Zhong Yi hadn't called the police, because if you told an ordinary cop about this, you wouldn't even know how to start explaining it.
But Chu Ge had a way.
He simply picked up the phone and dialed Lin Wuyang. "Wuyang, I've got an esper case on my hands. Am I right in bringing it to you?"
Lin Wuyang took it very seriously. "What's the situation?"
"Black House... actually you know about them, don't you? You just don't trust them and never made contact?"
Lin Wuyang was silent a moment. "Mm."
Damn, I really do know a lot.
"That Wang family nightclub case you cracked last time, the one who reported it was Black House. Now their people have been hit in revenge. They're in the hospital. Want to come take statements?"
Lin Wuyang's voice jumped several notches. "They got revenge too?"
"Too?"
"First thing this morning, Zhang Xiaoren... oh, Zhang Qiren's older brother. He doesn't run the underground business anymore, he runs a legitimate real estate company on the surface. Last night that company got reported for tax evasion and fraudulent VAT invoices. The evidence was mailed to the tax inspectors complete and airtight, and the amounts are big enough to count as economic crime. First thing this morning the inspectors and the economic crime unit opened a joint case and moved into his company."
Chu Ge remembered: last time Zhang Qiren had put that skinny monkey of a man out front and shoved the blame onto his brother. In the Wang family's eyes, the one who'd come after them was Zhang Xiaoren.
So Zhang Xiaoren had been hit in revenge too. Everything lined up.
Lin Wuyang added one more thing. "The way they got into Zhang Xiaoren's company finance office — apparently it was writing on the face again."
"So we can basically be certain it was the Wang family?"
Lin Wuyang said, "Give me a moment. I'll head to the hospital."
A short while later Lin Wuyang came in with a few subordinates and took statements from Wan Zijun and Panda. He nodded at Zhong Yi, friendly, then drew Chu Ge out into the hallway. "Let's take a walk."
Chu Ge followed him outside the hospital building, and the two strolled slowly along the roadside.
"From where we sit, who's behind this doesn't mean much. Same as last time — whether it was Zhang Xiaoren who reported it or somebody else, I don't care." Lin Wuyang said frankly, "When they report each other, what they're doing is exposing crimes. That's the part we support."
Chu Ge said, "But Ah Jun and Panda got beaten, and stabbed. People die from that — and it started with them being retaliated against for exposing a crime. Is that something the police handle or not?"
"Of course we handle it," Lin Wuyang said. "In fact, once I matched it up against your side's situation, I already knew who this was."
"Who?"
"A wanted fugitive by the name of Rong Fu."
"Murong Fu?"
"Surname Rong, given name Fu." Lin Wuyang laughed despite himself. "His ability really is a bit like Murong Fu's, though — turn a man's own methods against him. He can copy the other person's power and pin it one level higher. As far as we know to date, he can hold only one person's ability at a time; he can't have several at once. Whether he's broken through that now, we can't say."
Chu Ge's eyebrows went up. "So first he can tell what somebody's ability is?"
Privately he thought, If he's really that good, maybe down the line I can set something up and have him judge what my ability actually is.
But Lin Wuyang shook his head. "Probably not. He only learns what the ability is after he's copied it. So normally he investigates first, confirms the target's ability, and only then makes his move."
"So how did he end up on the wanted list?"
"If you had an ability like that, what would you do?"
Chu Ge thought about it. "I'd probably go around challenging espers to test it out. That kind of ability is too interactive — you can't enjoy it on your own."
"Exactly... but once you find that you've stomped every last person, wouldn't you get a little full of yourself? Or a little twisted? Say... the one in front of you, beaten so bad she can't move, is a good-looking girl, hair in disarray, eyes defiant."
Chu Ge: "...Chief Lin, I was firmly against your retirement from the literary world back then."
"See? Doesn't that get a reaction out of you, just hearing it?" Lin Wuyang said. "I told you, I could write that popcorn stuff of yours too..."
"Yeah, yeah, yeah. Chief Lin becoming a cop really was literature's loss." Chu Ge sighed. "I get it. So basically this guy tortured or humiliated a whole batch of espers, and that's why he's wanted? Ah Jun and Panda being alive means he went easy on them?"
"Mm." Lin Wuyang said, "No idea whether he went easy, or whether whoever hired him set conditions and didn't want things blowing up... Actually, that one stab into Wan Zijun was already savagery showing. Under normal circumstances, teaching someone a lesson only takes a beating, doesn't it?"
Chu Ge nodded.
It was that one stab that changed the nature of it. If it had just been a beating, they'd have answered with a beating of their own and never thought about the police. But a blade had come out, and Chu Ge's first reflex was to get the police to lock him up.
Wan Zijun lived alone out in the countryside, no one to look after him. If not for years of farm work and a tough constitution, that one stab might have bled him out on the ground, too weak to even save himself.
Never mind any friendship owed to Black House — these two were Chu Ge's readers. Among all the goofballs in the group chat chanting "Qiuqiu~ my Qiuqiu" day in and day out, Wan Zijun and Panda were the most eager of the bunch. When somebody out there badmouthed the book, Wan Zijun and Panda were first in line to go tear into them, and Panda was even a moderator now, currently locked in a back-and-forth with Dianniang over the avatar business.
In Chu Ge's eyes, those two were closer to him than even Zhong Yi, who'd helped him fake the identity. Neither Wan Zijun nor Panda could ever imagine that Third Brother held such special feelings for them.
Lin Wuyang was saying, "Rest assured, we'll take this seriously. I'll report it up to the provincial department as soon as I'm back and arrange a manhunt for this Rong Fu."
Chu Ge was taken aback, and then it suddenly clicked why the City Bureau's esper strength was so thin — the provincial department sat right there in the same city. The capable ones must all be gathered over there.
He hesitated, then asked, "I'd like to help with this. Do you accept cooperation from an enthusiastic citizen?"
Lin Wuyang eyed him sidelong for a while, and finally sighed. "So you've joined Black House."
"Yeah. Joined not long ago. Off-the-books, the masked one."
"If it's that organization, then I won't say much. After all, President Gu, who's from the capital, recommended this little group to me... I wasn't sure before, so I held off and kept my distance without making contact. This incident can count as our first cooperation and contact. Getting to know each other starts now."
"President Gu... of what society?"
"The Esper Information Compilation Society." Lin Wuyang smiled. "Last time she came to Nanjiang it was to compile some information. The first issue just came out — good timing, we can use it for reference."
"Can I take a look?"
"No. Internal publication. But you can look at this one page." Lin Wuyang fished out a booklet and flipped to a page.
Registry of Ability Users (Internal Trial Issue):
Name: Rong Fu.
Status: fugitive serial killer (high risk).
Ability: Turn a Man's Own Methods Against Him — copies an esper's power, forcibly pinned one level higher.
Development level: at present can copy only one ability at a time; degree of evolution unknown.
Nature: multi-purpose.
Potential: A-.
"What does this potential rating even mean?" Chu Ge said, astonished. "An ability this ridiculous — always a level above whoever he's facing — and it's only A? With a minus? I'd have guessed SSS."
Lin Wuyang shook his head. "That assessment came from the expert panel up top. First, it's only a subjective judgment; it may be wrong, and they'll revise it. Second, potential doesn't mean current ability, it means future prospects. He's pretty much exhausted his. Down the road the most he can do is copy a few abilities at once — ultimately he's got hard limits built in. As things stand, he's only suited to ambushing someone on their own. What does he do if several people come at him? What does he do if a bunch of us just shoot him..."
"Emmmm..."
"Besides, this thing weighs multiple angles, it isn't combat power. That's why there's a 'Nature' line up above, isn't it? My ability isn't suited for fighting, but my potential is still a B — supposedly it's a psychic ability with real room to develop." Lin Wuyang patted Chu Ge on the shoulder. "That body of yours might be impervious to blades and bullets? It really is strange. How does a writer end up with this ability? Preparing in advance for the tigress at home?"
Chu Ge: "Is your development potential a Truth Spell, by any chance?"
Lin Wuyang looked him up and down. "Yours ought to get assessed at some point. Personally, I'd say that's a B too?"