Chapter 31: Major Discovery

“Transfer it to me?”

Lin Qing couldn’t help but study Zhao Jiayi before him and asked, “Are you serious?”

“Yes.” Zhao Jiayi gave a slight nod.

Lin Qing paused, then said, “Since you’ve mastered the Four-Six Method, you resolved your enemy on your own—this Third-Class Merit was always yours.”

“But if you hadn’t helped me back then, I’d definitely be dead.”

Zhao Jiayi said sincerely, “Anyway, one Third-Class Merit won’t let me learn any combat technique. Keeping it serves no real purpose—consider it my thanks to you.”

“Failing to aid a comrade when capable is already a violation.” Lin Qing shook his head slightly.

Merits are accumulated one by one—there’s no such thing as “useless.” He could tell Zhao Jiayi wasn’t romantically interested in him; she simply wished to express goodwill.

“Alright, I do need one Third-Class Merit right now.”

Lin Qing thought for a moment and said, “Consider it lent to me. When I have extra merits later, I’ll transfer one back to you.”

Zhao Jiayi blinked in surprise.

She muttered something under her breath, but Lin Qing didn’t understand what she said.

“What?” Lin Qing asked, puzzled.

“Nothing. Just a dialect from my hometown.”

Zhao Jiayi waved her hands. “Then consider it lent to you, Senior Group Leader. When you’ve got more merits than you can use, just return one to me.”

“Alright.” Lin Qing nodded. “When the bounty comes through, I’ll buy you high-energy sustained-release fluid.”

He had lived through the apocalypse, seen too much darkness in human hearts, and understood the value of kindness—like a thread of light in darkness.

So he disliked owing good people; otherwise, if they later faced trouble, it might cloud his judgment and make him soften.

“Have you had lunch, Senior Group Leader?” Zhao Jiayi asked, slightly embarrassed, as if she’d mustered all her courage.

“I’ll eat when I get home.” Lin Qing glanced at her. “Where are you eating?”

Zhao Jiayi muttered something. Lin Qing heard it clearly but didn’t understand.

“Again with the dialect?” Lin Qing raised an eyebrow slightly. “Where’s your dialect from?”

“I meant I’m eating out—my dad’s here to pick me up.”

Zhao Jiayi quickly shook her head. “Just a small-town dialect. I’ve heard it since childhood—I sometimes say it without thinking.”

Lin Qing gave her a skeptical look. He felt her dialect meant something else, but he couldn’t understand it.

“Fine. I’m heading home too.” Lin Qing stood up. “Teng Feiyu is on duty, so it’s fine for you to eat out. Want to go together?”

“Wait.” Zhao Jiayi hurried toward the office. “I need to change out of my uniform.”

…

After leaving the branch, Lin Qing waited by the entrance for his ride-hailing car.

“See you tonight, Senior Group Leader.”

Dressed in a casual little dress, Zhao Jiayi had lost some of her sharpness and gained a touch of youthful charm. She waved at him, then stepped lightly into a blue-and-white private car by the roadside.

Soon, the sleek car sped onto the road and vanished.

“Her family’s well-off.”

Though Lin Qing knew little about cars, he knew private vehicles in this era were at least mid- to high-end, and license plates were expensive.

You needed at least several hundred thousand, maybe close to a million, to afford one.

He certainly didn’t have the spare cash to buy one.

But since she could raise a daughter as beautiful as Zhao Jiayi—whether through plastic surgery or natural beauty—it clearly indicated a good family background.

He hadn’t seen Zhao Jiayi’s father earlier; he probably had no interest in meeting his daughter’s superior.

…

In a blue-and-white private car amid a stream of traffic.

“Dad, you came specially to pick me up just to check out the Senior Group Leader, right?” Zhao Jiayi leaned lazily against the backseat, watching her father. “Why didn’t you come out and meet him earlier?”

“I know him well enough. There’s no need for him to know me yet,” said the middle-aged man behind glasses, smiling gently.

“Dad, I wanted to give him a Third-Class Merit, but he refused. He only agreed to borrow mine.”

Zhao Jiayi puffed out her cheeks. “He clearly wants to learn combat techniques—he’s short on merits—so why would he only borrow mine?”

“That’s good,” the middle-aged man smiled. “It shows he doesn’t want to owe others. The more someone like that is, the more sincerely he’ll treat you once he accepts you.”

“Still, I feel he’s hiding a lot…” Zhao Jiayi muttered. “He seems full of caution.”

“Is that so?”

The middle-aged man laughed. “He’s hiding even deeper than you imagine.”

…

Days passed one after another.

Lin Qing spent each day practicing to make up for lost training and leading Group Seven on patrols, but found no further opportunities to earn merits.

In a flash, five more days had passed.

On January 19th.

【Senior Group Leader, I’ve made a major discovery. When can you come to the branch? I want to speak with you alone.】

In the afternoon, after completing today’s Seven-Seven Method and combat technique practice, Lin Qing received a WeChat message from the so-called golden-boy Erdai , Teng Feiyu.

“Could it be progress on the underground fighting ring?”

Lin Qing had planned to read at home, but the underground ring mattered more—it concerned his promotion to Patrol Officer. Without hesitation, he left for the bureau.

Upon reaching Group Seven’s office, he immediately went with Teng Feiyu to the adjacent meeting room.

“Speak.”

Lin Qing casually pulled out a bottled tea, glancing at Teng Feiyu across from him.

“Senior Group Leader, after days of investigation, I’ve made a major discovery.”

Teng Feiyu sat upright, voice low and serious. “I can now confirm: beneath the Red Oak Boxing Gym lies an underground fighting ring. Besides daily death matches, it’s involved in massive gambling and illegal transactions. The fighters, aside from those who signed lifetime contracts due to crushing debts, are all fugitives.”

Lin Qing listened quietly, then asked, “You never found anything before—why now?”

Teng Feiyu fell silent, took a deep breath, then spoke in a tone tinged with humiliation: “These past days, I deliberately befriended several VIP members of the underground ring.”

He pulled out his phone, opened a voice recording, and said, “They told me this after drinking. I cross-checked multiple accounts to confirm its truth—all recordings are here.”

“These days, private recordings and videos can’t serve as evidence.”

Lin Qing glanced at it but didn’t touch it. “Just tell me what you’ve learned about the underground ring.”

AI-generated voices and visuals were now lifelike; slight blurring made them impossible to verify.

Private recordings held almost no evidentiary value.

“The underground ring lies directly beneath the Red Oak Boxing Gym.”

Teng Feiyu said. “The VIP entrance is in the underground parking lot of the Qingtai Hotel—the same VIP elevator we investigated before.”

“The VIP elevator is disguised. Only after verifying a VIP’s identity do its operators trigger its descent to a concealed underground warehouse. From there, a corridor leads through multiple checkpoints to the ring.”

“The organization behind the ring is called the Yuanhong Society—rumored to be the largest underground force in Lin’an City, even dominant within the province.”

“All spectators invited to the death matches are thoroughly vetted in advance and have signed confidentiality agreements. Infiltration is nearly impossible—it’s strictly by internal invitation.”

“And the Yuanhong Society definitely has protection. They understand official operations well, so no one from the authorities stands a chance of entering.”

“Based on my investigations, everyone I spoke with claimed the most thrilling part is the ‘Death Duel’—two fighters must kill each other, with enormous betting sums involved.”

“Also, the Yuanhong Society provides VIPs with companions—female or male—whose origins remain unknown.”

Teng Feiyu took a deep breath, looking at Lin Qing. “In summary… Senior Group Leader, I believe a raid will definitely yield results.”

(End of Chapter)