Chapter 316: Chapter 314: Because You Have Sister Miaomiao

Su Miaoyi, Chu Xingrou, and Lu Zhishen stared at Zhuang Yanzheng. For a second or two, they were frozen in place.

"What, I’m gone for a few days and you don’t recognize me anymore? Did Duan Wenrui win you all over? Is he trying to poach my people!" Zhuang Yanzheng said, walking down the steps.

Su Miaoyi put away her dagger, and Lu Zhishen tossed the club aside.

Chu Xingrou walked toward him, gun in hand.

"Whoa!" Zhuang Yanzheng said, looking at her. "Put that away."

Chu Xingrou quickly put the gun away.

"Jeez, it’s only been a few days. How did you three get so thin?" Zhuang Yanzheng said, looking them over. "What, are you all on a new diet?"

"Really?" Chu Xingrou touched her face, surprisingly pleased. "I lost weight?"

"And you’re happy about it?" Zhuang Yanzheng said. "It’s not a good look."

Chu Xingrou’s smile vanished.

Su Miaoyi watched Chu Xingrou secretly shoot Zhuang Yanzheng a glare, then smiled. "What brings you here?"

"I put in a request, and here I am," Zhuang Yanzheng said. "Let’s talk inside."

The four of them walked into the room.

"You came empty-handed?" Lu Zhishen asked.

"Tsk." Zhuang Yanzheng clicked his tongue and glanced at him. "What kind of thing is that to say! Would I come see my people empty-handed?"

Inside the room, the three of them saw several suitcases and a few large bags.

"It’s all for you," Zhuang Yanzheng said.

Su Miaoyi gave him a thumbs-up.

Chu Xingrou smiled. "Captain Zhuang, you’re the best."

"Smiling again?" Zhuang Yanzheng said.

Lu Zhishen looked at him. "Don’t tell me you raided the snack cabinet in my office."

"Not exactly," Zhuang Yanzheng said.

Lu Zhishen relaxed a little, only to hear Zhuang Yanzheng continue.

"Your snack cabinet was already empty. There was nothing left to take. I bought all of this myself."

Lu Zhishen shot him a look that could kill.

Zhuang Yanzheng slung an arm around his shoulder. "So I ate some of your snacks. Look at you, being so stingy. I’ll restock it for you when I get back."

Lu Zhishen snorted.

’Usually when he says something like that, he’ll get back and pretend it never happened.’

Su Miaoyi closed the door and asked, "So, did you come for a reason?"

"We found a lead on Lu Xian’s whereabouts," Zhuang Yanzheng said.

"He’s been here?" Su Miaoyi asked.

"Yeah," Zhuang Yanzheng said. "He was in Chang City three years ago. He stayed here for a while, about three months before Gao Hui’s case."

"So you think it’s possible that Mia’s subordinate, the one called Twenty-one, came here with Lu Xian?" Su Miaoyi asked.

"That’s right. Lu Xian and Mia go way back. According to Mia, Lu Xian often used her people. And he also came here three years ago. I’m wondering if there’s a connection." Zhuang Yanzheng looked at Su Miaoyi. "Besides, you’ve never had a vision from this far away before. The things you saw in Jinghai were all within the Jinghai area. And for the Jiangcheng case, you saw it while you were physically in Jiangcheng."

"But didn’t she see where Mo Xiaoxiao hid the USB drive while in Jinghai?" Lu Zhishen asked.

"That’s different. The business with Mo Xiaoxiao hiding the USB drive was part of my memory. I had just forgotten it and then remembered later. It wasn’t a vision," Su Miaoyi explained.

Lu Zhishen nodded.

"So, for you to suddenly have a vision from so far away... maybe it means this case was already connected to us somehow," Zhuang Yanzheng said.

"If all our current theories are correct, then this Twenty-one probably isn’t from Yanjing Village or even this town. He came from outside, arrived in Chang City, and just happened to meet Tian Min?" Su Miaoyi mused.

"Very likely," Zhuang Yanzheng said. "What’s the progress on your end?"

"We haven’t made any progress."

"That tough, huh?" Zhuang Yanzheng asked after a moment of silence. "How are the others?"

The three of them exchanged a look, knowing he meant Duan Wenrui, Zhao Yongliang, and their team.

"They’re good," Lu Zhishen said. "Responsible and very dedicated to the case."

"So what’s the plan now?" Zhuang Yanzheng asked.

"Head to the station, go over the case files," Su Miaoyi said.

"You guys go on ahead," Zhuang Yanzheng said. "I’m going to find a place to eat."

As the four of them headed out, one of them asked, "How did you get in here?"

"Duan Wenrui let me in. I went to the station first to surprise you all, but you weren’t there, so I came here to drop off my luggage," Zhuang Yanzheng explained.

"Not much of a surprise," Su Miaoyi commented.

Zhuang Yanzheng: "..."

"Is the car a rental?" Lu Zhishen asked, glancing at the vehicle by the door.

"Yep," Zhuang Yanzheng said. "Looks cool, right? It’s a real pain to drive, though."

"It’s no match for your three-wheeler," Su Miaoyi said.

"Not one nice thing to say, huh?" Zhuang Yanzheng muttered.

Su Miaoyi let out a laugh.

The three of them headed to the station, while Zhuang Yanzheng went to get something to eat. After his meal, he returned to the station as well and began looking through the case files.

Two hours later, Su Miaoyi and Chu Xingrou, along with an officer from the local precinct, went to question Tian Min again.

Once again, they got nothing out of her.

What they needed now was hard evidence of the crime.

Su Miaoyi stared at the photos on the whiteboard and the strings connecting them. She scooted her chair closer to the wall and leaned her head back against it.

It was past two in the morning. Lu Zhishen was asleep, leaning back in his chair with a blank sheet of paper covering his face.

With her head still against the wall, Su Miaoyi closed her eyes as well.

Zhuang Yanzheng was still poring over the case files.

’There’s just too much. I’ll never get through it all in one go.’

Feeling a little cold, Chu Xingrou went and poured two cups of hot water, giving one to Zhuang Yanzheng.

Zhuang Yanzheng glanced at her. "Go get some sleep."

"I can’t sleep," Chu Xingrou said.

Zhuang Yanzheng gave her another look. "Stressing about the case?"

"Yeah." Chu Xingrou draped a blanket over Su Miaoyi, then came back and sat down. "This is the toughest case I’ve worked on since I joined the City Bureau."

"What case taken on by the City Bureau isn’t tough? The easy ones never land on our desks," Zhuang Yanzheng said. "A perpetrator like this, who erases all traces and exploits local beliefs, is intelligent and has counter-surveillance skills. They’re hard to deal with. If we miss a single piece of information, the case will be impossible to crack. This is especially true here, since we’re not at the Jinghai City Bureau. There are things we don’t understand, and what little we do learn might not even be the truth."

Chu Xingrou nodded. "I know all that, but it’s never been this hard before."

"That’s because you have your Sister Miaomiao," Zhuang Yanzheng said without looking up from the files.

Chu Xingrou glanced over at Su Miaoyi.

"In the year since she joined the City Bureau, our clearance rate has skyrocketed." After a few seconds, Zhuang Yanzheng looked up and added, "If I had run into someone that capable when I was just starting out..."

He trailed off, imagining it. "Who knows what rank I’d have been promoted to by now."

Chu Xingrou blinked. "So you’re saying if I stick with Sister Miaomiao, I could have your job in a few years?"

Zhuang Yanzheng looked at her. "What? Trying to make me obsolete?"

The light in Chu Xingrou’s eyes dimmed. "That’s such an old saying," she muttered under her breath.

"HISS—" Zhuang Yanzheng sucked in a sharp breath.

Chu Xingrou quickly scooted her chair far, far away from him...

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