Chapter 145: The Fall of a Hero?

Two days later.

Across the Xia Country, the headlines of all major news media were simultaneously dominated by a single name.

[Shocking! A massive explosion occurred during the isolated island live broadcast of "Cold Cases Reopened", and internet-famous detective Chen Yu has been confirmed missing!]

[Official Search and Rescue Team: Unidentifiable human tissue fragments have been recovered; the chances of survival are slim.]

[The Fall of a Hero? Recapping the Short and Brilliant Detective Career of the "Resurrected Detective" Chen Yu!]

On television, across the internet, and in mobile phone pop-up notifications, news about that earth-shattering explosion was overwhelming.

A photograph of Chen Yu from the program, wearing a cynical, roguish smirk at the corner of his mouth, was rendered in black and white.

Beneath the photograph was a striking screenshot of the blast site. The entire island had been brutally erased from the map, leaving behind only a massive, smoking crater.

The globally broadcasted death game had reached its finale in a way no one could have anticipated.

The young man who had repeatedly performed miracles and driven the mastermind Shen Feng into a desperate corner had ultimately failed to escape with his life.

The internet had completely exploded.

"What the fuck! No way? Just like that? I can't accept this!"

"Wuwuwu, my God Yu! You died a miserable death!"

"These beasts! It was just a game, yet they actually used weapons of this caliber! Who is the person behind this?!"

"Petition the authorities! Thoroughly investigate the mastermind! Deliver justice to Brother Corpse-Riser!"

The hashtag #HeroChenYu# surged irresistibly to the number one spot on the trending search lists of all major social platforms.

Countless netizens spontaneously mourned him, hailing him as a hero who exposed the darkness.

However, amidst the clamor of condolences, another piece of news was quietly drowned in the ocean of information.

[Emergency Notice from the Jiangcheng City Police: In the past year, nearly two hundred cases of missing young women have occurred in our city, with the victims all aged between 18 and 25 years old. The police urge citizens to actively provide clues, and the investigation is still progressing at full force...]

This notice was like a pebble thrown into the vast sea, failing to stir up even a single ripple.

Everyone's gaze remained focused on that already "sacrificed" hero.

No one knew that a darkness far more terrifying and bottomless than the death game had already enshrouded the entire city.

...

Toward evening, along the eastern coast of Jiangcheng.

The rainstorm that had persisted for a day and a night finally ceased. The dark clouds dispersed, and a bleak, bloody sunset appeared at the edge of the sky.

The waves remained turbulent. An elderly fisherman with white hair stood with a hunch, tidying up fishing nets battered by the wind and waves on a desolate reef beach.

"Dammit, what a ghost of a weather."

The fisherman spat irritably and prepared to haul in the final torn net when his peripheral vision caught sight of something lodged in a crevice among the nearby reefs.

The object was human-shaped, motionless, with the greater part of its body submerged in the frigid seawater.

"Bad luck! What kind of trash doll washed up from somewhere this time?"

Frowning, the old fisherman walked over with a wooden stick, intending to poke it back into the sea.

Yet, as he drew closer and made out the shape of the "doll" in the twilight of the setting sun, the wooden stick dropped from his hand with a sharp *clatter*.

That was not a doll at all!

It was a young woman, completely drenched and in tattered clothes!

Her complexion was bruised and purple, her lips devoid of color, and her body covered in abrasions and bruises of varying sizes. Some wounds were still oozing blood, already whitened from being soaked in seawater.

Gathering his courage, the old fisherman extended a trembling hand to test the woman's breath.

She was still breathing!

Though it was so faint it was barely perceptible.

"Help... Help! There's someone here!"

The old fisherman scrambled toward the shore, his hoarse cries echoing across the empty beach.

...

Outside a cordoned-off, secret medical room at the Provincial Detective Bureau.

Zhang Luyao leaned against the wall, irritably massaging her temples.

Today, she wore a sharp, professional women's suit that accentuated her voluptuous figure, her straight, slender legs encased in black trousers that would surely make any man's imagination run wild.

Yet at this moment, her pretty face, rivaling that of a celebrity, was etched with gravity and exhaustion.

As the youngest psychological expert at the Provincial Detective Bureau, she had witnessed countless psychological崩溃 victims, but today's case was the most thoroughly shattered one she had ever encountered in her career.

The woman rescued from the seaside was named Lin Li.

Medical examination reports indicated that she carried at least three types of sexually transmitted viral infections, along with large amounts of residual fluid from various males inside her body.

One could only imagine what hellish torture she had endured before being found.

Yet the most tricky part was her psychological state.

From the moment she regained consciousness, she had curled up in the corner of the hospital bed, refusing to communicate with anyone.

The slightest disturbance, even the sound of curtains rustling in the wind, would plunge her into extreme panic, clutching her head and emitting incoherent screams.

"Butterflies... so many butterflies..."

"In the dream... don't grab me... I beg you..."

"We're going to melt... we're all going to melt..."

These few fragmented phrases were all she muttered over and over again.

Zhang Luyao had attempted basic psychological counseling and even employed a touch of hypnotic technique to pry more useful information from her lips, but all had failed.

Her psychological defense lines had been completely pulverized.

...

"Yaoyao, how is it?"

A middle-aged male detective walked over and handed her a bottle of water.

Zhang Luyao shook her head, took the water, unscrewed it, and took a sip. "No good. Her subconscious has completely sealed itself off. Any external stimulus is a fatal assault to her. Conventional methods are useless."

The male detective sighed, his face filled with helplessness. "This is already the third one we've found. The previous two were the same, and after a few days they... sigh."

"Another 'Butterfly'?" Zhang Luyao asked.

The male detective nodded, his expression grim.

"Yes, what they mumble is nearly identical. We suspect there is a perverted organization hidden beneath Jiangcheng, specializing in imprisoning and torturing young women, branding these victims with the 'Butterfly' mark using some unknown method."

"Nearly two hundred missing persons, and only three live survivors found, all of whom are broken cripples." Zhang Luyao's voice grew cold. "What on earth are these scumbags trying to do?"

"Who knows," the male detective gave a bitter smile. "The biggest trouble right now is that we don't even know who our opponents are. Oh, word just came down from above telling you to temporarily suspend your psychological intervention with Lin Li."

"Why?" Zhang Luyao asked, puzzled.

"The one in the next room is stirring." The male detective pointed toward another medical room at the end of the corridor, his gaze carrying a trace of awe and anticipation.

"The bureau issued a strict order: at all costs, he must be saved."

"The one in the next room?"

Zhang Luyao was momentarily stunned.

She only knew that the adjacent room housed an important figure whose identity was strictly classified—someone secretly salvaged from the sea two days ago.

It was said that when fished out, he had only half a breath left, with severe internal organ rupture. Merely surviving was a medical miracle in itself.

Over the past few days, the province's top medical experts had practically worn out the threshold of that ward.

What kind of person commanded such grand treatment?

Driven by curiosity, Zhang Luyao followed the male detective to the heavily guarded medical room.

Through the thick glass window, she saw a young man lying on the hospital bed.

He was hooked up to various tubes, wore an oxygen mask, and was strapped securely to the bed, unable to move at all.

Even so, his profile revealed him to be a man of exceptionally striking and handsome features.

"It's him?"

The moment she recognized the man's side profile, Zhang Luyao's pupils contracted slightly.

She had seen this face hundreds of times on the news over the past few days.

The hero who single-handedly stirred up the storm during the isolated island live broadcast, only to meet a tragic and heroic end—Chen Yu!

He... actually didn't die?!

This realization made Zhang Luyao's heartbeat skip a beat.

She had always admired this man, not solely because of his devastatingly handsome face, but because of the superhuman sharpness and near-monstrous tactical planning he displayed during his investigations.

Su Qingzhu had mentioned this man to her more than once, her words filled with complex emotions.

She had thought the hero had fallen, but who would have expected...

...

"Yu, come on... you've already downed a catty and a half! Stop drinking!"

Tie Jun's flushed face swayed before his eyes, the cheap light bulbs of the food stall casting a long and distorted shadow.

The table was covered in empty bottles—green bottles of Niueryanshan, brown bottles of Yanjing—scattered haphazardly to the side.

Chen Yu snatched a full bottle, unscrewed it, and tilted it straight toward his mouth.

The pungent liquid burned its way down his throat all the way to his stomach.

Refreshing.

Only this sensation allowed him to temporarily forget the unfillable void in his chest.

"Fuc*!" Tie Jun slammed a heavy palm onto the greasy plastic table, rattling the barbecue skewers.

"Before graduation, we all thought people in this line of work were supremely righteous and full of responsibility!"

"Now look at us, damn it, once you get mixed up with them, you realize the beatings from society are even harsher than a drill instructor's!"

"Alright, Tie Jun, say no more!" Chen Yu commanded in a hoarse, deep voice.

"Let me speak!" Tie Jun was also worked up, the veins on his neck bulging out.

"That scumbag girlfriend of yours, what the hell is she?!"

"Back in school, you have no idea how many classmates envied you! There were so few opportunities to interact with female students in the police academy, a lot of guys were bursting with frustration!"

"You little bastard had it good. Not long after school started, you hooked up with the campus belle, and her old man is even a city bureau leader!"

"We all thought you were going to soar straight up, graduate, enter the bureau, and sail smoothly all the way! Your grades at school were top-tier too; your life was practically blessed by immortals!"

A blessed life.

Chen Yu sneered inwardly.

Right, a blessed life.

He had once thought so himself.

He remembered the first time he saw her on the athletic field. She wore a white dress, her hair blowing in the wind, and sunlight spilling across her face, as pure as an angel.

He had pursued her for a full year, secretly waiting downstairs at the women's dormitory at six every morning to accompany her to morning drills, keeping her company at the library at night, and taking her to try every snack on the backstreets during weekends.

He thought this was love, and that this was for life.

He had planned her into every single corner of his future.

Graduation, marriage, children, being a good cop, raising a good family.

How damn simple, and how damn laughable a wish.

"But that bitch!" Tie Jun's roar pulled him back from his memories.

"She actually cheated on you! And she even splashed dirty water on you, claiming you harassed her and had violent tendencies, messing up your graduation background check so you couldn't find a job! Damn it, brother, I really feel it's unfair for you!"

Chen Yu didn't speak; he just took another massive gulp of alcohol.

Unfair?

In this world, there were too many fucked-up things; nothing was ever fair or unfair.

He recalled the last time he saw her. She sat inside that red Porsche, rolling down the window to look at him with the gaze one would reserve for trash.

"Chen Yu, stop pestering me. We are not people of the same world."

"You're a good guy, but you can't give me the life I want."

"My dad has already spoken to your school. Someone like you isn't suited to be a policeman."

Right, not suited.

A poor kid, an orphan with no father and no background—what right did he have to love the daughter of a city bureau leader?

Because of youthful passion? Because of those pathetic grades?

In their eyes, he wasn't even worth a fart.

That bitch's father had locked away all his prospects with a single sentence.

The path to becoming a cop was thoroughly dead.

All his years of hard work and persistence instantly became a joke.

Women!

Chen Yu slammed the wine bottle heavily onto the table, the liquid splashing out and soaking his hand.

If I could live another life, I would never let myself fall for love again!

I'll be a scumbag!

I'll be a master of the fishpond!

I'll play all women in the palm of my hand!

I am going to exact revenge on this fucked-up life!

He stood up unsteadily, the world spinning around him.

Tie Jun tried to support him, but was shoved away.

"I... I'm fine..."

He leaned against the table, looking at the chaotic mess and the hypocritical neon lights of the city night.

The fierce determination and grievance deep inside his heart felt as though they were about to tear his internal organs apart.

Yet at the deepest core of that grievance, a faint voice was weeping.

I...

I want so badly to be...

To be a righteous cop after all...

...

Inside the ward, the electrocardiogram monitor linked to Chen Yu's vital signs showed the previously flat green line on the screen suddenly leaping violently!

*Beep—!*

Followed by the second and third leaps!

The jumping frequency grew faster and more powerful!

"Quick! The patient is responding!"

"Heart rate is recovering!"

"Blood pressure is normalizing!"

Inside the ward, several doctors in white coats who had been standing guard instantly stirred into motion, overlapping commands ringing out.

Outside the glass window, Zhang Luyao held her breath, her beautiful eyes locked onto the man on the bed.

She saw Chen Yu's eyelids begin to flutter slightly.

Once.

Twice.

Those eyes, tightly closed for days, slowly cracked open.

What greeted his vision was the blinding shadowless lamp and a pristine white ceiling.

In his ears came the monotonous, rhythmic "beep" of medical equipment.

Across his entire body was a crushing agony, as if he had been repeatedly run over by a truck.

"Fuc*..."

A hoarse curse, faint to the point of being inaudible, slipped out from beneath the oxygen mask.

"I... didn't die?"

"Are those bastards' bombs really that poorly made?"

Chen Yu blinked, his consciousness slowly gathering amidst the intense pain.

He was still alive.