Star Gate

Chapter 3: Sword of the Lis (I)

After leaving the department head’s office, Li Hao glanced at the calendar on his table when he returned to his seat.

July 12, 1730.

“Almost a year!” he mumbled.

“What’s almost a year?” Chen Na asked curiously.

“It’s been almost a year since I joined the Inspectorate,” the young man explained with a smile.

“Oh, you still remember that?” Chen Na responded indifferently. What was the point of recalling when one joined the Inspectorate?

Li Hao didn’t say anything. He remembered! He remembered it very clearly!

He joined the Inspectorate on August 1, 1729. His withdrawal from school was July 23, the day after the incident. It wasn’t long after that that he applied to Silver City’s law enforcement agency.

A self-immolation incident occurred in the Veteris Institute on July 22, 1729. Second year student Zhang Yuan went up in flames outside his dorm room and died from his injuries.

After the Inspectorate looked into the case, a media blackout was imposed to protect the school’s reputation upon confirmation that it was indeed an accident. Very few knew that a Veteris student had died on school grounds.

Neither did the matter snowball because Zhang Yuan’s parents were dead and he didn’t really have relatives. No one came around looking for him, so the matter was quickly suppressed.

Li Hao’s mentor eventually guessed that his withdrawal was related to Zhang Yuan since the two were close.

Zhang Yuan!

It’d been almost a year since Little Yuan’s death. Events of the day still came readily to Li Hao, even now.

Zhang Yuan had been caught in the grip of a scarlet shadow. As his body slowly burned away, no one realized how Zhang Yuan’s soul struggled, his mind wailed, and his heart despaired.

But Li Hao saw his friend clearly. He moved forward to help, but Little Yuan’s mouth repeatedly opened and closed when he saw Li Hao. Although he couldn’t make a sound despite the incredible anguish, his mouth kept moving. Others might think he was screaming or moaning; only Li Hao knew differently.

“Run!”

His friend wanted him to run.

Li Hao knew Zhang Yuan too well. He didn’t want Li Hao to get closer, he wanted Li Hao to run for his life!

Zhang Yuan had comically been wearing only a pair of boxers when he died outside his dorm room. It was far from funny to Li Hao. His friend must have already gone to bed, but when the incident occurred, he pushed through the throes of extreme agony to stagger into the hallway. He’d turned in the direction of Li Hao’s room!

Unable to make a sound, he gathered all of his mental resolve to break a porcelain tile. That raised a disturbance in the dead of night, causing many students to poke their heads out of their rooms—including Li Hao.

Had Zhang Yuan been crying out for help?

Or maybe there really was no connection to be found.

Perhaps an outsider like Chen Na could identify something?

Very well. Li Hao wasn’t holding out any hope, he was just unwilling to accept no progress after so much time and effort.

“Don’t worry!” Chen Na grinned from ear to ear. She finally had a chance to peek into Li Hao’s little secret!

Worried that he’d change his mind, she leaned over the tables and quickly grabbed the files from his hand. After rapidly flipping through them, she asked, “Li Hao, what are you trying to find in these documents? There’s so much here—you’ve recorded so many details that they’re basically memoirs. What are you trying to do?”

“Commonalities!” Li Hao answered after brief thought. “I want to know what they have in common!”

Chen Na blinked, at a loss. She took a closer look at the six people—different ages, professions, backgrounds, gender, and social circles. The first of them had died ten years ago, and the latest was last year. What were they supposed to have in common?

Li Hao’s been reading these for a year? He’s… got a lot of time on his hands.

But the last file gave her an inkling of a clue—Zhang Yuan, a student at the Veteris Institute. He was the primary reason why Li Hao scrutinized these files, wasn’t he?

Zhang Yuan, deceased on July 22, 1729. Li Hao withdrew from school not long after that, right? Or did he withdraw from school at the same time?

Chen Na took another look and seemed to understand more of the context when she factored in Li Hao’s withdrawal from the Veteris Institute. Some of their colleagues still failed to understand why a Veteris student would forsake his studies and throw away a glorious future. Perhaps she grasped some of the underlying reasons after the young man shared the files with her today.

Previously regarding the issue with amusement, her eyes sharpened with solemnity when her thoughts traveled here. Did Li Hao suspect that Zhang Yuan’s death was a murder instead of an accident?

Were all six actually a series of murders?

……

Li Hao waited for a bit while Chen Na perused the files, but didn’t mind that he didn’t receive an immediate response. Instead, he turned his mind to his next step.

The Inspectorate should be opening an investigation after he made his report, but he didn’t hold out much hope for that line of action. Not unless the Night Watchers swiftly involved themselves!

The key thing is that the scarlet shadow might attack me soon if I’m the next target. I think I saw a hazy red thing a few days ago—was it the scarlet shadow? Is it looking for me? Or has it already found me and not taken action yet because of my identity?

The Inspectorate was the city’s law enforcement agency, after all. A student’s death might not raise too much attention, even if the student was from the vaunted Veteris Institute. But the death of a third rank inspector would draw a detailed inspection. The death of one of their own was far more severe than a student’s.

Based on what I know, there’s a time limit to each appearance. The shadow never manifests for too long, or it might be more accurate to say that it only appears at certain times. There is one commonality between the victims, but… it’s not a very clear link!

Li Hao wasn’t entirely clueless after one year. At the very least, he’d determined that the weather was never ideal on the days that the six died. There was always either a thunderstorm, ball lightning, or clouds… No one paid attention to the weather when the incidents took place; Li Hao had been forced to take note of it when he couldn’t locate any other clues.

He keenly recalled that it’d been drizzling the night Zhang Yuan died.

The shadow comes out only when it rains, or when the weather is bad. Li Hao swiftly scribbled something on a piece of paper and ripped it up just as quickly. He put down his pen after shredding his notes and sank into deep thought.

While he rummaged through his thoughts, Chen Na suddenly gasped, “I’ve got it!”

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