Chapter 12: Oh No
“Very good.”
Wen En narrowed his eyes, gently patted Romeo’s cheek twice, and said:
“You’d better be telling one hundred percent the truth. Otherwise, I’ll cut off the place where you do sit-ups and feed it to the dogs.”
No Alpha’s pride could withstand this kind of humiliating “caress.”
Despite Romeo’s nonchalant appearance, he was actually furious inside. This detestable Beta would one day pay the price for his actions.
He forced a smile, a flash of annoyance in his eyes. He would let this Beta know what happened when you angered and humiliated an Alpha.
Wen En could guess the Alpha’s petty thoughts with just a glance. Having been in this line of work for so long, Wen En had seen countless desperate outlaws. In comparison, Romeo seemed almost refreshingly innocent.
So Wen En raised the gun in his hand. “Take a guess, which is harder, your forehead or a bullet?”
“…”
This violent Beta!
Romeo complained internally. This was, without a doubt, the craziest Beta he had ever met.
In his impression, Betas were like worker ants in an ant colony or worker bees in a hive—numerous, silent, and diligent workers. But the experiences of the past two days had completely shattered Romeo’s strange prejudice against Betas.
Take Wen En, for example. This was no worker ant or worker bee; this was clearly a giant black ant or a hornet!
Wen En lowered his head. Forget it, he still didn’t dare to risk his life against a gun.
He gave up, alright? He gave up!
Wen En sneered, pushed himself off the table, and jumped down. The micro-earpiece in his ear transmitted RV’s voice:
“Wen En, come out for a moment. We’re having a small meeting.”
Understood. Wen En glanced at Romeo again. Seeing him sitting there obediently, motionless, good, just like that, keep it up. He picked up the now-empty glass that had previously held ice water and walked out of the interrogation room.
Wen En walked back to the monitoring room. At this moment, RV was holding a cup of hot tea, looking at the computer screen in front of him with a serious expression.
Not long after, someone pushed the door open and walked into the monitoring room. It was Della.
“Report the interrogation results,” RV said.
Wen En and Della nodded at the same time. Wen En went first, simply repeating what Romeo had just said.
Della said, “Claire’s story is more or less the same as Romeo’s.”
RV stroked the stubble on his chin. “The lower district of Capital Star… that’s a bit tricky.”
“What kind of place is that?”
Wen En said, “The slums.”
Not all of Capital Star was prosperous with towering skyscrapers. There was an area on this planet, officially called the lower district, which also had a special name: Rosanna, meaning “the land forsaken by God.”
This was where the poverty, crime, depravity, and darkness of Capital Star gathered. Every resident of Capital Star was told by their parents as they grew up not to go near that godforsaken place.
Otherwise, the people there would drag you straight to hell.
“Why would the transaction take place there?” Della asked, puzzled. “And the amount of money Romeo and Claire were dealing with was not small. Would people in the slums have that kind of financial power to hire them?”
Wen En thought for a few seconds and said, “Who is the main administrator of the lower district now?”
“It’s Peter.”
RV said, “The councilman who was reported in the gossip media a few days ago for making a little video with an Omega adult star, which was stored on his computer and accidentally leaked by a hacker.”
“Oh, it’s him,” Wen En and Della said in unison.
RV continued:
“This young man is a ruthless character. He has almost monopolized the supply of daily necessities, electricity, and drinking water in the lower district. At the same time, he has also bought up a large amount of land on the edge of the lower district.”
“Could he be the anonymous person who traded with Romeo and Claire? But I don’t see any connection between him and Vulcan. I can’t figure out what he would want with Vulcan,” Della said, puzzled.
“Maybe he wanted to make it into a ring for his fiancée?” Wen En shrugged.
“Most likely not,” RV said.
“This Alpha has a notorious record. He was once accused of rape by an Omega. Not long after the Omega filed the lawsuit, he disappeared. A week after the Omega’s disappearance, a morning runner found the Omega’s bloated body in an abandoned reservoir in the suburbs.”
Wen En’s and Della’s expressions froze, and they looked at RV seriously.
RV said with a faint smile:
“You know who the murderer is, and I know who the murderer is. But we can’t do anything about him. There’s no evidence to prove he did it.”
“We also have no evidence to prove that he is in any way connected to the Vulcan theft,” Della said.
“Great, we’ve hit a dead end again,” Wen En said. “Do you need me to go interrogate those two liars again?” The liars, of course, referred to Romeo and Claire.
RV said, “I’m afraid they can’t provide any more useful information.”
“Wait, I have an idea.”
Della suddenly said. Wen En and RV pricked up their ears and looked at her curiously.
“We’ll have Romeo and Claire put out the word that the Vulcan gem they traded back then was a fake and they need to re-trade. We’ll lure the anonymous buyer out and then catch him in one fell swoop. How about that?”
Hearing Della’s words, the two men had a sudden realization. It had to be said, it was a good idea.
“Alright, let’s do that,” RV said.
“There’s still one problem. How do we persuade Claire and Romeo to cooperate with us?” Wen En said.
“I mean, after all, I just threatened and coerced Romeo. If he holds a grudge, he might secretly pull some tricks and create loopholes for us.”
Actually, it was only threats, no coercion. And he had also slapped Romeo twice… Wen En didn’t dare to say it out loud, just silently added it in his mind.
“Me too,” Della raised her hand to indicate.
RV: …
No, are you proud of this? RV almost fainted from anger.
“Before the interrogation, I told you all not to use violence. You really don’t listen at all,” RV was furious. “I’ll give you three days. You’d better figure it out. If you can’t get them to cooperate, you can forget about your vacation and year-end bonus this year.”
“Yes, sir!” At the thought of the year-end bonus and vacation, both of their expressions instantly turned serious.
For the bonus and vacation, Wen En decided, he would give it his all!
Wen En took the key to unlock the prisoner’s handcuffs and shackles and walked back into the interrogation room.
Romeo was currently bowing his head, his eyes fixed on the tabletop, his expression serious, lost in thought. The corners of his mouth were turned down like an arch bridge, and his semi-dry hair was messily plastered to his face. Hearing the door open, he slightly raised his head. Seeing it was Wen En, he lowered his head again.
He seems to be in good condition, Wen En thought. At least he’s not dying for now.
Wen En walked up to Romeo. “Hands up,” Wen En said.
Perhaps it was an occupational hazard, but Wen En’s tone sounded too much like a command. Hearing it, Romeo frowned slightly but did not raise his hands.
“Do you want to stay in handcuffs forever?” Wen En said.
Hearing this, Romeo finally looked up at Wen En, a foxy smile on his face. “Sir, what do you need me to do?”
With that, he raised his hands, his eyes still sizing up Wen En.
“Very clever.”
Wen En laughed, but soon, his smile froze on his face.
The cold, custom-made handcuffs of special synthetic metal that had been tightly locked around Romeo’s wrists were now, at some point, unlocked. A thin iron wire was inserted into the keyhole of the handcuffs.
“Almost succeeded,” Romeo smiled. “Sir, if you had come a little later, you might not have seen me.”
“Good thing I came early,” Wen En said with a faint smile, but his words were chilling. “Otherwise, if you had escaped, you would have been shot full of holes by the guards at the door.”
“Then thank you so much, sir.”
With the handcuffs removed from his wrists, Romeo stood up, stretched, and slowly walked out. Wen En’s eyes were fixed on the shackles on his ankles. Clearly, the lock on the shackles had also been picked by Romeo.
“If you need a free equipment upgrade, you can contact me,” Romeo said, patting Wen En’s shoulder.
“I will,” Wen En said, staring into Romeo’s eyes.
“So, Mr. Wen En, what do you need me to do?” Romeo said again.
“Let me be clear first, don’t have high hopes for me, and don’t expect me to be responsible for this.”
“You don’t need to be responsible,” Wen En glanced at him, then took out his communicator and looked at the time on the screen. “It’s lunchtime. Are you hungry?”
Huh? Romeo raised an eyebrow. What’s he trying to do? Is he asking me to lunch?
Wen En looked Romeo up and down and said, “You can also take a shower first, change into some clean clothes, and then go for lunch.”
“…That would be for the best.” Not knowing what Wen En was up to, Romeo replied “okay,” but his heart was pounding.
To be honest, Wen En’s current attitude was overly friendly, which made Romeo a little physically uncomfortable, giving him goosebumps all over.
Since that was the case, he wanted to go along with Wen En’s actions and see what kind of trap he was setting for him.
“By the way, may I ask, where is Claire now?”
“Her? She’s with Della.”
After thinking for a few seconds, Romeo hesitated for a moment, then asked, “You didn’t kill her, did you?”
Wen En raised an eyebrow and looked at him. “Of course not. In fact, we don’t plan on killing either you or Claire. After all, you are very useful.”
“Oh,” Romeo said. “Then you didn’t slap her either, did you?”
“I can’t say for sure. Della was the one who interrogated Claire. You can ask Della when you meet her later,” Wen En said.
“…”
Better not ask, Romeo thought. Claire, take care.
“I think I’ll take a shower first.”
Having not showered for a day and a night, Romeo felt uncomfortable all over, especially since he had been doused with a glass of water.
He followed Wen En out of the interrogation room. Along the way, he didn’t run into Della or Claire. He didn’t know where she had gone.
Wen En led him through the corridor and into the indoor gym of the K9 Planet Police Department. Several muscular men with beards, who were lifting weights, looked at them with suspicion.
“New here? I don’t think I’ve seen you before.”
One of the bald men put down his weights, crossed his arms, and walked up to them.
Wen En skillfully took out his F.I.A.D. work visa from his inner jacket pocket. The bald man saw it, and a look of understanding crossed his face. He said, “My apologies. Welcome to the gym.”
“Excuse me, where is the shower room?” Wen En asked.
The bald man pointed in a direction. “By the way, if you need to do laundry, I should remind you that there’s a washer-dryer in the shower room.”
“Thanks, bro,” Wen En said, patting the bald man’s shoulder.
Romeo had a bad feeling in his gut. He followed Wen En to the shower room and finally understood why he had this strange feeling.
This shower room didn’t even have any stalls. There were just rows of fixed showerheads embedded in the wall tiles. To the right of the shower room entrance was a half-person-high square washer-dryer combo.
“Could you step outside for a moment?” Romeo said tactfully. “I’m afraid the water might splash on you when I shower.”
“You can use the showerhead at the very end,” Wen En said, unmoved. “I’ll stand here by the door. You don’t have to worry about the shower water splashing on me.”
Romeo: OH NO…
This is going to be so awkward.
