novelraw Chapter 1178: Ongoing Investigation
Chapter 1178: Ongoing Investigation
Still in the living room, the little butterfly demon practicing her spoken English suddenly jumped in shock when Long Xiruo burst out in a rush.
The word was supposed to be family, but startled as she was, the sound after "f" somehow got messed up into a "k" instead of "mli."
"I'm going to the capital for a while, return date unknown. Watch over this place. If Mo Xiaofei comes looking for me, have him call my direct line."
“Huh?”
Without further explanation or waiting for Luo Pianxian to respond, the True Dragon of Divine Land stormed out again.
“Sister Dragon, didn’t you just say you wanted turkey cheese super calorie-explosion noodles? I already made it!”
But Long Xiruo was no longer in the pet hospital.
After a moment’s thought, feeling it would be wasteful not to eat the noodles and not really liking them herself, the little butterfly demon put on her white canvas shoes, grabbed a bit of food — and decided to go feed the cats.
In the days since her return, two new strays had shown up in that empty lot.
“I wonder if I’ll run into Boss…”The last time she fed cats with Boss… felt like forever ago.
…
…
After leaving the pet hospital, Liu Minghao and Wei Zidào quickly located Director Liu of the local bureau — none other than Sir Ma’s brother-in-law.
Director Liu had written the special application overnight, but hadn’t expected action to be taken so quickly. Only three people in the entire city had seen the encrypted red-seal document, and it didn’t extend below city level, meaning even county officials were unaware.
Seeing the credentials presented by Liu Minghao and Wei Zidào gave Director Liu quite a shock.
Still, he asked no questions and cooperated fully, personally escorting the two of them that night to the detention center where the incident had occurred.
Since the incident, all detainees — whether not yet sentenced or still under interrogation — had been transferred to other facilities. Only a few guards remained at the original site.
Liu Minghao had the guards cleared from the holding cells before beginning to inspect the scene with Wei Zidào.
Wei Zidào placed his portable case on the floor and opened it, taking out various standard Management Bureau tools. Meanwhile, Liu Minghao used a device called the “exotic energy detector” to scan the cell perimeter.
But after more than thirty minutes of inspection, they found nothing.
“Strange. The incident occurred around 11 a.m. yesterday — it hasn’t even been 36 hours yet.” Liu Minghao frowned. “According to past data, any demonic energy or spell residue should linger for at least 48 hours, even in its weakest form.”
“No signs of structural damage,” Wei Zidào added, analyzing. “If the cameras didn’t catch anything, it leans toward a spirit or ghost-type entity… but I didn’t detect any residual yin energy either.”
“Seems there’s nothing left to find here.” Liu Minghao nodded. “Let’s go examine the corpse. We might get something from that.”
Wei Zidào agreed and packed up the equipment.
Liu Minghao then asked Director Liu to take them to see the body — the director immediately agreed and personally drove them to the morgue.
With Director Liu leading the way, there were no checks along the route — just as Liu Minghao had requested. A top rule of the Management Bureau: minimize public exposure to avoid unnecessary consequences.
“By the way, Director Liu, what’s the plan for how to handle this deceased suspect?” Liu Minghao asked casually.
Wiping his forehead with a handkerchief, Director Liu replied seriously, “We can’t publicly say he was murdered… but he did confess to his crimes. I think we can use suicide out of guilt as the official explanation. And I’ll instruct all relevant personnel to remain silent.”
“That’ll work. It's a reasonable cover story.” Liu Minghao didn’t comment further and simply nodded. If local authorities couldn’t manage it, the Management Bureau would have to step in and clean things up themselves.
Still, he wasn’t optimistic about everyone keeping quiet. Where there are many mouths, something always slips. Thankfully, the Bureau had a complete post-incident protocol — including budget-friendly magical tools developed specifically for this purpose.
Otherwise, society wouldn’t have remained so stable over the years — especially given how many mysterious incidents occurred annually.
But one thing shocked both Liu Minghao and Wei Zidào on this trip: the exotic energy detector was going wild, constantly outputting high readings, almost detecting demonic energy with every step they took.
Truly, this place — the personal territory of the True Dragon of Divine Land — was filled with too many hidden demons.
The two agents sighed simultaneously. Just the two of them here… they were seriously outnumbered. That oppressive, max-danger feeling hit them hard.
…
Soon, the Management Bureau duo arrived at the morgue, escorted by Director Liu. The corpse had already been delivered earlier for autopsy.
“Director? What brings you here?”
In the workspace, a young man with messy hair looked up — Little Bao.
He opened his mouth as if to say something to the two newcomers, but Director Liu stopped him with a glance. Liu Minghao and Wei Zidào went straight inside.
Little Bao instinctively moved to stop them but was held back by Director Liu. “Little Bao, they’re here on special assignment. No matter what they do, just pretend you didn’t see or hear anything. Now, come chat with me for a bit.”
“O… okay.” Little Bao nodded.
They moved to the hallway. Too tired to keep it in, Little Bao yawned right in front of Director Liu.
Patting him on the shoulder, Director Liu said, “It’s been hard on you while Chief Qin’s away. But don’t worry — I’ve already submitted a request. A new forensic expert will arrive tomorrow to temporarily fill Chief Qin’s role. We’ve also got a major dismemberment case on our hands. You’ll need to assist the new pathologist thoroughly, got it?”
Little Bao froze, frowning. “Director… what exactly happened to Chief Qin? I mean, it’s not normal for a leave of absence to last this long. I even called him, but his phone’s been off.”
“I don’t know either,” Director Liu replied. “This isn’t like him at all… it’s been almost half a year now, and he’s just vanished. I’ve already sent people to look, but still no word.”
“Could he have run into something… serious?”
Director Liu shook his head, clearly unsure. “Alright, you don’t need to hang around here anymore. Go home and get some rest.”
Little Bao nodded, packed up, and returned to his office — Director Liu had said the new forensic expert was arriving tomorrow, so he didn’t dare slack off.
These past days, with Chief Qin absent, Little Bao had been left to guard the office alone—free as a bird. With nothing much to do at work, he slacked off all day. Free air conditioning, free internet, three meals from the cafeteria—it was paradise.
“Hmm... the desk needs to be repositioned. Can’t have the new forensic pathologist sitting behind me staring at my back all day...”
Little Bao mused about rearranging the office layout—maybe merge the two desks and have them face each other.
“Oh! The new expansion pack is finally updated? I’ve been waiting forever!”
The game had been down for several days to the new version update—this kind of outrageous server shutdown just for a patch could only happen with this game.
“Haven’t run a dungeon in days, kinda miss Brother Xiu and Sister RouRou.”
Without hesitation, Little Bao clicked to download the update... Whatever was happening outside could wait. Better to see what the patch had to offer first.
“Oh? Hero Achievements? Dark Era? Demonic Earth? A demon named ‘Taiyin’ is invading from another dimension, and the land has been corrupted... This version is going full demon-lord raid mode?”
…
Inside the room, Liu Minghao and Wei Zidào were carefully examining the corpse. Though they weren’t professional forensic experts, they had their own systematic procedures.
“The wound hasn’t changed since formation—definitely a single-hit wound. No bullet fragments... perhaps an attack disguised to look like a gunshot.”
“But still no traces of exotic energy... Weird.” Liu Minghao frowned deeply.
Just as they were puzzled, the exotic energy detector suddenly reacted—but not to the corpse. It was responding to something in the freezer nearby!
Startled, the two opened the cold storage and pulled out a container from the very back. The detector’s reading began to climb.
Inside was a small, fingernail-sized lump of flesh, slowly pulsing... very slowly—about once a minute.
But as the container left the cold storage and the temperature rose, the pulse began to grow stronger. At room temperature, the lump was visibly squirming in a small area.
“What is this thing?” Liu Minghao frowned, then looked at Wei Zidào. “Go ask.”
…
98%... 99%...
The update was almost done. Little Bao’s hands were already on the keyboard, ready to type in his account and password.
“Little Bao! Little Bao—come out for a second!”
It was Director Liu’s voice—he was standing outside the door.
So close...
Little Bao groaned inwardly but quickly forced a smile and ran out. “Director, I’m here! What do you need?”
Just then, his computer screen flickered. After the update completed, the game auto-jumped to the login screen—only for a small pop-up to suddenly appear over it.
A tiny window.
“Do you want to feel the meaning of life?”
[YES] [NO]
The little window didn’t last long—about a minute later, it vanished, leaving only the normal game login screen.
…
Inside, Little Bao nervously faced the two men in black suits. Before coming in, Director Liu had strictly instructed him: no matter what they asked, answer honestly—no hiding anything.
But oddly enough, Director Liu himself didn’t come in and waited outside instead. That made Little Bao even more curious—just who were these guys?
Liu Minghao got straight to the point, placing the container on the table. “We found this in the freezer. Do you know where it came from?”
Little Bao was stunned, startled by the creepy-looking lump inside. This thing’s been here the whole time I was working?!
He swallowed hard and shakily used tweezers to rotate the container to read the label. One character was written: 【秦】 (Qin).
“So? Do you know anything about it?” Wei Zidào asked directly.
Little Bao thought for a moment. “Oh… I remember now! It’s a sample Chief Qin was cultivating. Right! I'm only remembering it now!”
“Tell us everything. Leave out nothing,” Liu Minghao said sternly.
Little Bao shrank his neck and tried to recall, “It should’ve been around National Day last year. A murder case left some weird liquid and tissue samples at the scene. I remember Chief Qin said he wanted to culture it to figure out what it was. But...”
“But what?” Liu Minghao pressed.
Little Bao shook his head. “But the case ended weirdly. The killer showed up but escaped. The wanted bulletin is still active. Then Chief Qin took a leave of absence and hasn’t returned since. I didn’t dare touch the sample, so I stuffed it in the back of the freezer and forgot about it… If you hadn’t found it today, I honestly wouldn’t have remembered.”
Then he frowned. “But I swear, when I put it in there, it was the size of an ant. It wasn’t moving at all. It grew in the cold? That’s insane. What does it even feed on? What is this thing?”
As Little Bao trailed into deep thought, Liu Minghao and Wei Zidào exchanged glances. Wei Zidào calmly asked, “Can you get us the full records for that case?”
“I can find all the forensic files from the crime scene,” Little Bao replied, shaking his head. “But not the investigation files. You’ll need to ask Director Liu for those.”
“You’re done here. You can go,” Wei Zidào said, and placed the container into his portable case.
“Wait! What are you doing?” Little Bao panicked. “You can’t just take that thing!”
Liu Minghao said nothing. He pulled a small bottle from his pocket, unscrewed it, and took out a blue-and-white capsule. While Little Bao was still frozen in confusion, he grabbed Little Bao’s jaw and forced the pill into his mouth.
“What did you make me swallow?”
“Memory wipe.”
Instantly, the world spun around Little Bao. As his mind went blank, Wei Zidào caught him and gently sat him down.
This was one of the tools the Management Bureau used for cleaning up loose ends. One pill, and an ordinary person would forget everything from the past few hours.
Of course, there were other methods too—though unfortunately, they didn’t have a Men-In-Black-style memory zapper. That would require a licensing fee.
(End of Chapter)