Beginning with the Ubume Bird - Chapter 129

Chapter 129: Chapter 28 Prelude to Boiling

Zhang Jun spent a full hour in the office.

“I knew it, the higher-ups couldn’t possibly turn a blind eye, so now, I…”

Zhang Jun’s tone was extremely excited.

“Therefore, I hope Comrade Zhang can hand over the material in his possession to us. I mean, all of it.”

“No problem.”

The young man nodded and continued, “Besides, specialized work for specialized people, you understand. From now on, Comrade Zhang should no longer intervene in this matter,”

There was a hint of disappointment in Zhang Jun’s eyes, but without much hesitation, he agreed.

“Comrade, I won’t ask anything more. I hope you achieve swift success.”

Zhang Jun stood up and saluted.

The young man also stood up, returned the salute, and then patted Zhang Jun on the shoulder.

“Rest assured, we won’t let your efforts be wasted.”

Zhang Jun’s face flushed red as he highlighted certain individuals with a red circle, using his years of experience in the economic investigation department.

“These individuals may be major suspects; you can focus on investigating them.”

After that, he said a lot more, to which the young listener paid close attention, occasionally nodding in agreement.

“Especially this one!”

Zhang Jun pointed at a photo of Yunhu with golden-rimmed glasses.

“This one is different; he has a victim, but the victim hasn’t been missing for forty-eight hours yet and doesn’t even qualify for a case to be opened.”

The young man frowned.

“Comrade Zhang Jun, the situation isn’t clear yet, so don’t use the word ‘victim’ lightly.”

“Oh, you’re right,”

Zhang Jun said awkwardly. “Well, I’ll be leaving if there’s nothing else.”

“Alright.”

The young man smiled kindly.

Zhang Jun pushed the door open and left, his steps lighter than before.

“…”

The young man watched Zhang Jun leave and remained silent for a long while.

He reached out and took the documents Zhang Jun had left behind. From a drawer, he pulled out a lighter and set fire to the corner of the page.

Not until the flame nearly reached his fingers did he toss the documents into the trash can, then quietly watched as the flames turned the paper and photos to ashes.

“Yan Fu walking around… all of them are just troublemakers who don’t know how to cover up their messes, a bunch of giant babies.”

He muttered as his Nokia phone suddenly rang.

The young man pressed to answer: “Hello?”

“Ren Si and Ren Jiu’s people have lost contact, what a bunch of lazy donkeys.”

“Don’t wait any longer. Control Pei Yunhu before midnight today to bring this Yan Fu incident to a normal conclusion.”

“But without the main force of Ren Jiu and Ren Si, we might not be able to…”

“Since when is there anything certain to succeed in this world? ‘Ten Cities’, can it really flip the heavens?”

“…Understood.”

Yanjiao unfinished building, rooftop.

Li Yan glanced at the sun in the sky.

“Sudu, do you have any kind of magic that can make you look like a normal person?”

Nine-Winged Sudu clearly froze. After a while, he hesitantly said, “That…well…”

Li Yan observed the current appearance of Nine-Winged Sudu.

With a narrow waist over a black single claw standing on the ground, nine mismatched wings, pale shoulders under which were two slender arms with sharp nails.

“Then, I may have to trouble you to stay up in the sky for a while. By the way, keep an eye on the movements within Yan Capital City for me, I have a feeling that there will be gains to be made.”

Nine-Winged Sudu seemed reluctant, glancing several times at the square holed Coin in Li Yan’s possession. In the end, he nodded and flew high into the sky.

As Nine-Winged Sudu vanished into the clouds, Li Yan looked down at the Copper Coin on his chest. The originally dark golden Coin had at some point acquired a patch of jade green, the size of a fingernail.

According to Lady Dan, once the entire Copper Coin turned jade green, she would have enough magical power to help Liang Ye recast his body.

Come to think of it, maybe Lady Dan had a way to turn Nine-Winged Sudu into a human form.

Instinctively, Li Yan abandoned the thought.

Li Yan walked back, not in a hurry to return to school, but wanting to sell the bronze piece Hat Zhang had given him to get some money, which would be just enough to buy that gramophone.

He made a trip to Panjia Garden in daylight, casually inquiring about an antique shop,

What happened after that…

Xiaosuicui (errand boy) was shocked, Shopkeeper was shocked, Li Yan got her hands on two thousand, the girls entertained by the Rolling Stone Culture video store were shocked, so was the lady boss, and the phonograph was obtained.

By the time Li Yan returned to school, it was around ten o’clock in the morning.

Upon entering the duty room and making eye contact with Qin, both of them felt awkward.

“Ahem, back.”

“Hmm.”

“…Yesterday.”

“I was on duty yesterday.”

“On duty, huh~”

The two of them made some dry small talk, gazed at each other while holding their tea cups, and reached an unspoken understanding.

…

A long-beaked black bird perched on the balcony, its icy eyes watching the stream of people on the cement road below.

“Mommy, what kind of bird is that?”

A girl in a red cotton-padded jacket poked out and pointed, but by the time her mother turned her head to look, the Sudu bird had already disappeared.

Such scenes were common in Yan Capital City.

A hundred Sudu birds, in Li Yan’s possession, were simply tools for searching out enemies, because Li Yan was unable to issue overly complex commands to the Sudu birds.

But Nine-Winged Sudu was different; to her, these birds were her eyes and wings.

Even so, it was still not enough.

The clouds drifted and the sun set, Li Yan changed the batteries of the Walkman that Liang Ye was staying with, waiting for news from Nine-Winged Sudu.

If someone intentionally wanted to hide without alerting the state machinery, it would be very difficult to find them relying on the personal power of Yan Capital’s walkers alone, which is also the purpose of designated duels.

But that didn’t mean they couldn’t be found at all.

At least what Li Yan hadn’t expected was that he would encounter trouble before he received news from Nine-Winged Sudu.

Qin was nowhere to be found; Li Yan was bored alone in the duty room when a commotion broke out outside.

By this time, classes were over and not many people were near the main entrance.

Seven or eight people suddenly started pushing and shoving each other, and it was unclear who threw the first punch, but the scene was chaotic.

“Hey, hey, if you want to fight, take it outside, don’t make trouble in the school.”

Li Yan, peering through the glass, saw the scuffle and shouted as he opened the door.

One of the people, with slanting eyes, turned his head, cursed ‘idiot,’ and didn’t pay any attention to Li Yan.

“Brat.”

Li Yan was amused, pushed open the door, and walked outside, heading straight to the edge of the crowd to grab someone’s shoulder and give it a firm squeeze.

Suddenly, the situation took a turn for the worse.

The group unexpectedly charged at him; some aimed for Li Yan’s waist, others for his legs, their expressions blank.

“Pff~”

…

“Today, Sun Dayong didn’t come to work; his family made a scene at the factory claiming he went missing last night.”

“Hmm.”

“That kind of person, always hanging around with thugs, made more than his share of enemies, caused trouble in the factory too, it wouldn’t be surprising if he’s absconded because of some trouble. What right does his brother have to make a fuss at the factory?”

“Hmm.”

“Hey, you weren’t at the factory during the day either, where’d you go?”

“Had some family issues, no big deal, I’ll settle it today.”

The girl sipped through her red and white straw, sneaking glances at Pei Yunhu beside her.

Pei Yunhu sat by her side, a look of unease on his delicate face; when his gaze met the girl’s, he subconsciously looked away, causing a mix of annoyance and affection in the girl’s heart.

“So, Xiaomeng, it’s getting late…”

“Ah, right, I should be heading back too.”

The girl straightened her legs, ready to stand up.

“No, no, that’s not what I meant.”

Yunhu stammered.

“Then what do you mean? You’re a grown man, why are you beating around the bush?”

The girl’s face fell.

Averting his gaze, Yunhu said, “You’ve been really good to me lately, so I thought, I mean, I wanted to invite you to a movie, nothing more, honestly.”

The girl watched Yunhu fumble for words, feeling both amused and slightly irritated.

“But when I went to buy tickets, there weren’t any for the early show, so if we go, it might be pretty late…”