Chapter 694 Help Me Look After Someone

Li Shang did not answer directly, but prompted:

"Take a closer look and pay attention to its structure and cross-section."

Upon hearing this, Chang Erbing observed the stone more attentively, gently touching the surface and broken parts of the stone with his fingers through the bag.

A few seconds later, he suddenly uttered a soft "Huh":

"Captain Li, the material and density of this middle part of the stone seem different from the surrounding area. It feels... like it's hollow? Or perhaps it's been hollowed out by something?"

Li Shang took the evidence bag back, held it in his hand, and said quietly:

"Er Bing, please judge. Where do you think this stone was originally located in the villa?

Is it the concrete on the ground, or the masonry of the wall? And how did this cavity in the middle come about? Was it caused by the explosion? Or... was it already there?"

Chang Erbing was stunned for a moment, then suddenly he slapped his thigh and suddenly realized:

"Captain Li, I understand what you mean. Are you saying that there was a problem of cutting corners when building or decorating this villa?

Oops, I forgot to report to you. When I was investigating this renovation team, I accidentally learned that the team led by Jia Zhuang was accustomed to cutting corners and using inferior materials as good ones, and many of the projects they produced were shoddy..."

Now it was Li Shang's turn to look surprised.

No, he was trying to imply this in his words. He was clearly trying to say that there was something wrong with the villa.

However, Chang Erbing's idea is not entirely wrong, and cutting corners is indeed a problem.

Could it be that I am thinking too complicatedly?

Li Shang shook his head, thinking that his judgment should be correct. After all, cutting corners would not lead to the destruction of an entire decoration team.

Just then, a blue and white official car slid in front of them and stopped.

Li Shang opened the car door and sat in the back seat. Chang Erbing followed him in and the car started smoothly.

"Go back to the police station." Chang Erbing ordered the constable who was driving.

"Wait a moment!"

Li Shang suddenly interrupted, he thought for a moment, and changed his mind.

"No, let's not go back to the police station yet. Let's go directly to the Second Prison."

Out of trust in his friend, and since Bai Ye was seconded from the Second Prison, Li Shang thought about it and decided that it would be better to go directly to Feng Mu to ask.

There are two possible outcomes of doing this.

If Feng Mu was completely unaware of this matter and Bai Ye acted entirely on his own, then they should discuss how to deal with Bai Ye, the destabilizing factor.

And if Feng Mu said that he knew about it, or even that he was the one who instructed it, then the issue would become complicated.

How to deal with it later depends on whether their friendship is strong enough to withstand the test, and more importantly, on how honest Feng Mu is willing to be with Li Shang.

Li Shang hoped from the bottom of his heart that their friendship could stand this test.

The friendship of a madman is too rare, and Li Shang doesn't want to lose it easily.

"Feng Mu, Feng Mu, please don't let me down this time... I'm already facing enough troubles."

Li Shang was thinking with a heavy heart.

The blue and white car sped along and still had some time on the road.

While Li Shang was sorting out his chaotic thoughts, he took out a leather-covered notebook from his briefcase.

The notebook was densely packed with testimonies from the police station's initial visit, mainly from the medical staff, bodyguards, and three special service providers who were in Li Hanyu's villa at the time of the incident.

They are the most likely witnesses to the scene, although they all claim to have seen and heard nothing.

"They are lying collectively, but why are they lying? Are they afraid of being implicated, or do they have other concerns? Most importantly, what are they hiding?"

Li Shang shook his head and closed the notebook, sighing helplessly in his heart.

Of course, he couldn't question Li Hanyu. No matter what problems the other party had, he couldn't pursue them. On the contrary, he had to cover up for the other party.

Who made Li Hanyu the mistress of Councillor Wang Xinfa? Qian Huan even calls the councillor dad.

(PS: From Li Shang's perspective, Li Hanyu, Wang Xinfa, and Qian Huan are a "family of three." Maybe they bicker a bit behind closed doors, but they're still a "family of three.")

What annoyed Li Shang was that the bigwigs didn't tell him anything about the secrets that might be hidden in the case, but put the pressure of solving the case heavily on his shoulders.

In this situation, he is really difficult to deal with. It is easy for him to find out secrets that he shouldn't find out by mistake, and then accidentally hurt friendly forces.

Even though the big shot had hinted at his idea of ​​solving the case, if he wanted to solve it perfectly, he couldn't just rely on making up stories. He had to have some tangible, real stuff to back it up.

"Why……"

Li Shang tugged at his hair in annoyance, and a few strands of black hair fell silently.

"And there's also Zheng Geng, the man with ulterior motives, right there with him, constantly finding fault and pressing us... It's really tough to deal with!"

Just as he was feeling uneasy, the high walls of the Second Prison slowly came into view outside the car window.

The tall, gray, electric-grid-covered concrete wall, more than ten meters high, resembles a crawling giant beast. The patrolling figures of prison guards can be vaguely seen on top of the wall. The entire Second Prison exudes a solemn and austere atmosphere that keeps strangers away.

Li Shang took a deep breath, sat up straight, and adjusted his collar.

When facing his good friend Feng Mu, he needs to be extremely alert.

…………

The location was still the light-proof office, but this time there was no strange video recording playing. There was only a desk lamp casting a dim light on the desk, barely illuminating a corner of the desktop and leaving most of the room in deep darkness.

The Archon still sat like a sculpture behind the large and heavy desk, his figure almost blending into the shadow of the high-backed chair.

There was no emotion on his face, as if he was wearing a smoothly polished mask. Only his eyes occasionally flickered in the edge of the light, proving that he was a living being.

"Knock, knock, knock."

A light and restrained knock on the door broke the silence.

After receiving an almost inaudible response, Raven pushed the door open and walked in.

He was still wearing his signature black attire, his face covered with a black mask that seemed to absorb light. He walked lightly and silently stopped a few steps away from the desk.

He spoke directly without any greetings. His voice came through the mask, with a texture like the friction of metal:

"I have already inserted Feng Yuhuai into the Night Watch as you requested."

The Archon raised his eyelids slightly, his gaze fell on the Raven, waiting for the next words.

Raven's tone suddenly became sharp:

"However, during her first mission, the senior Night's Watch member who was with her disappeared. No one found him alive, and no one found his body."

He emphasized the word "missing" a little more, and his eyes were fixed on the Archon through the holes in the mask.

The Archon's expression remained calm as he smiled and asked:

"So, you suspect that Feng Yuhuai is cheating?"

Raven remained silent, naturally harboring this suspicion in his mind.

Although the mission report submitted by Feng Yuhuai after his return was described in a fantastic way - claiming that he had encountered a sudden attack and that the attackers were of complex composition.

Including unknown characters such as [Mask], "Old Huang" and "Zuo Bai", the whole mission is rendered dangerous.

But Raven didn't believe it at all!

His bottom line was to tolerate a monster wearing the black robe of the Night's Watch, but he would never allow this monster to turn its teeth against his own people.

The Archon seemed to see through the doubts swirling in his heart. His expression remained unchanged as he spoke calmly:

"You think too much. This time, Feng Yuhuai really didn't lie."

He leaned forward slightly, the dim light illuminating half of his face, and a faint curve appeared at the corner of his mouth:

"She did have some late-night snacks at the Emerald Garden, but...it wasn't what you thought."

Raven stared at the Archon through the dark mask.

He always felt that when the latter mentioned Feng Yuhuai's "cheating", there seemed to be an indescribable... excitement in his bottomless eyes?

It felt very strange, as if... as if the one who had accomplished the "cheating" was not Feng Yuhuai, but the consul himself, with a secret sense of satisfaction.

In short, very weird.

Raven had privately investigated the relationship between Feng Yuhuai and the consul.

He mobilized the Night Watch's intelligence network and carefully screened all possible clues, but the results showed that the two people had absolutely no connection at all, either openly or secretly.

Like two parallel lines that never meet.

This made him even more puzzled and wary of the consul's motives in going to such great lengths to "cultivate" Feng Yuhuai.

He couldn't understand it, and he couldn't see through it.

Seeing that Raven remained silent for a long time, the Archon thought that the other party still didn't believe it, so he added lightly, with a tone of insight:

"There should be a huge uproar over at Emerald Garden by now. If you don't believe me, you can check it out for yourself.

However, as a... friend, I still want to advise you that the Night's Watch in District 9 is already stretched thin and cannot afford any losses.

You'd better not get involved in this mess at Jade Garden."

Raven believed it halfway, but he didn't show it. He didn't know if he had taken the Archon's "advice" to heart. He suddenly asked back:

"How do you know the situation at the scene so clearly? You didn't happen to be there that night, did you?"

Upon hearing this, the Archon laughed:

"You're getting more and more absurd. How could I possibly have been there? I just... happened to 'glimpse' something interesting."

The person was not at the scene, but he "saw" it.

Raven's heart skipped a beat, as if he had thought of something, and his fear of the Archon increased several levels in an instant.

The room fell into a long silence. In the dim light, dust floated slowly in the beam of light, like solidified fragments of time.

After a while, it was Raven who broke the suffocating silence again.

He stopped dwelling on Feng Yuhuai's question and asked, his voice even deeper than before:

"Where's the thing you promised me?"

The Chief Consul seemed to have been waiting for these words. He reached out and opened a drawer of the desk.

There wasn't much clutter in the drawer, and he took something out of it.

It is dark red in color, with a smooth surface and a soft luster similar to pearls, but it also faintly reveals a medicinal texture.

It emits an extremely faint and unique fragrance. This fragrance is very strange. It seems to be imperceptible at first, but when you smell it carefully, it makes people feel refreshed and at the same time feel a slight throbbing.

It is a "red wax".

The Chief Consul flicked his finger and the red wax drew a parabola in the air.

Raven flicked his black robe and steadily took the red candle into his palm.

He lowered his head and looked closely through the mask for a moment.

The dark red bead, set against his black gloves, looked like a drop of solidified blood, with a very subtle energy flowing inside.

Without much hesitation, he quickly put it into a special container in his robe sleeve.

After getting the things, he turned around and wanted to leave, as if he didn't want to stay here any longer.

"etc."

The raven paused, but did not turn back immediately.

The Chief Consul looked at his paused figure and said calmly:

"Your question... one grain of 'red wax' isn't enough, is it?"

Buzz!

Raven turned around suddenly, and the pupils revealed under the mask instantly shot out a cold and piercing light.

A bone-chilling chill suddenly spread out from him, and the temperature in the room plummeted. Even a thin layer of ice crystals quickly condensed on the smooth tile floor under his feet.

"You—lied—to me?!"

The three words seemed to be squeezed out from between teeth.

Faced with this almost materialized murderous intent, the Archon chuckled softly:

"I didn't lie to you. What I promised you before was - if you help me get Feng Yuhuai into the Night Watch smoothly, I will give you a 'Red Candle'.

Now, haven’t I already given it to you?”

Raven laughed in anger, his voice cold:

"But you said before that this thing can solve my problem!"

The Archon smiled unchanged and nodded:

"Yes, I did say that 'Red Wax' can solve your problem, and that's absolutely true."

He paused and added:

"But I don't think I ever said that one grain of 'red wax' was enough, right? Can you recall carefully every word I said back then?

Have I been saying from the beginning to the end that "red wax" can solve your problem?

"If you help me with something, I'll give you one. I never explicitly said that just one 'red wax' pill could completely solve the problem."

The raven felt as if a basin of ice water had been poured over it from head to toe, and it froze in place for a moment.

He realized that he had been deceived, but not completely deceived.

"You...you, the Chief Consul, are actually playing such despicable word games?"

Raven's voice trembled slightly with extreme anger. The coldness around them became even stronger, and frost patterns began to appear on the walls.

Upon hearing this, the Archon's face showed a hint of seriousness:

"Hehe, it seems you have some misunderstandings about me.

Because I am the Chief Archon, I pay special attention to the game of words. Because the Game of Thrones is often a game of language and words, isn't it?

The raven was speechless. He was the one holding the knife and could not argue with the one holding the pen.

Continuing to argue verbally is meaningless and will only bring shame upon yourself.

He took several deep breaths in succession, and the ice crystals under his feet slowly melted away as his emotions barely calmed down.

He needed "red wax", especially after he had already obtained one, the desire in his heart became even stronger.

"You... need me to help you with anything else?"

Asking this question meant that he had to give in once again and accept the other party's increased conditions.

The Archon showed a satisfied smile on his face:

"Talking to understanding people saves energy. It's simple. I need you to help me 'look after' one more person. For the next period of time, make sure he stays alive and don't let him die easily."

(End of this chapter)