Chapter 21

The air solidified slightly for a moment. Even through the photo and the floor-to-ceiling window, Xu Qinglai could see that the porcelain dolls weren’t holding ordinary bottles.

Most of the white wriggling worms inside were dead, mindlessly crawling around, almost identical to the mutated anomalous entity from the Rebirth Pet Shop.

His temple twitched faintly, and he sighed.

So, an accident had happened after all?

He didn’t seem surprised at all.

Ever since he saw the Two-Headed Rat King related to Bo Ting at the Resurgence Management Office, Xu Qinglai had been pondering: this netizen seemed different from what he had imagined.

The sense of dissonance around Bo Ting permeated every word in their chat, and even his thought process was hard to fathom.

After all, casually tossing the Two-Headed Rat King into a trash heap, or staring blankly as if he couldn’t see the Worm Anomaly—both were bizarre.

At times, it even gave Xu Qinglai the illusion that he was chatting with a madman.

Of course, this only made the other netizen more intriguing.

It had been a long time since he felt such intense curiosity toward a thing or a fellow being.

After a moment of silence, Xu Qinglai casually changed the subject.

“Are those kids downstairs often playing in the garden?”

Once this topic came up, Bo Ting had plenty to say.

“I don’t know if the school isn’t assigning homework, but these bratty kids dig in the garden soil every day. A few days ago, they even smashed my window.”

“Luckily, I spotted it in time and compensated quickly, or the landlord would have torn me apart when he got back.”

Bo Ting had no sympathy for these vacation-like brats and only wondered why their summer homework wasn’t more abundant.

Xu Qinglai chuckled at that, his handsome features softening. Inside the car window, the man lowered his gaze.

“Is the landlord formidable?”

“He’s okay, I guess.”

Bo Ting blinked, a bit embarrassed.

“Mainly, I felt guilty.”

As the sun gradually set outside, and office workers began heading home one after another, the car started moving out of the parking lot.

The driver in front sneaked a glance through the rearview mirror, wondering who Mr. Xu was chatting with.

Usually, when Mr. Xu was alone in the car, his expressionless face was intimidating, and the gentle, gentlemanly aura he had during the day at the company vanished entirely, making him seem somewhat different.

But now…

The driver sneaked another peek, thinking Mr. Xu must be in a good mood today.

Only to meet eyes in the rearview mirror.

Xu Qinglai glanced up slightly, his expression calm. “Uncle Sun, is something wrong?”

“No, no.”

“I’m just checking the road.”

Uncle Sun jumped, quickly averting his gaze.

Xu Qinglai raised an eyebrow before naturally putting away his phone.

In front of the floor-to-ceiling window, after Bo Ting turned to glance at the kids playing in the mud, his disdain reached new heights.

These guys caught bugs, fine—but why did they have to dig up the garden into a mess?

They had to clean it up themselves before going home, or what if someone stepped into a pit the next morning?

For special people like him, who couldn’t go out during the day due to identity issues, the risk of accidentally falling into one at night was too high!

Bo Ting watched seriously for a while, rubbed his chin, and shouted through the window, “Xiao Wang!”

No choice; among these brats, he only remembered the tallest one. That kid had even made a face at him that night.

On the surface, Bo Ting looked expressionless, like a cool guy, but he actually held grudges deeply. At this moment, looking at Xiao Wang, he told himself it wasn’t because the kid called him uncle that he remembered him so well.

Caught off guard, Xiao Wang—who was bending over digging a pit—nearly died of fright. He quickly tossed the bottle in his hand and stood obediently in place, looking up.

From the 13th floor, Bo Ting at the window was just a tall, blurry shadow.

But with the kids’ eyesight, they could clearly see the expression on his face.

“You say it.”

“You say it.”

The four brats pushed each other.

Finally, Xi Xi shoved Xiao Wang, his face terrified. “He’s calling you! Answer quickly!”

Xiao Wang was scared too, trembling as he wondered why he was so unlucky to be singled out.

“Uncle, is something wrong?”

Gathering courage, Xiao Wang finally replied.

His tense voice came through the glass, and Bo Ting frowned, ignoring the “uncle.”

“Fill the garden back in within half an hour.”

“If I come down and see any traps left…”

“I’ll go straight to your parents.”

Going to the parents… that was the ultimate threat for any brat, right?

Bo Ting felt a bit embarrassed about tattling to parents and was about to warn them about something else when the four kids below immediately nodded in agreement.

“Brother, don’t worry.”

“We’ll restore the garden right away.”

“We absolutely won’t affect the neighborhood’s ecosystem!”

The clever Xi Xi quickly chimed in with guarantees!

Bo Ting was stunned; he hadn’t expected these brats to be so compliant.

Had he intimidated them last time?

Though puzzled, since they were already preparing to clean up, he didn’t say more.

With a cold-faced response, he watched as Xiao Wang and the others set the bottles aside and hurriedly grabbed shovels to repair it.

Impressively, though these mischievous rascals had become the neighborhood tyrants after Doudou, their physical fitness was incredible—probably from playing under the building every day.

Such a large area of hard soil, and these brats filled it without breaking a sweat. Bo Ting couldn’t help touching the muscles on his arm, suspecting Xiao Wang’s were even more bulging than his own.

No wonder they could throw a ball so hard.

He said half an hour, but they finished in just ten minutes.

Then, like little monkeys, they wiped their faces with their hands.

Bo Ting’s mouth twitched.

“Fine, go home and eat.”

“Don’t destroy public spaces again, got it?”

“Yes, brother.” This time, Xiao Wang got smart and crisply changed his address.

Good grief, he’d wised up.

Bo Ting glanced at the kid, imprinting him even deeper in his mind.

Once permitted, the brats bolted out of sight, hurrying home as if delaying a second would spell disaster.

Bo Ting was speechless, wondering if he was really that scary.

Still, with the kids gone, he decided to go down and check.

They might have run, but the bugs they’d caught from the garden were still there.

A bottle of white wriggling worms sat conspicuously on the bench—what if it scared someone?

…

An entire afternoon passed, yet the technicians at the Resurgence Management Office still hadn’t traced the number from that comment.

Si Ning pinched his brow, puzzled. “There can’t possibly be a phone number that doesn’t exist in the world, right?”

Zhao Jiang overcame various technical hurdles and pulled up the numeric ID from the comment, but no matter how he searched within the Federation’s coverage area, it turned up nothing.

Even in the most remote towns, residents’ contact info was on record—the Federation handled that well. Otherwise, in this world teeming with anomalies, missing persons would go undetected.

But now… here was the exception.

Zhao Jiang exhaled, confirming it wasn’t his technical issue.

The problem lay with the ID that left the latest comment!

“Captain, look.”

“The signal source trace shows it doesn’t exist.”

Zhao Jiang’s hands were nearly numb from fatigue. “The one who just bought the dog food has issues too.”

“What do you mean?”

The Sixth Squad members, who had waited half the day, were dumbfounded.

So after all that, was it anomaly black-on-black crime?

One anomaly buying from another’s shop, luring it out to meet?

Were anomalous incidents this trendy now?

Xue Hengfu, listening on the phone for ages, dredged up that descriptor from his vocabulary, his head full of question marks. “Wait, if the other side is an anomaly, do we still pursue?”

If it was black-on-black, they probably didn’t need to protect this new commenting “customer.”

After all, it wasn’t human to begin with.

Si Ning hesitated too; after all, it was just Zhao Jiang’s speculation, not fully confirmed.

“Report this first.”

“Then check the street corner surveillance.”

“At least confirm which area the Rebirth Pet Shop owner went to.”

“Yes, Captain.”

Xue Hengfu acknowledged, resignedly filing the report with superiors.

Cough—he’d been at the Resurgence Management Office long enough to think himself worldly, having even caught that rare glitch at the Ability Users Exchange Forum last time.

But this was even more bizarre.

—An anomalous incident fishing out another via black-on-black.

Who’d believe it without tracing it here?

With mixed feelings, he submitted the first-phase investigation results.

Xue Hengfu shook his head. Upon returning to the office, he was swarmed. A buddy from the Fourth Esper Squad slung an arm over his shoulder.

“Fatty, your report’s this juicy?”

“I should’ve chased it at noon too.”

The Fourth Squad had been out on fieldwork at noon and missed this intriguing anomaly upon return; regret dripped from his tone.

Xue Hengfu speechless-ly shrugged him off. “Juicy how?”

“We started searching for one anomaly; now it’s two.”

“And the other side’s signal is untraceable—it’s practically a cold case.”

Qu Zhuo, the Fourth Squad captain, thought about it—yeah.

With Si Ning’s stubborn personality, he’d pursue it relentlessly. This case was tricky, with both sides anomalies.

The Worm Anomaly was cautious, hidden so long before accidental discovery. The other had zero leads.

“Tch.”

Qu Zhuo shook his head. “Fine.”

“This show’s not that entertaining after all.”

Wasn’t it though.

Xue Hengfu sighed, his face bitter as he imagined the higher-ups’ reactions to his report.

But unwilling or not, the findings were what they were.

He could only steel himself, report in hand, and knock on the door.

Minutes later, Zheng Shangyun was discussing Mr. Xu’s conclusion with Lu Jingshan.

“After three verifications, the anomalous aura on the Two-Headed Rat matches exactly the traits found on the Wandering Chef.”

“It should be related to that dog.”

Lu Jingshan carefully worded around the Two-Headed Rat King’s death—only saying “related.” After all, its cause was the loss of its offspring rats, severing its mental network. But it had contacted the dog that appeared at Taiping Luxury Garden’s entrance before vanishing.

Zheng Shangyun also had a headache.

Why was this tied to that neighborhood again?

No word from above yet.

His brow furrowed slightly; he was about to speak when a knock sounded at the door.

“Brother Zheng.”

The honest voice came through the wood.

Zheng Shangyun’s mouth twitched.

“Sixth Esper Squad?”

“Come in first.”

Lu Jingshan and Yin Liao sat on the sofa, unhurried, waiting quietly for their superior to handle it.

But minutes later, Lu Jingshan couldn’t help sucking in a breath.

After Xue Hengfu awkwardly reported the “black-on-black” incident, he suddenly asked, “You’re saying you traced a completely nonexistent phone number?”

“Yeah.”

“Captain Lu, isn’t it weird? In this day and age, an unregistered number—we suspected an anomaly right away.”

“Any issues?”

Xue Hengfu recalled this was a senior and treaded lightly.

Issues?

“None!”

Lu Jingshan shook his head. As his superior looked over puzzled, he voiced the question that arose the moment he heard.

“A nonexistent neighborhood.”

“A nonexistent phone number.”

“Don’t you think these two are awfully similar?”

It was rare for two similar coincidences to appear in weird incidents… let alone something that “didn’t exist.”

As a high-level official in the Resurgence Management Office, Zheng Shangyun still possessed this level of acuity.

He had only failed to connect the dots momentarily earlier, but after Lu Jingshan’s reminder, he immediately reacted.

It was indeed too much of a coincidence.

He took the report and read it over again, his expression turning serious.

“Si Ning wants all the weird traffic surveillance footage from Mengjia City?”

“Send it to him.”

Xue Hengfu let out a sigh of relief. He had been worried that the higher-ups would think their conclusion was hasty, but he hadn’t expected his superior to agree.

However, the one thing that twisted Xue Hengfu’s expression was how this kept tying back to that persistent neighborhood?

A few minutes later, Si Ning, who was still pursuing leads, received the surveillance footage he wanted. He and Zhao Jiang sat side by side, flipping through it.

From Camphor Street District outward, up to five kilometers away…

Si Ning suddenly hit pause, staring at the traffic light in the footage.

“Didn’t a motorcycle just pass by here?”

Zhao Jiang rubbed his eyes and stopped, indeed spotting an unremarkable motorcycle riding past.

However, the only unusual thing was that the rider’s build closely resembled Zhang Sheng, the owner of the Rebirth Pet Shop from their investigation.

Through the camera and helmet, they couldn’t clearly identify the face.

But at that moment, Zhao Jiang turned to look at his captain.

The captain’s special ability should be able to identify him, right?

“It’s him.”

Si Ning nodded affirmatively, then bent down:

“Mark this as a key point and keep playing.”

They watched the footage scene by scene. Just as Si Ning had anticipated earlier, although they briefly spotted the Rebirth Pet Shop owner, the closer he got to his destination, the more he veered into remote areas.

After twenty minutes, the surveillance cameras no longer captured him.

“Where did he disappear last?”

Zhao Jiang checked: “A small alley at the border between Ligang and Wenhua District.”

“Hmm, let me see.”

“You can cut through here to a crossroad.”

Si Ning glanced at the time: “It’s still early. Let’s go take a look.”

“Eh, Captain, you’re not resting?”

Zhao Jiang was stunned. He hadn’t expected they’d head out on a mission right before dark.

Si Ning realized and remembered that Zhao Jiang had been busy all day. He turned back and said, “You rest tonight. I’ll go with the other team members.”

The Sixth Esper Squad quickly rushed over.

In the neighborhood, Bo Ting bent down to pick up a bottle from the chair and couldn’t help but shake it.

The clear glass bottle was filled with motionless wriggling worms. It had no aesthetic appeal at all, and he had no idea what those bratty kids had dug them up for—enough to fill four or five bottles.

But did their neighborhood really have this many bugs?

He usually hadn’t paid much attention.

Bo Ting frowned slightly and walked to the trash can with the bottle, intending to toss it in casually.

However, as evening fell and the streetlights suddenly flickered on, they abruptly illuminated the glass bottle in his hand.

The dim yellow light shone on the transparent bottle. The wriggling worms pressed against the glass had lifeless eyes, but under the light, they unexpectedly reflected tiny—human faces.

Holy crap!

Bo Ting jumped in fright.

What the hell?

Why was there a human face on this worm’s belly?

Bo Ting suspected he had seen wrong. After hesitating, he brought the bottle closer.

But upon looking again, there was still a face on the worm’s belly.

Moreover, it wasn’t just this one worm—all the wriggling worms in the bottle seemed to have… something on their abdomens?

An inexplicable chill crept up his arm.

Having something resembling a human face on a worm was utterly terrifying, wasn’t it?

Which lunatic had nothing better to do than tattoo bugs?

Bo Ting shuddered and moved the worms farther away.

But then he doubted himself: Would anyone really be that bored?