Chapter 1300: Interstellar Grand Stage (24)

Night fell, and the Bronx was noticeably darker than other parts of New York. People here were accustomed to getting home early; the increasingly worsening security situation put pressure on everyone—not just citizens, but police as well.

The growing number of protests kept everyone on edge. The police even had to dispatch a third of the Bronx's police force for night patrols. Almost every major street had flashing police lights. Pedestrians walked by with their heads down, feeling annoyed by the police's scrutinizing gazes, but there was nothing they could do.

An old and a young policeman were leaning against their patrol car, half-asleep, when suddenly they heard a greeting. Looking up, they saw a young Chinese man standing in front of them, carrying a pile of meal boxes.

"Officers, your dinner."

"Oh, aren't you the kitchen helper from that restaurant at the end of Chinatown? We didn't order anything from you today," the young policeman said with some confusion.

The old policeman, however, had already taken the meal boxes with practiced ease. The young policeman looked at his actions with confusion. The old policeman took a drag of his cigarette and looked at the young man, saying, "Don't worry, there are people guarding both ends of Chinatown; the troublemakers can't reach your place."

"Oh, right, you have to open two hours late tomorrow morning. Someone is passing through the intersection on the front street; it's the men of 'Rat-Tooth' from Black Street. There's definitely going to be shooting by then. You tell your boss to hide in the shop and not come out, otherwise, you'll get shot."

The young Chinese man sighed with relief, clutching his chest. "Thank you so much, Officer. If it weren't for your reminder, I would have wanted to go deliver food tomorrow morning."

The old policeman opened a meal box and said, "You're Chinese, right? Don't worry, the Chinese gangs are famous; Rat-Tooth wouldn't dare offend the boss of your place. Just hide, and no one will dare trouble you."

The young Chinese man smiled gratefully, but then showed a slightly troubled expression. He took two meal boxes from the package on the back of his bicycle and said, "Officer, I'm afraid I have to trouble you to pass these on. These are the meals ordered by Officer Julie, but she seems to be inside the street."

The old policeman waved his hand impatiently, set down the meal box, moved the roadblock aside, and said, "Go in and deliver them to her. Oh, right, don't expect a tip from her. She's been furious all day because of what happened earlier. Deliver the food and get out immediately, otherwise, watch out for that alcoholic madwoman."

"Thank you, thank you! I'll leave immediately after delivering the food."

The young man pushed his bicycle into the cordon. He laughed softly and said in his mind, "I told you, there's no need to take down the police. I hate fighting and killing."

A cold snort rang out in his head. Venom said unhappily, "If it weren't for you insisting on eating, picking up clothes, punching your card, and tidying up lesson plans, we would have finished this hours ago!"

"And you Asians are always like this; to avoid conflict, you'd rather take several detours. Efficiency! We need efficiency!"

"Don't be like that, Venom. Isn't this efficient enough? I just went back to the restaurant where I work, and while the boss wasn't there, I made eight portions of food instead of the seven ordered... So, do you want a portion?"

"I want that sweet and sour pork, and the black-bone chicken soup!"

"You're really picky." Xu Shangqi reached out and opened the package hanging on the back of his bicycle, took out two hot meals, and in a corner of the building, Venom instantly enveloped his body and swallowed both meal boxes in an instant.

"Hot, hot, hot!!!"

Venom screamed. While gasping for air and chewing the food in his mouth, he said, "Of course. I've been to Chinese restaurants with Eddie, but the food there is expensive as hell. After Eddie quit his job, he didn't have that much money to go eat there."

"So those Chinese meals were all eaten by you in the end?"

"Pretty much. He said he had a small appetite, and every time there were leftovers, I was the one who finished them." Venom licked his sharp teeth. Unexpectedly, Xu Shangqi said, "Then he must love you very much. My mom also said she had a small appetite and couldn't finish, and then she saved the good food for me."

Venom was silent for a while and said, "Is your mom still waiting for you at home?"

"Perhaps, but she might never see me again." Xu Shangqi shook his head and then said with some confusion, "Can't you see my memories? Can't you see my past?"

"I have no interest in the past of a head of iceberg lettuce."

"Alright."

"Wait a minute, do you have no opinion on me calling you iceberg lettuce?"

"I quite like lettuce; it's delicious and nutritious."

Venom shut up.

He discovered that this young man's temper was truly very good, even to the point of being somewhat timid, unlike any host he had ever encountered. Even Peter, who was the least likely to argue, wasn't as laid-back and willing to be mocked as him.

Soon, Xu Shangqi, who had entered the cordon under the pretext of delivering food, arrived in front of a building in the Bronx. The cordon here was denser, and there were two police cars parked there. A blonde policewoman stood at the door with a serious expression.

"Excuse me, who is Officer Julie?" Xu Shangqi shouted loudly. "Your ordered food has arrived. Should I open it now?"

The policewoman looked back and gave a look to her subordinate, but after thinking about it, she walked up and took the meal box from Xu Shangqi's hand. While Xu Shangqi helped her open the meal box and took out the chopsticks, he asked with some curiosity, "Officer, what happened here?"

The policewoman was a bit vigilant at first, but seeing Xu Shangqi's face and recalling that this young man seemed to always be delivering food nearby, she said, "Pierre Reeves, the leader of the protest activities the day before yesterday, was found dead in his home at 3:00 this afternoon. Gunshot wound. The bullet model is the same as the one commonly used by the Bronx police."

Xu Shangqi gasped, his face looking a bit unwell. This wasn't an act; he had never encountered a murder case in his life. Thinking that there might be a corpse lying in this house, he felt very uncomfortable all over.

Seeing that Xu Shangqi's reaction didn't seem fake, the policewoman felt more at ease, so she asked, "You've been delivering food around here lately, have you seen any suspicious people?"

Xu Shangqi recalled, but couldn't think of anything. Just as he was about to refuse, Venom spoke in his mind: "Tell her yes."

"Isn't that lying?"

"It's not lying. You really did see a suspicious person, but you didn't pay attention to him, so you can't remember. But I've looked at your recent memories, and there is indeed someone very suspicious. Tell her exactly what I say."

"It seems there really is, Officer," Xu Shangqi replied.

As soon as these words fell, all the surrounding police officers surrounded him "whoosh." The sound of pistols being cocked rang out one after another. Xu Shangqi was immediately frightened and stuttered a bit; he was truly allergic to firearms.

The policewoman looked at Xu Shangqi's clearly Asian face and waved her hand at the people around her, saying, "Don't make a fuss. Asians are afraid of guns; don't you know that? Scatter, and bring me my body-worn camera."

"Listen, kid, I hope to get clues, but I don't want to be played for a fool. So, I will record what you say next with my body-worn camera, and you have to be responsible for what you say."

The policewoman was already very restrained. Given the law enforcement style of American police, her way of speaking could be considered gentle, but Xu Shangqi was still a bit worried. However, Venom was already controlling his mouth.

"The other day, I went to deliver food to No. 9 Solon Street. The owner of the bakery there ordered a portion of xiaolongbao and millet porridge. When I finished delivering the food and was walking out, I saw a man in a suit walking into the tobacco shop next door."

"The suit he was wearing should be a pretty good brand. I saw many such guests when I was a kitchen helper in a Chinese restaurant."

The policewoman immediately frowned. She first looked at the kitchen helper's uniform Xu Shangqi was wearing, and then believed what he said.

The Chinese restaurant where Xu Shangqi worked did indeed belong to the kind that only the middle class could afford to consume.

In fact, the Chinese restaurants in New York's Chinatown were very expensive. An ordinary stir-fried dish could sell for dozens of dollars; this was not something ordinary people could afford.

"No. 9 Solon Street? No, that's not a middle-class community. How could a man wearing a brand that could enter a Chinese restaurant appear there?" the policewoman muttered to herself.

"Are there any other characteristics?" she pursued.

"If I didn't see wrong, he had a camera in his briefcase. When he walked past me, there was the outline of a camera and the protrusion of a lens on the surface of the briefcase."

The policewoman immediately opened her eyes wide and said, "A reporter?!"

"Oh, so he's a reporter," Venom continued, "That shouldn't be much of a clue, right? There have been a lot of reporters around lately. They're all here to film the protests, aren't they?"

"No, there are no protests on Solon Street. On the contrary, that street is very close to here... He is very likely here to film the murderer of this murder case. In other words, he knew in advance that the murderer would take action, or the murderer might be arranged by their people!"

The policewoman touched her lips and speculated, then frowned again and said, "But we couldn't arrest him in the first place. It's hard to infer who instructed all this."

"Isn't that simple?" Venom shrugged and said, "Tomorrow morning, whoever reports this murder case first is the one."

The policewoman looked at Xu Shangqi with wide eyes. Venom spread his hands and said, "After all, they took such a big risk and spent so much effort, killing people and arranging reporters, they must want to create a hot topic."

"However, only the first news released will be very popular. Any follow-up interviews won't compare to the first-hand news. Just look at which newspaper office is the first to break this case tomorrow, and won't you know which newspaper office the mastermind is involved with?"

"Yes, you're right," the policewoman said instinctively. But just then, a police officer rushed in in a panic and said to the policewoman, "It's bad, Officer Julie! New York TV just interrupted with a breaking news story, saying that a leader of the Bronx protest activities was murdered, and the police have characterized this case as a suicide!"

Officer Julie glared, and she said, "We haven't even started investigating yet, and they've characterized it?! And who leaked the news? Didn't we seal off the scene?"

"Clearly, a frame-up," Venom shook his head and said.

Julie gritted her teeth and said, "Those damn paparazzi! They've actually become bold enough to plan a murder to create news. No, no, I understand, it's another means of intensifying the conflict. Damn it!"

After speaking, she sighed helplessly and said, "If I apply for an arrest warrant now, it probably won't be approved until tomorrow night at the earliest. By then, the murderer will have destroyed the evidence and fled... It's not the first time."

"Perhaps, I can help." Venom looked into Officer Julie's eyes and said, "I don't need a search warrant to knock on someone else's door."

Julie looked at him with some confusion, but then showed a sudden realization, saying, "Right! You're a food delivery guy! And you're Asian; no one would think that Asians would help the police. You always stay far away."

"However, are you really willing to help?" Julie pursed her lips and said, "I have to remind you, this is very dangerous. The other party definitely has guns, and there might be things more dangerous than guns."

This attitude made Xu Shangqi a bit surprised. The law enforcement style of American police doing whatever it takes for performance was famous all over the world.

Julie looked at Xu Shangqi's face and said, "You're about the same age as my brother. Your mom must be waiting for you to go home. So if you're afraid, I'll pretend you never said that... I'll go apply for a search warrant."

"Whether to follow her or not, you decide for yourself," Venom said, and then went silent.

Xu Shangqi took a deep breath. He was indeed afraid—very afraid. He had never seen so many guns and bullets in his life, and any one of those bullets could take his life.

But at the same time, another emotion arose in him. Would this innocent protest leader have a chance to transmigrate? Would the citizens and police who died in the conflict of the protest have a chance to transmigrate?

According to common sense, they definitely wouldn't. But they didn't have to transmigrate in the first place; they could have lived their lives well, enjoyed such advanced and developed technology, and lived a stable life.

But now, someone didn't want them to continue living like this. Someone wanted to turn back the clock, wanted everything to return to the time when productivity was insufficient. So why did these people want to do this?

Technological development and social progress are good things for any ordinary person, except for one group—those who ride on the heads of others and want to continue living by exploiting others, those who are unenterprising and don't want others to progress, the true demons.

That group—his compatriots once fought and sacrificed for, and were willing to bury the last shovel of dirt for, the exploiters.

Xu Shangqi was indeed afraid of death, but at least he was sure of one thing: in this world, his motherland was still very strong.

He was not without a home, nor without relatives. Thousands of dangers and obstacles, ten thousand worlds, are no further than a class, no closer than a comrade.

The helplessness of drifting in a different world will surely temper a firmer will. A lonely wanderer needs a greater ideal to dispel pain. The more pain one feels, the more one wants greatness.

Then what ideal could be greater than taking the laughter of humanity as one's own laughter, feeling happiness for the happiness of humanity, letting thousands of mothers wait for their children in full expectation, and letting thousands of children see their mothers after being exhausted?

"Is what you said true?" Xu Shangqi suddenly asked in his mind.

"What's true?"

"About taking me to be a superhero."

"Of course it's true."

Xu Shangqi smiled shyly and said.

"Alright, Officer, let's go."

Having a fever is really uncomfortable.

Everyone, please wear masks. Influenza A is quite serious.

Why do I get the flu every single time!