Di doo di doo di doo——
The sound of the Police Siren reminded him of a children’s song, but he couldn’t remember how it went, nor its name.
He could only hum the tune vaguely, unconsciously matching it with the siren’s wailing.
The Police draped a blanket over him and handed him a cup of hot tea.
His Uncle was asking something, but he didn’t catch it.
All he could do was instinctively search for Qiao Yunxue’s whereabouts, and only when he saw her sitting in another ambulance, talking with a Female Police Officer, did he finally relax.
It was the Sorting Worker on the night shift who found the two of them sleeping in the Warehouse, and also discovered the box containing the corpse.
After that, the Police moved swiftly—just like the perfect ending in every Detective Drama—justice struck hard, wiping out evil to the last.
In reality, even if the two of them hadn’t acted, the Police had already gathered plenty of clues about Zhong Wen’s crimes; all that was missing was the final, substantive evidence, which Xu Jia’s body ultimately provided.
Before being taken to the Hospital, he saw Zhong Wen being escorted by the Police to three suitcases.
Upon seeing his lover’s already decaying corpse, Zhong Wen fell to his knees, sobbing bitterly.
His cries were heart-wrenching—perhaps out of grief for Xu Jia, perhaps for himself, or maybe both.
A grown man confessed his crimes to the Inspectors, awaiting judgment and punishment from the State Apparatus.
In the history of the Country, murderers who acted with such brutality rarely escaped the fate of poetic justice.
He and Qiao Yunxue were sent to the Hospital for checkups, assigned to different floors in the Dormitory.
Shen Yao sat on the hospital bed, an Antibacterial Bandage plastered to his face—the wound the Strangeness left behind.
The Doctor had said, given a young man’s constitution, it would heal in a month at most, leaving no scar.
However, Shen Yao wasn’t concerned about being disfigured.
He silently took out his phone, wanting to send Cheng Orange a message on QQ, only to find his phone was out of battery.
He’d promised Cheng Orange to go eat at the Milk Ice Cream Shop in the City Center together on Sunday, but with how things had turned out today, it probably wouldn’t be settled any time soon.
Maybe he would let Cheng Orange down again… Why did he say “again”?
There was a knock at the door. Shen Yao looked up and saw two Police Officers, one elderly and overly kind, the other young and a bit reckless.
The older Police Officer held a small yellow notebook in his hand, whispered a few words to the Nurse, then moved a chair over and sat down at the bedside.
“Little Shen, how are you feeling? Any discomfort?”
Shen Yao shook his head.
The older Police Officer opened his notebook. “My name is Cai Qiangming. You can call me Uncle Ming. Little Shen, I need to trouble you to cooperate with us and give a statement, okay?”
Shen Yao nodded.
“How did you end up at the Comprehensive Logistics Park? Your School is on the other side of the city, isn’t it?”
“Qiao Yunxue and I… That is, the girl with me and I went to see Zhong Wen. We wanted to pay him to hold a Lecture, but he refused and acted very strangely, so Qiao Yunxue and I followed him and found the logistics park.”
Lying is an art—sometimes, telling the truth and telling a lie have the same effect. The only difference lies in the speaker’s position and identity.
Cai Qiangming felt a jolt in his heart. This matched Zhong Wen’s testimony—these two youngsters wanted to run a Criminal Radio Program, didn’t they?
Kids at this age are just like that, too curious for their own good.
Cai Qiangming continued, “Can you tell me again how you found the victim’s body?”
Shen Yao shook his head, looking troubled. “Uncle Ming, I don’t want to remember it… Last night was really painful for me.”
Cai Qiangming nodded repeatedly. “I understand, I understand.”
He closed the little yellow notebook.
In fact, he didn’t want to interrogate two innocent kids either, but it was just procedure.
The real criminal, Zhong Wen, had already confessed; all the evidence had been collected.
These two kids were just unlucky to be caught up in it all.
He stood up, reminding him before leaving,
“Little Shen, don’t do anything dangerous again. Just focus on your studies; otherwise your Aunt will worry about you. Although we don’t encourage this kind of reckless confrontation with criminals, your contribution to solving this case will still be recognized. But remember, next time, you might be facing not just a victim’s corpse, but a vicious criminal!”
Shen Yao nodded. Indeed, there are very few truly inspired people in this world.
If he tried to explain last night’s bizarre experience to the Police, he’d probably be sent to a psychiatric hospital.
Sometimes, a little white lie is needed just to maintain basic dignity.
He looked out the window at the slowly rising sun, listened to the cicadas and admired the flowers, and remembered that he hadn’t had any nightmares last night.
He felt a huge sense of relief, as if freed from some kind of shackle.
With this, everything was finally over.
He had helped Qiao Yunxue briefly “catch” the Strangeness, unraveled the urban legend of the telephone ghost, and dispelled the nightmares that had plagued him for so long.
This really was the perfect ending.
Strangeness truly is a strange thing—once the rules are broken, it disappears in an instant, just like its nature: passion that erupts suddenly, then recedes in chaos like the tide.
Just then, the door was pushed open again.
Qiao Yunxue stormed in, face full of irritation. “So annoying! That Female Police Officer just wouldn’t stop nagging, even more annoying than my dad!”
Seeing her head of red hair, Shen Yao couldn’t help but laugh.
Qiao Yunxue yanked him off the hospital bed without warning. “Why are you still lounging on the bed? Come on, let’s go. Don’t hang around here playing house with those Police anymore!”
Seeing Shen Yao hesitate, she added, “It’s fine! I’ll just have my dad call their Director and let him know! Let’s go! Sidekick!”
“Oh… Oh.”
Shen Yao put on his already battered Running Shoes.
Last night’s chase had been too intense, and this cheap pair—seventy-five yuan—had reached the end of their life.
He got off the bed and reached his hand out to Qiao Yunxue.
“What are you doing?” Qiao Yunxue instinctively reached into her pocket for money, then realized what was going on and shot Shen Yao a glare.
In the end, she counted out Five Banknotes and handed them to him.
Shen Yao drew his hand back. “I just want to borrow your phone. I need to reply to Cheng Orange and my Aunt.”
“Where’s yours?”
“Out of battery.”
With a reluctant face, Qiao Yunxue handed over her phone.
Shen Yao turned on the phone and, a bit clumsily, logged in to his QQ account. First, he sent Cheng Orange a message.
“Sorry, I can’t go with you to the City Center today. I’m too tired today.”
Cheng Orange quickly replied, “Shen Yao, are you sick?”
“No, not sick. Yesterday, I stumbled into a murderer’s hideout where a corpse was hidden. I just got out of the Hospital now.”
After sending this, he realized just how ridiculous it sounded.
What a lousy lie—completely absurd. It was like when a teacher asked him why he hadn’t brought his homework, and he answered, “Aliens stole it last night.”
Yet Cheng Orange replied, “Okay, have a good rest.” Then came a sighing little yellow bean emoji.
All right, have a good rest.
Seeing these words, Shen Yao felt even more guilty. Clearly, Cheng Orange didn’t believe his story, but she still pretended to understand and comfort him.
Otherwise, with her personality, she would have grilled him about what happened yesterday.
Maybe it would have been better to just lie… Say he twisted his ankle, or that he pulled an all-nighter last night.
He then called his Aunt’s workplace, briefly explaining what had happened. His Aunt was finally able to relax and told him to hurry home.
After hanging up, Shen Yao found Qiao Yunxue staring blankly at him. He waved his hand in front of her eyes. “What’s up with you?”
Qiao Yunxue turned away. “N-nothing… I’m just a little surprised.”
“Surprised about what?”
“Surprised that you have so many people who care about you, while I…” She trailed off, shook her head, and deliberately raised her voice to avoid Shen Yao’s questions, “Come on, let’s go to the Shopping Mall.”
“Why are we going to the Shopping Mall? I want to go home…”
Qiao Yunxue looked down scornfully at his battered shoes. “Of course, to buy you a new pair of shoes. Consider it reimbursement for my sidekick.”