“Shen Zhuo!” Yue Yang chased him down the steps and called sharply.
The guards outside the Supervision Office building thought they were seeing things and hurriedly raised their hands in salute. Staff in the distance whispered among themselves.
“Is that Chief Yue?”
“Why would he come to Shenhai?”
“What happened?”
...
Shen Zhuo finally stopped. He turned around and drew a breath. “What can I do for you, Chief Yue?”
Yue Yang seemed not to hear the impatience in his words at all. He looked straight at him, calm. “I heard what happened last night. What you did was too dangerous.”
“...”
“You are one of the world’s ten permanent Supervisors, but what you did last night went beyond even the safety parameters of an ordinary Supervisor. What if backup hadn’t arrived in time? What if the other side had played along and taken the opportunity to abduct you?”
“There are many people in this world who want you dead. You have to remember at all times that safety comes first.”
They stood only inches apart. Shen Zhuo folded his arms and stared at him with a faint frown. After a moment, he said coldly, “The people in this world who want me dead the most are from your Central Supervision Office.”
Yue Yang seemed about to say something, but Shen Zhuo cut him off.
“Save it. You and I are not in a relationship where we can perform concern for each other.”
“...” Yue Yang was silent for a moment. “Fu Chen would not want anything to happen to you. After his death, I have a responsibility to ensure that much for him.”
“Sorry, I can’t understand the loyal brotherhood between you evolutionists.” Shen Zhuo’s voice carried a trace of undisguised mockery. “What, did you come to Shenhai personally to wail at Zhao Jun’s funeral?”
Yue Yang had clearly been tempered by years of this kind of torment into possessing exceptional restraint. Several seconds passed before he took a deep breath.
“The Central Supervision Office sent an invitation to that S-Class named Bai Sheng, but he rejected it. He said he only wanted to stay in Shenhai. So I arranged to meet him later and planned to persuade him in person to reconsider accepting the central jurisdiction’s recruitment.”
Shen Zhuo said, “Then go find him.”
Yue Yang’s tone sharpened slightly. “Bai Sheng told me he has already submitted an application to the Shenhai City Supervision Office and is only waiting for your approval.”
There was not a soul in front of the Supervision Office building. Even the patrol guards had detoured far around them. Only the two of them stood on the steps, one higher and one lower.
“He did submit an application, but I have already rejected it,” Shen Zhuo replied calmly after a moment, every word strictly official.
“Most evolutionists exhibit sociobehavioral regression. Specifically, they develop a clear internal class system, as well as an instinctive obedience of lower ranks toward higher ranks. In other words, it is extremely similar to the ecological model of a wolf pack. Therefore, a high-ranking evolutionist is like the alpha of a population. He can shake the order and balance of an entire region, just as Fu Chen once ruled the entire central jurisdiction, and after Fu Chen died, you replaced him as the alpha.”
“...”
“Shenhai is the largest evolutionist gathering zone in the world. Balance and order are paramount. I will absolutely not allow this city to have an uncrowned king.” Shen Zhuo said, “If you do not take Bai Sheng away, I will find a way to expel him.”
Yue Yang was silent for a long time. At last, he answered in a low voice, “I understand. Thank you for reminding me once again exactly how discriminatory you are toward evolutionists.”
Shen Zhuo nodded in agreement, then turned and walked back up the steps.
His right hand was tucked into the pocket of his suit pants. His left hung by his side, the long fingers wrapped in a black leather glove, even the knuckles clearly outlined. In the instant they passed each other, Yue Yang’s gaze fell on that left hand, and he could not help raising his voice.
“Shen Zhuo!”
Shen Zhuo glanced at him from the corner of his eye.
Yue Yang fell silent for an instant. By the time the words reached his mouth, they had become, “The third anniversary of Fu Chen’s death is coming up. Will you attend the memorial ceremony?”
The faint sound of cars and people drifted over from the street, but this small space was so quiet it seemed as if even the air had frozen.
Shen Zhuo stopped. He looked down at Yue Yang from above. After a moment, he gave a quiet laugh.
“You really are very concerned about your brother’s affairs after death, Chief Yue.”
Yue Yang paused. “I only—”
Shen Zhuo bent down. The corner of his mouth curved in an undisguised arc as he whispered by Yue Yang’s ear, “If you keep going like this, I’ll have no choice but to suspect whether you’re really concerned about your brother in the grave, or whether you’ve always had feelings for me—”
BOOM!
A supercar’s engine exploded to life.
A Koenigsegg drifted around the corner and arrived like lightning, its engine roar shaking the entire street. The next second, its tires came to an abrupt stop with a piercing screech, and the car steadied perfectly in front of the Supervision Office building.
Under countless astonished and envious gazes from both sides of the road, that walking twenty million yuan lifted its scissor door. The handsome man in the driver’s seat took off his sunglasses.
It was Bai Sheng.
“Yo!” he called out warmly. “What are you two whispering about? Count me in?”
Yue Yang: “...”
Shen Zhuo: “...”
Bai Sheng swung one long leg out and easily stepped over the barrier gate, even waving in passing at the guard in the duty booth, whose jaw had nearly hit the floor. This man clearly had some kind of terminal social-audacity disorder. With both hands in his pockets, he walked with the wind at his heels. In just a dozen meters, he somehow turned the path into an international male-model runway show. When he reached the foot of the building and looked up, he found himself facing rows of stunned faces crammed behind the windows.
Bai Sheng beamed like a spring breeze. “Hello, comrades! Thank you for your hard work!”
Upstairs, Chen Miao answered on reflex, “Serving the peop— What are you all looking at? Why are you all crowded by the windows? Get back to work!”
Everyone snapped out of it and instantly scattered like startled birds.
“You must be Chief Yue. I’ve heard so much about you.” Bai Sheng proactively and forcibly shook hands with the blank-faced Yue Yang, then turned to Shen Zhuo. First, he carefully looked Shen Zhuo over from top to bottom, his gaze sweeping openly from the tips of his hair to the soles of his shoes. Only then did he smile and ask, “Sleep well last night, Supervisor?”
“...” There was something subtle in Shen Zhuo’s tone. “What are you doing at the Supervision Office, Mr. Bai?”
Some people these days really did owe their charm entirely to comparison. On a certain Mr. Bai’s first meeting with Supervisor Shen, he had aggressively flexed his muscles while forcing Supervisor Shen to button his shirt for him. On their second meeting, he had wrapped an arm around Supervisor Shen and spectacularly come out in public, nearly scaring his own uncle insane. But now, on their third meeting, with this Mr. Bai standing shoulder to shoulder beside Chief Yue from the central jurisdiction, the contrast somehow made him look much easier on the eyes. Even that naturally unserious tone of his suddenly did not sound annoying at all.
“Chief Yue said he flew over from the central jurisdiction today to invite me to dinner, so I stopped by on the way to see whether Supervisor Shen had time. If you did, I was going to pick you up too... Didn’t expect to run into you two together.” Bai Sheng winked teasingly at Shen Zhuo. “Come on. Whole roasted lamb. Coming?”
Yue Yang coughed and explained in a low voice, “Supervisor Shen never eats outside. The General Administration has safety regulations for him...”
“You drove a two-seater. Am I supposed to sit on the roof?” Shen Zhuo said coldly.
Yue Yang froze.
Shen Zhuo stopped looking at them, turned, walked up the steps, and went straight into the building.
“Yo, he’s angry.” Bai Sheng watched him disappear in disbelief. “I was just about to say I’d let him drive, and I’d carry the car and run.”
Yue Yang finally could not hold back. “Are you two close?”
Bai Sheng’s movements paused, as if he had heard some unbelievable question. “Close?”
“...”
“How can the relationship between people be defined by something as simple as close or not close? Supervisor Shen and I recognized each other as kindred spirits at first sight, regretted not meeting sooner, met like soulmates across mountains and rivers, and a single day apart feels like years!”
“...”
Yue Yang looked at Bai Sheng’s solemn expression and, for a moment, did not know how to react. He suddenly felt that maybe Shen Zhuo’s earlier line about “I will find a way to expel him” had been something he had imagined.
“Tch, let me tell you.” Bai Sheng forcibly slung an arm over Yue Yang’s shoulders like they were old buddies and led him toward the supercar by the roadside, speaking with relish as he walked. “Supervisor Shen and I recognized each other as each other’s true confidant the first time we met, you know? That day was at the airport. Supervisor Shen specially brought a whole group of people to the aircraft door to welcome me, helped me with my luggage, and even let me ride home in his official car. He said he would definitely treat me with great warmth and friendliness, and even took the initiative to disclose part of the Supervisor’s Work Manual to me...”
Yue Yang’s steps paused. “He voluntarily disclosed the contents of his manual to you?”
“That’s right,” Bai Sheng said without the slightest change in expression or heartbeat. “Article One, Clause One, and Article One, Clause Ten.”
Every work manual was specially customized according to the Supervisor’s personal situation—and judging by Yue Yang’s expression, he clearly did not know what was inside Shen Zhuo’s manual.
“After years wandering in a foreign land, when I finally returned to my homeland, Supervisor Shen was the first person to open his arms and welcome me. The first to drape clothing over me. His silent and selfless care finally let me feel the warmth, consideration, and love I had long yearned for!”
Bai Sheng generously helped the internet girls sitting on the hood take photos one by one, posed with them making peace signs, smiled and waved them goodbye, then turned back to Yue Yang and said with feeling,
“Tell me, Chief Yue. How could I bear to leave Shenhai for B City? How could I leave this native soil that gave birth to me and raised me?”
Yue Yang felt he ought to say something. But he opened his mouth, and a thousand words clogged in his throat, none of them able to come out. In a daze, he felt that the world he had seen might still have been too small.
“Come on. Let’s go eat whole roasted lamb.” Bai Sheng lifted the car door for Yue Yang and clapped his hands with great cheer. “After we finish, I’ll personally drive you to the airport. I guarantee I’ll deliver you safely, quickly, and without wasting a single second back to B City!”
Yue Yang: “...”
The supercar accelerated away with a roar, leaving only a thread of exhaust slowly dispersing behind it.
Upstairs, by his office window, Shen Zhuo withdrew his gaze and murmured, “If I live to a hundred in this lifetime, I’ll have to thank those two for joining forces and getting the hell out of Shenhai.”
The team member behind the desk, who had just finished giving a work report, froze. “Huh? Supervisor, what did you say?”
“Nothing.” Shen Zhuo said mildly. He waved the team member out, walked to his desk, put on his glasses, and opened his computer.
According to Zhao Jun’s statement, the broker Thirteen Orphans had stolen the real evolution source from the owner, “Mr. Rong,” then used a counterfeit to cheat Zhao Jun out of a huge sum before disappearing completely. No one knew whether he was dead or had fled with the real evolution source.
Leaving the broker Thirteen Orphans aside for now—who was “Mr. Rong”?
Disabled. Young. Wheelchair-bound. But there was no one matching that description in the nationwide evolutionist data system.
Could he be an ordinary person?
Not likely.
According to the experience of Supervisors across the world’s major jurisdictions, the black-market trade in evolution sources was basically dominated by evolutionists. Even if a small number of ordinary humans were involved, they could only play the role of brokers—because evolutionists were highly united internally and extremely exclusionary. Ordinary people had no way to obtain resources this rare, something comparable to weapons-grade contraband.
But the key point was this: why would an evolutionist be in a wheelchair?
The first step of evolution was absolute physical enhancement. Severed limbs regenerated. All illnesses disappeared. Even cancer cells could be cleared out instantly. It was no exaggeration to say that even if this “Mr. Rong” had been born without all four limbs, after evolution, he could have regrown two legs in the blink of an eye.
Evolution and disability were, in themselves, an incompatible paradox.
Then, could the disability be related to this person’s special ability?
Some strange intuition in Shen Zhuo’s subconscious kept warning him. Many times throughout his life, this instinct for danger had saved his life. But right now, he did not know where the danger was coming from.
Shen Zhuo exhaled silently and sent a request for assistance to the International Supervision General Administration.
Requests like this generally took at least several business days to receive a reply, so after sending it, he paid it no further attention. He held a meeting, then dealt with the backlog of work. Outside the window, the sky went from bright to dark. By the time he approved the final report, it was already nine at night. The Supervision Office had already switched to the night-duty team. His driver was waiting outside the office. Seeing Shen Zhuo push the door open, he immediately stood and saluted.
“Supervisor, will you be going home to rest tonight?”
Shen Zhuo put on his coat and walked toward the stairs. “There’s a security seminar at the military district tomorrow morning. Notify the airport to prepare the official plane.”
A black bulletproof sedan drove along the highway. Rows of streetlights swept rapidly backward outside the windows. Shen Zhuo leaned against the back seat with his eyes closed, resting.
Far ahead on the road, the military airport was brightly lit beneath the night sky.
“Supervisor.” The driver took a call, then looked toward the back seat through the rearview mirror. “Team Leader Chen said they produced a portrait of the broker Thirteen Orphans according to Zhao Jun’s description, and urgently identified him from the portrait. The file was just sent over.”
Shen Zhuo opened his eyes. His gaze was clear, without the slightest trace of drowsiness. He reached out and took the tablet the driver handed him.
Thirteen Orphans’ real name was Liu Sanji, forty-one years old, a migrant worker with multiple prior convictions for theft. His file photo was displayed on the tablet. He was a short man with narrow eyes and a square face, with the vicious, highly alert air of someone used to scraping along at the bottom of society.
Unexpectedly, he was a Class D evolutionist.
A Class D evolutionist’s ability was extremely weak. If Liu Sanji had been a habitual thief before evolving, then out of a desire to obtain power, it would not be strange for him to take the risk of stealing his supplier’s evolution source. Zhao Jun’s testimony stated that he later lost contact with Liu Sanji. If this broker had not been caught and killed by “Mr. Rong,” then he should have fled with the real evolution source.
Shen Zhuo rubbed his brow. “Have Chen Miao issue an assistance notice to every major Supervision jurisdiction. This person may know important information about Mr. Rong. Capture him if possible. Do not kill him on sight.”
“Yes!”
Shen Zhuo casually placed the tablet beside him and leaned back against the seat, closing his eyes.
On the tablet screen, Liu Sanji wore an orange prison uniform, his long, narrow eyes glaring up at the roof of the car.
At the same time, outside the window.
On the rolling slope beside the highway, a man watched the black bulletproof official car speeding toward him and narrowed his fierce, slender eyes. Around his neck hung an evolution-source meteorite glowing with a dim light.
It was Liu Sanji.
“Within half a month, bring Shen Zhuo, Supervisor of Shenhai City, before me. Otherwise, you and everything you owe will be reclaimed by me. Do you understand?”
Mr. Rong’s gentle, smiling voice echoed again by his ear. A chill shot up from deep in Liu Sanji’s bones, and he gritted his teeth.
A few strands of bleak moonlight leaked through gaps in the dark clouds, illuminating the group of pale, rigid figures standing behind him. Liu Sanji drew a breath, looked at the official car as it gradually approached, and rasped two words:
“Do it.”
Ahead was the elevated bridge. After getting off the bridge, they would arrive at the military airport. The driver skillfully turned on the signal and drove onto the empty bridge. In the back seat, a phone abruptly rang.
Shen Zhuo opened his eyes and looked. The screen showed an unknown number. “Hello?”
The next instant, Bai Sheng’s bright, enthusiastic voice came through the phone. “Hello, Supervisor Shen. Had dinner yet? Chief Yue and I just finished whole roasted lamb. I packed you two pieces of lamb belly and a lamb leg—”
Without saying a word, Shen Zhuo hung up.
The atmosphere in the car was as heavy and dead as a coffin.
After a long while, the driver gave two dry ha-ha’s. He was already trying very hard to ease the mood, though it sounded more like his throat muscles were spasming.
“Brother Bai really never forgets to care about our Shenhai City Supervision Office, ha ha ha!”
Shen Zhuo said calmly, “When we get back, find out who gave Bai Sheng my phone number. Once you find them, dock half a year’s bonus.”
“...” The driver said, “Yes!”
Shen Zhuo put down his phone.
Just then, the roof of the car suddenly went—
Bang!
The entire vehicle shook violently. Both of them looked up at the same time. Shen Zhuo instinctively reached into his coat.
The driver’s expression changed slightly. “Something fell onto the roof. Supervisor Shen, fasten your seat belt. I—”
Before he finished speaking, a huge, pale human face leaned down from the roof of the car. Dozens of eyes crowded across its entire face, staring at him in unison through the windshield.
“!!”
The driver’s pupils contracted. The steering wheel slipped sharply. The tires scraped against the ground with a piercing screech. The scenery outside the window spun wildly, and the bridge pillar ahead rushed toward them at terrifying speed—
BOOM!!
Impact and darkness arrived at the same time. It was as if all five senses vanished in an instant.
...
No one knew how much time passed before consciousness gradually returned. Sharp pain swallowed his mind all the way up from the ends of his nerves.
Shen Zhuo opened his eyes. His vision could not focus after the violent collision. After a moment, he squeezed his eyes shut, then opened them again. Everything before him slowly became clear.
The air around him was full of the smell of burned rubber and gasoline. The cabin had been crushed and deformed. The seat was upside down. Fresh blood shaken out of his ears wound all the way toward the corner of his eye.
The car had flipped.
“...Cough, cough, cough.” Shen Zhuo choked up several mouthfuls of bloody foam and called the driver’s name. “Luo Zhen?”
There was no answer from the driver’s seat.
Shen Zhuo forcefully unbuckled his seat belt and reached out to push the warped car door. Then his movements abruptly stopped.
Outside the car came a cluster of stiff, dragging footsteps, drawing closer and clearer. Very soon, they surrounded the vehicle from all sides. Through the window, pairs of bare feet could be seen on the asphalt.
Those definitely were not the feet of living people.
They were pale and swollen. From instep to calf, they were covered in cut after cut, and inside the flesh of each wound crowded tiny rolling eyes. Dense and lively, they suddenly all swiveled toward Shen Zhuo inside the car.
Then the car window—
CRASH!!
The bulletproof glass shattered. Several hands packed with tiny eyes scrambled over one another as they reached inside.