Chapter 10

Chapter 10: Helpful Citizen

Deep into the night, the Inspection Bureau tower still blazed with light.

Su Yu Qing’s straight-backed silhouette hovered in the reflection of the glass curtain wall, his features swallowed by neon and darkness until he looked almost unreal.

He had finally pinned down the identity of the aberrant that attacked Feng Ling today.

On paper, it was an ordinary person: a foreign trade company employee, twenty-seven years old, named Ji Mei Xin. A month ago she resigned, then vanished—cut off from every friend and family contact in her circle.

That pattern was familiar. After an aberrant logged in, the first few days were always rough. They didn’t fit human rhythms. Work schedules, small talk, daily obligations—things a normal person did without thinking—became a minefield. Quitting and going silent was standard procedure.

Once Su Yu Qing had a name, he had his technicians trace Ji Mei Xin’s address. Then they pulled surveillance footage from the surrounding blocks and started combing for movement.

If they could lock down the target’s foothold, the Inspection Bureau could tailor a clearing operation to the aberrant’s type.

What he didn’t expect was what came with that address.

During the trace, the technicians flagged three more suspects.

Aberrants came in every shape of nightmare. Taking down one was already a grind. A group—multiple aberrants moving together—wasn’t just a threat. It was a disaster waiting for a crowd.

Su Yu Qing called his superior immediately, delivered the report, and asked for reinforcements.

The reply was calm, bland, and final: “We’ll discuss it at tomorrow’s meeting.”

He heard the refusal under the words.

He ended the call and sat in the office far too long, staring at nothing.

The silence stretched until the assistant at his side couldn’t take it anymore. In a low voice, he asked, “Captain… has Qing Jiang City been abandoned?”

Su Yu Qing lifted his eyes. “Why would you think that?”

The assistant’s frustration had been forced down for so long it had turned hard. “Every time we find an aberrant, the superior never sends manpower. But whenever we recruit new inspection members, in less than a month they’re transferred out… Captain Su, this Inspection Headquarters looks polished from the outside, but it’s hollow inside. Shouldn’t we report this upward? We can’t keep having you and Captain Zhou hold the line every time something explodes. There are more aberrants every day. Sooner or later… sooner or later we won’t be able to hold.”

“Hollow?” Su Yu Qing’s gaze cooled. “There are only two inspectors here—me and Zhou Zhou—but we have enough firepower, trained combatants, plus medical and logistics support. If we plan properly, we can clear aberrants even without supernatural ability.”

The assistant exhaled like the air had turned heavy. “But it isn’t fair…”

Su Yu Qing’s expression eased, just slightly, into something tired. “Fair doesn’t matter. Qing Jiang City is short-staffed. So are the inspectorate branch bureaus everywhere else. Right now the priority is making sure the key cities don’t collapse. If they do, the whole country goes with them.”

He paused, then said, “Call Zhou Zhou. Tell him to get here.”

“I already did,” the assistant said. “His phone’s off.”

Su Yu Qing frowned, picked up his own phone, and dialed Zhou Zhou’s other private number.

The call connected almost at once.

A furious male voice slammed through the speaker. “Su Yu Qing! I’m going to kill you! Do you know I’ve been tracking that aberrant at Times Square for three days without sleep?! I finally get two hours and you wake me up!”

“An aberrant was spotted in the West Suburban Villa District,” Su Yu Qing said. “I need you.”

“The hell? You find an aberrant and you can’t handle it yourselves?! Are the Special Assault Team all dead?! You’re dumping all of Qing Jiang City on Old Master alone?!”

“Zhou Zhou.” Su Yu Qing shut his eyes, voice low and steady. “Four. We found four aberrants.”

The cursing cut off mid-breath.

A beat of silence, then Zhou Zhou said, “Fifteen minutes.”

Su Yu Qing let out a slow breath. “I’ve got technicians watching every camera in the area. You’ll need to probe their abilities, then break them one by one. The Special Assault Team and a sniper will support from—”

The line went dead. Zhou Zhou had hung up.

The office door flew open.

“Captain Su! We’ve got something!” A technician rushed in, face pale, and set a laptop down on Su Yu Qing’s desk with shaking hands.

“We saw a suspicious person wandering near the outer perimeter of the villa district. Captain Su… could this be a fifth aberrant?”

On the screen, a small truck rolled out of the villa district, stopped by the main gate, and idled.

A young woman climbed down. Around twenty. Hurt—limping as she moved toward the guard booth.

The camera caught her face.

Su Yu Qing’s brow furrowed. He didn’t know why, only that the angle of her profile tugged at something in his memory. “Zoom in.”

The technician enlarged the feed and ran a quick sharpen on the pixels.

“She entered about twenty minutes ago. There are no cameras inside—none of the interior roads are covered—so we don’t know what she did in there. The passenger seat looks occupied, but the image is too dark to confirm.”

The West Suburban Villa District had been abandoned for years. Beyond the gate, only one streetlamp still worked. Everything else was black. Being able to make out a face at all was luck.

Su Yu Qing stared.

It was Feng Ling.

How was Feng Ling there?

She should have been in a hospital bed.

“Connect me to the eleventh floor,” Su Yu Qing said. “Have them confirm whether Feng Ling is still in her room.”

The assistant dialed. He spoke briefly, then his expression twisted into something strange.

He hesitated, then looked at Su Yu Qing. “The nurse says… Feng Ling discharged herself.”

Su Yu Qing’s face changed instantly. He snatched the phone from the assistant and snapped, “She was hurt that badly. How did you let her leave? When did she go?”

On the other end, the nurse sounded startled. “She… she left after two bags of blood. She looked fine, and we can’t force patients to stay…”

“Did she say where she was going?”

“No… but she borrowed two thousand from one of us. She said her phone fell into the river, and she’d come back to repay it once the reward money arrived.”

Su Yu Qing went silent for a second, anger twisting with disbelief.

She’d barely stabilized and she’d already run off looking for revenge. Did she think she was made of steel? Even if she had two ability cards, how much real fighting had she done? And there were four aberrants in that villa district.

Four.

No wonder she looked hurt on camera. That was what recklessness bought you.

His frustration hit like a fist. A rare seedling—someone worth training, someone with the potential to become real strength—and before he could even build a shred of trust, she’d thrown herself into the jaws of it.

Then something colder rose under the anger.

Su Yu Qing looked back at the frozen surveillance frame.

Feng Ling was back in the truck. The footage was still, dead quiet, as if the night itself was holding its breath.

She was injured. That meant she had fought.

But she was alive.

Which meant… she had won?

That couldn’t be right. Not like that. Not again. Not within twenty-four hours.

Unless the villa district’s aberrants had already moved and she’d only run into one straggler.

Yes. That had to be it. If she’d met all four, she wouldn’t be sitting in that truck.

Footsteps pounded down the hall. Another person burst in.

A dispatcher, face drained of color, stammered, “Captain Su! A citizen called in—said they killed three aberrants in the West Suburban Villa District! I-I need to contact the Special Assault Team, right?”

Su Yu Qing stared at him. “That citizen’s name?”