Chapter Fifty-Six: The Police Siren

After observing a batch of bulb-beasts in their incubation period, there was still no breakthrough.

Fu Lan silently compared the characteristics of the two accident sites in his mind, trying to find common ground.

Both involved bulb-beasts self-detonating during the incubation period, both were located in relatively enclosed underground spaces, and neither showed any contact with suspicious objects...

What did this mean? He could not find the answer for the moment.

Brother Qiang was lucky here; his cage had not been blown apart to cause greater chaos. On Boss Tian's side, however, more advanced equipment had instead given the bulb-beasts an opportunity.

Still, that was not the main point...

Fu Lan thought of a possibility.

Chronologically, Boss Tian's incident—the one with the greatest impact—had happened last. Previous accidents had varying degrees of losses, but none had been as tragic as his, where the entire personnel perished.

As for the most crucial point of collapse in Old Tian's accident, it wasn't the large number of self-detonating bulb-beasts, but rather the metal cage whose circuits had been frozen by liquid nitrogen, causing it to open accidentally.

Whether the security personnel who performed this rule-breaking operation had done so out of a momentary lapse in judgment or with premeditation was now impossible to know. After all, dead men tell no tales.

Could the fact that all personnel at the scene were silenced be part of the plan?

Could the other self-detonation incidents be a rehearsal for this final operation?

Yet if that were the case, the bulb-beast in their garage didn't seem to fit the narrative...

Fu Lan's head ached slightly from thinking, so he reined in his thoughts and reminded himself not to get distracted.

His mission was to find the cause of the bulb-beasts' self-detonations, and nothing more. His original intention was to investigate magical beasts; digging too deeply into human affairs might easily land him in trouble.

He took inventory of the collected bulb-beast flesh samples and prepared to leave with Shi Ningyu.

Speaking of which, the charred flesh fragments left behind by these self-detonations actually lasted longer than fresh meat. Though they couldn't be used for refinement, of course.

Sigh, it was so easy to contract a professional hazard, always associating everything with work... Fu Lan shook his head.

At that moment, the lookout guarding the air-raid shelter entrance suddenly relayed a message: "Brother Qiang, it's bad! There are police sirens on the road below!"

There was no cell phone signal underground, so communication relied on walkie-talkies. Everyone present heard the voice coming from Brother Qiang's walkie-talkie and instantly braced themselves as if facing a formidable enemy.

"Don't panic. Pack up your things, seal the door well, and stay put," Brother Qiang commanded calmly, then turned to Fu Lan and Shi Ningyu. "You two come upstairs with me. The two of you only came to tour the wine cellar today, so nothing will happen."

The group returned to the upper-level wine cellar. Brother Qiang had his men spread a large tarp back over the entrance and moved a row of wine racks to block it.

Aside from a few trusted aides, the rest of the wine cellar staff were regular employees who knew nothing about what was happening underneath. They were forcibly required to stay away during operations and didn't even know there was a secret entrance on the floor.

Therefore, Brother Qiang was not particularly afraid of a surprise inspection; his only concern was the two outsiders who had just arrived today.

He led Fu Lan and Shi Ningyu into the monitoring room, shooing away the employees inside, wanting to get their stories straight before the cops arrived. However, Shi Ningyu was unwilling.

"Why can't we just leave?"

Brother Qiang wiped his sweat irritably. "What if we get targeted after leaving from here? I don't want to be implicated by such uncontrollable factors."

Shi Ningyu glanced at the several monitors nearby. "Can the surveillance see the road conditions? How much farther are the cops?"

"They can, but by the time we see them from those angles, it'll be too late. Besides, if they dare to sound their sirens directly, they must have deployed forces in advance. It's most likely a net closure; chances are you were already targeted when you arrived."

Shi Ningyu said with a displeased tone, "Hmph, and you were afraid we would leak secrets. We're the ones implicated by you! What bad luck..."

Brother Qiang slammed the table and stood up. "What did you say?!"

Fu Lan quickly stopped Shi Ningyu, naturally stepping in between the two of them. "Calm down."

Logically speaking, as a novice just stepping into the underworld, he should have been the most nervous one right now, but he actually felt very little. Instead, he was wondering if something was amiss.

When busting a den, apart from dealing with mages, the focus was mostly on arresting suspects and confiscating stolen goods. In these tasks, the Magical Affairs Bureau did not hold an advantage compared to traditional public security, so they usually conducted joint operations with criminal investigators.

Due to the nature of their work, the Magical Affairs Bureau mostly did not have the habit of sounding sirens; the siren sound should have come from the criminal police side.

Fu Lan quickly found the street view among the multiple surveillance screens. There were quite a few cars on the road, and it looked like this road also led to the amusement park.

"The sirens are just to clear the way; they might not necessarily be heading here," he said to Brother Qiang. "Send your men to take a closer look and find out what's going on."

Brother Qiang calmed down as well. His earlier agitation had been mainly due to the two of them.

He picked up the walkie-talkie, instructed his men outside to drive along the road and scout, and then contacted the lookout at the door again: "Are the sirens still sounding? Are they getting closer?"

"Closer. Probably almost at the intersection."

The three of them waited in the monitoring room for a moment.

Fu Lan quietly observed Brother Qiang, suddenly feeling that his stress reaction was a bit odd. Even if he was worried the two outsiders couldn't be trusted, it shouldn't have reached this extent. Fu Lan couldn't help but recall the person who had just come in to report in a low voice; perhaps it was related to that.

At that moment, the walkie-talkie sounded again: "Boss, I see them. Not police cars, it's the fire department."

Brother Qiang frowned. "What?"

"A fire truck and a ladder truck, heading toward Happy Valley."

Shi Ningyu rolled her eyes. After all that fuss, it was a false alarm.

Fu Lan, however, instantly tensed up.

Furious, Brother Qiang cursed out the subordinate who had reported the false alarm over the walkie-talkie: "What the fuck, you can't tell the difference between a fire truck and a police car? What an idiot!"

"I'm sorry, Brother Qiang! I was too nervous, I'm sorry!"

Brother Qiang switched channels and said coldly, "Pierce one of that waste's ears, leave the other. If he dares to make a sound, handle it the old way."

Then he looked at Fu Lan and Shi Ningyu with an apologetic expression. "Sorry for making a fool of ourselves in front of you two. Good thing it was a false alarm."

Shi Ningyu didn't want to stir up trouble either and held back any profanity. "Then can we leave now?"

"Of course, of course. Thank you for your hard work on the investigation."

No one knew if another self-detonation accident would happen in the future. As a supplier, production safety concerned him, and Brother Qiang also wanted to know the cause of the accident.

Therefore, he was still relatively polite to them, especially since they were Boss Tian's people.

He escorted them outside the air-raid shelter. Fu Lan immediately looked toward the amusement park, and seeing no thick smoke, he let out a slight sigh of relief.

Yet the sound of fire sirens continued endlessly. Looking down from the mountain, two red fire engines were still driving toward the amusement park, keeping his heart hanging by a thread.

Suppressing his anxiety, Fu Lan got half his body into the passenger seat.

He glanced at the few people not far away who were still staring in this direction; there was no way to find another spot for a phone call, so he just closed the car door. Past caring whether Shi Ningyu could hear, he pulled out his phone and directly dialed Fu Linxing.

No answer. He called again, feeling somewhat anxious.

"What's wrong?" Shi Ningyu asked.

Fu Lan said bluntly, "My son is probably playing at Happy Valley right now."

Shi Ningyu understood and immediately made a decision. "Then I'll drive you over right away. Who did he go with? Try contacting the others."

Fu Lan nodded. Without flipping through his contacts list, he directly pressed He Yue's phone number.

Shi Ningyu started the car and drove onto the main road, just as an ambulance drove past in the adjacent lane. Seeing this, Fu Lan hesitated no longer and pressed the call button.