Chapter 307: Half an Hour Ago

Chapter 307: Chapter 307: Half an Hour Ago

Feng Ling left the incinerator and looked up at the sky.

The moonlight was dim tonight. The waxing crescent moon was periodically swallowed by thin clouds, and there were few stars to be seen. The bleak nightscape mirrored her current state of mind.

She sighed. ’I need outside help for this,’ she thought. She pulled out her phone, called Li Qing, and had the Daoist pass the phone to Ye Zheng.

"I think I’ve walked into a trap."

Feng Ling paused for a moment before explaining her situation.

"Little Third discovered two Alien Species with parasitic eyes. I chased them all the way to an incinerator in the suburbs, and inside I found their corpses—they’d already been taken out. The incinerator has a cold storage room filled with a lot of bodies. The Alien Species the twins killed last night is in there too, dismembered, with only its arms left. Oh, and I also found a Hunter. He must have been dead for a few days; the body already stank."

Ye Zheng asked her, "What’s your current location? What are your surroundings like? Is there any cover?"

"I know what you’re getting at..." Feng Ling sighed again, looking around. "There’s no ambush, no traps. The only person at the incinerator was a security guard at the gate, and he was killed by the Alien Species. It’s all wasteland around here, nothing else. It’s like the Alien Species lured me here just to make me find this cold storage room."

Ye Zheng didn’t say anything, apparently thinking.

Feng Ling continued, "According to standard procedure, whether I found Alien Species corpses or a dead Hunter, I should report it to the Inspection Bureau. But if I do that now, it’s the same as telling Bai Lu that I know she’s hiding a pile of dismembered bodies at the incinerator. If she really is the killer from the dismemberment case, won’t she try to silence me?"

Ye Zheng scoffed. "You’re afraid of her?"

"It’s not a matter of being afraid, it’s that it’s a huge hassle..." Feng Ling frowned, a headache coming on. "She’s in charge of the Jinnan City Inspection Bureau right now. If we have a falling out, it’ll interfere with our plan to catch Xing Guang."

Ye Zheng said, "It’s obvious. The Alien Species want you to go after Bai Lu."

"So... I’ll just pretend I was never here tonight and that I don’t know about the bodies in the incinerator," Feng Ling said.

Ye Zheng was immediately displeased. "No. If Bai Lu is really the murderer in the dismemberment case, we have to deal with her as soon as possible. Every day we delay, there could be more victims."

"So even though I know I’ve been set up, I still have to do what the Alien Species want?" Feng Ling looked up at the sky, speechless. "This must be one of those overt schemes. It’s so frustrating. The Alien Species clearly want to sit back and watch the tigers fight."

Ye Zheng became conflicted as well. After a moment’s hesitation, he said, "At the very least, we need to notify the twins. They just transferred to Jinnan City from out of town, they have nothing to do with the dismemberment case, and they’re both working under Bai Lu. They have to be warned about her."

Hearing this, Feng Ling nodded. "Yeah, we should tell them. Having Inspectors deal with an Inspector is the most appropriate way."

She hung up and dialed He Xingluo’s number.

Light, melodic music played from the phone. As the seconds ticked by, Feng Ling grew increasingly anxious.

She frowned and hung up, then found He Yue Ning’s number in her contacts and dialed again.

The same music played. Again, no one answered.

"Fuck..." Feng Ling cursed under her breath and redialed Li Qing’s number. This time, Ye Zheng was the one who answered.

"What’s wrong?" Ye Zheng asked.

"The twins aren’t answering their phones. They’re probably in trouble," Feng Ling said, her words coming out in a rush. "I’m too far away. It’ll take me at least an hour to get back. You have to find them!"

Ye Zheng was stunned. "Me? Go find them? The way I look right now, I’ll cause a panic if I run around on the streets! Besides, Jinnan City is huge. Where am I supposed to look for them? Can’t you come up with a better idea?!"

"Don’t you think a better idea would take time to think up?" Feng Ling flared up in anger. "I’m sending you their patrol route now. You start by searching along the route. I’ll contact the network tech department to pinpoint the twins’ phone locations and let you know as soon as I have them!"

"Got it," Ye Zheng said, his tone also urgent. "If I scare anyone, you’re responsible for the cleanup!"

The call ended.

Feng Ling immediately called the Inspection Bureau to inform the operator that both He Yue Ning and He Xingluo were unreachable and that their current location needed to be determined as soon as possible to confirm their safety.

The operator was surprised and said, "There was a call half an hour ago. Deputy He led a team to respond. They might be unreachable because they’re in the middle of official business."

"Give me the address," Feng Ling urged.

The operator’s computer showed Feng Ling’s personal information. Considering the cooperative relationship between Hunters and Inspectors, the operator pulled up the twins’ dispatch record and gave the address to Feng Ling.

Feng Ling quickly jotted it down and forwarded it to Li Qing’s phone.

...

...

「Half an hour earlier—」

He Yue Ning and He Xingluo arrived in their patrol car at the villa where Xing Guang was located.

It was an old-fashioned villa with a large courtyard. Many of its facilities were aged and not particularly modern, but its main advantage was its location, offering a quiet retreat in the middle of the city.

The patrol car stopped outside the courtyard.

The villa’s courtyard lights illuminated a wrought-iron gate with an interwoven branch design, around which insects swarmed. The flowerbeds on either side were overgrown with weeds.

He Yue Ning walked to the gate and rang the doorbell. Surveying the surroundings, she couldn’t help but say, "This place looks haunted. It’s so creepy."

"Maybe it’s because the architectural style is older," He Xingluo said, looking into the courtyard. She noticed the lawn was a mess, clearly untrimmed for several days.

’The owner doesn’t seem very meticulous,’ she thought.

A man hurried out from the house and opened the gate. His face was all smiles as he enthusiastically shook He Yue Ning’s hand, saying, "Wonderful, you’re finally here! Please, come in, come in!"

He Yue Ning asked, "Are you the one who called the police?"

"Yes, that was me." Gray Rat let go of her hand and then shook He Xingluo’s. "My name is Geng Minghui. I just moved to Jinnan City with my cousin. We heard about the dismemberment case here, and my cousin was worried about safety, so he went out of his way to hire two Hunters from Hunting Star International for a high price! But we didn’t expect that just a few days later, the Hunters would go missing!"

As he spoke, he held onto He Xingluo’s hand without letting go.

He Xingluo frowned slightly and pulled her hand back with a bit of force. The man immediately smiled apologetically. "My apologies, I just got a little too excited."

"Both Hunters went missing?" He Yue Ning asked.

"Yes, both of them," Gray Rat nodded. "Let’s talk inside."

Fan Ze and two members of the Special Attack Team stood behind the twins. He reminded Gray Rat, "Missing persons cases aren’t the Inspection Bureau’s jurisdiction. We only came because you said on the phone that this was related to Alien Species."

"It’s definitely related to Alien Species!" Gray Rat said with sincere conviction. "An ordinary person can’t kill a Hunter, so I called you guys over right away. This is terrifying! You have to protect me!"

The group followed Gray Rat into the villa.

The living room was empty. There were a few cups on the coffee table and some shoe prints on the floor. He Xingluo couldn’t help but think of the untrimmed lawn outside. It was obvious this place wasn’t being cared for.

"Are you the only one in the house?" He Xingluo asked suspiciously. "Where’s your cousin?"

"Cousin! Cousin!" Gray Rat called out twice in a show of pretense. "Strange, he was just here. Did he go down to the basement where he can’t hear me?"

He pointed to the door leading to the basement. "I’ll go down and check. Please wait here a moment."