Xie Lin quickly received the surveillance footage sent from the bureau.
As the little mouse had described, the footage showed that a week ago in the evening, a stooped silver-haired old woman came to the fried chicken shop, grabbed the boss’s wife by the arm, and immediately started scolding and hitting her.
It wasn’t until more than half an hour later that she finally left, still cursing as she went.
The boss’s wife sat at the entrance crying, her hair messy, her face scratched.
She looked so pitiful.
Ruan Xingyao managed to get a bit more useful information from the little mice, but beyond that, they didn’t know much else.
“Jiji! Jiji Jiji! Jiji Jiji Jiji!”
[Human! You promised to reward us, did you mean it?]
The first little mouse Ruan Xingyao had caught stared at her intently.
“Don’t worry! I won’t trick you,” Ruan Xingyao said.
She turned to Xie Lin and asked, “Captain Xie, can I take them back?”
Xie Lin looked at her in surprise and cautiously asked, “You’re not seriously planning to give them official status, are you?”
Ruan Xingyao nodded. “Don’t underestimate their abilities—they’ve already helped us a lot, haven’t they?”
Xie Lin rubbed his forehead, feeling a headache coming on. “This… I’ll have to apply to my superiors.”
This wasn’t a small matter, and with his current rank, he couldn’t promise her anything.
Ruan Xingyao wasn’t disappointed, already thinking about what she should do if she had to look after them herself for now.
Xie Lin seemed to guess her thoughts, paused for a moment, and said, “Take them back for now. We’ll decide what to do with them later.”
After all, the little mouse squad had done them a great service—at the very least, they should get the reward they’d been promised.
The four people, one dog, and a box of little mice all returned to the police station together.
It was already late at night, but because of this sudden case, the station was still brightly lit.
Ruan Xingyao got out of the car yawning.
Seeing that Xie Lin, Zhou Zelu, and Su Wuyue had no intention of resting at all, she finally couldn’t help but ask,
“Captain Xie, can I go home now?”
She had already done everything she could — the rest of the investigation could only be left to them.
Looking at the sleepy look on the young girl’s face, Xie Lin said,
“Settle them down first, and I’ll take you back.”
Ruan Xingyao nodded obediently and followed behind Xie Lin.
Just then, Wei Chuan came out from one of the rooms.
The moment he saw Ruan Xingyao, he shot her a glare.
Even though she was sleepy, Ruan Xingyao still caught it instantly.
She wasn’t someone who would take things lying down.
If Wei Chuan was going to treat her with such a bad attitude, she was definitely going to ask why.
It’s not like she had provoked him!
“Why are you glaring at me?” Ruan Xingyao blocked Wei Chuan’s path and asked aggressively.
Wei Chuan had already been bottling up a bellyful of anger, and now that she confronted him, he didn’t bother to hold back.
Glaring at her, he said,
“Do you even know? It’s because of you that Lin Ye decided to leave the police force.”
“What?” The question came from Xie Lin.
Wei Chuan still held a certain degree of fear toward Xie Lin, but when he looked at Ruan Xingyao’s innocent expression, he didn’t care anymore and stubbornly continued,
“I just passed by Director Shen’s office and saw Lin Ye talking to him about leaving.”
As he spoke, he even took a step forward, looking like he was about to jab a finger into Ruan Xingyao’s shoulder.
Xie Lin stepped in front of her.
Seeing this, Wei Chuan’s temper flared even toward Xie Lin,
“Captain Xie, Lin Ye is our brother who’s been through life and death with us. Now, just because she exposed his family matters, he feels he can’t stay here anymore!”
“Ridiculous!” Ruan Xingyao’s temper also flared.
She pushed Xie Lin aside and met Wei Chuan’s gaze head-on.
“So you think letting him be kept in the dark forever, spending his whole life weighed down by that filth, is what’s best?”
“Why does he feel ashamed? Isn’t it because you people look at him differently now?”
“And now you’re pretending to be all brotherly and loyal? I bet you didn’t miss a single detail when you were gossiping about it!”
“How do you even know that leaving the force isn’t a decision he made after careful consideration?”
“Now you’re forcing your so-called sense of justice onto me — you’re absolutely laughable!”
After letting it all out, Ruan Xingyao turned to Xie Lin and said,
“Captain Xie, I want to go home!”
She didn’t want to stay here another second!
Xie Lin looked at her helplessly. “Wait for me five minutes.”
With that, he dragged Wei Chuan away.
He also took the box of little mice with him.
Only when they reached an empty room did Xie Lin shove Wei Chuan inside.
“Wei Chuan! You really went too far today!” Xie Lin said.
Wei Chuan stubbornly replied, “But it’s a fact that Lin Ye left because of her!”
Xie Lin: “But you can’t deny that she’s already done a lot for us.”
In truth, if Ruan Xingyao had firmly refused, no one could have forced her to become the police station’s special consultant.
Wei Chuan still insisted, “We can still solve cases without her!”
He even wanted to say that if it weren’t for Ruan Xingyao, maybe they wouldn’t have so many cases in the first place.
Xie Lin saw right through Wei Chuan’s thoughts and barked, “Wei Chuan! Don’t forget you’re a police officer!”
Now he was complaining about having too many cases?
Was that the mindset a police officer should have?
Wei Chuan also knew that thinking like this was truly out of line.
“But—!”
Wei Chuan wanted to say more, but Xie Lin cut him off. “Wei Chuan, Lin Ye’s decision is his personal choice. But the fact that Chief Shen agreed to it shows he thought it through carefully. Don’t just look at the surface.”
Wei Chuan wasn’t stupid.
Considering the recent cases they’d taken on, he immediately guessed a possibility.
He opened his mouth, but met Xie Lin’s stern gaze.
There were some things he couldn’t say—he understood that.
Wei Chuan instantly deflated and said to Xie Lin, “I understand. I was wrong, Captain.”
Xie Lin said, “When Expert Ruan’s anger cools down, go apologize to her properly.”
Thinking of how Ruan Xingyao had just scolded him non-stop, Wei Chuan wanted to refuse.
Naturally, Xie Lin wouldn’t give him the chance.
He directly handed Wei Chuan the box of little mice. “Clean up this room, find them some food and water, and take good care of them.”
The box had been kept closed to prevent the mice from escaping.
Wei Chuan finally opened it now—
And the moment he saw it was full of little mice, his scalp instantly tingled.
“Are you insane?! Keeping mice! Captain Xie!” Wei Chuan barely resisted the urge to throw the box away.
Xie Lin patted him on the shoulder and said, “These little guys are very useful to Expert Ruan. If you can’t take good care of them, it’s going to be hard to get her to forgive you!”
Wei Chuan accepted his fate with a bitter face, inwardly grumbling about where on earth this weirdo Ruan Xingyao had popped up from.
Xie Lin didn’t bother with him anymore and stepped out of the room.
Just then, he happened to run into Lin Ye, who was coming out of Shen Jiming’s office.
— The end of the Chapter–
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