Chapter 278 — A Supernatural Case-Solving

The reason Xia Xue was asked to come along was also because Yang Juehuan's identity was rather special and could not be disclosed to just anyone. If Yang Duoji went to the East Sea Police Station alone, it would likely be very difficult to see the higher-ups before his identity was made clear; with Xia Xue accompanying him, it would be much easier. In truth, it was simply because Yang Minlan was not familiar with the East Sea area.

Xia Xue leaned lazily against the back of the car seat and stretched. "I'm exhausted—meetings all morning."

"You're researching cases, so meetings are inevitable," Yang Shuyu said. Given the nature of Xia Xue's work, they held meetings almost every day to discuss the direction of investigations into criminal cases.

"A lot of the time, I feel like I'm just not capable enough. Even though I'm in this position and have cracked several major cases in a row, none of it was really to my credit..." Xia Xue said, a little sadly. "In the end, all that credit was something you gave me. I didn't do anything..."

Yang Xutang was somewhat surprised to hear Xia Xue's words. Xia Xue had actually started pondering such things? That meant Xia Xue had matured; she was no longer the little girl who only thought about earning merit, and now she had ideas of her own.

"You can't put it that way. In Wang Pu's case, if you hadn't been assisting me on the side, I might not have rounded them all up so neatly. And if you hadn't helped me look after Zhou Yanning's injuries afterward..." Yang Yanzhou trailed off, somewhat somber. "So you shouldn't feel like you didn't do anything. Besides, Chen Afu's case was one we stayed up late to crack together—does that count as your credit or not?"

"But it seems like every time, you're the one leading and I'm just the assistant..." Although Xia Xue had taken part in solving two cases, she always felt she hadn't done as much as Yang Ce.

"When you're with me, of course I'm the more impressive one," Yang Hengye said. "Otherwise, why would your brother go to the trouble of recruiting me to his side?"

"Vain!" Xia Xue said, though when she thought about it, that really was how it was. If Yang Ce truly had no ability, why would her brother possibly recruit him?

The car drove along the East Pine Expressway, a road Yang Ce had grown very familiar with. Everything in the plan had gone fairly smoothly so far—except over in the East Sea, where there had still been no word from Tian Yan, not even a single text message.

As things stood, there was only one possibility: Tian Yan had been placed under house arrest by Tian Long. But Yang Shuoxuan was not overly worried. A tiger, however vicious, does not eat its own cubs; no matter how crazed Tian Long was, he could not possibly kill his own son—otherwise, what would be the point of fighting for the vast Sun family fortune? At Tian Long's age, there was really not much left for him to plan for himself. His frenzy could only mean one thing: he wanted to carve out a foundation for his descendants.

Although the Tian family still had a younger son, Tian Dongguang, Tian Dongguang was clearly not cut out to inherit the business. He devoted himself to martial arts all day long—nothing short of a martial-arts fanatic. By comparison, Tian Yan was a promising talent. In both ability and character, he was the obvious choice to inherit the family enterprise.

Yang Ce could see it—so there was no way Tian Long could not see it too! And in fact, Tian Long had all along been grooming Tian Yan as his successor.

So, given all that, unless Tian Long had gone mad, he could not possibly do anything harmful to Tian Yan. If the son was gone, forget about grandsons.

At that thought, Yang Ce felt slightly reassured. No matter what, whatever Tian Long's fate turned out to be this time, Yang Ce would not drag Tian Yan into it! At the very least, Tian Yan had done his best, and Yang Ce would honor that debt. As for how to deal with Tian Long in the end, that would depend on Tian Long's own attitude.

The car drove along the expressway and gradually slowed, because ahead was already the exit approaching the East Sea toll station; all the vehicles on the expressway had stopped here to pay the toll.

Yang Ce picked up the expressway IC card and waited slowly behind a line of cars.

But after two or three cars had passed, the line clearly stopped moving, and up ahead at the expressway toll booth, the people in a black Volkswagen Santana seemed to have gotten into a dispute with the toll station staff.

"What's going on up there?" Xia Xue also sensed the car was no longer moving, so she looked up and asked.

"Not sure. Seems like someone in a Santana up ahead is arguing with the toll station people," Yang Yanzhou said.

With the attitude of a spectator enjoying the show, Yang Ce used his supernatural ability to look ahead, and sure enough, he saw the Santana's driver frowning and yelling at the toll station attendant: "I lost my IC card. Just tell me how much I need to pay and we're done—what's with all the dawdling?"

"It's not a matter of paying money. We checked the computer records, and there's no record of your license plate for this period at all. We can't determine which expressway entrance your car came in from," the toll collector said.

"If you can't find it, then stop looking. Just charge me for the longest route, won't that do?" The driver glared, impatient. "I've got things to do. Don't waste my time. How much? Just say the word—I've got plenty of money!"

—"Why is this woman so damn slow? I'm offering extra money and she won't even take it! No, I've got to shake her off fast, or there'll be endless trouble. If I'm delayed too long, who knows what might happen! This is a job that could cost me my head!"

Yang Ce suddenly heard a voice! That was right—this voice came from the driver of the black Santana; Yang Ce was certain of it.

This Santana driver's attention must currently be in an extremely panicked state; judging by what he was thinking, one could be sure of that. There had to be something unspeakable on him.

This accidental discovery made Yang Cenbin's spirit jolt slightly. Yang Ce was not the kind of person to stick his nose into other people's business, but neither was he the sort to stand aloof and turn a blind eye, or to look on indifferently even when he saw villains harming society.

The time he had stepped forward when he saw the old spectacle-seller being bullied also showed that Yang Ce was a man with a strong sense of public duty and justice.

So when Yang Ce discovered that this Santana driver was highly suspicious, Yang Ce knew something was not simple here! The man was in such a hurry to flee and was so afraid of being delayed here—that meant there might be something extraordinary on him that could not be discovered by others!

At that thought, Yang Ce activated his supernatural ability and began searching around the Santana driver. The first thing Yang Ce checked was the trunk, because the place in a car where things could be put was the trunk.

However, although Yang Ce did find some suspicious things in the trunk, they could not really be considered too suspicious.

A set of southern license plates, plus a set of military plates—clearly both fake. But if traffic police found these things, the worst would be confiscation and a fine. That could hardly be called something that cost you your head, could it?

So Yang Ce subconsciously felt that this person definitely had other problems. It was not simply a matter of two sets of fake plates in the trunk! These fake plates were not enough to make him lose his head!

With that thought, Yang Ce continued searching the Santana with his supernatural ability. If it really was something that could cost him his head, then it was unlikely to be placed in such an obvious place as the trunk! So Yang Ce began examining the car's corners and edges. These easily overlooked places, on the contrary, became excellent hiding spots.