Chapter 13: What Did You Call Him?
Wei Langxing surveyed the chaotic scene, covering the phone to briefly explain the situation.
Wang Wen and his team had been pursuing a dangerous individual who had stolen firearms. The man had grabbed a random passerby as a hostage. The standoff continued until the hostage suddenly struggled free, shouting something about not wanting to be late for work. The gunman, clearly inexperienced, panicked and shot him.
Now the gunman had been subdued. Wei Langxing looked at the innocent bystander lying on the ground, blood flowing from a hole in his temple.
What a tragedy. The perpetrator deserved the death penalty.
Tang Yu’an felt a pang of sympathy upon hearing this. The passerby probably hadn’t imagined such a misfortune when he left his house this morning.
If it had been a protagonist, the system would have alerted him to go for a rescue, but… this was just an ordinary person, no one could help him.
Having witnessed countless sacrifices, Tang Yu’an knew he was powerless, but every time something like this happened, he felt a wave of absurd dizziness.
Unfair, he thought. Was it just because he wasn’t a protagonist that he had to suffer such a fate?
Perhaps… all worlds were unfair.
He felt uncomfortable just hearing about it; Wei Langxing, witnessing the scene firsthand, must be even more affected. Just as Tang Yu’an was about to offer some words of comfort, a commotion erupted on the other end of the line.
“What’s wrong?”
Had the gunman escaped? Or did he have accomplices?
“Wei Langxing, what’s happening? Answer me!”
Although the system hadn’t alerted him to any danger to the protagonist, he couldn’t help but worry.
After a few minutes, the chaos subsided. Wei Langxing, suppressing a curse, picked up the phone again, slightly breathless: “You’ll never guess what happened…”
“What is it? Are you injured?”
“Me? I’m physically fine, but my sanity might be questionable.”
Tang Yu’an put the call on speakerphone, allowing Xie Cun to hear their conversation. He interjected: “Stop beating around the bush. Hurry up and tell us. Can’t you see how worried Yu’an is?”
Mental distress was indeed a serious matter. Tang Yu’an tensed up.
“Just now… the hostage who was shot… he came back to life!”
Tang Yu’an and Xie Cun exchanged glances, making sure they hadn’t misheard.
Xie Cun was skeptical: “Captain Wei, are you messing with us? Is this an appropriate time for jokes?”
Coming from the usually frivolous Xie Cun, it sounded ironic, but Wei Langxing didn’t have time to argue.
“I’m not joking! The bullet went right through his head! I checked his breathing and pulse; they were gone! But… but now, he’s alive again!”
If it weren’t for the identical looks of shock on everyone’s faces when the man suddenly sat up, Wei Langxing would have thought he was hallucinating.
The passerby, covered in blood, seemed completely oblivious, simply wiping his eyes with his sleeve to see clearly.
Even the gunman exclaimed, “Holy outer space, he’s a zombie!” He scrambled back, fearing for his life, but was held firmly in place.
Wei Langxing was the first to react, rushing forward to call for an ambulance.
Unexpectedly, the passerby stopped him, even smiling: “Thanks, but no need. I’m fine.”
Fine? With a hole in his head?
Wei Langxing, who considered himself well-versed in strange occurrences, was speechless.
But aside from the horrifying wound, the passerby acted perfectly normal – he stood up, picked up his briefcase, dusted it off, and turned to leave.
Wei Langxing stopped him, not daring to touch him, only urging him to stay still.
If this was a medical miracle, the bullet somehow missing major blood vessels, he absolutely shouldn’t move.
But the passerby said seriously: “Sir, please don’t stop me. I have to go to work.”
This environment was driving office workers insane.
“Go to work? What work… No way. Stay put. You could die at any moment, don’t you understand?”
But the passerby insisted he had to go; he would be late for his time card.
“What’s so great about your lousy company? Do you value money over your life?”
Seeing his pitiful state, he must have been driven to this point by a terrible boss and a terrible company!
The passerby, initially annoyed by the interruption, suddenly brightened up upon seeing the insignia on his uniform: “Hey, you’re from the Bureau too?”
Wei Langxing: “…”
He seemed to have inadvertently insulted himself.
“I’m the captain… Look, I’m a higher rank. I’ll put in a good word for you, so your perfect attendance won’t be affected. Is that alright?”
The passerby beamed, taking his hand to thank him, making Wei Langxing flinch, afraid he would suddenly drop dead.
Seeing his nervousness, the passerby laughed: “I’m really fine. I’m different. I have super regeneration. A bullet can’t kill me!”
To prove his point, he told Wei Langxing a story about how his throat was nearly severed, but he healed completely after two hours of sleep and even managed to eat dinner.
He tilted his head back to demonstrate: “See? Not a single scar!”
Wei Langxing’s first thought was that this man was delusional, but seeing the wound on his head shrinking, the bleeding stopping, he started to believe him.
This world was becoming a little too fantastical… Had everyone undergone some crazy evolution without him noticing?
At his insistence, the passerby agreed to stay put and wait for the medics. Wei Langxing, watching his casual demeanor, was utterly bewildered.
It was as if being shot was as commonplace as eating and sleeping.
Similarly, on the other end of the phone, Tang Yu’an and Xie Cun were incredulous.
Xie Cun frowned: “Are you serious?”
Such powerful regeneration, was it even possible? Was he even human?
He turned to Tang Yu’an: “Yu’an, have you ever seen anything like this?”
Tang Yu’an shook his head: “Never heard of it.”
He couldn’t help but wonder what impact such an ability, if artificially replicated, would have on this world.
Then, Wei Langxing belatedly realized: “Wait, what did you call him?”
Why was he being so familiar? He had only been gone for a short while; what had happened between them?!
Xie Cun abruptly hung up the phone, then smiled at Tang Yu’an: “Captain Wei must be busy dealing with the situation. Let’s not disturb him.”
Hearing the dial tone, Wei Langxing gritted his teeth. That Xie Cun, what a nuisance.
He had seen Xie Cun surrounded by scantily clad women, indulging in the revelry, spouting flirtatious nonsense.
He couldn’t even remember the names of the people he was getting intimate with!
And most importantly, Xie Cun wasn’t picky about gender.
He didn’t care about others, but Tang Yu’an… wasn’t someone Xie Cun could trifle with.
He sat down beside the passerby, fuming. Seeing his dark expression, the injured man nudged him with his elbow: “Why are you so angry after a phone call? Did you lose your perfect attendance?”
This guy was really obsessed with attendance.
“No, just a troublesome colleague.”
“It’s just a job. Don’t get so worked up.” The passerby tried to comfort him: “Just avoid crazy people.”
Just then, the ambulance finally arrived. The injured man stood up and waved his arms: “Over here!”
The medic who got out of the vehicle was confused. Wasn’t someone shot? Who was this person running over excitedly?
As he approached, the medic saw the bloody hole in his head, his pupils constricting.
The frightening man said proudly: “What do you think? Never seen anything like it, right? It’ll heal in a bit. Want a picture?”
Wei Langxing, standing behind him, couldn’t help but facepalm. His fanboy, Wang Wen, approached: “Captain Wei, do you have a headache?”
“No, just too many crazy people around.”
They brought the man back to the treatment center. The medic was incredibly curious about his powerful cellular regeneration.
The passerby said his name was Yu Liao, a low-ranking officer in the Bureau. For the first twenty-six years of his life, he had been an ordinary, hardworking person, until he was diagnosed with a brain tumor.
“The doctor said I wouldn’t live past three months. I had resigned myself to my fate, but then someone contacted me online, asking if I was willing to try a new anti-tumor drug developed by their company, free of charge.”
Wei Langxing was alert: “What company?”
“Yi Xin Pharmaceuticals. I’ve never met them in person; it was all online. They sent me the medicine, and I used their device to monitor and transmit the data.”
“Tell me everything, from beginning to end.”
The higher-ups took this matter seriously, and due to Wei Langxing’s involvement, they gave him authority over the case, saying it was time for their newly established department to prove themselves. The investigation of Yi Xin Pharmaceuticals was assigned to them.
Suddenly given a mission, they became serious, sitting in a circle around Yu Liao, the key figure in this incident.
Yu Liao emptied a bowl of porridge larger than his face in one go, still looking unsatisfied.
“Sorry, ever since my… condition, my appetite has increased.”
He politely thanked Tang Yu’an: “Mr. Tang, your seafood porridge is divine. I’ve never had such delicious porridge. I could die happy!”
Tang Yu’an waved his hands dismissively: “It’s nothing, just call me Xiao Tang… There’s more in the pot. Should I get you another bowl?”
Yu Liao tried to decline politely, but his shining eyes betrayed him.
“Um… I’ll get it myself. Don’t worry about me!”
He dashed into the kitchen.
Tang Yu’an followed him to get him a ladle. Standing side by side under the kitchen light, the not-quite-healed hole in Yu Liao’s head looked gruesome.
He noticed Tang Yu’an’s gaze, lowering his head sheepishly: “Did I scare you? It’ll be completely healed in about two hours…”
Tang Yu’an was still concerned: “Are you sure you don’t need medical attention?”
“That stuff doesn’t work on me. And I can’t die, so what’s there to be afraid of!”
Tang Yu’an looked into his evasive eyes: “But not dying doesn’t mean it doesn’t hurt.”
Yu Liao’s throat seemed to constrict, his hand holding the bowl freezing mid-air.
The steaming hot seafood porridge warmed his palm through the bowl.
