking this very seriously. Everyone involved in the investigation was selected through multiple rounds of screening. Even if you're capable enough, they won't let you in." Bai Xiao picked up the folder bearing Qin Tian's name. "Minlong Street and Lijing Subdistrict need people to watch them too. Your job won't be any easier than ours."

After that, Bai Xiao began discussing tonight's operation with the three remaining veteran team members. They had to rehearse every step and consider everything that might happen.

Gao Ming did not join their discussion. He found what he needed on Qin Tian's computer.

The Investigation Bureau had staff dedicated to compiling and searching for information. Gao Ming called them, hoping to use the Bureau's Investigation network across Hanhai to find some people.

Taking out his phone, Gao Ming entered information on a few of the criminals he had designed.

The most dangerous lunatics had to be eliminated before they could act. Those who could be redeemed were worth trying to work with.

Since he had created them himself, Gao Ming knew those criminals' psychological flaws and weaknesses inside out. In the entire city, he alone was bold enough to try to control that band of utterly deranged lunatics.

First-rate mystery games have airtight logic, with no supernatural elements. But I'm just a third-rate game designer. Some of my cases weren't rigorously thought out, and some of the criminals have traits beyond those of ordinary people. Under the Shadow World's corrupting influence, those unusual traits might evolve into special abilities, just like Xuan Wen's.

Only about half an hour passed before the Investigation Bureau's staff sent Gao Ming a message. They had found the first "criminal."

This criminal's height and build were highly distinctive. Unless she deliberately hid herself, there was no way she could evade the city's ubiquitous surveillance cameras.

"An underground fight club?"

The Investigation Bureau was astonishingly efficient. Once Gao Ming received the information, he immediately put on his raincoat and prepared to leave.

"Where are you going? I'm coming with you!" Zhu Miaomiao, who had been staring into space, stood up too and hurried to find the Fire Axe.

"No need. Stay here."

"Director Chen told me to stick with you." Without even grabbing her axe, Zhu Miaomiao rushed over to Gao Ming. "Is there a new assignment?"

"I'm just going to see a friend." Gao Ming did not turn her down. The two of them took Investigation Team One's car and drove straight to DC District.

For a long time, money could buy anything in Hanhai. This international free port offered the most refined art, while also concealing the most vulgar, brutal performances. As long as you paid, every sensory desire could be satisfied.

The Investigation Bureau's car entered Queen's Eleventh Street. Keeping track of the time, Gao Ming waited beside a Chinese restaurant.

"According to the Investigation Bureau's information, the target comes here for lunch at the same time every day." Gao Ming pulled his hat brim down and waved to Zhu Miaomiao, who was waiting in the car, ready to back him up at any moment, signaling her not to be nervous.

The rain slowly began to ease. Gao Ming gazed at a distant puddle, where the city's crooked reflection lay in the standing water.

Splash!

A heavy leather shoe stepped into the water, scattering the city's reflection in all directions. Passersby gave its wearer a wide berth too.

At the street corner, a figure nearly two meters tall approached the restaurant in a tailored suit.

She was immensely broad and muscular, her exposed skin covered in grotesque tattoos of giant demons.

"She looks exactly like the Yan Hua I pictured." Gao Ming watched the hulking figure approach, the corners of his mouth rising slightly. Even from far away, he could feel the oppressive presence she exuded.

He paid Gao Ming no attention and pushed open the restaurant door. The diners cleared a large space without being asked.

"The usual." Her vocal cords had been injured, leaving her voice low and raspy. She bent down to sit, her muscles taut, as though they might burst through her suit.

The atmosphere in the restaurant grew tense. The diners ate faster, eager to leave, and she seemed accustomed to it.

"Two bowls of noodles to go, please!" Gao Ming called toward the counter. Then he walked past several empty seats and sat down across from him.

He poured two cups of hot water, looking utterly relaxed. "I hear you've been fighting in underground matches lately. Thirteen wins out of thirteen? But the name you compete under doesn't seem to be your real one."

She frowned, pulling her skin taut. The tattooed demon face on her cheek looked as though it were about to open its bloody maw.

"I used to know a fighter who looked a lot like you. That kid had a hard life from the start."

"Her mother was ill. After her husband died, she remarried to support herself and her son and daughter. The stepfather was a foul-tempered, lecherous, crude gambler. What that spineless bastard loved most was maintaining his pathetic, laughable self-respect in front of his sick wife and young stepdaughter."

"He wanted to reclaim the dignity he'd lost outside the home, with interest, through violence—and through things even worse than violence."

The tabletop seemed to tremble slightly. The surrounding diners left one after another, until Gao Ming was the only customer left.

His food had not arrived yet. Naturally, Gao Ming was not about to leave.

"That gambler didn't deserve to be called a father. After his wife died of her illness, he treated the two children even more brutally. He ordered the older daughter to do all kinds of housework, beating and kicking her at the slightest displeasure."

"But the younger son had it even worse than the older daughter." Gao Ming slowed his speech, employing hypnotic techniques. "The boy was innocent and kind, but his stepfather constantly threatened and abused him. Later, he developed chronic bedwetting, and he still wets the bed to this day."

The look in her eyes changed as she sat across the table. Memories too painful to revisit began tearing away her disguise, little by little.

Gao Ming took it all in. He lifted his cup and gently swirled the water, his voice carrying a peculiar rhythm. "Every time the boy wet the bed, his stepfather flew into a rage. He covered the child's face with the soaked sheets and forced his head toward the chamber pot, saying even dogs knew where to relieve themselves."

"Are you finished?" Her breathing, calm a moment ago, grew rapid. Bloodshot veins filled her eyes. The painful memories buried deep in her heart had been stirred, and the nightmares of her childhood came flooding back.

In the future, Yan Hua would become a deranged murderer, but now, she had yet to fully bloom.

"Because he was afraid of wetting the bed, he even became afraid of sleeping. On countless nights, he forced himself to keep his eyes open. Slowly, he became an abnormal child." Gao Ming began speaking faster. "The less power he had to resist, the crueler he became. He knew perfectly well that violence would only breed more violence, but he still grew twisted in the darkness—precocious, cunning, doing everything he could to conceal the violent urges running wild inside him."

Her arms slowly flexed as she rose to her feet. Her taut muscles tore through her suit, making her resemble an oppressive mountain of flesh.

"His stepfather never treated him like a human being. He even gave him a feminine name: Yan Hua."

"Shut up!" She raised her fist and aimed it at Gao Ming.

"Later, he grew up and began training himself with almost self-destructive intensity. But he still felt afraid inside, and his chronic bedwetting grew even worse."

"I told you to shut up!" She could no longer control herself. The bones in her hand cracked.

"That child hated his own body and pushed himself even more furiously. But no one knew that all his desperate effort was really for one thing."

The heavy fist came crashing down as Gao Ming spoke his final sentence. "He wanted to kill his adoptive father."

The fist stopped before his eyes. Gao Ming's voice had sliced her heart open like a sharp knife. The secret she had hidden for twenty years had been exposed, and she felt as though she were standing naked in the pouring rain.

(End of chapter)