Chapter 54: The Contents of the Box
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Shi Rang sat at the packing table by the door, a spot where he could absorb the full force of passing traffic fumes and noise. There were empty seats inside; this strange woman had no reason whatsoever to approach a disheveled man drenched in sweat.
She was dressed fashionably, with an armful of shopping bags from luxury clothing stores. Her leather jacket, knee-high boots, and shorts each cost more than everything Shi Rang was wearing put together, yet she had come straight over.
His exhausted mind dredged up several possible explanations.
Trying to preserve at least a shred of dignity in front of a stranger, he pulled a tissue from the table and wiped his face, removing the dirt stuck to him after his spill. At the same time, he used his body to shield the plastic bag—Jack was hiding in the pocket on that side.
“I’m married.”
The woman’s slightly parted lips trembled. Whatever she had intended to say, she could no longer bring herself to say it.
Her eyes shifted, then fixed on the electric scooter parked beside Shi Rang.
“Nice ride.”
Shi Rang warily covered his pocket and whipped his gaze toward his only means of transportation, making sure it was still there.
A moment ago, he had suspected that she was trying to pick him up. Now he began to suspect she was an accomplice in a theft ring—the sort who distracted the victim while someone else slipped away with his wallet.
He used his thumb to push his phone and wallet deeper into his pocket.
Suddenly, a packed serving of fried noodles landed between them. The owner stepped in front of Shi Rang, blocking the woman from him.
His savior had arrived!
“Sorry to keep you waiting, Shi Rang. Come by for a drink sometime—what can I get you?”
Shi Rang was rubbing his aching temples and had just opened his mouth to thank him when his eyes suddenly widened. He grabbed the fried noodles and cola and left, nearly forgetting the shopping bags. Before the woman could remind him about them and trap him in another conversation, he hurried back, snatched them up, and sped away on his electric scooter.
He had briefly activated his sensing ability while taking advantage of the interruption—and discovered that the woman was carrying a signal.
She was with the Bureau!
Device designation: Eta-2 “Witches’ Coven” Dedicated Communicator No. 0015.
And she was a special operative of the Mobile Task Force!
All the fatigue drained from Shi Rang’s body. Enduring his headache, he fled the scene at top speed, terrified that if he stayed even one second longer, she would pin him to the ground and take him into custody.
The little electric scooter, traveling at no less than forty kilometers an hour, vanished into the distance. Vanessa withdrew the hand she had not yet extended and smoothed away the faintly throbbing vein at her temple.
For one brief moment, she genuinely wanted to mount her motorcycle and chase after him to ask what, exactly, he was so guilty about.
“When I saw him at noon, I didn’t think much of it. Now I really do think this guy is suspicious as hell…”
“Um, what would you like?” the owner asked with an ingratiating smile, repeating himself.
“Two servings of your best-selling fried noodles… Oh, make that one for my colleague too.” Vanessa pointed at the menu. “Boss, do you know that handsome guy from earlier?”
“You mean Shi Rang? He’s a fine young fellow—honest and dependable. But unfortunately, he’s had a hard life.”
“Oh? What happened to him?”
The noodle shop owner was very talkative. While clearing the tables in preparation for the evening rush, he chatted with Vanessa.
“It’s a long story. His wife left without a word only a few years after they married, and there hasn’t been a trace of her since. He didn’t believe what people told him. He insisted she was missing and kept searching for her. No one could talk him out of it. In the end, everyone got used to it and just let him be… Sigh. He’s not a bad man. He just can’t get past that hurdle. The Tenth District is a terrible place. How long can a young couple endure hardship together? Once life loses its flavor, people split up, don’t they? If only they could move back to the Second District…”
Vanessa was not surprised to hear such a “story.”
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Who could blame her? She had a face capable of captivating anyone. Human beings were creatures ruled by appearances, and beautiful women could always win people’s goodwill with ease.
“He was originally from the Second District?”
“That’s right. Like me, he came from the Second District. But somehow, a few years ago, he lost his residency rights…”
Vanessa paid little attention to the rest of the story.
She swung her motorcycle key ring around as she waited for the packed orders she had promised to bring Kyle.
From the Second District. No wonder he had yellow skin.
At last, she had identified the source of that familiar feeling she had experienced at noon.
He looked like the sort of person who was constantly inviting trouble…
Investigating a suspicious individual hardly required an elite operative from the Mobile Task Force like her. She had other matters to attend to.
And yet, why did she have such an uneasy feeling…?
* * *
Shi Rang slammed the front door shut. His body slid slowly down against it until he landed on the floor.
The outside world was simply too frightening. He had gone out for a bowl of noodles and run straight into someone from the Bureau!
He was better off staying home.
He was so exhausted he did not want to move a single finger. After sitting there for a while, he was finally lured into opening the package by the aroma of food. He snapped apart the disposable chopsticks, scraped off the splinters, and bent over his meal.
Shi Rang did not forget to fish out a few strands for the miniature people, using the plastic lid as their plate.
Though there were an alarming number of them, feeding the miniature people was easy enough—much like feeding ants. Jack ate a little more than the others, but an extra strand of noodles was enough to fill him.
Shi Rang wondered whether they could even taste the food.
After eating, he returned to the business of living. Before the egg liquid in the plastic bag could spill across the floor, he began cleaning up.
The miniature sheriff climbed onto his ear. While washing the unbroken eggs, Shi Rang listened to his report.
“…Someone cleaned up the scene for me?”
His first concern was that person’s safety.
Anyone who came into direct contact with the living tissue of a stitched corpse risked infection. For some unknown reason, Shi Rang had not been infected, but there was no guarantee that everyone else would be as lucky.
Fortunately, corpses now feared the light. The sun had risen not long after Shi Rang left, and the Bureau’s report had made no mention of discovering any corpses.
Even if one had slipped through the net, it had probably been dried out by the sun.
But the problem now was not the corpses…
Besides the Bureau and Shi Rang, there was apparently a third party.
These people might have known about the anomaly and taken precautions against the corpses’ infectious nature. For some unknown reason, they had even helped him—as if they did not want anyone to know what had happened at the scene…
Shi Rang stopped washing, turned off the tap, and stared blankly at the whirlpool spiraling down the drain.
Everything happened for a reason. The appearance of a third party was no exception.
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Apart from Shi Rang and the corpse, there had actually been one other person at the scene—
Bjorn.
Bjorn was on the Bureau’s wanted list, charged with desertion. He had also been carrying a briefcase, and in the delirious nonsense he had spouted before his death, he had mentioned a rendezvous…
Could the third party be the people Bjorn had arranged to meet?
The problem was, why had Bjorn arranged to meet Shi Rang?
Surely the rendezvous point could not really have been in Yunling New District?
As for the connection between two people who had never met before, there was one possibility…
The Link Mainframe was Shi Rang’s own ability. His accelerated healing and sensing ability seemed to have originated from the mutated Bjorn.
Could it be that, in his confusion, mutated Bjorn had mistaken the communication signals between Shi Rang and Robin for rendezvous instructions, then pursued the signal obsessively across the districts to kill Shi Rang—the man who had “ruined his plans”?
If Shi Rang had not been in Yunling New District at the time, would Bjorn have driven straight into the city to take his life…?
Shi Rang’s headache began to worsen.
He shook the water from his hands and returned to the shower room, where he filled a basin for Jack and the miniature people, who had been clamoring for a bath. A thin layer of water covering the bottom was enough for them.
Then Shi Rang took out the briefcase hidden behind the toilet.
It was remarkably well sealed. The countless scratches and dents covering its surface had not managed to split the casing even slightly.
While the miniature people played in the water and bathed, Shi Rang sat on the bathroom floor with a hammer and chisel, striking away with a clanging racket.
After more than half an hour, his arms numb, he finally managed to chisel open the clasps.
Fortunately, the case had no additional lock. It was simply built to be exceptionally sturdy.
“You opened it?” Jack leaped out of the basin, shook himself dry, and dashed over to Shi Rang. He hopped up and down, craning his neck. “What’s inside? What is it?”
The other miniature people crowded around as well, gathering in a cluster on Shi Rang’s knee.
Shi Rang placed the heavily wrapped object from inside the briefcase on the floor.
There was no containment specimen, no nuclear launch button, no astronomical bank balance, no gold or jewels. There were only two documents, both protected beneath layer after layer of wrapping.
The miniature people saw the contents before Shi Rang did. Their collective gasp was loud enough for him to hear.
Through the thick plastic film, the document titles could just barely be made out:
CVA-A-044, “Eye of God”
and
Containment Specimen Relocation Plan for the Temporary Station in the Twelfth District.
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