Chapter 11: The Peculiar Liquid

Gu Changqing and his companions left the bar and proceeded to search Old Dao’s house. There wasn’t much there: a gold watch, a gold chain, several passports, and two hundred thousand in cash. After all, the bar needed money more frequently, while the items at home were simply a contingency plan for a quick escape—should he ever land in serious trouble, he could just grab these and run.

Besides these, there was also a handgun and a box of bullets. Gu Changqing once again collected the gun and ammunition. He would turn in one firearm and save the other to bring with him the next time he returned to that other world, sparing himself the trouble of carrying his service weapon. As for the money and valuables, he would just hand those over as well.

They returned to the police station. As they got out of the car, Gu Changqing called out to the two other security officers, “We’ve been at it all day. Don’t leave tonight—let’s go to the nightclub, my treat!”

In this world, the highest-class entertainment venue was the brothel, followed by the nightclub, with the public bathhouse at the bottom. Of course, each of these places offered different services. The brothel catered more to spiritual needs—a place for romance and companionship. If you wanted something more, you either had to be irresistibly charming or throw enough money at it. The bathhouse was all about straightforward transactions, no pretense. The nightclub fell somewhere in between.

Strictly speaking, both bathhouses and nightclubs were illegal under the laws of Southern Chu, but enforcement was lax; most of the time, authorities turned a blind eye. Even law enforcement officers like themselves didn’t see anything wrong with it. After all, they were only human, with their own desires.

“Thank you, Brother Quan!” The two security officers, both quite young, broke into wide grins at the offer.

Back at the station, Gu Changqing took the bag straight to Captain Xu Yong’s office.

“Captain, these are the items found at Old Dao’s bar and residence!” He tossed the bag onto Xu Yong’s desk.

Inside were two hundred thousand in cash, several luxury watches, a few gold chains, two property deeds, a gun, and half a box of bullets.

“There were also some storage cards that might contain evidence of Old Dao’s crimes. Zeng Zhiqian has already taken those to review.”

Gu Changqing pulled up a chair to the other side of the desk and idly picked up one of the watches, examining it. The black leather-banded timepiece had only a single silver minute hand; the hour hand was a blue gemstone, and the four main markers were inlaid with black onyx.

He found the watch rather striking, mainly because its style was unlike any he’d seen in his previous life.

“Captain, those people do every vile thing imaginable, yet they get to eat well, drink well, wear luxury watches, and live in villas,” Gu Changqing drawled, “while honest people like us have nothing.”

“Why all the sighing?” Xu Yong glanced up at him.

“It just doesn’t seem right, that’s all.” Gu Changqing shrugged, then flashed his bare wrist before Xu Yong. “Look at me—nothing. Not a thing. Looks terrible. Captain, when are you going to give me a watch?”

“I’m still waiting for someone to give me one! Stop daydreaming.” Xu Yong arched an eyebrow. Since Gu Quan’an’s amnesia, his personality seemed to have changed drastically—he wasn’t at all as he used to be.

Gu Changqing put the watch back in the bag and changed the subject. “Captain, is Old Dao ever going to wake up? That would be too easy for him—close his eyes and he’s free from everything.”

“Go ask the hospital—I’m not a doctor.” Xu Yong frowned slightly. In truth, he was already aware of the situation: Old Dao had suffered a severe head injury, internal bleeding, and damage to the cerebral cortex. If he didn’t regain consciousness within seventy-two hours, he might never wake up.

“Let’s hope that scum never wakes again,” Gu Changqing said, stretching before ambling out. The opportunity was now in Xu Yong’s hands—whether to share the spoils or claim something for himself would be Xu Yong’s decision.

After Gu Changqing left, Xu Yong picked up the two property deeds and leafed through them, lost in thought, absently twirling a pen in his hand. After a moment, he glanced at the watch Gu Changqing had been fiddling with, then tossed it back in the bag.

“That bastard deserves to die!” Gu Changqing stepped out of the captain’s office just in time to hear Zeng Zhiqian slamming his hand on a desk and cursing.

“What’s wrong?” Several of the squad members poked their heads out of the office to ask.

“Nothing!” Zeng Zhiqian replied darkly.

Gu Changqing sat beside him. “Why so angry?”

The computer screen was a blur of pixelation.

“That bastard filmed himself assaulting the victim…” Zeng Zhiqian’s face was flushed with rage.

“With scum like that, nothing is surprising,” Gu Changqing said, glancing at the screen. “Is this the victim?”

“Yes, that’s her. This case is mostly solved now! There’s no way he drugged her alone—he must have had accomplices.”

The woman in the video was clearly drugged, and odds were that Old Dao’s men were responsible. The culprit had been caught, but the accomplices were still at large.

Zeng Zhiqian abruptly stood up. “I’ll go find the captain and then round them up!”

Soon after, Captain Xu Yong summoned everyone, including the security officers. Eight vehicles sped straight to Old Dao’s bar, where they arrested more than a dozen of his men, along with the bartenders and waitstaff, preparing to interrogate them through the night.

“Captain, it’s the end of our shift! Zeng Zhiqian and I have been at it all day, and you don’t need so many people to handle the interrogations,” Gu Changqing said, waving his phone in front of Xu Yong. “Also, Captain, I’m still recovering. I’d like to take tomorrow off.”

He planned to visit the livestock market the next day, buy a batch of animals, drain them of blood and flesh, and refine it into life force to strengthen himself.

Almost anything could be solved with money. Even if the effect was weak, quantity made up for it.

Xu Yong glanced at Gu Changqing, then walked away without a word.

Gu Changqing slung an arm around Zeng Zhiqian’s shoulder and headed out. On the way downstairs, he made a point of finding the two security officers—Zhang Kun and Ma Xingle.

“Eight o’clock tonight, outside Haicheng Nightclub! I hate waiting.”

“Brother Quan, you’re so generous—we’ll be there early for sure!” Zhang Kun and Ma Xingle promised, thumping their chests.

Zeng Zhiqian drove Gu Changqing back to his apartment building, and the two divided the cash from the bag.

“This one’s mine,” Gu Changqing said, taking out a wooden box. “I’m very interested in what’s inside!”

“I’ll head to Haicheng Nightclub by myself later.”

Gu Changqing took the bag upstairs, stuffed the money into his cabinet, and kept only the wooden box.

Opening it, he carefully examined a glass vial under the lamp. Inside, a deep blue liquid emitted an eerie blue glow that struck him as both strange and sinister.

Gradually, his gaze was wholly captivated, as though his very thoughts were being drawn in.

Alarmed, Gu Changqing forcibly tore his eyes away.

“Damn it! What the hell is this thing?”

He quickly put the vial back in the box, closed the lid, and stared at it with unease. The hairs on the back of his neck stood on end.

There was something wrong with this thing—seriously wrong.

After a moment’s thought, Gu Changqing went downstairs to find an internet café. He spotted a young man in his early twenties in a corner and approached, tossing a hundred yuan onto the keyboard.

“Help me look something up.”

The young man stared at Gu Changqing, then at the money, and hesitated, “I’m in the middle of a raid…”

Gu Changqing smacked him on the back of the head. “What’s more important—making money or playing games? At your age, you should be thinking about earning, not gaming all day. How do you expect to have a future?”

“Ra…” the young man protested, but got smacked again before he could finish.

“What raid? Have you bought a house? A car? Got a girlfriend? How can you still play games?”

A youth in a white T-shirt at a nearby station quickly logged out of his game and turned around. “Brother, I’ll help you look it up. With you talking like that, I can’t focus on gaming either!”

Gu Changqing snatched back the money and sat beside the young man in white. “You’re much more promising than him!”

“Help me search for any kind of liquid that’s deep blue, emits a ghostly blue light, and seems to draw in your very soul…”

Half an hour later, Gu Changqing left the internet café. He hadn’t found anything, but that was no surprise—this stuff was clearly not ordinary.

Still, it didn’t matter. He had six bottles of it. Tomorrow, he’d buy a few animals and feed them a little to see what happened.

If that didn’t work… he’d try it on someone, and send them to the hospital for a checkup!