Demon

Officer Jiang Xun seemed very easy to talk to.

After hearing Qi Chuan’s request and confirming the document had nothing to do with the case, he personally went upstairs to find the material and brought it down.

Qi Chuan was naturally incredibly grateful.

“Officer, you are truly a great person, a guardian of the people!”

“I have troubled you so much today, this document is very, very important to me!”

“Once I pass the qualification exam, if the police department ever has any antiques that need identifying, you must come to me.”

“No charge at all, really! When the time comes…”

Even with Jiang Xun’s good temper, he almost lost his composure listening to the gender-neutral youth ramble on.

He stood downstairs for a while, but still saw no sign of Su Mian.

He spoke decisively.

“Where is your friend? Why has he been in the bathroom for so long?”

“Uh, maybe he went to the parking lot outside to wait for me?”

Qi Chuan also felt it was a bit strange after it was pointed out.

He looked around and could not find Su Mian anywhere, so he took out his phone to contact him.

A second later, he froze.

“What does he mean, he had an emergency so he left first!”

“What happened?”

Jiang Xun immediately looked over.

Qi Chuan did not hide it and looked at his phone with a puzzled expression.

“He said he had some business and went back first.”

“Strange, what kind of emergency could be so urgent he couldn’t even wait this long?”

“Wouldn’t it be faster to take my car back?”

Unable to figure it out, he tried to make a call, but the other side was turned off.

Naturally, the call did not go through.

Qi Chuan became even more confused and looked nervously at the tall man beside him.

“Officer, nothing bad happened to my friend, right!?”

“Do not be nervous yet.”

Jiang Xun gave a helpless smile.

“What could happen in broad daylight?”

“Your friend is an adult, not a child.”

“Moreover, we have quite a few police officers deployed nearby, so it is impossible for any bad people to be active at this time.”

“You are just overthinking because you care.”

“He probably really had something urgent and left in a hurry.”

“Go back and check; maybe he is at home right now?”

“I suppose so.”

Qi Chuan breathed a sigh of relief.

He was indeed overthinking, perhaps because he was near a real murder scene and instinctively feared the worst.

Su Mian was a grown man, and it was currently noon with the sun high in the sky.

How could he just mysteriously disappear under such conditions?

Qi Chuan felt at ease, and Jiang Xun comforted him a few more times.

He told him to call the police immediately if he found any real problems.

Finally, he stood there and watched the young man leave and disappear at the entrance of the complex.

Once the figure completely vanished, the smile on Jiang Xun’s face finally faded.

His gentle eyes gradually became cold and sharp.

He stood there for a while before going back upstairs to the crime scene.

He found the boy with glasses and asked him about the situation.

“How is it?”

“It is the same as the information provided by the police station; almost all traces here have been destroyed.”

“Most of the nearby surveillance cameras have been out of repair for years, and some were already broken.”

“It is unclear in which direction the criminal fled after the killing.”

The boy recounted the gathered information in a very calm tone.

He paused slightly after finishing.

“No traces can be found nearby; the person seems to have vanished into thin air.”

“Although the police station is cooperating with us to conduct a comprehensive search, it is hard to say when the person will be caught.”

Jiang Xun nodded to show he understood and began to wander around the room.

Just as An Ye said, there was basically no useful information left behind.

While wandering, he arrived at the professor’s bedroom.

It was a very small room, made even more cramped by the fact that it was stuffed with various books.

Jiang Xun walked in and looked around but found nothing strange.

Just as he was about to leave, his gaze was suddenly drawn to a book on the nightstand.

“The One-Winged Birds?”

The man picked it up and flipped through it, finding it was actually a children’s fairy tale book telling the legend of the one-winged birds.

In legend, these birds only have one eye and one wing.

Because they only have one wing, they must rely on a partner’s help to fly.

Only two birds side-by-side can resist the strong winds and soar in the blue sky.

During this process, if one bird has a problem, the other will also fall from the sky.

Therefore, many people view these birds as a symbol of love.

“Why would the professor keep a book like this?”

Jiang Xun was somewhat puzzled.

He didn’t expect the famous Professor Zhou to have such a hobby, though it was also possible someone else had left it there by accident.

In any case, it looked like an ordinary fairy tale book.

After putting the book down, the young man spent another half day searching the entire residence but ultimately found nothing.

Finally, he and An Ye returned to the car downstairs.

The boy brought back a new piece of intelligence.

“Captain, I just interviewed the nearby residents and got a potentially useful lead.”

“What is it?”

“According to a resident living above Professor Zhou, they went downstairs to take out the trash a few days ago.”

“On the way back, they saw someone walking out of the professor’s house with a very unpleasant expression.”

Jiang Xun immediately looked up.

“Who was it?”

“It is currently unclear, but according to the neighbor, the person was dressed like staff from some large corporation.”

“Give me a little time, and I should be able to investigate it quickly.”

Jiang Xun thought for a moment, then took the records from An Ye and carefully examined them.

After a long while, just as the boy thought the work here was basically over and they could rest, he suddenly heard the man speak without looking up.

“When we go back, investigate two people for me.”

“One is called Su Mian, and the other is Qi Chuan.”

“Both are sophomores in the Archaeology Department of Yujing University.”

“I need their detailed information, the more detailed the better.”

An Ye was stunned for a moment, then nodded.

“Alright.”

“Are you not going to ask why?”

Jiang Xun put down the records and looked at his young teammate, who was usually taciturn outside of work.

The boy hesitated for a moment and then asked.

“Why?”

“…”

Jiang Xun didn’t know what to say for a moment and could only sigh.

His team was truly full of problem children!

Fortunately, their individual abilities were indeed top-tier.

He was somewhat helpless, but he did not hide the truth.

The man’s gaze looked out the window through the one-way glass.

His dark eyes gradually became shadowy, as if turning into a bottomless pool of water.

“On them, I seem to have smelled the scent of a demon…”

“A demon?”

This time, An Ye’s expression finally broke, showing visible surprise and even horror.

Before he could ask more, Jiang Xun immediately shook his head.

“I cannot be certain; that feeling was very strange.”

“It seemed like a demon, yet also not. I cannot put it into words specifically.”

“This?”

It was the first time the boy had seen his captain show such a confused and conflicted expression.

He also frowned and thought for a moment before nodding vigorously.

“Rest assured, Captain. I will investigate all the circumstances as quickly as possible.”

“Do we need to notify the others? If it really is a demon, should we call Sister Chengzi over?”

“Do not be in such a hurry.”

Jiang Xun waved his hand.

“Do not lose your composure just because you heard it might be a demon; we cannot be sure yet.”

“Moreover, even if it is a demon, as long as it is not an Upper-tier, the two of us are enough to deal with it.”

“What if it is an Upper-tier demon?”

“Then we will bring Lao He along as well.”

Jiang Xun laughed indifferently and tossed the records aside.

“Although Lao He has no combat power, he is full of lean meat; a demon should love eating him.”

“If Lao He knew you were planning to use him as cannon fodder, he would definitely cry.”

“Haha!”

Jiang Xun laughed out loud, and the somewhat heavy atmosphere in the car was swept away.

But after laughing a few times, he immediately took on a serious expression.

“However, we truly should prepare. Whether there is really a demon or my senses are wrong, it is always better to be safe.”

“But there has been a lot of trouble in various places lately, and we cannot spare any manpower to come here for support.”

An Ye’s voice interrupted the man’s thoughts.

Facing this cold reality, Jiang Xun was also somewhat helpless, but his eyes soon lit up as if he had thought of something.

“I remember there are several relics in the Yujing University Research Institute, right?”

“…Captain, you aren’t planning to go after them, are you?”

“The university would never lend them to us, and we couldn’t afford to pay if they were broken.”

“It doesn’t cost anything to try. What if?”