Chapter 110 - 106: Sudden Accident! Homicide Case: ’Quietly!

Xu Huo agreed.

Of course, he couldn’t be bothered to go back to Zhang Ru’s home.

After arresting Lin Shan, he had briefly gone to check for clues. He’d taken a quick sniff, and upon not smelling anything suspicious, returned to the station for dinner.

The police dog at the scene had sat on the ground, tilting its head as it watched Xu Huo with a mixture of confusion and shock.

Before its nose could even begin to process the information, Xu Huo had already finished collecting it...

"WOOF WOOF WOOF!"

Xu Huo stopped in his tracks and looked at the dog tied up by the police in front of him.

This was the dog from Wu Jiahui’s house. The leash around Lin Shan’s neck had most likely been taken from it.

The reason it was at the police station...

In a way, it was also a piece of evidence.

The dog had been acting all high and mighty. But when it caught a familiar scent, it turned its head. Seeing that it was Xu Huo, it immediately lowered its head and started whimpering.

"Whimper..."

This was a sign of acknowledgment for the king of dogs.

Xu Huo ignored it and walked straight into the evidence room.

A police station’s evidence room was usually a small warehouse packed with all sorts of items. Knives and the like were the most common things here.

The narcotics division’s, on the other hand, was full of rice and flour.

Here in Zhaozhou City, the evidence room was divided into two parts. One was in the back—the warehouse—which stored evidence from all cases.

The other was in the front, which was a small office.

At that moment, a few familiar figures were standing in the office, busy with something, constantly tinkering with the items in their hands.

They were Qian Hua’s subordinates, a few Level 3 Police Chiefs. They immediately gestured to Xu Huo when they saw him.

"Advisor Xu..."

"Hello, Advisor Xu."

Xu Huo nodded in response. Then he paused, turned his head, and looked to the side.

"Wait, what are you doing here, kid?"

"Since when can just anyone waltz into the evidence room!?"

Xu Huo asked in surprise, looking at the block-headed young man with a buzz cut in front of him.

The person was Wang Chao. He was standing in front of several cardboard boxes, curiously observing something.

"Huh? Brother Huo, what a coincidence."

Hearing the voice, Wang Chao turned his head, a look of pleasant surprise on his face.

"You’re here too!"

"Not a coincidence at all."

Xu Huo said with a deadpan expression, then looked the other man up and down.

"What are you doing here?"

The evidence room wasn’t a place one could just enter casually.

Of course, for police personnel following procedure, access was relatively smooth. After all, as long as it wasn’t a new case, the evidence in the evidence room was basically useless.

These things only looked different because they were stained with a bit of blood. Otherwise, you could find eighty percent of this stuff at a hardware store. If it wasn’t for a new case, none of it was important.

Of course, that was assuming this wasn’t the narcotics division.

If it was... then only in the Western Country’s chicken wraps and over by the Bald Eagle could you get in so easily.

In those places, you could even take things from the evidence room and sell them!

"Me?"

Wang Chao scratched his head. "I was just wandering around the precinct. Captain Wang told me to come here, so I did."

"He said I’m a piece of evidence too."

Xu Huo: ?

Xu Huo froze. He felt like a fishbone was stuck in his throat—like he had a comeback that was stuck and couldn’t get out.

’What the hell kind of evidence...’

He figured Wang Hu must have gotten annoyed seeing the kid hanging around all the time.

"You... Forget it. Why haven’t you gone home?"

Xu Huo shook his head, looking at him suspiciously.

The case was opened last night. Logically, he should have been able to go home early this morning, but he was still here at noon.

"I don’t really want to go back..."

At the mention of home, Wang Chao’s face immediately soured.

"It’s better to stay here."

"There’s food, drinks, and I get to see so much cool stuff. It’s way more interesting than being at home!"

’This kid. He’d rather stay at the police station than go home...’

Xu Huo’s mouth twitched. He decided to stop paying attention to the kid.

’Let the kid have his fun. It’s fine.’

Xu Huo turned his head to look at what the Police Chief on the side was still processing.

"Let me see."

He stood next to the officer, who nodded and handed over the item in his hand.

’Joy Eye!’

Xu Huo chanted inwardly. The next second, a golden light seemed to emerge from his eyes, making his vision incredibly sharp and allowing him to detect any clue with extreme clarity.

This was the knife from the crime scene.

A watermelon knife, about the length of Zhang Ru’s forearm.

It was about twenty centimeters long, and the blade still showed traces of dried blood.

Besides that, there were two other knives.

A scalpel and a utility knife.

Three knives in total, all stained with bright red blood.

In addition, there were Zhang Ru’s high heels, which had left the footprints in the mud at the primary crime scene.

"Tsk, they’ve got quite the collection."

Xu Huo nodded. Finding nothing out of the ordinary, he handed them over to the officer next to him who was in charge of cataloging.

This evidence would go through various processes: receiving, logging, storage, transfer, and disposal. Xu Huo had no idea where it would end up.

A very normal process, but...

"Hm? What’s this thing?"

Absently, Xu Huo picked up a black card from a pile of sorted items.

He held the card up and squinted.

"No idea. It seems to be related to taking money, falling under the scope of abuse of power. Zhang Ru would use this card when she went out to purchase certain medicines."

"It’s unrelated to this case, so the precinct isn’t planning to include it in the case file for now. It’s pending processing."

One of the Police Chiefs said casually.

"But the card isn’t magnetic. It’s made from a piece of black stone, kind of like glass. We can’t trace any financial transactions on it."

"Zhang Ru said it’s a decorative item."

"As for disposal... it’ll probably be thrown away or mailed to Lin Chu."

"If you like it, Advisor Xu... I can try applying to the higher-ups. Maybe we can negotiate with Lin Chu to buy it."

Xu Huo didn’t reply.

He held up the object. It was the size of an ID card and entirely black, but when light shone on it, it refracted a brilliant kaleidoscope of colors.

It was like transparent glass, but not glass. Something similar to Obsidian.

In the very center of the card, a ’golden triangle’ was engraved.

The triangle consisted of just three simple golden lines.

’This thing...’

’What is it?’

Xu Huo frowned and took a sniff.

Zhang Ru’s scent was very strong on it, meaning she likely took it out often.

’But it’s not magnetic... What’s this thing used for?’

After thinking for a long time, Xu Huo sealed it in an evidence bag.

"I’m taking it to the Linlan City evidence room."

The Police Chiefs nodded.

"Okay."

After speaking, Xu Huo didn’t break protocol. He took out his phone, called Qian Hua and Wang Hu, and went through the proper procedure.

A short while later, he finally put the thing in his pocket.

"Don’t just stand there. Let’s go!"

Xu Huo slapped Wang Chao on the butt.

Wang Chao was startled awake, looking reluctantly at all the strange and fascinating evidence in the room.

But he didn’t linger for long, quickly trotting over to stand behind Xu Huo.

"Brother Huo, where are we going!?"

"Is it time to eat?"

Xu Huo rolled his eyes. "It’s only four o’clock!"

"Going home. Back to Linlan City."

Wang Hu and Li Jianye had already gone back.

Wrapping up the "Corpse Well" case was undoubtedly the most troublesome one, and the frequency of Li Jianye’s cursing had clearly increased.

Xu Huo wasn’t planning on slacking off in Zhaozhou City any longer either.

Besides, they were only about a hundred kilometers from Linlan City, so getting back would be quick.

Unexpectedly, Wang Chao put on a miserable face.

"Can we not go...?"

"No!"

Xu Huo refused decisively.

He even had Chu Xi sit in the passenger seat, then roughly shoved Chao Zi into the back.

"Let’s go!"

...

...

「6:30 PM.」

On the outskirts of Zhaozhou City, Xu Huo pulled the car over for a short break.

He leaned back in his seat, took the black card out of the sealed bag in his pocket, and held it over his head, shining a light on it from behind.

The colors inside the card looked magnificent.

But...

What was this thing used for?

A puzzled look appeared in Xu Huo’s eyes.

’A decoration? What kind of decoration is the size of a bank card and this heavy...’

’Besides, there are no holes in the card. How could it be used as a decoration?’

’The edges and corners showed no friction marks from being held in a setting, so it wasn’t inlaid in anything.’

’Then what in the world is this for!?’

"Brother Huo, Brother Huo, I want to eat watermelon. Let’s get out and buy some..."

Wang Chao’s pleading voice came from the side.

"It’s almost November. What kind of watermelon are you going to eat?"

Xu Huo said casually, "Besides, where are you going to find anyone selling watermelon around here?"

As he spoke, he continued to examine the object in his hand.

"There is, there is! I see a watermelon patch!"

Wang Chao’s voice grew more urgent, his pleading louder.

"It’s November. There’s no watermelon patch. The vines would have all rotted by now."

Xu Huo waved his hand dismissively again.

He used Joy Eye, looking the stone in his hand over from all angles, but he couldn’t see anything special about it.

That golden triangle symbol was very perplexing.

"There is a watermelon patch!"

Wang Chao persisted, leaning in closer.

"Bro, look, there are watermelons!"

"There are watermelons growing on the tree! Look, for real! There should be a melon farmer over there, let’s go find him..."

"It’s November! In two days, it’ll be November. It’s so cold these days you have to wear a padded jacket. You want to eat waterm—"

Xu Huo couldn’t help but start scolding his subordinate, but halfway through his sentence, he suddenly fell silent.

"Where are there watermelons?"

"On a tree?"

"Wait, say that again!"

Wang Chao looked out the window aggrievedly and pointed at a dark shape.

"Look, Brother Huo, right there!"

Hearing this, Xu Huo held his breath and silently looked over.

Outside the car was an area of suburban farmland, with the highway in the distance.

The lighting here was terrible. The light from the streetlamps was incredibly dim, and insects swarmed around them, their shadows flitting across the ground.

The outside world seemed to be swallowed by darkness, and it was frighteningly quiet around the car.

It was impossible to see anything clearly in the distance, only the faint outlines of raised stones and blurry shadows.

And in the direction Wang Chao was pointing...

There was a tree.

And on the tree, there were watermelons.

For an instant, Xu Huo froze, staring blankly at the scene before him.

His Joy Eye was still active, and he could see those watermelons clearly...

"Brother Huo, I really want to eat one. If we don’t eat it now, we’ll have to wait two months and there won’t be any left. I’m begging you, let’s just go buy one to try..."

Wang Chao continued to plead.

Xu Huo was like a wooden doll, letting Wang Chao shake him without any reaction.

He stared intently at the tree.

’What is that place?’

’There is a tree there.’

’And hanging from the tree are...’

’Not watermelons.’

’They’re...’

’Human heads.’

Several human heads were hanging from the tree. Their stiff features were hidden in the darkness, their pale faces staring toward the faint glimmer of light from the distant streetlamp.

Their rigid eyes met Xu Huo’s.

On the heads, the skin of their faces had been forcibly pulled up and fixed in place with a stapler, creating a stiff, grotesque smile.

Three human heads, hanging right there on the tree, watching Xu Huo silently from the darkness with those grotesque smiles.

At this moment...

Xu Huo felt as if the entire world had frozen.

A voice quietly emerged in his ear...

[Congratulations, Host. You have triggered the mission: Weave a Plotline · Case · ’All Quiet’]

[(Incomplete)]

[Rewards are divided into four tiers, based on Immersion levels of 25%, 50%, 75%, and 100%.]

[Plot Weaving Time: Thirty days.]

[Failure Penalty: Forfeiture of this mission’s rewards.]

’Plot weaving time... thirty days...’

Xu Huo stood there, stunned. He swallowed hard.

’This is an apple tree. An apple tree that...’

’grows human heads.’

"Fuck!"

...

...

[Case File: All Quiet]

(Case Opened!)