The rain outside had lightened at some point, gradually shifting from a freezing downpour into the pitter-patter of white noise.

Although the ability users of the Special Operations Division possessed extraordinary physical constitutions, the indoor heating was turned up quite high to accommodate the staff from the Intelligence Processing Division. Even so, it didn’t feel dry or stuffy on a rainy night like this.

Accompanied by the rhythmic sound of raindrops, it would have been a perfect night for a deep sleep if it weren’t for the case at hand.

Gu Xinglan sat on the edge of the bed. Not in the mood to play on her phone, her gaze eventually drifted toward Lin Han.

Lin Han was leaning back in his chair, breathing steadily and looking quite peaceful in his sleep.

Gu Xinglan couldn’t help but think to herself.

In his sleep, Lin Han lacked his usual faint “dead inside” aura, as well as that particular exhaustion unique to corporate drones who looked ready to drop dead at their desks.

But now, with his eyes closed and the lazy, perfunctory expression gone, he actually looked much younger. His bone structure was clean, his features were sharp, and in his stillness, he possessed a certain boyish charm.

Gu Xinglan suddenly realized that Lin Han was only in his early twenties.

It was just that he usually just ran a hand through his hair to keep it from looking too messy, and his clothes were often just whatever was wearable… This unkempt appearance made it easy for people to overlook that fact.

What a waste, she commented quietly to herself.

He clearly wasn’t like this before…

She suddenly remembered the Lin Han of a few years ago.

Back then, they were still in school, and Lin Han wasn’t the way he was now.

Some people were born to stand in the spotlight; even if they did nothing, people’s eyes would naturally be drawn to them.

The world belonged to such people, as if they were born to be the protagonists of the stage while the supporting cast naturally revolved around them, singing, dancing, and occasionally offering flowers and applause.

And Lin Han was exactly that kind of person.

Wherever he went, a small crowd would naturally form around him, like he was a mobile charging station.

People would ask him for advice, crack jokes with him, or crowd around just to squeeze in a word or two.

The youth back then was always smiling, confident, bright, and perhaps with a touch of that playful arrogance that made one’s teeth itch.

It was as if nothing in the world could truly daunt him; even if the ocean stood in his path, he would walk forward with a smile and let the waters part to make way for him.

To put it in slightly more grandiose terms, Lin Han back then was like a lion.

Not the kind locked in a cage at a zoo, of course.

But a newly matured lion king of the savanna, his mane still smelling of the sun, proud, beautiful, brimming with life, and possessing a perfectly measured, alluring sense of danger.

The school never lacked for his followers and admirers; everyone’s eyes naturally gravitated toward him.

And Gu Xinglan had once been one of those many pairs of eyes.

From a distance.

Cautiously.

Perhaps even with a touch of those subtle, youthful feelings that a girl would loath to admit to herself.

She watched him stand at the center of the crowd, watched him effortlessly secure the spots that everyone else fought tooth and nail for, watched him win decisively on the Training Grounds, and watched as even the wind seemed drawn into a swirl by his youthful spirit whenever he cheered…

But that was all in the past now…

That high-spirited youth had died three years ago in the disaster no one wanted to talk about.

Later, when she saw Lin Han again, it was in the SAVE office building.

He had become the Team Leader of the Intelligence Processing Division’s Team 7, a place privately mocked by everyone as the “Care Center for Problem Children.”

When Gu Xinglan saw Lin Han in the corridor that time, she almost didn’t recognize him.

He was clutching a stack of documents, his eyes dull like a dead fish with a strange, glazed look, while a loli boss with twin tails stood beside him, arrogantly bossing him around.

In that moment, what welled up in Gu Xinglan’s heart wasn’t the joy of a long-awaited reunion.

It was an utterly irrational anger.

It was as if someone had taken the shimmering statue in her memory—that forever cool and legendary youth—and dragged him down from his pedestal, rolling him through a mud pit until he reeked of office printer ink.

If anyone were to ask how he ended up like this…

Perhaps his answer would be: “People have to grow up eventually, young lady.”

—Couldn’t he have let her youthful, rose-tinted fantasies last just a little longer, that bastard!

Consequently, every time Gu Xinglan saw Lin Han, she couldn’t help but needle him with a few remarks, looking for any excuse to pick a fight.

But even she couldn’t say for sure how much of that was frustration at his lack of ambition, and how much was like a primary schooler, clumsily trying to get someone’s attention.

How lame.

Anyway, that was just how it was.

There wasn’t a lick of logic to it.

After all, a young girl’s heart is always a poem. If you wanted to be logical, why write poetry? You might as well go write an argumentative essay.

Gu Xinglan’s head nodded rhythmically. Occasionally, she would snap it back up, shake it for a moment, and then return to her “metronome” mode.

Perhaps because she was nearly asleep, her muddled thoughts became unexpectedly candid.

—But, maybe I was just wrong…

That thought flashed through her chaotic mind.

Since coming to X City and working with Lin Han for the first time, Gu Xinglan had seen a side of him that was different from his usual dejected self.

He seems quite capable, doesn’t he? So he actually has some ability?

At the very least, staying calm while being pressured by the invisible forces in X City, coordinating everyone’s work, and serving as the core of the team… these were things Gu Xinglan knew she couldn’t do herself.

If the will was there, she could have easily teamed up with the Captain to make an exception and pull him into the Special Operations Division; even a desk job would be better than where he was now…

As she let her mind wander, her thoughts grew increasingly fragmented and far-fetched, and her exhaustion finally became impossible to fight off.

So much had happened today; she was truly exhausted.

The room was too quiet, and the rhythm of the rain was far too hypnotic. Finally, her body collapsed onto the bed.

Just as she was about to drift off completely—

“Aaaaaaaagh!”

A shrill, blood-curdling scream suddenly erupted from the room next door, loud enough to pierce through the walls.

Gu Xinglan jolted awake. Her cluttered thoughts vanished instantly as she snapped her head up, her hand nearly drawing her blade instinctively.

“Enemy attack?!”

Everyone else in the room was also startled.

However, they quickly realized that the sound had come from the next room, the one where the drug dealer was being held.

And that blood-curdling scream definitely belonged to the drug dealer.

“What on earth is that golden retriever doing?”

Gu Xinglan looked toward the door, her expression shifting rapidly.

“She didn’t actually use some incredibly brutal method, did she? I knew we shouldn’t have let an outsider interrogate a suspect alone!”

Having said that, she instinctively looked over at Lin Han.

Lin Han’s eyes remained closed and his breathing was steady, as if he hadn’t heard the pig-slaughtering scream from next door at all.

For a moment, Gu Xinglan was actually shocked by the quality of his sleep.

But Zhao Chenfeng didn’t move, and neither did the others from the Special Operations Division.

The members of Team 7 looked at each other and then, in a show of tacit understanding, acted as if they hadn’t heard a thing, anyway, Lin Han hadn’t given any orders.

Gu Xinglan could only force herself to endure it. She sat on the edge of the bed clutching her blade, her face turning pale and then flushed with frustration.

A few minutes later, the screams from the next room finally stopped.

The people in the room didn’t even have time to breathe a sigh of relief.

On the other side, in the room where the boy who bought the drug was being held, another even more devastated scream erupted.

This time, it was clearly the boy’s wretched cry—

“No! Don’t come closer! Ghost! A ghost!”

This time, it wasn’t just Gu Xinglan; even Zhao Chenfeng’s expression changed slightly.

Tang Xiaoman whispered, “What on earth is Miss Monica doing…”

Xu Weian gave it some serious thought. “Judging from various aspects, the other party’s mental state seems to be somewhat unstable.”

“We can tell that without your judgment!”

Gu Xinglan finally couldn’t help but stand up.

“No, I have to go take a look. If this continues, in case something really—”

Before she could finish her sentence, the door was pushed open.

Monica stood at the door, a strange, indescribable expression on her face.

Gu Xinglan looked her up and down for a few moments, feeling inexplicably as if Monica was… frightened?

What the hell, shouldn’t they be the ones who were frightened?

Monica looked up and faced the group.

“Um, the information…”

Her voice was somehow a bit sheepish.

“I’ve got the information out of him.”