SDT 1

Chapter 1: Invalid Mark

In a certain old street in District S of Manjing, at dusk. Commuters were coming and going, and there were also some street vendors setting up stalls that encroached on the road, it was the liveliest time of the day.

Yu Xiaowen and Xu Jie were sitting in the car, staking out. Xu Jie had just graduated from the police academy, and Yu Xiaowen was in charge of training this newbie. Xu Jie called him “brother” and also “master.”

Xu Jie’s eyes were fixed on the entrance of a dilapidated building, and Yu Xiaowen reminded him, “Keep a close eye on it.”

Then he looked at his phone, thumbing away as he uploaded some medical insurance claims to the insurance company’s app.

Xu Jie glanced at his phone: “Insurance? What’s up, master?”

“Time Insurance accompanies you on your journey.” Yu Xiaowen replied offhandedly, “Keep your eyes on the target, don’t look around.”

Xu Jie turned his gaze back to the building entrance.

“Brother Xiaowen, are you sure he’ll show up? It’s been so many days with no sign of him, maybe he left the city ages ago. What if we miss the window to issue the wanted notice?”

Yu Xiaowen’s tone was casual: “What can we do? If we miss it, we miss it. Even if they string me up and beat me, I don’t have a time machine for you to go back and regret it.”

The two sat in silence for a while. Xu Jie kept staring at the door, while Yu Xiaowen hunched over, playing a match-3 game on his phone. A moment later, the golden light on the horizon began to fade, signaling the approach of twilight.

“Brother, I can’t hold it anymore, I gotta hit the bathroom,” Xu Jie said.

“Go ahead.”

“Alright, I’ll be right back.” Xu Jie stretched his waist, got out of the car, bumped into the door, and he walked in a hurry toward a narrow alley in the opposite direction, where a sign for WC hung.

Yu Xiaowen put away his phone and looked at the rundown building, its outlines blurring in the dimming light.

He pulled out his cigarette pack, only two left inside. So he stuffed the crumpled, nearly empty pack back into his pocket. Instead, he rummaged through the mountain of cigarette butts piled beside him, fishing out a stub with a decent amount left, clamped it between his lips, and lit it.

He opened the window a bit, and wisps of blue smoke drifted out through the gap.

He stared at the building, lost in thought.

Then he snorted.

“Your old man’s on the verge of kicking the bucket, and we still have to chase your ass down. Come on already, hurry up?”

As if in response to his summons, a tall, sturdy figure appeared not far from the alley mouth. He wore a hat, but based on Yu Xiaowen’s experience, just the silhouette was enough to tell. His throat tightened; he sat up straighter, rolled up the window, and stubbed out the cigarette.

The man lingered by a nearby stall for a moment before entering the building.

Yu Xiaowen immediately called Xu Jie, but the phone rang from the passenger seat.

“…..”

He thought for a few seconds, left a voicemail on Xu Jie’s phone, then unbuckled his seatbelt, opened the car door, got out, and walked quickly toward the building entrance.

The ground floor of the building housed some simple little shops, while the upper floors were low-rent guesthouses run by locals, or mahjong parlors and the like, a real mix of people. As he stepped into the entryway, he spotted the burly figure heading straight for the stairwell. He waited a beat, then followed.

As expected, the guy’s destination was the third floor, a hourly-rate motel. Yu climbed half a flight, peering through the stair gaps at the footsteps, the man had indeed vanished on the third floor.

He followed up. Reaching the third floor, he turned left. The lighting was dim and ambiguous. At the front desk sat a heavily made-up woman.

“Got a booking?” She barely lifted her eyelids.

“Mm.” Yu Xiaowen hummed, grabbed a towel and toiletries from the cart nearby, and headed down the corridor. After rounding the corner, he scanned the doors. Then he walked to the first one and knocked.

One knock, and a young man’s voice came from inside: “Who is it?”

“Wrong room.” He said, then continued on to the second door and knocked a few times, no answer.

Standing before the third door, he noticed a “Do Not Disturb” sign on the fourth. Without missing a beat, he headed to the fourth and knocked.

Two knocks, and a low, male voice responded from within.

“Who?”

Yu Xiaowen held the towel and toiletries tighter.

“Sir, did you just check in? We cleaned this room earlier, but the disposable amenities haven’t been restocked yet. The boss lady sent me to drop some off.”

After a moment, the low voice replied: “No need.”

Yu thought for a second, then leaned close to the door and lowered his voice: “Brother, if you say no now and complain later about our stuff being dirty and say you caught something, who are we gonna reason with? Better swap ‘em out, just a minute’s work.”

Another pause, and still no sound from inside.

Yu Xiaowen had a bad feeling. He stepped back and kicked the door open hard. Sure enough, the room was empty, the window was open, curtains fluttering.

He leaned out the window and saw the man holding a suitcase, running across the rooftops of the adjacent low-rise buildings.

He jumped out after him.

The man was agile. Yu Xiaowen wasn’t bad himself, but ever since getting sick, it was like night and day compared to before. The chase wore him out; he was gasping harder with every step, his footing unsteady, cold sweat breaking out on his back. In this game of cat and mouse, they reached a dead-end alley, where the man jumped up to scale the wall. It took a moment, giving Yu Xiaowen a chance to close the gap.

As he ran up, he drew his gun: “Don’t move. Get down. Or I’ll shoot.”

The man froze, turning to glance at Yu Xiaowen and the gun in his hand. After a tense standoff, he jumped down, facing Yu Xiaowen.

The man was burly, with thick brows and thin lips, his face grim and sullen. His eyes, whites showing below the irises, stared at him, and the smile on his mouth was repulsive.

The perpetrator of the Manjing 216 serial QJ murder case.

Seeing that face didn’t disgust Yu Xiaowen; instead, it brought a wave of relief. If this case didn’t get cracked soon, he was afraid he wouldn’t last until the day his illness finally took him, they’d hound him to death first, those higher-ups. He let out a shaky breath: “Hands up.”

A few seconds passed, and the man dropped the suitcase, raising both hands.

Yu walked over, gun trained on him in one hand, pulling out handcuffs with the other: “Over here, stand by the pipe.”

The man shuffled over slowly, eyeing him with that smile.

“Smile at your dad, why don’t you?” Yu approached with the cuffs.

“First time I’ve seen an Omega officer.” The killer’s grin grew sleazier as he eyed Yu’s pale face, licking his lips. “Chasing me a couple blocks and look how winded you are. So delicate, how do you handle this rough work?”

“Heh, don’t talk to me about rough work, fucking you ain’t child’s play either.” Yu Xiaowen grabbed his wrist, aiming to cuff him to the pipe.

The killer suddenly twisted Yu Xiaowen’s wrist and pulled him. Yu was startled. In theory, he shouldn’t have budged, let alone let himself get overpowered like that. But the chase had drained every last bit of his energy; his body felt out of his control, like dough diluted with water, letting the other guy mold it at will.

In an instant, he was slammed against the wall, gun knocked flying. He felt the killer pressing against his back, something hard digging into his lower waist.

The killer chuckled in his ear: “Officer, if I marked you right now, whose side would you be on, justice or family?”

Yu Xiaowen was pinned, struggling for breath; the pain in his chest flared up, his vision blacking out in waves, dizziness crashing over him. He struggled, but he could feel the other’s pheromones saturating the air around them.

Sharp canines tore off the inhibitor patch on his gland and sank into the nape of his neck, injecting pheromones. His body went even limper, breathing labored. His fingers clenched, scraping at the wall in front of him. Behind him, the man grew excited, reaching around to tug at his belt.

Yu Xiaowen glanced down at the hand fumbling in front of him, and with swift precision, swung the handcuffs, one cuff snapping onto the hand undoing his belt, the other onto the pipe. Then he collapsed to the ground, rolling aside. He snatched up his gun, took a few deep breaths. Then he stood, walked over, and aimed the gun at the killer.

“Squat down.”

The killer was still stunned, not processing the sudden reversal. So Yu Xiaowen kicked him in the knee pit, then grabbed his hair, forcing his head back.

The killer’s mouth gaped open. He still looked bewildered, kneeling on the ground, eyes wide and blank as he stared up at Yu Xiaowen. Yu Xiaowen shoved the gun barrel into his mouth and drove his knee hard into the man’s jaw.

A piercing wail erupted alongside the crack of shattering teeth. The killer coughed up blood and jagged white tooth fragments.

From there, the guy’s howls didn’t stop. Yu Xiaowen squatted down too, pinching the perp’s jaw, watching the blood gush from his mouth.

He slapped the man’s cheek: “Think sharp canines make you special? Huh?”

He leaned down, wiping the gun’s barrel clean of saliva and blood on the killer’s shirt, then holstered it. Next, he reapplied the patch to his nape, sealing it tight.

Just like in the TV dramas, the screams finally drew the late-arriving backup. Xu Jie appeared at the alley’s end with two reinforcements.

“Brother Xiaowen!”

“Don’t move!”

They rushed over and saw Yu Xiaowen had already subdued the killer. Everyone crowded in.

One of the colleagues was a Beta, but Xu Jie and the other were Alphas. Feeling that was wrong, the pervasive scent of pheromones, they immediately turned concerned eyes to Yu Xiaowen.

“Master?”

Though Yu Xiaowen’s gland was defective and couldn’t be marked by an Alpha, he was still affected by Alpha pheromones. Even with the patch, it was hard to resist direct injection into his system.

So he pulled out a stronger inhibitor syringe, uncapped it, injected it into his arm, and pocketed it securely.

He’d actually had to use the syringe. Xu Jie was deeply worried: “What happened, brother? Are you okay?”

“I’m fine. He bit me.” Yu said.

Hearing that, the killer let out a vengeful, gleeful cackle through his pain, his words whistling through gaps in his teeth: “Hahaha! Your precious little Omega officer’s mine now! Hahaha… cough…”

A nearby colleague kicked him. He spat out another bloody glob.

Xu Jie pounded his chest in frustration: “This is on me, all because I had the shits and forgot my phone and the TP!”

“…Fuck. Don’t spout nonsense. Next time, don’t bring your sorry ass along either.” Yu Xiaowen said. He glanced at the suitcase on the ground: “That case goes to the narcotics squad.”

One colleague blinked, confused: “Captain Yu, why hand it to narcotics? This is our major crimes unit’s case…”

“We cracked the murder.” Yu Xiaowen leaned against the wall behind him to catch his breath. “Know the rules, and things go smooth. Remember that for next time.”

“Next time?” Xu Jie looked at him.

Master had been talking about “next time” a lot lately. It felt weird.

…

The killer was hauled off in another squad car. Yu Xiaowen, Xu Jie, and the other two colleagues piled into Yu’s car.

Xu Jie sat in the driver’s seat, silent as he watched Yu Xiaowen in the passenger seat, brow furrowed.

Yu Xiaowen wasn’t doing well. Maybe from all the meds and injections lately, chemotherapy and whatnot, he’d built up a tolerance to the inhibitor syringe, like antibodies. Twenty minutes post-injection, not only had he not calmed down; his body was heating up in waves, a hollow ache building, the telltale signs of heat.

He shifted uncomfortably, suppressing his breaths. But even a sigh came out as an odd sound.

Xu Jie: “…”

Colleague A: “…”

Colleague B: “…”

The car went dead silent.

The two Alphas fidgeted restlessly; even the Beta tensed up with them.

Everyone knew Yu Xiaowen couldn’t be marked and always wore his inhibitor patch, carrying syringes on him. This had never happened before. It was panic-inducing.

“Why are you all acting like you’re about to nobly sacrifice yourselves? Even if I’m going into heat, I don’t need you to handle it.” Yu Xiaowen said. He opened the door: “Head back to the station first. I’ll make my own way later.”

He got out and staggered toward the bathroom Xu Jie had used earlier.

Footsteps approached quickly; his arm was grabbed, it was Xu Jie: “Master, you can’t go alone like this…”

Being touched by an Alpha right now was like pouring fuel on the fire. He felt even weaker “Don’t touch me!”

He shook off the hand.

Xu Jie froze, ears flushing red, unsure whether to move or stay put.

“Don’t worry about me.” Yu Xiaowen quickened his pace a bit. “I’ll sort myself out and head back.”