The moonlight was bright, the starlight sparse.
Wang Miaoyin sat on the edge of the windowsill, gazing out at the silver moon in the night sky. Her red dress fluttered in the evening breeze, and her fair, full legs dangled dozens of meters above the ground, making her appear both beautiful and eerie.
Reflected in her incomparably beautiful eyes was that moon — a blood-red moon.
Thud, thud thud!
The security door was opened, because those knocking had discovered the door wasn't locked.
Immediately after came dense, urgent footsteps, like mechanical metal stepping on wooden boards.
Two meters from the windowsill, a group of law enforcer mechanical beings uniformly fixed their gazes on the alluring figure that could fall from the building at any moment.
The law enforcer squadron leader spoke expressionlessly:
"Ma'am, you are suspected of crimes against humanity, intentional homicide, and endangering public safety. Please come with us."
Wang Miaoyin tilted her head slightly and said leisurely: "Do you know..."
Her tone was as natural as if she were chatting with a friend rather than facing accusatory law enforcers:
"There is a kind of bird that spends its entire life in flight. When it grows tired, it rests in the wind. It lands only once in its life — and that one time is when it dies."
"I know," the squadron leader said flatly.
"You know?"
"This bird is called a legless bird, also known as the bird of paradise. It's a legendary willful bird that only agrees to stop when it dies."
"How do you know that?" Wang Miaoyin turned her head and looked at the squadron leader in surprise.
"I just searched it with my smart-brain chip."
"Hahahaha..."
Wang Miaoyin laughed — laughed very wantonly, very unladylike, but at the same time, very seductively.
"Then do you know what kind of bird I am?"
"No, I don't."
The squadron leader rotated his head left and right, slightly wooden.
"I am..."
"A phoenix."
The breathtakingly beautiful woman suddenly bloomed with a smile that made the stars and moon lose their luster. It was a pity — no human was present to appreciate this sight...
Then, she leaped.
The mechanical beings rushed to the balcony, but found no red-dress-wrapped corpse at the base of the building. Scanning again, they spotted Wang Miaoyin's figure swiftly moving atop a row of low rooftops.
"Report," one law enforcer stepped behind the squadron leader and said.
"Hostage discovered in the bedroom."
The squadron leader walked into the bedroom and saw Ou Yichen lying peacefully on the bed — the bed that was his own, the one he hadn't slept in for an entire week.
"Director, the hostage's vital signs are intact..." the squadron leader reported into his headset.
The next second, his words suddenly halted.
Because, on the hostage's clean-featured face, he saw a vivid, glistening red lip print — faintly, it almost resembled twin blood moons...
...
Under the night sky, Wang Miaoyin saw more and more silvery-white figures closing in to surround her.
Her pupils transformed into a crimson moon, allowing her to see many movements and changes clearly in the darkness.
Bang!
Abruptly, a law enforcer leaped up from below onto a rooftop. Raising both hands, heat energy gathered, and a flash of firelight erupted.
Shoo shoo!
Two silenced bullets were fired.
Wang Miaoyin's face remained unruffled. She spread her body like a crane and tilted backward, supporting herself on the ground behind her with both hands in an incredibly natural posture. Then, rolling close to the ground, her jade-like body slithered across the surface like a snake.
In a single instant, she displayed the imagery of a startled crane and a snake's swift retreat.
Clang clang!
The bullets struck the hard concrete surface, yet produced piercing friction sounds.
She had actually dodged two bullets by the narrowest of margins.
But it was unclear whether Wang Miaoyin's movements were faster than the bullets, or whether her eyes had predicted the patterns of the law enforcers' firing.
Swish swish!
Wang Miaoyin no longer advanced but changed direction, leaping to the right, shooting seven or eight meters in two bounds.
Shoo shoo shoo!
In an instant, over a dozen silenced gunshots rang out in unison from the surroundings. But these bullets struck mere millimeters from Wang Miaoyin's passing path, kicking up chain after chain of sparks without drawing a single drop of blood.
"Life and death, stand still."
A thought flashed through her mind. The blood moon in Wang Miaoyin's eyes abruptly brightened a degree. Then the enchanting figure in red flickered in succession, leaving several afterimages of blood color as she weaved past seven or eight law enforcer mechanical beings.
When she stopped, a patterned shortsword had somehow appeared in her hand.
Sword flowers bloomed, cold light radiated in all directions.
In the next moment, fine sparks erupted from those seven or eight law enforcers' bodies, and then their bodies collapsed and disintegrated, carved into several pieces.
Clap clap clap.
In the quiet night, abrupt applause rang out.
"A splendid performance!"
"Beautiful lady, your skills have already reached C-rank level. Looks like tonight won't be boring after all."
Wang Miaoyin came to a stop and looked toward a certain spot, perfectly composed.
Out of the darkness, a burly male figure materialized.
The man had a resolute face, yet a completely bald head. His entire body was a mass of bulging muscle. Bare-chested, he had used black straps to bind his muscles into even more pronounced, massive contours.
Wang Miaoyin hesitated slightly: "Are you... the Big Brawny One?"
"!?"
The bald, muscular man stumbled and nearly fell flat.
Veins bulged on the bald muscleman's forehead. "I'm straight, thank you. You may address me as 'King of Strength.'"
"Alright, Big Strong."
"Can't you understand the two words 'King of Strength'?"
"I understand, Mister Muscle."
"Enough!"
King of Strength's facial muscles twitched. "If you weren't my type, I would have pounded you into a meat patty with one iron fist long ago."
Wang Miaoyin remained as breezy as ever: "Mm, so crude — looks like you really are a straight-as-iron man."
"What a pity, what a pity. If you hadn't taken those lives, we could have recruited you into the Secret Keepers Bureau. Who knows, something beautiful might even have happened between us then," King of Strength said regretfully.
"The Secret Keepers Bureau? What's that?" Wang Miaoyin asked curiously.
Before King of Strength could answer, a clear female voice joined the night as well:
"Alright, blockhead."
"She is neither an anomalous human nor a transformed 'New Human.' She's a wicked creature that feeds on human essence and blood. That outwardly tough, inwardly fragile frame of yours — can it withstand her draining you? Don't let your lower half steer your brain and be fooled by her appearance!"
"Besides! Even if she hadn't stained her hands with a single life, how could the Secret Keepers Bureau possibly allow a non-human to join?"
The speaker slowly emerged from the night behind Wang Miaoyin.
The woman wore a white tracksuit and pristine white athletic shoes. She was tall and slender like a crane, her legs incredibly long, not one bit inferior to Wang Miaoyin's.
Though dressed in modern attire, she seemed as if she had stepped out of a classical Chinese painting.
Her features were delicate and beautiful, her eyes long and narrow, her pupils seemingly veiled with a layer of mist.
Her breathing, in particular, was extremely long and drawn out. Her heartbeat was barely perceptible. Clearly, she too was a highly skilled expert.
"Well, well, Big Sister Beauty, how can you talk about me like that? How am I not human? My name is Wang Miaoyin. I wonder how I should address you, Big Sister?"
Wang Miaoyin's tone conveyed a hint of pleasant surprise mixed with a sense of being wronged, as if she were a young girl who had just run into the older sister next door.
The woman said expressionlessly: "Federal Secret Keepers Bureau, C-Rank Secret Keeper, Zichen."
"Mm mm, Big Sister Zichen, hello. If only I could also land a stable 'iron rice bowl' government job like you after I graduate."
Wang Miaoyin smiled faintly, with an air of admiration.
"Hah..."
Zichen suddenly gave a cold laugh. "No need to wait until graduation. You can come with me right now — there's plenty of prison food waiting for you!"