For the eighth time, Luo Wen Xu’s callcouldn’t get through, and he almost broke his desk.
Lu Luo, with a look of walking towards certaindeath, approached Luo Wen Xu to report: “The vehicle dispatch record saysthat the Vice-Captain took the jeep out alone at 1:47 in the morning.”
”What?!” Luo Wen Xu yelled, about tothrow away his cellphone.
”Captain, that cell phone case was a giftfrom the Vice-Captain—!” At the critical moment, Lu Luo spoke quickly, closingher eyes in fear.
But the expected crash wasn’t heard. Luo WenXu clenched his phone and violently shoved it back into his pocket, slappingthe table: “Give me the last position!”
The pens on the table were sent flying by thesudden earthquake. Lu Luo nervously pointed to the circle on the tablet screenand showed Luo Wen Xu. “H-here…”
Luo Wen glance at it, and, without a word, he marchedout, grabbing the heavy-duty motorcycle from a young policeman who had justreturned from duty. He slammed the throttle and rode out with a blast ofexhaust.
”Uwa, so scary…” Lu Luo coveredher face and slumped to the ground. “I need a new job.”
*
It was daybreak, the morning light shone onthe ice.
Because of last night’s heavy snowfall, thewater had turned into a thick layer of ice. From a distance, the lake appearedto be a cozy light blue.
The reservoir was used by the whole forest.The area was quite large, and currently covered with snow, the border notnoticeable at a glance. In the morning sun, a few lone birds slowly flew past,adding to the loneliness of the spacious and empty snow field. This was a goodtime to appreciate scenery and recite poetry, discussing the natural world and lifephilosophy – if you ignored the annoying racket coming from the center of thelake.
Bai Huo was wearing a turtleneck sweater, apair of thin-rimmed glasses perched on the bridge of his nose, casually sittingon a piece of rotten log. He was holding a stack of documents in one hand, anda cleaver in the other, staring at the bloody photos in the file as he “clink”,slammed the cleaver into the ice.
After a series of crisp sounds echoed, the iceonly cracked a little. The little baby dragon shook his tail and ran over, pressingagainst the crack with his small paws. His little face wrinkled, then he onceagain hid behind Bai Huo.
“The ice is too thick.” Bai Huo turned apage in the file, not even glancing up. He once again swung the cleaver, accuratelychopping at the ice crack.
The information delivered by Ji Bei included screenshotsof the surveillance video from the third case. Bai Huo’s amber eyes focused on acertain image, his glasses lens reflecting a sharp light.
The morning wind was still very cold. His hairwas a little disheveled because of the wind, and the oversized gray sweater contrastedwith his white skin, making Bai Huo’s face appear almost transparent in thesnow.
The ice surface was as stable as Mt Tai, notmoving at all. The little dragon was tired of running back and forth, hecrawled to Bai Huo’s legs and laid down on top.
”Hungry?” Bai Huo smiled and pinchedhis horns. With his head bowed, his sharp chin was covered by the sweater’scollar, making the lines of his lower jaw appear softer.
It was verypuzzling for Bai Huo to have such a friendly expression, someonewho’d never met him before would likely be attracted to the slight gentlenesshe occasionally exposed. They say that a person’s potential was 30% dependenton physiognomy, 70% dependent on bluffing. Those who were able to bluff livedrespectably, those who couldn’t were treated as degenerates. Bai Huoprobably belonged to the 30% displaying stability, 70% playing with lifecategory.
With an otherworldly expression, he violently swungthe cleaver, chopping at the ice.
The ice shards flew, water splashing in everydirection. The heart of the lake was less than a square meter, the noiseresembled a scene of slaughter.
”Oh, it cracked.” Finally, a hole appearedin the ice, Bai Huo pulled back the cleaver in satisfaction, tossing it aside,and throwing in the previously prepared fishing line. After a short while, the bobberrocked and he lifted the fishing line, pulling out a live fish.
The little dragon excitedly jumped over and presseddown the fish with his claws. Then he lowered his head and bit it. Bai Huo wastoo slow to stop the ruthless display.
”Cook it first, then eat.” Bai Huowas amused. Afraid of straining the little cub’s teeth, he didn’t jerk the fishaway, just spreading his palm by the little cub’s mouth and wiggling hisfingers, making a “Give me” gesture. “Hmm?”
The little dragon cub bit the struggling fish,looking at Bai Huo with a trace of doubt, but he still obediently put the fishin his palm.
Bai Huo was a little baffled, he grabbed thefish, earnestly observing the little cub for a few moments. Then he suddenlyrealized, no wonder this child had pointed to the live fish the last time he’dordered takeaway, he’d wanted to eat raw fish.
This matter was his fault, Bai Huo patted thelittle dragon’s head. He’d lived among humans for too long, he almost forgot,although dragons had the divine bone, in the end, they were still animalincarnations, liking raw food was natural.
”Freshwater fish are riddled withparasites.” Bai Huo pondered a bit, then asked, “Next time, why don’twe go buy salmon at the supermarket?”
The little dragon used his horns to poke hisknee in agreement, then he ran back to the ice hole and circled around, shakinghis tail in expectation.
”Want to catch another one?” Bai Huosmiled indulgently, “Okay.”
Bai Huo was about to lower the fishing line whenhis ears twitched. He reached for the little dragon, saying: “Be good, someone’scoming.”
The little dragon cub had obviously sensed ittoo, without waiting for a second warning, he changed back into human form and dashedinto Bai Huo’s arms, looking over his shoulder.
A few meters away, Luo Wen Xu aggressivelyjumped off a bike. Bai Huo walked towards him, holding the baby in one hand, andthe cleaver and fish in the other.
”Officer Luo? What a coincidence.” BaiHuo greeted him with a smile.
”When was the last time you saw Xiao Bei?”Luo Wen Xu skipped the greetings, asking as soon as he approached.
Bai Huo keenly sensed that this man’s aura wasabnormal, somewhat grim: “He left my home at four o’clock last night. Whathappened?”
“Four o’clock?” Luo Wen pulled his hair,irritated: “Which direction did he go?”
Bai Huo stared blankly, realizing thatsomething really had happened.
The two men left to find Ji Bei together.Fortunately, they found Ji Bei’s car eight kilometers away. This area wasdeserted, the snow was extraordinarily thick. Half of the jeep’s wheels weretrapped in potholes, and the windows were almost entirely covered in heavy snow.
Luo Wen Xu dashed over and started digging madly,but after opening the door, he found that there was only the car, the personinside was gone.
”Don’t worry, maybe Officer Ji cameacross an incident, and got out to rescue someone?” Bai Huo saw Luo Wen Xusilently staring at the front seat for half a day, and had no choice but to offercomfort.
Luo Wen Xu slowly turned his head, and Bai Huodiscovered that his eyes were fully bloodshot, and his eyeballs appeared to bebulging out terribly. He sighed internally, it was pretty rare to see someonein the human race who could expose such a menacing a look, this was also an oddman.
”Impossible!” Luo Wen Xu suddenlyroared, and the little baby dragon lifted his head from Bai Huo’s embrace,staring vigilantly at the other man.
Bai Huo calmly covered the little dragon cub’sears and pressed him into his coat.
”You don’t understand! Xiao Bei has twophones, one for private use, one for the unit. Even when he fell sick and hadto enter the ICU, he never forgot his work phone. It’s impossible for him todisappear for more than four hours without returning a call! Something must’vehappened to him!” When Luo Wen Xu said this, his eyes were almost crazy withparanoia, but strangely, Bai Huo also saw some unspoken fear in his eyes.
Bai Huo was considered a youngster to thedragon race, but extremely old to humanity. He was at an awkward age. He was apatheticto humanity’s mortal fate, but he also hadn’t completely collected allhis earthly desires and emotions. With these two intertwining mental states,whenever he was confronted with an emotional human, he’d always inadvertentlyreveal a somewhat helpless and uneven expression. To outsiders, he probably lookedcoldhearted.
”Calm down,” Bai Huo carried thelittle cub in one arm and inserted the other hand into his coat pocket, sayingcalmly, “If Officer Ji is really in trouble, you’ll only become a burdento him in your current state of mind.”
Luo Wen Xu’s face tightened. Clenching histeeth, he ducked into the car and started searching. The blue veins on hishands were protruding, he was obviously desperately suppressing something.
Who knew if it was because of what Bai Huosaid, but when Luo Wen Xu got out of the compartment, his face was completelyfree of anger. Only his tense throat trembled slightly as he said: “…His gun isgone.”
*
Early morning, everyone was already busilyrunning back and forth in the municipal bureau’s Criminal Investigation Unit’soffice.
”Immediately collect all the surveillancevideo recordings on that road, don’t ignore any abnormalities! Contact the policedog unit, divide the area and do a blanket search. If you find any news aboutVice-Captain Ji, tell me immediately!”
Lu Luo answered the phone and simultaneously recordedthe instructions, anxiously saying: “Captain Luo, aren’t you coming backto preside over the work?”
The uniformed officers quickly shuttled aroundthe office, the sounds of picking up a car, picking up a phone, the printers whirlingand the telephones ringing all intertwined. It was busy but orderly, the young troop’scompetence was undoubtedly revealed at this moment.
Luo Wen Xu’s silence seemed to stretch on fora particularly long time in the noisy environment. After a few moments, ahoarse voice said: “If you run into any obstacles, go to Yang Ju and tell himthat if something happens to Xiao Bei, the city bureau will never see the mannamed Luo Wen Xu again.”
Lu Luo was astonished, thinking that she had misheard:“But — tootootooto…”
Bai Huo was holding a sleepy little dragon, hecast a glance at Luo Wen Xu’s decrepit back.
The man was in his thirties, but at the moment,he looked like a child who’d just lost a loved one. He was crouched on theground, staring at a patch of blood-stained snow.
He couldn’t leave here, but was also inseparablefrom here. Luo Wen Xu painfully thought, he wasn’t Xi City’s ace, not without JiBei by his side. Calm, rationality and logical thinking, he had nothing of thatnow.
”The blood has been frozen for some time,”Bai Huo calmly analyzed, looking at the blood stain in the snow. “Thisamount of bleeding isn’t life-threatening.”
Luo Wen Xu turned to look at him, his cheekstense, the emotions in his eyes were suffocatingly heavy: “The last personXiao Bei saw was you. It’s reasonable to assume that you’re the most suspiciousperson.”
Bai Huo was baffled: “Why would I harmhim?”
Luo Wen Xu suddenly stood up and approached BaiHuo, his gaze deep: “When I first saw you, I immediately thought thatsomething was fishy about you. You’re not that annoying professor, I checked. Whothe f#ck are you, why did you get involved in the case?”
Luo Wen Xu’s mobster policeman reputation wasn’tbaseless. He had a very oppressive aura. His gaze was naturally extremely unyielding.Whenever he focused that gaze on someone, the average person wouldn’t be ableto fight back.
But Bai Huo merely shrugged indifferently andchuckled: “Guess?”
”You–” Luo Wen Xu raised his hand, butwhen he saw the child in Bai Huo’s embrace, he restrained himself, slapping thecar window, angrily saying, “You’d better have nothing to do with Xiao Bei’sdisappearance!”
The snow on the car window shuddered and fell,Bai Huo pacified the little dragon cub that was startled awake by the noise,and said without lifting his head: “So you just want to save him?”
Not waiting for Luo Wen Xu to speak, Bai Huo resignedlyretreated to the side, nodding to the stuck wheels: “Get the car out,let’s go somewhere.”
Luo Wen Xu turned to sit on top of themotorcycle.
Bai Huo scowled, saying coldly: “I’m notsitting on that, my son will freeze.”
*
It was complete darkness.
Ji Bei still hadn’t opened his eyes when hesmelled the unique coldness of an underground cave.
Nothing could be seen, but there was a sound ofdripping water, the drip drop reminding him of the opening shot of a horrormovie. The dampness and piercing cold made Ji Bei gradually wake up from hismuddleheaded-ness. He stroked the slippery ground with his fingers, determiningthat he was in quite an ancient cave.
His whole body ached, and his eyelids were soheavy that he felt like falling asleep again. Ji Bei was a detective with highself-control and endurance, he knew the consequences of falling asleep. He tooka deep breath and bit the tip of his tongue, forcing himself awake.
It turns out that the surroundings were notabsolutely dark. After his eyes adjusted, there was a faint thread of light in thecave. Ji Bei blinked a few times and looked at the mouth of the cave, unable tohelp a shudder.
Standing in the cave entrance across from himwas a huge beast. Shuffling around, it looked like it wanted to come over butdidn’t dare. Ji Bei’s eyes were also injured, he couldn’t see details for thetime being. He was only able to tell that the other side was fretful by thesound of its breathing.
The wound on Ji Bei’s neck had already stoppedbleeding. It must not have been very deep. There was something cool touchinghis skin. He wanted to reach out to touch it, but as soon as he moved, he wasoverwhelmed by sudden pain, he gasped, curling up. When the pain passed, Ji Beirealized that he was wearing a blanket. He bowed his head and sniffed. Itcarried the child’s unique fresh smell. This was the scarf that Bai Huo’s sonhad forgotten.
Memories slowly emerged in his mind. Ji Beiremembered being bitten by something soon after getting out of the jeep. He’d falleninto a short coma, as if he was sedated. Later, he’d woken up confused. Then heremembered trying to climb into the car to make a call, however, because he wastoo weak, he couldn’t pull himself up, frantically grabbing the scarf beforefalling into a coma again.
Sensing that he was awake, the strange beaston the other side of the cave was even more anxious, it eagerly clawed the earth.In the early years of his career, Ji Bei had performed some tasks in the countryside,so he had a certain understanding of wild animals. Hearing this movement, hecould judge the weight of the animal, and suddenly, his heart sank.
He reached out and groped his lower back, hisfingertips touching a familiar cold metal. His heart stabilized a bit, thankGod, he still had his gun.
There was a strange wheezing in the cave, verydeep, like a drowning ox.
The sound seemed to be a command, the restlessbehemoth flinched like it had been reprimanded, and suddenly quieted down, bowingits head to the ground.
Ji Bei looked up in amazement, and watched asthe stone that blocked the entrance slowly moved. A dim light came in, and he squinted,his dark pupils gradually widening as a slow-moving creature approached him.
- That wasn’t a stone at all, rather, it wasan even bigger beast, its length nearly three meters, and it was slowlycrawling towards him. The thing was covered in black scales, with a long snoutand big ears. It was ugly, its back tall, like a small hill, nearly identicalto the small one next to it. It was simply a giant pangolin with a pairof long wings.
“What the hell… what is…”
Ji Bei was confident that his mental fortitudewas already perfect. But now, as he finally saw the creatures in front of him, hecouldn’t stop himself from trembling. He was stiff, his scalp numb, his mouth agape,unable to make a sound for a long time.
The giant mutant pangolin moved very slowly, likean old tortoise. Ji Bei was drenched in cold sweat, he subconsciously recoiled,frantically reaching for his gun. He pulled it out and aimed at the giantbeast.
The beast was indifferent, continuing to slowlycrawl towards him.
Cold sweat streaked down Ji Bei’s pale cheeks,and he gradually calmed down the endless mental turmoil, trying to calculatehow far the bullets in his magazine could force the two beasts back.
His gun was a Type 92 semi-automatic pistol. LuoWen Xu had modified it for him. It had slightly less recoil than a normalhandgun, so it wasn’t as forceful to use, but his wrists didn’t have anystrength right now, firing 5 shots in succession was the limit. It would bequite difficult to settle the two large beasts within five shots; he alsodidn’t know how thick their scales were. In theory, the Type 92 could penetratea 5 mm steel plate within a range of 50 meters. These things were probably notthicker than a steel plate… Ji Bei absent-mindedly thought as he aimed thegun, his Adam’s apple unconsciously rolling because of tension.
The big beast finally stopped moving. Ji Beitook a deep breath and concentrated. Just as he was about to pull the trigger,the big beast suddenly lowered its body and stretched a dirty claw towards him.
”Clink”, a shiny glass bead rolled forward,gently tapping Ji Bei’s foot.
——————————————————————————————————-
T/N:
Bai Huo probably belonged to…:白惑大概就属于那三分发挥稳定，七分发挥靠命的选手- Not sure oftranslation
Mortal fate: to beborn, to grow old, to get sick and to die