"I refuse to settle this privately," Jiang Ning didn’t even consider it.
After thinking for a moment, she said, "Let’s do things the way they should be done, everything according to the legal process."
Jiang Ning was not only unwilling to settle privately, but she also didn’t even want to meet with the other party.
Jiang Ning had read the information provided by the System and had some impression of He Hui.
He Hui had been a human trafficker since her youth; such a person doesn’t even deserve the peanuts they eat.
As He Hui’s son, Guan Wufu was thirty-two this year, not only married but also a father of a son and daughter.
Being a father himself, didn’t he know how cruel and vicious it was to have children stolen or kidnapped?
Even a five-year-old child has a sense of right and wrong, yet Guan Wufu does not.
Far from feeling ashamed of what his mother had done, he blamed all the wrongs on Jiang Ning who had exposed everything.
Lucky for him, he didn’t come in person, otherwise Jiang Ning would definitely have used a flat-bottomed pan to show him why some flowers are so red.
Tang Zhenghao, upon hearing Jiang Ning’s words, seemed unsurprised and immediately said, "Good. You can trust us to handle this matter, and we will definitely give you a satisfactory response."
"Okay," responded Jiang Ning, and it seemed as though this matter might be concluded at this point.
While she had been on the phone, Qi Xingzhou had already come out of the kitchen with a cleaned thermos in hand.
He had inadvertently overheard a bit.
Qi Xingzhou was very concerned about Jiang Ning’s matters and proactively asked, "What’s wrong? What’s this about settling privately?"
"Remember the incident a few days ago where someone left a cat’s corpse at my doorstep?" Jiang Ning asked.
Qi Xingzhou furrowed his brows and nodded seriously in response.
"The call just now was from Officer Tang. He said they’ve found the person behind the scene: a relative of a criminal I caught previously, who holds a grudge against me and used this method to intimidate me," Jiang Ning explained.
She smiled a little, "Now that they’ve been caught, they wanted to settle privately, but I didn’t agree."
Qi Xingzhou listened very attentively to each word and strongly agreed with Jiang Ning’s decision.
At the same time, Qi Xingzhou felt a sudden sense of relief that luckily, the person had no real means, and the hire was someone without much wit, hence resorting to such low-level intimidation.
If they were recklessly desperate, wishing to take revenge for their family even at the cost of going down with Jiang Ning, that would be truly hard to guard against.
Over these two months, Jiang Ning had arrested so many criminals; if there’s one such family member, it’s hard to ensure there won’t be a second or third...
Thinking of this, Qi Xingzhou’s heart skipped a beat.
He glanced again at the small house and a strong sense of crisis suddenly emerged; no matter how he looked at it, it didn’t seem safe.
But this time, Qi Xingzhou didn’t naively suggest that Jiang Ning should come and stay with him like before.
Qi Xingzhou gripped the thermos tightly, dark and unsettled emotions roiling in his beautiful eyes as he lowered his gaze and said with a firm tone, "From now on, when you arrest criminals, you have to take me with you."
The illusion that had arisen in the kitchen earlier returned.
Jiang Ning suddenly looked up at Qi Xingzhou with a wary face.
The man who had just been cold with worry about Jiang Ning’s safety seemed to suddenly realize something. He blinked, and the ambiance around him shifted. He looked at Jiang Ning with an innocent expression, his eyes clear, innocent, and harmless.
"You’re not keeping anything from me, are you?..." Jiang Ning’s suspicious gaze fell on Qi Xingzhou, her eyes scanning him like a laser from head to toe.
For some reason, Jiang Ning kept feeling that there was something off about Qi Xingzhou today.
But she could not quite put her finger on what was wrong.
Qi Xingzhou was silent, standing there with a stunned expression, letting Jiang Ning look him over.
Jiang Ning walked around him, and Qi Xingzhou’s gaze followed her, his heart going through a rollercoaster of emotions.
Qi Xingzhou found it difficult to describe his current state.
After arresting that group of criminals yesterday, it felt as if his brain suddenly acquired a lot of new knowledge.
This was not the first time he had this feeling; each time he and Jiang Ning caught criminals previously, Qi Xingzhou felt a subtle shift in his cognition.
But those criminals were isolated cases, and the changes they brought to Qi Xingzhou were minor.
Until yesterday’s thirty or so criminals, and those thirty-plus Merit Points, all at once struck the largely recovered Qi Xingzhou.
Yesterday, while he was with Jiang Ning, his focus was entirely on her, so much so that he didn’t even pay attention to those things in his brain. It was only after they parted ways that he began to digest things slowly.
That was also why he called out "brother" to Qi Chen.
A night of rest had given Qi Xingzhou enough time to assimilate and integrate the newfound knowledge in his brain, breaking down the invisible barrier between him and this world.
He had completely integrated into this society with Jiang Ning, indistinguishable from any other person.
Qi Xingzhou, feeling somewhat guilty, watched Jiang Ning circling him, pressing his lips together, not daring to speak, for fear of interfering with her inspection and even more afraid that she would discover he was no longer the original version of himself.
Qi Xingzhou held a straight face, his gaze shifting off Jiang Ning to somewhere in front of him, his back unknowingly straightening even more, looking very much like a soldier under a leader’s review.
However, that only lasted for two seconds before he couldn’t help but lower his eyes back to Jiang Ning, suppressing the guilt inside him, sneaking glances at her now and then.
Whenever Jiang Ning looked up, she could see his face—unsettled yet forcibly composed.
This was a thoroughly earnest and somewhat clumsy dumpling.