Chapter 350: Suspicions and Motives

After learning from Xin Yu, Xia Qing also built a small house inside the wild grass wall next to the signpost in Section Three. It was meant for hosting guests who dropped by for business. The location, set at the southernmost end of Section Three by the passage, sat hundreds of meters from Xia Qing’s own house and farmland—so it was perfectly safe.

In a few days, once tree-digging and thorn wall construction began, this spot would double as her office.

The house itself was built from red bricks Xia Qing salvaged from the abandoned village. Most of them were odd-shaped fragments, not whole ones, but somehow Xia Qing managed to stack those jagged bricks into uniform walls. With the original wood-colored door, wooden windows, a stone table and wooden chairs, the place just felt right—comfortable from every angle.

“Miss Xia, you used to work in the construction team, didn’t you? You’re so skilled at building.” The moment Lu Ying entered, she complimented Xia Qing and got straight to business. “We’ve looked over the crime scene photos Captain Tan took. Today, we’d like to ask you a few questions about the case. To start, could you walk us through what happened the night of the thunderstorm?”

Xia Qing noticed the look in Lu Ying’s eyes mirrored exactly the way Xu Juan and Zhang Yong eyed her before entering Section Three, and the way Xie Yu had watched her over video during the mock interrogation. They were reading every movement, every twitch of her face, and weighing her words to fish out what they needed to know.

She’d never interacted with people from the criminal investigation team before, so Xia Qing wasn’t sure if this was just standard for them, or if only Brain Evolution users did this.

Xia Qing slipped into the same state of composed calm she used with Xie Yu—steady, controlled, clearing her mind, and keeping her poker face. She then recounted the events of that stormy night.

Naturally, following the script she and Tan Junjie had agreed on, Xia Qing didn’t say she’d personally spotted Jiang Xiong Squad’s two members entering the territory. Instead, she said it was the Inspection Team who’d made the discovery.

After Xia Qing finished, Lu Ying asked for a few more details, then followed up: “During migration season, when wolf howls were broadcast in this territory, you were the first to realize something was off. How did you figure out from the loudspeaker that it was the howl of a wolf that had been imprisoned and tormented?”

Xia Qing answered honestly: “In the fourth year of the Cataclysm, I witnessed a squad torturing caged wolves to use their howls as bait to lure in wild wolf packs for capture. That sound left a deep impression on me.”

The fourth year of the Cataclysm—back then, society was far more chaotic than now.

Powered humans with advanced weapons believed they ruled Blue Star. They dreamed of dominating all Blue Star’s creatures—ordinary people and mutant beasts alike. Tigers, wolves, bears, leopards, eagles—all became targets for capture, domestication, and forced servitude.

Lu Ying questioned seriously, “You remember something from six years ago so clearly—are you a Brain Evolution user?”

Calm as ever, Xia Qing replied, “I don’t have Brain Evolution, but my memory is pretty good.”

Lu Ying nodded. “Did you have any prior conflicts with the Jiang Xiong Squad?”

That much Xia Qing could state firmly. “I’ve never interacted with anyone from Jiang Xiong Squad. No history, no grudges.”

Lu Ying pressed, “And you never worked on a mission with Jiang Xiong Squad when venturing out before?”

Xia Qing thought it over, then avoided making an absolute claim: “I never joined any missions called by Jiang Xiong Squad, but I did take part in large operations organized by the Base. I can’t say for sure whether Jiang Xiong Squad was involved or not.”

The Base often issued large-scale tasks to gather edible plants or clear Scourge Grass. These didn’t require high-level abilities, so huge crowds would usually participate.

Lu Ying locked eyes with Xia Qing and then asked abruptly, “Does your territory have any wolves right now, Miss Xia?”

“Yes,” Xia Qing nodded. “There’s one wolf infected with parasites.”

“Has it been in your territory the entire time?”

Xia Qing shook her head. “Not the whole time. When those wolf howls played from the loudspeaker, it actually left and returned to the Evolved Forest. After the thunderstorm, it came back. Its stomach’s messed up, so now it can only eat cooked food.”

Lu Ying kept digging, “Do you think Jiang Xiong Squad entering your territory had anything to do with this wolf?”

“Probably,” Xia Qing answered calmly. “The day that sick wolf left, it howled—a lot of people heard it.”

Lu Ying asked again, “In your opinion, who told Jiang Xiong Squad about the wolf howling in your territory?”

Xia Qing glanced up, meeting her eyes. After a few seconds, she replied slowly, “I don’t know.”

After leaving Section Three and getting in the car, Lu Ying’s assistant reported, “She sprayed herself with something to mask scents—probably to cover the wolf’s smell. I’ve never caught that particular scent before; it’s definitely not Safe Zone-made.”

Lu Ying nodded. “Xia Qing wasn’t lying. First, she’s got no history with Jiang Xiong Squad. Second, there really is a wolf in her territory. If even you couldn’t smell it, the masking spray she used must be top quality—probably something she traded for with the lord of Territory Seven. The medicine she used to treat the wolf’s parasites likely also came from Territory Seven.”

That fit their initial background check results perfectly—Xia Qing had a good relationship with the lord of Territory Seven.

Just for that, everyone had to take Xia Qing more seriously.

Someone with strong ties to the lord of Territory Seven would have little reason to risk everything and conspire with Azure Dragon Squad to lure Jiang Xiong Squad into Section Three. She could survive perfectly well without relying on Territory One.

If a young, beautiful evolved human wanted to rely on others to survive, she never would have spent five years gritting it out in the dirty, exhausting construction team with nothing but her strength.

A woman like that would never lose her head over something like Hu Zifeng’s ‘pursuit’—she’d never let Azure Dragon Squad order her around.

Another assistant spoke up, “Lu, Xia Qing did lie at the end. Jiang Xiong Squad came here teamed up with Su Feng Squad—she’s definitely guessed it was someone from Territory Two who passed the word.”

“That’s not really lying. She’s got no evidence and doesn’t want to offend Su Feng Squad,” Lu Ying answered coolly.

Xia Qing’s tone and subtle expressions when she answered that last question gave Lu Ying her second reason for believing Xia Qing hadn’t conspired with Azure Dragon Squad.

There was only one person living in Section Three but the territory was orderly and well-planned, with even cameras mounted by the greenhouse. That showed Xia Qing did things methodically and had poured her energy into truly developing new land.

Her leaving the Safe Zone made sense—she probably planned to keep trading her skills for survival supplies, not to pick a fight with Jiang Xiong Squad.

Lu Ying concluded Xia Qing had no motive to deliberately lure Jiang Xiong Squad into her territory. The invaders from Jiang Xiong Squad were the ones lying, trying to downplay the fact they’d brought weapons, trespassed, and damaged a lord’s property.

As for what Azure Dragon Squad had done during the Jiang Xiong Squad incursion and the killing of Su Feng Squad’s members, that was something they would need to look into further.