After Ye Lan was pulled into an ambulance downstairs from the hot pot restaurant, it departed in a direction completely different from the Municipal Second Hospital, which was less than a kilometer away.
Xin Nan was taken to a police car.
Yan Yu, who had woken up at some unknown time, was also sitting there, with a team of SWAT officers guarding them, their expressions as solemn as if the young girl were some kind of monstrous beast.
Xin Nan's arrival gave Yan Yu, who had been red-eyed and still immersed in sadness, a sense of security.
She grabbed Xin Nan's arm and said nervously:
"Brother Li, and Brother Wang, they, they..."
Xin Nan nodded.
"They couldn't be saved."
"Wuwuwu!"
Saying this, Yan Yu buried her head and began to cry.
Xin Nan shook his head.
It wasn't that he was cold-hearted; he was also very sad, but he didn't know if it was because he had been wearing this face for too long, or if he had been ravaged by similar intense emotions for too long, but he truly couldn't muster such an expression at this moment.
Normally, he could feign his emotions, whether it was crying or sadness, he could achieve such an expression.
But now...
For some reason, he felt envious of Yan Yu.
At this moment, the JK girl also came downstairs. After instructing those around her to conduct a thorough search of the building and then seal it off for at least two months, she walked towards them.
The two SWAT officers standing in front of the police car undoubtedly recognized her. Without needing any identification, they moved aside, and the girl then got into the car, sitting in the passenger seat.
Xin Nan silently sensed that the JK girl's emotions were very bad, but she still managed a smile and said:
"Hello."
Neither Xin Nan nor Yan Yu spoke, they merely nodded in return.
The unknown girl's eyes swept over them in the rearview mirror, and with an expression of displeasure, as if something had been snatched away, she said:
"You are lucky to have survived an incident where even my colleagues were severely injured. However, I don't have much time to talk with you. Regarding this incident, I regret that I cannot tell you more. The reason I wanted to see you is simply for two reasons."
Having said this, the straightforward JK girl turned around from the passenger seat to face them directly and said:
"First, you had close contact with the entity in the hot pot restaurant. Only by interacting with you can someone like me determine how serious your problems are."
After speaking, the JK girl glanced at each of them.
"It seems you are both fine."
As she spoke, she finished her lollipop and continuously chewed on the red plastic tube in her mouth.
"Second, it's about comfort. Suddenly encountering such an event can cause significant psychological trauma, which may lead to severe loss of control later on, especially for those of you who have directly faced the weirdness and survived. After all, you have all been contaminated to some extent."
As she said this, the huge rabbit behind the girl, visible only to Xin Nan, emitted a dazzling light, also visible only to Xin Nan.
"Please don't worry. The owner of the hot pot restaurant has been eliminated. I will help you cleanse the contamination on your bodies. You are safe now. Do not pursue such incidents in the future; forget about it. Life must move forward."
With that, the girl left, waving her fist as she walked and muttering something about making sure to kill him next time.
Xin Nan could no longer hear what the girl was saying. He felt as if he had sunk into warm seawater, and all his fatigue and the tension he hadn't realized he was carrying vanished.
This ability of mental comfort was truly captivating, especially for Xin Nan. The sense of comfort was unlike anything he had ever experienced in his lifetime, so deeply immersed was he that he only realized the JK girl had disappeared when the sound of the car door closing startled him.
Just as she had said, after confirmation and comfort, she had to go do other things. People like her wouldn't have much free time to waste.
Moreover, with such a huge problem occurring tonight, the actions of the Repentance Society had escalated to a point requiring full attention.
"Is that it?"
Xin Nan suddenly felt a sense of loss. Was this how his first contact with the Materialist Bureau ended?
If he wanted to encounter them again, would he have to face the weirdness directly like today?
Looking at the girl whose retreating figure was still faintly visible, Xin Nan felt he couldn't let this opportunity pass. He quickly reached for the car door, but the back seat of this police car was locked from the inside, making it impossible to open.
Thump!*
Thump!*
At this moment, two resolute-looking police officers, who were still burly in their forties, got into the car after the girl left and started the engine.
Judging by their shoulder insignia, these two were even Chief Inspectors.
The person in the passenger seat turned back and said sternly:
"Are you Classmate Xin Nan? You are under arrest!"
Huh?!
After a moment of confusion, Xin Nan quickly reacted. Could it be because of the mercury fulminate salt?
Although the hot pot restaurant was damaged due to the fight between the Boss Lady and Ye Lan, the massive explosion marks from the mercury fulminate salt could still be easily discovered.
The words "Criminal Law" seemed to fall from the sky, quickly calming Xin Nan down.
"Um, can I contact my family first?"
The two Chief Inspectors exchanged a look, then said:
"You will have a chance to make a call later."
Fine.
Xin Nan looked out the window, and after a long while, he smiled slightly.
It's good that I'm alive, isn't it?
At 11:34 PM, Xin Nan and Yan Yu were taken to the police station on suspicion of possessing contraband.
Perhaps because they had just experienced a supernatural event, or perhaps because the station was under a lot of pressure tonight with many loose ends to tie up.
After being locked in a temporary detention room, the two were not interrogated immediately.
Xin Nan and Yan Yu were placed in separate compartments of the detention room. Perhaps due to their unique situation, there were no other inmates around, making the empty detention room feel exceptionally quiet.
Yan Yu sat slumped on the cot in the detention room, no longer her usual cheerful and optimistic self. The events of tonight had impacted them too greatly!
Xin Nan glanced at the background painting behind her, which depicted tentacle monsters with faint red lines and a few blue spots, and recalled the JK girl's words from earlier.
She said she had cleared the contamination for them, so what was remaining now?
Xin Nan couldn't help but guess that it was probably just some kind of psychological suggestion, a comfort. The contamination hadn't truly been cleared, and perhaps it couldn't be cleared at all.
And these colors, which seemed to be stained on Yan Yu's background painting, represented contamination. So, because she had faced the Boss Lady for a longer time, Yan Yu's background painting had far more red lines than blue?
Xin Nan couldn't resist peeking into this power. Compared to the powerful Boss Lady and that youth, this little bit of contamination now was insignificant. This broken and dim essence, I should be able to feel it now, right?
His gaze focused on the strange tentacles growing from Yan Yu's head. He listened with all his might, and soon he heard, saw, and felt the tangible "contamination."
An appetite that drove one mad swelled up, followed by a noisy and dense swarm of invisible whispers, as if ten thousand mouths were opening and closing within his eyes, constantly shouting.
Hungry!
Want to eat!
Xin Nan suddenly clutched his head.
This time, his peek had indeed allowed him to feel a trace of the essence of the transcendent, but it also made him understand that the emotional impact experienced by transcenders wasn't gone; rather, it had been restrained due to the fusion refinement of their essence.
When Xin Nan forcibly pierced that thin membrane to touch the transcendent, he would inevitably face an emotional impact far greater than that of an ordinary person.
Amidst the overwhelming emotion of hunger, Xin Nan painstakingly captured a trace of something different from the red lines, a different kind of blue emotion from the youth, which also began to assert its presence.
Another powerful and stubborn emotional entity, a contamination that didn't even bother to assert its own existence.
Xin Nan exhaled heavily, freeing himself from these two emotions.
"I have some understanding of what the essence of the transcendent is, but exactly..."
Touching it would inevitably bring more unknowns, and Xin Nan was now lost in bewilderment.
After suppressing it for so many years, almost despairing of his condition, and having completely resigned himself to merging into this world of composite paintings of people and monsters, the moon suddenly turned, transcendents began to appear, and those hopes inevitably resurfaced. The impact this had on him was unimaginable.
Because of this, he, who was usually calm, could not help but become confused tonight.
Sitting in the darkness, thinking, he couldn't sort out his thoughts, nor could he sleep. He sat there until he saw the moonlight shining through the distant window of the detention room. He suddenly remembered that according to the calculations of some experts, starting today, after the lunar rotation, the far side of the moon would be completely revealed, allowing for clear observation.
Furthermore, if the moon continued to rotate, it would turn back to its original face on the same day next month.
Xin Nan, who inexplicably wanted to see the moon tonight, stood up.
He saw that Yan Yu had fallen asleep at some unknown time and was letting out soft snoring sounds.
Xin Nan smiled slightly, then cast aside his thoughts and sat down at the outermost edge of his detention compartment, looking towards the small window on the wall five meters away.
I wonder if I'll be able to see the moon today?
After he sat down, he didn't notice that Yan Yu, in the detention room behind the bars he was leaning against, had silently turned over, arched her back, and with astonishing flexibility, almost folded her body in half before slowly and silently climbing down from the cot.
With snoring sounds.
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