Becoming The White Moonlight’s Human Weapon After My Death - Chapter 6

Chapter 6: People Live To (The Following Part Has Been Omitted)

27th of September, 2026 | Morning | Yinjiang’s Criminal Investigation Bureau

The moment he stepped foot into the office of the Investigations Department, Shao Dongmi attracted everyone’s gazes with his new and odd look:

Hid brand-new suit and shirt had been forcefully torn apart, the rips turning them into a jagged vest and exposing his two shining white arms. There was no need to mention how strange a suit without sleeves looked.

Biscuit crumbs fell from He Xiaowu’s mouth onto the table, and he spoke in astonishment: “Dongmi, it’s not very appropriate of you to come into our serious office wearing such alternative clothes.”

“Cough, I was grabbed by the victim’s family downstairs just now.” Shao Dongmi awkwardly wiped at his face, looking around everywhere for a blanket to cover up with first.

“It’s no wonder, it’s been 15 years after all.”

“I told you I head a lot of noise downstairs, it was the father again, right?”

Everyone else sighed, and He Xiaowu consoled him: “Ah, Dongmi, find some clothes to change into first, you’ll be finished if you’re seen by the Team Leader…”

Before He Xiaowu finished speaking, Xi Yue jumped up from his workstation across him and rushed to the team leader’s office, knocking on the door, “Team Leader! I have something to report, Shao Dongmi said he was going to have a visual kei rock party in the office.”

Shao Dongmi sucked in a cold breath, and loudly exclaimed “fuck” in his heart.

Xi Yue quickly added: “And He Xiaowu is eating in his workstation again.”

He Xiaowu also immediately sucked in a breath.

Sure enough, Team Leader Gong Xiaolu slammed the door open in the next second, his glasses shining with a light cold enough to kill a person, “No regard for law or discipline, clothes in disarray, what do you look like? Shao Dongmi, He Xiaowu, sweep the compound for one week as punishment, and write three thousand words of self-reflection, do it before leaving work tonight.”

There seemed to be something dropping the air pressure shrouding the office, and everyone shivered in absolute silence, wishing they could bury their heads into their keyboards. Xi Yue stood to the side like a gloating vile character, hiding behind Gong Xiaolu, snickering and stealthily raising his pinky finger1 at Shao Dongmi.

“And you, officer Xi Yue.” Gong Xiaolu turned his head, firing away indiscriminately, “For failing to properly guide your colleagues into creating a favourable office environment, you are also responsible. Go, sweep the compound for one month as punishment.

Xi Yue: Gasp.jpg

Team Leader Gong Xiaolu went back, closing the door with a bang. He Xiaowu couldn’t help but lower his voice and quietly snarl: “What’s wrong with you, Xi Yue! What are you doing?! Look at you!! What were you planning???”

“Hmph, I’m happy with it, is it any of your business?” Xi Yue raised his head and blew air from his nose, then returned to his seat as though he was fully content with having won a complete victory. He never got tired of injuring eight hundred enemy soldiers while suffering one thousand losses himself2, and he never learnt his lesson. In any case, he would be happy as long as he could make Shao Dongmi stumble.

“Damn, I can’t make it through today!! Why does the Team Leader even care if we eat things at our stations? When Captain Yan was here before he would often go buy snacks to give us himself, he would even buy us milk tea and make cocktails. Hey did you ever see Captain Yan carving a ball of ice? I’m telling you, it was really cool, just swish swish swish and it was done…” He Xiaowu wailed as he swept his biscuit crumbs into the trash bin, “Ah——It’s the 754th day without Captain Yan, I miss him, miss him, miss him.”

Shao Dongmi looked at him with a strange gaze, speaking in awe, “Hoh, you can actually remember so clearly?”

He Xiaowu poked at the screen of his phone, “Yeah, it’s because the game group has been changing the group’s name every day as a timer, and there is talk of holding a commemorative event on the 800th day of Captain Yan’s deployment.”

A very frank group name was displayed on the screen of his phone: [Husband has been offline for 754 days]

“Game group? …Ah, are you talking about that romance game you wrote? Damn, are you still running updates?”

“It’s not a romance game, it’s law-enforcement propaganda! Here, take a good look,” He Xiaowu took out a CD package from a pile of files, the cover of which looked gaudy, with a few beautiful anime girls and the words:

“dokidoki★Heartbeat Scammer”

——Woman, can you escape from my loan set-up3? [Seductive eyes] [Love] [Blow a kiss]

Shao Dongmi: “……”

Putting the words ‘heartbeat’ and ‘scam’ together really made people feel fearful in the face of disaster.

“What’s with that face? Don’t look down on me, I’ve won the top prize for the Bureau’s law-enforcement propaganda competition for three years in a row, the rights awareness KPI of our Investigation Department is counting on my power to pull us through. The top has also mentioned this game by name and praised it’s outstanding effectiveness, it caused a significant reduction in the rate of telecommunication fraud in our city.” He Xiaowu flung his head back proudly.

Shao Dongmi looked at the 2D girls in the cover with a complicated expression, and asked with difficulty: “…Does Captain Yan know your drew him as a pretty Lolita with pigtails?”

“Isn’t that reductive? Our Captain Yan said that those who uphold the law shouldn’t worry about trifles, as long as they can safeguard the people’s property, wearing women’s clothes is nothing. Plus, we made different versions for different player groups, there’s also a woman-oriented one, there’s even a handsome version of Yan Chenli. There is also a limited Valentine’s day version, a Mid-Autumn festival version, a swimsuit version, and more.”

Shao Dongmi pulled out a few sheets of paper, wrote down the three words “Self-reflection Document”, and felt his brain go blank, then raised his head up in a daze, “Shit, I want to call you Captain Yan’s number one zealous fan.”

He Xiaowu waved his hand: “I can’t even compare, what I wrote isn’t even one fifth of Xi Yue’s Dragon Aotian Shuangwen novel.”

“What does this have to do with Xi Yue?” Shao Dongmi revealed a baffled expression.

He Xiaowu spoke in a hurry: “Aiya, I’ve told you before. It’s that novel, the one about the genius god in the immortal cultivation world who was tricked and imprisoned by the great demon villain, and the main character who died tragically under the great demon villain’s sword, but then he was reborn with cheats, so he killed the great demon villain and rescued Gaoling Zhihua, that Dragon Aotian Shuangwen.”

Shao Dongmi: “?”

“The main character is Xi Yue, Gaoling Zhihua is Yan Chenli, and the great demon villain is you. He’s written more than five million words and it’s still getting published. Crap, you didn’t know? Before, every time Captain Yan would take you to work alone with him, the novel would explode with twenty-thousand more words, all talking about how vile the villain was, how he was two-faced and backstabbing and how he deceived Gaoling Zhihua, and then the hero would blow the villain’s head off.”

Shao Dongmi’s pupils shook: “Ah??????”

“There are plenty of zealous Captain Yan fans. Look at the first row in our “Heartbeat Scammer” super topic, you don’t even need to talk about what a tyrant she is, or how active she is in the activities, you just have to look at the ID——”

When He Xiaowu handed the phone over, the username was displayed:

[People Live To Be Yan Chenli’s Dog]

Shao Dongmi couldn’t understand, but he was shocked, and he retreated while shaking his head, “No way, no way.”

He Xiaowu took it back, and nudged Shao Dongmi with his elbow, “Hey, Dongmi, didn’t you have a good relationship with Captain Yan? He hasn’t been back to the Bureau in two years, even though he said it was a deployment, where has he been deployed to for so long? What on earth is he doing?”

“I really don’t know, my calls won’t go through. He also only replies to my messages in a few words, saying he’s very busy on a secret mission. Honestly, I can’t even confirm Captain Yan is the one replying to my messages… I’m really worried about him.” Shao Dongmi sighed and rubbed his face with some force, “In the shows I watch, upright and honest, smart mentor characters like Captain Yan usually don’t survive more than three episodes.”

“Indeed.” He Xiaowu nodded, “It’s usually those evil passer-by characters who can survive until the last episode. For example, Xi Yue.”

“You’re right.” Shao Dongmi gave up writing his self-reflection, pushing his paper aside and opening up his file drawer to look for something, “Sigh, I can only tidy up my Captain Yan merch as consolation.”

“What, you have Captain Yan merch?” He Xiaowu’s eyes glittered, and he leaned forward.

“Yup, documents handwritten by him. How is it? Can these things sell for a lot of money?”

“You don’t even have to ask, there really are people who will collect it for a high price. After all, Captain Yan’s writing is really beautiful, you know that.” He Xiaowu got even closer, “What handwritten documents? Let me see.”

Shao Dongmi flipped through a few kraft paper folders, “Here, Captain Yan’s precious autograph.”

“What are those cases again?” He Xiaowu extended a hand to flip through them, casting a few glances to the folders completely packed with records, “The family of the victim that tore your clothes just now seems to be from one of these unresolved cases, right? Was it that human smuggler case? Anyway, why are you keeping these old cases?”

Shao Dongmi took them and spread them out on the table, looking over the pile of unresolved cases that he had gone over countless times, “I feel like these cases all have something in common, and if we can find a point to break through one of them, maybe the rest will also unravel.”

“Huh——is that so?” He Xiaowu took the folders septically, flipping through them one by one, “The human smuggler case from fifteen years ago, the serial coffee poisoner from ten years ago, the handpicked exhibition hall case from three years ago… Oh, isn’t there a big difference between all the victim profiles, the nature of the cases, and the methods of the crime? The gap of time between the crimes is also very long… As for what they do have in common, could it be that these were the cases Captain Yan was in charge of?”

“Ah, that’s not it. These are all serious cases with wide-ranging implications, so it’s normal that they would be handed over to the Captain of the Team 1.” Shao Dongmi flipped to a few pages to their backs, “Look, these all say they’re unresolved cases, but they actually all had a prime suspect. But even so, no arrests were successfully made.”

“I think that, with the current technology, as long as they’re still alive there should still be traces of business transactions, trips, medical treatments, etc., but these criminals completely disappeared after they escaped, which is really unusual… If they found a way to scrub their identities, then that way is far more important than these three unsolved cases and must be completely eradicated.”

He Xiaowu suddenly realised something as he nodded, “I finally understand why Captain Yan liked you.”

“I don’t know if Captain Yan has any other clues, if only I could ask him in person…” Shao Dongmi only spoke half of his sentence before Group Leader Gong Xiaolu suddenly pushed the door open again, “What time is it? Why have you not gone to the meeting room to make preparations ahead of time? Lazy, what are you all doing?”

Shao Dongmi looked at the clock, there was still half an hour left before their meeting. But everyone stood up at the same time and went straight to the meeting room holding pens and notebooks.

This was the largest meeting room in the Criminal Investigation Bureau, used especially for large-scale meetings. Bright sunlight came in through the glass windows, and the inside was decorated in a simple and solemn white colour, which made people inevitably feel nervous and serious. As usual, the meeting started by summarising a few cases that had just been closed and the most recent policy adjustments.

As the leader spoke at the very front, Shao Dongmi continued looking over the old case records.

The first half of the meeting sounded like it had nothing to do with him, until the leader on stage said:

“Furthermore, a notice of appointment. The post of Captain for the Investigation Department’s Violent Crimes unit will be assumed by Gong Xiaolu starting from today, I hope everyone can cooperate with Captain Gong Xiaolu’s work in the future.”

Shao Dongmi still hadn’t reacted when He Xiaowu sucked in a cold breath next to him: “Fuck, that can’t be??” Their colleagues in Team 1 also turned their heads to look around them, and everyone’s expressions became heavy.

“…Does that mean the rumours… were true?” Someone asked anxiously.

“Captain Yan could never abandon the Investigations Department.” Xi Yue was the most worried, “He even refused when they wanted to promote him to Chief of the Bureau, Captain Yan sad that he just wanted to be in the front lines. He can’t not be coming back, unless, unless…”

He Xiaowu also had an ashen face: “Oh no, two years without news of his life or death, I should have realised…”

“You shut up! Don’t jinx it! Absolutely impossible!!” Xi Yue grit his teeth and slapped He Xiaowu with an empty hand.

“Finally, there’s another announcement.” The leader on the stage cleared his throat, and knocked on the desk to emphasise his words.

“Yinjiang Criminal Investigation Bureau, alongside other Criminal Investigation Sub-Bureaus, has united with a special organisation located in a certain place to conduct a large-scale peacekeeping operation. The project will only be made public to participants, so I can’t explain it in detail. In a moment, everyone will receive an application form of willingness to participate, everyone, fill it out carefully. Afterwards, the person in charge will organise an interview, so take care to reserve some time over the course of the day and wait to be notified.”

“This operation is of great importance to our Criminal Investigation Bureau, so I hope everyone will be eager to participate. That is all, dismissed.”

Shao Dongmi handed over his completed self-reflection document, and stared at his phone screen in a daze for a while.

It was filled with one-sided messages, the other party almost never responded.

[Captain, the Bureau Chief said Gong Xiaolu is taking over your position. Did you resign? Are you not coming back to the Investigations Department?]

The message was sent, but the other party still did not respond.

Shao Dongmi bit his lip and stared attentively at the screen, his eyebrows twisted into knots.

Two years ago, he would never have believed that he would one day lose contact with Yan Chenli.

Yan Chenli was a fantastic person. If you only heard the rumours, you’d think that he was a distant person, harder to reach than the Andromeda. With both a high IQ and EQ, an illustrious family background, and a genius in every sense of the word. His admirers had a very simple and crude way to describe him, calling him “humanity’s ceiling”.

But you only had to meet him once to discover that he was easier to get close to than anyone. He was passionate, friendly, extremely knowledgeable and a good conversationalist, and he had endless energy, he was like the personification of the Room of Requirement, or Doraemon’s 4D pocket, helping you find a solution whenever you really needed him. You could feel genuine dignity and love in your relationship with him.

“Hey, why are you spacing out? It’s almost time for your interview, what are you doing?” Gong Xiaolu’s cold voice dragged Shao Dongmi back to his senses.

Shao Dongmi nodded apologetically, “I finished writing.”

A simple and crude disposition form sat atop the old files.

No detailed information was given, only that it was an inter-departmental, inter-station joint operation in another place, that the location was very dangerous, and that the operation was still in the experimental stage. On the lower right corner of the willingness form, the organisations listed were the Criminal Investigation Bureau and one called the “Tribunal”.

Gong Xiaolu and a few other equally serious high-ranking leaders stood to the side, discussing with grave expressions. Due to their pressure, the officers lined up all had respectful looks.

As they faced the entrance door, Gong Xiaolu seemed particularly uneasy, intentionally coming over to warn him: “Officer Shao Dongmi, you’re still very young, so it’s easy to be hot-tempered, in a moment, you must remember to guard against pride and impatience. The first thought that pops into your head is not developed enough, you must think over the interviewer’s questions several times and answer carefully, understood?”

“Got it.” Shao Dongmi answered briefly.

Gong Xiaolu nodded solemnly, “Then go in. Remember, don’t make our team lose face.”

Shao Dongmi took in a deep breath, trying to keep his nervousness at bay and arranging his collar and cuffs over and over again. Under the intense gaze of several leaders, he pushed open the door of the small conference room and walked in.

But the circumstances inside were a little unexpected.

There was only one person in sight, enveloped by the very last warm afterglow of the setting sun coming through the French windows.

That was, without a doubt, the Yan Chenli who disappeared without a word two years ago.

He was wearing a dark red shirt and a black casual suit, lazily leaning against the French windows and looking down at some documents while taking a big bite out of a crunchy red apple.

Yan Chenli wasn’t wearing a tie, so his collar was loosely open, and his cuffs were also casually rolled up, exposing a few new wounds on his chest and arms that he hadn’t seen before.

Probably because Yan Chenli seemed very relaxed, Shao Dongmi, who’d been stressed by the leaders at the door almost to the point of choking, suddenly relaxed.

The scene before him didn’t seem like an interview, instead it reminded him of the time when he used to work with Captain Yan.

Except for the days of fieldwork, Yan Chenli was often the very last person to leave the station. If he turned back when leaving work, he could always see his figure leaning against the window in the sunset, smiling and waving at him, telling him to go home early and to be careful on the way.

If his performance had been good that day, he would throw a carton of oat milk or Yakult4 from across the office, saying “This is today’s reward”. Yan Chenli really liked seeing other people flustered as they went to catch those brightly coloured, little cartons with smiley faces on them.

Shao Dongmi let out a long breath, feeling like a huge rock had been lifted from his heart.

“Ah, Dongmi. I have to say,” Yan Chenli lifted his head to look at him when he heard him, flipping the documents in his hands and nodding, conveying the deepest feelings from the bottom of his heart at that moment,

“It’s still the sweetness of Yinjiang’s apples.”

□■□■□

1 A belittling gesture in China and Taiwan. Top.

2 The original saying is the opposite: ‘injuring 1000 enemy soldiers and suffering 800 losses’, which is used when one harms the enemy but suffers almost as much in return. Top.

3 A type of fraud disguised as a loan, but designed to make the ‘loan’ impossible to pay back. Top.

4 Original cn just said ‘lactic acid bacteria’ but I’m pretty sure it meant a drink not a yogurt, so I just went with the brand I’m most familiar with because ‘lactic acid bacteria drink’ doesn’t sound appealing at all lol. Top.
 

TN: Meet Shao Dongmi!

Go to SZQ’s weibo post to see what Mimi could have looked like before they settled on the current design (spoiler: he looked like an edgy little twerp)