427: Chapter 424 Black and White

Five minutes later, the two of them stood side by side at the entrance of the hospital ward.

Shen Mingyuan wore a dark gray trench coat, a slimmer fit than Ye Ouyang's, with the collar turned up and the cuffs rolled once. Ye Ouyang stood beside him, his brown trench coat open and his hands stuffed in his pockets.

One was tall and thin, the other slightly shorter. One was steady, the other lively.

But standing together, anyone who saw them would have the same word pop into their mind—

Classic. At a glance, they were clearly Detectives.

The world had turned black and white.

At least, it was so in the eyes of Shen Mingyuan and Ye Ouyang.

The street was still the same street, the buildings were still the same buildings, and the pedestrians were still the same pedestrians. But all color had faded away—the sky was gray-white, the walls of the buildings were various shades of gray, and the leaves of the roadside trees were a dark, somber ink-black. The sunlight remained, but where it fell on anything, only the contrast between light and dark was left.

Like an old movie. The kind of Detective film from the black-and-white film era.

Standing by the roadside, Ye Ouyang flicked his finger, and a coin leaped from the back of his thumb, flipping in the air and gleaming with a silver-gray light. He reached out to catch it, flicked it again, and caught it once more. Between the coin's rise and fall, it emitted a crisp metallic sound.

Clink. Clink. Clink.

The rhythm was as steady as a metronome.

Shen Mingyuan pulled out a pipe from somewhere—dark brown with a curved stem, the bowl still possessing a slight luster. He held the pipe in his mouth, though there was no tobacco. Then, he drew a black long-handled umbrella from the inside of his trench coat, poked the tip against the ground, and leaned slightly against the handle.

Wind blew from the end of the street, swirling up a few fallen leaves that rolled past his feet.

He narrowed his eyes, his gaze landing on some non-existent point in the distance.

"So, my dear assistant," he began, his voice lower than usual and carrying a deliberate laziness, "where shall we go now to find that clue?"

Ye Ouyang caught the coin and clenched it in his palm. He turned his head to look at Shen Mingyuan.

"Let's go straight to the crime scene," he said, his tone as serious as if he were stating an indisputable truth. "Sometimes, the scene speaks."

Shen Mingyuan held the pipe in his mouth, silent for two seconds.

A car drove by in the distance, its tires rolling over the pavement with a low rumble.

He lifted the umbrella and lightly poked the ground with its tip.

"Then, what are we waiting for?" He took the pipe from his mouth and traced a circle in the air. "Let's go."

The two of them soon got into a car.

The taxi driver glanced at them several times through the rearview mirror—one holding a pipe in his mouth, the other flipping a coin. Both were in long trench coats, one brown and one gray, sitting side by side in the back seat, staring out the window simultaneously with expressions as profound as if they were contemplating some great matter of life.

The driver opened his mouth but eventually said nothing, silently stepping on the gas.

When the car stopped at the edge of the forest, a small crowd had already gathered. There were elderly men out for walks, young parents who had brought their children for an outing, and a few older kids chasing each other around the roadside.

Shen Mingyuan pushed the car door open, the umbrella tip touching the ground first, and then he climbed out. He stood tall, a corner of his trench coat hem fluttering in the wind, pipe in mouth, as he tilted his head slightly and scanned the group of children.

The children who were playing stopped in their tracks.

One of them pointed at them and said something. Then, several children actually followed, keeping a short distance behind the two, mimicking their gait. Someone even picked up a branch to use as a cane, imitating the way Shen Mingyuan poked the ground.

The two walked ahead like that, followed by a string of children, crossing the grassland at the edge of the woods and heading deeper. It wasn't until they were about to enter the forest proper that a few calls came from the distance, and the group of children was called back, running off in a flurry.

The light in the forest dimmed.

The sunlight was blocked by the canopy, leaving only scattered spots of light. The ground was covered in a thick layer of fallen leaves that crunched underfoot. The further in they went, the more obvious the traces became—broken branches, shrubs crushed by some colossal object, and several trees snapped in the middle, their breaks fresh and still bearing wood chips.

Shen Mingyuan switched his grip on the umbrella from a cane style to a normal one, walked to a relatively open area, and stopped.

He took a puff of his pipe—no smoke, just the motion—then raised his umbrella, turned in a circle, and scanned the surrounding terrain.

"Hmm, so this is the place from before?"

Ye Ouyang stood beside him, the coin flipping on the back of his thumb, springing up and being caught. Up and caught.

"That's right, this is it." He walked to a spot and tapped the ground with his foot. "This is where the Dinosaur Person was lying before."

Shen Mingyuan walked over and looked down.

There were indentations on the ground, along with dried, blackened bloodstains that had seeped into the soil and fallen leaves. Claw marks were left on the surrounding trees, and deep gashes were on the trunks of several others, as if sliced by something sharp.

He straightened up and turned toward the other side of the woods—several trees had been smashed there, their debris still scattered and uncleared.

"The elasticity of this ball must be very high," he said, taking another puff of his empty pipe. "At least, that's what can be gathered from your descriptions."

He walked over to a snapped tree, knelt down, and poked the break with the tip of his umbrella.

"And it's extremely hard. Not an ordinary ball. If it were made of something like rubber, it would have been destroyed long ago with such power."

He stood up and took another puff of his pipe.

No smoke.

Shen Mingyuan knelt down and used the tip of his umbrella to brush aside the fallen leaves on the ground.

"There are no signs of dragging." He straightened up, his gaze scanning the surrounding ground. "This means they carried the Dinosaur Person's corpse—either by picking it up or placing it on something. That's why no drag marks were left on the ground."

He paused.

"Being able to throw such a powerful ball proves the opponent's strength is immense. So, carrying it away doesn't seem to be an issue."

Ye Ouyang stood nearby, flicking his finger; the coin leaped from the back of his thumb, flipped in the air, and was caught. His gaze followed the coin's rise and fall before turning to the surrounding trees.

"Are there any other bloodstains around?" he asked. "On the large trees?"

The two split up to inspect the nearby tree trunks.

Sunlight filtered through the canopy, casting fragmented shadows on the mottled bark. Shen Mingyuan walked around a snapped tree, poking the cracks in the bark with his umbrella tip. Ye Ouyang walked to another thick old tree, looking up at the high part of the trunk and then down to check the moss near the roots.

Nothing.

"If he was carrying it while leaving," Ye Ouyang said as he walked back, the coin still flipping in his fingers, "a Dinosaur Person's corpse of that size would surely brush against trees and leave bloodstains or traces, wouldn't it?"

Shen Mingyuan shook his head.

"I've looked all around; there don't seem to be any."

Ye Ouyang was silent for a second, the rhythm of the coin's rise and fall unchanged.

"A bit troublesome," he said. "The clues seem to break off here."

He flicked the coin a few more times, then suddenly stopped and clenched it in his palm.

"Then there must be something we've missed." He looked up at Shen Mingyuan. "If we want to pursue the truth, we often need to trace things back to their source."

Shen Mingyuan held the pipe in his mouth, tilting his head slightly.

"What is it that I don't know?"

The two of them exchanged a look.

They spoke simultaneously:

"The birth of the Dinosaur Person."

"The Detention Center."

Shen Mingyuan took the pipe from his mouth and traced a circle in the air.

"The place where that mysterious person injected the drug. Let's go, let's check out the Detention Center."

Ye Ouyang put the coin in his pocket and stuffed his hands into his trench coat.

"Let's go."

The two turned and walked back the way they came, stepping on fallen leaves. The sunlight cast long shadows behind them.