I felt the vein on my forehead throbbing.

“Stop saying nonsense.”

I had no strength, didn’t want to move, and sat in place, looking around and counting the number of bodies: ten people. 

Their deaths were all different, their causes of death and amounts of bleeding also varied. 

The only thing they had in common was that the wounds were lethal, which showed that the killer was accustomed to using the most efficient and quickest methods to achieve a one-hit kill.

There was no need to choose weapons—whatever was at hand was used. 

Stainless steel chopsticks, a purple clay ashtray, a phone, playing cards, metal business cards, and even bare hands—this was his gift. 

Back when his head was still only worth fifteen million, I had also seen his bounty notice, the one that had hung for three years without anyone daring to take it.

That period of time was also not long after and I had first arrived in Country S. 

The new home had just been decorated, and I accompanied her to drive into town to buy flowers and decorations. 

During a gap when she was haggling with the shop owner in a foreign language, I leaned my back against the counter and watched a TV in the corner with very poor reception broadcasting the news.

A vicious case that had shocked the authorities—a high-ranking official had been assassinated and found dead in his home, suspected of having been targeted for revenge, the nature of the crime was serious, evidence collection was difficult. 

They hadn’t even been able to match the murder weapon, and none of the servants, security guards, or gardeners in the house were witnesses. 

The investigation had barely progressed, and the relevant departments were doing their utmost to investigate… 

The female anchor on screen wore a grave expression. 

The shop owner outside the screen scoffed dismissively and said a dirty word that I rarely understood: “Corrupt official, short-lived bastard, serves him right.”

However, compared to the official conservatism and the scattered speculation of the public, the underground information network I accessed through special channels had a unified wind direction. 

The statements were so certain and practiced, as if the suspect had already been identified long ago.

Perhaps it was an occupational hazard, or perhaps humans, like animals, could smell the scent of their own natural predators. 

I followed several active anonymous accounts and traced them to find what they were discussing—an existence on the dark web like a ghost or a curse. 

His appearance was unknown, his gender was unknown.

He used only a single compound word as a codename, active in the pinned posts of the rumor and bounty sections.

I copied down that word, flipped through the dictionary, and also consulted Rong Wanqing. Its meaning was “unrestricted, not prohibited.” 

This person’s specialty was killing without weapons, not bound by objective conditions, appearing and disappearing mysteriously, leaving no handles to be caught by.

Some “insiders” had also given him another nickname out of reverence or morbid curiosity. 

It was short and easy to read, like an ostentatious villain character in a manga, yet also carried a genuine and undeniable sense of menace.

They called him, “The Unchained Kill God.”

“Sigh.”

He laughed and stood up, wiped his hands on the clothes of the nearest corpse, then rummaged through the other’s jacket and trouser pockets, finding half a pack of cigarettes and a phone. 

He walked over, sat down beside me, his legs wrapped around both sides of me, and pulled me into his embrace.

“Why are you shaking? Not making a sound.”

He pulled a cigarette from the crumpled pack, held it between his lips and lit it, then took it out and fed it into my mouth. 

I took it with my dirty hands, holding the damp cigarette butt in my mouth, inhaling slowly one puff at a time, relying on nicotine to obtain temporary calm.

He picked me up from the blood, from the dirt, from the futile disgust and fear, pieced me together, accepted me, gathered my head against his and leaned close, kissing my temple and behind my ear.

“Calm down baby. The worst thing hasn’t happened yet, and neither has the best.”

His palm covered the place over my heart, soothing it—or perhaps about to crush it the next moment. 

“So don’t beat so fast.

“Since you don’t want to do anything right now, shall we play a prank?”

He used the dead man’s fingerprint to unlock the phone, took Duan Wenshu’s business card from my pocket, matched the number, and dialed it. 

I smoked my cigarette, making no sound, but listened as the call connected. 

Duan Wenshu’s weak and gentle voice came through the speakerphone.

“Hello…? Who is this?”

Neither Yu Baijin nor I said anything, as if competing to hold our breath underwater. 

After several breaths, the voice on the other end turned hysterical.

“What do you people want exactly?!”

“Mr. Duan, it’s me.”

The deliberate silence had created enough suspense and pressure. 

Only then did Yu Baijin open his mouth, “full of apology” and unhurried: “What’s the matter? Did you receive a ransom call?”

“Yu—Yu Mr. Yu, you scared me to death…”

Duan Wenshu let out a trembling breath, almost relieved. 

“Are you alright? Have you been followed by anyone suspicious? What about Mr. Jian?” 

He asked in a string of rapid questions. 

“Last night I tried to contact him, but his phone wouldn’t connect! Is he okay?”

“He’s doing great.”

Yu Baijin bit his words in a peculiar way, and passed the phone to my mouth. 

I said: “Mr. Duan, I’m sorry, my phone broke yesterday. I haven’t had a chance to buy a new one yet.”

“Oh…thank goodness…”

“You were looking for me about Wanqing’s matter?”

I pressed out the burnt cigarette butt in the blood-soaked ground. 

“Has the nursing home gotten back to you?”

“Yes, the surveillance footage from public areas and everyone who entered and exited Wanqing’s room during the day have all been identified. There were six people in total: the head of the nursing home, the aunt from the room next door who came to teach her to knit a scarf; Liu Tiaotiao, that…not quite normal little girl—I don’t think she’s a suspect; the psychologist, that was my uncle’s idea, to regularly provide Wanqing with psychological counseling, afraid she might have developed PTSD after the shooting incident. My uncle personally designated a professional doctor, absolutely trustworthy; the remaining two are the night nurses on duty that evening, and you, Mr. Yu.

“If we calculate according to the timeline, the last person to have contact with Wanqing was Liu Tiaotiao. But she can’t really be called a ‘witness,’ so this…” His tone was troubled. “The police won’t adopt Liu Tiaotiao’s testimony, saying she is a person without civil liability capacity, and her statements don’t carry legal validity. As for the others, they either have no motive or all have alibis. We also haven’t received any ransom calls… Could it be that Wanqing really did run away from home?”

“That, you’ll have to answer, Mr. Duan.”

I wasn’t sure if I was being overly suspicious, but I always felt that Yu Baijin was particularly targeting Duan Wenshu. 

I tried to coordinate with him through gestures and lip-reading, only to be rejected across the board. 

Disregarding my insistence, he carried on his own conversation with Duan Wenshu: “You are Wanqing’s fiancé, her lover. How could you let her get lost?”

The other end fell silent.

I seized the opportunity and grabbed the phone, speaking into the receiver: “I’m sorry, we weren’t able to help.

“But we will continue to follow this matter, Mr. Duan. Please don’t give up either. Miss Rong is not someone who would just sit and wait for her fate. She will surely find a way to save herself.”

Yu Baijin made a face at me. 

I tugged at his cheek, and was surprised to find that my stiff body had regained its strength at some unknown point. 

Whether it was thanks to that cigarette or his embrace, or perhaps both—I couldn’t say. 

Bracing against his shoulder, I stood up.

“This is my new number. Save it. Contact me anytime if something comes up.”

“You two, please take care of yourselves as well!”

“Alright.”

A ray of sunlight streamed in from outside the warehouse, drawing a dividing line between light and dark. Inside, corpses lay strewn about, the stench of blood was overwhelming. 

Outside, life was vibrant, lush and green.

Before cutting the call, I heard a vague and distorted voice in the background, coming from Duan Wenshu’s side. 

It seemed to be a male voice, and it only said two words.

“Useless.”

The wind picked up. 

Yu Baijin and I stood in the swaying tree shadows, watching the phone slowly sink into the swamp.

“Did you hear that?”

“Mm.”

He looked up at the sky. 

“It seems like things have become more complicated.”

I pinched Duan Wenshu’s metal business card in my hand. 

Without hesitating too long, I flicked my wrist and tossed it into that same pool of mud.

“What do we do next?”

I was referring to the warehouse. 

“Push it onto Jin Wei.” 

He said it with complete confidence. 

“Whoever dies on someone’s turf, it counts as that person’s.”

“Perfect.”

We retraced our steps back, and by the time we were close to returning to the power plant, the sun had already begun to slant westward. 

The light turned to deep gold, refracting and scattering across every leaf that was much the same as the next. 

The prolonged and tedious trek had worn our patience thin. 

Yu Baijin walked beside me and complained: “I really want to have a car to drive, baby. Let’s go rob someone.”

“How obsessed are you with robbing people?”

I said that with my mouth, but in reality I was also considering numerous practical problems, such as food and lodging, funds, and a mode of transportation. 

Since we had firmly decided to find Rong Wanqing, at least getting ahead of “those people,” we had to prepare for a long—

I quietly pressed down on my rumbling stomach.

Never mind the long haul. 

Let’s just handle the present. 

I was hungry.

Yu Baijin and I bypassed the service station and got onto the highway from another exit. 

Here it was close to a village. 

As far as the eye could see, there were stretches of farmland, kitchen smoke curling upward, and lights like stars in the distance. 

The two of us, covered in blood and in a wretched state, walked straight past a gas station like two deranged killers, and arrived at the door of a nameless noodle shop that opened right beside it.

“This one?” Yu Baijin wasn’t entirely in agreement. 

“They look like they don’t have much money.”

“I already said, no robbing!” I ground my teeth.