Mutated Tao

The fingers on the table had turned pale due to the loss of blood. Everyone, except for Li Huowang, was stunned and surprised.

Li Huowang was naturally handcuffed.

“Wait, I’m the victim here! Are you kidding me?! Why am I being handcuffed?!” Li Huowang shouted, but everyone ignored him.

Two officers stood guard while the others went outside.

Sun Jianye listened to Li Huowang shout as he read the information they had about the unusual youth.

He hated people with mental illnesses. Their statements could be false, and their way of thinking diverged so much from the norm that Sun Jianye’s interrogation techniques were useless.

If the suspect didn’t provide any leads, he could only investigate the case from another angle.

Sun Jianye picked up Li Huowang’s phone and checked the call log. He saw that Li Huowang had called a person today and dialed the number.

—Hello? Li Huowang? Why did you hang up on me just now? Oh, I’m sorry. How is he? Yes, I’m his doctor. Was there anything strange about him? He did call me to ask if he had a delusional disorder.

He obtained more details from Yi Donglai before he returned to the interrogation room. He sat across from Li Huowang. “Can you tell me where you got the two fingers?”

“How many times must I say that the fingers came from the kidnappers inside the car?” Li Huowang explained as he tried to remain patient.

Sun Jianye took out his phone and showed it to Li Huowang. “Is that so? There’s no car in the video footage, and no kidnappers either.”

“What? That’s impossible!” Li Huowang shouted and looked at the video.

He looked at the date and time on the top before confirming that the video was from today.

Li Huowang saw himself in the video. The footage was from when he tried to get close to the woman with the umbrella. But there was no woman in the video. Li Huowang was the only one in the video.

In the video, Li Huowang suddenly stopped and struggled in an empty place as if someone invisible had been pulling him. Then, he stumbled away from the camera’s surveillance range.

“Wait! That’s impossible! I really saw and felt them! I know I did!”

Sun Jianye sat in his chair with a headache. “Have you considered it could all be due to your hallucinations?”

“What are you talking about? You have my medical records, right? I’m cured and was discharged from the hospital! Also, there are many kinds of mental illnesses, and this is clearly different from the one I had!” Li Huowang stood up from his chair.

The two officers standing guard gently pressed Li Huowang’s shoulders, pushing him back down onto the seat.

Sun Jianye said, “Li Huowang, you are not crazy, and we know that, but we need evidence. There are no kidnappers in the video, and that’s the truth.

“Wait, is there a possibility they tampered with the footage?” Li Huowang asked. He then recalled something and froze from the realization.

“The time from your call to our inspection of the footage was too short for that. It’s impossible to tamper with the footage in such a short amount of time. How about you stay here for a few days so that we can protect you from the kidnappers?”

"Wait, don't you need evidence? What about the two fingers? They are evidence, and also"—he took off his bloodied shirt—"this is their blood. You can check their DNA and find them!"

Li Huowang was certain that the kidnappers were real. Someone really was trying to harm him! No matter what organization they came from, he knew he was in danger.

Since there was a first time, there would most certainly be a second time. The organization spent a lot of resources just to monitor him, so Li Huowang was certain that they would not stop if their goals weren’t achieved. He was worried not because of the sudden threat, but rather because he realized that Qian Fu’s warnings were coming true.

Who are you talking about?

The Leotians! They have very advanced technology and could easily place someone to observe you! I didn’t place the needle in your food, they did! They are trying to separate us!

***

The carriage wheels slowly rolled across the yellow grass of Qing Qiu. Yang Xiaohai spurred the horses onward as he gazed at the large grass meadow.

He checked his map and hesitated. “It should be here, shouldn’t it? I hope we're not going in the wrong direction.”

Even though he had a map, there was nothing in the empty grassfield for him to get his bearings. He wasn’t sure if he was going the right way.

Zhao Xiumei and Yang Xiaohai continued their journey, then Yang Xiaohai saw a small hill in the distance.

The small hill was covered in yellow grass and looked like a steamed bun from a distance. Yang Xiaohai had seen many of these hills over the past few days. He remembered them because their shape was very special.

“I remember seeing something like this when I traveled with Senior Li last time. We should be close to Sun Baolu’s house.”

Just as he said that, he saw tents on the horizon, which got him excited.

“Go! Go! Run faster!” Yang Xiaohai shouted, using a horse whip to urge the horses to run.

Various Qing Qiu natives with tanned skin were walking in and out of the tents, but some of them had visibly lighter skin. Sun Baolu was one of them.

Sun Baolu was excited when he saw Yang Xiaohai. He never thought they would meet again.

“Sun Baolu! Gao Zhijian became the Emperor! Puppy got married and had a child! Senior Li’s sickness is cured too!” Yang Xiaohai reported all of the joyful news that happened recently.

Sun Baolu listened to Yang Xiaohai and asked what happened to the group after they left Qing Qiu.

“Is that so? It’s a blessing for everyone to live so happily now.” Sun Baolu was very happy for them. They were once comrades who braved against death just to reach home.

“Wait, Xiaohai, why are you here in Qing Qiu?”

“Gao Zhijian helped me find my parents. They are boat people from Hou Shu. I want to go find them.” Yang Xiaohai told him his goals.

“Hou Shu?” Sun Baolu panicked and held Yang Xiaohai’s hands.

“No, you can’t go! Hou Shu is now in a war with the new Yu’er Kingdom. The war is terrible and I don’t want you to die there!”

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