Free Web NovelChapter 310: Chapter 310: You’re Lying
"Everything...? You want me to tell you everything?" Xiang asked, his face a mask of misery. He gave Su Qing an aggrieved look. ’What rotten luck,’ he thought. ’How did I get saddled with a terror like her?’
"Well? Are you going to talk or not?" Su Qing’s eyes narrowed dangerously.
"I’ll talk, I’ll talk!" Xiang nodded vigorously and rushed to say, "Come to think of it, the last two or three months have been really strange. The number of turf wars between the big and small gangs in Xiangcheng has shot up. The cops are patrolling the streets all day long now, and it’s got everyone on edge. Oh, right! A while back, an heiress from some powerful family was even snatched right off the street. Her bodyguards were all killed."
Hearing this, Su Qing knew at once. ’He’s talking about Cheng Beilin.’
"More details." Su Qing didn’t betray any interest, simply stating coolly, "Why have the turf wars suddenly become so frequent? What happened? Who are the gangs kidnapping, which gangs are doing it, and why? Tell me everything you know."
"Uh, right." Xiang was baffled by Su Qing’s barrage of questions, unable to figure out what she was really after. "About the turf wars... they’ve never been this frequent before. On the surface, everyone says it’s about fighting for territory, but actually..."
He trailed off, his voice dropping to a whisper. He leaned in, listening for any sounds at the door before continuing quietly to Su Qing, "I hear someone’s fanning the flames behind the scenes. They want to muddy the waters in Xiangcheng to cover something up."
"Oh?" Su Qing raised an eyebrow. "Cover what up? Who’s behind it?"
Xiang shook his head. "I don’t know who’s specifically behind it. I’m just a small-time grunt, I can’t find out that kind of stuff. But I heard... it has something to do with drugs."
Finished, Xiang gave Su Qing a conspiratorial look. "You know about drugs, right? Let me tell you, one hit and you’re in heaven. That feeling... ahhh..."
As he spoke, Xiang let out a sly chuckle, a look of immense longing on his face as if recalling that wonderful feeling.
Su Qing’s expression turned icy. She smacked Xiang on the back of the head. "Watch your mouth."
"Ow—yes, yes!" The smack from Su Qing snapped him back to his senses. Realizing he’d gotten carried away, he quickly bowed his head subserviently. "My mistake, ma’am. I was wrong."
"Keep talking."
"Right." Xiang nodded quickly and continued, "I heard—and this is just a rumor, okay? No guarantee it’s true—but it seems some people are trying to develop something new. Developing that stuff requires experiments, and they can’t very well test it on themselves, right? So naturally, they need lots and lots of people. That’s why they’re secretly snatching people from all over, specifically targeting anyone they find alone. They use all kinds of methods—tricks, brute force... basically, if they see a person they can grab, they’ll take them. Doesn’t matter who they are."
Su Qing listened to Xiang’s explanation, her lips pressing into a thin line. ’It all lines up.’
Then, Su Qing asked, as if it were a casual thought, "If they’re grabbing people, they must be targeting ordinary folks with no connections. But didn’t you just say an heiress from a powerful family was taken? Aren’t they afraid of retaliation from a family like that? An heiress is hardly an ordinary person, after all."
"Oh, man, about that... me and the guys were just talking about it the other day. That heiress must have really pissed someone off. We don’t know who, but they must be some real ruthless character to pull a move like that. Tsk, tsk." Xiang shook his head. He couldn’t get any information on the powerful families; he didn’t have those kinds of connections.
"You really have no idea who’s doing all this?" Su Qing asked.
"I don’t know, ma’am, I’m just a small-time grunt—AGH! It hurts, it hurts!"
Before Xiang could finish, Su Qing had twisted his arm and pinned him to the ground again.
Su Qing sneered. "You’re lying!"
