Enforcer Manual
Chapter 612: I Offer My Sincerity to Spare Ribs_1

Chapter 612: Chapter 612: I Offer My Sincerity to Spare Ribs_1

After concluding the investigation at the plaza parking lot, Lu Xiang took Song Lan straight home.

The analysis of the human skin would take some time, and there was no need for her to wait idle at the station before the results came in. After a day’s hustle, it had gotten late, and she was quite hungry.

Once home, she took a bath, changed into casual clothes for home wear, and settled into a chair at the dining table.

Song Lan had tied on an apron half an hour before and added a dish of braised pork ribs.

The aroma of the meat wafted throughout the living room, and Yeying, drawn by the scent, sneakily sat opposite Lu Xiang, having forgotten about her evening indulgence in a whole rice cooker of rice.

"Hey, Old Song, I’ve noticed you’ve been growing bolder lately."

Lu Xiang teased Song Lan’s busy figure from the back, using the nickname "Old Song" for her, a way she rarely addressed others.

Since Song Lan moved in, the apartment had increasingly felt like home.

She relaxed and propped her hands on the chair, straightened her legs, and stretched lazily.

Lu Xiang was starting to understand the points she once read in "A Love Tip Every Day"; this was the feeling of casual conversation. She didn’t need to rack her brain before speaking to find content and purpose for each utterance, but simply follow her feelings and speak whatever came to mind.

She also realized she had never really engaged in casual chat with anyone during her years at Morning Star.

She was simply too busy to waste time on meaningless conversations.

"Hmm?"

Busy seasoning, Song Lan responded without turning her head.

"Do you remember the first time you went to a crime scene a few months ago? You were in logistics then, following your department head to deliver comfort goods."

"Of course."

How could Song Lan forget about everyone’s best friend?

"It was not long after Chai Ke had kidnapped them."

"I recall you turned white as a ghost and sat in the chair for ages without recovering. Hey, were you faking it back then?"

"How could I? A homicide scene, that’s terrifying."

"Yet tonight, when they pulled that human skin out of the sewer, you didn’t even flinch once. Newbies at the special ops team don’t have the psychological quality you do."

"That’s because it’s been toughened up by little Tun."

Having been around the Devourer for so long, what were a few human skins? Song Lan had witnessed much stranger and more bizarre scenes in recent times, and his ability to cope psychologically had strengthened to the point where he could watch crime scene investigations while eating.

Lu Xiang looked down at her wiggling feet. Her fluffy slippers had been kicked aside at some point, and though such unseemly behavior wouldn’t normally be associated with her, she suddenly felt that this might be the right way to behave at home.

Then she casually asked, "And what about Engle? Did he really have an emergency at home?"

"Can’t figure him out. He found the human skin, but then he was the one who got terrified first. I think he might know something."

Imagine that – Engle, the acclaimed national rescuer awarded the Five Stars medal, spooked by a few pieces of human skin, when even the rookies in the office are doing better than him.

A phone call interrupted their conversation.

In the midst of her busyness, Song Lan pressed speakerphone and set her mobile beside the pot. "Old Sa, what’s up?"

"We’ve found the toll collector, and he’s encountered Captain Doug and the folks from the special operations team."

"Did it turn violent?"

"Yeah, Doug took a pepper spray hit. He’s been sent to the prosthetic hospital. The doctor said a broken rib shouldn’t be a big problem."

Poor Captain Doug!

This was his second visit to the prosthetic hospital in recent months; Song Lan vaguely remembered that the last person with their butt glued to the toilet had been him as well.

Even though Doug warned the special ops not to spread it around afterward, the story somehow bizarrely circulated within the precinct. For a quite a while after that, people would cautiously remind Captain Doug to be careful whenever he went to the bathroom.

"I had someone lead the special operations group away; we’re taking care of the aftermath right now,"

As they spoke, the sound of flesh being cut could be heard from the other end of the phone.

"The supervisor is right beside me now, you can report to her directly,"

"Understood."

It turned out to be a wise decision to have the Shadow Guards follow Captain Doug. According to Sammuen’s description, Captain Doug and his squad had exchanged fire with the tollbooth operator almost immediately upon arriving at his home, which had been converted into something indistinguishable from an arsenal.

During the stubborn resistance, the sniper from the special operations group had no choice but to take down the madman.

But something strange happened.

It was precisely because the report confirmed that the target had been killed that Captain Doug carelessly moved out of a safe distance and was shot in the abdomen with a shotgun by the tollbooth operator who had come back to life.

The bulletproof vest blocked the bullet, but it also broke one of his ribs.

"We suspect that the tollbooth operator was parasitized. The organism that parasitized him is somewhat similar to a Devourer, or perhaps the original tollbooth operator had been taken care of long ago, and this is a substitute bred from his genes," Sammuen reported, relaying the analysis from Medea. "The entity is a worm about ten centimeters long, and once the worm burrowed out of the tollbooth operator’s body, the healing and regeneration stopped."

"The worm?"

"It ran into the sewer. We’ve already sent people to investigate down there,"

"Okay, inform us immediately if there are any results."

Having said that, Song Lan freed her hands to hang up the phone then served the braised pork ribs from the stove onto the table and handed a full bowl of rice to Lu Xiang.

The reason she had hurriedly hung up the phone was that Lu Xiang’s phone was also ringing.

The voice coming from the other end sounded somewhat weak. Captain Doug reported their encounter. In fact, after Sammuen appeared, their formation had been disrupted, and to ensure the safety of the team members, he could only fight and retreat, managing to pull everyone out safely, though he ended up as the only casualty.

"Goddamn cyber nutjob!"

Lu Xiang was busy eating, so she pressed the speakerphone button, allowing Captain Doug’s grumbling voice to be heard by Song Lan and Yeying as well.

"Watch your language."

Lu Xiang glanced at Yeying’s innocent big eyes and frowned as she reminded Doug.

"I broke a rib, it hurts, man. Honestly, I’ve been thinking about getting subdermal armor implants. I saw an ad saying they’re having a discount sometime soon."

Doug felt the injury was due to complacency caused by too long a period of peace in District 17, but he still hoped for some comforting words of reassurance from a senior leader, or perhaps some valuable life advice.

But his hopes were dashed.

Moreover, the sound of chewing came from the other end of the phone.

"Supervisor?"

"Mm?"

"Are you busy now?"

"Not busy, I’m eating ribs."

Wrapped in bandages and sitting on a hospital bed, Doug suddenly felt a winter-like chill.

"Braised pork ribs."

When the other end of the phone fell into a long silence, Lu Xiang thought Doug hadn’t heard her, so after spitting out a bone, she took the time to add.

"What ribs?"

Doug asked absentmindedly, not even sure why he had asked that question himself.

"Pork ribs."