Frightening Joke: Above the Mist
Chapter 135: Invitation

Bai Yanliang nodded in agreement.

"So fast? What was the urgency?" Gao Fei walked over with a pile of documents, complaining.

"You two aren’t playing tricks on me, are you..."

"Because it was urgent, it was dealt with quickly," He Yige continued to say.

Gao Fei sized them up and said, "Just as well, I haven’t finished telling you, the higher-ups say a terrifying criminal gang has arrived in Ye City, we all need to stay sharp lately."

"Criminal gang?"

Bai Yanliang asked in confusion.

"Yes, they say they came from Liang City, those bastards are extremely cruel and brutal, they prefer torturing their victims over simply killing, skinning, pulling muscles, cutting flesh, etc., etc., and upon investigation, they have absolutely no personal vendetta with the victims, these people are emotionally numb and kill purely for the abnormal pleasure, it’s terrifying."

As Gao Fei talked about this, even he, familiar with bizarre corpses, couldn’t help but show a look of fear and hatred.

More than dead people and ghosts, Gao Fei feared those cruel, emotionless creatures that didn’t seem human at all.

"Would you say that such things, that show no human emotion, are beasts?"

Bai Yanliang, who was drinking water, suddenly coughed, feeling like he took a bullet out of nowhere.

Well, though he indeed had little emotion too, this seemed to have improved somewhat since entering Fog Gathering.

Gao Fei looked at Bai Yanliang puzzledly, wondering how a grown man could choke on water...

"A heartless criminal gang..." He Yige muttered, suddenly turning to Bai Yanliang, asking, "By the way, I still don’t know, what is Mr. Bai’s profession?"

"Oh!" Gao Fei clapped his hands, "Right, I haven’t properly introduced him, Bai is a special consultant for the Ye City police, often involved in large and important investigations."

Often...?

Bai Yanliang counted on his fingers; he had only been involved in two investigations from beginning to end, right...?

But what he didn’t know was that he had become known among all the policemen in Ye City.

Moreover... his background had long been exposed.

Murdered his brother, cruelly dismembered the body, coexisted in the same room with the corpse, finally avoided legal punishment because he was under fourteen, detained in Ye City Mental Hospital.

The ten-year sentence was supposed to be endlessly extended to keep such a socially dangerous antisocial personality disordered young man from ever leaving, but unexpectedly, three years into the stay, his transformation was astonishingly significant.

Gentle, polite, willing to help others, liked peace and quiet, liked reading.

His mental evaluations, conducted monthly, showed increasing normalcy, so normal that the mental hospital found no reason to continue "imprisoning" him, thus... he was discharged.

Such a person, who should have been extremely dangerous, became a special consultant for the Ye City Police Station under Yang Wanlong’s protection, receiving a paycheck from the police each month.

Therefore, Bai Yanliang is something of a legendary figure in the police force now, everyone already has a photo of him, partly out of curiosity, and partly... although he seems to have a normal personality now, who knows what shocking thing he might do again, knowing him makes monitoring easier.

Bai Yanliang knew nothing of this, and even if he did, he wouldn’t care.

It was Gao Fei who, after first learning about Bai Yanliang’s past, was greatly shocked, but later on, he didn’t show anything in front of Bai Yanliang, instead liked chatting with him even more.

Actually, Bai Yanliang understood very well that both Yang Wanlong and Gao Fei had things they needed from him, which is why they trusted him so much.

But he didn’t resent this kind of pragmatism.

For no reason at all, being nice to someone is the most terrifying, the kind like Gao Fei and Yang Wanlong made Bai Yanliang feel needed instead.

This was a feeling he never experienced during the ten years in the mental hospital.

So... even though he knew he was being "used," he still wouldn’t refuse.

After all, these people might be counted as some of the few "friends" he had.

Bai Yanliang had been lonely for far too long.

On the other hand, when He Yige heard Gao Fei introduce Bai Yanliang’s identity, he looked at him with great interest.

"Mr. Bai, interested in meeting the criminal gang from Liang City?"

Even if He Yige hadn’t asked, Bai Yanliang would have found a way to investigate this matter.

After all, according to the information from Li Mu, the "Secret Key" had come to Ye City, and the timing coincided perfectly with the arrival of this criminal gang.

Clearly, the Secret Key was a member of this criminal gang.

Bai Yanliang was very curious to see what kind of person this criminal, who Li Mu said was "very much like" him, was.

So when he heard He Yige’s words, Bai Yanliang nodded with interest and said, "Of course!"

"Hey, hey, I’m the policeman here!"

Gao Fei exclaimed with wide eyes from the side.

"You’re the forensic."

"Don’t treat forensic scientists as if they’re not police!"

...

Afterward, upon returning to his room, Bai Yanliang heard that something had happened.

He picked up his phone, news about Fog Gathering popped up one after another, and even the predicament that Bai Yanliang and the others were in wasn’t as concerning.

Because... something major had occurred in Fog Gathering.

A door.

An enormous, mysterious door that appeared in Fog Gathering.

Out of the blue, with no reason at all.

It appeared when Bai Yanliang and his group entered the past world for their mission.

No wonder back then... he felt an intense burning sensation, and then the black circle in his palm started to change, extending into a black line.

No matter how you look at it, an outline of a key forms from a hollow circle plus a slightly thicker black line.

Combining this with the large door that appeared in Fog Gathering, it’s hard not to connect the key outlines in everyone’s palms with that door.

A key is supposed to open a door, isn’t it?

At this thought, Bai Yanliang remembered the key that Bai Yanren left behind.

He took it from around his neck, this simple, silver-white key lay quietly in his palm, without the slightest anomaly.

But Bai Yanliang knew, it came from Fog Gathering.

Bai Yanliang had a very off-the-wall assumption, now because of that woman and He Yige’s presence, Bai Yanliang confirmed that there wasn’t just one Fog Gathering, nor just one person in each Fog Gathering.

After experiencing a certain stage, Fog Gathering would undergo a significant change, then everyone’s palms would gradually show a key.

Typically, a door corresponds to only one key.

Does this mean that each Fog Gathering will reveal a mysterious large door, and in the end, from everyone’s palms, only one key will fully form?

In other words, each Fog Gathering, only one person... can survive?