Zhang Xiaoman chuckled and explained:
"Actually, it’s not as complicated as you think; the principle is quite simple when put plainly. In a nutshell, if I don’t want you to find me, then you absolutely cannot find me. My will takes the highest priority, and the subconscious is there to fill in the gaps of my subjective thoughts."
Brother Hero nodded and then looked down at his phone with a pained expression.
"Brother Man, all the information on my phone is gone. There were so many precious things in it. I’ve lost a big deal this time..."
Meanwhile, in the Abnormality Department in Qionghua City, inside the branch.
In a room that served as an interview room, Master Liao sat furiously at the edge of a large table, facing him were a young male and a young female investigator.
"Liao Fugui, we’ve heard that you had some unpleasantness with that mysterious person. Is that true? Could you share the details with us? And how much do you know about him? Can you describe what he looks like?"
No sooner had Master Liao heard the words than he immediately spoke: "Officers, rest assured, I will not hide anything about this matter. Although he covered his face when I saw him the second time, I believe I’ve seen him once before, and I remember what he looks like. It was at..."
He had gotten this far when the lighting in the room suddenly flickered and then several lights on the ceiling went out all at once, cutting off his ensuing words.
"Eh? Why did the lights go out?"
The male investigator’s voice echoed in the pitch-black room before a series of footsteps sounded, and the door to the room was opened, letting in light from outside.
"Old Li, what happened to the lights in here? Did a fuse blow?"
The male investigator called out as he walked outside, while the female investigator reassured Master Liao: "Mr. Liao, there’s been a little accident, please wait a moment, it should be fixed shortly."
Master Liao nodded and didn’t say anything.
Outside, after the male investigator bustled about for a while, the lights in the room finally came back on, and soon after he returned to his seat.
"Sorry about that, it was a blown fuse, we’ve just replaced it..."
After finishing speaking, the male investigator picked up his pen and paper again and looked at Master Liao: "Now, Mr. Liao, let’s continue with the topic we were discussing."
Master Liao nodded and said, "Actually, despite my age, my memory is always quite good. I will absolutely not forget what that person looks like! He roughly..."
A noise came from above, and the room was plunged into darkness once again; this time, both light bulbs had exploded!
"Uh... what happened?"
Master Liao was startled by this sudden occurrence, his words stuck in his throat.
The two investigators were also taken aback. Why did the lights inside go out again right after they were fixed outside?
"This... is really bad luck..."
The male investigator muttered to himself as he opened the door again, and, upon seeing the completely shattered light bulbs overhead, he muttered softly.
"Let’s do this; it looks like we can’t use this room for the time being. Let’s move to the one next door."
The three of them immediately changed locations and resumed the topic they were discussing before.
Master Liao continued: "This person, actually, does have some abilities. The first time I saw him was at... cough cough cough! Cough cough cough cough!!"
"Cough cough cough cough cough cough!!"
"Cough cough cough!!"
Master Liao was in the middle of speaking when he suddenly started to cough violently, alarming the two investigators across from him so much they nearly called emergency services for him.
Fortunately, Master Liao’s cough did not last too long. After a big sneeze, he finally stopped.
"Liao, Mr. Liao... are you alright...?"
The female investigator asked tentatively,
Master Liao waved his hand, "It’s nothing, just now, I don’t know what happened, but as I opened my mouth, an insect happened to fly right into my throat and choked me; now it’s better, I’ve swallowed it."
The two investigators breathed a sigh of relief upon hearing this.
"How about this, I’ll go get you a glass of water first, you can moisten your throat..."
The male investigator stood up and went outside to find a glass, into which he brewed a cup of tea.
"Thank you, officer, I didn’t expect you to be so considerate."
Master Liao smiled as he took the teacup.
Then, the interrogation continued.
"Speaking of which, although that person and I had some differences, I didn’t take it too much to heart, but to cooperate with your investigation, this old man will tell you everything, I remember that day..."
A slight sound suddenly came from the glass in his hand, and then the glass filled with hot water shattered into pieces, and the scalding water immediately poured over his hand.
Master Liao let out a terrible howl that echoed throughout the entire room, even some of the police officers working outside heard a bit, and the door was quickly pushed open.
Hu Hu stood at the door, looking at the scene inside with confusion on his face.
"Mr. Liao, I am very sorry that you were injured, don’t worry, we will pay for all the medical expenses; I’ll take over the investigation from here..."
Hu Hu sat on one side of the table, beside him were the male and female investigators from before.
Master Liao was shivering as he held an ice pack, his face extremely sullen.
At that moment, he had no more patience to delay and immediately started speaking, "The mysterious man you mentioned, he is about..."
Then, another accident occurred, with a loud "Bang," this time the chair collapsed, and Master Liao immediately fell to the ground, clutching his bottom and howling in pain.
Everyone was in a flurry to help him up, and after making sure he was not seriously injured, they began the sixth round of questioning.
Without a doubt, this attempt at questioning also failed, as Master Liao was interrupted mid-sentence again when a standing fan suddenly toppled over behind him, crashing onto the old man’s back.
Even the slowest to catch on could tell that something was amiss, it seemed as though any time Master Liao attempted to reveal information about the mysterious person, a series of accidents would occur to stop him.
From the initial power outage to the subsequent scald, fall, and blow, the injuries became increasingly severe, as if a force was interfering with everything here, preventing the truth from coming out.
Such circumstances were already familiar to the members of the Abnormality Department, as they had been troubled by this for the past few days.
Hu Hu believed that if they continued to let Master Liao speak, things might get worse.
"Officer... I truly don’t dare to speak anymore... I don’t want to lose my life here..."
Master Liao slumped over the table, rubbing the injured parts of his body, and said weakly.
After pondering for a moment, Hu Hu, along with the two other investigators, stood by his side and said,
"How about this, Mr. Liao, you write it down on paper, and we’ll watch over you. If there’s any danger, we can protect you right away..."
Finally, after much persuasion, Master Liao reluctantly agreed.
He held a pen shakily, glanced around a couple of times, and, not sitting on a chair, squatted at the edge of the table ready to write.
"Rustle, rustle, rustle..."
Just then, streams of fine sand began to fall from above, scattering over the pieces of paper in front of Master Liao, and the entire room seemed to shake imperceptibly.
Everyone looked up to see a crack had already formed on the ceiling...
"Mama mia! I’m not saying it! Stop messing with me!!!"
Master Liao screamed in horror, threw the pen away, and bolted out of the room.