Beginning with the Ubume Bird
Chapter 623 - Chapter 623 Chapter 9 Shudawei

Chapter 623: Chapter 9 Shudawei Chapter 623: Chapter 9 Shudawei “Are you worried about letting Lady Dan down, or is it the pressure from the Yan Zhao Club?”

“Judy and I go way back, and the Yan Zhao Club’s reach isn’t long enough to tether me.”

Cha Xiaodao pursed his lips, “Boring.” He glanced at Li Yan, “You told me before that there were no romantic feelings between you and Nine-Winged Sudu; what about Judy? Do you like her more, or Lady Dan more?”

Li Yan replied listlessly, “You’re particularly chatty today.”

“Hahaha~”

After an awkward laugh, Cha Xiaodao sighed, “Women, it’s better to stay away from them.”

Li Yan glanced at Cha Xiaodao and patted his shoulder, “Xiaodao, listen to me, getting hit by a thief hurts, but a thief enjoys the feast too. I’m out of the game now; you shouldn’t shy away from it, it’s pointless.”

Cha Xiaodao opened his mouth but couldn’t say anything in reply.

A buzzing of a phone vibrating came from Li Yan’s pocket. The caller ID showed a name very familiar to Li Yan.

Yang Zheng.

“Hello?”

Li Yan pressed the answer button.

“I’m Yang Zheng. You and Cha Xiaodao are good friends, right? Introduce me to him, I’d like to ask for his help. The payment will be the Shudawei from the Delicacies of Five Flavors and Eight Dishes. Ask him if he’s interested.”

Upon hearing this, Cha Xiaodao’s head shot up unexpectedly.

“Interested, very interested.”

“Then talk to him directly,” Li Yan said as he handed the phone to Cha.

“Hello.”

“Hello, hello.”

“Like this, tomorrow morning at eight o’clock, Victoria Harbour, I’ll meet with you to talk.”

“Sounds good.”

Cha hung up and tossed the phone back to Li Yan, “Not gonna hang around here any longer, I’m off to live the high life with Mr. Yang.”

“What’s Shudawei?”

“Shudawei, known as the food of heavens, is considered the supreme delicacy amongst the desired delights of the Buddhist Desire Realm, one of the thirteen legendary dishes of the Delicacies of Five Flavors and Eight Dishes banquet. If you want the Yi Yi heritage to advance to the level of Six Ministries, you need to master all the dishes of the Delicacies of Five Flavors and Eight Dishes banquet.”

“Legendary recipes, Yang Zheng is really willing to pay the cost.”

Cha Xiaodao had mentioned to Li Yan before that he still wanted to follow the Yi Yi heritage, and Taotie was just a transition. When he was fully prepared, he would give up the role of Taotie and return to the Yi Yi path.

“Just be extra careful yourself.”

“There’s nothing riskier than being here, surrounded by a melodrama of foolish men and grieving women,” Cha Xiaodao rolled his eyes.

——————————–

“Name?”

“Qian Wu.”

“Where do you live?”

“371 Shanghai Street, Yau Ma Tei.”

Li Yaoguang, the Senior Superintendent of the New Territories Division, tapped the desk lightly with his pen cap as he observed Qian Wu, who was drifting in and out of sleep in front of him.

“What were you doing alone at the Hanlin Cold Storage so late at night?”

“My godson was killed. He came to me in a dream telling me that the person who harmed him was at the Pugang Road cold storage, so I went there to check things out with a try-and-see attitude.”

“…”

Seeing the less-than-pleased expression on Li Yaoguang’s face, Qian Wu smiled gently, “I’m an old man getting senile, my words are absurd, Li sir, please don’t take offense.”

“Is that so? But I found your statement quite coherent, and you seemed composed at the crime scene; you don’t come across as confused at all,” Li Yaoguang said as he picked up a sketch from the desk “Tell me, is this the person who killed Chen Zhengcong?”

“Yes.”

The sketch was of a young man with hollow cheeks and starry eyes. Li Yaoguang felt he looked somewhat familiar, but couldn’t quite place who it was in the drawing.

“What about the murder weapon? What did he use to kill the victim?”

“I don’t know, I didn’t see it clearly.”

“Old man, the police are willing to believe you’re innocent, but the media impact of this case is really bad. You were the only one at the scene of the crime, covered in blood. If you don’t cooperate with us to find out the truth, the police have every reason to charge you with intentional homicide,” Li Yaoguang said, bluntly threatening him. Yet Qian Wu remained unmoved, “Every word I said is true, you say I killed someone, but where’s the weapon, where’s the motive? How could an old coffin board like me overpower a young man? Sir, don’t wrong me, cough cough cough cough~ wrong an innocent man.”

Mr. Wu suddenly started coughing violently; he was, after all, getting on in years, and after the cold storage murder case, he was worn out from being interrogated by police all night long.

“Get him a blanket,” Li Yaoguang ordered an officer nearby and then said to Qian Wu, “Alright, you take a rest and try to remember if there are any details you’ve missed; I’ll come back and see you later.”

After the coughing subsided a bit, Mr. Wu said, “Li sir, isn’t your birthday the day after tomorrow?”

Li Yaoguang’s smile faded, “How do you know that?”

“These next few days, before you leave the house, make sure to check the gas switch, prevent fires and theft. Be careful and prudent in everything you do, and everything will be fine after the fifteenth of next month.”

“…”

Li Yaoguang smiled and left the room. A woman dressed in business attire with a pencil skirt came out.

“Li sir, there’s news from the Hanlin Cold Storage,” she said.

“Let’s hear it.”

“We’ve identified two suspects. The first is the person in charge of the cold storage, Li Anchao; he’s responsible for the logistics of goods in and out, and it’s impossible to hide a body from him. The other is a cold storage caretaker, Liu Shiqing, known as Wutouzi, who has gang affiliations. On the night of the incident, Liu Shiqing suddenly disappeared, along with him, a truck used for transporting meat vanished.”

“Has Li Anchao been found?”

“We’ve already been to the apartment he lives in.”

“What about those frozen corpses? Have their identities been determined?”

“The forensic team has performed autopsies on some of the bodies. We can now confirm that among the twelve bodies whose identities have been established, ten were inmates serving sentences in prison but died from various other causes. Normally, their bodies should have been cremated. The other two bodies are individuals who have gone missing over the past few years. More detailed information will have to wait for further investigation results.”

“To have found out this much in just one night isn’t bad, I’ll apply for arrest warrants for the staff of the prison’s hospital and the funeral home. Make sure you find Wutouzi for me.”

“Rest assured.”

Li Yaoguang suddenly remembered the sketch provided to the police by Qian Wu and spoke up, “Right, bring me the case files from the past few years that haven’t been closed.”

“Okay.”

“Wait a moment…” Li Yaoguang called to the other person, frowning in thought for a while: “Bring the closed ones too.”

The other person appeared hesitant to speak.

“What is it?”

Li Yaoguang frowned deeply.

“Li sir, you’re retiring in half a month, there’s really no need to push yourself so hard. In your career as a police officer, you’ve cracked major cases too numerous to be counted on both hands; you won’t miss this one. This case is tricky, and I think it should be handed over.”

“You said it yourself, I’m retiring in half a month, and after that, I won’t have the chance even if I wanted to,” Li Yaoguang said, his face creased with wrinkles: “I’m in robust health, don’t worry about me, go get it done.”

At three o’clock in the afternoon, the cargo ship escorted by the armed transport of Beijing Zhongcheng Security Center arrived at the harbor and was loaded onto vehicles, headed to the Zhongxing Baode office in Hong Kong.

Two silver-white heavy-duty trucks were parked at the entrance to the building, adorned with the Zhongxing Baode logo.

Armed security personnel were guarding both sides, wearing suits and looking honest. A man in his thirties was shaking hands with Li Yan.

“Nice to meet you, Mr. Li Yan. I’m the newly appointed manager of the Hong Kong branch, and also the chief person in charge of this charity auction. My code is Ren’er, but you can call me Zhou. We have a total of forty-two items for auction. This is the inventory list; please take a look. If everything is in order, sign here.”

Li Yan took the inventory list from his hand and scrutinized it closely.

One hundred and eight gold filigree cloud dragon pattern prayer beads, a white jade bodhisattva statue from the Qing Dynasty Dehua period, a handwritten complete set of the ‘Qingwu Preface’ by Zhang Jinhua…

Once he had a rough idea, Li Yan signed his name on the inventory list, then looked up at Zhou: “We can proceed with the delivery, right?”

Unexpectedly, the other party shook his head: “We still need two more signatures.”

Only then did Li Yan remember that in addition to himself, two other people were also involved in the security work.

Ren Ni, Jin Ye.

——————————–

Ren Ni looked to be just over twenty, always wearing red headphones around his neck. He had a pale complexion and dark circles under his eyes, obviously a night owl seldom exposed to sunlight.

He was an official employee of Third Eye Global, belonging to Si Wenji, and he also had a good relationship with Peacock from the Yan Zhao Club, as they were cousins.

As for Jin Ye, he looked young and ordinary, with unremarkable dress, the kind that would be hard to notice in a crowd.

Both he and Li Yan had certain connections.

Sifan’s Feng Yi had once appeared before Li Yan in the guise of Ren Ni, which led Li Yan to often look at Ren Ni with a strange gaze, imposing a great psychological pressure on the latter.

As for Jin Ye, he had a brief confrontation with Li Yan over a seat in the Yan Zhao Club and was ultimately beheaded by Li Yan, although it did not cost him his life.

“Now that all three of us are here, let’s discuss how to guard these auction items.”

Jin Ye was the first to speak, facing Li Yan: “Both of us are not members of the Yan Zhao Club. You’re in the second seat, so you make a decision.”

Li Yan pondered for a while before speaking: “Not counting today, there are twenty-four days until the auction starts. I reckon we all need to take some time to engage with the local tycoons, to have them fill out their slips. I suggest we keep it simple: one person guard for eight days, and the remaining sixteen days are free for all. If anything unexpected comes up, we can contact each other by phone.”

“I have no objections.”

Jin Ye agreed readily.

On the other hand, Ren Ni, lacking confidence, hesitantly raised his hand.

“It’s like this, I’ve already filled out my three slips.”

He pulled three completed auction registration forms out of his pocket. Signatures from Liang Feng of Hejia Entertainment, Feng Zhaoji of Hengliang Real Estate, and Xue Wenhai of Hanlin Cold Chain were on them.

“But, I’m not very confident about my ability to confront issues head-on, to be honest. Having me do the security alone, I’m afraid there might be oversights. What I mean is, for the next twenty-four days, I’ll stay here, and each of you can guard for twelve days to keep me company. If it’s too much trouble for you two, I can guard by myself… it’s just, it’s not very safe.”

“Are you serious? You were personally chosen by Mr. Zhao; you don’t have the confidence for this?”

Jin Ye was somewhat incredulous.

Ren Ni just smiled and didn’t defend himself.

“Then how about this: for the first twelve days, Ren Ni and I will guard, and for the last twelve days, you and Ren Ni guard, how’s that?”

Seeing Li Yan suggest this, Jin Ye had no choice but to grudgingly nod: “Let’s go with that then.”

“Ren Ni, a question off the topic,”

Li Yan pointed at one of the registration forms: “How did you get in touch with Xue Wenhai of Hanlin Cold Chain?”

“Uh…”

Ren Ni looked down.

“If it’s difficult, forget I asked.”

“It’s not that it’s difficult. He came to me on his own initiative.”

“He approached you?”

Li Yan narrowed his eyes.

The receptionist, who bore a striking resemblance to Qiu Shuzhen and had been silently listening, suddenly interjected: “Xue Wenhai is a regular client of Zhongxing Baode. He usually bids for the auction items at prices far above the market average, and then donates what he wins to museums on the mainland through various channels.”

“Why’s that? Isn’t Zhongxing Baode a Mainland auction company? Passing things from one hand to the other?”

“The reunification is approaching, and all the demons and ghosts are making early preparations; it’s quite common.”

Li Yan didn’t ask further, but he made a mental note of the name Xue Wenhai.