Jiang Xia walked to the Porsche under Gin's gaze and handed Miyano Shiho's wallet over.
As he withdrew his hand, his fingers casually hooked, stealing a bit of the killing intent emanating from Gin.
If possible, Jiang Xia wanted to take more.
However, killing intent couldn't be seized by simply grabbing a large amount. To take it all, certain conditions needed to be met. Otherwise, he could only collect the small amount that naturally overflowed.
In this situation, a flick of the finger collected roughly the same amount as a grab with the hand, but the latter might result in a shot from the vigilant Gin, which was not worth it.
When Gin took the wallet, he caught a glimpse of Jiang Xia's finger's unusual movement out of the corner of his eye but didn't pay it any mind.
Every time Jiang Xia handed him something, his fingers would hook like that when he withdrew his hand.
The first few times, Gin was secretly wary.
But later, as the occurrences became more frequent, he guessed it was some uncontrollable physical reaction, just like a limping person always can't help but limp when walking. Jiang Xia should be the same—after all, he had such a deep cut on his left wrist, and precise body parts like hands are difficult to recover after injury.
Gin briefly checked the wallet and handed it into the car, letting the owner of the wallet check for any issues—Miyano Shiho had already rolled down the car window when she saw Jiang Xia.
Miyano Shiho is the genius scientist of the organization, codenamed 'Sherry.'
…In the future, after taking the poison and shrinking, she will probably change her name to 'Haibara Ai.'
Sherry was always cold and spoke little. However, this time, she wasn't deliberately hiding in the car playing mysterious. Instead, she had twisted her ankle when she was pushed down by the robber earlier, making it difficult to get out of the car.
At that time, the bodyguards were a bit far from her, and their reaction speed lived up to their cannon fodder reputation—by the time the bodyguards came to their senses, the passing bag snatcher had already vanished.
Losing money wasn't a big deal, but the wallet contained Sherry's various documents and the research institute's access card, which absolutely could not be leaked.
The situation was urgent, but fortunately, the organization lost data every now and then… The bodyguards were very experienced. They immediately pulled out their phones and called Gin.
When in doubt, find the workaholic; it's always right.
After hearing what happened, Gin remembered that Jiang Xia was more familiar with this type of neighborhood, so he called for Jiang Xia.
…He didn't expect Jiang Xia to solve the case in seconds. This saved a lot of trouble, and the efficiency was much higher than them staking out and searching for people.
When Sherry was flipping through the documents in the wallet.
Jiang Xia secretly squeezed the freshly harvested killing intent to prevent it from returning to its original owner.
On the surface, he reported very formally:
“The bag snatcher is named Yamada Zhi. He has no fixed job and makes a living by doing odd jobs and stealing and robbing in various places. Two years ago, he rented a haunted house nearby at a low price, so he often operates in this area—I don't think he was after information; he probably just wanted to steal money.”
This sounded like he was making excuses for the bag snatcher.
But soon, Jiang Xia made it clear that he didn't mean that:
“He is currently at 2-Chome, 21-Banchi, 305, and will probably be unconscious for half an hour. He's quite heavy, and carrying him all the way here would be too conspicuous, so I didn't bring him over… If you're worried, you can stop by there on your way out and take him back for interrogation.”
Gin nodded without praise or criticism.
Jiang Xia not immediately silencing the person could barely be considered thoughtful—since the bag snatcher was a habitual offender in this area, it was possible that someone among the passersby who witnessed the robbery knew him.
If the bag snatcher suddenly died on the spot today, then 'Sherry,' who had just been robbed by him, might be linked to this murder case, causing trouble—Sherry, after all, is a beautiful mixed-race woman with a very unique temperament; one glance is enough to remember her for a long time.
Gin: “…” However, even so, anyone who has stolen organizational secrets must die.
Thinking of this, Gin casually assigned Jiang Xia a task: “You keep an eye on him these next few days and make him die accidentally within a week…”
“Cough, cough.”
Sherry in the car suddenly cleared her throat.
Although the expression was subtle, the meaning was clear: find someone else.
“…” Gin frowned and bit the cigarette butt in the corner of his mouth.
Jiang Xia always felt that Comrade Workaholic had a phrase like “Women are so troublesome” on the tip of his tongue.
But in the end, Gin swallowed his words.
…The wishes of a valuable genius scientist like Sherry are still worth considering. Besides, this isn't a big deal.
Gin then took out his phone, sent a message, and chose other disposable people.
Then he looked up at Jiang Xia: “It's fine now, you can go back.”
“Okay.” Jiang Xia nodded and turned to leave.
At this moment, Sherry suddenly called out to him and handed him a bag from inside the car.
Jiang Xia recognized the contents of the bag at a glance.
Supplements.
For the brain, very bitter.
Sherry's homemade, the only one of its kind in the world. She liked to keep some of this in her car and had even mailed it to Jiang Xia separately before, but Jiang Xia had refused all of them.
Jiang Xia actually didn't dislike Miyano Shiho.
From the bits of memory analyzed, Jiang Xia Tongzhi also held no resentment towards her.
—In the car accident Jiang Xia's parents encountered, when the truck rolled over, both parents, plus Sherry, were in danger of being crushed into human patties.
At that time, the couple pushed Sherry out of the crushing range, delaying their own escape time a little.
But in reality, from the car accident footage at the time, even without the act of “pushing Sherry,” they, being further back, would still have found it very difficult to escape.
—Compared to an accident, it was more like a targeted murder.
So this matter actually couldn't be blamed on Sherry.
However, not blaming her doesn't mean one must cling to her and maintain a good relationship—as far as he remembered, before the car accident, Sherry and Jiang Xia Tongzhi knew each other but weren't close and didn't have much interaction.
Jiang Xia felt that this kind of relationship was very good and there was no need to go further—Sherry is a core member of the organization, and there would be no shortage of troubles and troublesome people around her, and Jiang Xia, as an unlucky Spiritual Medium without ghosts… He now just wanted to maintain a peaceful life.
Thinking of this, Jiang Xia lowered his head, looking at the beautiful and cute Sherry in the Porsche, and the beautifully packaged but not-so-cute supplements in her hand, without reaching out to take them.
He just politely refused: “No need for this, you're too kind.”
Sherry's hand, holding the bag, stiffened slightly.
After a moment's pause, she expressionlessly withdrew her hand, dropped the medicine bag onto the car seat with a thud, crossed her arms, and turned her head away.
…Then, still uneasy, she turned back.
Her gaze paused on Jiang Xia's left wrist guard, then quickly moved away, and she spoke in a cool voice:
“I heard from Dr. Kazato that you haven't been to your follow-up appointments on time—your next appointment is on the 23rd; remember to go.”
“Dr. Kazato” is a doctor from the Psychosomatic Medicine Department of Mihana Pharmacist's Field Hospital.
Gin, who was nearby, heard this and shifted his gaze back and forth between Jiang Xia and Sherry.
He had never felt that Jiang Xia had a problem before. Only now, suddenly hearing “doctor,” did he realize that this useful peripheral member had not yet fully recovered.
Gin spoke in a deep voice: “We don't need a ticking time bomb that could die at any moment. If one day you can't perform tasks due to your mental state—human experiments are just in need of material.”
“…” Jiang Xia glanced at the increased killing intent on him, his eyes slightly brightened as he nodded, “I know.”
Gin didn't say anything more.
He did find Jiang Xia a useful subordinate, but only useful, not irreplaceable. So, a reminder to “seek medical attention promptly” was enough for Sherry's sake.
After retrieving Sherry's bag, Gin and Vodka returned to the car, and the three quickly left.
Jiang Xia pretended to watch them for a while.
As soon as the black Porsche turned the corner, Jiang Xia turned and walked directly to his motorcycle.
If it were before, he might have stayed for a while, carefully searching the place where Gin had stopped, to see if there was any extra killing intent dropped.
But since last week, Gin was no longer his only hope for activating his ability.
That's right, now, Jiang Xia had a new target.
It was the recently popular youth idol, a triple-threat artist—Kinoshita Yoko.
Jiang Xia's outing today was actually also to find Kinoshita Yoko.
He was just pulled in by Gin to be a tool along the way.
…Fortunately, things were resolved quickly, so he didn't have to postpone his main business until next time.
The matter of replacing the “Golden Finger Activation Spare Tire” began last week.
At that time, Jiang Xia was walking home from school. As he passed an electronics store, he casually glanced at the display TV in the window, and his steps paused.
—On the TV, Kinoshita Yoko's cooking show was playing.
And Jiang Xia saw that her wrist was encircled by a translucent, crystal bracelet-like object.
The “bracelet” was subtly wriggling, and a human form could vaguely be discerned.
Jiang Xia immediately recognized it: this trembling mass was actually the “Ghost Fetus” he had been searching for for a long time.
…Only, it was much smaller than a normal Ghost Fetus.
A normal one would be at least as big as two hands put together. But this one was exceptionally small… Perhaps because it was still just an embryo when it died.
But it was already very good.
The Ghost Fetus is the best medium for a Spiritual Medium to exert power, and even in his previous life, it was a rare and sought-after item. Without it, a Spiritual Medium would be as miserable as a summoner with zero summonable creatures.
And if he had it…
After a year, the moment he finally saw the Ghost Fetus, Jiang Xia felt relieved and moved.
…The god of luck had not left him.
He was still him, that witty and handsome European Emperor.
Jiang Xia recalled the Ghost Fetus on the TV and quickly arrived at where he had parked his motorcycle.
At this moment, his phone suddenly rang.
The technology line in this world is erratic, sometimes advancing, sometimes regressing, with no pattern.
Currently, Jiang Xia uses a very ordinary 3G phone.
He straddled his motorcycle, glanced at the caller ID, and answered the phone: “Something came up just now; I'll be there soon.”
A faint, excited voice came from the phone: “Okay, Big Brother!”
Jiang Xia said nothing more, hung up the phone, put on his helmet, and sped away.
——————
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