Hey! Control Yourself! - Chapter 6

Chapter 6: Getting So Close

“Shen Ji, are you stalling for time?” Sha Mo asked doubtfully.

“We’re like orphans abandoned in Gaya… just orphans…” Lei Yi clutched Royce’s shoulder, putting on a display of theatrical agony. Royce shook his shoulder in disgust to throw him off.

Shen Ji paused, then wrote a series of addresses and numbers on the form.

The two police officers took the form, glanced at it, and realizing something, they said solemnly, “Please wait a moment.” They walked out with expressions that were quite difficult to read.

“Who? You said who?” The old Chief, who had just been rushed back from the hospital after emergency treatment, had been resting with his eyes closed. Upon hearing his subordinate’s report, he snapped his eyes open.

“The address he wrote is indeed that one, and there’s a secret code. We aren’t sure if it’s real or fake, so we came to ask you.”

“How could that gentleman be involved with a fugitive?” The Chief cautiously took the form.

“Mainly, look at this man’s appearance first. Doesn’t he look exactly like that person?” the officer said.

The monitor for the waiting room was switched on. The Chief looked at the black-haired young man and, for a moment, found him strikingly familiar.

“Forget Country D—even in all of Gaya, this combination of black hair and black eyes is extremely rare. That’s why we hesitated, wondering if he might be telling the truth.”

The people of Gaya had no hair-dyeing industry, nor any concept of makeup or disguises. Their first impression of a peer’s appearance usually lasted a lifetime. Thus, a person’s face was the ultimate proof of identity.

The Chief paced back and forth, shaking his head one moment and looking incredulous the next. Finally, he entered the waiting room.

The waiting room had been transformed into an airtight iron cell; the reinforced steel door opened only after an iris scan. The Chief walked in, squinting as he scrutinized Shen Ji.

Royce and the others recognized him as the old man who had stood before Shen Ji the previous night and grew nervous. Surely he would recognize Shen Ji soon.

At that moment, Shen Ji offered the Chief a smile.

Because he had to sustain two souls, his energy and vitality were limited. He couldn’t be as lively as Lei Yi, nor as cautious and anxious as Royce. He always appeared indifferent, possessing a detached calmness that seemed to drift outside the situation. He spoke little and smiled even less.

This time, his smile wasn’t for any particular reason other than remembering the Chief’s “social death” embarrassment from two nights ago.

The Chief watched him, looking dazed. To him, this smile clearly indicated a mysterious identity and a powerful backer; otherwise, how could a fugitive smile like that at a Police Chief? Clearly, he did not recognize Shen Ji.

“The person you wrote on the form as your bailor… what is their relationship to you?”

“Let’s just say there’s a connection,” Shen Ji replied.

The Chief nodded meaningfully. “Wait. If you have a connection with him, how did you end up in prison ten years ago?”

“…I’d like to know that too. Ten years ago, I was still in primary school,” Shen Ji said, looking at him.

The Chief turned to the female officer, who nodded. “Blood age testing shows their ages are between eighteen and nineteen.”

Now all the officers were stunned. The gene bank couldn’t be wrong, but human blood and bodies couldn’t lie either. In short, none of it made sense; it was unfathomable.

“This kid’s words are still too absurd,” another officer remarked.

“Regardless, I am willing to try and contact them for you,” the Chief said, his expression grave as if he were taking on a heavy burden. “However, if you are lying, I have a hundred charges I can use to make you pay the price.”

He turned around, walked to the door, and opened a holographic video display. He began inputting the secret codes Shen Ji had written one by one.

Lei Yi whispered to Shen Ji, “Who exactly did you write down? This old guy looks like he’s headed for the execution grounds.”

Shen Ji replied, “There are portraits of Gaya’s figures hanging in the school’s Science and Technology Museum corridor. I just picked one.”

“Wow, just picked one? Every single person on that wall is a big shot.”

“So who is it?” Sha Mo asked curiously.

“The Minister of the International Union, Shen Yi.”

Sha Mo: “Ha—”

“Good grief… good grief, Shen Ji, you’ve got guts,” Lei Yi’s eyes widened.

“But won’t this be exposed easily?” Royce didn’t understand.

Shen Ji said nothing. He knew what he was doing. As things stood, he might not even live past twenty. He was here to kill Sheng Lu, not to waste time in a police station.

Shen Ji had a secret: he carried the bloodline of the Gaya people. His father was the most outstanding Divine Healer of the Gaya era. His second uncle was Shen Yi, the Minister of the Gaya 47 International Union. However, the current Shen Yi certainly wouldn’t know him. Even his own father was currently a “single-from-the-womb” bachelor.

While waiting for the call to connect, the Chief stared at them. The four young men sat behind the fan-shaped interrogation table, each looking more innocent than the last.

“Your lie will be exposed soon,” the Chief sneered.

The imaging connected. Suddenly, the sounds of a noisy crowd mixed with running footsteps erupted as someone burst into the room. The opening door nearly knocked the old Chief over.

“Are you crazy? Is the apocalypse coming early?” The Chief was pulled up, barely catching his breath.

“No, Chief, I’m afraid it’s worse than that… Sheng Lu is here!”

The Chief froze on the spot, sinking into his memories, wondering if he had ever offended Shaxing or Sheng Lu during his career. “…What is he here for?”

The policeman shook his head, his face filled with unease. “Please, go see for yourself.”

“No need to trouble yourself. I’ve already entered.”

In an instant, there was absolute silence, broken only by the approaching footsteps of a demon. The air grew tense and scorched, as if nerves were being burned; it felt as though the surrounding magnetic field was distorting.

Two young policemen went stiff. In their dilated pupils, the demon’s silhouette was reflected. Legends said that to meet the eyes of a demon was to have your soul taken.

“It’s quite hot in here,” Sheng Lu remarked casually as he stepped into the reinforced steel waiting room.

Someone helped him take off his suit trench coat from behind—or rather, not a person (there was no one behind him), but a pair of hands. Those two hands appeared out of thin air, looking as if they had reached out from the magma of hell, precisely grabbing the collar and sliding the coat off Sheng Lu’s shoulders.

Shen Ji furrowed his brows. He watched the two hands skillfully spread and flatten the coat before fixing it against a corner of the wall, where it remained motionless, like a piece of realist art acting as a coat rack.

Lei Yi almost screamed, Royce turned pale, and Sha Mo was speechless. The two policemen trembled, and the old Chief nearly reached his end then and there.

Sheng Lu, however, seemed oblivious. His face even held a slight smile as he strolled in his black suit around the table, passing the chairs where the young men sat.

Royce and the others sat frozen, holding their breath. They felt Sheng Lu’s hand casually brush the tops of their chair backs as he passed behind them, like a white dove hopping across piano keys. It felt like a demon’s hand tapping on their hearts. Thump! Thump! Thump!

In the sweltering waiting room, there was silence, save for the policemen praying in their hearts. Sheng Lu passed behind several people until his hand rested on the back of Shen Ji’s chair, and he stopped.

Lei Yi didn’t know how he found such courage, but while he dared not move his body, his eyes darted to the right. Shen Ji was sitting there. He saw Sheng Lu lean down toward Shen Ji, his white hair flowing down and blocking Lei Yi’s view of Shen Ji’s face.

He saw Sheng Lu’s hand supporting itself on the table in front of Shen Ji. That hand was as beautiful as white porcelain, with powerful veins faintly visible. The demon’s physique was that of a tall, athletic adult male. He leaned down slightly, one hand on the table and the other on the chair, effectively taking the seated Shen Ji into his embrace.

Shen Ji looked up, meeting the man’s crimson eyes. “Is there something wrong that requires you to get so close?”

Hearing this, Sheng Lu’s hand moved from the chair to Shen Ji’s shoulder. During this movement, his palm trembled slightly, as if the action were incredibly taxing and difficult.

“Is it close?” He bent his waist even lower, letting out a deep sigh directly above Shen Ji’s head. His breath stirred a strand of Shen Ji’s black hair.

Shen Ji felt the coldness of his palm; a chill that seeped through his clothes to his skin, carrying a faint, electric numbing sensation—just like a real demon. Yet, the breath falling on his hair carried a rhythmic warmth, just like a normal person.

“Mr. Sheng Lu… my apologies, your visit to our station…” The Chief finally recovered from his shock. Being of advanced age, he still had to uphold the dignity of the police station.

But when Sheng Lu raised his eyes to look at him, his gaze was cruel and his lips were cold—completely different from his expression just a moment prior. The Chief’s voice trembled again: “Uh… is there something you need?”

“Four young men of unknown origin died, and four old men from the Giant God Cult died as well. Now people suspect me, even thinking I’m performing some kind of sacrificial evil ritual. I thought you would probably summon me. Unfortunately, I couldn’t wait for a summons, so I’ve come uninvited.”

As he spoke, his gaze drifted back to Shen Ji. His hand on Shen Ji’s shoulder was like a snake, biting into his blood vessels with force through the fabric and skin.

Shen Ji remembered the dream in the space capsule hotel. It was the exact same feeling.

The officers wiped sweat away internally: You really don’t need to be this “law-abiding.”

The female officer, showing extraordinary courage, spoke up: “Regarding the death of the four young men, we already have clues and a new suspect. So, you didn’t need to come in person.”

Sheng Lu stood up straight. “No wonder…”

His sudden movement made everyone anxious, watching him with bated breath. His hand remained on Shen Ji’s shoulder. Looking down, he said, “I thought you weren’t going to come find me anymore. It turns out you were just tied up. You must have been desperate to see me.”

He seemed increasingly inclined toward a form of self-affirmation.

Shen Ji agreed: “…Yes, I’ve been thinking about it constantly.”

Even if what he was desperate for was to kill him.