“What is the military department checking in the middle of the night? Go to the security post and ask them if you have a question.” The man’s voice on the phone was thick with impatience, and hung up after he finished.
Lan Yu then pressed the doorbell, keeping his finger on it and not letting go.
Beep— beep— beep— beep—
“You’ve spooked the snake, and we don’t have a warrant to enter anyone’s house.” Lu RanKong angrily lowered his voice.
Lan Yu didn’t reply, just rested his finger obstinately on the doorbell.
The caller lit up again and the male voice yelled patiently, “Whoever you are, if you don’t leave I’m going to call the police.”
“I am Colonel K of the 2nd mecha battalion of the Omar Empire Military Department in Kata Planet and I am informing you to open the door in a minute or so, and if you interfere with my military duties, you will be held responsible.” Lan Yu coldly interrupted the male voice and pulled out his ID card and pointed it at the camera.
“I’m calling the police immediately, and I’m calling the police now, and also your superiors—”
Lan Yu withdrew his ID, silently drew the gun in his holster, and pulled the trigger on the visual intercom under Lu RanKong’s stunned eyes. The plastic case of the intercom exploded with a bang, and there was no more movement after two zaps.
He put the gun back behind his waist, smoothed out the creases in his combat suit, and said to Lu RanKong with a slight frown, “It’s too loud…”
There was a thud down the stairs from the villa and the ground floor lights came on. Then the door opened and a lean, thin man in a thick dark brown robe, about forty years old, hurried out, tying the robe belt around his waist as he went.
“It’s illegal for you to do this, even the military can’t interfere with the people at will and destroy private property!” The man was so angry that his voice changed in pitch.
Lan Yu looked at the second floor, where a window had been pushed open and a woman was standing behind the window sill looking down.
“Open the door…” He said indifferently.
The man locked eyes with him for a few seconds through the hollowed-out slit of the iron door, his anger fading at a rapid pace. But adhering to the responsibility of the head of the family, he still asked firmly, “Why exactly do you want to open the door? You have to give me an explanation, that’s not too much to ask, right?”
Lan Yu waved his head at the corpse of the insect king lying on the stone fence to his right.
The man looked over in confusion, and when he saw it clearly, he was shocked and asked, “What is this? Is this an interstellar beast? Why is it dead in front of my house?”
“This is Lontan Planet’s gelded insect king, it tried to hide in your house while being chased. But you are really lucky, it just climbed up this stone fence when we—” Lu RanKong glanced at Lan Yu out of the corner of his eyes, and after a pause he solemnly continued, “Colonel K killed it and prevented a devastating disaster.”
The man looked at the insect king’s huge corpse, his resistance had all dwindled away, then asked with a face full of panic, “Sir, so now… is my house safe now?”
“No, it’s not safe…” Lu RanKong lowered his voice, “It also brought another gelded insect with it, and we couldn’t find it so it may have hidden in your home.”
“Ah!” the man exclaimed. The electronic lock made a soft click and the door unfolded to either side, revealing the patio access. The man stood to the side in an invitation gesture and said respectfully, “Would Colonel K and… What is the name of this officer?”
“Lu. The ‘Lu’ for strike, like the strike that killed the insect king, so just call me Colonel Lu.” Lu RanKong said.
“Please Colonel K and Colonel Lu, come inside.” The man finished and hurriedly led the way back to the house.
“My name is Wang Wei. I usually do some small businesses in my spare time, and I also have dealings with the military department. Speaking of… before the army was stationed in Kata Planet Bell City, I also built one of the buildings,” The man said with a smile.
“Oh? Then which building did you build?” Lu RanKong asked absentmindedly as he looked around.
“Ah, well… I think… it was dormitory building number four.”
As soon as the words left his mouth, Lu RanKong and Lan Yu’s faces both sank.
That building number four, where one could clearly hear a fart next door, turned out to be built by this person in front of them.
As the three continued to walk inside, Lan Yu glanced at Wang Wei’s back, then at the outer wall that Lu RanKong was just about to climb, and then at Lu RanKong with a meaningful gaze.
“It’s just because I’m not used to rough practices and cheating people.” Lu RanKong looked straight ahead and whispered in a volume that only two people could hear.
“Excuse me, the one who cheated the public is you, “Strike” Colonel,” Lan Yu retracted his eyes to look ahead, and his voice was also lowered, imitating Lu RanKong’s tone of voice in a subtle way, “’It also brought another gelded insect with it, and we couldn’t find it so it may have hidden in your home.’”
“K. Do you know that there is a Lontan Planet person hiding inside that is more terrible than a gelded insect?” Lu RanKong pointed to Wang Wei in front of him with his chin, “I can’t be sure if he is one, so I couldn’t tell the truth.”
“And my rude behavior allowed us to investigate openly without having to go up and snoop like a pervert.” Lan Yu didn’t budge.
“An open and honest investigation, how? ‘Citizen, please answer my question honestly, are you from Lontan Planet? Yes, sir, I am.’” Lu RanKong sneered and grunted, “Colonel K, is that how you investigate?”
Lan Yu didn’t make a sound as he asked smugly, “Out of ideas?”
Lu RanKong opened the holster on his waist, carefully removed a tiny syringe from the inner casing, and said, “Hold out your hand…”
“What for?”
“Hold it out…”
Lan Yu complied and put out his hand, but Lu RanKong stared at his palm without moving.
“What the hell are you doing?” Lan Yu frowned.
Lu RanKong asked curiously, “Why are your hands so tender and white?”
“None of your business…”
Lu RanKong put the syringe into his hand and said, “Put it away, it contains HR5. By the way, with your brain, do you know what HR5 is?”
“None of your business…”
Lu RanKong didn’t think so and explained it to him, “After the Lontan Planet people were expelled from the Sasu Planet system in the past, we made this drug called HR5, which can kill alien spiritual bodies that don’t belong to the original body. If you suspect that someone is occupied by a Lontan Planet person in the mental domain, inject this into him.”
Lan Yu looked at the rug and asked, “Is there more than one? One for each person inside?”
“What are you thinking? If it’s just an ordinary person, and there’s no Lontan Planet person in the spiritual domain to absorb the drug, the person injected will die. So everyone must be carefully observed, if you’re not 100% sure, don’t use it.”
Lan Yu stopped in his tracks, “Then how can I be sure? What if I make a mistake?”
“The way to be sure isn’t difficult. I am fortunate to know a little inside information, now I shall pass this precious inside information to you.”
“Don’t tell me, keep your precious insider information to yourself.” Lan Yu sneered.
“The Planet domain channel between the Lontan Planet system and the Sasu Planet system has been closed for many years, but the channel was secretly opened half a year ago, and although it was re-closed, it’s not clear exactly how many Lontan Planet people have come over. So to determine whether it’s a Lontan Planet person, just ask them what happened six months ago.”
Lu RanKong finished thinking, and suddenly removed the needle from Lan Yu’s palm, “Forget it. I don’t believe in your intelligence, so leave it to me. Later you just need to watch silently, and wait until I catch that person. If they want to escape, you go and block them.”
What the hell?
Lan Yu withdrew his hand and puffed out his cheeks as he walked forward.
The two of them stopped talking and just followed Wang Wei through the courtyard.
Lan Yu looked to the garden on the left, where a large cluster of birds of paradise flowers 1 embellished with purple pansies with lush foliage was planted. It was clear that the mistress had taken great care. There was a swing set standing next to it, so there must be a child in the house.
When he turned his head inadvertently, his eyes skimmed the dark rooms on the second floor and suddenly saw a figure standing behind a window.
There was no light on in the room, and by the moonlight he could see the person wearing a white nightgown, her long hair falling over her shoulders, covering her pale cheeks, and her dark eyes fixed on them for a moment.
Lan Yu was suddenly startled, reflexively grabbed Lu RanKong beside him, only to see that it was only a seven or eight-year-old girl, then resisted the impulse to reach out. The girl looked at him steadily, her eyes empty and indifferent. After a few seconds, she suddenly took a step back, and then swiftly pulled the curtain closed.
Lu RanKong noticed Lan Yu’s line of sight and also looked over, but saw nothing.
Once inside the house, Wang Wei asked attentively, “Are you two going upstairs or to the basement first? There are two more floors below, one is the audio-visual room and the other is the wine cellar. I came from upstairs and didn’t hear anything unusual. I think the interstellar beast would most likely go to the lower floors.”
Lu RanKong didn’t reply, as he walked around the house with hands behind his back. Lan Yu walked to the parlor leather sofa and sat down, leaned back and folded his long legs.
On the coffee table in front of him was a vase filled with flowers, a vintage-shaped ice cracked pottery. 2 Lan Yu had a similar vase at home, which he had placed in the bathroom, and now that he saw a similar one, he couldn’t help but take a look at it twice.
“This is a nice piece left over from the ancient world, bought at a high price from an interstellar dealer. My wife loves flowers and plants, so it’s not bad to put it here.” Wang Wei saw Lan Yu sizing up the vase and presented it with a smug tone.
Lan Yu was not interested in the vase, but as his eyes wandered lower, he got attracted by one item and couldn’t move his eyes anymore.
——It was a piece of light brown woolen fabric, round, with an irregular pattern of silvery gray inlaid on it, surrounded by a circle of lace.
It was a hand-crochet vase doily. 3
Wang Wei began to talk about it, “My wife loves knitting and crocheting, so she does household items like this. You see, these sofa cushions ah, tea coasters, ah, she has nothing to do but these. All the good furniture is covered with this stuff, making the house look unlike any other, but after I told her, she didn’t make new ones for a long time…”
Lan Yu didn’t pay attention to what he said, he just memorized the weave of the vase doily in his mind. This color scheme looked pretty good. When he went back, he would crochet a coffee coaster like this. Basically, he could see from the pattern how the stitches were made by just looking at them, and he could improve them to look better.
Lan Yu was silent as he was memorizing the stitching, his brow was slightly knitted and he looked serious, like he was thinking about something important, so Wang Wei stopped talking and didn’t bother him anymore.
Lu RanKong went around the room and said, seemingly without thinking, “Wang Wei, go get everyone in your family to come to the living room.”
Wang Wei asked suspiciously, “Aren’t you looking for the interstellar beast? What are you calling them for?”
“I want to ask them some questions.” Lu RanKong continued to wander around the living room.
“There’s only my wife, daughter and a housekeeper at home, what can they know about anything? Just ask me if you want to know anything.”
“I can’t just ask you, I have to ask the others too.”
Wang Wei became alert, took a step back, put his right hand on the orb on the wooden railing of the stairs and said, “Sir, I didn’t see the documents you showed at the beginning clearly, please let me see them again now.”
“Doubting us, huh? Fine, I’ll let you examine it carefully.” Lu RanKong pulled out his officer’s ID card from his inside pocket and held his hand out in front of Lan Yu, “Give it to me…”
Lan Yu lifted his eyes and looked at him, still leaning against the back of his chair with his arms around his chest.
Lu RanKong moved his finger and said, “Show him, lest he think we are bad people trying to blend in and rob the house.”
Wang Wei heard this and his grip on the orb tightened.
Lan Yu lowered his head, slowly reached into his inner pocket and dropped his officer’s ID card into Lu RanKong’s hand with two long, slender fingers.
Lu RanKong headed towards Wang Wei’s side but was stopped by his yelling, “Strike Colonel, don’t come over. Put the documents on the table, I’ll come and get them myself.”
Lu RanKong complied and put the officer’s ID on the coffee table in front of him and took another step back. Wang Wei stepped forward, flew to get the two officer’s cards and returned to the stairs.
Lan Yu wanted to show his impatience, but thinking that neither of them were looking at him now, he didn’t bother to change his expression and continued to lean back in his chair with his face paralyzed.
When his eyes swept over the top of the stairs, he suddenly stopped.
The little girl he had seen in the garden was standing at the top of the stairs, her hollow, lifeless black eyes looking straight down into the living room.
“What is the military department checking in the middle of the night? Go to the security post and ask them if you have a question.” The man’s voice on the phone was thick with impatience, and hung up after he finished.
Lan Yu then pressed the doorbell, keeping his finger on it and not letting go.
Beep— beep— beep— beep—
“You’ve spooked the snake, and we don’t have a warrant to enter anyone’s house.” Lu RanKong angrily lowered his voice.
Lan Yu didn’t reply, just rested his finger obstinately on the doorbell.
The caller lit up again and the male voice yelled patiently, “Whoever you are, if you don’t leave I’m going to call the police.”
“I am Colonel K of the 2nd mecha battalion of the Omar Empire Military Department in Kata Planet and I am informing you to open the door in a minute or so, and if you interfere with my military duties, you will be held responsible.” Lan Yu coldly interrupted the male voice and pulled out his ID card and pointed it at the camera.
“I’m calling the police immediately, and I’m calling the police now, and also your superiors—”
Lan Yu withdrew his ID, silently drew the gun in his holster, and pulled the trigger on the visual intercom under Lu RanKong’s stunned eyes. The plastic case of the intercom exploded with a bang, and there was no more movement after two zaps.
He put the gun back behind his waist, smoothed out the creases in his combat suit, and said to Lu RanKong with a slight frown, “It’s too loud…”
There was a thud down the stairs from the villa and the ground floor lights came on. Then the door opened and a lean, thin man in a thick dark brown robe, about forty years old, hurried out, tying the robe belt around his waist as he went.
“It’s illegal for you to do this, even the military can’t interfere with the people at will and destroy private property!” The man was so angry that his voice changed in pitch.
Lan Yu looked at the second floor, where a window had been pushed open and a woman was standing behind the window sill looking down.
“Open the door…” He said indifferently.
The man locked eyes with him for a few seconds through the hollowed-out slit of the iron door, his anger fading at a rapid pace. But adhering to the responsibility of the head of the family, he still asked firmly, “Why exactly do you want to open the door? You have to give me an explanation, that’s not too much to ask, right?”
Lan Yu waved his head at the corpse of the insect king lying on the stone fence to his right.
The man looked over in confusion, and when he saw it clearly, he was shocked and asked, “What is this? Is this an interstellar beast? Why is it dead in front of my house?”
“This is Lontan Planet’s gelded insect king, it tried to hide in your house while being chased. But you are really lucky, it just climbed up this stone fence when we—” Lu RanKong glanced at Lan Yu out of the corner of his eyes, and after a pause he solemnly continued, “Colonel K killed it and prevented a devastating disaster.”
The man looked at the insect king’s huge corpse, his resistance had all dwindled away, then asked with a face full of panic, “Sir, so now… is my house safe now?”
“No, it’s not safe…” Lu RanKong lowered his voice, “It also brought another gelded insect with it, and we couldn’t find it so it may have hidden in your home.”
“Ah!” the man exclaimed. The electronic lock made a soft click and the door unfolded to either side, revealing the patio access. The man stood to the side in an invitation gesture and said respectfully, “Would Colonel K and… What is the name of this officer?”
“Lu. The ‘Lu’ for strike, like the strike that killed the insect king, so just call me Colonel Lu.” Lu RanKong said.
“Please Colonel K and Colonel Lu, come inside.” The man finished and hurriedly led the way back to the house.
“My name is Wang Wei. I usually do some small businesses in my spare time, and I also have dealings with the military department. Speaking of… before the army was stationed in Kata Planet Bell City, I also built one of the buildings,” The man said with a smile.
“Oh? Then which building did you build?” Lu RanKong asked absentmindedly as he looked around.
“Ah, well… I think… it was dormitory building number four.”
As soon as the words left his mouth, Lu RanKong and Lan Yu’s faces both sank.
That building number four, where one could clearly hear a fart next door, turned out to be built by this person in front of them.
As the three continued to walk inside, Lan Yu glanced at Wang Wei’s back, then at the outer wall that Lu RanKong was just about to climb, and then at Lu RanKong with a meaningful gaze.
“It’s just because I’m not used to rough practices and cheating people.” Lu RanKong looked straight ahead and whispered in a volume that only two people could hear.
“Excuse me, the one who cheated the public is you, “Strike” Colonel,” Lan Yu retracted his eyes to look ahead, and his voice was also lowered, imitating Lu RanKong’s tone of voice in a subtle way, “’It also brought another gelded insect with it, and we couldn’t find it so it may have hidden in your home.’”
“K. Do you know that there is a Lontan Planet person hiding inside that is more terrible than a gelded insect?” Lu RanKong pointed to Wang Wei in front of him with his chin, “I can’t be sure if he is one, so I couldn’t tell the truth.”
“And my rude behavior allowed us to investigate openly without having to go up and snoop like a pervert.” Lan Yu didn’t budge.
“An open and honest investigation, how? ‘Citizen, please answer my question honestly, are you from Lontan Planet? Yes, sir, I am.’” Lu RanKong sneered and grunted, “Colonel K, is that how you investigate?”
Lan Yu didn’t make a sound as he asked smugly, “Out of ideas?”
Lu RanKong opened the holster on his waist, carefully removed a tiny syringe from the inner casing, and said, “Hold out your hand…”
“What for?”
“Hold it out…”
Lan Yu complied and put out his hand, but Lu RanKong stared at his palm without moving.
“What the hell are you doing?” Lan Yu frowned.
Lu RanKong asked curiously, “Why are your hands so tender and white?”
“None of your business…”
Lu RanKong put the syringe into his hand and said, “Put it away, it contains HR5. By the way, with your brain, do you know what HR5 is?”
“None of your business…”
Lu RanKong didn’t think so and explained it to him, “After the Lontan Planet people were expelled from the Sasu Planet system in the past, we made this drug called HR5, which can kill alien spiritual bodies that don’t belong to the original body. If you suspect that someone is occupied by a Lontan Planet person in the mental domain, inject this into him.”
Lan Yu looked at the rug and asked, “Is there more than one? One for each person inside?”
“What are you thinking? If it’s just an ordinary person, and there’s no Lontan Planet person in the spiritual domain to absorb the drug, the person injected will die. So everyone must be carefully observed, if you’re not 100% sure, don’t use it.”
Lan Yu stopped in his tracks, “Then how can I be sure? What if I make a mistake?”
“The way to be sure isn’t difficult. I am fortunate to know a little inside information, now I shall pass this precious inside information to you.”
“Don’t tell me, keep your precious insider information to yourself.” Lan Yu sneered.
“The Planet domain channel between the Lontan Planet system and the Sasu Planet system has been closed for many years, but the channel was secretly opened half a year ago, and although it was re-closed, it’s not clear exactly how many Lontan Planet people have come over. So to determine whether it’s a Lontan Planet person, just ask them what happened six months ago.”
Lu RanKong finished thinking, and suddenly removed the needle from Lan Yu’s palm, “Forget it. I don’t believe in your intelligence, so leave it to me. Later you just need to watch silently, and wait until I catch that person. If they want to escape, you go and block them.”
What the hell?
Lan Yu withdrew his hand and puffed out his cheeks as he walked forward.
The two of them stopped talking and just followed Wang Wei through the courtyard.
Lan Yu looked to the garden on the left, where a large cluster of birds of paradise flowers 1 embellished with purple pansies with lush foliage was planted. It was clear that the mistress had taken great care. There was a swing set standing next to it, so there must be a child in the house.
When he turned his head inadvertently, his eyes skimmed the dark rooms on the second floor and suddenly saw a figure standing behind a window.
There was no light on in the room, and by the moonlight he could see the person wearing a white nightgown, her long hair falling over her shoulders, covering her pale cheeks, and her dark eyes fixed on them for a moment.
Lan Yu was suddenly startled, reflexively grabbed Lu RanKong beside him, only to see that it was only a seven or eight-year-old girl, then resisted the impulse to reach out. The girl looked at him steadily, her eyes empty and indifferent. After a few seconds, she suddenly took a step back, and then swiftly pulled the curtain closed.
Lu RanKong noticed Lan Yu’s line of sight and also looked over, but saw nothing.
Once inside the house, Wang Wei asked attentively, “Are you two going upstairs or to the basement first? There are two more floors below, one is the audio-visual room and the other is the wine cellar. I came from upstairs and didn’t hear anything unusual. I think the interstellar beast would most likely go to the lower floors.”
Lu RanKong didn’t reply, as he walked around the house with hands behind his back. Lan Yu walked to the parlor leather sofa and sat down, leaned back and folded his long legs.
On the coffee table in front of him was a vase filled with flowers, a vintage-shaped ice cracked pottery. 2 Lan Yu had a similar vase at home, which he had placed in the bathroom, and now that he saw a similar one, he couldn’t help but take a look at it twice.
“This is a nice piece left over from the ancient world, bought at a high price from an interstellar dealer. My wife loves flowers and plants, so it’s not bad to put it here.” Wang Wei saw Lan Yu sizing up the vase and presented it with a smug tone.
Lan Yu was not interested in the vase, but as his eyes wandered lower, he got attracted by one item and couldn’t move his eyes anymore.
——It was a piece of light brown woolen fabric, round, with an irregular pattern of silvery gray inlaid on it, surrounded by a circle of lace.
It was a hand-crochet vase doily. 3
Wang Wei began to talk about it, “My wife loves knitting and crocheting, so she does household items like this. You see, these sofa cushions ah, tea coasters, ah, she has nothing to do but these. All the good furniture is covered with this stuff, making the house look unlike any other, but after I told her, she didn’t make new ones for a long time…”
Lan Yu didn’t pay attention to what he said, he just memorized the weave of the vase doily in his mind. This color scheme looked pretty good. When he went back, he would crochet a coffee coaster like this. Basically, he could see from the pattern how the stitches were made by just looking at them, and he could improve them to look better.
Lan Yu was silent as he was memorizing the stitching, his brow was slightly knitted and he looked serious, like he was thinking about something important, so Wang Wei stopped talking and didn’t bother him anymore.
Lu RanKong went around the room and said, seemingly without thinking, “Wang Wei, go get everyone in your family to come to the living room.”
Wang Wei asked suspiciously, “Aren’t you looking for the interstellar beast? What are you calling them for?”
“I want to ask them some questions.” Lu RanKong continued to wander around the living room.
“There’s only my wife, daughter and a housekeeper at home, what can they know about anything? Just ask me if you want to know anything.”
“I can’t just ask you, I have to ask the others too.”
Wang Wei became alert, took a step back, put his right hand on the orb on the wooden railing of the stairs and said, “Sir, I didn’t see the documents you showed at the beginning clearly, please let me see them again now.”
“Doubting us, huh? Fine, I’ll let you examine it carefully.” Lu RanKong pulled out his officer’s ID card from his inside pocket and held his hand out in front of Lan Yu, “Give it to me…”
Lan Yu lifted his eyes and looked at him, still leaning against the back of his chair with his arms around his chest.
Lu RanKong moved his finger and said, “Show him, lest he think we are bad people trying to blend in and rob the house.”
Wang Wei heard this and his grip on the orb tightened.
Lan Yu lowered his head, slowly reached into his inner pocket and dropped his officer’s ID card into Lu RanKong’s hand with two long, slender fingers.
Lu RanKong headed towards Wang Wei’s side but was stopped by his yelling, “Strike Colonel, don’t come over. Put the documents on the table, I’ll come and get them myself.”
Lu RanKong complied and put the officer’s ID on the coffee table in front of him and took another step back. Wang Wei stepped forward, flew to get the two officer’s cards and returned to the stairs.
Lan Yu wanted to show his impatience, but thinking that neither of them were looking at him now, he didn’t bother to change his expression and continued to lean back in his chair with his face paralyzed.
When his eyes swept over the top of the stairs, he suddenly stopped.
The little girl he had seen in the garden was standing at the top of the stairs, her hollow, lifeless black eyes looking straight down into the living room.
