Chapter 89: History of Old Sin City

After only a brief moment of surprise, Lu Miao's expression returned to normal.

"Where is the evidence?"

She didn't emphasize the consequences of deceiving her.

After all, no one knew that better than An Ze.

"Right here."

The one who answered wasn't An Ze, but Chen Nian, who stood behind him.

Trussed up like a sticky rice dumpling, Chen Nian produced his newly upgraded voice recorder and held it out to Lu Miao. "This contains the recording of the second bombing," he said flatly.

Lu Miao's gaze flicked past the voice recorder to the familiar trio behind An Ze.

A strange, inexplicable sensation stirred within her.

Why was it these guys again...

Though they were short one person today.

She took the recorder and pressed play. A soft, whispering female voice came through.

"Director, why did you call me here?"

"..."

"Director, things aren't very peaceful in the Tower right now. Everyone's saying there's a bomb."

"There isn't, and there won't be. I've been in my office all day. Aside from a little cutie like you, no one else has come in here."

"..."

"That's wonderful."

"..."

"What are you doing?! Stop right now!"

"..."

"Boom!!!"

"Beep—Playback complete. Thank you for using the Chen Nian brand—"

Chen Nian's expression shifted.

He had forgotten to change that prompt during the upgrade.

He immediately reached for the recorder in her hand.

Lu Miao reacted swiftly. With a light flick of her wrist, the recorder landed squarely in her other hand.

Her right arm then transformed directly into a dark, elongated blade.

The narrow blade gleamed with a cold light under the lamps, pointing straight at Chen Nian's extended wrist.

But to her surprise...

With a faint scrape of metal, Chen Nian's wrist—which had been reaching from the right—suddenly flickered like a phantom to the left.

It was so fast she almost couldn't track it.

Fortunately, she hit the stop button on the recorder, and Chen Nian's hand finally halted.

"Sorry. Stress tremor."

Chen Nian threw out a random excuse.

"..."

Lu Miao took a deep breath, managing to keep her expression perfectly steady.

"You might want to get that checked out at Lonely Hospital."

With that, she turned and walked into the room.

"You were right. Someone provided the evidence. There is a problem with the waitress," she said slowly, looking toward Yan Jing, who was still reading on the sofa.

"Hmm..."

Still absorbed in his book, Yan Jing responded absentmindedly before snapping to attention. He looked up and smiled.

"Sorry, Chief, I was engrossed."

"If you like it, you can keep it,"

Lu Miao said flatly.

"Really?"

Delight flashed in Yan Jing's eyes. Taking her at her word, he tucked the book under his right arm and politely thanked her.

"Chief, you just said there's a problem with the waitress, right?"

Yan Jing pulled the topic back to the bombing. "But I think it'd be very difficult for a single waitress to pull something like this off. There's most likely someone else behind her."

"Yes, I'll have An Ze look into it."

Lu Miao said slowly. "It should be quick. In Old Sin City, there aren't many Inner World Pathways capable of doing such a thing."

Since Lu Miao had mentioned the Inner World Pathways, Yan Jing seized the opportunity.

"I just read the preface to History of Old Sin City, and it mentioned that the current Old Sin City is very different from how it used to be."

"It is quite different."

Lu Miao replied evenly. "A long time ago, the seven major Domains of Old Sin City were divided among the seven Pathways of Sin."

"But later, the leaders of some Pathways left, taking the Pathways in their Domains with them. Many Domains became blank slates. It was only after many years that they were occupied again by other Pathways."

Having finished, Lu Miao turned and walked toward the door.

Clearly, it was a signal that the conversation was over.

"You're my bodyguard today, right?"

Lu Miao asked flatly as she reached the doorway.

"Coming."

Yan Jing stood up with his book and followed behind Lu Miao.

When they reached the door...

An Ze stared at the book in Yan Jing's hand, his eyes widening once again.

If he remembered correctly...

That book was one of Lu Miao's treasured items.

Back when she solved a major case for the Dream Township Branch Bureau, the bureau chief had allowed her to take a few items from his personal collection.

She had chosen those few books.

As the oldest Domain in Old Sin City, Sleepland possessed many ancient texts that had spanned the long River of Time, giving them immense value.

But now...

One of those books had actually ended up in this human's hands!

An Ze swallowed hard. In the end, he could only pretend he hadn't seen a thing.

Some things just weren't meant to be thought about too deeply. Overthinking could get a person killed...

===

It wasn't long before An Ze came running back from his investigation.

"Boss, I've confirmed it. The only ones in the Tower with a Pathway capable of manipulating emotions are the residents of Dandelion Manor."

Having already anticipated this, Lu Miao nodded.

"Where are they?"

The group soon arrived at another door on the eighth floor.

Knock, knock, knock!

An Ze stepped forward and rapped on the door.

A moment later, the door opened from the inside.

The first to step out was the woman who led Dandelion Manor.

Today, she was once again wearing a loose white robe. However, her face was flushed, and her hair was slightly disheveled.

And from the prominent outlines against the fabric, it was obvious she likely wasn't wearing anything underneath.

"Is something the matter?"

She looked at the group gathered outside the door.

Behind her, a man followed her out.

But the moment he caught sight of the people outside, he hastily ducked back into the room.

Seeing this, both Yan Jing and Fan Jue wore highly amused looks.

Because that man was none other than Chen Dalang, clad in a white robe.

Seeing him drenched in sweat, combined with the demeanor of the Dandelion Manor manager named Yu Mu, it wasn't hard to imagine exactly what kind of fierce battle had just taken place inside.

But Lu Miao clearly didn't care about any of that.

An Ze soon laid out all the Order Management Bureau's deductions for Yu Mu.

Hearing what An Ze had to say, Yu Mu's expression darkened.

"Team Leader Lu, are you saying the culprit is someone from our Dandelion Manor?"

"Yes."

Lu Miao's response was concise and straight to the point.

An Ze also spoke up at this moment.

"If you refuse our investigation, we will follow standard procedure and report our findings to Sun-Swallowing Tower, who hired us to come here."

"..."

Yu Mu's complexion worsened.

If this matter escalated to the Sun-Swallowing Tower administration, the consequences would be far more severe.

Moreover, she had to admit there were no holes in the logic An Ze had just presented.

Furthermore, they even had evidence.

Finally, her eyes flickering with hesitation, she nodded and gathered everyone in Dandelion Manor together.

The process was quick, as the daily routine for the residents of Dandelion Manor was simply to stay in their rooms and engage in reproductive activities.

Aside from the girls who were to be married off, the residents they had brought this time were specifically chosen from within the manor for not being pregnant.

Yu Mu turned around, looking at her group of brothers and sisters, and spoke in a cold voice.

"There is now evidence indicating that the bomber is highly likely to be among us."

"Everyone is to stand by where you are and submit to a search by the Order Management Bureau."