Transform into a human

Normally, Mo would have jumped up excitedly and then shown her big ship to her neighbors, but now she had a mission to complete.

Miss Elf adopted a profound expression, sitting cross-legged at the bow of the ship, her eyes filled with a sense of vicissitude.

Before anyone could ask if Mo was possessed, the entire sky suddenly darkened, and the Far Star loomed over the town like a growing dark cloud.

The superintendents, dressed in steam-powered armor, landed in this paradise as if facing a formidable enemy, only to find Mo alone on the boat; the elf's head was smaller than the caliber of the Silent Storm rifles in their hands.

Bryce took the lead, arriving at the bow of the ship and saying coldly:

"Where is Yue Lai?"

"Five hundred years have passed like smoke and fire, a dream of the mortal world is as cold as a mirror."

"?"

Bryce paused for a moment, and it took her a while to realize what the other person was trying to say.

"I know you are a relic from five hundred years ago, but I hope Miss Nicole will not be complacent. Losing your freedom is not a pleasant experience."

"If you cooperate with the police investigation, we will testify on your behalf in court, and you will have a real chance to return to your current life."

"Alas," Mo sighed, "Heaven and earth are the inn of all things; time is the passing guest of a hundred generations."

"Life is but a fleeting dream; how much joy can it hold?"

"The superintendent is that kind of person—always blinded by appearances, mistaking illusions for paradise."

The onlookers, the clockwork elves, gaped in astonishment. When did Grandma Nicole become so cultured?!

Mo caught a glimpse of the young elves' expressions out of the corner of her eye, and she was already smug! Seriously? She'd been by Yue Lai's side for over four hundred years; how could she not hum a few lines after being exposed to his music all this time?

Bryce had already furrowed her brows into deep wrinkles. The suspect had chosen between confessing or not confessing. What kind of nonsense was this?!

He gently turned his head, and Qingyan, sensing the opportunity, moved closer:

"Chief Superintendent, she was probably expressing her unyielding spirit and then mocking you for being bewitched."

Bryce's face was extremely cold:

"Ms. Nicole, please don't test my patience. I'll ask one last time, where is Yue Lairen?"

"Alas, so be it, so be it," Mo shook her head, "Old friends have all gone, their youthful faces have faded, I am left alone to face the green hills and the marks of bygone years."

Qingyan translated:

"She's already run away, and we don't know where she went."

They asked a bunch of pointless questions!

But the police wouldn't be held back by such petty tricks. Other superintendents had already meticulously searched the entire Homecoming Ferry, and subordinates stepped forward to report:

"Chief Superintendent, we found honey used for securing the ship at the rudder. It's likely a lie told by a conman. Combined with our on-site questioning, no one in the town saw Yue Lai leave, so we deduce that he disembarked midway."

"How is this possible?" Falken roared. "They were within our radar's surveillance range the entire time, and no aircraft left midway!"

The superintendent shrugged:

"I also find it very bizarre, but that's the truth. We recreated the scene where the suspect smeared saliva, and we can confirm that it was Yue Lai."

The bad news didn't stop there; more police officers came to report:

"Chief Superintendent, Helena Casti, a witness closely linked to the pen, has disappeared. No one in town has seen her in recent days, and there is no record of her leaving Esfri."

Bryce took a deep breath and pointed at Jasmine, who was still in her dramatic state:

"Take her back to the police headquarters and bring me to Casti's house."

The officers began to disperse the crowd, and the mayor led them to Mrs. Castile's house.

This is an extremely clean old house. Looking out the window, the glass is spotless, and the interior is filled with the scent of sunshine.

Several superintendents, wearing gloves and shoe covers, carefully entered the room. The door was unlocked, and the first impression upon opening it was—so many books!

Books were piled up everywhere—on the dining table, beside flowerpots, in the corners of walls…

"The Midday Fog," "The Vanguard," "Midnight," "The Inverted Clock"...

"Why are they all detective novels?" Falken was quite surprised, as he rarely saw the old lady having such a hobby.

"These are not important." Bryce snapped his fingers, and then something surprising happened—there wasn't a single thread!

The chief superintendent had encountered too many unexpected things today, and his mindset had subtly changed. He no longer concealed his abilities, releasing a faint but imposing aura that made the superintendents breathe a little softer.

Although they were both from the same Divine Catcher Sect, they were on high alert, as if a natural enemy had descended upon them.

A black rose suddenly bloomed at Bryce's temple, and his fingertips were enveloped in a dense black light. He flicked his fingers into the room again, but still no thread appeared.

The method of meticulous analysis has completely failed.

The superintendents exchanged silent glances. Bryce was a hairpin enthusiast who had erased his traces so thoroughly that even he couldn't find them. Only the detective, who was also a hairpin enthusiast, could do that.

However, the ritual for advancing from the Divine Catcher's Gate to the Flower-Haired Guest is only available in the Police Headquarters!

In Andromeda, the transformation of the twelve skilled individuals from mere performers to flower-wearing guests is not simply a matter of acquiring a new skill, but rather a qualitative change, with the corresponding rituals being controlled by certain powerful forces.

At the police headquarters, any senior superintendent promoted to chief superintendent must swear an oath under the witness of a loyal heart before being informed of the ritual for a divine constable to be promoted to a flower-wearing guest. Therefore, there is no possibility of leakage unless one's cultivation is as profound as that of the chief superintendent!

Several police superintendents suddenly realized that there was a lot more to this matter than met the eye.

"All these books will be shipped back, and the wordsmiths will be assigned to review them word by word."

"yes!"

……

……

On the way back to port, Bryce chased away everyone else in the captain's cabin and pulled out a pigeon from somewhere.

It bounced around like a snowball, its little head tilting cleverly as if asking its owner why it had been released from its cage.

Bryce crushed it with a single squeeze.

The white dove exploded into a burst of bloody light, and then the blood seemed to come alive, flowing in the air and forming a crimson communication array.

One of the Thirty-Six Extraordinary People, the Gugu Craftsman's unique skill is the delivery of messages by pigeons.

The Gugu craftsmen established a special guild to sell these pigeons in a unified manner. In today's world of advanced tearstone technology, only such a method can guarantee absolute security of communication and prevent eavesdropping.

A voice came from the other side of the magic circle:

"What's wrong?"

"The person is gone. That swindler disappeared halfway through, I don't know how. Helena Casti also vanished into thin air, without leaving a trace."

On the other side of the magic circle:

"I know what you're trying to say, but it couldn't have been done by an insider."

"If the police officers in charge of hairpins knew the truth about what happened back then, we would never be safe and sound now."

There's no other explanation.

There was a long silence on the other end:

"Although both of them mysteriously disappeared, their goal remained very clear, didn't it?"

"You mean...?"

"A fountain pen." Despite the dire situation, the voice remained calm and composed, like an ancient tree in a temple, frozen in time at a certain moment.

"Helena Casti goes without saying. I've heard of Yue Lai. As a long-lived species whose history predates that of the Federation, he has never abandoned his commission halfway, and this time will be no exception."

"No matter what method he uses, he will eventually return to the police headquarters."

"Set up the cages properly, and don't let a single one escape!"

"it is good."

……

Police Hub, Wave City.

This city can be read in two ways: "Wave City" or "Waves City". The former is because it is a place where all sorts of people gather, making it a rare relaxed area for the police force. The latter is because it is built on a sea cliff, where countless waves crash and shatter every day.

Li changed out of her conspicuous police uniform, replacing it with a loose-fitting black trench coat. She glanced at the chaotic city surroundings and frowned.

"All the good-for-nothings in the police headquarters have come here."

With two handprints on his face, Yue Lai attracted a lot of attention as he walked.

"You can't expect all police officers' descendants to be police officers. There are so many people in the police force, and they also need the service industry."

"We've arrived."

Li looked in the direction he pointed and saw a huge octagonal building standing at the end of the road. The area in front of the building was crowded with people, making it easy to overlook the inconspicuous three characters "Qie Ting Lou" on the plaque.

"Isn't this a place for trading information? Why are there so many people?"

"It's precisely because there are so many people that it became a place for trading intelligence."

"Let's go in."

They seemed to have just caught the last train of the performance; inside the octagonal building that stretched from top to bottom, an extremely beautiful goddess was dancing gracefully.

Li's eyes widened; she had never seen such a beautiful woman in real life!

The goddess, barefoot and draped in a rainbow-colored robe, twirled to the music, scattering starlight-like fragments of light, while singing a tune from another realm:

"I am captivated by her beauty and grace, yet my heart is stirred with unease."

"Without a proper matchmaker to convey my joy, I entrust the gentle breeze to send my message."

As she spun around, her black hair flew like a waterfall, and as her eyes darted around, even the clouds and mist on the mountaintop seemed to freeze in place.

"I wish that sincerity and honesty would reach you first, and that I would offer my jade pendant as a token of my affection."

"Alas, how virtuous and refined is this fair lady, who is well-versed in etiquette and knowledgeable in poetry."

Inside the octagonal building, layers of onlookers held their breath and craned their necks, their eyes burning with excitement, stirring up gasps of astonishment with every turn of her waist and flick of her sleeves.

(Image from the movie "Yang Jian")

"How...how can she fly up and down like that? What's the secret to that?"

"Magnetic levitation technology, the device is located in the armpit."

"oh."

Li suddenly felt that the dance moves weren't so amazing anymore.

After the performance, a maid came to the two of them and said, "Gentlemen, Father is waiting for you in the dressing room."

Yue Lai nodded, while Li was meeting these people from all walks of life for the first time and couldn't help but be curious about the "father" they mentioned.

"Hmm... He likes to be called 'father.' According to profiling techniques in criminal psychology, this person should have a beard, but his physique is hard to say."

"This 'stop building' structure is likely a 'family-style' power structure, maintaining authority through methods like 'loyalty,' which leads members to either depend on or fear it."

Li was a little impatient, eager to put what he had learned into practice.

The three wandered around the octagonal building, which was laid out like a maze. Then, the maid stopped in front of an inconspicuous room and gently pushed the door open.

"Please, gentlemen."

Li walked in with trepidation, but the scene before her eyes widened in disbelief. In the huge dressing room, there was only one woman smoking!

It was that dancer from earlier!

She leaned against the couch, her silver pipe as white as her fingertips. Her gold-threaded dance skirt hung loosely, leaving her entire snowy back and long legs exposed in the dim light.

Yue Lai smiled awkwardly:

"Summer Capital, it's been a long time."

The woman known as Xia Du walked gracefully, barefoot, to Yue Lai, exhaling a cloud of smoke from her mouth into his face. The smoke had a sweet, cloying quality, just like her voice:

"Yue Lai, you brought a woman to see me, and you wouldn't even call me 'Father'."

Li: ?

The policewoman quickly realized what was going on:

"Are you a master of Lao Tzu's teachings?"

She regretted saying it as soon as it left her mouth. Like "liar," "I" was a derogatory term used within the police force, and the real title for this connection was "godfather."

"Hehehe, you do have some knowledge," Xia Du chuckled, not minding Li's slip of the tongue. "So, what brings you here?"

"Could you get your hands on the entry and exit records for the Ninth Starport? Do you have any intelligence to gather?"

"Ninth Starport... I heard a police superintendent just died there. It seems this matter is related to you?"

"Hmm... let me guess, you took on some weird request from who-knows-where again, and ended up getting set up?"

"...You guessed right, but we haven't gotten our hands on the item yet. I need to look for clues."

"Want clues? Sure, just call me dad."

Li thought that with this guy's integrity, he would readily accept a fake father, but the usually carefree Yue Lai blushed and gritted his teeth, saying:

"Xia Du... I raised you!"

"So what? Call me Dad!"

Li was dumbfounded.

"Don't go too far!"

Xia Du's voice rose a few decibels:

"You know you've gone too far?"

"When I confessed my feelings to you, wasn't your rejection excessive? In the end, you made me abandon my entire Esfriore estate and come here alone to struggle in this police hub. Do you know how much I've suffered?!"

Li felt like she was watching a family drama.

"Don't listen to her nonsense," Yue Lai quickly clarified, "I found her in the garbage dump, raised her with great difficulty, and now she's after my body!"

"So how did you refuse?"

"I told her I treat her like my daughter..."

Well, now Li knows why Xia insisted on forcing Yue to call her "Dad"... She'll hold this grudge for life.

"Don't listen to his nonsense," Xia Du retorted angrily. "I'm old enough to remember when I was found. Why should I be a generation below you!"

"How old are you!" Yue Lai found it outrageous that his daughter, whom he had raised, insisted on making him acknowledge her as her father!

"When I opened my lost history search agency, the Federation hadn't even been established yet. Why can't I be a generation older than you?!"

"So you know you're an old monster, huh?" Xia Du put one foot on the table, his pipe poking Yue Lai's nose. "Anyway, you've lived so long, what difference does ten years old or a hundred years old make to you? Why do you have to bring up age and seniority!"

"I'm sure I won't outlive you in this lifetime. Can't you even tolerate a ripple in your long life? You can just forget about me after I'm gone!"

As she spoke, her voice trembled with tears:

"Such a long life, yet they wouldn't even give me a tiny bit!"

"In short, either call me 'Dad,' or forget it!"

Xia Du slammed the door and left.