What does it feel like to have your tracks discovered and be captured with iron chains?
As the "Ghost King Mu" of the Hundred Ghosts Gang, Mu Shuang had long been skilled at commanding her subordinates to do such things.
After all, outside gangs would occasionally come to the outskirts of Happiness City to cause trouble, disrupting the "peace" here.
When encountering such people, they would always be tied up as examples, their assets confiscated.
But when it was her turn to experience it firsthand, being pushed along by militia toward the community, listening to scolding and feeling surveillance all the way, Mu Shuang felt a few traces of novelty, finding it quite wonderful.
Of course, this was based on the premise of "absolute safety."
If she had truly fallen into enemy hands, she should have been thinking about how to escape by now, where would she have the mood to experience these sensations.
All the way back to the community entrance.
From afar, she could see the sixty-something Elder He waiting in front of the community gate, eager to try.
However, walking closer and seeing Mu Shuang's face clearly, Elder He was stunned, "How is it a young woman?""Elder He, this is someone Inspector Cheng specifically named for interrogation, I'm afraid we can't let you use torture first."
Second Dragon scratched his head awkwardly.
Ever since Cheng Ye had interrogated and gotten results, Elder He had been so angry he couldn't sleep all night, even got up in the middle of the night to whip the four men again, but still couldn't get anything out of them.
"Don't worry, I'm just looking, curious you know." Elder He smiled sheepishly, but his eyes swept over Mu Shuang's neck and wrists, as if examining a piece of meat ready for cutting.
Mu Shuang couldn't help but shiver, reminded of the most skilled interrogator in the Hundred Ghosts Gang, the "Skinning Ghost."
What kind of monsters are in this community!
Walking further in through the mall's passage, she ran into Big Dragon and a bald middle-aged man head-on.
"Thanks for the trouble, Master Tian, making you personally deliver it." Big Dragon smiled politely.
"Not at all, I happen to be free right now."
"Alright, let's exchange phone numbers, we can contact each other directly if anything comes up in the future."
"Sounds good, Old Zhang mentioned the community to me before, but I've been too busy to visit."
The two exchanged pleasantries, chatting like old friends of many years.
When passing by, Master Tian's gaze lingered on Mu Shuang's face for a few seconds, then moved away calmly and without ripples.
However, it was precisely this gaze that made Mu Shuang's heart skip involuntarily.
This gaze was too steady, too calm.
It was exactly like those 'old hunters' in the wasteland who hunted humans as prey, hiding an indescribable sense of oppression.
And it seemed to carry a few traces of contemplation and recollection.
But before she could think further, Second Dragon pushed her again, and she could only stumble forward into the mall passage.
Passing through the dim corridor, her vision suddenly opened up.
Mu Shuang instinctively looked up, only to be nailed in place by a scene she would never forget in this lifetime!
On the layered tiers of the mall, countless heads were packed together.
Countless pairs of eyes looked down from all directions, making her feel like a boxer about to step onto the ring in the old era, the center of all attention.
But what greeted her was not cheers and excitement, but anger, hatred, coldness, and uncontrollable killing intent, drowning her completely like a tide.
Being stared at by over a thousand pairs of eyes was far more suffocating than being pointed at by over a thousand guns.
At this moment.
She suddenly understood what Jiang Chuan had said before.
He said:
At that moment, it felt like blood was about to freeze, but it wasn't fear of being pointed at by guns, fear of death.
Rather, it was being pressed down by an emotion fused from over a thousand people, feeling that doing anything would be making a mistake.
And at this time.
"Kill!"
Someone shouted first, like lighting a powder keg.
"Kill!!"
"Kill!!!"
The shouts for killing rose one after another, from scattered few to echoing throughout the entire mall, the buzzing sound waves seemed to become substantial, hitting the walls until they trembled slightly.
Visibly, Mu Shuang's face suddenly turned deathly pale.
She had experienced life-and-death struggles in the wasteland, fighting hunters to the last moment.
She had seen battlefields flowing with blood, infected bodies and humans fighting to the end.
She had also crawled out from mass graves, and had even survived multiple attacks from infection sources.
But during those times, she was free, she was the judge, holding others' life and death in her hands.
Now, she was the one being judged, oppressed by countless people's resentment and hatred, forced to taste this surging anger.
"Walk, what are you standing there for." Second Dragon pushed her.
Mu Shuang's steps staggered, and she couldn't help but fall sitting on the ground.
"What, scared?"
Second Dragon crouched down, the corner of his mouth pulling into a half-smile, their eyes meeting, "You went after Inspector Cheng, that makes you our enemy!"
"Whoever dares to leave us without a future, we'll crush her first!"
"You know what? To keep watch on you, over sixty brothers took shifts day and night, none dared to relax. When thirsty or hungry they could only endure, when they needed to use the toilet they'd rather soil their pants than leave their posts."
"What do you think kept them going? Money? Orders?"
"You'll never guess, they fought to get the chance to keep watch on you, because you, you blocked Inspector Cheng's path, and also blocked"
"Our path!"
Having said this, Second Dragon stood up, his arm muscles suddenly exerting force.
The chain was brutally dragged, and Mu Shuang's body was also dragged along, step by step toward the detention room.
At this moment, she didn't struggle.
Because she suddenly felt some regret, a wave of remorse rising from her heart, but she regretted not testing Cheng Ye, not deliberately playing a cat-and-mouse game to probe Cheng Ye's methods.
Nor did she regret confronting so many people, making enemies of thousands in the community, blocking their "path."
Rather, she regretted why she had mocked Jiang Chuan, mocked him for being captured by a group of ordinary people.
Why would she look down on ordinary people?
Why would she feel that being captured by ordinary people was a kind of humiliation?
Mu Shuang's mind was somewhat blank until Second Dragon dragged her into the detention room, when she slowly came back to her senses.
The air in the detention room carried a smell of rust and sweat, as well as a faint, barely detectable odor of feces and urine.
In the corner, four unlucky fellows tied up like her were huddled together.
Seeing her enter, the four showed dull expressions in their eyes, suddenly revealing eerie smiles, saying in unison:
"I, just, came, to, look!"
Hmm?
Mu Shuang's expression paused, her brow slightly furrowed. This highly consistent behavior and dull expressions were definitely not what normal humans should have.
She almost instantly determined that these four were most likely affected by an infection source.
Daze Bird?
Calamity Heart Worm?
Intelligence-Lowering Ant?
Those that could cause this kind of dull behavior could basically be narrowed down to these three types.
Connecting it to the four's previous sneaky behavior, Mu Shuang quickly ruled out the first.
The Daze Bird's effect lasted 180 days, making people daze for increasingly longer periods until the final three to five days when they couldn't snap out of it at all.
"Hey? What do you want to see?"
"I," the four paused, then said in unison again, "I want to see what abnormality Cheng Ye has on him."
Alright, Intelligence-Lowering Ant could be ruled out too.
People parasitized by this kind of insect would have their brain capacity gradually shrink into madness, the more they thought the worse it got, it was even more impossible for four people's answers to be exactly the same.
"Calamity Heart Worm," she murmured softly, a flash of understanding in her eyes, "So it's mercenaries who took on a mission again?!"
Recently, quite a few assassins and mercenaries had indeed mixed into the outskirts of Happiness City.
The little ghosts of the Hundred Ghosts Gang had also been killed by these people in considerable numbers, with all the ghost leaders patrolling and catching people in high spirits.
She hadn't expected these people to be so bold as to dare break into the interior of Happiness City.
Did they not want to live?
But connecting it to the mission target being Cheng Ye, Mu Shuang could understand their risk-taking.
Because the strength Cheng Ye showed externally was just that of an ordinary trainee inspector, pitifully weak.
Even having watched that night's video of Cheng Ye fighting the fusion body, it was hard to connect him with the "monster" just now.
After all, what was shown in the video was just an ordinary person who had just started learning martial arts, with some wisdom and courage.
But the performance just now was solid Dao Embryo Realm combat power.
Moreover, the fighting style was completely different from when he fought the fusion body that night.
That kind of fighting style that disregarded life and death, that brutal approach that ignored pain to subdue enemies as quickly as possible, even if it meant mutual destruction, reminded her of the Red Blood Army she had seen in Guang Province.
No pursuit of technique, only the fastest speed to subdue enemies, even if it meant perishing together.
"But it's only been a month from when Stand-In Starfish erupted until now."
Mu Shuang couldn't help but shake her head.
She had never seen anyone who could have such a huge transformation in one month.
Unless it was those ability users who awakened overnight in the early New Era period, whose combat power would have qualitative leaps.
Connecting it to Cheng Ye's apparent inability to feel pain, she was thoughtful.
After more than half an hour.
Mu Shuang repeatedly reviewed today's disguise details, but still couldn't figure out where the flaw was.
She could be certain that Building 7 definitely had no surveillance devices installed, and there were no informants inside either.
But how exactly did Cheng Ye determine she was on the fourth floor, and even name the specific room?
"Come out, the boss wants to interrogate you!"
The iron door of the detention room was pulled open, and Big Dragon walked in wearing a short shirt, his face showing barely concealed excitement.
He glanced at the four dull men in the corner, then looked at Mu Shuang, his gaze like looking at a very precious "trophy."
This expression falling in Mu Shuang's eyes made her slightly relieved.
It seemed her identity hadn't been exposed yet.
At the same time, she also felt a trace of curiosity, how would this Inspector Cheng interrogate her next?
Would he ask about the four men's dull behavior? Or interrogate why she was secretly monitoring him?
Or like with Jiang Chuan, ask some completely unrelated questions, throwing a set of "combination punches" that people couldn't make heads or tails of?
Being dragged out by Big Dragon with the iron chain, passing by the four men, she heard them chanting in unison again, "Look at abnormalities, look at abnormalities..."
In an instant, Mu Shuang had a sudden realization, somewhat understanding why Cheng Ye would be put on the mission list.
But there was no time for her to pause and think, in the adjacent interrogation room, Cheng Ye had already changed into clean clothes and was sitting behind the iron table.
He turned his head, their gazes met.
Again that unpredictable smile that made it impossible to guess what he was thinking, like when facing... Ding Yishan?
These inspectors who could maintain stable positions really weren't easy to deal with!
"Big Dragon, loosen her upper body, go pour a cup of water." Cheng Ye instructed.
"Yes, sir."
The upper half of the chain was unlocked, Mu Shuang moved her shoulders, and a light cough pulled at her ribs with burning pain.
Feeling slightly, sure enough several were broken, but fortunately it was a simple fracture with no displacement, one week of immobilization would allow activity, and three to five weeks of rest would bring complete healing.
Big Dragon quickly brought an enamel cup of warm water, placing it in front of her as Cheng Ye intended.
"Drink, I think you should be very thirsty."
"How do you know?" Mu Shuang raised an eyebrow.
"I said before, you're more curious than the previous four."
Cheng Ye shook his head slightly, making a "please" gesture.
Mu Shuang paused, picked up the enamel cup and drank it all in one go, not bothering to worry about whether there was poison or any special drugs mixed in.
"Fill another cup for her."
The second cup of water was brought, Mu Shuang drank it directly, the doubt in her eyes growing stronger.
After Big Dragon took away the cup, Cheng Ye's fingers tapped lightly on the table surface, "I want to ask you a question."
Mu Shuang said nothing, waiting for what came next.
"Just now, were the patterns on the two enamel cups the same?"
"Hmm?" Mu Shuang was stunned, then gently shook her head.
"Are they different, or do you not know?"
"Don't know."
"Then do you understand how I knew?"
Cheng Ye shook his head and smiled, "I originally thought you had systematically learned lurking, disguise, and reconnaissance, but now it seems you should be at a half-baked level."
"You," Mu Shuang immediately widened her eyes.
When interrogating Jiang Chuan, at least he followed the rules asking for name and age, but when it came to her, it became Cheng Ye's one-sided examination and reprimand?
Which prisoner would pay attention to whether the patterns on the enamel cups handed to them had changed?
However, the next second, her expression suddenly froze.
"July 27th, 3:41 PM, this was our first encounter."
"On the bus heading to the southern suburbs, Master Tian and I went to the scrapyard to pick parts, sitting in the first row of the back section. You were in the second seat of the left single seats, wearing a beige top, jeans, light green tourist shoes, with wear on the left shoe tip."
Cheng Ye's voice was unhurried, speaking to himself, pausing slightly after finishing, "Am I right?"
Mu Shuang pressed her lips tight, not out of stubbornness, but because she couldn't even remember what she wore that day.
But she did indeed have such an outfit in her wardrobe, specifically bought from buffer zone residents as disguise gear.
"Do you remember what I wore that day?" Cheng Ye asked again.
Mu Shuang shook her head with an ugly expression.
"July 28th, 7:17 AM, I was exercising in front of the convenience store."
Cheng Ye continued, his tone as flat as if talking about someone else's affairs, "You observed me for 4 minutes from the street corner, then followed two middle-aged office workers, pretending to walk past the store entrance casually. That day you changed to a denim jacket, black pants, and switched to gray flat shoes."
After finishing, he paused again, "Right?"
Mu Shuang remained silent, but her expression gradually became complex, like a deep pond with stones thrown in, rippling in circles.
"July 28th, 7:37 PM, I walked out from the Works Department entrance, you kept staring at me from the bus stop until I got on the bus..."
"July 29th, 6:45 AM, I went to take out trash, you even specifically took away the garbage bags I threw out..."
"July 29th, 8:19 PM, you followed me all the way home from the Machinery Department to the residential area..."
"That night I slept in the house, you watched from 11 PM until 6 AM..."
"..."
Cheng Ye recited like reading a menu, sometimes nodding, sometimes shaking his head.
Like an instructor testing reconnaissance abilities, he broke down every encounter's time, scene, and even the clothes she wore, clearly and thoroughly.
"In 7 days, you changed a total of 12 sets of clothes, 7 pairs of shoes, 3 hats."
"You even disguised yourself as a man twice and as an old person once, making it hard for me to distinguish your gender."
The last sentence carried a hint of teasing, as he looked at Mu Shuang and pressed, "Am I right?"
However, after finishing, Cheng Ye himself couldn't help but laugh out loud.
Fire Sprout's warning range was about fifty meters, shrinking to twenty or thirty meters in complex scenes with many people.
The first two times, it was Fire Sprout detecting the peering gaze that made him notice Mu Shuang.
But later on, as soon as she appeared, Fire Sprout would immediately jump out to warn, without him needing to pay attention at all.
The little guy seemed to firmly remember Mu Shuang's aura, no matter how she changed her appearance, it could always pick her out immediately when she appeared in view.
How could she hide like this?
She simply couldn't be concealed.
Sure enough, after these details were laid out one by one, Mu Shuang no longer asked "how did you discover me."
She remained silent, her lowered eyelashes covering the emotions in her eyes, while only the cooperation degree in the upper right corner of the panel was quietly changing:
71.6%→79.3%→84.1%
Soon breaking through the 90% mark, settling at 91.4%.
Cheng Ye nodded to himself.
The first confrontation was always when cooperation degree was easiest to improve.
When both sides were strangers and behavioral patterns hadn't been figured out, even someone like Liu Kun, a transcendent, wasn't as difficult as imagined.
"This Mu Shuang doesn't avoid her own problems."
He thought to himself, "This kind of person is actually easier to get along with, as long as I can always maintain the upper hand's suppression, there shouldn't be any trouble."
With cooperation degree as an intuitive reference, Cheng Ye could easily grasp a person's personality framework.
People who could face their own shortcomings directly often had sensitive minds and were also better at perceiving others' flaws.
Such people naturally carried charisma, were potential leaders who could make people submit without making a sound.
If their nature was generous and magnanimous, their future path would be very broad, successful in whatever they did.
But if they were stubborn and obsessive, prone to getting stuck in dead ends, they would become a double-edged sword, hurting others as well as themselves.
Which type of person would Mu Shuang be?
Cheng Ye tapped the table with his fingertip, suddenly speaking, "Alright, you performed well, you're allowed to ask me one question."
"I ask you?" Mu Shuang looked up sharply, a flash of surprise in her eyes.
Earlier when she had asked questions several times, they were all deflected by Cheng Ye without a trace.
Now suddenly getting permission, she was somewhat caught off guard.
She certainly couldn't learn from those four idiots next door and ask "what is your abnormality," that would be too stupid.
So she remained silent for half a minute before slowly speaking:
"Where do you think I lost?"
Oh.
So she was someone who liked to get stuck in dead ends.
Cheng Ye immediately understood. If she were the former type, she should be focusing on his flaws right now, not dwelling on her own mistakes.
But Cheng Ye wasn't surprised either, after all Mu Shuang was still young, only 28 years old.
About the same as him, but the difference was that Mu Shuang was born in chaotic times and certainly hadn't experienced systematic learning.
The difference in growing environments was even more crucial.
If Mu Shuang had always struggled through being suppressed and questioned, she would inevitably develop a mindset that focused more on what was lost or done wrong, rather than what could be gained or learned.
"You lost at fighting alone."
Cheng Ye didn't keep her in suspense, pausing before adding, "Human strength has limits. When I caught you, I could mobilize one or two hundred people, even three to five hundred to surround and monitor you. But you only had yourself, with no room for error, no confidence to resist risks in any decision."
"No," Mu Shuang pondered, slowly shaking her head.
In lurking missions, the enemy was in the open while she was in the dark.
Numerical advantage was just a post-victory summary by winners, not a decisive factor.
Sometimes having too many people caused trouble, breeding betrayal and chaos, actually hindering things.
Like when the Hundred Ghosts Gang caught outside gangs, she always used elites only, never using hundreds or thousands to surround, too much commotion would only alert the target.
"Still don't understand?"
Cheng Ye clapped to signal, and Big Dragon smiled as he walked out of the interrogation room, soon dragging in a man with a black hood, who was limp all over like he'd been knocked unconscious.
Who was this?
Mu Shuang frowned, unable to recognize him at first glance.
But when her eyes swept over the familiar clothes, shoes, and the bracelet hanging on his hand, she was dumbfounded.
"Big Dragon, let Jiang Chuan catch his breath."
"Hehe." Big Dragon smiled and pulled off the black hood.
Jiang Chuan closed his eyes, still showing a trace of defiance on his face, his mouth corners seeming ready to curse.
"This..."
Mu Shuang was suddenly stunned, looking at Cheng Ye in disbelief.
But she saw Cheng Ye's face still wearing that smile, that unpenetrable smile.
"You already know my identity?"
"Mu Shuang, Director Liu's office clerk, the fifth-term office clerk at the inspection station..."
Cheng Ye nodded slightly, stating the information he'd found one by one.
The cooperation degree on the panel suddenly fluctuated, jumping like an electrocardiogram, reflecting Mu Shuang's tumultuous emotions at the moment.
She couldn't believe her identity had been exposed so quickly?
Or had Cheng Ye known her identity from the very beginning?
"Do you think I sent people to catch Jiang Chuan? Do you think fighting alone means I have many subordinates while you have none?"
"Wrong."
Cheng Ye stood up, moving his shoulders, his tone suddenly solemn, "Those who follow the righteous path have much help, those who abandon it have little."
"Your lurking seemed to sink into the bottom level of the buffer zone, blending in with the people there."
"But this kind of lurking is really too low-level, just child's play disguise."
"In that building where you stayed, I don't know any of them, but every one of them could be my person. They would report you, expose you... help me deal with you."
"Why?"
"Because your lurking from the start isolated yourself from the masses. Your lurking was from beginning to end a solo fight that avoided others' sight."
"Understand?"
The last three words, Cheng Ye spoke one by one, his gaze sharp as a blade, piercing straight into Mu Shuang's eyes.
Mu Shuang's whole body trembled, she opened her mouth but her throat seemed blocked by something, unable to utter a single word.
She suddenly remembered when being escorted into the mall, those gazes from the tiers above that carried tremendous force.
Yes, she had previously felt that Jiang Chuan being caught by ordinary people was a great shame, a laughingstock that could be mocked for a long time.
How could she have thought to unite with these ordinary bottom-dwellers to provide deeper cover for her disguise?
Her thoughts flew like tangled hemp.
These years under Liu Kun's assignment, serving as Ghost King Mu in the Hundred Ghosts Gang, she thought she hadn't done too badly, yet never received a single word of praise. Even Jiang Chuan felt she was becoming more and more like a gangster, difficult to approach, as if she'd become a different person.
Now thinking about it, she really deserved it. The things she did, anyone could do.
Leading little ghosts to catch outside gangs, going to neighboring provinces for revenge against forces targeting Happiness City... The Hundred Ghosts Gang with tens of thousands of people, after so many years still remained scattered sand, never forming true organizational power.
Now being pointed out so sharply by Cheng Ye made her understand one thing.
Actually all along, she had been avoiding certain things, never daring to face them directly.
For a moment, the cooperation degree on the panel plummeted, instantly dropping below 20%, then immediately soaring to 95%, fluctuating drastically like a roller coaster.
Cheng Ye was stunned for a moment, then realized this silly girl was definitely stuck in dead ends again.
Always focusing on her own problems, but unable to see the essence of the problems.
If this mentality didn't change, she would only become more and more miserable in the future.
But Cheng Ye also knew clearly that if he pointed this out now, Mu Shuang's cooperation degree might not reach 100%.
Well, with so much material available, he didn't lack this one.
Thinking about Mu Shuang's purpose for appearing and her identity, Cheng Ye could already guess some things.
If the person accompanying him to the wasteland next wasn't Jiang Chuan but Mu Shuang, burying mines for the future just for one search opportunity would be too unworthy.
So Cheng Ye sat down again, changing the subject, "If we played again, with me letting you hide and me catching you, do you think you could win?"
"Win..." Mu Shuang looked at Jiang Chuan collapsed in the corner, gently shaking her head.
"Then do you know where the problem lies?"
"Information?"
"Information is just one aspect." Cheng Ye shook his head, "In future missions, the people assigning tasks might not have detailed information, you need to investigate yourself, which is also key to survival. Compared to information, what's more important is... support."
"Support?"
"If I had the people from 3 units of Building 7 in the community cooperate with you, would you be confident of winning?"
"Mm..." Mu Shuang was thoughtful, but still shook her head.
"What if all the people from sixteen buildings in the entire community acted with you, helped with your disguise?"
Mu Shuang's eyes lit up, but she still shook her head.
"Still no confidence?"
"It's not that." Mu Shuang said softly, "Over four thousand people in the community acting with me would be too costly."
"Is that so?"
Cheng Ye turned to look at Big Dragon, "Big Dragon, what if I asked you to bring the community's 4,800 people to act in a play with her?"
"Whatever you say goes!" Big Dragon grinned, "Never mind acting, even if it's building human walls, no problem!"
"So, where do you think her problem lies?" Cheng Ye asked again.
"Of course it's not having someone like you to back her up!" Big Dragon shrugged, his tone somewhat cocky, "Unlike me, I just need to complete what you assign."
These words couldn't hide their mocking intent.
Hearing this in Mu Shuang's ears made her heart tremble, nameless emotions surging up.
She blinked, somewhat surprised, but when her gaze met Cheng Ye's, she couldn't help but squeeze out a trace of a smile.
"Inspector Cheng, you wouldn't have already guessed that I'm switching places with Jiang Chuan, deliberately saying this for me to hear?"
"If you think it's deliberate, then it's deliberate. If you think it's useful, then listen."
Cheng Ye raised his chin, "Big Dragon, why haven't you released her yet?"
Big Dragon smiled as he stepped forward to unlock the chains, continuously apologizing, "Sorry, Miss Mu, I only just learned your identity, much offense! If you feel wronged by being tied up, or if anyone in the community went too far, Big Dragon will kowtow to apologize!"
He paused, then added, "But I... have something I want to say to you. Even if you had all 4,000 people of Dafu Community rally to help you, our boss would still have ways to catch you."
"Oh, you trust him that much?" Mu Shuang couldn't help but smile upon hearing this.
Compared to Jiang Chuan, Big Dragon was more like someone who'd been fed a love potion by Cheng Ye, loyal as a dead soldier.
In the materials she'd investigated, Cheng Ye had only been in contact with Tianyuan Community for a month.
However, Big Dragon said nothing more, and after unlocking the chains, stood respectfully to one side.
Mu Shuang stood up, moving her body, and a teeth-grinding "crack" came from her chest.
After moving around, she shook her head gently again, "Inspector Cheng, if you want me to be as obedient as Jiang Chuan and Big Dragon, I probably can't do that."
"Is that so?"
Cheng Ye shook his head slightly, laughing inwardly.
In the upper right corner of his vision, Mu Shuang's cooperation degree had steadily stopped at 100% the moment she stood up.
What a stubborn person.
It seemed that commanding Mu Shuang to do things in the future would require some effort in training.
Unlike Jiang Chuan, who had long been smoothed by human relationships and had his own set of principles.
Hmm, thinking of this, as Cheng Ye clicked search, he suddenly became curious.
What would Mu Shuang's belief be?