**Chapter Eight: Caught**
Huacheng, Mudan Street.
Huacheng, a historical ancient city in the southwest.
The city is filled with many streets adorned with blue tiles and white walls, rich in antiquity, and Mudan Street is one of the more well-known ancient streets among them.
At the entrance of Mudan Street stands an antique-style archway topped with blue tiles, with four imposing stone lions at each corner, their surfaces polished and glimmering, surrounded by peony and firecloud patterns, with a plaque inscribed with the three large characters “Mudan Street”.
In the center of the street, a small stream flows from north to south, winding its way along the landscape. On both sides, nearly a hundred cobblestone alleys crisscross in a net-like pattern, with high walls and narrow lanes, evoking a charm reminiscent of the water towns of Jiangnan.
However, this is not the true face of Mudan Street, but rather a faux ancient landscape built a few years ago to attract tourists from outside.
Only a part of the older local Huacheng residents know that behind those quaint buildings lies a small street that is no longer than two hundred meters, with a worn surface and narrow passage, utterly inconspicuous—this is the real Mudan Street.
And the true Mudan Street is also where the headquarters of the Huacheng Siye Society is located.
At ten in the morning, the sun had completely climbed into the sky. Bai Kai, who had worked overnight, walked out of Mudan Street while lazily stretching and holding a large meat bun in his mouth.
From afar, a luxurious-looking black sedan drove along the road and stopped at the street entrance, almost completely blocking the already narrow street.
Seeing this, Bai Kai spat out half of the meat bun he was eating into his hand, rolled his eyes, and let out an annoyed sound, “Tsk, what bad luck…”
The person arriving was Jiang Li, who was in charge of the shift today.
Because of the painful words Jiang Li said to him the night before, Bai Kai pondered left and right, ultimately blaming Jiang Li for Luxianbei blocking him.
I’ve been so good to Xiaobei, almost sleeping in the same bed!
How could he really hate me?
That’s right! Xiaobei doesn’t hate me! It’s all Jiang Li’s fault; she’s always so unlucky and toxic with her words, it’s like a curse!
As Bai Kai was thinking this, he stuffed the bun back into his mouth and bit down viciously. Just then, the Little Maid got out of the car to open the door for Jiang Li.
Jiang Li exited the car and saw Bai Kai standing at the street entrance, holding a large meat bun like an old dog. He lowered his eyelids, slightly furrowed his brows, and showed a very disdainful expression as if he had just stepped in dog poop upon leaving the house.
When such an expression appeared on a girl’s face, especially on the face of an ice-cold beauty, it was nearly invincible in its lethal power. After a brief clash of gazes, Water Brother retreated in defeat, covering his chest and sulkingly stepping aside.
I didn’t lose! It’s just a show of humility from a senior to a junior! Bai Kai consoled himself, but why did he feel like crying a bit?
Could it be…
That’s right, it’s the onion! There were onions in the bun!
Jiang Li turned her gaze away, completely ignoring Bai Kai, who was staring at the sky at a forty-five-degree angle. Leaning on her cane, she made her way slowly toward the building at the end of the street, which resembled a shrine.
At that moment, Bai Kai called out to her.
“By the way, at the same time we were investigating on Changsheng Road yesterday, an attack happened in the suburbs. I think you should check the files!” Bai Kai reminded her.
Hate is one thing, work is another; Bai Kai felt it was necessary to remind Jiang Li.
“Hmm.” Jiang Li nodded, responding coldly.
……
The ancient shrine was hidden beneath several towering ginkgo trees, with a few patches of green moss covering the gray-white stone steps. A faded red stone pillar at the entrance hung a brass metal plaque inscribed with the words “Huacheng Folk Culture Research Management Bureau”.
Entering the shrine, one could see a sparse number of pedestrians, creating a tranquil and solemn atmosphere. Walking further in, one arrived at the building directly opposite the main door, where a bright corridor with simple decoration extended straight ahead, seemingly endless.
Anyone who saw the interior of this building would surely wonder how such a long and thick corridor could fit into such a small space.
On both sides of the corridor were heavy metal doors facing each other. The first seven doors were marked with numbers from 1 to 7, representing different main on-duty personnel during the week’s nighttime shifts.
Some of those numbers were in Traditional Chinese characters, others in Arabic numerals, some even in Greek numerals, and even some in hieroglyphics, reflecting the identities of the room owners behind the doors.
Further down, the corridor was swallowed by darkness, which instinctively suggested a more extensive space within, but could not be explored with the n*ked eye.
Jiang Li walked deeper until she reached the metal door marked with a “V”, turned the doorknob, and entered her office.
This was a room with a sense of history, square-shaped, with a glass-topped desk covered with a layer of lace protection.
On the table were a desk lamp with a green glass shade, a rotary dial telephone, and a porcelain teacup inscribed with “Serving the People”.
If it weren’t for the brand-new computer on the desk, the decor of this office, reminiscent of the 1970s or 80s, would surely give newcomers a sense of time travel.
Although it was Jiang Li’s shift today, typically, strange tales incidents rarely occur before dark, meaning she still had seven or eight hours to do what she wanted.
With time to spare, Jiang Li patiently watered the flowers on the windowsill, leisurely brewed herself a strong cup of tea, and sat down at the computer to play Mahjong.
A scene like this, where an apparent ice-cold beauty clutched a teacup akin to those of old committee members while playing an anime-themed Mahjong game on a top-of-the-line computer, exuded an intense sense of incongruity.
Half an hour later.
Jiang Li steamrolled through two rounds, then closed the game and clicked on a crescent-shaped icon on the desktop, which then displayed the words “Siye Society File Management System” on the screen.
She began reading the strange tales files uploaded during her off-duty time.
“Click—!”
**[Strange Tale Event Number 1032]**
**Strange Tale Alias: Mr. Rabbit, Energy Reaction Level C**
**Date of the First Incident: May 5th.**
**Case Overview: A series of disappearances occurred in Huacheng, with four common points among each victim.**
1. Each was alone before disappearing, whether at their workplace, neighborhood, or residence.
2. Nearby the disappearance location, white rabbit-like biological fur was found.
3. Each victim received an advertisement flyer distributed by a rabbit costume character at different times and places.
**Description of the Flyer: It is made of a paper-like material derived from unknown biological fur, with its composition currently unidentified. Size 176MMX250MM.**
**First identified at the scene of the first victim, it was pure black and bore bright yellow patterns and text.**
**[Image], [Image], [Image]**
**……**
Jiang Li hadn’t had time to examine the flyer carefully yesterday. After seeing the text today, she frowned slightly and muttered to herself, “Is it a spell written in Hebrew? How does it know such things?”
In Jiang Li’s memory, Mu Se did not understand such spells; the source of Mr. Rabbit’s spell must not be from her.
But if it’s not from Mu Se, where did it learn such a spell?
“Hmm… Is it a trigger-type curse? It seems that the rabbit locks onto its target through this.”
For a long time, based on their experiences with the Siye Society and strange tales, they had concluded that sunlight would suppress the power of strange tales.
A strange tale like Mr. Rabbit, which wasn’t particularly powerful, would find it hard to successfully hunt its target, so it was normal to use a curse from the flyer to lock on to targets and act under the cover of night.
“Tsk, why do some people still choose to read the contents after receiving such strange things? It’s obvious that directly disposing of them would greatly reduce danger; they really are a bunch of fools!”
Jiang Li continued scrolling through the mouse, browsing the file on Mr. Rabbit, until she stopped at an audio file.
**[Number 103203, Victim Lin Kexin’s Police Call Recording 01.WAV]**
“Oh? A police call?” Jiang Li murmured thoughtfully, clicking on the audio file.
“Click!”
“Rustle—rustle—!” After a cacophony of irritating noise, a trembling voice came through the speaker.
“Hello… hello? Is this the police station? I, I want to report a crime!”
“Hello, madam, this is Linjiang Road Police Station. What seems to be the problem?”
“Officer! I feel like, like someone is trying to k*ll me!”
“Madam, please don’t joke, we…”
“I’m not joking!” the woman interrupted.
After a pause, the operator patiently asked, “Really? Then… what makes you think that?”
“At first, there was a man who kept walking back and forth outside our company building, constantly looking over at my workstation… I, I saw him! Although I couldn’t see his face clearly, I know for sure he saw me!”
“He followed me; he came to my doorstep. He’s out there! I can hear his footsteps, and every time he reaches the door, he… he disappears…”
“He’s back again… Let me let you hear!”
“……” There was silence on the other end of the call, no sound at all.
“Strange… why does it seem like he’s gone?”
“Ha ha, madam, you might be stressed from working too hard. I suggest you take a warm bath, have a glass of milk, and rest early. Wish you a pleasant day!”
“Beep—!”
**[Number 103204, Victim Lin Kexin’s Police Call Recording 02.WAV]**
“Click!”
……
“You must save me… I just called; I just got out of the shower, and I found he’s back, right outside my house! Please, I beg you, I don’t want to d*e!”
From the woman’s tearful voice, her fear was evident, her soft sobs often overshadowing her trembling words.
The operator seemed momentarily stunned for a few seconds, and his tone immediately became serious and urgent, “Madam, please don’t panic. We will help you; can you tell me your address? I’ll contact them to respond immediately!”
“I live at 28, Building 3, Fuming Road! My name is Lin Kexin!” the woman spoke rapidly.
“Alright, madam, I…”
Before the operator could finish, the woman nearly screamed in a frantic tone, “Wait! Are you going to hang up? Don’t! Don’t hang up! Please!”
“You misunderstood, madam; I will stay on the line with you. Please don’t panic; I have already notified the officers at our station. They are on their way as quickly as possible.”
“Why are you hanging up on me!?”
“Madam, I’m not…”
“Why are you hanging up on me?! Why?!” the woman cried out, and then she began to scream incoherently, “What do I do? What do I do! He’s at my doorstep, I blocked the door with the sofa, but I can feel he’s about to come in! He’s about to come in!”
“Wait? The, the bedroom…”
“……”
“Madam? What’s wrong with the bedroom?”
“……”
“Madam? What’s wrong, madam!?”
The operator shouted anxiously, but all that greeted him was silence on the other end of the call.
“……”
“Click—click—!”
In the silence, a sound reminiscent of gnawing on hard objects by a rodent faintly escaped the recording, and then it abruptly stopped.
……
“Ah!”
After shutting off the audio file, Jiang Li frowned, deep in thought.
The unknown spell, the repeated attacks, and the ability to move through walls—these were all things Mr. Rabbit could not previously accomplish. It seemed Bai Kai was right; it was leveling up!
As she pondered this, just as she was about to continue reading, the office door was pushed open, and her Little Maid entered, holding a stack of materials and several photos.
“Miss, there’s a new lead. This morning, two bodies with high spirit energy residue were found in an apartment complex near University City, suspected to be derivatives of Mr. Rabbit. Here are the site data analysis materials and photos from the scene.”
Could there be entities present in this apartment complex capable of defeating Mr. Rabbit’s derivatives, causing its actions to fail?
Are they humans or strange tales? Such behavior amounts to marking territory, declaring war against Mr. Rabbit!
That unknown entity should be quite powerful and seems confident about itself.
After skimming through the materials, Jiang Li turned her attention to the photos and quickly focused on a young boy, her brows furrowing.
Black coat and sunglasses, wearing a mask, sneaking around…
“This person…” Jiang Li pointed at the boy in the photo and said coldly, “It’s human nature to join in the excitement. When encountering a crowd, he not only deliberately hides his appearance but also shows excessive calmness and indifference through his expression and eyes. I think he’s very likely problematic.”
“Is that so? Then miss, I will…”
Jiang Li lightly tapped the photo with her slender fingertip, pointing at the boy, and coolly instructed, “This person, capture him.”
“Understood, miss. I’ll handle it right away!”
