Late at night, Schenkov finished processing today's work papers and finally got off work.

The weather in the second half of the night was not good, dark clouds filled the sky over Crescent City, lightning pierced the night sky, and torrential rain poured down.

Schenkov's floating car flew in the rain curtain, and the raindrops kept hitting the body with a crisp sound.

Looking out of the car window, the wind and rain wrapped the car in a curtain of water, visibility dropped sharply, the city lights became blurred, and the dome was lit up by thunder from time to time, reflecting the surroundings in a pale color, and then plunged into darkness.

Schenkov's car is a top-of-the-line model for government dignitaries, and it has long been fully designed to resist extreme weather, even in storms.

The commuting route has long been recorded in the system, and the driver does not need to do any special processing, relying on the automatic planning route of the system to land steadily on an island in the middle of the lake.

The driver parked the floating car in the indoor garage, turned around and said, "Director, it's here, you have an early rest." ”

Schenkov nodded, got out of the car and left.

After the floating car flew away, he looked up at the rainstorm at night, and couldn't help but sigh: "It's always raining lately, so it's probably going to be spring. I don't know when this rain will be. ”

He dragged his exhausted body back home, ready to go to the kitchen to take out the wine from the refrigerator and have a few drinks, hoping to find a moment of soothing in the alcohol.

However, before he could turn on the light when he walked into the living room, he felt that something was wrong.

"Hiss." He sniffed.

Although it has been a long, long time since he entered the city council that he has not been on the front line, the service experience of his youth has not completely degraded.

He could smell it, it was the smell of blood.

Why does there smell of blood in the house.

"Boom—" Outside the window, lightning flashed, and thunder filled the room, illuminating everything as bright as day.

At this moment, Schenkov finally saw the strangeness in the living room, he only felt as if his heart was being pinched by an invisible hand, and the cold current spread down his back, and his hands and feet were cold for a moment.

In the center of the front wall of the living room, the little sweet orange who had a relationship with him on the Internet not long ago has been dead for a long time.

She was nailed to the wall with iron nails through her hands and feet, and she put on a very religious confessional posture, and the dried black blood flowed down the wall, solidifying, as if drawing black claws.

A suffocating silence hung all around, and Schenkov witnessed the cruel scene before him, and his mouth could not make a sound, as if he was being pulled by an invisible thread, strangling all words in his throat.

There was no warning, a strange low roar sounded from behind, and with it an indescribable sense of oppression.

Schenkov struggled to contain the depression and fear in his heart, gritted his teeth and turned his head, and through the thunder light that kept shining outside the window, he saw the beast in the dark.

It had a humanoid appearance, grayish-black skin, disproportionately strong limbs, lying on an upright wall like a gecko, long sharp teeth in its cracked jaws, and eyes without pupils that reflected a bloody scarlet light.

Schenkov was trembling even for breath, he bit the tip of his tongue hard to condense his consciousness in pain, and subconsciously wanted to touch the holster on his waist, but he forgot that he had left work and did not have a gun with him at all.

"Director, if I were you, I wouldn't mess with that Jiao-level mad rank beast, that thing would be very troublesome to deal with even a 'super mid-level' blood code carrier like me."

Suddenly, a young man's casual voice came from the side.

"Click." With a crisp sound, the lights in the living room were turned on.

The sudden light made Schenkov's eyes tingle, and after his vision adjusted, he twisted his stiff neck to look, only to realize that the living room was really "lively".

In addition to the beast lying on the wall, there were seven or eight people around, with cold eyes and an extremely oppressive momentum.

The uniforms and insignia worn by these people show that they are not of the same force.

The joint company, the iron-blooded consortium, and the Heiyu group all sent people.

The leader is a yellow-haired young man who wears the badge of the "Wildfire Internal Guard" of the Co., Ltd.

He put his hands in his pockets very angrily and flicked his tongue at Schenkov: "Director, you know me, Jiang Zihao, Mr. Zhao took me to see you once before, you can just call me Ah Hao." ”

Schenkov looked at the little orange who was nailed to the wall, his eyes were full of resentment and pain, and he hissed at Jiang Zihao and others: "Why are you doing this?"

Jiang Zihao sighed and said lazily: "Director, didn't I say that you like to be a hero so much?" ”

"It's not enough to give you a special medal to be a hero of the people of the inner city, but also to be a hero of the people of the borderlands? It's too greedy. ”

Schenkov gritted his teeth and said: "I'm just doing my duty." ”

"Do your duty, hahahaha!" Jiang Zihao laughed out loud after hearing this, and said to those who accompanied him in a joking tone, "Did you hear that? He said he was doing his duty. ”

"Oh, that's what you're doing. Small navel orange. Ahh I'm going to have a lung on you, is there a mistake, are you playing with cooking? ”

After Jiang Zihao finished laughing, his words changed, and his tone became profound: "There is no one else here, so I won't go around in circles with you." Why do you think the boss made you the head of this general bureau? ”

"They want you to protect the common interests of the Affiliate, the Iron Alliance, and the Blackdomain Group, and nothing else. You want to be a hero so much, it's hard to do it. ”

Schenkov stretched out his trembling hand, grabbed Jiang Zihao's collar, and shouted hoarsely: "Whatever you want me to do, I will do it." If you don't let me do anything, you can tell me to stop. Why make an innocent child a victim?! ”

Jiang Zihao shrugged his shoulders with wide eyes, and said in a particularly innocent tone: "Director, do you think that we killed that girl named Little Sweet Orange?" ”

"No, no, it's clear that you were the one who killed her."

"When you were connected to the microphone on the show, you had a chance to save her - as long as you nodded to the director and hung up the connection, there was nothing."

She continued to pick up garbage on the border, starving and feasting. You continue to be the head of the General Security Bureau, and you are admired by all the people. You all have a bright future ahead of you. ”

"But in the end? Why did she die? Because it was you who pushed her into the public eye, it was you who made her bear the attention that should not belong to her, and finally swept her into the vortex and killed her, which is all your fault. ”

"Nonsense! You disgusting beasts, you." Schenkov scolded and scolded, and suddenly with a "bang", he was hit on the stomach by Jiang Zihao's knee.

Schenkov clutched his abdomen and fell to the ground in pain, vomiting sour water.

Jiang Zihao sighed and said, "If you have something to say, don't scold." ”

"You must know that the leaders value you very much, because you are indeed a practical person and very capable. If you want to cross the red line like Kitahara Hayabusa, it's a corpse now. ”

"This time, the meaning of the leaders is also very simple, if you are a first-time offender, just give a small warning, they will not kill you, and they will not take anything from you."

"You will still be the director of this general bureau in the future, but you just have to stop a series of previous policies, and what the security bureau was in the past, it must be what it is in the future."

"As for what has happened recently, we'll wipe your ass for you."

Schenkov fell to the ground coughing and panting, and asked in a trembling voice: "What do you want?"

Jiang Zihao shrugged his shoulders and said casually: "That's it, find some border people to make some explosions in the inner city and commit some murder."

"Find some inner-city people to rush into the neighborhoods of border immigrants and pick up guns to randomly surprise lucky passers-by."

"Then organize some border people to retaliate against the inner city, and then organize some inner city people to retaliate back, balabala and so on, haven't they been like this for so many years."

He said these words in a rather casual tone, as if he were talking about what to eat for breakfast tomorrow, when in reality thousands of families would be affected, and what would have been a good life would be cut off.

And Schenkov, the head of the General Security Bureau, could do nothing but fall to the ground with his eyes closed.

Jiang Zihao squatted down and patted Schenkov's shoulder to express comfort, and said earnestly: "Director, let's talk to you from the heart." The person who sits in your position can have greed, but not ambition. ”

"I don't understand, what's so good about being a hero? Every day, you have to be looked at with a magnifying glass, and you will be blamed for the slightest shortcomings. ”

"With your ability, as long as you help us well, if you want money and money, if you want women and women, what can't you get? Why do you have to be a hero? ”

"If you really want to be a hero, then in this case, I'll go and talk to the leader, and find a chance to give you another special medal, one is not enough, three or five are fine, you can become the person with the most special merits in the history of the entire Crescent City."

"But, Director, you have to listen to my advice. You can be whatever you want, don't become the second Syrian, otherwise no one will be able to help you, no one will be able to save you. ”

88th floor of the Edge Building, Sumer's room.

Schenkov was piled up with empty bottles in front of him, already drunk, but he kept pouring wine into his mouth.

Su Mo sat opposite him, didn't drink much, just listened to him silently tell what happened before.

Schenkov held his forehead and said drunkly: "Brother, you know, since I entered the city council, I have been a very typical politician, talking with them at meetings every day, and making decisions based on the data on the report. ”

"But since I was transferred to the Public Security Bureau, I have met all kinds of people because I often have to visit the grassroots level. The more people I met, the more I realized the horror of data. ”

"The data in our hands is just a dense number of numbers, just a group of old men making tea, drinking coffee, and patting their heads to do addition and subtraction math games."

But in fact, behind every number, there are vivid people. It was then that I felt like I couldn't be the same anymore as I used to be, but really wanted to do something. ”

Speaking of this, Schenkov covered his face with his hands, and his voice trembled slightly: "You must have watched this show, do you know what touched me the most?" It was the kid who called me a hero. ”

"Hero. Hehe, hero, that's just a bowl of dog food that Zhao Yiming casually threw to me. When I wore that medal at the ceremony, I didn't even feel like a hero. ”

"But when that kid looked at me with clear eyes and said I was a big hero in her mind. For a moment, I was filled with pride. ”

"I began to ask myself what could I do as the head of the General Administration, and if I could be a real hero."

He tugged at his hair hard, his expression was full of pain, and he let out an unwilling roar: "But in the end, I found that not only can I not be a hero. I can't even protect a child who adores me!! ”

Su Mo pursed his lips and comforted softly, "But it's not your fault, you've done your best to do what you can." ”

Schenkov took a sip of wine, then slammed the bottom of the bottle on the table and began to laugh: "No, no, no, it's my fault, I am wrong about something." ”

"My mistake is wrong, when Zhao Yiming invited me to tea, I didn't shoot him in the head!"

"If I give him a shot, that child will not die, and his brother and sister will not be poisoned by him. It's all my fault."

Su Mo knew that Schenkov was drinking and starting to talk nonsense.

He took away the unfinished wine on the table, patted Schenkov on the shoulder and said, "Okay, don't drink it, you drank too much today." ”

Schenkov couldn't help but snatch the wine back and continued to pour it into his mouth.

As he drank, his gaze became more confused, and then he burst into tears, laughing miserably while crying: "Brother, let me tell you, this city is hopeless. ”

"Not only the city, but the whole world is hopeless. As long as those three giant companies are still around, there will be no way for people in this world to live. ”

Looking at Schenkov, who was crying in grief, Su Mo's gaze became deeper: "No, you said something wrong, no. ”

"The world is indeed shrouded in the shadow of giants, but there is also fire in the dark, just scattered here and there, not together."

"The more people try to put out these fires, the more they don't want them to come together, the more they fear them."

"If you also want to be this fire, don't be afraid of them, don't be crushed by them, you must hide yourself, don't die silently in the dark."

"Hide yourself." Schenkov laughed miserably and asked, "And then?" How long to hide? ”

Su Mo looked out the window, and the dappled city lights were reflected in his eyes, as if there was a flame burning: "Hide until one day, when the sparks burn the plain." ”

"The giants think they can control everything, but those people don't know that everything they do will be remembered by history."

"All the sins they have committed will have to be paid in the end. And I assure you, that day will not be far away. ”

(End of chapter)