Silencing

The break room was terrifyingly quiet.

The entire air froze. Gaoyang could hear the sound of his own heartbeat accelerating crazily: it was over, he had definitely been discovered.

Gaoyang tilted his head to look at Qingling. Qingling's face was expressionless, her brain thinking at high speed:

If Officer Huang was a Wrath Beast, she had no chance of winning.

Killing a Wrath Beast was of course not hard for her, but there were still hundreds of "people" outside the break room. Once she exposed her identity as an Awakened, she would undoubtedly die.

Run?

It was meaningless. Even if she ran away now, her identity was already exposed; she would not live a few days.

Qingling's previous companion was stronger than her, yet still died because she accidentally exposed her identity.

She had no choice; she could only gamble on the last possibility.

"Officer Huang, why are you here?" Three seconds later, Qingling spoke up.

Officer Huang walked slowly to the water dispenser, bent down to draw a cup of cold water, and exposed his back completely to the view of Qingling and Gaoyang.

After finishing the water, he turned around and leaned against the edge of the table holding the water dispenser: "Still Li Weiwei's case. I want to start my investigation from the people around her, so I came to attend the memorial service."

"Did you find anything?" Gaoyang tried hard to play the role of someone concerned about the progress of the case.

"Asked around, got a bit of a lead. But I can't tell you two." Officer Huang took a sip of water and smiled: "Right, what were you two talking about just now? It sounded pretty interesting. What beast? What rules?"

Gaoyang's heart sank heavily; as expected, there was no way to muddle through.

Since it came to this, he had to treat a dead horse as a live one.

"A survival game we've been playing recently, very popular." Gaoyang glanced at Qingling: "We were talking about the game."

"Is that so?" Officer Huang nodded, looking thoughtful, "What's the name of this game?"

"It's called... Monster and Human Family Carnival."

"Just the name sounds fun." Officer Huang sighed with undisguised envy: "It's great to be young. Unlike us working stiffs, we haven't had entertainment in ages."

Officer Huang finished his water, placed the disposable cup on top of the water jug, and walked leisurely out of the break room.

In a mere minute, Gaoyang broke out in a cold sweat, his entire back soaked.

He asked Qingling: "What do we do now?"

Qingling slightly furrowed her brows: "Two possibilities. One, he is a Wrath Beast, has already grown suspicious of us, and is deliberately testing us. Two, he is an Infatuation Beast."

"Infatuation Beast?"

"Infatuation Beasts are rather special, also known as 'Lost Ones'. They think of themselves as humans and have even deceived themselves. Even if Awakened appear before them, they won't harm them, usually automatically ignoring critical information and automatically correcting the logic and memories in their brains."

"If Officer Huang is an Infatuation Beast, we're safe." Gaoyang concluded.

"Right, but I won't gamble on that kind of probability." Qingling walked to the door and looked through the gap at Officer Huang in the mourning hall. "Wrath Beasts have an extreme craving for prey. They want to devour Awakened all to themselves, and will never share with their own kind."

Gaoyang remembered what Li Weiwei looked like when she tried to kill him: "I've witnessed it..."

"There are over a hundred people in the mourning hall right now, and there are definitely more than one Wrath Beast in there. This is perhaps the reason Officer Huang hasn't attacked us."

"He wants to hog the kill." Gaoyang drew in a sharp breath.

"The probability is high." Qingling looked at Gaoyang, her gaze ice-cold: "We still have a chance. We silence him first."

10:00 late at night, Shanqing District, police station.

After the memorial service ended, Officer Huang drove straight back to the police station.

Qingling and Gaoyang hailed a cab to follow. After getting out, they came to a coffee shop across the street from the police station and found a corner booth near the window that was convenient for observation, then sat down.

The two ordered some food and drinks, then took out their textbook homework, pretending to study together while actually killing time.

Regarding coming with Qingling to kill Officer Huang, Gaoyang at first refused. But on second thought, when the lips were gone, the teeth would feel cold; if Qingling failed, he would die sooner or later.

Since he was going to die anyway, he might as well die standing.

This way... at least it would seem a bit more dignified.

"I have quite a few questions I want to ask you." Gaoyang took a sip of orange juice.

"Speak." Qingling lowered her head to eat a Mango Pancake, cutting the Mango Pancake into eight large pieces with her knife and fork, looking very much like she was dealing with an enemy.

"Besides me, do you have any other companions?"

"Didn't I say before, I knew two of them before, and they both died."

"Then you... have always been alone?" Gaoyang found it hard to believe.

"Two." Qingling's gaze shifted: "And my sister."

Gaoyang reacted; she was referring to her second personality, Qingling.

"You two sisters... have also had it pretty tough."

"You'd better worry about yourself first." Qingling put down her fork: "If the operation fails in a moment, I will run and then hide."

"What about me?" Gaoyang asked.

"No idea," Qingling said with an icy gaze. "I won't look after dead weight."

Gaoyang felt deeply hurt.

He wasn't dead weight, he had talent too!

On second thought, he decided not to humiliate himself in front of a beauty.

The two of them waited until late at night, and Officer Huang finally came out of the police station.

He walked over to the police car parked by the roadside, and just as he pulled out his car keys, he froze. Looking down, he saw that the front tire was ruined-slashed remotely by Qingling with a dagger.

Officer Huang didn't show much annoyance. He took out his phone, made a call while chatting and laughing, and then crossed the street to buy a pack of cigarettes.

Qingling kept a distance of about fifty meters from Gaoyang, carefully tailing the target.

Smoking and talking on the phone, Officer Huang passed by a central park and turned into it, seemingly wanting to take a shortcut.

"The chance is here." Qingling quickened her pace.

"Could he be setting a trap for us?" Gaoyang was extremely suspicious.

Qingling's gaze turned sharp. "Then we'll see who the real prey is."

In the dead of night, the central park woods were dense with no tourists. Officer Huang walked the night path alone, a solitary figure. Yet the more it was like this, the more Gaoyang felt the man was unfathomable and exceptionally dangerous.

Qingling and Gaoyang took face masks and sunglasses out of their backpacks and put them on. Tailing Officer Huang into the depths of the park, they seized the opportunity to slip behind a neatly trimmed hedge.

Qingling extended both hands, aiming them at the surveillance camera on the streetlight overhead.

She concentrated intently, seemingly controlling something. Two seconds later, she gently clenched her fist. A slight sound came from the camera, and the "red dot" vanished.

"Go out and call out to him, say anything to distract his attention," Qingling whispered. "Leave the rest to me."

Gaoyang was extremely nervous. "Got it."

Gaoyang took a deep breath, stepped out from the hedge, and hurried after him. "Officer Huang."

Officer Huang stopped and turned back. "Who... are you?"

Gaoyang pulled off his mask. "Oh, it's me."

"Gaoyang? What are you doing here this late?" Officer Huang smiled.

Gaoyang continued his performance. "I suddenly remembered a clue about Li Weiwei and wanted to tell you."

"Is that so?" Officer Huang walked toward Gaoyang with a smile, his movements slightly eager. "Great, tell me about it..."

Suddenly, Officer Huang's smile vanished.

He spun around lightning-fast and drew the service weapon from his waist.