Chapter 134: An Unexpected Encounter and a Temporary Stay

"There are extraordinary fluctuations, but they are not strong." After drifting half a circle, she slowly descended to Chen Qing's side, frowning slightly as she continued, "The other party seems not to have anticipated that an investigator would intervene. That extraordinary fluctuation is barely close to an F-grade extraordinary artifact.

To you... nothing to fear."

Frowning, he let out a low hum.

To be honest, he no longer had much desire to meddle in this affair. Looking around, he could not see enough benefits to drive him to make an enemy of an investigator.

Moreover, the process of helping her would very likely expose him to the other party's sight.

This was different from helping Jiang Wan.

He lowered his head, but his drifting gaze failed to notice that the two young girls sitting directly opposite him had already turned pale with fright.

They watched him speaking into mid-air, calling out a name, and then, after waiting for a long time, uttering that single, low hum.

The ponytail-wearing girl tensed her legs, her fingertips gripping the hem of her school uniform tightly.

She hesitated, wondering if it would be better to visit a temple later.

Their complexions were ashen, and their hearts quivered with dread.

Dreading that he could genuinely see it—wouldn't that mean living under the same roof with ghosts and spirits?

Dreading that he differed from ordinary people, tainted with eerie and extraordinary anomalies.

And most absurdly of all, if he truly had the ability to help her, it meant that the events in the chat group were real.

If he was merely putting on a ridiculous act for attention...

Zhang Tinglan stopped her train of thought, not daring to continue.

She would die; she didn't want to gamble.

They watched Chen Qing maintain his silence for quite a while, until Zhang Tinglan's patience finally reached rock bottom. Swallowing hard, her voice trembling slightly, she spoke to him: "I... my family has money. I don't know if you..."

As she spoke, her voice pulled Chen Qing's wandering thoughts back to the present. He hadn't caught the first half of her sentence, but those few simple words were enough for him to guess her meaning.

He shook his head and sighed, "Go to the police station. I can't help you."

He packed away the documents under the table, stood up, and walked toward the door, making it abundantly clear that he was showing them out: "There is an officer in the provincial police department named Jiang Wan.

You can look for her; she will help you."

Having said that, his hand already pushed the door open, and he waved his arm with unmistakable intent for them to leave.

Yet before the two girls could even stand up, an exclamation tinged with slight astonishment drifted in from outside the doorway: "Eh? You had Sister Zhao keep watch nearby? How did you know I was coming?"

Following the voice, he looked over, only to let out a deep, heavy sigh.

Damn it, there was no way to cleanly distance himself from this now.

Hearing the commotion outside, the two girls sitting on the sofa also stood up.

Hearing the sound of a woman approaching, they walked toward the door with a mixture of curiosity.

When they were still a few meters away from the entrance, they caught sight of the newcomer.

"This is..." They looked at the person arriving, evidently stunned for a moment.

The woman looked familiar, as if they had seen her somewhere before. Refined, vibrant? She possessed an easy grace, along with the elegance proper to a young lady of a distinguished family.

Upon seeing Jiang Wan, their bodies stiffened for a fraction of a second, much like immature children encountering an elder in someone else's home.

"Hello," the ponytail girl spoke up first. "I am Zhou Yuxin, Chen Qing's classmate."

"Zhang Tinglan, I'm also Chen Qing's classmate." She stepped forward and shook hands with Jiang Wan. "Are you his older sister?"

Watching the young girl step up to shake her hand, a trace of surprise crossed Jiang Wan's face. "Do I look that much older than him?"

She chuckled and shook her head, saying to them, "I am his—"

"Just an older sister is fine." Before she could finish, Chen Qing interrupted her.

She cast a surprised glance at him, catching the unmistakable look of urgency in his eyes.

"What's wrong?"

Feigning ignorance, she turned to the two girls and asked, "Do you have business with him?"

Exchanging glances, the two girls nodded hesitantly.

Noticing their hesitation, Jiang Wan's brows also began to knit together. She glanced sideways at Chen Qing, but seeing him subtly avert his gaze, she could only let out a silent click of her tongue.

Pulling the door closed and handing the dinner she was carrying straight to Chen Qing, she kicked off her shoes of her own accord and walked further into the room.

"Hey, hey, hey!"

Hearing Chen Qing's shout from behind, she turned right back around to drag the two girls along with her.

"Cruel is the hand of fate," Bu Zhaozhao muttered, gazing ahead with a touch of sentiment.

"This dinner was ridiculously damn expensive," he muttered, gazing ahead with his own share of sentiment.

...

Half an hour later, Jiang Wan had finally grasped the whole sequence of events, and the residual warmth of the dinner had completely faded.

Poking Chen Qing in the arm, her tone turned rather unkind: "Is this how you chase people out?"

He rolled his eyes and turned his head away.

"I've taken this case. What do you have to say about that?" she asked, fixing her gaze on him.

"Suit yourself."

He sighed before slowly speaking, "Save them if you can, let it go if you can't. Who do you think you are? You can't save everyone."

Chen Qing's words were utterly blunt, instantly draining the color from the two girls' faces.

Zhou Yuxin's voice rose sharply as she rebuked him in a shrill tone: "Chen Qing! Have you no conscience at all? She's your classmate! Can you really just stand by and watch her die?"

"Classmate?" He chuckled, watching as Jiang Wan stepped in to hold the two girls back.

"I almost thought I was your father. What, do I have some kind of obligation to save you?" His tone was harsh, and as soon as the words left his mouth, Zhou Yuxin's expression darkened further.

She abruptly stood up, slammed her hand onto the table, and pointed accusingly at the tip of Chen Qing's nose: "Given too much face, are you? You can watch your classmate die and do nothing! I refuse to believe you're any sort of good person!"

Narrowing his eyes, the smile on his face didn't fade by even a fraction: "Too bad, how did you know I'm not a good person.

Off you go then, go wait for death with your best friend. Why come looking for me?"

Hearing this, Zhou Yuxin's fiery rage was instantly checked.

She opened her mouth, then turned to look at Zhang Tinglan beside her, her expression souring instantly.

Yet even so, she was still unwilling to bow her head.

Tugging at Zhang Tinglan's sleeve and lowering her voice, she said, "Let's go. I reckon he's just all show and no substance, completely useless. Didn't a police officer just register our case anyway? It'll be fine."

Listening to Zhou Yuxin's words, Zhang Tinglan felt the tips of her fingers go ice-cold. Gripping the hem of her clothes, she turned a pleading gaze toward Jiang Wan.

Seeing Zhang Tinglan's pitiful state, Zhou Yuxin's anger flared up even higher. With a sharp slap, she brushed her companion's hand away, her tone harsh: "Are you coming or not?! I refuse to believe he's the only one in this world who can save you!"

Raising her head, she stared fiercely into Chen Qing's eyes to threaten him: "By tomorrow, everyone will know you stood by and watched someone die."

"Oh?" He looked at the person before him, pulled his phone out of his pocket, and typed a message into the class chat group that he hadn't opened in many months.

"There, I've done it for you." Chuckling, he watched as Zhou Yuxin's face alternated between shades of green and purple.

On her phone, she had already seen the message Chen Qing sent out:

*"Just to make it public, I'm standing by and watching someone die without helping, don't come looking for me if something happens."*

At the very end, he had even attached a stern emoji.

"Fine... fine." Glaring at the three people before her, she finally let out a cold snort, flicked her hand dismissively, and left by herself.

"And you?" He looked at Zhang Tinglan, his tone remaining as cold as before.

"Are you really chasing her out?!" Before Zhang Tinglan could reply, Jiang Wan interrupted, wrapping an arm around Zhang Tinglan's shoulder to soothe the girl's frayed nerves before turning to Chen Qing: "If you force her to leave right now, you're practically sending her to her death."

She had learned about the events in Zhang Tinglan's group chat, and she had also heard the two sentences Chen Qing exchanged with Bu Zhaozhao.

She didn't believe this ordinary girl would survive long after stepping out of this place, especially now that the other party knew police officers had gotten involved.

She didn't believe it for a second.

Looking at the young girl, she took the phone from her hands: "Let me speak with your parents. I'll explain everything clearly to them, and I'll be staying here tonight too."

"Hey, hey, hey!"

Holding the phone, she walked off on her own to the balcony of Chen Qing's apartment.

The signal was best out there.

Watching Jiang Wan's resolute back, he couldn't help letting out a sigh.

"This is getting a bit too coincidental." Frowning, his gaze drifted over to scrutinize his frail classmate unceremoniously.

That look was like gazing at a corpse—unsettling and uncomfortable.

It held not a shred of respect or emotion.

When it made her skin crawl and she began to hesitate whether to speak up, Chen Qing finally averted his gaze.

"Have I been targeted?" he murmured under his breath, and Bu Zhaozhao's affirmative reply reached his ears.

"I think so."

"That means at school... there must be people of theirs as well."

"It's an organization."

"Were there setups done on a city-wide scale in the past?" he asked, changing his phrasing so the young girl present wouldn't understand.

"Yes, but... as you know, population density back then was completely different from today.

The reach of information dissemination was different too, so historical experience holds much less reference value here."

He looked out the window. After a long while, only when Jiang Wan had finished her phone call and returned did he slowly speak: "Yet the fundamentals of setting a trap never change.

The people responsible for the core matters can't possibly be many.

No one is willing to let others know their story; there won't be many..."

Recalling the past, that young girl who had died in the villa... was she connected to this matter after all?