Perception failure
Two firefighters opened a manhole cover, tossed in a few pieces of raw meat mixed with cheese, then put the cover back.
They laid support bars across its edges and weighed them down with heavy bags, sealing the manhole.
"All right, on to the next spot."
Just as they were about to get up and move on, a rustling sound reached them.
"Wait. Did you hear that?"
One of them crouched down, bringing his ear close to the pavement.
A few seconds later, cold sweat broke out on his forehead. He signaled for his partner to retreat, then carefully rose himself, moving as gently as if he were carrying a child to bed for a nap.
On Orange Street, a young man in a specially made training uniform jogged over to Liu Yue.
"Instructor, we have some bad news. There may be more of them than we thought. We've found nine suspected rat colonies!"
The young man handed his tablet to Liu Yue, who looked about the same age as him. Nine bright red circles marked locations on the map.
Liu Yue's heart lurched. Studying the red dots closely, he realized that if they applied the theory of sealing off an area five kilometers in diameter, those nine glowing red circles covered several times their currently estimated area.
He looked up at the young man, then over at a reinforced manhole cover nearby.
Liu Yue sighed.
"As Team Leader Tao put it, unless we find solid evidence to disprove our 'tenth man theory,' we'll have to face something like this sooner or later."
Still, Liu Yue was overwhelmed.
Shencheng was nothing like the rural village in Rong Town, Zhen City, from back then. Its population was far too dense, and it drew far too much attention. Neither an