Chapter 2: No One Was Harmed
As dusk approached, the slanting sunlight spread from the edge of the city, spilling pale golden rays between the forest of towering buildings—but deep in the old city surrounded by high-rises, in places where the sun couldn't reach, the alleys had already fallen into shadow first.
The lingering dampness and slight chill in the air felt out of place against the dry atmosphere outside the alley, while the ice shards rapidly melting and vanishing in the gaps between bricks and stones served as evidence that something unusual had happened in this quiet street.
Several swiftly darting black shadows crossed the gaps between the buildings, leaping down from the air as if weightless, landing in a corner of the alley. The edges of the shadows quivered, then quickly condensed into wolf-like forms. These blurry-faced shadows prowled and sniffed around the alley for a while before slowly gathering together. The leading shadow raised its head and let out a clear howl toward the sky:
"Awoo... w..."
"Bang!"
A stone accurately struck the wolf shadow's head, forcefully cutting off the howl halfway. Then came a scolding from the shadow of a building: "Shut up! No howling in the city—even if you add 'woof' at the end! Humans aren't stupid; no one will believe you're dogs!"
The several wolves formed from condensed phantoms let out a few quiet whimpers and obediently stepped aside, and a somewhat petite figure walked over from not far away.
She was a short-haired girl in a black skirt and dark red coat, with a strand of hair slightly sticking up at her forehead. She looked about sixteen or seventeen, but her expression was unusually calm and mature. She stepped out of the shadows, walked straight through the wolves with their heads lowered, and then saw the male corpse lying by the roadside.
A barely noticeable shadow passed over the girl's face. She crouched down beside the corpse to examine it, while one wolf approached and conveyed some information in a low, murky grumble.
"...The smell of rain?" The girl frowned, looking up at the sky, which had been clear for the past two days. Though it was nearly dusk, the sky visible between the tall buildings was still clear and bright, with no trace of gloom—only the sunlight slowly dimming.
After a moment, she seemed to understand something. She bent down again to confirm the horrifying wound on the male corpse and muttered quietly: "...Rain, heart, the stench of a frog..."
Just then, a sudden ringtone from the small bag at her waist interrupted her muttering—the ringtone was the opening theme of the 86 version of "Journey to the West."
The short-haired girl answered the phone before the monkey could do his fourth somersault.
"Hello, who is this? Oh, right, it's me," she pressed the phone to her ear, waved a hand to signal the wolves to guard the scene, and stood up to walk aside. "I've arrived. My wolves detected something off here first... I didn't catch it; I came up empty."
The girl sighed, her gaze falling on the unlucky corpse.
"It's the 'Rain,' accompanied by a generated entity, the 'Rain Frog,' but this rain should have been a local projection, affecting only one person... Yes, very unlucky—rain meant for just one person. By the time I arrived, it had already stopped. The depth here has now returned to L0, and the 'Rain' has detached from the boundary."
The girl paused. The voice on the other end of the phone seemed to be giving instructions and asking questions. She listened patiently for a while, then glanced at the corpse not far away.
"Medical personnel? Send someone to pick up the body. How could an ordinary person who encountered a 'Rain Frog' alone survive? The heart is gone... Tsk, I'll stay here to guard. Don't forget to calculate the overtime fee separately."
There was the nagging muttering of a middle-aged supervisor on the phone, but the girl had already lost her patience. She responded perfunctorily, then hung up.
She sighed again, walked back, and called over one of the wolves standing guard nearby. She made it lie down, sat directly on it, propped her chin on her hands, and looked at Yu Sheng's corpse.
"Unlucky guy. I wonder if he has a family, dying alone here... Ah, I'll keep you company for a while... Dying in the 'Rain' must be cold, right? Unfortunately, I'm not that little match girl, or I'd give you some warmth before you go..."
The girl muttered softly, patiently waiting for the cleanup personnel to arrive. After a short while, she heard the roar of an engine from an intersection several dozen meters away—the sound was earth-shaking, as if a heavy armored vehicle was dragging a container behind it, racing through a ten-speed bump while burning firewood. Even the wolf beneath her was startled by the noise and nearly jumped—but since someone was sitting on it, it couldn't move.
Then the girl looked in the direction of the sound and saw a large van creaking and groaning its way from the intersection. When it crossed the speed bump, it shuddered like the Soviet Union in 1991.
Casually, the girl stood up from the wolf's back, expressionless, watching the large van struggle over the speed bump until it stalled. Then, several strong men dressed in full black tactical gear and high-tech equipment, armed to the teeth, jumped out and started pushing the van from behind...
A middle-aged man in a khaki coat, with slightly dark skin and a sturdy build, also got out of the van, followed by a young woman in a white dress with flowing brown hair. The two looked back helplessly at their teammates pushing the van, then turned and walked this way.
When they got closer, the short-haired girl couldn't help but mutter: "Seriously, can't Squad Two apply for a vehicle upgrade? The Special Affairs Bureau shouldn't be that strapped for cash... I think the gear on any of your team members is enough to replace this junker."
"Shh!" The sturdy middle-aged man quickly waved his hand, lowered his voice, and glanced back at the stalled van and his men pushing it. "Don't say that... You don't understand the situation. Our Special Affairs Bureau has special circumstances. This van just isn't in good shape today. But swapping it out? Absolutely not possible..."
"Big organizations sure have a lot of complications," the short-haired girl said with a curl of her lips, clearly uninterested in the topic. She then turned to look at the petite lady in white who had come with them. "Good afternoon, Doctor Lin. Long time no see."
"It should be 'good evening,' Little Red Riding Hood," the lady in white, called Doctor Lin, said with a faint smile. Her lips were thin, giving her a restrained and reserved appearance. "How's your last injury?"
"Almost healed," the short-haired girl, called Little Red Riding Hood, said, flexing her right wrist. "You know, wolves generally recover quickly..."
"Human recovery is the strongest—it's just that humans are always quite reluctant to get hurt," Doctor Lin corrected seriously.
"...Oh," the short-haired girl replied vaguely, then shifted the topic back to the corpse on the ground. "Let's check this first. Victim, male, looks about twenty-something. Heart taken by a Rain Frog. Time of death about two hours ago. I haven't searched him yet, not sure if he has ID... Yes, to preserve the scene."
As she spoke, she looked at Doctor Lin with a puzzled expression: "You came all the way here... Even for this kind of case, you plan to treat him? Can this even be treated?"
"No, I'm not a god," Doctor Lin shook her head, bending over toward Yu Sheng's corpse as she spoke. "I just came to take a look. It's close to my home..."
She examined the corpse for a while, confirming not only the wound but also the victim's personal belongings, and found the ID card.
"The victim's name is 'Yu Sheng,' age twenty-four. Registered address is 66 Wutong Road in the old city," she said, comparing the photo on the thin card with the victim's face. "Captain Song, when you get back to the bureau, check and see if you can contact his family."
The sturdy middle-aged man beside her hummed in acknowledgment. He also leaned in to look at the ID card in Doctor Lin's hand and couldn't help frowning: "Why is the photo so blurry?"
Little Red Riding Hood, curious, also moved closer to look at the ID card found on the victim.
On the card, the portrait area seemed smeared with a layer of gray-black grime, obscuring the entire face so no details could be seen.
Doctor Lin rubbed the grime with her finger, but it wouldn't come off. The stains were tougher than expected and practically covered the entire card.
"Even the name is unclear," Little Red Riding Hood muttered. "And the ID number is unreadable. You'll have to take it back and read the chip with the machine..."
The middle-aged man called "Captain Song" sighed helplessly, nodded, and looked at the remains on the ground with some regret. "What a shame. If only we could find the victim's ID card... Now we have too few clues."
Doctor Lin also nodded regretfully, looking at the bloodstains on the ground that had been washed almost invisible by the rain. "...No body left either. It's hard to figure out what happened."
Little Red Riding Hood listened to their exchange, seeming to ponder something quietly, then suddenly looked up at the woman in white beside her. "Good evening, Doctor Lin."
"Good evening, Little Red Riding Hood," Doctor Lin smiled, greeting the short-haired girl. "How's the patrol?"
Little Red Riding Hood looked around, reached out to stroke the head of the nearest wolf. "There was 'Rain' here, and an entity 'Rain Frog' might have been generated, but there probably weren't any victims."
Doctor Lin seemed relieved. "That's a relief."
The sound of an engine starting came from not far away. The battered large van coughed and sputtered to life, then the engine sound gradually steadied. The few armed operatives who had been pushing the van earlier, breathing heavily, walked around from behind the vehicle. The one in the lead approached: "Captain Song, the van's started. Let's..."
The sturdy middle-aged man called Captain Song nodded and stepped toward his team members.
"Alright, let's head back to the bureau. And don't forget to take Doctor Lin with us."
(The end of the chapter)