Chapter 61: Killers Always Love to Return to the Scene

Reflecting on how misfortunes seemed to arrive one after another, Fu Lan had once formulated a rule for it, which he called the inertia of destiny.

Once life began to exhibit a certain trajectory, upward or downward, the corresponding experiences would occur with high frequency over a period of time, unless a more significant turning point intervened in one's fate.

The primary catalyst that had propelled him into his current predicament was undoubtedly that transformation at the shopping plaza.

He had lived a peaceful life for many years, especially after his marriage, when he deliberately began avoiding anything associated with magic, and those mystical forces had thankfully refrained from bothering him.

Yet now, less than a month later, everything had come crashing down upon his head.

Just as things had finally quieted down, a single transformation upended it all...

No, it must have started even earlier—the moment he decided to use magic cinder to make money, a certain stagnant boulder had already been set into motion.

The inertia of destiny.

He drove his car back to the amusement park. He had actually anticipated the potential obstacles he might encounter on this trip.

He had originally intended to transform, sneak into the park to retrieve his hat and Fu Linxing's bag, wrap things up quickly, and make a clean getaway, only to find the vehicles of the Magical Affairs Bureau already parked outside the gates.

Of course they would come, Fu Lan sighed, leaving him with no choice but to try a different approach.

He fumbled clumsily with his appearance in the rearview mirror before quickly giving up. He knew nothing of the art of disguise; did he really expect to fool anyone just by brushing his bangs a couple of times?

Still... he opened the glove compartment in the passenger seat and a relieved smile curved his lips. He'd guessed right—He Yue had indeed left a pair of sunglasses in the car, and more than one pair at that.

It was a pity she always complained that face masks were too much trouble and had been too lazy to restock after running out, otherwise he could have ensured an even safer disguise.

Fu Lan put on the sunglasses, deliberately took off his outer jacket, composed himself, and walked toward the amusement park entrance.

After the visitors were evacuated, the park was completely closed and entry strictly prohibited. Glancing at the ticket gate, he saw the same staff member from earlier still on duty, so he opted for a queue entrance two lanes over.

"Hello, I left a bag in one of the lockers. Is it still possible to go in and retrieve it?" he asked, trying to sound as casual as possible.

The ticket attendant replied, "I'm sorry, sir, the park is currently under emergency closure."

"I have valuables inside, and it's quite urgent."

"Do you have your locker claim ticket? We can fetch it for you."

Taking Fu Lan's claim ticket and learning that it belonged to a locker near the Ferris wheel, the attendant offered a formalized, apologetic smile. "I'm really sorry, sir, but the Ferris wheel area is currently undergoing an investigation into the cause of the accident, and the scene needs to be preserved. It might take a while... Why don't you leave your contact information, and we will notify you immediately once there's a result!"

Fu Lan couldn't afford to wait that long. "My phone is in that bag. Do you have any idea how much trouble I'll be in without it?"

"This..." The attendant motioned for him to wait a moment, stepped into the security office to make a phone call, and quickly returned. "Sir, they've agreed to let you retrieve your personal items, but you'll need to go over and verify your identity. It's an exceptional circumstance, so we hope for your understanding."

Fu Lan feigned annoyance, but this actually suited his plans perfectly. As long as he could get inside, there would be a chance—much better than sneaking in transformed.

Though it was almost just as risky now.

Using his peripheral vision, he subtly observed the ticket attendant who had stopped him earlier, as well as the security guards behind the turnstiles. Neither of them seemed to recognize him.

And so, he followed the staff member into the amusement park.

...

...

In less than half a day, the fire department, quality inspection, and various other agencies had already held multiple meetings regarding the Ferris wheel accident.

Fortunately, the greatest blessing amidst the misfortune was that no serious casualties had resulted, and the people treated at the on-site aid station had suffered only negligible, minor scrapes.

Once the Ferris wheel was stabilized, park management immediately dispatched an engineering team to handle the aftermath while closing the park for rectifications.

Currently, however, the department under the most pressure was public opinion management.

They could not simply issue a blanket ban and delete all related videos and posts. Based on past experience in dealing with trending public opinion, doing so would only provoke an even greater backlash.

The conservative approach was to proactively release a select portion of news videos, using them as a baseline to implicitly filter out over-the-line remarks in the comments while deploying automated bots to distribute a controlled number of likes and replies, making it difficult for the commenters to notice.

At the same time, they restricted the reach of other video content extending beyond the official news, particularly masking footage that might evoke associations with magic.

Consequently, the imagery presented to the public showed only the Ferris wheel emitting minor sparks, stalling mid-air, and then cutting immediately to firefighters rescuing trapped personnel, while carefully cropping out the newly reinforced structural supports of the Ferris wheel. The press releases also made no mention of any anomalous phenomena whatsoever.

Through this series of maneuvers, the progression of the incident's fermentation was largely suppressed on the surface.

Even if they couldn't stop eyewitnesses from privately sharing the event with friends and family, it would ultimately remain nothing more than post-meal conversation fodder, especially since no one other than the park management had suffered significant losses.

As long as they weathered the initial few days, the hype would quickly subside. When the appropriate timing arrived, some cleanup operations could be conducted, and the incident would gradually fade into oblivion.

This protocol for handling anomalous incidents was essentially a system they had used even prior to 2006, merely adjusted to cope with new channels of dissemination.

In the past, the pathways for information diffusion were limited, making control much simpler. Today, the number of onsite witnesses and the demographic affected by secondary dissemination had expanded immeasurably, rendering point-to-point hypnotic memory modification methods obsolete.

Moreover, with the public disclosure of magic, the purpose of handling supernatural events had also shifted.

While the relevant units were busy with aftermath management and accountability, the Magical Affairs Bureau shouldered the primary responsibility for the on-site investigation.

Those exaggerated clusters of electric sparks, the Ferris wheel on the verge of collapse that was hoisted back into place, and the automatically assembled reinforcement braces were all unmistakably the handiwork of magic.

Compared to magical items, the traces of spellcasting dissipated quite rapidly, and investigators had to race against time.

Many officers believed that the scale of this commotion didn't look like the work of an illegal spellcaster, but was more likely that of a magical girl. This was why Li Xiaohan had appeared on the scene.

The task force would not let slip any clue that might point to the Chord Heart Stone.

On the other hand, unlike a magical girl's hair, spellcasting traces lacked distinct personal characteristics, making them particularly difficult to track. Relying solely on these clues was far from enough to apprehend the perpetrator.

Li Xiaohan withdrew her gaze from a surveillance camera and stepped out of the gondola with a sense of helplessness.

The surveillance cameras on the Ferris wheel were wired for power, and following the accident, all of them had been damaged to varying degrees by strong electrical currents, rendering their built-in hard drives completely unrecoverable.

Although they possessed wireless transmission functions and synchronized recordings were stored in the main control room, the severe shaking and power outages during the incident subjected the recordings to intense interference, leaving no effective information.

Xiaohan replayed the on-site video once more.

Golden lightning bloomed at the center of the Ferris wheel, continuously scattering countless winding electric arcs in all directions. The tilted main support pillar was repaired by it, and the massive steel beams were reconstructed under the traction of those electrical currents. This majesty, capable of eclipsing the heavens and the earth, actually reminded her of mythological descriptions of Zeus.

This did not belong to the abilities the Chord Heart Stone had displayed, nor did it bear much resemblance to her impression of the Black Coral's doll magic.

Could there be a third magical girl?

Xiaohan felt a throbbing headache. She was planning to return to the bureau to apply for a meeting with Lily to consult her about this footage, when she caught sight of an unexpected figure just before leaving.

"Brother Fu?" Xiaohan noticed the sunglasses on his face. "You're Fu Lan, right?"

Seeing her, Fu Lan looked somewhat surprised as well, and removed his sunglasses. "Xiaohan?"

"What are you doing here?"

Fu Lan pointed to the locker opened by the staff member. "My son's bag was left inside, so I came to pick it up."

However, neither he nor the staff member managed to touch the bag; the moment it was unlocked, individuals dressed in black uniforms stepped forward to take it away for inspection.

"Oh, I see. Did you bring your son out to play today?" Xiaohan asked.

Fu Lan almost instinctively blurted out that He Yue had brought their son out to play and that he had merely happened to arrive later.

Realizing his slip just in time, he changed his tune. "Ah, he came up to play by himself, never expecting to run into an accident like this," he said, directly bypassing Xiaohan's question.

Xiaohan harbored no suspicions and hurriedly expressed her concern. "Oh! Was he up there at the time? How is he now? Is he injured?"

"No, his mother is with him at the hospital doing some checkups. Fortunately, he's safe now."

At that moment, the man in the uniform by their side interrupted. "Sir, do you have any proof of ownership for this bag?"

"It's my son's bag. How am I supposed to prove it... Isn't the claim ticket enough?"

"Please provide both your ID numbers so we can verify the family relationship in the backend. Also, please provide today's park admission receipt. Of course, it would be best if he could come in person to make it easier to cross-reference the surveillance footage of people entering this attraction."

Fu Lan's heart tightened. Other things aside, he absolutely could not leave a resident ID registration record in a place like this.

Pondering for a moment, he feigned extreme difficulty. "Isn't that a bit too troublesome..."

Xiaohan also felt it was overly bureaucratic and asked her colleague, "Did you find any issues with it?"

The other person shook their head.

Xiaohan then suggested, "Then let this gentleman recite the phone number of the mobile phone inside the bag. If it goes through, it proves he indeed knows the owner."

Thus, Fu Lan recited his son's mobile number. Once it was verified, Xiaohan snatched the bag directly from her colleague's hands, handed it back to Fu Lan, and said, "Go tend to other things. There's plenty of work to keep us busy."

The implication was that her colleague was wasting effort on trivial matters.

Fu Lan thanked Xiaohan, exchanged a few brief pleasantries, and left under the pretext of rushing back to check on his son.

Xiaohan sighed as she watched his retreating figure. Counting the days, he and He Yue should have already completed their divorce registration.

Lately, she had been buried in work up to her ears and hadn't even had time to have a proper chat with He Yue...

For Fu Lan to still be running around taking care of his ex-wife and son after a divorce showed he was quite responsible.

Thinking along these lines, her animosity toward him evaporated significantly. Truth be told, that lingering bit of animosity had stemmed solely from that so-called "adultery stakeout" incident, born from a friend's sense of injustice on He Yue's behalf.

Meanwhile, Fu Lan, walking down the path, silently cursed his terrible luck.

Upon arrival, because he was accompanied by staff the entire time, he hadn't been able to search for his hat near the balloon mascot. To top it off, he had even run into Li Xiaohan while picking up the bag.

He knew Li Xiaohan belonged to the Magical Beast Countermeasures Division. Her presence at the scene of such an incident indicated that the nature of her work had shifted.

This accident would undoubtedly be handled by the Magical Affairs Bureau as a magical-girl-related case.

Consequently, his encounter with her was unquestionably perilous.

Yet, if not for Li Xiaohan, retrieving the bag might not have gone so smoothly.

With complex emotions, Fu Lan walked out of the amusement park and cast one final glance back. Things having reached this point, he certainly couldn't turn back to look for his hat. The more he searched, the easier it would be to draw attention.

In the heat of the emergency, he had completely forgotten when the hat went missing. He could only hope it had fallen by the roadside and been swept into a trash can by a sanitation worker.

Yet at this very moment, that tattered black baseball cap had already been placed inside a sealed bag, resting quietly in a locker within the security office, awaiting its own destiny.