Reborn Cat Sheriff

Chapter 363 The most poisonous woman’s heart
Surprisingly, it wasn't Xu Yinghui who came out after the door opened, but a girl wearing thick, cute pink pajamas.

The girl looked to be just over 18 years old, still rubbing her sleepy eyes.

She seemed startled to see so many people standing outside the door.

After looking around for a while, she cautiously asked, "Um... who are you people? I don't know you. Why are you knocking on my door?"

"Is this your home?"

Xu Xiangjie frowned, and the expressions of the others, including Lin Ge, also turned unpleasant.

Xu Yinghui is a beast, a philandering bastard, that much is certain. From Zhang Yanxia to Pei Yuling to Du Wei, they were all undoubtedly his mistresses. But this child in front of him… is she even an adult? Damn it!
No one wanted to think in that direction, but the girl's location was just too convenient, and her feigned sleepiness was also quite clumsy.

"My name is Ai Qing. This is the house I rent, which is also my home."

The girl named Ai Qing refused to let them in, but admitted that she was the current owner of the house.

"Excuse me, we are police officers! We are looking for a criminal suspect who has fled to one of the apartments in this building and may pose a danger to you. Could you please let us check your apartment? Don't worry, it won't take you long, we'll just take a quick look and leave."

Cao Chen didn't waste any time arguing with her. He simply showed his police ID and adopted a businesslike attitude, indicating that it was just a routine matter.

Ai Qing understood the seriousness of her police identity and didn't throw a tantrum like Du Wei across from her. She obediently nodded, moved aside, and took two steps back, saying, "Then I'll go to my room to change. You can look all you want, okay?"

After saying that, she ignored the people outside, left the door open, and went straight back to her bedroom, closing the other door behind her.

"Mimi?"

When it comes to finding someone, it definitely needs to be done by professionals, Xu Xiangjie said, looking at Lin Ge.

Lin Ge nodded, already certain without even entering the room that Xu Yinghui was definitely hiding there. Ai Qing's unnecessary actions couldn't fool anyone present; the room she closed under the pretext of changing clothes was most likely Xu Yinghui's hiding place.

Originally... that's how it should have been.

Lin Ge searched the living room, the second bedroom, the kitchen, the bathroom, and everywhere else, but despite the strong presence of Xu Yinghui, he couldn't find him. Even after Ai Qing changed her clothes and came out, Lin Ge went in first and wandered around, but still couldn't find him in the room.

Xu Yinghui seemed to have become invisible; his scent was everywhere, but Lin Ge was still unable to find him.

This is the first time such a thing has happened since Lingo became a police cat!
Not scientific!
I can't understand it either.

Lin Ge squatted on the coffee table in the living room, frowning as he watched Xu Xiangjie lead Jiang Zhong and Zhu Xiubo in and out of the room, searching everywhere. They even checked under the bed and the bathroom ceiling, but still couldn't find any trace of Xu Yinghui.

"Could I have guessed wrong?"

Xu Xiangjie and Cao Chen exchanged a glance.

The key point is that the initial assumption that this house and the neighboring house had been connected turned out to be just wishful thinking. The house has a fairly simple layout, and there's nothing unusual about the wall next to it. A knock on it revealed it to be solid, so there's no possibility of it being faked.

"Do you know someone named Xu Yinghui? Here, this is what he looks like."

Cao Chen gestured for Ai Qing, who had changed into casual clothes, to sit down on the sofa and showed her a photo of Xu Yinghui.

"This one……"

Ai Qing hesitated for a moment, then nodded obediently and said, "I know him! He's the uncle who sponsored me, and it's because of his help that I was able to settle down in Zhangzhou. So, officer, what happened to Uncle Xu? You said he's a criminal suspect, that's impossible, right?"

"Whether it's possible or not, the facts will tell."

Cao Chen was somewhat surprised by the relationship between Ai Qing and Xu Yinghui. After thinking for a moment, he decided to disregard his rudeness and asked, "Excuse me, are you sure you and he only have a normal sponsorship relationship? Also, when was the last time you saw him?"

"last night."

Ai Qing didn't hide anything and honestly said, "Last night, around eight or nine o'clock, he brought some fruit to see me, but left quickly. It was very late then, so I went to sleep right away. I don't remember much after that until I was woken up by the noise outside just now."

"You slept for more than ten hours?"

Cao Chen frowned.

Lin Ge was also taken aback. After a closer sniff, he realized that the girl's condition did indeed seem a bit off. She claimed to have slept for more than ten hours, but the fatigue on her face was undeniable, and her expression was somewhat dazed, which was not normal.

"You were drugged?"

The same guess popped into Lin Ge's and Cao Chen's minds at the same time.

However, she clearly knew about Xu Yinghui's situation. Her various statements, from the moment she opened the door until now, sounded very incongruous. She was undoubtedly hiding a lot, just as she remained silent about whether she and Xu Yinghui had any other relationship.

Xu Yinghui is truly a bizarre fellow. I don't know where he gets the energy and enjoyment, but he seems tirelessly entangled with so many women. In fact, every single one of these women seems to have a strong liking for him, and aside from complaining about the other 'vixens,' they don't criticize Xu Yinghui himself at all. Du Wei and Ai Qing undoubtedly know where Xu Yinghui is hiding, but they haven't revealed it yet; their 'loyalty' is incomprehensible.

"What a damn guy!"

Cao Chen gritted his teeth and muttered a complaint, then stood up to help Xu Xiangjie and the others continue inspecting the house. As for Ai Qing, she was taken across the street and placed under the supervision of Zhuang Tao and Du Wei, who were still suspected of being involved.

"Hmph! You're the girl who lives across the street!"

Du Wei seemed to dislike Ai Qing, and before Ai Qing could even sit down, she spoke provocatively.

"Yes, ma'am! I'm your neighbor!"

Ai Qing was taken aback for a moment, but she wasn't afraid of Du Wei at all. She quickly retorted without any politeness, "I really don't know how Uncle Xu could have fallen for a woman like you. You're old, ugly, and have no femininity at all! You can't do anything right except cause him trouble."

"You're the one who hasn't grown up yet. It's strange that Xu Yinghui would even be interested in you! You have no chest or butt, what exactly does Old Xu see in you?"

Du Wei retorted without backing down, and her words made Ai Qing and Zhuang Tao behind her freeze in shock.

Zhuang Tao looked down at her chest and found that she could see right through her shoes, which immediately made her look very frustrated.

"Hmph! Did something happen at your kindergarten again before the New Year? I heard that the lousy caregiver you hired accidentally scalded a child with boiling water? Uncle Xu spent a lot of money and effort to help you resolve this, and it wasn't easy to settle it. Hmph! I heard that lousy caregiver is your relative? You really are family! What are you doing clinging to Uncle Xu? Just go and fend for yourself! You're just an eyesore, aren't you?"

"you……"

Du Wei ultimately failed to win the argument against Ai Qing. Enraged, she stood up and tried to attack, but was suppressed by Zhuang Tao's cold snort.

Ai Qing, feeling smug, wanted to say more, but Zhuang Tao stopped him with a look.

After what happened in just half an hour, Du Wei no longer dared to underestimate this policewoman. Although she clearly looked like she hadn't fully grown up, her methods and aura were frightening, and Du Wei no longer dared to provoke her in the slightest.

So she could only suppress her anger and continue glaring at Ai Qing.

However, one could still sense from their words that the two were still protecting Xu Yinghui, and they did not reveal any information about Xu Yinghui's whereabouts.

Ai Qing, in particular, was hoping to have the property deed changed from the nominally rented house to one in her own name! Xu Yinghui had made it very clear to her that as long as he wasn't caught, it would be impossible to verify which assets were embezzled funds. These properties, not registered under Xu Yinghui's name, would absolutely not be reclaimed until the case was closed. Therefore, Ai Qing was determined to protect him with all her might; she'd rather her Uncle Xu die than let him be arrested.

She didn't know if Du Wei had similar thoughts, but there was no doubt that their interests were currently aligned.

'Boom boom! '

Suddenly, there was a knock on the wall from the opposite side, and then Xu Xiangjie's walkie-talkie crackled to life: "Officer Xu, I've already called a locksmith to open the door, but we didn't find anything unusual. There are signs that the house has been occupied, but we haven't found the target."

"Is there really no such thing as a locked room?"

Cao Chen frowned.

He originally thought that Xu Yinghui bought the two houses in order to create a secret room that would not be discovered.

But since the walls are interconnected, there is no possibility of a secret room.

"So...where exactly is Xu Yinghui hiding? This is ridiculous! The surveillance footage shows that Xu Yinghui should be hiding here, and Mimi also judged that he was hiding on the sixteenth floor. How could he have disappeared?" Xu Xiangjie was getting agitated. None of the things that happened today had gone his way.

Whether it was the mess at Longquan Police Station or Xu Yinghui's disappearance, both were headaches for Xu Xiangjie. He was just an economic crime investigator; why had things inexplicably turned into something out of a detective novel?
Only Lin Ge was still deep in thought.

Was Ai Qing really drugged?

What's the purpose?
There was no doubt about her relationship with Xu Yinghui, so Xu Yinghui had no reason to drug her or take advantage of her. So why did Xu Yinghui drug Ai Qing? Or was there something he couldn't let Ai Qing know?

Moreover, Lin Ge did smell an abnormal odor on Ai Qing, which means that there was indeed something called 'medicine' on him.

So……

Is it possible that... she wasn't the one who was drugged?

Suddenly, Lin Ge's body trembled as if he had just thought of something. He turned his head in disbelief to look at Ai Qing, who was still arguing arrogantly with Du Wei across the street.

However, closer observation reveals that although the girl was arguing with Du Wei, her attention never left her side of the room. Even if one could explain it as worrying about the house being ransacked, her behavior under these circumstances is still highly suspicious.

So Lin Ge stopped hesitating and began to slowly wander around the house.

I opened the refrigerator and took a look, then opened the washing machine to take a look. When I saw the concealed range hood, I couldn't resist jumping onto the kitchen counter and straining to peek inside.

Unfortunately, nothing was found.

Lin Ge then went to the master bedroom and found it ransacked. Every possible hiding place had been thoroughly searched. Even the wardrobe drawers had been opened, exposing some clothes.

At this moment, Lin Ge suddenly noticed something unusual: most of the clothes in the wardrobe belonged to men, with very few women's clothes and even fewer underwear.

So, was this house really where Ai Qing lived?

Or perhaps this is actually Xu Yinghui's house, and Ai Qing is just staying here temporarily for a few days.

However, without finding Xu Yinghui, these speculations are meaningless.

Lin Ge jumped onto the bay window and looked outside, but found nothing. The only thing he noticed was that the security bars on this side were quite close to those on the other side, almost window to window. It was only because the security bars were welded very sturdily that Lin Ge would have thought the window was a passageway.

"Ok?"

Lin Ge looked at the security bars again; they had a sliding window. It was one of those fire escape grilles, though it was unlikely to be needed on the sixteenth floor.

Alternatively, by looking through this window towards the opposite window, a passageway can indeed be created leading directly to the master bedroom on the sixteenth floor of the opposite unit.

"Could it be that Xu Yinghui really went next door? Did he drug Ai Qing and then sneak across the passage? No! What's the point of doing that? There are police guarding the other side too; he can't escape even if he goes there!"

Lin Ge couldn't understand.

He merely peeked through the window, intending to try and climb over like Spider-Man to see what was happening on the other side. But just as the window opened, the smell of humans suddenly blew in on the wind, startling Lin Ge and causing his expression to change drastically.

Looking down through the security bars, below the bay window was where the air conditioner's outdoor unit was located. It was obscured by a frame formed by decorative strips, making it impossible to see what was inside. But this didn't fool Lin Ge's nose; there was someone hiding inside!

Because the windows were closed and it was a sixteen-story building, no one thought about the outer wall, which is why they overlooked such a possible hiding place.

"Ow!"

Without wasting any more time, Lin Ge quickly looked up and shouted.

The sound of hurried footsteps continued, and Xu Xiangjie, Cao Chen, and several other police officers rushed over.

Seeing Lin Ge open the window, crouching on the security bars and looking down, everyone's expression changed. At this point, there was no need for further words; even the police officers next door, hearing the commotion and peeking out, immediately understood what was happening when they saw the direction of Lin Ge's gaze.

He took out his phone, turned on the camera, adjusted the focus, and zoomed in to look inside the air conditioner unit. Sure enough, he saw something that looked like a human figure.

"Someone is hiding down there!"

The policeman shouted with delight.

'Clang!'

The sound of porcelain shattering came from Du Wei's house next door.

Seeing Ai Qing's drastically changed expression as she smashed her teacup, and Du Wei's 'I knew it' look, Zhuang Tao became wary. It seemed they had discovered Xu Yinghui's whereabouts, and that it was related to both of these women.

Judging from the atmosphere over there and the shouts of his colleagues, Xu Yinghui was not hiding, but rather being hidden.

So who did this?

Ai Qing?

Du Wei?

Or is it someone else?
Regardless, suspicion surrounding Ai Qing was rapidly escalating. As the police officer guarding her, Zhuang Tao couldn't allow any unexpected incident to occur on her side.

So she stopped relaxing and quietly began to prepare herself.

"Does anyone have a rope? Send someone down to check!"

"I come!"

"Be careful! How exactly was he stuffed in there?"

"Dead or alive?"

"Alive! Alive! He's still breathing! It's just that his mouth is gagged. Damn it, they're going to let him freeze to death out here!"

Zhu Xiubo, who risked climbing down the security bars, successfully found Xu Yinghui crammed behind two air conditioner units. He was wearing a thin nightgown, his hands and feet tightly bound. The strong wind and low temperature on the sixteenth floor had turned him deathly pale, and he seemed disoriented. When he saw someone falling from the sky, his will to survive made Xu Yinghui suddenly open his eyes and begin to struggle again, but he was unable to move due to the confined space.

Without hesitation, Zhu Xiubo kicked away the protective cover of the air conditioner's outdoor unit. The cover spun as it fell, eliciting gasps from the onlookers below. This action nearly caused Zhu Xiubo to fall, and his colleagues above, who could only grab his wrist and couldn't offer any further assistance, were filled with worry.

But Zhu Xiubo couldn't care less about anything else. He quickly grabbed the security bars with one hand and pulled hard on Xu Yinghui's leg with the other. He was hanging precariously and without any protection from the sixteenth-floor security bars, with only one foot on the air conditioner unit base and one hand gripping the bars for support. Even so, he managed to pull Xu Yinghui out most of the way. Finally, he could see Xu Yinghui's face, which was full of surprise, and then he reached out and pulled the gag out of his mouth.

"Who brought you here?"

Zhu Xiubo quickly inquired.

“Woo…Woo! Woo…”

However, Xu Yinghui's jaw was dislocated and his whole body was trembling violently, making it impossible for him to utter a single clear word.

"Control Ai Qing and Du Wei; both women are suspects!"

Xu Xiangjie immediately issued the order, then reminded him, "Shoving an adult male into this suspended place is something two women absolutely cannot do. In other words, there are accomplices involved. Tell your men to be careful not to let him escape."

"Zhuang Tao'er is doing a good job over there; those two women won't escape from her grasp. But we've already checked the elevator surveillance footage here, and no strangers have entered or exited the sixteenth floor from yesterday to today."

Cao Chen analyzed, "I suspect that the passageway Xu Yinghui deliberately created for meeting his lovers became the murderer's escape route. Whether it's from the rooftop or this window, it's possible to hide traces and mislead surveillance. Logically speaking, I even suspect that this house isn't Ai Qing's rental address; the one next door is more likely. It's more convenient for Xu Yinghui to live in this room right below us, so he can handle two lovers at the same time without having to face each other head-on, right?"

"And then, he was ambushed by his lover using their secret affair route? The mistress conspired with her lover to kill her lover for money? Haha... If he's dead, we probably won't get back the assets he bought for these women, right?"

Xu Xiangjie sneered.

At this moment, a policeman finally found the safety belts in the fire escape. He threw both of them down, had Zhu Xiubo fasten one, and tied the other around Xu Yinghui's waist.

(End of this chapter)