Chapter 42: 008

The weather forecast actually got it right for once. The day Wu Cisheng received that unfamiliar call turned out to be a genuinely clear day.

When Wu Cisheng stepped out that morning, he was still holding an umbrella. After walking only a short distance, the rain gradually stopped as it fell, and a warm and gentle sun emerged.

Wu Cisheng put away his umbrella and used his white cane to find his path, listening carefully to the different sounds of echo.

Ordinary people might never notice, but the sounds made by a cane sweeping across different raised patterns on a tactile paving path are completely distinct. The information conveyed by different patterns is also different.

Of course, being a small city after all, the tactile paving was poorly constructed, and one could never rely on it completely. It was a common occurrence that the guiding path’s end would unexpectedly lead to a river or a wall.

After following the straight, bar-shaped guiding path for only a little while, Wu Cisheng’s cane struck an obstacle. Based on past experience, he guessed it was a car parked on the path or some other object.

Just as he was about to release his Little White Weasel to check the obstacle for him, a flurry of rapid footsteps approached. The first thing to greet him was a rather crisp, cool female voice.

“Is that you? Mr. Wu.”

The female voice drew nearer, and a hand grasped Wu Cisheng’s arm, guiding him around the illegally parked private car.

“Someone from the bureau contacted you by phone earlier, remember? I’m Meng Xin, the officer in charge of this case. The car is by the roadside. Let’s get in and talk on the way…”

Judging solely from the speaker’s voice and her brisk, rushed walking habit, Wu Cisheng was certain she must be a swift, decisive, and highly efficient police officer.

And that turned out to be exactly the case.

In the few dozen steps it took to guide him to the vehicle, Officer Meng summarized the entire background in just a few sentences.

Wu Cisheng responded now and then.

In truth, there was absolutely no need for this officer to tell him what had happened. Regarding the ins and outs of this case, that Sentinel had been updating him on the progress daily.

First, a Heterogeneous Human filed a report with their real name, alleging that a student’s withdrawal application handwriting at Capital Tower did not resemble the student’s own in the slightest, and that many necessary procedures in between had been simplified.

The most suspicious point was that for every student withdrawal, the Tower should go through layers of approval, including a mandatory step where Tower staff visit to verify the situation in person. Yet, the records showed no evidence of any such verification taking place.

The whistleblower strongly suspected that this Guide student had not voluntarily withdrawn but was the victim of a passive disappearance.

Initially, this post was only made on the Capital Tower’s internal forum, but it soon began to spread rapidly.

Of course, if the one speaking out was just an ordinary Heterogeneous Human, the matter might not have yielded results so quickly. After all, working through the bureaucracy layer by layer, then conducting layer-by-layer investigations, takes time. But what could anyone do when the student speaking out didn’t seem so ordinary?

Under his constant urging, the Heterogeneous Management Association swiftly intervened and launched an investigation.

By an incredible coincidence, just as the case was submitted, a local director who had fallen from power due to corruption and bribery was discovered to have ties with a certain group. And this particular group happened to be deeply entangled in various lawsuits at the time, struggling to fend for itself.

Everything was like a neatly arranged set of dominoes. The first one fell, and the subsequent tiles began to topple one after another.

So, what did this have to do with Wu Cisheng? The reason was simple: the actual controlling authority behind this group was none other than Wu Cisheng’s partner.

When the radish is pulled up, the mud clings to it. Given the multiple charges brought against his partner, he should have been summoned and detained long ago. But no one knew exactly how he managed to manipulate things behind the scenes, delaying the inevitable for several more days, and he wasn’t taken away until this morning.

And during those three days of stalling, he neither transferred his assets to flee secretly to a foreign country, nor attempted to turn the tide and fight for survival. In those final three days, he went nowhere, simply turning off his phone and staying by Wu Cisheng’s side.

This abnormal behavior was utterly incomprehensible.

Even when several officers from the local jurisdiction took him away that morning, there was no panic or angry resistance on the partner’s face. He actually appeared extremely cooperative.

Just before being led away by the authorities, the partner even calmly and composedly gave Wu Cisheng a gentle hug.

The action was so sudden that the Little White Weasel lying on Wu Cisheng’s shoulder instantly sprang upright, the white fur on its back standing on end from tension, a low “Hsss…” growl coming from its mouth.

In that fleeting instant, Wu Cisheng had even mentally mapped out a counterattack plan he would use if his partner tried to control him.

But in the end, he didn’t…

Just like every routine farewell in the past, his partner carefully reminded him that it still looked like Cheng Yuan was dealing with a light drizzle outside, and to remember to take an umbrella if he went out, to put on an extra coat…

“We’re here.”

Officer Meng walked ahead and pulled open the car door. Wu Cisheng said thank you as he climbed into the back seat.

During the conversation with Officer Meng in the car, Wu Cisheng was very cooperative, answering whatever he was asked. If he encountered a question related to a time so long ago that he wasn’t certain, he would proactively clarify it.

“I don’t quite remember this clearly…”

“My mental state wasn’t good at the time. I was constantly sleeping, waking up to sleep and sleeping to wake again. I don’t know the exact times he left or returned each day, only that he was by my side whenever I was awake…”

The blind young man in sunglasses recalled several things that happened in the first year after he lost his sight, mostly trivial matters of how his partner had cared for him.

“At the very beginning, my mental state was terrible. He bought me lots of flowers, and smelling those fragrances would gradually lull me into deep sleep…”

“He also did all the cooking…”

“Later, I thought I couldn’t just keep being a useless wreck forever. I should do what I could. So I started trying to go out on my own, learning to walk, to cook, and so on. Then I found this current job…”

“Gradually, maybe by luck, my mental state slowly improved…”

As he spoke, a hint of uncertainty crept into his voice, just like every victim completely kept in the dark: “Right, Officer… was it really him?”

Officer Meng didn’t know what to say for a moment. Although the evidence they held was already extremely clear, this Guide kept in the dark must have only just learned about it, right?

Thinking it over, she felt she should give him some time to let it sink in. So she replied vaguely: “Mm… the investigation is still underway.”

Feeling her words were still a bit inappropriate, she added a precautionary note in a stern tone: “We can only say he is currently a very strong suspect.”

The Guide’s tone betrayed no discernible emotion: “Oh… I see.”

The officer in the front passenger seat glanced up at the rearview mirror.

Since they had met, the young Guide’s lips had been perpetually curved in a faint smile, but it was clearly not from happiness. Rather, it seemed more like a habitual, learned behavior.

He was tall and slender. The large, wide sunglasses perched on his nose bridge obscured almost half his face. His fair-skinned face featured a delicate nose and fine lips. Strands of black hair fell scattered across his forehead. The sight, needless to say, was truly handsome.

Judging by appearance, he didn’t look like the other Heterogeneous Humans. He seemed the type with no calculating mind, very gentle and soft-tempered by nature. So why, of all things, did he have to encounter such rotten luck?

Not only was his bright future ruined, but he had unknowingly lived for so long with the very perpetrator who destroyed him. Just thinking about it felt profoundly tragic.

The officer in the front passenger seat glanced at the rearview mirror once more. That Heterogeneous Human was facing the window, lost in some unknown thought, the corners of his lips still slightly curved upward.

Truly, what did he have to smile about?

Ordinary people couldn’t see the Little White Weasel curled on Wu Cisheng’s shoulder, just like a snowy white scarf.

The little creature was usually listless, but now it had perked up somewhat.

The moment it got in the car, it thoroughly investigated the police vehicle inside and out. It knew everything, down to what sundry items were in the trunk, and exactly how many packs of cigarettes each of the two officers in the front had stuffed in their pockets.

With a complete grasp of the car’s interior, the Little White Weasel reported all this information back to Wu Cisheng.

It first affectionately nuzzled its head against his hand, then quietly sprawled on his shoulder. From time to time, it gently twitched its nose, sniffing the scent of sunlight drifting in from outside the window.

As everyone knows, for Heterogeneous Humans, the state of one’s Spirit Body reflects the state of its master.

Before, when Wu Cisheng was drowsy, Little White Weasel was also drowsy. Now that Wu Cisheng was in a good mood, Little White Weasel became a bit livelier too.

Perhaps because the rain had just stopped not long ago, the sun that day wasn’t glaring. The air carried a slight restlessness and lingering dampness, mixing with the scent of lawn soil.

Wu Cisheng narrowed his eyes slightly, basking in the long-absent warmth of the sunlight.

It was so good. The rain had stopped.

As they neared their destination, the two officers up front even turned around before getting out of the car to offer Wu Cisheng a few words of reassurance.

One said that taking his statement later just meant recounting the sequence of events completely once. The other added that if he didn’t want to return to his original home after the statement, they could contact the local Heterogeneous Management Association to arrange alternative housing.

He was a Guide, after all. Even if only a B-Level Guide, according to the current laws and regulations, he could apply for assistance from the Association.

Wu Cisheng neither explicitly agreed nor refused, merely responding with an “Mm.” Behind the two thick lenses of his sunglasses, no one could discern what exactly those vacant eyes were thinking.

When the car parked securely, he fumbled, wanting to open the door himself. The officer outside had already opened it for him.

Even before the Guide stepped down, he began his practiced, repeated string of thanks: “Thank you, thank you…”

The next second, he was met with looks that had become utterly familiar—the fleeting, feather-light sympathy and pity.

The handsome, sightless Guide then revealed a faint smile, carved entirely by muscle memory:

“It’s alright, you don’t need to help me like this. I can walk on my own, I can manage…”

“Thank you, thank you…”

After repeating the account he had given in the car, his statement was compiled.

The whole process went rather smoothly. After all, he was merely a pitiful blind man who knew nothing. What relation could his partner’s misdeeds possibly have to him?

Wu Cisheng’s hands held a paper cup emitting steam. The wafting heat slipped through the edge of his sunglasses frames and into his blank pupils, warming the eye sockets slightly.

Suddenly, he felt the scene before him was extremely familiar, as if it had happened more than once, as if there should be something more…

What was it?

This feeling was akin to looking through frosted glass, blurry and indistinct. He could only make out a rough outline, and the rest remained unclear.

The sound around him was chaotic and noisy. He vaguely heard an officer take a call. After hanging up, he told a nearby colleague that someone from the other side had already been dispatched to pick up Wu Cisheng. He would stay in a hotel arranged by the Heterogeneous Management Association until the trial opened. Wu Cisheng didn’t catch the subsequent discussion.

Wu Cisheng fished a single earbud from his pocket and placed it in his ear. This was his essential routine before using his phone every time.

Without doing so, the phone in blind mode would loudly announce every operation he performed. But with the earbud put in beforehand, he would be the only one who could hear.

Following the voice prompts, his fingers skillfully navigated into the communication software and opened a new message. The contact name displayed under the sender was completely blank, and the chat page itself was a vast white emptiness.

“What do you feel like eating tonight?”

“I’m on my way. I’ll be there soon.”

Even just listening to the Sentinel’s voice, he could hear the overflow of joy in his tone. The sound of one phrase even leaked a few notes of his true vocal pitch due to excitement.

Wu Cisheng extracted the information he needed: So, the person the Heterogeneous Management Association sent to pick him up was him, right?

The Sentinel had helped Wu Cisheng tremendously, from initially collecting the old evidence and blowing the matter up, to later visiting his mother at Wu Cisheng’s request.

To create a detailed daily schedule, he stayed in that area for over two days, recording what Yang Jiao was doing from hour to hour, how her daily meals were, who she met, and so on.

And thankfully, she was doing well.

As Wu Cisheng contemplated this, a question suddenly came to mind: Right, what was that Sentinel’s name again?