Thirty-two feathers
"I was originally just a low-level vampire. I was afraid of the sun, so I didn't dare go out during the day. But even so, those people still didn't let me go."
Wang De slumped in his chair with his head down, speaking in a hoarse voice.
Suddenly he raised his head, a flicker of resentment in his eyes. It wasn't clear if it was because he had been oppressed for too long and his emotions were showing, or if he was just giving up. "Honestly, I hate you high-ranking vampires who are so high up there. You have no idea what hardship we, the lower class, have to endure."
"Just because we were born into a lower class, everything we do is regulated. Constrained by our innate genes and controlled by the hierarchy after entering this world, almost every vampire in the lower class will never be able to turn things around."
Wang De's voice was choked as he spoke. He wanted to roar but tried so hard to restrain himself that his lips trembled uncontrollably.
"Who are those people you are talking about? Also, what was the drug you put in the wine last time?" Ye Linghan asked.
In fact, everyone already knew it, but they just wanted to hear him confess it in person.
Wang De's expression was obviously frozen, his eyes were evasive and uncertain, he didn't dare to look directly at the person in front of him, as if he was afraid and wanted to hide something.
"No, I don't know." His voice trembled.
Su Mo was a little impatient, "Do you know or not?"
"I, I, I..." Wang De's Adam's apple rolled, and beads of sweat covered his forehead. But when he saw Yin Chen's gloomy face, he instantly deflated. "I think it's called CLY-15 or 20. Anyway, I know this stuff is similar to the love potion, and it's quite strong."
Ye Linghan narrowed his eyes and corrected, "CLY-20."
"Yes, yes, yes." Wang De nodded hurriedly.
"Who contacted you?"
"I don't know who my previous employer was, but the one who contacted me directly..." Wang De calmed down and continued, "It was a taxi driver."
For some reason, Ye Linghan saw a complicated emotion in Wang De's eyes, which seemed to be gratitude, but also mixed with a bit of indifference.
Taxi driver?
Ye Linghan and Su Mo looked at each other.
Yao Qingluan took out her phone, edited a few photos, and handed them to Wang De, "Look which one it is?"
There was a photo of Zhao Xingjian mixed in among some random photos of people on the phone.
Wang De narrowed his eyes and followed the speed of Yao Qingluan's fingers sliding, thinking until he turned to the one about Zhao Xingjian. Wang De suddenly stopped and shouted, "Wait a minute!"
Yao Qingluan stopped what she was doing and looked at the others.
Wang De pondered, "Hiss, it should be this, but when we met, he was wearing a hat and a mask, but judging by his eyes, it feels like it."
He was also a little uncertain.
Yao Qingluan was worried, so she showed Wang De the remaining photos. After being denied by him one by one, she put away her phone and returned to her seat.
"Do you know where he is now?" Su Mo asked.
Although they knew that Zhao Xingjian was dead, they did not tell Wang De directly in order to get more information.
Wang De shook his head. "I don't know. We haven't been in touch for a long time."
Judging from his expression, this is probably the truth.
"How long?" Ye Linghan asked.
"About a month or so."
In other words, the last time he and Yin Chen came to Nancheng was the last time he met Zhao Xingjian, so the timeline matched.
Ye Linghan thought.
Because Wang De was too arrogant, he was dealt with by Yin Chen. The higher-ups thought he was of no use and wanted to silence him, which was the scene he saw in the casino. But perhaps by chance, he was rescued by Yin Chen and saved his life.
But he didn't expect that the people above were so persistent and had been hunting him down. Even though they were under Yin Chen's control, they dared to be so arrogant. It seemed that the person behind the scenes was really not simple.
But there is still no progress in finding out why Zhao Xingjian died.
Solving vampire cases is much more difficult than ordinary cases. Even if ordinary people can avoid surveillance, they will not be able to solve every detail perfectly.
But vampires are different. They can perfectly use their supernatural powers to avoid these things, leaving almost no traces, so it will be quite difficult to investigate.
"How did you and Zhao Xingjian know each other? And since you hate high-level vampires and are dissatisfied with them, why do you still accept things from them?" Ye Linghan asked.
"Zhao Xingjian?" Wang De was puzzled, then suddenly realized, "Oh, you mean the taxi driver."
"Um."
"It was a coincidence. I took a taxi quite a while ago and got his."
"How long ago?"
Wang De thought for a moment, "About half a year ago, less than a year."
Ye Linghan was slightly surprised and glanced at Yin Chen, but tried not to show it on his face.
I didn’t expect that I have been trading for such a long time, and this may be just a small part. I don’t know where to start with the longer timeline.
Yin Chen noticed Ye Linghan's gaze and turned his head to look over. Then he put one arm around Ye Linghan's back and placed it on the back of the chair behind him, half-circling him to his side.
Ye Linghan didn't act pretentiously and leaned naturally on Yin Chen's arm, acting as a warm cushion.
"After not contacting him for a long time, haven't you thought about looking for him?"
After hearing this, Wang De suddenly smiled bitterly and asked, "Looking for it? How can I look for it? I've already fallen into this state, how else can I look for it?"
"As for why I do this business," Wang De continued, "it's simple. People always prioritize profit over anything else. How many of us are so noble and selfless as to sacrifice ourselves for others?"
"Not to mention that my family's lives are in danger, so I can only think about myself first."
When talking about his family, Wang De's voice almost choked again.
"What happened then?" Su Mo asked.
Wang De raised his neck. His wrists had been tied in this position for too long, and he couldn't breathe properly. It was uncomfortable, so he shook it back and forth, left and right, trying to make it more comfortable.
After seeing this, Yin Chen signaled Ling Zhiqing with his eyes.
The latter immediately understood Yin Chen's meaning, untied Wang De, and handcuffed him to a chair instead.
Feeling a little better, Wang De's mood was no longer so bad, and he thanked him politely.
"It was around the same day I met the taxi driver, the one you mentioned, Zhao Xingjian, that my mother was in a car accident and was lying alone on the road. No one cared about her, and no one offered to help her with first aid."
Wang De's body was shaking, and a few drops of water slid down his face, but it was hard to tell whether they were sweat or tears.
In a short period of time, Wang De showed a variety of complex emotions, which made people feel that even an actor could not perform so many levels of emotions.
Human beings are advanced species with flesh and blood and emotions. Even when facing the suspect, or perhaps the criminal Wang De, and telling his tragic life story, everyone can't help but be moved.
"Shouldn't vampires be very powerful? Why is your mother..." Liao Xihe asked. Among the people sitting there, only he and Ye Linghan were ordinary humans. Ye Linghan had followed Yin Chen since he was a child and was not unfamiliar with these things. On the contrary, Liao Xihe was confused the whole time.
Wang De suddenly sneered, his expression filled with helplessness. "Read more books, kid. Who told you this?"
"You!" Liao Xihe wanted to refute, but was speechless for a moment and couldn't think of how to refute. It was very rare for a criminal suspect to ask him a question back, and he felt a little embarrassed for a moment.
Wang De snorted coldly and ignored him. "Low-level vampires like us are no different from ordinary people like you, or even worse."
"It was this taxi driver who later called me using my mother's mobile phone and took her to the hospital, so I am very grateful to him."
"But when you mentioned him for the first time just now, I saw a hint of resentment in your eyes." Ye Linghan stared into Wang De's eyes and spoke slowly with an oppressive tone.
"Indeed, your feeling is very accurate." Wang De was also very frank and did not quibble. After all, if he did not admit it, the consequences would be more serious. "I am very grateful to him for saving my mother, but she also personally destroyed the only remaining fate between my mother and me."
"What do you mean? Because of CLY?"
Wang De nodded. "Yes, Zhao Xingjian came to me while my mother was in the hospital and told me about CLY. I wanted to refuse at first because he had done me a favor and I really wanted to repay him, but I couldn't break my bottom line."
"Then why did you follow him later?"
"Because I wanted to save my mother. We vampires aren't immortal, but we do live longer than you. If calculated by your human age, my mother would have been around seventy years old."
"But she had been in a car accident, and the driver fled. We couldn't catch him for a while. How could an elderly person's body withstand such an ordeal? The doctor soon gave her a critical illness notice."
"Just when I was desperate, Zhao Xingjian appeared again. He handed me a small bottle and said there was a 50% chance that this medicine could save my mother. He gave me time to think about it, but you also know..."
Wang De glanced at the young man in front of him, who was half his age, and paused. "Forget it. You may not understand the urgency of this kind of situation where a loved one's life hangs by a thread, but someone can help her. Even if it's not 100% successful, I still want to give it a try."
"But in the end, things didn't go as planned and we didn't succeed in the end, right?"
Ye Linghan frowned. Currently, there were too many opinions about CLY-20, which were difficult to integrate and mixed with both truth and falsehood.
Wang De nodded helplessly and sighed, "Alas... She didn't even have time to say her last words. Since she couldn't swallow the pills, I could only dissolve them in water and inject them into the IV needle, hoping to save my mother this way. But I didn't expect her to pass away peacefully in her sleep."
"Don't you hate Zhao Xingjian?" Su Mo was very curious about this. He really couldn't imagine how a person could cooperate with the murderer of his mother.
After hearing this, a bold idea flashed through Ye Linghan's mind.
Perhaps Wang De could also be a breakthrough point. Killing Zhao Xingjian out of hatred for his mother's murder might be a possibility, and he might also know that someone could be killed through injection.
As expected, Wang De nodded. "I hated him. I was mad at that time and wanted to kill him, but I found that I couldn't even beat an ordinary person like him. Even though it's shameful to say this."
At the end of his speech, Wang De laughed bitterly at himself.
"Because he took CLY-20, right?" Ye Linghan's words were not a question, but an affirmation.
"Yes, then he gave me a cigarette. Strangely enough, after smoking it, I felt a lot lighter and full of energy, a feeling I had never experienced before."
"So you just forgive him like that?" Yao Qingluan was very puzzled. The hatred for killing her mother could be reconciled with just a cigarette.
Wang De sighed. "I don't want to forgive him, but what can I do? He said that if I just follow him, he can ensure that my whole family will have enough food and clothing."
"I have elderly parents and young children to support. Does this mean that the lives of my father, my wife's parents, and my children are no longer lives? Shouldn't I become stronger before I can protect the rest of my family?"
Yao Qingluan was stunned for a moment, not knowing how to answer.
"Then what is the cooperation you are talking about?" Su Mo asked him.
Wang De raised his chin and pointed at Ye Linghan who was standing beside Yin Chen. "That's him. Zhao Xingjian told me to use any means necessary to capture him."
Upon hearing this, several people looked at each other with serious expressions.
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