The Way Of The Evil Chapter 1
Wings of Angels Part 1 Good sentiments, ill-directed, frequently lead children into vice.
― Jean-Jacques Rousseau[1] The man was around twenty-eight or twenty-nine years old. You could say that he was the iconic handsome and tall type. When he walked, it was with a slight haste in his step, but his shoulders and back remained very straight. He wore casual clothes that were smoothly ironed and tidy. The topmost b.u.t.ton of the shirt was unb.u.t.toned, with the cleanly shaven jaw revealed. His facial features were deep and robust. When he wasn't smiling, he gave off the feeling of someone who might be overly sharp and harsh.
With just a look, he seemed like someone difficult to get close to.
He strode through the corridor with big strides, occasionally nodding at the people who walked past him in greeting. He was polite but a thin layer of frost seemed to be floating in his dark-colored eyes. Who knew where his soul went in his daze, and his att.i.tude somewhat seemed a little half-hearted.
The man's hands held a set of reports. Just like this, he reached the entrance of the bureau chief's office.
Just as he stretched out his hand to knock, the door creaked once and opened from the inside. A beautiful young girl donned with light make-up and a head full of giant curls happened to walk out. She raised her head and seeing the man, she startled. "Head Shen?"
It was only now that the slightly stern face of the man let out a smile. He saw someone familiar now, so his smile was especially good-looking. His eyes curved, carrying exceptional intimacy and sincerity. "Yining, I came back to resume my post."
An Yining's pair of almond-shaped eyes bulged, looking up and down to study the man once. Her face turned unpleasant, and in an eccentrically cold tone, she said, "Resume your post? Shen Yexi, are you upset that your life is too long?"
Shen Yexi shrugged his shoulders. "It has already been over a month. Even people taking maternity leave would have returned by now. I was so bored that mushrooms were about to grow— What, in order to not let me resume my post, do you want to block me here?"
"The doctor signed for you? Where did that vet come from? They probably ate too much of rat poison, didn't they?" An Yining grabbed the man's arm at once, pushing him outside. "Resume your post my b.u.t.t! Look at that bullet hole on you. It's like a sieve! Hard to drink water without leaking out, isn't that right, and yet you came out to torment yourself again! Out, out, out, go back to where you came from. Even without you, the Earth will still spin, stop being reckless!"
Shen Yexi was helpless, letting her push him back a few steps. "d.a.m.ned girl, stop messing around. If I keep staying in the hospital, will you pay for my meals?"
"Free medical treatment, duh. Then, it won't be wasted and unused. If you were to go to Hawaii for treatment, the office would also still give you the money. You can take advantage of it and yet you still don't know how to do it, just look at how small your future prospects are…"
She hadn't yet finished her retorting remarks when a light cough from the bureau chief's office interrupted her. Someone laughed in a low voice, and leisurely continued, "An Yining, what did you say? A little louder, I didn't hear you clearly."
An Yining's face froze. "T-The sky sure is blue…"
The office door once again opened. A middle-aged man walked out—many people said that their bureau chief Mo, Mo Cong, didn't look like someone who worked in law enforcement. When he spoke or did something, it was slow and unhurried. His character was also free and unrestrained. His face always carried a smile with a few hints of forgiveness and gentleness that made him seem rather like a university professor instead.
Bureau Chief Mo peered at An Yining once, before beaming with smiles at Shen Yexi. "You're back?"
Shen Yexi responded with a sound, also retrieving his joking expression, giving him his notice to resume his post.
Bureau Chief Mo patted An Yining's back. "Go, do whatever you should be doing now. Don't block the road and the sun here."
"Chief Mo, do you really plan on agreeing to let this man who worked as if his life depended on it to come back to continue playing with his life again? The office isn't so poor that we can't feed ourselves yet!"
"If we have a few more people like you, it won't be too long before we can't feed ourselves." Bureau Chief Mo lowered his head to flip and read through Shen Yexi's report to resume his post, and he said carelessly, "Yexi, what did you do to offend her so that she is so unwilling to see you back… Oh, right, this morning, Dr. Huang gave me a call."
Shen Yexi startled.
"Don't worry. He didn't report anything like you're unfit to return back to work. He just suggested you to go back to the hospital to recuperate for a period of time. He said that a part of your organs' function may have been damaged. If you work too hard and overexert yourself, your body may worsen." Bureau Chief Mo stilled for a moment, stretching into his pocket to take out a pen, spinning it in his fingertips. "What do you say?"
Shen Yexi perfunctorily gave a specially formal explanation. "It was only a suggestion from Dr. Huang. Since he signed for me, it means that he also thinks my body right now is good enough to be discharged from the hospital, and that I'm capable of adapting to the difficulty of my current work."
Bureau Chief Mo raised his head, glancing at him with a smile in his eyes. This time, he didn't say much. At the end of the report to resume Shen Yexi's post, he signed his own name. At the side, An Yining was anxious now. "Chief Mo, Chief Mo, aiya, Pa! You really signed for him?!"
"What do we do if I don't sign? You'll lead the team?" Bureau Chief Mo signed, throwing the report straight into An Yining's arms. "Enough. Let's leave it like this. That group of white coats in the hospital can't even manage to watch him. We might as well transfer him back and put him under our eyes and let the few of you supervise him. Oh, for the case that I a.s.signed you just now, let Yexi go together with you too."
After he finished speaking, he was about to go back to his office when he remembered something. He turned his head over again, "But although I said that, Yexi, you have to be a little more relaxed for me. Our members in the office are all hard-pressed. Every one of them can't squeeze out any other resources anymore. We had to spend such high medical fees to fish you back from the afterlife. If you torment yourself and go in again, we'll suffer a truly amazing loss."
Shen Yexi's face twitched a little. An Yining gritted her teeth as she stared at her own father's back and the door that closed behind him. "How is this old man getting increasingly dislikable the older he gets?"
She bluntly voiced out the thoughts in the great many's hearts. Even the security guard who pa.s.sed by couldn't help but nod in deep agreement.
Shen Yexi silently agreed with her words. Then, he took off his jacket to hold it in his hands, immediately getting into work mode. "Let's go, tell me what the case is."
Fine, what an exemplary citizen who spared no effort in breaking his back for society you are.
An Yining sighed. The day before yesterday, Yang-jie's mother brought a matchmaking candidate to the police office. Yesterday, Sheng Yao's ex ran all the way to the police office to block the exit. Today, their Leader Shen, who had not a single good point about him, also insisted willfully on coming back to work of his own accord. She felt that if this carried on, as the nanny of this group of people, she'd get a couple more grey hairs.
Helplessly flipping open the file tucked under her arm, An Yining said in a half-dead voice, "A corpse was found in the drain. The ident.i.ty of the victim has already been confirmed. Her name was Zhang Jing, female, nine years old. This month, a few eight or nine year olds like her already went missing in this city. Until now, those good-for-nothings in that investigation team still haven't made heads or tails of it. Chief Mo is anxious now, disbanding them and transferring the case to us."
"It's broad daylight, don't blindly badmouth others." Shen Yexi lightly coughed, suppressing his voice. "Even though it's the truth—they only found one corpse?"
"Our people are searching the vicinity."
"What about the cause of death? Is it clear?"
An Yining stilled, pulling out a photograph from the file and showing it in front of Shen Yexi. The background of the photograph was a dark drainage tunnel. A b.l.o.o.d.y head was right at the center. Even if the skin had an unpleasant air of death, it was still not difficult to tell that this was a girl who looked rather good-looking when she was still alive.
The expression on the girl's face was terrified to the bone. An Yining said, "Look, strictly speaking, this still can't be considered 'a' corpse. The other body parts still haven't been found yet."
Shen Yexi pursed his lips. The laughter in his voice when he was making jokes was completely gone. Wordlessly, he quickened his walking speed. An Yining practically had to run a little to catch up to him. In the end, his fast pace led to this. At the corner, a person happened to be walking from the other side. What was incredibly unfortunate was, that person's hand was even holding a cup of coffee. When the two parties wanted to break their steps, it was already far too late.
For a normal person, if they were holding something hot when they were b.u.mped into, they would subconsciously back away in avoidance, moving the object away. But that person's first response was to push his own elbow over across, blocking in between Shen Yexi and the hot coffee in his hand. The boiling hot liquid all splashed onto his hand. The new person made a low hissing sound.
Shen Yexi was stunned. "Sorr…"
"I apologize. I didn't look where I was going. I didn't splash it on you, did I?" Shen Yexi's words weren't even out of his mouth yet when the other party was already hurriedly apologizing. There was a mess flurry of hands as he took the tissue that An Yining offered, grimacing as he wiped the scalded red hand.
Shen Yexi lifted his eyes to look. This was a youth, wearing a loose black b.u.t.ton-up shirt, making his skin seem especially pale. His dark brown hair had a slight natural curl to it, and he was wearing black-rimmed gla.s.ses. Looking at his facial features, he looked like he had some foreigner's blood in him. He was a stranger.
Looking at this small, frail body, he seemed like a newly transferred admin.
An Yining held the corner of her forehead. "Dr. Scatterbrain Hu, where were you planning on going? How many times do you, as an old man, have to get lost on the path of human life in one day?"
The youth startled. He glanced at An Yining before looking back to glance at the path he came from. He made an "ah" sound, and scratched his head in slight embarra.s.sment. "No, I just sat down for too long, so I wanted to go out for a little walk."
"Enough. Don't walk anymore. Go back, there's a job to be done." An Yining secretly rolled her eyes, tone shifting. "Didn't we ask Yang-jie to follow you?"
"I just came out to pour a cup of coffee and walk around for a bit before going back…"
"Our genius here has pretty much figured out the layout of this floor but he just doesn't have the gene for directions." An Yining sighed, patting Shen Yexi's shoulders. "This is our head, Shen Yexi, who won't back off even after receiving wounds on the battlefield and came back honourably. Bossman, this is Professor Jiang, Jiang Hu, whom Chief Mo transferred over to the team. He's a psychologist."
"A psychologist?"
An Yining nodded. "The pressure on everyone was too big after… after that previous incident." Her brows furrowed lightly, and she cautiously examined Shen Yexi's expression. Her voice was cut off for a moment. It was only after she saw that he didn't have much of a reaction that she continued, "Chief Mo especially transferred Professor Jiang over to take note of everyone's health at any time."
Jiang Hu blinked. "Ah, it's good to meet you. So you're the legendary Leader Shen!"
The legendary— As though I've already become someone of the past. Shen Yexi activated the automatic script for strangers, switching into a model smile while nodding and shaking hands with Jiang Hu. Inside, he turned it over in his mind. For a psychologist to follow the team, of course he was in full agreement… But no matter how you look at this one, he really did not look dependable.
"When we're doing fieldwork, will Dr. Jiang be with us?" Shen Yexi asked casually.
"Chief Mo said for me to go along… Er, Head Shen doesn't have to be so polite." Jiang Hu was a little beside himself next to him. "Actually, they all call me Scatterbrain Hu[2]."
Shen Yexi turned his head to give An Yining a look—from which kindergarten did Old Man Mo dig this child out from? How sinful. Psychologist? This professor better not be a children psychologist of the Genevan School of Thought.
Each time An Yining saw that slightly lost, bewildered expression of Jiang Hu, she couldn't hold herself back from her beastly… No, her maternal instincts erupting. So she glared at Shen Yexi—Not permitted to bully others. Not even with your gaze.
Shen Yexi silently rolled his eyes, before carelessly asking, "If you follow the team during fieldwork, then Dr. Jiang, do you have a gun?"
"No, I'm considered an admin. And I don't like violence either." Jiang Hu spread out his hands. "Yang-jie also said it was a pretty good thing if I don't bring it along. At the time, if by any chance I really was in a hard-pressed situation and have to face a gangster or something, if I brought one, it will just be something for others to use too."
Shen Yexi felt that all the rarities in the world have all been dug out to the office by Mo Cong as mascots.
At this time, a man came over. He was in his early thirties. You can't quite say he looked completely handsome, but he was pleasing to the eye. When the man saw Shen Yexi, the surprise and joy in his expression was not hidden. He took big steps over to give him a hug, patting his back hard. "You finally came back."
This time, the smile on Shen Yexi's face wasn't feigned anymore. "Junzi, you guys have worked hard."
An Yining pointed at Jiang Hu, mouth twitching. "Su-ge, came out to find Scatterbrain Hu, right?"
It was only now that Su Junzi let Shen Yexi go, stretching out a hand to tousle Jiang Hu's hair with a practiced hand. "Stupid kid, where were you running around blindly?"
Jiang Hu, with a head of messy hair, stuck his tongue out.
An Yining swung the file in her hands. "I heard that previously, you brought him around for two whole days before this child could find the way to the washroom. Junzi-ge is truly formidable. As expected of someone who's dragged down by having a family to feed, having patience and perseverance—You can wait if you want to catch up and reminisce or whatever. Boys, let's move to the office first. Call Yang-jie and Sheng Yao while at it. We have work now. Get ready for a meeting."
The author has something to say:
Started a new novel~~~ Hohoho~ Everyone, please support me, please support. The kiddies who like Ni Lu, don't forget to come over. Comrade[3] Mo Cong has been promoted to the Bureau Chief, An'an has guest appearances throughout the entire novel~~~
Translator Notes:
Do note that if you are on laptop and have access to a mouse, you can hover over the highlighted words for easier reading of the TN.
[1]: The english translation for this is actually rather loosely translated. "Ce sont presque toujours de bons sentiments mal dirigés qui font faire aux enfants le premier pas vers le mal" could more accurately mean that "It's usually good sentiments, badly-directed, that frequently cause children to take the first step towards vice." Incidentally, the Chinese translation in the raws is "Children's first step towards vice was usually due to their good nature being led astray."
[2]: The term 浆糊 (jiāng hú) literally refers to wheatpaste but is metaphorically used to describe someone as a scatterbrain. As a h.o.m.onym of Jiang Hu's name, when spoken, it's phonologically indistinguishable from saying his actual name. It has been translated to Scatterbrain Hu to show that it refers to his scatterbrained personality while still clearly referring to Jiang Hu himself.
[3]: 同志, which has been TL'd as Comrade here, aside from the actual definition of it as a "friend", it is also a common term used to mean your friends in the LGBT community.