Chapter 88

“……”

Are you poisoned or something? I’ve already buried my head, and you still managed to track me down?

Even though I did manage to get a pretty decent badge off that female police officer, the awkward situations I encountered weren’t few. Leon really didn’t want to face her again, so he tightened the corners of his coat and continued pretending to sleep with determination.

After lightly tapping him a few times without any response, the female police officer wanted to hit harder but thought it might be too impolite. She hesitated, biting her lip, unsure whether she should continue trying.

Just then, the female prisoner who had been observing coldly nearby seemed to have guessed her intentions. After nudging her slightly with her shoulder, she bluntly said with a blank expression: “Stop trying. I’m not going anywhere.”

“……”

Just because you say you won’t run, means you definitely won’t? That guy who claimed all nobles were lice in pants was also adamant he wasn’t a rebel!

Though sympathetic to the other party’s plight, the female police officer wasn’t stupid enough to believe a prisoner’s promises. Not only did she not give up on waking the man pretending to sleep, but she even added more force to her hand.

After all, disturbing someone’s sleep is just impolite, but if a prisoner escapes and hurts someone, that would no longer be an issue of politeness.

“Mister? Mister? Wake up!”

“Mister?”

Seeing that she was ignored and the woman persisted in “harassing” the man beside her amidst the noisy clatter of the boiler, the female prisoner fell silent for a moment before couldn’t help but ask:

“You don’t trust me, do you? If you think I’d deceive you, why are you insisting on investigating the Lane family based on what I told you?”

“This isn’t about whether I trust you or not; it’s about me doing my job properly.”

She glanced back at the prisoner’s condition, noticing her emotions seemed unstable. To avoid unexpected trouble, the female police officer turned back and responded seriously amidst the deafening roar of the boiler: “Although my work content is somewhat special, I am still a police officer from the Public Security Bureau, responsible for doing my job well and minimizing the impact on ordinary citizens’ lives as much as possible.

So I can’t relax my supervision of you just because I feel you won’t hurt anyone, nor can I abandon the investigation of the case because I detest your acts of harming civilians or fear offending the Lane family.”

“……”

After listening carefully to the female police officer’s reply, the prisoner couldn’t help but fall silent for a moment. Then, she looked at her like she was seeing a monster, full of astonishment and asked:

“Is it because of this?”

“Huh? What’s wrong?”

“Forget it… Pretend I didn’t say anything…”

After sizing up the bewildered female police officer, the female prisoner suddenly reversed her previous compliance, her face tinged with mockery: “Respected Miss Isa, when I first learned your surname, I was slightly suspicious, but now I’m certain.

You must have a deep relationship with that new guy from the Military Department who came to power at the beginning of the year, right? At the very least, you’re one of his distant relatives, and it’s even possible you’re his direct descendant.”

?!!!! “I guessed right, didn’t I?

“Hehe, I should have realized earlier. After all, only a family like that could raise someone as naive and foolish as you.”

Looking at the female police officer whose expression was filled with surprise beside her, seemingly stimulated by something, the female prisoner around forty or fifty years old let out a cold laugh. Her face, riddled with crow’s feet and sunspots, revealed disdain and mockery straight from the heart.

“Miss Isa of noble birth, you probably don’t understand what kind of consequences will arise if you insist on fulfilling your duties and doing the ‘right’ thing here!”

Before the female police officer could react from the shock of her family background being exposed, the female prisoner began pressing her advantage, pulling her handcuffed right hand out from under the covering clothes and jabbed her chest forcefully, her expression dark as she muttered:

“After reporting several times with no results, due to considerations similar to yours, he insisted on escalating the report. Because he never received feedback and was repeatedly reprimanded, he wrote a whistleblower letter to the person in charge of the military department at that time. Guess what he got?”

“Was… it dismissal?”

“Of course not, it was a huge commendation!”

After looking at the baffled female police officer, the female prisoner smiled and leaned over, whispering coldly amidst the deafening roar of the boiler: “The person in charge of the military department received the letter and immediately ordered a thorough investigation, replacing all problematic bandages. He received applause from top to bottom. My husband was also commended for his contribution, transferred from the War Preparedness Bureau to a more important Confidential Affairs Bureau, and our family moved into an assigned residence.

Unfortunately, less than two weeks later, shortly after my diligent yet foolish husband completed the handover, the inspector sent down announced that the intelligence archives managed by my husband were suspected of being extensively tampered with. He was immediately taken away on charges of espionage and interrogated for seven months by your Secret Investigation Bureau!”

“……”

“Pretty interesting, huh?”

Looking at the silent female police officer, the female prisoner chuckled,

“Not checking carefully before taking over the archives inevitably leaves you vulnerable to traps set by the predecessor, but if you check thoroughly, you’ll inevitably be suspected of espionage. So from the moment my husband accepted the transfer, no matter how he chose, the result would always be the same.”

And even more interestingly, the person from the Secret Investigation Bureau responsible for investigating my husband was his former superior! His superior, who had repeatedly blocked his normal reports, was suspended and transferred, and the place he was transferred to just happened to be the Secret Investigation Bureau responsible for investigating my husband. How coincidental, huh?”

With a faint chuckle but no trace of humor on her face, the female prisoner continued,

“Fortunately, my husband not only had strong bones but also a resilient life force. After being detained for seven whole months, apart from losing forty pounds and accidentally becoming lame in one leg, he actually managed to come out alive without confessing to any crime.

Unfortunately, the military department has far too many things to handle; they can’t wait for a suspected spy who’s also a cripple. His original position had long been occupied by someone else, and not only was there no department willing to ‘take him in,’ my daughter and I had already been evicted from the assigned residence.”

“Hehe, during the national defense war, the prices in the Capital City surged up to fifty times. By the time he came out, almost all our savings were gone, and all our assets amounted to just a few silver coins.

In the end, to let me and my daughter survive and for that so-called righteous national defense war, he took a resettlement fee and volunteered for enlistment. Because of his lame leg which made him run slowly, he was shot in the other leg.”

Listening with a heavy heart, the female police officer bit her lips, her complexion turning pale as she said:

“What about your husband…?”

“Dead, turned from a dumb cripple to a dead cripple!”

After calmly recounting her husband’s fate, the corner of the female prisoner’s mouth slightly lifted as she mockingly said softly: “By the way, there’s an even more interesting part. Do you want to hear it?”

“I…”

“If you don’t object, I’ll assume you want to hear it.”

The female prisoner smiled and rolled up her sleeve a little, revealing a worn-out bandage tied around her wrist, stained with a lot of blood. At the edge of the coarse stitching, a cluster of coarse cotton, hardened by blackish-brown blood, stubbornly poked out.

“When he was carried home, his leg was wrapped with this exact bandage, and underneath it pressed a piece of rotten flesh oozing yellow pus, infested with fat white maggots!”

After gently rotating her wrist, looking at her late husband’s relic on her wrist, the female prisoner smiled peacefully: “My crippled husband was tough; he wasn’t killed directly on the battlefield. He successfully crawled back to the camp, but unfortunately, he couldn’t survive the wound infection.

And what ultimately killed him was precisely the dirty inferior bandage he risked his life to report. Isn’t that funny?”

(End of Chapter)