Chapter 1367

NO．271：This is Shihuaiya, a textbook-level collection of stereotypes.

Is it such a thing?

A chain of hatred that spans worlds, lasts generations, and involves countless races?

Bixiketuxe·Shihuaiya sat before her desk, gazing at the case register projected onto the desktop; she skimmed for two or three minutes, the excessively prolonged sense of oppression making it impossible for her to patiently see it through.

Luzas is not a small organization; each executive oversees several large enterprises, and even the thousands of grassroots personnel each are involved in various workshops and small companies. All told, the tens of thousands of people involved are enough to have local police stations everywhere work overtime to submit those investigation documents as quickly as possible.

With Luzas's leadership either dead or captured, and the whole clan already in decline, these tasks should proceed especially smoothly; just take it slow.

But at the same time, the public attention drawn by the overly massive scale of this incident also simultaneously invited pressure from public opinion and superiors.

As the final week of December approached, regardless of anticipation for Christmas, preparations for the New Year, or making time in advance for the Spring Festival, all related wrap‑up work appeared to be operating at full tilt, beyond capacity.

By that time, the Teqiju, which specializes in handling heinous cases, unlike those grassroots departments, instead welcomed a long‑overdue rest period.

——but not including a certain Juanzhang who is consistently known for her dedication to work.

Although all this falls outside the Teqiju's jurisdiction, the Juanzhang Bixiketuxe·Shihuaiya nevertheless has permission to review every report.

She also indeed did not waste this privilege.

She, trying to piece together from the countless reports she had seen the full story of the Luzas organization, saw nothing but intertwined grudges.

Either they could be twisted into a single rope, or they kept pulling against and persecuting each other; the Luzas organization, formed from shared hatred, yet in this process generated mutual resentment, so that every incident it created and every enterprise it operated showed its distorted clues in the reports.

Just clues, after all, the time is still too short.

Only 17 hours have passed since yesterday's battle; many documents are still rough reports and just‑begun investigation records, while the four most detailed ones are, at the end, signed off by the Lintun Law Office.

Not resembling Aomo's handwriting, but more like……

In that hallucination‑like chime, her mind flashed to the horned, double‑winged snake woman; hearing that she had joined the Lintun Law Office, and earlier on the Kazdai'er Board of the forum, a post about the two had briefly spiked in heat, appearing on the front page and drawing many acquaintances' 'sympathetic concern'.

It made her feel as if she had been abandoned, holy gold!

Is it possible, is it possible, is it possible that nothing has happened between us yet, not even the premise of abandonment?

Juanzhang Shihuaiya, who felt no pity for the truth being more tragic, had eyes like torches, only thinking that the post over there was obviously grasping at wind and shadow, surely it was that fat snake entwining Aomo!

She's over forty years old, truly shameless!

The Teqiju Juanzhang, mocking fifty steps while laughing at a hundred steps, criticized this in her heart, but upon reflection she could not help but admit that, for investigating such a case, the crazy woman Huo'erhaiya is indeed overly suitable.

Similar distortion and obsession, just like her impression of the other party.

Although most people involved in this operation seemed to be merely a spectacularly risk‑free large‑scale enforcement, nervous at participation and afterwards able to plunge into the wild joy of a great achievement and worldwide attention, but as someone who has followed the event's development for a considerable time, Shihuaiya came back specifically to retrace the event's context, which spread like the roots of a giant tree, carrying a doubt in her heart.

But she never expected to witness the Shen yuan.

Gazing at the hundreds of linked cases, big and small, she felt as if she were peering into the well mouth of the dead, only to see the shocking sight of endless piled bones below.

And when each corpse you see can tell you a brutal tale of revenge, you can then see how far the evil in the name of vengeance can wildly mutate.

This, while managing the public safety bureau in a city called Dragon Gate, is absolutely impossible to witness as the evil mire, and it also gave her a different feeling toward the Dragon Gate Governor's remarks back when she was assigned to join the Otherworld Vanguard.

Indeed, Dragon Gate is neither big enough nor deep enough.

As a city that has undergone rebirth for less than twenty years, even with deep‑seated divisions in people's hearts it is hard to see such a massive tangled case context, and its connections with the various cities of Great Yan are even more subtle; any major national case would hardly reach Dragon Gate.

But do I want to see these things?

Suddenly, she remembered that the reason she came here was merely to accompany three friends.

She recalled that her original goal was merely to compete with one of them while taking on her heavy burden.

From the moment she became the Juanzhang of the Dragon Gate Imperial Guard Bureau, her career goal was already fulfilled; all of this now is merely the inertia of her long‑term ambition, and although to this day she has gained more support and responsibility through meeting more people and accumulating work experience,

Yet she still inevitably feels fatigued under the combined factors of accumulated overtime, extreme case conditions, and a deteriorating work environment.

And when a person is fatigued, they will fully show weakness.

This will cause the iron‑woman Juanzhang Shihuaiya to lose patience in adjudicating cases, her attention scattering amid boundless focal points, and her thoughts drifting who knows where.

"You look like you need a psychologist, or at least a concise vacation request."

"Uh…… you, you when did you come in?"

In the midst of panic, when the suddenly constricted pupils narrowed to a slit, it actually made that already feline Teqiju Juanzhang look like a startled cat, with both ears and tail tensed up, and the hands hidden behind the desk had nowhere to go.

If it were that Deputy Juanzhang who always wore a poker face, reminding her of her old friend surnamed Chen, that would be fine, but the person who came was one of the individuals she had just been randomly thinking about; Shihuai Ya Juanzhang instantly felt as awkward as a few boys at a class reunion years ago.

"One minute ago," Aomo answered, then added, "Before that, I had a staff member report, and I also pressed the doorbell at the entrance."

"Uh……" unable to speak, only able to squeeze out a string of bubbles from the throat, the Juanzhang raised a hand and indeed saw an unread message from a subordinate on the communications display.

As for the doorbell, she only needed to tilt her head slightly, shift her gaze a bit, and she could catch a glimpse of a floating red warning sign at the entrance beside the other person.

That meant three visits, Aomo's single statement that he had pressed the doorbell still seemed somewhat conservative.

"I… I was thinking about things, yes, yes, how did you come? Isn't today the time when Miss Rudolf and her group are supposed to perform?"

Perhaps I should be amazed at the socializing between friends, but I am more concerned about your mental state.

"Ah? No, I don't have any problems either," Shihuai Ya Miss unconsciously pinched a bit, racking her brains for something to say, but finally, under the other's patient gaze, she forced out a sentence: "Just now I was a bit absent-minded."

""

Silence

Aomo merely looked at her patiently, while she merely let her gaze wander aimlessly; although it was a workstation she knew all too well, it now seemed to have become her prison, every patch of floor glaring painfully, just like the other's presence, and she dared not let her vision rest on even an inch of fabric.

"Is there ever a time when you feel that giving feedback to others is exhausting?"

"What?"

Suddenly, Aomo spoke, and a single sentence left Shihuai Ya astonished.

"I once thought that perhaps our cooperation would become a burden for each other."

""

A single sentence made Shihuai Ya lift her head sharply; what she saw was Aomo gazing at the tabletop.

Not having their lines of sight intersect actually reduced her resistance to looking, but what mattered most at the moment was the other's words: "Friendship can affect a person's independence, but that is usually far in the future. In such a future, when one party gradually slows down or can no longer move, that mutual aid's kindness will become a hell of self-coercion."

"Well, well, it's not that awkward, is it?" Shihuai Ya understood, but she felt that this kind of behavior was more something Easterners would do; normally, who would really hold it in to the end and say nothing at all?

Yeah, who's holding it in, not saying anything at all?

"... Indeed..." The gaze was just about to lift, making Shi Huaiya's heart tighten, but those snake pupils never truly lifted.

It calmly stopped, then slowly lowered, and continued speaking.

"So I'm voicing this worry; although the thought might be offensive, I also hope you can speak frankly when you don't want to move forward, then we'll return to the earlier silence. Actually, my reason for worrying about your mental state isn't that complicated—it's simply because—didn't you propose yesterday that you'd like to come see me before the meeting?"

"Um… well, indeed… there is such a thing."

"I…"

"Exactly! I did say that!" Shouting to override what Aomo might say, just wanting to cover the present embarrassment, Shi Huaiya, Juanzhang, with unusually smooth console operation, rose and stepped forward, naturally grabbing Aomo's wrist: "Yes, let's go! Let's go now! We can't waste time!"

"……"

"What's wrong? Why aren't you leaving?"

They pulled hard, but it wouldn't budge, so they turned back with a frown, only to see the other giving them an incredulous look, especially where they'd grabbed the other's hand.

"Oh… oh, sorry, anyway, let's go; the office has an emergency transmission booth." Dodging the other's overly sharp gaze, not knowing what she was avoiding, Biquikesi merely stepped forward stiffly, trying to avoid being seen.

Thus, the stiff rear she left for Aomo was like a rod's tail; the decorative gold ring that was always hard to fall off, strung over it, clanged loose, rolled slowly, and finally struck the tip of the leather shoe.

"……"

Bending over to pick up the gold ring, which even had a bit of weight, then looking at the other—just a smooth turn away from matching the textbook reaction to all that tension—Aomo rubbed the bridge of their nose, saying nothing more.