[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"origin-chasing-the-criminal-case":3,"chapter-chasing-the-criminal-case-chasing-the-criminal-case-chapter-65":6},{"origin":4,"title":5},"chinese","Chasing the Criminal Case",{"chapter":7,"nextChapterSlug":19,"prevChapterSlug":20,"totalChapters":21,"novelImage":22},{"id":8,"novel_id":9,"title":10,"slug":11,"index":12,"content":13,"wordcount":14,"created_at":15,"updated_at":15,"volume":16,"translator":17,"content_hash":18},2328833,4554,"Chapter 65: Guardian","chasing-the-criminal-case-chapter-65",65,"\u003Cp>Hu Jinquan said: “He told you he was going to the Jiangdong Branch the next day?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Xiao Long nodded: “Yes, yes, Officer, you’re amazing—you guessed right! We were all jealous of him back then, being able to help the police—who’d dare bully him after that?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Hu Jinquan studied Chang Huaqiang, who looked uneasy: “What are you talking nonsense for?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Xiao Long shrank back nervously: “Big Brother Qiang, I was just using a metaphor—who’d dare bully us in Lu Hua?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Chang Huaqiang clearly didn’t want to dwell on this topic; he merely glanced at him, but showed no sign of anger.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Hu Jinquan didn’t care about their squabbles and pressed on: “So you’re saying everyone who had late-night snacks with you that night heard Xiao Jiang say he was going to the branch? Were there others there? I mean, other people eating snacks?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Xiao Long directly denied it; Hu Jinquan sighed inwardly: My master was right!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Do you know the full name of that Xiao Yong?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Yeah, I know—Tao Xiaoyong.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Hu Jinquan thought: So it’s him! No doubt about it! He played it safe and asked Xiao Long to describe Tao Xiaoyong’s appearance. Xiao Long spoke well, giving a vivid, lifelike description that matched almost perfectly the suspect recently captured by You Xinfa.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He finally asked: “Where does Tao Xiaoyong usually live? Does he know where Xiao Jiang lived?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“We all rented together—not far from the dance hall, in Jiangjia Tai.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>With the questioning at this point, Xiao Long had already sensed something was off between Xiao Yong and Xiao Jiang. His curiosity flared: “Officer, what did Tao Xiaoyong do?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Hu Jinquan grew alert: “What do you think Tao Xiaoyong could have done?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Beside him, Chang Huaqiang noticed Xiao Long was overstepping and opened his mouth to stop him—but Hu Jinquan raised a hand to halt him, waiting for Xiao Long’s answer.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The boy didn’t notice Chang Huaqiang’s gesture and replied bluntly: “That guy’s a bit dense—I mean, stubborn as hell, and he holds grudges like crazy!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Hu Jinquan found this interesting and smiled: “How do you know that?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Seeing Hu Jinquan smile, Xiao Long grew even more eager to impress. He boasted: “This guy hadn’t been in Lu Hua long, but I saw him quietly kill that nosy dog—just happened to catch me there. But that guy, Bao Dajian, was a real bastard; we all hated him, so I didn’t report it. Still, I had to ask why. Tao Xiaoyong said that dog kept chasing him, driving him nuts, so he slipped rat poison into its food. But he didn’t stop there—he chopped the dog into pieces with a knife! I saw it all while he was doing it.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Hu Jinquan thought of how Tao Xiaoyong had disposed of Shao Tianyang’s body, and looked at the talkative Xiao Long with quiet relief: Thank heaven you only saw him chopping a dog!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>At this point, Tao Xiaoyong’s suspicion in Xiao Jiang’s murder grew heavier. If his master’s hypothesis was right, then Xiao Jiang’s death came from seeing the girl’s face clearly. Hu Jinquan felt a pang of guilt: If only they’d taken Xiao Jiang away that night, would he still be alive?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But now, thinking about it was pointless.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Hu Jinquan quickly shook off his distractions. He knew his job was to find Xiao Jiang’s crime scene, locate the murder weapon and witnesses, and pin the crime on Tao Xiaoyong. He wondered how his master and Gu Changzheng were faring at the Jiangnan Branch, dealing with that monster.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>At the Jiangnan Branch, Gu Changzheng suddenly sneezed. He thought: I’m in perfect health—could someone be talking about me? But he had no time for idle thoughts. The Tao Xiaoyong before him was exactly as Officer You had described: no matter what you said, he sat motionless, like a man in deep meditation.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Lu Haoxuan stared at him and suddenly said coldly: “Tao Xiaoyong! You think not speaking means we don’t know what you did?” Tao Xiaoyong remained unmoved, as if Lu Haoxuan didn’t exist.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Lu Haoxuan sneered: “Let me tell you—the person you killed Jiang Weimin to protect is now in our custody!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>At this, Tao Xiaoyong jerked upright, his eyes locking onto Lu Haoxuan with venomous hatred. He tilted his head as if thinking, then smirked: “Hmph! You won’t catch her. I’m not the only guardian.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Guardian?!” Tao Xiaoyong’s first words were a bombshell. Lu Haoxuan had been bluffing—claiming the police already knew he was Xiao Jiang’s killer—but Tao didn’t care about that. He only reacted fiercely to news of the girl.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Lu Haoxuan knew the girl was no ordinary person—now he saw she was far from it. He quickly steadied his shock and said coldly: “Tao Xiaoyong, no matter how many ‘guardians’ you have, we’ll catch them all. Let me tell you—you’ll soon be sharing a prison cell with the rest of your guardians.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“I know I’m dead anyway. You’ll find a hundred, a thousand ways to convict me—but I don’t care.” Tao Xiaoyong, who had been silent until now, suddenly spoke freely, shrugging at Lu Haoxuan: “A Lan is our goddess. No one dares defile her! Yes, the one we protect is A Lan—I’m not afraid to say her name. You’ll never catch her! Hmph! That rich kid—the one whose head’s in my fridge—he’s the one I killed. He deserved it! He—he—he! He deserves to die a hundred times over! He’s a sewer rat! He belongs in the sewers, doesn’t he?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Lu Haoxuan looked at Tao Xiaoyong’s feverish expression and felt a chill crawl up his spine. What power did this girl have to make him so fanatically devoted he’d kill for her?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Tao Xiaoyong, lost in his own world, went on: “I killed the butcher—oh right, ‘butcher’ was his codename. You know the story of Pao Ding dissecting the ox? Of course you do! Hah! The butcher had Pao Ding’s skill. After he dismembered that rat’s limbs, I was furious—he’d dirtied my goddess! So I had to handle him myself! Hahahaha! It felt so good! In my home, I treated him like a dog… Xiao Jiang—I didn’t want to kill him. But after seeing A Lan, he stared at her all night with lust! Worse—he planned to report her to the police! Hmph! He wanted to die—I just helped him.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Lu Haoxuan watched him coldly. A Jiangnan Branch officer beside him scribbled furiously. With Tao Xiaoyong’s confession, the truth behind the entire case was about to be unveiled.\u003C\u002Fp>",1080,"2026-06-20T19:35:30.807Z",1,"Qwen3-Next 80B","ad97fcb04615087a824c042f36ea14511eb0a21f9b9c87e1fd6049813cf70a2a","chasing-the-criminal-case-chapter-66","chasing-the-criminal-case-chapter-64",276,"https:\u002F\u002Fnovelzhen.com\u002Fimages\u002Fcovers\u002Fchasing-the-criminal-case-cover.jpg"]