"Snow Cedar"

Out on the field, Hu Zihao and Han He had not encountered any other police officers. They were deeply dejected. Just as Hu Zihao was planning to blow his own cover by shouting and then have the police call an ambulance, they saw an officer rush out of the classroom building. A little while later, Shi Yu walked out.

Shi Yu's legs had recovered a little. After explaining the situation to the teacher, he returned to his class's line. As he passed Han He, Shi Yu nudged him lightly with his elbow.

Han He understood and nodded to Hu Zihao. Both big guys immediately relaxed.

Shi Yu was a little tired.

To be precise, he was exhausted.

To make the young officer quickly believe and remember what he had said, he had used his ability again.

Two successful uses of "Thought" in succession had rapidly drained Shi Yu's energy. Once he returned to the line and relaxed, exhaustion overwhelmed him completely. He stood there listlessly, not even listening to what the police were saying.

"There are students missing from our school, and a monster is killing people. You have to tell your superiors and get the school to suspend classes or lift the lockdown!"

Shi Yu's mind began to grow muddled. The strong focus "Thought" gave him began to weaken after his consecutive uses of the ability, even leaving him more severely distracted. He felt adrift, and even after he returned to the classroom and the bell rang to end the morning's classes, he still had not registered it.

By the time Shi Yu came to his senses, Han He had already put a spoonful of stir-fried greens and rice into his mouth. He chewed, then looked down and saw that most of the food on the tray on his desk had already been eaten.

"...Huh?"

Shi Yu swallowed the food in his mouth and looked blankly at Han He and Hu Zihao beside him.

"Damn, you're finally back with us. You were just like my grandpa with dementia. You have no idea how scary that was. You scared the hell out of us! Whenever we called you, you just babbled nonsense. It was terrifying."

As Hu Zihao spoke, he lowered the spoonful of meat and rice in his hand.

"You overused your 'Origin.'"

Han He did not seem bothered. He scooped up another spoonful of rice.

"I don't know whether you're different from an inheritor, but once, after I overused my own power-my 'Origin'-I was so exhausted I couldn't get up. I lay there for two whole days. If my grandpa hadn't fed me, I might have starved to death."

Shi Yu: "..."

Only after putting the spoonful of rice into Shi Yu's mouth did Han He slowly say:

"You have to be careful. I should have realized a powerful ability would come with a heavy drain. That was my oversight."

Beside them, Hu Zihao gave Shi Yu a thumbs-up and said:

"You're seriously incredible! This is no different from making your wishes come true! We really owe you this time. Someone might come this afternoon, and we'll be saved!"

Although Shi Yu had regained some clarity, he still had little strength. All he could do was nod and say:

"That would be ideal."

Scooping up a mouthful of vegetables himself, Shi Yu ground his back teeth and thought bitterly.

I hate atheists! Stubborn bastards!

"Achoo!!! Achoo!!!"

Yuan Qiu sneezed hard twice.

"One sneeze means someone misses you, two means they're cursing you, three means they're talking about you. Who's cursing me?"

Yuan Qiu rubbed his nose and muttered.

"Who would curse you? What, did a teacher mistake you for a peeping Tom while you were walking around the school and give you an earful?"

Wu Xiaofeng teased him.

"Oh, shut up. Speaking of which, didn't we make this trip for nothing? Nothing happened...? Nothing happened, huh. And we made such a big production of it."

Li Yanguo sighed and said:

"It can't be helped. When something like this comes up, we have to check it out."

Yuan Qiu nodded too, but a trace of doubt surfaced in his mind.

Why did I feel like something was off just now?

At the school gates, Yang Desheng and Zhang Ya watched the police car drive away and smiled in satisfaction.

"Just mortals. Even if they find something, what can they do? No one can stop our tide."

The two turned to look back at the school.

During the midday break, the school quietly sank into a deep sleep.

At the police station.

Wu Xiaofeng and the others returned to the station, gave their superiors a brief report, and handed in their body cameras. Then they got ready to write up a duty report.

Before Wu Xiaofeng and the others even had time to take off their jackets, their bottoms had barely touched their chairs when they saw Li Yanguo rush in with a grave expression.

"What's wrong, Captain Li?"

Yuan Qiu had only taken his jacket halfway off. Seeing Li Yanguo's expression, he hurriedly stopped.

"Everyone, get to the conference room now. There's a problem with the body camera footage from just now!"

Li Yanguo was brief and to the point. With that, he turned and left.

"Huh? How's that possible? I clearly remember us checking the body cameras before we left and turning them on at the school gates. What happened?"

Yuan Qiu was puzzled, but all three moved briskly, heading straight out to the conference room to see what had happened.

Soon, everyone had arrived. Li Yanguo and the other three stared at the body camera footage. Sure enough, something was wrong. All the sound and images had become unclear, and the clips overlapped in a confused jumble.

But the timestamp advanced normally, which could only mean the body cameras had malfunctioned.

"What's going on? Xiaofeng, do you know anything about this?"

Yuan Qiu asked Wu Xiaofeng quietly beside him.

Wu Xiaofeng shook his head to indicate that he did not know.

"Captain Li... the cameras probably malfunctioned, right? The station's equipment has been in use for quite a few years. Nothing happened on this call anyway. If it didn't record, it didn't record. We can send them in for repairs later."

Liu Mingyuan, the youngest of them, spoke quietly.

Li Yanguo shook his head and said:

"We've already tested them. They were working just now. Only the stretch at the school has no sound or picture."

Yuan Qiu thought for a moment and said:

"Could the school have some kind of signal jammer?"

Li Yanguo said nothing. After a moment of silence, he said:

"Something feels wrong. Report it up the chain. This is too strange."

"Huh? Won't we just get chewed out if we report it? Besides, apart from those few appearances, we haven't seen those people on temporary assignment at all. Are they really any use? I don't want to deal with them at all."

Yuan Qiu curled his lip. Everyone present knew that reporting an incident like this meant handing it to those "well-connected hires." But several similar incidents reported in the past had turned out to be ordinary equipment problems, or officers making a fuss out of laziness and trying to pass the buck. Not only had they gained nothing, they had been severely punished.

"Then let them chew us out. All four body cameras broke? I don't buy it. If anything happens, I'll take responsibility."

Li Yanguo's stance did not soften. He shook his head and walked straight out of the room.

Seeing this, Wu Xiaofeng could hardly say anything, and they all left the conference room too.

Back in their room, they took off their jackets.

Yuan Qiu and Liu Mingyuan grumbled about Li Yanguo making a mountain out of a molehill. Wu Xiaofeng shook his head without saying anything and turned to get his cup.

As Wu Xiaofeng went to get his cup and fill it with water, he noticed a red, swollen mark on his arm.

When did I get scratched? Wait...

Wu Xiaofeng set down his cup and ran his fingers over the red, swollen scratch. He saw that the scratch curved into an arrow at the middle of his forearm.

Why don't I remember this at all? Someone clearly scratched this deliberately. What does it mean? A curving arrow. Is there something in this spot?

Wu Xiaofeng turned his arm over to look. There were no other scratches on the back.

Wu Xiaofeng lowered his arm and found that the arrow pointed to a spot slightly lower down at his side.

My side... where my pocket is?

Wu Xiaofeng hurriedly turned and grabbed his jacket, reaching into its inner pocket.

There was a cigarette pack inside.

Wu Xiaofeng shook the pack and heard that only a few cigarettes were left. It was not the brand he smoked, either. He had no memory of ever buying this pack and did not know why it was in his jacket pocket.

He opened the cigarette pack and saw words written in tiny lettering on the lid:

"There's a ghost. Get out now!"

Wu Xiaofeng was astonished. He had no memory of this whatsoever. At the same time, he looked inside the pack. Beneath the two remaining cigarettes, a small slip of paper lay flat at the bottom.

Wu Xiaofeng hurriedly interrupted Yuan Qiu and Liu Mingyuan's complaints and had them come look at the cigarette pack in his hand.

After looking at it, Yuan Qiu said with distaste:

"Damn, who'd play such a stupid prank? That was in your pocket?"

Wu Xiaofeng had already picked out the slip of paper. He said with certainty:

"Impossible. I usually keep my clothes locked in my locker. I'm certain there was nothing inside when we left. I have no memory of anyone getting close to me at the school. No one had a chance to slip anything into my inner pocket."

By now, Wu Xiaofeng had unfolded the note. As he read the words on it, he felt cold sweat soaking his back.

"Whoever you are, as long as you're outside the school and have no connection to No. 12 Middle School, seeing this note means I succeeded. You won't remember anything about how you got this note, because your memories have been erased. There is a monster at No. 12 Middle School that can affect people's memories. Many students have already died at its hands. The vast majority of the school leadership is connected to the monster. Please save the children at the school."

"...Call Captain Li. I'm going to find that squad right now."

After instructing the other two, Wu Xiaofeng snatched up the note and cigarette pack and rushed out of the room without hesitation.

"Hey! You actually believe it?"

Yuan Qiu did not believe it at all, but Liu Mingyuan beside him followed Wu Xiaofeng's instructions and called Li Yanguo.

"Why are all of you so superstitious?"

Yuan Qiu muttered, setting his cup aside.

Wu Xiaofeng walked urgently, his mentor's words echoing in his head.

"Ghosts have started appearing in this world."

Wu Xiaofeng did not head in the same direction as Li Yanguo. Instead, he went toward a room that had only been converted into an office this year. He gritted his teeth, aware that he was bypassing the chain of command, but he truly felt something was strange. He hurried to the office door and looked up at its sign.

The sign did not bear the name of any functional department. Instead, there were only two words, two words that had absolutely nothing to do with a police station:

"Snow Cedar"