In this era of Huaxia, cases where someone is murdered without leaving a trace and only discovered by accident when the corpse is found have become rare.
But when such a case does appear, it’s always a major headache, a dark cloud lingering over the heads of the relevant departments.
“Don’t be too pessimistic. At least we still have an investigative direction now.”
Zhang Feng comforted Jiang Yin.
“And besides, I suspect this case might be an old case, not something that happened recently.”
“Wouldn’t that make it even harder to find clues…?”
The girl glanced at him speechlessly.
“The clearance rate for this kind of case isn’t high, right?”
There was a time when she liked knowledge about criminal investigation, but she didn’t watch those crime dramas. Instead, she preferred reading real stories shared by veteran police officers online.
Compared to well-designed plot-driven entertainment, these stories weren’t particularly exciting or dramatic, but they were real.
From those stories, Jiang Yin saw helplessness.
In the past, before cameras covered every corner and information was networked, if a body was suddenly discovered in a remote area, most cases ended as unsolved mysteries, nearly impossible to crack.
“Actually, that’s not quite right. Whether it’s the police or the Bureau, this kind of ‘Artificial Monster Case,’ especially those involving human lives, is typically ‘hard to discover’ but ‘easy to solve.'”
Zhang Feng explained with a light laugh.
Jiang Yin immediately caught on.
“Because it’s easy to find a clear investigation direction?”
“Smart. Next, we just need to wait. Once the forensic doctor identifies the victim, we can continue the investigation.”
“Then I’ll leave it to you, Uncle Zhang~”
“I’m not that old…”
Halfway through his words, Zhang Feng saw the mischievous girl’s face full of collagen and fell silent.
Almost forty, he was truly an ‘uncle’ compared to Jiang Yin, who looked barely adult.
He didn’t know if his suspicions were real, but if possible, Zhang Feng truly hoped such a pleasant and pretty girl wouldn’t get involved in absolutely forbidden matters.
“Are you done chatting?”
Wen Ling’s eyes were still bright, showing no sign of fatigue despite playing crazily all day.
She was curious about what the two had talked about, but obediently didn’t ask.
She just smiled.
“The program team’s car is here. Let’s go.”
“This time, the haunted house we’re exploring is also rumored to be related to Monsters! They say there are traces of Monster activity inside!”
“Is that so?”
Zhang Feng was still tangled over whether Jiang Yin was a suspect, so his reply was perfunctory.
Instead, Jiang Yin caught the key point.
“Another Monster?”
“Mm, they say it happened years ago. Someone saw a Monster there.”
Wen Ling nodded and showed Jiang Yin her phone.
“This is the post.”
The girl read carefully.
It was a very ordinary, almost made-up Monster sighting.
In short, the poster was a middle school student who ran away from home after a fight with their parents, hid in an abandoned building for half an hour, and heard a clear, eerie chewing sound, scaring them into running home.
The replies mostly mocked the ‘half-hour runaway’ story, and one in particular made the girl laugh.
[Bro, you ran so far, you almost reached the next subway stop!]
But no one really believed it, since the poster’s description was vague, and most guessed it was some wild animal—like a stray dog or cat—eating.
The probability of a real Monster was very low.
After all, the location wasn’t remote; it was an abandoned building on the edge of the city.
A local netizen who lived nearby even took photos for the poster to identify.
‘Looks like there won’t be much to gain tonight.’
That was all the girl thought after reading the post.
True, Monster events were rare.
If they really encountered two in a row, Jiang Yin would start suspecting the program team had some sort of eyebrow pen constitution.
As for herself?
Well, according to Ning Rong, miracle and despair attract each other, so Magical Girls and Monsters naturally draw each other in. The probability of a Magical Girl encountering a Monster or Resentment event is higher than for ordinary people, and some Magical Girls attract them even more.
Trouble follows wherever they go—pure metaphysics.
But Jiang Yin firmly believed she wasn’t that much of an eyebrow pen, so it had to be the program team’s problem!
—She hadn’t encountered a single Monster in the past thirty years!
By the time they arrived at the abandoned building, Jiang Yin let out a sigh of relief.
—Her Hand Ring wasn’t burning hot, just a bit warm.
That meant there shouldn’t be any Monster above D-class within 500 meters, only Resentment gathering.
In this kind of long-abandoned, gloomy building, Resentment was normal. If it wasn’t present, it meant the Bureau’s investigators had just come to clean up.
“Everyone, we’re about to start the live broadcast.”
“Ok~”
With her mood relaxed, Jiang Yin smiled sweetly.
Even the cameraman from the northeast subconsciously softened his voice.
“Then shall we begin?”
“Let’s begin.”
As Zhang Feng’s words fell, the Live Broadcast Room went live, and bullet comments filled the screen.
But no one paid them much mind, focusing on their own ‘haunted house exploration’ instead.
“As a professional, I recommend you never enter abandoned buildings out of curiosity.”
He stepped into water ruined by wind and rain.
“Eh? Is it dangerous?”
Wen Ling had never been to a place like this. She hid behind Jiang Yin like a shy kitten, curiously peeking out—though with their size difference, Jiang Yin couldn’t block anything.
“No, because it’s easy to hit the jackpot.”
With a wicked grin, Zhang Feng swept his flashlight into the corner, exposing a pile of dried human excrement to the live broadcast.
[Gua! I don’t want to see this!]
[Cao! I really thought there would be danger!]
[What’s dangerous in an abandoned building? It’s not like it’s the wilderness—this is the city, and the Bureau patrols regularly.]
Wen Ling’s foot was less than twenty centimeters from the pile. Startled, she tried to move away, but Jiang Yin pulled her back.
“Don’t move. Just walk in the middle.”
When walking in these buildings, the key is never to trust any corner or walk by the walls.
Because you never know where those idiots might have left things.
“Uncle Zhang, your sense of humor is a bit much.”
Seeing the girl being protective, Zhang Feng scratched his nose awkwardly.
“I was just teasing her.”
“But Xiao Wei, you’re quite experienced. Did you often come to places like this before?”
“I used to be a photographer for people.”
“…?”
Zhang Feng couldn’t keep up.
“Abandoned buildings are prime photography spots for cosers. An old uncle like you wouldn’t understand.”
She smiled mischievously, but her heart bled.
She wasn’t one of those who adventured and took photos with friends to create happy memories.
She was dragged here by an older cross-dressing boss for extra weekend work…
Though Huang Ge would treat her to a good meal afterward, if they weren’t close, Jiang Yin would never agree.
The back door always felt dangerous.
“Ahem…I don’t really get you young people.”
This round ended in mutual defeat.
The group quickly swept through the first floor and headed up the stairs to the second.
As soon as they reached the second floor, their expressions changed—not out of danger, but…
Zhang Feng had discovered another patch of Resentment.
Its position was unfortunate, right on top of another pile.
“Brother Zhang, no way…”
Jiang Yin’s face darkened, and she subconsciously took a step back.
“It’s just as you think.”
Zhang Feng calmly took out a Daylight Lamp from his tool bag.
“Until the Resentment is completely cleared, we can’t move its attached object. That’s the rule, so…”
The staircase shone brightly the moment the light came on, then…
“Is this what work as a Bureau investigator is really like!?”
Wen Ling’s face nearly collapsed, her big eyes brimming with tears.
The viewers in the Live Broadcast Room instantly stood in awe.
[Everyone, stand up! Salute!]
[Comrade, thank you for your service!]
[I used to envy my brother for becoming an investigator. Now, I don’t.]
[Special meow meow, someone baked poop at night! Baked poop!]
Jiang Yin silently pulled out two masks from her pocket, handed one to Wen Ling, and received a grateful look.
Zhang Feng didn’t even wear a mask the whole time.
“Actually, this kind of dried excrement doesn’t smell.”
After putting away the Daylight Lamp, he shrugged innocently.
“Even if heating brings out a little odor, it’s still less than the molecules you inhale when using the bathroom…”
“Uncle Zhang, Brother Zhang, bro, I was wrong!”
Jiang Yin quickly interrupted.
“Stop. Lingling’s about to vomit!”
“Alright.”
Having achieved his revenge, Zhang Feng returned to seriousness.
“Actually, a lot of things are like this. When people see us shining Daylight Lamps on poop, they think it’s rough, but in reality, many people make a living collecting trash, and sanitation workers often clean excrement from the streets.”
“Our clean environment exists because of their silent efforts. Without them, we’d all experience the flavor of medieval European cities.”
“Eh?”
Wen Ling’s attention was diverted.
“But wasn’t that nice? The books say every home in medieval Europe had flowers!”
“Lingling.”
Jiang Yin facepalmed.
The entertainment industry is full of illiterates, it seems.
Some words sound empty, but in reality, they’re a luxury.
—Cultural workers must have culture! (Salute) (Crying)
“Medieval Europe didn’t have sewage systems. People dumped waste right into the streets.”
“Dumped…”
“Gag!”
Wen Ling’s imagination seemed powerful; she bent over, dry-heaving.
Zhang Feng quickly raised his hand in surrender.
“That’s not my fault!”
“…”
Jiang Yin gave him a glare but said nothing.
Fortunately, Wen Ling hadn’t eaten much that evening; after a few dry heaves, she recovered.
Her big eyes glared angrily.
“No more talk about this!”
She turned seriously to the camera.
“Everyone must remember not to urinate or defecate anywhere!”
‘So cute~’
Jiang Yin watched her cute face and smiled like an aunt.
The bullet comments melted into little placentas, obediently agreeing.
[(๑‾ ꇴ ‾๑)Okay]
[Okay~o(^â–½^)â”›]
“Alright, let’s keep going.”
Zhang Feng felt emotional seeing this.
Honestly, the internet era is a challenge for publicity work.
Most people in management are from the ’70s and ’80s and didn’t grow up online, so don’t expect them to understand these abstract young seedlings.
Fortunately, after years of testing, the higher-ups understood and simply let the young people interact with each other.
That’s why in recent years, so many official accounts have become ‘abstract’, and offline publicity has been handled by young people.
It’s no joke that post-00s do editing, post-90s do reviewing, and post-80s report to post-70s—it’s the reality of many publicity jobs, and some key posts even have to explain things to post-60s.
In the past, publicity was always done by department leaders.
Back then, everyone believed ‘if you don’t have facial hair, you can’t handle things’, so they never trusted young people’s words.
That’s the change of the times.
Now, if you brought a fifty- or sixty-year-old traditionalist into the Live Broadcast Room to lecture young people about not urinating everywhere, would these rebellious netizens still obey?
Forget obeying—how many would even click in?
Even Zhang Feng surfs the internet heavily to stay in touch with the young, worried about losing connection.
Thanks to this, his mindset is younger than most his age; otherwise, he wouldn’t tease Wen Ling about medieval European ‘flavor.’
This abandoned building wasn’t tall—six floors, no elevator.
But its area was large enough to shelter from wind and rain.
On the third floor, Jiang Yin and the others even found a bedroll.
Some poor soul must have lived here for a while.
“Alright, that’s the end of today’s live broadcast…”
Wen Ling was saying goodbye to the audience in front of the camera when, just as the signal cut, a black shadow flashed behind them.
Even Jiang Yin didn’t react in time.
Only the terrified viewers, their hairs standing on end, flooded the director with bullet comments in the Live Broadcast Room.
[Run!!!]
[Lingling! Run!!]
[There’s really a Monster!!]
[I cao cao cao cao!!!]
“Teachers, run!”
The director’s shout burst through the headphones.
Without thinking, Jiang Yin grabbed Wen Ling and ran downstairs.
The cameraman rushed ahead, Jiang Yin and Wen Ling in the middle.
Zhang Feng swept the area, drawing the electric baton from his waist to cover the rear.
When they finally escaped the abandoned building, Jiang Yin looked back—and met the scarlet eyes in the sixth-floor window.
‘This program team definitely has some kind of eyebrow pen constitution!’
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