Chapter 13: A Comical Blunder

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Beneath him lay a scruffy, middle-aged man in a gray-and-white security officer’s uniform, staring blankly up at Li Chenqiu.

Several men and women were seated around the room, dressed much the same as the man beneath him. Some still had instant noodles dangling from their mouths, not yet drawn in. Together, they stared at Li Chenqiu in stunned silence.

Li Chenqiu recognized those uniforms. They belonged to the Public Security Division of City No. 11. He also realized something else.

These people were not the ones watching him. Some of them had already progressed to drinking the broth of their noodles. He had only been here for three or four minutes, and cooking and eating instant noodles would take at least five, wouldn’t it?

“Ahem!”

Li Chenqiu gave an awkward cough and glanced at the camera hanging from the man’s chest.

“Is that a body camera?”

“...Yes.”

The man nodded blankly.

Li Chenqiu’s expression darkened, and six crows seemed to fly over his head.

He had no change of clothes, and he believed whoever was watching him already knew what he looked like, so he had not altered his appearance. He had also learned about these body cameras before: their lenses were connected in real time to the Public Security Division’s database.

In other words, his face had been exposed. The fact that Li Chenqiu, an employee of Keke’s Delicious Fried Rice, could run across walls and leap over rooftops would soon become common knowledge.

At the thought, Li Chenqiu’s head began to throb.

Should he run? If he did, there was an eighty percent chance he would be classified as an Awakened—and then he could forget about ever opening the fried-rice shop again.

But if he stayed, how was he supposed to explain everything he had just done? Should he say he was a Chosen One? That might actually work.

At last, the security officers in the room came to their senses. One of them snatched up the pistol on the table and aimed it at Li Chenqiu.

“You—you! Where did you come from? Let Sergeant Zhu go!” shouted the middle-aged man in charge.

Although his voice was imposing, the constant trembling of his body betrayed the unease in his heart.

Anyone who could burst into a room at such speed and show hostility toward security officers had to be an Awakened. What else could he be?

The others had naturally reached the same conclusion. Though frightened, they did not retreat. Instead, they raised their pistols and aimed them at Li Chenqiu.

“You’ve misunderstood. Actually... actually... I’m a good person.”

As he spoke, Li Chenqiu raised both hands above his head and slowly stood up from First-Rank Security Officer Zhu Cheng.

Just as Li Chenqiu was about to rise completely, Zhu Cheng, still sprawled on the floor, clenched his fists and rolled to his feet in a desperate lunge toward Li Chenqiu.

Li Chenqiu did not understand what the man was trying to do, but he offered no resistance. Zhu Cheng knocked him back onto the floor, then wrapped all four limbs around him like an octopus.

Li Chenqiu was just about to explain when Zhu Cheng turned his head and shouted at the others, “Don’t worry about me! Shoot, now!”

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“Huh?”

Li Chenqiu’s mouth fell slightly open. Was this really what security officers were like? That was rather aggressive.

Fortunately, Zhu Cheng’s teammates hesitated. They did not fire immediately.

“What are you waiting for? Shoot! Once this Awakened breaks free, we’ll all die! Stop being softhearted!” Zhu Cheng bellowed at the top of his lungs.

“Uncle, don’t panic. Think about it—if I were an Awakened, why wouldn’t I have killed you just now?” Li Chenqiu hurriedly explained.

Zhu Cheng froze.

That was true. If the other man really were an Awakened, why had he not killed him?

Wu Shan, the captain of the squad, continued to eye Li Chenqiu warily. He did not lower his guard because of Li Chenqiu’s words.

“If you’re not an Awakened, then make yourself bleed.”

“All right.”

Li Chenqiu nodded. Then he applied a little pressure with his teeth and bit through his lower lip.

Red blood stained his lips and trickled down from the corner of his mouth.

One second... three seconds... ten seconds...

The wound did not heal.

Only then did the tension leave the others’ nerves. They lowered their weapons.

Li Chenqiu lowered his head and looked at Zhu Cheng, who was sprawled across his chest.

“Oh... Oh, sorry. I misunderstood you.”

Zhu Cheng nodded belatedly, then hurriedly crawled out of Li Chenqiu’s arms and pulled a sheet of paper from his pocket, handing it to him.

“Thanks.”

Li Chenqiu accepted the paper and wiped the blood from his lips.

In the Federation, there was only one way to determine whether someone was an Awakened: make a wound and see whether it healed. Since Li Chenqiu possessed the supernatural ability of Absolute Control, he could decide for himself whether or not his wounds would close.

There was another method of controlling the healing of wounds, but it required surviving solely on human blood. It allowed one to maintain enough life energy to keep the skin from aging, while injuries naturally failed to heal quickly. This was the method used by Li Ji and Li Qingxia.

However, the process was agonizing. When an Awakened suffered from a prolonged lack of life energy, they would enter a state of hunger. No other food could alleviate that hunger; they could only endure it.

Inside the room, Wu Shan asked tentatively, “Are you a Chosen One?”

“More or less.”

Li Chenqiu smiled and nodded.

“May I ask your name?”

Li Chenqiu hesitated for a moment before giving it.

“Li Chenqiu.”

He naturally knew what they intended to do. Whenever a Chosen One appeared in the Federation, they were required to register with the local Special Abilities Bureau. Once registered, the information became public and could be looked up online by name.

Sure enough, after hearing his name, Wu Shan exchanged a glance with the woman standing beside him. She immediately took out her phone and walked toward the back of the room, evidently searching for information on Li Chenqiu.

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“Little brother, um... why did you come in from there just now?” Zhu Cheng asked, scratching his head in confusion. His honest, good-natured face made him look utterly harmless.

“Actually...”

“His mother’s elder brother and second brother are both his uncles, Gao—”

Li Chenqiu was just about to explain when his phone began ringing in his trouser pocket.

“Sorry, I need to take this.”

With an apologetic smile, Li Chenqiu walked to the window and answered the call.

“Little Qiu, the fourth floor is suspicious too. There’s clearly someone in front of the window, but the lights aren’t on,” Li Qingxia whispered from the other end.

“You...”

Li Chenqiu clenched his fists. At that moment, he truly wanted to punch his second brother into the ground.

“I’m hanging up!”

After ending the call, Li Chenqiu sprang through the window in a single bound, leaving everyone staring after him in astonishment.

Beneath the neon lights, he seized the protruding windowsill, swung himself forward, and leaped straight into the room below.

The window was open, so nothing impeded his movement.

It was a single-occupancy room, thick with the choking smell of cigarette smoke. On the bedside table lay a cigarette that had not yet been extinguished, its tip glowing faintly.

Clearly, someone had been in the room moments ago. But just now, that person had leaped through the window and fled.

Click!

Li Chenqiu pressed the light switch. The room remained dark.

Hotel rooms generally required a key card to activate the electricity. Since the person had not checked in properly, the front desk would naturally have no useful information.

Li Chenqiu frowned slightly, then switched on the flashlight on his phone and began searching the room.

Before long, his gaze was drawn to a calendar lying on the bedside table.

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