Dragon Clan: Starting with the Azure Dragon Fruit

The situation remained deadlocked.

At this moment, Chu Zihang, who had remained silent since the beginning, stepped forward at the opportune moment.

As Chu Zihang approached expressionlessly, Gao Yuan instinctively shrank back.

He thought the other party thought Lin Yuan was too slow and was going to force him.

Gao Yuan gritted his teeth, mentally preparing himself for a beating.

To everyone's surprise, Chu Zihang simply reached into his pocket, took out a Franklin note, and pushed it in front of him.

This move completely baffled Gao Yuan.

He stared blankly at the brand-new hundred-yuan bill, his brain briefly going blank for a second.

The psychological defenses that had been prepared to withstand violence were torn open by this sudden "money power".

"We have no intention of disturbing your life. We are investigating this matter in order to help you completely resolve this trouble." Chu Zihang's voice was as calm as ever, with a reassuring composure.

"You just need to tell us what you know."

Gao Yuan stared at the bright green banknote, his Adam's apple bobbing, his eyes filled with struggle.

Chu Zihang keenly sensed his wavering, reached into his pocket again, pulled out another Franklin, folded it on top of the previous one, and handed it over again.

"We assure you that we will not alert the Chicago Police Department."

The blow of two hundred dollars, coupled with the other party's promises, became the final straw that broke the camel's back.

Gao Yuan gritted his teeth and clenched the two banknotes into his hand.

Then, like a thief, he looked around to make sure no one was watching, and took a deep breath:

"Alright... if you really want to investigate this, you should start from a month ago. Two people went missing around that time."

Upon hearing Gao Yuan's words, Lin Yuan immediately recalled the two missing person notices he had seen on the telephone poles when he first entered Chinatown. At that time, he had complained to Chu Zihang about how bad the public security was in the United States.

"Are those two missing people also related to this matter?" Lin Yuan stared into his eyes.

"It's absolutely inseparable from it!" Gao Yuan said with certainty.

"The deaths started happening here about two weeks ago, but if you ask me, those two missing people are probably the first victims!"

Lin Yuan couldn't help but ask curiously, "Why are you so sure?"

Gao Yuan glanced back at the restaurant, and seeing that no one was paying attention, he continued, "I didn't know the three people who died recently, and I don't have many clues. But the missing person named Ding Yaozu was our restaurant's kitchen helper who was in charge of cutting vegetables. I think his disappearance is very suspicious."

“Ding Yaozu?” Lin Yuan was stunned for a moment, then realized that he matched the name with the rough-looking Asian man in the missing person notice.

Seeing that the matter was already out in the open, Gao Yuan put the US dollars he had just received into his pocket and continued, "I know Old Ding very well. He's an old bachelor who always tries to stretch every penny he earns, saving all his money to go back to China and get married. But after he disappeared, a few of us from his hometown went to his place once. The several thousand US dollars he had saved and his fake passport were still in the house, but he had vanished into thin air."

“Those who work illegally here would never leave their money behind, even if they ran away. So I’m sure he’s not missing, something must have happened to him, and he might be one of the first to be unlucky. If you really want to investigate, you might as well start with him.”

As he spoke, he pointed to the building at the end of the street: "Old Ding lives in room 306 of the Sanzaiguan over there. You can go there and check tomorrow during the day. Don't bother with anything today, go back and rest early."

After explaining all this, Gao Yuan felt as if a burden had been lifted, yet he also seemed to only belatedly realize that he was afraid.

"I didn't tell you anything," he said, wriggling out of Lin Yuan's arm and running back to the restaurant in a few steps, bending down to pull the roller shutter down.

With a whoosh, the roller shutter closed completely.

Only the two of them remained on the street.

"Shall we go take a look tonight?" Chu Zihang asked Lin Yuan.

Lin Yuan looked up at the sky and shook his head: "No rush. I estimate that the hybrid has not completely lost consciousness, otherwise the three incidents of injuring people would not have been half a month apart."

"It injured someone yesterday, so it probably won't come out again today."

Chu Zihang thought for a moment and nodded in agreement with the deduction.

In addition, they had just experienced a 14-hour international flight and hadn't had a proper rest after landing. It would be unwise for them to conduct an investigation overnight in this state.

The two walked outside Chinatown, hailed a taxi, and returned to their five-star hotel in downtown Chicago.

Back at the hotel, Lin Yuan took a quick hot shower, then pulled the covers over his head and almost instantly began to snore as soon as his head hit the pillow.

His sleep quality has always been remarkably good.

This is also thanks to my time on the ship Rocks.

On that ship teeming with all sorts of monsters, the nights were rarely quiet.

The deck was either filled with all-night parties or the snoring from the next cabin sounded like a power drill.

Fortunately, human beings are always incredibly adaptable.

After experiencing that initial period of insomnia where he couldn't fall asleep for nights on end, Lin Yuan developed the ability to fall asleep instantly anytime, anywhere. Even if there was a lot of gunfire outside, as long as he was given a place to lie down, he could quickly cut off his senses of the outside world and make the most of every second to recover his strength.

The spacious hotel room quieted down, with only the slight hum of the central air conditioning.

On the bed by the window, a small patch of faint blue light appeared.

Chu Zihang did not sleep.

He sat quietly on the edge of the bed, searching for something on his phone.

In order not to disturb Lin Yuan's rest, he deliberately turned off all the light sources in the room, and even turned the brightness of his mobile phone screen to the lowest level.

With his photographic memory, he clearly remembered every detail of the two missing person posters that he had only glanced at.

Chu Zihang clicked into the Chicago Chinese BBS and browsed through several inconspicuous web pages recruiting illegal workers.

Enter the names of the two people in the search bar.

The page refreshed, and a bunch of old, cluttered posts popped up.

The faint glow of the screen reflected in his pupils as Chu Zihang stared at the messy job postings and chat logs, his gaze sweeping across the lines of cyber junk, trying to understand the lives of the two people before their disappearance.

Chapter 35 Someone Arrived First?

The next morning, the two went to the hotel's rooftop buffet restaurant for breakfast.

Lin Yuan initially had some reservations about the $800 hotel price, but when he saw the long row of breakfast buffets in the restaurant, he had to admit that capitalists really know how to enjoy life, eating so well so early in the morning.

Within minutes, a mountain of plates had been piled up on the table in front of him.

The patrons in the rooftop restaurant are mostly well-dressed financial elites or company executives.

They usually have only a small bite of delicate gluten-free bread and a cup of espresso in front of them, and a copy of the day's Wall Street Journal in their hands, talking in hushed tones.

To this group of successful people who would even deliberately avoid making noise when cutting sausages, Lin Yuan's swift and frantic eating was like that of a wild beast.

Seeing him eat enough food for five people by himself, as if he was going to recoup his hotel room fee through the breakfast buffet, the successful people at the surrounding tables were dumbfounded.

Lin Yuan completely ignored the stares and even let out a burp at the end, completely lacking in decorum.

He casually pulled out a napkin and wiped his mouth. The satisfaction brought by the high-calorie food put all his muscles in a state of peak readiness.

"Let's go." Seeing that Chu Zihang had already stopped eating, Lin Yuan threw the crumpled tissue into his plate and stood up.

......

Sanzaiguan is located deep in a narrow alley at the end of Chinatown.

It was an old three-story building, the red bricks blackened by cooking fumes, and the windows facing the street were covered with cardboard and plastic sheeting, rattling loudly when a draft swept through.

"Is this it?" Lin Yuan looked up at the building, which seemed like it could collapse at any moment.

Chu Zihang nodded: "Yes. Most of the people living here are undocumented workers and illegal immigrants. The environment is very poor, so the rent is also very cheap."

"However, to prevent these people from running away, the landlords here all require that the entire year's rent be paid in one lump sum."

His gaze swept over the several tightly closed windows on the third floor: "Ding Yaozu moved in seven months ago, paid a year's rent, and the lease still has about six months left. I also tend to think that he wouldn't choose this time to run away."

Lin Yuan was stunned and turned to look at his expressionless teammate beside him.

How come this guy is like a walking encyclopedia, spouting out so many clues all at once? Could it be that while I was sleeping last night, he secretly went back to find Gao Yuan?

Chu Zihang keenly sensed the question in Lin Yuan's eyes and took the initiative to explain: "After you fell asleep last night, I found Ding Yaozu's old rental post on the Chicago Chinese BBS and learned this information from that post."

"Reliable!" Lin Yuan couldn't help but exclaim in praise.

Not only is their execution ability top-notch, but their intelligence gathering skills are also first-rate. Having someone like this as a teammate is truly worry-free.

Chu Zihang simply nodded slightly, then entered the building first.

The stairwell was very narrow, with plasterboard on both sides, and it was not wide enough for two adult men to walk side by side.

The motion-activated light on the wall had been broken for who knows how long, and it was covered with cobwebs. Even though it was broad daylight, it was pitch black inside.

The two walked up the stairs, one after the other.

Just as I reached the corner on the second floor, I ran into a middle-aged woman who was walking down the street.

Her face was ashen, with heavy dark circles under her eyes. Her hair was haphazardly tied up at the back of her head, and she was wearing a faded blue work uniform with a few loose threads stuck to her shoulders.

Perhaps because she had just finished a night shift, she exuded a strong sense of fatigue.

Seeing two clean-cut young men, whose demeanor was completely out of place, ascend the steps, the woman instinctively shrank back, making way for them as much as possible.

However, the stairwell is really too narrow.

Even though the woman tried her best to hunch her shoulders, Chu Zihang's shoulder still accidentally brushed against hers as they passed each other.

The woman was already very nervous, and this sudden touch made her tremble, causing the thing she was tightly clutching to slip from her hand.

Chu Zihang's eyes flickered slightly, and his arm flashed in the dim light as he steadily caught the object.

It was a small plastic medicine bottle, light as a feather, and clearly empty.

The woman's body stiffened.

She stared intently at the medicine bottle in Chu Zihang's hand, her breathing becoming erratic, her face filled with tension, as if the medicine bottle contained a lifeline.

Chu Zihang remained silent as usual, handing the small, unmarked medicine bottle back to her.

"Th...thank you."

The woman grabbed the medicine bottle, mumbled a "thank you" under her breath, and hurried downstairs, hugging the wall.

She walked down the stairs past Lin Yuan, creating a slight gust of air.

Lin Yuan's nose twitched slightly as he keenly detected a faint smell of rust.

He glanced back at the woman's hurried figure, pondered for a couple of seconds, and then looked away. She must have been on her period.

Since my body was enhanced by the Azure Dragon Fruit, my sense of smell has become too sensitive. When I walk in places like this, all sorts of strange smells are amplified infinitely, which can be quite torturous at times.

Ding Yaozu's room 306 is located at the far end of the corridor on the third floor.

The corridor was long and narrow, with no windows and very stuffy air. On both sides were rows of single-panel doors that were tightly packed together, providing very poor sound insulation; the sound of a television program could be faintly heard.

Chu Zihang stopped in front of the wooden door. He reached out and grasped the doorknob, turning it twice, but there was no response.

"It's locked." Chu Zihang withdrew his hand and turned to look at Lin Yuan.

"Go downstairs and ask the landlord for the keys?"

"No need for that."

Lin Yuan stepped forward and grasped the doorknob.

In the dim light, jet-black Armament Haki coiled around his right hand.

Then, he slightly turned his wrist.

"Click".

With a crisp crack, the internal spring snapped, and the metal lock cylinder was instantly broken by this subtle, hidden force.

Standing half a step away, Chu Zihang witnessed the entire process.

He understood somewhat why Lin Yuan didn't want to notify the academy.

Lin Yuan didn't care about Chu Zihang's thoughts and pushed open the unlocked wooden door.

The old hinges made a creaking, scraping sound.

The room was dark, and the curtains were drawn tightly shut.

The door was wide open, and a foul, musty smell wafted out.

Lin Yuan was about to step inside when he suddenly stopped.

Amidst the unpleasant musty smell, Lin Yuan detected a very faint scent of perfume.