Since Fourth Master gave this favor, then I should make good use of it to not waste her effort.
"Boss, do you have an umbrella?" Xiao Lin suddenly appeared at the counter, startling the already snoring person awake.
"Oh, yes, are you heading out?" The innkeeper rubbed his eyes, the two of them feigned ignorance as if they had never spoken before. The relationship was subtly mysterious, and Xiao Lin held a smile at the corner of his mouth.
"Yeah, it's too boring. I'm going out for a walk. The tea on the table is quite nice, please send it back to my room, thank you."
Stepping on the waterlogged ground, Xiao Lin wandered to Beigong. Here, Lian provided factual evidence about Beigong's past; the two fires could have been set by the sa person, or maybe two different groups. These weren't worries for Xiao Lin. The blue comrcial vehicle vanished completely, as if it never existed.
A mysterious organization, one not belonging to Yanjing, an ancient organization — this is how Lian described it. Had such a family ever appeared before? They've never set foot in Yanjing, so why show up suddenly now? Curiosity about Beigong, or perhaps about sothing else?
Yan Juanjuan embezzled a batch of Yao Zheng's goods. Due to Fourth Master's pressure, Yao Zheng would undoubtedly retaliate against Yan Juanjuan. Yan Juanjuan's movents always revolved around Yao Zheng, so did she need to embezzle those goods?
Her family wealth is enough for her to live comfortably for several generations. Even if Fourth Master's potions are excellent, it's risky, and it wouldn't bring the peace of doing legitimate business. Why would a woman take such risks?
Xiao Lin held the umbrella, which had the inn's na, address, and reservation phone number printed on it. The yellow umbrella cloth with red lettering was strikingly conspicuous, creating a stark contrast with his all-black attire, making it difficult for people not to notice him.
Beigong belonged to the slums in the central part of the northern district. The terrain is slightly elevated at the bottom, with not many people coming in or out. The stores at the entrance began to post rental signs due to the fire, the more severely burned shops closed up, and so people living in the stores simply used them as bedrooms, awaiting governnt compensation, stubbornly refusing to move out.
Smoke lost its direction instantly in the rainwater. Xiao Lin stood there for a long ti, gazing blankly at the Beigong periter's shops.
This was Lian's second fire, a symbolic burning of the wall and eaves. The commotion wasn't small, but the question remained — how did the fire start?
The explosion startled the nearby people, and under the crowd gathered there in the deep night, the fire burned curiously.
Throwing away the cigarette butt, Xiao Lin headed toward Beigong, stepping onto the open ground, onto the ruins. External decorations couldn't withstand consecutive days of scorching sun and rain, falling to the ground in disarray, while the burn marks faded under the rain.
Folding the umbrella, Xiao Lin ventured into Beigong for the first ti after the fire. The interior was unrecognizable; the explosion didn't cause much damage inside, supporting Lian's analysis of the fire's origin, with the kitchen split in half due to the blast and the opposite being the innermost private room.
The Beigong had two sections affected by the blast: one was the kitchen, as a result of a chain reaction, and the second was the outermost hall waiting area and outdoors. The office, above the private rooms, remained untouched but most equipnt burned due to the fire, leaving only the shapes, not the software equipnt.
Instinctively intertwining the umbrella handle with a stick, Xiao Lin cleared the ruins while covering his nose and mouth. Even after so long, so chemical residues lingered inside, excessive inhalation could cause dizziness and mild poisoning symptoms.
Xiao Lin searched inside, wandering aimlessly around the scorched earth, devoid of electricity or light, with rustling sounds around, likely underground rats erging to seek food.
The deeper he went, the more he discovered. The umbrella scraping against the floor and walls wasn't his first such action, yet this ti, the response was different.
Yan Juanjuan had the goods; she wouldn't stupidly hide them in her residence or at Hengfei Mansion — Yan Fengying's Beigong would be an excellent hiding spot, right under Yao Zheng's nose. Wait... Xiao Lin seed to think of sothing, following his mory to the direction of the dragon's eye.
"Acting!"
Beigong was nominally Yan Juanjuan's property but was actually co-owned. If Yan Juanjuan took the goods, how did Yao Zheng not notice during transport? The reasonable explanation is that they conspired together, later turning against one another, leading to the cargo being snatched away.
"Brother, brother! Are you in there?" Hua Qingyi's voice ca from outside, having driven directly to Beigong following the text ssage on Xiao Lin's phone. He hadn't returned to the residence yet, as the rain outside had turned into a downpour. The raindrops hitting the stone peak could conjure images, with so places burnt through, unable to block the outside rainwater from forming a small spring inside the room.
"I'm here." Xiao Lin just happened to arrive at the entrance of the Longyan private room, where the scorched door panel was partially burned away. He kicked it open, and a faint light ca out from inside.
"What are you doing here on a day like this?" Hua Qingyi complained, shaking the rainwater off his body, looking as if he had just been fished out of the water.
"Why are you so wet? Is it raining that hard outside?" From the place where they got off to here was just a short distance. No matter how heavy the rain, it shouldn't have soaked him like a drowned rat.
"Of course not. I was outside for a while and discovered sothing, but unfortunately, the rain was too heavy." Hua Qingyi said as he took off his coat. The seats in the private room were still mostly intact, and since he wouldn't be needing the coat anymore, he just hung it on the back of a chair. "Look at this, what is it?"
Xiao Lin took a ring, similar to a lock accessory, from Hua Qingyi's hand and examined it carefully under the light. "This is a military box lock!"
"Yes! At first, I thought it was just a door lock, but after seeing the code on it, I thought it might be related, so I brought it back."
"Where did you find it?"
"Near the lakeside, there was a landslide, possibly created by the continuous rain, which opened a hole and revealed this thing. But why are you here?" Hua Qingyi irritably ran his hand through his wet hair, the water clinging to his neck feeling very uncomfortable.
"I'm looking for sothing, sothing Yao Zheng left behind." Xiao Lin surveyed the private room, pressing his palm against the wall. Due to the heat, the wallpaper cracked under the pressure of Xiao Lin's hand, peeling away to reveal an entire white wall behind it. "If you were Yan Juanjuan, where would you hide sothing?"
"Is that why you're here?" Hua Qingyi also tapped around a few places. "It definitely wouldn't be here. Won generally hide valuable things in their own rooms or offices. The safest place is where they can keep it closest to them, but if it's sothing big, then it's uncertain."
"Yan Fengying's office is upstairs." With that, Xiao Lin flashed out of the private room. The staircase was destroyed by fire, and he looked up at the second floor. "We don't need to go up there." Staring at the completely deford second floor, Xiao Lin curled his lips, his cold gaze falling into the darkness. Beigong didn't just set two fires but three.
Hua Qingyi, standing next to him, looked up the sa way and imdiately understood Xiao Lin's point. "Soone got here before us, and if anything was up there, it would have been taken. This fire burned all the evidence."
"Take to the place where you found the lock accessory."
The military box's lock accessory had a peculiar shape; however, the lock accessory Hua Qingyi found differed from a standard military box. Perhaps it's a variation from a special unit; it's hard to say. Yet, inside the circular ring of the lock accessory was a row of numbers, possibly worn down due to frequent use. Xiao Lin stood fanning at the place where the lock accessory was found.
The ground was muddy and slippery beneath their feet. "The rain has washed away all the traces here." Lian previously noted that footprints left here were covered by sand, and now with the rain's erosion, there's no hope of finding any signs. "Let's go back."
"Just like that?" Hua Qingyi was reluctant to let it go, finding a military device here was in itself a suspicion.
"In this weather, even if we want to search, there's no way to start. It's better to go back for a soak and co back later." Xiao Lin hooked Hua Qingyi's shoulder and started to leave. "We have other matters to discuss, let's leave this to the other departnts to handle."
"I'm afraid this ti you'll be disappointed." Hua Qingyi sighed. "The chip was sent to the city's technical departnt, and they've organized the data inside, but they told it was all useless. I'm seriously affected now!"
"The data on the chip is useless?" Hearing these words, Xiao Lin couldn't help but frown.
The technical departnt under Hua Muyun is an exceptionally elite team, combining a chip with other circuit boards is no easy task, and extracting data from it would take considerable ti. But unexpectedly being described as useless, not just Hua Qingyi, but even he was taken aback on hearing the term.
"Impossible, there must be so mistake." Xiao Lin flatly denied the existence of this term. Ah San and Xiao i were not key figures in this case, yet they were hunted down; they must have grasped evidence. Ah San kept shouting for a rope but left the chip in the hardware store because Guo Guo had a habit of counting daily. He deliberately gave this little thing to Guo Guo; he wasn't a fool.
"I've printed out all the data extracted," Hua Qingyi said, regrettably. "Honestly, I also think it's useless." Hua Qingyi didn't want to dampen Xiao Lin's spirits, but the truth was as it was. (To be continued. If you like this work, welco to visit Qidian (qidian) to vote for recomndations and monthly tickets. Your support is my greatest motivation.)
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