I See Murders Before They Happen

Chapter 238: Chapter 236: Go Get Rid of Her

「Two days later.」

A courtyard in the suburbs of Country D.

A man was feeding the fish by the lotus pond in the courtyard.

A woman holding a tablet approached, stopping a short distance behind him.

The man heard her footsteps halt, but he didn’t move, continuing to sprinkle fish food into the pond.

Only after he had scattered all the food in his hand did he turn to face the woman. ”What is it? More bad news?”

”Zhang Yan Yu’s residence in Dian City has been raided,” the woman said, her head bowed.

The man’s expression didn’t change. ”Isn’t that to be expected? With the drug factory in Jinghai destroyed and Zhang Bai captured, he was never going to let Zhang Yan Yu off. Hasn’t Zhang Yan Yu already relocated?”

”Yes.”

”Then what else is there?” the man asked.

”We found something from the hospital where Zhang Bai was arrested. This is the surveillance footage.” The woman handed the tablet to him with both hands.

As he took it, the man remarked, ”Your efficiency has dropped significantly. It’s taken you this long just to find the surveillance footage.”

The woman lowered her head and swallowed. ”Ever since Huang Haoxu was arrested, our operations in Jinghai have become difficult. We’ve had to be much more careful. Besides... the people we have in Jinghai now are not as competent as Huang Haoxu, so things have slowed down considerably.”

The man said nothing, his eyes fixed on the video on the tablet.

It was hard to tell if the hospital’s surveillance cameras were just low quality or if the video had been compressed during transmission, but the footage was very blurry.

The man frowned as he watched. ”Qin Leyan?”

”That’s Su Miaoyi, the girl we met when we went to Jinghai last year,” the woman said. ”It’s probably because the video is so blurry. Su Miaoyi and Qin Leyan look very similar.”

The man watched a while longer. ”Even the way she fights is just like Qin Leyan.”

”Su Miaoyi works for the police department now. She must have gone through their system’s training,” the woman said.

The man thought that made sense; after all, Qin Leyan had also been professionally trained. His frown slowly relaxed. ”So she’s the one who caught Zhang Bai?”

”Yes.”

”She and Zhuang were the ones who caught Huang Haoxu, too,” the man said. ”Has she improved this much? When I saw her last year, she was just a little crybaby. To make this much progress in just a few short months...”

”Could it be that she was just pretending last time?” the woman suggested. ”Could it be a ploy by the police department to get her close to you as well?”

”She just looks like her; she isn’t Qin Leyan. What makes them think I would take her in? Are Zhuang Yanzheng and his people that stupid?”

The woman said no more.

The man fell silent for a moment. ”Why is it always her, getting in the way?”

The woman kept her head down, awaiting his orders.

The man was silent again for a while, then turned back to the fish in the lotus pond. After watching them for a moment, he picked up an iron rod that was lying nearby, raised it, and stabbed down at a fish in the pond.

The woman didn’t dare to look up, but hearing the sound, the corner of her eye twitched a few times.

A moment later, a goldfish, impaled on the iron rod, was thrown onto the ground, its tail still flapping frantically.

The woman looked down at the fish thrashing in its final moments.

’He’d been raising it for over five months...’

The man wiped a splash of water from his face. ”I don’t know why, but I have a feeling that letting her live will only bring trouble.”

”I’ll return to the country and eliminate her,” the woman said.

”Is there no one left in Jinghai we can use?” the man asked.

The woman fell silent again.

The man scoffed. ”They’ve gotten soft from living too comfortably. Send someone over. You just focus on finishing the tasks at hand. We’ve already lost our foothold in Jinghai, so pay more attention to the other locations.”

”Yes.”

”Also... Zhang Yan Yu... kill him,” the man said. ”His connection is dead, the supply source is gone. There’s no use keeping him around. At his age, he’s just a liability. It’ll be a hassle if he gets caught.”

”Yes.”

...

「Half a month later.」

Because the case involved so many people, the City Bureau was busy with the follow-up for a long time before it finally concluded.

However, Su Miaoyi wasn’t part of that; instead, she went out of town with Lu Zhishen to work on two other cases.

She put her abilities to good use.

She would see the murderer’s process through the body, and Lu Zhishen was responsible for sketching the perpetrator.

As a result, Zhuang Yanzheng started getting phone calls from people trying to ”poach” her.

Someone was always trying to lure Su Miaoyi away.

Zhuang Yanzheng was utterly contemptuous of their behavior.

He was the only one who got to poach people from other departments. The idea that someone else could poach from his City Bureau was a complete and utter pipe dream!

It was almost lunchtime.

Zhuang Yanzheng was writing a report. He typed the last few words and had just saved the document when there was a knock on the door. ”Come in.”

Su Miaoyi pushed the door open and poked her head in first. ”Busy?”

”What is it?” Zhuang Yanzheng glanced at her.

Su Miaoyi walked into the office, her expression extremely serious.

Seeing her face, Zhuang Yanzheng asked, ”What’s wrong? Did they just announce a five-minute countdown to the apocalypse?”

”It’s more serious than that,” Su Miaoyi said.

Zhuang Yanzheng looked at her. ”Have the zombies already reached the ground floor?”

”A huge sum of money just appeared in my account. I don’t recognize the account it was transferred from.” Su Miaoyi showed him a text from her bank, a notification for her salary card.

Zhuang Yanzheng looked at the amount. ”...”

”What’s going on?” Su Miaoyi asked earnestly.

”It’s the reward money for the Zhang Bai case,” Zhuang Yanzheng said.

Su Miaoyi: ”???”

”You know how many drugs were seized in this case. Two dens and a factory,” Zhuang Yanzheng explained. ”All the key personnel who participated in the case were commended, but the paperwork is still being processed. Yours came through the fastest. Since you’re a hired consultant and not a formal employee, you get a cash reward.”

Su Miaoyi nodded. ”Oh, so that’s what it is. I thought I’d run into a scam.”

Zhuang Yanzheng watched the contradictory mix of happiness and disappointment on her face.

”You can take the exam at the beginning of next year. Once you pass, you’ll be a formal employee, too. There will be plenty of opportunities to earn merits,” Zhuang Yanzheng said.

Su Miaoyi nodded. ”You’d better watch out then. Your position might just be mine.”

Zhuang Yanzheng chuckled. ”Just worry about the exam for now. It’s time to start preparing. I’m talking about the theoretical knowledge.”

Her fantasy was instantly shattered by those two words: ”theoretical knowledge.”

She suddenly felt a little dizzy and put a hand to her forehead. ”I need to get to the cafeteria. My blood sugar is low.”

Zhuang Yanzheng looked at her. ”The department has a rule against putting on a drama wherever you please.”

Su Miaoyi lowered her hand, then tapped on her phone and transferred all the reward money to Zhuang Yanzheng. ”Here’s a partial repayment. I’ll pay the rest in installments.”

The reward was a lot of money, but the amount she’d borrowed was even greater.

”Take your time paying it back. I rather enjoy being your creditor for a while longer,” Zhuang Yanzheng said.

”Ever heard the saying ’the debtor is king’?” Su Miaoyi said as she walked out. ”Well, this king is going to get some food.”

Zhuang Yanzheng: ”...”