Located in the northernmost coastal city of the nation,
The Huaxia immigrants here are relatively few, making up less than 10% of the total city population.
Although their numbers are small, they all choose to live in one area and look after each other, forming a unique Chinese Street.
Both the architectural style and type of shops are very similar to those in ordinary blocks of Jupiter City, you can even see resettlement areas similar to where Luo Di used to live.
≮Chinese Street is approaching, please prepare to get off in advance≯.
The moment Luo Di got off, he felt as if he was back in Jupiter City, bustling and with passers-by conversing in Mandarin.
Although Chinese Street seems lively on the surface, a closer observation reveals discordant elements.
At the intersections, one can see a lot of scattered paper money and burnt braziers,
Posters looking for missing people are plastered on electricity poles and in front of shops,
The entire street lacks the presence of young men, Fresh chapters posted on novel[f]ire.net
[Lan Sister’s Noodle Shop]
Having not eaten yet, Luo Di walked into an ordinary noodle shop, now past lunchtime, the owner—a woman nearing forty and wearing an apron—had just cleared up the shop and was preparing to rest with her head on the table.
She immediately got up when she saw a customer entering,
Upon realizing that her customer was a young man, her expression quickly changed, and after looking at the hiking backpack placed on the table, she roughly guessed his identity.
"Are you from out of town?"
"I won’t do business with you, take your bag and stay away from here. It’s not that I’m repelling you, but something strange has been happening around here recently. Young men like you are prone to be involved in accidents.
Don’t stay around Chinese Street, just stay somewhere else."
"I’ll leave after I eat."
The proprietor was kind-hearted, seeing Luo Di looking slightly emaciated and listless, she especially added a generous serving of beef toppings.
Perhaps it had been a long time since he had eaten his hometown’s noodles, Luo Di felt somewhat emotional looking at the spicy oil noodles brought to him, and tried using his newly attached bionic arm to pick up the chopsticks.
Unexpectedly, it functioned just like a normal arm, picking up chopsticks without any obvious signs of discomfort.
However, staring at his incredibly realistic left arm, Luo Di’s thoughts seemed to travel back,
Returning to a newly built cemetery,
Smelling a whiff of burnt flesh,
And remembering a friend’s photo engraved on the tombstone surface,
Shaking his head vigorously to snap his mind back to reality, he glanced at the slightly bulging hiking backpack and quickly buried his head in the noodle bowl, slurping loudly, and drank all the soup to the last drop.
Although he had stayed in the Psychiatric Hospital for three months, he still had money.
The "Four Middle School Incident" had earned Luo Di a fair amount of compensation, and the Investigation Bureau had also applied for a talent fund for him, ensuring he had enough for several years of normal expenditure.
While paying via QR code, Luo Di casually asked: "Boss, do you know what these young people’s disappearances are related to?"
"The people from the Investigation Bureau have come to investigate several times. What can an owner of a noodle shop know?
I have only heard some rumors, that some elderly people nearby mentioned it might be a widow coveting the essence blood of young men, using some means to abduct them.
You better leave quickly, if any woman tries to strike up a conversation with you, don’t respond at all."
Such rumors are mostly unreliable, in a city covered with cameras, any prior contact of the missing person would inevitably be caught on camera, and the Investigation Bureau would immediately follow up to catch the suspect.
Luo Di, looking like a traveler, walked on Chinese Street, soon attracting quite a few gazes, with many kind-hearted people coming up to remind him that he would be leaving soon; he simply smiled back.
Following the accommodation location provided by the Investigation Bureau, Luo Di arrived at this densely populated apartment building, primarily accommodating single or double residents.
The Investigation Bureau had already registered his identity at the local community, Luo Di just needed to carry his bag and move in.
While waiting for the elevator,
A woman pushing a stroller came in from outside, initially intending to greet him, but she took a step back upon seeing Luo Di’s young face.
Even when the elevator arrived, the woman had no intention of getting on.
The lady simply did not want to get involved in the disappearance case and, having a newborn child, she couldn’t take such a risk.
As the elevator doors closed,
Luo Di, alone in the elevator, actually had a smile on his face,
Since the disappearance case has become well known to this extent, any male fitting the victim profile would either stay indoors or move away from here.
This way, he was practically the only male fitting the profile, making it easier to lure out the thing behind the incident, potentially saving a lot of time.
Luo Di’s thoughts were not on the missing person case at the moment; he had another matter to deal with.
He stepped out of the elevator and walked briskly to the door of the single apartment arranged for him by the Investigation Bureau.
Bracelet swipe~ beep!
As soon as he pushed open the door, he could smell the freshness mixed with a slight hint of formaldehyde,
Though the furnishings inside were somewhat old, they had been cleaned meticulously, even the wall paint had been redone.
A studio apartment of about forty square meters, small but fully equipped.
The TV in the living room integrated computer functions, with several different types of ports on the side, perfectly compatible with the storage card in the file bag.
Yet, Luo Di was not in a hurry to watch the video of the missing person,
First, he locked the door with multiple locks, closed all the windows, and drew the curtains,
He meticulously inspected every corner and crevice of the room,
Even the easy-to-ignore edges were thoroughly searched by him,
Making absolutely sure there were no cameras or recording devices,
Everything was ready,
He carefully opened his backpack, first taking out the soft items on top, such as clothes and towels, one by one.
Then he extended both hands along the inner edge of the bag downwards,
When the cold touch met his fingers, he then gently pulled outward, trying to avoid scraping the precious item against the backpack’s zipper,
"It’s been a hard journey."
The soft black hair lightly touched Luo Di’s arm,
A high school girl’s head, pale and full of sewing marks, was taken out,
Her eyes closed, her lips colorless,
Completely lifeless, with no sign of waking up, simply a dead person’s head.
Luo Di had prepared the couch with two layers of paper towels in advance, gently and slowly placing the head on them, directly facing the TV.
"Before we watch the TV programs, let’s take a look at the video information of the four missing persons first."
Luo Di deliberately dimmed the room’s light and inserted the video card of the first missing person into the TV, playing the lengthy, uninteresting video at four times speed.
Perhaps because of experiencing the Four Middle School Incident,
or perhaps from spending a lot of time in the Psychiatric Hospital,
or maybe for other reasons,
his concentration was exceptionally high now, he could clearly capture each frame, and he was very interested in the incident itself.
Whenever a suspicious frame appeared, Luo Di would pause to observe carefully and speak a few words to the head beside him, keeping his voice as low as possible so as not to be heard outside.
If someone were to peek into the room from outside the window, they would probably be quite frightened.
Downstairs of the Youth Apartment.
Due to one elevator under repair, only one was in operation, missing one required a long wait.
The woman pushing a baby stroller finally got the elevator after waiting for over ten minutes, just as the elevator doors were about to close, a hand suddenly blocked between the doors.
A middle-aged man with white hair and dark circles under his eyes walked in, with eyes covered in red veins; until the elevator doors closed, he still hadn’t pressed the floor number.
The woman, having lived here for several years without ever seeing this man, instinctively pulled back the baby stroller, her other hand already positioned on her bracelet ready to call for help.
Suddenly, a voice came through:
"Do you know which floor that person just went to before?"
The voice was devoid of any emotion, yet it made the woman extremely uncomfortable, instinctively recalling the previous elevator waiting scene, remembering the first stop the number reached after the youth entered the elevator.
After the middle-aged man pressed the [11] button, he moved his hand back,
His long-untrimmed nails were somewhat black, and he lightly touched the baby stroller, almost reaching the baby inside.
The woman was so terrified she could hardly breathe,
His fingers stopped in front of the baby, the middle-aged man’s voice came through again:
"Don’t even think about reporting this, I just need to find that young man for something. Otherwise... I might come looking for you."
As the middle-aged man left, the woman almost collapsed to the ground in fright.
Recalling the recent scene, she dared not call for help, only wanting to hurriedly go home to pack up, likely not staying here for the time being until the Chinese Street disappearance case was resolved.