Chapter 63: Chapter Sixty-Three Part 1
For this mission, teams were allowed to form freely. Naturally, the few who got along well with Luo Shizhen clustered together.
Although they still didn’t quite like the look of each other, they were on a mission. Everyone forced themselves to endure. At the very least, they didn’t start a fight the moment their eyes met.
“Zou Tangzheng. Television miracle doctor. Eighteenth generation of a TCM family, with every generation practicing medicine. He claims to hold an ancestral prescription for diabetes, a secret remedy for cancer, and is also an expert in rheumatism, male enhancement, cardiology, and holds a doctorate in medicine…”
Cheng Yunshao looked at the grand villa before him, then back at the file of the kidnapped human in his hand.
“This man has switched titles on TV at least seven or eight times. People actually believe this?”
In fact, Cheng Yunshao didn’t even need to see if Zou Tangzheng was assuming different identities; one look at a single interview was enough to know it was a scam.
Almost every video featured him bringing out some “precious Chinese herbs” to hawk health supplements, claiming that taking a single “XX Pill” would immediately cure a hundred ailments.
“Just hearing ‘cure a hundred ailments’ should tell anyone he’s a fraud. No single medicine can cure everything. Even a celestial elixir isn’t that ridiculous.”
Cheng Yunshao shook his head, deeply questioning the intelligence of the victims.
Luo Shizhen, however, could understand. “Most of the people who fall for it are middle-aged or elderly people who don’t have much contact with the internet. In their view, any expert on TV must be real. Plus, being sick is very painful, and if formal treatment can’t alleviate the pain, they’ll choose to believe in these secret remedies.”
When his grandmother was hospitalized, he had taken leave to care for her. He had seen many people in the hospital believing in various folk remedies and spending vast sums on “precious herbs” to supplement their health.
Bystanders or young relatives often thought the elderly were foolish for believing such things.
But putting himself in their shoesâif someone had told him back then that they could cure his grandmother, even if he knew the truth was a slim chance, Luo Shizhen would have been willing to try in his state of helplessness.
He tapped on the photo of Zou Tangzheng on the table.
To play an “authoritative expert,” Zou Tangzhengâs appearance was quite convincing. He had a full head of white hair, an air of righteousness, and despite being in his fifties, his complexion was ruddy and healthy.
Luo Shizhen gave his assessment: “He is a bad man.”
Sick patients were already suffering enough, yet he used high-priced supplements to swindle them out of their money. He truly had no bottom line.
Lu Qiujin didn’t consider himself a “good person,” but he held utter contempt for someone like Zou Tangzheng, who deceived patients already in despair.
He stood beside Luo Shizhen, looking down at the photo with eyes full of disgust.
“We have to save someone like this? If you ask me, we should just let the anomaly eat him.”
Wen Hu immediately agreed. “Exactly. There’s no need to waste resources on such a piece of trash, right?”
Chu Xiao swept a cold glance over the photo. “Letting him fend for himself wouldn’t be a bad idea.”
Xiao Shan looked at the luxurious interior of the villa and then at the files of the poor patients who had been swindled out of their life savings by Zou Tangzheng. He let out a cold, mocking laugh.
“Iâm afraid if I run into him, I’ll beat him to death before the anomaly even gets a chance to eat him.”
Rong Nian stared at the large fish tank in the living room. “He even dares to keep fish? That’s an extra sin.”
This was their first real-world combat mission. Though they didn’t say it aloud, everyone was quite hyped up in their hearts.
Yet, their first mission was to rescue a piece of trash. That hyped-up emotion vanished instantly, replaced by a surge of irritability.
They were trained like dogs every day, and each of them belonged to a talent sequence that was undoubtedly at the top tier of Awakeners. Setting aside being great figures who saved the world, what was the deal with saving a scammer?
The only person present who remained emotionally stable was Luo Shizhen.
Even when he called Zou Tangzheng a “bad man,” his tone was calm, without much personal bias.
Hearing his teammates speak this way, Luo Shizhen wasn’t influenced. He simply looked at the mission objective.
“The goal is to try and rescue the person, but we don’t even know where he is.”
Bad man or scammer, none of that changed the fact that this was a mission issued by the school.
Luo Shizhen didn’t think too much about it. They were students; when the school issued a task, they naturally had to complete it well.
Luo Shizhen had already quickly entered “mission mode.” Following the procedures taught at school, he asked the others:
“The residual pollution here doesn’t show anything, and the surveillance has been destroyed. We just checked different areasâdid any of you find anything?”
Cheng Yunshao looked at Luo Shizhen with some surprise. “Don’t you think this person isn’t worth saving?”
Luo Shizhenâs personality was definitely “kind,” and he had a strong sense of justice, as seen when he rushed to save Wen Hu and himself during the danger earlier.
Shouldn’t someone like him despise that scammer more than anyone else present?
Luo Shizhen shook his head blankly. “Why should I think about whether he’s worth it? Shouldn’t we complete the mission first?”
Cheng Yunshao was taken aback. “You don’t hate this person?”
Luo Shizhen: “I do hate him.”
“You hate him, and yet you still want to save him?”
Luo Shizhen looked even more confused than he did. “I do hate him, but this is a school mission. We have to complete the mission. Once we rescue him and bring him back, we can just call the police and have him arrested, right?”
He didn’t quite understand why everyone was getting hung up on this point.
For a moment, Cheng Yunshao was marveled by Luo Shizhenâs ability to separate public duty from private feelings.
They all knew that a mission was a mission and their likes and dislikes were a separate matter, but weren’t humans like that? Understanding a principle was one thing; actually being able to control one’s emotions was another.
Especially for Awakeners, whose beast-related genes were amplified by the Qi in their bodies, emotion management was practically a lifelong subject for them.
However, it had to be said that Luo Shizhenâs answer allowed this mission to proceed smoothly.
Indeed, his choice to join was correct.
Cheng Yunshao had chosen to join Luo Shizhenâs team because he felt the boy was the type who, like himself, was serious and focused on completing the task.
Moreover, with Luo Shizhen around, teammates like Xiao Shan, who were not only powerful but also usually difficult, would definitely cooperate with the mission.
Cheng Yunshao naturally wasn’t going to miss this opportunity.
Luo Shizhen specifically looked at Xiao Shan. “But Dage, you mustn’t hit him. If you do, you’ll be the one breaking the law.”
If anyone else had said this, Xiao Shan might have snapped back with something like, “If I go to jail, I go to jail; I won’t regret hitting this scum.”
But because Luo Shizhen said it, he could only think: My little brother is worried about me.
“Fine. I’ll give this scum a pass. Once we catch him, we’ll send him straight to the police station!”
The villa was large, but every part was cleaned very thoroughly. There were no bloodstains or any signs of a struggle. If not for the Rank 3 anomaly pollution detected at the scene, it would have looked as if nothing had happened at all.
Regarding findings, everyone shook their heads.
Lu Qiujin: “There’s no surveillance installed in the villa. We checked the community surveillance, and it doesn’t show Zou Tangzheng leaving either. I suspect this might be the work of an anomaly that can hide itself.”
Chu Xiao added, “The only clue we have now is that this is a Rank 3 anomaly.”
Everyone fell into silence. With no clues, how were they supposed to find it?
Cheng Yunshao looked at the group and analyzed: “I believe we can start by looking at why this anomaly wanted to kidnap Zou Tangzheng.”
“Anomalies kidnap humans generally to eat them. However, almost all cases of anomalies eating humans happen on the spotâespecially with a meal like Zou Tangzheng, who lives alone at home where there’s no worry of being interrupted. Why didn’t it kill him directly but chose to kidnap and take him away?”
Lu Qiujin narrowed his eyes slightly.
“If I were that anomaly, perhaps before I became one, I was a patient he scammed. I would be filled with hatred for him. Even after becoming an anomaly, I would still remember him. But simply seeing him dead wouldn’t satisfy me. I would want to take him away and torture him slowly, letting him suffer enough before finally letting him die.”
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