"No!"
"This is Michael's ability!"
Lin Qiye kept his face calm, pretending to be composed.
"I don't think so!" Wang Quan rubbed his chin, his expression serious.
Faced with Wang Quan's interrogation, Lin Qiye resorted to his ultimate fainting technique and immediately passed out.
Most importantly, after a whole day of special training, fainting was perfectly normal. His act was practically flawless.
"Uh!"
"I was just curious. You don't have to tell me if you don't want to!"
"Everyone has their secrets, after all." Wang Quan didn't know whether to laugh or cry. He picked Lin Qiye up, only to discover that he really had fainted.
So he slung the two of them over his shoulders and left.
The stars wheeled overhead, and the horizon began to pale.
Warm sunlight streamed through the window into the room. Lin Qiye lifted his eyelids and discovered that he was lying stark naked in a bathtub.
The tub was filled with a sticky, black, foul-smelling liquid.
"What the hell!"
He hurriedly stood up and discovered a pleasant surprise.
His body didn't hurt at all. Instead, he felt wonderfully refreshed and light.
"Now that you're awake, take a shower, then come eat!" Wang Quan's voice came from outside the room. "Oh, right! That medicinal bath was specially formulated by the Night Watchers. It flushes out impurities and strengthens your body."
"Thank you!"
"It's your reward for completing the special training!"
After breakfast, Lin Qiye headed to the Peace Office.
"Ding-dong-welcome!"
The familiar electronic chime sounded. Lin Qiye saw an unfamiliar woman in lavish clothes seated by the reception desk, with Wen Qimo sitting opposite her.
"Mr. Wen, has your office prepared the evidence I requested?"
"Of course!"
"Please take a look!"
Wen Qimo slid a document envelope toward her with a smile.
The woman opened the envelope, pulled out the photographs, and took one look. Her face turned livid. "Those two filthy bastards! How could they do this to me?"
"Animals!"
After cursing them out, the woman stormed out of the office, radiating more resentment than a vengeful ghost.
"Mrs. Sun, take the legal route! Don't do anything rash!" Wen Qimo called after her.
Once the woman had left, Lin Qiye asked curiously, "Her husband cheated on her?"
"It's even more complicated than that!" Wen Qimo sighed, his face full of sympathy.
Lin Qiye: "???"
"Her husband got involved with her younger sister!"
"Talk about a family soap opera!" Lin Qiye had only heard of things like this; this was his first time seeing it firsthand. Belatedly, he asked, "We take covert photos too?"
"Hey!"
"What are you talking about!"
"An office! We run an office! Investigations, mediating disputes, finding lost pets around the neighborhood..."
Wen Qimo rattled off a long list. In short, the office handled all sorts of things, leaving Lin Qiye thoroughly bewildered.
"How was yesterday's training?" Wen Qimo shifted to casual conversation.
At the question, Lin Qiye shuddered. "Don't even mention it. I nearly died!"
"That guy's training is ten thousand... no... a hundred million times scarier than the captain's!"
That description alone made Wen Qimo's scalp prickle.
They had barely exchanged a few more words when the office doorbell rang again. Both turned toward the entrance, put on polite smiles, and spoke in unison:
"Welcome! How can we help you?"
Despite the summer heat, the visitor was bundled in a loose coat, a mask, and a baseball cap, looking decidedly mysterious.
"There's a monster! There's a monster at school!"
"Li Yifei?!" Lin Qiye recognized the heavily bundled visitor by his voice. He was the student who had survived the Ghost-Faced Man incident, and he also attended No. 2 Middle School.
"Holy crap! Lin Qiye?" Li Yifei was equally surprised. "Didn't you join the army?"
As soon as he asked, realization struck him, and his voice filled with envy. "You joined this organization!"
"That's right!"
"Why are you dressed like that? Aren't you hot?"
"I was afraid someone would recognize me. You have no idea-yesterday, after school, I saw..."
Li Yifei told the two of them everything that had happened the day before.
In short, a student named Liu Xiaoyan had turned into a monster and swallowed the dean of students alive.
"I saw it with my own eyes! Every word is true!"
"I was so scared I couldn't sleep all night. I even took the day off school today."
"Aren't you the people who handle this sort of thing?"
"Help me!"
Li Yifei's face was pale. He looked badly frightened.
"Let's discuss this downstairs." Wen Qimo gestured for him to follow.
"Downstairs?"
A short while later, Li Yifei sat stiffly on the sofa in the basement lounge.
The members of the 136 Squad surrounded him, every one of them looking deadly serious.
"Um... well, I... everything I said was true!"
"Don't... don't kill me!"
Li Yifei trembled with fear, stammering as he spoke.
"Don't be scared, young man. We're all good people!" Zhao Kongcheng placed a hand on Li Yifei's shoulder, wearing the hint of a smile.
"Tell us what you saw again." Chen Muye leaned against a nearby pillar and glanced at Li Yifei.
"Okay!"
And so Li Yifei recounted the story once more.
Wu Xiangnan spoke first, analyzing the situation calmly. "From what we know so far, this mythical creature has an extremely powerful ability to disguise itself... after all, it can communicate with humans and even live normally among them. Its intelligence must be at least on par with a human's!"
"Oof... what a headache!" Goosebumps rose all over Wen Qimo.
"No!"
"The biggest problem is its ability to assimilate others. As of now, we have no idea how many people it has infected, especially in a densely populated place like a school." Chen Muye frowned as he spoke slowly.
"Couldn't we just kill that Liu Xiaoyan?" Hongying suggested.
"Hongying, we don't know whether she's the original creature. We don't even know whether she was the first person infected."
"Qiye is right. The situation is more complicated than we imagined!" Chen Muye nodded.
"Exactly. We even need to prepare for the worst!" Wu Xiangnan added.
"What do you mean?" Hongying looked bewildered.
"For instance, all of No. 2 Middle School could already be infected. Countless monsters!" Wu Xiangnan described this terrifying possibility in the calmest of tones.
"Wouldn't that put all of Cangnan in danger? What if the entire city gets infected?"
"What... what are you talking about?" Li Yifei clutched his head with both hands, too frightened to breathe.
"Think about it. Your classmates, your teachers, the cafeteria ladies, your parents-what if every one of them was the kind of monster you saw that day?" Wen Qimo asked, an eerie smile on his face.
"Ah!"
"Then we'd be doomed!" Li Yifei cried out.
"Qimo, stop scaring him. If a problem that big arose, the [Crow of Calamity] would give us a warning!" Zhao Kongcheng spread his hands helplessly.
"Haha!"
"I was just lightening the mood!"
"What's the [Crow of Calamity]?" Lin Qiye asked in confusion.
"It's a Forbidden Item. It gives us advance warning when a major incident is going to happen in Cangnan," Chen Muye explained.
"Well, uh, I'm heading out!" Li Yifei made straight for the exit. His heart couldn't take being around these people. "Call me if you need anything!"
"And I won't say a word to anyone!"
"Qimo, look how badly you've scared the poor kid!"
Li Yifei hurriedly pushed open the office door, completely failing to notice the person standing in front of him.
He collided squarely with Wang Quan.
"There's something strange about you!"
Those words sent a chill down Li Yifei's spine, leaving him frozen in fear.
Before you continue