Dark Light Chaser.

Chapter 31 The Meeting at the Fast Food Restaurant
Ten years ago, when Ai Liang was working as a vigilante, her first partner was Xia Qiyuan, that old bachelor. Ai Liang was responsible for collecting intelligence and evidence, while Xia Qiyuan was responsible for making arrests.

After several collaborations, Xia Qiyuan began to investigate Ai Liang's true identity, but all his efforts were in vain.

After all, Ai Liang's true form was only five years old at that time, so even if Xia Qiyuan were Sherlock Holmes reincarnated, he wouldn't be able to trace it back to him.

One is a Nevada City detective, and the other is an intelligence dealer with an unknown identity and purpose. No matter how many times they cooperate, there is always a barrier between them.

At that time, Xia Qinian was just a novice who had just stepped out of the ivory tower and into society. In his eyes, Ai Liang and Xia Qiyuan were close partners who worked together to fight crime, one in the open and the other in the dark.

And this misunderstanding has persisted to this day.

That's right, even now Xia Qinian still regards the hermit as his uncle's close friend.

Has he wasted all his social experience over the years?

Ai Liang's expression showed a hint of disgust.

"If you don't care, why did you call me?" Xia Qinian hadn't given up yet.

"I just want you to pass on a message to Shi Feng: I have no intention of harming Yue Chongshan. I have already decided to retire completely."

Ai Liang's sudden decision to call Xia Qinian was precisely for this purpose.

Using an old-fashioned mobile phone to call Shi Feng, the captain of the criminal investigation team, and saying that he wanted to retire, was seen by others as an open provocation and a disregard for the technical department.

It's like a wanted criminal calling the police and saying he wants to live a peaceful life and asking them to stop looking for him.

If the police catch this kind of person, they'll beat him senseless.

Don't be fooled by how the police struggle to find assassins using their work phones in movies. In reality, if the police really wanted to investigate, they could simply connect to a black base station and everything would be exposed.

Ai Liang wasn't sure if the police had controlled the self-built base stations in Nevada City in recent years, so she used this roundabout way to tell Shi Feng.

"Wait, many things can't be explained clearly over the phone. Why don't we meet in person tomorrow?" Xia Qinian suggested tentatively.

"Not interested, goodbye."

“There’s a guy called Masked who’s been tracking you lately, and I’ve got some leads!”

Just before hanging up the phone, Xia Qinian played his last card, and Ai Liang's finger hovered over the hang-up button.

Xia Qinian spoke rapidly on the other end of the phone: "A few days ago, someone tried to recruit you into an organization, right? They're the ones spreading the recent rumors, their goal is to lure you out. Not only that, they're also involved in the organ trade from ten years ago. That guy who called himself Mask Number Three was the buyer in that deal! We can cooperate on this matter."

Ai Liang put the phone to her ear again and asked, "Just one more question, where did you hear that someone is investigating me?"

“I know one of their insiders who wanted to defect.”

"name?"

Xia Qinian took a deep breath and uttered a name that Ai Liang was very familiar with: "Xu Zhihai".

Ai Liang remained silent for a while.

Why would Xu Zhihai, a scavenger, get involved with this group of people? Besides, isn't his storyline over yet?

However, these are not the main points; there is another issue at hand.

It was recently revealed that Xu Zhihai was the mastermind behind the two murders. Although he was released due to insufficient evidence, the police will definitely have someone keeping an eye on him.

Now that Xia Qinian is going to bring him to meet him again, he will inevitably be exposed to the police.

Ai Liang finally understood what it felt like to lift a rock only to drop it on your own foot.

Seeing Xia Qinian's attitude of "I won't say anything until we meet," it seemed that not meeting him was not an option.

That group not only abused their name, trying to make her take the blame, but also planned to kill her after their invitation failed. There was also the cursed object the masked man had mentioned earlier; all of this made it impossible for Ai Liang to ignore.

"Tomorrow night at 7 PM, at the fast food restaurant on the fifth floor of Yuelai Shopping Mall. Remember to bring Xu Zhihai along," Ai Liang said.

When soldiers come, I'll block them; when water comes, I'll dam it. Anyway, I'm a completely different person after I transform. As long as I find an opportunity to get rid of the pursuers, I can turn back into my original form.

Large shopping malls have extremely high foot traffic, so you can just find a restroom, slip inside, and come out again.

Unless they also have superpowers, they would never discover their true identities.

"clear."

Xia Qinian's tense nerves finally relaxed, and he breathed a long sigh of relief.

Ai Liang hung up the phone, turned off the old man's phone, and returned to the bedroom. She then took out another spare phone from her desk drawer.

He had seen the model of that phone when he had dinner with Xia Qinian before.

Although most people wouldn't associate a fifteen-year-old ordinary student with a notorious throat-slitting maniac in the black market, details matter, and to be on the safe side, Ai Liang decided to use her backup phone.

The next day, at 5:30 pm.

Ai Liang changed into a pure white T-shirt and cropped jeans, which was the most frequently seen outfit he had observed and tallied around the mall during the day. He also chose the most popular style of shoes at the moment.

Ai Liang wasn't doing this to follow a trend. The first priority for the police in tracking down suspects is to look for physical characteristics. When surveillance cameras can't clearly capture a person's face, height, build, and clothing become the key areas of investigation. Because they haven't received relevant training, it's difficult to imagine a person's appearance based solely on descriptions.

However, if he were to cover himself up completely, he would only stand out more. In crowded places, there would be one person out of every twenty people dressed similarly to Ai Liang. Once he blended into the crowd, he would be as hard to distinguish as an unscrupulous building materials merchant mixing ashes into cement.

After changing her clothes, Ai Liang took a taxi to Yuelai Shopping Mall.

With an hour to go before the agreed time, Ai Liang took advantage of the time to explore the entire mall, figuring out the location of every security camera and the general layout of the mall. Then, she ordered a green tea at a beverage shop on the third floor, left her handbag there, and told the shop assistant that she was going to the restroom and would come back to pick it up later.

He then put on a black mask in the mall restroom and changed his physique to complete the transformation into a tough guy.

Disguised as a hermit, Ai Liang avoided surveillance cameras and made her way to the fast food restaurant on the fifth floor.

Xia Qinian and Xu Zhihai had been waiting there for a long time.

Xia Qinian sat with a Sima Yi-style calligraphy scroll on his face, his fingers tapping incessantly on the table, clearly expressing his current bad mood. Xu Zhihai, on the other hand, ate fries without a care in the world, occasionally taking a sip of cola.

The fast food restaurant was doing good business, almost full. After refusing the request to share a table once again, Xia Qinian's face became increasingly gloomy.

At this moment, Ai Liang walked straight to the opposite side of him and sat down.

“This place is already taken.” Xia Qinian rudely asked Ai Liang to get up and leave.

Ai Liang glanced at the surveillance camera in the corner, and after confirming that it could only capture her back, she took off her mask and said, "That's me."

Upon hearing that familiar androgynous voice, Xia Qinian's eyes widened as he looked Ai Liang up and down in disbelief.

"How come you still look so young after all these years?"

The rough-around-the-edges guy couldn't think of a suitable adjective after thinking for a long time, and could only manage to come up with the word "young".

Ai Liang now looks to be only twenty-seven or twenty-eight. Ten years ago, he met Xia Qiyuan and his nephew with this appearance, and ten years later, his appearance has not changed at all.

In contrast, Xia Qinian, with his unshaven beard, would only be treated as a junior by his grandfather's generation.

Ai Liang put her mask back on and said, "You didn't come here to talk nonsense, did you? If you want to keep dragging this out, I don't mind. That plainclothes officer by the window will recognize me soon, and don't blame me for leaving then."

"The plainclothes officers were there to monitor Xu Zhihai, not to say that," Xia Qinian said, trying to explain, worried that Ai Liang might misunderstand.

“I know, I’ve already investigated his information. Now I only care about what he knows.” Ai Liang turned her gaze to Xu Zhihai, a sharp glint flashing in her eyes.

Upon hearing this SSR-level figure from the Black Zone direct the conversation to him, Xu Zhihai greeted him with a cheerful and friendly smile, saying, "It's truly an honor to be remembered by the infamous Throat-Slitter."

“A CEO who hides behind the scenes and directs others to commit murder is more impressive,” Ai Liang retorted without hesitation. “They let others do all the dirty work.”

"You think you're clean?" Xu Zhihai picked up a French fry covered in ketchup and put it in his mouth.

Ai Liang looked directly into Xu Zhihai's eyes, as if saying to him and to herself, "No one's hands are clean; the key is how they get dirty."

"Hmm, that's an interesting statement. So, I'm on your kill list too?"

"You'd better stay in jail."

"It was Gao Fuye and Wang Qiang who killed my sister. As her brother, is it wrong for me to seek revenge? And do you have the right to say that to me?"

Upon hearing that he was on the throat-slitting maniac's kill list, Xu Zhihai not only wasn't nervous, but even dared to laugh and retort, showing considerable courage.

Ai Liang's original intention was not to pursue the matter, but when said by a hermit, it took on a different meaning.

It is clear that a cognitive error occurred during the transmission of the words, leading Xu Zhihai to mistakenly believe that Ai Liang was going to harm him.

"I only killed those who deserved to die, but innocent people died because of you."

Ai Liang said solemnly.

"Ha, the daughter of my enemy."

Xu Zhihai said dismissively.

Xu Zhihai's situation is complicated. It's understandable that he killed Wang Qiang out of revenge, but Gao Jiajia was an innocent victim.

Ai Liang wouldn't care if someone killed for revenge, but Xu Zhihai involved innocent people, which meant that his actions touched Ai Liang's bottom line but didn't completely cross it.

That's why Ai Liang advised Xu Zhihai to turn himself in after discovering he was the real culprit, because Ai Liang herself had no right to judge whether his actions were right or wrong.

Xu Zhihai only chose this extreme method of revenge when he had no other options.

Unlike those heinous criminals in the Black Zone, who could be dragged out and shot for ten minutes without hesitation, he killed without any remorse.

Ultimately, Ai Liang was merely using those criminals to vent their emotions and incidentally eliminate evil and maintain order. He was not a truly impartial and selfless lawbreaker. Ai Liang usually left these personal grudges to the police.

Moreover, Ai Liang had another fundamental and direct reason for urging him to turn himself in: when he discovered that Xu Zhihai was the murderer, a thought flashed through his mind.

Ai Liang was very familiar with that thought, so familiar that it frightened him.

Xia Qinian, who had originally planned to let the two get to know each other first, could only step in as a peacemaker when he saw the two at odds.

"Time is of the essence, let's exchange information directly."

Xia Qinian suppressed his desires and handed the initiative in the conversation to Ai Liang.

Ai Liang didn't mince words and directly questioned, "Your relationship with Mask Number Three, the name of the organization behind you, and the main purpose of your organization—please explain these things clearly."

"Hmm, you really don't hold back." Xu Zhihai put down his fries, took a sip of cola to moisten his throat, and performed a Sichuan opera face-changing act, as if the unpleasantness just now was an illusion. "It's too troublesome to explain these things, so let me start from the beginning."

"First of all, the organization is called the 'Apostles Society'. Its main purpose is to invite special talents from all over the world to join the organization. As for who are special talents, I don't know. They seem to have a special set of evaluation criteria."

“Three years ago, after my whole family passed away, a guy called Thousand Faces approached me and offered to let me join them in exchange for helping me take revenge. I was desperate and agreed. You can all find out what happened after that, so I won’t go into details,” Xu Zhihai said. “As for the purpose of this Apostles Society, I don’t know. After all, I’m just a prospective member and haven’t officially joined yet. Besides the person who invited me, I haven’t met anyone else.”

"As for Mask Number Three, he seems to be an external armed member of the Apostles Society. I don't have much interaction with him. You might not believe it, but they possess some kind of special power that can instantly enhance their physical abilities. That masked man can even lift a 50-kilogram barbell with one hand."

"As for other matters, let Mr. Xia Qinian explain them. Fried chicken legs won't taste good when they get cold." Xu Zhihai tore open the seasoning packet, sprinkled black pepper powder all over the golden-brown skin, and took a big, satisfying bite, making a crunchy sound.

“They came here once ten years ago. According to the records, the masked man was looking for Cat's Eye to buy a live heart,” Xia Qinian added, picking up where he left off. “My uncle disappeared ten years ago while chasing after that masked man.”

Ai Liang kept a straight face the whole time. Xu Zhihai seemed to say a lot, but he didn't actually reveal much information. The only useful information was the name of that bizarre organization.

As Ai Liang pondered how to find members of this organization, Xia Qinian asked with a somber and pained expression, "Is my uncle still alive?"

Over the years, he had been hypnotizing himself that Xia Qiyuan was definitely still alive, but ever since he read the files in Shi Feng's office, a small crack appeared in Xia Qinian's originally resilient heart.

Ai Liang's answer might be glue to fill that tiny crack, or it might be a stone chisel that widens the crack and shatters the whole heart.

“He’s probably dead.” Ai Liang’s tone was terrifyingly calm. “When Xia Qiyuan was taken to the ambulance, his broken ribs had pierced his lungs, his right leg artery had been cut, he had multiple fractures all over his body, and all his fingernails and teeth had been pulled out. It was obvious that he had been subjected to inhuman torture, and there was a high probability that he wouldn’t survive.”

"But I couldn't find any hospital ambulance dispatch records." Xia Qinian clenched his fists, his eyes suppressing his anger. "None of the hospitals in Nevada City, including the emergency room of the criminal investigation team, have any records of his visit."

"I only saw him being carried into an ambulance by a group of people in military uniforms; I don't know anything else," Ai Liang replied curtly.

"Military uniform?" Xia Qinian was taken aback.

He then fell into deep self-doubt, which meant that Xia Qiyuan had been taken away by the authorities.

(End of this chapter)