September 1st, 6:42 AM.
Twenty-nine hours and eighteen minutes remaining until the official arrival of the Era of Terror.
The night had completely fallen, and the sky was pitch black.
Normally, it shouldn't be this dark at this hour.
However, this year's nights seemed to arrive much faster than usual for September.
Liu Lian sighed and glanced at her partner driving beside her:
"Old Tan, why is solving a case so difficult? Is it really that hard to confirm a murderer?"
Tan Yu replied:
"Regardless, any judgment requires evidence. Although, I feel her issues are also quite significant."
"You also think that Chu Qing is acting strangely, right? He kept asking about Huang Hong's situation on WeChat all day, showing a lot of concern!"
Tan Yu looked at the excited Miss Liu and flashed an awkward yet polite smile:
"Um... the suspect I'm referring to is Huang Hong. Didn't we get a lead today?
Huang Hong's husband, Zhao Chuan, claimed to have gone back to his hometown and left three days ago, but no one in his hometown has seen any trace of him!
And Liang Dazhu, the former security guard at North Mountain Cemetery, has also disappeared.
This Huang Hong is very suspicious! I've already applied for a warrant from Captain Wang."
Liu Lian deflated:
"You also think the deaths of the Lin family of three have nothing to do with outsiders, don't you?"
Tan Yu scratched his head and changed the subject:
"Sister Liu, it's time to get off work. I'm heading out. There have been many cases lately, so don't put too much pressure on yourself! Do you need a ride home?"
Tan Yu knew very well that when this young lady arrived, their chief and a top figure from Luocheng had escorted her. This young lady was not someone he could aspire to. People should have self-awareness.
Seeing her partner like this, Liu Lian snorted:
"Never mind, just stop here. I'll go grab a bite by myself. By the way, where are we?"
Tan Yu took a look:
"This is the old city area, isn't Huang Hong's home around here? Sister Liu, forget it, I'll drive you to the city center. It's not very safe around here lately."
"No need! Don't forget, I have this with me!"
Liu Lian patted the stock of the gun on her slender frame, which was completely disproportionate to the size above.
Tan Yu thought for a moment and nodded.
She really wasn't just a pretty face; in multiple internal assessments, her shooting scores were always first place!
"Alright."
Satiated and satisfied.
An hour later, Liu Lian walked out of the small restaurant in the alley.
There was a reason the old city was called the old city; forget about other public facilities.
Even the streetlights were dim.
It was only around eight o'clock, and there were hardly any people on the main road.
Liu Lian walked along the roadside, the buzzing of mosquitoes, flies, and moths making her inexplicably irritable. She muttered:
"I need to give Uncle Du some suggestions. The renovation of the old city area needs to be put on the agenda. I haven't seen a single taxi for so long, honestly..."
Soon, however, her eyes lit up.
In front of a gate ahead, a taxi was parked.
She hurried over and knocked on the driver's window.
The window rolled down, revealing the face of a middle-aged man, so pale that it seemed to glow even in the dim light.
Even facing a beautiful woman, the driver showed no emotion, his dead-fish eyes looking at her.
"Master, are you going?"
The man didn't speak, just nodded.
Liu Lian's heart leaped with joy, and she was about to get in when, at that moment, a not-too-piercing scream echoed from a distance.
As a people's inspector, Liu Lian abruptly looked up and behind her.
It was an old residential compound.
From the dilapidated storefronts and rusty iron gate, it was evident.
Without a second thought, Liu Lian ran directly into the compound, but her peripheral vision quickly caught the name of the complex:
'Jinshan Residential Area.'
However, Liu Lian, who had left, didn't see the pale-faced taxi driver's dead-fish eyes slowly move on their own.
Then, the taxi, which looked identical to any other, slowly started to move and, after ten meters, simply vanished without a trace.
As if it had never appeared.
Less than two minutes later, a black Audi slowly stopped in front of the compound.
A figure rolled down the window, glanced at the entrance of Jinshan Residential Area, and a hint of red appeared in their eyes:
"Such potent Yin energy. This is the place! You wait here."
...
Excitement, elation!
At this moment, Liu Lian felt only these emotions.
The reason was simple.
The opportunity she had longed for, the chance to solve a case, was right before her eyes!
And it was the biggest case recently!
Because that scream had come from a man.
At this moment, the man could no longer make any sound.
His neck seemed to be gripped by something, half his head already plunged into a patch of crimson, and that crimson thing was in the air not far away.
Liu Lian didn't rush to observe. Instead, while hiding behind a wall, she took out two items.
Just as her colleagues in the Criminal Investigation Bureau knew.
Liu Lian was indeed not a pretty face.
Even at this moment, she didn't rush in impulsively. She first sent a message on WeChat to Captain Wang and Tan Yu, calling for backup, before disengaging the safety on her handgun and chambering a round.
At that time, below the ten-meter-high sky, apart from that red object, there was not a single person around.
At least, she couldn't see anyone.
So, what exactly was that crimson thing?
A drone?
But could a drone achieve this level of performance? And who was controlling it to kill people, how were they doing it?
Liu Lian didn't know.
She only knew that if she didn't act soon, that person would surely die!
So, even at the risk of alerting the perpetrator, she had to act.
"Person behind! Come out! Let him down, or I'll shoot! Otherwise, I can still track you down after I take this thing down!"
Liu Lian's sharp command echoed through the nearly deserted compound.
However, there was silence.
Even the red light seemed to cut off all perception in the vicinity.
Even homes with lights on appeared not to hear.
Liu Lian didn't have time to ponder this scene. She aimed the barrel of her gun at the red light slowly flying less than ten meters above.
The near-impenetrable darkness of the night could not affect her incredibly steady hands holding the gun.
'Bang!'
A muzzle flash erupted.
The fireworks in the night seemed to pierce through the red light.
The trajectory of the red light seemed to be affected.
'Plop!'
This shot actually had an effect.
The man, whose neck had been grabbed and who had been lifted into the air, fell from the sky.
However, just as Liu Lian was about to help the falling figure, what she didn't expect was that the object slowly floated, not falling, but moving above her head.
As she subconsciously looked up, she finally saw what that thing was in the darkness of the night.
It was a Big Red Lantern.
The light in the darkness of the night was extremely weak.
But after being illuminated by this red light, there was an indescribable sense of comfort.
It was the refreshing feeling of a basin of cold water washing over the body and mind on a scorching summer day,
It was the extreme relaxation of soaking in a hot spring during the coldest winter month,
It was the nicotinic fragrance of a cigarette after a long night.
That sense of comfort made Liu Lian unconsciously lower her gun.
Her entire body seemed to fly up...
Wait!
Flying up?
Liu Lian suddenly snapped back from the extreme sensation.
She didn't know when her body had indeed started to rise.
As if being pulled by something, this pull brought no pain, but rather the joyous feeling she had just experienced.
She looked up, and the large red lantern had appeared above her head, like a hat about to be placed on her.
Suddenly, Liu Lian's pupils constricted violently.
As she looked up, she finally clearly saw, within the gap beneath the Big Red Lantern, inside the red lantern,
A human head, a human face, was grinning eerily at her.
She covered her mouth, wanting to struggle madly, but to no avail.
Even the handgun, the only thing that could provide her with a sense of security, had already fallen to the ground.
She was dead!
She didn't know what this thing was, she only knew she was going to die.
She didn't want to die!
Her large eyes were filled with tears of fear.
She was only in her early twenties; she hadn't experienced love, and there were so many things she hadn't done.
But.
The slowly ascending body,
The unspeakable coldness,
And the bottom of the lantern drawing closer and closer,
All told her that she was about to become one of the countless headless corpses discovered previously.
However, all her unwillingness, all her resentment, gradually dissipated as the lantern drew closer.
No matter what, she had died trying to save someone.
Her original intention, at least, had been fulfilled.
Thinking of this, Liu Lian's lips even curved upwards, a smile on her face as she welcomed death.
However, at this moment, a crisp sound of footsteps slowly approached from not far away.
This compound was too dilapidated; there were hardly any streetlights.
The faint sound of footsteps made Liu Lian, who had even seen her great-grandmother, suddenly come to her senses.
She opened her mouth.
She didn't know if she wanted to call for help or tell the unexpected arrival to hurry away.
However, in her last consciousness, as she looked at the approaching figure, Liu Lian slightly froze.
The figure was holding a black umbrella.
Under the moonlit, starry night sky, it looked so abrupt and strange.
His footsteps were incredibly steady.
He didn't seem to notice the anomaly above his head. In Liu Lian's increasingly weak consciousness, he reached her feet, then the black umbrella along with the figure's head slowly tilted up.
He finally looked at her, at the blood-red lantern in the sky.
Liu Lian was almost fainting but forced herself to stay conscious, looking at the figure one last time.
But the next moment, Liu Lian's whole body felt like it had been electrocuted.
In the darkness, the face hidden under the black umbrella could still not be clearly seen by the night sky.
She still couldn't see the person's face, but in the darkness, even deeper than the night,
She saw a pair of blood-red eyes.
More profound and more sinister than the blood-red lantern in the sky.