Chapter 206: Unease

Tai Tao City, Tianhong Group Headquarters.

Top Floor Office, the massive floor‑to‑ceiling windows step the city beneath their feet.

But at this moment, the man by the window has no desire to admire the view.

Wang Tianhong—this name in Tai Tao City's business world stands for money, power, and unquestionable authority.

On his office's million‑dollar rosewood desk, the ashtray is already overflowing.

"Did you find it?"

He doesn't turn, his voice low, like an enraged male lion grinding its teeth.

A middle‑aged man in an expensive suit bows his body, not daring to lift his head.

"Chair... Chairman, the hospital connection is cleared, it's… it's Director Liu of the City First Hospital logistics department."

"I don't want to hear the process."

Wang Tianhong whirls around, his blood‑shot eyes from sleeplessness fixed rigidly on his confidant.

"I want results! Whose chest is my son's heart beating in now?!"

That violent aura makes the whole office air turn viscous.

Cold sweat seeps from the confidant's forehead.

"We… we found it. The host is a girl named Chen Yao, nineteen, born with a congenital heart disease, constantly hospitalized at City First Hospital."

"We also checked her family: parents died early, only a brother named Chen Shao. He's an utterly ordinary office worker, powerless, without any background."

Powerless.

No background.

When Wang Tianhong hears those words, the fury on his face gradually subsides.

He twitches his mouth, revealing an extremely twisted grin.

"Fine."

"Really fine."

He walks behind the desk, picks up the internal phone, and dials a number.

"Hello, Dao Ba?"

"Take your people and go to City First Hospital."

A hoarse reply comes from the other end.

Wang Tianhong uses a casual tone, lightly ordering.

"There's something that belongs to my son, someone took it away."

"I want you to retrieve it......"

He hangs up, glances at the wall photo of himself and Wang Ze, where the father and son grin broadly.

He reaches out, gently stroking the son's face in the picture.

"Son, wait."

"Dad, I'll get the thing back for you."

At the same time.

Tai Tao City Criminal Investigation Brigade, Underground Forensic Room.

A heavy smell of Formalin, mingled with the corpse's unique decay, pervades the air.

Senior forensic doctor Wu Gong, wearing reading glasses, mutters complaints at a young male corpse.

"They said it's suicide, yet they force me to re‑examine it."

The corpse is Wang Ze.

The junior forensic doctor beside him trembles as he hands over the report.

"Wu Gong, the on‑site investigation and preliminary autopsy are done; all evidence points to suicide, but the family refuses to accept it."

"Refuse?"

Wu Gong hums, picks up a scalpel, his movements steadier than a youngster's.

"Rich heirs have fragile minds. Fine, I'll just take a look and be done."

He leans down, habitually checking the dead man's eyes first.

He raises a bright flashlight, prying open Wang Ze's eyelids.

The beam shines on the pupils.

Wu Gong's motion suddenly halts.

His expression shifts from impatience to sudden solemnity.

"Wrong."

The junior forensic doctor leans in: "Wu Gong, what's wrong?"

Wu Gong doesn't answer, but swaps for a more precise medical magnifier.

In the view magnified dozens of times, Wang Ze's already lifeless pupils show an extreme constriction.

A physiological, needle‑point‑like contraction that appears only under intense light or extreme terror.

"Photophobia‑induced pupil contraction......"

Wu Gong mutters to himself, the hairs on his back standing up.

"What did he see before dying?"

He puts down the magnifier and immediately checks the corpse's hands.

Wang Ze's ten fingers display a weird twist.

Nails are broken, embedded in flesh; the finger muscle fibers, strained and over‑exerted, even show tiny tears.

Wu Gong's complexion changed completely.

"This really isn't a suicide..."

"It's resistance! He used all his strength, trying to break free from something we can't see."

Those words left the junior forensic doctor beside him bewildered.

But in Wu Gong's mind, like a flash of lightning, the bizarre cases from a year ago in Jiang Hai City instantly linked together.

The "Cavity Person" who could make a person's heart vanish into thin air.

The "Ghost Wall" that could warp space and cause people to fall.

"Oh no!"

Wu Gong shoved the junior forensic doctor aside and dialed the emergency hotline left by the Federal Weird Investigation Bureau.

"This is Federal Weird Investigation Bureau Tai Tao City Station! I am Wu Zhenghai! Former Jiang Hai City 'Seeing Evil' Project forensic doctor! I am now reporting a 'Suspected Weird Murder Case'!"

The voice on the other end was calm and professional: "Received, Wu Gong. Please report the basis of your judgment."

Meanwhile.

Dozens of unmarked black sedans, like a flock of silent crows, silently rolled out from every corner of Tai Tao City, merging into a black iron stream that surged toward City First Hospital.

City First Hospital, premium ward.

Afternoon sunlight filtered through the louvered windows, casting mottled shadows on the pristine sheets.

Chen Shao sat at the bedside, awkwardly telling his sister a cold joke he had copied from the internet.

"Bro, your joke is really cold."

Chen Yao lay on the bed, her face still a bit pale, but her eyes flickered with a light she had never had before.

"Colder than the ICU's air conditioning."

She complained with her mouth, yet the corners of her lips couldn't help but curl upward.

Chen Shao was made to laugh, picked up an apple, and skillfully peeled it with a small knife.

One layer after another, the thin peel came off continuously, like a red ribbon.

He thought this was the end of happiness.

He thought that as long as he no longer touched the power that came from the Abyss, he could forever preserve this hard‑won tranquility.

He didn't know.

This was merely the final calm before the storm.

"Bro, I suddenly want the preserved‑egg and lean pork congee from Wang's Congee Shop at the hospital entrance."

Chen Yao cooed.

"Alright."

Chen Shao smiled, handed her the peeled apple, and stood up.

"Wait, bro will go get it for you."

He walked out of the ward, through the long Corridor, and out the hospital's main gate.

The evening afterglow gilded the city with a warm golden hue.

The moment he stepped through the gate,

"Squeak—"

A harsh screeching brake sound rang in his ears.

Several black sedans, like a black high wall, instantly blocked the entire hospital entrance.

The car doors swung open in unison.

About a dozen men in black suits, their expressions cold, stepped down from the cars.

Their movements were synchronized and silent, yet exuded a suffocating sense of pressure.

Leading them was a man whose face bore a fierce knife scar.

Chen Shao instinctively tried to dodge.

The scarred man walked straight toward him, and as they brushed shoulders, the other's shoulder slammed heavily into his.

An inexplicable throb rose suddenly from his chest without warning.

Chen Shao instinctively reached out and nudged his gold‑rimmed glasses on his nose.

He watched the murderous black‑clad men surge into the hospital entrance like a tide, and a sense of unease rose in his heart.