Turning back is home

When they opened their eyes again, they were still in the reception room. Gorson was still drooping his head and showed no signs of waking up, while Du Huangliang was propping his head up and arranging the nut shells in order of type.

Hearing the noise, she quickly sat up straight. "You're awake? Wait, why isn't she awake yet?"

With one hand on his forehead, Little Ferguson grabbed an empty water bottle from the table with the other and slammed it down on Goulson's head.

"Ugh!" She finally woke up, and the first thing she did was clutch her head. "How did I pass out? My head is so dizzy..."

"Ah, that's how it is. Everyone feels dizzy the first time, sorry..." Du Huangliang said softly, then noticed that Cheng Xiangwu was completely unaffected and exclaimed in surprise, "Your head is so strong!"

"Mm." Cheng Xiang nodded.

The light was still out the window; the dream hadn't lasted long.

“…We did indeed see your aunt,” Xie Wuchang said, rubbing his eyes. “Thank you for your help.”

"It's nothing, it's nothing..." Du Huangliang waved his hands repeatedly.

"Why didn't I see him?" Golson asked anxiously and confusedly. "He just disappeared after I passed out? How could this be?"

"Don't worry, we did find out the solution," Xie Wuchang said with a forced smile, then looked at Du Huangliang. "She also asked us to pass on a message for you."

"Me?" Du Huangliang asked, puzzled. "Is there something she can't say to me directly?"

“She said that because of her health, she would never be able to meet you directly again, and she hoped that you would do what you wanted to do and go where you wanted to go,” Xie Wuchang said. “I think she also didn’t want to see you go against your own wishes and end your life prematurely.”

"...I see, ah." Du Huangliang said blankly, "Is that so?"

She lowered her head, showing neither joy nor anger, but was lost in thought.

"Please think it over carefully." Xie Wuchang nodded. "Then we should be going. Thank you for your hospitality."

"Thank you for providing us with such a wonderful experience. It was worth it even if it meant walking from the city center to get here," Xiao Fu said, standing up as well.

"Huh?!" Du Huangliang exclaimed in surprise, "You, you're leaving?"

"These are all for you." Gorson said, pursing his lips, taking out all the cat treats from the canvas bag and placing them on the table, along with the incongruous scam flyer. He also tidied up the trash, leaving the rustic wooden table scattered with brightly colored packaging, as if he were preparing for a party.

Du Huangliang paused for a moment, glanced at the group, then turned back to Cheng Xiangwu and asked anxiously, "Aren't you going to stay a little longer? You can stay overnight at our house. I can cook, although it may not be very good, but I definitely won't let you go hungry."

“Ms. Du, I’m sorry, we have other matters to attend to and must leave first,” Xie Wuchang said softly. “But I can take you to the city to see that person—”

“No!” Du Huangliang immediately rejected this option without hesitation, but her voice quickly returned to its usual soft tone, “...Alright, you’re leaving, I’ll see you out.”

"...Anyway, this is my business card." Xie Wuchang paused for a moment, then placed the paper on the wooden table. "I am a police officer. You can contact me anytime if you need anything."

Du Huangliang's gaze was fixed on the thin piece of paper. When he looked up again, a smile had returned to his face. "...Yes, thank you."

Everyone in the reception room eventually left. Gorson went to the restroom, Xie Wuchang and Xiao Fu discussed the problem of solving it in the corridor in front of the door, Cheng Xiangwu stood in the inner room waiting, Du Huangliang stood next to her, and Alice stood at her feet.

“…Um,” Du Huangliang said softly, “your name is Cheng Xiangwu, right?”

"Mm." Cheng Xiang nodded.

“Actually, I just suddenly remembered something,” Du Huangliang said. “I have an uncle named Du Xingke. He left home before I was born. Thirteen years ago, I heard someone knocking on the door. They said they were from the court and that Du Xingke had passed away. According to blood relations, his child, Cheng Xiangwu, should be raised by our family. I was scared, so I ran back into the house to find him. My grandparents said that he had already violated the family rules and was kicked out. Since he died outside, he was no longer considered a member of the Du family, so his child was not considered a child of the Du family either.”

Upon hearing this, Cheng Xiangwu didn't know how to react. It seemed that the thing guarding that door was always something called "rules," so those people who flew over in helicopters didn't need to care about the rules because they didn't use the door.

"...If only I had just opened the door then," Du Huangliang said softly. "I'm sorry."

“Opening the door won’t change anything,” Cheng Xiangwu shook her head. “Don’t worry about it.”

Even if Du Huangliang opened the door, other members of the Du family would close it. In fact, if she didn't open the door, she might have avoided a conflict.

"Actually, I'm thinking about something." Du Huangliang's voice tightened. She gripped her cloth shirt tightly with both hands, raised her head, and stared intently at Cheng Xiangwu with a glint in her eyes.

"...What is it?" Cheng Xiangwu asked.

“There was no other way then, but there is now.” Du Huangliang grabbed his collar with one hand, his cheeks flushed. “I… I am now the head of the Du family. What I say goes, so… so—”

She took a deep breath, turned around to face Cheng Xiangwu, and said, "So, could you please come back and be my older sister?"

It seems that some kind of familial bond is about to blossom.

This request really left Cheng Xiangwu at a loss for words. Looking at the person in front of her, she didn't feel awkward about having another person call her "sister," but clearly, the word "come back" made up a significant portion of Du Huangliang's request.

Of course, she couldn't go back to the Du family; she still had a job.

"...I—" Cheng Xiangwu was about to refuse when Du Huangliang stepped forward and grabbed her hand, his movements so fast that she couldn't avoid it.

"Come back!" She was so excited her hands were trembling. "Come back and be my older sister. You're older than me. If you come back, you'll be the head of the family. Our family is quite big. This huge house and yard are all yours!"

"No." Cheng Xiangwu tried to pull her hand away, but couldn't. "I have work outside, I can't stay here—"

“The Du family is blessed by the immortals and doesn’t need to work!” Du Huangliang gripped his hand even tighter. “Your job is to be the head of the family. There’s nothing wrong with that except for the noise at night. If you think it’s too noisy, I’ll help you pull up all the trees on the back mountain!”

“…Listen to me.” Cheng Xiangwu tried to calm her chaotic words. “I don’t want to be the head of the family. If you don’t want to be, you can just quit. There’s no need to stay here.”

"How is that possible?" Du Huangliang stared blankly at Cheng Xiangwu, his pupils reflecting the figure. "Without the head of the family, no one will be able to enter the lake next rainy season."

The essence of kinship has emerged and surfaced as it begins to sprout.

"...So, you're asking me to go back so you can jump in for you?" Cheng Xiangwu asked after a moment of silence.

“You’re a member of the Du family, of course you should do this,” Du Huangliang said matter-of-factly. Then, realizing something, she smiled and said, “You must be feeling unaccustomed to being outside for so long. It’s alright, Alice will eat up all your lingering attachments, so don’t worry!”

Cheng Xiangwu opened her mouth, but in the end said nothing. She looked at Alice sitting on the side, and then remembered the murky, smelly mud pit. She quickly shook off Du Huangliang's hand and took a step back.

“I refuse,” Cheng Xiangwu said.

Du Huangliang stood there, her expression gradually shifting from shock to confusion. She then lowered her head, pondered briefly, and finally gave Cheng Xiangwu a reassuring smile.

Just as Cheng Xiangwu was considering how to reply to the other party, she saw the person in front of her sway, and then the peaceful space was disturbed by the swirling wind pressure. She only had time to raise her hand to block the huge force coming from her side, but she did not have time to stabilize her center of gravity. As a result, her upper body and her limbs were kicked out of the inner room and fell straight into the stone brick square.

The attackers didn't go for the kill, but that was relative to Cheng Xiangwu's physical condition. Anyone else would have broken three or five bones with that kick.

"...What was that flying over there?" Xie Wuchang stared blankly at it. The hem of her clothes was caught by the gust of wind and only managed to stick back to her body after two or three seconds.

"It's a new show," Xiao Fu said, quickly stepping back a few paces.

After Fei Ying, Du Huangliang walked out of the house with his head down and no shoes on. As he passed the two women, he looked up and smiled at them, "Ah, you outsiders can go now. Sorry, I won't see you off."

"No—" Xie Wuchang wanted to say something more, but Du Huangliang didn't intend to listen. He turned his head toward Cheng Xiangwu, who had already stood up again.

"You're really strong," she exclaimed. "You grew up outside, no wonder you're my sister."

Cheng Xiangwu took off his coat and threw it on the ground.

The next moment, Du Huangliang, who was standing nearly ten meters away, lowered her shoulders, bent her back, and kept her face turned towards her target like a predator. After disappearing from her original spot, she left only a blur and the crushed stone bricks. She took a few leaps and pierced forward like an arrow. At very close range, she raised her hand and grabbed at the neck of the person in front of her with the speed of breaking through the air.

Her nails were probably not grown for scratching, but they were still useful for hunting.

Cheng Xiangwu turned sideways and grabbed the arm wrapped in cloth. He used the momentum to pull and pull, but the arm also moved forward. Du Huangliang touched the ground with his toes and thrust upwards with his bare hands, aiming straight for the jawbone.

The head about to be stabbed showed no intention of looking down to observe the attacker. Cheng Xiangwu kept his eyes forward, dodged the uppercut with his left side, grabbed the attacker's wrist with his bare hands, and used a grappling technique to flip and press his subordinate down.

The knife was right behind her, but she didn't intend to kill the man. For one thing, Xie Wuchang was watching.

However, Du Huangliang turned her back to the captor and used her waist to whip her leg back. Her strength was immense, almost like a wild beast in the mountains, with no standard stance. Her moves were all utilitarian, aimed at achieving her goal. Her logic was to do whatever she wanted by relying on her familiarity with her muscles and joints, without any intention of defense.

Trading injury for injury is not worthwhile. Seeing this, Cheng Xiangwu released his hand, leaned back to avoid the horizontal sweep aimed at his waist, and then flipped back twice to create distance.

Du Huangliang, who had just missed her target, regained her balance in mid-air like a monkey. She dusted off her clothes, stood up, looked at Cheng Xiangwu again, and crouched down once more, sprinting even faster than the first time.

"I was only gone for a short while..." Xie Wuchang looked at Xiao Fu helplessly, adjusting his sunglasses that had slipped down. "How did they start fighting?"

“Household chores,” Little Fu said, patting his clothes at the entrance to the inner room before sitting down. “This level of beast fighting is not common.”

"...Are we just going to watch like this?" Golson asked softly, wondering why she had become like this after just going to the bathroom. "Are they playing around?"

“Miss Du Huangliang desperately wants a relative, even one who is disabled,” Xiao Fu said with a smile. “You don’t have to watch it, or you can consider cheering for your sister Xiangxiang.”

"Alice?" Golson looked down at the cat that was still licking its feet. "Alice, you have to think of something."

Alice switched feet and continued licking.

Jab, block, grappling, dodge—the two exchanged blows with such speed that the naked eye could not keep up. After a few exchanges, Cheng Xiangwu seized the opportunity when his opponent's arm missed a swing, twisting his back muscles, stepping forward to gather strength, and forcefully grabbing one of his arms like a Spanish dancer sweeping his arm across his side, lifting him off the ground. Then, he pressed down on the arm that was grabbing his own, rotated his upper body in the same direction, and swung it towards the ground like a hammer.

Normally, after this flick, all the fighting will return to calm.

The dance partner's back muscles shattered against the bricks with a crash, and Du Huangliang's cloth shirt was torn in several places. After a moment of pause, she took a deep breath to recover and was about to jump up when Cheng Xiangwu stepped on her again and pushed her into the ruins.

"Cough—" Du Huangliang had difficulty breathing due to the compression of her lungs and the dust from the stones, but even so, she still tried to lift her upper body by supporting herself on the broken ground.

“…You’re quite sturdy too,” Cheng Xiangwu said, sighing.

She then abruptly released her leg, and the person struggling to get up on the ground bounced off the ground and leaped up. In that instant, she turned and kicked with her side leg, using her waist as a fulcrum to lift the person up again. The person suspended in mid-air gritted their teeth, twisted their body, and tried their best to regain their balance, turning their head towards the target to prove their determination to win.

Their eyes met for a fleeting moment, and Du Huangliang seemed about to say something.

But Cheng Xiangwu didn't care much about that. She took a step back, lowered herself slightly, and before the person in mid-air could land, she spun around like a top that had just broken free of its gears and whipped out her leg. With nowhere to hide, she turned into a gray shadow and crashed straight into the inner room, breaking a section of the back wall that was blocking the door. After the force finally dissipated, she finally slid to the ground along with the rubble that had accompanied her for a short distance.

As Cheng Xiangwu spun and pulled her leg back, the shoelace on the foot that landed was completely broken, and a puff of smoke rose from it.

The three people and the cat, whose straight-line distance had suddenly shrunk to less than three meters, turned their heads, and the cat ran away.

The wooden walls cracked, the steps broke, and several rickety planks fell onto the now-silent pile, joining the ruins.

"Let's go." Cheng Xiangwu picked up her coat from the ground and put it on, then gestured to the three people standing or sitting nearby, "Hurry up and go."

"...You..." Xie Wuchang hesitated, his expression like that of a beggar trying to persuade someone to reform.

“I didn’t kill her,” Cheng Xiangwu said helplessly, then stepped forward and picked up Gorsen. “They said in the car that we have to leave before she wakes up.”

Xie Wuchang looked back at the ruins in disbelief.

"Oh, oh." Gorson looked at the silent ruins, puzzled, and hugged his camera and fur collar tightly.

Cheng Xiangwu turned around and kicked away the heavy double-opening wooden door. Xiao Fu glanced regretfully at the room, then turned around and followed.

The three of them rushed down the long ladder in front of the door at top speed without slipping, and ran quickly down the only path. Along the way, Cheng Xiangwu broke countless tree branches blocking his way, but at least he made it to the finish line of the cross-country race, which was the abandoned gas station, before the people behind him ran out of breath.

"I, I said—" Xie Wuchang gasped for breath, leaning against the car door frame. Her sunglasses were now in Cheng Xiangwu's pants pocket, and her head was covered with leaves and twigs, resembling a makeshift bird's nest. "Was it necessary to drive this fast?"

“I don’t remember signing up for this program…” Xiao Fu leaned against the car door, her hair was in no better shape, but her trench coat was still presentable.

"Open the door quickly." Cheng Xiangwu put Gorsen on the ground.

"Wow—" She finally caught her breath, still clutching Cheng Xiangwu's fur collar, and pulled off part of her coat when she stood up.

“…Okay.” Xie Wuchang fumbled in his pants pocket.

Suddenly, Cheng Xiangwu looked towards the entrance of the path as if she had a premonition. She heard nothing, and no small animals darted out from the bushes or flocks of birds took flight. The noise was as it should be.

"Ah, found it." Xie Wuchang took out his car keys and pressed the door open button at the same time.

"Thump—"

This is definitely not the sound of a car door unlocking.

Xie Wuchang, whose light was partially obscured by the shadows, looked up and saw the person crouching on the car roof. It was Du Huangliang, whose life and death had been unknown not long ago. In the instant his pupils contracted, that face lifted its gaze from the messy, blood-stained hair and pointed precisely at her and the car keys in her hand.

“…You.” She poked her head out from the roof of the car, then remembered to put on a smile, the words still soft as she uttered the abrupt curve of her lips, “You can’t take my sister away.”

"Wait!" Xie Wuchang took a step back, slung his car keys behind his back, "Can we talk—"

Du Huangliang didn't want to talk about this, but in order to prove it with her actions, she pounced on the people below like a feline, but in the next instant she was forced to lie on the roof of the car. She propped herself up and looked back, and Cheng Xiangwu had climbed onto the roof and grabbed her ankle.

The next step, of course, is to throw it out.

Without Cheng Xiangwu's reminder, Xie Wuchang quickly opened the car door and got in when the figure was thrown off the car. However, he encountered resistance when closing the door. The hand clinging to the threshold pulled the car door open little by little with irresistible force. Du Huangliang stood outside the gap with his head down, his face in the shadows wearing a reassuring smile.

Cheng Xiangwu flipped over the roof of the car and landed behind Du Huangliang, pulling him backward. The latter leaned back and, in that position, grabbed the arm connected to his collar. As if defying gravity, he almost floated backward and was about to land on Cheng Xiangwu's shoulder.

"You drive first." Cheng Xiangwu said, turning to the side to avoid the downward thrusting elbow, and then turning to catch the punch with his forearm.

The sound of flesh colliding was like lightning, but thankfully no sparks actually flew.

"Can I shoot?" Xiao Fu asked from the side of the car.

"...I did bring it, but I can't shoot civilians." Xie Wuchang gasped, still shaken, as he peered out. "Besides, this is supposed to be a gas station, but the time it was abandoned is unknown, and it's flammable and explosive."

“…Move aside,” Xiao Fu said, walking towards the driver’s seat.

On the other hand, Du Huangliang began unilateral negotiations.

"You can order me around as you please. You see? I cleaned and repaired that whole place!" she said enthusiastically, grabbing onto the leg that was being kicked at her from the opposite side and trying to bend it in the opposite direction. "If you're lame, there are wheelchairs in the warehouse!"

Cheng Xiangwu had no intention of becoming a slave owner or a disabled person. She forcefully kicked away the hand that was about to touch her knee, and took several steps to get behind her and grab her shoulder and neck.

“…If you want money, I can help you search through Grandpa and Grandma’s house.” Du Huangliang gritted his teeth and stretched out his arm to grab and grapple. “No, the head of the family can dispose of the family property at will. If you come, you can take those ornaments and stuff and sell them as you please!”

Cheng Xiangwu had no intention of selling other people's property. She did not avoid the hand grabbing her arm, but instead kicked her knee and took advantage of her loss of balance to suddenly exert force in her upper triangle area to hug her tightly, crossing her arms and wrapping them around the neck that fell into her embrace.

This looks a lot like murder, but fortunately the victim was resilient enough.

"Uh, cough cough—" Du Huangliang coughed twice, took a deep breath, raised his hands to grab the two arms in front of him, opened his mouth and bit down, drawing blood immediately.

The belated stinging pain made Cheng Xiangwu frown, but she didn't let go.

Seeing that this move was ineffective, Du Huangliang suddenly curled up her abdomen and tightened her body, turned her head, and kicked the person who was holding her throat in the abdomen from under her. Even without any leverage, her strength was still extremely great. Cheng Xiangwu coughed up blood and felt as if she had been gored by a running sheep, although she had never had such an experience before.

In the instant she suffocated, Du Huangliang crawled out from under her, gasping for breath while touching his neck. His mouth was stained with blood of unknown origin. Cheng Xiangwu also stepped back, clutching her stomach, and wiped her mouth. Unsurprisingly, she found a deep, bloody tooth mark on her arm.

“Oh, I’m actually a pretty good cook,” Du Huangliang said in a hoarse voice. “But it’s quite difficult to go out these days. According to our family’s rules, if we want to eat meat, we have to go outside to buy it. It’s a two-hour drive to the nearest market. But if you come and keep an eye on Alice, I can go there more often!”

She laughed as she spoke, her face filled with anticipation for her new life.

Cheng Xiangwu, the prospective victim of this new life, doesn't have high demands for food. She says, puzzled, "You want to go out and play, you want to survive."

"Of course!" Du Huangliang nodded.

"Then go ahead and do it!" Cheng Xiangwu said. "Just ignore the rules. Even your aunt isn't stopping you. You can just live with the cat, right?"

“…No, that won’t do.” Du Huangliang frowned and lowered his voice. “It’s so pitiful for Aunt to be waiting there all by herself.”

"So, assuming I jumped for you this time, what about next time?" Cheng Xiangwu asked.

"...Ah, let's talk about that later!" Du Huangliang said with a grin.

"Thump—"

The vehicle struck Du Huangliang at an inappropriate speed for a gas station. She only had time to jump, then crashed into the windshield and rolled all the way to the back of the car, finally being slammed into the convenience store by her own weight. The driver swerved and turned around on the spot, leaving memorable marks on the ground with the tires. The passenger door and the right rear window were open.

Golson leaned forward, reached into his pants pocket, pulled out a dynamite bomb with one hand, threw it into the convenience store, and quickly bent down. A burst of bright light erupted, and the people inside the car were briefly dizzy from the shockwave.

"What did you throw in?!" Xie Wuchang asked incredulously, covering his eyes.

“…My keychain.” Golson chuckled as he leaned back in the car seat.

As soon as the passenger climbed onto the seat, the driver stepped on the gas. Cheng Xiangwu was thrown against the back of the seat by the force and coughed up some blood. He was forced to lean to the side and stick to the seat to secure himself, and used his foot to hook the door to close it.

In the rearview mirror, Du Huangliang had already climbed out. She stood up, and her figure, watching the car leave, grew smaller and smaller until it disappeared completely around the corner.

At least the front passenger would have preferred that.

"...I'll handle the dashcam footage from this car," Xie Wuchang said, finally able to breathe a sigh of relief.

Hearing her speak, Cheng Xiangwu touched her pants pocket and, unsurprisingly, only pulled out a shard of sunglasses.

"Never mind that," Xie Wuchang couldn't help but say. "There are no bandages in the car, let's hurry and find a clinic."

"No need, let's go home first," Cheng Xiangwu said, coughing twice.

"If we chatted a little longer, I would have seen someone die from a ruptured blood vessel," Xiao Fu exclaimed. "Thank you for bringing me this amusement park ride."

Gorson pursed his lips and handed her a tissue from the back seat. Cheng Xiangwu nodded, wiped the blood from her mouth, and then wiped her arm. Now she felt a little pain.

The car stopped at the highway entrance, and a legal driver took over. The illegal driver, who had just committed a hit-and-run, sat in the back seat, tidying his hair and taking out his notebook.

Little Ferguson explained his dream adventure to Golson, who had previously misconnected. Because it was a dream, everything made sense, so the audience accepted it very quickly.

"Where are we going to get a helicopter?" Golson began to seriously consider this question. "Besides, the mining area is very dangerous, and it must be even more dangerous underground."

According to Xiao Fu, the cure must be thorough, even if the root is buried deep underground, it is just an extra surgical procedure.

"...The captain probably never imagined that investigating a case would involve going down into the mine." Xie Wuchang laughed.

“We can put the transportation part on the back burner; it’s already on the schedule.” Little F tapped his pen. “Right now, my biggest concern is why those union members are allowed to use that language.”

"Speaking of which, why is Ms. Du unaffected by Mr. Zhang's behavior?" Xie Wuchang asked.

“Miss Du Qingyu taught her this technique, so naturally she had to find ways to avoid adverse effects during practice,” Xiao Fu said. “But besides that beluga whale, I can’t think of anyone else who could do it. Humans who can perceive vibrations would basically go insane due to acute brain failure. And those whale oils are definitely related to those candles, but…”

She was writing something down as she spoke, as if she were taking notes for herself. As always, no one could answer her questions.

“A beluga whale,” Golson repeated. “Is she a beluga whale?”

"It's just a literary title. After the groundwater was contaminated with metal, she no longer belongs to any known race. In short, she's a Globus." Little F said, nodding. "Although I don't agree with her empirical way of thinking, her persistence in adhering to her own code of conduct is still commendable."

"What's that?" Xie Wuchang looked at the back seat through the rearview mirror.

“For example, all the words I heard in my dream were in my native language, but what you heard was her translation. The words she actually spoke were pieced together from the most fitting individual sounds in the listener’s mind, so even a cat could understand what she was trying to say.” Little F chuckled as he spoke, “It’s really weird to hear you guys speaking my native dialect.”

“…I see,” Xie Wuchang said. “There were also foreigners who jumped into that lake, which is why there is the name Alice.”

Her hands rested on the steering wheel, her fingers tapping intermittently.

“I have to remind you that trying to obtain a death certificate for the person who died in that lake will be a very difficult task, and it will also be hard to align with your team’s current goals,” said Franck.

“The cause of death for those people is different from that of the students at No. 2 Middle School,” Cheng Xiangwu said in a soft, breathy voice that wouldn’t tickle her throat. “They really did it voluntarily.”

When both consciousness and body consent, no incomprehensible remains are left at the scene of death, and given the vastness of Lake Sen, there is no need to worry about overloading.

"But didn't that person say..." Xie Wuchang's voice trailed off, "...that both are suicides, and she doesn't understand the difference between the two?"

"How did you find out about this?" Xiao Fu asked the passenger. "Because of Miss Du Huangliang's matter-of-fact attitude?"

“Because she knows how to be flexible,” Cheng Xiangwu said, pausing for a moment, “not that much, but she obviously has a choice, even if it's someone else… cough cough cough—”

Gorson leaned out of the back seat and into the trunk, grabbed a bottle of tea, unscrewed the cap, sipped his tea, and handed it to her.

“…Ms. Du’s behavior was indeed bizarre, even terrifying.” Xie Wuchang sighed, his eyes narrowing slightly as he stared ahead. “But isn’t that what the police do? The same goes for those unidentified corpses stolen thirteen years ago. So many members of the Du family are still legally alive—that’s the most terrifying thing, isn’t it? Our job is to dispel fear from the public, and…”

She sighed again. She always sighed when she encountered situations that required compromise, as if it would make her compromise look more respectable. The endless winding mountain road ahead flowed past her eyes, and her determination was undeniable. "Besides, Ms. Du cannot be trapped there forever, committing suicide or murder because of a meaningless rule. That would be too tragic."

For a moment, no one spoke in the car; no one sympathized with her sense of mission.

“…If only that person and that whale really were her aunt,” Golson said.

How big is the difference between calling a cat by its name and calling a whale by its title? The cat will respond, and so will the whale, but the cat probably won't recognize it as its "name," because cats don't need such things.

What about the whale? The whale that has lived for a very long time, thinks and expresses itself as a collective consciousness, whose bones and flesh cannot be pieced together to form even half a human shape, and which has to rely on dreams to say anything? Can she really become a human's relative just because of a single address?

Ultimately, something is still missing.

“Mm,” Cheng Xiangwu replied.

As dusk settled and the sunset faded on the horizon, the vehicle returned to the city streets. A familiar intersection, even more crowded and brighter than its colleagues, held the lingering worshippers. Through the closed car windows, the scent of candles still wafted in, the flickering light reflected on the glass and in their pupils, occasionally being blown out.

"That's where the car accident happened, right?" Golson was directly facing the scene; she could see it with just a turn of her head. "There are so many people."

The candlelight formed a circle. People occasionally passed by outside the circle and stopped to watch, drawn by the candlelight. Most people inside the circle remained still for a long time. There were still some flowers on the ground and steps. The collapsed shop was covered by a tarpaulin, and its original appearance was no longer visible.

“Look at those two in the corner.” Xie Wuchang looked towards a corner of the crowd, where a well-dressed couple stood silently. “That’s Bai Yunjian and his wife Fu Xiao. They’ve already arrived at Senhu.”

The two women were just standing there, but the people taking their pictures kept walking around.

"Besides Bai Yuntian, there's another one named Bai Yunxian, isn't there?" Gorson pondered. "This family's names are quite consistent."

"After all, we have the same mother." Xie Wuchang turned his gaze back and stepped on the gas pedal with the flow of traffic.

The car stopped downstairs at the apartment building; we were home.

"Are you sure you don't need to go to the hospital?" Xie Wuchang asked, rolling down the car window.

"No need." Cheng Xiangwu waved her hand. She had stopped coughing up blood. The most serious wounds on her body were the bite marks and some scratches on her arms, which were bluish-black and purplish, but they had stopped bleeding and scabbed over.

“Instead of worrying about her, Miss Xie Wuchang, you should be more concerned about your police report,” Xiao Fu said.

"Thank you for your hard work." Golson waved.

"...Alright, just let me know if anything comes up, good or bad." Xie Wuchang rolled up the car window and drove away.

Golson stood there watching her for a while, then turned and followed her upstairs.

Dinner was chicken soup delivered by takeout, accompanied by lily tea. After throwing her clothes into the washing machine, Cheng Xiangwu returned to the dining room and thought to herself that there was a lot of soup and broth she had seen today.

She turned her head again and noticed a very familiar cup lying upside down on the kitchen island. She looked up and met Xiao Fu's gaze.

"...You..." Cheng Xiangwu didn't know what to say, "Does anyone know?"

This cup was, of course, on the table in the Du family's reception room.

“Miss Du Huangliang went to great lengths to recommend you as the head of the family, so letting you take a look now is a way of informing her of my actions,” Xiao Fu said matter-of-factly.

"You know why she wanted me to go back," Cheng Xiangwu said, but since it was impossible to return it now, she asked, "What are you going to do with this? Drink some water?"

“Of course, it’s for testing.” Xiao Fu tapped the cup with his fingertip. “I tested it. Those cups and some of the furniture contain a special metallic component, which is what Miss Du Qingyu called ‘amniotic fluid.’ This is not just a figure of speech. But there is no doubt that the purity is not high, and it can only exist in a liquid state under extremely high temperatures, while according to the testimony, the UFO cloak was in a flowing state.”

Cheng Xiangwu recalled the feel of the cloak and didn't feel that the temperature was very high.

“That’s what I was thinking too. I speculate that the extreme high temperature originated from that underground embryo, the depth of which is unknown. For now, I’ll assume the high temperature is its body temperature. This also means that part of the UFO came from that embryo, the one that is alive or dead, which used heat as an energy source to transform the cloak’s form, or even its very existence.” Xiao Fu raised a hand and twisted it like seaweed. “For example, those long black strips, I speculate that their function is similar to sensors. This also aligns with what Du Qingyu said about ‘needing a physical form to manifest in reality.’ That part is the flesh and blood used to make up the physical form, most likely from underground creatures, possibly the remains of a previous generation.”

“But it wasn’t threatening at all,” Cheng Xiangwu recalled. “You could even say it wasn’t aggressive.”

“After all, the sensor’s function wasn’t for hunting, but for identification, processing, and output,” Little Fu pondered. “There may be many kinds of information to be identified, but one of them is definitely those candles. The Bai family probably used its processing function to complete the initial simple domestication, and then output.”

Xiao Fu stopped his tapping. "Zhang's inexplicable mastery of skills, his understanding of vibration language, the cloak's ever-changing expressions, and the contract signed directly across the body and soul—these can all be explained by his output functions."

"But why would it help people?" Cheng Xiangwu didn't understand this. "Those people weren't even dead."

“…That doesn’t make sense. This part is still unclear.” Little F sighed and turned the teacup right side up. “To draw inspiration, starting today I will officially switch to this teacup.”

“Okay,” Cheng Xiangwu said. “If she comes to my door, I’ll use this sentence to explain.”

Xiao Fu picked up the cup and tapped Cheng Xiangwu on the head, saying, "You should also wash up your source of inspiration."

Cheng Xiangwu quickly walked away.

At night, before going to bed, perhaps because the itching caused by the healing of the wound on her abdomen was too unbearable, Cheng Xiangwu tossed and turned and couldn't fall asleep, so she simply got out of bed and went to the balcony for a while.

The balcony faces north. If it were daytime and the weather were nice, she could see the blurry silhouettes of the mountains in the distance. But now she could only see the streetlights and a few windows that refused to dim, which, in a sense, were like the mountains—a landscape that seemed to never change.

She remembered what Xiao Fu had said: the appearance of the UFO was a natural phenomenon, but now it was obvious that someone was using this natural phenomenon to kill people. So why choose an entire grade of students to be targeted, and what was their purpose?

What reason could a first-year student at Senhu No. 2 Middle School have to die?

And Du Ke clearly died for this reason as well, so what about Cheng Song?

Cheng Xiangwu couldn't figure it out. The night wind made her stomach numb, so she closed the balcony door and went back inside to sleep.