Chapter 151: Clouds of Suspicion (Middle Two)

A scent more evil than a demon's...

Hearing Li Ang frown slightly at her words, he glanced at the 【I Am the Demon】 badge in his emblem column before speaking:

"The demonic aura on me is because my compatibility with demon-type Anomalies is extremely high, and I've been continuously using a demon Anomaly called 【War Diagonal】.

Also, please try to ask questions within the scope of the matter; I don't see how this has anything to do with the Rhine Blood Night."

"Not necessarily unrelated."

Looking at the evil aura-shrouded Li Ang before her, the female investigator snorted and said:

"Demons are the embodiment of desire. People with extremely high compatibility with demon Anomalies almost all have intensely greedy personalities — yet you, on the other hand, refuse this and refuse that. So I have reason to suspect you're lying, and that your hasty donation of property was a deliberate attempt to evade the investigation!"

Watching the female investigator clearly picking a fight, Li Ang narrowed his eyes and countered in a cold tone:

"If I donated to deliberately evade the investigation, then what if I hadn't donated, and instead chosen to accept the ducal title and the Rhine family's wealth? Would you accuse me of orchestrating the Rhine Blood Night for personal gain? Is this how you conduct your investigations?"

"I never said anything like that."

Although she seemed to harbor enormous hostility toward the entire *** Cleanup Bureau for some unknown reason, repeatedly making things difficult with her questions, the female investigator wasn't a complete fool and naturally wouldn't leave herself open to such a line of attack. She gave a cold snort before retorting:

"You have extremely high compatibility with demon Anomalies, yet you act as if you want nothing. I merely suspected you were deliberately concealing something, so I raised a reasonable doubt, that's all."

"Reasonable doubt my ass!"

Just as Li Ang narrowed his eyes slightly, wondering whether he should set a little trap for her, Hearing Hearing Heishanyang — who had been listening at the table the whole time — couldn't help struggling out of the shopping bag and spat a thick, yellow, old-man's loogie right at her face.

Watching the female investigator jump in fright and dodge in panic, Hearing Hearing Heishanyang couldn't help cackling with glee, then fixed her with a pair of goat-eyes and asked:

"Hey, lady, why didn't you bring your mom along when you left the house? Afraid it'd delay her while she goes off to find you a new daddy?"

"You?!!!"

"What 'you'? In your own words, this is what we call a reasonable doubt!

Of course, if you had brought your mom along, that'd mean you were planning to pick out the next daddy yourself... Heh, isn't that just a reasonable doubt? As if nobody else can do it!"

After a few choice words that made the female investigator's face turn purple with rage, Hearing Hearing Heishanyang raised an eyebrow at Li Ang, giving him a look that said "leave the cursing war to me, don't worry," then took a deep breath and immediately continued firing:

"You should take a piss and look at yourself in it — looking the way you do, you actually have the nerve to do this right in front of me... mmh?"

Staring at his own mouth, which had suddenly sealed shut as if it had never existed, Hearing Hearing Heishanyang's eyes went wide with shock, and he let out a string of muffled grunts and groans.

The senior investigator, who had been silently taking notes the whole time, set down his two index fingers crossed in an X shape, and said apologetically to Li Ang, who looked somewhat surprised:

"My apologies. Aisha here has some prejudice against people from your Bureau, and her way of asking questions is indeed inappropriate. I'll take over the questions from here on, but please also try to keep that Anomaly of yours under some control.

The Bureau's regulations on this kind of matter are very strict. Even though this is just a routine post-incident inquiry, aside from Bureau Chief Lady Olivia herself, in principle no one else is permitted to sit in on or interfere with it."

"Fine. Since you're being reasonable, I'm willing to be reasonable too."

Using the Holy Spirit Pendant to drag Hearing Hearing Heishanyang over and set him down across from the trembling female investigator, Li Ang locked goat-eyes against human-eyes with her, then raised his own objection:

"But you should also be aware that this Miss Aisha seems to harbor deep prejudice against our Bureau — prejudice deep enough to affect her judgment and conduct.

I believe she shouldn't have been assigned to this investigation at all. For the Head Office to send down investigators who have a conflict with us is not only unfair to us, it also makes it impossible to obtain accurate results

."

"..."

The senior investigator paused in surprise at his words, a thoughtful look flickering through his eyes as he seemed to hesitate over how to answer. The female investigator beside him, however, couldn't help but snort:

"You think I wanted to come?

To ensure impartial results, investigators must be sent down in pairs. The Head Office only has nineteen investigators in the three northern countries altogether — sixteen of them have had run-ins with you people, and the other two have a blood feud with you!

Heh, next time, tell me who you'd like to send! Pick anyone you want, as long as it's not me — I'll even help you invite them personally!"

"..."

Holy shit... does that mean out of nineteen investigators, they've pissed off eighteen?

Peering through Hearing Hearing Heishanyang's soul-vision and confirming that the female investigator was actually telling the truth, Li Ang — who had just received a small shock to his understanding of interpersonal relationships — clicked his tongue and tried, somewhat stubbornly, to defend the Bureau:

"Well... I haven't been with the *** Branch Bureau for long, but I've worked with a few of the seniors there, and they're all really nice people... Could there be some kind of misunderstanding here?"

"..."

Hearing Li Ang's words and sensing no trace of falsehood on him — he really seemed to believe it — the female investigator, who had been sneering just moments ago, stiffened, her face filling with disbelief:

"You... you actually think they're decent people?"

"Uh... is there a problem with that?"

Li Ang thought for a moment, then frowned:

"The Bureau Chief has a pretty serious drinking problem, but when she's sober she's sharp and capable, and she's always looked out for me — even treating me to drinks now and then. Senior Auntie Ai Ma is both gentle and meticulous; thanks to the valuable experience she passed on to me, I managed to get through several crises safely.

As for Senior Jerry... he seems to have a bit of an unsavory habit of stealing, but he's very generous and enthusiastic. I only did him a small favor, and he gave me Anomalies and weapons, and carefully taught me how to use them. He's a great senior too."

"..."

The blood-drunk Blood-Haired Princess treats you to drinks, the ferocious Corpse-Severing Executioner is gentle and patient with you, and the Sewer Emperor doesn't steal from you — instead giving you stuff?

What the hell... is it that you're living in a dream, or that I just never woke up?

Listening to Li Ang's description of the *** Cleanup Bureau as a place where everyone was kind, everyone got along, and it was basically paradise for new hires, the deep, vicious look on the female investigator's face unconsciously faded away completely. She then muttered in utter dejection:

"You really are something... damn it, just pretend I never said anything."

"???"

Watching the female investigator cover her face with the file folder and lie flat on the sofa without moving, Li Ang was silent for a moment, then turned his head to look at the senior investigator beside her.

"Did I say something wrong?"

"No, nothing at all."

Looking at Li Ang, who was thriving in a place like the *** Cleanup Bureau and even saw everyone there as a good person, the senior investigator was at a loss for words. He could only mumble a vague response, then silently unfolded the investigation form and wrote seven question marks in a row in the mental state column.???????

There's definitely something wrong with this guy's head!