Becoming The White Moonlight’s Human Weapon After My Death

Chapter 18: To Sleep (In The Physical Sense)


Seeing Shao Dongmi frozen in place, Yan Chenli became aware that the situation wasn’t right.

“Dongmi, don’t tell me… is your Executioner someone you knew when he was alive?”

Shao Dongmi nodded belatedly: “…Yes… We had a good relationship when we were kids. I just heard about his passing not long ago.”

“…Really? I see.” Yan Chenli put that file in his hand back and rummaged through the short stack of documents for a moment before pulling one out and handing it to Shao Dongmi.

“The Executioner’s characteristic of borrowing the dead as a foundation could very easily lead to disputes. How many people out there can accept being copied and remodelled, only to be turned into a lethal weapon? In order to avoid ethical disputes, there are only two kinds of people that can be chosen as an Executioner’s source material. One is the kind of person stripped of all rights for life, which are known as the [forcefully captured]; the other is a volunteer who signed a donation agreement during their life, also known as the [voluntary donors].”

Shao Dongmi opened that document as he listened, finding Chen Xing’s full name and picture on the first page.

He almost didn’t look like a person on that photo, he didn’t know how long that illness had tortured him for, but his hair was faded and gone, his skin dry, and he had lost a lot of weight.

The file was mainly a record of medical treatments, but the first half was a record of treatments for a genetic disorder, and the next half was a record of body-modification surgeries. The records read: [The source of the consciousness had been tormented by an incurable illness since youth and signed an agreement to become an Executioner while still alive, voluntarily relinquishing all human rights, including the right to life, deleted all official government records and documents, and severed all ties with relatives.]

Appended to the file was Chen Xing’s signed document of willingness to relinquish all human rights.

There would be no compensation payment, no subsidies, and he was not allowed to have a grave or a memorial service. In theory, this agreement prohibited anything that would let people remember and commemorate him. Even the Chen family’s obituary was considered a violation of the agreement.

And in the end, what was written on the line of Chen Xing’s cause of death was: “Death with dignity1”.

Shao Dongmi felt even more stunned.

“Even then, not all consciousnesses can be successfully extracted and turned into an Executioner. In order to ensure a successful donation, he underwent modification surgeries while still alive.” Yan Chenli added.


In other words, Chen Xing hadn’t even died of his illness.

In a sense, he had killed himself.


When the Chen family had risked everything to try to keep him alive, he had wilfully chosen to end it all and even deprived them of the right to miss him.

How could Chen Zhi not hate him?


“Venus was the only idle voluntary donor. I originally thought that his death stress disorder wouldn’t be too serious, and that his character would be a lot safer than that of those death-row criminals, so I gave him to you… I’m really sorry.” Yan Chenli looked glum and apologetic, “If I’d known you used to know him, I wouldn’t have let you take that car… I know how difficult that feeling is.”

Shao Dongmi looked at Yan Chenli and struggled to boot his almost-crashing brain into gear for a bit as he thought.

“Captain Yan, Lu-ge, he… doesn’t seem like a death-row criminal. How did he…?”

Yan Chenli didn’t answer, instead he pulled out another file and handed it to Shao Dongmi. He didn’t even need to go look for it, like he was all too familiar with that file.

That was Shen Lu’s file. At a glance, Shao Dongmi saw that his background included working in the criminal police, as a forensic investigator, and an Adjudicator. He originally belonged to Yinjiang’s Criminal Investigation Bureau, and they’d actually been from the same department.

Shao Dongmi was amazed, “An Adjudicator? Did something… happen to Lu-ge after he got to the Tribunal?”

“Yes. Furthermore, I’m largely to blame for his death.” Yan Chenli laughed soundlessly, “Saying that I killed him with my own two hands wouldn’t be too far off the mark.”

——If you don’t want to become another one of Yan Chenli’s expendable victims.

Those words flit past Shao Dongmi’s mind like lightning, but he didn’t have time to inquire further before Yan Chenli patted him on the shoulder, “It’s almost time, I’ll go to the interrogation first. You can come find me when you’re done, remember to lock the door.” Then he turned around and left.

This is a fan translation posted to title-in-progress.dreamwidth.org. Support the author if you can.

Shen Lu was staring intently at the security monitor.

The suspect was leaning over the table, already bored to death and having fallen asleep, but his sleep wasn’t peaceful, and he would turn and change position every few minutes.

After that, he heard the sound of footsteps approaching. The boots held a steady rhythm, the steps were large, and he knew who it was just from the sound. A moment later, Yan Chenli leaned at his side, “Okay, I’ve come to take over. Find anything abnormal?”

Shen Lu looked back and shook his head.

Yan Chenli looked at his face, feeling like he should wait a moment longer.

“Something you want to talk about?” He suddenly said.

Shen Lu looked over at him somewhat surprised and quietly stared at Yan Chenli for a moment, but still said nothing.

“Why do you never say anything? I never know what you’re thinking.” Yan Chenli arranged the tools he would use to record later as he spoke, his lowered eyelashes cast small fan-shaped shadows and his voice was low like he was talking to himself, “I have no way to know how much you’ve changed either.”

Shen Lu thought about it again, and asked, “I’ve changed?”

Yan Chenli asked, “What do you think? What about your way of thinking, or your habits? Is there anything different from before?”

“I don’t feel any difference.” Shen Lu answered honestly.


It was completely night-time at the moment, there were only a few screens glowing in the darkness in various shades of grey and white, and it looked as though the world had sunk into a monotone black and white. Only the indicator light of the seemingly always-working camera glowed red, its flickering light reflected in Yan Chenli’s golden pupils.

“The moon is very bright tonight.” Shen Lu spoke at random.

Yan Chenli looked out of the window, “Yeah, it’s probably mid-autumn.”

After a brief silence, Shen Lu suddenly spoke again, “Your hem is wrinkled.”

Yan Chenli looked down, it was the corner of his shirt that Shao Dongmi had pulled out and crumpled by his waist, it had been left to messily hang by his belt and hadn’t been tucked back in. Outwardly, Yan Chenli looked a little sloppy and didn’t care much about his appearance, his hair wasn’t regularly trimmed and it had already grown somewhat long, casually scattering over his shoulders with a few shaggy tufts sticking out.

Yan Chenli realised: “Are you trying to chat?”

Shen Lu nodded.

“You’re working really hard. That’s great, you can tell me anything you think about in the future.” Yan Chenli’s eyes curved into a smile, and he put the files under his arm as he pushed open the interrogation room door, “Go do whatever you want, read a book, write a diary, or go out for a walk, anything is fine. I’ll go find you when I’m done here.”

This is a fan translation posted to title-in-progress.dreamwidth.org. Support the author if you can.

By the time Shao Dongmi came out of the data room, it was already early morning.

He still hadn’t completely digested everything, but he’d made a copy of the materials he cared about and planned on taking them back to slowly look over.

The entire building had already gone to sleep, so he groped about in the dark the whole way back. Finally, he saw that the light in front of the door of the interrogation room was still on, so it seemed like the interrogation still hadn’t ended. Shen Lu was staring at the security monitor in the next door room, he nodded lightly when he heard Shao Dongmi coming, which could be considered a form of greeting.

The suspect had been completely silent, and Yan Chenli would only ask a few basic questions every once in a while. However, Yan Chenli’s voice sounded quite patient with not even a little bit of irritation, so he couldn’t tell exactly how much time he’d spent here.

The interrogation hadn’t made even the slightest progress, and Shao Dongmi looked at Shen Lu distractedly.

Shen Lu’s eyes were slightly narrowed, his gaze smoothly directed towards the screen. Shen Lu was a little taller than Yan Chenli, so he had to raise his head slightly to look at him. Shao Dongmi wasn’t sure whether he felt him staring or not, but either way he made no response.

Shen Lu was like a statue, making no unnecessary movements. This seemed to remind Shao Dongmi that the guy beside him was really not human.

In the dark, he could see the number on his collar flashing with a serene blue light, steadily displaying the number [12]. He’d clearly been operating for such a long time, but the number was completely stable.

Captain Yan really knew how to raise them, Shao Dongmi thought.


“Um, Lu-ge? Do you mind if I ask you a few questions?” Shao Dongmi probed.

Shen Lu turned his gaze towards him, “It’s not for me to decide. You need Yan’s approval for that.”

“Oh.” Shao Dongmi agreed. He didn’t know how much effort Yan Chenli had spent to get Shen Lu’s mental pressure to be this low, if he caused him to collapse with a few idle words, that would just be be too great a sin.

This is a fan translation posted to title-in-progress.dreamwidth.org. Support the author if you can.

A little later, Yan Chenli ended the questioning and had the suspect sign the interrogation transcript, though it sounded like he didn’t seem to have any success. Yan Chenli finally ended work for the day, closed the door, and left.

“…From 20:37 to 01:45…” Yan Chenli leaned against the door with the cap of the fountain pen in his mouth while he wrote down on the file.

Shao Dongmi poked his head out and looked at the almost blank page, feeling a little annoyed, “You really couldn’t pry out even a single word out of him huh? That slippery guy.”

“No, there was one sentence.” Yan Chenli bent his finger and flicked at a single line on the notes, repeating, “He said, ‘You don’t have any evidence anyway, so you’ll have to let me go tomorrow’.”

Shao Dongmi: “Ah? There’s nothing… wrong with that sentence, is there?”

“It would be fine if we were in Yinjiang, but Augustus is a city with an 80% illiteracy rate and no police or government for over thirty years, Dongmi.” Yan Chenli said.

Shao Dongmi immediately understood: “Oh! Captain Yan, are you saying that he’s not from Augustus?”

Yan Chenli nodded, “That’s right. It’s very likely that he was born and lived in a regular city, and received certain education. Moreover, nowadays locals of Augustus who remain are trapped in this place, most of them don’t have an education, no specialised skills, no funds saved up, and no way to get a footing in other cities. So this suspect, who would rather stay here than return to a regular city, very likely has a criminal record that hasn’t been dealt with.

“We left him for five hours and he never revealed any clear weakness, which is enough to show that he is a person with deep thoughts and steady actions. If he does have a record, it probably isn’t from a crime of passion, it’s very possible that it was premeditated, organised crime.

“You even found a stack of banknotes on him, Augustus is a poor place where one can’t eat if they don’t steal, so his financial sources are definitely a problem.”

Yan Chenli finally concluded, “A thoughtful fugitive who was born and raised in a regular city and achieved a certain position after he came to Augustus, that is my current judgement of him. There are still too few clues at present, but don’t worry, we can slowly look into it.”

Shao Dongmi’s eyes glinted, and he was just about to pour out his feelings of endless praise when Yan Chenli immediately stopped him:

“Ok, we can leave the compliments for tomorrow, what time is it? Go to sleep first. You haven’t had time to clean your room, so just make do and spend the night with me.”

Yan Chenli lightly hit Shaod Dongmi on the head with the file, then discovered that Shen Lu was staring at him with the same shining eyes as Shao Dongmi.

“Do you also want to compliment me?” Yan Chenli asked, finding it a little funny.

Shen Lu nodded.

Yan Chenli gave a brilliant laugh, revealing the tips of his pointed canines, “Fine, write me a letter tonight and do your best to praise me, I’d love to read it.”


Yesterday Shao Dongmi hadn’t slept well on the flight, and today he survived another day filled with high-intensity shocks, so now that he had relaxed a little he was so tired he was almost swaying. Still, Yan Chenli grabbed his almost-asleep self and forced him to take a shower.

If it was his own bed, he wouldn’t have minded, but it was Shen Lu’s bed and he didn’t know where to get those precious matching colour bedsheets.


“Can you sleep with the light on? Executioners don’t need to sleep, so A-Lu normally reads at night, and I don’t mind the light so I let him keep it on. If you’re not used to it, he can just rest for tonight.” Yan Chenli grabbed that huge coffee-coloured bear from the head of the bed and moved it next to the desk.

“Oh, it’s fine, it doesn’t matter to me.” Shao Dongmi watched Yan Chenli carry the bear to the other side of the desk, making a very symmetrical row with Shen Lu, who was sitting with his back against the desk.

Yan Chenli saw he was a little curious, and explained with a smile, “The night is too long, I’m entrusting it to have a chat with A-Lu.”

Shao Dongmi’s eyes widened: “What? The bear can talk?”

Yan Chenli asked back: “Why? Does that mean you think A-Lu is chattier than it?”

Shao Dongmi glanced at Shen Lu, remembering how he’d barely heard him say more than a few words in the past few days, and nodded in deep agreement: “There’s not much difference between them, is there? I think they can talk together.”


In the past, when they were tailing suspects, it was common for a team of seven or eight large men to spend the night nested together in a room of barely ten square metres. During that time, Shao Dongmi liked sleeping near Yan Chenli because Yan Chenli had a very nice sleeping posture and was very calm, so he would be very reassured when squeezing next to him.

Xi Yue and He Xiaowu’s sleeping postures were too much, if he was unlucky enough to only have a spot next to them, he could be kicked and smacked for an entire night. Xi Yue had even laid down at the side of the bed one night and ended up at the kitchen door the next day, which had scared Shao Dongmi so much he looked up “can people break the law in their sleep?” that very night and removed all the cutlery from the kitchen.


After Shao Dongmi fell asleep on the bed, he rolled back and forth a few times before finally grabbing onto Yan Chenli. Yan Chenli was slightly woken by the movement, so he cracked open his eyes and, seemingly quite used to it, rubbed that head which had dug into his arms before falling back asleep.

Shen Lu looked at them.

Then looked again.

And then looked back again and again.


Stop looking, let’s just turn the lights off tonight.