Chapter 51: A Middle-Aged Man

Xia Mi’s rent was paid on a “one-month deposit, three-months upfront¹” basis. She had moved in during July, and it had now been a few days over the three-month mark.

On the day the lease expired, the landlady had sent Xia Mi a message. At the time, Xia Mi was in a deep sleep, and Qiu Hailan was the one on duty.

Qiu Hailan told the landlady that Xia Mi would be moving out soon and wouldn’t be renewing the lease. She added that the rent for the extra few days could be deducted from the deposit.

In truth, if it weren’t for the fact that Xia Mi only got up to sleepwalk in familiar environments, the team would have moved her to the unit’s dormitory long ago. It would have saved her some rent money.

Qiu Hailan’s imposing height, combined with the fact that Liao Tianhua had kept the apartment spotlessly clean, made the landlady nod in agreement without hesitation.

The woman even said that if Xia Mi’s stay exceeded the limit by less than a week, she would refund the deposit in full and waive the rent for those few days, provided the room was as clean when she left as it was now.

Xia Mi happened to wake up right at the one-week mark. The next day, she happily reclaimed her deposit from the landlady, packed her bags, and moved to the unit in the car driven by Liao Tianhua.

Xia Mi had imagined her workplace would be in the suburbs, some secret base in a location even radar couldn’t find, where she would live a life isolated from the world.

To her surprise, Liao Tianhua parked the car in the middle of a cluster of skyscrapers. He turned to the drowsy Xia Mi and said, “We’re here. Get out.”

Xia Mi always felt sleepy the moment she got into a car. Thinking Liao Tianhua would be driving a long distance, she had fallen asleep with peace of mind, only to be woken up just as she had started napping.

Rubbing her eyes, she looked out the window in a daze. She saw a building over twenty stories high, surrounded by a cluster of even taller towers.

“Where are we?” Xia Mi asked.

“Get out.” Liao Tianhua and Qiu Hailan stepped out to grab Xia Mi’s luggage, leading the bewildered girl toward the main entrance of the building.

Xia Mi saw a plaque by the entrance that read: Special Affairs Branch of the XX Provincial Public Security Department.

She froze on the spot, pointing at the plaque. “Huh?”

“Huh what?” Qiu Hailan didn’t understand what Xia Mi was asking.

Liao Tianhua, however, knew exactly what was on her mind. He gave a faint smile. “Did you think we were some secret department? That our unit had to be in the most remote place possible, and you’d have to keep it a secret from your family for the rest of your life?”

Xia Mi nodded repeatedly.

Liao Tianhua continued, “Our work involves the general public. When supernatural events occur in the city, we need to respond immediately. How could our office be located in the middle of nowhere?”

Reasonable. Very reasonable. It made perfect sense! Xia Mi nodded vigorously.

However, she still didn’t understand why the words “Public Security Department” were in the name. She pointed at the plaque again.

Liao Tianhua explained, “We operate under a police system, so naturally we fall under the public security and judicial departments. To the outside world, we are a special operations detachment of the police. As I mentioned before, ‘Zhuo’ incidents aren’t that frequent, so we don’t just handle things related to them. Whenever special or major cases occur, we move out alongside the People’s Armed Police².”

Xia Mi’s face lit up with pleasant surprise. “Then I…”

As if reading her mind, Liao Tianhua said, “Once the paperwork is done, the official website will announce the list. Then you can brag to your family that you’ve become a proud member of the provincial police force. You’ll have to be selective about what you say regarding the job description and salary. You’ll know exactly what can and can’t be said after you complete your confidentiality training.”

Xia Mi’s racing heart settled slightly, and she finally managed to form a complete sentence. “Captain Liao, how do you know what I’m thinking? Did you awaken a mind-reading ability on top of being a porter?”

Liao Tianhua replied, “Don’t pin abilities on me that I don’t have. I don’t have mind-reading; I just know you fairly well.”

Qiu Hailan looked back and forth between Xia Mi and Liao Tianhua. She felt like Liao Tianhua was preening³ today.

Xia Mi loved the idea of being an official, so seeing that her job was something she could show off in the secular world would obviously make her happy. But what was Liao Tianhua acting so smug about?

Today, Liao Tianhua was like a peacock with its tail feathers spread, desperately showing Xia Mi how excellent his workplace was.

Qiu Hailan couldn’t stand Liao Tianhua’s showing off. She stepped between the two, using her tall frame to block Liao Tianhua’s face. She bumped into him while carrying Xia Mi’s large suitcase and said, “The luggage is heavy. Can we not stand around at the entrance?”

Only then did Liao Tianhua shut his mouth and help carry Xia Mi’s luggage to the dormitory building in the back.

The staff quarters were separate from the office building. It was a small six-story building in the rear. There was no elevator, but the environment was quite nice.

Liao Tianhua told Xia Mi, “According to the rules, staff dorms should be two people per room. However, many people have families and don’t live on-site. There are enough rooms right now for everyone to have their own.”

The room was slightly larger than a standard hotel room, equipped with an air conditioner, TV, water heater, and washing machine. It was a move-in ready setup, very convenient.

Since the unit had a cafeteria, there was no stove in the room. She could bring a low-power electric rice cooker to cook noodles or porridge, but for fire safety reasons, open-flame cooking was not allowed.

Xia Mi was too lazy to cook anyway, and with a cafeteria available, she had no complaints at all.

As soon as Xia Mi opened her suitcase, she saw Liao Tianhua familiarly helping her make the bed and organize her things. Xia Mi was quite lazy herself; seeing someone else doing the work, she simply put her hands behind her back and hummed a tune as she went out to tour the dormitory.

Qiu Hailan stared at Liao Tianhua with a look of suspicion.

Liao Tianhua, however, was completely oblivious. After tidying Xia Mi’s room for the past few days, it had become a habit. He knew she wouldn’t do a good job with these tasks, so he simply took over.

After organizing her belongings, he called Xia Mi back from her stroll in the hallway. “We live in police apartments,” he told her. “While the internal requirements⁴ aren’t as strict as the military, things can’t be too messy. You must keep the room tidy at all times and maintain proper professional conduct. Look at how I’ve organized the room for you. Maintain it to this standard every day. An hour before work every Monday, someone will come by to inspect the hygiene and order of the quarters. Understood?”

“What happens if my housekeeping isn’t up to standard?” Xia Mi asked.

“You lose performance points. The annual performance ratings are based on daily scores and recommendations from colleagues and leaders. Only five percent of the entire unit can be rated as ‘Excellent.’ If you aren’t striving for excellence, you can ignore your housekeeping,” Liao Tianhua said. “However, if you want to become a leader, you need to be rated ‘Excellent’ for at least two consecutive years to be eligible.”

Xia Mi pulled out her phone and snapped a photo of the room. “I guarantee it will be as clean and tidy as it is today, every single day!” she declared immediately.

After taking the photo, Xia Mi turned to ask Qiu Hailan, “Xiao Qiu, is your room this tidy too?”

Qiu Hailan was the captain of the Second Team, so she must have been rated “Excellent” for at least two years. Her housekeeping had to be impeccable.

But Xiao Qiu usually had a higher tolerance for mess and filth than Xia Mi did. Xia Mi seriously doubted whether she could maintain such standards.

“I don’t live here,” Qiu Hailan replied.

Xia Mi: “…”

Fine, that was the price of saving on rent by living at the unit!

Xia Mi couldn’t help but miss her imaginary boyfriend. Looking off into the distance, she said, “In my false memories, I vaguely recall my boyfriend living in the same dormitory building as me. He used to clean my room every day. Sigh, what a great boyfriend. It’s a pity he went off on a blind date, so I had no choice but to break up with him.”

Liao Tianhua: “…”

Once her living arrangements were settled, Liao Tianhua took Xia Mi to collect her uniforms and get her meal card, access badge, and training schedule.

“Besides that, those of us at the Chief level have to be on duty. One shift every three days,” Liao Tianhua told her.

Their work didn’t follow a set schedule; they could be called into action at any time, twenty-four hours a day. Consequently, someone had to be on duty every night and during holidays.

When on duty, they stayed directly in the unit’s standby room. They could sleep, but they had to remain alert at all times. As soon as the alarm sounded, they had to deploy.

“How is your physical condition? Are you fit for duty? If you are, I’ll have the office add you to the rotation,” Liao Tianhua said.

“No problem,” Xia Mi said. “I’m as strong as an ox right now!”

Liao Tianhua took down the duty roster for the standby room. Xia Mi took a look and realized that while she was unconscious, only Liao Tianhua and Qiu Hailan had been pulling shifts.

“The two of you… one day on duty at my house, one day on duty at the unit… did you get any rest at all this month?” Xia Mi asked, shocked.

“It’s only been this busy this month,” Qiu Hailan said. “Each team used to have a deputy captain. With four people, the rotation was a bit easier. But recently, those two deputy captains were transferred to other provinces to serve as captains. Our deputy positions are currently vacant, so it’s just been the two of us taking turns.”

Liao Tianhua added, “However, we’ve already established the ‘Etornit’ Special Investigation Super-Powered Task Force. The original members of the Second Team are all in the group. I expect the leadership will transfer people to form a new Second Team soon. Once we have more manpower, we can focus entirely on the Etornit matter.”

“Are these ‘Zhuo’ incidents happening all over the country?” Xia Mi asked.

“Not just nationwide, but worldwide,” Liao Tianhua replied. “Though they mostly occur in heavily populated cities. Zhuo feed on human emotions and grow by being nourished by emotional energy. Small cities with low populations can’t give birth to a Zhuo.

“For that same reason, there were very few Zhuo incidents before the founding of the country. Even when they did happen, they were treated as cold cases. It was only after the country’s founding, as national strength improved and the population increased, that these incidents became more frequent. The state was then able to allocate police forces specifically to handle them. Every major city with a population over fifteen million has a Supernatural Incident Handling Bureau.”

Having reached this point in the conversation, Xia Mi finally asked the question that had been bothering her for a very long time: “What exactly is a ‘Zhuo’? Is it a special kind of insect? Is it a biological organism? If it’s a living creature, its power is a bit too terrifying.”

Liao Tianhua and Qiu Hailan exchanged a look but didn’t speak.

Just then, a man in his sixties with graying hair but a still-robust build walked over. He said to Xia Mi, “The human heart contains ‘Zhuo.’ A Zhuo is not a biological organism; it is a byproduct of the human heart.

“Anger, depression, anxiety, jealousy, greed, selfishness, sorrow… countless negative emotions intertwine, eventually giving birth to a Zhuo.

“You can think of it as a companion to human emotion, an inevitable product of this murky world. It feeds on human emotion, and it can only be countered by human emotion.”

Xia Mi was confused. “But they exist in the form of insect eggs. Aren’t insects biological?”

The dignified older man replied, “That is because a Zhuo changes its form based on human observation. It becomes whatever you fear. It is born from human emotion, and it manifests through human fear.

“When we first discovered that Zhuo could parasitize the human brain, the image most people thought of was basically a white parasite. The parasite comes from common human knowledge, and white is the color of the brain. Only by being white and blending into the brain can it avoid being easily detected.

“Before we observe a Zhuo, it has no fixed form. Once we observe it, they become whatever we are thinking of.”

Xia Mi was a very perceptive person. Although this older man seemed quite amiable, she could tell at a glance that he was someone who had held a high position for a long time. He carried an aura of natural authority that commanded respect without needing to show anger.

Xia Mi tucked away her usual casual attitude of “Xiao Liao” and “Xiao Qiu.” Just as she had when she first met Liao Tianhua, she displayed her humble, polite, steady, and confident side. She said very courteously, “I am Xia Mi. May I ask who you are…”

Liao Tianhua introduced him at the right moment. “This is the Deputy Director of the Provincial Public Security Department, who also serves as the Director in charge of the Supernatural Incident Handling Bureau, Jiao Xingjian. Deputy Director Jiao.”

The moment the words “Deputy Director” hit her ears, Jiao Xingjian became the most handsome man in the world in Xia Mi’s eyes.

Translator’s Notes