Chapter 67: I Heard You Eloped? A Tangled Web of Love

Song Kai had indeed braced himself to be scolded. Although people like Danlina were only collaborators, sharing information and working together, Song Kai still felt uneasy for having used her this time.

But when Danlina suddenly declared that she had achieved a merit, Song Kai was stunned.

He scratched his head and said, “What do you mean? Did you say something wrong because your Chinese isn’t good?”

“My problem isn’t with Chinese, it’s with idioms. See for yourself.” Danlina handed him three photos.

Song Kai glanced at them. The images were rather blurry, each showing a scene that appeared to be on African soil, with a group of people in special combat uniforms, wielding guns and slaughtering some local black Africans.

“What are these?” Song Kai asked.

“The Vulture Mercenary Squad—a notorious bunch. They aren’t exclusively dark web mercenaries, but they do take jobs from the dark web sometimes. These people are extremely brutal and violent, with no regard for methods. What you see in these three photos are scenes of them pillaging gold mines in Africa. They killed the mine owners and the tribal chiefs. There are eleven of them in total: three old Vietnamese soldiers, two from Japan, two from your country, and four from Europe,” Danlina explained in halting Chinese.

This time, Song Kai couldn’t be bothered to critique her idioms. He frowned. “Oh? So why have they come here? Don’t they know this is China? How can they possibly get away with murder here?”

Danlina smiled. “That’s exactly what makes the Vulture Mercenaries so detestable. This time, they were hired by the American Kebo Firearms Company. The job involved stealing a piece of software source code—anyway, it wasn’t targeted at you. This mercenary squad is Interpol’s top wanted group. We managed to catch ten of them in one go, with only one escapee. That’s a huge success! Of course, the greatest credit goes to you, since you provided their exact location.”

“Uh…”

Song Kai was speechless. He hadn’t expected the situation to take such a turn. Seeing Danlina’s excitement, he guessed her team would be handsomely rewarded.

Danlina put away the photos, patted Song Kai on the shoulder, and said, “Song, if you uncover similar information in the future, be sure to tell me right away. By the way, we’ve been investigating Ding Zhe and his company recently. We should have news soon. As soon as I hear anything, I’ll let you know.”

“Alright!” Song Kai gestured at her. “In any case, I really appreciate what you did before.”

Danlina just shrugged.

Song Kai hopped out of the car.

Danlina drove off at high speed.

Song Kai chuckled wryly, then walked toward Xu Ling’s car.

Xu Ling buckled her seatbelt and asked, “Who are those friends of yours? How are they so amazing?”

“They’re not really my friends. They’re an Interpol special team, here to investigate a dark web mercenary company.” As Song Kai drove off, he explained briefly.

He had nothing to hide from Xu Ling.

Xu Ling nodded. “Well, in any case, you really helped me out today. I’ve decided to give you a gift.”

“Really? There’s no need to be so polite. Just give me a few million, that’ll do.” Song Kai grinned.

Xu Ling glanced at him in exasperation. “You’re shameless. But I really don’t intend to take the ten million from the Chinese medicine factory. It’s yours now.”

“Uh…” Song Kai scratched his head. “I’ve already spent it all. Got any cash?”

“No.” Xu Ling turned away, ignoring him.

Song Kai felt a little frustrated.

When he got home, Song Kai collapsed wearily onto his bed.

He’d exhausted himself chasing ghosts earlier and hadn’t gotten any rest. Now, another shock had left him even more drained.

Still, he’d helped Xu Ling today, and it was obvious she was growing fonder of him.

Keep it up, he thought. This is the woman I want as my wife.

The phone rang.

Song Kai looked at the screen. It was Zhou Ran. Why was this woman calling him?

“Hello?” Song Kai answered.

On the other end, Zhou Ran asked quietly, “Song Kai, did you elope with Liu Miaoyu?!”

“Huh?” Song Kai was utterly confused. “My dear clever, adorable, and sexy cousin, how did you come up with that conclusion?”

Zhou Ran scoffed, “I’d never believe such a brainless rumor! There’s no way Liu Miaoyu would elope with you. She doesn’t even like you.”

“Damn…”

Zhou Ran went on, “But now Liu Miaoyu has suddenly stopped coming to class and even the homeroom teacher has no idea why. And you’ve also been absent. Now the whole school’s gossiping that you ran off with her because her father wouldn’t let you be together.”

Song Kai fell silent for a moment. “There was a bit of an incident on Liu Miaoyu’s side. She probably can’t come back to school for a while. Just focus on your studies and don’t worry about the gossip.”

“I’m worried about Miaoyu, not interested in your scandals.” With that, Zhou Ran hung up.

Lying on his bed, Song Kai suddenly realized just how much he missed Liu Miaoyu.

From the very first day his soul came to this world, he’d collided head-on with her.

They’d barely known each other, yet had spent a night together, utterly exposed.

Liu Miaoyu was intelligent, beautiful, pure, and kind.

Such a wonderful girl, yet now she was facing death.

But perhaps, this was also a turning point.

Song Kai picked up his phone and tried calling Liu Zhishan and Liu Miaoyu.

Neither call went through.

He set the phone down and before long, drifted into a deep sleep.

When he awoke, he was starving.

Rubbing his eyes, he walked out.

In the living room, Wu Hongying was also rubbing her eyes as she came out.

“Morning.”

“Morning.”

They greeted each other and checked the time.

6:13 PM.

“Damn,” Song Kai muttered, yawning. “Guess it’s not morning.”

Wu Hongying immediately began changing out of her pajamas and into her uniform, unbothered by the fact that she was only in her underwear in front of Song Kai.

“You’re heading to work now?” he asked.

“I’m off to make an arrest! Damn it, ever since I was assigned here, my life’s been a tragedy. It’s all trivial nonsense, and I can’t even get a good night’s sleep.” Wu Hongying yawned.

“Oh,” Song Kai replied, then asked casually, “Where are you going to make the arrest?”

“Hongyun Restaurant. The chef slept with the boss’s wife, the boss’s brother found out, so he wanted to sleep with the chef’s wife. Then the chef found out, and finally, the chef’s wife’s lover showed up and slashed the boss’s secretary’s lover.” Wu Hongying summarized the case.

Song Kai blinked, scratching his head. Why was this case so convoluted? He couldn’t make heads or tails of it.

Wait, wasn’t Hongyun Restaurant the place Zhang Hongjun was treating him to dinner tonight?

Song Kai immediately said, “Hey, take me with you. Give me a second to change.”

“Why do you want to come? Are you part of this tangled web of relationships too?” Wu Hongying asked curiously.

“No, I’m just going there for dinner,” Song Kai replied.

Wu Hongying snorted. “That place has terrible food, lousy service, and the most expensive prices in Tengyun City. I can’t understand why anyone would eat there!”

Song Kai shrugged. “Well, someone else is paying. Besides, these days, high prices are a status symbol. The owner sure knows how to make money, appealing to people’s vanity.”

They changed quickly, and Wu Hongying drove Song Kai straight to Hongyun Restaurant.

Hongyun Restaurant was only three stories high, but its main feature was its exorbitant prices, followed by its gaudy décor—everything glittered with gold and red, so tacky it hurt the eyes.

Song Kai didn’t mind. There were still ten minutes before the appointed time, so he sat in the lobby playing with his phone and texted Xu Ling to ask where she was.

“Hey? Song Kai?” a female voice called out suddenly.

He looked up. It was Liu Yan, an old classmate from third period, though they’d never been close.

Song Kai just smiled.

But Liu Yan’s eyes lit up instantly. She hurried over. “Song Kai, I heard you eloped with Liu Miaoyu. Is it true?!”