"We're going back to the police department," Shao Fei stated as he started to drive.
"How about David?" Zhao Li An asked as he looked back at David who was walking away.
"Our priority is the thief," Shao Fei replied.
Zhao Li An was hesitant, but he could only nod.
The moment the two left 8th Street to go back to their police department, David looked back at the direction of the car while he was under the blinking illumination of an old light post. Afterwards, he continued to walk further into the dark alley and disappeared as he blended in the shadows.
Upon arrival at their destination, Shao Fei and Zhao Li An went directly to a separate room next to the interrogation room where the suspect was being questioned. They observed the situation through a filtered window where the people inside the interrogation room would be unable to see who was on the other side of the room.
"What were you doing around Mr. Wu's property at night?" A Zhi who was sitting across the suspect asked with seriousness in his tone as he frowned. Inside the room, A Zhi was accompanied by Huang Yi Qi.
"I... I...just wanted to check on something..." the nervous bloodied faced man with a disheveled slightly long hair who was wearing broken glasses whispered as he looked down on the floor. Earlier when the suspect was caught, he was beaten up by one of the security guards of the mansion who caught him sneaking around at the owner's backyard. When the police arrived at Mr. Wu's property, they found that the suspect was tied up with a rope.
"What were you checking exactly or were you there to rob the Wu family?" A Zhi continued.
Quickly, the suspect looked up and shook his head. "No! no! I wouldn't dare rob Duke's family. I wouldn't..."
When Huang Yi Qi heard the name Duke, she suddenly became excited.
"Duke? Duke Wu? That famous artist? What's your relationship with him?" Huang Yi Qi asked with sudden enthusiasm. The female investigator loved to watch television shows when she had nothing else to do. Even though the world was suffering from the zombie apocalypse, entertainment such as television shows did not stop. Duke Wu could be considered as one of the top artists in Taiwan. He was handsome and tall. He has toned body and clear pale skin. Of course, his good looks were not the only good thing about him. He was also a quite talented actor and musician. This was part of the reason he was at the top of the entertainment industry.
(A/N: Duke Wu from History 1: Stay Away From Me)
With a cough, A Zhi interrupted Huang Yi Qi. The two then refocused on the suspect.
"He...," the suspect looked down once again. "He's my stepbrother."
In the other room, Zhao Li An and Shao Fei were both looking at the file that was handed to them by Jun Wei about the suspect.
"Edison Song. 24 years old. Works in a supermarket. No known relative. Grew up in an orphanage. Currently lives alone in an apartment," Zhao Li An said as he looked at the file on his hand.
(A/N: Edison Song from History 1: Stay Away From Me)
"Does he have power?" Shao Fei asked.
Zhao Li An looked at Edison's file and confirmed, "He can communicate to plants."
The two looked at one another in silence, then went back to observe the interrogation in the other room.
Huang Yi Qi was shocked as her eyebrows rose. "Stepbrother? Could you be the child of the new wife of Duke Wu's father?"
Edison nodded while keeping his head down.
"Hold on. I've never heard that the new wife had a son. She was even asked about it during an interview, but she denied having a child. Also, you were raised in an orphanage," Huang Yi Qi became suspicious once again.
"I only met my mother a few years ago after she married Duke's father," Edison replied with a tone of sadness in his voice.
He faced Huang Yi Qi with tears building up in his eyes. "Do you know the first thing she said when she finally met me?"
Huang Yi Qi and A Zhi looked at one another, then silently looked at Edison.
"She said 'Edison, I'm your mother. I'll help you out from now on, but please keep it a secret'," Edison replied as he weakly smiled while his busted lips trembled. He shook his head as he found his situation quite ridiculous. As the tears left his eyes, the pain that he felt from his already aching injured face worsened. Still, the pain inside his heart hurt more. Being abandoned by your own family hurts.
When Edison met his mother, he thought that finally, he would feel the warmth of having a family. Who would have thought that his mom would just come back just to introduce herself, then tell him to keep their relationship as mother and child a secret? What was the point of introducing herself if she was going to abandon him once again? He felt like he was a stain to what could be a perfect new family for his mother. That what his mother made him feel. She must have thought that just by giving him money, it would be enough to clear her conscience of abandoning him and at the same time silencing him.
Meanwhile, A Zhi and Huang Yi Qi was not sure whether Edison was lying. They had to confirm his statement by contacting who he said was his mother, which is the new Mrs. Wu.
"Then could you explain why were you suspiciously sneaking around at your stepfather's property at night?" A Zhi asked.
"One of the plants in my apartment was stolen. When I talked to my other plants, they told me that my stepbrother was the one who took it. I-I tried calling Duke, but he didn't answer me. Without thinking, I snuck inside their property to look for my plant, but one of the security guards saw me and beat me up," Edison answered with bitterness as he stopped crying.
"You'd risk yourself for a plant?" Huang Yi Qi continued to interrogate. She thought that Edison's reasoning seemed ridiculous.
"It's not just any ordinary plant. It was a gift to me when I was a child by a childhood friend," Edison replied as he reminisced the only wonderful memory from his childhood.
"How did Duke Wu know about you and the place you live in?" A Zhi asked.
"He was trying to find something bad about my mother.....He didn't like her. In the end, he found out about me," Edison sighed faintly as he replied.
"Why would he take your plant?" A Zhi continued.
Shaking his head, Edison replied, "I don't know."
On the other side of the room, Zhao Li An faced Shao Fei, "He didn't do it."
Shao Fei scratched his chin as he continued to listen to the interrogation, "Intuition?"
"Yes." Zhao Li An nodded.
"What did I tell you about intuition?" Shao Fei asked.
"Shao Fei, his only power is communicating with plants. How can he rob multiple people yesterday with just this kind of power? By the looks of it, this incident is not related to the phantom thief," the smaller policeman said.
"You call the suspect the phantom thief? Heh," Shao Fei paused as he lightly chuckled.
After the pause, Shao Fei replied, "We're still not quite clear on his power. He might be lying. Besides, he doesn't necessarily have to rob people by himself. He might be part of a syndicate. We need to further investigate to make sure."
Slightly pouting, Zhao Li An said, "You're right."
30 minutes have passed and while the interrogation continued, Edison eventually fell unconscious due to fatigue and injuries on his body. The team that was interrogating him failed to notice that Edison was already burning up from a fever. Soon, he was sent to the hospital while being guarded by other police.
The interrogation was naturally suspended and would be resumed when Edison became better. With Shao Fei's order, the Supernatural Investigation Team would continue the investigation on the case of the phantom thief in the morning.
Shao Fei took Zhao Li An home since he did not own a car and it was already past midnight. Before Shao Fei took him home, they dropped by the convenience store because Zhao Li An wanted to buy instant noodles and eat it at home. Zhao Li An invited Shao Fei to eat at home, but he refused.
When they finally got to Zhao Li An's home, the small policeman tried to convince his partner to eat with him at his little home once again, but Shao Fei refused again. At this time, Zhao Li An could only give up.
Yawning, Zhao Li An said goodbye to Shao Fei and went inside his home.
As soon as he opened the door and turned on the lights, Zhao Li An said with an evident exhausted tone, "I'm home."
He went straight to the electric kettle and filled it with water from the faucet. When he took out the instant noodles from the plastic bag and opened it, he suddenly remembered his grandmother.
Looking at the picture of his grandmother that was on the shelf not too far away from him, he guiltily said, "Grandma, I bought noodles again and I have a good reason this time. It's not because I'm lazy. It's because it's already late at night and I'm tired. I have no time to cook."
Zhao Li An loved to eat noodles. When he was a child, if he found a cup of instant noodles, he would eat it. Whether it was for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, he would eat instant noodles if he had the chance. Thankfully, his grandmother would cook delicious food for him, so eventually, this unhealthy habit of eating instant noodles decreased. Yet, after his grandmother died, this bad habit of his had returned. The good thing was that he could still somewhat control this bad habit. Usually, he would only eat instant noodles when he did not have time to prepare to cook. Even then, Zhao Li An was not a fan of cooking his meal especially when he comes home from work. He was usually already tired. Cooking food would take time which meant less sleep for him. Aside from noodles, Zhao Li An loved to sleep.
Soon, the water in the electric kettle boiled. Zhao Li An poured the hot water in his cup of instant noodles. While waiting for the instant noodles to be ready, he heard another strange noise in his bedroom.
"Is it that black pig again?" Zhao Li An asked himself as he looked around. He forgot to report about the disappearing pig due to the phantom thief case today.
Leaving his warm cup of noodles on the table in the kitchen, Zhao Li An went directly to his bedroom with caution. As he slowly opened the door and observed what was happening inside his room with the help of the lights, he noticed the same pig from yesterday. The pig was once again seemed to be looking for something. What was it that it wanted?
"What should I do?"
Zhao Li An wanted to know the goal of the pig, but when he saw that his precious picture of his grandmother from his shelf was about to fall, he could not wait any longer. He quickly ran to the shelf of his bedroom to catch the glass picture frame which scared the black pig in the process.
Thinking that the owner of the house would catch him, the black pig dropped an item that it was holding from its mouth as it instantly disappeared.
When Zhao Li An successfully caught the picture frame, he carefully returned it to the top shelf and once again reorganized his things that the black pig messed with.
"What does it want from my room?"
Sighing, Zhao Li An could only shake his head from frustration when the black pig disappeared once again.
After cleaning up, he noticed a mysterious item that was on the floor. He realized that the pig must have dropped it from its mouth due to how slimy the item was.
"Hmm...why would that pig have this lighter?"
Examining the lighter closely, it was a metal type of lighter with black and gold color. It does look quite elegant, so it could be considered expensive.
"I wonder who owns this?" Zhao Li An asked himself as he turned on the lighter when he flicked the base cap.
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Hello, it's been a long time since I updated this. I was busy with the other fanfic, but here you go.