Yan Junxun was eating breakfast when he received Jiang Lian's call. He hadn't slept all night and was back to his drowsy state, sitting by the glass window of a street-side convenience store, eating a crayfish onigiri.

"The new indoor system at my place changed the call settings on my Communicator," Jiang Lian had just woken up, and the sound of him moving around could be heard as he spoke. "I just saw it. Did something happen?"

"You can sit down and eat," Yan Junxun said, crumpling the onigiri wrapper into various shapes between his fingers. "Your wife is already unhappy."

Jiang Lian carefully glanced at his wife and obediently sat down. Seizing the moment when she turned away, he asked, "How did you know that too?"

Yan Junxun wanted to say that she was loud when putting down the tableware, kicked her slippers when she walked, and that they must have argued before bed last night, so she didn't even want to make him breakfast today. But Yan Junxun didn't say it; he didn't want to sound like he knew everything. So he just grunted "mm," glanced at Shi Shanyan sitting beside him, and replied, "A guess. I want to tell you the killer might work near the Puli Residential Community. You can check Li Jianhua's bicycle at his doorstep again, or the emergency exit of his building. Also, I wanted to tell you that you can check the building unit's surveillance for Li Jianhua's building. It's best to run facial recognition on everyone; you might find something new."

"Okay," Jiang Lian took his plate and said before eating, "You know where I live, right? If you can't reach me next time, you can come over directly." He quickly finished his fried egg and continued, "These systems are too automated nowadays. I never expected it would change my Communicator settings on its own."

Yan Junxun didn't want to go to Jiang Lian's home. His wife wasn't very friendly towards members of the Supervisory Bureau, and even though Yan Junxun had wanted to tell her many times that he wasn't a member of the Supervisory Bureau, he never got the chance.

Shi Shanyan was drinking hot water. His daily habits were all in line with a sniper's requirements, except for smoking. At this moment, he asked Jiang Lian, "What kind of system did you install at your place?"

"A ninth-generation civilian indoor system decommissioned from the Light Rail District," Jiang Lian said while drinking coffee and greeting the system, "Good morning."

His indoor system replied in a gruff, husky male voice, "Good morning, big bro!"

Jiang Lian nearly spat out a mouthful of coffee.

"The ninth-generation civilian indoor system wouldn't change the Communicator's settings on its own," Shi Shanyan shifted his long legs into a more comfortable position under the table. "It's not that proactive."

Jiang Lian suspected his wife might have changed it. The two of them had argued last night about their work hours. They wanted a child, but it was obvious neither of them had the time, and neither wanted to admit it was their fault. He couldn't very well ask in front of Yan Junxun and Shi Shanyan, so he could only say, "Maybe I remembered wrong... Are you two coming to the Supervisory Bureau today?"

"We'll see," Yan Junxun said. "I might also just go home and sleep."

Jiang Lian said he understood, and the Communicator call ended.

The morning in the Docking Area was still gloomy. Clouds shrouded the uneven clusters of buildings, and in the distance, industrial chimneys were spewing smoke. There weren't even any morning joggers at this hour; the air quality was too terrible, and few people opened their windows.

"You think someone changed Jiang Lian's Communicator settings," Yan Junxun didn't want to be silent, nor did he want to beat around the bush with Shi Shanyan anymore. "Who would do that?"

"Someone who's interested in geniuses," Shi Shanyan turned his head to look at Yan Junxun, still holding the cup of hot water in one hand. "Someone is very interested in both you and Artemis. Since he can hack into your indoor system, he can certainly hack into Jiang Lian's. This case seems so simple, yet the Supervisory Bureau still hasn't found the person. Is it because the information you gave isn't accurate enough? No. It's just that someone is interfering with Jiang Lian's investigation."

A small light screen was lit up in the convenience store. The aunty sitting at the cash register was watching a TV drama, so engrossed that she'd forgotten to knit her sweater. The volume wasn't high, allowing Yan Junxun and Shi Shanyan's conversation to blend in, so no one paid any attention to anyone else.

As if to keep a secret, Shi Shanyan raised his arm and rested it on the back of Yan Junxun's chair, leaning his body slightly forward. He was very tactful in these matters, not getting too close, but stopping at a perfect distance that left no room for complaint. He was always like this.

"You should be glad this is the Docking Area, where the system's cameras don't cover the entire region. Otherwise, with a hacker who sticks to you like a dog-skin plaster, we wouldn't even have a place to talk. He could even watch you on the toilet."

"You're saying he hacked into Jiang Lian's system, and while watching Jiang Lian on the toilet, he also wants to monitor our calls and the progress of these cases?" Yan Junxun recalled the voice changer from that day. He said, "He's way too focused on these things."

"Better to think about why he's so focused." Shi Shanyan put down his cup of hot water, a hint of something called "gentleness" entering his eyes. He could arrange himself at will; as long as the atmosphere of the moment required it, he could provide the most suitable gaze.

Yan Junxun's thoughts started racing again. They were impossibly lively, competing with each other inside his head. Details about the case were like the morning mist, instantly spreading everywhere.

But the Communicator rang again. As if he had expected it, Shi Shanyan answered.

"I just got a call from the bureau," Jiang Lian said, hastily putting on his shoes and opening his door. "They found a woman named Yang Yu at the service station. She's a widow who usually takes on cleaning jobs from the station and has worked with 'Punctual Cleaning'. She also has a son. At first, the information database only showed her personal profile. Based on that, investigators discovered she had been reported by a client before for selling the client's family's private information for personal gain, which led to the client being blackmailed. It was later verified that the person blackmailing the client was her son. The investigators suspect the mother and son are working together to set people up, that they're extortionists. So they had 'Jue' run an information search on her son, Cheng Lixin, as well. 'Jue' immediately found that this Cheng Lixin has a lot of bad records. Six months ago, he owed a large sum of money at a mahjong parlor managed by Liu Xincheng, and the repayment account wasn't his own; it belonged to Li Jianhua. He used to work at the Coke Plant and has an old-fashioned truck. This morning, investigators found him in the Diba Residential Community. He was with Huo Qingjun's neighbor, and the two of them had previously made threatening phone calls to Huo Qingjun together."

Jiang Lian stopped there. He couldn't let himself sound like he was questioning Yan Junxun.

Just then, a clown passed by outside the convenience store's glass window, holding a bunch of balloons. He walked past the window, then walked back, winking and making faces at Yan Junxun inside. One of the balloons suddenly popped with an exceptionally loud bang, and then the remaining balloons started popping one after another, "Pop! Pop! Pop!" The clown didn't seem to expect it either; he let go of the strings in fright and instinctively covered his head.

Bang!

The sounds were like a dense barrage of gunfire, bursting painfully against Yan Junxun's eardrums. The scenes he had constructed in his mind shattered instantly, countless fragments spinning like pieces of a mirror. The files on Liu Xincheng, Li Jianhua, and Huo Qingjun scattered in all directions like ants.

The aunty in the convenience store was startled. She stood up and stared in astonishment out the window, the sweater in her hands falling to the floor. A budding flower popped out of the clown's head, and as he ducked, it opened with a "snap," spraying red paint everywhere.

Let's play a game

A printed note, revealed from within the paint, was soaked crimson and hung in the clown's messy wig like a declaration of war.

Yan Junxun stared at the clown, hearing the sound of chalk snapping and scraping shrilly across a blackboard.

"What's wrong?" Jiang Lian on the other end of the Communicator was bewildered by the sound of the popping balloons. He asked nervously, "What happened, Junxun?"

Shi Shanyan lowered his index finger and ended the call. He tossed his empty water cup accurately into the trash can by the door. His hand finally rested on Yan Junxun's shoulder, enveloping Yan Junxun in his scent as he said in a deep voice, "Relax."

The clown wretchedly picked up the balloon fragments from the ground, wiping the red paint from his face. He gave a ninety-degree bow to the two people inside the glass. The convenience store aunty had already rushed out and was giving the clown a piece of her mind. The clown, at a loss, just smiled apologetically. His teeth were very white, bared and standing out starkly against the red.

Yan Junxun closed his eyes. He felt it was so noisy. The sound from the TV drama in the convenience store, the arguing outside, and the sound of the blackboard in his head—all of it made his breathing shallow and quick.

"Junxun must learn to play the game."

Artemis turned the blackboard around, a torrential downpour behind it. It pointed at the problem on the blackboard, repeating it day after day before the darkness encroached.

"Junxun is the best genius. He will never fail at any game."

Shi Shanyan's palm was about to touch Yan Junxun's cheek, but Yan Junxun reacted quickly. As if activating a defense mode, he swiftly blocked it, keeping Shi Shanyan's hand at bay.

"Look at me," Shi Shanyan wasn't bothered. Even without touching Yan Junxun, his figure could still envelop Yan Junxun within his reach. "Relax, Junxun, I won't hurt you. Forget about that blackboard, look at me, okay?"

Yan Junxun regulated his breathing. The arm he used to block was powerful, like a taut string that would snap if touched again.

Shi Shanyan was very careful. The moment he had been waiting for had finally arrived. He observed Yan Junxun's expression, and under Yan Junxun's gaze, he slowly lowered his body slightly—a signal to relax.

"This hacker, he's watching us. He's sent you an invitation and has unilaterally started the game," Shi Shanyan caught Yan Junxun's scent. He habitually licked a canine tooth and smiled at Yan Junxun. "You're not afraid of him, right? You're not afraid of anyone. Don't let him get complacent. Show him what you're made of."

"You knew all along that there was something wrong with this case," Yan Junxun's expression was so calm it was as if his mind wasn't filled with those chaotic fragments. He said, "You played me, along with him."

"Don't think of me like that," Shi Shanyan replied, thinking. "I just noticed something a little strange. I gave you a hint very early on, didn't I? Don't be like this—" His low laugh carried a coquettish tone meant only for Yan Junxun to feel. "I'm on your side."

Yan Junxun could no longer hear the sound of the blackboard. His mind was black, like a shut-down system, with only the sound of rain constantly washing over it. The other party wanted to overturn his deductions, to turn him into a real charlatan. He reached back, pressed the back of Shi Shanyan's head, and pulled them closer, saying irritably, "You'd better be."

"Of course," Shi Shanyan looked at him. "If I were on the same side as him..."

"I'd kill you," Yan Junxun said without hesitation, simultaneously raising a hand and flipping off the convenience store's security camera, which had turned towards them at some point.

He knew the other party was definitely watching this place.

"Run faster," Yan Junxun said. "Fuck."