Eldritch Horror Theatre

What?

Huang Leji’s sudden change of tune—claiming to have found clues, and even bringing in the suspect himself—clearly shocked the room.

If only they had done this sooner! Fu Qian shook his head.

Whatever excuse Huang Leji used, Fu Qian didn’t buy for a second that the entire Huang Family could go all out and fail to find a single clue.

Failing to locate Ill Omen was one thing. But if they couldn’t even track down the third party who had stood a woman up, then the Huang Family’s century of legacy had truly gone to the dogs.

Besides, Huang Leji’s behavior today was already highly irregular.

Showing up before the agreed-upon time, sincerely admitting his mistake, and even offering up top-tier muscle and elite squads for their disposal.

He was lowering himself entirely too much!

Putting it all together, there was only one explanation: they had found the guy, only to discover that Fu Qian was right on the money. The bastard really was tied to the Huang Family.

Considering how the family head had boasted yesterday that the matter had absolutely nothing to do with the Huang Family, it was a massive slap in the face.So, to preserve the family’s dignity, he had prepared to act fully cooperative while adamantly denying everything.

Too bad Fu Qian didn’t have the time to play his little games.

”Then it seems I was mistaken. My apologies, miss.”

Now that Huang Leji had finally caved, Fu Qian put on a shocked and deeply ashamed expression, offering a solemn apology to the woman named Xiao Ying.

Hmph!

The woman named Xiao Ying was clearly in a foul mood, merely snorting in response.

Without a doubt, this was the woman who had slipped the bugs into his room last night.

The only reason he hadn’t let Su Gao kill her outright was to prepare for this exact scenario—the Huang Family refusing to cooperate.

His mention of an ”eyewitness” yesterday had just been a casual bluff to drag the Huang Family into the mud. If things had actually blown up, Huang Leji could have accused him of slander, since Fu Qian had no hard evidence.

But this woman’s crime of spying on the Night Watchers’ operations was an ironclad fact. Su Gao could fully testify to it.

Only now was the Huang Family truly pinned down, without any room to struggle.

Huang Leji had clearly realized this and simply yielded.

The Huang Family’s efficiency was impressive. The group waited in awkward silence for less than half an hour before a certain gentleman was escorted inside.

The man was in his twenties, with a slicked-back, foppish appearance. His first action upon entering was to rush toward Huang Leji and wail, though he was restrained and dragged back before he could even get close.

”Consultant Fu, this is the suspicious individual we found, Huang Jinyong. He is the person the victim invited out yesterday.”

Huang Leji introduced him without batting an eye.

”Although this man is a member of the Huang Family, considering the gravity of the situation, I had him brought here immediately.”

Oh?

Fu Qian looked down at Huang Jinyong, who was half-sprawled, half-kneeling on the floor.

”Do you know a woman named Geng Yue?”

”This...”

Huang Jinyong instinctively looked up.

”Answer whatever he asks you honestly.”

Huang Leji said coldly.

The Huang Family had no face left to save right now; trying to cover things up any further would only invite more humiliation.

Besides, he had already interrogated this troublemaking bastard thoroughly and confirmed he had absolutely nothing to do with Ill Omen.

Otherwise, he never would have risked covering for him, handing that guy surnamed Fu the perfect chance to walk all over them.

”I... I know her!”

Startled, Huang Jinyong answered honestly.

”She invited you to have lunch yesterday?”

”Yes...”

”Then why did you murder her and flee?”

...

”I didn’t! I really didn’t! I never even went, so how could I have killed her!”

Huang Jinyong’s voice was already thick with tears.

”Someone invited you out for a meal and you didn’t show up. That behavior is suspicious in itself. Why should I believe you?”

”It’s true, I swear! I’ve been hiding from her for half a month now. She was the one constantly pestering me, insisting we come out and talk...”

”Hiding from her? Why don’t you explain the situation a bit more clearly.”

Fu Qian glanced around and spotted more than a few hungry stares. He decided he might as well let this group satisfy their curiosity.

”It’s like this...”

Thoroughly terrified by now, Huang Jinyong didn’t dare hide a single detail, quickly explaining his relationship with Geng Yue.

According to him, he hooked up with Geng Yue a year ago. The two of them had been carrying on a secret affair ever since.

They had been inseparable and gotten along beautifully. Unfortunately, Geng Yue had recently become more and more brazen. She fully intended to dump her husband to build a life with him, and so he started hiding to avoid her.

Heh, what a soul-stirring romance!

”There’s no way I would actually get together with her. I was lying to her the whole time.”

Huang Jinyong cried, his face a picture of misery.

”The only reason I managed to hook up with her in the first place was because I told her I was a transcendent, but I’m actually not!”

”You just said it and she believed you?”

”...I’m a member of the Huang Family.”

Understood.

Fu Qian nodded.

”Did she ever mention anything about her husband to you?”

”Not much, just that he was a small-time businessman. She said he was really boring and had to travel for business a lot, and that she yearned for the world of transcendents...”

Fu Qian glanced up. Captain Qiao and his two companions all wore stiff expressions.

This guy was clearly a coward at first glance; what he said was highly likely the truth.

However, if things really were as he claimed, then Geng Yue’s husband had suffered a horrific tragedy.

As a genuine transcendent, he had given up his superior status to marry his childhood sweetheart and live an ordinary, peaceful life—only for his wife to be seduced away by a fake transcendent.

What kind of tragic melodrama script was this!

”It is a misfortune for the Huang Clan to produce such a disgraceful son. He has truly brought shame to our family’s reputation, making a fool of us in front of you and Executive Yama Su.”

Huang Leji spoke up at this moment, adopting a posture of righteous indignation.

”We will leave him here to assist with the investigation. After all, it is still uncertain whether he is telling the truth.”

Hearing this, Huang Jinyong broke into another fit of wailing and pleading.

”Old Man Huang is very thoughtful.”

Fu Qian replied politely, completely ignoring what the man had claimed yesterday.

He wasn’t the type to nitpick; achieving his goal was enough.

Huang Jinyong himself was completely unimportant.

Fu Qian couldn’t care less about their romantic entanglements. In fact, he had always felt the probability of Geng Yue’s death actually tying to Ill Omen was low.

Going through all this trouble wasn’t just to listen to some gossip.

Fu Qian’s target was always Ill Omen.

Looking at the current outcome, it seemed they hadn’t gained any valuable information. But often enough, no result was a result in itself.

As a prominent family with a century of history, the fact that the Huang Family was pushed to this extent and still only managed to produce this piece of trash subtly pointed to one possibility: Ill Omen was hiding within the Huang Family itself.

Think about it. An outsider transcendent would stick out like a sore thumb, let alone one who was slipping through the cracks to brutally murder people everywhere. How could such a person leave zero traces under this level of search?

Unless it was darkness under the lamp. This bastard was hiding in everyone’s blind spot, perhaps even using the family’s protection to cover his tracks.

Next, they could try narrowing down their search radius in this direction.

Hopefully, there was still time.

Right at that moment, someone stepped up behind Huang Leji and whispered something.

His expression instantly changed drastically. He looked at Fu Qian and enunciated every word.

”Someone in the Huang Family was just murdered. It might be the work of Ill Omen!”