NOVEL NEXT Chapter 26: Night of the 6th
Zhi Luan was right beside Yan Qincheng, but old man Shen didn't seem to care if Zhi Luan heard, as though he wasn't there.
Zhi Luan's eyes twitched as he struggled to remain calm. He had to admit that old man Shen had gone all out for him. The least he could do was retrain himself at moments like this. However, his last wall of defense almost crumbled when old man Shen said,
"There's nothing else he's good at besides kitchen duty. The boy is a walking disaster when it comes to books."
"Come on, give him a break. It's not his fault he's not learned…"
Yan Qincheng immediately covered her mouth when she said this. She turned to Zhi Luan who shot her a glare as his veins visibly popped out.
"I should get going, it's late…" she said and hastily left the restaurant.
Words weren't needed between old man Shen and Zhi Luan. They both exchanged glares before going in different directions. Zhi Luan resumed his duty in the kitchen, and as he did, a light smile appeared on his face.
"Who knew my involvement would pay off like this? If only she knew who I was…"
After that night he woke up, Zhi Luan never thought he would see Yan Qincheng again after he unknowingly saved her from a mass murderer. He recognized her from the moment they met on the street but Yan Qincheng couldn't, and that was fine by him. Since it wasn't done deliberately, there was no need to take credit for it. Nonetheless, he intended to grab this opportunity by the horns and make the most out of it.
Yan Qincheng came by after work, and that was Zhi Luan's cue to end his shift. After eating, they went straight to tutoring, but before they did, old man Shen called Zhi Luan aside,
"Hey, I should have probably said this yesterday, but today is fine too…"
He then looked sternly at Zhi Luan.
"Don't try anything stupid with her. I'm giving you the privacy you need to study, but don't tread beyond your borders. She's your teacher... don't make her uncomfortable with those licentious eyes of…"
"Wait, what are you talking about?"
"Don't pretend. I saw how you looked at her when she left yesterday. Kill any vile thoughts you have about her."
"You're asking the impossible of me because I never had such thoughts to begin with."
Hearing Zhi Luan, old man Shen nodded as though relieved.
"That's good…"
However, Zhi Luan's next words almost made him spit fire.
"But since you brought it up now, I can't help but consider it…"
"Don't dare!"
"If anyone is to blame it's you for feeding me such thoughts. Now, if you don't mind, my teacher's waiting for me…" said Zhi Luan as he followed Yan Qincheng upstairs, leaving old man Shen to twitch from anger.
"I sometimes I just want to…"
He said through gritted teeth as he gestured a strangling motion in the air.
~Sanxing City Precinct~
It was another day at the precinct. The station was a hive of urgency, with officers buzzing between desks, and radios crackling with dispatch calls. The detectives' desks were a blur of motion from papers shuffling to keyboards clacking, as they raced against time to solve the next case.
A detective in particular, Detective Lang, was zooming about the precinct, shuffling from one paperwork to another. The serial killer case was concluded after Yan Qincheng's testimony, and after several interrogations with the culprit, it was likewise concluded that the culprit had acted alone with no accomplice. Despite this solving the case, Detective Lang couldn't help but have more questions but ended up concluding that a passerby had intervened.
Detective Lang was now working on a new case and at this time, he needed his partner's help with something. But as he approached his partner's desk, he saw four men sitting at it.
"Uh… Kris, let me know when you're done here, I need your help with a case I'm working on," he said and left. But before he did, he heard one of them talking about how he was assaulted some ago.
After a while, Detective Kris came to his desk,
"What do you need my help with, Lang?"
Detective Lang explained what he needed Kris's help with, and couldn't help but ask,
"What's up with those people? Did they come to file a complaint of abuse?"
"What's this now? The cultured and responsible Lang is eavesdropping on my conversation."
"I wasn't eavesdropping… I heard it in passing…" retorted Detective Lang.
His partner laughed and replied,
"Well, if you must know, it's not the case of abuse, but it is a bizarre story. They are security guards at the museum, and they came to report that they were attacked two weeks ago by someone who appeared from nowhere dressed in a traditional Hanfu."
"Oh… that is bizarre…"
"Yeah, and get this, the person knocked one of them out with a single hit, and even took another one down after he got shot in the thigh."
Detective Lang creased his brows,
"It took one hit to take them down?"
"Mhm," nodded Kris.
"Was he barehanded?"
Lang asked.
"Yeah, how did you know?"
"I guessed it because he wouldn't have been shot only once if he was armed unless he was an amateur at using arms or wasn't prepared. But if he was barehanded, it would have given the guards a sense of safety, even more so after he was immobilized by the gunshot wound. To have taken them down with a single strike, he must have been near them, and it must have been at different times, or they would have shot him again."
Once again, Kris was stunned at how Lang analyzed the case without being told the full story yet. And though Kris said Lang had eavesdropped, he had known Lang long enough to know he wouldn't do such a thing. So, everything Lang had said was solely based on the little information Kris had told him, while the rest was pure analysis.
Lang didn't know what his partner was thinking and asked, after much thought,
"When did this happen?"
"Night of the 6th…" answered Kris.
Lang's brows creased,
"That was the night we caught Chester…"