Chapter 283: Chapter 281: Going to Chang City

Back at Weiyang Palace that evening.

After washing up, Su Miaoyi stared at her reflection in the mirror.

She gazed for a moment before speaking. "Aren’t you going to wake up?"

No one answered her.

"You’re slacking," Su Miaoyi uttered the two words, then left the bathroom, returned to her bedroom, and lay down.

’I hope you’re awake when I open my eyes tomorrow.’

However... things didn’t go as planned.

The alarm rang. Su Miaoyi opened her eyes.

She stared at the ceiling for a few seconds, then clicked her tongue in annoyance.

It was her. Still her.

She hadn’t switched back.

She lay in bed for a while longer before getting up and going to another room.

Thirty minutes later, she had punched a hole in the heavy bag.

Seeing the leaking bag, she raised an eyebrow, left the room, and headed back to her bedroom to grab a change of clothes.

As she passed the cat tree, she saw An’an perched at the very top, watching her warily.

Su Miaoyi stopped and met its gaze.

An’an didn’t dare to move, its eyes fixed on her.

The woman and the cat stared at each other for a moment before Su Miaoyi went to get a cat treat stick.

An’an’s wariness began to waver.

Su Miaoyi held the treat stick in her hand, waving it from left to right.

An’an’s head followed it back and forth like a windshield wiper.

Finally, unable to resist the temptation, it climbed down from the cat tree.

Su Miaoyi held out the treat for it to eat. Once it was finished, she tore off a piece of tape and stuck it to its forehead.

An’an started shaking its head and raising its paws, trying to tear the tape off its head.

Su Miaoyi huffed softly. ’That’s what you get for running around all night instead of sleeping.’

She grabbed her clothes and went to shower. When she came out, An’an was still fighting with the piece of tape.

Normally, it would be dead to the world by this time, but today it was stuck battling a piece of tape.

After drying her hair, Su Miaoyi sat on the sofa watching it.

A little while later, Zhuang Yanzheng called.

She answered. "Was the application approved?"

"Not yet," Zhuang Yanzheng said. "Are you not coming in today?"

"Is there something you need?" Su Miaoyi asked.

"Yes, I need you to come in for a bit," Zhuang Yanzheng said. "No rush, just get here before ten."

"Okay."

After hanging up, Su Miaoyi peeled the tape off An’an’s head, grabbed the car keys Shen Yanzhou kept there, and drove to the city bureau.

Arriving at the city bureau, she went straight to Zhuang Yanzheng’s office, knocked, and entered, stopping in front of his desk.

Zhuang Yanzheng looked up at her. "If I don’t say anything, are you planning to just stand there in silence?"

Su Miaoyi just looked at him, not saying a word.

Zhuang Yanzheng said, "Not even going to ask what I need you for?"

Su Miaoyi continued to watch him with a cool, detached gaze. Her voice was cold, with a lazy drawl at the end. "And if I don’t ask, you won’t tell me?"

"I suppose I would," Zhuang Yanzheng finished up a bit of work on his desk, then stood up. "Let’s go."

Su Miaoyi followed him out.

The two of them went downstairs to the first-floor lobby and then headed toward the back courtyard.

Zhuang Yanzheng said, "You just follow me without asking where we’re going. What if I was leading you into a trap?"

"You wouldn’t," Su Miaoyi said calmly.

"Oh?" Zhuang Yanzheng glanced at her.

Su Miaoyi added, "And if you dared to, I’d just beat you up."

Zhuang Yanzheng: "..." ’And here I thought I’d earned her trust.’

They crossed the courtyard and went to the shooting range in the building behind it.

Su Miaoyi surveyed the shooting range.

Zhuang Yanzheng said, "The application for your service weapon was approved. You need to practice. We can only issue it to you if you pass the qualification."

The shooting range was large. She scanned her surroundings.

Zhuang Yanzheng handed her a gun.

Su Miaoyi took it, looked it over, and gave it a quick inspection.

Zhuang Yanzheng watched her. "Want to give it a try?"

Su Miaoyi stepped forward, expertly loaded the magazine, raised her hand, and took aim.

BANG, BANG, BANG...

She fired a total of five shots, every single one hitting the bullseye.

"Is this good enough?" Su Miaoyi asked, looking at Zhuang Yanzheng.

Zhuang Yanzheng seemed a bit distracted and didn’t answer her question.

He was recalling what their police academy instructor had said: if Qin Leyan hadn’t joined the force, it would have been a huge loss for the department.

She was born to do this job.

Seeing that he was silent, Su Miaoyi fired another shot at the target.

The sound startled Zhuang Yanzheng, and he snapped back to attention, looking at her.

"Is this good enough?" Su Miaoyi asked again.

"It is," Zhuang Yanzheng nodded.

Then he added, "You’re such a good shot. Is the other personality as accurate? Are your... skills interoperable?"

"Yes," Su Miaoyi nodded. "She can do it too."

Zhuang Yanzheng seemed a little relieved. "Alright, let me go over a few things you need to be aware of."

Su Miaoyi listened intently as he spoke.

After qualifying for her service weapon, Su Miaoyi didn’t go home. She waited at the city bureau for news.

It wasn’t until late in the afternoon, near the end of the workday, that the request to investigate in another jurisdiction was approved.

The process probably hadn’t been smooth, because Su Miaoyi could hear Zhuang Yanzheng cursing someone out from her workstation.

The curses were harsh.

Amidst the barrage of ugly words, Su Miaoyi picked out one of the more articulate phrases and repeated it in her mind: ’All they do is stuff their faces and get fat, but they won’t do a lick of actual work.’

It wasn’t clear who he was cursing out.

In any case, not long after he finished, the application was approved.

The next morning, Su Miaoyi, Chu Xingrou, and Lu Zhishen flew to Chang City.

After landing, they were picked up by personnel arranged by the Chang City municipal bureau.

The Yanjing Village case was being handled by a branch bureau.

Su Miaoyi and the others went directly to the branch bureau to get an update on the situation.

The case files they had were transferred from this very branch, so what they learned after arriving was more or less the same as what they had already read in the files.

After lunch, the three of them followed a car from the branch bureau and headed directly for Yanjing Village.

The road to Yanjing Village was rough. It was a long and remote journey deep into the mountains.

The ride was so bumpy that Lu Zhishen got sick.

He had to get out of the car to throw up twice along the way.

"The conditions out here aren’t great. There’s been talk of repairing the road for ages, but it’s been difficult for a number of reasons, so the road has stayed in pretty bad shape," Duan Wenrui, the criminal investigation captain from the branch bureau, explained to them.

"I’m fine," Lu Zhishen forced out the two words.

Su Miaoyi didn’t say anything, her eyes on her phone.

Chu Xingrou looked at Lu Zhishen’s pale face and thought he looked fragile enough to shatter.

’But he still looked good—beautifully broken.’

"Brother Lu, how about I give you my title of ’squad beauty’?" Chu Xingrou whispered.

Lu Zhishen opened his eyes to glance at her, then quickly shut them again in discomfort. He spoke four words in an exceptionally weak voice: "That is simply audacious."

Chu Xingrou pressed her lips together and said nothing.

"In just one short year, the most honest kid on the team has changed," Lu Zhishen lamented.

"It just means I’m a fast learner," Chu Xingrou said softly.

"If I were to compete for squad beauty, what chance would you two have?" Lu Zhishen said, his voice weak but his confidence sky-high.

Chu Xingrou looked over at Su Miaoyi.

Su Miaoyi said nothing, but she grabbed Lu Zhishen’s hand and pinched the pressure point in the web of his thumb.

Lu Zhishen’s eyes flew wide open.

Watching him, Chu Xingrou realized it was the first time she’d ever seen his eyes open that wide.

And suddenly, she thought he looked both like a startled cat with its fur on end and a big carp flopping out of water.

Lu Zhishen tried to speak but was in too much pain to get the words out.

"Is it working?" Su Miaoyi asked.

"I’m not sure," Lu Zhishen gasped, looking at her. "This pain is overpowering the nausea from the car sickness."

"I’m not even using my full strength," Su Miaoyi said.

"This is enough! It’s fine!" Lu Zhishen seemed to sober up a little, terrified she would press even harder.

"There’s another pressure point near the wrist," Su Miaoyi mentioned.

"This one’s working just fine," Lu Zhishen said, genuinely a little scared of her strength. "Just a friendly reminder, I use my hands to draw for a living."

"Your left hand," Su Miaoyi reminded him.

Lu Zhishen leaned back against his seat. "My left hand has fetched snacks for you."

Su Miaoyi eased the pressure slightly.

Lu Zhishen breathed a sigh of relief.

’So the snacks earned their keep after all.’

...

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