As soon as the word left his lips, Hao Wenming suddenly snatched the assault rifle from Ruan Liang's hands and fired a wild burst into the ceiling. At the same time, Po Jun dashed to the weapons rack, grabbed another assault rifle, and joined Hao Wenming in riddling the ceiling with bullets. Someone was on the roof! Sun Fatty and I immediately caught on, drew our rifles from their cases, and aimed at the ceiling, waiting for any reaction from above.
Hao Wenming and Po Jun emptied their magazines quickly. Discarding their rifles, they switched to the Bureau-issued firearms they had brought. Yang Jun squinted at the ceiling, saying nothing and making no move. After the gunfire stopped, a few seconds of silence passed before a man's voice came from above:
"Director Hao, it's been so many years. Is this how you welcome an old friend? Quite the grand reception."
The voice filtered down from the ceiling, but we couldn't pinpoint the exact location.
Hao Wenming sneered coldly at the ceiling. "Huang Ran... Come on. It's been over twenty years. You can't even show your face to your old director?"
A short pause followed, then the man laughed and said, "Let's not, for now. I'll wait until Fatty Gao and the others arrive, and then I'll surprise you all properly. Just giving you a heads-up so you're mentally prepared."
As he spoke, his voice grew fainter, and by the end of the sentence, it was already coming from outside the house. Hao Wenming didn't hesitate—he grabbed his rifle and rushed out the door.
I was closest to the entrance, and without a moment's hesitation, I raised my rifle and followed close behind. Once out in the courtyard, we saw a plump figure already sprinting across the snow two hundred meters ahead. That guy—was that Huang Ran? There was no time to think. I aimed and fired a shot at the figure's back. The shot struck true, and the man collapsed—but he immediately scrambled back to his feet and staggered onward.
Hao Wenming shouted at me, "Don't shoot! He's worth nothing dead—we need him alive!"
The gunshot had slowed him down considerably. We were closing in fast, and when we were only fifty or sixty meters away, a pair of deathly pale hands suddenly shot out from the snow, grabbing my ankles. I had no time to react and was instantly yanked down face-first into the snow.
Within seconds, eight or nine completely naked young men clawed their way out of the snow. Their eyes were vacant, their skin ghostly white, and their veins bulged visibly across their bodies in a grotesque tangle. They lunged at us the moment they surfaced.
Before I could even get up, one of those white bodies had already leapt onto me, jaws wide, aiming straight for my neck. In the split second before he could bite down, I clasped my hands around his throat. I had planned to use that momentum to shove him off, but his strength was monstrous. Not only did I fail to push him away, but he even got closer—his gaping mouth just inches from my neck.
At this rate, he'd bite into my throat in mere seconds. Desperate, I shouted with all my might, "Are you people dead or what?! Help—"
I hadn't even finished the word "help" when there was a loud bang, and the figure on top of me suddenly shot sideways, flying more than twenty meters through the air before crashing into the snow. After a few tumbles, he lay face-up and motionless. I'd been dragged into a roll myself, and everything had happened so fast I hadn't even seen what hit him. When I finally got to my feet, Yang Jun was already standing beside me.
It was him. Yang Jun had struck.
The remaining creatures that had crawled out of the snow slowly turned their gazes on Yang Jun. They didn't move, just stared as if waiting for some silent command. Yang Jun stood still. Then, without a word, he bent down and scooped up a snowball, gently tossing it in the air a couple times—like he meant to throw it at them. Just as he was about to make a move, Hao Wenming shouted from behind:
"Don't kill them! They've been affected by the Life-Borrowing Spell—there's still hope for them! Go after Huang Ran. Leave the rest to us!"
As he spoke, Hao Wenming dumped the contents of his military backpack onto the ground, rummaging frantically through it for something.
Upon hearing this, Yang Jun glanced coldly at the fleeing Huang Ran, now a distant figure, but made no move to pursue. Instead, he casually dropped the snowball and unstrapped his military backpack, carrying it by hand.
Just then, a sharp, piercing scream echoed across the snowfield. The moment the sound rang out, the creatures in the snow launched themselves at Yang Jun in unison, like the cry had triggered some command.
Yang Jun didn't dodge or run. He simply raised his arm and hurled the backpack toward them. As it flew through the air, a pitch-black ball of fur suddenly burst out from within.
It hit the ground and rolled once—and I finally recognized it. It was the black cat Yang Jun had brought back from the Ghost Ship—
Nyeh!
The cat steadied itself and opened its mouth, spitting out a small, flesh-colored orb about the size of a tennis ball. Then it let out a blood-curdling cry:
"Nyeh..."
The moment the sound escaped its mouth, my heart clenched into a tight knot. My legs gave out and I collapsed straight into the snow. For several seconds, my mind went completely blank. Only when the chill of the snow seeped into my skull did I slowly come to. But even then, my legs were useless—numb, unresponsive. I tried several times to stand but failed each time.
Lying there helpless, I could only glance around me. Across the vast expanse of snow, aside from Yang Jun, every single person—including Huang Ran—was either lying still or slumped in place. Not far ahead, under two large pine trees, two more figures lay prone on the ground. Judging from their positions, they'd been lying in ambush up there, waiting to spring a surprise attack on us. But their plan had been completely upended—by a cat.
Yang Jun strolled unhurriedly over to Huang Ran, grabbed him by the collar, and dragged him back to Hao Wenming. At this point, Hao Wenming was also lying facedown in the snow. He seemed to have regained some consciousness, but still lacked the strength to speak or move. So the Bureau Chief ended up lying eye-to-eye with Huang Ran in the snow.
Yang Jun scooped up a handful of snow, pried open Hao Wenming's mouth, and slowly poured the half-melted snowwater into it. He'd barely gotten a few sips in before Hao Wenming choked slightly. Strangely enough, after just that single sputter, Hao Wenming suddenly jerked up from the snow and sat up.
"Not to nitpick, but when did you start bringing Nian with you? Besides this little trick, you still got no other methods?" Hao Wenming sounded a bit worked up. Just as he was speaking, that black cat had already strolled lazily to Yang Jun's feet. With a light leap, it sprang onto Yang Jun's shoulder and softly meowed at Hao Wenming, "Nyeh…"
The sound made Hao Wenming shudder all over, nearly falling back into the snow.
Yang Jun gently stroked the cat's satin-like fur, then said to Hao Wenming, "There are two more ahead—seem to be the ones who were with Huang Ran. You can check them out or not, up to you. I'll wake them up."
Saying that, Yang Jun grabbed another handful of snow and walked over to me. Just like before, he poured the snowmelt into my mouth. That icy snowwater seemed almost sentient—it didn't go straight down, instead pooling around the root of my tongue. Once it had gathered into a small mouthful, it suddenly surged down my throat. The cold shock jolted me upright, and I instinctively rolled over and stood up.
After I got up, Yang Jun proceeded to revive Sun Fatty, Po Jun, and Ruan Liang, one by one. When Sun Fatty woke up, the black cat immediately leapt from Yang Jun's shoulder onto his.
Startled, Sun Fatty's voice trembled: "What's that supposed to mean? Don't tell me it's gonna start yelling again?"
Yang Jun gave a faint smile and ignored him, turning instead to Po Jun.
Thankfully, the cat only stayed on Sun Fatty's shoulder briefly before hopping down. It sauntered over to where Yang Jun had dropped his backpack, slipped its neck through the strap, and slowly dragged the pack back over.
By then, Po Jun and Ruan Liang had also recovered. Hao Wenming grabbed the two people lying beneath the pine tree—one in each hand—and dragged them back to where we stood, tossing them down in front of us.
The two of them, a man and a woman, were none other than Zhang Zhiyan and Meng Qiqi—the pair that Qiu Bulao and Wang Ziheng hated so much their teeth itched. The two stared at us with wide eyes, a flicker of fear in them. Hao Wenming didn't seem particularly interested. After throwing them to the ground, he crouched in front of Huang Ran. He unzipped Huang Ran's outer coat, revealing a scale-patterned bulletproof vest underneath.
Looking back at me, Hao Wenming chuckled and said, "Just now, I thought you botched it. Turns out the guy was wearing body armor—foreign-made, no less." Seeing Huang Ran captured, Director Hao's mood lifted considerably, and the earlier tension had already melted away.
Sun Fatty walked over and asked, "Chief Hao, what do we do with these three? Want Yang Jun to wake them too?"
Hao Wenming blinked a few times, didn't answer, and instead took out his phone to call Gao Liang. After hanging up, he gave Huang Ran a beaming smile. "Give it a minute. Chief Gao is coming personally. He said he's got something he wants to tell you face-to-face. He's eager to see what kind of surprise you've got for him."
Sun Fatty, Po Jun, and I went to check on the eight or nine people who had crawled out of the snow earlier. Except for the one who'd been flung aside (and remained unconscious), the others seemed physically unharmed. The blood vessels that had surfaced under their skin had disappeared. Their eyes were tightly shut, and from their seven orifices oozed a sticky white substance. Due to the freezing weather, the mucus had frozen into seven tiny icicles.
I pried open one of their eyelids and found that each pupil was coated with a thin pink waxy film. However, these wax membranes were slowly melting, and the mucus draining from their orifices was gradually turning pink.
I had seen this condition before in the files back at the Bureau archives. It was caused by a spell known as the Soul-Sealing Technique. This was a high-level incantation, but not too difficult to dispel. Once the spellcaster was subdued and the connection between caster and victim severed, the afflicted would return to normal after thirty-six hours.
Sun Fatty glanced at me with a questioning look. I told him everything I knew.
Ruan Liang, seeing his comrades in such a state, couldn't help but ask, "What happened to them? Can they be saved?"
That was a question only Sun Fatty could answer. Pointing to Huang Ran and the other two, he said, "See those three lying over there? They're the drug traffickers we came to apprehend. No offense, but it looks like news of our operation was leaked—they set a trap here and your comrades ended up as collateral. Fortunately, none of them are in life-threatening danger. Give it a few days of rest and they'll recover."
Ruan Liang asked again, "But why'd they strip off all their clothes and bury themselves in the snow?"
Sun Fatty rolled his eyes and thought for a moment before replying, "...Based on current evidence, I'd say your comrades were drugged. Most likely with a type of neurotoxic drug called 'bath salts.' It's colorless and odorless, and after ingestion it causes intense burning sensations and hallucinations—often with extreme aggression. The traffickers exploited this effect to turn your comrades against us, forcing us to hold back our counterattack."
Ruan Liang still had more questions, but Sun Fatty had reached the limit of what he could make up. He brushed it off by saying it was classified and inconvenient to explain further.
Even though the men were out of danger, we couldn't just leave them lying naked in the snow. With Hao Wenming and Yang Jun guarding the three captives, the rest of us carried the soldiers back to the sentry post and left Ruan Liang to look after them. Sun Fatty and I returned to Hao Wenming's side while Po Jun went to scout the surrounding area.
We had originally wanted to bring Huang Ran and the other two back to the post as well, but Hao Wenming stopped us.