Chapter 97: How to Mark Food

In the Corridor on the top floor of the Jin Mao Hotel, the air had solidified.

Every word from that deputy director carried a bone‑piercing chill, drilling into the ears of everyone present.

Zhang Haifeng, director of the Public Security Bureau of Ling Chang City......

Not a human?

This news makes the fact that the entire Ling Shui Garden is a Monster Nest feel even more hair‑raising.

A nest teeming with hundreds or thousands of monsters can still be leveled with firepower and lives.

But what if the highest police authority of a city is itself a monster?

How many resources could it mobilize? How much classified information could it access? And to what extent could it spread contamination?

Just imagining it… gave Jiang Yuan a shiver of dread.

Wang Zhangzhi reacted quickly.

His deep eyes narrowed instantly; without a hint of hesitation, he seized the deputy director's arm and gestured toward the crowd with his other hand.

"Everyone, into a room."

His voice was low, yet carried an unquestionable command.

The others instantly understood and streamed into the suite at the end of the Corridor.

Ouyang Feng was the last; he swung the heavy door shut, and the dull "clack" sounded like a complete separation of two worlds.

The suite's luxury was jaw‑dropping, but no one had the mood to appreciate it; the atmosphere was oppressively tense.

The ghost began sweeping the suite for bugs, miniature cameras, and the like; after confirming safety, he gave Wang Zhangzhi an "OK" gesture.

Wang Zhangzhi nodded.

"Speak, what actually happened," Wang Zhangzhi pressed the trembling deputy director onto the sofa, his gaze sharp as a blade.

The deputy director's surname was Li; his given name was Li Weidong. He trembled as he fished a cigarette pack from his pocket but couldn't light it, and finally Mo Shu took the lighter and lit it for him.

He took a deep drag; the nicotine's calming effect steadied him a bit.

"Probably… about a week ago," Li Weidong's voice still trembled, "I went to Director Zhang to report, it was a report on the western‑city security overhaul."

"He was turned away, looking out the window. I placed the report on his desk and said, 'Director Zhang, please take a look.'"

Then...... then......

Li Weidong's pupils dilated, and extreme terror flashed across his face.

"He turned his head, and his neck… made a 'clack' sound, as if a bone dislocated. Then his head rotated a full one hundred and eighty degrees at an impossible angle!"

"He held his face upside down, smiled at me, and said, 'Got it, leave it here.'"

The suite was so silent you could hear a pin drop.

Jiang Yuan felt a cold draft rising from the hollow at the back of his neck.

A person's head turned one hundred eighty degrees, then spoke as if nothing happened?

"There were other people in the office then! The secretary, plus two other section chiefs! But they…" Li Weidong's voice trembled, "They acted as if they hadn't seen anything, still debating where to eat lunch!!"

"Only me! I was the only one who saw it!"

"Since that day, Zhang Haifeng has changed in my eyes. His gait, the way he eats, his expression when he speaks—all exude an indescribable Weirdness, like a marionette! Yet to everyone else, he remains the decisive, thunderous Director Zhang!"

"I didn't dare speak up, fearing I'd be called crazy! I even saw a psychologist! Only today, seeing all of you… I finally dared to reveal this secret!"

Li Weidong clutched his head, murmuring in pain, the loneliness and terror of being the only one in the world to notice the anomaly nearly crushing him.

At that moment, a voice broke the silence.

"Wait… what did you just say? 'Only I saw it'?"

In the corner, the ghost suddenly lifted its head.

On his perpetually sleepy face, a rare hint of concentration appeared.

The ghost's eyes flicked, as if recalling something, and he immediately grabbed a notebook, pulling up earlier forum posts about the Fake Person.

A moment later, the ghost turned the notebook toward himself, the screen displaying several post excerpts.

【Help! My wife isn't my wife anymore! Her face melts every night! Yet no one else at home notices!】

【My son has no facial features, but why do my parents keep feeding him? Am I crazy?】

【The security guard downstairs lost his head while walking, but only I can see it! No one else notices!】

The ghost cut straight to the point:

"All the posts share a common thread: the posters stress one thing—only they can see the anomaly. Some are even labeled mentally ill by everyone around them, sinking into self‑doubt."

Wang Zhangzhi's gaze swept the screen, his eyes growing ever more solemn.

Jiang Yuan and Mo Shu leaned in, their anxiety mounting with each glance.

These posts describe situations strikingly similar to Li Weidong's!

"I get it!" Jiang Yuan exclaimed, "It's a trait of the Fake Person! It distorts the perception of those around it, yet for some reason it fails on a particular individual!"

Mo Shu nodded:

"These people must share some commonality, and that commonality must be linked to the Fake Person's Murder Rule."

The ghost fell silent, slid the notebook to face himself, and hammered the keyboard at lightning speed.

"Captain, grant me permissions and clearance; I need to investigate the real identities and backgrounds of these posters to find the commonality."

"Investigate," Wang Zhangzhi said tersely.

"OK."

In the ghost's listless eyes, a flash of focused light ignited instantly.

The clatter of keys fluttered like wild bees.

Just a minute later, individual dossiers, along with their histories, appeared clearly on the screen.

The first poster, real name Zhang Tianwei, caused grievous injury three years ago, paid off the matter, and never served jail time.

The second poster, real name Zhao Jing, a company accountant, had long been embezzling funds, amounting to several million.

The third poster, real name Liu Bing, was the perpetrator of campus bullying, once causing a classmate to fall into depression and commit suicide.

Seeing this, everyone in the room understood.

All posters who had noticed the existence of the Fake Person, without exception, had blood on their hands—great or small sins.

The ghost's gaze shifted from the screen to Li Weidong beside it.

"To verify my hypothesis……Deputy Director Li, in the end I have no choice but to investigate you thoroughly."

Li Weidong's face changed, "Wait, wait—"

The ghost pressed the Enter key even faster.

"Smack!"

The screen changed, revealing piece after piece of secret intelligence about Li Weidong.

The ghost intoned:

"Li Weidong, five years ago, abusing his authority, reclassified an intentional homicide as manslaughter and took a bribe of 800,000 yuan from the suspect's family."

"Three years ago, he covered up for his nephew, erasing the record of his drunk‑driving hit‑and‑run."

"Last year, to secure a position for his lover, he secretly maneuvered to drive out a diligent old police officer……"

One after another, the ghost's voice was soft, yet each word struck to the heart.

Li Weidong's face went from ashen to deathly pale, finally losing all color.

He slumped on the sofa, his gaze unfocused, his whole body seeming to have had its bones pulled out.

It's over.

His career, his life—at this moment, completely finished.

Jiang Yuan watched this scene, and an inexplicable sense of satisfaction welled up in him.

Wang Zhangzhi rose, walked to the window, and looked down at the bustling city streets, his voice low and forceful:

"This is more like a screening mechanism."

"The Weird, especially the weird of the ghost‑story type, likes to prey on the guilty; certain traits in these people make them easier to attract."

"And the Fake Person, through some means we don't yet understand, screens out the guilty, then, only before them, tears off its disguise and reveals its true face."

"This 'seeing' is not a special ability of the guilty."

Wang Zhangzhi turned, his deep gaze sweeping over everyone present:

"Rather, it is how the Fake Person marks its 'food'."

"You can see it not because you are especially special."

"But because it… has already marked you as the next dish on its plate."