Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios

It was night time; Xiang Wan felt goosebumps when he said that out of nowhere.

She noticed Yu Bo’s face somehow felt abnormal.

He seemed afraid. He could not help but lower his voice to tell them.

“When I was taking those pictures,” he said softly, “I saw a picture of a pair of gruesome eyes.

“The eyes appeared on my screen scared the living daylights out of me! I didn’t manage to press the shutter as the phone fell out of my hands. When I picked it back up, the eyes were already gone.”

Xiang Wan did not understand him as this young man spoke a little incoherently.

A second later, she followed Yu Bo’s topic. “So you’re saying that when you’re taking the pictures, you saw a person?”

A person and only a pair of eyes… there was certainly a difference in that.

The former was normal while the latter was—supernatural.

Yu Bo thought for a moment and nodded his head heavily.

Hur! Xiang Wan laughed. “How can you say that there are ghosts then?”

Yu Bo suddenly looked solemn; he raised his hand slowly and pointed toward something behind Xiang Wan. “Quick! Look behind you!”

His expression was too realistic.

Xiang Wan felt a chill behind her back and turned around out of reflex.

“Did you see two people over there?”

“…”

Of course, there were two people there.

The two police officers were standing outside as they were on duty.

Xiang Wan turned back and looked at Yu Bo, speechless.

“Plop! My phone dropped to the ground! I bend down to pick it up—” Yu Bo let his phone fell to the ground and picked it up, as though he wanted them to believe him. He was acting out what happened as per what he had described earlier. “In just a blink of an eye,” he shrugged, “that person was gone…”

The way he put it did not sound like a joke.

Xiang Wan considered for a moment. “Where’s that person,” she asked, “when you saw him?”

Yu Bo gave a definite reply, “At the backyard—”

Previously, Xiang Wan and Quan Shaoteng had gone to check out the backyard.

The backyard was very spacious with a distance of tens of meters away from the villa…

However, Yu Bo said the person disappeared in the blink of an eye. That was impossible.

“Captain Cheng!”

Xiang Wan turned to him.

Her bloodshot eyes shocked Captain Cheng.

Maybe her current look felt more like that of a ghost?

Xiang Wan felt amused. Her mouth twitched, and she ran her fingers through her hair to neaten them.

“I have a feeling,” she blurted.

“Please say it!” Cheng Zheng’s gaze seemed gentle.

“We’ll bring him to the backyard…” said Xiang Wan, “they won’t disappear just like that! They can’t fly, and they can’t possibly be digging underground?”

…

Digging underground?

Cheng Zheng was speechless.

As though he understood something from the look of her eyes, he nodded his head and talked to the two police officers standing guard outside.

The two of them were from the Nanmu police station and they would need to seek approval from their superiors.

Currently, this case proved to be even more complicated than they had expected.

In addition to catching the 121 case criminals, they also had to search for the missing police officers.

Moreover, their superiors had instructed them to keep all details confidential. They were not allowed to tell anyone what was happening.

Hence, they had to be careful with their actions.

In no time, Quan Shaoteng, who received the news, came to the room.

When he saw Yu Bo, his grimace proved how much he scorned that young fellow.

After they gave an account of what happened, Quan Shaoteng could not resist his laughter from bursting forth. “You both believe him?”

Xiang Wan was perplexed. “Why not?”

Quan Shaoteng let out peals of laughter. “This is the third time I’ve heard this ‘ghost’ version from him.”

Xiang Wan grunted. “…”

“In the first version, he said there was a pair of eyes that appeared at the back of the window. He was so scared and he ran away. When he came back to check it out, the eyes were gone—

“In his second version, he said a pair of eyes appeared inside a jeep. He was so scared he screamed and the eyes suddenly disappeared—

“As for the third version… well, it’s what you’ve heard from him.”

As Quan Shaoteng said this, his line of gaze landed on Cheng Zheng.

“You should have heard the third version as well? You actually have the interest to continue listening to him?”

Cheng Zheng kept quiet.

Quan Shaoteng’s pair of scrutinizing eyes swept past Cheng Zheng’s face to look at Yu Bo, who was on the sofa, rubbing his hands.

“Hey! Do you still have any new ghost stories to share?”

Yu Bo fidgeted. “…”

“What kind of stories do you like?” He suddenly asked in return.

After hearing Yu Bo’s bold statement, everyone went speechless. “…”

…

“It’s such a pity he didn’t become a web novelist instead!”

After coming out of the lounge, Xiang Wan was annoyed and amused when she realized how a crazy young man had pranked her.

“His random lies sounded so real that I thought it was true,” said Cheng Zheng, “I actually believed him.”

“You put it as though it’s so hard to deceive you!” Quan Shaoteng spoke to him with a blank expression. He took a sidelong glance at Cheng Zheng and made a snide remark at him as Bai Muchuan’s good friend. “Is it because it’s her so you believed it, as you wanted to follow her around and search for clues?”

Xiang Wan was taken off guard. “…”

This fellow didn’t seem to worry about future cooperation between colleagues, did he?

Xiang Wan did not retort him. “I feel that Captain Cheng had a point.”

“What’s that?” Quan Shaoteng said casually.

“… We believe in science.”

“…”

Quan Shaoteng looked at the sky.

Compared to what they saw earlier, the clouds seemed lower at the moment.

“It’s going to rain soon.”

“You said that during the day.”

“It didn’t rain?”

“… What do you think?”

“Then it’s going to rain soon this time!”

“So you know how to forecast the weather now too?”

“If Bai Muchuan is around,” Xiang Wan puffed a sigh. “He would not react this way…”

“What do you mean?” Quan Shaoteng raised both eyebrows.

“Captain Quan, you’re perhaps a very good Captain when you handle missions and take criminals head-on. However, you—” Xiang Wan looked at him and said in a half-joking, half-serious manner. “As I’m not a member of Serious Crime Division One, it’s inappropriate of me to say this… But looking at the current situation, I feel that I need to get this out of my chest.”

“Say it then!” Quan Shaoteng laughed but he was actually annoyed. “I’m not deaf to criticism.”

“You lack the detective spirit.”

What was that? Quan Shaoteng looked at her coldly.

“Make it clearer!”

“If Bai Muchuan is here, regardless of whether Yu Bo has said the truth, he will try to verify it. He will study it and try to understand it in order to get to the truth.”

“…” She’s just thinking that Little Bai’s good at everything he does? thought Quan Shaoteng.

As Quan Shaoteng criticized Xiang Wan in his head, she continued to talk in a serious tone. “Often, the truth would be hidden in seemingly ridiculous details…”

Hur!

Looking at that solemn face of hers when she talked, she did seem similar to Bai Muchuan.

Hence, Quan Shaoteng laughed. “Is this what Little Bai told you before?”

“No!” Xiang Wan squinted her eyes at him and enunciated every syllable. “I heard it from Second Young Master Mu.”

“…”

Good grief!

One Little Bai was enough. Now there’s this other guy called Second Young Master Mu!

Quan Shaoteng felt as though he had been defeated and wounded all over.

“Fine! If I don’t go check it out, I’m afraid that going ahead in Serious Crime Division One, others might make me out to be all brawn and no brain. They might even think I have nothing except my gorgeous appearance!”

“…”

“Let’s go!”

…

He knew he had enough time anyway. Checking it out again wouldn’t affect anything.

After all, they had no leads at the moment, shouldn’t they grab on to any possible clue?

At the backyard, there were police officers searching around for leads as per orders.

When they saw Quan Shaoteng, they nodded at him as greeting.

Quan Shaoteng nodded back. “Got anything yet?”

The man was checking around the area with a police dog. “I didn’t find anything yet,” he shook his head. “Captain Quan… this matter seems really abnormal!”

It really was not normal!

Otherwise, that young man, Yu Bo, wouldn’t have come up with three different versions of the same ‘ghost’.

Quan Shaoteng waved his hands. “Continue to search!”

The area behind the backyard was where they had disappeared!

“Dead or alive, they must be found!”

Quan Shaoteng said a sentence commonly heard in television dramas.

However, those words made Xiang Wan’s shoulders quiver. She felt chilly all of a sudden and her body trembled unconsciously.

“No!”

“What?” Quan Shaoteng was completely unaware of his slip of the tongue.

“He won’t die! None of them will die.”

“…” Quan Shaoteng puffed a sigh and sounded serious. “It’s just a joke!”

This was obviously not a time for jokes. No one bothered with him.

For a moment, the entire courtyard went silent.

Xiang Wan walked several rounds at the backyard, she wished she could stomp her feet and a path would appear in front of her.

Sadly, she found nothing.

“I miss Xiao Tian already!”

Xiao Tian was the police dog in Jin City.

He had contributed to solving the case of the Fountain Goddess!

“I should ask Little Bai to transfer him over as well…”

Quan Shaoteng mumbled casually to himself but did not finish saying it.

… Let Little Bai transfer Xiao Tian so he could look for Little Bai?

… Better try finding Little Bai first.

Cheng Zheng remained silent for a long time. “Maybe,” he blurted, “they are no longer in this place? It’s impossible to hide more than 10 people in here!”

“You’re right!” Quan Shaoteng concurred.

Bai Muchuan had told Captain Zhang that there were more than 30 men in the Dark Clan. With the addition of Bai Muchuan and his men, it was already more than 40 men. Not to forget the team of seven—Captain Zhang and his men—where could they hide?

They had combed through the area several times but to no avail!

Xiang Wan looked at the dark clouds in the sky. “Is there any way out of this place that we have not found yet?”

“It’s very likely, but—”

They had searched for it already. It’s just that they did not manage to find anything yet.

“Think of it this way, Brother Steel of the Dark Clan has been staying here for a long time… His villa was not too far away from the road as well. Even though this place is desolate, situated at the border of the three provinces, surely he would be afraid of being apprehended one day due to his many evil deeds.”

“What are you trying to say?” Cheng Zheng asked.

“Let’s take it that we’re in Brother Steel’s position. Will you leave a way out for yourself?”

“I will!”

“A path to escape!… They must have used that path. We just can’t find them!”

…

“Meow!”

A cat mewled in the darkness and interrupted them.

Xiang Wan turned her head.

There was a pile of construction waste, which was now in a messier and scattered state as the police searched there for clues.

A black cat was on top of a pile of construction waste. It had bright eyes and its body was arched. It seemed afraid to look at people in the eye.

“Let’s go!” Quan Shaoteng took two glances at it and thought nothing of it. “We’ll discuss it further!”

Cheng Zheng turned away and wanted to follow when Xiang Wan suddenly shouted.

“Wait a minute!”

“What’s up?” Quan Shaoteng looked back.

“Did you see that cat when you search the area the whole day?”

“Nope.”

…