Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

  As the uniformed Sheng Ke suddenly came to talk, Electrician Wu was startled, thinking the police were looking for him. He was soon relieved, however, to find that Sheng Ke wanted to talk to Zhang Zian.

  Zhang Zian didn’t expect to meet Sheng Ke under such circumstances. He thought that Sheng Ke’s words were just a simple greeting, or carried deeper meanings. He smiled reluctantly and said, “I happened to be here to visit a customer. What a coincidence…”


  “Oh? Is that so…? Which building?” Sheng Ke asked.

  “This one,” Zhang Zian answered honestly.

  “This one? We evacuated all the residents in this building. I’m afraid it’ll be hard to find him.” Sheng Ke glanced back at the bystanders. Most people had left, but still many had stayed.

  “In fact… The customer I was looking for was just sent to the hospital…” Zhang Zian spread his hands. “It’s a welder with the family name Zhao.”


  Sheng Ke was surprised and repeated, “What a coincidence…”


  Among the thousands of residents, Zhang Zian happened to be looking for the poisoned victim. Out of a criminal police officer’s instinct, Sheng Ke grew more and more suspicious.

  Many criminals would specifically visit the crime scene after the crime to admire their own criminal achievements and the crowd’s response. If they were unlucky enough to meet an experienced policeman, they might be suspected for their suspicious act.

  Logically speaking, Sheng Ke didn’t believe that Zhang Zian would risk his bright future to commit such a crime, but the incident was too big. As a criminal police officer, he could not let a single trace of suspicion go.

  He didn’t come over to chit chat with Zhang Zian, nor had he the time for it. He only felt it strange for Zhang Zian to be there, so he came over to question him. He indeed found some suspicion after he spoke with him.

  Zhang Zian empathized his back luck for being involved in such a sudden incident.

  He knew it was not convincing to call it a coincidence. But to him, it was a coincidence for real. Luckily, he had a witness right beside him. He pointed at Electrician Wu and said, “This is Electrician Wu, Welder Zhao’s friend. He can testify that Welder Zhao had ordered some fish in my aquarium, but never showed up to pay for and pick up the fish. I have another customer today who also wants those fish. As I couldn’t reach Welder Zhao, I wanted to pay a visit and ask him face to face.”


  Electrician Wu nodded nervously after being watched by Sheng Ke’s authoritative eyes. He stuttered, “Yes… It is… Indeed so…”


  Sheng Ke was still suspicious, as the circumstances could be arranged if they had planned it. It could prove Zhang Zian’s innocence.

  As a criminal police officer, he suspected everything out of his instinct.

  Zhang Zian added, “Talking about suspicion, Electrician Wu just mentioned something that I find a bit suspicious.”


  “Oh? What is it? Tell me about it.” Sheng Ke’s spirit was boosted after hearing that. The higher officials had been imposing a lot of pressure, but the local police basically knew nothing about it to tell the ugly truth. He had to grasp at every single clue.

  At that hour, Electrician Wu turned hesitant. Gossiping to Zhang Zian was one thing, as he didn’t need to take responsibility if he were wrong. But telling the story to the police was a different matter… What if he was wrong and misled the police?

  As he saw his hesitation, Zhang Zian hurried him, “Electrician Wu, this is an emergency, and human lives depend on it! Please retell the story to Captain Sheng. It might be useful. Even if you make a mistake, Captain Sheng won’t blame you for sure.”


  Whether he realized it or not, he was keeping Sheng Ke under control with such words.

  Sheng Ke smiled and agreed. “Electrician Wu, please tell me everything you know honestly. I’ll judge if it’s true or false.”


  “Okay, fine…” Electrician Wu felt reassured, and retold what he just said to Zhang Zian with more details. He shut his mouth after speaking, waiting for Sheng Ke’s response anxiously.

  Sheng Ke gasped after hearing the story. He waved to summon a police officer next to him. “Xiao Tian, bring me the notes.”


  The police ran over and brought him the notes.

  Sheng Ke read through the notes quickly, then stared at Electrician Wu and questioned, “Mr. Wu, did you tell me the truth just now? Welder Zhao’s families didn’t mention this. They said Welder Zhao went out last night, but they didn’t know where he went.

  Electrician Wu started panicking. “Of course it’s the truth! Zhao is such a cheap a**hole, bragging to his family that the fish were gifts from others. He never mentioned that he was the brazen one asking for the gifts!”


  “You can verify this with Carpenter Wang’s family?” Zhang Zian suggested.

  Sheng Ke shook his head slowly. “Carpenter Wang and his family are all still in a coma. They are not awake yet.”


  Zhang Zian didn’t know what to say.

  Part of Sheng Ke’s suspicion was answered.

  After receiving the report and seeing the scene, the policeman found Carpenter Wang’s whole family was deeply poisoned, yet the neighbors next door were all fine. Welder Zhao, who lived in the adjacent unit, showed similar poison symptoms, but less severe. Welder Zhao’s family was fine. The weird circumstances had made the police extremely puzzled. They could only assume two sources of poison for now.

  If Electrician Wu was correct, Welder Zhao had gone to Carpenter Wang’s place the night before. Therefore, Welder Zhao’s home could be excluded as the source. The police would focus on Carpenter Wang’s house.

  As he thought about it, he said decisively, “Follow me, both of you.” He lifted the cordon, hinting for them to follow him. His tone was firm and undeniable.

  Electrician and Zhang Zian looked at each other and followed him in obedience.

  Sheng Ke brought them to the middle-aged man, asking them to wait a moment. He then reported to the middle-aged man in low voices.

  Zhang Zian nodded and smiled at Xiao Liu and Xiao Wang. They both blinked back at him.

  After seeing an old acquaintance, Red Dragon and Prince seemed more excited.

  The middle-aged man felt overwhelmed. His eyes suddenly brightened after he heard the news, as if a window in his heart was pushed open.

  “Captain Sheng, is this Electrician Wu?” The middle-aged man stared at Electrician Wu.

  “Yes. This is Zhang Zian. I mentioned him twice.” Sheng Ke hinted the middle-aged man with eyes. “It’s the young man in the lost watch case of Yuanhua Mansion, and the poisoning case of the Dog Warrior production team…”


  “Oh!” Immediately, the middle-aged man started looking at Zhang Zian differently. Apparently, the two cases had won Zhang Zian a lot of favor among the police.

  Sheng Ke introduced to Zhang Zian and Electrician Wu. “This is Bureau Chief Chen.”


  Zhang Zian figured the middle-aged man must have been someone important, but he was still surprised that the Chief of Binhai Police Office actually came to supervise on his own.

  “Xiao Tian, take notes for Mr. Wu here,” Sheng Ke commanded.

  Officer Xiao Tian took Electrician Wu to the side politely to inquire about the details.

  After Electrician Wu had left, Bureau Chief Chen stared at Zhang Zian and said, “Please feel at home here. Let me call you Xiao Zhang. Xiao Zhang, what are your thoughts on this incident?”


  Zhang Zian looked at the Biochemical Specialist Police Unit coming in and out of the unit door, then at the eager police dogs. He knew how big his responsibility was.

  “Bureau Chief Chen, I have some thoughts, but not really mature. They are just wild guesses… If possible, I’d like more information,” he said with caution.

  Bureau Chief Chen thought about it and sighed. “To tell you the truth, this incident has been reported to the provincial office. It’s been defined as a major malicious poisoning case. Experts from provincial office are on their way here… The funny thing is, we haven’t yet found the source of poison, and we have no idea what caused the poisoning. If we can’t locate the source before the experts arrive, then we will look very ugly indeed!”


  Zhang Zian’s heart trembled. He was surprised how serious the police had considered the event.

  “Captain Sheng, tell him what he doesn’t know. Police and civilians should work together. Let’s leave the bureaucracy aside for now.” Bureau Chief Chen hinted to Sheng Ke with eyes. Clearly, he was already desperate.

  “Okay. Here is the situation.” Sheng Ke began to describe what was going on.

  To combine the information from the fire department, hospital emergency room, and the police, the event happened as follows:

  Carpenter Wang’s family was getting along with their neighbors very well.

  That morning, the neighbor woke up to buy breakfast for the whole family. He wanted to ask if he could bring breakfast to Carpenter Wang’s family as well, so he knocked on Carpenter Wang’s door.

  Older people were used to get up early. Usually by that time, Carpenter Wang would have already been awwake.

  However, the neighbors had knocked for a long time without hearing a response inside.

  The neighbor felt that it was weird. Could Carpenter Wang be sleeping late, or did he fall sick? He was healthy and energetic yesterday… How could he be sick in bed overnight? Even if he was sick, his family should be up. His son needed to work.

  At that time last year, there was a natural gas poisoning incident in the same residential area. A whole family was poisoned.They were discovered too late, so none of them were saved, which caused such a tragedy.

  Ever since the incident, all retired residents had been more alert, making a deal to watch out for each other.

  It was an old neighborhood, and most residents were retired employees in the same factory. The neighbors were much closer than they were in new residential areas.

  The neighbor knocked on the door a few more times and put their ear on the door to listen, but there were no sound inside.

  He was worried that natural gas leaked again and poisoned Carpenter Wang’s family. He tried to dial Carpenter Wang’s cellphone. Surely enough, it was not appropriate. If there was indeed a natural gas leakage, then using cell phone could cause an explosion. But the phone call had saved the lives of Carpenter Wang’s entire family.

  The neighbor heard the cell phone ringing from inside. The elderly had poor listening and barely muted their phone. The ringing was very loud. Otherwise, the neighbor might not hear it.

  To be safe, he dialed the cell number of Carpenter Wang’s son. Again, it rang inside the door.