Chapter 66

Chapter 66

A loud crash of metal echoed downstairs, drawing a bunch of people out to see what was going on. On the ground lay two badly mangled security grilles, with a crowd standing nearby.

The folks nearby were still shaken up, super grateful Shen Dongqing had warned them just in time, and equally thankful they'd listened and run away immediately.

Otherwise, when the grille fell from the fourth floor, the spot they'd been standing on was right at the center of the impact zone. Getting hit by that would've meant death or serious injury at the very least.

And it wasn't just one grille—two came crashing down one after another. Even if they got lucky and the first one didn't mess them up, the second would definitely finish the job.

"These security grilles all look pretty old. They're not gonna fall, right?" someone muttered, eyeing the grilles installed on other buildings like they were weapons that could drop any second.

At those words, everyone's expression changed. Statistically, the odds of a grille falling were low, but they had already witnessed two fall. A third wasn't out of the question.

With that thought, a lot of people instinctively edged toward the road, trying to get as far away from the grilles overhead as they could.

Seeing the grilles hadn't hurt anyone, Shen Dongqing breathed a sigh of relief. He looked down at the kid in his arms and gave him a little bounce. He didn't know how old the child was, but the boy was noticeably thin.

Kids this age are usually chubby and heavy to hold, but Shen Dongqing found the kid surprisingly light.

Shen Dongqing carried the kid down from the rooftop, and the boy clung to him obediently.

As they passed the kid's apartment, Shen Dongqing slowed down a bit. He thought he caught a whiff of something weird.

It smelled like the stench of piled-up trash and junk, but mixed in was a faint rotten smell—like the ammonia stink of an old-school bathroom. And underneath that, a hint of burnt sweetness.

Ever since his sense of smell had sharpened, this was the first time Shen Dongqing had run into a combo like this. But the other, stronger smells mostly covered up these subtler ones.

Shen Dongqing frowned a little. If he remembered right, he'd caught this same smell near the window earlier.

It had been way stronger there—even the trash stink couldn't fully hide the ammonia smell. But since he'd been focused on saving the kid, he hadn't paid close attention or thought much of it. Now, though...

Shen Dongqing leaned in closer to the crack in the door. These old apartment doors didn't seal worth a damn, and through the crack, the smell was even stronger.

"You..." A young guy came up from downstairs and hesitated when he saw Shen Dongqing sniffing at the door crack.

Tao Xue was one of the good Samaritans who'd stood below ready to catch the kid. Seeing Shen Dongqing climb up to the roof, he figured Shen Dongqing's arms might be shot from the climb, so he came up to lend a hand. He hadn't expected to walk in on that.

Tao Xue went back and forth for a second, then decided to just ignore Shen Dongqing's weird habit. I mean, sniffing at a door wasn't against the law.

Weird as it was, it didn't change the fact that Shen Dongqing was a good guy.

Tao Xue's face was way too easy to read. Not wanting the misunderstanding to drag on, Shen Dongqing said straight up, "Something's off with the smell here."

"Something's off?" Tao Xue looked confused, then leaned in to sniff at the door crack. He blurted out, "Holy crap, that stinks!"

Tao Xue jerked his head back, gasping for air a few times, and looked at Shen Dongqing with respect. To be able to stand there and keep sniffing through that stench—Shen Dongqing's tolerance was insane.

"Did these people pile a whole mountain of trash in there?" Tao Xue asked, still catching his breath.

"It's not that stink. There's an ammonia smell that's off," Shen Dongqing shook his head.

"What does ammonia smell like?" Tao Xue didn't quite understand.

"It's like the smell of an old-school bathroom—the kind that burns your nose and makes your eyes water," Shen Dongqing explained.

At that, Tao Xue's face twisted up. His middle school had exactly that kind of bathroom. Going in took some serious mental prep—you'd hold your breath, but even then, your clothes would soak up the smell and leave you reeking all day.

"What's so unusual about that smell?" Tao Xue asked, confused. If that kind of smell could develop, it just meant the person didn't flush after using the toilet. At worst, they were just super gross. Why was it worth all this attention?

Shen Dongqing showed him a search page—"ice drug smoking smell"—with a detailed description of the smell below it.

"Besides the ammonia stink, there's also a burnt chemical sweetness."

Tao Xue looked at the phone, then couldn't help doing his own search. He found the description matched what Shen Dongqing had said pretty closely.

Tao Xue went quiet for a second, then couldn't help leaning in to sniff again. Bracing himself against the stench, he carefully tried to pick out the ammonia and burnt sweetness Shen Dongqing had mentioned. Faintly, he felt like he could actually smell what Shen Dongqing described—though he couldn't tell if it was just his mind playing tricks on him, since the smell was so weak.

"How did you..." manage to smell that?

The words died on his lips. If it wasn't just his imagination, then that detail didn't matter anyway. What mattered was what to do now.

"Should we call the police?" Tao Xue asked.

"Of course." Shen Dongqing said, reaching for his phone to call Xiao Ze, but then remembered Xiao Ze was probably still handling the Xu Guosheng kidnapping case and wouldn't have time to come. He dialed the police directly instead.

The dispatcher took the call, listened to Shen Dongqing's report, and after getting the full address, immediately said officers would be sent over.

Normally, they should wait there for the police to arrive. But the child was still with them—if the police showed up, having the kid there might not be ideal.

Speaking of the child, Tao Xue looked at the location of the apartment and realized the boy seemed to live here.

"Take the kid downstairs. I'll keep watch here," Shen Dongqing said, handing the boy to Tao Xue and cutting off his train of thought.

Tao Xue instinctively took the child and, without further hesitation, carried him downstairs.

"Hey, why is it just you and the kid? Where's the man who did the rescue?"

"Yeah, why didn't he come down? Is he hurt somewhere?"

"Ugh, without warming up and climbing that urgently, he probably pulled a muscle somewhere. Maybe he can't get down. Let's go up and carry him down."

As soon as Tao Xue came down, the others crowded around him. When they saw Shen Dongqing hadn't come out, all sorts of guesses started flying.

Seeing that everyone assumed Shen Dongqing was injured and several people were ready to head upstairs, Tao Xue quickly blocked them. If there really was a drug user in that apartment, who knew what kind of danger they might walk into.

"He's not hurt. He's just tired from the climb and resting up there for a bit," Tao Xue quickly made an excuse.

"Just resting! You scared me."

"Yeah, he definitely needs rest. That was like intense exercise—his leg muscles must be sore. A break will do him good."

"Maybe we should buy him some food and bring it up."

Tao Xue hadn't anticipated that stopping one idea would just lead to others coming up with new reasons to go upstairs. He was flustered, but after much persuasion, he managed to talk everyone out of it.

Fortunately, the police arrived quickly. Seeing them, the crowd began murmuring, assuming someone had called them.

"Officer, the kid's over here—he's already been brought down!" someone shouted, pointing at Tao Xue as the police were about to enter the building.

"You've got it wrong—these officers aren't here about the child," Tao Xue quickly explained.

The others were confused. If not for the child, was there some other dispute in the building that warranted a police call?

"What's going on?" One officer walked over, glanced at the child, and asked Tao Xue.

Since the police had arrived, Tao Xue no longer held back and briefly described what had happened.

"Yang Yu, take care of the kid and get him away from here," one officer instructed.

After handing the kid off to the cops, Tao Xue let out a sigh of relief and watched the two officers head upstairs.

Shen Dongqing spotted the cops coming up and hurried over to meet them.

The police exchanged a few words with Shen Dongqing, then leaned close to the crack of the door and sniffed. Their noses weren't as sharp as Shen Dongqing's, but they were more keyed into the smell of drugs, and with the odor now stronger, they quickly detected something off.

One officer stepped back from the door crack, realizing the smell was being buried under the stench of trash. He could make a rough guess as to where the smell was coming from.

There was a slim chance the place was just filthy, but more likely, the occupants were trying to cover up the smell of their drug use.

"You've got a hell of a nose, but how did you know something was off?" the officer looked at Shen Dongqing with a hint of suspicion. Most people passing by would just want to get away from a stink, and it was rare for anyone to pick out the scent of meth.

"My buddy's a cop, and he's filled me in on this kind of stuff," Shen Dongqing said. Xiao Ze knew about his rotten luck and had passed along all kinds of drug-related trivia during their casual chats. He never thought he'd actually end up using that knowledge.

A buddy who's a cop?

That explanation checked out, but to be on the safe side, the officer asked another question, "What's your friend's name?"

"Xiao Ze."

If Shen Dongqing had dropped any other name, the officer might not have recognized it, but in Ningchuan City, Xiao Ze was a big deal.

"Hey, are you that buddy of Captain Xiao's—the one who's a great cook and has an insane nose!" another officer, who had been staring at Shen Dongqing, suddenly realized.

"That's right," Shen Dongqing nodded.

"No wonder you caught the scent. Your nose is something else," the officer said, dropping his suspicion and looking at Shen Dongqing in awe. He'd heard of Shen Dongqing's rep—several cases in Ningchuan City were tied to him—but he'd only ever heard the stories, never seen the guy in the flesh.

"Oh, and the smell's getting stronger, so someone inside is probably getting high right now," Shen Dongqing added before heading back down, not wanting to get in the way of their investigation.

Someone inside is getting high?

The officers exchanged looks and decided to call for backup. Who knew how many people were in there—just two of them going up against drug users was still a bit risky.

...

Finally managing to slip away from the crowd, Shen Dongqing wiped the sweat off his forehead. The crowd had been way too enthusiastic—praising his bravery, thanking him for the heads-up, and even offering to buy him dinner.

Shen Dongqing quickly hopped in his car and drove off, unaware that a video of him scaling the building had already been posted online.

Kids nearly falling out of windows wasn't exactly a rare thing. Seeing a group of people standing below, ready to catch the kid, netizens were touched by how many kind-hearted people were out there, and reminded everyone to keep a close eye on their kids, or they'd regret it if something went wrong.

Then Shen Dongqing showed up in the video, and the tone of the comments did a complete 180.

One second everyone was worried about the kid, and the next, the guy had scrambled up to the second floor in two moves—and before anyone could blink again, he'd gone from the second floor to the fourth.

"Dude, I probably couldn't run that fast on flat ground"

"Is this a gecko that turned into a spirit?"

"Or maybe a blue sheep that's become one"

"Rock climbers watching this would lose all hope—they'd probably never reach this level in their whole life"

"His arm strength is freaking insane"

Soon, the video showed Shen Dongqing warning everyone that the security grilles were about to come down, and the people below scattered. The person filming didn't run, though, because they were shooting from upstairs.

And when Shen Dongqing made it to the top, the two grilles came crashing down one after another with a deafening bang, even making the filmer's phone shake from the shock.

"Suddenly feels like good people get rewarded—they all got pretty lucky"

"You call that luck? That's what I'd call bad luck"

"No, it really is luck. If that climbing guy hadn't shown up, everyone would've still been standing under the window. If those grilles had come down, no one would've had time to dodge"

"Those grilles are so sneaky. Normally, they might not hit anyone, or maybe just one person, but they had to fall right when people were trying to save the kid. Without that climbing guy, the kid wouldn't have been saved, and they'd have been screwed too"

"Could it be that the climbing guy stepped on the grilles and knocked them loose?"

"Look at his movements—he never trusted the grilles, spreading his weight carefully, so his impact on them was minimal. At most, he just sped up their fall by a few minutes"

"That said, I suddenly feel like the homeowner got lucky too. If his grilles had fallen and hurt that many people, it would've been a total disaster"

"That guy's pretty handsome too, and he looks kind of familiar"

"Uninvited fan here—let me introduce everyone to my favorite outdoor streamer, Shen Dongqing. But based on my experience, a kid falling from a building might be tied to a case"

"What?"

"Just looked him up—isn't your streamer's whole persona a bit too over-the-top? He's like a walking case magnet"

"Didn't expect this to get filmed. Someone from the scene, speak up—there seem to be drug users in the apartment where the kid lives, and the cops just dragged a few people out"

The next day, Shen Dongqing scrolled through the video and then saw the police announcement: three people in the room were using drugs.

As for why the child was on the security grille—because when they were using drugs, they found the child's crying too annoying. Even locked in a separate room, the noise was a headache, so they simply put the child on the grille, closed the window, and shut the bedroom door, creating a double layer of soundproofing.