Chapter 57: Who Exactly Wants to See Me?
#The Liu-Guan-Zhang Ring Arrested by Police#
#Special Consultant Lin Jiangye Fights Three Suspects, Hit Twice#
#Donghai Bay River Dolphins Throw the Last Suspect Ashore#
#Where Did Modern Journalistic Ethics Go?#
Four trending topics dropped onto the internet back-to-back. When people saw the first headline, many immediately thought of the famous “Oath of the Peach Garden,” and for a moment everyone was wondering how on earth heroes from thousands of years ago had been arrested by modern police.
But once they clicked in, they realized this “Liu-Guan-Zhang” ring was a scam gang that had surfaced in recent years. Though there were only three of them, they had swindled over ten million, sold six male victims for their organs, and sold four female victims to human traffickers.
They weren’t just after money—they were after lives.
As for the leader of the Liu-Guan-Zhang ring, she was also the murderer behind a notorious family-massacre case.
This ring had been wanted by police for five years without being caught. Only when they committed crimes in Yue City recently did Wen’an District police and a special consultant uncover their real identities. In the end, thanks to the consultant’s maneuvering, the three were finally captured.
That was the source of the second and third trending topics—especially the third. When people clicked in, they saw a group of river dolphins clamping down on a small-framed woman, the scene looking brutally bloody. In reality, that woman was Liu Ningxin—the killer in the family-massacre case.
Netizens who were about to scold the dolphins for being “too cruel” quietly deleted the paragraph they’d already typed, and replaced it with praise like “Good job, river dolphins!”
Later, after the police explained, everyone learned that the dolphins who caught Liu Ningxin had been specifically instructed by the special consultant.
If they hadn’t helped in the water, Liu Ningxin might really have escaped.
Most people who were online a lot already knew who Yue City’s “special consultant” was. So when they heard he’d been shot twice and sent into emergency surgery, many—especially locals—began quietly praying.
Not long after, someone uploaded footage of the massive flocks of birds and the crowds of stray cats and dogs that had appeared in Yue City earlier.
With temperatures below zero lately, flocks and strays should have been curled up somewhere warm—not gathering in huge numbers out on streets and among crowds.
With that abnormal scene combined with the Liu-Guan-Zhang ring and Lin Jiangye’s abilities, it wasn’t hard for netizens to guess: he must have summoned them to help hunt fugitives.
Soon, that guess was confirmed by the police.
“Yes. Thanks to him. Otherwise we might never even have known the entire ring was committing crimes in Yue City. And we’re very grateful for how he held them up—if we’d only found those three later, they’d probably already have vanished.” When reporters asked, the Wen’an District Branch chief publicly affirmed Lin Jiangye’s contribution.
“Right now Consultant Lin is seriously injured and receiving treatment in hospital. I hope everyone will not disturb him. As for the two reporters who tried to spread rumors and slander him, the police reserve the right to pursue legal responsibility!” The chief’s expression was severe when he said the last line.
The arrest operation had only circulated inside the police system. So where did that sudden swarm of media reporters come from? How did they know the criminals were at the seaside? Every precinct was investigating.
Qingze District in particular was terrified the news had been leaked from inside. The entire precinct was practically auditing itself.
The fact that a crowd of reporters appeared at a live capture scene also blew up online—becoming the fourth trending topic.
They ignored the police trying to block them, ignored the injured, and shoved cameras straight into wounded faces while implying Lin Jiangye had used illegal means to take personal revenge.
What they hadn’t expected was that the two people who looked miserable were actually wanted criminals—armed criminals. And even more unexpectedly, Lin Jiangye, who looked “cleaner” on the surface, was actually the most seriously injured person there.
Wen’an, Qingze, and the other precincts quickly released the full sequence of events. Once netizens learned the truth, they flooded the reporters’ employer accounts with sarcasm and abuse, until the accounts simply closed their comment sections.
Some of those reporters had even been livestreaming. Many people had seen the scene with their own eyes.
Those two fugitives looked horrific—sure. But they were wanted criminals! And they were armed. So what if they looked a little horrific?
Besides, Lin Jiangye was alone there. One versus three—and three with two guns. If he didn’t break their limbs, was he supposed to wait for them to get back up?
Aside from a handful of brain-dead people, no normal person thought Lin Jiangye’s methods were “cruel.”
When police finally captured the last fugitive, they discovered Liu Ningxin had also been shot in the back. The first thing she said after being hauled up was, “Where’s that man? Is he dead?”
Hatred nearly overflowed from her eyes. This was the most humiliating day of her life.
But when she looked around, she didn’t see the young man from earlier.
Did he fall into the sea too? Impossible.
“What are you looking at? Keep staring and I’ll dig your eyeballs out.” Li Wei’s eyes were red—red with rage. Partly because he’d arrived too late and Lin Jiangye had been forced to stall the criminals alone, and partly because these three actually had two guns—and used them to seriously wound Consultant Lin.
He grabbed Liu Ningxin by the hair and yanked her up.
She clenched her teeth in pain and refused to make a sound. Unfortunately, no one cared about her “backbone.”
Li Wei threw her roughly onto the dock, then forced his emotions down and apologized softly to the river dolphins in the water.
“Sorry. I don’t know yet what Lin Jiangye promised you. He’s seriously injured and has been taken to the hospital. After he wakes up, I’ll ask him. Please wait a little longer—he didn’t break his word.”
[What?! Human is hurt?!] The dolphins didn’t care about Lin Jiangye’s food. They cared about his safety.
Hearing he was seriously injured, the dolphins’ eyes went wide. But Li Wei couldn’t understand them—he could only apologize again, then drag Liu Ningxin away.
Fortunately, the seagulls were still there. They told the dolphins what had happened. When the dolphins learned Lin Jiangye had been hit by “biu-biu,” they started crying “ying-ying-ying.”
[Don’t know what biu-biu is, but sounds so painful, ying-ying-ying!]
And the seagulls, who witnessed everything, felt even worse—because they had seen Lin Jiangye’s face twist with pain, then watched him grit his teeth and knock out the other two bad humans one by one before finally collapsing.
[Why does human help other humans… can’t you just not help? QAQ] Helping those blue-uniform humans felt kind of useless.
They showed up slowly only after everything was already handled!
Hate blue-uniform humans, QAQ.
At this moment, the Qingze officers had no idea they’d been collectively hated by seagulls. If they knew, the sky would have fallen.
And where was Lin Jiangye now? Shang Fuyan had sent him to Yue City’s best private hospital.
Why a private hospital? Of course—because public hospitals didn’t allow him to bring crows inside.
After learning Lin Jiangye was badly injured and sent into emergency surgery, Opal struggled—stumbling and wobbling—insisting on flying over too. In the end, Shang Fuyan stuffed it into his clothes and carried it into the hospital.
[Will Dad be okay…] Tourmaline lowered its head and cried out sadly.
Shang Fuyan looked at the red light over the operating room. He couldn’t understand the raven’s words, but after so much time together, he could roughly sense what the cry meant.
“Don’t worry… Jiangye will be fine. He will definitely be fine.” The more he said it, the more firm his voice became.
Diamond didn’t speak. Opal wanted to cry—this time it truly wanted to cry.
It didn’t want shiny gemstones anymore. It didn’t want its original fire opal anymore. It could give up shiny forever—could it just have its owner back, QAQ?
Opal cried silently. It never made a sound, but that only made it even more heartbreaking.
Shang Fuyan sighed inwardly and gently patted its head. “Don’t worry. The doctors here are very good. Jiangye will be fine.”
Just then, a string of frantic footsteps sounded behind him.
Shang Fuyan turned and saw Jiang Xin and the others arriving with the little ones.
“How is it?”
Shang Fuyan didn’t answer. He only lifted his chin slightly, signaling them to look at the operating room still in surgery.
After a while—just when everyone thought they would have to wait a long time—the operating light went out. The doctor came out and said the wounds had been cleaned and stitched.
“Stitched? That’s it?” Not only was Shang Fuyan stunned, everyone else felt the speed was almost unreal.
But the doctor explained, “The patient was very lucky. The two bullets missed vital areas. It looks severe on the surface and there was a lot of bleeding, but the bullets didn’t embed deeply and didn’t hit major arteries or organs. So as long as we stitch and let it heal, it’s not a big problem.”
Shang Fuyan’s brain seemed to lag for a moment. Then he remembered the deep wound on Lin Jiangye’s abdomen—but the doctor gave the same answer: it looked frightening, but was only slightly worse than a superficial wound.
“The only trouble is that he lost quite a bit of blood. After recovery, he should nourish himself properly.”
A lot of blood, but not fatal?
Shang Fuyan stood there dazed for a long time, then suddenly let out a cold laugh.
At this point, if he still couldn’t tell Lin Jiangye had calculated his own injuries, then he didn’t deserve to be captain of Criminal Investigation.
“Lin Jiangye!!!” he cursed under his breath.
Opal immediately wanted to argue, but the moment it opened its beak, Shang Fuyan pinched it shut. “Little mouth. Close.”
Opal: ??? Don’t scold me the way my owner does!
Damn human!
The others were confused, staring at Shang Fuyan sulking in anger.
The German Shepherd tilted its head, then exchanged a look with Diamond—who was equally baffled, not understanding what this human was mad about.
But no matter how much anger Shang Fuyan had inside, the moment he saw the pale young man being wheeled out, it all vanished in an instant.
“Forget it…” What could he do? Go out and announce that Lin Jiangye, in order to beat people up “legitimately,” had chosen to take two bullets head-on just to shut everyone up?
No one would believe that. And besides—no one could do it. What if it went wrong?
“What if it went wrong? Did you think about that?”
Faced with Shang Fuyan’s interrogation, the newly awake Lin Jiangye silently pulled his blanket up and chose to answer with silence.
Shang Fuyan nearly laughed from anger. Oh? Did this guy only now realize there was danger?
Of course not.
Lin Jiangye simply didn’t know how to explain it—not the one-versus-three part, but how he could be so certain their attacks wouldn’t truly leave him critically injured.
He had been hurt many times down in the abyss—knife wounds, gun wounds, claw wounds, and more. After years of grinding, he knew exactly where an injury could look terrifying yet heal in two days.
But the country had been peaceful for so long. If he wanted to fabricate a past, he’d have to place it in those five years abroad.
And Lin Jiangye didn’t really want to lie to Shang Fuyan. It felt like it would only cause trouble later.
Also… he felt a little guilty.
He knew his injuries weren’t severe. But to Shang Fuyan and everyone else, he’d been shot, covered in blood, and had even dug bullets out with his bare hands. How terrifying was that for them?
“Sorry…” he whispered from under the blanket.
Shang Fuyan looked at the round eyes peeking out, then sighed and changed the subject.
Fine. What could he do to this guy anyway?
“The three of them are awake now. Statements have been taken. Zhang Wei didn’t deny that she egged the man into burning his son to death, but the greatest responsibility still lies with the killer himself.” If he hadn’t already harbored such intentions, how could he have been so easily tempted?
Hearing it was serious business, Lin Jiangye immediately sat up in bed. Shang Fuyan was just about to reach out and help—only to realize this man moved so nimbly it was like he hadn’t been injured at all.
Shang Fuyan: “……”
Lin Jiangye glanced at the hand Shang Fuyan had extended. After a brief pause, he said softly, “Should I… lie back down again…” and then you can come help me up?
Before Shang Fuyan could respond, they both noticed a spot of blood seeping through Lin Jiangye’s hospital gown.
Shang Fuyan sucked in a sharp breath, slammed the call button at the head of the bed, and shouted anxiously, “Doctor!!!”
How could this happen when everything was fine—oh, right. Nothing was “fine.”
The two exchanged a look. Shang Fuyan slowly closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and then—suddenly—laughed.
“Very good.”
For some reason, Lin Jiangye had seen Shang Fuyan sneer, scoff, and mock before, but this faint little smile made every alarm in his head blare to the limit.
A bad feeling.
A very, very bad feeling.
After the doctor rewrapped Lin Jiangye with fresh bandages, Shang Fuyan, face still cold, gave him a brief rundown of what happened next—and told him Jiang Xin had already fed the river dolphins, seagulls, and stray dogs.
As for the “promise” he had made, that would have to wait until Lin Jiangye was discharged to fulfill.
But before that, there was a small matter on his end.
After the Liu-Guan-Zhang ring was captured, the ringleader, Liu Ningxin, said she wanted to see Lin Jiangye. She claimed she would only honestly confess all her crimes after seeing him once.
Yan Zhou came to the hospital to relay it. “The higher-ups said you can decide. If you want to go, go. If you don’t want to, don’t. Either way, she’s doomed.”
They didn’t know what other crimes Liu Ningxin had committed afterward, but that one family-massacre case alone was enough to earn her the death penalty.
Lin Jiangye thought for a moment and decided to go anyway—he wanted to see what kind of stunt she was trying to pull.
His wounds healed quickly. In less than a week, they had already scabbed over. As long as he didn’t make big movements, there shouldn’t be any real problems.
When Lin Jiangye was discharged, Yan Zhou and the others drove him home.
The moment he stepped out, he was enthusiastically mobbed by a bunch of little ones—especially Opal. The little crow cried big fat tears, saying it never wanted “shiny” again.
In Opal’s mind, its owner got hurt because he went to avenge it. And why did he need to avenge it? Because Opal hadn’t been careful enough and got hurt by the bad human.
If Opal had been more cautious and hadn’t been injured, then the bad human wouldn’t have been tracked, and his owner wouldn’t have ended up facing three bad humans alone.
So it was all Opal’s fault.
Lin Jiangye looked at Opal, drowning in guilt, and let out a deep sigh. He held the little crow close and gently patted its wings.
“This has nothing to do with you.”
He was the one who wanted revenge. He was the one who chose one-against-three. Why would he blame Opal for something he decided himself?
Besides, Opal was a victim too. Could it have guessed Zhang Wei had a firearm? It couldn’t. And even if it could guess, it wouldn’t know what a firearm even was.
“Opal, you’re just a little crow. The fact you survived in the hands of a bad human is already ridiculously amazing. Forget you—if it were Yan Zhou and the others and they got suddenly ‘biu-biu’d’ by a bad person, they might be even worse off than you.”
Lin Jiangye shot Yan Zhou and the others a look.
Yan Zhou immediately played along, wearing a helpless expression. “Exactly. We’re not as nimble as a little crow. If it were us, we’d already be lying in a hospital bed right now.”
The rest nodded too, all talking about how slow they were, how dumb they were, how their reactions were terrible—until Opal started feeling embarrassed.
A hint of amusement rose in Lin Jiangye’s eyes, but the moment he saw the vehicle in front of him, that smile vanished.
He looked around. He didn’t see Shang Fuyan. He didn’t see his own car either. Where did all his stuff go?
“What’s wrong, Consultant Lin?”
Lin Jiangye looked down at Opal, Diamond, and the rest of the little ones in his arms, counted them, and realized Tourmaline wasn’t there either.
So… Shang Fuyan had taken Tourmaline and driven off somewhere in his car?
“Where are my car, Tourmaline, and Shang Fuyan?” Where’s the guy? Where’s the car? Where’s the raven?
Yan Zhou scratched the back of his head and gave a foolish grin. “I don’t know either. Why don’t you ask him yourself?”
Something was fishy.
Lin Jiangye stared at him suspiciously—stared until Yan Zhou started sweating in the freezing cold.
Fortunately, Lin Jiangye didn’t say anything in the end. Yan Zhou hurriedly drove him to the detention center. Opal and the others stayed in the car to wait.
After his identity was checked, a guard led Lin Jiangye into the visitation room. Liu Ningxin was already waiting.
Behind her stood two police officers, but when Lin Jiangye looked over, he vaguely sensed something strange about their bearing.
Not like ordinary officers—more like…
He withdrew his gaze instantly, so fast that even those two didn’t notice.
Lin Jiangye sat across from Liu Ningxin, with a clear barrier between them. Liu Ningxin had just come out of the hospital too. Perhaps she hadn’t fully recovered, because her complexion was even paler than Lin Jiangye’s.
“You didn’t die?” Liu Ningxin couldn’t understand why this man was still alive after taking two shots.
The tall, slender young man slowly broke into a dazzling smile. But the happier he smiled, the more Liu Ningxin hated him.
She wasn’t stupid. She immediately found the key point.
“You did it on purpose!”
Lin Jiangye laughed silently. He said nothing—but he said everything.
Sure enough, realizing she’d been tricked, Liu Ningxin flew into a rage. But the moment she stood up, the officers behind her pressed her back down.
She clenched her teeth, shaking with anger. But when the guard signaled the time, she forced herself to calm down quickly.
“I only have one question. How did you find us?” She couldn’t accept it. The three of them had changed disguises—so why were they still caught?
She had been on the run for five years. She knew police tracking methods inside out and had never been caught. Why this time…?
Lin Jiangye finished laughing. In his pitch-black eyes, cold light flickered. He didn’t answer. Instead, he asked her a question first.
“Those reporters—you called them, didn’t you?”
Why did he guess that? Because those reporters didn’t even know the people he was chasing were wanted criminals.
If the police had leaked it internally, the reporters would have known exactly who the police were hunting. They wouldn’t have asked that kind of leading, easily disproven question about whether he was taking personal revenge.
And the reporters arrived at exactly the moment he and the other two were about to “take each other down.”
If the reporters could delay police action, then Liu Ningxin—who had been knocked into the water—would have had a high chance of escaping.
But what she hadn’t expected was that Lin Jiangye had warned the river dolphins in advance.
The dolphins trusted Lin Jiangye completely. When they saw Lin Jiangye fighting that human, they immediately decided the human was bad—and attacked as a group without hesitation.
Liu Ningxin stared coldly at the young man. The fury in her heart cooled by more than half.
He guessed right.
And from that question, she got what she wanted too. “So those river dolphins really were under your control.”
“Tsk, tsk, tsk.” The young man raised a long finger and shook it, correcting her. “My relationship with the little buddies is equal. It’s cooperation, not control. They trust me and like me, so they were willing to help. That’s why you were caught so easily.”
From the moment Lin Jiangye decided to find the three of them, all the birds in Yue City—not just crows and seagulls, but other flocks too—were willing to help. And the stray cats and dogs he’d dealt with before didn’t refuse him either.
“Over ten thousand birds, twenty-five stray cats, one hundred and thirty-six stray dogs, and four river dolphins… Without them, I wouldn’t have found you this fast.”
Liu Ningxin held a shocked expression for a long time. Even when she was taken away after the time was up, she still refused to believe what Lin Jiangye said.
And yet the last bit of reason in her mind told her: it was all true.
Before leaving, Lin Jiangye glanced at the corridor where Liu Ningxin disappeared, then looked up at the surveillance camera overhead.
Her question, the two detention officers with an unusual aura, and the faint feeling of being watched—all of it was confirmed the moment he reached the detention center’s main gate.
A group of people was waiting for him. Judging from their dress and the air they gave off, they weren’t ordinary.
“Hello. Are you Consultant Lin Jiangye? Would you be interested in coming to the capital with us?”
———
Yan Zhou waited outside for more than half an hour before Lin Jiangye finally returned. But seeing the young man’s expressionless face, Yan Zhou immediately felt displeased on Lin Jiangye’s behalf.
“Did she ask you something really excessive?” Otherwise why did he look so unhappy?
Lin Jiangye snapped back, and when he saw Yan Zhou looking ready to charge in and beat someone up, he laughed. “No. It has nothing to do with her.”
Liu Ningxin was only a chess piece. The one who truly wanted to see him was someone else.
“Oh right—where did Shang Fuyan go?” After getting into the car, he asked again.
But no one in the car could answer.
“Captain Shang took two days off from the chief. We don’t know what he went to do…” And he even left in Lin Jiangye’s car, taking Lin Jiangye’s raven with him.
Honestly, if they didn’t know Captain Shang’s character, they might have suspected he’d fallen out with Consultant Lin and run off with the most expensive “treasure.”
No idea? What a strange thing.
Lin Jiangye took out his phone and called. It rang for a long time—no one picked up.
But two hours after he got home, a familiar black car stopped steadily at his door, and his phone lit up with that familiar number.
“You’re home, right? Perfect. Come out to the gate for a moment.” The man’s voice on the other end sounded exhausted, but there was also a faint, excited edge.
Lin Jiangye had no idea what Shang Fuyan was planning. When he stepped outside, he saw Shang Fuyan standing by the armored car door, wearing a “watch the show” expression.
Oh no. That familiar ominous feeling rose again.
“You—” Lin Jiangye had just opened his mouth to ask where he’d gone, but the moment the car door opened, Lin Jiangye instantly shut up.
Then he turned—
And ran.
“Shang Fuyan, you bastard!!!” The young man’s furious yell echoed across the whole hillside.
Author’s Note:
Captain Shang: Like playing with death, huh? Fine. Just wait. [angry]
Xiao Ye: You bastard… [scared][scared][scared]
