"Cough cough... huh?" Gu Mengyao nearly lost her footing and fell to the ground. Boyfriend? Living together? This Xiao Shu was trying to infuriate her to death. Still, Gu Mengyao had no real way to handle her, so she could only put on a stern face and change the subject. "Xiao Shu, you are a girl. All this talk of farts and pee, how uncivilized. You are not allowed to say that anymore..."

"Oh, all right, I won't say it anymore." Shen Yushu nodded.

"Good, as long as you stop..." Gu Mengyao breathed a sigh of relief.

"Sister Yaoyao, since you have no objection, tomorrow I will tell Xiao Liangzi about you and Brother Arrow..." Shen Yushu went on.

"..." Gu Mengyao wanted to give Shen Yushu a beating. Did you not just say you would stop? Uh... Then Gu Mengyao understood this little girl Shen Yushu. By not saying it, she only meant she would stop saying those uncivilized words, but as for this matter... she was still going to talk about it.

"Xiao Shu, the timing is not ripe yet. Wei Zhao just transferred here, and we have already acted as if we barely know him. If we suddenly announce that we... that thing now, would it not look fake? Everything needs a gradual process. If we wait a while before bringing it up, it will not seem so abrupt," Gu Mengyao said.

"Oh, then I will listen to you, Sister Yaoyao." Shen Yushu nodded. "Anyway it does not matter to me. We agreed you are the first wife, so you pick the man. I am just here for reference..."

"Xiao Shu!" Gu Mengyao wanted to hammer this girl to death. "Why do you keep bringing up that old business? You are not stupid. If I marry, could you really marry along with me?"

"That is hard to say." Shen Yushu hugged Gu Mengyao. "If I do not want to be separated from you, then we will just go together..."

"You, I really do not know what to say about you..." Gu Mengyao shook her head, at a loss for words. The two walked upstairs hand in hand, and Gu Mengyao instructed General Mighty, "General Mighty, well done. Keep standing guard for us and do not let that man come up."

"Woof woof..." General Mighty felt wronged. If he wants to come up, how could I possibly stop him...

Qiu Lingshan was deeply troubled. Lu Jieyan was dead, and the trail had snapped all at once. Only Lu Jieyan, with his bald head and build, stood out enough to be easy to track. His other underlings were far more ordinary by comparison...

And judging by the forensic findings, this Lu Jieyan had died with no chance to defend himself, killed outright by a single shot. The other male corpse, also one of the bank robbers, had died the same way, caught completely off guard and finished with one shot.

They had searched carefully for hundreds of miles around, and apart from these two bodies, there were no others. In other words, only two of the robbers had died, while the rest might still be alive.

That counted as good news. If all the robbers had died, Qiu Lingshan would have had an even bigger headache. With only two dead, the situation spoke for itself. Either the gang had turned on itself in a feud, or these two had been silenced afterward.

An online check confirmed the identity of the other male corpse: Ma Liu, male, twenty-nine years old, an unemployed youth from Niudian Village in Huojia County, Songshan City, with a terrible reputation in the village, a loafer and idler of the worst sort.

Early last year he had said he was leaving the village to find work, and after that his whereabouts were unknown...

Clearly, he met Lu Jieyan only after leaving Niudian Village, so this lead was of little value...

After hesitating again and again, Qiu Lingshan decided to call Yang Huaijun for advice. Otherwise she really had no direction. She had already made a solemn pledge, and if the case was not solved within ten days, the chief might not dismiss her, but she would lose a great deal of face. If word reached the Song family, not only would she be humiliated, her father would be unable to hold his head up before the other uncles...

"Brother Yang, it is me..." Qiu Lingshan felt nervous. After all, making this call made her look incompetent. She had studied behind Yang Huaijun for so long and still had made no progress, which was truly embarrassing...

In the past, Yang Huaijun had always taken command while she led the charge. Relying on her experience as an instructor in the special forces, no matter how vicious a suspect was, she could beat him until he was picking his teeth off the ground. Dangerous arrests were therefore Qiu Lingshan's strong suit, and this was acknowledged throughout the bureau. Otherwise, as a female captain, she would never have won such ready obedience.

"Xiao Song, what is it?" Yang Huaijun had a meeting at the provincial department in the afternoon and nothing much in the morning, so he was planning to go back to the old traditional doctor who treated him for a follow-up. He had suffered an attack a few days before, supposedly from being angered by Wei Zhao, but over the past few months his health had plainly worsened day by day, something Yang Huaijun could feel himself.

"Captain Yang... the 313 bank robbery still has no leads... two suspects are dead, and whether the others live or not is unknown..." Qiu Lingshan said carefully.

"Heh--" Yang Huaijun naturally knew Qiu Lingshan's difficulty and understood her. After all, she had not come up through criminal investigation and had never received systematic training, so he gave his own view. "I already know about that. Let me tell you what I think. I feel the chance of a silencing is rather small. If it were a silencing, it would be impossible for only two out of the whole gang to die while the rest are fine..."

"Then... what if they were silenced by the others? What if only those two were not their own people?" Qiu Lingshan asked humbly.

"Would there be any need for that? If they were all on the same side, why bring two outsiders along? Would that not be asking for trouble? Either they are all trustworthy, or none of them are..." Yang Huaijun said with a smile. "So I think an internal feud is more likely. Most probably they disagreed over the division of the loot, failed to reach a consensus, and Lu Jieyan and Ma Liu were killed by their own accomplices..."

"Mm, right... that must be it." Qiu Lingshan nodded deeply, convinced.

"In that case, just step up the search. They are carrying such a huge pile of money. Unless they abandon it, they can hardly move very fast. All the main roads have our men checking, so there is little chance they have left Songshan. Search around those two corpses, and you may find something..." Yang Huaijun said.

"Mm, I understand." Qiu Lingshan suddenly felt as if the fog had lifted...

"Hehe, Xiao Song, I hear you and Wei Zhao are dating?" Yang Huaijun paused a moment, then asked anyway. The story of Qiu Lingshan's fierce exploits had already spread privately through the bureau... serving her boyfriend in the hospital...

Although Yang Huaijun hardly believed Wei Zhao could have gotten together with Qiu Lingshan. Leave aside that Wei Zhao was not the sort to go around leaving his affections everywhere, and consider Qiu Lingshan herself. In all her time at the bureau, no scandal had ever touched her, and even a man as outstanding as Chen Yutian had been turned down...

But as the saying goes, which young girl does not dream of spring? Outstanding as Chen Yutian was, he fell far short of Wei Zhao, and even a girl as excellent as Xiao Ning was devoted to Wei Zhao with utter infatuation, let alone Qiu Lingshan...

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