Investigation (Seeking Follow-up Reads)

The moment the gunshot rang out, Fang Shuwen's spine twisted violently, triggering his Snake Form Talent.

His body contorted into a near-impossible angle.

The bullet grazed his ribs, leaving a searing sensation on his skin.

Li Tong's smile had yet to fade.

At that very instant, Fang Shuwen's fist had already arrived.

A simple, straightforward punch—a pure strike concentrated with the full power of Bright Force.

It erupted from his waist, traveling the shortest possible line, and slammed into Li Tong's chest in the blink of an eye.

"Crack!"

The sound of breaking ribs merged into a single continuous snap as Li Tong's back hit the wall, shattering the blue bricks and embedding him into the masonry.

He looked down at his collapsed chest, then back at Fang Shuwen, as dark red blood bubbled from his mouth.

"Impossible!"

"How... how could you possibly have dodged that!"

Before the words could fully leave his lips, Li Tong's eyes lost their luster, his head lolled to the side, and he collapsed.

"Hah, idiot. Did you really think I wasn't guarding against you?"

Fang Shuwen retracted his fist, bent down to pick up the handgun from the ground, and tucked it into his waistband.

He then patted down Li Tong's body, scavenging over a dozen silver dollars and a short blade.

He repeated the process on the other two corpses, and after a thorough search, he ended up with a total of sixty silver dollars and three short blades.

Fang Shuwen glanced at Cuicui, who was slumped on the ground, but paid her no mind.

This woman had brought this upon herself; sparing her life was already the extent of his benevolence.

After all, Even if she hadn't known the truth, by luring him out, she had effectively acted as an accomplice.

Fang Shuwen dragged the three corpses onto a handcart and, under the cover of night, pushed them to the banks of the Clear Water River.

He disposed of the bodies and, after confirming no traces were left behind, took his leave.

Fang Shuwen did not return to the Zhao Estate, instead turning toward the west side of the city.

Since Li Tong had claimed to be wealthy, he decided to go and see for himself.

A quarter of an hour later, Fang Shuwen arrived at a small, detached house by the river.

With a slight exertion of force, Fang Shuwen vaulted over the gray wall and into the courtyard.

The house was small, its furnishings sparse.

He rummaged through every box and cabinet, finally discovering an iron box hidden beneath the ashes of the stove.

He pried the lock open, and the box was filled with dazzling silver dollars.

He counted them: exactly five hundred.

"I didn't expect this brat to actually be so rich."

A faint smirk tugged at the corner of Fang Shuwen's mouth as he stuffed all the silver dollars into a cloth satchel and vaulted back over the wall.

He circled through several alleys, and only after confirming he was safe did he return to the Zhao Estate through the back gate.

The light in Old Fang's room was already out, and the sound of steady snoring drifted out.

Fang Shuwen did not disturb him; he tiptoed into the inner room, shoved the silver dollars under the bed, and finally lay down.

The night passed without incident.

Over the next three days, life remained calm and uneventful.

He attended school during the day, practiced martial arts in the afternoon, and reviewed his lessons at night.

Cuicui had taken two days off; according to Mother Wang, she had caught a cold and stayed home instead of going to school.

It wasn't until the third day of school that Fang Shuwen saw Cuicui again.

She had lost a significant amount of weight.

Her complexion was haggard, and she seemed mentally traumatized.

She kept darting her eyes away whenever she looked at Fang Shuwen.

Fang Shuwen acted as if he hadn't seen a thing.

The blink of an eye brought Friday.

As soon as the afternoon school bell rang, students surged out of the school gates like birds released from a cage.

Fang Shuwen slung his schoolbag over his shoulder and walked along East Street in the direction of the Zhao Estate.

"Extra! Extra!"

At the street corner, a newsboy in a grey cloth tunic waved a newspaper and shouted at the top of his lungs.

"A murderous maniac has appeared in Xikou County Town! Three consecutive homicides in the west of the city, the victims' remains are a gruesome sight! The Public Security Bureau is offering a reward of one hundred silver dollars for the culprit's capture!"

"Did you hear? The ones who died were Red Wolf Gang enforcers. I reckon it's not some maniac, but just gangs settling scores..."

"I heard one of them had his chest smashed in, and the body was just tossed into the river. The water isn't fit for use anymore."

Fang Shuwen's footsteps faltered slightly, his ears pricking up.

Chest smashed in, tossed into the river?

Could it be that the bodies of Li Tong and his men had been discovered?

Thinking this to himself, Fang Shuwen stopped a newsboy and bought a paper.

His gaze immediately fell upon the front-page headline.

Through a blurry photograph, he instantly recognized the three corpses as Li Tong and his associates.

Their chests were collapsed, their deaths horrific.

With a calm expression, he folded the newspaper, stuffed it into a roadside trash can, and continued on his way.

The Great Flame New Kingdom had been established for little more than a decade, and the world was far from peaceful.

Warlords carved up the land, and foreign concessions were everywhere.

Insurgents were rampant, and evil spirits and ghosts plagued the world.

The Public Security Bureau barely had enough manpower to handle the cases in plain sight; how could they have the spare time to investigate the lives and deaths of a few gang members?

Besides, Li Tong and his three cohorts were involved in human trafficking; they deserved to die.

Once the old hands at the Public Security Bureau saw the scene, they would likely investigate it as a gangland hit. If they couldn't find a lead, they would shelve it, and in a year or two, it would become just another cold case.

Fang Shuwen knew this process inside out.

He wasn't worried about being exposed.

He walked at a steady pace, turned into an alley, and vanished into the twilight.

Meanwhile, At the Xikou County Government Building, in the Folklore and Antiquities Investigation Division.

"Section Chief, Wang Jiu's body has been found. His sternum was shattered, and he has been dead for five days!" Officer Liang said.

Lin Xiu sat behind his desk, holding the newspaper, his gaze heavy as it rested on the blurry photos on the front page.

His fingers tapped twice on the desk, a steady, rhythmic beat like a silent countdown.

"Chest smashed in?"

Lin Xiu's voice was low, yet it made Officer Liang's spine stiffen.

"Yes. Wang Jiu's chest is collapsed, and almost all his ribs are broken. The coroner's preliminary assessment is that a martial artist of at least Bright Force level struck him with a heavy technique."

Officer Liang paused, then added, "The time of death was that very night. That evening, Wang Jiu was tailing Fang Shuwen."

The office fell silent for a moment.

Lin Xiu spread the newspaper out, his eyes sweeping back and forth between the two sets of photos.

He had personally taken the photos of Wang Jiu's body; the wound on the chest was clearly visible.

Although the three bodies in the newspaper were blurry.

The location of the collapse and the way the bones were fractured were almost identical.

"Four bodies, the same method of death—what a coincidence."

Lin Xiu muttered to himself, set the paper down, and took off his glasses to wipe the lenses with a cloth.

"Section Chief, are you implying... that the killer is the same person?" Officer Liang's voice dropped even lower.

Lin Xiu didn't answer directly. He put his glasses back on and pointed at the photos of the three bodies in the paper.

"Wang Jiu was a Bright Force martial artist. Whoever killed him with a single punch must be at least at the mid-stage of Bright Force. As for Li Tong and his men, the bald one and the bearded one were both tough hands with Three-Sound Bone Crack. To kill them all at once, this level of strength is not simple."

He paused, his gaze deep and inscrutable.

"Go and investigate Li Tong's social connections. Find out his background, who he had grudges with, and what he had been up to lately. Leave no detail unchecked, get it all."

"Perhaps then, we will find the killer!"