Chapter 48: No Trace

“Can’t speak? Then I’ll ask someone else.”

Seeing Old Li had lost the ability to speak, Ning Zhe turned off the safety on his pistol and slipped it into his pocket, then crouched down and pulled a police baton from behind Old Li.

Ning Zhe pressed one hand on Old Li’s ankle and his knee against his torso, while the other hand swung the baton hard—its immense force shattered the fragile ankle joint outright.

After the left foot came the right, then the elbows, then the shoulder blades—Ning Zhe’s movements were clean and efficient, his expression utterly calm, as if facing not a living person but livestock awaiting slaughter; he soon disabled all of Old Li’s limb joints and dragged him up like a dead dog.

The ghost had stood beside him the entire time, watching silently.

But it made no move, because it could not see.

Ning Zhe dragged Old Li, whose every joint had been broken, bent down to pick up the fallen sunshade, and walked forward leisurely.

“Auntie, are you sure the main circuit breaker is right ahead?” Ning Zhe asked as he walked.

“...Ah! Yes, yes, it’s right ahead—you keep going straight, stop when you reach the second or third bixie statue, then find the triangular space between the two walls.” Feng Yu shu hurriedly replied.

Ning Zhe noticed her voice carried fear and tension, with a faint hint of flattery—clearly, his earlier violence had been captured on the surveillance feed and deeply shaken the aunt.

Even if you stripped away all the rules Ning Zhe knew, all the knowledge he possessed, and all his logical reasoning, he remained a powerful adult male human—in primal human interaction, unbound by social norms, violence is always the underlying logic.

Feng Yu shu’s eyes locked onto the flickering screen, watching as Ning Zhe, one hand holding the umbrella, the other dragging Old Li like a dead dog, walked straight out of frame.

She quickly switched the surveillance angle; the camera mounted on the outer eave slowly turned, keeping his figure centered in the frame at all times.

The bixie statues along the path crouched on the ground, heads tilted upward in begging poses—this design alone revealed how much the estate’s investors expected this place to generate profit.

Bixie, after all, are golden-eating beasts that take in but never give out; ancient people always placed their images in treasuries, as classic guardian deities of wealth.

Following Feng Yushu’s directions, Ning Zhe soon found the hidden triangular space near the third bixie statue—a small compartment embedded in the wall, its entrance so well concealed that it would be invisible unless deliberately sought.

Ning Zhe tossed the gasping Old Li into the compartment, then walked up to the circuit breaker.

“Main indoor grid breaker... Flip this, and the entire castle’s power cuts out—your surveillance network will shut down too, right?” Ning Zhe murmured.

“Yes, flipping the main breaker cuts all power inside the castle—only the outdoor fountains and streetlights remain powered,” Feng Yu shu confirmed.

“OK... then I won’t flip it yet. I have a question for you.” Ning Zhe leaned close to the large circuit integration valve and asked: “When the streetlights were still on, the ghost stood beneath one, and I was crouching on the ground holding the umbrella—did you see that scene on the surveillance feed?”

“Yes, yes,” Feng Yu shu nodded rapidly, though Ning Zhe couldn’t see her: “I was already in the monitoring room then—I saw you crouching to avoid the ghost.”

“Good. Then, at that time, did the corpse possessed by the ghost have a shadow?”

“Huh...?” Feng Yu shu froze: “Shadow?”

“I asked if you saw one,” Ning Zhe repeated.

“I’m not sure—it seemed to have one, then again, maybe not,” Feng Yu shu’s voice grew uncertain. “Wait a moment—I’ll try rewinding the footage to check. It might take a few minutes.” The Bishushanzhuang estate was a high-end facility; its surveillance system was entirely different from ordinary supermarkets—higher security standards, superior clarity—and since Feng Yu shu was using such equipment for the first time, she needed time to find the correct controls.

While she did so, Ning Zhe searched Old Li’s security uniform for his phone and unlocked it with his fingerprint.

The screen lit up to reveal a string of missed calls—mostly from two people: Xiao Liu and Xiao Xie.

“He definitely had accomplices,” Ning Zhe thought. He didn’t know who Old Li was or why he’d attacked, but regardless of motive, Old Li had already fired at him.

Once violence was unleashed, there was no retreat—only death or survival. No third outcome existed.

Ning Zhe steadied his breathing, opened Xiao Xie’s missed call, and redialed.

After two rings, the call connected.

Ning Zhe held the phone but said nothing. Then, from the speaker came a cautious voice: “Brother Li?”

The moment the words left the speaker, Ning Zhe’s shirt transformed into a crisp security uniform; his bookish teenage face became that of a middle-aged man with a faint stubble around his mouth.

—When Xiao Xie on the other end believed the caller was Old Li, Ning Zhe became Old Li.

The identity of “Brother Li known to Xie Yaoan,” along with a string of recent memories, was delivered into Ning Zhe’s mind by Tai Yi; moments later, he understood the identity of the security captain who had shot at him.

“You’re here to flip the breaker too... and there are other survivors,” Ning Zhe glanced at Old Li, now a broken ruin beneath him, with no trace of guilt.

From the moment Old Li fired at him, he had already been dead; he still lived only because Ning Zhe needed him to maintain his living identity.

Ning Zhe pressed the phone to his lips, and his voice deepened into a resonant male tone: “Xiao Xie, I’ve reached the main breaker—I’m about to flip it. Get ready.”

“Yes, yes, Brother Li,” Xie Yaoan’s voice sounded fearful: “Will you come back after flipping it?”

“I might not come back to you right away,” Ning Zhe answered honestly. “I’ll wait for Tian Chengyun to shut off the outdoor breaker, then meet up with him before coming to find you.”

“Why wait for him?!” Xie Yaoan’s tone turned sharp with irritation. “Tian Chengyun isn’t even a man—he has no compassion at all. He just yelled at me... Brother Li, let’s leave together after we turn off the lights. Forget him.”

How could this woman be this stupid... Ning Zhe was baffled.

In his own nature, he would’ve hung up immediately and let her fend for herself—but Old Li was a turtle... well, a warmhearted guy, one step above a dog. So Ning Zhe gritted his teeth and soothed Xie Yaoan, playing Old Li’s role to the hilt: I’ll get you out, don’t panic, more people means more strength... He dragged it out for ages before finally hanging up.

“Done?” Feng Yu shu’s voice drifted softly from the Bluetooth earpiece.

“Done.” Ning Zhe’s voice returned to his own.

Feng Yu shu exhaled in relief and continued: “I just replayed the footage—when the streetlight was still on, the corpse possessed by the ghost did have a shadow.”

But after the ghost left, it disappeared.

(End of Chapter)