Chapter 266: Sweeping Kick
Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
Under the lighting, Xiang Wan sank into her own world wearing her earpiece.
Her long hair spread over her shoulders, as smooth as a black waterfall that made one feel like touching it…
It was said that hard-working men were the most attractive.
In actual fact, hard-working women were also as attractive.
After taking a bath and changing his clothes, Bai Muchuan came out of the bathroom and stared at Xiang Wan who was back-facing him for quite a while, before he left the room after drying his hair.
He went to Quan Shaoteng’s room.
Quan Shaoteng did not like to stay with others, so he had a room all to himself.
When Bai Muchuan knocked on the door, that fellow was sulking in his room and feeling irritated.
After coming to the remote Nanmu region, he did not have anything to do. There were no activities nor missions for him. There was hardly any entertainment that he was interested in. Young Master Quan was about to grow moldy from boredom.
Hearing Bai Muchuan’s voice at the door, he snorted and quickly opened the door.
Without another word, a fist was thrown toward Bai Muchuan.
Bai Muchuan did not dodge that. He took that hit but quickly held that fist.
“What are you doing? You wanna have a sparring session?”
“Why not!” Quan Shaoteng was now in a good mood.
Hurhur! Bai Muchuan laughed, grasped Quan Shaoteng’s fist, and made a sweeping kick.
Quan Shaoteng evaded the kick nimbly, but his fist was still being clasped by Bai Muchuan and was therefore unable to free himself.
“D*rn!” He was furious.
Bai Muchuan shot a casual glance at him. “Do you know what you look like now?”
Quan Shaoteng’s gaze felt slightly sinister. He licked his gums as if he wished he could bite Bai Muchuan to death. “What?”
Bai Muchuan grunted a laugh. “A petulant young wife.”
Quan Shaoteng was instantly crossed. “What?! Little Bai, are you itching to get a thrashing?”
Bai Muchuan squeezed his fist cooly. “Don’t you think so?”
“D*rn!” Quan Shaoteng was so angry that smoke was as though coming out of his head. “Since when have you learned to be so shameless? This is a self-harming style of fighting!”
“I have to use shameless tactics for dealing with shameless people like you!”
If Bai Muchuan did not take that hit from Quan Shaoteng, he would never have caught him.
Both of them knew that if they were to fight against each other, it would be a draw most of the time.
If he did not gain the upper hand when he had a chance, it would be difficult to get another opportunity.
Hence, his proud smirk successfully enraged Quan Shaoteng.
“Buddy, hats off to you!”
People are born with the instinct to avoid danger, yet Bai Muchuan was able to make a quick judgment the moment the door opened. He was able to suppress the innate ability to dodge and used the most efficient way to deal with Quan Shaoteng. Such quick thinking was not something that could be achieved by many.
Hence, Quan Shaoteng gritted his teeth with hate. “Little Bai, you’ve become more shameless as time goes by!”
“Well, the feeling is mutual!” Bai Muchuan couldn’t be bothered with him. He directly flung his fist and walked into the room. “I’ve already said so right in the beginning. We need brains for investigative work. You’ve stayed in Red Thorn for too long that you’ve become a robot, as you’re not the decision maker…”
This time, Quan Shaoteng actually did not refute.
When Bai Muchuan swept another cold glare at him, Quan Shaoteng let out a snort. “Little thing, you just want to prove that I’m right in coming to Serious Crime Division One!”
“Hah!” Bai Muchuan laughed. “Finally, you’re smart for once. You have not become a robot after all!”
“That’s how you are! I’ve known you for years, alright?”
Bai Muchuan couldn’t be bothered with him. He only glanced at him indifferently, pulled a chair, and sat down to read Quan Shaoteng’s book that was left on the table.
Quan Shaoteng had a chance to move his muscles, but he did not get a chance to enjoy it thoroughly. “Come on! Let’s find a place to spar seriously! Otherwise, I’m going to get ill from all these idling.”
“You won’t be idling very soon!” Bai Muchuan gazed at him emotionlessly but complexly.
After that, he opened the chat group and messaged:
“Tu Liang, Tang Yuanchu, Ding Yifan, Salimu, come over for a meeting. Room 1015.”
Everyone: “Got it!”
…
The few of them stayed on the same storey.
After receiving the message, Tu Liang and the rest of them came over very quickly.
As the sofa and chairs were limited, Bai Muchuan beckoned them to sit on the edge of the bed.
“Come, sit here! This is just a quick meeting.”
“Yes Boss!”
The team quickly sat down directly with his command.
Quan Shaoteng stared at the scene with his eyes wide-opened as they sat on his bed. He wanted to talk, but those words got stuck at his throat.
Bai Muchuan understood him. Actually, Quan Shaoteng did not suffer from mysophobia. It was just that he hated people touching his personal items. As he hated to use items such as the hotel bedsheet, the current bedsheet on the hotel bed was actually his personal item.
However, the few of them just sat on it like this. No one bothered with him.
When Bai Muchuan saw his frustrated expression but awkward expression, the corner of his lips slightly lifted upward.
“What’s up?”
“…” Quan Shaoteng exhaled slowly. “I need to use the bathroom.”
After that, his forehead furrowed into a displeased frown at Bai Muchuan and left.
That meant that he would remember this “grudge”.
Bai Muchuan said to Tu Liang composedly, “He’s like this. He would get nervous when something cropped up, and when he’s nervous, he wants to go to the toilet. Don’t worry about him, we start first.”
“Okay!”
No one cared about Young Master Quan who was about to “faint from crying” in the toilet. At the request of Bai Muchuan, the team started to organize and summarize the clues and the situation on hand.
Bai Muchuan gave a detailed account of the meetup with Liang that day.
“Going forward, my take is that we continue to work closely with the Xi City police. They’ll investigate openly and us, secretly, to solve the case together.”
“Openly and secretly?” Tang Yuanchu asked.
“Let Captain Zhang take on Dark Clan openly and us…” Bai Muchuan knocked on the book which was on the table. “We’ll investigate the 121 case secretly!”
“What about the Dark Clan and us?”
“For the time being, the Dark Clan won’t make things difficult for us. However, we can’t be sure if that person would not continue to stir up trouble!”
When the plot of the person behind the scenes did not work the way he wanted, he might come up with another plot.
Bai Muchuan: “I asked Liang today about the person who supplied him information. I felt that he has something to hide from me—maybe Liang knew the person who contacted him. So, that person might make his next move which might cause the Dark Clan to deal with us.”
“I feel that this possibility of this happening is very small.” Tu Liang a.n.a.lyzed. “Currently, the Dark Clan needs to lie low, even if they knew we’re the police, they might not dare to face us directly. The worst scenario will be that we wasted our efforts in putting up all those acts.”
“It’s always wise to play safe.” Bai Muchuan glanced at everyone. “We’re in an unfamiliar place after all, it would pay to be more cautious.”
“Alright,” said Tu Liang, “so should we make contact with the local police?”
According to the original plan, when they arrived in Nanmu, they should meet with the local police so that if there was an emergency, they would get them to help and provide support.
However, Bai Muchuan had brought all the doc.u.ments but did not follow as planned.
“Not at the moment.” He pondered for a while and laughed. “I can b.u.mp into the lackeys of the Dark Clan just by going out for a bowl of noodles. Who knows if a janitor at the local police station is acting as a spy for the Dark Clan?”
“Captain Bai is right.”
Salimu was an honest young man who immediately concurred with his boss. “Nanmu is actually a good place,” he continued, “but there are bound to be naive people who would get deceived… In the old days, many of them do the Dark Clan’s bidding just so they can keep themselves fed. Otherwise, they couldn’t survive at all.”
“That’s not naive!” Quan Shaoteng got out from the bathroom and was wiping his hands. He added, “That’s ignorance!”
Salimu’s face went red, as though he was choked and unable to continue the topic.
Bai Muchuan shot a glare at Quan Shaoteng and then turned to Salimu. “So, our mission is not only to arrest the murderer of the 121 case, but also to exterminate triad organizations as well as change the people here to let them see more light in their life…”
Salimu nodded his head vigorously. “Yes!”
Quan Shaoteng walked and sat down leisurely. “Do you still have any relatives in Nanmu?” he asked casually.
He was a.s.signed to the operations team so he did not know the background and particulars of Salimu.
In the next instant, Salimu’s eyes went red and shook his head lightly.
Quan Shaoteng asked again, “Your parents and relatives are no longer here?”
Bai Muchuan took a stern glance at Quan Shaoteng. However, when Quan Shaoteng understood the meaning of that glance, he heard Salimu spoke, as though feeling a lump in his throat. “They’re not around anymore. Parents, relatives… none of them are around. I’m brought up by the country.”
“…”
A short silence took over.
“Tu Liang!” Bai Muchuan changed the topic. “Draw up an action plan and we’ll discuss the feasibility.”
“Mm.” Tu Liang nodded his head and opened the notebook he carried around with him.
“Do prepare some backup plans in case of sudden changes or emergencies!”
“Alright!”
…
Nearly two hours had pa.s.sed when they finished their meeting.
Xiang Wan, who claimed that she would finish writing in no time, was still trying her best to write her story.
Bai Muchuan went back to take a look at her and then closed the door quietly so as not to disturb her.
When he turned around, he wanted to go back to Quan Shaoteng’s room to chat again to comfort his “lonely heart”, but noticed there were two people walking toward him along the corridor.
Both men were carrying bags of stuff and were walking rather slowly.
Bai Muchuan was surprised. “Liang?”
Yup, one of the men was Liang, who met him earlier.
The person beside Liang was a lanky guy who seemed quite young, presumably around 21 years old. When the young man saw Bai Muchuan, he seemed a little nervous.
“Brother Crown Prince!” Liang’s voice had a trace of ingratiation. He looked to both sides and walked faster toward him before speaking in a secretive tone. “Brother Steel’s worried that you’ll be bored staying here so he especially got me to bring some stuff for you as small tokens of appreciation—”
Bai Muchuan looked at the bags he was carrying and led them to Quan Shaoteng’s room.
“Come in and talk.”