Chapter 31: Sudden Crime

Time flew by and a week swiftly passed.

The affairs of the Demon Miasma in the Outer Sea had yet to settle.

However, after a week of quiet, North City gradually returned to order.

Major fresh markets and pet hospitals, among others, resumed their business operations sequentially.

The public attention towards the problem of the Demon Miasma on the internet gradually receded.

Thanks to the joint efforts and strict control of the Patrol Bureau and the Assistant Inspector Department, North City was terrifyingly calm, seeing a reduction in crime rates to a historical low - there wasn’t even a petty thief.

Throughout this week, Li Jing performed his nightly patrol duties day after day.

In the beginning, he earnestly hoped that he would stumble upon a Monster that slipped through the net during his duty hours along the East Coast, which would potentially allow him to gain some experience.

However, life doesn’t always bring surprises.

The Patrol Bureau’s cleanup efforts were very thorough.

The entire East Coast under the responsibility of Patrol Ninth Group was calm and peaceful for an entire seven days.

...

Today was the day Patrol Ninth Group switched from the day shift to the night shift.

And it was also the day Lu Yangcheng returned from the Outer Sea.

Four o’clock in the afternoon.

Li Jing arrived on time at the middle section of the East Coast that Heavenly King Group was responsible for, and joined up with Yi Xiuzhu, who also arrived for his duty, on the rooftop of the seaside house where they rested on the first night of their shift.

After greeting each other, Li Jing put on his earphones and looked around.

"Has Yang Cheng not arrived yet?"

"He just sent word saying he’d be a bit late. We’ll just have to wait for him."

After saying that, Yi Xiuzhu turned to look at the vast and boundless sea with a sigh.

"The Demon Miasma in the Outer Sea should be sorted in another week or so. The Assistant Inspector Department will continue to maintain the organization of patrol teams, but it’s unclear where we will be assigned after these seven days. It’s honestly going to be a bit boring if we continue to patrol along the coastline."

Yi Xiuzhu’s words resonated with Li Jing.

After experiencing this past peaceful week, he now understood why no one was willing to do auxiliary inspection duties in the long run.

Experience or no experience, that’s a secondary concern.

The problem is that patrolling day after day is simply uninteresting and monotonous.

The Patrol Group is a special organization under the Assistant Inspector Department and doesn’t need to worry about various miscellaneous matters.

But these past seven days, all he and Yi Xiuzhu did was walk back and forth along the East Coast at one-hour intervals: that’s all they did.

Telling the truth, this was quite torturous.

"We’ll just have to see!"

Having let out a sigh, Li Jing said.

"There are only seven days left till the end of the month. Before we decide whether or not to move to another location, we have a rookie assessment to deal with. These past few days we have been able to take advantage of the leisure time during our job to prepare. Yang Cheng being in the Outer Sea probably didn’t have the chance to prepare. What if..."

His words were cut short as a man with a charcoal-black face arrived, levitating down to the rooftop of the seaside house.

"What if what?"

Suddenly seeing the newcomer, Li Jing and Yi Xiuzhu were both stunned and didn’t recognize him for a moment.

Looking at his features, it was undoubtedly Lu Yangcheng.

But the color of his skin was so dark, it was fair to say he looked almost like a piece of charcoal.

What was key was that only his face was black.

Every other part of him was still white.

A row of white teeth set within a face blacker than the bottom of a pan truly made a striking image.

Seeing that the duo was staring at him and their faces wore a strange expression, Lu Yangcheng, with a straight face, said.

"What? Do you no longer recognize me?"

"Ahem."

Li Jing coughed dryly and chuckled.

"Yang Cheng, how did you get so tanned? I remember that the Demon Miasma is below the sea surface, and you were supposed to..."

Before Li Jing could finish what he was saying, Lu Yangcheng interrupted with an aggrieved tone.

"All I did was odd jobs over there, I stayed on the ship the whole time. They wouldn’t even trust me enough to let me go underwater. Besides, the temperature on the Outer Sea has been over forty degrees for several days, how could I not get tanned?"

With that, he ground his teeth in frustration.

"You guys are so inconsiderate! You left me in the Outer Sea and didn’t even think about coming to my rescue! You didn’t even respond to my messages! Every time I showed up in the chat, both of you disappeared! It wasn’t till Deng Ying from the Night Watch Group took pity on me and chatted with me occasionally that I didn’t feel like dying of boredom on the sea!"

"Speaking of Deng Ying..." Li Jing tsks.

"I don’t like the sound of what you just said! The reason why Xiuzhu and I kept quiet wasn’t because we saw how engrossed you were in your conversation with Chief Deng Ying and didn’t want to interrupt, okay?"

"Hmph!"

Lu Yangcheng’s face was full of disdain, but the corner of his mouth betrayed a hint of a smile.

This past week, he had genuinely enjoyed his conversations with Deng Ying.

They had even agreed to grab dinner together.

Which was set to happen this evening after work.

As for Deng Ying, he had quite a good impression of her.

Among the three women in the Patrol Ninth Group, Deng Ying was easily the most attractive and also the strongest.

Lu Yangcheng was serious about pursuing her.

Despite his well-off background, he had yet to have a steady girlfriend.

No matter if she was interested in him or not, Lu Yangcheng thought it was necessary to try and develop a relationship with her.

Li Jing looked at the smile on Lu Yangcheng’s face and found it a bit strange.

He had seen firsthand how well Lu Yangcheng and Deng Ying got along.

Not just him, the entire Patrol Ninth Group was well aware of it.

It was common knowledge that the two were having dinner together that night.

From an bystander’s perspective, there was certainly something going on between the two.

Lu Yangcheng had distinguished himself just recently, making a name for himself. He was also quite charming and a good conversationalist.

If Deng Ying was willing to spend her breaks chatting with him, she must have some interest in him.

But with how tanned Lu Yangcheng currently is, he’s afraid he’d scare Deng Ying off the minute they meet.

Regardless

Just now, the sight of Li Jing looking at his smile, his dark face contrasted against a row of glaring white teeth, was already rather unsettling.

Just when he was hesitating whether to say something, Yi Xiuzhu spoke.

"Yangcheng, you look like you just came back from a mining job... If I were Chief Deng, I’d find it hard to accept. For dinner tonight, I suggest you be prepared."

Upon hearing this, Li Jing’s mouth twitched.

Don’t punch a man in the face!

Xiuzhu just slapped him square in his face with these words!

Lu Yangcheng clearly had expectations. Couldn’t he have phrased his words better?

Upon hearing Yi Xiuzhu’s words, Lu Yangcheng’s body stiffened and his face fell.

Seeing the situation, Li Jing quickly spoke up.

"It’s not a big issue. Yangcheng, only your face is tanned because you were wearing protective gear out in the sea. The rest of your skin is still very fair. Under the nurture of the Spiritual Qi, the tan on your face will fade over time. Chief Deng, with her beauty and kindness, should..."

Lu Yangcheng interrupted him before he could finish.

"That’s enough, you don’t have to comfort me. There’s no need to think too much about the way I look now. We’ll see what happens."

With that, Lu Yangcheng sighed heavily.

"Since we’re all here, let’s begin our patrol duty! If we don’t get going, Chief Kong will accuse us of loafing around."

"Alright."

Li Jing nodded.

We shouldn’t continue this conversation.

Xiuzhu is just frank like that. If the conversation continued, there’s no telling what he might say next.

Just as they were preparing to take flight, Kong Wu’s voice sounded in their earpiece.

"Heavenly King Group, proceed immediately to the Tianbei Seafood Market at No. 714 Dazhong Road. I just received a report from the patrol bureau. Fourteen bodies were found in an unopened shop at the Tianbei Seafood Market. It might be the work of a monster or a murder case. Some patrollers have already been dispatched to the scene. You guys should go and help out. Ground support will arrive later."

The unanticipated message over the earpiece caused Li Jing and the others to freeze momentarily.

Fourteen bodies?

Is this some kind of sick joke?

North City had been quiet this whole week...

Coming across a major incident right after getting back to work was completely unexpected for the three of them.

After exchanging a glance, Li Jing replied.

"Heavenly King Group received. We will head to the scene immediately."