White Cat

"I don't have the Blade God talent! I'm not hiding my strength, either!" With the blade about to draw blood from his neck, Gaoyang threw caution to the wind and spilled everything. "Back there, when things got dangerous, I suddenly awakened a new talent-Copy. It lets me copy someone else's talent for a short time, but I need one second of physical contact with them. I wanted to copy your Blade God talent, but I couldn't quite reach you... You know what happened after that."

Half convinced, Qingling looked at Officer Huang. "Does a talent like that exist?"

"It does." Officer Huang nodded. "If I remember correctly, its serial number should be 18."

He looked at Gaoyang with undisguised envy. "You've awakened a really powerful talent. Congratulations."

Qingling stared at Gaoyang for two seconds, then withdrew her blade.

"Keep making things up! I think you just wanted an excuse to cop a feel!" Wu Dahai walked over, looking both indignant and deeply jealous.

The sight of Wu Dahai alone annoyed Gaoyang. He had run faster than anyone when the fighting started, and now that it was safe, he was the first to come back and make snide remarks.

Officer Huang took the towels he used for his morning runs from the police car and tossed one each to Gaoyang and Qingling. "Wipe the blood off first."

Then he turned to Wu Dahai. "Have we passed the test now?"

"What test?" Wu Dahai looked completely bewildered.

"Drop the act. That had to be your test for us." Officer Huang sounded displeased. A test like that was far too dangerous!

"Of course not! Am I crazy? Why would I put you through a test like that?" Wu Dahai waved his arms in agitation. "I honestly have no idea why Uncle Zhang suddenly turned into a Beast, let alone something that disgusting. I nearly pissed myself, okay?!"

Gaoyang was now seriously questioning how reliable this organization was.

Officer Huang pressed a hand to his forehead. He was beginning to fall apart, too-the adult world was just too hard.

Wu Dahai rubbed the tip of his nose. "Just go home already. Someone from the organization will contact you in a few days anyway. You'll find out what the test is then."

Wu Dahai was about to leave, but stopped again, his lecherous gaze drifting past Gaoyang to someone behind him.

Gaoyang looked back and found Qingling about to take off her clothes. Her school uniform was so soaked in blood that wiping it clean was impossible.

Officer Huang immediately took off his jacket and tossed it to Gaoyang.

Gaoyang turned and draped it over Qingling just in time.

Utterly disappointed, Wu Dahai gave an awkward cough. "Go home and wait for word! Don't forget!"

After Wu Dahai left, Gaoyang looked at the mess of body parts and blood nearby and asked Officer Huang, "What do we do about that?"

Officer Huang sighed. "I've got a can of gasoline in the trunk. Let's burn it."

Five minutes later, the three stood silently in front of the blaze. Qingling was wrapped in Officer Huang's jacket, her long, smooth legs exposed and tinted buttery yellow by the red firelight.

She tossed her school uniform into the flames. Gaoyang took off his uniform top and threw it into the fire as well.

Once they were sure every trace had been reduced to ash, the three turned away and headed for the police car.

Suddenly, Gaoyang sensed something watching him and jerked his head up.

Sure enough, a rather large white cat stood atop a utility pole, quietly watching him. Beneath the bright moonlight, its fur was as white as snow and its eyes shone like emeralds. It looked regal and elegant, with perhaps a faint hint of arrogance.

Gaoyang's heart jolted. Isn't that the white cat Pang Jun described? Could Uncle Zhang's sudden transformation into a Beast... have something to do with it?!

"What are you looking at?" Officer Huang asked from beside the car door.

That moment of distraction was enough. The white cat disappeared, leaving the utility pole empty.

Was I so exhausted that I imagined it?

Gaoyang quickly entered the system and confirmed that his Fortune point earnings had not doubled. He let it go. At least he was out of danger.

"...Nothing." Gaoyang rubbed his temples and turned toward the police car.

Officer Huang was a steady driver, keeping the car at a slow, even pace while soothing music played on the radio. With one hand on the wheel and his phone in the other, he spoke to his wife.

"Some drunk people caused trouble at a bar and got into a fight. I just finished dealing with it... Yes, I'll be home soon... Honey, don't wait up for me. Go to bed... Can't sleep? You're hungry? Okay, I'll bring you something... It's no trouble. What would you like? I'll get it for you..."

Officer Huang hung up and cheerfully hummed along with the radio.

Gaoyang and Qingling sat in the back. Exhausted by the vicious battle, Qingling fell asleep against the window. A little later, the car took a sharp turn, and her head tipped onto Gaoyang's shoulder. Her loose hair spread across his lap, carrying a faint, pleasant fragrance.

"You're welcome." Officer Huang grinned at Gaoyang in the rearview mirror.

Gaoyang didn't know whether to laugh or cry. "We're not in that kind of relationship."

"Really?" Officer Huang suddenly sounded like an elder. "She's had a rough time."

"Who?"

"Qingling," Officer Huang said. "I heard she awakened when she was ten."

"Yeah. Her cousin told her."

"Ten years old, still too young to understand anything, and already having to face such a terrifying world. She must have suffered a lot. That's probably why she goes to such extremes. Thank goodness she still has that younger-sister personality."

Gaoyang tilted his head slightly. Asleep, Qingling looked far more relaxed than usual, the tension gone from her brow. Her eyelashes were long, her mouth small and delicate. Before, he had only thought of her as beautiful, cold, and formidable. Only now did he sense her vulnerable, tender side as a girl.

"We were lucky by comparison," Officer Huang said gratefully. "By the time we awakened, we were mostly mature, and we'd already had a chance to experience the love this world had to offer."

"That love was fake," Gaoyang added.

"No. The world is fake, but the love is real."

Gaoyang fell into thought.

Officer Huang offered an analogy. "It's like falling in love with someone and then breaking up. You can say the relationship was fake or meaningless, but what you felt for that person at the time was real. Those feelings belong to you. Nobody can take them away. You can carry them with you until you die."

"..."

"But Qingling doesn't have any of that. When she dies, she'll be all alone." Officer Huang paused thoughtfully. "Maybe that's why she's more obsessed with getting stronger than either of us. More than anyone, she's afraid of dying alone, as if... she'd never lived at all."

Officer Huang smiled sadly. "I love my wife, and I'll keep loving her. Even if she turns into a Beast one day and kills me, or I have to kill her, it won't change that. To me, the woman she used to be won't have disappeared or changed. She'll simply have died. Everyone dies, don't they?"

Gaoyang only half understood and offered no opinion.

Perhaps every Awakened who managed to survive in this world had their own philosophy for living. Qingling's was to grow stronger. Officer Huang's was love. What was his own?

For now, Gaoyang had no answer.

A little later, Officer Huang parked at the entrance to a bustling night market and got out. "I'm getting my wife a bowl of hot-and-sour noodles to go. Won't take long. Would you and Qingling like some, too? This place uses really chewy sweet potato noodles. I've been eating here for over a decade."

Gaoyang nodded. "Sure... Make that one extra serving."

His sister probably wouldn't be asleep yet when he got home this late.

His phone rang. Gaoyang looked down at the caller ID: Gao Xinxin.

Speak of the devil. Gaoyang answered. "Hello?"

"Gaoyang! Where are you? Come here, quick..." His sister burst into tears.