Detective Agency of the Bizarre
Chapter 799: Thirty-two. Save the World

Chapter 799: Thirty-two. Save the World

"Little Li has two candies in his hands. Little Li’s mom tells him the candies in his hands will—"

"Why are you talking about math problems with a child? Can he even understand?" Officer Wen complained, glancing over, then squatted down with a smile on his face, teasing his son’s chubby chin with his finger.

It was lunchtime, and his wife had brought their child to the police station to see him.

"This is called prenatal education. What do you know, you chubby middle-aged man?" Officer Wen’s wife rolled her eyes.

Officer Wen’s eyebrows shot up as he stood up suddenly, causing his protruding belly to wobble, rippling: "How can you say that? What do you mean ’chubby middle-aged man’? I weigh only 130 pounds... And prenatal education is about cultivating interest before the child is born. What’s this got to do with now?"

"Keep your voice down, why shout so loudly? Aren’t you afraid of scaring the child?" The woman expertly pinched the excess flesh on Officer Wen’s side waist, turning it half a circle clockwise. "This is just like prenatal education; it’s to make the child develop an interest from the start."

"Ouch... Then why are you teaching math..." Officer Wen winced in pain, sucking in a cold breath.

The woman snorted lightly, ignoring her husband’s inquiry. She crouched down in front of the stroller, continuing softly.

"Little Li has two candies in his hands. Little Li’s mom tells him the candies in his hands will double in number every day. Little Li holds back his craving to eat them to make the candies grow. Sure enough, the next day, the candies in his hands become four.

"Little Li wants more candies, so he keeps saving them, not eating a single one. So—"

...

"How many days will it take for Richard Li to destroy the entire city?"

Staring at the blood-colored tentacles swaying above the city, Lu Li murmured to himself.

The answer is seventeen days.

In just seventeen days, the majority of the city’s citizens would become hosts to the blood-colored tentacles, turning into corpses gradually rotting away.

Like fine rain, the dense blood-colored tentacles probe down from the cloudy mist, occupying this rotting city... Just thinking about it is terrifying.

Lu Li wasn’t sure if anyone else could see these tentacles floating above the city, much like he could, but the chances were likely none.

The only solace was Lu Li’s calculation, which factored in the worst-case scenario, where the appendages increased daily. If he were a bit more optimistic, calculating based on once every seven days when the body rotted replaced, he could multiply the number of days by seven.

At first glance, 120 days seems plenty of time, but the number of blood-colored tentacles grows at a rate doubling every seven days.

Lu Li had only about a month left to act, with the first two weeks being the best time to deal with the issue. Any longer, and the number of tentacles would expand to a despairing thousands.

And without any help, only Lu Li, who could see them, could resolve this matter.

"You seem to really like looking at the sky today..." Yang Chunxue tilted her head, her gaze shifting between Lu Li’s side profile and the sky.

"Just checking if it’s going to rain."

Fortunately, Lu Li’s personality wasn’t one to easily show emotions. So, aside from the issue Yang Chunxue noticed, Lu Li appeared no different from usual.

The same calm, silence. Like a black rock.

Lu Li waved to four men hiding in the distance, and after confirming the skinny old man was the deceased’s brother, he tossed him the contents from the black plastic bag.

The skinny old man took a look and immediately his eyes turned red, his lips quivering as if he wanted to thank him, but was stopped by Lu Li.

"No need to thank us, just don’t blame us when the time comes."

Lu Li left a statement that puzzled the old man and the four others, and with their fearful and dodging glances, he and Yang Chunxue returned to the car, started it, and left.

It wasn’t until the old man and the others watched them leave and timidly entered the bungalow, seeing the coffin scattered as a mess with the elderly’s corpse whose head was smashed, did they understand the meaning behind Lu Li’s words.

...

"I want to play with the phone!"

A fair white wrist stretched out from the back seat, fingers waving incessantly.

Lu Li pulled out his phone and placed it on the palm, watching as the hand quickly grasped the phone and retracted.

Yang Chunxue unlocked the phone with a swipe, holding it with both hands before her eyes, sneakily tapping into messaging apps.

Her movements paused slightly, a guilty expression as she averted her gaze from the phone, her reddish-bright eyes stealing a glance at the driver’s seat, then returning to the phone to open the most recent chat record.

"There’s something outside the car." — Lu Li

Officer Wen — "Where?"

"On you." — Lu Li

"It’s gone, it’s just outside the window." — Lu Li

Officer Wen — "What do I do now?! [emoticon]"

"Call a tow truck to tow the car away." — Lu Li

The time was around 6 a.m., it should have been a record from before returning to the Detective Agency.

"Hmm... By the way, is this Officer Wen a man or a woman?" Yang Chunxue put down the phone, pretending to ask casually.

"A man, you should’ve heard his voice."

Yang Chunxue slightly exhaled, immediately tensing up again.

No way! Can’t let my guard down, who knows if this Lu Li guy swings both ways... I can’t let any potential enemy go!

She seemed nonchalant as she asked again, "Oh, and what’s his name anyway? I think I keep hearing you call him Officer Wen. Are you two not close?"

"It’s fine. The reason I always call him Officer Wen is because he..." Lu Li’s speech paused slightly. "His surname is Wen, given name Officer."

"Officer Wen is his name... hahaha..." Yang Chunxue’s slender fingers covered her mouth, making muffled laughter sounds.

Clearly, as someone named Yang Chunxue, she had no right to laugh at others.

During the fragmented conversation, the towering buildings of Lingling City appeared on the road’s distant horizon.

[I wish you prosperity—I wish you be splendid—]

Cheerful music suddenly blasted from the back seat.

"Uh...your phone... As for why the ringtone turned into this, it’s because I accidentally selected it..." Yang Chunxue covered her face, her voice small, too embarrassed to look at Lu Li.

With a calm expression, he took the phone, and with a quick glance, saw the screen paused on the phone gallery displaying an expression meme of Shen Jingjing’s dumpling face.

A girl who lived in the world of memes.

He answered the call.

Marcus’s excitement blared from the phone, audible even if it wasn’t next to his ear: "Lu Li, we’ve got business!"

"Turn it down, I have more important things to do."

"What thing?"

"Save the world."

Lu Li said this with a long-awaited serious expression.

Unfortunately, neither Marcus on the phone nor Yang Chunxue in the backseat could see it.

"Uh... no, I’ve already finished this job, just notifying you, and to split the money."

"If you completed the job by yourself, there’s no need to share it with me."

"Uh, you’d better take it because this task is related to you... someone contacted me wanting to buy your personal information."

"And then?"

"I sold it to him, for 20,000!"