Su Xue was not unfamiliar with this side of Li Muhang. Having grown up in an orphanage—and an abnormal one at that—Li Muhang had matured early.
He was smooth and adept at keeping a polite distance from everyone, ensuring you never felt he was being presumptuous, yet never too intimate.
Yet he had never treated her that way!
Li Muhang had always treated her completely differently from everyone else. But just moments ago...
Gu Ruoxi felt that in his eyes, she was no longer any different from the masses.
Chapter 23: The Missing Person
Consequently, Gu Ruoxi directed all her resentment toward Xia Yue, who was standing beside Li Muhang.
It had to be this woman who stole Li Muhang away.
Her mind was entirely clouded. She forgot that she was the one who had abandoned Li Muhang in the first place, and she blindly vented all her fury onto the young woman, who stood out even more than herself despite wearing a plain outfit, a mask, and a cap.
"Li Muhang, are you still hanging out with this kind of woman just to spite me?"
She walked up to Li Muhang in a huff and said.
Li Muhang had his back to her. He rolled his eyes, then turned around and looked at her expressionlessly.
"Miss Gu, I'd appreciate it if you showed some respect to my friend."
"Li Muhang, how dare you speak to me like that?!"
"Who do you think you are? Me talking to you right now is already doing you a huge favor. Miss Gu, as you said yourself, we live in different worlds. You'd better not speak to me again."
Hearing this, Gu Ruoxi became even more convinced that Li Muhang was just trying to spite her. She let out a cold snort.
Puffing out her chest, she said to Li Muhang,
"Li Muhang, even if I don't want you anymore, you shouldn't stoop this low. Do I need to remind you what kind of character this woman has? Who knows, she might sleep with you today and crawl into someone else's bed tomorrow. You..."
Li Muhang's gaze suddenly turned fierce. He stared coldly at Gu Ruoxi, speaking one word at a time.
"Don't push your luck.The moment he saw Gu Ruoxi's face, he was reminded of the footage Zhao Qiankun had shown him. It wasn't that he felt angry; he simply found this woman standing before him—his former beloved—to be utterly filthy.
"You—how can you talk to me like that?! Li Muhang, let me tell you, I originally thought we could still be friends, but now, I think I should cut off all ties with you!"
This was a tactic Gu Ruoxi had used many times before.
No matter what she had done, all she had to do was say:
*Then let's break off our friendship and never speak again.*
Li Muhang would immediately drop his pride and come to coax her.
She had always believed this was because Li Muhang couldn't live without her.
She never imagined it was because Li Muhang loved her so much that he tolerated her every whim.
But now...
That love might not have a single shred left.
Hearing Gu Ruoxi's words, Li Muhang sneered, took out his phone, and right in front of her, blocked her WeChat, her phone number, and even her Alipay account in one go.
Then, with a cold and indifferent expression, he said to her,
"We have nothing to do with each other now. Stop pestering me."
*Pestering?*
*I'm pestering you?!*
Gu Ruoxi was trembling with rage.
Why on earth had Li Muhang turned out like this?
She cast a furious gaze toward Xia Yue, only to find that the young woman wasn't even looking at her. Instead, Xia Yue was gazing boredly to the side and let out a yawn.
"You, you... you two despicable people! Li Muhang, you'll regret this! Even if you get on your knees and beg for my forgiveness, I won't pay you any attention!"
Gu Ruoxi grabbed her bag and turned to leave. Before she walked away, she overheard the two of them talking behind her.
"When she comes here next time, should I ask the boss to give her a discount?"
"A discount? More like a broken-bone discount. Don't bother with her."
Gu Ruoxi was on the verge of going insane.
She clattered away in her high heels, breaking into a jog, unsure whether she was trying to get away from Li Muhang or Xia Yue.
She walked for a long time until there were hardly any people around.
Only then did she realize she had turned into a narrow alleyway. Gu Ruoxi kicked off her high heels and massaged her feet, which were encased in high-end nude-colored stockings. Having walked the entire way in heels, her feet were now aching terribly.
"Whatever, I'll just find an ordinary hotel to crash at tonight."
With that thought, she turned around, intending to step out of the alley, only to find several drunken men blocking her path.
"Hey there, beauty—*hic*—looking for business? Oh—holy crap! What a gorgeous babe! From the back I only saw your figure, but seeing your face now—fu*k, you're stunning."
"Hehehe, look at those legs, oh my god, I'm drooling. There's four of us, miss. Tell us, how much do you charge?"
Gu Ruoxi looked at the men coldly.
"Get lost. I don't have time for you."
"Oh? You're not here for business?"
"Even better! We're broke anyway, hahahahaha."
With that, the men lunged at Gu Ruoxi.
"Let go of me! You blind beasts! Do you know who I am?!"
Gu Ruoxi fought desperately, but she was still pinned to the ground by the men, and someone had already started tearing at her clothes.
"I don't give a damn who you are! Right now, you're just a toy for us to blow off some steam. Stop screaming, or I'll carve up that pretty little face of yours with a knife!"
Gu Ruoxi was furious and terrified; she couldn't understand why something like this was happening to her.
"Help! Somebody help me! Li Muhang! Help!"
She had expected herself to call out Zhao Qiankun's name, but instinctively, the name that slipped from her lips was Li Muhang's.
Just as the men were tearing at her clothes, Gu Ruoxi's consciousness seemed to drift back into the past.
Back to the night she first met Li Muhang.
That year, Gu Ruoxi was seven years old. After fighting with her parents, she had rushed out of the house and sprinted into the night.
It seemed to have been a moonless winter night just like this one.
And an alley just as pitch-black and blind as this.
The only difference back then was that the threats were a pack of stray dogs.
Seven-year-old Gu Ruoxi had been surrounded by several stray dogs, which—just like these men now—had started attacking her, biting at her dress.
Back then, Gu Ruoxi had been just like she was now.
No, rather, she was just like she was then—crying like a helpless child.
At that moment, it was a ragged, disheveled little beggar who had saved her.
He stepped forward bravely, using stones and sticks to beat the stray dogs away.
Facing Gu Ruoxi, who wouldn't stop crying, the little beggar had only said one sentence:
"Don't cry. I'll protect you."
He stayed by Gu Ruoxi's side until she cried herself to sleep. Then, the little beggar carried her on his back and left her at the entrance of a police station.
Later, the police checked surveillance footage and tracked the little beggar down to a nearby orphanage; his name was Li Muhang.
Gu Ruoxi and her parents went to visit Li Muhang, and from that moment on, the two of them became friends.
"You said you'd protect me, didn't you?"
"Mn."
Ever since then, Li Muhang had always fulfilled his promise.
Until now.
He would never step forward to protect her again.
"Didn't you say... you'd protect me?"
Just as her clothes were about to be ripped open, Gu Ruoxi sobbed out those words.
Yet they were ignored by the beasts, who now only wanted to vent their lust.
However, no one noticed that deep within the alley, a dark shadow was slowly approaching the group, watching their farce unfold before calmly slitting the throats of the men one by one.
The dark shadow crouched down, tilted its head, and sized up Gu Ruoxi, who was frozen stiff with terror, before letting out a low, cold sneer.
On that very winter night, another disappearance case occurred.
The police received a report the next morning—not of a disappearance, but of a murder.
A scavenger had found four male corpses in the alley. Their throats had been slashed, and blood covered the ground.
What truly prompted the police to contact the Special Management Bureau was the discovery of a woman's high-end handbag at the scene, alongside a piece of surveillance footage.
A woman had walked into the alleyway, followed by four victims who went in after her. But no one ever came out again, and that alley was a dead end.
The members of the Seventh Squad rushed to the scene. This was Li Muhang's first mission.
He felt a bit nauseous looking at the corpses, but his brow furrowed slightly when he saw the handbag.
"What's wrong? Feeling sick? Seeing corpses for the first time is always like this."
Huo Tian walked over to Li Muhang and patted him on the shoulder.
Their official cover was Special Investigation Assistants; after all, the existence of the Special Management Bureau could not be exposed to the general public and the police.
Yet Li Muhang merely squatted down, picked up the handbag, and said to Huo Tian,
"I know the missing person this time."
Chapter 24: Extra-Legal Zone
Every squad in the Special Management Bureau was assigned dedicated vehicles, along with bureau-issued credentials. Because identities might change with each mission, these credentials had to be custom-made.
Take this time, for instance.
The members of the Seventh Squad wore badges identifying them as a special task force from the provincial government.
Looking at his own photo on the ID, Li Muhang thought the Special Management Bureau was truly omnipotent—they could even forge something like this, complete with official verification, and you could even look up their information on the municipal government website.
"What are you daydreaming about?"
Huo Tian, who was driving, glanced sideways at Li Muhang.
"Nothing much. Just feeling amazed. Yesterday I was sitting in a university lecture hall, and today I've become an expert dispatched by the province to handle a case."
"Hahahaha, you'll get used to it. Guess what I used to do."
"Police chief."
Li Muhang blurted out.
Huo Tian gave Li Muhang a side-eye.
"You brat, couldn't you play along with me?"
"Captain Huo, didn't you pretend to be asleep in the car the other day? You're way better at acting than I am."
Li Muhang replied with a smile.
Huo Tian muttered a few curses under his breath.
Then Li Muhang glanced through the rearview mirror at Su Xue and Yin Qi in the back seat.
"What? Are you that interested in my past?"
Su Xue, who was still reviewing the case files, noticed Li Muhang's gaze and smiled, meeting his eyes through the rearview mirror.
"Even though I haven't joined the Special Management Bureau, for now, we're comrades, right?"
Li Muhang scratched his head and said with a smile,
"As for me, I used to be an administrator at a state-owned enterprise."
"I can't tell at all. Sister Xue, you've actually worked a job before?"
Hearing Li Muhang say this, Su Xue narrowed her eyes slightly. This young woman always gave Li Muhang the impression of wearing a constant smile.
Yet the more she did so, the harder she was for him to read.
"Work? You know, if Taozi wanted to, she could eat delicacies from land and sea every day, and even if she never worked a day in her life, her money would probably last for ten lifetimes."
"Captain, you talk way too much."
Su Xue looked at Huo Tian with a smile, but Huo Tian sensed a hint of murderous intent in that smile and immediately shut his mouth.
*Good grief, so she's a filthy rich woman,* Li Muhang thought to himself with a mental sigh.
"What about Xiao Yin?"
Li Muhang turned his gaze back to Yin Qi, who was staring intently at her phone.
"You don't need to mind me."
She replied with nothing more than a cold, brief retort.
"Ah..."
Li Muhang felt somewhat awkward. Finally, Lin Ziyu's voice crackled through the intercom:
"You'll never guess what I used to do. I'm a hacker, y'know—a super hacker who once broke into the National Security system."
"Who asked you?"
Huo Tian cut Lin Ziyu off, then sighed resignedly as he said to Li Muhang,
"This kid was fished out of prison by the Special Management Bureau. He dared to hack the National Security system when he was fourteen, and he peed his pants the moment he got caught. Look at that coward; if he actually went inside a real cell, I doubt his cherry would stay un-popped."
"Captain! Please spare some face!"
The atmosphere in the car livened up, washing away the nausea Li Muhang had felt earlier upon seeing the mutilated bodies of the four men.
The destination the four of them were heading toward was a dilapidated apartment building in the old district of Tianhai City.
This street was an overlooked blind spot in Tianhai City's redevelopment plan. Because it carried too many historical baggage issues, the government ultimately had no choice but to let it grow wild.
Over time, it had become a gathering place for vagrants and certain gangs.
"Muhang, are you feeling better?"
Su Xue had seen Li Muhang leaning against a wall vomiting for a long time earlier, so she was feeling a bit worried now.
"I'm fine, just never seen such a bloody scene before."
That was a lie.
Li Muhang had seen dead bodies when he was a kid—quite a few of them, actually—but there was no need to bring that up here; those days were in the past.
However, having seen them didn't mean he was numb to them.
Even growing up in an orphanage that felt like hell, he had still longed to live the life of an ordinary person.
That was why he had previously viewed Gu Ruoxi as the light of his life, because she was the one who led him out of that abyss.
What a pity that things had changed and people had grown apart, leaving only lingering sorrow.
"How strange. Your file clearly states that you have ten human lives on your hands, and judging by the crime scene photos, those victims suffered far worse than these four men. How can you still feel unwell?"
The speaker was Yin Qi.
Her words carried a sharp edge, sounding almost like an interrogation.
And the ten human lives on Li Muhang's record that she mentioned referred to Zhao Qiankun's thugs. Strictly speaking, those could be blamed on Baal, but Li Muhang didn't offer any defense, only flashing a bitter smile.
"Xiao Yin, is that any way to talk?"
Huo Tian immediately spoke up to stop her.
"Yeah, Xiao Yin. The file also says Muhang lost control of his power back then, so..."
"What if he loses control of his power again?"
Yin Qi's words dropped the temperature in the car to freezing.
"I can't watch his back."
"Alright, Yin Qi."
Finally, Lin Ziyu's voice over the intercom broke the deadlock.
"Muhang has a guarantor, and besides, the necklace hanging around his neck is the latest product developed jointly by me and the Science Council, specifically designed for demons. Plus, he's not even a formal member of the Special Management Bureau; he's here to assist us—"
"Sorry, I have no interest in listening."
Yin Qi coldly interrupted Lin Ziyu, who was gearing up to show off.
Li Muhang had been feeling quite awkward and didn't know what to say.
It wasn't until he heard Lin Ziyu's remark that he asked with a trace of puzzlement,
"Excuse me, can Xia Yue, who is an anomaly just like me, also act as a guarantor?"
"Generally speaking, no, but Xia Yue is a special case."
Huo Tian said.
"She doesn't belong to the Huaxia Special Management Bureau. As you can probably tell, her appearance isn't of pure Huaxia descent, and she's a controllable Calamity-grade anomaly—someone the Huaxia Special Management Bureau wants to recruit no matter what."
Li Muhang understood.
This guarantee wasn't meant to give Yin Qi peace of mind.
It was telling Yin Qi something else:
Even if the Special Management Bureau abandoned everyone else, they would definitely pull Li Muhang into their fold.
As for why?
Because his guarantor was a Calamity-grade anomaly.
Yin Qi let out a cold snort and buried her head back in her phone.
Their destination finally arrived.
Li Muhang peered out through the car window and found that the scenery outside had changed completely.
There were no skyscrapers or bustling streets to be seen—only dilapidated single-story brick houses, old apartments, and shady characters gathered in groups.
Those people watched the vehicle drive past with bizarre gazes, as if they were on high alert for something.
"Kid, you're not a local, are you?"
"Yeah, I'm from Tianhai City for university."
"Then try not to speak for a bit."
With that, Huo Tian parked the car in front of an old apartment building.
"The perk of the Special Management Bureau is that we have money and resources. As long as you do your missions well, you can get whatever you want. But there's a downside too: we have to keep a low profile. Especially when dealing with ordinary people, you absolutely cannot draw too much attention. Got it?"
Upon receiving Li Muhang's affirmative reply, Huo Tian suddenly unclipped a handgun from his waist and handed it to Li Muhang.
"But don't ever be a coward either."
Watching Li Muhang take the pistol with a complicated expression, Huo Tian pushed open the car door.
As soon as the four of them stepped out of the car, several men swarmed over.
"Where you from? What do you want?"
The leader chewed his gum, looking with utter disdain at the four people dressed in suits and ties.
"Official business. Don't worry, we're not running a sweep."
Huo Tian flashed his forged credentials.
Though the man looked rough around the edges, he seemed to recognize the ID.
"Oh, provincial bigwigs."
He wasn't scared at all. He stared at the credentials for a long time, then suddenly shifted his gaze to Su Xue and Yin Qi.
"Whoa, the government chicks sure are pretty."
With that, he reached out as if to inspect the two young women's badges, but Huo Tian blocked him with an outstretched arm.
"That's enough."
Huo Tian said only those three words.
Chewing his gum with a look of disdain, the man spat the gum onto the ground and waved the four of them onward.
"Go on in. Keep a low profile, or not even someone from the Jade Emperor's court will be able to save you."
Even as they walked into the apartment building, the men continued to stare fixedly at their backs.
Li Muhang found it rather strange.
"Isn't there a local police station here? Can't we ask them for backup first?"
"One move affects the whole body. The network of connections here is rotten to the root. By the time the police brought us to find someone, our target would have bolted ages ago."
Li Muhang nodded.
Huo Tian really lived up to his background as a former cop; his insight was sharp.
The elevator in the old apartment was cramped and reeked of stale urine.
It was as if people frequently relieved themselves right inside the elevator car.
The moment she stepped inside, Su Xue covered her nose, her brow furrowing deeply.
Yin Qi, on the other hand, acted as if nothing was amiss, seemingly long accustomed to this kind of environment.
The elevator reached the fifth floor, and the four of them headed straight for room 5-8.
The apartment's hallway was open-air. Glancing downward through the corridor railing, Li Muhang was shocked to see that at least thirty-some men had gathered downstairs.
Every single one of them was holding a weapon, glaring up fixedly at them.
"Now do you see why the Special Management Bureau pays so high?"