Chapter 147 — The Long-Awaited...

But the Yang Ce of today was no longer the Yang Ce of old. Since becoming an assassin, Yang Juehuan's psychological fortitude had grown considerably, and he was not about to show weakness just because he had watched a recording.

Yang Ce silently cursed his former immaturity. Back then he had only just acquired his ability and was itching for somewhere to use it—and as a result he had left a loose end over such a trivial matter.

"Investigator Xia, what do you mean by showing me this recording?" Yang Juehuan put on a baffled expression. "Isn't this the footage from the security check at East Sea International Airport last summer, before I went to Yunnan? Why are you showing me this?"

"Yang Ce, you and I both know the truth in our hearts—are you still unwilling to admit to something?" Xia Yan still wore that half-smile that made a man want to punch him. If he had not known that this fellow was Chen Fei's friend and Xia Xue's elder brother, Yang Ce would have either beaten him up or turned and walked out—he certainly would not have been standing here trading nonsense with him.

A thing like an ability is a rather mysterious matter: you say you have it and you have it, you say you do not and you do not—the right of discretion rests entirely in your own hands. Even if Yang Ce denied it to the death, Xia Yan could only suspect.

By now Yang Ce also understood why Xia Yan had come looking for him. This Bureau of Mysterious Affairs Investigation of his probably looked into matters concerning paranormal powers as well.

"Forgive my bluntness, Investigator Xia, but I truly do not understand what you mean. You show me a recording of me at an airport—what exactly are you trying to say?" Yang Linxue said evenly, the expression on his face betraying no particular change.

Xia Yan said to himself that he had indeed underestimated Yang Ce; this man's depths seemed greater even than his own. He had assumed that once he produced this recording, Yang Ce would simply confess. Now it seemed that without adding a little more fuel, it would not work.

Xia Yan casually switched off the P4 player on the desk, then drew a document from the briefcase he carried and handed it to Yang Ce. "I won't read it aloud. Read it yourself."

Yang Lanxu sighed inwardly. So the fellow did have a follow-up move after all. Then again, it made sense: if he truly belonged to that so-called Bureau of Mysterious Affairs Investigation, then wanting to investigate him would naturally require some effort—he could hardly have come knocking on the strength of a single recording.

Yang Ce took the document and flipped through it. It was a police case file, and the case it concerned was precisely the one in which he had lost the jade in Yunnan. The pages that followed, however, contained material from that Hong Kong auction where he and Liu Yan had auctioned the jade carvings together. It seemed this Xia Yan had truly expended no small effort on him. What made Yang Ce even more uneasy was that the final page actually held a complete record of his gambling at the South City Casino in Macau a few days earlier.

"And forgive my bluntness in turn, Student Yang Ce: do you think that by casually picking a few stones, a man can pick out the finest jade that others cannot obtain even by buying up batches of raw stone—and three pieces at once? What do you reckon the odds of that are?" Xia Yan shrugged and went on: "And then there's the gambling. Personally, I rather envy you—don't you think your luck is a little too good? I also have here the complete footage of your gambling at the South City Casino in Macau. Care to watch it? Oh—I forgot to mention earlier: you also have a lover named Huang Yan."

"Enough!" Yang Ce threw the document onto the desk and coldly cut Xia Yan off. Matters had come to this; faced with so much evidence, Yang Ce had no choice but to admit it.

"Is that so? These pieces of evidence are already enough, are they? And I still have some I haven't brought out." Xia Yan deliberately pretended not to understand Yang Juehuan's anger.

"What exactly do you want? State your purpose." Since the other party already possessed some information about him, Yang Shuoxuan no longer wished to beat around the bush or keep denying everything—that was utterly useless. Better to be straightforward and get to the point.

"Very well. Before I state my purpose, I should first introduce the nature of my work." Xia Yan put away his earlier bland expression and turned serious. "I belong to the Bureau of Mysterious Affairs Investigation. It is a most unusual agency; it is only natural that you have never heard of it, because the bureau ordinarily keeps a very low profile, and the identities of those who work here are all rather special. Even if other departments know of this agency, they cooperate in keeping it confidential.

"The Bureau of Mysterious Affairs Investigation, as the name implies, is responsible for investigating mysterious, non-scientific, inconceivable events—at least events that the current level of science cannot explain. Aliens, UFOs, souls, ghosts, paranormal powers, and so on all fall within our purview. You could say our bureau can handle a great many matters, and our authority is broad and quite free. That is why everyone in this agency must pass strict examinations and tests before joining. And I will not hide it from you—we have also recruited a number of people with extraordinary talents, who handle certain highly exceptional matters.

"Actually, there is no need to find it strange. It is not only us; many other countries have agencies of this kind as well. Take the famous film The X-Files—I trust you have seen it? That is an agency similar to ours."

Yang Yuting nodded. He did know of The X-Files—a very famous science-fiction series about investigations into supernatural phenomena. He had originally assumed it was pure fiction; he had never imagined that such agencies actually existed.

But this time Xia Yan had said so much—surely he was not thinking of investigating him? Or did he have some other purpose?

"Well, I have finished explaining the nature of my work, and I trust you now understand why I came looking for you," Xia Yan said. "Anything connected with the supernatural, we file and analyze carefully. As for your situation, we have no explanation for it other than the supernatural."

Yang Hengye smiled and did not deny it; he knew denial would be useless. Quite apart from anything else, take this most recent trip to Macau—at the South City Casino, his conduct had completely defied common sense. He had been nothing short of invincible.

"All right. First tell me what you want with me, and then I will decide whether to cooperate with you." Yang Yuting nodded and spoke to Xia Yan.

"That will do." Seeing that Yang Ce was willing to cooperate, Xia Yan breathed a sigh of relief. Before this he had called on a number of people with extraordinary skills, but such people tended to be proud and solitary, with peculiar temperaments, and were very hard to win over; it generally took enormous effort on Xia Yan's part before he could persuade them to open their mouths. Yang Ce was comparatively normal—and yet also the strangest of them all.

To be continued.

935. You're saying I'm a paranormal?

935 You're saying I'm a paranormal

After all, judging from these recordings and documents, there had to be some special ability in Yang Juehuan—though it was not especially obvious. Still, it could only be one of a handful of kinds; luck, precognition, and clairvoyance were the more likely possibilities.

Long before this, luck had been treated as an important research subject at the Bureau of Mysterious Affairs Investigation.

The sage Zhuge Liang once said: man proposes, Heaven disposes. In other words, a man may strive, yet may not necessarily succeed; the key to success lies with Heaven—with what we commonly call luck.