Chapter 36

Chapter 36: Ye Zheng

The news out of Jiang Kou City exploded across the internet.

The scale of the underground cave shocked people into a frenzy. Netizens argued until the threads multiplied like mold.

How long would it take to dig a pit that massive—and how had nobody noticed?

Where had all the excavated dirt gone?

Did the sand and stone simply vanish?

And those residential buildings above it—how could anyone keep living there? No one could guarantee the ground wouldn’t collapse. How were they supposed to relocate that many residents?

What about the long-term risks? How was the local government supposed to solve it?

Online, noise piled on noise. Meanwhile, the Aberrant Safety Inspection Bureau stayed silent.

At the Yun Hai City Aberrant Inspectorate Branch Bureau, a young woman in a white dress shirt and slim black trousers strode down the corridor, fast enough to make her footsteps snap. She stopped at an office door and knocked.

Bang. Bang. Bang.

She didn’t wait for a response. She shoved the door open and walked in.

“Officer! I’m requesting a transfer back to Qing Jiang City!”

Ye Zheng slapped an application down on the desk.

Behind it sat a middle-aged woman in a beige suit. She didn’t flinch. She simply removed her glasses and looked up.

“Every transfer order for an inspector is issued by the Central Bureau,” Mei Jun Yu said. “Even I can’t change that.”

The breath Ye Zheng had been holding broke. Her posture sagged just enough to show desperation.

“Sister Mei, please. Help me. If you sign my application, the Central Bureau might reconsider and move me back.”

Mei Jun Yu picked up the paper, scanned it once, then set it down.

“This is because of the sinkhole news in Jiang Kou City?”

Ye Zheng closed her eyes and nodded.

“The number of aberrant cases in Qing Jiang City has been climbing too fast,” she said, voice tight. “Jiang Kou is so close to Qing Jiang. Zhou Zhou can’t handle it alone!”

“Perhaps you should learn to trust your partner.” Mei Jun Yu’s tone stayed calm, almost cool. “From what I see, he handled this mission well. The Polluted Entity was eliminated, and six Ability Cards were seized.”

“That was luck!” Ye Zheng snapped. “And Zhou Zhou got injured. That means it wasn’t smooth—”

She cut herself off, forced her voice down, then pushed on anyway.

“I’ve been stationed in Yun Hai City for this long and I haven’t handled a single aberrant case. You don’t need me here. Qing Jiang needs me!”

Mei Jun Yu didn’t raise her voice. “I understand how you feel. But where you’re needed isn’t something you determine by personal judgment. That decision belongs to your superiors.”

“Sister Mei—” Ye Zheng started.

Mei Jun Yu opened a drawer, pulled out a file, and placed it on the desk.

“Read this.”

Ye Zheng frowned and picked it up. A few lines in, her expression tightened.

“This is… information about the Maze?”

“Correct.” Mei Jun Yu nodded. “The Research Institute sent it over. The Maze’s corruption is spreading. One sinkhole in Jiang Kou City has you panicking, but you don’t realize a crisis dozens—hundreds—of times worse is right beside us. Ye Zheng, you need to look farther ahead.”

Ye Zheng went quiet. Then she asked, voice low, “When do we act?”

“This operation is extremely dangerous,” Mei Jun Yu said. “The higher-ups are still deciding the roster.”

She met Ye Zheng’s eyes.

“But I can tell you this clearly: you’re on the shortlist. And you’re one of the primary attackers.”

Ye Zheng inhaled sharply, then pressed her lips together until they thinned.

“Sister Mei… I’ll withdraw the transfer request.” She paused, swallowing. “But before the operation, I want one day off. I need to go back to Qing Jiang City.”

Mei Jun Yu studied her for a long moment.

Then she nodded. “Approved.”

…

Qing Jiang City.

Feng Ling slept like a stone after she got home. She didn’t wake until noon the next day, her body clock completely wrecked.

If hunger hadn’t dragged her up by the throat, she felt like she could’ve slept longer.

She stumbled out toward the kitchen on autopilot—and the second she stepped out of the bedroom, she saw Huang Fu Miao Miao sitting there with a face full of misery: worry, grievance, panic, helplessness, all tangled together.

Feng Ling laughed.

The moment she did, Huang Fu Miao Miao looked over, and her expression turned even more doomed.

“Something big happened!” Huang Fu Miao Miao said, on the verge of collapse.

“What happened?” Feng Ling asked, walking over.

Huang Fu Miao Miao pointed at the virtual screen Feng Ling couldn’t see. “After the System announcement about your evolution, the forum is full of people discussing how to kill you.”

“How are they planning to kill me?” Feng Ling asked, almost curious.

“Stop smiling. This isn’t a joke.” Huang Fu Miao Miao opened the hottest thread. “They dug up everything about Mother Nest—traits, skills—and they’re analyzing your weaknesses too… I can’t—”

Feng Ling picked up the tablet nearby and handed it to her. “Record it exactly as it is. I want to see the forum too. By the way, what do you want to eat? I’m ordering delivery.”

Huang Fu Miao Miao took the tablet with shaking hands. “Anything…”

“Then I’ll order a bit of everything.”

Feng Ling opened the app and started selecting food with the seriousness of a tactical briefing.

Huang Fu Miao Miao stared at her, helpless.

How did she do it?

How did she hear that people wanted her dead and respond like it was mildly interesting trivia?

Feng Ling kept ordering.

Her Nest-building ability was a vicious kind of special. First, she needed Ability Cards to build the base. Then she had to stockpile a huge amount of energy inside the nest. Then she needed the right bones and flesh. Miss a step, and the thing wouldn’t form.

She’d done Nest-building twice in a row. The nest drained her energy so fast she’d nearly collapsed into weakness.

Even after sucking her dry, it still wasn’t finished. That alone told her how difficult it was to nurture new life.

So for the next few days, she planned to go nowhere. She would stay home and eat until the nest was complete.

She ordered barbecue. Pizza, burgers, sushi. Meat sauce pasta, lamb skewers, spicy crayfish, braised duck necks, sweet rice dumplings, mala tang. Bread, cake, milk tea, fruit—plus a whole pile of chocolate bars.

Just imagining it made her feel better.

Then Huang Fu Miao Miao suddenly yelped, “Oh no!”

Feng Ling looked up. “What?”

“Someone exposed your location on the forum!” Huang Fu Miao Miao said, face tight with panic.

“Exposed my location?” Feng Ling frowned.

“Yes! I was recording replies and saw a post—someone said the hidden Boss is in Qing Jiang City!” Huang Fu Miao Miao’s voice rose. “What do we do? A lot of players will come to Qing Jiang City to find you!”

Feng Ling froze for a beat.

Who would know she was in Qing Jiang?

Was there an aberrant mole inside the Inspection Bureau?

…No. If there was, they wouldn’t stop at that. They’d mention the Jiang Kou City operation, the details she’d been involved in.

So who knew she was in Qing Jiang, but didn’t know she’d participated in Jiang Kou?

A face surfaced in Feng Ling’s mind.

The woman who controlled leeches.