“Makes sense.” Lu Siya flipped through the information she found in the morning. “Even though Jin Yongqiang wasn’t a core manager in Heavenly Works Machines, which means that it would have been impossible for him to get a lot of benefits from the deal related to Subway No. 20, he owed a lot of money to casinos, so if he didn’t think of something, he would soon be chased out of Blessed Paradise. At this critical moment, as long as someone was willing to give him money, he would be willing to do whatever he was asked.
“But I don’t understand it. Why did Jin Yongqiang end up as the third victim? Money nor loyalty to Heavenly Works Machines shouldn’t have been enough of a temptation for him to sacrifice himself, right?”
“That’s right. Based on what Ms. Zhou said just now, Jin Yongqiang clearly didn’t expect to sacrifice his life. Instead, he was planning to clear his debt after he succeeded in this and continue enjoying his life.”
Meng Chao sank into deep thought and connected all the clues together. He found it a little awkward. “Do you remember me telling you that the way the third biochemical pet attacked was slightly different compared to the first two biochemical pets? Even though they were all infected with mutated rabies, I feel like the biochemical pet who attacked Jin Yongqiang was calmer and more lethal.
“In other words, what we face might not be a single case, but two cases. The first two victims were indirectly killed by Jin Yongqiang, while Jin Yongqiang was killed by another mysterious person.”
“That’s right. The third biochemical pet didn’t have a needle-shaped hole in its ear canal. Jin Yongqiang shouldn’t have injected a virus into it,” Lu Siya said. “If Jin Yongqiang didn’t die, it wouldn’t have been so easy to relate this matter to Heavenly Works Machines as well.
“Let’s assume that someone in the higher management of Heavenly Works Machines is actually crazy enough to plan this entire matter to seize the deal and attack their competitors. But he’s worried that Jin Yongqiang, who injected the virus into the dogs, would spill the beans, so he killed him. Still, even if he wanted to kill Jin Yongqiang, he shouldn’t have chosen this moment.
“He could have waited until the deal was in his hands and our attention had moved away from this case. Then, he could use another method to make Jin Yongqiang die without a trace. He’s a person who has a gambling addiction and lives a debauched life. It wouldn’t be strange even if he died in an accident. So why and how did he kill him with his pet?
“The three murders by the pets happened practically at the same time. This doesn’t look like killing someone to silence them. This is practically drawing fire to themselves. The higher management in Heavenly Works machines wouldn’t be that stupid.”
“I agree with your thoughts.”
Meng Chao scratched his head and said in a troubled manner, “The problem is, Jin Yongqiang is already dead, and the dead tell no tales. We can’t go into Heavenly Works Machines to gather evidence either.
“All of this is just our guesses. We don’t have concrete evidence, and we don’t have a way to find the person who killed Jin Yongqiang.”
“The proof might not be in Heavenly Works Machines.”
Lu Siya looked at Meng Chao. “Just now, Ms. Zhou mentioned that for a few days half a month ago Jin Yongqiang smelled like trash when he came home. You were stunned for a moment when you heard that. Why?”
Meng Chao was taken aback for a moment. He thought about it for a while before he said, “I think I know where Jin Yongqiang went at that time.”
“Oh?” Lu Siya’s eyes lit up.
Meng Chao brought out his phone and opened his browser. He typed in a few keywords, and soon, he found an article.
Lu Siya took his phone and looked at the article. It talked about how Spirit Creations Creatures signed an agreement with the waste treatment center.
Tens of millions of Dragon Citizens lived in a city with limited space. They stay in skyscrapers and underground bunkers. The hornet-style buildings might have increased the livable space, so more people were able to live comfortably, but it also created a lot of trash from various industries and people’s daily life.
Dealing with the trash was a major problem that affected everyone’s survival.
First, if they did not deal with the piles of trash in time, there was a high possibility that all sorts of viruses and bacteria would spread, and the trash was also a hotbed for small monsters like rats, insects, snakes, and ants. If the humans were the slightest bit careless, these creatures could cause a plague.
Second, there were limited resources in Dragon City. Practically all trash had to be recycled and reused to help with the citizens’ daily needs. It was impossible for them to use simple and crude methods like burying the trash or burning it.
Dragon City had a large synthetical waste treatment center set up in each of the four cardinal directions.
The amount of trash they took in and processed every day reached astronomical figures.
Based on the news, Trash Site 4, which was the waste treatment center in the south of Dragon City, signed a contract with Spirit Creations Creatures. They would use Giant Sandworms modified by Spirit Creations to handle the trash there. Every day, the worms would eat a large amount of trash that could not be recycled or degraded. Then, they would turn them into natural fertilizer, which had a lot of nutrients. The article spoke about how much capital they could save up, how much profit they could create from this, and other things.
“I heard that half a month ago, the Giant Sandworms Spirit Creations Creatures modified to specifically eat trash went out of control. They didn’t hurt anyone, but they crawled underground and escaped. The time it happened matches when Jin Yongqiang came back with a smell so bad that his partner thought that he had rolled around in trash,” Meng Chao explained.
“Let’s go”—Lu Siya stood up and lowered her sunglasses—”to Trash Site 4.”
South of Dragon City was Synthetical Trash Site 4.
It was located far away from the business and residential areas and surrounded by broken down factories, which had been destroyed by monsters. They were currently being repaired and renovated.
They moved through the cluster of factories and saw a “mountain range” that rose and fell. It also released all sorts of gases that had various colors.
The mountain range was made up of heaps of trash. The microorganisms of the Other World invaded them. Deep red, faint purple, and grayish-white smoke covered the sky and blocked the sun. Greasy and dirty water, which shone in the colors of a rotting rainbow, flowed past them. It was basically a completely different world compared to the most brilliant part of Dragon City—the central commercial area.
Even if Meng Chao was used to the noise and dirtiness in Blessed Heavenly Garden and worked as a harvester who recovered resources, he was still unable to help but frown a little when he faced such a horrible environment.
Before he went to university, he seldom went to rural-urban fringes which were close to the fog.
Even though he knew that there were countless places in Dragon City where the living environment was a hundred times worse than in Blessed Heavenly Garden, he had never actually seen nor experienced how they were like.
The large trash site looked like a ghost town to him. It was only then that he gained a vague understanding about how a short half a century was not enough to separate their city from their mother planet. They still ached from the wound torn open by their transmigration to the Other World, and they still hurt from the time when all order had collapsed in Dragon City and they lived through the bloody and dark era.
It was time when the trash was sent into the waste treatment center.
Countless heavy crystal trucks carrying foul-smelling trash headed to the waste treatment center with roaring engines. They poured all the new carts of trash on the conveyor belt.
The sorting center at the end of it was the basin at the center of the mountains of trash.
The stench was its sign of recognition. Countless recyclers wearing goggles and simple filtration masks stood there. They wore cloaks and held steel drills and clamps in their hands while they rushed to the trash.
They staggered about and shoved at each other like hungry hyenas as they pounced at the rotting prey that appeared tasty to them. Soon, they arrived at their self-designated areas and started sorting out the trash without caring about the stench or the filth.
Even though Dragon City’s automation was rising, there was still a lot of work that the industrial robots could not handle, even if they had runic symbols and superbrains.
Sorting out trash and recycling was one of such tasks.
Since Dragon Citizens lived frugal lives, before normal citizens treated something as trash, they would use it many times and recycle it on their own to squeeze out all of its value before they threw it into the trash.
Hence, if the city wanted to squeeze out every last drop of value out of what was already trash in other people’s eyes, they needed human eyes, because humans stood at the top of all living creatures. They also needed their fingers and their brains to sort out the trash.
When the recyclers carefully sorted out everything, the trash that had no recycle value would then go to the next area. It would be sent to the biochemical treatment factory and be eaten by Giant Sandworms.
Meng Chao was dumbfounded as he watched the magnificent sight of thousands of recyclers sorting out trash, and a complicated light shone in his eyes.
Lu Siya did not share his interest and strode straight to the depths of the waste treatment center.
She wore a silk dress and high heels, which did not fit into the horrible, smelly environment around her, but when she walked among the piles of trash with dirty water flowing down them, she still managed to make it seem as if she was walking on star avenue.
Since she stood out like a sore thumb, very soon, she attracted attention.
“What are you doing here?
A burly man with his arm covered in tattoos came out from behind a pile of trash. He had a sharp steel drill in his hands and was looking at them with wariness.
Behind him were a few more burly men peeking at them.
Lu Siya examined them expressionlessly.
Perhaps it was because he could sense the dangerous presence of a Heaven Realm elite coming out of Lu Siya, but the tattooed man took half a step back and decided to be humble. “This is a dangerous working area, and normal people are not allowed to enter. Who are you looking for?”
“You.” Lu Siya brought out a huge stack of cash notes from her pocket and enveloped it with her spirit energy. She flicked it in his direction, and it floated and swayed in front of him, but did not fall on the ground.
The tattooed man’s eyes went wide. He hesitated for a moment before he took the money and put a smile on his ugly face. “Ma’am, what business do you have with us?”
“Have you seen this person before?”
Lu Siya brought out one of Jin Yongqiang’s photos from her folder and handed it to him. Then, she drew out a thick of cash, split it into two piles, and placed them on her palms. “Don’t be in such a hurry to answer me. If you haven’t seen him before, you can ask the recyclers working under you. I’ll give you half an hour.
“If you say that you haven’t seen him after half an hour, I will give you the money in my left hand.
“If you say that you have seen him and state the correct time, I’ll give you the money in both of my hands.
“But if you tell me that you’ve seen him before, yet can’t state the correct time or lie to trick me, then I’m sorry, but I will take back all the money, do you understand me?”
The tattooed man stared at the money in Lu Siya’s hands for a long time.
Then, he looked at her appearance and the way she carried herself, and he became certain that she would not lie just because of the money she brought out.
He gulped and folded Jin Yongqiang’s picture carefully. Then, he found around ten teenagers who looked really thin to serve the two of them while he headed deep into the waste treatment center with his subordinates.