The staff forced a smile. “It’s not a matter of money. The machine can’t bear that load.”
Although he was truly curious about how Su Cha had changed the state of his spiritual body. Under normal circumstances, unless one encountered an extraordinary stimulus causing a drastic change in temperament, the image of a spiritual body was eternal.
After thinking it over, he could only attribute it to Su Cha’s former identity as an experimental subject.
Ji Tianjin suddenly asked, “There’s really no way to add another person?”
The staff said stiffly, “Sorry. Not even at double the price.”
People outside wanted to buy tickets to enter; the real patient inside was still unaware, sinking in the false world.
When quite a few reporters’ gazes turned toward him, the deputy chief only felt his head about to explode. A reporter quietly asked Su Cha, “Did he subject you to mental stimulation?”
The Investigation Department had plenty of methods. Even without external injuries, there were too many ways to torment someone by acting directly on the brain.
Su Cha firmly waved his hands. “No. The deputy chief only taught me some principles of being a person.”
From the affiliated middle school to the barren planet, it had only been a few hours. Even his spiritual body had changed. It was evident that the deputy chief’s blow to him had not been light.
The deputy chief finally put on the serious attitude he had when executing missions, ordering the reporters to be cleared temporarily, while glaring at Su Cha. “Come with me to catch the suspect.”
Su Cha consciously followed. On the way, he couldn’t help humming, “Gently awaken the sleeping heart…”
The deputy chief vaguely felt something was off. His emotions today were leaking too easily; he couldn’t even maintain basic expression control. But when Su Cha’s singing entered his ears, he dispelled the suspicion and took a harsh breath: with such an existence by his side, it would be strange to remain rational.
“Admit it.” The deputy chief quietly turned on a recording pen. “From the very beginning, what you condensed was a black lotus, wasn’t it? You only temporarily whitewashed it through some special means.”
Then solemnly promise: “It was only after receiving your guidance that I changed.”
The deputy chief’s mouth moved; he swallowed the curse that had reached his lips.
This barren planet was almost entirely plains. Every so often, tornadoes would sweep across it. Especially in the evening, the entire planet could simultaneously stir up tens of thousands of tornadoes of varying sizes.
Each of them held a life detector, searching as they walked.
The suspect had injected a reagent that reduced his sense of presence. Drones were also unsuitable for flying in this region. Searching inch by inch, who knew how long it would take. Su Cha had reason to suspect that the deputy chief had deliberately brought him to do this kind of exhausting work.
Relying on his abundant mental power, the deputy chief was deliberately dragging out the time. Capturing the suspect concerned maintaining reputation. Even if Su Cha didn’t consider himself, he would consider the affiliated middle school. He wouldn’t faint just because of a bit of hardship.
This was the deputy chief’s bad taste, wanting to see Su Cha forced to labor yet unable to escape.
Halfway through, the deputy chief summoned his spiritual body. It turned out to be a reindeer. He rode atop the spiritual body, clearly saving much more energy.
“When you want to faint, tell me in advance,” the deputy chief said lightly.
Su Cha suddenly stopped walking. “Are you challenging me?”
That was the polite way to put it; in fact, it already counted as provocation.
The deputy chief remained unmoved. “Watch your attitude. Watch who you’re speaking to.”
Su Cha did not get angry. Instead, he smiled. “Let’s make a bet. We’ll bet on who finds the suspect first. If I win, you have to shout to the sky ten thousand times, ‘Su Cha is the kindest child in the entire galaxy.’ If I lose, you can make any demand.”
He had clearly turned dark in front of the reporters, yet the treatment still hadn’t ended, proving that the deputy chief was still dissatisfied.
Since that was the case, it would be better to make him completely acknowledge the fact that he was a good person.
“Fine.” The deputy chief agreed in one breath. “If you lose, you must also shout to the sky ten thousand times, ‘I am weak; I was pretending.’”
The deputy chief called over two department members to ensure his safety, but required that they not assist. Then the reindeer galloped through the air, heading off to search for the suspect target.
Su Cha sneered: “You think you’re the only one who can fly?”
As his voice fell, countless little black flowers drifted into the air, using their petals to beat time for themselves. Combined with the constantly rising gales, spiritual power endlessly amplified the sound waves, like striking a diabolo.
Tens of millions of eerie and sinister singing voices resounded through every corner of the barren planet,
“Ding dong
I’ve come to find you
Run quickly…
Ding dong, where are you?”
This barren planet originally saw little sunlight. Once the absurd song rang out, even the members of the Investigation Department couldn’t help frowning. The fragrance of flowers, which should have had a soothing effect, now had the opposite effect, like a life-claiming demon, as if the moment one closed their eyes a ghost would appear before them.
The reindeer in midair had its attention disturbed by the singing and instinctively tried to shatter it.
The little black flowers: “You stepped on me.”
The reindeer lowered its head and saw that at some point a few black flowers had been trampled beneath its hooves. Its eyes immediately widened like copper bells.
Framing it?
And besides, why could it speak when they were both spiritual bodies?
The Deputy Chief’s eyes were no smaller.
“Su. Cha.”
The two words were almost squeezed out through clenched teeth.
To actually use this kind of method to interfere with him, could he be any more shameless?
Facts proved he could.
After all, it was a virtual world dominated by the Deputy Chief’s consciousness. The life detector showed a slight fluctuation; he was the first to discover the suspect’s trace. Just as he was about to order the reindeer to fly down, the little black flowers sank first, thousands upon thousands calling up toward the warship above: “Found him, I found him!”
Deputy Chief: “……”
While feeling utterly speechless, he immediately moved to arrest the suspect. As the two sides engaged in a fierce fight, Su Cha had just arrived.
“Go!”
The Deputy Chief’s strength had no exaggeration to it; he almost completely suppressed the suspect.
Su Cha said excitedly, “About to catch him!”
Anyone unaware would think he was the one doing the work. Just as the Deputy Chief was about to mock him, Su Cha, without the slightest warning, fell straight over.
The suspect was escorted onto the warship; Su Cha was carried up. The reason was excessive consumption of demonic power, maintaining the image of the Mantuoluo spiritual form was indeed not easy.
The reporters guarding the perimeter were almost moved to tears. Facing the camera, they said excitedly, “In order to capture the suspect, student Su Cha collapsed from exhaustion.”
The Deputy Chief knew better than anyone the reality of the Empire’s people. If the suspect hadn’t been caught today, these people’s focus would have been on whether Su Cha’s healing ability would become useless after his spiritual form changed. Now they were just short of stuffing every most beautiful word onto him.
Clearly, from beginning to end, the one exerting himself had been the Deputy Chief. He tried hard to steady his mentality, but beside him the reindeer’s antlers trembled slightly.
A department member reminded in a low voice, “Your spiritual body is about to be angered into blurring.”
The Deputy Chief withdrew his spiritual body. The only thing worth being thankful for was that Su Cha had fainted and wouldn’t argue about the bet.
However, even in his faint, Su Cha hadn’t forgotten the wager. On the way to the hospital, he unconsciously muttered like calling a soul back: “Deputy Chief, Deputy Chief…” The entire time, it made the medical staff’s spines turn cold. Just what had the Investigation Department done to this child to leave such a deep psychological shadow?
One spread to ten, ten spread to a hundred; the matter quickly blew up.
After returning to the department, before the Deputy Chief had even written the case report, he was required to first write a self-criticism, and was then sent by Xie Rongjue to quell the disturbance.
Xie Rongjue coldly stated, “I don’t care what method you use. If you can’t eliminate the rumors that the Investigation Department abuses students within a week, resign out of guilt.”
After walking out the Investigation Department’s gate, the Deputy Chief kicked a roadside can against the wall. With a “bang,” passersby all turned their heads.
“Xie Rongjue, Su Cha, you two ought to be father and son. D*mn it!”
Regarding matters involving people, they did not do a single one.
…
In the treatment room, Xie Rongjue calmly watched the Deputy Chief throw a tantrum. The motion of him adjusting his glasses made the staff’s hearts turn cold; they felt that gaze was somewhat terrifying.
“So he’s this dissatisfied with me.” Xie Rongjue smiled faintly.
Yise, who had come to watch the show, said something fair: “If this really happened in reality, you would have gone even further.”
Xie Rongjue raised a brow and didn’t deny it: “That’s true.”
He would even have Su Cha pretend to be more pitiful, thereby getting the Deputy Chief dismissed.
Ji Tianjin’s focus was different: “What virtue or ability does he have, to make Su Cha mutter about him even while unconscious?”
The other members of the Investigation Department exchanged glances. It looked like the Chief was very dissatisfied with the Deputy Chief, should they consider distancing themselves from him?
The staff really couldn’t bear to watch anymore: “Please pay attention to the patient.”
He was still hesitating over whether to suspend the instrument. At present, with every extra second that passed, the patient seemed to suffer an extra measure of torment.
Xie Rongjue thought briefly: “Wait a bit longer.”
For once, Yise shared the same view: “At this point, it’s impossible for him to suffer any more blows anyway.”
…
At this moment, in the virtual world, the Deputy Chief was swallowing his humiliation and running to the hospital, preparing to persuade Su Cha to come forward and confirm that the spiritual-form mutation was merely a coincidence.
When he arrived, someone happened to be entering as well. For safety, Su Cha was staying in a strictly guarded ward, and outsiders were not allowed near. After checking the credentials, however, the guard directly let that person in.
The Deputy Chief stopped and asked, “Who was that?”
“A psychological consultant,” the guard explained. “Especially here to counsel and soothe student Su Cha’s wounded heart.”
The Deputy Chief’s eyelid twitched. Since when did fainting once warrant a psychological specialist? Not to mention such a far-fetched reason.
A member of the Investigation Department who had followed along added softly, “The internet is now calling for more care for Su Cha. I heard someone even wrote an article with huge response, titled ‘The Day the Angel Left.’”
The Deputy Chief sneered, “So I’m going to see a ghost now?”
“Of course not.” The department member quickly waved his hands. “There are two Su Chas, one is the kind him, the other is the one whose kindness led to self-blame so severe his spiritual form mutated. Netizens are mourning the former.”
“……”
Under the Deputy Chief’s cold gaze, the department member said quietly, “That’s what people are saying online.”
The Deputy Chief was so furious he laughed instead. To avoid giving anyone further ammunition, he let the psychological consultant go in first and waited at the door.
The consultant came out quickly and, instead of leaving, took the initiative to walk over and speak to the Deputy Chief: “Hello.”
As an important official of the Empire, the public basically knew the appearances of the two leaders of the Investigation Department.
The Deputy Chief said coldly, “What is it?”
Consultant: “After communicating, I believe that if you can satisfy this child’s spiritual appeal, his condition will improve greatly.” The Deputy Chief’s brows furrowed even tighter: “Spiritual appeal?”
“Admit that he is kind. And regarding the wager the patient mentioned, call to the sky ten thousand times the fact that he is very kind.”
“?”
…
In the treatment room, someone muttered quietly, “Something feels off.”
“Right, shouldn’t it be Su Cha cooperating with the Deputy Chief’s treatment?”
Since when did it reverse?
This time the staff did not hesitate at all and immediately moved to shut off the instrument.
Xie Rongjue said lightly, “Don’t rush. An unusual tactic might have therapeutic effect.”
Ji Tianjin nodded: “We should trust Su Cha.”
The staff’s eyelid kept twitching: “Continue this treatment and it’ll treat him to death.”
After saying that, he decisively pressed the red button, completely terminating the treatment.
The moment the instrument stopped, a confidant rushed to the Deputy Chief’s bio-capsule: “Deputy Chief, Deputy Chief… are you still alive?”
Of course, he only dared ask the last question in his heart.
The Deputy Chief’s face trembled, as if he had just had a terrifying nightmare. After a long while, he finally crawled out of the bio-capsule. Just as he was gulping fresh air, he suddenly saw a group of people sitting around here, one of whom even had a few sunflower seed shells fall out of his sleeve.
“……”
Xie Rongjue said calmly, “Everyone is very concerned about you and took the time to travel from afar to visit.”
