Chapter 20: An Eye-Opener

Chapter 20: Chapter 20: An Eye-Opener

The two quickly averted their gazes.

Ling Qianjun pulled back the hand holding the mineral water bottle and said in embarrassment, "Drink some water to soothe your throat."

"Yeah," Hua Buwan quickly replied. She twisted off the cap and downed half the bottle in seconds, the water going down with a rapid GLUG GLUG GLUG.

She still had no idea what had just happened. She assumed Ling Qianjun had only just found the time to visit the supermarket so late at night. But... even if he was visiting, why had he come up to her bedroom?

Before she could ask, Ling Qianjun explained, "When I arrived, I happened to catch the pawnshop Shopkeeper from next door sneaking in to steal. He even used a knockout drug on you. I just threw him out the front door."

Ling Qianjun didn’t tell her the whole story. He omitted the part about the man leering at her. He also left out that before tossing him out, he had struck the man’s mute acupoint and dislocated his arm, leaving it dangling uselessly at his side. When he threw the man down the stairs, he had heard a sickening thud. The Shopkeeper had likely lost his front teeth as well.

"What did you say?" Hua Buwan’s jaw dropped in shock, all traces of drowsiness instantly vanishing.

"You heard me correctly," Ling Qianjun said, handing her a rolled-up tube wrapped in a tissue. "This is the knockout drug he used."

Hua Buwan’s breath hitched. She reached over to flick on the desk lamp, her gaze locked onto the object in his hand. "Good grief. To think people still use knockout drugs in this day and age. That’s an eye-opener."

Throwing off her quilt, she said, "Wait here a second. I’m going to get a ziplock bag to seal this up. This is evidence. It has his saliva on it, which means we can test it for DNA."

Ling Qianjun could not understand what Hua Buwan meant. What on earth was "DNA"? It sounded like absolute gibberish, but since they were talking about catching a criminal, it had to be something important. It didn’t matter if he didn’t understand right now; he just needed to wait.

A moment later, Hua Buwan returned with a plastic ziplock bag and carefully sealed the rolled tube inside.

"Is keeping this man’s saliva truly of great use?" Ling Qianjun had never heard of such an investigative method. He knew officials from the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Criminal Justice and had participated in many major cases himself, yet he had never heard anyone mention the use of human saliva.

Hua Buwan put the sealed bag away and patiently explained it to him.

"Here, a thousand years in the future, we have ways to test a person’s DNA, or their genetics. For example, human blood, saliva, and hair... everyone’s is unique. Everyone’s fingerprints are different too. We can use these things to identify a criminal." As she spoke, she traced the ridges on her fingertips to demonstrate.

Ling Qianjun looked down, carefully examining the ridges on his own fingers. It made sense. Signing and affixing a fingerprint on a confession operated on a similar principle. Everyone’s handwriting was different, and so were the patterns of their fingerprints.

He just hadn’t expected that this world, a millennium in the future, could test a person’s "genetics"—assuming he was remembering the word correctly. If human hair, blood, and saliva could all be tested, investigating cases back in Dongxuan Country would be as easy as having divine assistance! He envisioned applying these methods in Dongxuan Country. Those heinous criminals would never be able to escape! Even cold cases could finally be brought to light! His heart pounded with fervent excitement at the possibilities.

"Look at how he rummaged through this room. He must have left his fingerprints everywhere. Buwan, do you want to call the government officers to send him to prison?" Ling Qianjun asked, glancing around the room.

"Where did you throw him? Take me to see."