Chapter 44

Chapter 44: Guessing Game

Between the three of them, the special assault team pieced the story together—each sentence like another bite of gossip.

Su Yu Qing had proposed here.

He thought he was being romantic. He’d bought flowers until the apartment looked like a garden. He’d prepared a heart-shaped cake, a ring, and invited all his colleagues to witness it.

And Ye Zheng—Qing Jiang City’s strongest fighter, his girlfriend—had refused him with a face like stone.

She said she didn’t need a certificate to prove feelings. She hated “surprises.” To her, Su Yu Qing’s grand proposal wasn’t romantic. It was a shock.

They talked it out afterward and got back together, but the public rejection left a scar. Every time Su Yu Qing remembered it, it hit him like a punch of humiliation. He stopped coming back to the apartment, as if the walls themselves might replay the scene.

Ye Zheng saw the knot in his chest and told him to sell the place. Su Yu Qing pretended he’d already forgotten it, all generous and unbothered—but everyone around him knew he cared more than anyone.

So when Feng Ling asked him to give her the apartment for free, it was like he’d been dragged back into the moment. He lost control of his face and bolted.

After hearing it, Feng Ling couldn’t help asking, “Ye Zheng got transferred to Yun Hai City. Doesn’t that mean they’re basically separated?”

Zhou Zhou waggled his brows. “Worried for nothing. Old Su’s ability is clone-splitting. If he wants to be in Yun Hai City and Qing Jiang City at the same time, he can.”

Feng Ling’s eyes lit up, interest flaring again.

That ability was insane—almost on the level of that Mirror Salamander Card.

“How does it work?” she asked, leaning forward. “Do the bodies share one consciousness? If one body’s eating and the other’s drinking, do the sensations get mixed? Do they interfere with each other?”

Zhou Zhou shrugged. “Ask him. I don’t know.”

Then he smirked at her. “You really don’t know your limits. Twenty-nine percent corruption and you’re still drooling over other people’s ability cards.”

Feng Ling just smiled. She didn’t deny a thing.

Zhou Zhou’s phone rang.

He glanced at the screen and grinned. “Old Su.”

He answered with a flat “Mm,” listened, then hung up and looked at Feng Ling. “Captain Su says at eight tonight, you post on the Alienstar Forum and say you’ve arrived in Yun Hai City. A network technician already shifted your IP to Yun Hai City. If we’re acting, we act all the way. Trick as many aberrants as we can.”

Feng Ling felt a reluctant surge of admiration.

Su Yu Qing hadn’t physically thrown her out, but mentally he’d already deported her from Qing Jiang City.

“Fine,” she said. “I’ll do it.”

Then she looked at Zhou Zhou. “So what’s the plan now? You leaving?”

He flopped onto the sofa like he owned it, legs up, eyes half-closed. “Can’t. We’re staying here.”

Feng Ling sighed. “Protecting me, or watching me?”

Zhou Zhou waved it off. “Same thing. Don’t worry about food, utilities—we’ll bill the bureau.”

Feng Ling went back to her bedroom, mood sinking.

A while later, Huang Fu Miao Miao returned, and Feng Ling changed clothes to go out.

Zhou Zhou snapped upright like a spring-loaded trap. “Where are you going? Old Su said you can’t run around!”

“He’s not my dad,” Feng Ling said, slipping her phone into her pocket. “I’ll listen if I feel like it.”

Zhou Zhou paused, then rolled his shoulders. “Fair. Staying inside is suffocating. Fine, we’ll go for a walk. If we run into aberrants, we’ll beat them into the ground.”

Qin Liang hesitated. “Shouldn’t we ask Captain Su—”

“You can take your time asking,” Feng Ling said, already out the door.

Huang Fu Miao Miao took one look and hurried after her. Zhou Zhou followed, complaining all the way.

Inside, the three team members exchanged a helpless look.

Xiao Li murmured, “Her corruption level is twenty-nine percent. By regulations…”

Qin Liang sighed. “By regulations she belongs in the Observation Ward. But even Deputy Captain Zhou isn’t following regulations. Can the three of us stop her?”

Cao Hong Yi shoved his gun back into his bag. “Let’s move. Don’t lose them.”

All three sighed as one and went after them.

…

At the gate of the complex, Feng Ling flagged down a taxi and gave the driver an address: the biggest amusement park in Qing Jiang City.

Before aberrants appeared, the place used to be packed—day tickets, night tickets, rides running until eleven.

Afterward, the night economy collapsed. People stopped coming out. The park canceled night sessions and stretched the day session until seven-thirty.

When Feng Ling arrived, it was just after six.

The sky was still bright, the sun hanging heavy in the west. Heat clung to the air. The colorful flags overhead drooped without motion, like dead fish strung on a line.

She bought two tickets—one adult, one child—and led Huang Fu Miao Miao toward the Ferris wheel.

To make Huang Fu Miao Miao look like a normal kid, Feng Ling reached up and forcibly removed the skull mask.

Huang Fu Miao Miao kept her head down afterward, shoulders hunched like she wanted to disappear into the pavement.

Zhou Zhou, for some reason, seemed to find that version of her more tolerable. He trailed behind, tossing out teasing remarks whenever he got bored.

Back at the gate, the special assault team’s three members were still buying tickets, tense for a completely different reason—whether the bureau would reimburse amusement park admission.

Not far away, the Ferris wheel turned slowly, a huge circle of metal against the blue. Its brightly painted cabins hung like toy blocks in the sky.

Feng Ling walked toward it with a strange kind of anticipation.

It was close to closing. No line. Couples and families stepped out of cabins with sleepy, satisfied faces. The staff looked drained, moving on autopilot, counting minutes until they could go home.

Feng Ling waited.

A green cabin rolled down—painted like a frog in a top hat.

Huang Fu Miao Miao tugged Feng Ling’s sleeve and pointed. “That one. That’s it.”

Feng Ling’s mouth curved. She stepped forward at once.

Zhou Zhou hurried after them, confused. “What is ‘it’? Who’s ‘it’? What are you two talking about?”

“A guessing game,” Feng Ling said, glancing back with a grin. “We’re looking for the frog in a top hat.”

They’d found the frog.

Next was the lone white bird.

Feng Ling felt certain—absurdly certain—that she was already a third of the way to victory.

She climbed into the cabin with Huang Fu Miao Miao. Zhou Zhou squeezed in right after, wedging himself into the last bit of space. The cabin swayed, the door shut, and the world began to rise.

The park shrank beneath them until the bright rides looked like plastic toys.

Higher.

Higher still.

The sky felt close enough to touch.

Feng Ling leaned toward Huang Fu Miao Miao, eyes scanning the view. “Find the white bird,” she urged. “Hurry.”