Chapter 1: Accidentally Entering the Mansion of Shadows

  The rain is pouring down, bringing a bit of coolness to this sweltering summer that was originally suffocating. This northern city, which should have distinct seasons, has also become like the south with warming temperatures in all four seasons. Summer always makes people feel so miserable. Pedestrians on the streets are scurrying about like mice…..

  In a remote area of DL City, surrounded by old Russian buildings, the roads are overgrown with weeds. The streetlights on this rainy evening are dimly lit, and the area is usually deserted. It belongs to the area that was included in the government's demolition plan. In the early years during the war against Japan, it was a Soviet-controlled area. After Russia lost the war and Japan occupied the place, they continued to build up the complex. The government later issued a demolition order to improve the city's appearance. Except for some well-preserved tall buildings that were left standing, the rest of the area has become a wasteland. Because of this, the temporarily unmanaged area became a haven for evil. Many wanted criminals, drug dealers, and smugglers have set their sights on this place...

  In a small alley of the ruins, a man wearing a black short-sleeved shirt let the rain wash over his body, not caring at all. His face was already indistinguishable between sweat and rainwater, his entire spirit was highly concentrated. He tightly grasped a 64-style police pistol in his hand, slowly moving forward step by step. Like a cat at night, he vigilantly observed everything around him.

  "Hello, is that Guo Zhi?"

  "Yes, where are you? Hurry back, there's a meeting at the bureau."

  "I won't be back for the time being, I've found a clue of the 5.12 suspect in XX district, but let him escape, however, I think he didn't go far, hurry up and get someone to help"

  "What? Really? Wait for me there, don't leave, we'll be right there"

  He put down the phone and Yang Hao didn't know what to do next. The target was lost, and blindly searching would only waste his energy without any gain. Thinking of this, he let out a long sigh. After all, the two-hour pursuit had consumed all his physical strength, and with the intense mental concentration, it was really unbearable. He found a sheltered corner, sat down, and thought back to the case on May 12th. This was an extremely vicious case, targeting long-haired single women, involving perverted rape, robbery, murder, and dismemberment. The victims' bodies were gruesome, with their entire scalp and hair ripped off, hands and feet severed at the joints, and lower body parts cut off from the torso. The crime scene was filled with blood, leaving even veteran police officers and young newcomers feeling chilled to the bone. There were already 19 victims, each case more horrific than the last. This was undoubtedly a huge shock for Yang Hao, who had just joined the police force.

  The rain continued to pour down relentlessly, and the sky gradually darkened. The scene of the case reappeared in Yang Hao's mind once again, and his earlier fatigue was washed away by the rekindled fear and anger. A gust of wind mixed with rain blew across his face, causing him to shiver involuntarily. He lifted his head and gazed up at the dark sky...

  "My god, Hao Ge, luckily I ran fast. That dead guy chased me for almost half the city, sigh. He's really persistent, if I run into him again, I'll definitely shoot him with one bullet."

  "Haha, little brother, you can't even protect yourself now, just keep those words in your heart for now, come and hide out with me for a while."

  "Haha, brother is right, but these days are going to be depressing again. Thinking about those women, they're really damn stimulating. But I haven't even had a chance to enjoy it yet and it's already over... sigh... next time I'll definitely take it slower. Just thinking about their struggling expressions gets me excited"

  "A Qiang ah, you... *sigh*..."

  The conversation between the two people was heard clearly by Yang Hao. The speaker was Li Yihao, a notorious crime lord in the entire Northeast region, who had gathered a large number of fugitives under his command. His subordinate, Zeng Qiang, also known as Ah Qiang, was one of them and the perpetrator of the 5.12 case. Due to emotional trauma caused by his wife's betrayal, who eloped with his mistress and took his property, he developed a severely distorted mind, seeking revenge against women in a crazy manner, leading to numerous tragic cases. Upon hearing their conversation, Yang Hao suddenly regained his energy, opened the safety of his 64 pistol in an instant, stood up, and moved towards the direction of the sound.

  "It's a narrow road for enemies to meet again, Zeng Qiang! We've met again!" Yang Hao's voice floated in the air like a ghost, and upon hearing it, Li and Zeng were startled, turning their heads around, their eyes fixed on Yang Hao with venomous stares.

  "Brother, this dead guy has been chasing me for so long, you go first, I'll deal with him," Li Yihao nodded and disappeared around the corner in an instant. Yang Hao didn't expect Li Yihao to have such a big move, just as he was about to shout for Li Yihao to stop, he suddenly discovered that Zeng Qiang's hand had somehow produced a handgun, which was already aimed at him. With a shock, he immediately ducked down, and with a loud "bang", Yang Hao felt a chill in his left shoulder, followed by intense pain. He knew he had been hit. If not for this quick reaction, the bullet would have probably hit his heart.

  Without time to think, Yang Hao endured the pain and launched a counterattack. Zeng Qiang was also caught off guard, not expecting Yang Hao's reaction to be so fast. This momentary lapse gave Yang Hao an opportunity, and he fired three shots in quick succession. However, due to the haste, the accuracy of the shots was questionable. Only one bullet hit Zeng Qiang's abdomen, and it seemed his life was doomed. With a fierce determination, Zeng Qiang turned around and escaped into another alley.

  Yang Hao's remaining two bullets hit the wall at the corner, but he didn't let this opportunity slip away. Ignoring his own injury, he chased after Zeng Qiang, running through several alleys before Zeng Qiang slipped into a building that resembled a Russian palace. Tall stone pillars stood in front of the door, with sharp pointed domes painted red, and a massive clock was embedded in the center, although time seemed to have stopped at some point. The two men's height matched the half-opened large doors, which were slightly ajar.

  Yang Hao judged that the killer must have gone inside, and without hesitation, he covered his wound and walked towards the door...

  The more blood that flowed, the more it stained his clothes, wet and sticky. The fatigue of his body combined with the loss of blood made Yang Hao's intuition a bit fuzzy. He shook his head hard and forced himself to walk to the front door of the building. Just as his fingertips touched the door, he suddenly felt a numbness, and a strange melody echoed in his ears... 'Shirakaba, Aozora...' (Kitaguni no Haru, Japanese song). Yang Hao was filled with doubt, wondering how there could be someone singing in this desolate place. He listened carefully to the sound, which seemed to exist and yet not exist at the same time. After hesitating for a moment, he finally summoned all his strength and pushed open the door.

  "Ah~~~ The large door was slowly pushed open, and the scene before him made Yang Hao stand at the entrance in a daze, his mouth agape, even forgetting about the pain. The entire hall was decorated luxuriously, with a group of young men and women dancing waltz in the middle of the hall, surrounded by people chatting and laughing, toasting with wine. But judging from their clothing, they didn't seem like modern people, nor did they resemble modern Chinese youth. At the entrance, right in front of him, was placed a very large and long table, filled with all sorts of food, and at the entrance of the hall, hung... a "plaster" flag...... Yang Hao looked at everything before him, his mind constantly pondering, but unable to determine an answer. Just then, a voice came from deep within: Could it be that I've encountered evil? Impossible, Yang Hao shook his head in disbelief, yet everything before him was so real. But no matter what happened, making someone who had received higher education believe in ghosts was simply absurd. Just as he wanted to find someone to ask, his peripheral vision suddenly caught sight of Zeng Qiang standing in the corner of the wall, equally stunned by the scene before them, standing there foolishly. At this moment, Yang Hao's mind calmed down, after all, for him, nothing was more important than catching this big fish. As for everything before him, perhaps it was just a party at the Japanese consulate? After giving himself an explanation full of loopholes, Yang Hao calmed his nerves, hid his gun in his sleeve, and walked step by step towards Zeng Qiang's position. His mind was filled with thoughts of how to capture this damned guy. Just like that, Yang Hao quietly approached Zeng Qiang's side, while the latter still hadn't noticed anything, still foolishly standing there. Not until he felt a chill on his wrist did he realize that Yang Hao had already put a pair of 'silver handcuffs' on him, with one end locked onto Yang Hao's own wrist. This was perfect, now he couldn't run even if he wanted to. The two people became like ants on a line. Zeng Qiang glared at Yang Hao with malice and said in a low voice:

  "You're really a ruthless devil"

  "Hmph, I'll show no mercy to devils like you. Cut the chatter and come with me."

  "Wait..."

  Zeng Qiang suddenly changed his expression and pulled out Yang Hao who was about to leave, looking at the people in the hall with a strange gaze, then looked at Yang Hao again, speaking softly.

  "It's in your hands today, I admit defeat. But listen to me for a moment, let's wait a bit longer, if we leave now, it's not necessarily going to work"

  "What do you mean by this? I'm leaving, and no one can stop me."

  "Hmph, young people are so impulsive, they're afraid of being stopped by someone who isn't human. Look at the clothes they wear, look at their hairstyles, and then look at that band-aid flag - which part of it looks like modern people?"

  Indeed, as Zeng Qiang said, these people, the men all had big buns on their heads, shiny and bright, they must have used at least a catty of hair wax, wearing large Western suits, big leather shoes. Some even wore yellow military uniforms, high-top leather boots. The women were dressed in long skirts, some wore tube pants with suspenders, small collar shirts. It was indeed not the attire of modern people. Yang Hao furrowed his brow upon seeing this, it was all because he had been thinking about Zeng Qiang just now and didn't take a closer look around, but hearing him say so also made him realize that it was indeed a problem.

  "Don't tell me we've encountered a ghost. I don't buy that."

  "Hmm, believe it or not..."

  Yang Hao's heart was also 7 up and 8 down, when he was young, he had heard some similar things from his elders, but at that time, he didn't pay attention to it, just passing it off as an interesting story. Now that he really encountered it himself, he realized that what his mind couldn't accept, his heart had already accepted long ago. At this moment, Yang Hao's phone suddenly rang.....

  "Ahao, where are you now?" The voice of Guo Zhi came over the phone.

  "I'm currently in a Russian building similar to a church, specifically I don't know where"

  "Did Zeng Qiang get caught?"

  "Hmm, he can't escape now, and is tied up with me"

  "Alright, you stay there for now, we'll rush over..."

  Before he could finish speaking, a voice came from behind him...

  Yang Hao turned around and saw a man wearing a Japanese military uniform walking towards him with 2 cups of sake in his hand, this is bad, what to do? Just as Yang Hao was at a loss for what to do, the Japanese "person" spoke again...

  At a time when they were at their wit's end, Zeng Qiang suddenly came up with an earth-shattering sentence, which made Yang Hao look at him in surprise. Zeng Qiang squeezed Yang Hao's hand hard, signaling him not to speak, and only then did Yang Hao swallow back the words that were about to come out of his mouth.

  We two came as representatives of overseas students to see the world.

  Ah, so that's how it is, haha, okay, Kobayashi, you take them around for a tour then.

  "What did he say to you?" Yang Hao asked cautiously.

  "Don't worry, he's going to take us on a tour. If there's another exit, we'll make a run for it along the way."

  "You're not plotting something, are you?"

  "Alas, rest assured, I'd rather die by gunfire than at the hands of these foreign devils."

  Zeng Qiang finished speaking and was chatting with a person named Xiao Lin, the three of them continued to visit the hall, office, and living quarters. Afterwards, they walked down the spiral staircase to the bottom of the building. The entrance was narrow, but after entering, they found that it was actually quite spacious inside. There were many prison cells lined up on both sides of the corridor, with dim yellow lights illuminating them. To their surprise, they saw that there were still prisoners locked in the cells. These prisoners glared at Yang Hao and his group with anger and hatred in their eyes, some even spat at them repeatedly. The consequences were predictable. Yang Hao naturally knew that these people were suffering Chinese citizens, but he wanted to lend a hand, unfortunately, he was struggling to save himself, let alone others. Maybe these people had already died. As he thought about this, Yang Hao's attention was suddenly diverted by a mournful cry...

  At this time, Zeng Qiang suddenly stopped in his tracks, Yang Hao turned around to look at him, and at this moment, Zeng Qiang's eyes were bloodshot, his teeth chattering loudly, he stood there for a long time, motionless.

  "Hey, what's wrong?" (Kobayashi kept repeating this phrase, and about 3-5 minutes passed) Suddenly, Zeng Qiang had a gun in his hand, raised it to aim at Kobayashi while loudly shouting out.

  "Little Japan, I curse your ancestors, I'll fight you to the death."

  Here is the translation:

  After finishing speaking, Zeng Qiang's gun fired, bang...bang...bang...bang... until the entire clip was empty. He only stopped then. It could be clearly seen that Zeng Qiang's bloodshot eyes were streaming with tears of blood, his lips were bitten through, and his fingers were still mechanically pulling the trigger. He was filled with hatred, he was going mad, everything in front of him had caused his mind to collapse. In the last moment, his conscience appeared...

  Yang Hao saw this and knew it was not a good place to stay for long. So he went forward and patted Zeng Qiang on the back, preparing to pull him out and run away. But Yang Hao miscalculated. The Zeng Qiang he had just patted had already fallen to the ground, motionless and without breath.

  Yes, Zeng Qiang was dead, a ruthless killer who had died in a Japanese ghost den. Such an ending didn't know whether it should make people feel relieved or sympathetic. Until his death, those bloodshot eyes did not close, and the tightly pursed lips could not be opened by external force.

  Yang Hao saw this and felt a wave of emotions. "Zeng Qiang, Zeng Qiang, you were born in the wrong era. If you had been born in a time of war, perhaps you would have been a man with a sense of justice." Yang Hao sighed and closed his eyes, calming his mind. Just as he was thinking about what to do next, "Shina-jin, Shina-jin, subete korosu..." (Chinese people, Chinese people, all must be killed...). The Japanese devils who were conducting experiments stopped their work, their faces gloomy and menacing, and walked towards Yang Hao...