Chapter 296: Staying Up Late

Chapter 296: Chapter 296: Staying Up Late

He Yue Ning and He Xingluo took Feng Ling back to her room before going off to handle their own duties.

The twins had just been transferred here, so Captain Bai hadn’t assigned them many tasks.

When they weren’t responding to a call, they would look over past cases in the archives to learn about Alien Species activity in Jinnan City, or they would wander through the bustling downtown to familiarize themselves with the layout of the streets.

Feng Ling wanted to go out and explore as well. So, by evening, the three of them had regrouped, picked up Huangfu Miaomiao, and the four of them drove away from the Inspection Bureau.

He Yue Ning was thrilled. Perhaps because Feng Ling was a newcomer just like them, He Yue Ning felt a natural inclination to stick together with her.

He Xingluo was driving. Gripping the steering wheel, she said, "Let’s check out Maple Leaf Lake first. Captain Bai said there’s an abandoned villa district there. It’s a bit far from downtown, but it’s secluded and safe. If you don’t like it, there’s also a cluster of abandoned factories to the east. That area is also huge... but neither place has running water or electricity, so living there would be a bit inconvenient."

He Yue Ning suggested, "What if the Pollution Body stays outside, and Feng Ling lives with us at the Inspection Bureau? That way, we could still chat at night."

Feng Ling smiled. "Even if I live somewhere else, it won’t stop us from chatting at night. I can just join you guys for the nightly patrols."

She asked He Xingluo, who was driving, "What time does the curfew in Jinnan City start?"

"Nine, but we start telling people to clear out at eight," He Xingluo replied. "If we find any citizens still wandering the streets at nine, we forcibly remove them."

Feng Ling said eagerly, "Take me with you on patrol tonight! I want to come, I want to come~"

He Xingluo agreed immediately. "Sure."

Covering her mouth to stifle a laugh, He Yue Ning said, "Feng Ling, don’t tell me you’re hoping to crack the case by pure luck during patrol. How many pages of the file Captain Bai gave you have you actually read?"

"It won’t be a problem~" Feng Ling replied. "I’ll read the files during the day and patrol with you at night."

Feng Ling insisted on joining the patrol because she wanted to familiarize herself with Jinnan City as quickly as possible. The city had too many tunnels and bridges; even with a map, it was hard to get a quick grasp of the road conditions. It would be better to just follow the twins for a few laps around the city every night.

Besides, she had a bat card in her deck. She would never forget a road she had traveled on.

The group first visited the villa district at Maple Leaf Lake, then went to the factory site near the suburbs.

After comparing the two, Feng Ling chose Maple Leaf Lake, since it was closer to the city center.

Then they headed to Jinnan City’s most bustling commercial street.

As soon as it struck 8 PM, the major shopping malls began playing closing music, and the street vendors started to pack up and leave.

Of course, some vendors deliberately dawdled, figuring that every extra minute of sales was a bonus.

In response, Feng Ling and He Yue Ning decided to enable them.

They went down the street buying up a storm: sticky rice, bowl-ear cakes, siwawa, tofu puffs, ice slurry, potato cakes, rice cake congee... They carried bowls in their hands and hooked food bags onto their pinkies. When they couldn’t carry any more, they stuffed the food into the compartments of Huangfu Miaomiao’s backpack.

He Xingluo and the Special Attack Team followed behind, clearing out the vendors. She couldn’t help but be both annoyed and amused watching the trio up ahead eating their way down the street.

He Yue Ning deliberately picked a stalk of fish mint from her sticky rice and held it out for He Xingluo to try.

"Get away, get away!" The smell of the fish mint made He Xingluo want to jump back ten feet.

He Yue Ning laughed loudly. "Xingluo, you’re actually afraid to eat fish mint? Just try it! You might fall in love with it."

He Xingluo pinched her nose and recoiled. "If you love it so much, then you eat it! Don’t you worry about me!"

"It’s so weird. We’re twins, how can our tastes be so different~" He Yue Ning tilted her head back slightly, tossed the stalk into her mouth, and chewed. "So delicious~"

"Oh, thanks so much, but even twins are allowed to be different!" He Xingluo waved a hand in front of her nose to clear the air. "Don’t talk to me for the next half hour. I can’t stand the smell coming from your mouth."

"Hahahahaha..." He Yue Ning was beside herself with laughter. She turned and ran to a nearby stall to buy some crispy rice cakes.

He Xingluo shouted to the snack stall owner, "Make sure you pack up after this sale! It’s not safe to head home too late!"

While bagging He Yue Ning’s order, the stall owner grumbled, "Yuquan City already changed its curfew to ten. When are they going to adjust ours?"

He Xingluo was silent for a moment. She was new to the job and wasn’t familiar with how curfew policies varied between cities.

A member of the Special Attack Team beside her spoke up. "Just hang in there. The incident rate for Alien Species in our city has been really low this month. Maybe they’ll change it next month."

The stall owner’s expression softened. He finished packing his things, got on his electric tricycle, and left.

"Sir! You gave me too much! I didn’t buy this much!" He Yue Ning shouted, holding up the bag.

The owner waved his hand with a magnanimous air. "It’s on the house!"

"Haha~ Thanks!" He Yue Ning was delighted.

There were a lot of rice cakes in the bag, so the team members shared them, making for a perfect late-night snack.

By 8:30, only a few scattered vendors and pedestrians remained on the commercial street. The few cars on the road were all driven by people hurrying home.

Feng Ling continued on patrol with the inspection team.

As night deepened, the city fell silent. Only two patrol cars moved slowly along the empty roads.

Feng Ling stared intently out the window at the passing streetscape, trying to commit every road to memory.

A damp, evening breeze brushed against her cheeks. In the dead of night, after the noise and exhaust fumes had vanished, the scent of trees and greenery in the air was especially rich.

Nothing happened that night.

Huangfu Miaomiao had gotten so bored that she had long since fallen asleep in the car.

He Yue Ning was also getting drowsy, but she fought to stay awake, trying to start conversations in the car to keep her mind alert.

The patrol ended at midnight. The vehicles returned to the Inspection Bureau at a leisurely pace. By the time they all returned to their own rooms to rest, it was nearly one in the morning.

Feng Ling wasn’t sleepy at all.

The Nest could store energy, so she could go three days and nights without sleep if she had to. She normally kept a regular human schedule, but she felt like she hadn’t accomplished much today. Her eyes fell on the case file for the dismemberment murders on her desk, and she decided she might as well read it before turning in.

’To be frank, I’ve never thought I had any talent for investigating cases. But I’m already here. Until I find a trace of Xing Guang, I need to find something to keep myself busy.’

She opened the file folder. A thick stack of crime scene photos met her eyes—

Dismemberment, by definition, refers to a corpse that has been separated into multiple segments or pieces.

Every photo showed dismembered limbs. Some were packed in black plastic bags, others were scattered along a riverbank, and still others had been tossed into dense thickets of grass.

’Normally, a scene this gruesome should be unsettling.’ But Feng Ling studied them for a long time. She felt that something was off.

After a moment of thought, she identified the problem.

The limbs had been cleaned meticulously. Not a single drop of blood was visible in the photos. Even the cross-sections of the limbs were merely a pale, reddish flesh color, completely devoid of any sense of gore.