Chapter 214: The Seventh Live Stream

"A completely ordinary face?" Tie Ningxiang turned my words over in her mind. Anyone who attended the police academy knew that cadets focusing on criminal investigation were required to study feature psychology and rapid facial sketching. Because of this, even for a completely ordinary face, a trained officer could identify its defining features and commit them to memory in just a few seconds.

That was exactly why Tie Ningxiang found the situation so tricky when I told her the face lacked any distinguishing characteristics. The "ordinary" I meant was entirely different from the standard definition.

"Think it over again when you get back. If you remember any useful details, let me know immediately." Tie Ningxiang pressed a hand to my shoulder, her expression completely serious. "Gao Jian, I heard about what you went through five years ago from my father, but I still believe you. I won't doubt a single word you say, so I hope you can drop your guard and trust me this once."

"I..."

"You are the only eyewitness, and the person closest to the truth. I know you have your secrets and your own difficulties, but more than that, I want to see the real killer brought to justice. I want to clear your name and give closure to those who died so unjustly!"

Tie Ningxiang's voice rang with exceptional clarity in the archive room, echoing in my ears.

I looked at the woman standing before me. She possessed an unparalleled magnetism. Perhaps it was exactly this unique aura that had compelled me to spill the secret I had kept buried deep in my heart for five years.

"Bang!"

The archive room door was suddenly shoved open. A tall, thin man with a dark, sinister expression leaned against the frame. "Why is there an outsider in the police station's archive room? As far as I know, even with a lawyer's letter from the People's Court, representing attorneys aren't allowed inside the archives. The duty officer is supposed to fetch the relevant files for them, isn't that right?"

"Chen Feng, I invited Gao Jian here to assist with the investigation. Why aren't you out helping Captain Wu hunt down Lu Xing or following up on the Jiangcheng Medical College case? What are you doing here?" Tie Ningxiang looked toward the door. This passive-aggressive man harboring such intense hostility toward me was Chen Feng—the guy who had a long-standing secret crush on her but had been repeatedly rebuffed.

"Ningxiang, so it's you?" Chen Feng walked into the room with a plastic smile. "But aren't you currently on suspension? Bringing an outsider into the archive room while suspended... I'm afraid that's against regulations, isn't it?"

Seeing Chen Feng acting so aggressively and clearly looking for trouble, I was just about to speak up for Tie Ningxiang, but she stopped me.

"You can call Captain Wu; I already got his permission. Also, you better remember this: as long as I haven't been fired, I am the captain of the Municipal Sub-bureau Criminal Investigation Detachment. I don't need a rookie who couldn't cut it in the armed police and had to pad his resume at the public security sub-bureau telling me how to handle my cases or summon my witnesses." Tie Ningxiang fired this off in a single breath. Chen Feng's face turned incredibly ugly.

His face remained tight, and he didn't say a word for a long moment. Finally, he let out a cold snort and slunk out of the archive room.

"Senior, I didn't expect you to have such a tough side." I closed the case file. I had already committed everything I needed to see to memory; there was no point in staying here any longer.

"If only everyone could be as useful as you," Tie Ningxiang sighed. "Gao Jian, once the truth of this case finally comes to light, would you have any interest in coming back to the force?"

"No, none at all." I shook my head with a bitter smile. From the moment I became an Underworld Live Show Streamer, my life's path had been locked in place. Right now, my only "interest" was doing everything I could to survive.

After chatting with Tie Ningxiang for a few more minutes, she walked me out of the Municipal Sub-bureau.

It was still early in the day, so I took a detour to visit Mr. Gu to ask about Xiaofeng. Unfortunately, Mr. Gu had been beaten and thrown out that day before he could even catch a glimpse of her face.

He repeatedly warned me that there were two of them, and they were experts in a type of evil arts he had never seen before. They would be exceptionally difficult to deal with.

Around noon, I bought Mr. Gu a meal and covered his medical bills before hurrying off.

It was already afternoon by the time I returned to Ting Tang Road. I locked my doors and cultivated the Profound Truth Mental Method. I was on the verge of a breakthrough, so I needed to be even more diligent.

The night passed without incident, and the next day was also uncharacteristically quiet. I tried pushing the Lacquered Wooden Coffin, and to my surprise, the heavy lid slid open effortlessly this time.

"Has the Fate Ghost recovered from its injuries?" I found the pitch-black eyeball resting in the red mud. This dark, jewel-like eye now felt even more mysterious and wicked. As I picked it up, a chilling cold seeped through my fingers and into the palm of my hand.

"Did it change somehow?" I held the Black Eyeball up to my eye. The spectral shadow trapped inside had grown from a frail child into a young man. A faint, vertical slit was now visible right between his eyebrows, looking exactly like an unopened third eye.

"It seems swallowing that three-eyed, four-armed Ghost Infant really did you some good." I peered deep into the eyeball. Sensing my gaze, the Fate Ghost brought its hands together and respectfully bowed to me from inside the orb.

"Has it become sentient? It used to only know fear, but now it seems to have developed true intelligence." I grabbed my Embroidered Cloth Bag and tucked the eyeball inside to carry on me. I spent the rest of my time focused on cultivation.

That rare span of peace passed far too quickly. As the sky slowly darkened, I roused myself from meditation.

I exhaled a breath of stale air and gazed out at the sinking sun painting the sky as red as blood.

"A new live stream is about to start." I locked the windows and drew the curtains. I tied a thin thread to the bottom corner of my door from the inside; this way, if anyone sneaked in while I was gone, I'd know immediately and could take action.

I headed downstairs and took Bai Qi out for a massive meal. Afterward, I bought a huge pile of meat and stocked it in the fridge so he'd have plenty to eat while I was away.

Everything was ready. I sat at the table smoking a newly bought cheap cigarette, quietly waiting for the inescapable nightmare.

The minutes and seconds ticked by as the hands of the clock crossed. As eight chimes echoed from an unknown neighbor's clock outside my door, a faint, cold light lit up my desk, casting its glow over my pale face.

"What is a blessing is not a disaster, what is a disaster cannot be avoided." I picked up the Underworld Live Show Phone, pressed it to my ear, and answered.

"Hello?" Every time I spoke that word, my heartbeat would inexplicably speed up, and my mind would snap to its absolute highest state of tension.

After a brief pause, a man's voice sounded from the other end. "Guess who I am?"

My mind immediately went into overdrive the second I heard those words. It was a man's voice, someone over thirty. He sounded like he had just suffered a massive blow; his tone was weathered, threaded with a trace of helplessness. He seemed to have lost himself for some unknown reason. More than a question directed at me, it sounded like he was asking himself.

The call could disconnect at any moment. I rapidly organized my thoughts, preparing to ask for more details. But before I could even open my mouth, a second person's voice rang out from the phone. "Guess who I am?"

This time, it was a younger man. The words sounded like a childish prank, but his tone was laced with absolute terror. He spoke as if his time was running out, as if something horrific was right on his heels.

I listened carefully. There was another distinct characteristic to this young man's speech: air was leaking through his lips. Even though he was speaking standard Mandarin, he sounded like he was missing several teeth. His voice came through slurred and incredibly awkward.

'These are two completely different people, so why are they saying the exact same thing?' I couldn't wrap my head around it. Right on the heels of that thought, a third voice spoke through the receiver.

"Guess who I am?" The voice was shrill yet weak. It was unmistakably a woman, likely between twenty and thirty-five years old. It sounded as though she had something stuffed in her mouth, her voice muffled by whatever was blocking it.

'This just got interesting.' I had never heard these three voices before, let alone had any way to guess their true identities. 'Why are they calling me? Are they my clients? But why would there be three clients at the same time?'

I had never run into a situation like this before. The line fell completely silent. Just as I thought they had hung up, a fourth voice spoke from the phone.

"Guess who I am?"

Hearing this last voice, I froze. I was genuinely stunned, because I never in my wildest dreams expected to hear this voice coming from the Underworld Live Show Phone.

Gentle yet firm, decisive and capable, her enunciation crisp and completely no-nonsense. Just one day ago, I had been discussing a murder case with the owner of this voice.

"Are you... Tie Ningxiang?" I blurted out the answer without thinking.