Chapter 84 - Rabbit
The moment Peng Hang saw Fu Li, he only had one question in mind: Why was it him again?
Currently, the tide had just receded and the streets were stained with filth. In order to prevent the spread of infectious diseases, all factories in Linhai City ceased operations and schools halted cla.s.ses. This was so that the professionals arranged for by the departments could disinfect and clean the city. As such, there were very few pedestrians on the streets.
Fu Li’s group was currently walking along the streets in attire that was spick and span, without even masks or gloves on. Even their shoes were mud-free. Peng Hang had an inexplicable feeling that this group who stood out like a sore thumb had mistakenly entered this place.
After Fu Li’s group left the sea, they had intended to leave straight away. But when they thought about Linhai City that might have met with a tsunami, they decided to come to the city to take a look. After a cursory look around, they were much more rea.s.sured. There was no resentment or any human casualties.
The humans’ powerful rescue systems in the event of a disaster and high regard for the lives of ordinary civilians could also be considered a form of improvement on the part of human society.
The sun came out again the day after the rise of the tides. The streets were both stuffy and hot. Officers in camouflage attire pushed large boxes of trash towards the garbage truck. From time to time, ordinary residents would carry fruits and bottled water over with the intention of shoving them into the officers’ hands. However, they were all rejected.
Chao Yun watched these young men dripping in sweat from the heat of the sun, admiration in her eyes. She had stayed by the side of a female emperor and had always been respectful towards such pure soldiers.
“Madam, there’s more muddy water on this end, don’t come here,” A young lad pushing a small cart smiled, revealing a mouth full of white teeth. He pointed at a small alley ahead. “The pavement hasn’t been cleaned yet, everyone should refrain from leaving their houses for the time being.”
“Thank you,” Chao Yun glanced at the long-sleeved top and girdle skirt she was wearing before looking down at the clean and pretty red high heels on her feet. She flashed the young lad a grateful smile.
“You’re welcome,” The young lad didn’t look any further at Chao Yun. He pushed the cart along and went off in a haste, his green rubber shoes covered in muddy water.
Chu Yu was moved. “This sort of scene always makes me feel that expending so much energy and doing so many things are all worth it.”
“These people are really cute,” Fu Li watched the busy officers on the streets. Turning his head, he saw an elderly man directing his granddaughter who couldn’t be more than five years old to deliver water to the officers. If the officers refused it, the little granddaughter would open her mouth and bawl, to the point that the officers could only temporarily stop what they were doing and twist open the cover of the bottle to drink a few mouths of water.
Little bear children had great uses at certain times.
Sure enough, ordinary humans couldn’t do anything about children.
The elderly man’s ‘rotten idea’ likely served as a kickstart, because several ‘bear children’ less than ten years of age very quickly came out with drinking water or fruits and pestered these officers to no end to drink a bit of water and take a short rest.
There were even those in the prime of their lives who came out to help with shovels or brooms. For a time, the street was bustling with noise and excitement.
Fu Li nodded. Although all sorts of hateful humans appeared all the time, there were still many more cute ones.
“Mr Fu Li.”
Fu Li turned around and saw a man with a scraggly beard and jacket walking towards him. The man wore a slightly haggard expression, looking entirely like someone who hadn’t slept well. Remembering the man’s ident.i.ty, Fu Li revealed an amazed expression. “Officer Peng, why are you here?”
Peng Hang was a police officer at the capital, so why was he at Linhai City?
“Out on official business,” Peng Hang didn’t tell Fu Li about the content of his work. Fortunately, Fu Li was tactful and didn’t continue this line of questioning, otherwise the atmosphere would turn awkward. Peng Hang took out cigarettes from his pocket and distributed them to the people standing behind Fu Li. Seeing that they didn’t have the habit of smoking, he touched his cigarette box and decided to hold back his desire to smoke. “What are you here for?”
“They’re all my colleagues. We came… to this place to go sightseeing,” Fu Li lied smoothly. “We hadn’t expected to encounter such an incident not more than two days after our arrival. So our boss got us to come out and see if there’s anything we can help with.
Peng Hang’s gaze swept across the faces of Fu Li’s group before eventually settling on Zhuang Qing. He directed a smile at Zhuang Qing. “h.e.l.lo.”
“h.e.l.lo,” Zhuang Qing nodded politely at Peng Hang.
Peng Hang’s gaze landed on Chao Yun’s clean high heels as he fiddled with the cigarette box in his hands. “The relevant departments have arranged for professional rescue officers. It is good that you have kind intentions, but the quality of air outside isn’t very good, so it’ll still be better for everyone to return and rest.”
“Mr Police Officer is right. Specialized work should still be left to the professionals to resolve.” Zhuang Qing nodded and told Fu Li and the rest, “Let’s head back.”
Fu Li was all smiles as he bid goodbye to Peng Hang. Peng Hang lit a cigarette and watched them disappear at the end of the street. He had a niggling feeling that this Chang Long Company not only considered talent when recruiting employees but also their looks. The men were handsome and the women beautiful. They weren’t down-to-earth at all.
Spitting out smoke, he took out his phone and got his colleague to run a check on Fu Li’s travel records as well as his hotel check-in records. For some unknown reason, he constantly felt that this person called Fu Li was a bit strange. The things he did were even more strange.
The records were very quickly dug out. Fu Li had bought a ticket for a certain airline’s first cla.s.s cabin two days ago. He had flown from the capital to Linhai City, and the hotel he stayed in had the relevant records as well. There was nothing out of place.
Peng Hang scratched his head. Could there be a mistake in his occupational disease, causing him to feel that there was something off about anyone that was just a tiny bit more special? This Fu Li’s work experiences were rather odd, but his character was not bad and he had done many good deeds. When he thought of this, Peng Hang felt a bit embarra.s.sed. He shouldn’t have suspected a law-abiding civilian.
“Fu ge, I feel like there was something wrong about the way that police officer looked at you,” Chu Yu stated. “Did you spill the beans in front of him?”
“Probably not,” Fu Li shook his head. “It’s obvious that that human is a staunch materialist. Even if there was a haunting right in front of him, he would automatically employ all sorts of scientific reasons to explain it.”
Zhuang Qing listened to Fu Li and Chu Yu discuss materialism and hauntings the whole journey, and then spoke mildly, “It’s fine even if he discovered something. A memory-losing spell will do the trick.”
“You’re right!” Fu Li nodded at once to express his firm endors.e.m.e.nt of Zhuang Qing’s opinion. All of a sudden, the smile on his face disappeared. He raised his head, staring at a certain house in the distance that had an entire floor flooded. “There seem to be people in that house.”
Chu Yu sucked in his nostrils and confirmed it for him. “It’s the smell of humans, and… the smell of Happiness Ointment.”
“Happiness Ointment?” Zhuang Qing’s expression darkened. “You’re sure?”
Chu Yu nodded. “This is the smell.” As the top Daoist fish, he would take responsibility for his senses.
At a certain house, several lords were squatting on the bed and table as they looked vacantly at the furniture floating around the house. They had merely kidnapped two children before coming to Linhai City, and hadn’t expected to encounter such an incident before they had even stayed a few days.
The boss slowly spat out a mouth of smoke. The smell of Happiness Ointment pervaded the entire house. He shot a glance at the children who were tied together. The children were seated on a cabinet, not daring to cry or kick up a fuss. He tapped the ash on his cigarette. “The tide has already started receding. When order is restored outside, we’ll have to think of a way to deal with these two children.”
If he’d known that the police from the capital would chase after them to this place, he wouldn’t have accepted this business. Now that so much trouble had been stirred up, he and his gang of brothers would be dragged in if he even so much as made one wrong move.
“Boss, those police officers that came over from the capital have a tight watch on us, I’m afraid this matter won’t be easy to deal with,” A fatty at the side sucked in his nostrils desperately. He already felt a little drunk just from sniffing the smoke. He rubbed his nose to clear his mind a little. “Even if the tide recedes, there are still many officers outside cleaning the city and helping the residents to tidy their houses. Constantly staying here may not be a good idea either.”
The boss abruptly took a few puffs of his cigarette. He looked at the muddy water on the ground, his gaze suddenly turning ruthless. “Since the tide has risen, one or two drowned children would just be an accident. Let the other side know.” Rather than let these goods drag him down, he would rather deal with them early on.
“Boss, you mean…”
“Let our business partner know. Just say that the goods were spilled and that I’ll bring him good stuff next time,” The boss put down the cigarette and pointed at the two children. “Deal with them.”
They would take advantage of the lower ground on this end and the fact that no one had pa.s.sed by to throw these two children down and let the tide wash them away, resulting in accidental deaths. Hardening his heart, the boss instructed his subordinates to carry this out.
The fatty found two plasters and sealed the two children’s mouths. With one child in each hand, he stepped into the water and prepared to fling the two children through the window on the second floor. However, a strange incident occurred. After being flung down, the two children did not sink into the water. An enormous tortoise carried the two children and swam to sh.o.r.e in the blink of an eye.
He thought he had seen wrongly. He rubbed his eyes forcefully and realized that the two children and large tortoise had disappeared, but there was now an extra white, fat rabbit beside the window.
“Fatty, what are you daydreaming about?” The boss saw the fatty standing motionlessly by the window and said with some impatience, “You still want to watch them drown with your eyes wide open?”
Not even a shred of humanity. He had already thrown them down, yet he still wanted to watch them drown to death. Unlike him, who had a soft heart by nature and couldn’t stand to see such a cruel scene.
“B-Boss, rabbit, there’s a rabbit,” Fatty stammered out, his words tinged by fear.
Any person who saw an overly-clean rabbit appear before them after seeing an incomparably large tortoise would find this scene strange.
“What’s that about a rabbit? Have you not seen a rabbit in your whole f*cking life?” The boss pointed at a little brother beside him. “Capture the rabbit to add to our meal.” The words just left his mouth when there was a thumping sound. The fatty fell heavily onto the ground, splashing dirty water.
“What happened?” The boss wiped the muddy water on his face and saw a fluffy, tiny white rabbit standing on the fatty’s face. The fatty’s four limbs were flailing in the water, yet he just couldn’t climb up.
Faced with this scene, the few people in the house felt their hair stand on end. There was even someone who was so scared that they swallowed. In the quiet house, the sound of the person swallowing was particularly prominent.
Then, they saw the rabbit… grin.
Grin!
Ahhhhhhh, how could rabbits grin?!
Two hours later, Peng Hang received a call from Linhai City’s police station, informing him that a few men were shouting and screaming at a certain house, which had attracted the attention of rescue personnel. These men claimed to be the suspects of a kidnapping case in the capital and wanted the police to arrest them immediately. Linhai City’s police officers weren’t very clear on the case’s proceedings and thus wanted to invite Peng Hang over for confirmation.
Peng Hang: ?
Wasn’t there something wrong about this?