Chapter 20: Time to Recycle Those Flags
The next day.
As usual, Lu Zheng walked into the Hero Association building right on time.
The moment he stepped inside, Miss Qiu Yu hurriedly rushed up to him.
“Ye Qin still hasn’t come to work.”
“Huh? It’s not like her being late is anything unusual.”
Lu Zheng was a little confused by Miss Qiu Yu’s urgency.
Taking advantage of Miss Qiu Yu’s favoritism, Ye Qin was arguably even better at slacking off than Lu Zheng—being late or leaving early wasn’t rare at all.
Miss Qiu Yu fell silent for a moment.
She couldn’t exactly tell Lu Zheng that Ye Qin’s habit of being late or leaving early was all part of her carefully crafted plan to create opportunities for the two of them to be alone together.
“She usually sends me a message even when she’s late, but today I haven’t gotten anything.”
Miss Qiu Yu forced out an explanation.
“Maybe she just overslept.”
Lu Zheng judged by his own standards.
You think everyone’s as irresponsible as you?
Miss Qiu Yu shot him an exasperated look.
“I called her several times, and no one answered. Plus, we still haven’t received any intel on the person who triggered the alarm yesterday. I’m a bit worried about her.”
“In any case, go check on Ye Qin at her place. Hopefully, everything’s fine.”
Miss Qiu Yu waved him off.
“OK.”
Lu Zheng nodded, walked out the front door, got into his car, and drove directly to Ye Qin’s home.
“Bang bang bang!”
Lu Zheng knocked hard on Ye Qin’s door and shouted loudly.
“Ye Qin! Are you home?”
But there was no response for a long while.
“If you don’t open the door, I’m coming in.”
Lu Zheng called out again, but still got no answer.
A bad feeling welled up in his heart.
Could Miss Qiu Yu actually be right?
Lu Zheng lifted the doormat at Ye Qin’s door. Underneath was the spare key to her apartment.
Lu Zheng frowned.
Ye Qin only hid the key there when she went out, so she was probably not home now.
Still, hoping to find some clues, Lu Zheng apologized silently to the absent Ye Qin and opened her front door.
He looked around Ye Qin’s apartment briefly but didn’t find anything of particular value.
Lu Zheng sat down helplessly on the sofa and called Miss Qiu Yu: “I didn’t find her at home. Unless she has a habit of disappearing without a word, something’s probably happened to her.”
“Want me to look around?”
Lu Zheng asked over the phone.
Miss Qiu Yu was silent for a moment before rejecting the idea.
“Just come back for now.” Miss Qiu Yu’s brows were tightly furrowed. “I’ll have the Investigation Division focus on tracing Ye Qin’s movements.”
She let out a sigh.
Miss Qiu Yu was ninety-nine percent sure Ye Qin’s disappearance was related to yesterday afternoon’s incident. It was likely that the information Ye Qin received last night had come from the suspect.
But she currently had no leads at all.
Although not on par with herself and Lu Zheng, Ye Qin was still a powerful hero. In close-quarters combat, even she and Lu Zheng might not be able to defeat her. And yet, there were no clues found at the scene of the incident.
Not even a trace of a struggle.
Miss Qiu Yu felt a massive headache coming on.
Today was a weekday. Dr. Alien would be carrying out her evil plan right on schedule in the afternoon. In order to stop her, Lu Zheng couldn’t help with the search for Ye Qin.
If she didn’t have to guard D-City’s Spiritual Veins, Miss Qiu Yu would have rolled up her sleeves and gone out to handle things herself.
Fortunately, Ye Qin most likely wasn’t in mortal danger.
Based on recent intel from Hero Association Headquarters, Miss Qiu Yu guessed the suspect who abducted Ye Qin was probably one of those Freedom Alliance members who slipped through the security gap.
The Evil Council tended not to interfere with the goals of other evil organizations. And within the Hero Association’s jurisdiction, it was unthinkable that anyone besides the Evil Council or Freedom Alliance would dare attack a hero directly.
Moreover, considering the distance between D-City and the defense line, even if someone had broken through and headed directly to D-City, it wouldn’t be possible to reach the city so quickly using conventional means. This had to be premeditated.
Those people had gone to great lengths with detailed planning—they wouldn’t have done it just to kill. More likely, their goal was related to the Freedom Alliance members that she and Lu Zheng had previously captured.
It was very possible one of those prisoners was a high-ranking member’s relative or knew some critical secret.
And Ye Qin, without question, would be a very useful hostage.
To ensure success, the enemy would certainly try everything to keep Ye Qin alive.
With that in mind, Miss Qiu Yu picked up the phone and called the prison, instructing them to bring out all the captured Freedom Alliance members for a thorough interrogation in hopes of extracting some useful intel.
Once everything was arranged, Miss Qiu Yu slumped into a chair, exhausted. She opened the 3D map of D-City and zoomed in on the area flagged by yesterday’s alert, hoping to locate a possible hideout.
Unfortunately, her efforts were in vain.
Even racking her brain, she couldn’t find a single suspicious location.
Should she ask Dr. Alien?
Perhaps out of desperation from Ye Qin’s disappearance, such a blasphemous thought actually crossed Miss Qiu Yu’s mind.
But maybe it wasn’t entirely irrational.
After all, the other party was an evil scientist bent on conquering D-City. Having some device capable of monitoring the entire city wasn’t out of the question.
And according to Evil Council norms, Dr. Alien likely wouldn’t appreciate others running amok on the territory she had announced as her own.
Now that they had a common enemy, wouldn’t a temporary alliance be ideal?
Just as Miss Qiu Yu was indulging in fantasies of teaming up with Dr. Alien to eliminate the Freedom Alliance operative, Lu Zheng returned.
He walked into the Hero Association building, dragging a suitcase that reached up to his waist.
“What’s that thing?”
Miss Qiu Yu looked puzzled.
“Isn’t it yours?”
Seeing Miss Qiu Yu’s expression, Lu Zheng was confused as well.
He pointed to the delivery label on the suitcase, the confusion on his face only deepening.
It read: “To Deputy Chief Miss Qiu Yu, Hero Association.”
Miss Qiu Yu scratched her head and tried to recall, but couldn’t remember expecting any deliveries.
She hadn’t bought anything recently either.
Could it be a bomb?
The recent stress had made her borderline paranoid.
“Open it and see.”
She gestured to Lu Zheng, then cast a spell to set up a barrier that isolated them from the outside.
Lu Zheng dragged the suitcase into the barrier, rolled a die, laid the case flat on the ground, unzipped it, and unlocked the combination.
“(Expletive)!”
Seeing the contents inside, Lu Zheng’s brows furrowed, and a surge of invisible fury rose within him.