Chapter 17
Chapter 17
By the time Xu Changjiang arrived at Mingjiang No. 7 Special School with his people, Leng Qingyan had already found a storeroom and locked Zhao Xueru, Qin Yuandong, and the others inside.
“How did this happen…?”
Xu Changjiang and his officers were stunned.
Zhao Xueru had been sent by the Provincial Anomaly Suppression Department, yet now she was tied up.
Even more alarming, the storeroom contained a pale-faced woman holding a child, and her anomaly reading was off the charts.
A-class!
Every member of the Anomaly Suppression Bureau nearly jumped out of their skin. Leng Qingyan hurriedly explained that the Wraith-Mother was currently calm and wouldn’t hurt anyone. Only then did they settle down.
“Qingyan, what in the world happened?”
Xu Changjiang immediately questioned her.
Leng Qingyan’s expression grew complicated. There in the storeroom, she recounted everything that had happened the previous night.
However, too many people were present, so she only revealed the identities of Zhao Xueru, Qin Yuandong, and their accomplices.
As for how it ended, she merely told them that Zhao Xueru had provoked Rain, who destroyed A-402 and then left.
She never mentioned Li Que or Lin Xiaoyu.
After Zhao Xueru’s betrayal, Leng Qingyan no longer trusted the Anomaly Suppression Bureau system as much as she once had.
Who knew whether the Eclipse Organization had planted other spies inside it?
Everything concerning Li Que and Lin Xiaoyu had to remain secret forever.
When she finished, everyone stared in disbelief.
“Zhao Xueru is actually with the Eclipse Organization? Damn her!”
“Someone must be pulling strings behind the Qin family too!”
“She used A-402 against one of her own. Despicable! If Rain hadn’t appeared in time, Qingyan would have been in real danger…”
They erupted in furious curses.
Xu Changjiang drew a deep breath and immediately began issuing orders.
“Dashan, draft a report at once. We need to inform the Provincial Department of everything that happened here.”
“Erhe, take a team to the Qin residence. If I’m right, they’ll have withdrawn now that they’ve been exposed, but follow every lead you can find.”
Wang Dashan and Sun Erhe quickly left with several other anomaly wielders.
Once they were gone, Xu Changjiang looked at Leng Qingyan.
“Qingyan, Rain’s true identity…”
He knew that every appearance of an S-class anomaly like Rain brought a terrible disaster.
Yet this time, she had merely defeated Zhao Xueru, Qin Yuandong, and the others before leaving?
Something didn’t add up.
Especially in a place like Mingjiang No. 7 Special School.
“Lin Xiaoyu.”
Leng Qingyan didn’t conceal the truth. She softly spoke the name.
Xu Changjiang froze on the spot.
He knew Li Que’s students.
During his last visit, he had already discovered that Nian Youyu and Meng Mo were both exceptionally high-level anomalies, possibly no weaker than A-class.
But Lin Xiaoyu…
She was Rain?
How could he not be shocked?
Before this, they had estimated Li Que’s strength at roughly A-class.
It wasn’t that they had never considered S-class. After examining the possibility from every angle, they had concluded it was impossible.
S-class anomaly wielders stood at the pinnacle of the entire country. Even the Provincial Department only had a handful guarding it.
Moreover, advancing from A-class to S-class was extraordinarily dangerous and required enormous amounts of support and assistance.
Every S-class anomaly wielder had been built with a mountain of resources.
For an unaffiliated anomaly wielder like Li Que, A-class should have been his ceiling.
But now…
The S-class Rain was his student?
And she had even undergone some form of evolution?
When Xu Changjiang pictured Lin Xiaoyu’s quiet, obedient demeanor, his mind began to buzz.
Wasn’t this supposed to be a class of disabled students? How had every one of them turned out to be an S-class anomaly?
It was absurd.
Completely absurd.
“Rain wasn’t the one who destroyed A-402,” Leng Qingyan added softly. “She may have evolved, but A-402 naturally suppresses her. Li Que was the one who stamped out the fire-with a single step…”
Even remembering the scene now felt like a dream.
If A-402 had been allowed to burn at full strength, it could have destroyed the entirety of Mingjiang City.
Xu Changjiang fell completely silent.
“S-class… No. Beyond S-class!”
Only after a long time did he murmur, “Is Li Que really an unaffiliated anomaly wielder?”
Countless thoughts flashed through his mind.
Leng Qingyan froze when she heard him. Then she realized what he meant.
“Director, are you saying our original assessment was wrong? Li Que might not be unaffiliated?”
Logically speaking, the assumption didn’t hold up.
For an anomaly wielder without an organization behind him to reach A-class was already unheard of. S-class, let alone beyond S-class, was the stuff of fantasy.
“I don’t know…”
Xu Changjiang’s expression grew complicated. “But from everything we’ve seen, whether or not Li Que has an organization behind him, he is at least on the side of justice.”
Leng Qingyan nodded.
From the Cat-Faced Crone to Zhao Xueru and the Qin family…
If Li Que hadn’t been here, Mingjiang City might have been destroyed several times over by now.
“There’s one more thing, Director,” Leng Qingyan said as something occurred to her.
“Teacher Li gave me this. At first, I thought it was the A-class anomalous entity Crimson Netherworld. But now I think it may be… something else.”
She took out the angel doll and handed it to Xu Changjiang.
He stared in surprise.
Li Que had casually given Leng Qingyan something that could help an anomaly wielder advance?
As the thought arose, Xu Changjiang suddenly noticed that Leng Qingyan seemed different from before.
Throughout her years at the Anomaly Suppression Bureau, she had devoted herself entirely to fighting anomalies. She never wore makeup or dressed up. Yet now, both her clothes and her appearance seemed distinctly more feminine.
Could she and Li Que be…?
Leng Qingyan blushed and hurriedly explained, “What I mean is, could we test this and use it to determine Teacher Li’s identity?”
She bore Li Que no ill will. On the contrary, she trusted him deeply. She simply wanted to understand what stood behind him.
At present, it appeared unfathomable.
Xu Changjiang nodded.
Every anomaly and anomalous entity at A-class or above was known nationwide. If they could determine this material’s origin and then identify whoever had destroyed the entities it came from, they could more or less unravel Li Que’s background.
“A little dust will be enough.”
Xu Changjiang rubbed a small amount from the angel doll, carefully collected it, and returned the doll to Leng Qingyan.
“What did he say about these people?”
Xu Changjiang turned to Zhao Xueru and the others, who sat in a corner against the wall.
All of them were locked in special silver handcuffs, with tape sealing their mouths.
This was a school, after all. The students still needed to sleep, and there was no reason to disturb them.
“Nothing,” Leng Qingyan said, shaking her head. “He left without even glancing at them.”
Xu Changjiang nodded. “Then he still intends for us to handle these matters ourselves.”
After a moment’s thought, he continued, “I’ll take them back to the Anomaly Suppression Bureau for interrogation.”
Both Zhao Xueru and the Qin family seemed connected to something much larger.
They needed to obtain leads and clarify the situation as quickly as possible.
Leng Qingyan nodded, then asked, “Director, what should we do with the Wraith-Mother?”
The Wraith-Mother of the Vengeful Infant was an A-class anomaly, beyond the Mingjiang City Anomaly Suppression Bureau’s capacity.
Xu Changjiang frowned. Even if they took her back, they had no way to imprison or seal her.
More importantly, she was probably this quiet and stable only because she was inside the school.
If they moved her elsewhere and she erupted, the consequences would be disastrous.
“Perhaps… we should ask Teacher Li?”
Xu Changjiang had a headache just thinking about it.
Leng Qingyan nodded. “All right. I’ll take her to see him.”
Xu Changjiang loaded Zhao Xueru and the others into the Anomaly Suppression Bureau’s vehicles one by one, then sped away.
Under cover of night, Leng Qingyan led the Wraith-Mother to Li Que.
Before long, she reached his office and knocked on the door.
Inside, Li Que was looking through student records. He couldn’t find any family information for Lin Xiaoyu, which left him deeply frustrated.
Hearing the knock, Li Que called, “Come in.”
Leng Qingyan entered and walked over.
“Teacher Li.”
“Dean Leng, you’re here.”
Li Que rose. “Have all those people left?”
Leng Qingyan nodded. “They’ve all been taken away.”
“But this one… I don’t know what to do with her.”
She looked helplessly into the dim hallway. The Wraith-Mother stood outside holding her child, her expression vacant. She looked mentally disturbed and didn’t move a muscle.
Li Que glanced at her in surprise.
He had seen this woman near the garbage area while walking Lin Xiaoyu to the restroom. He’d assumed she was a student in cosplay.
Students these days were full of ideas and loved pulling absurd stunts.
So she wasn’t a student after all?
“What’s your name? How did you get into our school?”
Li Que looked at the Wraith-Mother.
But she merely rocked the child gently in her arms and gave no response.
“Can she not speak? She looks… mentally unwell.”
Li Que muttered to himself, then asked Leng Qingyan, “Did she wander in from outside?”
Leng Qingyan froze for a moment, then nodded.
“Could you contact another department to identify her or arrange somewhere for her to stay?” Li Que asked.
Leng Qingyan was confused, but she answered, “I… don’t think anywhere else could accommodate her.”
Li Que also found the situation troublesome, but the sight of the woman holding her child stirred his sympathy.
“For now, I think we should let her stay at the school while we look for her family,” he suggested. “If we can’t find anyone, she can do odd jobs here-cleaning and the like.”
Anomalies ran rampant in this era. There were far too many unfortunate people.
Leng Qingyan was even more bewildered. Did Li Que really mean to keep an anomaly like this on campus?
Then she reconsidered. It probably wasn’t a problem. There were already several S-class anomalies at this school. What difference would one more A-class make?
“Here. Poor little thing. Have some candy.”
Li Que stepped outside and casually tucked two pieces of White Rabbit milk candy into the Wraith-Mother’s hand. Then he said, “Dean Leng, I’ll head home now.”
He still needed to research Five Dragons Mountain in preparation for the upcoming home visit.
“Teacher Li…”
Leng Qingyan wanted to say something else, but Li Que had already left.
She sighed softly.
“Sweet… sweet…”
An eerie infant voice suddenly sounded behind her.
Her scalp prickled.
Was the Vengeful Infant about to erupt? It had been perfectly quiet until now!
She spun around in terror.
The Vengeful Infant had stuffed a piece of White Rabbit milk candy into its mouth. A smile uglier than a sob crept across its tiny face, making it look unspeakably uncanny.
The Wraith-Mother herself had fallen into a daze.
“Sweep the floors… sweep the floors…”
The next moment, she actually spoke those words. Still holding her child, she turned and found a broom beside a nearby trash can. With the infant cradled in one arm and the broom held in the other, she began sweeping.
Moonlight flowed like water through the quiet night.
In the teaching building’s corridor, an A-class anomaly who had died countless years ago and given birth after death held her dead child while sweeping beneath the moonlight.
Like a walking corpse.
Yet diligent, earnest, and conscientious.
The scene was inexplicably eerie.
Leng Qingyan stared, utterly dumbfounded.
She stood frozen for a long time, an inexplicable chill spreading through her entire body.
“That candy…”
She murmured unconsciously.
Until now, the Wraith-Mother’s behavior had been entirely unpredictable. She had merely been temporarily suppressed. If released into the outside world, she would still wreak havoc and be almost impossible to handle.
But now, the Wraith-Mother seemed to have developed a faint trace of…
Sentience.
“Li Que really can change an anomaly’s perception. He can truly guide anomalies… back to normal?”
At that moment, towering waves seemed to surge through Leng Qingyan’s heart.
Just what kind of anomalous entity was that White Rabbit milk candy?
…