Chapter 114

Chapter 114

Qin Ying’s hand froze on the door handle.

Strictly speaking, she hadn’t known Old Miao and Old Dao for very long, but they had been through life-and-death situations together.

The two little old men had treated her pretty well.

Qin Ying could more or less guess why they were being forced to resign at the same time.

There had been two major incidents in succession, especially this latest one. Quite a few people had died on that island in the middle of the lake.

After the incident, only some of the people on the underground first floor and in the teahouse aboveground had managed to escape.

Everyone trapped below the second floor had been wiped out.

The death toll still hadn’t even been finalized.

No matter how unspeakably cruel and shameful those people’s hobbies and interests were, it didn’t change the fact that they had money and status.

The fallout was too severe.

The leadership at the Yunlan City police department and the Cultural Preservation Institute would probably be reshuffled from top to bottom.

Yunlan City definitely wouldn’t be peaceful for a while.

For Old Miao and Old Dao, being allowed to simply step down was already a dignified outcome.

Qin Ying took half a step back, so she wouldn’t walk in at a time like this and embarrass the two old men.

Seeing this, the nurse understood what she meant, nodded at her, then turned and left to go back to work.

Qin Ying stood in the corridor. The voices inside drifted out through the crack in the door.

The person who had been speaking earlier continued, “You two both came off the battlefield.”

“Your chests were covered in medals.”

The man sighed, his tone softening. “Miao Lixin, I know your second son disappeared on Cuiping Mountain twenty years ago. I know it’s hard for you to let go.”

“But the work of the Cultural Preservation Bureau really isn’t suited to either of you.”

“Leave yourselves a bit of dignity, and don’t drag the young people down with you.”

The meeting room fell silent.

Qin Ying could almost picture what Old Miao looked like right now.

Her brows drew together. So the person Old Miao had been so determined to find was his son, who had gone missing in the Cuiping Area?

As she was thinking, two people quietly appeared beside her.

Wen Hao was the same as ever, standing silently to one side, not fond of talking.

Zong Li looked utterly miserable.

He had retrieved the Dream-Embracing Grass and captured Yin Xu. Originally, he should have been returning with a major achievement, ready for a promotion and a raise.

But when bad luck struck, it struck like a thunderstorm.

Getting caught up in this mess, it was already a blessing if he didn’t get implicated.

He pulled the corners of his mouth into a smile at Qin Ying, but it looked even uglier than crying.

With these two walking bitter gourds standing beside her, the air itself seemed so bitter you could grab a handful and wring out a puddle of yellow coptis juice.

Afraid their bad luck might rub off on her, Qin Ying very disloyally took two steps to the side.

From the room, which had been quiet all this time, came the sound of a chair scraping.

Old Miao’s voice rang out. “I admit my mistakes and am willing to step down.”

Old Dao followed with his own statement.

The two of them said a few more things. When they came out of the room, they looked as if all their spirit had been drained away.

Old Miao saw Qin Ying face-to-face and froze for a moment, then his expression filled with shame.

It made sense. All told, Qin Ying had only properly been on the job for a few hours, and she had already been carried into the hospital twice.

As her superior, how could he not feel ashamed?

Old Miao waved at Qin Ying. “I’m sorry.”

He didn’t say anything more. Together with the silent Old Dao, he left.

As they walked away, both of them-especially Old Miao-seemed much more hunched than before.

Perhaps because Qin Ying’s expression looked bad, Wen Hao, who rarely spoke on his own initiative, said in a low voice, “You don’t need to worry about them.”

“Old Miao’s eldest son.” Wen Hao raised his index finger and pointed upward. “A corps commander.”

Qin Ying’s slightly sorrowful expression vanished.

Well, damn. Other people had their “my father the mayor” routine.

With Old Miao, it was “my son the corps commander”?

In that case, Old Dao definitely wasn’t some simple character either.

And these two had come to livestream fortune-telling and sell paper offerings?

Just then, the person who had been speaking inside called out again, “Zong Li, if you’re here, get in here. What are you waiting at the door for, death?”

Clearly, when this man had been speaking to Old Miao and the others, he had been extremely polite and had restrained his temper.

This roar exposed his true nature-another hot-tempered old brother.

Zong Li shuddered, his face twisting into a knot. He lowered his voice and said to Qin Ying, “That’s Deputy Director Chen inside.”
With that, wearing the pained expression of an elementary schooler about to face the discipline director, he pushed open the door.

Qin Ying tilted her head slightly and sized up the man who was, in theory, the Cultural Preservation Bureau’s second-in-command.

One look, and she was startled.

She had seen gym bros built like double doors before, but a middle-aged man built like double doors? That was a first.

The middle-aged man inside had a bristly, close-cropped head of salt-and-pepper hair.

Even seated behind the conference table, his absurdly powerful frame was impossible to miss.

Sensing Qin Ying’s gaze, he lifted his eyes, his sharp, hawk-like stare sweeping over.

Once he saw it was Qin Ying, his expression softened a little. He called out, “You’re Qin Ying, right? You come in too.”

“And that… what’s-his-name.”

He hadn’t remembered Wen Hao’s name, so he casually waved him in as well.

He looked Qin Ying over and said, “You woke up much earlier than expected.”

Qin Ying had heard earlier that the No. 3 Agent used to treat her had been applied for by this deputy director and personally brought to Yunlan City by him. She gave him a grateful smile.

Perhaps out of embarrassment, compared with the way he had been scolding Zong Li, Deputy Director Chen was far more friendly and courteous to Qin Ying.

After asking about her physical condition, he changed the subject and informed Qin Ying that she had been made a permanent employee directly.

Qin Ying was not surprised in the slightest.

Leaving aside the matter of the Dream-Embracing Grass, this time alone, even though she had quietly pocketed four of them, she had still brought back one dose of Zheng gene serum.

If they still made her stay on as a temp, there was no way to justify it from any angle.

Officially becoming an employee of the Cultural Preservation Bureau, then climbing higher and coming into contact with more secrets, was exactly what Qin Ying had hoped for.

She accepted it with a smile.

Despite his pleasant attitude toward Qin Ying, Deputy Director Chen tore into Zong Li and Wen Hao until they were drenched in spit.

Zong Li in particular endured the heaviest bombardment.

After several thorough rounds of scolding, Deputy Director Chen finally sat down in a huff. “Let’s go over what happened at the time again.”

There was nothing much to say about what had happened. Qin Ying simply maintained that she knew nothing.

Her background was clean and aboveboard. Throughout the entire incident, she had not had the slightest suspicious motive, and she truly had been dragged into the matter by accident.

Her statement only needed to completely recount everything that had happened before Huodou’s eruption, while concealing the latter half.

When she was little, her uncle Qin Zhiguo had often, intentionally or otherwise, brought up cases and told her about stubborn criminals who tried every possible way to escape punishment.

She did not need to learn little tricks for getting through interrogations on the spot.

Qin Ying believed she must have passed their investigation; otherwise, they would not have made her permanent.

As she expected, Deputy Director Chen’s thick brows stayed tightly furrowed, but in the end, considering she had been burned into such a ghastly state, and that it happened to be the local Zhongyuan Festival, he let her go back and rest first.

Wen Hao and Zong Li remained behind to continue being scolded.

Qin Ying took a detour to check on Yin Minmin and the others.

Probably because they had been hostages together, they had gotten along rather well. The three of them were in the hospital room playing Fight the Landlord.

From Zhang Lang, who was wearing a new trench coat, Qin Ying retrieved her phone.

She did not stay long and soon used the Zhongyuan Festival as an excuse to leave.

She was in no hurry to pick up Han Lie and Fuzhu.

Today was Ghost Festival, the day people burned offerings for the dead. The streets were full of people, and with their current size, there was really no way she could bring them home.

Thinking this, she walked toward home.

Although a light rain was falling, many people had still come out with their whole families, carrying paper offerings to the designated areas to burn them.

Qin Ying brushed past the crowd alone.

Just before she stepped through her front door, she heard the cry of a puppy from the dark alley.

She walked over and met the eyes of a little spotted dog whose body was half burned and who somehow looked very cool.

It had actually found its way here.

Qin Ying crouched down and beckoned to the pup. “Come on. Are you hungry? I’ll make you something to eat first.”

As soon as she finished speaking, a few gurgles came from the cool little pup’s stomach.

The puppy, which had not even been looking Qin Ying straight in the eye, stiffened for a moment. Then, as if feeling embarrassed, it turned its butt toward her.

But its tail slowly lifted and gave the tiniest little wag.

That rotten attitude made Qin Ying’s eyes curve with amusement. She reached out, grabbed it by the scruff, and scooped it into her arms.

“Let’s go. I’ll show you around your new home.”