The Natives of This World Are Fierce

Jin Shunfu and his two companions waited nervously at the main intersection. The reinforcements they were hoping for arrived much faster than expected.

A few faint lights rose toward the horizon, letting out soft pops as they detonated within the clouds.

Not long after, the nighttime clouds in the area gradually dissipated.

Using Cloud Dispelling Bombs was a decision made by the higher-ups after their analysis. Although the reporting officer had said to avoid any light, they considered the time the Chaoxian Army went missing. It indicated that the bright, sunlit conditions of the daytime hadn’t worsened the plant’s condition, or at least not too severely.

Humans are diurnal creatures, after all. Even with night-vision equipment, unaided visibility is still very important.

The first wave of support to arrive were colleagues from the Rong County Police Department. Ambulances and fire trucks arrived with them.

The entire convoy of vehicles had their lights off, a dark mass moving forward, navigating by starlight.

Once the ambulance arrived, and after a preliminary examination of Jin Shunfu and Zhou Xiangtian, the medics loaded Huang Yulong, who was in too much pain to even move, into the ambulance for emergency care.

Seeing these "medical personnel," Huang Yulong actually felt a bit scared.

This ambulance wasn’t a common type, either; it seemed a size larger, and the doctors were all wearing something like hazmat suits.

Once inside the vehicle, Huang Yulong was stripped naked and thoroughly examined from top to bottom, inside and out—from his mouth to his anus.

Injury assessment, blood draws, and a routine examination were all, of course, mandatory.

Zhu Jianye and Lu Guodong, the chief and deputy chief, got out of the lead vehicle and firmly shook hands with Jin Shunfu and Zhou Xiangtian.

"I am deeply sorry about Comrade Zhang Xinyuan. We will attempt a rescue!"

After getting another detailed, face-to-face account of the officers’ experience, they began directing the first-arrived police and firefighters to set up a perimeter in the vicinity.

Terrified, every household in the nearby villages was forced to temporarily evacuate their homes due to a "major leak from a hazardous materials convoy."

The government advised them to stay with friends or relatives temporarily. For those who wished to stay in a hotel, full reimbursement would be provided.

...

A quadcopter drone equipped with night vision quietly approached the greenhouse area from the air.

By this time, the vines on the greenhouses and tiled-roof houses had fallen silent. The appearance of the starlight and moonlight had only caused a brief disturbance in the vegetation initially; afterward, it seemed to return to its previous state.

On the various roads along the perimeter, other support units were also arriving one after another. Following the first group, the subsequent reinforcements were from SWAT and Armed Police units.

The initial plan was to "wait." Wait for dawn!

This was, in truth, something of a gamble. Since many days might have already passed, what was one more day of delay?

It wasn’t that they didn’t care about the safety of the police force and the people’s property; it was just that this place was too important.

Relatively speaking, the probability of containing the situation here was quite high. Simply destroying it would be too much of a "waste," considering the current domestic and international situation.

That time in Siberia, the danger level was simply too high and impossible to effectively control, which is why Russia sent bombers to wipe out the "Ice and Snow Desolation."

But just in case, the military police on the perimeter were equipped with incendiary grenades and flamethrowers. Several tanker trucks were on standby further out, vehicles carrying military-grade weapons were en route, and military aircraft from the local command, armed with live ammunition, had already taken off.

If the situation were to change at dawn and exceed controllable limits, a devastating strike would be unleashed without hesitation.

...

Huang Jiutian’s face was a little pale. This wasn’t just from a lack of rest due to the tension, but also because of the several vials of blood that had just been drawn from him at the research institute.

Tao Xingzhi had just guaranteed on the plane that he would be absolutely fine, yet not long after getting off and arriving at headquarters, he was dragged to the research institute to cooperate with experiments.

It almost made Huang Jiutian think this group was about to turn on him and slice him up.

Thankfully, the research institute wasn’t as terrifying as he had imagined. Aside from the researchers being a bit pestering and their questions being somewhat annoying, everything else was fine. At least they hadn’t locked him in some kind of glass container.

When Xiaoliu found him, Jiutian was stripped bare, undergoing a full-body scan.

It wasn’t just Huang Jiutian who hadn’t rested well during this period; no one in the Special Security Team had, especially Tao Xingzhi.

Huang Jiutian was too important, even more so than the "mutated photosensitive plant" in Rong County. Tao Xingzhi wanted to let Huang Jiutian rest properly, to let him slowly adapt to his "new life" both mentally and physically.

If not for the lack of effective methods, Tao Xingzhi wouldn’t want to have Huang Jiutian running back and forth.

But that was destined to be impossible. Huang Jiutian had to get used to a pace that would only get faster and faster.

At Kyoto Airport, a private jet carrying members of the Special Security Team took off again into the night.

Huang Jiutian took a nutritional supplement like the others and then fell sound asleep on a bunk in the cabin, catching a few precious hours of sleep.

...

The editorial department of "Where the Nightingale Flies" was in complete chaos.

Of course, it wasn’t like they had been robbed or anything.

It all stemmed from the police report they filed after receiving the distress call.

A few hours after filing the report, they suddenly received a notice of investigation. Soon after, police officers showed up at their door to ask for details about the ins and outs of their report, and even checked the back end of their app.

Although the police later said they were no longer involved, it was clear that this matter was not simple.

But who were these people? They were the "distant relatives" of the paparazzi, sharing more or less the same DNA.

This was the middle of the night! If the editorial staff hadn’t already been working crazy overtime recently, would the police have had to drag them out of their homes to cooperate?

So, they did everything they could, using their contacts both inside and outside their circles, to find out what had happened.

They didn’t know the exact location? They had the IP records from the back end. They started by checking the location from the IP address: Rong County.

The results came back very quickly.

Only one major event had occurred in Rong County: the "major leak from a hazardous materials convoy"!

An incident like this was impossible to hide. With the large-scale evacuation of residents and the mobilization of so many military and police personnel, word had already spread through news circles.

So naturally, Cui Ying and the others found out about it.

If not for the earlier distress call from "Scarecrow," they might have been like their other colleagues, just talking about it while waiting for official press access.

But with the prior information and the subsequent police visit, everything was different.

The room for speculation was enormous!

They began to heatedly discuss what had really happened. Was it a real hazardous materials leak, which was why "Scarecrow" had called for help, or was it something else?

Unsurprisingly, everyone in the editorial department leaned toward the latter.

Why fabricate a story about a hazardous materials leak? Why hide the truth? And why evacuate so many nearby residents?

They couldn’t sit still any longer. The editorial department immediately dispatched a team by car to Su Province, figuring they would head there first and sort things out later.

Around two in the morning, Cui Ying drove into Rong County territory with four of her colleagues from the department.

After a few phone calls, they learned the specific location from some local colleagues.

The large greenhouse cultivation area on the highway outside Huashu Village, Rong County.

...

The car didn’t stop, heading straight for Huashu Village.

"Stop, stop, stop! There’s a traffic police roadblock ahead!"

The girl in the passenger seat warned a clearly fatigued Cui Ying. The latter roused herself and checked the GPS; it seemed like taking a detour would be difficult.

The car was stopped, and a traffic cop walked to the front of the sedan.

He first checked Cui Ying for drunk driving. The reading was normal, but he didn’t let them go. Instead, he peered at the people inside the car.

"You didn’t listen to the traffic report on the radio?"

"Uh, we didn’t have it on. What’s going on, sir?"

The traffic cop was quite young and felt a little awkward being called "sir" by a group of adults.

"Mm, there’s been a chemical leak up ahead. This road is temporarily closed. I suggest you take a detour or turn back."

"What!? We’ve been driving all night to visit relatives, and now we have to go back? Huashu Village isn’t even that far from here!"

The traffic cop looked at the girl in the passenger seat who had spoken, a hint of suspicion in his eyes.

"Huashu Village? If you’re going there, you should definitely turn back. Your relatives have probably already been evacuated. Besides, didn’t you call them before you came?"

"Ahaha, we’ll get going then. We’ll call them in a bit to confirm. Maybe they just forgot to tell us!"

Cui Ying said with a hearty laugh, preparing to turn the car around.

"Wait. Tell me your relatives’ names. I’ll have someone check for you!"

PS: Thanks to book friends binbin373 and ’Desperate To Be Single No More’ for the 1,000-coin tips, thanks to book friend ’Not a Laughing Smile’ for the 300-coin tip, and thanks to book friends Blood Race Night Blade and ’Speechless in Vain’ for the 100-coin tips~~