They say, the more one tries to hide a secret, the more it forces its way into the light.
Inside a silent room, the television flickered. The news anchor's voice carried through the stillness: "CCTV footage of the murderer has been recovered." Beside the anchor, the very footage of the killer played on repeat.
The man watching the screen froze, his blood turning cold. His legs felt as if the ground beneath them had disappeared. There was no doubt...he had never realized that a camera had been watching him during the act.
Sweat broke out on his forehead, each drop betraying the fear eating him alive. And what terrified him most was not the footage itself, but the fact that Officer Bai Yin was now in charge of the case.
There was an old saying: "A thief has no spoon in his curd."
And here too, the proverb rang true.
The man sprang up, frantically searching through his room. His hands trembled, overturning drawers, shelves, old papers. He was desperate. What he sought, he had once hidden away long ago...and forgotten. But when a jar is already filled to the brim, every drop poured afterward will only spill over. No matter how hard he tried, he could not stop the overflow.
Meanwhile, Bai Yin's pursuit had already begun. The rain showed no mercy, pounding endlessly against the city streets. Officers scattered everywhere, questioning pedestrians, combing through alleys, searching. But the storm drowned everything, and the people failed to recognize the face of the man they sought.
Back at the Institute, hours had passed. Kai and Teanguan sat hunched over the strange tattoo design, their eyes burning from staring too long. At last, a thread revealed itself....within a book.
On page seven, there it was: the coordinates to the lab's hidden key.
And that very book… it was the one found in Room 999, the one Wei had been reading. Both the name inscribed within and a peculiar symbol etched on the page matched perfectly.
Kai wasted no time. She turned sharply to Teanguan, her voice carrying the edge of steel.
"No matter what happens, we must find the key. We must end everything."
Her tone, her expression, her very aura had shifted. This was no longer the Kai Teanguan thought he knew.
Her changed demeanor, her sudden words about ending everything.....Teanguan could not comprehend it. It was beyond his grasp, as if the Kai before him had become someone else entirely.