343: Chapter 343 I still want to ask you what kind of ghost thing you are.

*Tap...*

*Tap...*

The sound echoed again, sticky and dull.

It sounded like something wet and heavy being dragged across the concrete.

It formed an eerie duet with the crisp clicking of her high heels.

The wind blew in from the entrance of the alley behind her, carrying cold rain that pressed her skirt tightly against her legs, fluttering continuously.

Under the dim yellow streetlights, her shadow stretched and twisted on the wet pavement.

At the same time, it felt as though another invisible shadow was slowly approaching, overlapping with hers.

Cheng Leyi's breathing grew rapid, and a fine layer of goosebumps rose on the back of her neck.

She forced herself to look straight ahead, but out of the corner of her eye, she couldn't help glancing back.

Yet, she couldn't see a single figure.

What was more...

With her keen perception that far surpassed ordinary people, she couldn't capture the stalker's breath or heartbeat at all.

This was definitely not normal!

Cheng Leyi secretly reached her left hand into her bag, her fingertips touching a cold, hard metal canister.

It was pepper spray.

She lightly bit her lower lip with her teeth, feeling a bit calmer.

Then, using the micro-headset concealed by her hair, she whispered in a hushed tone:

"Hey, Fisherman, can you hear me?"

A faint static noise came from the headset.

A few seconds later, a steady male voice responded:

"Fisherman receives you. What's the situation?"

"It seems the Shark has appeared..."

Cheng Leyi's lips moved subtly as she reported cautiously:

"I can feel him right behind me, about fifteen meters away. I didn't look back for fear of alarming him."

"Understood. Bait, please maintain status quo and stay alert. Do not alarm the target for now."

The male voice paused, his tone instantly turning cold as he issued a series of commands:

"Other teams, get ready. Surround from the rear and sides of the street. The Fishing Net is closing in."

"Team A copies."

"Team B copies."

"Team C copies."

Several different voices echoed sequentially in the comms channel.

Cheng Leyi breathed a slight sigh of relief, but the tension in her heart didn't lessen in the slightest.

Images of the victims' corpses from the case files inevitably popped into her mind, reminding her of that murderous devil's perverted atrocities.

The killer was an abnormal, cunning, and cruel person with special abilities that were almost phantom-like.

To lure out this perverted sexual predator hiding in the dark, the Special Investigation Team had formulated tonight's capture operation.

The operation codenames were Bait, Fisherman, Fishing Net, and the target, Shark.

And she was the most crucial Bait.

"Bait, don't be afraid. The other team members are closing in from all around you. We'll make sure he doesn't leave alive this time."

Seemingly sensing her emotional turmoil, Fisherman's voice came again, carrying a soothing strength.

Cheng Leyi took a deep breath and continued walking forward.

The damp, cold wind blew past, bringing a chill to her legs under her skirt.

Raindrops fell densely on her bare skin without stockings, giving a strange sensation.

The faint, lingering gaze behind her felt as though it was stuck to her pale thighs, making Cheng Leyi feel utterly uncomfortable.

Subconsciously, she reached down and pulled her short skirt—which came just above her knees—down a bit.

"Hey, Fisherman, the target is closing in. It seems like he's speeding up toward me."

"Bzz... Copy... Maintain..."

Sudden noise and radio interference broke through the headset, rendering the voice intermittent.

Cheng Leyi's heart tightened, and she instinctively picked up her pace.

The clicking of her high heels in the puddles instantly became hurried.

Almost at the exact same time...

The footsteps behind her also accelerated, matching her rhythm with total precision.

*Tap...*

*Tap...*

Just as she was about to walk out of this side street, Cheng Leyi suddenly felt her calf fiercely grabbed from behind!

The touch was cold, slick, and possessed a sickening stickiness.

"Ah—!"

An uncontrollable scream broke through the quiet of the rainy night.

"Leyi, what happened?!"

"Hold on, we're almost there!"

The comms signal restored in the headset, and the channel instantly blew up.

Without thinking, Cheng Leyi threw away her umbrella, raised her other leg, and kicked back fiercely with her high-heeled foot.

However, her heel only kicked empty air.

Cheng Leyi couldn't care about anything else and stomped desperately, trying to shake off the sticky thing on her leg.

At this moment, several agile figures wearing raincoats charged out from the shadows of the surrounding alleys.

"Sister Leyi!"

"How are you?"

Five team members surrounded her completely, looking at her stomping and shouting in the rain with faces full of worry and slight confusion.

Where was the killer? Where was that perverted demon?

Seeing her teammates arrive, Cheng Leyi stopped screaming and looked down.

Then, her whole body froze.

When the five team members followed Cheng Leyi's stiff gaze...

They all froze too.

The wind in the alley blew in forcefully from the other end.

A black plastic bag soaked by rain was clinging tightly to her leg, flapping in the wind.

The strange footsteps earlier had merely been the plastic bag rolling and slapping in the puddles as the wind blew it along.

The scene fell into a moment of dead silence.

One of the team members looked at Cheng Leyi's drenched, disheveled state, then at the plastic bag on her leg—the culprit—and finally couldn't hold back, bursting out into laughter with a "Pfft."

That laughter acted like a switch, instantly infecting everyone else, and they all started laughing along.

The burliest guy among them, who was the tallest, even laughed loudly:

"I thought the Shark took the bait! After all that, it turns out you were ambushed by a lousy plastic bag!"

Cheng Leyi's face instantly turned bright red.

"What are you laughing at? Is it that funny?!"

She glared at the burly man and kicked the plastic bag off her leg in annoyance.

The burly man scratched his head, not daring to talk back.

Seeing this, another man with a full beard suppressed his laughter, stepped out, and helped break the awkwardness:

"Alright, alright. Chen Lei, you guys say less. She's a girl after all; it's normal to be nervous in a situation like this."

The full-bearded man was Cheng Leyi's veteran teammate, Lin Xuhao. He picked up the umbrella from the ground and handed it to Cheng Leyi.

"Alright, a false alarm. Let's not stand out here in the rain. Let's take shelter over there first."

A young man with neat silver hair put away his handgun, his expression returning to seriousness as he spoke.

He was the commander of this operation team, codenamed "Fisherman"—Xu Fei.

Everyone came to the eaves of a nearby closed store.

Cheng Leyi took out a small mirror from her handbag, looked at her smudged makeup, and annoyed, pulled out a powder compact to touch up her makeup.

The rain grew heavier, bean-sized raindrops crashing onto the metal canopy with dense pitter-patter sounds.

The distant lights of high-rise buildings appeared hazy and remote through the curtain of rain.

"This rain is getting heavier and heavier. The weather forecast said it's going to rain for two days straight."

One of the team members complained.

"Don't even mention rainy days. Dongdu is so big. If that bastard just hides anywhere, finding him is like looking for a needle in the ocean. It's really tough."

Another team member echoed.

Lin Xuhao raised his wrist, checked the time on his watch, and then looked at Xu Fei:

"Group Leader Xu, it's past eleven. How about we call it a night and fall back?"

"Hold on a bit longer."

Xu Fei shook his head, his gaze sweeping across everyone, and said in a deep voice:

"I reviewed the case files again. Did you guys notice a pattern in those thirteen cases?"

"The killer commits a crime at the beginning of every month. Moreover, after completing three kills, he immediately changes his area of activity."

"From Eastern Jiangbei to Southern Jiangbei, then to Western Wenchuan, Northern Wenchuan, and Central Jiangdong, he never stays in one place for too long."

"This shows he is extremely cautious, even obsessively paranoid, but it is precisely this paranoia that allows us to pinpoint his pattern."

Xu Fei's voice was exceptionally clear amidst the sound of rain.

"Currently, only one case has occurred in the Eastern Jiangbei region, so his next target is very likely still here."

"And in all of Eastern Jiangbei, only Yingchun Road has the highest concentration of nightclubs and bars, making it the easiest place for him to find lone women returning home late at night."

"He has restrained himself for over a month; I don't believe he can continue to hold back."

"He didn't show up during last week's rainstorm, so tonight or tomorrow night is his most probable time to strike."

Hearing this, everyone nodded in agreement.

Under Xu Fei's leadership, this temporary action team had been staking out near this street for five whole rainy nights.

"Don't worry, Group Leader Xu. He's just a pervert who picks on women. When he shows up, I'll break his legs!"

"That's right. If he dares to fall into the hands of our Special Investigation Team, we'll make him regret his mother ever giving birth to him!"

The team members threw out tough words one after another, trying to dispel the heavy gloom and fatigue brought by the rainy night.

Xu Fei nodded slightly. This operation was his first time leading a team independently after being promoted to First-Class Affairs Officer, and he could only succeed, not fail.

By now, Cheng Leyi had finished touching up her makeup and casually tossed the compact back into her bag.

She then took out a tissue, wiping the wet wig while complaining:

"Wearing this thing is a hassle."

She yanked off the smooth long wig, revealing the neat and crisp short hair underneath.

Her aura instantly transformed from sexy and enticing to sharp and heroic.

"There's no choice. The killer has a special kink for long-haired women."

Xu Fei smiled in encouragement: "Thank you for your hard work."

"I think..."

Chen Lei, standing aside, smacked his lips and suddenly chimed in: "The bait still needs to have enough feminine charm to attract the target."

Hearing this, Cheng Leyi raised her eyebrows:

"What did you say? I don't have feminine charm?"

"No, no."

Chen Lei was so scared he hurriedly waved his hands: "I mean, Sister Leyi, you could be a little gentler and unleash your charm attribute."

"Yeah, learn from those women on TV, swaying as they walk."

Another team member joined in the banter: "Sister Leyi, with a body like yours, you can definitely pull it off!"

Everyone's eyes involuntarily drifted over Cheng Leyi, sizing her up.

Tonight, her attire was vastly different from usual.

The red strap dress was indeed fiery, outlining her figure to perfection—curvaceous with long legs, her skin glaringly fair in the night.

Though Cheng Leyi's looks were not the delicate or charming type, she had a fierce, heroic edge that combined to create a unique allure.

If she didn't open her mouth to speak, she would undoubtedly be a stunner that could drive men crazy.

Of course, none of them dared to actually mess with this tigress.

A top-tier woman like her could probably only be handled by a man at a monster level.

"It's good enough that someone is willing to be the bait, and you're still being picky."

Cheng Leyi curled her lips disdainfully, but the corners of her mouth turned up slightly:

"Go look around the Special Investigation Team and see if you can find anyone prettier than me!"

"Alright, we've rested enough. Let's get back to work."

Xu Fei clapped his hands, cutting off their chat:

"Let's work hard for these two nights, catch the murderer as soon as possible, and head back to wrap things up."

The group scattered once again, vanishing into the shadows of the surrounding streets.

Cheng Leyi put the wig back on, opened her umbrella, carried her sequined handbag,

and resumed her mission state, walking alone down the empty, damp street.

She walked several loops around the nightclubs and bars on Yingchun Road.

She even ran into a few drunk men during the process who came up to hit on her and ask for prices.

Had she not been on a mission, she probably would have punched them into black-eyed pandas long ago.

Cheng Leyi took a deep breath and stepped into that dimly lit side street once more.

"Leyi, if you're tired, you can take a break..."

Xu Fei's concerned voice came through the headset.

"Copy..."

Cheng Leyi was about to reply "I'm fine," but a harsh burst of static suddenly echoed in her ear.

*Zzzzt—*

All sounds were drawn out and became distorted and fragmented.

Immediately after, total silence fell.

"Hello? Fisherman?"

"Lin Xuhao? Chen Lei?"

"Please respond if you receive me."

Cheng Leyi raised her voice and called out a few times, but the comms channel was dead silent without a single teammate responding.

What was going on?

An unprecedented sense of strangeness enveloped her.

She stopped in her tracks abruptly and looked around.

The surrounding world seemed to be undergoing a creepy transformation.

Darkness swallowed light like thick ink.

Silence pressed against her eardrums as if air had been sucked out.

Not to mention the lights of distant high-rises, even the few streetlights on this road grew blurred and indistinct.

It was like looking through a layer of frosted glass smeared with rainwater, distorted and warped.

The air temperature dropped rapidly.

A bone-chilling cold breeze surged from all directions with the wind.

Just then, she heard a sound.

An extremely faint, extremely suppressed groan, seemingly coming from deep within a throat.

That voice was right beside her ear.

Yet there was no one around her at all.

This wasn't an illusion.

With her perceptual abilities, she would never make a mistake in this regard.

Otherwise, during her countless past missions, she would have died who knows how many times over.

Suddenly, Cheng Leyi felt it.

That faint, sticky gaze from earlier had reappeared!

This time, it was no longer following from afar.

Instead, like a venomous snake's tongue—cold and slick—it seemed to be licking the back of her neck.

Cheng Leyi couldn't help but reach up and touch it.

An ice-cold surge of terror rushed from the soles of her feet to the top of her head like a tidal wave, causing the blood throughout her body to freeze.

Uncontrollably, photos of those girls' tragic deaths from the case files flashed through her mind, her nails almost digging into the leather of her handbag.

"Calm down, stay calm..."

She bit her lip tightly, forcing herself to soothe her wildly beating heart.

Her eyes widened, her ears twitched slightly, maximizing her senses to the limit.

Her hand reached back into her handbag.

Suddenly, she noticed a subtle movement.

A stream of water that almost merged with the darkness was spreading silently along the puddles on the ground from behind her.

It bypassed the heels of her high heels like a living venomous snake, preparing to wrap around her fair calves.

Now!

A ruthless glint flashed in Cheng Leyi's eyes. She spun around abruptly and stomped her foot fiercely toward that stream of water.

At the same time, she pulled out the pepper spray from her handbag and slammed the nozzle down toward the air in front of her.

*Psssssh—*

A large cloud of red mist burst out instantly.

"Ah—!"

A shrill scream echoed in the air.

Within the red mist, the water ripples oscillated violently.

The transparent outline of a human figure was forcibly delineated, squirming in agony.

Cheng Leyi strained her eyes, staring dead at that eerie red human figure.

"What the hell is this thing?!"

A slightly annoyed male voice sounded from within that squirming red human figure.

Cheng Leyi raised her eyebrows, cursing back full of force:

"I wanted to ask what the hell you are too, motherfucker?!"