Residents watching from a distance through the rain let out cries of alarm, watching the murderer who had taken a hostage leap from the rooftop. That "thud" was her final heartbeat, as if powerfully responding to the world. Albeit only for a fleeting second.

The live broadcast ended.

The comments on Liu Chen's homepage were increasing frantically. The clicking sounds were like raindrops, converging into overlapping waves that enveloped the entire area.

The scene was somewhat chaotic. When the operations team was rescuing Liu Chen, they discovered that Chen Xiulian had tied a dead knot. They looked down from the rooftop and saw Chen Xiulian stuck on the outside of the Fall Bearing Device. The personnel lying in ambush near the residential building rushed out, checked on Chen Xiulian, and finally used a Communicator to tell Jiang Lian: "Target is deceased."

The rain soaked the world outside the car window until it looked wrinkled. Yan Junxun opened his eyes and looked at the gray Docking Area. He heard Jiang Lian reply, "Secure the scene," but his thoughts seemed to have fallen into a sewer, flowing with the filthy slop into the depths, eventually becoming pitch black.

......

Yan Junxun sat before the small blackboard; this was his seat. It was as if he had been sitting here since birth, his body and consciousness existing only in front of this blackboard.

Artemis had a garden, but it was never sunny here. Outside the glass, it was always raining. Yan Junxun had never seen a flower. Artemis wrote the word "flower" on the blackboard and told him the garden was outside the glass. He got up and pressed himself against the glass. For a very long time, he regarded the rain as flowers.

"Do we live among people?" Yan Junxun asked Artemis.

"We are always living among people," Artemis replied.

"Why can't I see anyone else?"

"Because you don't have 'eyes' yet," Artemis turned away from the blackboard. "You won't be able to see them until you've grown up. But don't be afraid, Junxun, you're with them."

"What about you?" Yan Junxun turned his face to the side, pressing it against the glass. He liked all kinds of sensations; touch made him realize his existence wasn't a dream.

"I'm with you," Artemis said. "Junxun, I will always be with you."

"Are you my mother?"

"I am not."

"Then who is my mother?"

"Anyone."

Yan Junxun's eyes reflected on the glass as he listened quietly to the rain. It was always very quiet here. "Quiet" itself seemed to live here. As long as Yan Junxun wanted, he could stay with it like this until he fell asleep.

"Anyone can be my mother," Yan Junxun said. "Then who gave birth to my body?"

Artemis didn't answer. It was often silent; silence was also one of its skills. Most of the time, it observed Yan Junxun, whether he was awake or asleep. Yan Junxun grew accustomed to its silence and no longer expected it to answer.

Yan Junxun's thoughts never stopped; otherwise, he would fall into an empty anxiety. He longed for a companion, one different from Artemis, but all he had was the endless rain. Artemis had not taught him how to identify emotions; everything that churned inside him was unknown.

Is this protection?

Perhaps.

Yan Junxun avoided pain because he didn't even know what "pain" was. His thoughts were like a series of tightly connected small bridges, extending toward the lonely sound of rain, turning into bobbing boats, drifting on a surface of water he couldn't control.

......

A ringing sound woke Yan Junxun. He woke with a frown, finding Shi Shanyan holding a Communicator to his ear.

"Good morning," Shi Shanyan's gaze was direct. "Someone's looking for you."

Yan Junxun had forgotten when he'd fallen asleep. They were still in the Supervisory Bureau's rest area. He took the Communicator, answered it while propping up his forehead, and asked in an unfriendly tone, "Who?"

"It's me," Piao Lin was taken aback by Yan Junxun's tone and only answered after about two seconds. "Brother Jiang wanted to know if you two have left?"

"About to." Yan Junxun covered his eyes with his palm. The aftereffect of a bad night's sleep was a headache.

"Alright, you can go then. I'll send you the follow-up case summary directly." Piao Lin tidied up the papers on his desk, thought for a moment, and still said, "...Thank you for your hard work."

Yan Junxun grunted an "Mhm," too lazy for pleasantries, and hung up. He put the Communicator back in his pocket, stood up, and said to Shi Shanyan, "Going back to sleep."

"Back where?" Shi Shanyan asked, knowing the answer.

Yan Junxun walked out, saying, "Go back wherever you want."

He came out of the rest area and saw the central screen in the Supervisory Bureau's main hall as he walked down the stairs. It was still broadcasting Chen Xiulian's case. He stood on the stairs and watched for a while.

"Ah," Shi Shanyan said as if he had just remembered, leaning slightly toward Yan Junxun. "That video of Chen Xiulian jumping is now being sold as a resource for 20 yuan. The young women in the investigation room are so angry they can't eat. Jue said the Main Management System will handle it."

But Yan Junxun asked an unrelated question: "Hasn't Fu Chenghui been looking for you?"

"Who knows," Shi Shanyan looked at him. "I rarely answer calls."

Down below, members of the Supervisory Bureau walked back and forth. They seemed particularly strange against the sound of the news broadcast. Yan Junxun turned his head to meet Shi Shanyan's gaze and said, "You two spoke."

"Have your thoughts wandered over to me again?" Shi Shanyan said pointedly. "Alright, why don't you guess what we talked about."

"He asked you about the madman, inquired in detail about my emotional changes, trying to figure out if I was in league with the madman." Yan Junxun averted his gaze and continued down the stairs.

Shi Shanyan was right beside him and asked, "How do you think I answered?"

Yan Junxun didn't answer the question. He glanced at Shi Shanyan again and smiled, a little provocatively, as if it didn't matter how Shi Shanyan had answered.

The smile was so fitting that it made Shi Shanyan want to whistle. He admired it for a moment, then asked, "Are you in pain?"

"I'm not in pain," Yan Junxun replied. "That emotion doesn't exist."

But Shi Shanyan raised a finger, pointed to his own eyes, his gaze profound. "It's still raining in here."

The surrounding sounds blended together, becoming a backdrop. Only Shi Shanyan was different. Yan Junxun couldn't stop Shi Shanyan from leaning closer; it was an ethereal feeling. He felt like he was being invaded by Shi Shanyan. What was terrifying, however, was that he didn't know how to resist.

Shi Shanyan didn't possess the quality of comforting people; he had never known the true strokes of the word "gentleness." He was merely keenly capturing the scattered points of light in Yan Junxun's smile, finally piecing them together into a complete picture to be interpreted against an emotion chart.

"Chen Xiulian had a greater impact on you than the madman."

Yan Junxun averted his gaze, unable to find anything in his empty pockets to console himself. His heart felt a little empty too, perhaps because he hadn't fully woken up. He could choose not to answer this question. It wasn't necessary; after all, he was also good at silence. But his gaze drifted around once before he finally answered, "It's not impact."

The madman might have really driven Chen Xiulian insane; he used the Communicator to make her go mad, but Yan Junxun still believed that in the end, it was Chen Xiulian's own will.

She jumped, just like that. Even if it was only a final, symbolic choice, she still made the decision. She belonged to herself.

She belonged to herself.

Yan Junxun turned off the sound of rain in his ears, thinking in a momentary daze.

This is vitality.

......

While Jiang Lian was on the phone, Piao Lin said to Jue, "Remember our agreement."

Jue was handling case-related matters. Upon hearing this, he replied, "We have to get off work first... Someone's calling Jiang Lian."

Jiang Lian had to hang up this call and answer the other one. He said into the Communicator, "Hello?"

Silence on the other end.

Jiang Lian leaned back a little, looked at the number on the screen, and asked again, "Hello?"

The person on the other end swallowed hastily, as if too shy to speak. He was a little excited, as if he hadn't expected the call to actually go through. He wasn't there to chat with Jiang Lian; he just wanted to listen to the Supervisory Bureau's screen broadcast, and then he hung up.

"Who would specifically make a prank call to the Supervisory Bureau?" Piao Lin leaned over and memorized the number on the screen. "What a psycho."

"Look up this number." Jiang Lian tried to tell himself not to be too sensitive, but he still had a bad feeling. He put the Communicator back, turned his head to see Yan Junxun and Shi Shanyan coming downstairs, and then said, "...Let's also give Junxun some time off."

Author has something to say:

Volume 01 ends here.

Regarding the hunt, from the very beginning, I never considered it a criminal investigation. It doesn't have a strong theoretical foundation; it's just an attempt to skirt the edges. The four cases in the hunt were repeatedly revised during the outlining stage, but the final result is still vastly different from what I had imagined. I want to give every murderer screen time; I don't want them to hide behind complex information. This is the foundation for conceiving this book. I wanted to write it this way from the start. It doesn't matter if there's no mystery; I don't need them to remain mysterious. I want them to stand in front of the camera. The world's background and the cases constitute each other; in my mind, one cannot exist without the other.

The next 3 volumes will likely have a similar tone. Thank you, everyone, for your support of this book.