The Azure Dragon's Soaring Arrest: The Imprisoned Dragon Scheme (Part 1)

"..." Zhou Ziqiu paused for a moment, "It's just polite talk, don't take it seriously."

After saying that, he got up and went downstairs. Standing in the center of the first floor was Wen Su. He nodded to Wen Su and asked, "Why are you here?"

It felt as natural as meeting an old friend.

It's strange. Zhou Ziqiu didn't like Wen Su when they first met, but now they can talk normally like friends.

It could be that Wen Su's later performance was outstanding, or it could be that the two had repeated overlaps in their thinking.

"I just got out of the police station and was thinking of coming over to ask you about what's going to happen next," Wen Su said with a smile.

Zhou Ziqiu understood and lifted the curtain next to the front desk, gesturing for him to come upstairs to talk. "I happen to have something to discuss with you."

"good."

Upon reaching the second floor, Zhou Ziqiu introduced himself to Wen Su and Cui Yongle. After the introductions, Zhou Ziqiu looked at Wen Su and recounted what he had just discussed with Cui Yongle: "I would like to invite you to join Qingdeng in the name of Qingdeng. I wonder if you are interested?"

Wen Su didn't answer. He understood Qingdeng and didn't ask what Qingdeng could offer him. But to be fair, Qingdeng was already considered a pretty good organization among its peers. It managed its employees and ghost hunters very well and provided good benefits. Naturally, his treatment wouldn't be bad if he joined Qingdeng. He was just used to being free, and it wasn't aimless freedom. He had things to do.

However, he has been searching for so long and has not found any clues in the short term, so it doesn't matter whether he joins or not.

“Sure.” Wen Su nodded and smiled. “I’ll let you have this opportunity since the little beauty dared to ride in my car.”

Cui Yongle, who had been on tenterhooks because Wen Su hadn't spoken, breathed a sigh of relief. Qingdeng really needed someone as talented as Wen Su.

"Do you want to join in your personal capacity?"

"No, I'll just go with the little beauty." Joining alone would be too much work, and he was too lazy to deal with it. Besides, he quite liked Zhou Ziqiu; it was rare to find someone so compatible with him. "I have two other people with me; can they come with me too?"

Cui Yongle nodded: "Of course, what about you, Xiao Qiu?" Then, Cui Yongle looked at Zhou Ziqiu, "Xiao Qiu, aren't you... can't you do it now?"

Zhou Ziqiu knew Cui Yongle's considerations. Now he was subject to many restrictions and could no longer catch ghosts as before. If he had a good helper like Wen Su by his side, he could achieve twice the result with half the effort.

Wen Su watched Cui Yongle and Zhou Ziqiu speaking in riddles, picked up the teacup on the table and took a sip. The subtle fragrance of bitter tea filled his mouth. The tea was so well-brewed that he couldn't help but take another sip.

Zhou Ziqiu caught a glimpse of Wen Su's actions out of the corner of his eye, and suddenly chuckled, his expression lively and cheerful: "Fine, considering he dared to drink the tea I brewed."

Wen Su paused in his teacup-holding motion and chuckled.

Unexpectedly, the person who was annoying just a few days ago has become a companion. Zhou Ziqiu stood up and extended his hand to Wen Su: "It's a pleasure to cooperate with you."

Wen Su smiled and shook Zhou Ziqiu's hand: "It's a pleasure working with you."

the next day.

Wen Su arrived at the entrance of Yuange early in the morning and sat there, startling Zhou Ziqiu who came out to open the door.

Why are you sitting here?

The person who had startled Zhou Ziqiu innocently shrugged: "Didn't I already have my name registered with you? You didn't tell me what to do."

"...Come in first." Zhou Ziqiu pulled Wen Su up and into the shop. "If you don't have any missions, you can all go about your own business. You don't need to come here."

"Oh." Wen Su sat behind the front desk, seemingly finding it amusing. "I'll help you here; I have nothing else to do anyway."

"So, do I have to pay you a salary?"

Wen Su didn't care about whether he was paid or not, and waved his hand, saying, "It's up to you."

Even so, Zhou Ziqiu couldn't let someone work for him for free, so he paid him one hundred yuan a day.

“I didn’t tell you yesterday, but besides taking on requests for help from the website, Qingdeng also assists the police in their investigations. Unlike the police station, we are directly managed by the central government. Because the staff are scattered, there are no departments or anything like that. The people who assist the police are not fixed either; they usually call us the Special Investigation Team.” Zhou Ziqiu sat behind the front desk watching Wen Su organize the merchandise. Afraid that Wen Su wouldn’t know how they usually handled their tasks, he took the initiative to explain.

Wen Su wasn't surprised by Qing Deng's connection to the police, after all, it was Qing Deng who got him out of jail. He was just surprised at how quickly Qing Deng's connections had developed, but he didn't say anything and just nodded to indicate that he understood.

Several days passed in this way.

On this day, Zhou Ziqiu sat behind the front desk as usual, opened his computer and looked through the messages in the Green Lamp. Most of the messages were thanks to Yuange for their previous help, but there were no new requests for help.

However, he wasn't in a hurry. He turned to browse news websites, when suddenly his phone rang. From the ringtone, he knew it was Cui Yongle calling him. He answered the phone, and the other end immediately said in an urgent tone, "Xiao Qiu, come to Jiangyou City!"

"What's wrong?"

"There's a case in Jiangyou; we're going to assist the police."

"good."

Assisting the police in their investigation is a very common thing. Zhou Ziqiu didn't expect that this would happen just a few days after he had talked to Wen Su about it. After hanging up the phone, he looked at Wen Su and said, "Go to Jiangyou."

Wen Su didn't ask anything: "Then I'll go back and pack my luggage."

"Are Fatty and Glasses going?" He had met the two a few days ago and knew they weren't good at fighting, so he wasn't sure whether to send them.

"I'll call and ask." Wen Su called the fat man, who immediately became very excited upon hearing that they were going to Jiangyou.

“Okay, then I’ll book the tickets,” Zhou Ziqiu nodded.

Six hours later, the four of them boarded a plane bound for Jiangyou.

After a two-hour flight, the four arrived in Jiangyou, where the police sent a car to pick them up, led by a young man in a police uniform.

"Hello, my name is Zheng Xuan." Zheng Xuan extended his hand to Zhou Ziqiu, who then briefly introduced the four of them. After the introductions, Zhou Ziqiu asked casually, "Are you from the Zheng family?"

Zheng Xuan was taken aback for a moment, then smiled and nodded: "Yes, I became a policeman before I was fully trained. Please give me your guidance, senior."

After exchanging greetings and getting to know each other, the five people got into Zheng Xuan's car and headed to the scene of the crime. The scene was quite far away, in a remote village called Changnan in Jiangyou. Such things usually don't get out of the public eye in remote and low-lying areas, but it just so happened that the Jiangyou Academy of Fine Arts was sketching and painting nearby, which is how the news spread.

The four of them arrived at the airport at dusk and drove slowly towards it.

"Take a look at the documents, everyone." Zheng Xuan handed each of them a file folder containing information and photos of the scene that the police had compiled in the hours following their arrival.

"Holy crap..." the fat man exclaimed as he looked at the photo of the deceased.

The case that occurred in Jiangyou City this time is somewhat special. The deceased and the murderer were husband and wife. The deceased was five months pregnant before her death. An investigation of the neighbors revealed that the couple had been very loving and had never quarreled. The murderer's motive for killing is still unclear. Moreover, the murderer also mysteriously disappeared after the murder. There is only one road leading to the outside world from Changnan Village, and the surveillance cameras along the way did not record the murderer's figure.

When Zhou Ziqiu took the photos of the scene, what he saw was a dead man with his eyes wide open and a scene of blood splattered everywhere.

"Has the body been removed?"

Zheng Xuan shook his head: "No, Mr. Cui said the body might be useful, so he didn't let us send it away. The forensic doctors performed the autopsy in the open."

Zhou Ziqiu then looked through the autopsy results handwritten by the forensic doctor, because the conditions in Changnan Village did not allow for it, and the forensic doctors also faced difficulties.

Wen Su rarely dealt with the police, let alone helped them with cases. Now, not knowing what to do, he looked idly at the distant mountains outside the car window, but as he looked, he frowned.

Changnan Village is nestled among a cluster of mountains, which embrace it with their varied and dynamic shapes. It is a place of great feng shui, a place that should be nurturing people. How could a murder have occurred there?

The further the car drove, the stranger he felt. It was already early autumn, and the plants in Jiangyou City should have begun to wither, but the plants here were still lush and green, as if it were still the height of summer. No wonder students from the Jiangyou City Academy of Fine Arts would come here to sketch.

Thinking of this, Wen Su nudged Zhou Ziqiu, gesturing for him to look outside: "Look, something's not right."

Hearing Wen Su's words, Zhou Ziqiu observed for a while, and then, like Wen Su, he frowned and leaned out of the car window. The breeze stirred up by the moving vehicle brushed against his palm, but the barely perceptible sense of stagnation made Zhou Ziqiu even more puzzled. He focused his gaze on the deep mountains, where in the dark night, someone could be faintly crying.

Something's not right.

Zhou Ziqiu turned his head back and met Wen Su's gaze.

The two nodded in unison.

Late at night, the five of them arrived at Changnan Village. After getting out of the car, they were greeted by police officers, and Cui Yongle also came to pick up Zhou Ziqiu.

"What's going on?"

Zhou Ziqiu walked beside Cui Yongle, while the police officer next to him spoke rapidly about the current progress. Some personnel remained at the scene to continue the investigation, the forensic doctor conducted tests in the police car, and the personnel sent to search for the murderer returned to Changnan Village because it was late at night and not safe.

"So what do we need to do?" Wen Su listened to what the policeman was saying and felt that there wasn't much for them to do here. "Prevent the mother and child evil spirits from retaliating?"

The Mother-Child Evil Spirits are formed when a pregnant woman dies tragically, and the resentment of both mother and child cannot dissipate, transforming into two vengeful ghosts, mother and child, who join hands. The mother ghost is fierce, while the child ghost is agile, making them extremely difficult to deal with.

Cui Yongle shook his head: "It's not just those. You can just follow Xiao Qiu. Fatty and Glasses, come here. I'll take you two to Qingdeng's technical department. I have a task for you."

"Oh." The fat man and the man with glasses followed Cui Yongle away.

The police officers then led Zhou Ziqiu and Wen Su to the crime scene.

18:56:11