Trafford's Trading Club

Chapter 1222: Chapter 63: Welcome to the Boss Room

In the world of the underworld, when it comes to gathering information or finding someone, the most formidable aren’t the police officers but the local hooligans.

It’s not that the police officers can’t gather information, but in a very short amount of time, it’s surely no match for those who make a living out of it… just different fields.

Zhou Yusheng led the team, confident as he was, still finding it challenging to locate a driver or multiple unlicensed taxi drivers who had disappeared for a few months within half a day.

Moreover, the constant light rain added a degree of difficulty to the search.

Eating around here wasn’t convenient either—places like this that solicit private passengers naturally differ from those by major stations, with only scattered sheds around and some vendors pushing tricycles, and not many places to take shelter from the rain.

Zhou Yusheng appeared somewhat bedraggled as he ran back to his car, the rain intensified at this point, and those drivers had already vanished.

Chen Mingming followed, sitting in the passenger seat from the other side of the car, Zhou Yusheng handed a few tissues to Chen Mingming, “Wipe yourself off.”

Taking the tissues, Chen Mingming felt a touch of emotion.

Subtle parental concern that might have been overlooked before… Zhou Yusheng might have just done it subconsciously, a natural action, and Chen Mingming accepted it instinctively, a logical act, a simple scene.

But why had he not noticed before the warmth contained in this simple gesture?

“What are you… doing?” Chen Mingming asked after calming himself, seeing Zhou Yusheng fiddling with a bag of pork buns.

The buns were bought from a tricycle stall nearby, still steaming gently. At that moment, Zhou Yusheng tore off the edges of the bun bit by bit and threw it back into the bag instead of eating it.

Smiling, Zhou Yusheng’s face was covered with stubble, his smile resembling a hedgehog curling into its skin. He handed the torn bun over, “The parts dampened by rain aren’t as tasty, eat while it’s hot. The rain shouldn’t last long… Earlier, you didn’t look too well, take a nap after eating, we have work this afternoon.”

Who cares for you so carefully like this?

Who pays attention to how a simple bun tastes when given to you?

Who cares whether you slept well at night or if you have enough energy in the afternoon?

The cabin was quiet, rain was pounding on the car’s skin, and inside the air conditioning and radio were both on, playing nostalgic hits of the age like “Little Town Stories.”

It was the sentiment of Zhou Yusheng’s generation.

Chen Mingming closed his eyes, listening intently to the music and the rain, feeling an oddly comforting sensation in this enclosed yet quiet environment.

Suddenly, he just wanted everything to remain like this… If only the assessment could be indefinite, how wonderful that would be.

…

It felt like he hadn’t slept for long, maybe just ten minutes or so.

But the spirit was noticeably better… Chen Mingming felt a sense of laziness, the rain outside hadn’t stopped, nor had it subsided, and he didn’t want to move, covered with Zhou Yusheng’s coat.

Very warm.

Chen Mingming was a person with great self-discipline… He took a deep breath and sat up straight.

Seeing Zhou Yusheng bowing his head, looking at his phone, and hearing the noise, he said casually, “Awake… Just right, Old Ma sent over some data, let’s find these people this afternoon.”

“Officer Ma?” Chen Mingming was momentarily stunned.

Zhou Yusheng sighed, “Don’t underestimate your Officer Ma just because he seems to be always playing Minesweeper in the office, I really can’t compare to him in finding people… He has a lot of contacts, you should take the opportunity to learn from him.”

Chen Mingming nodded noncommittally, took out his phone to check, there were names, contacts, all available.

…

With the information provided by Officer Ma, searching for people in the afternoon became much more convenient, and in just over an hour, all the drivers on the list were found.

There were three in total, all of whom had driven between late November and before December 1st last year.

“Take a look, during this time, did you take this man…? I’m just here to inquire about this man’s information, not to arrest you for taking private passengers… we don’t handle traffic police matters.”

Zhou Yusheng took out a photo of Wang Liang and placed it in front of the three drivers.

The three drivers, initially nervous, quietly breathed a sigh of relief after hearing Zhou Yusheng’s latter words… Making a living is not easy, doing such private passenger work carries some risk.

Two of the drivers looked for a while, then shook their heads, indicating they hadn’t seen him.

But the third driver, after frowning and thinking for a while, said, “Officer, I should have picked up this guy.”

“Are you sure?”

Zhou Yusheng and Chen Mingming, along with the other colleagues, tensed up… If he indeed picked him up, then the hypothesis Chen Mingming presented during the morning meeting could very well be correct!

The driver nodded, “Yes, it’s definitely him. I remember clearly because this guy paid in cash at the time, he was the only one who paid in cash on the car. I asked him to pay me by transfer, but he stubbornly refused, so we argued a bit. But which exact day it was, I really can’t recall, but it was definitely around those days.”

Zhou Yusheng nodded, “Your car is equipped with a dashcam, right?”

The driver nodded, “It is.”

“We’ll bring it back for investigation later, no objections?” Zhou Yusheng said calmly.

What could the driver say? Just taking away a dashcam without arresting him was already a blessing.

…

The investigation took an unexpected leap forward due to Chen Mingming’s hypothesis.

Everyone rushed back to the station, and after investigating the driver’s dashcam, they indeed found footage of Wang Liang—on the evening of November 23rd last year, the same day Wang Liang returned from City X!

Wu Rong had bought a train ticket to return to the city on November 25th!

This suggested that Wang Liang might have already killed Wu Rong before the 23rd, or knew Wu Rong was dead, so he came back that day, then in disguise, pretended to be Wu Rong on November 25th, creating the illusion that Wu Rong was still alive after death.

“Team Leader Zhou! Just received a call from Officer Ma, they also found an unlicensed cab driver in City X and have confirmed that on the night of November 29th last year, Wang Liang was driven back from City X!” a colleague hastily reported.

Indeed!

Everyone suddenly saw clearly!

On the morning of November 29th, Wu Rong took a train to leave the city… the train arrived at City X in the evening, Wang Liang had enough time to find an illegal car and return from City X!

“It’s very clear now! Wang Liang possibly killed Wu Rong, or had already received news of Wu Rong’s death, and moreover, had stolen her mobile account… all indications suggest a high possibility of killing for greed!”

“But here comes the question… who killed Wang Liang? And even arranged the scene to resemble Wu Rong’s death scene?”

Zhou Yusheng sighed, lightly tapping the table, “Deconstruct and summarize the case from the baseline… There must be something we’ve overlooked! Everyone, let’s put in some extra hours tonight!”

Certainly, they were already prepared for overtime… For the detectives, every investigation is a tough and long battle.

Zhou Yusheng then quietly said to Chen Mingming, “Call your mom later, let her not worry.”

He truly could do well.

Suddenly, Chen Mingming had a realization… Whether at work or at home, he could actually do very well.

Chen Mingming slowly exhaled, shortly thereafter, a colleague came over, asking about dinner, what he’d like to eat… Chen Mingming had only been here for just the third day, under the guise of a police officer.

Yet these three days of close cooperation with everyone, mentally synchronizing all the time, now felt familiar… After smiling, Chen Mingming said to order a box of green pepper shredded pork rice for him.

At this moment, inside the meeting room, everyone was full of enthusiasm, preparing for the night’s work.

Chen Mingming suddenly thought of Zhao Le… He had left words for Zhao Le, but he didn’t know Zhao Le’s current situation.

Chen Mingming picked up his phone, intending to find Zhao Le’s account on social media. But after searching around, he finally realized he hadn’t actually added Zhao Le as a friend.

So, I hadn’t added him after all…

In fact, he had a very limited number of friends on his social media, and some he hadn’t even spoken to… Hmm, did I really not add Zhao Le as a software friend?

He always felt like he was forgetting something.

Chen Mingming unconsciously rubbed his brow, and his brain faintly seemed to have some stabbing pain.

But he received a message from Tara, a greeting saying something about not having enough spirit, suggesting he should consider letting his legs out again to have a good sleep.

—If there’s a chance.

Chen Mingming replied as such.

…

…

There was no one following… at least not around him.

Although the power was so weak that it horrified Nan Xiao Nan, the much stronger will compared to an ordinary person could still sense danger within a dozen meters around.

Walking into Ren Ziling’s home, Nan Xiao Nan felt a very secure feeling… It was a very peculiar feeling, a mysterious sense of safety.

She even had a rather unbelievable thought… feeling that even if a level ten Beyond Rank Forbidden Curse struck, the house would remain unscathed.

Of course, it was just a delusion stemming from feeling safe. She didn’t really believe that a concrete house could withstand a level ten Beyond Rank Forbidden Curse.

Level ten Beyond Rank Forbidden Curses were a power metric from her original sub-world, and she didn’t know what the power metric in this sub-world was.

Although she had been smuggling for some time, her exploration of this place was quite limited due to her inability to recover her strength—and now, she still had that inexplicable pursuit to avoid.

“This room belongs to my son,” Ren Ziling said at this time, holding a pillow and bedding in her hands. “There’s another room that’s empty, usually used for storage, but it has a bed. How about sleeping there for the next couple of days?”

“I’ll listen to you, Sister Ren,” Nan Xiao Nan replied with a slight smile.

“Hmm… feel free to sit and look around, I’m going to take a shower. This damn weather, sticky and uncomfortable,” Ren Ziling said, then went directly into the bathroom, and shortly after, the sound of water could be heard.

After dropping her luggage, Nan Xiao Nan walked to the balcony, leaning on the windowsill to observe outside, searching for any potential danger.

Unfortunately, her current sense was limited, with not much range… As for the True Sight ability, the remaining power units were insufficient to activate it.

If only she hadn’t used that magic technique at Wang Liang’s murder scene.

She used that magic technique to quickly solve the case and then get transferred to leave… but now she had to bow to reality and rely on Ren Ziling, the Child of the World’s protection instead.

Even at her level, the wonder of the world still made her sigh.

“However… it seems there’s something nice here.”

Nan Xiao Nan furrowed her brows; the so-called ‘something nice’ was emanating from Ren Ziling’s room… a gentle elemental wave.

Seeing Ren Ziling hadn’t come out yet, Nan Xiao Nan, driven by curiosity, quietly opened Ren Ziling’s room door and entered… a faint smoke smell instantly hit her nose.

Then seeing the room in a chaotic state, with a mess all over the bed, Nan Xiao Nan couldn’t help but be speechless—this clearly had a different vibe from the clean and tidy outside, right?

The fluctuation of the ‘nice thing’ came from under the bed.

Nan Xiao Nan crouched down… she didn’t find the ‘nice thing’ immediately, but instead found an ashtray hidden under the bed.

“It feels like this woman isn’t living well here…” Nan Xiao Nan said, shaking her head while looking at the hidden ashtray.

But she had already found the ‘nice thing’.

It was embedded in the mattress, pressed on the bed board… Looking at the smooth, cool half-palm-sized jade piece in her hand, Nan Xiao Nan’s eyes lit up.

In terms of rarity, this wasn’t very high-grade; in her main body’s collection, it might not even qualify. But for her current self, this was a treasure!

The rare thing was that this jade contained absorbable power units!

This piece of jade could completely recover her power units to about 1%!

“Not knowing how to use this thing, only letting it scatter elemental forces. Even though ordinary people might become healthier over time in such an environment, that’s nothing more than basic good health, making it less likely to get sick. Such use is sheer waste!”

Nan Xiao Nan suddenly felt the urge to collect this jade… but upon reflection, she couldn’t help but feel puzzled.

Although Ren Ziling had the world’s will’s protection, she was still within the range of an ordinary person, with not a hint of Transcendent power.

This jade was just quietly hidden away, rather than being directly used—even if Ren Ziling didn’t know how to use it, holding it, placing it on herself, or keeping it close would be far more effective than having it under the mattress.

So… did someone secretly put the jade here?

Who could it be?

Her son?

In an instant, Nan Xiao Nan thought of Ren Ziling’s son… instinctively, her gaze pierced through Ren Ziling’s room door, landing on the door of another room.

Nan Xiao Nan suddenly felt a inexplicable acceleration in her heartbeat… instinct told her there was something special in that room.

Her intuition had always been accurate, otherwise she would not have been able to seize that slim chance to leave amidst the intense competition of Transcendent powerhouses in her original world.

But along with intuition, a terrifying sense of danger also surged in Nan Xiao Nan’s heart.

To open, or not to open this door, Nan Xiao Nan’s mind was at a crossroads—the conscience of Heaven and Earth, this was just an ordinary door, but the inner conflict she felt rivaled the deathmatch against one of the strongest in her original world!

Open… or not?

As if possessed by magic, Nan Xiao Nan found herself moving towards the door, her hand inching towards the doorknob… she could even hear the pounding of her heart.

Tap—!

The moment her hand touched the doorknob, a faint sound startled Nan Xiao Nan, causing her heart to clench—it was a sound she was very familiar with, the sound of an electric kettle switching off after boiling water.

Who was boiling water… She didn’t recall Ren Ziling boiling water when she returned.

A few beads of cold sweat formed on Nan Xiao Nan’s forehead. She cautiously stepped out from the corridor, heading toward the living room.

The moment she stepped out, a side profile came into Nan Xiao Nan’s view.

A young man, standing sideways, was pouring hot water from the kettle into an empty cup… his profile looked quite handsome.

“She can be a bit scatterbrained at times; she probably forgot to invite you, I’m really sorry about that…” Luo Qiu said, turning around with a cup of water, smiling. “Please, have a seat.”

Nan Xiao Nan’s mind almost went blank… her soul and will were trembling with fear.

She suddenly felt like a Novice Village rookie who had accidentally stepped into the ultimate boss room before even graduating, overwhelmed with the sensation.