He Is Back

Inside the Special Operations Section office of the Chijing City Investigation Bureau.

The number of empty seats continued to grow. The space that had originally felt slightly crowded now seemed hollow and desolate.

The five people remaining, including Xin Yanzheng, could no longer maintain their facade of composure.

Xin Yanzheng had been restless since yesterday. An unsettling feeling, like a cluster of barnacles, had latched onto his heart.

He forced himself to concentrate, but his mind kept involuntarily replaying the words: "What a shame. Please accept my condolences."

Fragments of dark memories flickered repeatedly before his eyes.

"What is wrong with the director today? I feel like something isn't right," a younger investigator finally blurted out, breaking the silence in the office.

"Something is definitely wrong," another female investigator agreed, her expression solemn.

"Director Jiang has never operated like this. Calling people in one by one... and there’s been no word for so long. Even Old Wang, who just came back..."

She trailed off. She hadn't thought much of it before, but given the current bizarre circumstances, the more she thought about Old Wang’s behavior, the more abnormal it seemed.

"Call them first, or send messages to confirm the situation," Old Chen, a senior investigator, spoke up.

Old Chen was highly experienced with sharp observation skills. Having resolved numerous supernatural incidents, he was a seasoned veteran.

The others immediately acted on his words, pulling out their phones to call or message the colleagues who had been summoned to the director's office.

Soon, replies began to trickle in:

"On a mission, do not disturb."

"Everything is normal."

"Received, nothing's wrong."

The content of the replies was perfectly reasonable, but Old Chen’s brow furrowed deeply as he stared at the messages for a long time.

"It’s not right!" A trace of horror flashed in Old Chen's eyes.

"The wording, the sentence structure, and even the punctuation in these replies are all wrong. These aren't their habits!"

"Huh?" a young investigator scratched his head. "Uncle Chen, are you serious? Isn't that a bit of a stretch?"

Old Chen shook his head. He knew everyone in the office intimately, including their typing habits, their favorite interjections, and even their punctuation preferences.

Some people never used periods; some added emojis to every sentence; some rarely used commas and would just send a massive wall of text. Others habitually replied with voice messages instead of text.

Yet the replies just now were all standard and formal, as if written to ensure there was no difficulty in reading comprehension. These definitely weren't the workhorses of their office!

"If you think that’s a stretch, then answer this: why won't they pick up the phone? Why are there only text replies?" Old Chen asked.

The young investigator froze as a wave of coldness swept through the remaining group.

Their worst suspicions seemed to be coming true.

...

The director's office.

"They seem to have noticed," Ghost said, manipulating Jiang Yaoshan’s corpse to play with the phones on the desk. He let out a low chuckle as he looked at the probing messages.

Yue Shi stood by the window, looking down at the street below. His tone was indifferent. "Since we can't hide it anymore, proceed to the next step of the plan."

"Understood."

Jiang Yaoshan stood up stiffly and walked toward the office door, one step at a time.

...

The remaining five members of the Special Operations Section were currently caught in a massive dilemma.

According to standard emergency procedures, when such an anomaly occurred within the Bureau, they should immediately activate emergency protocols, lock down the relevant areas, and even detain suspicious targets.

But the suspicious target might be the director himself!

The idea that the highest-ranking official of a major city's Investigation Bureau had been compromised was sensational!

Were they supposed to detain the director?

Who would give that order?

Who would bear the consequences?

"How about we go to the director's office to check first?" Old Chen suggested.

The others were hesitant, but under Old Chen’s persuasion, they finally decided to steel themselves and investigate the director's office.

Before they could move, however...

Thud!

A dull but distinct sound of impact drifted up from the floors below.

This was followed by a brief, dead silence, and then a sudden explosion of chaos.

A clerical worker ran over in a panic, face pale as a sheet, shouting, "I-It’s bad! Investigator Wang’s body was found in the second-floor restroom!"

"What?" The five were struck as if by lightning.

They practically sprinted down to the second floor.

The restroom had already been cordoned off by other departments that had rushed to the scene. Inside, forensic and scene investigators were already at work.

Old Wang’s body had been laid out on the floor. His state of death was gruesome.

His face was grey and his pupils were dilated. Most terrifyingly, Old Wang’s head and shoulders were twisted at an extremely unnatural angle, as if he had been shoved into the toilet with immense force while alive.

A forensic doctor wearing a mask gave a heavy-hearted report to Old Chen and the others as they arrived. "It’s very strange. Our preliminary assessment is that Mr. Wang did not drown. He lost his vital signs first, and then his head was stuffed into the toilet."

Another investigator added, "There are no signs of a struggle at the scene. Surveillance shows Mr. Wang entering the stall by himself, and he never came out."

Entering the stall alone, dying first, and then being posed as if drowned...

The sheer bizarre nature of this death sent shivers down the spines of everyone listening.

How could an experienced transcendent investigator die in such a freakish way inside the Investigation Bureau’s own restroom?

Xin Yanzheng stood on the periphery of the crowd, staring at Old Wang’s twisted remains. A chill raced up his spine, making the hair on his body stand on end.

This scene... this method of death... was damnably familiar!

Xin Yanzheng’s entire body jolted. He clenched his fists so hard his nails dug deep into his palms, and his body began to tremble uncontrollably.

Before the crowd could recover from the shock of Old Wang’s bizarre death...

Smash!!!

An even heavier and clearer sound of a heavy object hitting the ground, accompanied by the crisp sound of something shattering, suddenly echoed from outside the building!

The source of the sound was the open ground just below them.

Hearts racing, a even worse premonition surged in everyone's minds.

They rushed to the nearest window and looked down.

On the ground below lay a twisted human form—one of the investigators who had been called away by the director and never returned!

The person had fallen from the building, but there was no spray of fresh blood on the ground. Instead, dark red, semi-congealed blood clots were splattered around the body.

This person had clearly been dead before being thrown out!

But what made their skin crawl even more was that the corpse’s limbs had been bent backward in an extremely cruel fashion, forced into a grotesque and sinister swastika shape!

"!!!" The moment Xin Yanzheng saw the fallen corpse, it felt as if a bolt of lightning had struck his skull.

The color drained from his face until he was as white as paper. His pupils trembled slightly, and his breathing became rapid.

Nightmares from his youth, the terrifying images he had buried in the deepest recesses of his memory, and the horrific recollections that had left him with severe psychological trauma now came crashing back like a flood through a broken dam, violently assaulting his consciousness.

He had many half-siblings.

He had an older half-brother who loved to bully him, even pushing him into the sea once and nearly drowning him.

Later, that brother was found drowned in a toilet in a villa’s bathroom. He had been subjected to countless tortures before death; it was a horrific sight.

He also had a half-sister who constantly humiliated and verbally abused his mother. One night, she fell from a balcony. When she was discovered the next morning, her hands and feet had been snapped into that same swastika shape.

Xin Yanzheng’s eyes were bloodshot. He could no longer think rationally. He didn't know if he felt more rage, fear, or perhaps even a strange excitement.

At this moment, only one thought echoed frantically in his mind.

It’s him.

He’s back!

He’s come for me!