Chapter 199: A Sky Filled with Blood Mist

2022-05-20

In that split second, my face felt hot and the metallic taste of blood filled my mouth. I knew that taste too well — we’d grown used to it by now. Around me, everything was shrouded in a hazy red mist.

That smell, that sensation, we recognized it instantly. It was blood. And before us, a cloud of bloody mist hung in the air. It blanketed the entire shop floor, painting everything a blazing red. With the blood mist so thick, we couldn’t even make out the workers’ faces in the distance. Screams echoed through the factory, mixed with frantic footsteps running everywhere.

I finally snapped out of it and shouted, “Don’t panic! Be careful!”

But chaos had already erupted. No one was listening.

Director Liao’s voice rang out, “I’m shutting off the machines—cut the main power! Is everyone out? Someone pull the circuit breaker!”

With faces obscured by the red mist, I rushed forward, relying on memory to see who’d gone down there. Just as I moved, a hand grabbed my arm. When I turned, I couldn’t believe who I saw — it was Zhao Mingkun.

She raised a finger to her lips, signaling for silence, then pulled me with her as we bolted for the exit.

Outside, free from the blood mist, the sunlight hit us hard. Zhao Mingkun kept her hold on my arm, whispering as we ran, “The killer escaped out the back.”

I frowned. “You dare show yourself here?”

Not looking at me, Zhao Mingkun kept running. “When I came to investigate, I found a timed hacking device installed in the surveillance system. There’s a ten-minute window with no camera footage, so relax. The cameras won’t catch me.”

“What are you doing here?” I asked, breathless as we hurried along.

Zhao Mingkun seemed perfectly at ease, almost like she was out for a stroll. “Helping you with the case. After I read those three stories, it wasn’t hard to guess the last victim would die on the shop floor. So I staked this place out early. I just didn’t expect the killer to pull a disappearing act like that.”

“You saw everything?” I pressed, “The moment the killer struck?”

Then I noticed Zhao Mingkun was dressed in a worker’s uniform. Suddenly, so much made sense.

She nodded. “I saw it all, clear as day. I was right there on the production line. No one noticed an extra worker — or maybe they just didn’t care. Once I found the hack in the surveillance, I figured the killer would make a move during that ten-minute blackout. I just didn’t know who the target was.”

“You could’ve stopped it!” I said, frowning. “If you’d shut off the main power sooner, that person wouldn’t have died.”

Zhao Mingkun let out a cold laugh. “Don’t push your luck, Wu Meng. I’m helping you for my own reasons. If I’d stopped it, how would I know who the killer was? Don’t try to lay your pity on me. If you want to blame someone, blame the killer.”

Catching a glimpse of her expression, I realized Zhao Mingkun couldn’t be boxed in as the kind-hearted neighbor next door. Ruthless, maybe unavoidably so, but with me, there always seemed to be something different in the way she acted.

It hit me then — if Zhao Mingkun could blend in with the workers so easily, so could the killer. The murderer must’ve already calculated the machine’s lethality, played out this blood mist scene in their head countless times.

Hidden by the chaos, the killer slipped out while everyone panicked. If Zhao Mingkun hadn’t dragged me out with her, the killer would’ve disappeared without a trace before we even realized what happened.

With the surveillance erased, we had no way of knowing how the murder took place — or even that the killer was hiding among us the whole time. We might have even chalked it up to a suicide.

But the real question remained: who was the victim?

“So who died?” I asked.

Zhao Mingkun glanced around, pulled me into a nearby alley, and answered, “It was Old Wang. While you were talking, he came in from the other door and was headed toward you. But someone shoved him straight into the cutter in the middle of the floor.”

The alley was empty. We stopped, catching our breath.

Both of us swept our eyes around the alley as Zhao Mingkun continued, “The killer knows the cutter inside-out. At high speed, blood doesn’t spray down like rain — it mists, turning the air hazy. That mist was the perfect cover for the killer’s getaway.”

She flipped open a cardboard box, revealing a set of worker’s clothes. Red bloodstains dotted the fabric. No doubt, fresh enough to have just been stripped off.

“If I wasn’t busy trying to find you—” Zhao Mingkun sniffed at the shirt, frowning, “—I’d have already caught up to him. The killer isn’t ordinary; he’s got skills, with computers and machines both.”

I nodded, eyeing the uniform. “He ditched his clothes and melted into the crowd. He likes wearing all black. He can’t have gotten far.”

I was just about to run out after him, but Zhao Mingkun blocked my path. “Don’t be so sure.”

Watching her toss the clothes to the ground, I asked, “You see something I don’t?”

She smirked. “You people always live in the sunlight. You spend so much time looking up, you never think to check what’s beneath your feet. That’s why you never catch me. Humans crave the stars and the sea, but most of us don’t even know what’s under our own feet.”

I studied her face, catching a flicker of loneliness and isolation in her eyes — for a moment, she seemed out of place in this world, a touch of helplessness bleeding through.

But as fast as it appeared, it was gone, replaced by her usual queenly confidence. She pointed at the ground with a finger. “If I’m right, the killer escaped down there.”

It was a manhole cover, snugly fitted into the opening.

“The killer seems a bit like a neat freak,” I muttered.

“Clean freak?” Zhao Mingkun eyed me. “What makes you say that?”

I hesitated for a moment before answering, “Profiling.”

Zhao Mingkun shot back without hesitation, “Then your profiling’s unreliable. Back at the psychiatric hospital, I accidentally saw your file. You have guilt delusions, and every time you do a profile, it triggers your condition. If you go too deep, you might end up with a split personality.”

“Why were you looking at my file?” I glared at her.

She’d already lifted the manhole cover. “Because I felt like it. Not your business. Seriously though, stop using that ability. If you skim the surface, you’ll miss things. Go too deep, and it’ll break you sooner rather than later. The last thing I want is to see you locked in a psychiatric hospital, a shell of who you used to be.”

Without another word, Zhao Mingkun climbed down first.

Her certainty left me with nothing more to say. I followed after her into the darkness.

It was pitch black below. As soon as I got down, everything became clear — this was exactly the kind of place the killer would move in. Only two circles of light, about the size of coins, filtered through the manhole opening. Further in, nothing but total blackness.

I’d faced the killer in darkness before, where he moved without a care. For him, darkness was cover.

Zhao Mingkun scanned left and right. “Guess which way the killer went?”

“Left!” I answered without hesitation. “We’re already on the outskirts. If he went right, he’d hit the estuary — too isolated. No way he’d risk that. He definitely went left.”

Zhao Mingkun chuckled. “Not bad. Let’s go.”

She took the lead. Her steps made no sound — if she trailed behind you, you’d never know she was there. That trait reminded me of the killer. If she wasn’t so tall, I might have even suspected her instead.

We walked in silence through the darkness. Zhao Mingkun moved like she’d lived here her whole life, while I kept stumbling, afraid of bumping into something ahead.

No sooner had I thought that than I crashed into something, lost my balance, and toppled right onto Zhao Mingkun’s back.

“You—”

Before I could finish, she pulled me forward and clamped a hand over my mouth.

Her lips brushed my ear, whispering softly, “Quiet. Listen up — there’s movement ahead.”

Shoving aside everything else on my mind, I listened hard. Sure enough, from around the bend came the high-pitched giggle of a little girl — the same sound I’d heard before in the corridor. Which meant the killer was just ahead.

And that laughter was growing clearer with every step.