Chapter 32: Forced Closure of the Case

Shi Rang was now at the bottom of a deep, dark pit.

He drifted high above, watching himself being submerged by the collapsing soil, buried deep underground by the very fear he thought he had conquered. If he hadn't spoken to her that day, he would never have known the happiness that followed—but then again, would the tragedy have occurred at all?

It was all his fault.

From deep within the earth, the key to the new home Ying Shang had once handed him pushed its way toward him. Shi Rang did not take it. It pressed against his palm with relentless persistence, and he recoiled once more. Then, in an instant, the key lunged directly into his mouth, wedging itself between his teeth and throat, pushing deeper—

Shi Rang struggled to open his eyes. A harsh, blinding light pierced his vision, and he jerked his head away to escape the glare. The fingers that had been clearing the dirt from his mouth vanished, replaced by a hand that slapped his cheeks rhythmically, left and right.

"Open your eyes! Get up!"

He had not yet fully shaken off the dream; he wanted to bury his head back into the depths of the earth and hide away forever. But the hand kept shaking him with force until, annoyed beyond measure, Shi Rang opened his eyes again.

Under the glare, there were many swaying silhouettes. As his vision cleared, the deep blue police uniforms became apparent. They stood in a circle above him, backed by the bright, sun-drenched sky.

Seeing that Shi Rang was awake, one of them grabbed his arm, forced him face-down onto the ground without a word, and clicked a pair of handcuffs onto his wrists.

"Hurry up, get the arrest on record."

"...You have the right to remain silent, but anything you say—"

Shi Rang’s reason rushed back to him. He roared instantly: "I am a journalist! I have the right to investigate!"

The shout stopped the tardy officers in their tracks. The inspector, who had been preparing to cuff both of Shi Rang’s hands, paused and looked down at the mud-caked man. "You were holding a gun when you were arrested; everyone saw it. A suspect has no rights—"

"I have the right to investigate! My badge and credentials are all in order. Try touching me without evidence and see what happens!"

This kind of intimidation didn't work on Shi Rang anymore. Back when he first arrived in this district, naive to the chaos of the Tenth District, he had come filled with beautiful dreams of freedom. On his very first day, reporting his stolen luggage to the police station, he had been forced to sit on a cold bench for hours before being coerced into "signing a document" under threats, nearly becoming a suspect in an entirely different case. If not for Junzi arriving quickly to pay his way out, Shi Rang would have ended up in prison before even setting foot on campus.

The "Blue Suits" were only slightly better than the gangs, but that didn't stop him from despising the duplicitous cops of the Tenth District. Their attempt to frame him only fueled his rage. Old grudges and new anger intertwined, surging through his weakened body and sweeping away the self-pity he had brought back from his nightmare.

"If you don't let go, you can explain to the Alliance why you're obstructing an investigation!"

The hands pressing on his arms and legs loosened.

Shi Rang climbed to his feet, discovering that the sun was already at its zenith. He disorientedly scanned his surroundings, retrieving his camera from beneath the debris pile where he had spent the night, along with the small badge clipped to it. He rubbed the grime off with his fingernails, revealing the brilliant gold beneath.

Seeing this, the Blue Suits exchanged looks of disappointment and annoyance. Their case-clearance rates were tied to their funding, and it was obvious that this scene was the result of a clash between criminal organizations. To avoid drawing the ire of those syndicates, they had deliberately waited until the matter was settled to arrive, meaning they had caught no real suspects.

The Alliance was involved now, so they couldn't just pretend they hadn't seen it. Now, they were stuck with a high-stakes case and no scapegoat.

Before the officers could disperse, Shi Rang strode up to the man with the inspector's insignia and shoved his arm under the officer’s pinched nose, the handcuffs dangling from his wrist.

"Unlock these. And this is a matter under my investigation; I have the right to primary information."

As the Blue Suits scattered to search the area with police dogs, fellow journalists—like mosquitoes smelling blood—flocked to the scene from all directions.

The mud on Shi Rang’s body dried into hard crusts, shedding in flakes as he walked. He stripped off his ruined shirt, tossed it into a newly set-up yellow dumpster, and paced around the scene shirtless. Any colleagues who tried to cozy up to him were driven away by the pungent stench of decay, a result he was quite happy with.

He scowled and snapped photos continuously—not for a report, but simply to disgust this lot. As long as he didn't hand his data over to the Alliance, the police and other journalists couldn't publish it. That was the ruthlessness of the right to investigate.

Pressing the shutter again and again, he felt a fatigue he had never known before. The anger that had come and gone so quickly finally reached its end.

What was the point of all this? He had endured humiliation at the news agency solely to follow the trail left by "Greyhound." Now that the trail was dead, was there any reason to stay in a profession he wasn't even suited for?

Shi Rang stopped beside the excavated remains, lined up in a row on the parched earth. More black body bags lay with zippers open, waiting for new occupants.

Ying Shang was not here. She wouldn't be here.

He could find a higher-paying job, one that would give him the means to travel to other cities to keep looking for her. The world was vast; she could be in any of the twelve major districts. Since there were no clues in the Tenth, he would go to the other eleven to keep searching. He needed a better job, because the mortgage couldn't stop—he had to keep that house, just in case Ying Shang returned one day and found no home left to come back to.

Shi Rang walked past the victims, as if circling a funeral site. The pit the officers were digging was the very one he had crawled out of yesterday; the signs of his escape remained, which was why it had been discovered first.

Standing by the body bags, Shi Rang no longer felt the corpses were terrifying. Under the brilliant sun, the twisted limbs of the dead, frozen in place, only looked frail and pitiable.

He took a final photo of those who had shielded his movements in death. He wanted to take a few more of the collapsed factory, but his camera battery died. His batteries and other belongings were still up on the mountain, but he felt no lingering attachment to the lighthouse or his pack. He wanted to turn and leave, to vanish from the Tenth District and head to the next place where he might find his love. But his sense of responsibility told him he had to return the property to its owner first.

Yes, that was it. Finish this last piece of work, collect the pay for this massive scoop, and then he would set off to find her, taking odd jobs along the way to earn his keep. Some hikers spent over a decade walking the entire continent; he could do the same.

He had broken away from his past, cowardly self. There was a light in his life that kept him from walking in total darkness. Even if that light had vanished, he would find her again.

Shi Rang went to the police mobile command vehicle, shooed away the others who were eating lunch there, grabbed a boxed meal, and swallowed it whole with a bottle of water. His sense of smell had been numbed, but judging by the expressions of those around him, the stench was intense. The Blue Suits were unhappy, but they were desperate for him to leave, so they let him raid their supplies and wolf down the food.

"Your stuff."

As Shi Rang put down his lunch box, an officer tossed a wiped-off plastic card across the table.

[Scarlett, Headhunter Firm Manager & Alliance Investigator]

It was the item left behind by the woman from last night. It must have slipped from his grasp when he was hauled out of the pit after passing out.

A headhunter firm? More like a company of assassins who "head-hunted," he thought. As for the title of "Alliance Investigator," he ignored it entirely. You couldn't believe everything printed on a card, could you?

Shi Rang shoved it into his pocket alongside his shattered phone. Perhaps there would be a day when it was useful. He had no intention of providing clues to the police; even setting aside the history between them, he couldn't make sense of what happened last night.

He had precious few memories of the two mysterious figures who had broken in. In the near-pitch-black chaos, he had no leads other than "a super tall guy" and "a woman with long braids strong enough to kill him with one punch." In fact, he never once connected the two people, who were covered head-to-toe in combat gear, to the duo who had helped him out half a day earlier.

Looking at the ruins of the chemical plant, Shi Rang shrugged dismissively. Now that he was fed and standing in the sun, his mind had settled; he was no longer jumping at shadows.

Monsters? Intruders? Supernatural events? It was likely just a dog-eat-dog-eat-dog fight with excessive firepower. Darkness and tragedy could make a person lose their mind, couldn't they? Even the things his own brain felt couldn't be trusted. He had learned that much last night.

Shi Rang headed toward the mountain to retrieve his pack.