Chapter 157: Memory Erasure
Yang Haoran, of course, knew who Wang Yiming was referring to—who else but Xu Meijing?
But Yang Haoran hadn't expected Xu Meijing to have such a wide scope of operations back in Lecheng, even taking on cases from the Spirit Police. No wonder the number of souls she guided each month was astonishing; with her work spanning hospitals, cemeteries, and the Spirit Police, it would be difficult for her to collect any fewer souls.
To be honest, Xu Meijing was truly diligent in this regard. At least, that's what Yang Haoran had always believed. While luck played a significant part in Xu Meijing's current strength and achievements, her personal effort was equally indispensable.
“If I don't put in more effort, she'll just leave me further and further behind. I must catch up to her to be worthy of pursuing what I desire. ”
Yang Haoran's expression remained unchanged, but in his heart, he secretly vowed that he must rapidly increase his strength to keep pace with Xu Meijing.
At this moment, Wang Yiming didn't notice Yang Haoran. With an excited expression, he pulled out his phone, about to call his captain. However, just as he retrieved it and before he could dial, a vehicle approached from a distance.
It was just an ordinary minivan, not a police car, but Wang Yiming seemed to recognize it, so he reluctantly put his phone away.
“Never mind, I'll call later. Let's handle things here first. ”
With that, Wang Yiming led Yang Haoran toward the minivan.
“Why aren't you leaving with them? ”
Yang Haoran looked at Wang Yiming beside him, a hint of confusion in his eyes. He had expected Wang Yiming to return with his colleagues in the minivan to deal with the day's events, but that wasn't the case.
“We still have a very important matter to attend to. ”
Wang Yiming had already regained his composure from his earlier excitement, and his face naturally returned to its usual serious and calm demeanor as his emotions settled.
Yang Haoran didn't pay much attention to Wang Yiming's expression. As long as he wasn't overly emotional, Wang Yiming always looked like this, and Yang Haoran had grown accustomed to it.
However, with Du Xiao's corpse already transported away, he wondered what important matter could possibly be left. A trace of doubt crept into his heart.
“What else needs to be done? ” Yang Haoran asked.
“You'll know if you follow me. ” Wang Yiming squeezed out a faint smile, speaking to Yang Haoran with a touch of mystery.
With his curiosity piqued, Yang Haoran followed Wang Yiming to the cemetery's guard room, where a guard was still on duty.
“The guard has been here the whole time. It's hard to say what he might have seen, so to be safe, I must erase his memories of this afternoon. After every mission, we always erase certain memories from ordinary people present, to prevent them from seeing things they shouldn't and affecting their normal lives in the future. ”
The guard looked utterly bewildered, clearly having no idea what Wang Yiming was talking about. However, Wang Yiming didn't change his decision based on the guard's reaction. He simply pointed a finger at the guard's brow, and the guard froze in place, as if a machine had lost power.
In the eyes of ordinary people, Wang Yiming's move was lightning-fast, leaving no time to react, but in Yang Haoran's eyes, it was nothing remarkable.
A moment later, Wang Yiming withdrew his finger, and the guard's body slumped weakly to the ground. Wang Yiming then helped the guard up, placed him in a chair, and turned his gaze to Yang Haoran.
“It's done. We can leave now. ”
Yang Haoran's eyebrow twitched. He first fell into deep thought, contemplating something unknown, then asked Wang Yiming, “Is this technique of yours a memory seal, or memory erasure? ”
Upon hearing Yang Haoran's question, Wang Yiming immediately knew that Yang Haoran was an amateur.
“A memory seal isn't very effective; a skilled expert can undo it. What we do is memory erasure. Once erased, it won't be recovered. This guard has just fallen asleep. He'll wake up in a little while, and when he does, he'll have forgotten everything that happened this afternoon, including our presence, just like blacking out from drinking. ”
At this point, Wang Yiming looked at Yang Haoran with a puzzled expression and said, “Brother Yang, you don't seem to know anything about this technique. ”
Yang Haoran wasn't embarrassed, nor did he pretend to understand. He simply nodded decisively and said, “You're right, I don't know anything about it, so I'd like to learn from you. ”
“No need to ‘learn,' if you don't know, I'll teach you. This is a very common technique that many people understand. However, while it works well on ordinary people, it's a bit different when used on non-ordinary people. If your strength is superior to the target's, the success rate is higher. But if your strength is below the target's, the success rate will not only be much lower, you might even suffer a backlash and injure yourself. ”
“It's precisely for this reason that this memory erasure technique is seen as a bit of a 'chicken rib' by many. Not only because it's not very effective on non-ordinary people, but also because it's rarely used in daily life. However, we Spirit Police use it frequently, almost exclusively on ordinary people, so it's quite handy for us. That's why every Spirit Police officer must learn this technique. ”
After listening to Wang Yiming's explanation, Yang Haoran's expression didn't change much, but an idea sparked in his mind. He smiled and said, “I'm quite interested in this technique. If it's possible, could you teach me sometime later? ”
“Why wait until later? Let's celebrate tonight, and I'll teach you while we drink. How about it? ” Wang Yiming asked with a smile.
Yang Haoran looked at Wang Yiming with a strange expression and chuckled, “You don't usually like drinking, do you? What, have you changed your ways now? ”
“Haha, after that last drinking session with you and Ma Ling, I found I've actually grown quite fond of the bottle. That dizzying feeling, it makes me feel very comfortable. ” Wang Yiming's smile held a hint of embarrassment.
“Alright then, since I'm free tonight anyway, let's drink to our heart's content. ” Yang Haoran said with a laugh, agreeing without hesitation.
In truth, Yang Haoran was far from free. To quickly catch up to Xu Meijing, he had many things to do. He wished a day had twice as many hours; he was hardly as idle as he claimed.
However, he readily agreed to Wang Yiming. Learning the memory erasure technique was only one reason. Another was that he genuinely wanted to have a few drinks with Wang Yiming. Not only had Wang Yiming helped him a great deal recently, but his concern for Yang Haoran was also heartfelt, something Yang Haoran could sense.
Of course, Yang Haoran wouldn't voice these thoughts. He chuckled and continued, “If we have dinner tonight, will it end up in the news again, with the police inviting us for tea? ”
Seeing Yang Haoran bring up that old joke, Wang Yiming's smile turned rather awkward.
“Don't worry, that kind of thing won't happen again. Tonight, I'll bring Chen Ying along. I think she probably has a lot to say to you, haha! ”
Upon hearing Wang Yiming's words, Yang Haoran knew that Chen Ying had likely already discussed their past grievances with Wang Yiming. He merely smiled and said nothing.
“I really should be thanking you this time. If it weren't for you, that Skin-Borrowing Ghost would have surely escaped. If he had returned for revenge, who knows how many more people would have died by his hand. ”
“It's I who should be thanking you. If you and Xiao Tong hadn't crippled the Skin-Borrowing Ghost, it would have been impossible for me to take him into my Soul-Gathering Bead without considerable effort. There's no way I would have gained a Half-step Evil Spirit so easily. ”
“Brother Yang, you're really too modest and low-key. When you jumped from the ninth floor today, you were quite high-profile! ”
“There was no other choice. If there had been another way at the time, of course, I wouldn't have been so high-profile. ”
“It's fine to be a little high-profile. Even if ordinary people saw it, the authorities would release a denial, so you don't need to worry. But speaking of which, your jumping posture was incredibly cool. That was the ninth floor; you have some serious guts. ”
“...”
Under the setting sun, the two chatted as they walked toward Yang Haoran's car. Though the sunset lengthened their shadows, it brought them closer together.
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