Chapter 229: Coincidence and Crisis
Aside from questions involving basic common knowledge, the officer also asked a few about supernatural abilities that didn’t touch on Xu Zhi’s personal privacy. Coincidentally—or perhaps inevitably—Xu Zhi had never received any real-world education related to supernatural powers. The only thing she knew at all was the concept of “circuits,” and even that she had merely heard in passing from the doctor, without any deeper understanding.
After several rounds of probing, Xu Zhi’s performance could only be described as flawless.
And that was precisely because she wasn’t entirely acting. Her ignorance was genuine—so genuine that it would have been impossible to fake.
Retrieving the surveillance footage took some time. After all, this was the lower districts, where many technologies were far less convenient than in the upper zones. Meanwhile, testimony from Doctor Zhuang was soon delivered to the officer as well. It included several printed scans of Xu Zhi’s injuries taken after Xiao Man used her supernatural ability to examine her condition, along with Doctor Zhuang’s written statement.
The female officer first flipped through the “medical records” and testimony provided by Doctor Zhuang. A flicker of surprise crossed her face. She hadn’t expected Xu Zhi’s injuries to be this severe. That alone almost ruled out the possibility of a staged incident—because with injuries like these, if Xu Zhi had been caught in the rain even a little longer, or if anything had gone wrong when she was brought home, she would have died on the spot.
Not to mention the countless risks she would have faced even after being taken in. At that time, Xu Zhi had truly been “hanging on by a single breath.” A light gust of wind might have snuffed her out entirely.
So who would go to such lengths against a [Light]-attribute supernatural? And what kind of person could this seemingly obedient young girl have offended?
There weren’t many complicated power struggles in the lower districts, yet the officer sensed an unusual complexity surrounding this girl.
Before long, the surveillance results came back—but the adjutant didn’t look pleased.
He leaned close to the officer and whispered a piece of bad news. “There’s a period of time in the footage from that night that seems to have been affected by some kind of magnetic field. Nothing was recorded.”
The female officer immediately concluded that this was no coincidence.
How interesting. She had only recently received orders from the upper districts to search for certain traces in the lower districts, and now she was faced with the strangest incident to occur here in more than a decade. Still, confirming that this girl was a [Light]-attribute supernatural did rule out the possibility that she was directly connected to those matters.
Even so, with so many coincidences stacked together—the timing, the malfunctioning surveillance, her residence in this area—she couldn’t afford to relax her vigilance. If the girl hadn’t been Light-attribute, the officer would have sent her straight to prison to await interrogation without a second thought. But Light…
“Go home and pack your things. For the time being, you’ll be moving with the military.”
The officer’s tone brooked no argument. She had no intention of dropping the investigation into Xu Zhi. On the contrary, there would be more thorough inquiries later. But she had more urgent matters at hand, and to be safe, she decided to keep the two sisters within her line of sight.
It was simply too coincidental. Even with a Light-attribute supernatural, caution was still necessary.
“But, ma’am, I still have a job,” Qi Yixin said, summoning her courage. “If I’m absent, I’ll lose it.”
The officer looked cold, but after hearing her, she replied directly, “I’ll have someone inform your factory. If everything checks out once this is over, you can go back to work.”
Though the issue with the surveillance had passed for now, Xu Zhi knew the investigation into her wouldn’t end. It probably wouldn’t take long before the military discovered that she had no real trace of ever living in the lower districts.
That was fine. She had already thought through a “way out.” It was a gamble, but Xu Zhi believed that the military in the lower districts couldn’t possibly know about something as secretive as the Federation world. They would never imagine that she was a visitor from an entirely different reality.
From this moment on, starting with her interactions with this officer, Xu Zhi intended to fabricate a second identity for herself.
“My people will follow you. Go pack now and move into the place I’ve arranged,” the officer said, waving her hand decisively.
She never once asked for Xu Zhi or Qi Yixin’s opinions. After all, they weren’t important.
On the way home, Xu Zhi saw uniformed personnel crouched on the ground, testing something—probably traces of blood that had long since been trampled and blurred by the scavengers’ footprints.
All the dismembered remains on the streets had already been collected. Judging from the reagent they’d used earlier—far more advanced than Zhuang Xu’s—the military likely had a way to extract information about the “real culprit” from these remnants. Unless the perpetrator had been extraordinarily cautious, had predicted the military’s arrival, and possessed even more powerful methods to erase every trace in advance.
But that was almost impossible.
From the evidence left behind, this was someone brutal, careless with details, and intoxicated by the thrill of killing.
Before long, he would be caught.
Assuming he hadn’t escaped, and assuming his strength didn’t exceed expectations.
There wasn’t much to pack at home. While they were doing so, Qi Yixin seemed to have a lot she wanted to say, but with someone constantly watching them, she never spoke.
Xu Zhi understood her worries. What surprised her was that even in a situation like this, Qi Yixin hadn’t shown the slightest intention of distancing herself earlier when dealing with the officer. On the contrary, she had done her best to emphasize that Xu Zhi was “harmless.”
Now, Xu Zhi could clearly see Qi Yixin’s concern for her. With outsiders present, there was nothing to be said. Instead, Xu Zhi looked toward the watching eyes nearby and reassured her softly, “Don’t worry. Once they finish investigating, they’ll let us go.”
Even as she said it, Xu Zhi knew the chances were slim—because there was nothing about her that could truly be “cleared.”
The girl sighed silently to herself. Though it wasn’t her intention, Qi Yixin had indeed been dragged into danger because of her. Since Qi Yixin hadn’t chosen to abandon her at a moment like this, Xu Zhi naturally wouldn’t do so either.
The place the officer arranged for them was also a tent, apparently cleared out temporarily. It was fairly spacious—more than enough for the two of them.
“I wonder how long we’ll have to stay here,” Qi Yixin said. Though she was just a scavenger from the lower districts, she knew better than to speak freely in a place like this. You never knew who might be listening, so she could only ask harmless questions.
“Probably not too long,” Xu Zhi replied with confidence.
From their brief contact, it was clear that this unit was highly efficient.
Just as Xu Zhi expected, they didn’t have to wait long. As night fell, through the poorly insulated tent walls, she heard a stir outside. Someone seemed to be saying, “They found that guy!”
Without hesitation, she lifted the tent flap. The soldier on guard immediately looked at her. Xu Zhi met his gaze with a smile and asked directly, “Did I just hear that the killer was caught?”
“Can I go take a look?”
The guard didn’t answer right away. He waited a few seconds, standing in place, until instructions came through his earpiece. Only then did he say, “I’ll take you over.”
So it was true—everything they said here was being monitored.
The only question was: when that officer agreed to let her go, what exactly was she thinking?
