Chapter 247 - 158: Perspective! Get Ready... for the Arrest!!

"If I stay in prison, they’ll be hoping I die. If I get out, they’ll kill me immediately."

Sun Jian said casually, but no one around him responded.

The logic was obvious.

Jiangsan City didn’t have the Capital City’s resources.

Moreover, Sun Jian’s operation was like an assembly-line factory; its influence was even greater than the one in the Capital City. The number of people involved was simply countless.

For the past few months, these people had wanted Sun Jian dead every second of every day...

"A reduced sentence? I don’t need one."

"I’m not afraid to die. I already died back when I was a young man working in the mines."

"So, how else do you plan on getting me to cooperate with your investigation?"

Sun Jian’s cheerful laugh and infuriating words made him the very picture of a smiling tiger.

Li Jianye clenched his fists, but eventually let them go, feeling a wave of helplessness wash over him.

’If you want someone to talk, you have to offer them something.’

’But for a man who doesn’t even want the chance to live...’

’...what could you possibly offer him?’

Zhang Liang’s expression darkened.

’No one had ever treated the Special Fifth Bureau this way.’ He was just about to look up and order the men behind him to prepare the Truth Serum.

But then he saw Xu Huo raise a hand.

"Tell me what you want."

Xu Huo spoke slowly, his tone calm and steady.

"If you really wanted nothing, you wouldn’t have wasted so much time talking to the police."

"So just say it. What do you want?"

Sun Jian paused before speaking.

"Tsk. Mr. Xu, as clever as ever."

"I can’t complain about being caught by you. As for what I want... it’s not much."

"Let’s make a deal."

"A deal?" Zhang Liang’s brow furrowed at the words.

’Since when did he bargain with criminals!?’

’Still...’

"Don’t worry, I won’t make it difficult for you," Sun Jian said.

"Take care of a dog for me."

"He’s an old dog, can barely walk anymore. Been with me for about fifteen years. I let him go before I was arrested; the police didn’t see him."

"And don’t worry, he’s never eaten any corpses. I could never bring myself to feed him that kind of garbage."

’A... dog?’

Everyone was stunned.

’Trading the chance to live for someone to take care of a dog?’

’And a fifteen-year-old one at that, on the verge of dying from old age!?’

’Still...’

"Agreed!" Li Jianye blurted out.

There was no guarantee the Truth Serum they could mix on-site would work on him; its effectiveness varied from person to person.

And if they used an anesthetic, it would take him at least ten hours to wake up, and they’d have to start the interrogation all over again...

The time the police had left... at least in the eyes of Li Jianye and his team, was running out fast!

’Finding a dog was nothing compared to the time they’d save, right?’

"Where’s the dog?" Li Jianye asked.

"I have a small courtyard on Donghua Road. It’s where I lived when I first came to Jiangsan City."

"It was the place I lived the longest, the place I felt safest."

"Go take a look there," Sun Jian said with a smile.

"If you can’t find him... then never mind. I’ll still give you the clues."

Find the dog and make sure he’s safe, and he’d give them the clues.

If they couldn’t find him, he’d tell them anyway.

"Alright!"

Li Jianye’s face was tense. Without another word, he looked toward Xu Huo.

Xu Huo stood up, and Li Jianye followed suit. Then, Xu Huo turned and walked out.

SQUEAK~

SLAM!

The iron door slammed shut, leaving only a few figures in the interrogation room.

Sun Jian watched them leave, a complex look in his eyes and a mocking smile on his lips.

He was silent for a long moment before looking up at the officer beside him.

"May I have a pen and paper?"

The officer hesitated for a moment, then walked to his side, supervising him as he used the special, anti-suicide pen for inmates.

Sun Jian picked up the pen and began to write.

SCRITCH SCRATCH SCRITCH~

...

...

「Donghua Road.」

This was the edge of the city.

While not quite the countryside, it didn’t feel like the city proper, either. It was technically within city limits, but its development had stalled at the level of a small town.

Here stood an old house.

It was a courtyard house that Sun Jian had bought after earning his first big score.

After that, he gathered his crew and launched his criminal enterprise in Jiangsan City.

The house fell into disuse, though Sun Jian never sold it, only returning from time to time to look in on it.

Looking back, aside from his old hometown, his time living here had been the most peaceful of his life.

’The dog... it’s late, he should be somewhere around here.’

Li Jianye searched the area for a long time, sweeping his flashlight around, but found nothing.

"This can’t be right."

"Based on the descriptions from the neighbors we interviewed..."

"...they saw an old dog that looked just like the one in the photo. Why can’t we find him now?"

Li Jianye muttered.

The man’s dog was loyal.

Of course, perhaps it was just acting like any other dog, but to human eyes, its loyalty was remarkable.

After Sun Jian’s arrest, the dog had waited outside the police station for a while.

Then it vanished, only to reappear here, where it had stayed ever since.

And yet, they couldn’t find him.

’The clues... the clues... Doesn’t the dog sleep in the house?’

Li Jianye looked around at the small courtyard, growing anxious.

He wasn’t the only one; Zhang Liang felt it too.

"Don’t panic. Let’s keep looking. We’ll probably find him," Zhang Liang said grimly.

Sun Jian had said he would give them the information even if they didn’t find the dog.

’But the dog *is* back...’

’The information!’

’If they could just find him, the information would be theirs!’

The bastard who had plagued the Capital City and thoroughly humiliated National Security and the Special Fifth Bureau’s Wang Tao would finally be dragged into the light!

The resources being burned through every minute in the Capital City right now were astronomical...

A joint operation involving so many different units... even Zhang Liang had rarely seen anything like it!

"Keep looking. We have to find him," Zhang Liang said grimly.

His palms were slick with sweat, his voice was heavy, and his breathing came in ragged bursts.

Right now, the entire Capital City investigation hinged on this one old dog...