Watchmen Chapter 25

t.i.tle: Disconnected
Late at night, the street was quiet and gloomy. Only a few weak street lights were still on. The hazy white lights were just a secluded fire, and gave off a cold light.
Jiu Jie followed closely behind, while Wu Yang was looking down at his phone and leading the way. The street twisted a few times before they stopped in front of an apartment building.
"It's here," Wu Yang said.
"You know the specific unit number?" Jiu Jie asked.
"I do. Before coming here, I already asked for his address from headquarters."
While saying so, the two of them took the elevator up and arrived at the thirteenth floor, unit number 2. Wu Yang knocked on the door. On such a silent night, while the hit wasn't very hard, the sound was especially distinct.
n.o.body answered, so Wu Yang knocked again, but there was still no answer.
"Is he not home?" Jiu Jie asked.
"Impossible," Wu Yang said, "his phone's GPS shows that he's inside, just behind this door."
"Maybe he's out and left his phone at home?"
Wu Yang shook his head. "Also not possible. Before coming here, headquarters would have informed him. In this period of time, his phone wouldn't leave his person."
Jiu Jie's expression became very solemn as he said, "That's troublesome. If he's awake, then he would've definitely heard us when we knocked…"
"If he's asleep, we would've been able to locate his dream just now," Wu Yang finished.
The two of them glanced at each other before coming up with the same scenario. "This informant may have met with some trouble."
"There may be this possibility… When you were looking for his dream just now, he was awake, and when we arrived, he fell asleep?" Jiu Jie asked cautiously.
Wu Yang shook his head. "No, that would be too coincidental."
"Then, what do we do now?"
"We can only go inside to take a look around, then decide."
"You have a key?" Jiu Jie asked
"No."
"You have a multi-purpose keycard to the condominium,  but you didn't prepare and bring a skeleton key?"
"I do have a multi-purpose keycard but against this door, I'm afraid it won't work. Informants that have been dispatched to other places are always smart and capable people. How can they let their houses be so easy to break into?"
"Then, how do we get in?"
"Looks like we can only use my method."
Jiu Jie mockingly questioned, "Using your poet's* method?"
Wu Yang pretended he didn't hear the sarcasm and nodded, "That's right, using the poet's method. Now, move aside."
Jiu Jie took two steps back, curious on how Wu Yang would open the door using the poet's method. Wu Yang also backed up two steps and took a deep breath before charging forward, kicking at the door bolts. He put a lot of strength into his leg, so there was a loud bang, then the door bolts broke and the door flew open.
Jiu Jie was dumbfounded and dazedly asked, "Didn't you say you were going to use the poet's method?"
"That's right. This is the poet's method." Wu Yang said, very naturally.
"So, brute strength is the poet's method?"
"Who said a poet can't use strength? Who said that a poet has to be weak?" Wu Tang said earnestly. "Poets also have steel bones, and are heroic on the battlefield. Just like w.a.n.g Wei, he had painstakingly abandoned hatred, isn't that a hot-blooded young man? A real poet, especially a male poet, has unyielding bravery in his bones. That is the poetic spirit I revere."
Jiu Jie held a hand to his forehead and said, "I give up Big bro, I give. Let's just quickly go in. Your kick just now probably woke up everyone on this level."
The room was very dark, and the lights were off. The two of them felt their way into the apartment where the lights were off as well. Wu Yang used his phone as a flashlight, and carefully scanned the situation inside. This was only an ordinary single apartment. Right in front of it, the entrance hall was there, followed by the living room. To the side, there was the toilet and a kitchen, while the bedroom was located at the end of the living room.
The two of them did a sweep of the living room. but they didn't find anything suspicious, so they carefully made their way into the bedroom. The bedroom was not big and was  simply furnished. There was a closet, a desk, and a big bed in the middle. On the bed, there was a person, sleeping just like he was dead.
Jiu Jie and Wu Yang faced each other, both feeling a sense of dread. Wu Yang walked to the bedside and lightly pushed the person, while softly saying, "Hey, wake up."
The person didn't move and had no reaction. Wu Yang pushed harder, but the person still didn't react. Wu Yang put his hand under his nose and felt for a pulse and some breathing, before releasing a sigh.
"How is it?" Actually, Jiu Jie already knew the results in his heart before asking.
"Dead," Wu Yang said dejectedly, "We were too late. This informant has been done in."
Saying so, he opened the suitcase that he brought along and pulled up two wires of electrical lead, then stuck them into the informant's temples.
"What are you doing?" Jiu Jie asked.
"To see if he has any information." Wu Yang said as he worked.
"What does that mean?" Jiu Jie had never been in the field before, so he didn't have much understanding of the Watchmen methods and preparations.
Wu Yang also understood this, so he explained, "This is a brain scanner, which you've probably heard of before or even used. We frequently use it to monitor dreamland. I'm using it now to see if this spy has  remnant brainwaves."
"He's already dead though." Jiu Jie stated.
"That's not a problem. Some people, especially those with strong Li Bi Duo, their brains won't immediately die after their deaths. There will be some remaining thoughts. His body isn't stiff yet, so he shouldn't have died that long ago. If we're lucky, we might be able to enter his remaining dreams after he died and obtain some vital information."
"Entering a dead person's mind is too dangerous though.. If you don't leave before he fully dies, your consciousness will also die."
"You don't have to worry about that, I know my limits."
Wu Yang finished his work and stared at the suitcase for a while, focusing on the smooth straight line on the screen. He frowned slightly and didn't speak for a while.
"What's wrong?" Jiu Jie asked.
Wu Yang shook his head, and replied, while perplexed, "There's something weird."
"What's the problem?"
"It's really strange," Wu Yang said, "He actually doesn't have a single remnant brainwave. Additionally, his Li Bi Duo is almost empty, which is very rare."
"When a person dies, their Li Bi Duo also disappears, so what's so strange about this?"
"When a person dies, their Li Bi Duo will disappear, but not immediately. Especially those with strong spiritual power. After they die, regardless of their power level, they would still leave a shred of Li Bi Duo behind for a short period of time, some up to 24 hours. This person's Li B Duo though has disappeared right after his death, which is abnormal. This feels just like, like…"
"Just like what?" Jiu Jie asked.
"As if someone sucked his Li Bi Duo dry right before he died."
Jiu Jie was shocked when he heard this, so he asked, "Li Bi Duo is a type of spiritual power. Someone can still suck it dry or rob it?"
Wu Yang was silent for a moment before replying, "Maybe. I think I heard of a method from somewhere before, but it's been so long, and I haven't encountered it before."
"Since he doesn't even have a shred of brain waves left, then he also won't have any after his death dreams. Looks like we can't get any information from his body."
Wu Yang fiddled with the wire and said, "You're right. We'll check one last time to see if there are any remnants, then quickly get out of here. This is a bad place to be right now, so we can't stay long."
Jiu Jie nodded. He glanced around the room and noticed a piece of paper on the desk with words written on it. He turned to Wu Yang, and said, "There's a piece of paper there."
Wu Yang walked to it and shone his phone's light on it. There were a few words written down: "If something has happened to me, immediately find Ma Chen."
Written on the other side of the paper was an address. The two of them made eye contact, and saw the doubt reflected in their eyes.
"This is a bit weird." Jiu Jie said.
"Indeed, it's strange. It's not logical." Wu Yang replied.
"If he wanted to leave a message, why didn't he just directly send it to you or to headquarters? Why leave a piece of paper? How did he know that we would definitely see it?"
"You're right. In the information packet headquarters gave me, there wasn't any mention of anybody named Ma Chen."
Jiu Jie held the piece of paper and asked, "Is this thing trustworthy?"
"Let's decide when we get back, we have to leave first."
The two of them quietly left the house, down the elevator, and out of the condominium. Reaching the car, Wu Yang didn't immediately start the engine. Instead,  he opened the door and turned on the light. He held up the piece of paper and used his phone to take a picture of it.
"What are you doing?" Jiu Jie asked.
"I'm sending a picture to headquarters to let them compare it to the informant's handwriting."
"It's so late, are there still people at headquarters?"

"Relax, some labs technicians work 24 hours, so we'll immediately see the results."
The two of them chatted for a while, and before long, Wu Yang's phone beeped. He held it up to see it, and said, "That's interesting, it's really that informant's handwriting."
"That is to say, we need to go find this Ma Chen?"
"Yeah, right now, he's our only lead. There's no other choice."
Jiu Jie thought for a bit, then said, "I always felt that this case was fishy. It's not a trap, right?"
"You can only find a tiger in a tiger cave," Wu Yang replied, "Our two informants here have been killed, and they even died so suspiciously. It's obvious that the killer is heading for us. Right now, we are running around half blind. Looking for Ma Chen is our only clue. Looking at today's events, even if we know it's a trap, we still need to jump into it."
"Not stopping and requesting for reinforcements?" Jiu Jie asked.
"Asking for support is definite, but we don't need to stop now. I have a feeling that the longer we drag this on, the worse it'll get for us."
"Okay then, there is no time to lose. Let's go find this Ma Chen."
Wu Yang made a noise of a.s.sent and started the car. With one foot on the gas pedal, the car practically flew forward and disappeared into the night.