Desperate people, accept the seed of my soul!

"Ah! Someone fell!"

"Bleeding and...!"

The area near the viewing platform instantly erupted into chaos.

Looking at the motionless corpse, Xu Suyuan finally felt a release of the pent-up anger in her heart.

"My revenge is complete," she murmured to herself, for her grandmother who couldn't see her one last time.

"Let's go." Han Xiao gently patted the back of her hand, pulled her into the crowd, and walked towards another exit of the park.

Just as they got up to leave, the door of the black surveillance car in the distance was suddenly pushed open.

A capable-looking middle-aged man rushed out like a cheetah, his face extremely grim.

It was Lei Zhen who was transferred to the task force from the Fifth District.

He was followed by a young detective, and the two of them sped toward the scene of the incident.

"Get out of the way! Everyone get out of the way! Police!"

Lei Zhen shouted as he pushed through the crowd.

As Lei Zhen passed a fork in the road, he brushed past Han Xiao and Xu Suyuan, who were walking away with their heads down.

In that instant, Lei Zhen's sharp gaze swept over the two "passersby".

But they looked too ordinary—like a frightened couple, supporting each other, hurrying to escape this place of trouble.

There was no unusual behavior.

Lei Zhen's gaze lingered for only half a second before shifting away; his mind was now filled with the important suspect lying in a pool of blood.

He rushed down to the platform, squatted down next to Wu Guodong, and reached out to feel for his carotid artery.

There was no pulse.

Looking at the pupils again, they have become dilated and diffused.

"Oh shit!"

Lei Zhen slammed his fist on the ground, then turned to the young detective who had arrived. "Call an ambulance! Although... it's too late now."

He quickly got up and inspected the scene.

There were obvious slippery marks on the moss at the edge of the platform, and Wu Guodong's shoes were covered with wet, slippery mud.

There were no signs of a struggle, no signs of dragging, and no suspicious persons were near.

Everything points to one very clear conclusion—an accidental fall.

"Captain Lei..." The young detective's face was pale. "This is troublesome. Director Zhao repeatedly instructed us to keep a close eye on him and dig out the evidence chain of Dawn Biotechnology. Now he's dead..."

Lei Zhen stood up, his brows furrowed into a deep frown.

He stared at Wu Guodong's lifeless face, a strong sense of defeat welling up inside him.

Zhao Jianguo transferred him to this nominally special task force, which was actually a team secretly investigating "abnormalities," precisely because he had personally contacted Chen Guohua.

He had thought that given the feud between Wu Guodong and Xu Suyuan, this surveillance might be able to lure out the "abnormal" trace, or even obtain research clues.

But now it seems like an incredibly unlucky accident.

"Report to Director Zhao," Lei Zhen said. "The suspect, Wu Guodong, died on the spot due to an accidental fall while under surveillance."

Hopefully... this won't disrupt Director Zhao's overall plan.

------

Chenxi City Police Department, Zhao Jianguo's office.

It was the evening of the second day after Wu Guodong's death, and the projector's pale blue beam cut through the swirling smoke in the room.

The whiteboard on the side wall was covered with photos, with numerous arrows drawn in the middle in black marker.

Zhao Jianguo sat at the head of the conference table, the cigarette between his fingers flickering.

On his left and right sat Wang Gang, the captain of the mobile assault team; Zhou Ming, who had just been appointed as the acting deputy director of the Eighth District Branch; and Lei Zhen, who was seconded to the group from the original Fifth District Criminal Investigation Section.

This was the second closed-door meeting since the task force was established.

"Hand over your phones and put away your meeting minutes."

Zhao Jianguo's voice rang out, "Once you leave this door, you are not allowed to let out a single word you said today."

The three silently did as instructed, turning off their phones and throwing them into the shielded bag.

"Our task force's official mission is to arrest Xu Suyuan and the man in gray, as well as to destroy Chenxi Biopharmaceutical," Zhao Jianguo said. "But in reality, we need to figure out what this 'anomaly' is, its principles, its limits, and... whether it is controllable and replicable."

He pressed the remote control, and the photos on the whiteboard switched.

On the left is Xu Suyuan, and on the right is a gray-clad man with a cold gaze.

"Let's talk about Xu Suyuan first." Zhao Jianguo pointed to Xu Suyuan on the screen. "After this period of investigation, especially combining the investigation of the convention center and several locked-room murder scenes, we can confirm that Xu Suyuan possesses a kind of 'matter penetration' ability. This ability allows her to ignore physical obstacles."

"Now, let's talk about this man in gray." Zhao Jianguo moved the red dot on the laser pointer to the right. "His identity has been confirmed. Han Xiao, 35 years old. A retired sergeant from a special forces unit, he transferred to the Municipal Tax Bureau's Inspection Section as deputy section chief after his retirement. Six months ago, his wife and daughter died in a car accident on Binhai Avenue, and Han Xiao himself was seriously injured. After being discharged from the hospital, he refused compensation and a job transfer, resigned, and disappeared until he reappeared at the dismantling site this time."

Upon hearing the words "special forces" and "tax bureau inspection department" combined, the expressions of the people present changed.

"The car accident six months ago..." Wang Gang said thoughtfully, "was it classified as an accident at the time?"

"Yes, the roads were slippery due to the rain, and the driver who caused the accident fled and has not yet been apprehended," Zhao Jianguo added. "But considering the terrifying abilities he displayed at the dismantling site—the ability to deflect bullets and shatter a human's sternum with a single punch—it's hard to believe that he would become like this simply because of an 'accident'."

"One is 'penetration,' and the other is 'deflection,'" Zhao Jianguo summarized. "These are the enemies we are facing. They are not ordinary criminals, but rather 'abnormal' beings who possess some kind of power that we cannot comprehend."

A brief silence fell over the meeting room.

Just then, Lei Zhen, who had been staring at the two photos with a furrowed brow, suddenly spoke up.

"Director Zhao, I might... have met them."

All eyes immediately turned to Lei Zhen.

Lei Zhen stared intently at the two photos on the projection screen, especially the full-body photo showing Han Xiao's physique and Xu Suyuan's slightly thin figure.

"Yesterday afternoon, at Bihai Yuntian Community Park, right where Wu Guodong fell to his death." Lei Zhen spoke very quickly, desperately digging out the deepest fragments of memory from his mind. "At that time, I was leading a team to rush towards the point of impact. At a fork in the road, a couple wearing masks brushed past me."

"I was in a rush to save them and only glanced at them. The two people were looking down, supporting each other, and looked like terrified passersby. But..."

Lei Zhen suddenly stood up, walked to the whiteboard, and pointed at Han Xiao's photo: "That walking posture, the level of his shoulders..."

He then pointed to Xu Suyuan: "And this girl, although she was wearing a loose coat at the time, her figure... looking back now, it highly overlaps with the features in these two photos!"