Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Half an hour later, at the Feng Ping Police Station, Special Investigation Team’s temporary office.
Zhao Yu and the rest of the team were already gathered while Cui Lizhu was being escorted to the office by medical personnel. “Argh! It’s okay, I’m fine!” Cui Lizhu waved them away. “I was conscious the whole time, they didn’t drug me at all! I’m okay…”
“Alright, fine,” Zhao Yu said. Upon Cui Lizhu’s insistence, he dismissed the medical staff who had been attempting to examine her. With the Invisible Detector, he was able to confirm there were no tracking or listening devices on her.
“Leader, leader!” Li Beini said hurriedly. “You were right, the car disappeared after making a right turn at Ding Xiang Road! We found the license plate number, but it was a fake!” Earlier, when Zhao Yu had tried to give chase, despite having located the suspected vehicle via his Copy Camera tool, he was ultimately unable to catch them. The van had disappeared into thin air.
“The car is a Mercedes Benz V-Class. There are obvious signs that the car has been modified!” Liu Zhanbing said as he took out a photo of the vehicle. “The tires on it were really deep to carry a heavier load!”
“That can’t be right, there was nothing in there other than a few computers!” Cui Lizhu chimed in.
“Weren’t you blindfolded?!” Zhao Yu asked.
“I got it!” Li Jing said, suddenly interrupting. “It’s a bulletproof car. That’s why it’s heavy!”
“Bulletproof… car?” Everyone was shocked. “What’s that supposed to mean? Isn’t this murderer a bit too wild?” someone asked.
“It’s not wild, it’s professionalism!” Liu Zhanbing corrected.
“Xiao Cui!” Zhao Yu said, placing his hands onto Cui Lizhu’s shoulders. “Are you saying that you were aware of everything that was happening? Hurry and tell us the details! How many people were there? What exactly happened?”
“There were only two of them!” Cui Lizhu said in a fearful tone, rubbing the broken part of her little finger. “One was driving and the other grabbed me! When it happened, I was at the entrance and just about to call you. I was going to take a taxi back to the police station to meet you. But almost immediately when I got onto the highway, the silver-gray van drove straight towards me!” Cui Lizhu recalled. “At that moment, I couldn’t react and before I knew it, they had taken me. He had a lot of strength and I wasn’t able to resist. He covered my mouth so I couldn’t scream for help, and then he handcuffed me and asked me a few questions.”
“Leader, these are not police handcuffs,” Li Beini said. “They’re rather delicate and were probably purchased online.”
“Did you see them clearly?” Zhao Yu asked Cui Lizhu.
“Yes, I did!” Cui Lizhu said, nodding. “One was rather handsome. He was wearing a cap and spoke gently, but he was really strong! I, uhm, I remember what he looked like! We can do a sketch later!”
“What even…?!” Zhao Yu exclaimed. “They even dared to show their faces?! The arrogance!”
“Sister Cui Lizhu,” Li Jing asked quietly. “Are you sure they didn’t lay a finger on you? Like, uhm, did they use truth serum?”
“No, as I’ve already said, they didn’t give me any drugs or inject me with anything! Other than pushing me out of the van, they were really gentle!” Cui Lizhu said, giving Li Jing a serious look, her eyes widened. “Wait, who are you?”
“This is the new team leader, Li Jing!” Zhao Yu told her.
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“Wow, another beautiful woman!” Cui Lizhu said playfully. “Our boss sure lucked out again! This time, Miss Miao is going to be so jealous!”
“Stop spouting nonsense!” Zhao Yu urged. “Hurry up and tell me, what did they ask you?”
“There’s no ‘them’, it was just him!” Cui Lizhu corrected him. “From the start, it was just the handsome guy with the cap speaking to me. The driver was a fat man with a full beard. I didn’t see his appearance clearly, and he didn’t say anything. As for the handsome guy, he mainly just asked me a few questions and uhm, he asked me if Tao Xiang was already dead.”
“I said yes!” she continued. “Then he asked me if Tao Xiang had left anything behind for me and I told him that he had only left me a box of ashes. After that, he asked me to tell him where Tao Xiang’s notebook was and if I had it with me or not.” At this point, Cui Lizhu paused briefly. “When I heard him ask that question, I acted dumb. I said I didn’t know what he was talking about!”
“Tsch!” Zhao Yu said, frowning. It was obvious that the culprits knew the answers to the first two questions and that their real motive had been to find out about Tao Xiang’s notebook. Zhao Yu glanced over at Li Beini. Fortunately, Tao Xiang’s box of items had been kept in the police station. There might have been a huge problem if they had been with Cui Lizhu.
“What happened after that?” Li Jing asked curiously, urging Cui Lizhu to continue.
“After that, the handsome guy wanted to know about specific contents from the notebook and even threatened to take my life if I didn’t cooperate with them!” Cui Lizhu answered.
“What did you say?” Li Jing asked again.
“I was frightened, and my mind was a mess, so I just blurted out the first thing that came to my mind,” Cui Lizhu said. “I told him that my dad had indeed left me a notebook that contained advanced techniques for thieves and that they would allow me to continue his career and become the second-generation King of Thieves! After hearing this, the man couldn’t control his temper and started to, uhm, he started to threaten me and said if I didn’t tell him the contents of the notebook, he would cut off my fingers!” After saying this, Cui Lizhu raised both her hands and let everyone see that she had only eight fingers.
“And then what? Did you tell him?” Zhao Yu asked hurriedly.
“I was going to say something, but at that moment he received a call and then he brought me back to where I was! Leader…” Cui Lizhu said, nodding. “It’s really obvious that the handsome guy was merely working for someone. There’s a mastermind behind this whole thing!”
“Ah…” Zhao Yu thought through the events that had transpired and found everything that had happened to be too strange. It was clear that their motive for kidnapping Cui Lizhu was to gather information about Tao Xiang, but if so, why did they release her after receiving the call?
“Leader!” Zhang Jingfeng said, pointing at the door. “The sketch artist from Feng Ping has arrived. You can start now!”
“Oh,” Zhao Yu said, patting Cui Lizhu on the shoulders and motioning for her to go work with the artist to get the sketch done.
“Something’s not right…” Li Jing said in a hushed voice after Cui Lizhu left. “Leader Zhao, could the kidnappers that took Cui Lizhu be from some organization?”
“Hmm?” Zhao Yu was slightly taken aback, as Li Jing had seemingly read his mind. Judging from the way the kidnappers carried out their plans, Zhao Yu felt that they were probably not cold-blooded murderers. They had used a method similar to what the police would have done. There was also a computer in the van, the same way there would be in a police commander’s car. Could there be another group of people investigating this?
Zhao Yu thought about it and found it incredulous. They were the special group assigned by the Criminal Investigation Department and they had applied for this case by following the standard procedures. If another team had been working on the case, his superiors would definitely have let him know about it!
“Leader Zhao, how about this? I’ll tell my superiors about it and let them know the situation. If our case really does clash with that of another department, at least there won’t be any miscommunication!” Li Jing said. It was as if she could read Zhao Yu’s mind.
“Yeah,” Zhao Yu said, nodding in agreement. From his point of view, Li Jing had already grown a lot. He felt like this beautiful girl, who seemed to be just a dainty princess, was not as simple as she appeared to be. Some of her ideas and stances were more brilliant than his own!
Oh… he thought. He finally understood that under the proper leadership, there were no weak soldiers. Chief Jiao had posted her here for a reason, and that reason wasn’t to act as an ornament! While Li Jing was on the phone, the hexagram in Zhao Yu’s brain had finally completed. This time, the Kun Dui diagram had attained a 291% achievement rate and he received double points as well as ten tools as a reward.
However, although the hexagram had ended, everything that had just happened caused Zhao Yu to be even more alert. He felt as though the case and the list of names of people who had been murdered were like an undercurrent rushing beneath him, and he was about to be swept away!