Thirty-one feathers
The curtains in the shabby rental house were tightly closed, blocking out the strong light from outside. The furniture inside was simple, worn, and full of scratches and chips. But even so, the people living inside didn't care at all. The wooden table in front of the sofa, which served as a coffee table, was piled with wine bottles and cigarette butts, and there were several boxes of instant noodles that had been opened and only the leftovers were left.
The living room was filled with smoke. Wang De was sitting on a worn sofa with disheveled hair, black hair mixed with white strands. The beard on his chin had grown very long, but he was unwilling to trim it.
The man held a half-smoked cigarette between his fingers, hugged his head with his arms, and let out a long sigh.
He pondered for a moment, and was suddenly awakened by the burnt ash on his hand. He raised his head, took the last puff of the cigarette, and put the cigarette butt into the ashtray full of cigarette butts.
Suddenly, a burst of black smoke came, and then transformed into a human figure. One foot stepped on the table in front of Wang De with enough force that the empty bottles and jars made a rattling sound.
He leaned over and looked at the defeated man in front of him, as if he was admiring a plaster statue he had carved with his own hands, except that it was not made by his hands.
Wang De raised his head, his eyes were cloudy and confused, his brows were slightly furrowed and trembling, and it was unclear whether he was dissatisfied with the person in front of him or venting the grievances in his heart.
"I have nothing left, what are you doing here?"
The throat soaked in cigarettes and alcohol was extremely hoarse, dull and turbid.
"If you don't have anything, you can pay with your life, even though it's not worth much." The man said in a deep voice, giving people a dead and depressing feeling.
"I... I can't die yet, I can't die, don't... don't..." Wang De kept shaking his head as if he was crazy. He suddenly looked up and stared at the man in front of him with bloodshot and turbid eyes, full of desire to survive.
He wanted to stand up and grab the man in front of him, but his knees were too weak to move. As soon as he stood up, he fell to his knees with a plop. He did not give up, and crawled towards the man with his hands and feet, mumbling: "Please, let me go, don't let me die... Please..."
— —
It was already evening when they arrived in South City.
Yin Chen thoughtfully arranged a separate room for everyone, except Ye Linghan himself, but everyone understood this tacitly.
After returning to the room, everyone packed up briefly and went to the restaurant for dinner. Yin Chen had already asked Sun Mao to book a private room, and the soundproofing was very good, so they could say whatever they wanted without being overheard by others.
Many dishes were placed on the table one after another. Since they had not been together for a long time and had never had a formal meal together, Ye Linghan didn't know what everyone liked to eat, so he asked Yin Chen to prepare more.
"Let's eat first. If you have any questions, we can talk about them while we eat. We can't miss out on food after all."
Ye Linghan felt a little carsick on the way here and hadn't recovered yet, so he didn't have much of an appetite. He just helped everyone turn the tables around and occasionally took a few bites of his favorite food to fill his stomach.
"Still feeling uncomfortable?" Yin Chen asked with concern.
"Yeah." Seeing the other person's concerned face, Ye Linghan forced a smile.
Yin Chen placed a glass of lemonade in front of Ye Linghan and said, "Maybe drinking something sour will help."
Ye Linghan took a sip. The lemon water was more fragrant than ordinary ones. He didn't know how it was made, but it did help dispel a lot of the foul air in his stomach.
"Have you noticed that we don't even know who the murderer is?" Su Mo had a worried look on his face and inappropriately said something that no one wanted to mention.
They were originally immersed in the deliciousness of the dishes, but when they heard this topic, everyone's expression turned sour except Yin Chen.
Yin Chen, on the other hand, was leisurely peeling a plate of shrimp for Ye Linghan.
"But perhaps we can infer the motive first, and then work our way back to infer the murderer." After drinking the lemonade, Ye Linghan's appetite improved a little. He ate the shrimp meat handed to him by Yin Chen, and his mentality was better than the other three people.
"We previously learned that there was some missing information about the girl who was sexually assaulted by Zhao Xingjian, so we might as well start from there, because this is the only relatively intuitive and reasonable explanation for the motive."
The others listened to Ye Linghan's analysis. Although it was just a guess, it was the most reasonable explanation at the moment.
Afterwards, Ye Linghan shared the information he had heard about CLY-20 with several other people.
Because Su Mo and Yao Qingluan are members of the Blood Hunters, they will know something more or less, but Liao Xihe is just an ordinary person and may not know it.
Ye Linghan spoke calmly, but suddenly noticed that Liao Xihe was behaving a little uncomfortably. He was only eating the food in front of him, and his hands were shaking when he picked up the food.
He asked puzzledly, "Xiao Liao, what's wrong with you?"
"Ah?" Liao Xihe came back to his senses and wanted to speak, but when he saw that it was Yin Chen sitting next to Ye Linghan, he didn't know how to start for a moment.
"I...that..." He hesitated for a long time and couldn't say a complete sentence. At the same time, there was a hint of despair in his eyes, and he looked at Su Mo and Yao Qingluan uneasily.
Although he was not too afraid of vampires, he still felt awe and fear for the rumored ruthless blood clan boss.
Especially when she was in the car, because she was young and ignorant, she said the wrong thing, so now she is scared when she sees Yin Chen, fearing that the other party can kill her without her noticing.
"Pfft, hahahaha." Ye Linghan couldn't hold it in any longer and patted Yin Chen's arm. "Look at you, if you don't refute the rumors, it will be even harder for Ke Ke to explain."
"I don't eat people." He said lightly, looking at Ye Linghan with a hint of mockery in his eyes.
This was automatically ignored by the other party.
"Hahahahaha, that's right." Yao Qingluan watched the fun from the side and didn't mind making trouble. She threatened Liao Xihe and stretched out her hand in the shape of a claw. "If Master Yin really wanted to take action, I'm afraid that when you said the first word in the car, you would have already..." As she spoke, she made a gesture of wiping her neck.
Liao Xihe had felt better when he heard Yin Chen say that he did not eat people, but when he saw Yao Qingluan doing this, he became afraid again and leaned on Su Mo, trembling.
"Brother Mo, look at them!"
Su Mo suppressed his laughter and didn't dare to laugh too wildly. After all, he had to act like an older brother, so he could only do his best to comfort her.
"Aluan, stop scaring him!"
Then he looked at Liao Xihe and patted him on the back, "Aluan was just trying to scare you, it's okay."
Although he knew very well that Yao Qingluan was not bluffing, the strength of the top vampires was not something that ordinary people could understand or withstand.
After trying to calm the child down, the topic returned to normal.
"Based on the clues I've been able to analyze, CLY-20 is in the hands of more than one faction, and their uses vary. If Xingjian's death was driven by hatred, then before that, this person might have simply been selling the drug for higher profits."
"Of course there's one more thing." Ye Linghan looked at Yin Chen, "One of the targets of the person behind this is me."
Because Duan Jiu had made it very clear before his death, everyone already knew this.
"So even if I can sit back and do nothing about other things, I will definitely investigate his safety to the end." When Yin Chen said this, he was following Ye Linghan the whole time, as if to say: He is my bottom line, no one can cross the line.
So much so that while everyone was sorting out the clues, they were also fed a mouthful of dog food.
"If that's the case..." Yao Qingluan looked at Liao Xihe, "Xiao Liao, can you help us persuade the director so we can join forces to investigate?"
"But ordinary people have no killing power against vampires, so I'm afraid they can't be of much help." Liao Xihe was a little discouraged.
Yao Qingluan quickly shook her head. "There's no need to spend too much manpower on the arrest operation. What's more important is the backup force. Because the current situation is that if we want to test some evidence, there's no guarantee that the results will be available immediately, so it will delay progress."
"After all, we really don't have enough manpower right now, so we'd like to try to join forces in the investigation."
"So that's how it is." Liao Xihe suddenly understood and patted his chest. "Leave it to me. I'm not sure I can get it done, but I will definitely try my best to convince my father."
Just then, Yin Chen's assistant Sun Mao knocked on the door and walked in. He nodded politely to everyone, then came to Yin Chen, leaned over and said a few words.
"Okay, I understand." There was no expression on Yin Chen's face, and it was impossible to analyze any information.
After Sun Mao left, under the curious gazes of the crowd, Yin Chen picked up the lemonade in front of Ye Linghan and took a leisurely sip before slowly saying, "My people were secretly following Wang De and discovered that he had been silenced."
"What?" The other people said in unison, shocked and a little angry. After all, the clue that was about to be obtained was gone, and they felt a little dissatisfied.
"But my people were rescued." Yin Chen said calmly.
"You! Can you please stop breathing so heavily when you speak?" Ye Linghan said angrily, acting as a mouthpiece for the others. After all, apart from him, no one dared to talk to Yin Chen like that.
Yin Chen squeezed Ye Linghan's hand under the table as if begging him to do something. The latter was so angry that he wanted to dodge, but Yin Chen held it very tightly. After trying to shake it off several times without success, he just let him go.
"Let's go and take a look." Seeing that everyone had almost finished eating, Yin Chen spoke slowly.
The place where Wang De was imprisoned was the basement of Yin Chen’s private villa in South City. Even though he was imprisoned, it was the safest place for Wang De.
Because falling into Yin Chen's hands is better than dying.
He could feel that Yin Chen didn't want to kill him.
The housekeeper pushed open the door and was greeted by the thug who brought Wang De back. He was dressed in black and looked neat and tidy from head to toe.
"Young Master." The man in black nodded and was very respectful to Yin Chen.
"Yeah." Yin Chen nodded and walked straight to the basement.
The man in black stepped aside and let Ye Linghan and others in.
"Hi, Xiaoye, long time no see." When passing by Ye Linghan, the man in black greeted him with a smile.
Ye Linghan knew this man, his name was Ling Zhiqing, and he was Yin Chen's thug. He used to be around Yin Chen often, and they could talk to each other, but their relationship was not that close.
Ye Linghan still responded politely: "What a coincidence, we meet again."
Yin Chen, who was walking in front, paused, turned his head to look at Ling Zhiqing, a hint of coldness flashed in his eyes.
When Ling Zhiqing felt it, he immediately shut up and stopped talking. However, Ye Linghan didn't take it seriously. He just thought it was a greeting between friends, so he followed Yin Chen naturally.
As soon as they stepped into the basement, they felt a biting chill running from the soles of their feet up their spines to the top of their heads.
"Hiss..." Liao Xihe shivered with fear. This was the first time he had seen such a scene.
The basement is similar to a torture chamber, filled with various torture instruments, including handcuffs, whips, and some other tools that cannot be named.
Oh my goodness...
Ye Linghan's Adam's apple rolled and he swallowed.
Not to mention others, it was also the first time for him to see this scene. He had been with Yin Chen for so long, but he never knew that there was another world here.
On the chair in the middle of the room, Wang De was tied up with his head drooped, and it was unclear whether he had fainted or fallen asleep.
Yin Chen walked forward and, fearing to get his hands dirty, took a pair of rubber gloves from the side and put them on Ye Linghan's hands, then put a pair on himself.
Ling Zhiqing, who followed in, stretched out his hand and made a "please" gesture, indicating that others could please help themselves.
Yin Chen took Ye Linghan's hand, pulled him to a chair that had been prepared nearby, and asked him to sit down.
The others also sat aside in turn.
Yin Chen raised his chin, signaling Ling Zhiqing that he could proceed to the next step. Ling Zhiqing understood, walked to Wang De's side, picked up a basin of water from the table, and poured it directly over Wang De's head.
“Crash—”
"Puff—cough—cough—" Wang De was choked and kept coughing, then spitting out saliva. His eyes were blurred with water and he couldn't see clearly.
Because her arms were tied to the chair, she couldn't wipe the water off her face with her hands. She could only shake her head with great effort, and large drops of water slid down from the ends of her messy hair.
The moment Wang De opened his eyes, he saw Yin Chen. He mumbled and begged for mercy, "Master, please save me. You saved me last time in the casino, so you can save me this time too. As long as you can keep me alive, I will do anything for you, even be your slave..."
“Snap—”
Before Wang De could continue speaking, Ling Zhiqing, who was standing by, whipped the whip in the air and swung it hard as a warning.
"Did the master ask you? And you said it right there?"
Upon hearing this, Wang De quickly shut up, his eyes filled with panic and pleading.
casino?
Could it be Xu Zilian's place? Could it be that he was the man in black from last time?
Ye Linghan narrowed his eyes. Although he had a vague guess in his mind, he still needed an explanation from the other party. So he glanced at Yin Chen, but the other party did not look at him.
"Just ask whatever you want to ask." Yin Chen said coldly to Su Mo and others.
Not only Ye Linghan, Su Mo also keenly caught Wang De's words and asked, "What was that last time you mentioned?"
Wang De opened his mouth, and seemed to have regained some consciousness due to Ling Zhiqing's empty whip. Realizing that he seemed to have said something wrong, he looked at Yin Chen nervously, not knowing whether he should say it or not.
But now that the topic has been brought up, there is no way to hide it anymore. Yin Chen sat next to Ye Linghan in silence.
After all, Ling Zhiqing was a thug who had been with Yin Chen for many years. He immediately understood Yin Chen's intention and said unhappily, "Since you asked, just tell me. Why do you always look at our young master?"
Wang De nodded hurriedly, "Oh, yes, yes, I'll tell you, I'll tell you."
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