At eleven o’clock at night, in the old district of Yunjing City.
The car drove steadily into a parking space in the alley. The engine quietly shut off, and the headlights went dark the moment the engine died.
Xiao did not get out immediately. He first leaned back against the seat and closed his eyes for a moment.
He had made a trip to Jiyuan today and then driven a long distance back. His shoulders were already somewhat stiff.
He reached for the coat on the passenger seat, while his other hand was just about to push open the car door when the lens over his right eye suddenly flickered.
【Abnormality】
A very thin prompt floated in the corner of his field of vision, pale blue, like a cold light that had been compressed.
His movement stopped at once.
【Number of surrounding surveillance cameras decreased.】
【Alley Entrance Camera No. 2 offline. Time: 23:07.】
【Abnormality: Cause of disconnection is not equipment failure.】
【Note: The camera was forcibly shut down by an external signal 3 seconds ago.】
Xiao did not move, his gaze falling on those lines of information.
He knew the location of every surveillance camera on this street by heart.
Normally, these machines were as stable as the veins of the street. Unless there was a power outage or hardware damage, they could not possibly go offline.
The corners of Xiao’s lips curved slightly.
The smile was extremely faint, almost invisible in the darkness of the car.
He picked up his coat and put it on without haste.
“What a hassle. I still have to work tomorrow.”
He pushed open the car door.
When the tip of his shoe touched the asphalt, the streetlamp in the alley flickered twice before going out.
The entire street instantly sank into darkness. Only the lights of the high-rises in the distance remained, casting hazy outlines onto the walls.
The night was very quiet.
He calmly closed the car door and locked it.
When he walked into the alley, his pace neither quickened nor slowed.
His breathing maintained a steady rhythm, as though he were walking through a territory he knew extremely well.
──”Jiguang” automatically switched to night-vision mode.
The next second, another message appeared.
【Warning: Electromagnetic interference signal detected. Source: Rooftop of the apartment building on the east side. Strength: Moderate to high.】
【Some functions of the Jiguang system are affected.】
【Heat-source identification accuracy: reduced to 67%.】
【Ballistic prediction error: increased to ±12%.】
【Recommendation: Reduce reliance on system judgment.】
Xiao’s footsteps did not stop, but his brows moved slightly.
He stared at that number for a second.
An accuracy of 67% and an error margin of ±12% were already outside the range where he could rely on it completely.
Normally, he did not need this system very much. In most situations, whether he had it or not made little difference.
But tonight’s opponents had clearly done their homework.
They knew what to interfere with and when to interfere with it.
That made him slightly reevaluate the situation before him.
“…Qianqian.”
He called softly through the communications channel.
“I’ve got a little situation here. How about you?”
Su Qianqian’s voice came from the other end, mixed with the faint tapping of a keyboard and unstable static.
“I’m working on it. They’re using a mid-range jammer. It’s not particularly powerful, but I need a little time to counter it.”
“How long?”
“Three minutes.”
“Make it quick.”
Jiguang continued operating despite the electromagnetic interference, but the data streams at the edge of his vision had become more unstable than usual. They occasionally jumped, as if someone had mixed noise into the signal.
He could not completely trust it, but he could not completely ignore it either.
Xiao’s glasses──Jiguang continued operating in the darkness.
Heat-source scanning, wind-speed calculations, identification of surrounding objects, voiceprint analysis.
Those pieces of information swept past the edge of his vision like fine streams of light, presented in a manner he could understand almost without thinking.
Yet the expression on his face did not change.
He continued walking, like an ordinary resident returning home late at night, passing through an alley with poor lighting.
When he turned the corner, he heard an extremely faint sound, buried within the night wind.
Jiguang’s voiceprint analysis experienced a delay because of the interference.
His pupils did not move. Jiguang completed an initial positioning within 0.4 seconds──slower than usual, but still sufficient.
He turned sideways.
Adjusted by fifteen degrees.
The bullet grazed past his ear and exploded against the wall, sending fragments of stone spraying onto his shoulder.
The smell of gunpowder spread through the night wind, leaving behind a brief scorching mark.
He did not stop walking, but his pace imperceptibly quickened.
A report came through the sniper’s earpiece, lowered almost to a breath:
──”Missed. Target moving.”
Xiao continued forward as though the bullet had merely struck a wall unrelated to him.
The edge of Jiguang’s field of vision flickered several times. The text jumped for a moment amid the interference before stabilizing.
【Sniper position estimated: Top floor of east-side apartment building (error range: ±5 meters). Distance: approximately 80–85 meters. Wind speed: unstable.】
【Ballistic prediction: Unable to complete precise calculation. (Error range: large.)】
【Danger level: Extremely high.】
【Recommendation: Prioritize evasion. Do not rely on system judgment.】
He did not raise his head to look at the person. Instead, he continued walking.
When he passed the wall with the fresh crack, he lowered his head and glanced at the scattered fragments of stone on the ground.
When he walked out of the alley, his footsteps paused slightly for an instant.
A van.
Its windows were covered with dark tint. There were no markings on the vehicle. Judging from its position and angle, it could block the exit of the alley within ten seconds.
There were at least four heat signatures inside.
There was an antenna module on the roof.
A jamming vehicle.
Jiguang’s system suddenly flashed red, and the text jumped rapidly.
【Alert: An AI base signal receiving station within five kilometers has been compromised by an external intrusion. Communications encryption layer has been breached!】
【Alert: Communications encryption layer has been breached!】
【Voice and data transmissions may have been intercepted!】
【Recommendation: Switch to internal encrypted channel.】
The corners of Xiao’s lips lifted slightly.
“Such a grand operation? I’m truly flattered.”
He murmured softly.
◆◇◆◇◆
At the same time, inside an old apartment in Yunjing City.
Su Qianqian sat before a desk with three monitors, her fingers continuing to fly rapidly across the keyboard.
“Switching channels.”
She spoke softly into the communications device, sounding as though she were talking to herself, yet also as though she were reporting. Her tone was completely devoid of emotion.
Data streams rolled rapidly across the screens before her eyes.
While attempting to break through the encryption of the opposing signal, she maintained the barely stable communications channel for Xiao.
At the same time, she planted an extremely subtle backdoor inside the other side’s surveillance network, like gently pushing a needle through the gap of an unlocked window.
◆◇◆◇◆
Su Qianqian’s voice came through the earpiece again.
“Two minutes left.”
──At the same time, the van’s door slid open.
Four people stepped out simultaneously.
They were lean and agile, all wearing masks.
One held a knife, two held guns, and one carried a stun device──the latter stood at the rear, as though waiting for the first three to force their prey into a dead end.
None of the surrounding residents heard anything.
The entire street was covered by the jamming vehicle.
Xiao swept his eyes over them without drawing his blade or assuming a defensive stance.
He merely removed Jiguang, folded it, and placed it into the inner pocket of his coat──because the four people before him did not require system assistance to deal with, and it would only hinder him in close combat.
But at the exact moment he removed the glasses, he heard another sound of wind.
Extremely faint.
Coming from diagonally above.
Its frequency was different from that of the previous bullet.
──A second sniper.
His position was different from the first, and so was his trajectory.
That person did not wait for Xiao to deal with the close-combat attackers.
When the bullet tore through the air, Xiao was turning sideways to evade the blade swung by the first man.
He did not evade completely.
His left arm was cut open, not deeply, but enough to make the arm instantly go numb for a moment.
At this moment, Jiguang reported a vague position again. The error range was nearly twice as wide as usual.
He could only use that error range to make his judgment.
For anything he was uncertain about, he would always estimate toward the worst-case scenario.
Immediately afterward, a second bullet flew from another direction.
Xiao was forced to take a step backward. His shoulder blade struck the wall, allowing him to avoid the fatal angle.
The bullet that should have pierced his heart instead grazed the outside of his left shoulder, tearing away a piece of flesh.
Heat exploded from the wound, as though someone had gripped it hard and then violently torn it open──at the instant the flesh split, there was no pain, only a brief, numb shock that traveled from his shoulder all the way into his left arm. His fingertips lost their strength at that moment.
Xiao lowered his head and glanced at his left shoulder.
The flesh had split open, and blood seeped downward along the fabric inside his coat, gathering into beads of blood at his fingertips before falling to the ground.
For an instant, his left hand could not form a fist.
But only for an instant.
He did not stop.
His right hand seized the wrist of the man holding the gun and twisted it backward along the joint’s natural angle.
There was a muffled crack as the bone gave way.
The gun fell from the man’s hand.
Xiao caught the gun at the same time the second man charged forward.
Taking advantage of the momentum, Xiao smashed the butt of the gun into the second man’s neck.
He used slightly less force than usual.
The injury to his left shoulder had already begun causing compensation on his right side, and the angle at which his right arm exerted force needed to be recalculated.
The man did not collapse immediately.
He stumbled backward, swayed, and only then fell onto the ground.
It had taken two seconds longer.
Xiao raised his brows slightly.
Not because of the pain, but because this wound would somewhat restrict his movements for a period of time.
Although Jiguang had been placed inside his inner pocket, it continued to automatically monitor his vital signs and physical condition. Through the Bluetooth connection to the device on his wrist, it transmitted the information to his earpiece.
【Blood-loss rate: Preliminary assessment indicates minor loss. (Error: large.)】
【Injury analysis: Suspected abrasion/laceration. No damage to bones or major blood vessels detected. (Deep tissue condition cannot be confirmed.)】
【Hemostasis protocol: Activated. Hemostatic patch applied. Estimated completion time: uncertain; may require more than fifty seconds.】
【Recommendation: If weakness in the left shoulder persists, prioritize evacuation. Prolonged combat is not recommended.】
The third man rushed forward, thrusting his blade.
Xiao turned sideways.
The blade grazed the fabric on his right arm, missing another wound by only a few centimeters.
He raised his hand and knocked aside the wrist holding the knife.
Then he drove his knee forward into the man’s ribs.
A muffled grunt sounded together with the crack of breaking bones.
The man dropped to his knees.
The man with the stun device took the opportunity to close in.
Xiao pushed outward with his palm, blocking the contact surface of the stun device.
A short burst of electricity shot across the outside of his palm. His palm went numb, and his fingers lost their strength once again.
Xiao snatched the stun device away from him with his other hand and pressed it against the man’s own shoulder.
When the man collapsed, Xiao straightened his body.
The pain in his left shoulder had already changed from the initial numbness into a real, continuous burning sensation.
He took a deep breath and assessed the situation mentally──
He could still use it, but he had to finish this quickly.
The entire close-combat battle, from beginning to end, had lasted twenty-five seconds.
He straightened his body.
The movement of his left shoulder was noticeably slower than before.
The hem of his coat had been cut open, and the sleeve on the left side was already soaked with blood.
He said softly,
“…This is a limited edition.”
When he said this, his tone was about the same as if he were complaining about bad weather.
He raised his head and looked toward the rooftop of the distant apartment building──the second sniper’s firing position.
Although he could deal with the close-combat attackers, he could not handle the sniper in the distance.
Just then, Jiguang transmitted another warning.
Its voice sounded urgently in his earpiece:
【Warning: Second sniper position detected. Direction: West-side rooftop. Error: Large.】
【Ballistic prediction unavailable. Immediate relocation recommended.】
This time, he did not hesitate.
He rolled to the left while simultaneously feeling the tearing sensation in his left shoulder suddenly intensify with the movement.
The bullet struck the ground where he had been standing moments earlier, sending fragments of stone flying.
One fragment scraped across his cheek, leaving a shallow red line.
He dropped to one knee and took one second to let the pain in his shoulder stabilize before standing again.
“Qianqian.”
He called softly through the communications channel.
“The electronic warfare vehicle. How long?”
Su Qianqian’s voice came from the other end.
“Less than a minute.”
“Faster.”
His tone remained calm, but the breathing transmitted through the communications channel was slightly heavier than before.
Then all the screens inside the van simultaneously went dark.
The electronic warfare system inside the jamming vehicle was directly taken over by a reverse command.
The signal spectrum originally displayed on the control panel disappeared.
In its place appeared an image──a simple drawing of an owl.
The people inside the vehicle froze for a moment.
At the same time, a piercing shriek suddenly erupted through the killers’ communications channel before the connection was completely severed.
“Done.”
Su Qianqian’s voice came through, carrying a trace of exhaustion.
“Fortunately, they’re using a civilian-grade jammer. If it were one level higher, I couldn’t take it apart. I can only temporarily take control of it. They’ll figure it out.”
At the same time, the surveillance cameras in the area that had originally been shut down came back online one by one.
The alley entrance, the convenience store, the parking lot entrance, the exterior wall of the bank, the top of the bus stop──all the cameras lit up, once again bringing everything in this corner of the city into view.
Every feed simultaneously flowed into Jiguang’s data stream.
More than a hundred viewpoints were compared, calculated, and marked at the same time.
The real-time positions of all the killers were precisely marked on the map, leaving them nowhere to hide.
The error range of the Jiguang system began to shrink, while the accuracy of its heat-source identification slowly climbed.
Su Qianqian’s fingers raced across the keyboard again, as though she had cut through every lock the enemy had placed around them, then linked those severed chains into a new lock and tossed it back to their original owner.
【All target positions confirmed.】
【Recommendation: May prioritize pursuit or retreat.】
【Note: One target is moving eastward at moderate speed. Presumed to be the commander.】
Xiao stood at the entrance of the alley.
The wound on his left shoulder had already stopped bleeding, and the skin beneath the patch was slowly closing.
But his fingers were still slightly uncooperative, as though part of the strength in that arm had been temporarily borrowed away.
He did not pursue.
He merely raised his head and looked toward the rooftop of the distant apartment building, where the lights were currently going out.
The man was already packing up his equipment and preparing to retreat.
“Ningning, I’ll leave it to you.”
Xiao issued the order through the communications channel.
Ningning’s voice came from the other side.
“Pursuing. Should I take him out?”
The sound of wind howled faintly in the background.
Xiao gave a bitter smile.
He had originally intended to say no, but then remembered that the other side had given him a bullet.
“Keep him alive. Do whatever you want with the rest.”
“Yes.”
The streetlights at the alley entrance returned to full brightness.
What happened tonight was not an impulsive probe, but a clearly intended elimination operation.
The scale was high.
Unfortunately, it still was not enough.
Xiao took his phone from his pocket.
At the same time, he said to Qianqian through the communications channel,
“Qianqian, connect me to Sheng Chengxiu.”
“Are you sure?”
“Call.”
Su Qianqian immediately connected him to Sheng Chengxiu’s phone.
The line was clean, without a trace.
The phone rang three times.
Connected.
He did not speak immediately, allowing the silence to remain on the line for several seconds.
There was silence on the other end as well, as though the person there was trying to determine who the call was from.
“President Sheng.”
He spoke softly, his tone as calm as if he were reporting the weather.
“It’s quite lively here in the old district tonight.”
There was no response from the other end.
But the call was not disconnected either.
Xiao stood in the night, his left shoulder still aching faintly. The slit in the hem of his coat fluttered slightly in the wind.
He continued,
“If you happen to know who did this, please pass along a message for me──”
He paused.
“Next time, remember to send someone more professional.”
With that, he hung up.
The night once again enveloped the entire old street.
The streetlights gradually came back on, as though nothing had ever happened.
Xiao put his phone back into his pocket and lowered his head to glance at his left shoulder.
The wound had stopped bleeding, and the skin beneath the patch was still warm.
He did not linger.
He turned and walked into the old apartment building in the back alley.
His footsteps were slightly slower than usual because every swing of his left arm tugged at the wound, like a fine needle scraping back and forth inside the joint.
When the elevator doors closed, he leaned against the wall and closed his eyes for a moment.
His coat was stained with blood, and the sleeve was torn.
He needed to treat his shoulder, change clothes, and then sleep for a few hours before dawn.
Guichen House would still open tomorrow.
But at least, tonight’s incident was temporarily over.
The lights of Yunjing City shone peacefully in the distance, as though the city had never noticed that it had once been disturbed in the dead of night.