Free Web NovelBefore seeing the catalog of urban legend incidents Jiang Li was in charge of, Lu Yibei had always thought that the people of the Hua City Si Ye Hui were a bunch of salary thieves who only knew how to slack off.
A group of people taking salaries sponsored by the state and society, spending their days partying in nightclubs, playing with sports cars, and also gambling, collecting urban legend organs, cosplaying little mushrooms...
Oh right, there was even one guy who took a salary, slacked off on work, and whose shadow hadn't even been seen!
Anyway, they didn't do a single proper thing, complete with all five poisons.
He even felt that if he stayed with this group for too long, sooner or later he would turn from a vibrant young man into a copper pea that couldn't be affected by anything.
Days like these, where you can see the end with one glance, completely without dreams, are these days for humans to live?
This is the kind of day gods live, only appearing in dreams!
However, when he opened the box Bai Kai handed him and saw the catalog inside, over eight hundred pages long, with each page averaging five to seven summaries of urban legend incidents, his dream was shattered.
"These, these are all the urban legend incidents Jiang Li was responsible for following up on?"
"Not entirely," Bai Kai said, shrugging. freeweɓnøvel.com
Just as Lu Yibei was about to breathe a sigh of relief, she heard him add, "There are some incidents with high confidentiality and danger levels that weren't given to you, considering your insufficient combat ability."
Lu Yibei, "???"
Astonished, this isn't even all of it?
How is it that every so often, you guys can come up with something new for me?
Lu Yibei once again felt the malice from the Night Watch.
"How did she do it?" Lu Yibei asked with a serious expression.
"Hmm?"
"I mean, Jiang Li alone handled so many urban legend incidents? Where did she find the time?"
She was clearly playing mahjong the whole time! Lu Yibei muttered inwardly.
"About that..."
Bai Kai paused, then explained, "Although she's not easy to deal with, there have never been any issues with her daily work."
"As far as I know, she works about thirteen to fourteen hours a day and only sleeps five hours."
She's really working too hard, otherwise, I wouldn't have been caught red-handed when I went to mess around at her place... Bai Kai muttered inwardly.
Lu Yibei suddenly felt some sympathy for Jiang Li, and even the anger that arose because she left a mess and went off to enjoy herself had significantly diminished.
Looking at it this way, the main members of the Night Watch aren't as lazy as I imagined; most of the time, they are quietly working hard where I can't see them. Lu Yibei thought. ƒrēewebnoѵёl.cσm
However, there's a problem!
"Working thirteen to fourteen hours, sleeping five hours..." She counted on her fingers and asked doubtfully, "What about the other five or six hours?"
"Messing around with some daily necessities, and... you know." Bai Kai said, pouting, and as he spoke, he raised his hands and waved them back and forth in the air a few times like he was practicing Tai Chi.
Lu Yibei rubbed her forehead, "Got it, playing mahjong, right?"
I'd call her a time management master!
"Exactly," Bai Kai said, shrugging. "Besides these five or six hours, she can always find time for a couple of rounds on the way to a case or during surveillance breaks."
"You haven't seen the scene where she directed the Special Operations Team members to 'bring warmth' to the urban legend organ smuggling organization, tsk tsk!"
As he spoke, Bai Kai couldn't help but picture the scene: the young girl with metal prosthetics standing in the abandoned factory filled with rusted machinery, the sounds of gunfire from the Special Operations Team clashing with smugglers constantly echoing in the distance, yet she calmly played mahjong on her phone with one hand.
"But, from when the night started getting long until now, it's only been five or six years at most. The urban legend incidents Jiang Li alone was responsible for exceed five thousand cases, isn't that too many?" Lu Yibei frowned.
Based on Bai Kai's words and the number of urban legend incidents Jiang Li was responsible for, he imagined that in every corner of Hua City, there were urban legend with at least one rabbit's worth of Spiritual Energy fluctuations hiding, roaming, and lying in wait, which sent a chill down his spine.
Bai Kai looked at Lu Yibei's large, bewildered eyes, shook his head, and slowly fumbled around on the desk for a while. From under a thick stack of files, he found a heart-shaped ashtray and a pack of flamboyant rose-flavored menthol cigarettes, lit one, and took a deep drag.
"Xiao Bei."
Bai Kai said seriously, "There's a saying that goes, 'Above there are seven trillion eight hundred fifty billion gods, below there are nine trillion ghosts.' According to the Night Watch's evaluation standards, these all count as urban legend..."
The smell of tobacco mixed with rose entered Lu Yibei's nostrils. She glanced at the ashtray on Bai Kai's desk and frowned.
She didn't particularly dislike the smell of tobacco or roses; it was just that the ashtray on the desk belonged to her Old Dad.
To be precise, it should have been a gift given to her Old Dad by the blind date she had worked so hard to find for him.
As for why this ashtray was in Shui Ge's hands, well, that was a very unpleasant and melodramatic circular love story.
"Besides, think about it, the number of urban legend incidents each agent encounters every day is different because their areas of responsibility are different."
"Adding it all up, it's about ten cases on average every day. Among these, there are cases where the same Strange Tale commits crimes repeatedly, cases ❀ Nоvеlігht ❀ (Don’t copy, read here) without direct contact or attack, and cases of 'approaching science' style false reporting..."
"Wait!" Lu Yibei interrupted. "I can understand the first two, but what the heck is 'approaching science' style?"
"For example, a case was transferred from the Chang Sheng Road police station two days ago, reported by an old lady. She said there was a place near the neighborhood where many stray dog and cat carcasses were piled up."
"And every day when stray dogs and cats passed by that area, they would suddenly die. Guess what we found when we sent the Special Operations Team to check it out?"
Lu Yibei frowned, "A perverted animal abuser poisoning the area?"
I heard that the reason Miao Xiaoqi was born is related to this kind of thing... Lu Yibei muttered inwardly.
Bai Kai shook his head, put out the cigarette in the ashtray, and waved his hand, "Not at all! It was a grandson stealing electric wires, causing the buried high-voltage lines nearby to leak electricity!"
Lu Yibei, "..." What a sin! Gu Qianqian, did you see that? The electric thief, that's you!
"So! Xiao Bei, you don't need to be too nervous," Bai Kai comforted her. "Don't look at how thick Jiang Li's catalog is; there aren't actually many dangerous urban legend incidents."
"Besides, some urban legend incidents with higher confidentiality and danger levels have been temporarily transferred to the hands of us agents."
Lu Yibei was silent, pondered Bai Kai's words, and said expressionlessly, "In other words, what Jiang Li usually does is a combination of criminal police and beat cop, and during the time I'm temporarily replacing her, I only need to be responsible for the beat cop part of the work, right?"
"That's pretty much the idea," Bai Kai nodded. "The urban legend you'll be facing are usually small fry with Spiritual Energy fluctuation levels of only D-level, or even no level at all. It's very simple."
This is normal procedure... Lu Yibei muttered inwardly. If most of the urban legend hidden in the city were the small monsters like the ones living in the apartment, it would be more reasonable and easier to accept.
However.
If this job were really that simple, I'd thank heaven and earth.
When it came to luck, Lu Yibei was quite confident; encountering elites while grinding small monsters and getting bosses from fighting elites was already a daily occurrence.
That's right, I can't believe Shui Ge's nonsense. When encountering urban legend, I still need to maintain due caution. Lu Yibei thought.
As she was thinking, Bai Kai raised his hand to look at his watch, and his expression suddenly turned serious.
Seeing this, Lu Yibei asked, "What's wrong, Shui Ge? Is there something special?"
"Yeah," Bai Kai nodded. "The club opens in about an hour. If I don't go now, I'll miss the first wave of warm-up climax."
"Xiao Bei, let's leave it at that for now!" As he spoke, he pulled a dusty set of keys from the drawer and pushed them in front of Lu Yibei.
"These are the keys to your temporary office. The other things should already be put inside. Go check it out yourself later. I'll be leaving now."
"Remember to lock the door when you leave!"
Having said that, he got up, stylishly threw his pink and white suit Coat over his shoulder, jogged out of the office, and after a few steps, even wiggled his flexible hips back and forth at the air.
Like a stud horse that had broken free.
From a distance, a loud shout came.
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"Woohoo~ Off work~! Lily, Jenna, Xiaoyu, Baby... Nanako! I'm coming!"
"..."
Lu Yibei watched Bai Kai's receding back and listened to the seventeen or eighteen flower names he rattled off, her eyes gradually becoming complex.
I was wrong, I was really wrong. I shouldn't have believed these guys were seriously doing the Night Watch's job.
At least...
Shui Ge definitely isn't!
Lu Yibei complained a few times in her heart, shook her head, silently picked up the keys on the table, hugged Jiang Li's urban legend incident catalog, and got up to walk towards her temporary office.
————
Lu Yibei's temporary office was arranged within the Huacheng Folk Culture Research Administration, on that long corridor, next to the long-unused "Seven" office.
If a number were to be assigned, it should be number eight.
The door of office number eight had not yet been decorated according to the agent's personal preferences. A circle of round-headed rivets was embedded on the heavy iron door, presenting a silver-gray color, and the doorknob was covered with a thin layer of dust.
"Click, click, clack—!"
Perhaps because this office hadn't been used for too long, the door lock was a bit old. Lu Yibei inserted the key into the keyhole and twisted it hard several times before a light sound of springs and mechanisms turning was heard.
With a gentle push, the heavy iron door opened with a "creak!" Inside, the curtains were tightly closed, the light was dim, and a smell of dust hung in the air.
An old-fashioned three-blade electric fan hung from the ceiling. One of the blades was deformed and bent downwards, as if someone had hanged themselves there before.
"Hello, I'm coming in!" Lu Yibei said softly, fumbled for the light switch, turned on the light, and pushed the door open to enter.
The office was empty, with only one table, one chair, one computer, and one kraft paper box, completely different from what she had expected.
The table was old. Even though it had been repainted, one could still vaguely see the messy carvings on it that someone had made with a small knife.
The chair was also old, with signs of wear on all its edges. Lu Yibei cautiously pressed down on the chair with her hand, and only sat down after confirming that the tragic accident of the pneumatic rod failing wouldn't happen.
Looking around, Lu Yibei sighed silently, "At least the computer is new. After all, it's just a temporary shift, don't be so demanding."
Saying this, she poked the power button of the computer in front of her, stared at the screen and waited for a moment, only to realize that there was no power...
After a few seconds of silence, Lu Yibei shrugged and made a compromise.
"Alright, anyway, I'm here to get familiar with the job. Electricity can be sorted out later, it doesn't matter."
She said, comforting herself, and with a "rip!", she tore off the tape on the kraft paper box. A set of pure black uniform, somewhat similar in style to a Zhongshan suit, and an identification card, which were packed inside, came into view. On top of them was a note thoughtfully prepared by Shui Ge.
【Xiao Bei, standard equipment for Night Watch agents, besides the uniform and ID, you've already received the rest before. You generally don't need to wear the uniform. As for the ID, you might use it when dealing with urban legend incidents that involve contact with the police. It's recommended to carry it with you.
Above, left by Old Dad.】
After reading it, Lu Yibei pursed her lips, put away the note, and muttered to herself, "Well, let's see what I should do!"
Saying this, she opened the urban legend incident catalog left by Jiang Li and began to study it carefully.
She spent an hour roughly flipping through the urban legend incident catalog and felt a warmth in her heart.
Jiang Li might not be a good partner, but she was definitely a good Leader.
On the urban legend incident catalog she left behind, she had made various detailed marks for Lu Yibei, accompanied by lines of neatly written small annotations.
Which areas were prone to urban legend incidents, suggesting focusing patrols there during night duty.
Which urban legend were temporarily harmless and could be used as informants to obtain information.
Which urban legend had conflicts or relationships with each other, which could be used to avoid risks.
...
In short, all sorts of details were included, giving one a sense of security that as long as things were done step by step, without unexpected events, the one-month temporary work could be completed smoothly.
Lu Yibei read a few pages, and when she saw the extremely ugly bookmark handmade by Jiang Li, clipped within the catalog, as well as the hand-drawn 【heart gesture emoji】 and the two small words "Go for it!" on the bookmark.
She unconsciously twitched the corner of her mouth and laughed out loud.
"Pfft—!"
"This is made too ugly, isn't it? I really thought she was an all-around beautiful girl who could do anything! Her image is ruined!"
————
Late at night, in Hua City, in a rented house one street away from Fuchun Road.
In the darkness, a man was curled up in bed, staring intently at his phone, watching the messages scrolling upwards on the interface of a certain chat software on the screen.
Suddenly, a piece of information about the gameplay of a urban legend game caught his attention.
"Hide-and-seek by yourself? This seems a bit interesting! It makes it sound like it's a real thing." The man muttered to himself.
The man looked at the discussions among the group members on the phone screen surrounding that urban legend game, silently imagining, and the more he thought about it, the more excited he became. The drowsiness that had been subtly rising suddenly disappeared completely.
Soon, he got up and decided to try that game that looked very stimulating himself.
There is never a shortage of people who are not afraid of death in this world. Even now, when rumors of urban legend are prevalent, there is still a large portion of people who hold the belief that "if I haven't seen it, it doesn't exist," and the man was an even more radical existence among this group.
Not only did he not believe that urban legend existed, but he also always wanted to prove it in various ways.
After turning on the light and searching around the room for a while, he picked up the cloth doll placed on the windowsill.
The doll was one he and his girlfriend had caught from a claw machine two days ago. It was roughly made and looked a bit ugly, so his girlfriend had casually thrown it on the windowsill.
Holding the doll, the man carefully used the scissors he had retrieved to cut an opening in its abdomen, large enough for his hand to fit inside, and then, little by little, he took out all the space cotton filling from inside.
After finishing this task, he paused slightly, picked up his phone, and confirmed the game process again. Only then did he pick up the rice and clipped nails he had prepared earlier, put them into the emptied doll, and then picked up the red thread to sew up the opening in the doll's abdomen.
A moment later, the man rested his chin in his hand, stared at the modified doll, and murmured, "I still need to give it a name, that's really troublesome! What should I name it?"
After pondering for a while, he picked up the water-based pen on the table and wrote the two characters "Pocket Knife" (Xiao Dao, meaning small knife) on the doll's chest. Then he glanced at the time on the wall clock; it was already past twelve o'clock, so he took the doll and walked towards the bathroom.
"Splish splash—creak—!"
Seeing that the washbasin was filled with water, the man turned off the faucet and placed the doll into the water according to the process he had seen online. As soon as it touched the water, the writing on the doll's chest written with the water-based pen blurred, spreading outwards like blood, and the shape became distorted.
"Tsk! I knew I shouldn't have used that pen to write." The man spat, turned off the light, and retreated to the bathroom door.
Just as he was about to speak to the doll in the bathroom according to the online process, he looked at the doll and suddenly froze for a moment.
He saw that the light from the living room shone into the slightly damp, cold, and narrow bathroom, casting a faint glow on the white tile walls in the darkness. In the washbasin, along with the fluctuations of the water, the light reflecting off the cloth doll's eyeballs changed, as if they were turning.
"Overthinking, overthinking." The man withdrew his gaze from the cloth doll, composed himself, and repeated three times, "The new body is here, please use it."
Then.
He added another sentence, "Alright, let's play! I'll be the ghost first."
After saying that, he turned around and quickly returned to the bedroom, found a corner against the wall to sit down, picked up his phone, looked at the time, and waited quietly.
Ten minutes later, he got up, went to the living room to get a fruit knife, returned to the bathroom, and said to the doll in the washbasin, "Now it's your turn, come find me! If you find me, I'll give you life."
After saying that, he raised the fruit knife in his hand, aimed it at the doll's chest in the washbasin, stabbed it down, and then turned around and left the bathroom.
"Splash—!"
Perhaps because the man used too much force, the water in the basin overflowed, splashing onto the floor with a sound. In the washbasin, the doll, accompanied by the fluctuations of the water flow, seemed to be struggling, bobbing up and down, floating around.
Finally, it gently leaned against the edge of the basin, its pair of deep glass button eyes reflecting a faint light, facing the man's retreating back...
