Nightmare Apostle

Chapter 238: Chapter 201: The Light of the Righteous Path

What Fu Qingzhu didn’t expect was that in the next second, Yang Xiao slammed the table and rose in anger, "What? Fu, you’re actually involved with an Evil Cultivator?!"

Fu Qingzhu was frightened to a shiver and hastily explained, "No, no, that’s not it! I’m from the Apostles Union."

Hearing this, Yang Xiao slowly nodded his head, still looking at Fu Qingzhu with a hint of suspicion, "That’s good, because I warn you, brother, I’m the investigation team leader of the Patrol Defense Bureau, and I will have nothing to do with Evil Cultivators!"

"Yes, yes, my mistake, I will punish myself with a drink," Fu Qingzhu said, pouring himself a full glass of liquor and downing it in one go.

The tension in the room quickly eased, and Yang Xiao changed the subject, "Fu, did you get your Hanging Rope back?"

"Of course, Qi Family sent someone to deliver it to me last night," Fu Qingzhu said, patting the black handbag he had brought and not shying away from the topic.

The two chatted about various topics for a while and then parted ways. Before leaving, Yang Xiao instructed him to take care of his injuries and to contact him at any time if needed.

Early the next day, Yang Xiao arrived at the Patrol Defense Bureau, and the moment he walked through the office door, he sensed that the atmosphere was off. Everybody was present, and Zhuge Zhijie was burying himself in work at his station with a cardboard sign hanging nearby that read: "Xi Menxiu and dogs, keep away."

Seeing Yang Xiao arrive, Xi Menxiu ran over, her face full of grievance, "My captain, ah~, what were you telling Zhijie? When did I ever give you 5000 yuan? Da Xiong only gave me 2000."

"Da Xiong also acted as a middleman?"

As Yang Xiao turned to look at him, Da Xiong, who had always shown himself as honest, couldn’t help feeling embarrassed and quickly spilled the beans, "Well... it was Ms. Bei who found me, I just made a tiny bit of hardship fee from it."

Good, the logic has now come full circle: my 100,000—Beibei 20,000—Da Xiong 5,000—Xi Menxiu 2,000—and finally, Zhuge Zhijie who settled for 500 yuan and a night snack.

However, Yang Xiao knew how to break up such a situation; he couldn’t let a little money chill his brothers’ hearts. Yang Xiao smiled, put down his backpack, opened it, and took out several stacks of cash, "Thanks for the hard work, brothers, all of this is thanks to your help. Take one share each."

Yang Xiao divided the cash into five shares, 20,000 yuan each, exactly as much as he had originally promised Beibei.

Indeed, once the money appeared, the atmosphere in the office changed immediately, and even the hardworking Zhuge Zhijie was drawn over.

"Captain is so generous!" Beibei was the first to grab the two closest stacks of 20,000 yuan and couldn’t stop smiling.

"Thank you, Captain!"

"Our Captain has the makings of a bureau-level official!"

...

After a shower of flattery, Yang Xiao felt like he was on cloud nine; the joy of the wealthy is so simple and unadorned.

Soon, everyone had taken their share, and a stack of 20,000 yuan remained on the table. Yang Xiao packed it into an envelope and placed it on Yu Shu’s desk.

Yu Shu hadn’t arrived yet, but that didn’t stop her from receiving the team benefit. They were a team, and they shared their fortunes together.

Beibei, counting her money with a happy grin, seemed to remember something and turned to look at Yang Xiao, "Captain, did you hear?"

Yang Xiao blinked, "Hear what?"

"About the case at North City Ancient Forest Mountain Range. They say the scene was terrifying; some of the first officers to enter were so scared they fainted," Beibei said solemnly.

"Yeah, yeah, the victim died in a really gruesome way, and the manner of death was terrifying, the neck was stretched out this long." Xi Menxiu demonstrated with her hands, indicating a length of at least 30 or 40 centimeters.

Upon hearing this, a shock went through Yang Xiao. The manner of death sounded too similar to those killed by Teacher Wang, "Who were the victims?"

Xi Menxiu thought for a moment and recollected, "The leader inside seemed to have the surname Sun; he was an informant with a long history in Rongcheng. He had a complicated network of relations that was said to be connected with our Patrol Defense Bureau and the Apostles Union, among other places."

With the surname Sun, an informant, and death by an elongated neck, there was no need to think too hard for Yang Xiao to confirm that this was Fu Qingzhu’s doing.

The Sun-surnamed man had tricked him, nearly causing him and Yu Mi to die in Huirong Building. It made sense for Fu Qingzhu to seek revenge on him.

At the same time, Yang Xiao realized something even more dangerous. Last night, he had just met with Fu Qingzhu, accepted his money, and the ghost photo.

The money was one thing, but the ghost photo must have been found on the body of the informant by Fu Qingzhu after he killed him. This meant that if the case was solved and Fu Qingzhu was caught, he would no doubt implicate Yang Xiao. Even though he was innocent and unaware, having the stolen ghost photo would make it impossible for him to clear his name if he was seen as an accomplice.

"What a cunning plan, brother Fu, no wonder you suddenly decided to give me a gift. So you were waiting for this moment," Yang Xiao thought coldly to himself. He was well aware of Fu Qingzhu’s intentions. After all, the only people who had actually seen the Hanging Rope kill someone were him and Yu Mi, the survivor of the last mission. As long as they kept silent, there would be no evidence.

"Captain, what’s wrong?" Beibei was sensitive and noticed Yang Xiao’s complexion was not right. ƒгeewebnovёl.com

"Nothing much, has there been any progress on the case?" Yang Xiao feigned nonchalance.

"I don’t know, the crime scene isn’t in our jurisdiction, it’s the territory of the 4th Bureau, but it looks like it’s the work of some crazy Angel Envoy again, or maybe an Evil Cultivator. Who can say for sure." Beibei shrugged her shoulders; she was a realist who believed in minding her own business and lived a carefree and thorough life.

"Thump, thump, thump."

There was a knock on the door. The door wasn’t closed, and Yang Xiao turned to look, only to see Ms. Wen, dressed in professional attire, standing at the doorway.

"Ms. Wen!" Beibei ran over and gave Ms. Wen a big hug, "Do you have time tonight, Ms. Wen? I’ll treat you to a late-night snack."

Ms. Wen smiled and shook her head, then turned to Yang Xiao, "Captain Yang, the Director needs to see you now; he wants you to come right away."

"Alright." Yang Xiao picked up his backpack, which he now carried with him at all times.

Once inside the elevator, Ms. Wen’s expression turned serious, and her voice lowered, "Captain Yang, someone from the Provincial Bureau has come down to see you by name; the Director asked me to remind you to be cautious in what you say. If you don’t know something, say you don’t know it. Some things you know in your heart are best left there."

Yang Xiao’s brows furrowed; his first thought was that the Drama Robe incident had been exposed. Had the Qi Family betrayed him?

But that shouldn’t be the case; the Flesh Lama and the fused warrior man had already been silenced, and since Fu Qingzhu had done the deed, there should be no way this could be traced back to him.

All sorts of thoughts sprang up in Yang Xiao’s mind. Seeing this, Ms. Wen consoled him, "Don’t worry, with the Director here, they won’t dare to give you too much trouble."

"Thank you, Ms. Wen."

"Just be careful."

Soon the two arrived at the Director’s office door. Ms. Wen knocked on the door, and after getting the Director’s approval, she pushed open the door. Yang Xiao found that there were already three people sitting in the office—a young man in a suit and leather shoes besides the Director.

After Yang Xiao came in, Ms. Wen closed the door and then left.

"Yang Xiao, these two are investigators from the Provincial Bureau. They have some questions for you," Director Nalan passed a cautious glance to Yang Xiao. free𝑤ebnovel.com

One of the investigators, after confirming Yang Xiao’s identity, looked somewhat apologetically towards Director Nalan, "Director Nalan, would it be alright for us to have a word alone with Captain Yang?"

"Of course, haha, certainly," Director Nalan stood up, gathered some files from his desk, and left the room.

Once Director Nalan had left, one of the investigators, who wore glasses, held a notebook and looked at Yang Xiao seriously, "Captain Yang, do you know Sun Buhuan?"

"I don’t," Yang Xiao spoke frankly.

"Let me remind you then, he’s an underground informant in Rongcheng, goes by the nickname ’Fatty Sun.’ He specialized in peddling all sorts of information, making money as a middleman. Just the other evening, he, along with his several bodyguards, was killed. We found their bodies at the North City Ancient Forest Mountain Range."

As he spoke, another investigator took out several photos from his pocket and slid them across the coffee table to Yang Xiao, "Take a look."

Picking up the photos, the gruesome scene was shocking. Several people were lying on the ground in disarray, their necks twisted and stretched out abnormally. The worst was a fat man with black skin whose hands were tied behind his back. His neck had been stretched to a length of half a meter, his face contorted in agony, clearly having suffered unimaginable torment.

Yang Xiao frowned as he looked at the pictures, then inhaled deeply, "This is too horrifying, who could be so heartless and demented?"

The investigator with glasses adjusted his glasses, then suddenly asked, "You’re acquainted with Fu Qingzhu, right?"

"I know him, we even had drinks together last night," Yang Xiao readily admitted.

"Are you close?"

"Not bad. He’s from the Apostles Union in the city. We were teammates on a mission before and had some misunderstandings afterward. You could say we became friends after a fight," Yang Xiao laughed lightly, talking nonchalantly, as if oblivious to any ulterior motives of the two men.

After a moment, Yang Xiao’s face suddenly changed, as if he had just realized something, "What, is he involved in this?"

"We can’t be sure yet, but we’ve extracted your report from your last mission, and we found descriptions of similar scenes," said the investigator.

Hearing this, Yang Xiao picked up the photo again, examined it carefully, and after a while, shook his head, "That’s not right."

"What’s not right?"

"In the nightmare mission I experienced, there was a pattern in how the Ghost killed people; every victim’s body was positioned with their head turned to the right. It was Teacher Wang’s habit from when he was still alive, he hung himself in a classroom with the students’ dreams written on a notice board to his right," Yang Xiao looked straight at the two men, starting to spin a yarn very seriously.

"Really?" The investigator with glasses looked at Yang Xiao skeptically, "But why didn’t you mention these details in your report?"

The next second, Yang Xiao’s expression turned solemn, he squarely faced the investigators without any avoidance, his demeanor exceptionally firm, "Comrade Investigator, what are you implying with your question? Are you questioning my ability, or are you doubting my fundamental loyalty as a member of the organization?"

"If it’s the former, I’m open to criticism. If it’s the latter, I need you to give me a justified explanation."

Yang Xiao stood tall, exuding the light of righteousness.