Chapter 1

I work at the customs office, where I process countless pieces of luggage every single day.

That day, a suitcase belonging to an overseas Chinese woman caught my attention. Hidden in the lining were two unremarkable stones.

She explained with a smile that they were souvenirs for her child back home.

But the moment my fingertips touched the stones, a chill surged straight to my scalp.

I didn't react, instead reporting the situation using our internal code. Three minutes later, the captain led a team over, and the next second, the highest level of lockdown alarm blared throughout the entire airport.

The conveyor belt hummed.

Suitcases passed by one after another.

The reflection on the plastic wrap was blinding.

My name is Julian, and I work in customs.

My daily job is to watch the luggage and the people.

Most suitcases, like most people, are nothing special.

Until that woman appeared.

She was wearing a beige suit.

Her face wore a polite, appropriate smile.

Her passport showed her name was Fiona, an overseas Chinese returning from North America.

Her suitcase was new, a designer brand, but there was only one.

For someone who had lived abroad for years, it was far too little.

I signaled for her to open the suitcase for inspection.

She was very cooperative, her smile never wavering.

"Sorry to trouble you, officer."

The suitcase was filled with clothes, neatly folded, along with some toys bought for children.

Everything seemed normal.

I was just about to let her through when my finger inadvertently brushed against the inner wall of the suitcase.

There was a lining.

It was very thin, crafted quite cleverly.

My heart skipped a beat.

Fiona’s smile stiffened for a moment, but she immediately regained her composure.

"Oh, this? My husband made it. He said it’s shockproof."

I looked at her without saying a word.

Using my fingernail, I gently pried it open, pulling back the lining.

Inside was thick foam padding wrapping two objects.

I took them out. They were two stones.

Grey, dust-covered, palm-sized, with nothing peculiar about them.

They looked like any stones you could pick up by the side of the road.

"What are these?" I asked.

"Souvenirs for my son back home," she explained with a smile. "He was born abroad and has never seen the stones of his homeland. I thought I'd bring a couple back for him to play with."

The excuse sounded flawless.

I picked up one of the stones.

The moment my fingertips touched it,

a chill surged violently from the stone, like an icy serpent, instantly钻进 (drilling into) my fingertips and racing up my arm along my veins.

It wasn't the physical cold of winter.

It was the kind of eerie, freezing chill that could freeze a person's soul.

My scalp tingled, and the hair on the back of my neck stood straight up.

My vision even blurred for a second, as if I saw a pale, bloated face submerged in water.

The hallucination flashed by in an instant.

I set the stone down, my heart pounding wildly.

Fiona was still smiling, but her eyes were fixed intently on me.

I didn't let her see anything amiss.

I picked up the internal phone on the desk.

"Checkpoint A, Red Flag target. Repeat, Red Flag target."

This was our internal code.

It meant I had discovered something extremely abnormal that couldn't be easily categorized, requiring the highest level of support.

There was a second of silence on the other end.

"Received."

I hung up the phone and continued to inspect the other items in the suitcase as if nothing had happened.

Time ticked by second by second.

Beads of sweat began to form on Fiona’s forehead.

"Officer, is there a problem? I'm in a hurry."

I ignored her.

Three minutes.

Three whole minutes.

Rapid footsteps sounded behind me.

Captain Stone arrived with two colleagues, fully armed, rushing in from the restricted passage.

His eyes swept over Fiona and finally landed on my face.

I nodded slightly at him.

He understood.

The next second, the entire airport terminal erupted with a piercing, harsh alarm sound.

The highest level of lockdown alarm.

Every entrance and exit gate slammed down instantly.

The screams of passengers and the blaring of the alarm turned everything into utter chaos.

At that moment, the blood drained completely from Fiona’s face.

Chapter 2

The sound of the alarm tore through the airport’s tranquility.

The crowd scattered in all directions like a disturbed hive of bees.

Armed police quickly brought the scene under control, guiding passengers to safety.

My inspection station became the eye of the storm.

Within a five-meter radius, there was no one left but us.

Fiona’s body was trembling.

It wasn't fear; it was rage.

Her eyes, sharp as poisoned daggers, were fixed on me.

"What gives you the right? I am a legal overseas Chinese entrant! I’m going to report you!"

Her voice was shrill, having lost its earlier composure.

Captain Stone ignored her and walked to my side.

"Julian, what’s the situation?"

His voice was low but powerful.

I pushed the two stones toward him.

"Touch them."

Captain Stone looked at me, his eyes questioning, but without a hint of doubt.

He reached out with his tactical-glove-clad hand and touched one of the stones.

His brow twitched violently.

"Sss..."

He pulled his hand back and shook it.

"What the hell is this? Why is it so cold?"

"It’s not ice," I said. "It’s something else."

He understood what I meant.

There was an unwritten rule in our team: my intuition had the highest priority.

"Take her away," Captain Stone ordered his other two colleagues.

One of the colleagues stepped forward, ready to bag the stones as evidence.

Fiona suddenly lunged forward like a madwoman.

"Don’t touch my things! They’re for my son!"

She was pinned down tightly by the other colleague, still struggling incessantly.

"My son is in poor health; these are peace stones I specifically sought out at a temple! You can't take them!"

She wept and wailed, acting as if it were all true.

If I hadn't touched them with my own hands, I might have believed her.

Captain Stone walked up to her and squatted down.

"Ms. Fiona, is it?"

"We are just conducting a routine check. If there's nothing wrong with the stones, we will return them to you exactly as they were."

"Now, please cooperate and come with us to the interrogation room."

His tone was very polite.

Fiona stopped crying and shouting. She looked at Captain Stone, then at me, the resentment in her eyes deepening.

She was taken away.

I followed Captain Stone as we delivered the stones to the technical department.

Leo from the technical department looked at us, his face stern.

"Captain Stone, such a massive operation? Did you find a bomb?"

"More troublesome than a bomb." Captain Stone carefully placed the stones on the testing platform. "Check everything. Every single item. Composition, radiation, biological traces—everything."

Leo put on his protective goggles and began operating the equipment.

Captain Stone and I waited in the breakroom next door.

He handed me a cigarette.

"Tell me what you felt."

I took a deep drag.

"Cold. Like touching a piece of dead flesh that had been frozen for a long time. No, even colder than that. When I touched it, a flash crossed my mind: a face bloated and rotten from being submerged in water."

Captain Stone’s expression darkened.

He knew I never lied.

Three years ago, here as well, a package disguised as a toy passed all equipment tests.

I touched it and said it smelled of blood.

They didn't believe me.

When they opened it, it contained the dismembered body of an infant.

Since then, my intuition had become the highest command for our team.

"That woman is trouble," I said. "The look in her eyes when she saw me wasn't the grievance of being falsely accused; it was the rage and murderous intent of someone whose plan had been disrupted."

"I know," Captain Stone said, crushing the cigarette butt. "I’ve already had the backend check all her information. From birth to now—everything."

An hour later.

Leo pushed the door open, his face wearing a strange expression.

"Captain Stone, the results are in."

"Well?"

"The stones are just ordinary granite, the kind you find anywhere. No radiation, no explosive components, nothing at all."

After finishing, Leo added another sentence.

"They didn't even extract a single fingerprint; they’re excessively clean."

Captain Stone looked at me.

My heart sank.

Could it be that this time, it was just my imagination?

Chapter 3

The breakroom was silent.

The cigarette butts in the ashtray had piled up into a small mountain.

Leo's report felt like a basin of cold water poured over my head.

Ordinary granite.

This result meant that I might have made a colossal mistake.

To initiate a top-level lockdown and mobilize so many resources, all for two broken rocks?

I didn't dare to imagine the consequences.