Chapter 2 No One Was Harmed
As dusk approaches, the slanting sunlight diffuses all the way from the end of the city, leaking out faint golden glows between the tall buildings - but deep in the old city surrounded by high-rise buildings, where the sunlight can hardly reach, the alleys have already fallen into darkness.
The residual dampness and slight coolness in the air seemed incompatible with the dry air outside the alley, and the ice chips that were rapidly melting and disappearing in the cracks between the bricks and stones became a kind of "evidence", proving that something unusual had happened in this quiet street.
Several fast-moving black shadows passed through the gaps between the buildings in the streets and alleys, and jumped down from the air as if they were weightless, landing in a corner of the alley. The edges of the black shadows trembled, and they quickly condensed into wolf-like shapes. These shadows with blurred faces patrolled and sniffed in the alley for a while, and then slowly gathered together. The leading shadow raised its head and let out a loud howl at the sky:
"Aww..."
"Bang!"
A stone hit the wolf's head accurately, knocking back the howl that had just begun. Then a shout came from the shadow of the building: "Shut up! You are not allowed to bark in the city - even if you add "woof" at the end! Humans are not fools, no one will believe that you are dogs!"
The wolves formed by the phantoms immediately uttered a few small grunts and sensibly retreated to the side. A slightly petite figure walked over from not far away.
It was a short-haired girl wearing a black miniskirt and a dark red jacket. A strand of hair on her forehead was slightly curled up. She looked no more than sixteen or seventeen years old, but her expression seemed exceptionally calm and mature. She walked out of the shadows, passed straight through the wolves with their heads lowered, and then saw the male body lying on the side of the road.
A trace of gloom flashed across the girl's face. She squatted down beside the corpse to check something, while a wolf approached from the side and conveyed some information with low and chaotic grunts.
"...The smell of rain?" The girl frowned and looked up at the sky which had been clear for the past two days. Although it was approaching dusk, the sky between the tall buildings still looked clear and bright, without any haze. Only the sunlight was gradually dimming.
After a moment, she seemed to understand something, and lowered her head to check the horrific wound on the male corpse, muttering softly: "...Rain, heart, the stench of frogs..."
At this moment, her monologue was interrupted by the sound of a cell phone ringing from the small bag on her waist - the ringtone was the theme song of the 1986 version of Journey to the West.
The short-haired girl answered the phone before the monkey did its fourth somersault.
"Hello, who is this... Oh, yes, it's me." She put the phone to her ear and waved her hand around, signaling the wolves to take good care of the scene. She stood up and walked to the side. "I'm here. My wolf noticed something was wrong here first... but I didn't catch him. I came back empty-handed."
The girl said, sighing, her eyes falling on the unfortunate corpse.
"It was 'rain', accompanied by the physical 'rain frog', but this rain should only be a local projection, affecting only one person... Yes, it was unfortunate that the 'rain' that fell only for one person had stopped when I arrived. Now the depth here has returned to L0, and the 'rain' has separated from the boundary."
The girl stopped. The voice coming from the receiver seemed to be explaining and asking something. She listened patiently for a while and then glanced at the corpse not far away.
"...Medical personnel? Send someone to collect the bodies. How could an ordinary person survive encountering the Rain Frog alone? Even his heart is gone... Tsk, I'll stay here. Don't forget to charge for the overtime."
The girl heard the chattering voice of a middle-aged leader on the phone, but she had lost her patience and just agreed to a few words before hanging up.
Then she sighed again, walked back, raised her hand to call a wolf that was standing guard nearby to come over and lie on the ground, then sat directly on the wolf, supporting her chin with both hands and looking at Yu Sheng's body.
"Poor guy, I don't know if he has any family, and he died here alone... Oh, let me stay with you for a while... It must be cold to die in the 'rain'? It's a pity that I'm not the match seller, otherwise I could keep you warm on your journey..."
The girl muttered to herself, patiently waiting for the arrival of the finishing crew. After a while, she heard the roar of an engine coming from the direction of the intersection dozens of meters away - the sound was earth-shaking, as if a heavy armored vehicle was towing a container with burning firewood behind it and running over the speed bumps of the Tenth Company. Even the wolf under her butt was startled by the noise and almost jumped up - but the person sitting on it did not jump.
Then the girl looked in the direction of the sound and saw a large van squeaking towards the intersection. It trembled as it went over the speed bumps, as if it was the Soviet Union in 1991.
The girl slowly got up from the wolf's back and watched expressionlessly as the van passed the speed bump and turned off the engine. Then several strong men dressed in black tactical suits, a full set of high-tech equipment, and armed to the teeth jumped out of the van and began to push the van from behind...
Another middle-aged man with a dark complexion, a strong body, and a brown jacket got off the car, followed by a young woman in a white dress and brown hair. The two of them looked back at the team members who were pushing the cart with some helplessness, then turned around and walked towards this side.
When the two men approached, the short-haired girl couldn't help but mutter, "Honestly, can't you, Team 2, apply to the higher-ups for a replacement car? The Secret Service shouldn't be that embarrassed... I think any of your team members has enough equipment to replace this crappy car."
"Hush!" The sturdy middle-aged man waved his hands quickly upon hearing this, lowered his voice and looked back at the stalled car and the subordinates who were pushing the car, "Don't talk nonsense... You don't understand the situation. Our Secret Service Bureau is in a special situation. This car is just not in good condition today, and it cannot be replaced..."
"Big organizations really have a lot of troubles," the short-haired girl curled her lips, obviously not very interested in this topic, and then turned to look at the petite lady in a white dress who came with her, "Good afternoon, Doctor Lin, long time no see."
"It's time to say good night, 'Little Red Riding Hood'," the woman in the white dress called Doctor Lin smiled faintly. Her lips were very thin, and she looked restrained and reserved. "How is your last injury?"
"Almost done," the short-haired girl called Little Red Riding Hood moved her right wrist, "You know, wolves usually have stronger recovery abilities..."
"Humans have the strongest ability to recover - it's just that humans are always quite resistant to getting hurt." Dr. Lin corrected seriously.
"...Oh," the short-haired girl said perfunctorily, and then changed the topic to the body on the ground. "Let's take a look here first. The victim is a man, he looks to be in his twenties, his heart was taken out by a rain frog, and he died about two hours ago. I haven't searched him yet, so I'm not sure if he has any ID with him... Yes, to protect the scene."
As she spoke, she looked at Doctor Lin in confusion: "Come over here...are you planning to treat something like this? Can this be cured?"
"No, I'm not a god," Doctor Lin shook his head and said as he bent over Yu Sheng's body, "I just came to take a look. This place is very close to my home..."
She examined the body for a while, and in addition to confirming the wounds, she also checked the deceased's personal belongings and found his identification documents.
"The deceased's name is 'Yu Sheng', he is 24 years old, and his registered address is No. 66 Wutong Road in the old city." She looked at the thin card representing his identity and compared his appearance with his. "Captain Song, please use the equipment in the bureau to check and see if you can contact his family."
The sturdy middle-aged man beside him hummed, and at the same time he leaned over to take a look at the ID card in Dr. Lin's hand, and couldn't help frowning: "Why is the photo on it so blurry?"
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When "Little Red Riding Hood" heard this, she also curiously came over and looked at the ID card found on the deceased.
All I could see was that the portrait part on the document seemed to be covered with a layer of gray-black stains, and the entire face was blurred, making it impossible to see any details.
Dr. Lin rubbed the stains with his fingers and found that he could not rub them clean at all. The stains were stronger than expected and almost covered the entire document.
"I can't even see the name clearly," Little Red Riding Hood muttered, "I can't even tell the ID number. You can only take it back and use a machine to read the chip..."
The middle-aged man called "Captain Song" sighed helplessly, nodded, looked at the wreckage on the ground, and said with some regret: "It's a pity, if only we could find the victim's ID card... There are too few clues now."
Doctor Lin also nodded regretfully, looking at the bloodstains on the ground that had been washed away by the rain and were almost invisible: "...There is not even a body left. It is difficult to find out what happened at the time."
Little Red Riding Hood listened to the conversation between the two people and seemed to be thinking about something quietly. Then she suddenly raised her head and looked at the woman in the white dress beside her: "Dr. Lin, good evening."
"Good evening, Little Red Riding Hood," Dr. Lin smiled and greeted the short-haired girl, "How's the patrol going?"
Little Red Riding Hood looked around and reached out to touch the head of the wolf closest to her: "It's raining here, and there may have been physical 'rain frogs' generated, but there shouldn't be any victims."
Dr. Lin looked relieved: "That's good."
The sound of an engine starting came from not far away. The tattered van started up with a hum, and then the engine sound gradually stabilized. The several armed operators who had been pushing the van came around from behind the van, panting heavily, and the leader walked over to this side: "Captain Song, the van has started, let's..."
The sturdy middle-aged man called Captain Song nodded and walked towards his team members.
"Okay, let's go back to the bureau. By the way, don't forget to bring Dr. Lin with you."
(End of this chapter)
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