How long does it take to drive forty kilometers from Lungmen? An off-road vehicle will tell you: less than half an hour.
When Chen Huijie arrived with the Guard Department team and saw the corpses and bloodstains scattered across the ground, many of the newcomers vomited on the spot. Chen Huijie rushed to the car in a few strides, ignoring the thick blood on the ground. Inside, she saw Beatrice and Flandre Scarlet chatting and laughing merrily. For a moment, she didn't know if she was the one who had gone mad or if it was Beatrice.
"Pink Sausage Dragon, you're here! Come sit inside the car; the smell of blood outside is too strong, it's unpleasant to breathe in." Seeing Chen Huijie approach, Beatrice calmly pointed toward the back door.
On any other day, she would have shot back with a "Char Siu Cat" retort, but today, she felt a bit hesitant. Beatrice's calmness was eerily strange—so strange that Chen was unsure if the other woman's mental state was still stable. Carefully opening the car door, Beatrice's voice reached her again before she could even step inside.
"Remember to wipe your shoes outside. Don't bring blood into the car; it's a real pain to clean."
Chen Huijie looked at her soles. She had indeed been in a hurry while walking over and had picked up quite a bit of blood.
"Tell me, what on earth happened!" After getting into the car and scrutinizing Beatrice repeatedly to confirm her mental state was stable, Chen Huijie finally spoke.
Beatrice sighed before recounting the preceding events. "If they hadn't brought signal-jamming equipment, I probably would have contacted you guys much earlier, and Flandre wouldn't have had to step in. But they simply didn't give me a choice. In the city, they definitely couldn't outrun this car of mine, but out here in the wilderness... a sedan really can't outrun an off-road vehicle!"
"So these people are the same culprits we've been tracking for the robberies and murders of logistics company employees in the wilderness!" Chen Huijie marveled at the luck; a simple trip out had not only led to clues for her own case but had also incidentally solved the case she and her team had been investigating for days.
She finally realized why those trucks, despite having radios and GPS trackers, would mysteriously vanish every time, only to be found too late with the cargo gone and the people missing. She immediately realized that there must be a major problem with that village as well.
"Don't be in such a hurry. I've already contacted Governor Wei; he should have already taken action on his end." Seeing Chen Huijie's look of sudden realization, Beatrice spoke with a calm expression.
Hiss, Char Siu Cat, are you really okay? I suggest you see a psychiatrist for a basic assessment once we get back!" Looking at Beatrice's current demeanor, Chen Huijie felt a bit of a headache.
"Weak! It's just some dead people. If we as police officers were afraid of this, we might as well retire early!" After Beatrice finished speaking, she turned her gaze toward Flandre Scarlet. "Speaking of which, little Flandre didn't kill a single person this time... don't be too hard on her when we get back."
Flandre Scarlet also looked toward Chen Huijie after hearing this. Chen Huijie rubbed the bridge of her nose. "That part will be very easy to verify. After all, the wounds on these deceased are clearly visible. It's obvious at a glance who killed whom."
Chen Huijie leaned out to look; the wounds were indeed clear, and with the weapons left at the scene bearing fingerprints, gathering evidence would be very straightforward.
"Oh right, Old Chen, get me a spare tire from your car to swap out. One of my tires was shot out by them; it's also physical evidence and needs to be taken back." Swire pointed to the rear left wheel. Chen Huijie nodded in agreement and stepped out of the car to organize the processing of the scene.
Since Governor Wei had already made arrangements for the small town, what they needed to do now was bring back the vehicles, the bodies, and the surviving suspects. After all, the dead could not be put on trial, but the living would have to face the consequences of all their crimes.
There was a forensic doctor among those who had followed, though unfortunately not the middle-aged man Flandre and the others knew; however, he was also very professional. After conducting an investigation of all the bodies and the nearby weapons, he concluded that these people had died from killing each other. As for why they had turned on one another, that would have to wait until they interrogated the detained criminals or questioned the two witnesses on their side.
Meanwhile, at the Guard Department, dozens of vehicles filled with fully armed operators drove out of the building. Two of them headed straight for the frozen goods warehouse Beatrice had checked earlier, while the other cars headed toward the small town. They passed by Chen Huijie's group, who had finished cleaning up the scene and were heading back.
Looking at her fully armed colleagues in those dozens of vehicles, Old Chen felt a second of envy before driving her group back to the Lungmen Guard Department. The Guard Department took this matter very seriously, but seeing several truckloads of corpses, many people's faces still turned quite pale.
After all, having this many people involved in an attack on the police was a very grave matter. Furthermore, they didn't just have restricted knives and crossbows, but also strategic items like signal jammers; they were clearly a premeditated, planned, and organized criminal syndicate. Once this news got out, it was expected that Lungmen's underworld would face another purge. After all, being in the underworld was one thing, but obtaining such equipment and attacking the police was an entirely different level of offense. Never mind whether Old Wei would mind; even if he didn't, the Rat King certainly would.
Flandre Scarlet was then taken by Chen Huijie to give her statement.
"Don't be nervous. Let's start from the beginning. From when you and Beatrice went to that town together—do you know what she went there to do?" Chen Huijie asked.
"I know! The reason Sister Beatrice took me along was to help her as a cover. After all, if a person wanders around a small place like that all day, it's easy for people to notice something is wrong. But if there's a child along, it's different. And it was really pretty there; we took lots of photos. Sister Beatrice also said she wanted to invest there," Flandre Scarlet answered honestly.
Chen Huijie's lip twitched. That Beatrice, actually taking Flandre to do something so dangerous. But thinking about it now, it was lucky she was with Flandre, otherwise... she couldn't help but shiver.
Then Flandre Scarlet recounted how they found clues there and how she helped Beatrice as a cover. Although her narrative was occasionally disjointed, she was a child after all, and it was normal for her speech to be a bit jumpy. Through guidance, Chen Huijie was still able to steer the conversation back on track.
Then they got to the crucial part: the experience of being pursued on their way back. When speaking of this, Flandre Scarlet became quite excited. She described the car chase with animated gestures, talking about how those people tried to attack the vehicle.
As for the fact that she had deflected a crossbow bolt fired from another car to protect the driving Beatrice, killing the attacker on the spot—attacking the police was already a serious crime, and causing the death of an assailant while protecting an officer and herself constituted justifiable self-defense. No one would blame Flandre for that.
Finally, there was the reason for those people killing each other. At this point, Flandre Scarlet looked quite grumpy. She explained that because Sister Beatrice said to leave more people alive, her original plan was to play with them first, and at most finish off a few who were disobedient or unwilling to play games with her.
"But I didn't expect that just as I finished setting the scene, those people started killing each other." She was stunned at the time and forgot to stop them. By the time she reacted, most of them were already dead, so she didn't bother playing anymore.
"The statement is finished, but we need you to help us with something else," Chen Huijie said, taking Flandre Scarlet's hand.
"What else do you need Flandre's help with!" Flandre Scarlet expressed that she was very happy to be able to help people.
"Follow me!" Chen Huijie led Flandre Scarlet to a training ground. After giving some instructions to the training ground's camera, she finally asked, "Can you use that red mist you mentioned to fill this room?"
"That's very simple!" Flandre Scarlet nodded.
"How long will it take?" Chen Huijie asked.
"As long as you want it, it's just an instant!" With that, Flandre Scarlet waved her hand, and instantly a swirl of red mist filled the entire room. The red mist seemed alive, covering the whole room without a single trace leaking out.
"This is a spell my sister researched before to trigger Incidents. It's red and very pretty, but actually, it has no extra effects other than blocking vision," Flandre Scarlet said, pointing at the red mist in the room.
"Can I send people in to take a look?"
"Of course, there's nothing in there," Flandre Scarlet replied.
"Alright then." Chen Huijie called over two teams; one was fully armed, while the other only carried ordinary equipment.
"Chen SIR, are you sure there isn't anything weird inside this thing?" Someone reached out to touch the thick mist, and the mist instantly shifted, forming a face that looked just like his. The expressions on that face shifted from comical to angry, then to weeping, making one's scalp tingle with numbness.
"Don't worry, it really is just simple mist." Chen Huijie looked to the side and noticed Flandre Scarlet's fingers were constantly moving toward the red mist. And with every movement, the face in the red mist changed its expression. It was clearly Flandre Scarlet playing a prank.
Noticing Chen Huijie's gaze, Flandre Scarlet stuck out her tongue and then sat properly. The face on the mist instantly vanished.
"Rest assured, we've already tested it with equipment, and there are no issues." Chen Huijie pointed to the instruments nearby that hadn't been moved yet. Although she trusted Flandre Scarlet, she had still used the Guard Department's equipment for testing to ensure the operators would have no psychological burden.
The test results showed it was just high-concentration mist dyed red. Although the group was somewhat reluctant to believe Chen SIR after that eerie situation just now, they were willing to believe the equipment. So, after swallowing hard, the two squads walked inside.