Gift

The woman had come more than once. Several times, she had tried to rush inside, only to be stopped by the guards. Later, she dressed herself up from head to toe, found another opportunity, and charged into the Patrol Inspection Institute.

But she couldn't get anywhere near Zhou Tong. They were separated by more than ten meters.

Zhou Tong furrowed his brow as he listened to her tearful pleas. After a moment's hesitation, he said, "We're investigating what happened to your daughter. So far, we haven't found any leads."

"Captain Zhou, please, help me find Lulu. She's my only daughter. She's been missing for a month, and I still haven't heard a word from her. You're my only hope."

"Please don't panic. I understand how you feel, but your daughter has gone missing, and right now we have no leads. There's nothing anyone can do. We've already sent people to investigate. If we hear anything, we'll let you know," Zhou Tong said.

"Captain Zhou, do you think someone kidnapped my daughter? I dream every day that she's locked in a little black room, covered in blood, crying for her mother and saying she's in pain. My daughter is only sixteen! Please, you have to help me find her. I'll get down on my knees and beg you."

The woman knelt on the ground and kept banging her head against it. No one could pull her up.

Alas... Zhou Tong turned aside. He didn't want anyone to plead with him like this, but there were some things he could do nothing about. Yijiang City seemed peaceful on the surface, but things happened in secret every day. How could they handle all of it? Besides, she'd been missing for a month. She was probably already dead.

Zhou Tong turned and left, while the woman continued to kowtow on the ground. When she saw him go, she wiped her tears, straightened her Fisherman's Hat, got to her feet, and left. She climbed onto a white electric scooter and rode away.

Chen Xia followed Zhou Tong and asked, "Who was that?"

"Heh," Zhou Tong said. "She's a student's mother. Her daughter's in her first year of high school. She went out on a weekend evening and never came back. She's been missing for a month now. I've already filed a case, but we haven't found any leads."

Chen Xia considered this. "It seems like there have been several disappearances in Yijiang City lately. I wonder if they're the work of the same group, or... the Evil Cult?"

"It could be one person, a group, or several different parties. We don't know for sure. But these people are cautious. They deliberately avoid Patrol Inspection Office personnel when they strike. What, are you interested in this case?"

"I was just asking."

"Good. Cases like this are pretty common. Unless there's clear evidence or someone with connections puts pressure on the people above, cases without leads usually don't get anywhere."

Zhou Tong explained quite a bit to Chen Xia. He gathered that in many cases, the culprit was found if there were leads. But when there was absolutely no evidence and no direction to pursue, the case usually ended up as a file in the Archives.

If a case involved a powerful group, then without orders from above to send out a large number of patrol officers, it was almost impossible to handle safely. Plenty of people who investigated such groups had ended up paying with their lives.

Chen Xia sighed inwardly and said nothing more.

After eating in the canteen, he went to the Patrol Inspection Office's training room at noon and practiced a set of Seven Injuries Fist, helping his body absorb the effects of the pills.

As he trained, Chen Xia's whole body grew hot. The effects of the Qianyang Pill had kicked in. It wasn't a particularly high-grade pill, but it was well suited for long-term use. It could promote the growth of his blood and energy and strengthen his physique.

On top of that, anything reversed by the panel had no side effects whatsoever. As for the problem of excess nutrition, that depended on one's physique.

Chen Xia was now at Grade 1, fourth stage. Taking these pills was no problem for him. Even if he took enough to develop resistance, that wouldn't happen for at least another six months.

Over the next few days, Chen Xia went to work as usual. He patrolled during the day, trained at noon, and went home in the evening to help his mother with chores and sort through packages before training again. He didn't go to bed until eleven.

However, word that Chen Xia had been promoted to captain spread. The merchants and restaurant owners in the small area he oversaw, along with other businesspeople, came seeking him out to drink and give him gifts.

They treated Chen Xia with great respect, speaking to him politely and with deference.

Chen Xia accepted every gift without exception.

These businesspeople did this in the hope that if members of a Mercenary Group caused trouble in the future, they could turn to Chen Xia. If Chen Xia went out to handle it, that was part of the normal process and broke no laws.

The gifts could be taken as small tokens exchanged between acquaintances. The givers would feel reassured, and Chen Xia could earn a little extra.

Besides, as a captain, Chen Xia needed a few informants. These businesspeople could provide him with leads, so if anything happened in the area he was responsible for, he could find out right away.

So this sort of back-and-forth was unavoidable.

Of course, if anyone asked him to cover up wrongdoing, hurt someone, or cause trouble, that was out of the question. He didn't have the power to do that anyway, and businesspeople had no need to do such things.

He'd heard before that for people with a certain position, their salary was only the basics. Now Chen Xia was experiencing firsthand the benefits of becoming stronger.

He did the sums. Although he was responsible for only a small area, the gifts he'd received were worth more than two hundred thousand.

Dusk fell. Chen Xia had just returned from a dinner gathering, and he was in a pretty good mood.

But when he passed through rows of low houses and reached the entrance of his family's Small Shop, he noticed several familiar faces inside the Small Supermarket.

Looking closely, he saw that it was his second aunt, his uncle by marriage, and his younger cousin, Zhu He.

That reminded Chen Xia that the Chief Captain had called him the day before to say that the previous matter had been resolved. He'd also mentioned some Captain Sun over in the west of the city.

After a brief hesitation, Chen Xia went inside. His relatives were chatting with his mother. As soon as he entered, his second aunt's family hurried over to greet him.

"Second Aunt, Uncle!" Chen Xia called out.

"Ah, Chen Xia's back." His second aunt had tears in her eyes. It seemed her conversation with his mother had stirred up emotions she couldn't quite control.

His uncle by marriage looked stunned for a moment at the sight of Chen Xia in a dark, nearly black uniform, looking more imposing than before, his eyes bright and sharp. Then he immediately nudged Zhu He, who was standing beside him.

"What are you standing there for? This is your cousin..." After being nudged several times, the somewhat burly Zhu He, who had clearly been at a loss, finally came to his senses. He smiled at Chen Xia and called, "Cousin."