Chapter 29.1: Jiang Xia’s Dream
Jiang Xia’s good mood instantly soured.
Instead of continuing to wait upstairs, she quickly left the office and headed down to the first floor.
The detectives who had returned were escorting the suspects toward the interrogation rooms.
Chen Dong was in front, marching Gao Xiaoguang along. Now that they were safely back at the station, he had relaxed and was chatting with another officer beside him.
“Man, you wouldn’t believe it. We spotted this guy the moment we got to the village. As soon as he saw us, he turned and bolted. Those legs of his were like they had wheels on them—he was unbelievably fast. We chased him for nearly two li before we finally tackled him!”
“Can you blame him for running?” the other officer replied. “He killed someone. At the very least he’s looking at ten years. If he’s found to be the ringleader, he might even end up in front of a firing squad.”
“Ten years?”
Gao Xiaoguang, who had been hanging his head, couldn’t help feeling a surge of regret when he heard that.
If he’d known killing someone only got you ten years, he never would’ve followed Hu Hui into hiding in the countryside!
Jiang Xia had just reached the stairwell landing when she heard Chen Dong’s casual conversation.
That eased her worries a little.
It didn’t sound like anything major had happened. Otherwise, they wouldn’t be chatting so casually.
“Brother Chen, you’re back.”
After coming downstairs, Jiang Xia greeted them before asking, “I heard everyone return while I was upstairs. But when I looked out the window, it seemed like one suspect was missing, and one of the officers had blood on his clothes.”
“Jiang Xia?”
Chen Dong hadn’t expected her to come down so quickly. Stopping in his tracks, he pointed toward the officers behind him.
“Oh, it’s nothing serious. They took a rookie with them to arrest Hu Hui. They thought it’d be an easy job, but they didn’t expect Hu Hui to be hiding behind the door with a knife. The rookie rushed in too fast and was immediately taken hostage at knifepoint. Luckily Xiao Lu reacted fast enough and shot the suspect in the shoulder, rescuing him.”
“The suspect’s been taken to the hospital, which is why you’re only seeing two of them. As for the blood, someone probably brushed against it by accident. It’s nothing.”
Jiang Xia fell silent for a moment.
So that was what had happened.
Almost instinctively, she looked toward the back of the group.
Lu Yixing was at the very end.
Even though everyone was dressed the same, Jiang Xia spotted him at a glance.
There was no special reason for it. He simply stood as straight as a pine tree, and as he walked, his bearing naturally overshadowed everyone around him.
His expression was calm, without the slightest hint of excitement. There was nothing about him to suggest he’d just fired a gun to save someone’s life. To him, it seemed no more remarkable than taking care of an ordinary task.
Meanwhile, the two young officers from the Second Investigation Squad beside him wore expressions of undisguised admiration as they whispered to each other.
As if sensing her gaze, Lu Yixing looked over at Jiang Xia and gave her a slight nod.
She returned the nod before letting her eyes drift farther back.
Among the young officers was another young man with his head hanging low, his face flushed red. Judging by the look on his face, he wished the ground would open up and swallow him whole.
Well…
Jiang Xia was certain that, starting today, this poor guy had become one of the bureau’s legendary cautionary tales. People would be talking about this for at least five years, with no upper limit. Maybe—just maybe—he’d be spared once another spectacularly foolish rookie came along.
Hehe. Just kidding.
Even then he wouldn’t be off the hook. Nothing stuck in people’s memories quite like an embarrassing black mark. He’d be hearing about this for the rest of his career.
“Hey, Jiang Xia.”
Since no one had been seriously hurt, and the embarrassment belonged neither to him nor to the First Investigation Squad, Chen Dong had already put the incident behind him. Changing the subject, he glanced at Gao Xiaoguang’s face again and praised her.
“See? I told you your sketch was accurate. It looks exactly like the suspect!”
Someone had drawn his portrait?
Who?
The moment Gao Xiaoguang heard those words, he jerked his head up. Just as he started to turn around, the officer behind him shoved him forward.
“What are you looking at? Get inside!”
Zeng Jun, who had come in behind them, handed Tang Shougang over to another officer. Remaining where he was, he gave Jiang Xia a wholehearted thumbs-up.
“I couldn’t agree more. I really failed to recognize true talent this morning. Jiang Xia, your composite sketch skills are absolutely incredible!”
Another officer nodded in agreement.
“Exactly! Being able to draw someone perfectly just from a verbal description is practically miraculous!”
Tan Bingyi joined in the teasing.
“What’s that saying again? I remember Ma Liang had a magic paintbrush—whatever he drew became real. Well, Jiang Xia, whatever you draw looks exactly like the real thing. You’ve got yourself a magic brush too!”
“Then doesn’t that make her ‘Magic Brush Jiang Xia’?”
“Ha! Now that’s a nickname with some punch!”
The more they talked, the more exaggerated the compliments became.
Jiang Xia shook her head helplessly. She was just about to protest when a series of system notifications rang out in her ears.
[Ding! Congratulations! You have successfully astonished a destined archenemy. Reputation +1.]
[Ding! Congratulations! You have successfully astonished a destined archenemy. Reputation +3.]
[Ding! Congratulations! You have earned the admiration of your peers. Reputation +2.]
…
…
[Ding! Congratulations! Your abilities have earned the respect of a destined archenemy l! You have obtained the honorary title ‘Magic Brush.’ Generating title…]
A destined archenemy? What kind of term is that? Isn’t that a little too… suggestive?
Huh?
A new title!
Jiang Xia’s eyes lit up.
Judging from the name alone, this one sounded pretty reliable. It couldn’t possibly be another trap… right?
Eager to check it out, she no longer cared what nickname everyone was giving her.
“Um, you’ve already caught the suspects, so, Captain Tan, you all go ahead and get busy. I’ll head back upstairs first!”
With that, she turned on her heel and hurried upstairs.
“Huh?”
Tan Bingyi scratched his head, surprised that she’d left so abruptly.
“Why’d she run off after only a couple of compliments?”
“Well, obviously,” Zeng Jun replied. “Young people are thin-skinned. You can’t praise them that aggressively. You’d be better off giving her something she’d actually like.”
“How am I supposed to know what young people like?”
Tan Bingyi sighed helplessly. Besides, she was a young woman. It wouldn’t be appropriate for him to go around giving her gifts.
It really was a headache.
Right now, Jiang Xia came over to help mainly because she was already familiar with the First Investigation Squad. But in a few days, once she got to know the Second Squad just as well, she might stop coming by altogether.
They had to strengthen their relationship with her as soon as possible!
As he pondered the matter, his eyes suddenly landed on Lu Yixing, who had remained silent the entire time.
Come to think of it… Xiao Bai—well, Xiao Lu—was the best-looking man in the entire bureau…
Hmm…
—
Jiang Xia returned to the Technical Division.
Everyone in the office was there.
Seeing her come back, Liao Zhongsheng set down his newspaper and asked, “Well? Did they catch the suspects?”
“All three of them,” Jiang Xia replied as she returned to her desk and sat down. “One of them resisted with a knife and was shot in the shoulder. He’s been taken to the hospital to have the bullet removed.”
“Then that wraps up the case.”
An innocent person has nothing to fear from the police. Since the suspect had resisted with a knife, there was no doubt they had the right men for the robbery-murder case.
Liao Zhongsheng was in an excellent mood.
Jiang Xia had only been here for two days, yet she’d already helped solve two major cases. Who could argue with results like that?
Oh, right. He needed to hurry up and chase the paperwork for Jiang Xia’s official position. It had been so long already—why hadn’t it come through yet?
“This case had been stalled for nearly a month, and only two days after you finished the composite sketches, the suspects were caught. Jiang Xia, your portrait skills are genuinely invaluable.”
Smiling broadly, Liao Zhongsheng picked up a slip of paper from his desk and handed it to her.
“As luck would have it, I just got in touch with a woodworking shop that takes custom orders. It belongs to the neighborhood office. It’s not a big place, but the old master carpenter there has an excellent reputation. Tomorrow, go over there and explain exactly what kind of sketch kit and mimeograph machine you need so he can make them for you as soon as possible.”
Since it was a specialized toolkit, it had to be designed around the specific tools she’d be using. The carpenter had no way of knowing what equipment needed to fit inside or how much space it would require, so discussing it face-to-face would be much clearer.
They’d arranged it this quickly?
Jiang Xia accepted the note, glanced at the address, and nodded.
“All right, Director. I’ll go there tomorrow morning and come back to work in the afternoon.”
“Sounds good.”
Liao Zhongsheng nodded in approval.
With no one paying attention to her, Jiang Xia opened her notebook, pretending to write while secretly bringing up the system interface.
After her last lottery draw, her Reputation Points had been reset to zero. She had to start accumulating them all over again, and the maximum threshold had increased from 100 to 300, making the process noticeably more difficult.
Especially after Officer Qin from the railway police had wiped out the entire train thief gang along with two other pickpockets in one sweep, and since she herself hadn’t gone out to operate, no one in the local underworld was asking about the Thief King anymore. Over the past few days, Jiang Xia’s reputation had increased by only a single point.
Today, however, was a bumper harvest. It jumped by twenty-one points in one go, with even contributions from her archenemies—ah, no, her colleagues.
She hadn’t expected the system to distinguish between them.
Jiang Xia idly moved her pen across the paper while scrolling through the system’s reputation gain log.
Seeing that six of today’s reputation points had come from her “peers,” Jiang Xia fell into thought.
It looked like the smarter local criminals had begun to realize that the police possessed some kind of suspect portraiting technique.
Still, today’s portraits had already been posted throughout the streets, so it wasn’t surprising that they’d figured it out.
Not a big problem. Her portrait sketches would definitely remain effective for a while yet. Even if people eventually figured them out, she still had other tricks up her sleeve.
Come on, forensic identification, give me a boost!
Ahem, got sidetracked. Back to business.
Jiang Xia closed the reputation screen and opened the title interface.
Beneath the Thief King’s Crown lay a golden writing brush, resting quietly.
Jiang Xia immediately looked at its description.
[Magic Brush: Earned through the recognition of your archenemies. Possesses the power to turn the ordinary into the extraordinary. While this title is equipped, all brush-related skills receive a 5% enhancement.]
Huh???
Seriously? Are you kidding me?!
Is that all the respect my archenemies get? What’s the point of 5%? If you’ve got the guts, System, make it a 20% boost!
One-star review!
Taking a deep breath, Jiang Xia calmed herself.
Forget it, forget it. A 5% boost was already pretty good. The Thief King title might be stronger, but she couldn’t actually use it. If she couldn’t equip it, it might as well not exist. This one didn’t come with any negative debuffs, so she could use it every single day.
Having learned her lesson from what happened at the police station, Jiang Xia didn’t dare push her luck this time. She simply took a sheet of the bureau’s official paper and copied the two regular-script characters “Case File” printed at the top.
She reproduced them with ease.
Jiang Xia nodded in satisfaction.
Although the bonus was only 5%, the improvement was still quite noticeable. Before, her handwriting had merely been neat and legible, with straight horizontal and vertical strokes, but it could hardly be called calligraphy. Now she could even write in a proper regular-script style.
If the bureau ever held a calligraphy competition, she could probably enter.
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