Chapter 55: Caught So Easily?

Shen Qing brought Li Ye to Donghua Street, and by the time they arrived, it was already midday. The two of them stopped in front of an old, shabby building.

“To the second floor,” Shen Qing said, leading Li Ye up the stairs.

“What are you doing?” Li Ye asked, but Shen Qing blocked his way, giving him a look reserved for the hopelessly clueless.

“Knocking on the door, pretending to be a food delivery guy, of course.” Wasn’t that how they always got suspects to open up in the dramas?

“Idiot.” Shen Qing spat the word coldly, then reached up, pulled a thin hairpin from her hair, and slipped it into the keyhole. With a deft twist, the lock clicked open.

“What if we’ve got the wrong person? Wouldn’t we be in trouble?” Li Ye said, stopping Shen Qing as she was about to push the door open.

“That’s the thrill of the game,” she replied. With those words, she kicked the door open.

Inside, a young man was crouched by the bed eating instant noodles. Seeing someone burst in, he dropped his noodles in a panic and tried to leap out the window.

Without hesitation, Shen Qing hooked a stool by the door with her foot and sent it flying like the wind. It smashed hard into the man’s shin.

“Ah!” The man lost his balance and fell flat on his face, spilling the noodles all over the floor in a mess.

Shen Qing cast a sidelong glance at the stunned Li Ye. “Aren’t you going to get over here?”

“Oh, oh!” Li Ye felt as if he were floating, his legs and arms moving out of sync as if he were drunk.

The whole sequence had taken less than three seconds and with just one person, the suspect was already face down on the ground. Even TV dramas wouldn’t dare show it so outrageous.

Only after Li Ye had cuffed the man did reality begin to set in.

The man lay prone, shouting in panic, “On what grounds are you arresting me? This is illegal! I’m going to sue you!”

Smack!

Shen Qing backhanded him sharply. The man was stunned into silence, staring wide-eyed and speechless.

Shen Qing glanced around the room and spotted a laptop on the table.

“Sir, I’m a police officer. You are suspected of—”

“What evidence do you have? Just because you’re the police you can arrest anyone? Don’t you know the law? I’m going to report you for breaking and entering!”

“This is the evidence,” Shen Qing said coolly, glancing at the man struggling on the floor as she opened the laptop.

The man sneered. The computer was double-locked; what could she possibly find?

Li Ye watched Shen Qing’s actions, his heart pounding. If Miss Shen was this good at picking locks, a computer should pose no challenge.

Within a minute, Shen Qing had dug up chat logs between the man and others, as well as transaction records with the F Continent terrorist group.

“Li Ye, come and collect the evidence,” Shen Qing said coldly, shooting the man a frosty look before stepping forward and pressing her foot down on his chest.

Startled, Li Ye rushed to intervene. “Miss Shen, we can’t use excessive force—” but the rest of his words died on his lips under Shen Qing’s icy gaze.

He decided it was best to pretend he hadn’t seen anything.

“A junior member of a terrorist group, and you’re already targeting our country?”

The man’s face turned ashen, the weight on his chest stealing his breath.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he stammered. “That’s not my computer. I don’t know anything about terrorism.”

Shen Qing’s eyes narrowed. “I’ll ask you one more time. Where are your accomplices?”

“I really don’t know what you’re talking about,” he replied, his gaze wavering.

Without another word, Shen Qing took out the hairpin she’d used to pick the lock, extracting a thin needle from it.

Li Ye, clutching the computer, stared in disbelief. Could she really do that with a hairpin?

“What are you going to do to me? Ah—” The man suddenly convulsed in pain, as if every muscle in his body cramped at once.

After about five minutes, Shen Qing spoke in a low voice, “How many accomplices? Where did they go?”

“Three. They took a plane overnight to the next destination,” the man gasped between clenched teeth.

“How many bombs did you plant?”

“Fifteen.”

Li Ye’s face darkened instantly. So many?

“The addresses,” Shen Qing demanded.

“I really don’t know…” the man whimpered.

Shen Qing’s expression grew colder as she pressed the needle in deeper.

“I’ll tell you! I’ll tell you…”

Li Ye, hands trembling, finished recording the locations. Still shaking, he pulled out his phone to call the captain. “Captain Jiang, we caught the suspect. I’ll send you the bomb locations now. Okay.”

After hanging up, Li Ye glanced at the man sprawled on the floor like a dead pig, distaste flashing in his eyes.

“Miss Shen.” His gaze shifted to Shen Qing, who had returned to the computer and was typing rapidly. Li Ye couldn’t make sense of her actions and dared not ask.

“Their next target is Fengdu,” Shen Qing announced, eyes fixed on the screen.

Li Ye was taken aback. Looking at the girl’s strikingly beautiful face, he finally understood why the headquarters treated Miss Shen with such respect.

Shen Qing shot him a cold glance. “What are you dawdling for?”