Chapter 337: Bizarre! Bizarre! Bizarre

「January 8th.」

Weather: Sunny.

Temperature: Four degrees Celsius.

「On the west side of Jiangsan City, within the Donghua District.」

A blue tent had been set up outside Building A. Its four sides were covered with thick, quilt-like insulation to block the wind.

“Have you eaten?”

Xu Huo arrived, looking thoroughly bored. He lifted the tent flap and, seeing a few familiar faces inside, pulled out a plastic bag of steamed buns.

The buns were still steaming, filled with pork and scallions, and they gave off a tantalizing aroma.

“Not in the mood to eat.”

At the table, Li Jianye’s brow was deeply furrowed. He didn’t even look up.

“What about you two?”

Xu Huo turned his gaze to Wang Chao and Zhang Min.

This was Donghua District, where Zhang Min lived.

The entire residential complex was now swarming with police officers.

They were likely canvassing the other buildings, reviewing surveillance footage from the area, or searching for clues.

But without a doubt, even at seven-thirty in the morning, the police were hard at work.

“I…”

Zhang Min’s face was ashen, drained of all color. She sat wrapped in a blanket, and at the sound of Xu Huo’s voice, her vacant eyes shifted toward him.

Her lips parted.

“I’m not hungry.”

Xu Huo nodded and looked over at Wang Chao.

“Want a couple?”

“I’ll take three!” Wang Chao declared.

Xu Huo simply shoved the whole bag of buns at him.

Wang Chao took the bag, thought for a moment, and looked at Zhang Min. “You sure you don’t want one, niece?”

Zhang Min remained silent, then shook her head.

She was utterly speechless, as if part of her very soul had been torn away.

“Hah, you just have to get used to it. I’ve said it before—Jiangsan City’s feng shui is terrible. This stuff is normal here.”

Wang Chao casually tossed a bun into his mouth. Only after chewing and swallowing did he speak.

Zhang Min fell silent, her mind involuntarily replaying the scene from last night.

‘There was someone hidden in the air conditioner…’

‘A man was hidden inside!’

‘His milky-white eyes stared down at her through a narrow gap, meeting her gaze.’

Zhang Min had nearly fainted on the spot.

The feeling, the sheer horror of it, had pushed her heart rate beyond its limit, yet a suffocating pressure had crushed her, stealing her breath.

Her mind felt as if it had been scoured by a nuclear blast—suddenly blank, without a shred of logical thought.

Not until Wang Chao kicked the door open.

After a quick look around, he had picked her up and casually strolled out of the room.

He had been so calm, his heartbeat and blood pressure perfectly normal. Pressed against his chest at the time, it was his calmness that had given Zhang Min a sliver of security and kept her from fainting.

「At this thought.」

Zhang Min couldn’t help it. She looked up at Wang Chao, perplexed.

“Aren’t you scared?”

Wang Chao, who was in the middle of eating a bun, paused. He looked at Zhang Min, wrapped in her blanket and clutching a cup of hot tea.

He looked confused.

“Scared of what?”

“The dead body! We saw a dead body last night. Aren’t you scared!?”

Zhang Min shuddered at the memory, lowering her head and curling into herself as she spoke in a small voice.

“Oh.”

Wang Chao nodded. “And here I was thinking something was actually wrong.”

“Why would I be scared of a dead body?”

Zhang Min: ???

“You’re not scared?”

“He’s dead. He’s no different from a slab of meat. I’m alive, and I can do whatever I want. Why should I be the one who’s scared?” Wang Chao shot back with a question of his own.

“If anyone should be scared, it’s the corpse. It should be scared of what I might do to it.”

After that little speech, Li Jianye didn’t know what Zhang Min was feeling, but he knew his own brain had just stalled. He couldn’t help but look up and stare blankly at Wang Chao.

The few police officers nearby had the same reaction.

“But… but he’s dead,” Zhang Min said hesitantly. Something about his logic felt wrong.

“So what if he’s dead? Does that mean I have to be scared?” Wang Chao said, annoyed. “I’m the one who’s still alive!”

“Why don’t you ask him if he’s scared that *I’m* alive?”

Zhang Min: ?

Before she could speak again, Wang Chao’s voice cut in.

“Besides.”

“If a proper entrepreneur flinches at the sight of a corpse, they have no business at the negotiating table.”

Wang Chao took a sip of hot tea, a look of satisfaction on his face.

“So, what do you say? Niece, want me to take you home?”

Zhang Min paused, then fell silent. After a moment, she shook her head. “No, that’s okay. I’ll just find a new place to live.”

“Attagirl.” Wang Chao gave her a thumbs-up.

At this, Xu Huo averted his gaze.

‘Zhang Min is tougher than I expected,’ he thought. ‘She didn’t just see a corpse and run home crying to her father.’

‘Then again, she is Zhang Niu’s daughter. That man has torn apart who-knows-how-many thugs on the battlefield; it stands to reason his daughter wouldn’t be ordinary.’

「Pushing those thoughts aside.」

Xu Huo turned his eyes to Li Jianye.

“How’s the case going?”

Hearing his voice, Li Jianye turned, sighed, and gave him a helpless look.

“It’s hard to put into words.”

“How hard?” Xu Huo asked, raising an eyebrow.

Li Jianye didn’t know how to respond. After a moment of silence, he said:

“Bizarre.”

“Bizarre in a way I’ve never seen before!”

“From the body to the clues, to the scene itself, everything screams that one word. I’ve never encountered a case like this in my entire life.”

“I can’t explain it clearly. Go take a look at the scene yourself, and you’ll understand.”

“The scene is on the fifth floor. Group Leader Zhang Liang, Zhao Gang, and Sun Jian are assisting with the investigation up there.”

‘For the captain of a criminal investigation unit to describe a case this way…’

‘Bizarre?’

‘And an unprecedented kind of bizarre!’

‘Could it really be more bizarre than the case where dismembered body parts floated for miles upstream against the current, leading the police right to the killer?!’