The Chaotic First Day (1)

Chapter 1: Chaotic First Day (1)

Neon tubes at the street corner were still flickering convulsively, growing dim one after another. Nighttime bloodstains evaporated into a pale red mist in the morning dew, slowly dissipating in the cold current.

Holding a thermos cup in the palm of his hand, Li Jie sat in the driver's seat and watched a lean figure inside the yellow and black cordon squatting there, skillfully tinkering with a corpse. He couldn't help letting out a huge yawn.

In theory, it wasn't work time yet, but marginal police officers like them always had to be ready for assignments at any moment. This corpse, discovered in the early morning, preliminarily belonged to a natural death. The homicide division had lost interest too, finished the handover, and left. Originally, it would have been fine to quietly wait here for the coroner's van to load that unlucky fellow into a black bag and haul him away, but the forensic investigator from Central Headquarters seemed a little overly enthusiastic.

What was so fun about a dead person!

He sighed and aimlessly shifted his gaze toward the sky. The clouds hung like a huge leaden curtain, heavily blanketing the city. An old newspaper rolled around in the air for a long time, finally swirling down. It wedged squarely into the gap of the police car's windshield wipers, flapping frantically in the wind.

The dashboard displayed an outdoor temperature of only 2°C. He hesitated for a moment before rolling down the window. A chill wrapped in the marine stench of Miller Port, mixed with diesel exhaust and the musty smell of the sewers, struck him squarely in the face like a heavy blow. It didn't just clear the mind; it shocked the brain awake.

He leaned over and pulled the newspaper into the car. The bold headline on the front page was strikingly laid out in heavy, bolded text:

"Wayne Enterprises is rudderless and stock prices continue to fall; can they turn the tide!!?"

This was seriously haunted. How on earth had he ended up in a place like this?

Just yesterday, the previous second he was still sitting in a fast-food restaurant, rubbing freshly split disposable chopsticks, but in the blink of an eye, he had already appeared in this city of sin named Gotham. In the mirror, it was clearly still his unremarkable, thick-eyebrowed, big-eyed face from before his transmigration-neither pretty nor ugly, and even the old scar on his forehead left from childhood was identical. Yet when he ran out of that old apartment in a panic into the hallway, every neighbor who saw him wore an expression of nonchalance, as if he had been born and raised right there.

Someone even kindly came up to ask him why his face looked as unsightly as if he'd eaten shit.

He remembered everything in Gotham-his life, identity, and residence from childhood to adulthood, schooling and work, the password and balance of his bank card. He even remembered the old man who divorced and flew to the West Coast a decade ago in search of financial freedom, the old man who died as a bystander from stray police bullets during a street gang war, and himself, who had been recruited into the police department half a year ago as a form of compensation.

Was the real-world self the one who transmigrated to Gotham, or had the Gotham self taken a trip to the real world...

For a moment, the memories before and after transmigration mingled together like an entangled, confusing dream. He couldn't even tell which world he was supposed to belong to. What was worse was that as a transmigrator, there wasn't even a newbie gift pack that went ding; there were only four dim, lightless cards he could "see" in his mind, with backgrounds featuring a revolver, a fist, a meteorite, and a stick-man drawing, looking like rubbing stones from an inferior monument, lifeless and exuding an ominous gloom.

This was... a bit terrible. After all, in this place full of extraordinary talents and honest folk customs, it really was impossible to survive without some decent cheats.

Would it be better to move to Central City or Metropolis?

He subconsciously patted his pocket, and the cold water of reality instantly extinguished this momentary impulse. His bank card only had a little over four thousand yuan. This meager sum wasn't even enough to move into a decent apartment, let alone cross cities or state borders.

With money, you and I are both dark horses; without money, wherever you go you're a beast of burden.

Make money!

This thought, like a light bulb turning on in the dark, excited him for a moment, but the light vanished instantly, plunging back into silence. Although there were plenty of cops in Gotham taking dirty money, the question was who would bribe a pathetically weak patrol officer who ran errands for everyone everywhere.

Ah, wait, it seemed there actually was a little bit. The illicit money received by the Eastern District Precinct every month could yield two hundred dollars for his squad-though of course another hundred had to be taken out to split with his partner.

An apartment that was slightly decent cost around three hundred thousand, and renting one was nearly two thousand bucks a month. Taking a hundred bucks of dirty money a month, plus an annual salary of thirty thousand dollars, as long as he didn't eat or drink and collected it for a decade or so...

At this thought, the corners of Li Jie's mouth immediately curved downward into Batman's signature look. Alas, do not bully the young because they are poor, do not bully the middle-aged because they are poor, do not bully the old-forget it, in Gotham he might not even live to old age...

Amidst his chaotic thoughts, he suddenly remembered the bowl of soybean paste noodles he had ordered before transmigrating.

What a pity, he had already paid!

Knock... knock knock...

He snapped out of his wandering thoughts. The coroner from just now was standing outside the car, gently tapping on the window. He hurriedly leaped out of the car, and the cold wind poured in instantly from his collar, making him shiver involuntarily.

Fortunately, the lined police uniform was fairly thick. He sniffed, pinched his collar tight, and smiled down at the coroner: "Finished?"

Had he seen this guy somewhere before? During their earlier small talk, he had felt a bit familiar, but in his memory, he had only joined the Eastern District Precinct half a year ago, had never been to Central Headquarters, and shouldn't have seen him.

"Yes, died of acute myocardial infarction, edema, severe malnutrition about four hours ago. No signs of violent trauma, and his belongings were completely looted. This isn't the primary scene; someone moved him here. Most likely a homeless person ransacked by companions after death." The coroner adjusted his glasses and nodded. "You know, their destination is already doomed." He sighed and said:

"I invite every guest,

Whether poor or rich, ignoring all pleas and excuses,

With steadfast steps never turning back.

Wielding a lamp that never extinguishes, yet illuminating only boundless gloom."

"Who am I?"

"Uh... Is this a... riddle?" The transition was too abrupt, catching Li Jie off guard. He looked at the other person in confusion, and now the man looked even more familiar... Meanwhile, the coroner's eyes suddenly lit up, a hint of expectation and excitement creeping into his tone.

"That's right, want to try?"

"Uh... uh..."

"Riddles aren't my strong suit..." Li Jie scratched his head, stammering awkwardly for a moment before answering uncertainly, "Is the answer... IRS enforcement officers in the middle of a property seizure?"

"Ah!?"

This answer left the coroner momentarily dazed, but Li Jie narrowed his eyes and stared closely at the man's face. He had always felt this guy looked somewhat familiar, and coupled with the riddle just now, scattered fragments welled up from the fog of memory and surfaced in his mind, making him blurt out in disbelief.

"Ed??"

The coroner froze for a moment, then also looked up at him intently. His eyes were filled with the confusion of hard recollection, but it ultimately turned into an apologetic blankness.

"Yes, I am Edward Nygma. I'm sorry, I don't quite remember... Could you give me a hint?"

"I'm Li Jie, I lived near Chinatown ten years ago. You were working part-time as a mailman over there back then, delivering newspapers every morning... Right next to Lao Chen's Restaurant, the one whose mailbox lid always rattled loudly!"

"Chinatown... Ah... Li?" Nygma wore a look of utter disbelief. He reached out and gestured at his chest, "Ten years ago you were only this tall, but now..." He tilted his head back to look at Li Jie, who was at least a dozen centimeters taller than him, and the smile on his face instantly turned warm. "It really is you? Yes, it must be you. Only you would answer with that kind of riddle. I still can't forget your answer to the first riddle I ever gave you."

"Yeah, I haven't forgotten either." Li Jie grinned, looking somewhat embarrassed, "What is yours, but other people use it more than you do?"

"Your answer was... the cuckolded hero's wife... Ha!" Nygma couldn't help laughing out loud again, "I can't quite control myself whenever I think of that answer. Damn it, how could a teenager think of something like that? I never expected you to become a cop now."

"A patrol officer at the Eastern District Precinct, just trying to scrape together a living." Li Jie pointed to the police badge on his chest, "What about you? A forensic pathologist at Central Headquarters?"

"No," Nygma shook his way, his tone calm, "I'm a forensic evidence technician at the Gotham Police Department headquarters, mainly handling physical evidence analysis."

???

"What?" Li Jie's smile instantly froze. Although he hadn't been on the job long, he had memorized the rules and regulations thoroughly; evidence technicians were not allowed to perform the duties of a forensic pathologist. "Wait, then why are you the one doing the autopsy?"

"I'm quite interested in this, and Forensic Pathologist Gora doesn't live at the precinct in the middle of the night. So after receiving the duty call, I didn't forward it to him and came to try it myself." Nygma shrugged, saying in a matter-of-fact tone, "Seriously, I should... not be worse than Gora. He often misses some... crucial details during examinations."

Holy shit...

No wonder not even a body transporter came along. The homicide division naturally knew there was something wrong here, but as long as someone took the fall, they didn't care who signed the paperwork.

Li Jie took a deep breath of the freezing air, feeling as though his brain were frozen solid. "Ed, this isn't a matter of who is better than whom. Impersonating a forensic pathologist-once you're found out, you'll be kicked out on your ass. You actually..." He snatched the handover logbook that Nygma had tossed onto the car's hood, "Signed your own name on both the evidence and autopsy reports!"

The piercing siren of the coroner's van drew closer from afar. Li Jie froze for a few seconds, then fiercely ripped off the top page with the signature from the handover logbook, rapidly rolled it into a ball, and shoved it deep into the inside pocket of his police jacket. Then he grabbed Nygma's lean arm with force. "Hurry up and leave! I damn well have to redo this entire handover, move it!"

"Right, I'm going." Nygma was pulled off-balance by him. The flush of excitement on his face faded as he seemed to realize the gravity of the situation. He hurried toward his old car, and before getting in, he turned back again and shouted to Li Jie: "Death! Li! The answer is death."

"Fuck! If you don't leave now, you'll be the one dying!" Li Jie made a feigning kick at him, "Hurry up, I'll call you at Central Headquarters when I have time."