CH 16

Lu RanKong saw Lan Yu tilting his head and looking at the stairs, and followed suit.

Wang Wei had already checked both officer IDs with the terminal, and after confirming that they were real, his expression relaxed a bit.

“Hi, little sister, good evening.” Lu RanKong waved at the girl, and asked Wang Wei, “Your daughter?”

Wang Wei froze, turned her head to look at the top of the stairs, and said anxiously, “Who told you to come out? Go back inside…”

The girl’s long white robe draped over the ground, dragging a very old toy rabbit in her hand, ignoring Wang Wei’s words, just staring down motionlessly.

“Wang SiMao, go back to your room immediately!” Wang Wei pointed his finger at the second floor passage and shouted, “Li Han! Li Han! Bring Wang SiMao back to her room!”

The sound of a room door opening came from upstairs, and a woman in a long light coffee-colored dress hurriedly came over. She looked at Wang Wei a little reproachfully and nodded apologetically at Lu RanKong and Lan Yu downstairs. She took the girl’s hand and was about to turn around and go back to the room.

“Wait a minute, Mrs. Wang,” Lu RanKong called out.

Mrs. Wang stopped in her tracks and Wang Wei looked over.

Lu RanKong tilted his head and smiled, “Since Miss and Mrs. Wang are here, why don’t you come downstairs so we can ask you some questions? You know a gelded insect hiding in the house is not a small thing, we must investigate carefully and catch the gelded insect as soon as possible.”

“Gelded insect?” Mrs. Wang smiled and immediately looked at Wang Wei with a bewildered look.

Wang Wei frowned and explained, “An interstellar beast has possibly entered our house, and I don’t know which floor it’s hiding on.”

Mrs. Wang covered her mouth in horror and wrapped her daughter in her arms. 

“Then you should come down, it’s safer down here, and let these two Colonels ask about the situation.” Wang Wei said.

Mrs. Wang nodded, bowed her head and said a few words, then took Wang SiMao’s hand and walked downstairs. Wang SiMao still looked the same, following her woodenly downstairs.

Lan Yu sat on the sofa and watched the trio’s every move and didn’t miss a single expression on their faces. Mrs. Wang was a gentle-looking Omega, well-maintained, around forty years old and looked like she was in her early thirties. She was clearly a bit nervous about the sudden appearance of these two Alphas in the house, and her eyes kept dropping slightly, looking at the ground directly in front of her. Wang SiMao, on the other hand, had the same expression with vacant eyes, unable to see what she was thinking, with a different kind of weirdness.

The two of them went down to the living room, and Mrs. Wang took her daughter to sit down on the sofa opposite Lan Yu. She reached for the rabbit in her hand, and said softly, “Honey, put the rabbit down, okay? There are guests in the house.”

Wang SiMao stared fixedly ahead and didn’t respond. But just as Mrs. Wang went to get the rabbit, without any warning, she suddenly burst out with a scream that was about to pierce Lan Yu’s eardrums.

“Leave the stupid rabbit alone, just let her hold it!” Wang Wei shouted.

Mrs. Wang immediately withdrew her hand, stroked her daughter’s head, and said repeatedly, “Mommy won’t take the rabbit away, so you can hold it, honey.”

Only then did Wang SiMao’s screaming stop and she continued to squeeze the rabbit, staring blankly ahead.

“What was that about?” Lu RanKong had been standing by the sofa with his hands crossed, and couldn’t help but ask Wang Wei at this point.

“You go and call out Uncle Chen and Liu Zhi too, and ask them to come in all together.” Wang Wei tiredly instructed Mrs. Wang.

After Mrs. Wang answered and left, he replied to Lu RanKong, “She got sick a few months ago, and has been like this since she got better. She’s been in a daze, but we have taken her to a lot of doctors, and still hasn’t gotten any better.” He wiped his face, lowered his voice, and said, “My daughter used to be very lively and smart, but suddenly she became like this, and I can’t figure out what happened.”

Lu RanKong looked sideways at Lan Yu, who also happened to look at him, and they locked gazes in the air.

Mrs. Wang had already entered the living room from the side, followed by an old man and a teenage maid. Lu RanKong walked over to the double sofa and looked at Lan Yu who was sitting in the middle without speaking.

Lan Yu yawned and shifted his buttocks to the side, leaving half of the seat empty.

Lu RanKong sat down beside him and asked in a kind tone, “Uncle Chen, right? What were you doing just now, did you see any gelded insects?”

Uncle Chen stood with his hands down and respectfully replied, “Just now, Liu Zhi and I were preparing the ingredients for tomorrow morning, soaking some dried scallops and garlic. I didn’t see any gelded insects.”

Lu RanKong smiled and said, “It seems Uncle Chen knows quite a lot. The first thing people usually ask is what a gelded insect is.”

“When I was young, I traveled north and south, so I have heard many strange stories, including Lontan Planet’s interstellar beast gelded insects. My knowledge would make you officers laugh.” Uncle Chen also followed and laughed.

Lan Yu had been watching Uncle Chen, because it was said that ordinary people would be nervous and timid when faced with this kind of questioning, but he answered with a calm look, respectful attitude but no timidity. His answer was also very organized, and seemingly nothing was amiss. However, his body posture showed that he wasn’t as calm as he appeared to be.

Lu RanKong’s gaze was fixed on the other man as he asked the question.

A well-trained butler should know that it was rude to look at a guest like this, not to mention that he moved in and out in a measured manner; he shouldn’t make such a basic etiquette mistake. Because of filming, Lan Yu knew the meaning of many micro-expressions, and staring at people closely in this situation could only prove one thing.

——He was lying.

He subconsciously looked at Lu RanKong, trying to determine through eye contact whether the other party believed his lie. Lu RanKong got this answer from Uncle Chen and didn’t make a sound. He tapped his fingers on the arm of the sofa, looked at the maid again, and asked in a conciliatory manner, “Liu Zhi, right? What were you doing, did you see a gelded insect?”

Liu Zhi was obviously much more nervous. Her two hands were clenched tightly, her right hand picking at her nails on her left hand and her voice was trembling, “Sir, I saw nothing. I was with Uncle Chen in the kitchen soaking dried scallops and garlic, ready to make dried scallop and abalone porridge for the master and lady tomorrow morning. We have been busy, and didn’t see any gelded insects.”

Although she was so nervous that her tone changed, her words were fast and smooth, as if she had memorized a script in advance. After saying that, she also glanced at Uncle Chen beside her.

Uncle Chen had now withdrawn his gaze and was looking at the carpet in front of him with his eyes and nose straight ahead.

Lan Yu thought to himself, This is another liar.

No one spoke in the living room. Uncle Chen and Liu Zhi stood still, Mrs. Wang sat on the sofa with her daughter in her arms, looking at this and that in confusion, and then turning her head to look at her husband standing behind her.

In the silence, only the sound of Lu RanKong’s fingertips hitting the wooden armrest of the sofa could be heard.

“Colonel Lu, now that you spoke… How about letting them both go back?” Wang Wei had seen the officer’s card and already knew that the handsome Alpha officer’s last name was not ‘Strike’.

Lan Yu heard the person beside him lazily say, “No, there’s something wrong with them both. Once they explain clearly, then they can go back to the other room.”

“Some-something… something wrong with them?” Wang Wei looked stunned.

“They are connected to the gelded insect that escaped to your house, and I don’t know if they’re the ones who hid it.” Lu RanKong said without changing his face.

Listening to him say this so righteously, Lan Yu couldn’t help but glance slightly sideways.

From this position, he could only see his two long legs, resting on the coffee table in front of him. His trouser legs were a little scrunched because of the movement, revealing the skin of his ankle underneath, and the skin was a healthy wheat color showing a little gray edge of his sock.

——This was a copy of the dried bacon sock from the balcony.

Lan Yu withdrew his eyes and saw Liu Zhi’s face pale momentarily, and Uncle Chen also raised his head slightly.

Liu Zhi turned her head to Wang Wei and Mrs. Wang and shouted, “Master, Madam, how could I have hidden that gelded insect? I’m usually scared to death when I see a worm, how dare I hide any gelded insects?” 

Uncle Chen also looked at Wang Wei, and bowed slightly, “This old servant has served master and lady for so many years. Does master believe that I would hide an interstellar beast?”

“This… Colonel Lu, I know the two of them very well, there’s no way they would lie about the gelded insect. How about you go to the basement to look for it?” Wang Wei hurriedly explained.

Mrs. Wang also followed and nodded vigorously.

Lu RanKong ignored Wang Wei, withdrew his leg from the coffee table, sat up straight, and said to Uncle Chen and Liu Zhi, “You don’t want to admit it, right? If you don’t admit, when the police come, you will follow them to the police station.”

“I didn’t see any gelded insects! I will go to the police station and also have nothing to tell them.” Uncle Chen said with a red face.

Liu Zhi also boldly agreed: “I’m not afraid. I didn’t hide insects, so I’m not afraid either.”

“Since they are not afraid to go to the police station, then you might as well follow us later. Anyway, the police station can also investigate your other matters. So whether you lied about the gelded insects is a whole other story.” Lu RanKong said.

The words just fell, when Lan Yu saw Liu Zhi’s face changed, and Uncle Chen’s eyes also flashed a trace of panic, but instantly calmed down.

Lu RanKong slightly narrowed his eyes and continued, “I am a very nice person to talk to, so if you speak now it won’t be too late, I can give you a way out at my discretion. If you go to the police station and are interrogated about something, you will have to be locked up inside.”

Wang Wei looked at Uncle Chen and Liu Zhi in disbelief, and Mrs. Wang turned her head to say something, but was stopped by his eyes, so she just silently hugged the blank-faced Wang SiMao.

Liu Zhi seemed to be stunned, as a struggling look appeared on her face, peeking at Uncle Chen, mumbling like she wanted to speak.

Uncle Chen suddenly interrupted her at this point and said, “I’m a law-abiding person, so I’m not afraid to go to the police station, also, there’s no evidence. You can’t charge me with anything.”

Liu Zhi understood and shut her mouth again.

Lu RanKong was about to continue to lobby and intimidate, when he saw Lan Yu suddenly burst up beside him, his long legs stepped out. Before the crowd could react, he already held the back of Liu Zhi’s head with his left hand, and a dagger in his right hand against her throat.

“Ah…” Liu Zhi let out a terrified scream.

Uncle Chen took two steps back in panic, and Mrs. Wang got up from the sofa with her daughter in her arms and hid behind Wang Wei, who shouted sternly, “Colonel K, what are you doing?! What are you doing?! Let her go!…”

Liu Zhi was still screaming with her eyes closed. Lan Yu ignored the others and only came to her ear and whispered, “I like quiet people, scream again and I’ll cut your tongue out first.”

His tone was extremely cold, and contained a strong sense of bloodlust, sadism and excitement that sent shivers down the spines of everyone present.

Liu Zhi’s overflowing scream was forced back into her mouth by these words, so she only choked soundlessly, and her whole body shivered.

“Very good, very good baby, just be good and stay quiet.” Lan Yu changed the direction of Liu Zhi towards the crowd, then extended his tongue and licked her ear, watching with satisfaction as the hairs filled with sweat on the back of her neck stood up.

In the process, his eyes slowly glided over the faces of Wang Wei’s family and Uncle Chen, each of whom stopped breathing as he stared at them.

——That was the feeling of being stared at by a pervert, sending a chill down your spine, as if the cold scales of a viper brushed across your skin.

Lu RanKong looked down at the coffee table in front of him and coughed twice with his fist against his mouth.