Space Odyssey from Abandoned Mining Space Station

Chen Ming was piloting the shuttle boat.

He headed toward the police station mentioned in the message he had just received, where Cheng Xinghe was currently being held.

His mind was fully occupied with thinking about his next move.

Things had become about half clear at this point.

Because although so far only Cheng Xinghe had truly been dragged into this.

In reality, the person who engineered this incident absolutely did not have Cheng Xinghe as their true target.

The simplest reasoning.

If the real goal was to take down Cheng Xinghe, there shouldn’t have been so many posts circulating on the school network, and he shouldn’t have been paraded off to the confinement room like a public shaming.

These blatant, unrestrained actions, clearly meant to let the story ferment, revealed one thing.

That all this information had been deliberately released.

And Chen Ming also believed that even if he weren’t here, even if he stayed completely out of it, Cheng Xinghe would still be able to walk out of the police station unharmed.

Someone was using Cheng Xinghe as a target to attack, then trying to take the opportunity to draw someone else’s attention.

That ”someone else” could be people from the Bai Quan faction, or it could be Chen Ming himself.

It was most likely himself.

Chen Ming thought so.

Because the timing right now was simply too coincidental.

But what was the point of doing this? Why lure him over here? What was the purpose?

Where was the mastermind hiding? What exactly was he trying to do?

On the surface it looked like targeting Cheng Xinghe, but in fact it was targeting Chen Ming. Yet after targeting him, no one came to actually confront him—what were they targeting, exactly?

No one starts something only to quit halfway; there should be a next move very soon.

For now, Chen Ming would still go to the police station and meet with Cheng Xinghe first.

On the way there in the shuttle boat.

Chen Ming took out his terminal and called He Gu, telling him that he wouldn’t be able to go to the Spiritual Ability Research Institute headquarters until at least tomorrow.

Originally, He Gu should have been able to meet him today, but that was obviously no longer possible.

After hanging up.

Chen Ming noticed that Cheng Xinghai, sitting beside him, had her head slightly lowered, her expression still somewhat tense and worried.

Although she had been on the battlefield, for mid- and low-ranking officers there, what they had to face was only the simplest kind of life-or-death struggle.

What was happening here was clearly more complicated.

Chen Ming didn’t have much he could say; he could only offer comfort: ”Don’t worry, Cheng Xinghe will be fine.”

”Mm.”

The shuttle boat soon arrived outside the police station.

Chen Ming strode quickly into the station lobby.

The female receptionist at the front desk, seeing how Chen Ming was dressed, immediately greeted him with some enthusiasm and asked, ”Hello, what can I help you with?”

Chen Ming also sized up the receptionist, confirming that she didn’t know him and wasn’t involved in this matter.

So Chen Ming didn’t do anything extra; he simply said, ”I’m here to see someone.”

”May I ask if you can’t reach them, or...”

”It’s not that I can’t reach him; he should have been brought in here.”

The receptionist’s hands froze over the keyboard as she was registering information. She looked up at Chen Ming, a little unsure, and asked, ”I’m sorry, what did you say?”

”He was brought in here. His name is Cheng Xinghe. We want to see him, as family.”

The receptionist instantly became somewhat flustered.

But a police officer quickly came out from behind the front desk and motioned for the receptionist to handle something else.

This new officer gave Chen Ming an apologetic look and said, ”I’m sorry, but it’s temporarily inconvenient for you to meet with this Cheng Xinghe. He’s a key suspect in a serious bodily harm case, so we can’t disclose too much else.”

Since he couldn’t punch a smiling face, Chen Ming didn’t come on too aggressively; instead, he followed the usual line of questioning: ”He’s a suspect? What did he do?”

”Right now it’s only classified as assault causing grievous bodily harm. The injured party is still being resuscitated in the hospital. It’s not convenient for us to say more about specifics.”

”Do you have evidence? Surveillance footage or something?”

”Of course we have evidence, but we can’t tell you the specifics either.”

”You can’t disclose anything even to family?”

”Even with family we can at most explain the general situation. Anything more, we really can’t say.”

”So we can’t even look at the surveillance footage?”

”No.”

The repeated questioning made the officer a bit impatient: ”The evidence we have really isn’t convenient to show anyone else. Even if we did have it, we couldn’t possibly let you see it.”

”Got it.”

Having finally gotten a clear answer, Chen Ming nodded calmly and turned to take a phone call.

On the other end were people from the Bai Quan faction, who had just been helping Chen Ming.

Relying on insiders in the police system, and based on a certain legal provision, they had obtained for Chen Ming temporary authorization to be involved in the investigation of this case.

Specifically, for all criminal cases involving military family members and reservists.

The relevant military departments could apply for an access privilege to supervise the progress of the investigation, to prevent things like fabricated evidence and ensure there were no issues.

This privilege was generally not very high, but it was enough to grasp the overall picture of the case.

Under normal circumstances, this privilege wouldn’t be given to someone with a close family relationship to the party concerned.

But Cheng Xinghai was indeed the family member, and Chen Ming was not.

At least before marriage, in the eyes of the law Chen Ming was an outsider and could fully take on this role.

The faction members also told Chen Ming which hospital Liao Hongsheng was currently in.

They were maintaining constant surveillance.

After Chen Ming finished his call.

The officer in front of him also quickly answered a phone call. As he listened, the look he gave Chen Ming gradually turned into one of uneasy surprise.

A few moments later, he put down the phone and asked Chen Ming, ”What exactly are you trying to do?”