Chapter 51: Threats and Menaces

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

The next day, the main press companies were reporting the breaking news on the appearance of the evil dragon. Shen Xiang did not even come to the police station. Xu Lan scrolled through the photos on his cell phone. There were just dark, black masses, but he could recognize the dragon outline.

All of them had clickbait titles, ‘Did the Appearance of the Vicious Dragon Had Any Relations to the Unsolved Murder’, ‘A Blessing or Misfortune? The Emergence of Ancient Dragon!’.

‘Ancient dragon? Not surprised if they bring out Jin Yong ¹ in the titles later!’ Xu Lan threw his cell phone to the side in disdain and threw himself into work.

“Hey, Lao Xu, didn’t you bring Bai Wu over today?” Sun Fei could not help but ask shortly after he entered the meeting room.

He was still wandering at the edge about having a son or not. If he wants a son, that meant he needed to find a wife.

“…hmm, I can’t always trouble everyone. We’re already so busy, I don’t want to add on to the burden,” Xu Lan said after giving a thought.

In actual fact, it was because Bai Wu resumed his form unexpectedly and could not revert back to the three-year-old state. Even if he transformed into the human form, he could only appear as a young adult with seventeen or eighteen of age.

Damn it, how could he bring him over! He could not be telling people that this is another son of his. There was no choice but to leave him at home.

At first, Bai Wu was not willing to but he could not dissuade Xu Lan. He ended up locking himself in his room and brood over the matter.

“What are you talking about? The forensics results are ready, there are three sets of fingerprints on the curtain. These three individuals included you, Li Xiu and a child. There’re no records in the fingerprint database, so the identity was not known.”

“Li Xiu?” Xu Lan frown and asked quizzically.

“Yes. Probably left behind when you guys were working on the case. I’m guessing the other set of fingerprints belongs to Bai Wu. I thought of verifying them today, too bad you didn’t bring him along,” Sun Fei mentioned with regret.

“It’s his,” Xu Lan told Sun Fei directly. Sometimes, covering up the truth would cause more troubles.

“Haha, aren’t you afraid that I would suspect you to be the killer?” Sun Fei slapped Xu Lan’s shoulders and laughed loudly.

“If there’s proof, I can’t deny anyway. Isn’t it the same for anyone?” Xu Lan lifted his eyebrow, the scar at the end of it followed and moved accordingly.

“Indeed, haha, but if you are the killer, it would be very disappointing,” Sun Fei said after giving a thought, “Since everybody trusted you so much.”

“Just think of how to make progress on this case!” Xu Lan spread out the files in his hands, all the clues gathered from these few days were clearly straightened out.

There were a total of two criminals who conspired in this whole case. One of them was identified as a female, named as Qiu Ling.

First of all, the male suspect would search for a target and Qiu Ling would then approach them and gain their trust. Following that, she would introduce the male suspect to the victim to commit their crime. The criminal procedure was executed almost perfectly, leaving no trails behind. They were excellent in covering up their tracks.

Both of them were very well-off. The total sum of money given to Li Kui amounted to more than one hundred thousand Renminbi. They also hired other accomplices.

The only lead that was not lost was Qiu Ling. However, there was nothing unusual about Qiu Ling. This posed as a pressing problem as time was ticking away in front of their eyes. They still could not take her in even though they knew that she was the suspect.

“Is the investigation of Li Kui and Li Xinyi’s cell phone ready?” Xu Lan asked.

“It’s done, there was nothing in it. I even doubt if they were truly father and daughter. Except for the phone number, there was nothing that can link them together,” Sun Fei said in disdain.

“Hmm, are there any overlaps among their social circle? At least they shared the commonality of contacting Qiu Ling. Oh right, did you ask Li Kui about Qiu Ling yesterday night?” Xu Lan answered after pondering.

“I asked, he said Qiu Ling is the head person of their team in this construction project. He’s the foreman below her, that’s why he had Qiu Ling’s phone number,” Sun Fei said after letting out a sigh.

“Isn’t she the manager of the company?”

“Yes, the manager of Hengyu Real Estate Company, she’s the boss,” Sun Fei squinted and answered.

“Do you have cigarettes?” Xu Lan stopped asking further and reached his hand out.

“No, I told you that my place is a smoke-free zone, why would I have cigarettes!” Sun Fei smacked his lap and said.

‘Beep beep… beep beep beep…’

“Hello?” Xu Lan took his cell phone out and saw it was from an unknown caller.

“Mister Xu, please hurry to the hospital. The person that you asked me to take care insisted on visiting his friend last night. He held his hand after seeing him and didn’t want to let go. When I arrived this morning, he was still there and he refused to come out no matter what I say. Mister Xu, please come over and take a look,” the carer said anxiously over the phone.

“What! I’m coming over right now!” Xu Lan stood up immediately and startled Sun Fei who was beside him.

“What happened?” Sun Fei asked.

“Li Xiu sat in front of Lao Liu’s sickbed throughout the night!” Xu Lan grabbed his jacket and headed out.

“What? I thought his ribs were broken? How did he get up?”

“I don’t know either. Let’s go over and take a look.” Xu Lan already headed downstairs, Sun Fei followed him hurriedly.

“Lao Hu is not back yet, we can’t let him get into trouble again!” he said worriedly.

“Okay, get in the car!” Xu Lan pressed him.

The journey to the hospital was very smooth, no truck incident like the one they experienced the day before, both of them arrived at the hospital shortly after.

“Mister Xu, you’re here.” The carer was standing outside the door of Lao Liu’s ward. He was just transferred out from the Intensive Care Unit yesterday night.

“Hmm, you can go and rest first.” Xu Lan opened the door after suppressing his anger.

Li Xiu was holding Lao Liu’s hand while sitting on the wheelchair. His whole body was distorted due to the pain.

“What are you doing!” Xu Lan walked towards him hastily and questioned.

“Brother Lan? Cough cough… Lao Liu, he… Lao Liu lost his legs.”

Both Lao Liu’s legs were stuck on the seat, it was so serious that they had to amputate them. If it’s not because of the protection from the airbag, it would cost his life. However, due to prolonged asphyxiation, it caused the irreversible damage of some of the brain cells.

“Calm down, it can’t be helped. If you didn’t do it, he will not survive,” Xu Lan said dejectedly.

“Calm down? It’s easy to say! How can I calm down? Lao Liu followed me since I was a teen. His legs are gone, and it is still uncertain if he can regain consciousness! How do I calm down!”

Li Xiu roared at Xu Lan with reddened eyes. Who said men do not easily shed tears – they would when they experience deep grief.

“Things have already happened, we should not wallow in despair, it’s a waste of energy,” Xu Lan advised helplessly. Even he himself thought that he was talking rubbish, how would Li Xiu take it in.

“Brother Lan, anyone can say this. If Bai Wu is the one lying here, can you still say these things sensibly?” Li Xiu questioned him loudly, “Or he’s currently lying at somewhere with his whole body inserted with tubes…”

Xu Lan’s body tensed up and looked at Li Xiu with rage. He was gasping in deep breaths and both sides of his temples were buzzing loudly.

“Sun Fei, can you go out for a while? I need to speak with Li Xiu,” Xu Lan controlled his trembling body and said hoarsely.

“Wha… what happened?” Sun Fei asked puzzledly. He sensed that something went wrong with the dynamics between these two.

“Get out!” Xu Lan let out a lowered growl.

Sun Fei left the ward with doubt. There were only two of them in the room and an unconscious Lao Liu.

“Brother Lan, you knew beforehand that there’s something unusual about Bai Wu, am I right?” Li Xiu was not his usual jovial self. Brilliant rays shone through his golden spectacles, staring right at Xu Lan when he asked him.

“…”

“Do you know what that thing is? That thing is a demon that should only be found in books. How dare you let him grow? Don’t you know that how scary he is?” Li Xiu continued to roar at Xu Lan as Xu Lan remained silent. He was so agitated that he wanted to stand up from his chair.

“I don’t know that, I just knew that he was very pitiful,” Xu Lan said with a heavy tone. From what he perceived, he did not think that a dragon could be unpardonably evil. No one had really seen them, these were merely rumors.

“Pitiful?” Li Xiu lifted his hospital gown, showing his bandaged torso. “He broke two ribs with one single punch and you said he’s pitiful?”

“Sorry, he… it was not his intention to do so. This is a misunderstanding, he’ll not do that again!” Xu Lan apologized.

“Yeah, he didn’t intend to. He did it deliberately!” Li Xiu answered with a snicker, “How can Brother Lan keep such an evil being with you? Misunderstanding? There will be misunderstandings in life but do you think it will just vanish into thin air by just saying it was a misunderstanding? Do you think Lao Liu’s legs will grow back if the truck driver apologized?”

Li Xiu wailed in anger and questioned him.

“How can you equate these two events, he…” Xu Lan did not understand why would he compare Bai Wu to Li Kui. They were totally different matters to begin with.

“Oh God! Brother Lan, you must be bewitched by that beast, otherwise how can you say such drivel! Of course, he can’t be compared to the truck driver, at least the truck driver is a human being!”

Li Xiu looked horrifically at Xu Lan who was trying very hard to hold his rage. He was trembling while he tried to reach for his cell phone. “No, I can’t let him perpetrate evil anymore!”

“What are you doing!” Xu Lan was shocked when he saw Li Xiu’s action and stepped forward to snatch away his cell phone.

“I want to call the police and catch him!” Li Xiu said furiously, as if he was channeling all the anger stemmed from Lao Liu’s situation toward Bai Wu.

“I am the police!” Xu Lan said with a death grip on Li Xiu.

“Yes, yes, and you’ve been controlled by him. I shall call the researchers from the central agency, I want them to come over!” Li Xiu’s whole body trembled while he said it.

“No, please don’t do that. You are the only person here who knows about this. No one will notice him if you don’t mention anything! I promise he will not do anything, he will not appear in front of you anymore, I promise!” Xu Lan pledged.

“But he shouldn’t appear in this world in the first place! Brother Lan! You’re insane! He doesn’t belong here. Wa…” Li Xiu was so emotional that he coughed up a mouthful of blood.

“No, he belongs to me, he’s now mine! I want him to stay with me! This is my personal request. Xiao Xiu, I’m begging you, can you keep it a secret…”

Xu Lan was losing all hope. He should not have reasoned with such an obstinante, stubborn person. In fact, he should have left yesterday together with Bai Wu.

“You’re begging me?” Li Xiu pondered these words in detail, as if he was figuring the hidden meaning from them.

“Promise me a favor then…”

Li Xiu leaned against the chair with a pale face and said weakly.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep