Deep in the Living
Chapter 102 - 96: Investigation

Chapter 102: Chapter 96: Investigation

[Luo Dumplings]

"Chinese cuisine is the best! So satisfying."

Yu Ze took off his sunglasses and even rushed the last of the dumpling sauce into his mouth with chopsticks.

Anna was also curious, feeling as if the other party hadn’t eaten in a long time, "Is there no Chinese food in the Capital City?"

"Of course, there is. The Capital City is a diverse city, with all kinds of restaurants and good flavors.

But I’m not much of a person for going out. When I order takeout, if it’s noodles, they always arrive either overcooked or not hot enough to be delicious. Chinese food should be eaten right out of the pot."

"Oh."

"Miss Anna wasn’t my fellow countryman’s girlfriend, huh?

How do I put it, I basically left the Capital City as soon as I received the news of my fellow countryman’s discharge from the hospital, and when I arrived, you two were together shopping, it’s inevitable to think too much.

So you are?"

Anna explained, "Just friends. We went through Simulation Practice together during our studies."

"So it was like that, it seems you had quite a profound experience. Speaking of, Miss Anna, is your physique from injections or?"

"Our family is all like this; compared to my dad and my brother, I’m not even considered big."

"Family genes, huh?"

Yu Ze seemed to see something as a smile flashed across his cheeks, seemingly very satisfied with this temporarily formed team.

As the two chatted about everyday things, Luo Di, who had put down his chopsticks, suddenly interjected:

"From what angle should we follow up on the current incident to make it better?"

Yu Ze, acting in the capacity of an Official Investigator and with the richest experience, theoretically should have been the leader of this team.

Who knew, he just raised his right hand, "Boss, another serving of red oil dumplings and a serving of mixed sauce noodles."

After confirming that the boss received the order, Yu Ze then turned back and slowly answered: "Well, wasn’t this incident chosen by you guys? I’m just here temporarily to make up the numbers.

The leader and decision-making power, it would be better still to leave it to you, my fellow countryman.

Though you just became an Intern Investigator, based on your bio, you seem pretty experienced too.

Also, let me explain,

I’m not fond of dealing with cases with fewer leads, less hopeful lingering cases, nor do I like pondering over problems. However, when we really encounter an anomaly and face danger, I will definitely give it my all.

I’ll leave the preliminary investigation work to you guys!"

Luo Di didn’t say much; he understood that the other party yielding the leadership and decision-making power was simply to assess his capacity in this aspect.

After all, the decision on this incident was solely made by Luo Di, so it was reasonable to leave the preliminary investigation to him.

Luo Di immediately provided a preliminary investigation plan, "After eating, let’s take the bus to the nearby nursing homes and look around. Throughout the process, maintain a rather pure mindset, completely putting aside the thought of dealing with anomalies, just pretending to apply for a job at nursing homes or looking for someone."

"Okay." Anna immediately began role-playing.

Yu Ze seemed quite indifferent, "As long as there is food, I’ll keep following.

However, I still need to say upfront, if there is still no clue within 48 hours, we might as well drop this case, since time is very precious to us.

Yo~ my noodles have arrived."

Yu Ze received the noodles, blew on them twice and began to slurp vigorously, nodding repeatedly as he ate.

Lunch ended.

The investigation into the ’non-existent nursing home’ officially began.

Since different nursing homes are located in various regions of the city, there will be quite long travel times in between.

During this time, Luo Di and Anna were not idle; as investigators, they accessed the database, searching for information on missing persons suspected to be related to the ’nursing home’.

They carefully compared differences in information between different missing persons, trying to find commonalities.

Of course, this work had actually been done by other investigators before.

These missing persons were scattered throughout all regions of the city, aged from 25 to 50 years old, from all walks of life, and whether it was their routes to the nursing homes or their regular life, work routes, and daily activity times, etc., differences existed.

There was no commonality found.

Yu Ze’s state was completely different; he either slept on the bus or read novels, even laughing out loud in public when he encountered certain special plots.

The afternoon quickly passed by.

The team visited a total of four nursing homes,

whether by walking, biking, taking buses or rideshares, or fully entering the buildings of the nursing homes to walk through each area, there was absolutely no anomaly.

Everything was normal.

Moreover, due to the national focus on special groups, the elderly in these nursing homes were also living a high-quality life, each one of them appearing in good spirits, at least there were no outward signs of abuse.

After dinner, Luo Di still tried to visit nearby nursing homes during the nighttime and even once tried to impersonate a thief, scaling the wall to sneak into a nursing home, but still came up empty-handed.

[22:10]

The first day of investigation was forcibly concluded.

Not only did they fail to find the non-existent nursing home, but they didn’t even find a single clue.

Even though Yu Ze had been reading novels throughout, he now put it away and pushed up his round glasses before speaking:

"I’ve always been curious, buddy, you don’t seem like the kind of person who is careless.

With so many cases to choose from at the Investigation Bureau, why did you specifically choose one that has no leads and seems to be a stagnant case with no solution from you?"

"Intuition."

"A man’s intuition? Still, let me remind you, if there’re still no clues tomorrow, how about we switch to a different case?"

"Yeah."

"By the way, you guys should be staying at the Mercury Hotel tonight, right? The treatment in Mingwang City is really good, Investigation Bureau has deep cooperation with Mercury Group, entry-level positions come with VIP status."

"I have my own apartment, not far away."

"Then what about Miss Anna? Don’t tell me..." As Yu Ze’s gaze drifted away while looking at Anna, he quickly grasped the implication, "Then I’ll take my leave first, you guys should rest well tonight, don’t stay up too late, we still have to run around all day tomorrow."

Yu Ze left,

Even at night, he carried his e-reader projecting the novel pages at 50% transparency in front of him, reading as he walked.

"Anna, let’s go."

"Okay."

Back at the apartment, closing the door and windows.

The first thing Luo Di did was take out the monitor that had been suppressed all day from his backpack, watch some TV and take a little rest.

As Anna emerged from the bathroom, she had completely adapted to the bizarre sight in front of her, leaning against the wall she voiced her confusion: "Luo Di, I’m also very curious, why did you choose this case? I saw you were about to turn the page."

"Wu Wen chose it."

"No wonder... I felt something at that time too, turns out it was true."

Luo Di crossed his hands and pressed them against his nose bridge, "We’ll try a different approach tomorrow, if there’s still no progress, we’ll switch the case."

"Hmm. There’s another thing, do you think Yu Ze could have discovered the monitor in your backpack?"

"Even if he did, it doesn’t matter. It’s my trophy. How I manage and use it is my own business."

Sensing the atmosphere turning a bit off, Anna stopped the conversation, "Then I’ll go to sleep first, let’s try other methods tomorrow."

After Anna went back to her room,

Luo Di stood up and turned off all the lights in the living room, only leaving the TV on, watching a late-night movie program.

As he watched the plot of the movie unfold, Luo Di softly murmured words, his voice nearly completely masked by the sound of the TV, only the monitor placed beside him on the tissue could hear.

"Since you chose it, can you give any suggestions?"

Facing Luo Di’s question, the head full of sewing scars remained motionless.

The only light cast on her face by the TV fluctuated with the changing scenes.

The next morning.

Anna got up before seven, a rarity for a graduate, only to find the living room deserted by the time she came out.

When she called Luo Di on her wristband phone, he had already been running for half an hour and had agreed to meet at the breakfast spot.

As Anna energetically tackled her meat bun, she threw out a question, "Have you thought of any different investigative methods?"

"No," shook Luo Di, completely clueless.

"Then shall we meet with Yu Ze first later? His hotel seems a bit far, are we taking a taxi or the bus?"

Just as Anna asked this question, Luo Di, with a doughstick dipped in soy milk in hand, froze, the food never reaching his mouth.

"Such a simple thing, why did I never think of it!?"