Deng Yuqi seemed slightly surprised to see Cheng Shengnan here.
“Should I step aside or leave?” Cheng Shengnan had risen to her current position for a reason—she knew how to read a room.
Deng Yuqi shook her head. “No need. We’re just here for a ‘sanitation inspection.’ You can go about your business as usual.”
Since it wasn’t the weekend and it was still midday, the supermarket wasn’t crowded. Deng Yuqi had already stationed personnel around the area as a precaution. If any signs of the supernatural appeared, Huo Yu would lead the team in evacuating civilians. Until then, there was no need to cause panic.
Cheng Shengnan nodded and walked away. As an ordinary person, the less she knew about the supernatural or the Special Response Department’s classified affairs, the better.
Once she was gone, Deng Yuqi turned to Shen Ge for a briefing.
Omitting details about the system, Shen Ge explained that he had wandered in by chance and sensed something eerily familiar—a strange feeling reminiscent of his experience inside the supernatural taxi’s distorted space.
After listening, Deng Yuqi ordered the inspection team to begin their “sanitation check.”
The supermarket staff had never seen anyone bring pesticide-spraying equipment for a hygiene inspection before, and murmurs of amazement spread among them.
“What kind of high-tech gadget is that?”
“No idea, but it looks pretty advanced.”
“Maybe they’re disinfecting under the guise of an inspection?”
“Disinfecting? Looks more like they’re spraying pesticide!”
“…”
“Pesticide? Philistines. This is… a sanitation scanner. One sweep, and we’ll know if your hygiene standards are up to par,” someone blurted out, barely stopping himself from saying more—lest he end up writing another self-criticism report later.
Shen Ge recognized that voice immediately—Li Xiang had arrived.
…..
Meanwhile, Cheng Shengnan figured that since she was already here, she might as well pick up some seafood. She headed to the stall where Shen Ge had bought fish earlier.
The vendor, who had been craning his neck to watch the “pesticide sprayers” at the entrance, switched to a customer-service smile when he saw the beautiful woman approaching. “Looking for some fish, miss?”
“Yes.”
“Any particular kind?”
“Let me browse first.”
The vendor launched into his sales pitch enthusiastically. “Young folks these days are all about skincare. How about trying some domestically farmed deep-sea octopus? Packed with protein and amino acids, great for replenishing nutrients, and best of all—low in fat.”
Cheng Shengnan’s expression turned slightly odd. “Sir, don’t you think your pitch is a bit… contradictory? ‘Domestic’ and ‘deep-sea’ don’t really go together, do they?”
She was being polite, but the vendor got the message and laughed. “Hah! Miss, you’re just out of the loop. Haven’t you seen the recent agricultural deep-dives? Sichuan produces caviar, Chongqing farms Australian lobsters, Xinjiang’s got salmon… A little deep-sea octopus is nothing!”
With that, he scooped up a fist-sized, curled-up octopus from the tank on the far left. “Just remove the innards—they’re the only part prone to bacteria. Cook it thoroughly, and you’re good to go. You look like you’ve been pulling late nights—those dark circles could use some help. This octopus is great for your skin and can even reduce puffiness.”
Cheng Shengnan hadn’t been interested at first, but after days of overtime since Shen Ge left, her dark circles had indeed worsened. The promise of fixing them piqued her curiosity.
“Alright… I’ll take one.”
“Coming right up!” The vendor cheerfully cleaned the octopus, removed the innards, chopped it up, bagged it, weighed it, and handed it over.
After scanning the payment code, Cheng Shengnan left with her purchase.
The vendor hummed as he wiped down the counter, then suddenly noticed something off. “Huh? One of the octopuses is missing. Where’d it go?”
Frowning, he began searching the seafood section.
“Chief! We’ve got something!”
After sweeping the supermarket with supernatural energy detectors, Li Xiang’s team had indeed found traces of residual energy.
A technician stepped forward to report. “We detected supernatural energy in the freezer, but it’s unusual—the scanners picked it up, but it’s invisible to the naked eye. Stranger still, there’s only residual energy. No sign of an actual entity.”
“Let’s take a look.” Deng Yuqi and Shen Ge headed to the freezer, where two more technicians were running tests.
“Reporting—only residual energy here. No entity present.”
Shen Ge ducked inside the freezer to inspect the contents while Deng Yuqi asked, “Can you track the entity’s location from the residual energy?”
The technician shook his head.
Just then, Li Xiang walked over holding a transparent glass vial. “Chief, this is bizarre… I managed to collect some of the energy, and I can confirm this vial contains traces from here. But unlike the usual black mist, this energy is… invisible! This is a major discovery!”
Deng Yuqi rubbed her temples. Supernatural entities were already hard enough to deal with—now there was an invisible one?
“Chief, we’ve swept the entire supermarket. No signs of activity.”
“Chie—”
Another technician was cut off as Shen Ge strode out of the freezer, clutching a frozen flatfish. He shoved the fish into a nearby technician’s hands.
“Chief, wait here for a moment.” Without another word, Shen Ge sprinted out of the supermarket, then raced back inside.
[Host has bravely ventured into the lair of a Tier-7 supernatural entity and emerged unscathed—truly peerless! Reward: 100 system points!]
But this time, from the escalator to the freezer, the system remained silent.
Meaning the entity was no longer in the supermarket.
Shen Ge’s expression darkened as he recalled the family of three buying a flatfish earlier.
Of course. According to the Laws of Narrative, any background character with dialogue was doomed.
“Chief, have the manager pull the surveillance footage. Look for a family—a man in his thirties with stubble, a petite woman, and a four- or five-year-old girl. They were here about half an hour ago, around the time I called you. I think they accidentally took the entity home.”
Shen Ge’s rare seriousness put Deng Yuqi on high alert. When even the usually unpredictable Shen Ge was this focused, things had to be bad.
Deng Yuqi immediately sent for the manager to review the footage.
Thirty minutes later, the Special Response Department’s logistics team had identified the family’s address using the surveillance images.
Shen Ge and the team arrived at an apartment complex near Tom’s Mall and knocked on the door of Unit 24-1.
The petite woman answered, holding her daughter. The little girl’s eyes lit up when she saw Shen Ge. “Wow! It’s the uncle who’s scared of escalators!”
Shen Ge: …Kid, let’s never speak of this again.
“Hello, can I help you?” The woman tensed at the sight of Shen Ge, Deng Yuqi, and the uniformed officers behind them.
Deng Yuqi flashed her badge. “We’re from the Municipal Health Bureau. The flatfish you purchased is from a contaminated batch. We need to retrieve it for testing.”
“Oh… we already cooked it,” the woman said awkwardly.
“Cooked? May we take a look?”
“Of course.”
The team followed her inside. After explaining the situation to her husband, Li Xiang scanned the area with a detector and shook his head. “No traces.”
Shen Ge lifted the lid of the pot on the stove, revealing a half-steamed flatfish drenched in soy sauce.
The fish looked even more grotesque than a supernatural entity—how could something this ugly not be the problem?
Shen Ge frowned.
Where did that invisible thing go?
…..
Cheng Shengnan unlocked her apartment door, arms full of groceries. She set the bags on the kitchen counter, washed her hands, and prepared to cook the octopus as instructed.
But after unpacking the fruits, olive oil, and tissues, all that remained was a damp, slimy, deflated plastic bag.
“Huh? Wait… where’s my octopus?”
