Chapter 154
by Need_More_SleepChapter 154: When Can I Retire?
“Little girl, why are you swinging alone at this hour?” Yiwen bent down, peering at the child on the playground swing.
It was past 1:00 a.m. Though nightlife still thrived, a girl no older than six or seven had no business being here alone.
Those large blue eyes… They reminded Yiwen irresistibly of that little bitch.
What a shame. Such an adorable child, cursed with eyes so like hers.
“Careful—this girl is Patient Zero for the viral outbreak.” A hazmat-suited officer pulled Yiwen back and handcuffed the child.
The girl blinked up at them, neither crying nor resisting.
“I know.” Yiwen wasn’t ignorant—such blatant disease-spreading couldn’t be missed. “Is her ability out of control?”
Two viral-ability outbreaks in one city? If this got out, local radicals might arm themselves and storm ability-user schools…
Sigh. Old Chen better controls the narrative. This “gas explosion with toxic side effects” is terrifying—hope the gas company has a convincing explanation.
“What’s your name, sweetie?” Yiwen asked through her toxin-filtering mask.
“Misha.” The girl smiled sweetly. “Misha Lasvedo.”
The surname struck Yiwen as faintly familiar.
“Lasvedo?!” The hazmat officer immediately jabbed a sedative into the girl’s neck.
Compared to “Misha,” “Lasvedo” was the real shocker.
Viral crisis: tentatively resolved.
At least the spread diseases weren’t lethal—though treatment would still bankrupt many.
————————
Next day, Lu Mingxue’s (crossed out), Yiwen and Mi Xiaoliu’s secret hideout
Breaking News: [Miracle Doctor, the Black-Clothed One]
“What fresh nonsense is this?” Yiwen gaped at the headline.
After a month’s absence, the Black-Clothed One made headlines again?
Skimming the article revealed a sob story about a terminally ill girl—chemo, life-or-death surgeries—until the Black-Clothed One bestowed a “magic herb” that cured her instantly. Now she could “jump, cry, and eat like a champ.”
A second case followed: an elderly man in the adjacent ward recovered from multiple ailments overnight except Alzheimer’s.
The writing mirrored those shady “miracle tea” ads—just missing a purchase link. Drink this for diabetes! Cure foot fungus! Skeptical like I was? Try it now!
Clickbait. Absolute clickbait.
A video showed a weeping woman and a capped girl bowing: “Thank you, the Black-Clothed One.”
“……”
Comments overflowed with sarcasm: “Just drop the price already,” “One video + text = whole backstory now?”
Parody videos mushroomed—actors playing both scammer and scammed, mocking the absurdity of marketing via assassin-trending.
“Xiaoliu, check this lunacy—” Yiwen turned and kicked something.
Mi Xiaoliu stood abruptly, revealing the clay puppy she’d been sculpting—now crushed underfoot.
She turned to leave but was yanked back.
The entire lunch break was spent with Yiwen painstakingly reshaping the puppy.
Wait—I’m the girl here! Shouldn’t I be the one getting pampered?!
……
“That news is real.” Officer Chen’s call shattered her skepticism.
Yiwen: “Are you hearing yourself?”
“We verified. The girl you visit? Her eyes healed overnight—no surgical traces.”
Beibei had stayed silent, but their under-bed recorder captured everything.
“No way…” Yiwen’s worldview cracked.
“It’s true.” Officer Chen unblinking stared at Mi Xiaoliu’s school ID photo on his screen.
He’d been comparing it to Black-Clothed One’s footage.
The assassin’s face was scrubbed from records, but their builds matched perfectly—save for a slight height discrepancy (Elevator shoes).
Even with Yiwen and Lu Mingxue’s conflicting gender testimonies, his suspicions held.
Yet without proof, suspicion was all he had.
“Oddly, not all the old man’s conditions were cured.”
“Alzheimer’s, right?” Yiwen guessed.
“More. Black element deposits. Pulmonary armor disease.” New post-meteor afflictions. Officer Chen checked his notes. “All three share one trait.”
“Which is?” Yiwen knew he’d stall otherwise.
“They’re currently incurable.”
“No shit.” She rolled her eyes.
“No, what I mean is—this old man had other incurable conditions, including one with only two documented recovery cases worldwide… yet he was healed regardless.” Officer Chen’s tone turned grave. “That ‘miracle herb’ might genuinely exist.”
Yiwen understood his implication.
This so-called herb was likely an ability-derived anomaly—something that defied conventional logic.
Any disease ever cured in human history, no matter how impossibly rare or difficult to treat, could potentially be instantly resolved by consuming it.
Not quite a panacea, but a miraculous creation nonetheless.
How does something like this exist? What kind of girl is she?
“If this is true, capturing the Black-Clothed One might mean not sending her to juvenile detention,” Officer Chen mused, closing Mi Xiaoliu’s file to draft his “viral gas explosion” cover story.
Not that they could’ve jailed her anyway—Black-Clothed One carried the black element. Protocol demanded isolation and treatment.
But if she could mass-produce such medicine, her potential contributions would far outweigh the crimes of killing a few scumbags.
“What about my revenge plans then?” Yiwen scowled.
“Revenge plans?” Officer Chen blinked.
He remained unaware of the hundred-odd torture scenarios Yiwen had mentally enacted upon the assassin.
“Never mind. Didn’t you say you had Black-Clothed One intel for me?”
There goes my shopping date with Mi Xiaoliu… again.
For work, Yiwen had stood him up repeatedly. Yet he never held a grudge—where else would you find a guy this patient?
“Right. We’ve confirmed Black-Clothed One isn’t affiliated with Tian Xing Dao—she’s from Night Hawks—”
“Captain Chen! Red Prince movement detected!” An excited voice crackled through the line, cutting him off.
Officer Chen hung up abruptly.
Minutes later, he called back.
“Mission alert.”
“Got it. Black-Clothed One again?” Yiwen rubbed her butt reflexively.
The memory still stung—that little bitch reused the needle she stabbed me with! So unsanitary!
“No… An ambush for the Red Prince.”
Zhang Zikun’s mediocre skills made him worse at evasion than even Mi Xiaoliu, though the Plague Doctor’s aid had helped him shake surveillance.
Then, in spectacularly bad timing, Wei Shi orchestrated his “accidental” four-story plunge…
“So he’s likely connected to the Red Prince?” Yiwen pieced it together.
“Correct. And after notifying Little Demon King, he was—coincidentally—delayed by another crime syndicate en route. Like sacrificial pawns in Calabash Brothers, they threw themselves at him, buying just enough time.”
Probability manipulation—utterly broken.
Children kept disappearing across Fanzui City. Even with the Red Prince’s presence publicized, ordinary citizens stood no chance against such an ability.
The city was no stranger to freak accidents, but the timing screamed his involvement.
Many assassins existed, but only one specialized in preying on children this lethally. Every second he breathed posed a societal catastrophe.
Like last time, they’d set traps along his probable routes—at unknowable costs.
“This operation is voluntary for all units. Participants must prepare their affairs beforehand.” Officer Chen’s voice wavered uncharacteristically.
Even if he hadn’t relayed this, official channels would’ve soon followed.
“I want you to decline. You’re not some shonen protagonist charging blindly to your death. One more or less won’t change anything—don’t throw your life away. If anything happened, I couldn’t face your father.”
“Understood.” Yiwen knew better than to overreach.
She burned to avenge Mi Xiaoliu’s broken arm, but throwing herself at certain death without the power to back it up?
This wasn’t a manga where flashbacks unlocked 999+ armor-piercing punches.
Officer Chen hung up, then ordered surveillance on Yiwen’s line—only relaxing when intercepts confirmed her refusal.
Citywide plagues. Miracle herbs. Red Prince. The server… His plate overflowed with crises dwarfing mundane homicides.
No more disasters. My hairline can’t take it.
“Chief Chen—Madam Lasvedo retrieved Misha.”
Officer Chen: “……”
When can I retire?
[Translator’s Note: See the index page for this Novel if you want to see the Amazon Link for the eBooks.]
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