Chapter 84

Chapter 84: Out of Stock

So arrogant?

Amid her confusion, Yiwen felt a fleeting sense of relief deep down-relief that this girl was still alive, even though the Devil had already warned her of this. 

But more than anything, an urge surged up inside her, she wanted to take this little bitch down right now and carry out the twisted revenge plan she’d been nursing in her heart.

She glanced at her left arm, still immobilized. For now, she had to let go of that idea-she could barely manage handcuffs one-handed, let alone against someone who could brawl in the Windmill Tower.

Let’s see what she’s here for first. Maybe she’ll let something slip.

“Master, don’t talk to her, or that little white-haired brat will figure out who you are,” Sasha warned urgently.

Her master’s voice was, after all, quite recognizable.

“Excuse me, who are you?” Yiwen feigned confusion.

She wasn’t the only one masked-this little bitch shouldn’t know her identity either.

“I’m not talking to you,” said Mi Xiaoliu.

Yiwen: “???”

Did she recognize me? That can’t be.

“No, that’s not what I meant… Master, I mean you shouldn’t speak. If she hears your voice, she might recognize you,” Sasha explained with difficulty.

Never mind the voice-just that flat tone and the way she used as few words as possible, even a chuunibyou girl would have a hard time imitating it.

“Princess?” Beibei’s voice was filled with genuine happiness at Mi Xiaoliu’s arrival.

But, only able to hear, not see, she couldn’t quite understand why two people who were enemies before would come together, and now act like strangers… 

It all seemed so complicated, like a fifty-episode drama waiting to be filmed.

But one thing she was sure of: Princess was a wanted criminal, and Yiwen was a police officer (sir? ma’am?).

Mi Xiaoliu sat down, quietly watching her, saying nothing.

The steam from the bed billowed up under her hood, making her reach up to scratch her cheek.

Yiwen caught this detail, deeply shocked but saying nothing, choosing instead to sit quietly to the side, a transparent presence, leaving the conversation to the other two.

The black element really was a scourge that even middle school kids were suffering.

Yiwen’s heart sank.

A strange silence settled in. Yiwen didn’t speak, Mi Xiaoliu didn’t speak, and Beibei had no idea what they were up to.

“So annoying! Say something!” Beibei couldn’t take it anymore, kicking her legs in frustration.

“Um, can you introduce this person to me?” Yiwen picked up the conversation.

“Introduce…?” Beibei hesitated, recalling their adversarial relationship, and decided to stick to what she could say: “This is Princess, a friend I met by chance. Her vocal cords aren’t feeling well, so she probably can’t talk.”

Mi Xiaoliu: “I…”

“Your vocal cords aren’t well, don’t talk,” Beibei patted her.

Mi Xiaoliu, confused, asked Sasha what vocal cords were.

“No…”

“Your vocal cords aren’t well,” Beibei patted her again.

“Okay.”

Mi Xiaoliu remembered-her vocal cords weren’t well.

“Don’t take it seriously, Master.”

“Alright, you’ve seen her, now hurry up and go. Don’t keep coming here for no reason,” Beibei stuffed a donut into Mi Xiaoliu’s hand and pushed her toward the window, as if shooing her away.

“…”

The sound of the window opening and closing echoed. Mi Xiaoliu was gone.

Ah! Forgive me, Princess, this wasn’t my intention! I just don’t want you to get caught by the police.

In her mind, Beibei pictured a black-haired girl, taking time out of her busy life to visit a friend she’d only met a handful of times, only to be treated so coldly.

Forced to leave in disappointment, clutching her chest as yellowed leaves falling around her, her heart as cold as the autumn wind…

Ouch… just imagining such a heartbreaking scene, she probably wouldn’t sleep tonight. What if Princess felt so hurt she never came again?

Seeing Beibei’s actions, Yiwen more or less understood. 

She looked at Beibei seriously: “Don’t you realize you might be hurting her by doing this?”

“How would it hurt her?” Beibei shook her head. “In your eyes, students our age should just study hard, and if we break the law, we should be caught and disciplined right away?”

She laughed bitterly. “Officer, do you know why I joined Tian Xing Dao? I don’t have anyone I want revenge on, I wasn’t bullied at school or abused at home. Honestly, x-ray vision can’t really help with revenge, can it?”

Beibei looked up at the steam engine above her head, spewing clouds: “I need money. That’s all. In Tian Xing Dao, anyone who’s used N1202 and contributed to the organization gets a big payout.”

“I send all the money to my sister. She needs it for surgery. She’s always been better than me, her life is worth more than mine, both in society’s eyes and our parents’.”

“Does Tian Xing Dao have anything to help with the black element?” Yiwen asked. “Did you know that girl has it too? She started itching when she touched the steam just now.”

The hospital was keeping Beibei alive at a near-charity price, using this life-support device. With it, she could live another five or six years.

If the black-haired girl kept running around outside, within half a year she’d start coughing, then get severe headaches, her vision would blur, her mind would go fuzzy… 

Depending on the drugs used, there could be other symptoms too, like Beibei’s photophobia.

Beibei fell silent.

A long, awkward silence stretched out, until Yiwen was about to leave. Only then did Beibei speak: “Isn’t that better?”

“What?” Yiwen didn’t understand.

“Even so, at least she can be free for the rest of her life, even if she’s just waiting to die. Unlike me, stuck in this tiny room, listening to a boring radio, with fewer than five people willing to visit me, and none of them, I’ve ever even seen in person.”

If she could, she’d rather just have her eyes gouged out and be sent outside to do whatever she wanted for the rest of her days.

It was just as tragic, but she envied Princess so much.

Leaving Beibei’s ward and returning to her own hospital bed, Yiwen asked Officer Chen, who had come to visit, “Is there really no way to cure the black element in this world?”

“I don’t know,” Officer Chen shook his head, peeling an apple.

“How can you not know?” Even a ‘not yet’ would be better than that.

Officer Chen ignored Yiwen’s outstretched hand and took a bite of the apple himself. “Remember the March Servant Incident?”

“What’s that got to do with this?” Yiwen grumbled, punching his arm.

“More than half of those people wore white coats. Honestly, I’d never seen so many researchers in one place,” Officer Chen mused. “After interrogation, it turned out to be a century-old organization. I’d never heard of them before the Servant Incident, and chances are Bingyuan Ya came from there too.”

“They might have a solution?” Yiwen was skeptical.

“Not might…” Officer Chen shook his head. “N1202 was made by them.”

Not all the white coats who fell from 10,000 meters died or were rescued, a significant number escaped, using their super abilities.

If not for that incident, who knows how long it would have taken the police to even notice them.

“In the six years since the drug appeared, official researchers have never managed to replicate its formula. It’s believed to be related to the ‘Star.’”

“The Star…”

A hundred years ago, a meteorite fell. No one could approach the crash sites, but thanks to human effort and technological progress, samples were eventually collected.

If you can collect one, you can collect many. The century-old event didn’t deplete the meteorites, but every single one had been touched.

The “Star” was a substance found at the heart of some meteorites-about the size of a fist, a perfect sphere, and so far, completely indestructible.

Not every meteorite contained one. To date, only three Stars had been publicly identified worldwide. Strangely, each had a different composition and emitted more radiation than ordinary meteorites.

“Those people have a Star?”

“Maybe. But they can’t mass-produce those two illegal drugs. Our undercover agent in the black market says that since March, N1202’s price has shot up tenfold. Rumor is, it’s out of stock-maybe the ingredient is extinct.”

LW1204 was going for even higher, into the hundreds of millions, despite its side effects.

“Out of stock, but there are still illegal deals every day?” 

Yiwen was skeptical. If the ingredient was that rare, would they still be selling it so freely?

“You’re new, so you don’t know. We used to seize whole crates. Now, most of the space in a crate is just foam padding.”

Maybe it’s for the best. In a few decades, these inhumane things might disappear for good.

There was a darker theory, Officer Chen didn’t share with Yiwen. According to interrogations, Easter wasn’t a gang, but an organization that put research and medicine first.

Such groups needed funding, of course, but if a research sample plant or animal was so rare it was hard to cultivate, they’d never sell it for money.

Maybe, to them, N1202 and even LW1204 were just worthless byproducts. Yet, even these “wastes” had stumped official researchers for six years.

Even if they were waste, they must have some value. Outwardly, they said it was out of stock, but who knew how much they had inside…

“Maybe the people in the Fallen City already have a lead on the black element,” Officer Chen added. “Too bad they won’t share any intel with the Federation.”