Girl, you form the head.

Chapter 34 Lend me your body, Officer Deng!

The return journey was filled with silence, with only the intermittent, light tapping of sparse raindrops on the windows.

Neither of the two people in the car spoke.

Bai Chi was pondering how the monster had evaded detection, while Yan Le listlessly pressed his head against the car window.

Her red hair was reflected in the car window, and the color, which should have been vibrant, appeared somewhat dull due to the rain outside, like thick blood.

"Splash!"

Passing vehicles drove into puddles, splashing mud and water onto the car windows, distorting their reflections. In that instant, Yan Le no longer saw her own exhaustion, but rather the helpless sisters at the crime scene.

Yes, Bai Chi has already taken her to the crime scene.

The two deceased were the sisters who sold candied hawthorns, whom they had contacted earlier.

No, it wasn't a pair of deceased people. There was actually only one deceased person, the older sister.

The younger sister sat blankly to one side, letting the rain wash away the blood that belonged to her older sister.

That scene had a tremendous impact on Yan Le. For a moment, she thought that she was the one sitting there, and that the one lying in the white cloth was...

Just then, the police car suddenly stopped, and Bai Chi's voice, "We're here," pulled Yan Le back from her hallucination. She looked up and realized that Bai Chi had already brought her to her doorstep without her noticing.

But she didn't get out of the car immediately. Instead, she turned to Bai Chi beside her and asked the question she had been wanting to ask: "Why did that monster target the two of them?"

Bai Chi, who was still lost in thought, snapped out of it: "You mean vengeful ghosts?"

“Yes,” Yan Le said in a low voice, “Didn’t you say that he was attracted by other people’s fears? Then why did he target two children? They went home before it was even dark. Were they afraid of ghosts at that time?”

Bai Chi looked into Yan Le's eyes: "The person is already dead, do you still want to know the reason?"

"think."

“Hmm…that’s true.” Bai Chi nodded, then handed the phone to Yan Le. “Take a look at this and you’ll understand.”

Yan Le took the phone and saw that it contained an internal police station report on the case.

Police detected numerous signs of beatings on the older sister's body, while the younger sister's body did not, and noted that the injuries were not caused by a "vengeful ghost."

"What does this mean?" Yan Le asked, puzzled.

“Half an hour ago, my colleagues found the sisters’ home,” Bai Chi said. “They dragged their drunken, unemployed father out of there.”

Yan Le opened her mouth: "You mean..."

"Our initial assessment is that the two little ones... no, to be precise, the older sister has been subjected to long-term domestic violence. The reason they are working at this age is likely because they were forced by their father, while their mother left the family even earlier," Bai Chi said. "In other words, the older sister's greatest fear is not the evil spirits in horror movies, but her father."

At this point, Bai Chi couldn't help but think of Ruri-e.

"Why didn't my sister have it?"

“Perhaps the older sister protected the younger sister. So the younger sister’s fear of her father hasn’t reached the point of being devoured by the ‘vengeful ghost,’ but the older sister has, especially…” Bai Chi paused for a moment, “They go home early so that their drunken father will think they haven’t been working hard.”

Yan Le's body stiffened.

“I know what you want to ask,” Bai Chi said. “You want to know if this happened because you bought all their candied hawthorns, causing them to go home early.”

"...So, is that so?" Yan Le's voice was trembling.

Bai Chi was silent for a moment, then said, "I don't want to lie to you, but the results do show that this is indeed the case."

Yan Le clenched her fists.

“But that doesn’t mean you should be held responsible for their deaths,” Bai Chi said. “The police’s pursuit of him tonight failed, which means someone will definitely die tonight. It won’t be the two of them, it will be someone else. The one who should be held responsible is never the innocent and well-intentioned person, so don’t overthink it, go back and get a good night’s sleep.”

Bai Chi paused for a moment.

"Let's leave this criminal here for now. I'll contact you again if I need anything."

After hearing those words, Yan Le felt as if she had lost her soul. She didn't know how she got out of the car or how she got upstairs, but when she came to her senses, she was already standing at her front door.

She was also clutching several bank cards in her hand, which was obviously white.

But Yan Le, in a daze, couldn't remember when Bai Chi had given it to her.

When you got off the bus? Or earlier?

Yan Le can't remember, but she doesn't care anymore.

She took out her keys and returned home like a marionette.

As soon as the door closed, my sister's voice came from inside the room.

"Xiao Le?"

In that instant, Yan Le seemed to come back to life. Countless emotions surged into her heart. She didn't care about her rain-soaked body and rushed towards her sister as if fleeing, clinging to her sister's body.

"Xiao Le?" The older sister was very surprised. "What's wrong?"

"No...it's nothing..." Yan Le said in a muffled voice, "I just missed you."

"Is that so?" Seeing Yan Le's body trembling, her sister reached out and gently stroked Yan Le's back. "It's okay, I'm right here, I've always been here."

"Ah."

After about ten minutes, Yan Le gradually calmed down.

"Alright," the older sister said gently, "Tell me what happened."

In that instant, Yan Le felt as if she had returned to her childhood, and she wanted to tell her sister everything that had happened that night.

However, when she looked up and saw her sister's unusually pale face, which was made from being bedridden for a long time, she suddenly stopped.

Her mind drifted back to the white cloth in the rainy night, the helpless younger sister, and Officer Deng's words—"Perhaps the older sister protected the younger sister."

"What's wrong?" the older sister asked again.

"No." Yan Le lowered her head again. "Nothing's wrong. I just...missed you a little."

She looked at the wet bank card in her hand, then at the photos of the sisters hanging on half the wall, especially the photos from when they were little, and gradually the images of the two sisters she saw tonight overlapped with them.

In that instant, as if she had made up her mind, she clenched her fists little by little.

……

When Bai Chi got home, it was already midnight, but he found that Liu Li Hui was still awake and was curled up on the sofa watching TV.

So he glanced at the TV program and found that it wasn't the midnight channel from last night, but a very boring late-night comedy.

"What do you think of this thing?" Bai Chi asked casually.

"Isn't that thing something that devours fear?" Ruri said. "Then if I try to bring him good luck, he won't come looking for me, right?"

Bai Chi thought about it and realized that Liu Li Hui's words made a lot of sense. Seeing that Bai Chi had returned, Liu Li Hui didn't want to watch these low-quality comedies anymore, so while changing the channel, she asked seemingly casually, "How was it? How was the experience of getting along with your new backup boyfriend?"

To be honest, Ruri was a little nervous.

Because she realized a problem: now it was she who needed Bai Chi, not the other way around... or at least the need wasn't as obvious as it was for her. Without Bai Chi, she would likely have to return to her previous precarious life of wandering. And without her, Bai Chi seemed capable of finding other fusion partners.

Especially in terms of strength, she doesn't have much of an advantage; she's just a basic first-tier special user.

And generally speaking, there aren't many people as bad as her.

Therefore, she was still very concerned about what it would be like for Bai Chi and her new fusion partner. What if the new knight's strength far surpassed her Shadow Mist Knight? Wouldn't she have no chance to participate? And wouldn't she eventually be disliked for eating too much and simply discarded?
Thinking of this, Ruri glanced guiltily at the overflowing takeout boxes in the trash can.

Bai Chi wasn't home today, so she ate quite a bit. But you can't blame her; Nanluo's food delivery service is so advanced—she can order whatever she wants and have it delivered right to her door with a tap of her finger. It's outrageous!

Uh, I've digressed. Let's see what happens when incandescence is used.

"She's not as good as you." Bai Chi's concise answer made Liu Li Hui breathe a sigh of relief.

"Oh, really?" A smile involuntarily crept onto her lips. "Where are you inferior to me?"

“You’re more uninhibited than me,” Bai Chi said. “You’re even wearing clothes in my consciousness space.”

Ruri's smile gradually faded: "You can wear clothes in your consciousness space?"

"Yes, I just found out too."

"Then why don't I have any clothes?"

"Because you're so open-minded." Bai Chi gave Liu Li Hui an encouraging thumbs up. "Very good, keep it up."

Ruri's expression froze.

Destroy this damn world, just destroy it already, she's had enough.

As Ruri huddled on the sofa, she grew angrier and angrier. Her initial relief that the backup boyfriend couldn't replace her had now turned into resentment and anger at "why am I the only one who's single?"

No, we have to find a way to get Bai Chi to strip that guy naked too!

Just as Ruri was starting to think about how to effectively persuade Bai Chi not to give up on that backup option, but instead to put in more effort, Bai Chi's phone rang. It was a call from the police station.

After Bai Chi connected, Liu Li Hui noticed that his brows furrowed at a speed visible to the naked eye, which made Liu Li Hui a little uneasy, since Bai Chi rarely showed such emotional behavior.

“Okay, I understand,” Bai Chi said to the person on the other end of the phone. “I have no objections.”

After he finished speaking, he hung up the phone, his brows furrowing even deeper.

"What's wrong?" Ruri asked cautiously.

“The police department has a new plan… no, to be precise, it’s a plan proposed by those two guys from the Special Branch,” Bai Chi said. “They’re going to change the way they capture the ‘monsters’.”

"In what way?"

"Seduction".

Upon hearing those two words, even though she didn't know the specifics of their plan, Ruri felt a sense of unease: "What are they planning to do?"

Instead of answering Liuli Hui directly, Bai Chi opened a webpage on his phone and showed it to her.

The webpage content was very simple, and even Ruri, who had little experience with the internet, understood it immediately.

"The horror film 'The Wasteland' will be screened at Han Guang Cinema at 21:30 tomorrow night, as originally planned."

Ruri was stunned, and after a few seconds she realized: "They want to use the audience as bait?!"

“Yes.” Bai Chi nodded. “Tonight’s failure has proven that conventional detection methods are useless against the ‘monster.’ If this continues, the number of victims will only increase. That’s why the two from the Special Science Department wanted to take a risk and create a great fear that the ‘monster’ couldn’t refuse to lure him into the trap.”

"Is this...really possible?"

“It’s feasible in principle,” Bai Chi said. “The only problem is…”

"They lost?"

Bai Chi nodded.

Ruri felt this was a bit outrageous. Using hundreds of spectators as bait—if they lost, wouldn't hundreds of people die? "How could your police station approve such a plan?"

“The plan is definitely more detailed than I’ve described. They must have prepared contingency plans for the audience’s evacuation in case of an accident. Moreover, Yan Tao and Zhong Ji are a fifth-tier and a fourth-tier special ability user, respectively. Judging from the strength the monster displayed that night, they certainly couldn’t be their match,” Bai Chi said. “Of course, this is all theoretical.”

Even though Bai Chi said that, Liu Li Hui still thought it was outrageous, and then she asked Bai Chi, "What about you?"

Bai Chi pondered for a moment, then shook his head: "I probably can't do anything more."

We need to act tomorrow night; time is too short, and his body simply cannot recover in time.

And even if they recover, so what? Both the Shadow Knight and the Blazing Knight have their own problems. The Shadow Knight's Ruri is not strong enough, and her psychological trauma makes her too obviously suppressed. The Blazing Knight's Yanle is strong enough, but she has no fighting spirit at all, and Bai Chi cannot be sure how well she will perform when faced with fear.

These problems cannot be solved in a day.

Besides, if Yan Tao and Zhong Ji can't deal with this guy even if they join forces, what use would he be?

Before uncovering the truth behind the red mist, Bai Chi did not want to die so hastily.

But just to be on the safe side, Bai Chi said to Liu Li Hui, "You and I will go to the site tomorrow night to keep watch."

I hope there won't be a chance to transform.

He thought so.

……

The next morning, Bai Chi arrived at the police station to attend a meeting regarding the manhunt.

But to Bai Chi’s surprise, as soon as he arrived at the police station, a police officer approached him with a strange expression: “Um, Bai Chi… Inspector, a young red-haired girl came to see you early this morning and is in your office now.”

Bai Chi paused for a moment, then nodded and quickly returned to his office, which was the archives.

Upon opening the door, the first thing he saw was that striking red hair.

As expected, it was Yan Le.

Yan Le looked like she hadn't slept all night; her hair was messy, and her dark circles were very obvious, but her eyes were exceptionally bright.

"Officer Deng, I think what you said last night was wrong." Before Bai Chi could speak, Yan Le spoke first, "You said I don't need to blame myself for those two children, but I can't help but blame myself. They were killed because of me, and that's an undeniable fact."

"so what?"

"So I have to take responsibility for the mistakes I made!" Yan Le slammed the bank card Bai Chi had given her last night onto the table and pushed it in front of Bai Chi.

"This is the fee for hiring you!" Her gaze was intense, her pupils seemingly burning with fire. "Officer Deng! Please lend me your body!"

"Let me kill that guy!"

(End of this chapter)