Chapter 39  : Investigation

There were some new changes to the cafeteria.

At noon, when Xia Ping’an reached the cafeteria, the latest hits were being played. The music was being played from a purple sound system that had an exaggerated design shaped like morning glories. The flower-shaped speakers were taller than Xia Ping’an.

In the center of the speakers was a set of broadcast equipment. Xia Ping’an recognized some of the parts but was unfamiliar with others. There were a set of bookshelves about half the height of a fully grown man. It appeared extravagant and should be very expensive.

The chefs on the buffet line were listening to the music. From the looks on their faces, they were enjoying themselves.

The sound system had astonishing effects. Once it let out sound, the entire cafeteria was like a music lounge.

Tu Polu, Fang Lingshan, and Cao Xinghua were already there.

The three of them weren’t surprised when they saw Xia Ping’an appearing with a tray of food from the buffet line. Big Tu merely asked, “You merged with it?”

Xia Ping’an nodded and replied, “I did.”

“Ha! You will need to join us for missions from now on,” Big Tu teased and continued to munch on his raw-looking steak.

Cao Xinghua cast a glance at Xia Ping’an and uttered, “Congratulations.”

“Thanks!”

As for Fang Lingshan, she only nodded slightly in approval at Xia Ping’an. She didn’t say a word.

They were unfazed by Xia Ping’an’s success in merging with the divine being boundary bead after they were shocked by his perfect merge with the divine fire boundary bead and his acquisition of the Requiem Banner. His success seemed certain. They would perhaps be more surprised if Xia Ping’an failed.

Xia Ping’an sat across from Big Tu. As he was sipping the ginseng chicken soup prepared by the cafeteria, he ed, “The speaker here is very luxurious. Does the National Order Council receive that much funding?”

“The speaker is left behind by Big Man.” Big Tu paused from eating. He had a reminiscing look as he said, “Yesterday, you weren’t here. Big Man was transferred by the higher-ups. He got promoted, and the headquarters sent him to Europe. So, he left his favorite speaker here in the cafeteria. It just so happened that you weren’t here, so you missed the farewell ceremony for him.”

Big Man? Was it Man Ziyi, the flashy guy who liked to wear a floral-pattern shirt?

Xia Ping’an remembered him. They had met twice before. The flashy guy used to be the person in charge of the Intelligence Unit of Xianghe City’s National Order Council.

“Big Man is quite a nice guy. His only problem is that he runs his mouth,” Cao Xinghua ed, which was rare since he was always very quiet. He added, “Big Man donates quite a lot to charities annually.”

“When he was around, I wanted to give him a good kick. Now that he is gone, I feel like something is missing from this building. It’s kind of boring, and I’m not used to it,” Fang Lingshan also added softly.

“No worries. It’s not like we will never see him again. Whenever we feel like being disturbed by him, we can always take leave and go to find him in Europe,” Tu Polu said nonchalantly.

In a short while, An Qing and Mo Yanshao arrived. Li Yunzhou also arrived. They all seemed to know that Xia Ping’an had merged with the divine being boundary bead. None of them asked him anything. An Qing smiled and congratulated Xia Ping’an. Li Yunzhou yawned. With a punch-worthy look, he patted Xia Ping’an on the shoulder and said, “Work hard. In the future, when you call me Senior, it will be legitimate.”

When they were almost done with lunch, Mo Yanshao assigned tasks to them right away at the dining table. “The warehouse of the old graphite factory on 46 Lin’an Street is suspicious. More than one person has reported to the police that they saw a silhouette dashing past the window in the warehouse. This morning, police checked the place, and they didn’t discover any abnormalities. An Qing and Xia Ping’an, the two of you will investigate the place after lunch. If there truly are any abnormalities, the ordinary police wouldn’t have noticed them.”

“Alright!” An Qing glanced at Xia Ping’an and reminded him, “Remember to bring along your gun and the reporter pass.” Her eyes twinkled as she said this.

“Head, why don’t I go there with An Qing?” Li Yunzhou suggested with a lewd look.

Mo Yanshao side-eyed him and said, “You and Cao Xinghua will investigate Lingshi Plaza. Two people went missing last week. Based on the few analysis reports left by Big Man, they shared a similarity where they had both gone to Lingshi Plaza before. Therefore, the plaza is an important spot for investigation.”

Li Yunzhou took a glance at the stony-faced Cao Xinghua and became dejected.

“Big Tu, Lingshan, the two of you will check out Qinglong Reservoir. Based on the data, it is also a spot where the missing people have all been to.”

All of them received their orders.

Soon, lunch was over, and everyone went back to their respective rooms to get ready.

When he returned to his room, Xia Ping’an put on his holster and then put the Manurhin MR98 into it. The holster also had five magazine clips for quick reloading. Each magazine clip had six rounds. Together with the six rounds preloaded in the revolver, he had a total of 36 rounds. It was enough to deal with most situations.

For revolvers like the Manurhin MR98, slow reload speed had always been their weakness. In order to overcome this disadvantage, people invented tools to assist in reloading. Speed loaders and magazine clips were two tools that assisted in reloading.

Speed loaders were round and had a diameter around the size of the revolver’s cylinder. Its reload speed was fast. However, carrying such a large, round object around was very inconvenient. In comparison, magazine clips were much more convenient. It was even smaller than ordinary clips and was flat. As long as he got familiar with its usage, he could reload the revolver in the shortest time possible.

For the past few days, most of the time Xia Ping’an spent on the shooting range was used to practice reloading the revolver with the magazine clip. His reload speed after familiarizing himself with it was already very fast.

Once he had his revolver, he took out the reporter pass from his collection of passes. Wearing a sports jacket, no one could see that he had a gun on him.

Xia Ping’an came to the parking lot. An Qing had also arrived.

An Qing changed into a beige windbreaker, black long pants, and a white shirt. Paired with a pair of round-toe, shallow mouth women’s leather shoes, she appeared simply neat, bright, and moving. She had suddenly become a capable female reporter.

...

A few minutes later, An Qing’s red Ferrari 599 dashed out from the main gate of the National Order Council. A black motorcycle followed behind and shot out like a bolt of lightning. In an instant, it overtook the Ferrari 599.

On the motorcycle was a female rider dressed in black leather with a helmet on. From the female rider’s hot figure, she was Fang Lingshan.

Big Tu drove his SUV with six exhaust pipes, which was also dashing towards them from behind. He drove up beside An Qing, and after greeting them, they went their separate ways at the turning. He followed Fang Lingshan’s motorcycle that was as fast as lightning and headed in another direction.

This time, An Qing did not drive as fast as she did last time. She also did not place a siren on the car.

After 30 minutes, An Qing drove to a basement parking lot of a hotel on Lin’an Street. She took the elevator with Xia Ping’an from the basement parking lot to the lobby of the hotel. Once they came out of the lobby, they merely walked a few hundred meters and arrived at the old graphite factory, No.46 Lin’an Street.

The graphite factory was an old building with some years to it. It was in semi-ruin and had not been used in a very long time. A mottled and rusty iron gate concealed what was inside. From the outside, the courtyard of the warehouse was overgrown with weeds. A window at the front of the warehouse was shattered.

From the gap in the gate that concealed the place, a person could easily make their way in by entering sideways.

Xia Ping’an went in first, followed by An Qing.

Xia Ping’an did not dare to lower his guard. Once he got in, he took out his gun.

After the fire rescue last time, he knew that there were things hidden in the city that were more terrifying than he had imagined.

The courtyard was overgrown with weeds. Abandoned broken wooden boxes and a few rusty steel rails were scattered around. There was nothing else that stood out to his eyes.

The two of them searched around the courtyard outside of the warehouse first. After making sure that there was nothing out of the ordinary in the courtyard, they headed into the warehouse.

The warehouse was divided into top and bottom layers. Almost all the doors to the rooms were open. Some rooms were empty while some were filled with dusty debris. At a glance, there was nothing abnormal inside them.

Xia Ping’an shared the results of his clairvoyant search with An Qing.

An Qing said, “Let’s enter the building. Some things can only be discovered and sensed from a close distance.”

The two of them did a thorough search on the first floor of the warehouse and found nothing abnormal. Then, they went through the second floor and, again, discovered nothing.

“This is weird. More than one person reported about this place, saying that they saw dark shadows and heard sounds at night. Could it be that some homeless scavengers were here?” An Qing scanned the warehouse and frowned slightly. She continued, “But there’s no sign of occupancy by homeless or scavengers here.”

Judging from the new fresh shoe prints at the entrances of the first and second floors of the warehouse as well as the corridors, only two policemen had been here to search the place and had left after the fact. Aside from that, they did not discover anything else.

Xia Ping’an raised his head and looked at the beams and cranes above the warehouse. He then looked at the street lamps outside the window. Suddenly, he had a hunch. He followed the stairs to the cranes and climbed up onto a crane. He walked up to a place beneath the crane at the top of the warehouse where torn rucksacks and broken wooden boxes were placed. He heard a sound.

He squatted down and removed one of the planks. Underneath the plank was a litter of kittens that had just opened their eyes and were crying out to be fed.

“Meow.” At that moment, two tabby cats crawled in from a broken window at the top of the warehouse. They followed the beam and headed over towards Xia Ping’an. One of the tabby cats had two mice in its mouth. When they saw Xia Ping’an, the tabby cat without mice in its mouth meowed out fiercely in panic.

Xia Ping’an placed back the wooden board and went down.

“There is a litter of kittens up there. I think I know who the shadow the police reported belongs to,” Xia Ping’an explained as he pointed at the tabby cat on the beam and then at the street lamps outside.

An Qing immediately understood what happened too.

At night, when the two tabby cats returned to their den via the beam and the street lamps outside the warehouse shone on them, their enlarged shadows were projected on the wall. When someone passed by and looked inside the building from the window, they would see silhouettes dashing.

After Xia Ping’an and An Qing investigated the place, they concluded that there were no abnormalities in the warehouse, only two tabby cats starting their family. The police report was a false alarm.

Xia Ping’an and An Qing did not discover anything. However, over at Lingshi Plaza, Cao Xinghua and Li Yunzhou made an important discovery.