Chapter 83: The Failed Talks

Lin Yu picked a meeting place that couldn’t have been more down-to-earth: a noisy, open-air barbecue stall.

Greasy folding tables. Cheap plastic stools. The air thick with the smoky scent of cumin, chili, and charcoal.
It was cheap, filling, and came with a night breeze plus a distant view of glittering city lights.

Lin Yu had prepared himself—mentally, emotionally, everything.
But when that familiar silhouette cut through the crowd toward him, his heart still skipped a beat.

The same handsome face.
The same tall, straight posture.

…And yet everything was different.

Luo Shaotian wasn’t in his police uniform today. Instead, he wore a black shirt of obvious quality, the top three buttons casually undone, exposing sharply defined collarbones and a patch of firm chest.
His hair had been deliberately styled into that perfect kind of controlled messiness. Paired with the faint smirk tugging at his lips, he looked like a roguish heartbreaker who’d dominated every room he walked into.

But it was his eyes that had changed the most.

No longer the honest, warm sunlight he used to carry.
Now they were wolf eyes—predatory, invasive, dangerous.

“Yo, A-Yu.”

He dropped into the seat across from Lin Yu, tossing an expensive leather jacket onto the empty chair beside him like he’d been living this way for years.

He lifted his head. Those razor-sharp eyes lingered on Lin Yu’s face for a full three seconds.

“Been a month, and you—”

A low chuckle. One that made Lin Yu instinctively tense.

“…seem to have gotten a bit prettier?”

Heat hit Lin Yu’s cheeks. He touched his face subconsciously—his features really had gotten softer these days.

“Get lost,” he muttered, using humor as a flimsy shield.
“Don’t make fun of me. But damn, look at you—new outfit, huh? Struck it rich?”

“Something like that.”

Luo Shaotian shrugged lazily and waved down the stall owner.

“Boss, this, this, and that—twenty skewers each. And two bottles of ice-cold beer.”

The extravagant order made Lin Yu’s eyelid twitch.

While waiting for the food, a thick, suffocating silence settled between them.
To break it, Lin Yu forced himself to talk.

“Uh—so… how’ve you been? You look good. I heard you were having some… work trouble?”

“Those assholes,”

Luo Shaotian cut him off with a cold laugh.

“Don’t listen to their bullshit. Bunch of useless office-warmers who do nothing all day. They don’t know jack shit.”

The contempt dripping from his tone made Lin Yu’s heart sink.

He cautiously steered the conversation into the real topic.

“I heard you… were suspended?”

“Oh, that?”

Luo Shaotian grabbed a beer bottle, bit the cap off with a sharp snap, and filled his glass to the brim.

“A good thing.”

“A… good thing?”

Lin Yu blinked.

“Of course it is.” Luo Shaotian took a long drink. The icy beer seemed to ignite an even sharper glint in his eyes.
“Helped me see clearly. That uniform? Just a shell. The whole damn department is full of blockheads.”

The first platter of grilled skewers arrived, sizzling with dripping fat.

Luo Shaotian grabbed a charred chicken wing and tore into it, chewing as he continued:

“This whole ‘procedure’ crap? Wasting time. All that talk about rules—”

He cut himself off, irritation flashing across his face.

“Whatever. Point is, there’s no need to show mercy to those pieces of shit on the streets.”

“Trash should be disposed of directly, not recycled.”

The violent edge in his voice made Lin Yu’s back go cold.

He couldn’t believe the man in front of him—the warm, sunny Luo Shaotian he used to know—could sound like this.

He sounded like a crooked cop…
No. Worse.

“Shaotian, calm down…” Lin Yu tried.
“I get that you’re angry, but you can’t think like—”

“Why can’t I?”

Luo Shaotian leaned in, the pressure of his gaze suffocating.

“I’ve never been clearer. This world is the one that’s sick, A-Yu…”

“And I just happened to find the cure.”

“Shaotian… that’s not a cure! It’s poison!” Lin Yu’s voice trembled.
“You don’t understand—the ‘Immortal Dust’ from that factory polluted you! It’s messing with your mind! You’re in danger!”

He stared into his friend’s eyes, praying for even a flicker of sanity.

But he saw nothing of the sort.

“Danger?” Luo Shaotian leaned back slowly, a warped expression—somewhere between amusement and something far more terrifying—spreading across his face.

“No, little Yu. I don’t feel in danger at all.”

He reached down, picked up a pebble from the ground, placed it in his right palm, and slowly closed his fingers.

“I feel…”

A grinding crack—stone being crushed.

“…fantastic.”

He opened his hand. Powder sifted through his fingers.

“You don’t get it!”

Lin Yu’s voice shook with urgency.

“This power comes with a cost! It’ll eat away your sanity and turn you into—”

“Into what?” Luo Shaotian cut him off.
“A monster who can make the world a little cleaner? And that’s a bad thing?”

He snorted.

“Honestly, A-Yu, my family tricked me into becoming a cop in the first place. ‘Stable job,’ ‘government benefits,’ blah blah blah…”

“But once I got inside that cage, I realized I was a nobody. Everything restricted me. They wouldn’t even let me chase the truth. Pathetic.”

“Back then, I had no choice. But now…”

He leaned forward again. His eyes gleamed with raw bloodlust.

“I don’t want to be a good person.”

“You—”

“Hey—little bro!”

A slurred voice crashed into their standoff.

Lin Yu turned and saw a red-faced drunk stumbling toward them, reeking of alcohol.
He blinked.

It was that same Northeastern guy who’d harassed him at another BBQ stall before.

“Oh… it’s you again?”

The drunk squinted for several seconds before recognizing him. A greasy grin spread across his face.

“Ha! Fate, huh? C’mon, last time you didn’t drink with us. Let’s fix that!”

Lin Yu’s temples throbbed. This was the worst possible timing.

“Sorry, big bro, we’re talking about something important.”

“What’s more important than drinking?” The drunk slung a hairy arm toward Lin Yu’s shoulder. “C’mon, give face! Just one—”

“Get. Lost.”

The words cracked through the air like a whip.

The drunk froze mid-reach, then slowly turned his bleary eyes toward Luo Shaotian.

“You little shit. Who the hell you think you’re talking to?”

Drunken bravado surged. Being embarrassed in public made the man’s face flush purple.

He smashed his glass to the ground.

“You know who the f*ck I am? Talking to me like that? You got a death wish?!”

He lunged to grab Luo Shaotian’s collar—

—but he never touched it.

An iron grip clamped around his wrist.

“AH—!”

His face drained of color as a scream tore out of him.

He instinctively swung his other fist—

But Luo Shaotian merely lifted his eyes.

No rage.
No real malice.

Only pure dismissal—like he was staring at a piece of trash.

The drunk froze completely, sweat pouring down his face.

A moment later, Luo Shaotian let go and casually flung him aside.

The man—easily a hundred and eighty pounds—was thrown off the ground, crashed through two tables, and slammed onto the pavement with a painful thud.

“My… my back…”

He writhed on the ground, unable to get up.

“Wang-ge! Wang-ge, you okay?!”

The drunk’s buddies grabbed beer bottles and rushed over, only to stop dead when they saw Luo Shaotian’s eyes.

One of them finally mustered the courage to shout:

“Fine! You’re crazy! I’ve got your face in my memory! Next time, I’m bringing our Shifu to deal with you!”

They scrambled to haul the drunk up and fled in a panic.

The entire scene happened in seconds.

Silence rippled across the BBQ stall.
Even the surrounding diners stared in stunned silence.

Lin Yu sat frozen, mind blank.

“So, you see—”

Luo Shaotian’s voice pulled him back.

He wiped his hands with a napkin, as calm as if he’d crushed a bug instead of a grown man.

Standing, he looked down at Lin Yu with a faint, mocking smile.

“…you’re too soft. Like a woman.”

“When it comes to society’s trash, you deal with them using an evil man’s methods.”

“That’s all I have to say. A-Yu, I hope next time we meet, you’ve grown a backbone.”

He grabbed an unopened beer bottle, stuffed one hand into his pocket, and walked away without looking back.

His silhouette vanished into the night.

Leaving Lin Yu alone at the ravaged table.

He sat there for a long time before pouring himself a shaking cup of beer.

The cold alcohol spread through him, clearing the fog in his mind.

He understood now—
Tonight’s meeting had been a complete failure.

Luo Shaotian might still talk, still laugh, still act like himself…
But his mental state was anything but normal.

The man who once shone like the sun was being dragged into a pit by a power that didn’t belong to him.

Lin Yu wanted to help.
But he was helpless.

Fight him?
He had his transformation device back—he could defeat monsters.
But Luo Shaotian wasn’t a monster.

He was a friend.

Lin Yu couldn’t raise a weapon against him.

Convince him?
Tonight had made it painfully clear—words were useless against the warped “justice” Luo Shaotian now believed in.

Lin Yu alone didn’t stand a chance.

He needed help.

But… from who?

Colleagues at Dawn Corp? Manager Qian?

Impossible.

His hand rose to touch the cold metal collar around his neck.

He was still classified as a high-risk “contamination source” by Section Zero.
If they found out he had approached another contaminated person—worse, one as volatile as Luo Shaotian—

They wouldn’t help.

They would “purify” him.

And Luo Shaotian.

As he spiraled in thought, a name surfaced from the deepest corner of his memory—dragged up along with memories of that terrifying V-Zone incident.

Lin Xue.

His sister.

That event had forced him to realize, for the first time, just how deep her research into sub-space truly ran.

She might…

She just might be able to understand what was happening to Luo Shaotian—scientifically.

Hands trembling, Lin Yu raised his wristband and tapped on a familiar, intimidating avatar.

It was time.

Time to talk to her about everything.