20:47, at the Hongjing Drum Tower Community.

The middle-aged and elderly people who were out for a stroll or square dancing started to head home. The props used for the square dancing, in various shades of red and green, were swept past Xing Conglian’s Jeep from the roadside. The vendors at the street-side stalls also began to pack up.

The deputy captain of the Hongjing police force, Zhang Ping, sat in the jeep, observing a resident on a certain floor of building 3, block 6 of the Drum Tower Community.

The curtains were tightly closed, and the lights were still off.

Zhang Ping pressed the wireless headset and asked, “Lao Shu, any movement?”

The officer with the code name “Lao Shu” was standing in a small convenience store downstairs of building 3, observing the movements at the entrance. After two groups of returning residents had passed by, the entire community was now quiet and deserted.

“The target hasn’t appeared yet.”

“Keep watching.”

“Got it.”

Zhang Ping retracted the binoculars and looked at the captain, who was smoking in the passenger seat. He had just arrived home before 8 in the evening and hadn’t even had the chance to hug his daughter, who was doing her homework, when he was called out by the captain to prepare for the arrest of a suspect. Although he wasn’t clear about what had happened during the time, he was commuting home from work, the criminal suspect had changed from a man to a woman and from a teacher to a student, which was somewhat confusing. What was even more important was that the captain only mentioned that they had to detain the person in secret, and even the evidence wasn’t sufficient. It would have been more reasonable if they were asked by the higher authorities to cooperate with the investigation. He thought for a moment, then quietly turned off his headset and couldn’t help but speak privately with his captain, “Captain Xing, are we being too hasty in arresting this person?”

“Yes, we are,” Xing Conglian said.

“Then should we wait a bit longer?”

“We can’t wait.”

“Huh?!” Zhang Ping took the cigarette from the dashboard of the Jeep and lit it for himself. “Lao Xing, are you hiding something from us? Tell me what’s going on. How dangerous is this woman named Shen Lian? The people you have called in are almost as equipped as the special forces for catching bandits.”

“Why are you so troublesome? Are you possessed by Wang Chao?” Xing Conglian gave an impatient click of his tongue and extinguished his cigarette.

It wasn’t like Xing Conglian couldn’t answer Zhang Ping’s question, but he really didn’t know whether it was right to arrest so hastily. He simply thought that this woman named Shen Lian sounded dangerous; not to mention that she was likely to be involved with the Zaratul drug factory. What was most crucial was that many times, many things simply made no sense.

The words spoken by Lin Chen just now were still echoing in his ears. Although they weren’t clear about Shen Lian’s motive and the complex ramifications, they had directly located Shen Lian herself through a shortcut. Essentially, it was a shortcut obtained by exchanging the life of Duan Wanshan. They knew information that the murderer didn’t know, so they could take the initiative and be one step ahead. Therefore, he couldn’t let this shortcut go to waste.

At exactly 21:00, Shen Lian still hadn’t returned home.

The personnel on the roads inside and outside the community had all cleared out, and a wild cat darted into the bushes. As soon as Shen Lian stepped into the encirclement, there would be no chance of escape.

The inside of the car was dimly lit and filled with smoke. Xing Conglian rolled over and looked at his phone. He wondered if he should call Lin Chen, but he didn’t know if he accidentally pressed the lock button or for some other reason, but the screen suddenly went dark.

Xing Conglian reached out and turned off the overhead light in the car, leaving only the faint light of Wang Chao’s laptop screen in the entire space.

Zhang Ping frowned at him, as if wondering why he suddenly became so nervous. The deputy squad leader began to look around, and Xing Conglian also looked up. There was no one at the end of the road, and all the police officers were guarding key positions as usual.

There was a faint rustling sound on the communication device, and Zhang Ping began to inquire about the situation at the mouth of the road. The wind brushed the leaves, and a light came on in the distance.

“What car? Is there anyone in the car? Report quickly,” Zhang Ping asked.

There was only the same rustling sound on the communication device. Xing Conglian loaded the gun without hesitation and pushed open the door to get out of the car. Just then, a completely black private car quickly drove towards him. Xing Conglian stood in the middle of the small path and looked into the car.

Two seconds later, the driver suddenly realized that something was wrong and slammed on the brakes, the sharp sound echoing through the night sky.

The distance was close enough. With the help of the streetlamps and car lights, Xing Conglian could clearly see the driver cursing wildly in the car. There was no one in the front or back seats, and the black leather seats gleamed with a warm luster.

The darkness around them once again became quiet, and Xing Conglian watched the driver ranting and raving in the car like he was watching a silent play. Two households turned off their balcony lights, making the streetlamps turn into gentle veils. Wild cats sprinted past, and the wind rose again, followed by a suppressed gasping sound.

Xing Conglian pressed his headset and confirmed that the gasping sound was indeed coming from his earpiece, like a wild beast being strangled or a dying animal caught in a trap. The sound went from coarse to fine, like a steel knife scraping across the scalp, and finally became extremely mournful.

“What’s going on? What’s going on? Who’s causing the interference in the channel!”

Zhang Ping’s anxious inquiry came from the channel, and the undercover police officers on the scene reported one by one. Xing Conglian made a hand gesture to Zhang Ping to have the driver detained and started running.

“Mouse here!”

“Lion here!”

Xing Conglian ran past bushes and flower beds, and the wind brushed past his ears. The barbecue stall at the mouth of the road became increasingly clear.

“Camel here!”

“Wild Horse here!”

The smoke from the barbecue rose, and the fan blew all the smoke and dust into the night sky. The sound of noise and laughter drifted through the night, and people waved their beer, laughing and shouting like it was the most beautiful summer night in the city. If Xing Conglian had not seen the next scene.

All sound disappeared in the space, as if he had walked into an absolutely silent vacuum environment.

The barbecue stall owner pulled a large skewer of grilled meat from the grill, and the pointed tip of the iron skewer emitted a cold light. The gaps between the meat skewers were filled with red-hot iron rods.

The next moment, the owner’s face lit up with a smile as he grabbed the skewer and turned to hand it to a nearby customer.

At that moment, without hesitation, Xing Conglian pulled out his gun as the old, wrinkled hand reached out to hand over the skewer.

The owner still maintained his posture of grabbing the iron skewer, his elbow bent, and all the iron skewers in his hand stabbed towards the open mouth of the young man sitting at the table.

Gunshots rang out.

A spray of blood splattered into the night sky, and the skewers scattered and traced chaotic arcs in the air, finally landing on the ground.

“Anomaly detected at the alley entrance. Requesting backup!” The chaotic voices in the earpiece sounded again, and Xing Conglian ripped off his headset.

Screams pierced the night sky, from both men and women, as chaotic footsteps trampled on the sticky black oil and various shellfish waste on the ground. Some people fell, but more people stood still, staring at the horrifying scene in front of the grill.

“Police investigation! Irrelevant people leave the scene!”

A police officer guarding the other side of the entrance shouted from a distance to the diners at the barbeque stall while waving his arms. Xing Conglian scanned all the nearby faces, some showing fear, some showing numbness, and even some showing a terrifying smile. But among all these faces, there was not one that belonged to Shen Lian.

In the brief moment that he searched for the suspect, no one noticed that the young man who had been stabbed by the barbecue stall owner had regained his senses.

The young man’s eyes flashed with an unusual excitement, as if the wildest blood in his veins had been ignited. He pushed hard with his legs and pounced on the barbecue stall owner. The grill collapsed, and charcoal rolled all over the place as the two rolled in it. The air was filled with the smell of grilled meat and the sizzling sound of burning. However, neither of the two in the charcoal felt any pain. The owner grabbed a burning piece of charcoal and stuffed it into the young man’s mouth, and the young man bit down on the middle-aged owner’s face without hesitation.

With a piercing sound, a large chunk of flesh was torn off. Blood flowed down the young man’s white teeth as he continued to grin widely. The owner picked up a piece of charcoal and stuffed it into his mouth, along with the blood and shredded flesh that flowed down his wrist. The partially cooked, crispy, sweet smell was tantalizing. The owner looked at his hand and bit down, still smiling.

Smoke rose into the night sky, and the fallen fan spun weakly on the cement floor.

Xing Conglian stood still, as if someone had suddenly shot him in the head, but that wasn’t the case. He just felt like all his thoughts were scrambled, and the air was no longer filled with the scent of the city but with the putrid smell of the rainforest; everything was bloody and primitive, making him almost vomit.

A male student sitting at the same table as the young man also stood up. He wore a gold-embossed skull hoodie and picked up a piece of white porcelain shard from the ground. He turned around and walked toward the trembling guests huddled in the corner.

A police officer who had crossed the street suddenly pounced on the male student in the skull hoodie, but the male student raised the porcelain shard and held it tightly against the officer’s throat.

Xing Conglian started running again, and the air around him became scorching hot. He yelled at the guests who were still lingering near the barbecue restaurant, “Go, hurry up and leave!”

The stunned guests screamed again; their eyes filled with terror. Xing Conglian ran at his fastest speed, scanning the scene of the brawl, 20 meters, 10 meters..

The male student in the skull hoodie used some unknown force to push the police officer to the ground. Xing Conglian fired his gun again, hitting the male student’s shoulder, causing blood to flow out, but the frenzied male student seemed unaware of the injury.

Just as Xing Conglian was about to pull the trigger for the third time, the porcelain shard had already plunged into the police officer’s throat.

At the moment the porcelain shard was inserted into the throat, the night sky paused, and the background faded away. The bloody scene became bright, and Xing Conglian saw his colleague struggling to turn his head, saw his eyes wide open in the dark, and saw the bright red blood spurt out along the white porcelain shard.

He saw the young man’s hand still desperately gripping the porcelain shard, as if wanting to stab deeper.

Xing Conglian finally rushed to the two of them. He pulled the assailant away and stepped heavily on the hand that was holding the porcelain shard, knocking him out. Then he quickly took off his coat and covered his colleague’s throat with it.

Xing Conglian pressed his clothes tightly against the wound, but blood spurted out like an open tap, soaking his coat in no time. “Hang in there! Hang in there! Can you hear me?”

He shouted with all his strength, but the police officer lying on the ground only opened his mouth, as if trying to say something, but eventually closed his eyes slowly.

Someone burst out laughing, and the whole Drum Tower Community under the night sky seemed like hell on earth.