Ch24 - Stepmother

In the cold, winter night, the cold evening wind was like a sharp blade, cutting through the dead leaves of the trees, covering the ground.

In front of the Changmei Community, the office workers who had just returned home came from the direction of the subway station, and students in groups of three or five were laughing and playing around; a few delivery boys tightened their clothes, before collecting the last package and biking away. 

A young policeman wearing a cotton police uniform quickly ran into the guard booth on the street across the community, opened the door, and entered. He exhaled a cold breath and couldn’t help but sigh: “These days just keep on getting colder and colder, fortunately, there is heating!”

“Isn’t that true.” The other policeman on duty laughed and said: “Xiao Wu, look at what good dishes your wife made for you tonight.”

The young policeman, Xiao Wu, blushed shyly: “What wife, Brother Wang, it’s girlfriend. We’re getting married next year.”

There are three residential communities near Changjie Station, all of which are densely populated, old communities. 

Due to the large population of the area, the police station of the district set up a guard booth at the entrance of the Changmei Community to ensure the safety of the nearby residents.

It just happened to be dinner time, so the young policeman Xiao Wu and the old policeman Lao Wang opened the lunchbox they had brought and ate in the booth.

Halfway through the meal, the door to the guard booth rang.

At first, the two didn’t hear any movement. The person who knocked was extremely quiet and was very inconspicuous in the noise of people moving about in the street. After a while, Xiao Wu reacted: “There’s someone?” He put down the chopsticks, getting up to open the door.

“Rustle—”

The cold wind rushed through the wide-open door and poured into the narrow booth.

The door was open, yet there was no one outside.

Xiao Wu froze and then lowered his head, finally seeing the girl wearing a small flower hat who was hanging her head. 

His heart thumped for a second and Xiao Wu turned around: “Brother Wang, it’s this little friend again.”

Officer Wang’s hand that held his chopsticks stopped in mid-air and his righteous and serious face gradually became solemn. He stood up and said: “Let the child in first.”

…

  

It wasn’t the first time Xiao Wu and Lao Wang had seen this little girl.

The little girl was called Lin Kexin, she was eight this year, and her family lives in room 414, in building 19 in Changmei Community.

Half a month ago, when Lao Wang wasn’t on duty, and it was Xiao Wu and another policeman, this girl had knocked on the door of the guard booth and said she wanted to report something to the police.

Xiao Wu had immediately tensed up. 

An eight-year-old girl wanted to report something? What was she going to report? Perhaps something big happened in the community?

Who knew that the little girl who lowered her head would only timidly say one sentence: “My little aunt is strange…”

Little aunt?

Later, Xiao Wu contacted some people from the neighborhood committee to find out the reason behind the matter. 

Lin Kexin’s mom died of illness last year and her dad remarried a month ago, to a girl in her twenties, who had just graduated from college, to be a stepmother to his children. Two days ago, Father Lin was transferred to a foreign country for half a year, leaving only the stepmother and Xiao Kexin in the house. Xiao Wu’s first reaction was: the stepmother was abusing the child!

Immediately, he suppressed his anger and asked Lin Kexin if her stepmother hit her.

Who expected that Xiao Kexin would lower her eyes and shake her head.

She didn’t hit the child? 

Xiao Wu continued to ask: “Then does your little aunt yell at you, like punishing you by standing?”

It wasn’t only physical violence that counted as abuse; cold violence and verbal violence all counted as child abuse.

Xiao Kexin shook her head once again.

Now Xiao Wu was stunned. He didn’t have a lot of experience in handling cases and it was only when the other policeman on duty reminded him that he remembered to let the female officer of the neighborhood committee check for any wounds on her body. 

The kid might be too scared to tell others she was being abused, but evidence won’t lie.

However, there were no wounds on Lin Kexin’s body.

The stepmother didn’t hit nor yell at the child, yet she was just strange?

Just how was she strange? 

That night, Xiao Wu left his colleague in the booth to continue working while he took the little girl’s hand and sent her home while seeing what was strange about the stepmother in person.

Building 19 was in the innermost section of Changmei Community and when Xiao Wu knocked on the door with Lin Kexin, there was no one in the house. He was surprised when, suddenly, a surprised and panicked female voice sounded from the elevator door in the distance: “Kexin!”

Xiao Wu turned around and looked.

It was a pretty young woman. 

The girl wore an apron around her waist and on this autumn day, her forehead was full of sweat. Seeing Lin Kexin, she ran from the elevator and held the child tightly in her arms. Xiao Kexin took half a step back, but after the girl hugged her, she still obediently reached out her arms and hugged the other party.

“Little aunt…”

So this was Lin Kexin’s stepmother.

After the stepmother’s explanation, Xiao Wu learned that she went out to find the child. She had picked up the child after work and was cooking. Then, suddenly, Lin Kexin disappeared. She was suddenly so anxious, that she forgot to take off the apron and had rushed to the property management to retrieve the security cameras. 

Did a stepmother who was like this, look like someone who would abuse children?

Xiao Wu was puzzled.

But he didn’t let his guard down either. Some criminals would pretend to be kind on the surface, but once they were left alone, their ugly faces would immediately be exposed. Xiao Wu didn’t leave immediately and entered the house, speaking a few words with the stepmother, testing whether or not she had the possibility of abusing the child.

We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.

It seemed like this young stepmother really cared about Xiao Kexin and she also didn’t know why Xiao Kexin would say she was a little strange and blamed herself for not taking care of her stepdaughter, bursting into tears. 

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The old policeman, Brother Wang, smiled and said to Xiao Wu: “You’ll understand later, these types of small household affairs are not that clear to see. Maybe the little girl saw that her dad married a new mom, became unhappy, and purposefully said some bad things about the new mom.”

Now that things have progressed to this point, it may just be a child’s scheme. 

Until half a month later—

Everyday.

Xiao Kexin would report.

Whenever Xiao Wu would open the door, this timid little girl would raise her childish, round eyes and look expectantly at the police uncle in front of her. No matter what you ask, it would always be that one sentence— 

[Little aunt… is very strange.]

…

“Sigh, her stepmother is looking for her again, saying she disappeared when she looked away.” Having just returned from the Changmei Community, the old police officer Lao Wang took off his hat and helplessly said: “What is with the child? Always saying her stepmother is strange.”

The two returned from sending the child home. Their bodies were covered in cold air. 

Seeing that his colleague didn’t reply to his words, Lao Wang patted Xiao Wu’s shoulder: “Hey, what are you thinking!”

Suddenly being patted on the shoulder, Xiao Wu looked back in fright. Crack, a slight tingling appeared in his neck. He whispered an ‘ouch’.

Lao Wang: “What happened, what’s this?”

Xiao Wu rubbed his neck: “It’s nothing, I might’ve accidentally twisted it. I don’t know why, but for the past month, I feel like my head always feels heavy and my neck can barely support it.” 

Lao Wang sighed ruefully: “You’re just too tired. Nowadays, young peoples’ necks go bad at such a young age. You have to exercise and rest more.”

“Brother Wang, did that little kid lie?”

“Who knows. Anyways, we have already reported it to the bureau. The little girl said that her stepmother doesn’t hit her nor yell at her and as for what to do, it would still have to be done by the neighborhood committee. Sigh, the food is cold again.”

Twisting his neck wearily, Xiao Wu thought as he reached for his chopsticks. Just as he was about to touch the chopsticks, suddenly, the young policeman raised his hand and held his head that was bending to the right. 

Looking at his face-slapping posture, the old policeman was amused: “What are you doing?!”

Xiao Wu froze for a moment, then let go of his hand in a daze: “I suddenly felt that my head would fall off…”

“Ah? Hahaha.”

The old policeman couldn’t stop laughing, saying: “You really know how to tell jokes”. Xiao Wu was also confused. He twisted his neck to the left and right, stretching it 360°. Fingers silently touching his smooth neck, Xiao Wu said in annoyance: “Brother Wang, don’t laugh anymore. Tomorrow I will go to the gym!” 

“Hahahaha!”

Outside the window, the deep night was silent. In the small guard booth on the street, a warm yellow light quietly shone out the window and into the boundless darkness, only waddling out a few meters before it merged with the darkness.

The evening wind blew from the depths of the night.

The trees on the sides of the street made a rustling noise. 

***

Early the next morning.

Xiao Jinyu had just opened his eyes when he received a text from Qi Simin and Li Xiaotong.

[Good Morning~ We’ll be there in half an hour.] 

Half an hour?

The young man’s eyebrows rose slightly and Xiao Jinyu immediately got up and cleaned up.

They said half an hour and thirty minutes later, the door rang just on time. Xiao Jinyu opened the door and the brilliant winter sun shone into the room. He couldn’t help but squint. After his eyes adjusted to the harsh light, he saw the short-haired woman and the baseball-capped boy outside the door. Xiao Jinyu calmly took a step forward.

While walking out the door, he swiftly closed it. 

“Let’s go.”

Li Xiaotong froze: “Eh? We came to your house to talk about the task and also get a meal. See, we even brought you breakfast.” Saying this, he swung the plastic bag in his hands.

Xiao Jinyu’s expression didn’t change while he explained: “Let’s eat while walking. I just moved and haven’t organized yet. It’s really messy and there’s nowhere to stand.”

Li Xiaotong pouted: “Alright.” 

Qi Simin slightly smiled: “Eating while walking, I did this a lot when I was in school. I’ll accompany you, little friends, today.” As she took the bread from her companion, she quickly skimmed around the low house. Qi Simin raised an eyebrow: “Your new home is really far, you even moved to the suburbs of Zhongdu City. Even a one-story house, with no neighbors around.”

Xiao Jinyu’s footsteps stilled for a moment: “En.”

Qi Simin’s eyes stopped on the open space behind the house: “This house also has a small garden? The soil seems like it’s been loosened.”

Xiao Jinyu lightly said: “I plan to plant some vegetables.” 

“Plant vegetables?”

“Thinking is lonely.”

Once this sentence was said, Qi Simin and Li Xiaotong both froze.

Xiao Jinyu looked up at the two shocked people, his tone soft and indifferent, as if he was just talking about a trivial matter: “Where there is no one, it is more convenient to think. And also, in this type of place, if my logic skill breaks or goes out of control, I won’t involve a lot of strangers.” 

Qi Simin, Li Xiaotong: “…”

Li Xiaotong: “Pei pei pei, what bad luck! Say something more auspicious.”

Xiao Jinyu lightly nodded: “Then let’s talk about the task today.”

Speaking of the task, Qi Simin’s playful and casual expression gradually straightened out: “Today’s task is very simple, we told you the reward yesterday. It’s twenty contribution points and can improve your ranking on the Grow Some Brains APP Leaderboard. There is also a five thousand dollar cash reward and we’ll divide it according to our leaderboard ranking; 2500 for me, 1500 for Xiaotong, and 1000 for you.” 

As a simple and safe task with three people collaborating, distributing the reward based on their leaderboard ranking was a very reasonable method.

Xiao Jinyu didn’t object.

Just using his logic skill to look around everywhere can earn him a thousand dollars in a day. This was very worthwhile.

Qi Simin: “Then I’ll talk about the specific task now. This situation started half a month ago. At the police station near your house, an eight-year-old girl knocked on the door of the guard booth, saying she had something to report…” 

Xiao Jinyu’s new home was very remote and it was about half an hour away from the nearest subway station.

On the way, Qi Simin briefly explained the task: “…it’s just like this. Our task today is to make sure that this matter has nothing to do with logic skills.”

Xiao Jinyu sorted out his thoughts: “That is to say, there is a little girl that always says her stepmother is strange, but can never say what is strange. The stepmother also shows no sign of abusing her… the user committee will also take care of these things?”

It had been a week since Xiao Jinyu awakened his logic skill. He was no longer a newcomer that had known nothing at the beginning. Through Meat King’s incident, Xiao Jinyu contributed a lot and his flying fist was also noticed and recorded by the user committee. 

With a high contribution and his flying fists with high attack power, Xiao Jinyu’s ranking had successfully risen from D20018 to D804, ranking 804 among all level one users in the country.

At the same time, he now knows a lot more about the world of users.

There are a total of three organizations in China: the Elimination Team, the User Committee, and the Logic Research Institute.

As the name implies, the Extermination Team is the law enforcement department that often travels to contamination areas for dangerous tasks. 

The Logic Research Institute is the research department that studies logic skills and polluters. They are responsible for ranking polluters.

On the other hand, the User Committee is more like a general management organization. Except for the few tasks posted by users on the Grow Some Brains APP, the majority of the tasks are posted by the User Committee. No one knows better than the government where anomalies occur in the country and where users are needed to help clean up the problem. Therefore, this was when the User Committee was born.

Qi Simin: “You can’t underestimate these strange events. However, I also think it’s a prank done by a little girl or a stepmother’s abuse of a child that hasn’t been discovered. But in the tiny chance that there truly was a problem, we’ll have to fix it. Of course, this task’s danger level is very low and the User Committee also thinks it’s unnecessary.” She spread her hands: “Otherwise, why do you think they only gave twenty contribution points and five thousand cash as a reward?”

Xiao Jinyu: “…” 

Five thousand dollars is a lot.

To be honest, earning a thousand in a day is very impressive…

“That’s right,” Qi Simin squinted, “Did you tell Zhao Hen you know his User ID now?”

Xiao Jinyu froze for a moment: “En, last night he had something to tell me so he called. I accidentally said it.” 

“Pff.” Qi Simin couldn’t help but laugh.

Li Xiaotong empathized with Zhao Hen. The baseball cap-capped boy swallowed and decided to say something for the dark-skinned man: “Sister Min, don’t go too far. Zhao Hen’s ID has been said everywhere by you for the past two days. He’s about to cry from anger.”

Qi Simin: “Who told him to expose my ID right in front of your sister.”

“Brother Zhao just had a slip of the tongue!” Unlike you, who is eager to take a big horn and advertise it to the world! 

QI Simin slightly smiled: “Then you tell him to come and fight me.”

Li Xiaotong: “…”

Xiao Jinyu looked at them expressionlessly. He bit his bread and suddenly asked: “Previously, we said that the reward would be distributed according to our rankings, but I don’t know the rankings of the two of you. Indeed, you two are both level two users and will both take more than I will. But you might not rank high among C-level users. If your rankings are at the lower end, then this reward distribution isn’t very reasonable.”

Saying this, Xiao Jinyu didn’t continue and calmly looked at the two next to him. 

Xiao Jinyu’s meaning was very clear: although Qi Simin and Li Xiaotong were both level two users, their ranking on the leaderboard might not be very high. In the case that they were on the lower end, Xiao Jinyu’s rank among the level one users was in the top thousand. This would then make the current reward distribution unfair.

However, Qi Simin and Li Xiaotong looked at each other tactfully and smiled.

The boy in the baseball cap laughed in contempt: “This good guy, I called you a good guy but how can you be so bad. We just met but you already want to find out the User IDs of me and Sister Min?”

Xiao Jinyu: “…” 

Li Xiaotong: “Wake up! Don’t think we don’t know, once you get our rankings, you can go through the leaderboard and find our User IDs! A user’s real name cannot be used to find our User IDs, only our rankings can.”

Xiao Jinyu calmly drank a sip of milk and lightly looked at the horizon.

The sun was rising.

… 

Since knowing Zhao Hen’s User ID, Xiao Jinyu felt that it was a pity that 004 wasn’t able to look up a person’s User ID using their real name.

The data automatically generated by the Grow Some Brains APP only contained the User ID, User Rank, and the general content of their logic skill. According to 004, only his physical body can query the information that is added by the user. The power of a separate body cannot find much content for the time being.

So before, even 004 didn’t even know Zhao Hen’s User ID.

This was a pity. 

Xiao Jinyu wanting to know the ID of others wasn’t as superficial as Li Xiaotong and Qi Simin had thought. He only wanted to know for fun and laughs. “Fourth Perspective” and “Spear of Judgment” didn’t matter, but if it was “Sexy Samba” or “Wind Blowing Fart”, these types of IDs, if he were to fight with a user with these IDs, he would suddenly shout out the ID of the other party.

Xiao Jinyu believed that the other party would undoubtedly be scared for a moment.

In a battle to the death, every second of distraction could cost you your life.

..Of course, it is not impossible to laugh after knowing their ID. 

But that’s only on the side.

Qi Simin: “Speaking of which, Zhao Hen contacted you last night? What happened?”

Li Xiaotong’s sister was evidently someone in the User Committee and perhaps she had already known about Meat King’s matter for a while. Xiao Jinyu didn’t hide it either: “He said some things regarding Meat King.”

Qi Simin muttered an ‘En’ and didn’t ask anymore. 

Before leaving Haidu City, Xiao Jinyu once mentioned to Xu Qu, the vice-captain of Haidu City’s Extermination Team, that he hoped that the other party would inform him if there was any progress in Meat King’s case.

So last night, Zhao Hen called to tell him about the progress in the case.

Xiao Jinyu didn’t expect that as soon as ‘Wind Blowing Fart’ Zhang Haixiang had walked into Haidu City’s Extermination Team’s Headquarters, he would directly turn into a pool of meat. According to Zhao Hen, Wind Blowing Fart was considered to be a very strong user among level two users, But if he was just a little weaker, he wouldn’t have been able to be sent to the hospital alive.

At the same time, ‘Water Punishment’ Lou Sheng was suspended by the User Committee due to public violence and was no longer serving as the captain of Haidu City’s Extermination Team. She was currently imprisoned in the detention room of Haidu City’s Logic Research Institute. 

One, it was to punish her; Two, it was to allow them to observe and monitor her to prevent a top-level, level five user’s logic skill from breaking.

Xiao Jinyu remembered the drizzle that had rained in Haidu City for three days and three nights without stopping.

In addition to the current situation of Wind Blowing Fart and Water Punishment, Zhao Hen also mentioned that the Haidu Logic Research Institute was now studying the pearl necklace from Zhang Haixiang. With the strength of the whole city, Haidu City has now identified two victims, both of whom were buyers of Zhang Haixiang who had bought the pearl necklace from him. They, like Meat King, were suspected of dying under the logic skill of ‘Beauty’s Fragrant Scarf’.

“However, the newly discovered victims do not have a wound on their necks. They were simply strangled to death by ‘Beauty’s Fragrant Scarf’.” Zhao Hen explained on the phone, “The Logic Research Institute is also studying the wound on Meat King’s neck. It’s just that neither side has progressed much.” 

If Zhang Haixiang could still talk, perhaps the truth could be pried out of his mouth. But because he was beaten into a pool of meatloaf, the specific usage of the pearl necklace could only be slowly explored by the Logic Research Institute.

“That’s right, I also heard from Xu Qi that they found something in the passenger seat of Meat King’s Lamborghini.”

“What is it?”

“A divorce contract.” 

Zhao Hen sighed on the phone: “It seems like he drove all the way to the villa in the suburbs, throughout the night, just to get the divorce contract. Meat King had already signed. Perhaps he already knew he was going to die that day and so he wanted to divorce.”

…

“Ding dong! Arrived at Changjie Station!”

Xiao Jinyu returned to reality. 

In the crowded and busy morning rush subway, the three people followed the movement of the flood-like crowd, arriving at the surface.

Xiao Jinyu lived nearby and was familiar with the area. Led by him, the three quickly found the Changmei Community.

Coincidentally, this was also where Xiao Jinyu came to buy a phone card a week ago.

At the main entrance of the Changmei Community, from far away, they could see a thin, young policeman standing in the wind, wearing a navy blue police hat. While breathing into his hand and stomping his feet for warmth, he was looking around. 

Xiao Jinyu’s group of three walked to him.

Seeming like he didn’t understand why two adults and a teenager would walk up to him, the police officer, Xiao Wu asked, stunned: “What is it, is there something?”

Qi Simin took out a document from her pocket and handed it over. She smiled and said: “We were sent by the city bureau to check on the situation.”

Xiao Wu understood now: “Ah, are you the children’s crime department officers who are coming today?” As he said this, he couldn’t help but look at Li Xiaotong, who was short and clearly underage. 

Li Xiaotong: “…”

Are you even polite?!

Xiao Jinyu interrupted Xiao Wu’s stunned gaze. There wasn’t a lot of expression on the young man’s face: “May I ask, is it you who will be taking us to see the situation of that girl?”

Xiao Wu returned to reality and hurriedly said: “Yes, yes. Three experts, sorry, you can follow me. My name is Wu Yuan, but you can call me Xiao Wu. This morning I received the notice that some experts were going to come this morning, so I’ve been waiting here since early this morning.” 

Xiao Jinyu was slightly stunned and he looked at the guard booth across the street.

As a police officer, Wu Yuan noticed his gaze and explained with a smile: “This road has a subway entrance on this side of Changmei Community. I thought that you would go to the guard booth and knock on the door. Since you have to cross the road to get there, I might as well just wait on this side of the road. Just so happened that I could also see if there were any abnormal situations on the road early this morning as the view in the guard booth isn’t good. Whenever there are a lot of people in the morning and evening, I’ll have to come out and patrol.”

A bone-chilling wind blew up the hair near his forehead and Xiao Jinyu looked up at the small policeman in front of him.

Wu Yuan led the way in front of them, turning back from time to time to check if Xiao Jinyu’s group of three was still following. He rubbed his reddened hands and looked worried: “It’s great that you guys are here. Although the neighborhood committee had already visited the house many times and felt that everything was ok, I had always felt that the little girl wasn’t lying… 

“She was very serious.”

The author has something to say:

I was dealing with the reported matter in the afternoon, so it was a bit late, muah~

Because of the report, it is necessary to spoil part of the plot. Here, I’ll talk about what has already happened in the plot. 

The pollutant itself is not able to pollute, but what is able to contaminate is a polluter or an out-of-control logic chain itself.The basic definition of a pollutant is that they were caught up in a logic skill that went out of control.The most important characteristic of a pollutant is that they think about killing people every moment and second after being polluted. It is impossible to stop this thought process and behavior for any second.

So Mama does not count as a pollutant.

Today’s chapter has actually begun to reveal the mainline of the first volume. It seems like no one has found that I have already added the first novel’s title.

This volume, from the first copy, White Garden, to Meat King, to the current situation, is all connected. They are not casually written and are all foreshadowing.

At first, I wanted to string all this together and write the entire volume, but I was reported so I can only spoil a little bit. 

Lastly, muah~

Today my state isn’t very good, I’ll get up tomorrow and see if there are any changes I need to make in this chapter and also take a look at your suggestions~

Translator’s Note:

Made a change in the translation of ch23: Su Jiuzhou’s logic skill description at level one, “a spear that can break and split” has been changed to “a spear that cuts through impurities”.