Chapter 302: Clues

"I've learned my lesson."

Yan Jing nodded, leaned back against the wall, and closed his eyes.

Just as Rat had predicted, a group of Enforcers burst in seconds later, led by Zhao Jiucheng.

Zhao Jiucheng stared at Han Song, who had already been reduced to a livid corpse on the floor. His expression remained perfectly calm.

"Get up!"

"Enforcer Han had not been dismissed from the ranks. Mao Si, you are suspected of assaulting an officer, murder, and multiple violations of the peace laws."

"We will interrogate you further on these charges later."

Yan Jing smiled and pressed a button on the black device in his hand.

Unexpectedly, it wasn't just a simple audio recorder.

A holographic image sprang up before them, replaying the entire incident that had just taken place.

Zhao Jiucheng's expression didn't so much as flicker.

"Someone is suspected of poisoning Second-Class Enforcer Han Song. Check the relevant surveillance footage immediately. At the same time, we cannot rule out the possibility that you used a gaseous toxin, Mr. Mao Si. Please remain here and cooperate with the investigation."

"Alright."

Yan Jing nodded.

Before long.

Boss Rat stood on Yan Jing's shoulder as they walked out of the Law Enforcement Agency together.

A stretched black sedan was already waiting at the entrance.

The driver stood by the door, holding it open for them.

"Pops, what did you give them?"

Yan Jing reached for a glass of champagne waiting on the small table in the backseat. Knowing how these Enforcers operated, they never would have let him go this quickly, holographic recording or not.

"The public outrage over this violent enforcement," Rat said. "Zhao Jiucheng wanted us to withdraw the pressure we put on the media. In exchange, he promised to wipe five of Plague's cases clean."

Rat sat on a specially prepared little black cushion, straightened his clothes, and picked up a small newspaper from the table.

"Now, he's only agreeing to wipe three."

"Understood."

Yan Jing nodded.

In this era of information explosion, Rat still insisted on reading physical newspapers. Just as the original owner's memories had described, he was a true traditionalist.

"Are you sleeping at home tonight?"

The two of them were leaning against opposite windows when Rat suddenly spoke up.

"Not going back tonight,"

Yan Jing replied.

Rat was about to nod when Yan Jing continued, "I still have some things to handle today. I'll head back tomorrow."

Rat nodded nonchalantly.

"Hmm."

He seemed perfectly composed, showing no emotional fluctuation. Only the tail hidden behind his back swished left and right.

"There's an auction tomorrow night. It's a good opportunity to bring you along and let you have a look."

"Sounds good." Yan Jing took a sip of champagne.

If Rat was willing to bring him to such an important event, it meant he had agreed to teach him what they had discussed earlier.

He really did need to infiltrate the core circles quickly.

At the very least, he needed to reach the level of the inner councilors.

Only then could he prepare for his next mission: assassinating an opposing councilor.

"I'll have someone transfer ten thousand points to your account later. Spend today getting a proper outfit and your styling sorted for tomorrow."

"Don't embarrass me."

Rat said flatly.

"Are they all big shots?"

Yan Jing asked.

"To us, yes."

Rat kept his eyes on the newspaper. "So don't speak out of turn tomorrow."

"Alright."

After that came a long silence.

This was the norm between the original owner and Rat. Their relationship as foster father and son was much like most East Asian father-son dynamics from Yan Jing's past life. They were sovereign and subject, friends, and sometimes even enemies. They would draw blades on each other when their ideals clashed, and unless some earth-shattering disaster occurred, neither side would ever take the initiative to bare their true feelings.

Yan Jing felt this kind of relationship was actually quite nice. It was an emotional dynamic he had never experienced before.

In the original owner's memories, there had once been a conversation between the cat and the rat.

At the time, Mao Si was still in school.

He had received a questionnaire from his teacher and brought it home to ask his Rat Pops.

"Question!"

Mao Si held the questionnaire in his left hand and raised his right. "What do you consider a proper father and child?"

"Two blanks, two words."

Across from him, Rat poked his head out from behind a newspaper.

"You don't even know this?"

"What do you mean, I don't know!" Mao Si pointed at a line of small print on the questionnaire. "This question specifically requires the parent to answer."

Rat picked up his specially made miniature fountain pen and eloquently dashed off two words. Then, just as Mao Si leaned in, eager to see his old man's answer, Rat waved his paw grandly.

"Confiscated."

He didn't give a reason for the confiscation.

Either way, Mao Si never did find out the answer.

All he knew was that his teacher was arrested five days later. It turned out the man belonged to Intellect Brain, and the whole point of assigning that question was to acquire his Pops's handwriting.

What a terrible world.

Yan Jing sighed.

"Kids shouldn't sigh so much."

Rat, who had been reading his newspaper, looked up at Yan Jing.

"Understood, understood."

Yan Jing nodded.

Before long.

The car came to a stop.

But they weren't at the entrance to headquarters, nor were they at his hotel.

Yan Jing looked out the window and found they were at the entrance of a park next to a slum.

The driver silently stepped out of the car on his own accord.

Rat folded up his newspaper and looked at Yan Jing.

"Earlier at the Law Enforcement Agency, you said the reason you wanted to mess with Han Song was because he arranged for someone to kill you?"

"Yes."

Yan Jing nodded.

"There's no way he could have touched you."

Rat lowered his eyes. "There has to be someone else behind him."

"Yes."

Yan Jing nodded. "That's why I want to root them out."

"You don't need to worry about this anymore."

Rat's gaze was indifferent.

"I'll handle it."

Unexpectedly, Yan Jing shook his head.

"I want to handle this myself."

He looked at Rat and offered a cruel smile, blade-like claws extending from his fingers.

He looked rather unhinged.

Rat fell silent for a few seconds.

Then, he picked up another newspaper from the table—one several times larger than his own body—and smacked Yan Jing over the head with it.

"Lay off injecting all those messy biological drugs."

Pausing for a moment, he continued, "But since you want to do it yourself, we'll treat this as a test for you."

"You don't need to find the mastermind; you certainly won't be able to handle them. If you can find the person who actually made the move on you, along with the ins and outs of the whole affair, I'll count it as a success."

"Alright."

Yan Jing nodded.

Rat's arrangement suited him perfectly.

If at all possible, he couldn't let Rat find the person who had attacked the original owner first.

Otherwise, if that person revealed they had ground the original owner's bones to dust or mashed him into meat paste, Yan Jing would have a hard time explaining it away.

The best-case scenario was for him to find the killer directly and deal with them himself.

Even if he couldn't deal with them, he still needed to keep the latest intelligence in his own hands.

"Alright, that's enough chatting. Get out of the car."

Rat ordered.

"Here?"

Yan Jing looked at their surroundings.

They were at least an hour's drive from his hotel, and that was factoring in the highly mobile vehicles in this Domain.

"Right here."

Rat's gaze was completely tranquil. "The car is out of gas. It won't make it back to headquarters if it has to carry you."

Yan Jing didn't know if he was supposed to laugh at that deadpan joke.

In the end, he could only sigh, choosing to get out on his own before Rat could kick him out.

Watching the car slowly pull away, a thought suddenly struck him. He ran alongside Rat's window, tapping on the glass.

"Pops, make sure you eat plenty without me around! Remember to drink lots of water every day! You have a bad stomach, so cut back on milk and spicy food! Pops, you have to be happy, okay..."

...

The driver glanced at Rat in the rearview mirror, holding back a laugh.

"Fourth Young Master Cat is as humorous as ever."

"Just cheap tricks."

Rat kept his eyes firmly fixed on the newspaper. "Accelerate."

"Understood."

The driver slammed on the gas, leaving Yan Jing in the dust.

"Then, Boss, are we still investigating the Fourth Young Master's situation?"

"Didn't he say he wanted to handle it himself?"

Rat sneered.

"Then let him try."

"I've dropped him right here. If he still can't figure it out, then he shouldn't bother boasting. He'd be better off just getting married and having kids."

"Understood." The driver nodded.

Shortly after Rat had arrived at the Law Enforcement Agency, he had sent the driver a message. He ordered him to look into Mao Si's recent movements, breaking them down into daily, weekly, and monthly cycles to compare behavioral discrepancies and identify potential triggers.

To put it bluntly, he was analyzing what unusual actions Mao Si had taken recently that might have invited an attack.

In the end, the comprehensive data comparison had zeroed in on a hospital near this park.

Since I'm already here, I might as well drop by that hospital and take a look.

Yan Jing had, of course, noticed this hospital in the original owner's memories as well.

But that wasn't a recent development.

It was something that went back a long time.

The original owner, a bona fide underworld gangster, would regularly visit welfare institutions to do good deeds.

Yes, good deeds.

And his behavioral logic was the exact opposite of anyone else in the criminal underworld.

Normal underworld figures:

Used good deeds to cover up their gangster activities.

Mao Si:

Collecting protection money was just a job; his true passion was masquerading as a normal volunteer to chat with mechanically enhanced old ladies.

Incredible. Only a top-tier character like this is worth taking over.

Yan Jing mused to himself.

Soon, Yan Jing arrived at the entrance of the private hospital named Care Sanatorium.

Like most public hospitals, this facility maintained an open-door policy for volunteers.

As long as one signed up and passed a simple assessment, they could become a volunteer.

The original owner's role inside was serving meals.

With a red cross standing tall atop the white building, it looked like an incredibly normal hospital.

But Yan Jing knew it was far from simple.

After exchanging a normal greeting with the security guard at the gate, Yan Jing walked into the hospital lobby.

His gaze quickly locked onto a woman in a volunteer's uniform, half of whose body had undergone Mechanization.

This was exactly what made this hospital so unusual.

Because Mao Si had taken a fancy to this woman.

As a result, although he usually changed volunteer locations every month, he had already frequented this hospital three or four times this month alone.

"Need a hand?"

He approached and called out to the woman, who was busy carrying a stack of books.

In the original owner's memories, this woman was very gentle. She had always treated Mao Si the same way, her voice soft and light.

But this time, the woman's expression changed the moment she saw Mao Si.

"How did you get out?"

"Don't come near me."

Clutching the books, she backed away several steps in rapid succession.

Before Yan Jing could process what was going on, she shot a glance at the television nearby.

On the screen, footage of Yan Jing turning himself in was playing.

"I remember telling you this."

The woman's gaze turned hostile. "I hate criminals the most."

Alright then.

Yan Jing shrugged.

At least from this angle, Mao Si's death hadn't been entirely devoid of value.

If that lovestruck Fourth Young Master Cat had seen this scene, there was no telling how heartbroken he would have been.