Chapter 44: Apology

I hung up the phone and let out a long breath from my chest. For now, I had successfully extricated myself from the trouble involving Blondie.

I glanced at my current surroundings and found myself back at that fork in the road.

I thought to myself that once Wang Qiang left, I would slip out from here too. Wang Qiang certainly wouldn't imagine that I was hiding a mere thirty meters right behind them.

I pulled out my phone to check the time and lowered the ringtone to the lowest volume; a phone ringing loudly in the middle of the deep night was simply too terrifying.

Just as I finished adjusting the volume, the phone suddenly vibrated, giving me yet another start.

"Damn it, people can genuinely scare each other to death!" In my panic, I almost hurled the phone away.

Once I regained my composure, I saw that the call was from Wang Qiang.

Puzzled, I squatted down on the ground and answered, "Hello, Brother Wang."

"Little brother, where are you?"

I froze. Why was Wang Qiang asking me this? Was he probing me, or did he want to say something else? How should I reply? My mind raced as I quickly pondered my options.

The voice on the other end spoke again, "Boss Zhang just told me the situation. I hope you can stay and help us clear away any traces of your presence before you leave."

I let out a long sigh, mentally weighing whose advice I should follow.

"If you've been inside, your traces will definitely be at the scene, which is extremely disadvantageous for you. If you stay, as the person who reported the case, you'll at least have room to explain yourself."

I was stunned. It seemed I had no choice but to stay; I certainly didn't want to be hunted down blindly across the entire world by people who didn't even know what I had done.

"Brother Wang, I'd like to speak with you alone. I don't want anyone else to know of my existence in this matter."

"Hahaha, little brother, are you afraid people will find out that you've been cooperating with us?"

"Well..." I was left speechless by his remark. How could I possibly answer that directly?

"All right, no need to explain, little brother. Where are you? I'll come find you."

"Get out of your car and walk thirty meters back."

There was a two-second pause on the line. The car door opened, and a puzzled Wang Qiang stepped out of the driver's seat, peering into the woods.

I raised my phone and waved it, knowing he couldn't possibly miss the light glowing from the screen.

The call ended, and he walked toward me. I stepped forward to meet him.

The car door opened again. "Boss, where are you going?"

"Stay in the car and wait for them to arrive," Wang Qiang said in a resolute tone.

Wang Qiang walked over, spotted me, and said, "Little brother, your methods are truly formidable. I'm impressed."

"Enough, Brother Wang. Let's talk about my situation."

"Little brother, I've noticed none of you like having any connection to us. Are we really that terrifying?"

"Brother Wang, it's not that you are terrifying; it's just that we dare not offend the uniform you wear. Let's make a long story short."

Wang Qiang knitted his brows and asked, "To what extent did you interact with the target after going inside?"

"He had already risen from the dead, and the two of us fought."

"Is he dead? About how long ago?"

"I don't know. Someone doused him in sulfuric acid."

Wang Qiang placed a hand on his chin and continued, "Did you touch any of his belongings?"

"No, I exterminated his soul and came straight out. There was another corpse inside as well, belonging to a Taoist priest."

Wang Qiang was startled once more, his voice turning urgent, "Was it a very fat Taoist priest?"

"Yes."

Wang Qiang swiftly pulled out his phone and walked a few paces away. "Hello, Boss Zhang? Wu Yong has been found, inside the concrete drainage pipes in the mountains behind Old Wan's house."

My heart instantly skipped a violent beat. That dead fat man was Wu Yong of the Wu family!

We were too far apart to hear the audio from the phone anymore. Then, Wang Qiang walked back to me with the phone in hand, handed it over, and said, "Boss Zhang wants to speak with you."

I took the phone. "Little brother, wait for me there. I have some things to discuss with you."

I froze. It seemed I was about to plunge right back into trouble.

"Understood, Boss Zhang."

The call hung up. Wang Qiang produced a cigarette, handed it to me, and said, "Little brother, I hope you aren't deeply entangled in this. Otherwise, even an imperial decree of pardon couldn't save you."

I nodded and replied, "A clear conscience fears no midnight knock. Don't worry, Brother Wang."

Before Wang Qiang and I could finish a single cigarette, a car sped up from the foot of the mountain and parked right in front of Wang Qiang's vehicle. Four people got out.

Wang Qiang illuminated his phone screen and waved it toward them. Boss Zhang instructed everyone to get into a single car and drove it away.

The phone screen flashed once more, and Wang Qiang said, "Let's go, little brother. We'll talk in the car."

I knew Boss Zhang was about to subject me to a formal interrogation; there were definitely recording devices inside that vehicle.

I smiled bitterly, followed him over, and climbed into the back seat.

"Little brother, is your information accurate?"

"He's right there in the drainage pipe. I went down and found him myself."

"How do you prove this has nothing to do with you?" Boss Zhang asked mildly.

My heart leaped back into my throat. The more casually Boss Zhang spoke, the more disadvantageous the situation was for me.

I fell silent all at once. How was I supposed to answer that? If I could easily prove my innocence, I wouldn't have actively contacted Boss Zhang in the first place—who in their right mind would willingly jump into such a fire pit?

Recalling that it was Boss Zhang who had called me first, I retorted, "Boss Zhang, asking that isn't very fair of you. You were the one who asked me to find Blondie."

Boss Zhang stared at me without speaking. Wang Qiang chimed in, "Little brother, Boss Zhang doesn't mean anything by it. He just wants to say that since you went inside, you inevitably left fingerprints and footprints..."

"I wore gloves. Only footprints would be left there," I immediately countered.

"That makes things easier. I'll have the forensics team pay attention to that," Wang Qiang quickly added.

The atmosphere inside the car was bizarre. Boss Zhang stopped talking, and I stopped talking as well. Wang Qiang looked back and forth, awkwardly puffing on his cigarette.

At that moment, Boss Zhang let out a sigh and said softly, "Xiao Wang, tell the little brother about the case. Let's see what he can do to help us next."

"Which part?"

"All of it."

Wang Qiang hesitated for a moment, looked at me, and said with a bitter smile, "Little brother, here is how things stand: three years ago, we received a report that someone had been swindled by a honey-trap scam targeting their family. Ever since that day, we've continuously received similar reports, and we quickly launched an investigation."

Wang Qiang lit another cigarette and continued, "Recently, we've basically cleared up the case. This is an organized crime syndicate, and the mastermind points to Old Wan. That day at the central shopping mall, I happened to be tailing Li Xiaojuan because we deduced they were about to strike again."

"Xiao Wang hasn't explained the case fully," Boss Zhang interrupted. "Actually, during the investigation, we uncovered another large-scale scam orchestrated by Wu Zhuang. The interesting part is that the two rival factions were actually plotting against each other."

At this point, Boss Zhang rubbed his face, and Wang Qiang went on, "Originally, Old Wan intended to use his daughter Xiaolan as bait to lure Wu Zhuang and his associates into a trap. We never expected that Xiaolan would genuinely lose her soul, causing the two sides to reach a stalemate."

This book concludes here. Apologies to the friends who have read this far. The statistics are truly poor; hopefully, the next work will satisfy all my reader friends.