Chapter 120: Gradually Drifting Off Course

Yan Jing never expected to end up right back where he started after such a massive detour.

The starting point of this incident might also be its ending point.

So, after using the Walkie-talkie to tell Chen Nian and the others that he had business to attend to and needed to head back, he grabbed Mantou. The two of them immediately hopped onto the Terror Bus heading back to Rotten Vegetable Village.

Meanwhile.

In Solitude Lane, at the Twenty-Eighth Village.

"Heh, old woman, didn't expect this Old Man to come back, did you?"

Old Master Liu looked at the woman with messy hair across from him. Shoving his hands into the pockets of his military overcoat, he threw his head back and laughed.

The woman wore a white lab coat and looked to be in her forties or fifties. Hearing Old Master Liu's voice, she looked up and froze for a long moment.

Finally, she adjusted her glasses, her face lighting up with pleasant surprise.

"It's you? How did you end up like this?"

"It's this Old Man!"

Old Master Liu kept his hands tucked in his pockets and snorted a laugh. "This time, I've come for revenge—"

"I looked up a lot of material regarding the history of Minhu that you mentioned last time. I verified some of it, but there are still a few things I really couldn't find any records for. I think my version is still the correct one."

Before Old Liu could finish, the woman leaned in close. Her gaze pierced through her thick lenses, practically stabbing into the Old Man's face. Her plump body was almost pressed flush against his, though she seemed completely oblivious to it.

"Heh, impossible."

The Old Man held up a single finger. "In Old Sin City, no one understands the history of Minhu better than I do."

"Then let's discuss it."

The woman pulled the supremely confident Old Man through the door.

This left Chen Nian and Tiger standing outside, completely bewildered.

"What was he just saying?"

Chen Nian's calm eyes carried a trace of weariness.

"The Old Man sounded like he was going to bang..."

Tiger was completely bewildered.

"Which kind of bang are we talking about here?"

...

...

Almost an hour later, in the lobby of the Order Management Bureau in Rotten Vegetable Village.

"Mr. Yi Ji, Miss Mantou?"

An Ze said in pleasant surprise.

He hadn't expected to run into them again so soon, having just parted ways with Yan Jing and the others a few hours ago.

"Officer An, have you tried that method I told you about earlier?"

Yan Jing asked.

"Ah, not yet."

Realizing Yan Jing was talking about the Disguiser, An Ze answered immediately.

They had only been back for a few hours. He hadn't even had a chance to catch his breath—how could he have tried it already?

Thinking about how Lu Miao had finally decided to take half a day off today, he couldn't suppress a smile. It was perfect timing, with his two friends here:

"Right, Mr. Yi Ji, Miss Mantou, let's go sit inside for a bit. I got my hands on some good tea..."

"Let's skip the tea for now. Hurry up and go try it, Officer An!"

Yan Jing patted An Ze on the shoulder in encouragement.

"You can do it! For Officer Lu's future, and for your own good days ahead, Officer An. Think about your unfulfilled dreams of buying a house, your pending promotion, your nonexistent love life, and that bicycle you've been wanting. Go for it, Officer An! You can't afford to slack off now!"

"Eh?"

An Ze blinked, failing to process this for a moment.

Weren't those words a bit off? Why did they sound so hurtful?

Although they were indeed his innermost thoughts, how could his friend know...

Suddenly, An Ze remembered passing out drunk the other night. He vaguely recalled spilling his guts at the table.

Instantly, the young man's face flushed red.

"Shhh, shhh, keep your voice down, Mr. Yi Ji. Don't let my colleagues hear you..."

An Ze lowered his voice and looked at Mantou beside them, offering a pained grimace.

"Miss Mantou, that night, did you also..."

"You... you can do it... Officer... That... that... girl surnamed Bai... you... you can definitely do it..."

Mantou's small face was completely serious. She clenched her right fist, cheering An Ze on.

"Shhh, shhh, shhh!"

Terrified, An Ze frantically pressed his index finger to his lips, his face full of despair. "Did I say anything else I shouldn't have...?"

"You told us quite a few secrets about your Pathway, Officer An."

Yan Jing smiled.

An Ze gulped, then immediately said, "I'll go try it right now. Wait here for me."

With that, An Ze bolted away.

There was nothing more humiliating than having your friends recount your embarrassing secrets. Right now, he just wanted to run as far away as possible.

Mantou's eyes were full of confusion. She had genuinely wanted to encourage An Ze and didn't quite understand why he had reacted like that.

However, this confusion quickly dissipated.

For her, there were simply too many things she didn't understand. Being confused was a common occurrence.

She was already used to it.

There were no seats in the lobby of the Order Management Bureau, so Yan Jing and Mantou sat in a corner to wait for An Ze.

During this time, Yan Jing flipped through his memories once more.

The drawing depicting the Cameraman was dated about a month ago. Calculating it carefully, that would be shortly before the Cameraman was killed.

Judging from the fact that Yu Xiran and Yu Ling had covered their faces, the Cameraman must have told that entity of desire about the memory deletion.

But... he likely never mentioned where they were buried.

Given the Cameraman's life experience of being trapped in one place since childhood, he couldn't have known beforehand that only the ward chief of Solitude Lane could pull up the wooden signs.

Even basic common sense regarding Old Sin City was essentially a blank slate in his memory.

There was absolutely no need to delete that kind of memory; doing so would only arouse suspicion.

Thinking back to that piece of information:

Yu Xiran requested to move to Solitude Lane and settle down with Meng Qianqiu after their marriage alliance...

Therefore, Yan Jing leaned more toward the theory that the entity of desire only knew the Cameraman's memories were buried in Solitude Lane, but didn't know the exact location.

Looking at Yan Jing, who was lost in thought beside her, and then at the empty lobby, Mantou opened her mouth to speak, but in the end, she held back.

[Why haven't you told him yet?]

Mantou pursed her lips and didn't answer.

[Find a chance to tell him. You don't have much time left, you should know this.]

"Mm."

Mantou nodded.

This time, she didn't argue. Her large eyes looked toward Yan Jing, revealing a hint of sorrow.

About an hour later, An Ze returned, beaming with joy.

"Mr. Yi Ji, the method you suggested actually worked!"

"After we showed him the photo of Yu Ling unconscious that you gave us, he became extremely agitated. It's a pity I can't lie during law enforcement operations. Otherwise, I'm sure that if I told him Yu Ling was on the verge of death, he would have spilled everything."

"Right now, even though he still refuses to confess, he has started bargaining with us. He claims that as long as we provide him with more information about Yu Ling, he'll loosen his lips about the details of the cases from over the years."

Hearing this, Yan Jing nodded.

"Keep up the momentum, Officer An."

"As for your inability to lie during law enforcement operations, do it like this..."

Not long after, An Ze returned to the interrogation room, feeling apprehensive.

Behind the iron bars, the Disguiser's abscess-covered body was bound to a chair with chains. He looked toward An Ze with an urgent expression.

"Did you bring news about that person?"

"Yes."

An Ze recalled what Yan Jing had instructed him to say and gave a heavy nod.

"Someone just provided an unverified piece of information."

Saying so, he handed the piece of paper in his hand to the Disguiser.

On it was a single line of text:

Yu Ling is about to marry someone.

Almost instantly, the abscesses on the Disguiser's body began to swell uncontrollably. His breathing grew extremely rapid, and weird energy surged madly from his ugly face, flickering with phantom images.

He looked as if he was about to completely mutate.

But in the end, as the chains around his body flickered with dim light, that berserk weird energy calmed down.

The Disguiser panted heavily, his eyes red as he roared, "You haven't verified it yet?!! Go verify it right now!!!"

"Whether it's verified or not is our business, Mr. Disguiser. This might require an extremely long process. As for whether it goes fast or slow, that depends on your behavior."

As soon as An Ze finished speaking, the Disguiser across from him immediately opened his mouth.

"What do you want to know? Ask! I'll tell you, I'll tell you everything!!"

Looking at the Disguiser's desperation across from him, it felt as though something had just clicked into place in An Ze's mind.

So this... was how cases could be handled...