Thursday, July 24, 2014. 7:35 AM, Zhengguo Standard Time.
The flight from Shan Country to Spring City Airport took two hours, and the connecting flight to Hongcheng took another two and a half. With the layover, Su Zhou and Shao Qiming didn't arrive back in their hometown of Hongzhou Hongcheng until the next morning.
The Zhengguo Government was impressively efficient in this regard. After all the evacuated tourists signed non-disclosure agreements in the customs hall, the government not only chartered their flights home but even arranged for taxis to take them from the airport. If no one was there to pick you up, the government paid for your ride home. If you couldn't get home right away, they'd put you up in a hotel temporarily.
Su Zhou and Shao Qiming parted ways at the airport entrance. After all, Shao Qiming came from a wealthy family, and his family's driver had already been waiting for the young master's arrival for several hours.
The driver also knew Su Zhou, the family's honorary 'Second Young Master,' and couldn't help but tease, "Second Young Master Su, you sure you don't need a ride? It's on my way."
"Keep it up, Uncle Feng, and I'll be sure to tell Uncle Shao all about it," Su Zhou retorted with a laugh, his tone mimicking the playful banter of a stage comedian. He then turned to his friend. "I'll see you later, then. We'll talk properly about... everything."
He didn't suggest talking online. While there were secure methods for online communication, it was a potential vulnerability best avoided.
"See you, then."
Shao Qiming understood his friend's meaning perfectly. He gave a small smile and a wave goodbye.
After his friend left, Su Zhou stood alone in silence for a moment, lost in thought. A few minutes later, he hailed a taxi, loaded his luggage, and departed.
Hongzhou was a land of many lakes and rivers, and Hongcheng could almost be called a city built on water.
Su Zhou's home was in the Xinyuan District, right by the Fuhe River in the heart of the city.
He got out at the entrance to the district, grabbed his luggage, and walked toward his building. As he swiped his key card to open the main door, he noticed something strange.
"Yara, why are all these mosquitoes and flying insects avoiding me?"
Su Zhou glanced around. He could see all the crawling things hidden in the shadows and the silent insects flitting through the air. Every single one was fleeing in a panic as if sensing some terrifying presence.
A vacuum-like, ten-meter-radius circle, completely devoid of insects, had formed around him. He was stunned. "What's going on?"
"What's so strange about it? You carry my blood. The beasts and venomous creatures of the Mortal Realm will naturally fear you. A single drop of your blood can keep an area free of insects and vermin for a decade."
The Snake Spirit, curled up by Su Zhou's ear, seemed to have eaten its fill and was dozing. It replied lazily, "Commanding venomous creatures and plagues is not my domain, so this is the extent of it. But the next time you encounter a Seed of Serpent Dragon, you'll see just how intimidating you really are."
"Hey, that's surprisingly useful!"
Ignoring the second half of that statement, Su Zhou was simply delighted. 'I'll never have to deal with mosquitoes buzzing in my ear again!'
He got in the elevator, pressed the button for the seventh floor, and soon arrived. He walked toward apartment 101.
But just as a cheerful Su Zhou was humming a little tune, key in hand and ready to unlock the door, his keen hearing picked up a cold snort from inside, followed by the sound of a TV news broadcast.
"Crap!"
His heart sank. 'Don't tell me Mom and Dad aren't working overtime today. They're still home?'
'That can't be right!'
But what choice did he have? Bracing himself, Su Zhou opened the door and said in a low voice, "I'm home—"
"So you still know how to come back, do you?"
A middle-aged man's voice, tinged with anger, rang out.
A man and a woman were sitting on the sofa inside. They had just turned off the TV.
The middle-aged man had sharp features and an intense gaze. He was wearing a police uniform. Though powerfully built, his face was drawn with fatigue, and his eyes, ringed with dark circles, were bloodshot from too many sleepless nights.
"You brat!"
Father Su, Su Beiluo, shot up from the couch and stormed over to his son. With one hand, he pushed Su Zhou's luggage aside, while the other fiercely ruffled the boy's hair. "Telling your Uncle Shao and Aunt Wen 'don't tell my parents'? Huh? Afraid we'd worry? Is that it?"
"You get caught in a terrorist attack and don't even think to call home and tell us you're safe? You've really gotten bold, haven't you? Are you trying to worry us to death?!"
"Stop that. He's not that bright to begin with. What'll you do if you mess up what little he has?"
The woman—equally sharp in appearance, equally exhausted, with a physician's ID badge pinned to her chest—was doing eye-massaging exercises. With her eyes closed, she said dryly, "At least our son knows not to make his parents worry. Such a filial boy. It's a good thing."
The physician's badge read: Ning Shiyu.
And below it, in smaller print: Deputy Chief of General Surgery.
"Dad, Mom, I was wrong!"
Hearing the biting sarcasm from his parents—a tone only one's own flesh and blood could perfect—Su Zhou had a flash of insight. He remembered the script Shao Qiming had helped him prepare.
He cleared his throat and immediately put on a look of profound remorse, launching into a self-reproach. "It's my fault. All my fault! I shouldn't have tried to avoid a little trouble by hiding what happened. I shouldn't have relaxed my guard and been so careless overseas…"
His unbroken stream of self-criticism went on for a full five minutes—a rambling monologue of nearly a thousand words, never repeating the same excuse twice. The display of emotion was so sincere, the self-condemnation so profound, that his parents could only stare at each other, their anger completely vanishing.
Finally, Su Beiluo couldn't take it anymore and waved his hand dismissively. "Stop, that's enough! We get it, you're sorry!"
After Su Zhou fell silent, his father eyed his son's unusually docile expression with suspicion. As a member of a criminal investigation team, he had a gut feeling that Su Zhou's performance was strange.
He was too calm. Far too calm. There wasn't a hint of fear or lingering trauma in his demeanor. True, his son had always been bold—outrageously so, even—but it made no sense for him to be this composed and at ease after being attacked and nearly kidnapped by armed militants overseas.
'And the watch on his left wrist is gone... Was it stolen?'
The woman, Ning Shiyu, also opened her eyes to look at Su Zhou, her brow furrowed. 'Is it my imagination, or did my son come back from his trip not only without a tan, but even a little paler and more handsome than before?'
'I mean, he inherited my genes, so of course he's handsome, but what's the deal with this? Is the climate in Shan Country just that good for the skin?'
'Maybe I should find an opportunity to take a trip to Shan Country with his father?'
'Knowing Mom and Dad, if they don't ask about it on the spot, it means their suspicions haven't solidified yet.'
Su Zhou could feel his parents' suspicious gazes, but that actually put him at ease. It meant he had passed this test... He had considered faking a traumatized, trembling act, but he knew that with his clumsy acting, his parents—both professionals at reading people—would have seen through it instantly.
'After all, deep down, I'm not afraid at all!'
Su Beiluo, a bit of a talker, was the Captain of the Second Brigade of the Hongcheng Criminal Justice Department's Criminal Investigation Detachment, a career detective with the rank of Third-Grade Police Chief.
Ning Shiyu, who had a penchant for dry humor, was a Deputy Chief Physician and Associate Professor in the Department of General Surgery at the Hongcheng Academy First Affiliated Hospital.
There was a rather grim saying: Convince someone to study medicine, and you'll be struck by lightning. Convince them to study law, and you'll die by a thousand cuts. Convince them to join the police, and you'll be blasted by the Five Thunders.
Su Zhou's family checked two of those boxes. If he were to study law, they'd have the whole morbid set. And you couldn't really say the saying was wrong.
Ever since he was a child, back when his parents were just a regular cop and a regular doctor, all the way up to now, their overtime and business trips had been relentless. Out of three hundred sixty-five days a year, they were off-their-feet busy for at least three hundred thirty of them. They had no time to look after Su Zhou, who was basically left to raise himself.
Thankfully, the Su Family's old friends, the Shao family, were kind-hearted. Shao Qiming's mother, who was always at home due to a leg condition, had the time to help look after Su Zhou. If not for them, he probably would have starved to death and become a tragic headline.
"As long as you're safe and sound, you brat, I can rest easy." Su Beiluo sighed. "I took a half-day of personal leave for this. I have to get back to the case in a bit."
Muttering this, Su Beiluo dragged his weary body back to the sofa and closed his eyes. "I felt too bad about leaving, but the Chief forced me to take the half-day."
"Tell me about it."
Ning Shiyu headed for the kitchen, yawning. "For some reason, the hospital and the Academy have been reassigning a huge number of senior attending physicians and professors lately. We're desperately short-staffed. I had to squeeze in time just to rush home."
Complaints about being busy were a normal part of life in the Su household, but today, they sounded strange to Su Zhou's ears.
As he unpacked his luggage, he couldn't help but think, 'Dad's been this busy recently? And Mom's work is reassigning senior doctors... Something feels off…'
But the suspicion lasted only a moment. After all, his parents had always been incredibly busy. He'd seen them this swamped before.
It was precisely because he knew how busy they were that he hadn't wanted to add to their worries. But now, it seemed his decision had been a bit thoughtless.
"Su Zhou, ask about the case."
He hadn't planned on disturbing his father's rest, but the Snake Spirit gave him a light nip as a reminder. "By the way, Dad," Su Zhou said, "what kind of case are you working on that's keeping you so busy you can barely get half a day off?"
"A murder case."
Su Beiluo frowned. It wasn't something he was supposed to discuss, but it wasn't classified, and the news would be reporting on it soon anyway. He said bluntly, "Over at Chigu Beach. Three people dead in four days. We've preliminarily identified it as a serial murder case."
"The case is serious, but what's worse is that we haven't found a single clue about the killer."
"There's no connection between the victims. They weren't robbed, either. Cash, bank cards, jewelry—nothing was taken. It looks like random, spontaneous killings."
"But that's not what's giving us a headache. It's because the bodies are missing... a lot."
At this, Su Beiluo's brow tightened, his sharp eyes filled with confusion. He uttered a single word: "Flesh."
"A significant amount of the victims' flesh, along with some of their internal organs, was taken. By very brutal means."