Chapter 73: Mad as a Zombie

“What if…” Xiao Yu murmured, gearing up to delve deeper into his reasoning.

Bang! The door to his room was violently forced open, and Wang Dong stormed in.

‘Is society this cold? Is it that hard to knock on my door first?’ Xiao Yu thought bitterly but held his tongue.

“There’s been an incident,” Wang Dong bellowed before dashing out of the room.

Xiao Yu’s expression shifted, and he sprinted after him. They bolted out of the hotel just as an armed helicopter landed at the entrance.

“What happened?” Xiao Yu asked Wang Dong as they approached the helicopter.

“A suspected case of self-mutilation has been discovered,” Wang Dong replied with a steely look. “It was just found.”

‘How is that possible?’ Xiao Yu stared at him incredulously, as if accusing him of being monstrous. Wasn’t this case supposed to occur only once a year?

“Interestingly,” Wang Dong glanced at Xiao Yu, “it happened in Bincheng two hours ago.”

Damn! Xiao Yu’s face instantly hardened. His demeanor was as cold and sharp as ice.

Everyone has their own turf, and sometimes, people can be very much like animals.

Bincheng was Xiao Yu’s hometown, and the emergence of such a crime there was something he couldn’t tolerate.

Little guy, taking advantage of me wandering in the wild, and you sneak in to steal the crystals?

“Fortunately, it was discovered in time, and the individual was subdued,” Wang Dong quickly explained. “However, there’s something very off about their condition.”

Xiao Yu was surprised.

What do you mean by off?

---

Four hours later, the armed helicopter touched down in Bincheng, at the Criminal Investigation Detachment. Stepping off the helicopter, Xiao Yu was greeted by a familiar face. It was Niu Peng, the captain of the first team of the Criminal Investigation Detachment.

The two had previously collaborated and shook hands upon meeting. Niu Peng glanced at the national security personnel accompanying Xiao Yu and twitched his mouth slightly.

‘The young fellow is now mixing up with national security, huh?’

Recalling their partnership on the horrifying massacre case, and noting the first-class police inspector epaulettes on Xiao Yu’s shoulders, Niu Peng felt a pang of pride.

Old Zhao was right. This young man was truly a dragon, destined to soar far beyond the small pond of Bincheng.

**

Interrogation Room

A man, drenched in blood, was firmly restrained in the interrogation chair. Even though his mouth was gagged, deep, beast-like roars still came from his throat. More terrifying still, his body writhed frantically, attempting to break free from the chair. The handcuffs on his hands had already torn through his skin, with blood streaming.

A madman? That was Xiao Yu’s first impression of him.

However, when he observed the man’s eyes, he reconsidered. They were a startling red. The whites were riddled with blood vessels, showing signs of congestion, and glinted with a mad luster, yet bizarrely, they also conveyed a sense of… relief.

“The sedatives are ineffective on him. If this continues, I won’t be able to treat him at all,” an anxious voice called out. It was a doctor speaking.

Treat what?

Xiao Yu glanced at the man’s hand on the interrogation chair, which was missing all its fingers, blood flowing freely.

He stepped forward and swung his leg up.

Thump!

Xiao Yu’s leg whip struck the crazed man’s face. With one hit, the man slumped over and passed out.

Wang Dong, ‘…’

Niu Peng, ‘…’

Doctor, ‘…’

“Why didn’t you knock him out?” Xiao Yu frowned, turning to Niu Peng.

Niu Peng rolled his eyes. “We’re the police, not thugs.”

Xiao Yu didn’t pursue the matter further. Wang Dong gave Niu Peng a sidelong glance and shook his head.

Some people didn’t advance not because they lacked the ability, but because they lacked the capacity to adapt and think on their feet. Without a flexible mind, how could one lead others?

There were many soldiers, but few true generals. That’s the reality.

---

In the Criminal Investigation Detachment’s Conference Room, Xiao Yu was examining surveillance footage.

At night, 2:15 AM, a man, appearing zombie-like, was seen on a road, carrying a bag.

The spliced Sky Eye surveillance switched scenes as the man approached an alley behind a commercial building. Stopping under a camera, he looked up.

The video captured the man giving a cold and eerie smile directly toward the camera.

That smile was chilling.

The man sat down on the ground and opened his bag. He pulled out various tools: a dagger, pliers, a hammer, a screwdriver, and a handsaw.

To an outsider, he might look like a repairman.

Watching this, Xiao Yu’s eyelids twitched uncontrollably. This man wasn’t planning to fix anything. He was preparing for a feast. And he himself was the main course.

Just as Xiao Yu suspected, the man had picked up the handsaw with his right hand and began to saw at his raised left hand. A finger was quickly severed, splattering blotches of blood on the ground. The severed finger, still attached to shreds of flesh, hung from his hand.

A strangely serene and eerie smile spread across the man’s face. He opened his mouth and bit down on the severed finger.

Xiao Yu looked over at Niu Peng, whose face had turned ghostly pale. This was his first time seeing such a video, and his reaction was understandable.

‘See how composed the head of National Security is… Oh, does his face show some concern?’

Xiao Yu continued to watch the video recording.

Coincidentally, as the man ate his fifth finger, a security patrol officer appeared in the alley. The sight of the man eating his fingers terrified the officer so much that he collapsed on the ground.

It was understandable. No normal person could stomach such a scene. Even Xiao Yu, when he first watched the video, was so startled by Mu Qingwu hugging him from behind that he nearly wet himself.

The night patrol typically consisted of four people, two police officers and two auxiliary officers. When one auxiliary officer tried to intervene, the self-harming man attacked wildly, his actions reminiscent of a man-eating zombie.

The man indeed opened his mouth wide, attempting to bite fiercely.

One auxiliary officer, unfortunately, got bitten on the arm, his sleeve torn open, and a chunk of flesh ripped away.

It took the group of four a full half-hour to finally subdue the man.

The criminal police from the Criminal Investigation Detachment, responding to the request for support, arrived at the scene and transferred the man to the headquarters of the First Team.

The video ended.

“What do you think?” Wang Dong inhaled deeply and turned to Xiao Yu.

‘Yuan Fang, what do you think?’*

Xiao Yu remained silent, pondering the man’s frenzied biting actions shown in the video. It reminded him of a certain drug from his past life known to induce similar wild behavior. Some referred to this drug as a “zombie drug.” It was also known as bath salts.

“Take a blood sample for testing,” Xiao Yu said in a stern voice.

Two hours later, the forensic test results were ready. Indeed, traces of some drug were found in the man’s system, but it was not bath salts.

Xiao Yu was puzzled.

What could it be?