Chapter 167: Shrouded in Suspicion

Like this style of bickering and quarreling between father and son, Chang Yu engaged in it with Yangyang every single day, seemingly never tiring of it.

"I've told you how many times already, don't always hang out with that group of little girls in your kindergarten. You should still make one or two boyfriends on occasion—bah, bah... I mean male friends."

Yangyang rolled his eyes dramatically, still maintaining an air of complete indifference, practically treating Chang Yu's words as wind passing his ears.

It was as if all of Chang Yu's heartfelt advice amounted to nothing more than nagging nonsense in his eyes.

"Oh right, I forgot to tell you something." Yangyang rolled his eyes, turning to look at Chang Yu.

"What is it?" Katerina asked curiously.

"Our teacher said she wants my parents to come to her office for a chat this Sunday morning," Yangyang said, hands tucked into his pockets with a breezy, nonchalant expression.

"What?!"

Chang Yu was shocked on the spot. He extended a trembling hand, pointing at Yangyang for a long time with his mouth wide open, utterly incapable of forming a coherent sentence.

Was he... being called in by a teacher?

Why on earth did an ordeal that only ever existed in legends happen to fall upon him?

At this moment, Chang Yu finally experienced that shadow and... bitter ache that had hovered over the hearts of parents all over the world for thousands of years.

"Did the teacher say what this parent-teacher meeting is about?" Katerina frowned, her expression turning serious.

"Didn't say. Who knows what she wants?" Yangyang still had that frivolous attitude. "Maybe she's taken a fancy to Chang Yu, who knows."

Well, now that he thought about it, that was actually quite possible...

Hearing this, Chang Yu figured he still possessed quite a bit of personal charm.

Yet on the surface, he put on a righteous expression, full of righteous indignation against evil.

It was as if every woman in the world except for Katerina was his sworn enemy.

"What nonsense are you spitting!" Chang Yu gave Yangyang a light knock on the head, saying viciously, "I reckon you caused trouble at kindergarten again. Otherwise, would the teacher have nothing better to do than call me in for a chat?"

Though inwardly pleased, Chang Yu didn't dare reveal that expression, especially in front of Katerina.

Above all, he had to avoid any suspicion!

"Just go see Yangyang's teacher on Sunday, you'll find out sooner or later anyway," Katerina said, taking a rather relaxed view of the matter.

Since the summon had already been issued, they would simply cross that bridge when they came to it.

"Fine then!" Seeing this, Chang Yu stopped pressing the issue. "We'll deal with Sunday's business on Sunday. Let's go get some dinner first."

Whether fate was deliberately going against Chang Yu or not, no sooner had his words fallen than Katerina's phone rang.

"Report to the bureau for a meeting. There are important matters to announce," a deep, authoritative male voice came from the phone.

"Understood!" Katerina's reply was, as always, brief and forceful.

Hanging up the phone, Katerina looked at Chang Yu apologetically and said, "Bad timing today, the bureau has a meeting."

"What a pity then." Even though he was disappointed, Chang Yu said considerately, "Still, it's understandable, work comes first."

"Let's reschedule dinner for another day, there's no rush," Katerina continued. "With this meeting notice coming so urgently, there must be something important to announce."

"Take my car," Chang Yu tossed his car keys to Katerina. "It'll be more convenient for you that way."

"Besides, it's close to home anyway, Yangyang and I can just walk back."

"Thanks!" Katerina didn't stand on ceremony. She caught the keys and turned, ready to get into the car.

"Hey, wait!" Seeing that Katerina was about to leave, Chang Yu quickly called out to her.

"Is there something else?" Katerina asked.

Chang Yu walked up to her and whispered softly, "There's a gift box in the back seat of the car. It's a present I bought for you, I hope you like it."

"A gift, for me?" Women are notoriously sensitive to the word gift, and Katerina was no exception.

Yet framed this way, there was hardly a woman in the world who wouldn't like a gift.

"Yes, it's for you," Chang Yu smiled, his tone full of doting affection. "This is the first time I've ever given a gift to a girl, so you absolutely cannot refuse me."

"Then once I'm done with work, I'll have to take a good look at what it is." Katerina smiled as well—a smile so beautiful, pure, and filled with contentment.

"This is also the first time a guy has ever given me a gift. No matter what it is, I'm very happy." She said.

"Trust me, you'll definitely like it." Chang Yu smiled even more brightly now.

Without further ado, Katerina turned, got into the car, stepped on the gas, and sped down the street.

Watching her drive away, Chang Yu vigorously rubbed the top of Yangyang's head and said, "Let's go, time to go home and make you dinner."

"I've really had enough," Yangyang lowered his head in depression. "Getting hit by this wave of dog food caught me totally off guard. Bah, bah, bah, what terrible luck!"

In the dead of night, Katerina finally returned.

From the serious expression on her face, Chang Yu could infer a great deal.

Something major must have happened, Chang Yu thought to himself.

"Here, your car keys." Katerina handed the keys back to Chang Yu without saying much else.

"What happened? Why did the bureau call a sudden meeting?" Since Katerina hadn't offered any explanation, Chang Yu took the initiative to ask.

"Let's go inside first, talking outside isn't very convenient." Katerina walked straight into Chang Yu's home and familiarly took a seat on the sofa.

Picking up a cup from the coffee table, Chang Yu poured a cup of tea for Katerina and handed it to her.

"Now, tell me about it." Chang Yu plopped down right next to Katerina, showing no formality whatsoever.

Come to think of it, ever since their date earlier today, their relationship had indeed warmed up considerably.

"Remember that boy we caught?" Katerina thought for a moment and asked.

"You mean Hao Qifu, the one who controlled the swarm of mosquitoes and harmed our two colleagues?" Chang Yu naturally knew whom Katerina was referring to.

"The bureau has been interrogating him for the past few days, hoping he would reveal the origin of that Calamity Artifact, but progress has been poor," Katerina began to recount.

"At first, everyone thought the boy was just being stubborn, unwilling to share the intelligence he possessed, which was why he intentionally acted as if he knew nothing."

"But later on, an investigator with mind-reading abilities returned from an assignment, and the bureau put him in charge of interrogating Hao Qifu."

"Yet when this investigator read Hao Qifu's mind, he discovered that the boy genuinely wasn't lying; he truly knew nothing."

Chang Yu frowned, his mind filled with questions: "If he knew nothing, then how did the Calamity Artifact in his hands come about?"

"Don't tell me he picked it up while going to the restroom. If you could just pick up items like that casually, the world would have descended into chaos long ago."

"That is the crux of the issue," Katerina picked up her teacup and took a small sip.

"That necklace isn't a Calamity Artifact, or rather, given its quality, it falls far short of being a true Calamity Artifact."

"What do you mean?" Chang Yu was somewhat confused.

"It's actually a pseudo-Calamity Artifact, manufactured by someone mimicking the appearance of a real Calamity Artifact. Both its power and its material fall far short of the genuine article."

"The effectiveness it can exert is only half that of a real Calamity Artifact, and it comes with numerous usage restrictions—it cannot be used an unlimited number of times."

"Once used a certain number of times, it will turn into a handful of yellow sand and lose its utility forever."

"In other words, this thing is equivalent to a consumable; once you use it up, it's gone."

"I see." Chang Yu let out a sigh of relief.

"I said at the time that Calamity Artifacts are extremely rare, and their birth is not an easy process. How could we possibly just stumble upon one so casually?" Katerina continued.

"If it's a pseudo-Calamity Artifact, then it's easy to understand. A pseudo-Calamity Artifact can at best be considered an artificially synthesized semi-finished product. Although this technology touches upon the field of ancient alchemy, it's not particularly profound."

"The bureau's equipment department has manufactured many pseudo-Calamity Artifacts. They aren't rare; many investigators in our bureau have one or two on hand for self-defense, so they aren't considered precious."

"You mean that pseudo-Calamity Artifact was manufactured by that boy using ancient alchemy?" Chang Yu felt a sudden sense of depression.

Are young people today all this heaven-defying? How can they just casually pull out black technology like it's nothing?

To his surprise, Katerina immediately dismissed Chang Yu's speculation: "Not quite. He doesn't have the capability or the technology to manufacture a pseudo-Calamity Artifact."

"That necklace appeared by Hao Qifu's bedside as if it had fallen from the sky. When he woke up, he found the necklace right there."

"Because his father had gone gambling that night, he was the only one at home, and both the doors and windows were tightly locked, so for now, it's unclear how that necklace manifested."

"So it really did fall from the sky." Chang Yu smiled, always feeling that this whole affair sounded utterly incredible and fantastical, as if... everything had been prearranged long ago.

A youth who was bullied on a daily basis suddenly woke up one morning to discover he possessed Pandora's box.

As long as he opened this Pandora's box, he would gain unprecedented superpowers in this world, allowing him to turn his life around, embark on a path of revenge against his classmates and society.

Every classmate who had ever bullied him would pay a price, trampled beneath his feet to be humiliated at will. This sounded just like something out of a web novel, completely detached from reality.

Yet it had truly and concretely unfolded right before his eyes, leaving Chang Yu no room for disbelief.

"As for how to use that necklace, the moment he touched it, he heard a whisper," Katerina continued.

"A voice in the dark told him how to use the necklace and how to drive those mosquitoes to do his bidding."

There are never too many coincidences in this world. One might be acceptable, but when they happen one after another, it is no longer a simple coincidence.

"This is getting interesting. By your logic, he's being used?" Chang Yu wasn't stupid; he immediately guessed the crux of the matter.

"He's merely a pawn that can be discarded at any moment, and a pawn doesn't need to know that much," Katerina gave a definitive reply.

"A pawn simply needs to obediently follow the chess player's guidance, step by step."

"Moreover, Hao Qifu's serum test results are out. He's just an ordinary human with zero extraordinary talent."

"The extraordinary abilities he was able to display relied entirely on that necklace; the power belonged to the necklace itself."

"We suspect there is an invisible dark hand orchestrating things behind the scenes, and the reason everything escalated to this point is because of this hidden mastermind."

"Then where did those mosquito-like Calamities come from?" Chang Yu thought of those cockroach-sized mosquitoes, a shiver running down his spine.

He had seen with his own eyes how those mosquito Calamities drained two grown men into mummies in a single instant!

How did such ferocious mosquito Calamities suddenly appear on campus? And why were they willing to obey the commands of an ordinary teenager?

Chang Yu had far too many questions in his mind. These questions were tangled like a ball of yarn, impossible to untangle.

"The formation of Calamities is actually not that easy. The occasional appearance of one or two is fine, but the sudden emergence of so many is rather abnormal." Katerina was actually quite perplexed by this point as well.

"Even up until now, we still haven't figured out where these mosquito Calamities came from or why they have a tendency to group together."

Katerina had also been baffled by the massive swarm that appeared that day, always feeling that the timing was far too coincidental.

Having worked at the Calamity Investigation Bureau for so many years, this was the first time she had ever witnessed Calamities appearing in packs.

In her experience, Calamity creatures always appeared alone.

Whenever more than two Calamities crossed paths, they would inevitably engage in a round of infighting, neither willing to yield to the other.

"So the most urgent task right now is to find out who this dark hand is, which organization they belong to, what their purpose is in utilizing the boy, and what kind of outcome they intend to bring about." Katerina's mood was far from as calm as she appeared.

If things truly were as she imagined—that all of this had been orchestrated by some unknown entity—then the Calamity Investigation Bureau had to be on high alert.

Such methods, such planning, had undoubtedly surpassed everyone's expectations.

If they were truly allowed to stir up trouble unchecked, H City would soon descend into chaos.

The Calamity Investigation Bureau had to take action!