The frozen lake west of Whale Harbor City was one of the liveliest places in District A during winter.
By December, the pedestrian street along the lakeside had transformed completely into an open-air market. The vendors’ stalls stretched from the shore all the way to the arched bridge leading to the island in the middle of the lake. Iron pans clattered as chestnuts were tossed over roaring flames, roasted sweet potatoes glistened with honey-like syrup, and steaming sugarcane juice was ladled from a pot, its clean, sweet fragrance drifting far into the distance.
Four days earlier, when Zhang Qiang had introduced the place, he had hinted that it was perfect for bringing a girlfriend—and casually suggested that the Governor’s schedule might be cleared to make some time for it.
At the time, Lu Shiyan had said expressionlessly, “We’ll see.”
Jiang Nuan was indeed at the frozen lake now. It was just that the person beside her was Chen Ping'an.
It all began three days ago.
In the basement interrogation room, Lu Shiyan’s methods, combined with Shen Wu’s Eyes of Truth, had completely broken through the Cleaner prisoner’s mental defenses.
People who had undergone counter-interrogation training were as flimsy as paper in front of those two.
The most crucial piece of intelligence was that the Cleaners had ordered Qi Sui transferred to District A. They planned to continue using him as bait to set an ambush, and the transfer was scheduled for today.
There was another piece of information, this one from Shen Wu, who had pieced it together from the fragments he had obtained.
The Cleaners had expended a great deal of firepower in their ambush in District E and urgently needed to replenish their supplies.
The coordinates of an arms depot were to be handed over today. The handoff point was the frozen lake.
Lu Shiyan judged that the other side had already sensed danger. That was why they were transferring the hostage and replenishing their weapons at the same time, accelerating their preparations for battle.
If the Cleaners got their hands on this shipment, dealing with them afterward would be much more difficult.
They couldn’t let this window of opportunity slip by. Both objectives had to be taken out at once.
Lu Shiyan took Ye Que, Qinian, and Jiang Ce to rescue the hostage.
Jiang Nuan and Chen Ping'an were assigned to handle the frozen lake, while Shen Wu would direct the operation remotely and provide support whenever necessary.
Their objective was to disrupt the exchange and prevent the Cleaners from obtaining the weapons.
It was a public place crowded with people, and the other side was carrying out a covert transaction. There would be no heavy firefight.
It was a relatively safe mission.
*
It was still early. The two of them walked along the pedestrian street beside the lake.
The market was at its busiest. Stalls crowded both sides of the street, and the air was thick with the aromas of roasted chestnuts and sweet potatoes. Vendors called out without pause.
Red lanterns had already been hung all around them, stretching from the beginning of the street to the far end of the arched bridge. They swayed gently in the breeze.
Jiang Nuan was bundled up in a white down coat that reached her ankles. Its fur collar was pulled tightly around her neck, and she had two heat patches stuck to her body.
The frozen lake was truly beautiful in winter.
The surface had frozen solid, and many children were skating across it. In the distance, the arched bridge leading to the island was dusted with a thin layer of snow. It looked like something out of a postcard.
Chen Ping'an held up a skewer of candied hawthorn he had just bought and narrowed his eyes in bliss.
“We’re seriously lucky,” he said in a lowered voice. “One of those two Cleaners we captured last time turned out to be in charge of their logistics and transportation network. People like that usually hide incredibly well. How did you figure out who he was?”
“The captain judged that his reaction didn’t seem like that of an ordinary operative,” Jiang Nuan replied, cupping a mug of hot sugarcane juice in both hands to warm them. The steam rising from the rim had turned the tip of her nose red. “So we focused on interrogating him. With Shen Wu there too, breaking through was easy.”
“…Breaking through was easy?” Chen Ping'an bit into a candied hawthorn and clicked his tongue in amazement. “That was a core member of the Cleaners, not some pickpocket off the street, was it?”
Jiang Nuan glanced at him, not quite understanding what he found so shocking.
Chen Ping'an swallowed the rest of his words.
Then again, this was Zero Squad.
Normal.
He took another bite of the candied hawthorn and chewed thoughtfully before suddenly remembering something. “What about the traces on the highway? There was quite a commotion that day. The Cleaners wouldn’t have followed up on it and changed the timing of the operation, would they?”
A plump orange cat sat on the steps by the roadside. It looked a little like Jiangjiang and had its eyes closed, basking in the rare winter sunlight.
Jiang Nuan crouched down and stroked it several times. The cat obligingly rolled over to expose its belly, purring so loudly it seemed to shake the air.
She said quietly, “Don’t worry. The captain cleaned everything up.”
Lu Shiyan had rearranged the entire scene, disguising it as an attack by the Aberrants—in other words, a retaliatory assault by outsiders like them.
The bullet marks, wreckage, and even the tire tracks on the road all matched the ambush patterns commonly used by the Aberrants.
Although the Cleaners were an underground organization, their objectives aligned with those of the Bureau of Investigation, so the Bureau had always turned a blind eye to them.
But there had always been survivors who slipped through the net. Assassinations, ambushes, and battles in which both sides fought to the death had never truly stopped.
So, to the Cleaners, what had happened on the highway that day was nothing more than a score settled after being bitten back by the Aberrants.
“Oh, so your captain personally handled the cleanup,” Chen Ping'an said, nodding. “No wonder there’s still been no reaction from them.”
“But seriously…” He leaned a little closer to Jiang Nuan. “Even now, I still find his identity completely absurd.”
Jiang Nuan knew what he meant.
An outsider defined by this world as an Aberrant had entered the Governor’s Mansion under a false identity, an institution dedicated to slaughtering Aberrants, and had even taken the highest position in Whale Harbor City.
Every day, the person issuing arrest warrants was himself the target of those warrants.
He sat in the Governor’s leather chair in a crisp uniform, flipping through documents filled with phrases like “execution of Aberrants,” and signed his name without changing expression. The Aberrants described in those documents shared the same blood as he did.
Jiang Nuan knew that not every one of those documents meant someone would die. But she also knew that not every one of them could be stopped.
“I think so too,” Jiang Nuan said with a nod. “But he’s always been bold, and he never makes mistakes.”
“‘Bold’ doesn’t even begin to cover it. Let me think of another word.” Chen Ping'an considered the matter with great seriousness before squeezing out two words: “A lunatic.”
He thought about it.
“Yes, that’s exactly it,” he added, as if confirming his verdict.
Jiang Nuan was amused by the decisive look on his face and laughed.
But if it weren’t for that lunatic, they would never have been able to walk openly through the market like this.
Their legal identities, investigative authority, and every means of covering their tracks all came from the position Lu Shiyan occupied.
And that position existed because Lu Shiyan had placed himself in the most dangerous place of all.
“There’s one more thing,” Chen Ping'an said, lowering his voice even further. “The transfer of Qi Sui and the weapons deal both happening today—could those two pieces of intelligence have been deliberately released to lure us in?”
It was clear he had been holding that question in for the entire journey.
Jiang Nuan had just opened her mouth to answer when a voice suddenly rang out in her mind.
[Neural link established. Jiang Nuan, Shen Wu, and Chen Ping'an connected.]
Jiang Nuan was already familiar with the sensation.
Chen Ping'an, however, clearly was not.
He stiffened abruptly. The candied hawthorn nearly poked him in the nose. He looked wildly from side to side before realizing that the voice was coming from inside his head.
[Regarding the question you just asked.]
Shen Wu’s voice continued through the neural link.
[One source came from the interrogation. The other came from my intelligence network. The two lines have no point of intersection, and the backgrounds of the sources are completely independent.]
Chen Ping'an’s face was covered in an expression that clearly said, What in the world is this?
Shen Wu continued, [Or are you questioning the reliability of my intelligence?]
His tone was cool and detached, making the hairs on Chen Ping'an's back stand on end.
He forced down the last hawthorn berry. 【...No, no, absolutely not.】
Jiang Nuan shot him a glance. Challenging Shen Wu in his area of expertise? He was asking for trouble.
Shen Wu's voice sounded in his mind again.
【Relax. There's no need to look for my position. Keep heading east. There is no abnormal movement of personnel in the target area for now. The transaction window is between three and four in the afternoon, so you still have plenty of time to reach the area.】
The tension in Chen Ping'an's shoulders eased a little.
Then Shen Wu spoke again. 【Also, Chen Ping'an.】
Chen Ping'an tensed up all over again.
【You could stand to reconsider your choice of words when you describe me as something like a ghost crawling into your head. The link hasn't been severed, after all.】
The expression on Chen Ping'an's face could only be described as a social death.
His entire face flushed red, starting at his ears and spreading down his neck.
Jiang Nuan said helplessly through the link, 【Give him a break, Shen Wu. It's his first time using it. Don't scare him.】
Then she turned her head and explained in a low voice, “This link only transmits what you want the other person to hear. It's just like speaking—you have to actively push it out for it to be transmitted.”
Chen Ping'an blinked, still somewhat bewildered.
“To put it simply,” Jiang Nuan patiently explained, “when you curse someone in your head without saying it out loud, other people can't hear you, right? This works the same way. As long as you don't consciously push the thought into that link in your mind, it won't be broadcast.”
“Then just now—”
“You were probably too flustered, and didn't have time to rein your thoughts in.” Jiang Nuan reassured him. “People who are connected for the first time often have this problem. You'll get used to it.”
Chen Ping'an thanked her, then fell silent for several seconds.
After that, he tentatively cursed inwardly, using some rather impolite and slightly vulgar language.
There was no response.
Safe.
He let out a sigh of relief and relaxed completely.
Shen Wu's voice rang out. 【Chen Ping'an, don't worry. I have no interest in whatever's going on inside that simple little brain of yours.】
Chen Ping'an's expression stiffened.
Fine. The words were vicious, but at least they confirmed that Shen Wu couldn't read his thoughts indiscriminately.
Even so, Chen Ping'an decided to keep his mind completely blank for the rest of the mission.
Think of nothing.
Just the ice lake, chestnuts, roasted sweet potatoes—safe things like that.
The two continued forward and passed a roasted-sweet-potato stall. The skins of the sweet potatoes had split open, their orange-yellow flesh glistening with syrup and steaming in the bitter winter wind. The smell was almost unbearably good.
Jiang Nuan glanced over.
Chen Ping'an noticed immediately. “Want one? I'll buy it.”
He had already taken two steps toward the stall when he turned back. “Which kind do you want, the round one or the long one? The round ones are usually sweeter.”
Jiang Nuan moved two steps closer to the stall as well. “Let me see. That round one does look pretty good.”
Shen Wu's voice suddenly cut in. 【For normal operational cover, I recommend maintaining a distance of three to five meters between the two of you. You're currently less than a meter apart.】
He sounded as though he were genuinely offering professional advice.
【Of course, if you think walking shoulder to shoulder will be more convenient, I have no objections.】
Chen Ping'an sprang sideways as if he'd been electrocuted.
The sole of his shoe slipped on the packed snow. He nearly crashed into the nearby sugar figurine cart, startling the vendor so badly that the copper ladle in his hand jerked, warping the tail of the sugar dragon he had been drawing.
“Sorry, sorry!” Chen Ping'an apologized repeatedly.
Jiang Nuan hurriedly reached out and pulled him back from the cart.
A click of disapproval came through the mental link from Shen Wu.
【Incidentally,】 Shen Wu's voice was icy, 【I've recorded all physical contact and communication not required for the mission. The captain's orders.】
Jiang Nuan released Chen Ping'an's arm.
What?
【Of course, the official explanation is to ensure operational safety,】 Shen Wu added.
Lu Shiyan had taken people to rescue someone today. With such a dangerous mission ahead of them, he had still made a point of specifically instructing Shen Wu to say something like this before they set out.
Jiang Nuan felt her blood pressure rising.
Chen Ping'an stood three meters away, doing his best to reduce his presence to zero.
He was extremely, extremely grateful that Jiang Nuan had only grabbed him by the arm just now, rather than doing anything more intimate.
A child shrieked with delight as they slid across the ice on the lake, their laughter clear and bright.
Everything was perfectly normal.
It was just that Jiang Nuan's mind now revolved around a single thought:
Lu Shiyan is seriously insane, isn't he!?
