Volume 1 Chapter 99: Miss Detective

“Mmm... she said on the phone that it was around here. I wonder if I found the right place.”

While speaking, Bai Muxue pulled Heidi into a narrow alley and wandered through the twisting paths inside.

Following the navigation on her phone, the two quickly found a shop hidden deep inside the alley.

The place had obviously been heavily renovated. The old worn walls and the brand-new decorations looked strangely mismatched together.

Beside it hung a half-broken signboard that looked ready to fall at any moment. The damaged LED lights flickered on and off, and the words on it could no longer be read clearly.

Seeing this, Heidi, who was following behind Bai Muxue, nervously bit her lip.

The alley was strangely quiet.

Even though it was the middle of the afternoon, the bright sunlight shining down through the tall buildings on both sides brought no warmth at all.

“...Tell Kaguya to be careful. Something feels wrong here. Someone is watching us.”

Sasha’s voice suddenly sounded inside Heidi’s mind.

Only then did Heidi come back to her senses. She quickly lowered her voice and said to Bai Muxue.

“M-Miss, this place feels strange. Maybe we should just—”

“Mhm, I know.”

But Bai Muxue seemed to have expected this already. She simply nodded lightly and casually walked forward, reaching her hand toward the rusty door handle...

“Eh? So Miss Bai really came after all. I thought you were joking~”

The moment Bai Muxue’s fingers touched the handle, a clear female laugh suddenly sounded behind them.

Who?!

The moment she heard the voice, Heidi did not even have time to think. She instinctively stepped in front of Bai Muxue protectively.

A slender figure silently jumped down along the wall like an elegant and cunning cat. Even after landing, she made almost no sound at all.

Appearing from the shadows without warning like this was basically the same as a scene from a horror movie, where the main character explores a silent room, the background music suddenly stops, all the lights go out with a “snap,” and twisted ghosts rush out from every direction.

Even Bai Muxue, who had already prepared herself mentally, was startled by the sudden voice.

Of course, there was no way she could show it now.

She slowly turned around and gave a faint smile toward the figure leaning against the wall.

“Well, since I’m asking a great detective like you for help, I should at least show some sincerity, right?”

Standing before them was a pretty young girl with long black hair, a white beret, and lively facial features.

She wore a light-colored short dress that showed off her pale and delicate collarbone. Over it, however, she wore a long khaki trench coat.

This strange outfit, which did not match the summer season at all, reduced some of the girl’s youthful and lively feeling, instead giving her a mysterious and hard-to-read aura.

“Eh? Really? Then I’m truly honored!”

The girl blinked her eyes and suddenly pushed Heidi aside before moving right up to Bai Muxue, looking at her curiously.

“Did Miss Bai change your hairstyle? I think your old hairstyle suited you better...”

The girl casually lifted a few strands of Bai Muxue’s white-highlighted hair and smacked her lips regretfully.

“I never changed my hairstyle. Also, stop making random conversation just because you have nothing better to say.”

The corner of Bai Muxue’s mouth twitched slightly. She stood on tiptoe and smacked a hand onto the girl’s head, instantly breaking the detective’s cool image.

“Ow, alright, alright...”

The girl puffed out her cheeks unhappily and hummed.

“So then, who does Miss Bai want me to investigate this time? But let me say this first, my price still depends on the situation!”

As she spoke, she counted on her fingers one by one.

“Last time you asked me to investigate that amusement park... I did, and then the owner Liu Li died, and her daughter mysteriously moved away too!”

“And the time before that... you asked me to investigate a high school girl named Shen Jingyi. Geez, I wonder how that girl is doing now.”

“Tsk, I always feel like nothing good ever happens whenever you ask me to investigate something!”

Pouting unhappily, the girl tried to wrap an arm around Bai Muxue’s shoulder, but Bai Muxue coldly dodged away, looking completely unwilling to have any close physical contact with her.

“Eh? Isn’t the great young lady of the Bai family a little too heartless? You were just saying you wanted to show sincerity a moment ago...”

The girl leaned against the wall. Her pale and slender fingers rested near her lips as she stared at Bai Muxue with dissatisfaction, as if the two of them had once been very close friends who slowly drifted apart because of certain reasons.

“Alright, alright, I’ll show sincerity. So can we finally get to the main topic now, Miss Lin?”

Bai Muxue softly sighed and pulled Heidi, who still had no idea what was going on, back to her side, placing her between the two of them.

The girl’s name was Lin Luoyu.

Although she looked quite young, whether it was marriage affairs, cheating scandals, business scandals, or even strange supernatural cases, she was extremely good at investigating all of them.

Because of this, both wealthy people and members of the Special Investigation Department would sometimes come to hire her.

Honestly, she felt more like an intelligence broker than a detective, but she liked calling herself a detective. She always claimed, “There’s nothing in this world that I don’t know,” and loved using that sentence as her personal slogan whenever meeting people.

Of course, that statement was greatly exaggerated.

Still, Bai Muxue, who had first met Lin Luoyu through someone else’s introduction, had achieved very good results every time they worked together.

However, for a long time, Bai Muxue had remained highly cautious toward Lin Luoyu.

After all, whether it was business secrets or the truth behind supernatural events, those were not things an ordinary young detective should be able to access.

Business secrets could still be explained by saying, ‘Miss Detective is careful and has her own special channels.’

But what about information related to monsters and disaster beasts?

How could an ordinary person possibly know such things?

And Bai Muxue was definitely not the only one who realized this.

As far as she knew, the Special Investigation Department was also extremely wary of this mysterious girl whose whereabouts and background were unclear.

Although they had cooperated with Lin Luoyu several times before... that still did not stop her from staying near the top of the department’s investigation list.

Still, caution aside, Bai Muxue had to admit that this detective girl’s ability to gather information was truly amazing.

Back when Bai Muxue first hired Lin Luoyu, she had only asked her to investigate Shen Jingyi’s family background.

Yet less than an hour after the request was made, Shen Jingyi’s personal information, family situation, and many other details had already been sent directly to Bai Muxue’s phone.

The speed was honestly shocking.

And later, the reason Bai Muxue was able to quickly locate Liu Li and her daughter was also thanks to the information Lin Luoyu provided.

“Alright then, so what does Miss Bai want me to investigate this time?”

Lin Luoyu tilted her head.

But before Bai Muxue could speak, she suddenly let out a long sigh and continued talking to herself.

“Speaking of which, although I usually don’t ask about my clients’ business... right after I sent Boss Liu’s information to you, she suddenly died in her office. Don’t you think that happened a little too quickly...?”

Eh?

Hearing this, Heidi, who had been staring at Lin Luoyu with caution the whole time, could not help showing a trace of surprise on her face.

Liu Li’s death... happened because of the information this person provided!?

“So what? What does her quick death have to do with me?”

Noticing both Heidi’s surprise and Lin Luoyu’s probing tone, Bai Muxue calmly took out a lollipop from her pocket and slowly placed it into her mouth.

Her expression did not change at all as she calmly said,

“She wasn’t a good person to begin with. Maybe some magical girl just happened to see injustice and decided to punish evil on behalf of justice?”

“Ah? But magical girls are supposed to be symbols of justice and kindness. They wouldn’t do something like that, right?”

Lin Luoyu blinked her eyes in fake surprise, then showed a slightly concerned expression.

“But even if a magical girl really did it, if someone found out that Miss Bai investigated Boss Liu beforehand, wouldn’t that bring trouble to you?”

“Hehe, how about this? Why doesn’t Miss spend a little more money and buy yourself some safety?”

Th-This...

The information already came from you in the first place! Isn’t this just openly trying to cheat money out of her?!

Looking at Lin Luoyu’s sly smile, even Heidi realized the problem. She frowned and softly argued back:

“Y-You’re obviously just trying to trick Miss out of money, yet you’re calling it buying safety...”

Although Heidi really did care about Liu Li’s situation...

Right now, Miss’s matters were clearly more important to her.

Thinking that, the blonde girl stared at Lin Luoyu with full caution. Her young and pretty face tightened slightly, looking as if she was already prepared to fight at any moment.

“Hey, hey! That’s such a harsh thing to say. Business is business. Of course you have to grab every chance to make money. And stop acting like you’re about to hit someone, that’s not nice.”

Lin Luoyu innocently raised both hands, her bright eyes filled with fake grievance.

Bai Muxue was already used to this person’s strange and unserious behavior.

She took another lollipop out of her pocket and directly tossed it toward Lin Luoyu. After thinking for a moment, she calmly said,

“I actually wanted to ask if you’ve heard any... information lately. You know the kind I mean.”

Seeing Bai Muxue refuse to take the bait, Lin Luoyu clicked her tongue softly. She caught the lollipop and casually played with it in her hand.

“Of course I have. It’s just... I can’t guarantee it’s true. Depends on whether Miss Bai is willing to pay for it.”

“Go on,” Bai Muxue replied calmly.

“Alright then, since Miss Bai says so...”

Lin Luoyu lightly nodded. She unwrapped the candy and slowly licked the lollipop while speaking unclearly.

“It’s actually nothing too special. There are just rumors saying that in an unfinished building over in the Wutong District, strange figures often appear at night lately. People also hear creepy noises and smell disgusting odors.”

“But if that was all, then it would just be another ordinary urban legend. The interesting part is...”

The girl, fully focused on eating her lollipop, suddenly changed her tone and gave Bai Muxue a meaningful smile.

“That building project was also contracted by Boss Liu’s construction company~”

“Sigh, now that Boss Liu is dead, who knows what will happen to all those unfinished buildings...”

Liu Li again?

Hearing Lin Luoyu sigh dramatically, Bai Muxue could not help raising an eyebrow.

Even after dying, she still has to come back and annoy me... Seriously, she just won’t go away...

Meanwhile, Heidi also showed a thoughtful expression after hearing those words.

“But speaking of that...”

Before the two of them could say anything else, Lin Luoyu, still lightly licking her lollipop, suddenly moved right in front of Bai Muxue again.

The distance between them instantly became extremely close.

With the bright sunlight shining behind her, Lin Luoyu’s smile looked wild and teasing.