Chapter 125 - 124: Leaving behind an encumbrance, A Cat and A Fox

After leaving a communicator for Li Jing, Shen Quan and Xu Jie used their Sky Control to depart.

Some members of the Major Crime Unit’s second team at the scene left too, leaving some to cooperate with the Forensic Department personnel in searching for potential clues.

Li Jing watched everyone bustling around, not going over to interrupt.

From the time of the incident to now, nearly three hours had passed.

After so much time, the Forensic Department still hadn’t found anything useful, and the possibility of finding any clues had become slim to none.

Looking around, Li Jing turned to Su Siliu who was accompanying him.

"Officer Su, have all the employees participating in the parade at the time of the incident already been dismissed?"

"Yes."

Su Siliu responded.

"Their statements were taken early on. After Captain Shen’s Major Crime Unit arrived on the scene and questioned them, they were allowed to leave."

Saying this, she continued.

"Without clear evidence pointing to a suspect among them, we have no reason to keep them here. Plus, they were all more or less shocked by the incident. There were even quite a few whose clothes were stained with the victim’s blood. If we don’t let them go and take care of themselves, some might have nervous breakdowns."

"Hm."

Li Jing nodded, took out his phone to check the time, and asked.

"When I left they were still here. They probably haven’t had a chance to leave the park yet, at least without changing their clothes. Do you know where they are now, Officer Su?"

Su Siliu was smart.

Upon hearing what Li Jing said, she immediately understood that he was attempting to gain insight from probing the Yun Dian employees who had been part of the parade.

However, she could not understand what the point of this would be.

The likelihood of any of the Yun Dian employees who were part of the parade being suspects was very low.

The truth is, they were just a bunch of unlucky eggs who happened to be at the scene and were caught up in the incident, no different from innocent bystanders.

In seeking them out now, Li Jing was unlikely to gain anything new, and would instead add unnecessary stress to these innocent individuals.

Regarding this, Su Siliu had her doubts.

But considering that she had been asked to stay behind to assist Li Jing, Su Siliu spoke up.

"The parade performers would do their makeup and costume changes at the park’s theater. Unless something unexpected happened, they are likely resting in the theater’s dressing room."

"Please point me in the direction. I will go by myself."

Li Jing spoke up.

"Officer Su, you stay here, please let me know if there are any new findings."

"Huh?"

Su Siliu paused for a moment.

She had indeed hesitated earlier due to her doubts, but surely Li Jing wouldn’t just leave her like that, right?

Was it because she hesitated that he became unhappy?

This was not looking good...

She took a careful look at Li Jing, and Su Siliu nervously said,

"Officer Li, don’t misunderstand, I was not questioning your decision just now."

?

Li Jing slowly threw out a question mark.

This was a bit of a self-destruction on Su Siliu’s part, which left him quite puzzled.

He hadn’t noticed any objection from her.

To be precise, he hadn’t paid much attention to her at all as he’d been completely focused on thinking about how to proceed with the case.

This case, the Major Crime second team was clueless, let alone him.

There was no obvious direction to go on.

All he could do was start from where he was "good" at.

The parade crew had a total of sixteen human-shaped demons. Starting from these demons was the only entry point he could think of at the moment.

Human-shaped demons, at least start at the Three Realm.

As a Beast Class, they were much more sensitive than humans.

Perhaps they had noticed some abnormalities before and after the incident.

No matter whether they had found anything or not, they had most likely not mentioned it in their records.

The Major Crime Team had been mobilized, and as human-shaped demons, their priority was obviously to safely back out of the situation, rather than offering valuable information to draw attention to themselves.

Li Jing wanted to go talk to these human-shaped demons and obviously couldn’t bring along Su Siliu like a "tag-along"

Seeing Su Siliu’s flustered expression as she tried to make an impression, Li Jing smiled and said,

"I am going alone for my own reasons, not because I have any objections to you, Officer Su. Anyway, please just point me in the right direction. I won’t be long, I’ll be back to find you once I’m done."

Hearing Li Jing’s words, Su Siliu couldn’t believe him.

Whether or not Li Jing had his own reasons, she didn’t know.

But him wanting to ditch her was a fact.

Feeling that she had screwed up and insisting on going along would make her seem pushy, Su Siliu reluctantly lifted her hand and pointed to the east of Paradise.

"The theater is not far to the east, only about a five-minute walk."

"Understood."

Li Jing responded, then turned around and left.

Watching him leave, Su Siliu felt a bit uncomfortable.

Li Jing’s status was not special.

But being personally "borrowed" from another department by her bureau chief proved that he was capable.

They had just started working together, and she had already offended him...how was she supposed to explain this to her superiors later?

If he were to report her, wouldn’t she be doomed?

...

After a few minutes, following Su Siliu’s directions, Li Jing located the Yun Dian Paradise Theater.

The theater was brightly lit, and the participating employees had not left yet.

Looking back to make sure that Su Siliu hadn’t sneakily followed him, Li Jing entered the theater.

The moment he stepped in, he came face to face with five employees, three men and two women, all of whom had blood on their heads and were about to leave.

It wasn’t bad luck that caused this encounter, but inevitability.

Compared with employees who needed to change into costumes and makeup to perform their roles, these human-shaped demons only needed to avoid others and hide their beastly characteristics, then they could change out of their clothes and finish up, making leaving work very convenient.

Seeing Li Jing, the five demons changed color slightly and all stopped in their tracks.

Though Li Jing was currently in casual clothes, he had left a deep impression on them at the scene when he fired a long, thick Palm Thunder.

When Li Jing came face to face with the five of them, his gaze naturally fell on the two women among them.

It wasn’t that he had a particular affinity for female demons, but rather, the two female demons happened to be the performers on the two floats that were closest to the victim at the time of the incident. One was dressed as a cat-eared maid, and the other was dressed as a fox-eared maid.

Their presence was obviously there to compliment the "princess."

The two of them were closest to the victim and, as accompaniments, likely had some private acquaintance with the "princess."

Ignoring the three male demons who were subtly protecting the two female demons, Li Jing looked at the two female demons and said,

"Could the two of you accompany me, I have a few questions."

The two female demons exchanged glances, looking a bit hesitant.

Three male demons looked at each other, and one of them stepped forward.

"Officer, we have already made our statements, and you...."

Before he could finish his sentence, Li Jing spoke.

"Don’t worry, I have no ill intentions and I am not suspecting anyone. I just want to understand some things for my own reasons."

Saying this, he took out and opened his officer’s certificate.

"Please cooperate with my investigation."

Seeing the Patrol Certificate, the male demon silently backed off.

Cooperating with an officer’s investigation is a civic duty.

Anyone involved in the case has no right to refuse, for any reason, unless they want to be forcibly brought in for questioning at the police station.

Seeing Li Jing present his officer’s certificate, the female demon playing the cat-eared maid spoke up hesitantly.

"Officer Li, where do you want us to go to talk?"

"Find a quiet, deserted place outside," Li Jing said, looking at the three male demons.

"You three may leave first. If need be, I’ll find you at your residences according to the information on your files," he said and left the theater.

The two female demons exchanged a glance and discreetly followed him.

The three male demons stood still for a moment before choosing to leave.

Li Jing’s final words weren’t threatening but were somewhat intimidating.

They were all human-shaped demons that would die when exposed to light, and they dared not show any attitude when someone came knocking for inspection. No one would dare to stealthily follow, hoping that no one would come looking for them afterwards.

...

Li Jing led the two female demons out of the theater, heading in the opposite direction of where the incident occurred.

What’s that saying again?

Better to be lucky than early.

He happened to run into these two female demons who were most likely to know something. Had he come a bit later, he might have missed them.

Given this coincidence, he decided to temporarily place his "bet" on them.

Searching every single one of the sixteen demons would not only be time-consuming and laborious, but it would also not benefit him personally to interact with too many interconnected demons.

To the demons, he was doubtless a huge threat, being able to see through their disguises.

Li Jing himself didn’t mind being targeted.

The sixteen demons involved in the parade were quite weak.

If anyone was eager to attack him out of desperation, he would be extremely welcoming.

But if it wasn’t necessary, he didn’t want to have any conflicts with the human-shaped demons who were initially enjoying their peaceful lives.

Realizing Li Jing was heading deeper into a dark, unlit area away from the theater, the two female demons couldn’t help but feel nervous. The one dressed in a maid outfit with cat ears couldn’t help but speak up.

"Inspector Li, is this far enough?" she asked.

"A bit further," responded Li Jing without looking back, continuing into the darkness.

The two female demons panicked at the sight.

Entering the pitch black with him, who knew what might happen? They were demons, but they were also girls.

If they didn’t know how to protect themselves, they would be plucked and eaten, right? But under the current circumstances, they didn’t dare to say they wouldn’t follow.

Hesitating for a moment, the two linked their hands, hand in hand, and followed him into the darkness.

After walking for a bit, Li Jing stopped at a rather picturesque garden, waving his hand to call forth the Flying Sword Blue Edge.

Seeing him summon his sword, the two female demons changed color before they could even steady their footing.

Before they could react, Li Jing held onto the hilt of the Qingfeng sword and plunged it into the ground, turning back with a smile.

"Don’t be nervous. The flying sword is merely for self-defense," he said, and then added, "Boys should learn to protect themselves when they’re out and about. I hope you two can understand."

"..."

Two female demons.

They followed Li Jing to this desolate and pitch black place, clearly it was them who were anxious, but instead, it was Li Jing who linked it with ’protecting’ himself.

What was there to understand?!

Drawing his flying sword at the first sign of disagreement, had scared them to the point of trembling knees. How were they supposed to understand?

Watching Li Jing stand with his sword, the two female demons were both angry and desperate, but they didn’t dare to show any aggression.

On the other hand, Li Jing looked calmly at their health bars above their heads.

Cat demon, 3281.

Fox demon, 3166.

Both of them were just stepping into the Three Realm.

Quite weak, but they were attractive in all respects.

Without much thought, Li Jing spoke.

"How should I address you two?"

"Xia Ming."

The cat demon responded subconsciously.

"Zhou Xuan."

The fox demon murmured.

Knowing their names, Li Jing chose to get straight to the point.

"One of you is a cat demon and the other is a fox demon, both of you have senses much sharper than that of humans. Did you notice anything unusual before or after the incident?"

The sudden exposure of their identities as demons made Xia Ming and Zhou Xuan’s faces change.

Seeing this, Li Jing pointed to the Flying Sword Blue Edge planted beside him.

"Don’t do anything stupid. If possible, I’d rather not resort to violence."

Upon hearing his words, both of them froze, looking at the Flying Sword Blue Edge, a level eight Precious Item, glowing faintly in the dark. They shrank back without a word.

Looking at the two of them huddling together and trembling, Li Jing seemed amused.

"You two are parading around with beast-like character traits in plain sight. Hasn’t anyone ever figured out that you two are monsters?"

Faced with the question, Zhou Xuan hesitated but answered first.

"No, most people wouldn’t think in that direction. And even if anyone is suspicious, they can’t find proof. Most of the guests here are just normal people. It’s very easy for us to deceive them. In case of necessity, we can quietly replace the real items with props."

As soon as the statement came to an end, Xia Ming continued.

"Our revealing of monster features is actually a requirement of Yun Dian Paradise. This is the case with other Yun Dian Paradise parks both within the country and abroad. We were recruited from special channels, and when we joined, Yun Dian Paradise promised to ensure our safety to the maximum extent."

Hearing their forthright confessions, Li Jing’s eyebrows raised slightly.

Just as he thought, Yun Dian Paradise purposely hired monsters.

And it’s not just this Yun Dian Paradise, it’s the same everywhere, both domestic and overseas. They even had special channels to recruit these monsters.

That was somewhat intriguing.

However, Li Jing wasn’t particularly interested in it.

Such shadowy industries lurk everywhere.

Such entities are mires, and stepping into them rashly is not wise.

As for Yun Dian Paradise’s promise of ensuring the safety of monster employees, Li Jing considered it nonsense.

If the park management had such influence, how could Zhang Suya die without cause?

"Answer my previous question."

After calmly stating his query, Li Jing continued.

"I won’t give you any trouble. If you two know anything about this, I hope you’ll be honest. You should have seen, the ones who arrived at the end weren’t ordinary patrolmen, but the Major Crime Unit. They aren’t going to give up until the case is cracked. If there’s no breakthrough in the case for a long time, they might even review you two."

Li Jing’s words were mostly a bluff, but there was indeed a possibility.

The Major Crime Unit temporarily dismissed the participating Yun Dian employees, primarily because the eyewitnesses were too shocked to detain them longer.

Otherwise, an intensive investigation would be inevitable.

After all, the possibility of imitating crimes has not been ruled out. The Major Crime Unit is not sure if the criminal is the same serial offender. For now, they have only established a clear investigative direction based on the lack of any clues.

If there’s no new victim within three days, the Major Crime Unit would likely review former options.

Hearing they might be reviewed, the faces of Xia Ming and Zhou Xuan turned pale.

The Major Crime Unit was indeed the last to arrive and dismiss everyone at the scene, they knew it.

Ordinary people might not recognize the difference in patrol uniforms, but as demons, they paid special attention to it.

Demons wouldn’t even dare to provoke ordinary patrols, let alone be targeted by the Major Crime Unit.

After a mutual glance and a moment of silence, Xia Ming spoke in a low voice.

"At the time of the incident, I did notice some signs. As a cat demon, my hearing is quite sharp. I think I heard a faint breaking noise."

Seeing Xia Ming speak up, Zhou Xuan also hesitated and spoke.

"I also heard some faint noises, probably something shooting over, it was very fast. I can’t say for certain, everything happened so suddenly and the scene was too noisy to clearly discern where it came from."