Translator: Mukyuu
Editor: Mokyuu
QC: Mukyuu
It was less than a day away from Emperor Suron’s scheduled burial. For Zuo Feng to be taken away at this time was something Xiao Lingyu and the others had expected, but they had to admit that it was still annoying so early in the morning, especially for Di Lin.
Di Lin had even prepared to change into his tree-human form and follow behind, but Lei Jue and Xiao Lingyu hadn’t agreed. According to them, Emperor Suron and his people were worried about trying to get blackmail material on them. What would happen if Uncle delivered himself to their doorsteps?! How low could someone who was unstable enough to drink children’s blood stoop? Besides, the police department used the latest scanners, and no matter where Uncle hid himself, he’d get discovered as soon as he got anywhere close to the interstellar police station.
Di Lin didn’t have a family behind him like Zuo Feng did with the Zuos. Since his identity was a secret now, the Xiaos couldn’t speak up for him at this time. But Zuo Feng was different. Even if Zuo Feng was under investigation, nobody really dared do anything to him without enough evidence. After all, Zuo Zhihuan wasn’t one to let things slide. So no matter what, Zuo Feng’s safety was guaranteed.
The Interstellar Police were fairly polite to Zuo Feng. Though they took Zuo Feng away, they didn’t demand that Zuo Feng surrendered his communicator to them, which meant that one of the advantages Xiao Lingyu and the others had was Xiao Lingyu’s ability to directly oversee what was happening from Zuo Feng’s communicator.
“Colonel Zuo, the palace’s Chief of Staff De Lin said that you had returned after leaving the day of Emperor Suron’s 80th birthday. In addition, you had removed two purple crystal lilies from the front gardens of Haweila Palace. May we ask who you gifted these flowers to?”
“Nobody,” Zuo Feng answered impatiently.
“Why didn’t you give them to anyone after making a special trip back for them?”
“Ha, what an interesting question. I got permission from Chief of Staff De Lin when I picked out the flowers. That means the flower is mine. No matter who I want to give it to, or if I don’t want to give it to anyone at all, that’s my own business. What other reason do I need?” Zuo Feng took out a cigarette and asked, “If you absolutely need a reason, then I guess it’s because I didn’t want to give them to anyone.”
“Then have you seen these kinds of insects before?” One of the squad leaders from the Interstellar Police brought over a box. Inside the box was a black bug, about the size of a rice kernel, “Do you know what kind of bug this is?”
“My specialty is military affairs and military tactics, not bug research,” Zuo Feng glanced at it and thought there was nothing special about the bug except for that it was pitch black. There were so many kinds of bugs in the world; who knew what this one was called.
“Colonel Zuo, though we believe that you have nothing to do with the death of Emperor Suron, we’re just doing our work, so we hope we can count on your cooperation” The squad leader frowned, but his tone was relatively gentle.
Honestly, he was actually pretty terrified of the man in front of them. When it came to the families who inherited elemental powers, Zuo Feng was the only person who could match Xiao Lingyu’s infamous reputation from before. Except that Xiao Lingyu’s personality had been “heartless player” and Zuo Feng’s was “heartlessly cruel.”
In contrast, maybe Xiao Lingyu was easier to get along with. At least that guy was a player but not cruel. But the person in front of them made them nervous for no reason at all.
Probably because the person’s gaze was too uncaring, as if he could turn everyone of them into ash at a moment’s notice.
The squad leader fell silent. Afterward, he took the box with the nightlesiure bug away. The bug was crawling slowly around the box as if it was about to die of starvation. The squad leader carried the box very carefully, acting like he was scared of it escaping and biting someone.
The room fell deathly silent, and the only people across from Zuo Feng were two young men.
“Colonel Zuo –” the skinny and tall young man said, “According to protocol, we’ll have to verify the veracity of your account. Please let us know if you choose consciousness interference or hypnosis.”
“Isn’t a lie detector sufficient?” Zuo Feng gave the person across from him a displeased look. Consciousness interference and hypnosis were both hypnoses. One was just done by a person, and the other was done by a machine.
“The lie detector is out for maintenance, and it’ll be another two days before we get it back. Besides, the experts in the technical department think there are some loopholes in this equipment, so it’s temporarily been removed as an option,” The shorter young man said, “But as protection for the right of the person undergoing the verification, we allow for one or two of your relatives to be onsite and provide oversight for the entire process, and we promise to not ask anything that is not relevant to the case.”
“Sounds fair, but why should I do it?” Zuo Feng hooked one leg over the other and asked disdainfully, “I was never alone while at the birthday celebration at Haweila Palace. Even when I went to get that something something purple crystal lily, Chief of Staff De Lin had been with him the entire time. What could I have done? Just because Emperor Suron and Prince Sulan met their end near the garden, you suspect me? Did you forget to bring logic with you as you crawled out of your mother’s womb?”
“Colonel Zuo, we’re just following protocol. Please don’t make things difficult for us,” The tall and skinny police didn’t raise his voice, but he was clearly unhappy.
“I’m not trying to make things difficult for you, but please don’t make trouble for me. I don’t like either consciousness interference or hypnosis, and I don’t want to do any of it. Either let me go or get your boss in here,” Zuo Feng played with his communicator and even rudely let the sounds of machine gun firing come through from his game. His entire face screamed “say whatever you want to say. I don’t want to hear it, and also, don’t expect me to cooperate.”
The tall and skinny police’s frustration rose at the sight. The shorter policeman watched Zuo Feng for a while and then let out a resigned smile, “If that’s the case, then would Colonel Zuo please rest in the breakroom? We’ll relay your request to our superior though we hope you’ll reconsider our suggestion.”
Zuo Feng said, without looking up, “Forget the breakroom. I’m too lazy to move.”
The tall and skinny police tried hard to hold back his anger, and even the shorter one started frowning.
Xiao Lingyu realized from his remote observations that something was off with the shorter police. Though up until half a minute ago, he had looked like a kind cop, and it had looked like it was the tall and skinny cop who was in a hurry to do the veracity validation, it had actually been the shorter police who’d sneakily glance down at his communicator every time Zuo Feng rejected their suggestion. It seemed like he was waiting for some directive, just like he was giving hints to Zuo Feng in their game.
— You are responsible for guarding the home, stay here, and don’t move.
— Got it.
Zuo Feng finished replying and continued to clear out the monsters that visited their in-game house.
At this moment, the shorter cop said with a smile, “Colonel Zuo, we need this room to talk to other people under investigation. Please move to the breakroom.”
Zuo Feng looked up and glanced at the shorter police, “Either let me go back or get me something to eat. Thanks.”
The shorter cop sighed helplessly and turned around to say to his comrade, “Yan Lu, please go get Colonel Zuo something to eat.”
The tall and skinny one might have been extremely displeased, but he held his tongue and walked out. The shorter one pressed a button on the side of his wrist communicator and said, “We have been inconsiderate and forgot about the time. Please wait a moment.”
Zuo Feng really was a bit hungry, but he wouldn’t be eating any of the things they brought. So he bent down and focused on his game.
He behaved just like the good-for-nothing rich boy with all the world at his fingertips the rumors had made him out to be.
“Carrera, have you found the details on the shorter cop?” Xiao Lingyu handed the game over to Qi Yu and asked.
“Please wait a moment; I’ll have the results soon.” Carrera filtered out the useful information from everything on the internet and analyzed the results before relaying them to Xiao Lingyu, “Sir, this person is named Bi Da. He was involved in an incident about six years ago while out on police business. Mr. Huang’s personal assistant helped him that time.”
“That makes sense,” Xiao Lingyu responded “Qi Yu, tell Zuo Feng to try and come back soon.”
“What should I say?”
“Just say the boss is about to come and for him to meet up with us ASAP,” Xiao Lingyu instructed before returning to watch the screen of the photon computer.
“What is Mr. Huang playing at? Does he want to get information from Zuo Feng or not?” Qi Yu asked without much patience.
“I actually don’t think he cares if he gets anything or not because no matter what the result is, he’s going to act,” Lei Jue turned around and glanced at Xiao Lingyu, “Say, do you think he’s already guessed your other identity? I’m talking about Mr. Single. You took on one of their projects before and, for something this big, they should have sought you out a long time ago. But this time, they didn’t even contact you at all. That’s not right.”
“You’re more or less right, but Mr. Huang didn’t seek me out this time because he guessed my identity but because he suspects Mr. Single is involved with either the Xiaos or the Zuos,” Xiao Lingyu stroked his chin, “But why do I think this Bi Da guy is problematic?”
“How come?” Che Heng asked.
“I don’t know…” Xiao Lingyu stared intently at the person called Bi Da. Suddenly, something unexpected happened. Everyone who was paying attention to Zuo Feng saw that he was playing the game and, in the next second, he jerked up. His movements were so dramatic that they even knocked the chair over. The person standing opposite of Zuo Feng, the one they had called Bi Da, had changed his features. The new face looked younger and prettier than the one he had before. Just one look made it obvious that this was a different person. But the question was, why was Zuo Feng so surprised?
“Who is this? Zuo Feng recognizes him?” Lu Xian watched as things didn’t go as planned and suddenly felt lost.
“Balai tree?” Di Lin had seen a photo of Zuo Feng’s first love before and immediately recognized the picture on the photon computer as Zuo Feng’s blackhearted first love.
Ohohoho! Isn’t that the love rival!
The little tree person was immediately annoyed! Didn’t he die?! What was going on?!
“How is it going? Any results?” Emperor Suron, having changed into a new phone, now looked older than before. He sat on the chair and asked his underling.
“We’ve got him, Sir. As you expected, Zuo Feng swallowed the bait.”