Ke Meng sat in his car, quietly studying the portrait on the wanted notice.
What exactly had happened at the museum? Why did it involve a wanted criminal, and did that criminal have anything to do with the mysterious sunlight?
To an outsider, the sky suddenly brightening for a few seconds was nothing remarkable, but Ke Meng knew it was no coincidence.
Ke Meng pondered it. The appearance of that golden sunlight must have been connected to whatever had happened at the museum.
He had found the site of the mysterious incident, but the authorities were involved. He had no authorization to investigate for now, so there was no way he could enter the museum to look into it.
That left him no choice but to drop the matter. Ke Meng drove around the surrounding area, then headed straight home after finding nothing new.
He parked, opened the car door, and lifted the round, fluffy Tangyuan out.
He had thought he would come away empty-handed, but Tangyuan suddenly raised a long strand of dog fur and pointed it in a certain direction.
Ke Meng glanced that way. A man had stopped in front of a rental notice printed on red paper. He seemed to be looking for somewhere to live.
Ke Meng walked over. As though sensing something, the man abruptly looked him in the eyes.
Ke Meng also got a clear look at the man's face: a square jaw, broad eyebrows, and pupils that seemed unfocused. His gaze wandered, giving him an absentminded air.
"Looking for a place?" Ke Meng asked, holding what looked like a large plush toy.
The square-faced man frowned. The sight of a grown man holding a huge, fluffy toy made him deeply uncomfortable.
"Yes," he said in a hoarse voice.
"Three thousand five hundred a month, fully renovated, three bedrooms, a living room, a kitchen, and two bathrooms. Wi-Fi included. Water, electricity, and gas charged at residential rates." Ke Meng rattled it all off without pausing for breath, as though he had said it hundreds of times.
The square-faced man fell silent and gave no reply for a long while.
"What do you think? Interested? I'm the landlord of this building. The family renting the third floor moved out, so you can move in whenever you like."
Ke Meng examined his hands. They bore rough calluses, clearly those of a man who had done heavy labor.
Then he looked at the man's arms. His muscles were well defined, and he looked powerful.
A punch from him might even break Ke Meng's ribs.
But Tangyuan, nestled in Ke Meng's arms, was no pushover. Straightening that fur and pricking the man's face like a hedgehog would be painful enough.
Of course, a hedgehog-style attack would leave a mess to deal with. Tangyuan could also simply ram into him and knock him out. That would be much easier.
After a long silence, the square-faced man carefully assessed Ke Meng's build. Deciding that Ke Meng looked easy to handle, he nodded. "Sure."
Ke Meng stood 1.8 meters tall and had a little muscle. He was not fat, but he still fell far short of the burly, square-faced man.
Ke Meng waited a few seconds. Seeing that this fugitive wanted by the police had no intention of making conversation, he had to speak first. "Shall we go upstairs and take a look, then?"
"Mm."
The square-faced man glanced at Ke Meng, his thoughts unreadable.
Ke Meng unlocked the side door and let the man go upstairs first, following behind with the large plush toy in his arms.
The square-faced man walked very slowly. His shadow remained connected to both his feet and lay against the side of the stairs.
The stairwell's infrared sensor detected their presence, and the light came on.
At that instant, his shadow stretched out, reaching a spot diagonally to the left of Ke Meng's feet. It almost touched the edge of his shoe sole, running diagonally parallel to Ke Meng's own shadow.
Ke Meng's pupils contracted slightly. He released his tight hold on Tangyuan, and his left hand shifted, ready to grab the shadow.
Released from his arms, Tangyuan dropped to the floor and bounced hard, charging straight at the square-faced man's back.
The square-faced man stood on the twelfth step with his back to Ke Meng. He heard the sound of something heavy hitting the floor and bouncing, but remained unmoved and composed.
Or rather, the square-faced man had no idea what a terrifying creature he was about to face.
Thud.
Tangyuan slammed into his back.
The square-faced man felt an enormous force strike him from behind. His body toppled uncontrollably, leaving him sprawled on his hands and feet.
"!" The square-faced man was shocked.
Was the landlord really this strong?
Little did he know that the strength belonged to Tangyuan.
Tangyuan planted that round body on the square-faced man's back, pinning his upper body down.
No matter how hard he strained, he could not push himself up.
"Are you with the investigation team?" the square-faced man demanded, frowning as he lay helpless on the floor.
Ke Meng did not answer his question. He chose to remain silent.
Suddenly, the shadow beneath the square-faced man swelled and contracted violently, trying to change its angle and move toward Ke Meng's feet.
According to the two female shadows from before, shadows entered a long dormant period after possessing someone. Switching hosts on the fly meant taking a risk, but the square-faced man could no longer afford to worry about that. He intended to change hosts immediately.
Ke Meng snapped his left hand shut into a fist.
The stairwell abruptly went quiet.
The man lay on the floor without a shadow. Only Tangyuan's shadow remained there.
Ke Meng kept his left fist clenched. No black edges spilled out around it.
The man's shadow was trapped in his palm.
With a flick of his left hand, he returned the shadow to the man's body.
From the man's perspective, he had merely experienced a moment of disorientation. A strange attractive force had pulled him away, followed by an equally strange repulsive force flinging him back.
If Ke Meng grabbed him repeatedly, he would eventually realize what had just happened. For now, however, he had no idea.
"What just happened?" the square-faced man asked, bewildered and uncertain.
"Knock him out," Ke Meng said.
The dog above the square-faced man's head sprang up, aimed at the back of his skull, and dropped onto it.
Smack.
The square-faced man's eyes rolled back, and he passed out.
Keeping watch on the man's shadow, Ke Meng backed away until he reached the doorway.
According to the two girls' shadows, while they were possessing someone, knocking out the host would knock them out as well.
Ke Meng considered whether to call the police immediately or use his Shadow-Grasping Hand to threaten and interrogate the man for information about the Shadow Stream.
After some thought, he decided that since the police were already after this man, it would be inappropriate for him to conduct his own interrogation.
Having made up his mind, Ke Meng took out his phone and dialed 110.
An important notice!
The protagonist of this book will not be a lone wolf!
Please do not project potentially real-world issues such as "suppression" or "political infighting" onto this book-those topics can easily get it taken down.
To follow a path of cooperation, those things are not convenient to write about. The moment they appear, it is easy to cross the line.
So from here on, you will see the protagonist willingly place his trust in the country.
If you dislike that kind of protagonist, there is no need to force yourself to keep reading. He is a patriotic young man.
Before you continue