Trembling At A High Altitude

"Are you sick? It's not Halloween today, what are you dressing up as a ghost for?"

Hu Peng cursed toward the glass door outside, but he didn't dare to open the glass door.

What happened next was beyond his expectations.

The disheveled female ghost actually vanished into thin air!

The strange 'click click click' sound rose again; this time, it came from behind him.

Hu Peng turned around sharply, only to find the female ghost standing less than a meter behind him, clutching an iron rod in her hand.

Sensing trouble, Hu Peng tried to pull open the glass door to flee, but the female ghost swung the iron rod in her hand with lightning speed, striking his leg bone forcefully.

A wave of unbearable pain surged from his leg bone, causing Hu Peng to scream in agony, breaking out in cold sweat as he collapsed to the ground.

"Does it hurt? Do you know why I'm hitting you?" the female ghost made a strange sound.

"I don't know..." Hu Peng wore a terrified expression.

"A year ago, you broke the leg of an innocent little girl. Surely you haven't forgotten?" The female ghost smashed another blow onto Hu Peng's other leg bone, doubling his pain!

"You are... you are..." Hu Peng's face grew even more terrified.

"Remember now?" the female ghost lifted the iron rod again.

"I was just getting paid to do a job... it's not my fault..." Hu Peng seemed to recall something indeed.

"Whose money did you take? For whom were you working? Speak!" The female ghost smashed the iron rod down on Hu Peng's arm, breaking his arm bone.

"It was Feizhouyuan's boss lady! The real behind-the-scenes shareholder of Feizhou Bar! She told me to do it..." Hu Peng cried out in pain as he confessed a name.

"Why would she do that!?" The female ghost raised the iron rod high again.

"Stop hitting me... it seems because her dog wasn't on a leash, it frightened the little girl. The girl's mother argued with her a few words, and she threatened to kill the little girl, then gave me money to go through with it..." Hu Peng confessed truthfully.

The female ghost's iron rod fell again, lifted, fell, lifted, fell...

...

The next day, a very eerie event spread across all groups.

It was said that several people mysteriously died in the Feizhou Bar, including the owner Hu Peng and some of his associates. There were no external wounds on their bodies, but their bones were broken piece by piece. The expressions on their faces were extremely fearful and painful.

In addition, the owner of Feizhouyuan, his wife, and some people around them, also died under mysterious circumstances, just like Hu Peng, with their bones broken segment by segment.

No weapons were seen, nor were any suspicious fingerprints found.

No one knew exactly what happened.

...

A kilometer away from the shack, inside an armored vehicle.

"His name is Li Teng.

"He was in a car accident five years ago and became a vegetative state.

"His girlfriend, Liu Yin, has been taking care of him, taking him to the hospital for check-ups every few months.

"But because of taking care of him, Liu Yin fell ill and later succumbed to a terminal illness, and now her whereabouts are unknown.

"Recently, Li Teng somehow woke up.

"It might be related to the Black Rain six months ago.

"After waking up, he had acquired Soul Power with special abilities.

"Currently, he has a daughter with him, and although he stays in hotels from time to time, he mostly returns to his shack.

"Last night, he left his daughter in the hotel room and went to Feizhou Bar.

"After leaving Feizhou Bar, he went to the residential area where Boss Wu lives, but only wandered around the area, circling Boss Yuan's villa a few times without ever entering.

"After leaving the residential area, he returned to the hotel, and carried his sleeping daughter back to the shack they had lived in before.

"Both Feizhou Bar and Boss Yuan's family met with incidents afterward, and the autopsy showed that the victims' times of death matched the times he visited the bar and the residential area, yet no traces of him were found at the scenes.

"According to our investigation, his girlfriend Liu Yin had conflicts with Boss Yuan's wife, and his daughter had her leg broken and was treated in the hospital for a while.

"So, it's certain he killed them using his special abilities."

A uniformed man was reporting to his superior, a woman who wore a black mask and a black cap.

Next to him, two uniformed staff were working tensely in front of a screen.

"It's certain that Li Teng has been possessed and altered by an alien remnant soul.

"After the alteration, he has gained the ability to kill from a distance. Although he didn't enter the scene, he could injure others by using his spiritual power to shatter the bones inside their bodies, without even damaging their skin.

"This is a very brutal way to kill.

"All these are manifestations of the Mental System special abilities," the uniformed man continued his report.

"Is his mental state stable?" the superior asked.

"Based on the tracking these days, except for last night's act of vengeful murder, everything else seems normal. It appears he deeply values relationships, as he has been continually trying to find his missing girlfriend.

"His daughter is his sore spot, which is also the reason for his vengeful killings. Those supposed victims frankly don't deserve any sympathy," the uniformed man replied to his superior.

"Do you think we can make him work for us?" the superior asked again.

"Hard to say. Just now, we monitored his phone call; he called the Land and Resources Bureau, wanting to buy a large piece of land near the shack for property development, inquiring about the necessary procedures.

"It's strange, his purpose. I'm not sure if there's an angle we can leverage here… Like, if we facilitate some aspects for him to create good feelings toward us…

"Additionally, he has been in constant contact with a female officer named Officer Liu for the past two days. If we control Officer Liu with our mental power, perhaps we can manipulate some of his actions," the uniformed man responded to his superior.

"Killing ordinary people doesn't prove his strength. Try to move to the next evaluation stage, and see if he's worth enlisting. If not, don't continue to invest efforts in him," the superior decided after a moment of thought.

...

The rainstorm.

This was no ordinary rainstorm.

For the rain that fell was black.

Like ink, it cast an endless veil of black over the whole world.

But this black rain didn't stain anyone's clothes black, like ink would.

It didn't stain the ground either.

If observed carefully, one would find that the rain merely emitted a black mist.

Once it hit the ground and seeped into the soil, the mist dissipated, and it became indistinguishable from ordinary water.

Scientists studied this Black Rain for six months and did not find any viruses, bacteria, or other unknown substances in it.

In the end, they concluded:

Black Rain was harmless to the human body, it was merely an unusual phenomenon of light refraction that residents need not panic about.

From then on, the rain that fell from the sky was mostly Black Rain.

People had grown accustomed to it.

Li Teng's cellphone rang; it was Officer Liu calling.

"Yingying is over four years old now, right?" Officer Liu asked Li Teng.

"Mm-hmm."

"At her age, she ought to be attending kindergarten. The kindergarten in our neighborhood has a nice environment, and the teachers are great. My daughter is just over three, in the small class, and if Yingying has never been to kindergarten, she could start there with my daughter. At this age, it's better for children to attend kindergarten."

"You know her past experiences. If I'm separated from her, she'll become very anxious." Li Teng was worried.

"I'll talk to the kindergarten's principal, let you accompany her to kindergarten initially, and once she gets used to playing there, accepts the teachers and makes friends, she won't feel anxious anymore. You also need to work to earn money to support her and help her find her mother, so you can't always keep her with you," Officer Liu persuaded Li Teng.

"Mm, you make a good point; I'll ask her about it."

...

"Yingying, do you want to go to kindergarten?" Li Teng asked Yingying.

After talking with Officer Liu, Li Teng also felt that keeping Yingying with him all the time was inappropriate.

She needed to grow up, make friends, and learn how to interact with other children. Keeping her by his side all the time wasn't loving her; it was harming her.

"I want to stay with Daddy," Yingying pondered for a while then shook her head.

"How about Daddy goes to kindergarten with you, would that be okay?" Li Teng asked again.

"Yes! Mommy took me to kindergarten before. There are a lot of fun things there, and many friends too." Yingying, hearing that Li Teng would go with her, immediately agreed.

The kindergarten Officer Liu recommended was indeed great.

Yingying had lots of fun there and soon mingled with other children.

Li Teng left the kindergarten surreptitiously but didn't go far; instead, he stayed nearby.

His Inner Soul Realm cultivation allowed him to sense Yingying's presence and her emotional changes from a close distance.

It seemed she was always happy and didn't even notice Li Teng's departure.

When four o'clock in the afternoon arrived, Li Teng blended in with other parents, waiting outside the kindergarten gates, watching as Yingying tugged at other children's cloaks, lining up with them near the kindergarten entrance.

"Daddy!" Yingying saw Li Teng from a distance and seemed very delighted.

After fetching Yingying, Li Teng asked if she wanted to come back to kindergarten the next day, and Yingying happily said she did.

Seeing Yingying integrating into a normal life brought Li Teng great relief.

Officer Liu's suggestion had been excellent.

As Yingying's personality gradually became more jovial, Li Long rented an apartment in Officer Liu's neighborhood, brought the bed, teddy bear, and Liu Yin's clothes from the shanty, and arranged them in one of the small rooms, mimicking the structure of the shanty, trying to help Yingying let go of her attachment to it.

"But Mommy is there," Yingying still felt uneasy.

"Today, while you were at kindergarten, Mommy called me. I told her we moved here, and she said once she finishes her work, she'll come here to find us," Li Teng lied to comfort Yingying.

"Okay, Daddy, you tell Mommy we miss her a lot and ask her to come find us soon."

"Mm-hmm."

Li Teng felt a weight lift off his shoulders.

After settling Yingying, he could also free up his hands to look for more clues about Liu Yin.

...

"My phone might be tapped, can we meet?" Officer Liu sounded a bit nervous.

"Sure, where shall we meet?" Li Teng was somewhat puzzled about what Officer Liu wanted to discuss with him.

Officer Liu gave Li Teng an address, but when Li Teng arrived there, he didn't see Officer Liu; instead, he received another call from him.

"In the third trash bin on your left, have a look..." Officer Liu said this and then hung up the phone.

Li Teng followed Officer Liu's instructions to find the third trash bin.

Inside were some household trash items. On top of the household trash, there sat an envelope that was distinctively different, very clean, with no stains, obviously just placed there by someone.

Opening the envelope, inside were printed characters.

"I have some information about Liu Yin's whereabouts, but due to some special reasons, I can't tell you much. You now go to Hongguang Supermarket, there is a Delivery man named Li Qiang who called in sick today,

"Pretend you are his brother, and they will let you temporarily take over Li Qiang's work.

"In the morning, there will be a special delivery order, the destination may be related to Liu Yin."

Looking at Officer Liu's letter, Li Teng furrowed his brow.

It seemed that Officer Liu was behaving unusually! What could have happened?

Someone was tapping her phone?

And about the matter with Liu Yin, why not clarify?

...

Li Qiang was a delivery goods distributor at Hongguang Supermarket.

The specific task was to go to the supermarket and, according to orders placed by customers the day before, organize the goods and then deliver various daily necessities, snacks, and vegetables to the customers' homes using an electric scooter.

Compared to those delivering meals, this job was relatively easy.

But the pay was much lower.

Li Qiang couldn't charge his electric scooter at his residence, so he had to park it in the supermarket, where the keys were held by the supermarket manager, who handed them to Li Teng upon hearing he was Li Qiang's brother, without any suspicion.

Entering the supermarket's sorting warehouse, Li Teng got busy.

Soon he had sorted out the goods he needed to deliver that day and started delivering them house by house on the electric scooter.

Not knowing what the special delivery order was, he could only continue with Li Qiang's regular duties for now.

At ten o'clock in the morning, when Li Teng had delivered all the goods on the electric scooter and returned to the supermarket to prepare for the second batch of goods, he was stopped by the manager.

"Here is an order, you go deliver it."

The manager handed the printout to Li Teng.

"This isn't within my brother's area, and it's beyond the delivery range." Li Teng observed the manager's expression.

Was this the order Officer Liu referred to?

The address on the order was in the southern suburbs of the city, at least a dozen stops away from where the supermarket was located.

"I don't know how this order was successfully filed, but since it was successful, we definitely have to deliver it, otherwise we will receive complaints. But don't worry, while other orders cost four yuan for delivery, this one pays twenty yuan." The manager explained to Li Teng for a few moments.

"All right, I'll go." Li Teng was almost certain that this was the special order.