Paper Kite

The surrounding crowd was stunned by this sudden turn of events. A few brave men reacted quickly, rushing forward to tackle the middle-aged man to the ground, prying him away from the restaurant owner.

The owner clutched his neck, howling in agony. Bright red blood coated his fingers, flowing more rapidly by the second—it was completely unstoppable. Upon closer inspection, one would find a bloody hole ripped directly into his neck; the man had likely struck an artery.

As for where the missing flesh had gone… The onlookers looked at the middle-aged man’s blood-smeared mouth and collectively took a step back.

Pinned to the concrete by several strong men, the emaciated man struggled violently, emitting a stream of incoherent, chaotic screams.

“Let go of me! I need to eat! I’m so hungry… so hungry! Sob, please! Let me eat, let me eat! Aaaaah!”

Tears and snot streamed down his face as he wailed, desperately trying to lick the food scraps off the ground. But the scraps on the pavement were few, and he finished them in seconds. Then, he actually began biting into the concrete!

Human teeth were no match for the pavement. Predictably, his mouth was soon a mangled mess of blood and pulp from the sheer force of his gnashing.

Then, as if finally reaching his limit, his bloodshot eyes turned a deep, demonic crimson. The Glutton let out a roar of fury. In the next second, that terrifying strength exploded once more.

The expressions of the men holding him changed instantly. They felt a massive force ripple through them; before they could react, they were hurled five or six meters away, knocking over several bystanders who couldn’t dodge in time. One man was thrown so hard he smashed into a passing car, shattering the windows!

Having broken free, the man’s crimson eyes locked onto a student. The student had been staying close to watch the drama, but seeing the crazed man charging at him, he finally thought to run—only to find his legs had turned to jelly.

His vision went dark as he was pinned to the ground. The crushing force felt as if it would snap his bones. The student let out a strangled cry, but he was powerless to resist. He could only watch as that bloody maw opened wide, descending toward him without hesitation.

Just as he was about to be traumatized forever—

“BANG!”

A piercing gunshot drowned out the screams. In full view of the crowd, the middle-aged man’s head exploded like a ripe watermelon.

The thick scent of iron and blood filled the air. The entire restaurant and the area outside seemed to hit a “pause” button. Several seconds passed before someone finally made a sound…

“Blegh!”

…

In a small alley on the other side of the street, Qi Chuan was hunched over a trash can, vomiting violently, emptying everything he had eaten since yesterday.

Su Mian stood nearby, his face also pale. This kind of gore was R-rated in movies, let alone in real life. Fortunately, his demonic side provided a buffer; while he felt nauseous seeing such a shocking scene for the first time, the overall psychological impact was manageable.

By comparison, he was more curious about what had been wrong with that man.

It was too strange. That emaciated man’s state was unprecedented. Su Mian wanted to find his other self and ask for an explanation, but he couldn’t leave his friend behind. In Qi Chuan’s current state, it was doubtful he even had the strength to walk back to school.

After hesitating for a few seconds, Su Mian held back, deciding to find time later to talk to the succubus.

He waited until Qi Chuan had nothing left to heave, and his friend’s complexion finally looked a bit better. Then, the two of them hurried away. Su Mian was afraid of being tied up in a police investigation, while Qi Chuan simply didn’t want to stay there for another second—he would likely avoid this block for a very long time!

As for their original goal of getting lunch? Both had completely forgotten about it. Forget lunch; it was doubtful they’d be able to keep anything down for the next two days.

Su Mian’s departure was timely. Less than three minutes after they left, several police cars swerved into the area, and a large force cordoned off the block.

Jiang Xun was among them.

But his presence here was a complete accident. He had intended to come by to test the student Su Mian again, but he hadn’t expected to arrive just as a homicide occurred. He couldn’t help but sigh: “Are there a few too many messy incidents lately?”

The necklace’s location was still unknown, the missing persons case given by the Director had no leads, and they had just finished investigating the weird hotel fainting incident yesterday. Today, while the others rested, he had planned to observe Su Mian from a distance. Instead, he arrived at the school to find… great, a dead body!

And he heard someone had opened fire on the scene!

“Is Jade Capital really this disaster-prone?” Jiang Xun was astonished, but he moved quickly. He had reached the scene before the official police response arrived.

In the center of the chaos, he saw the headless corpse. It was a gruesome sight—the head had been completely vaporized. Red, yellow, and white fluids were splattered everywhere… oh, the yellow and green bits were fried rice.

Rubbing his temples, which were dull from overwork, the man looked at the culprit.

Because of the death, the crowd had scattered in terror. Almost no one dared to remain, but the most conspicuous person was sitting at a table not far from the body.

She was conspicuous because she was eating noodles.

A large bowl of beef noodles. The girl looked to be in her early twenties, a cute girl with a bun hairstyle. She devoured a third of the bowl in a few bites; soup and all, she finished it in under thirty seconds.

“Another bowl.”

She looked at the trembling waiter cowering in the shop. Her voice was clear and bright. If it weren’t for the headless corpse nearby, one might have thought she was quite charming.

Of course, the truly terrifying thing was the handgun tossed casually on the corner of the table. The silver pistol looked about 1.5 times the size of a standard sidearm, its surface engraved with ornate, flashy thorn patterns. To be honest, it looked more like a flamboyant cosplay prop—except for the fact that a headless body was currently cooling next to it.

Jiang Xun glanced at the girl, then walked over to the corpse, half-squatting to inspect it with a stoic expression.

The girl at the table noticed him. Seeing that her noodles weren’t coming out, she wiped her mouth and stood up.

“Hello. You must be Captain Jiang Xun, the one who came to support us recently, right? Nice to meet you. I’m a member of the Jade Capital Resident Team Two, codename: Zhiyuan (Paper Kite). A few days ago when you arrived, we happened to run into some trouble. Sorry we couldn’t make it to your welcome banquet.”

She gestured toward the restaurant.

“How about I represent the team and treat you to a meal now?”