Next up was the two-day first mock examination, followed by the weekend, which meant a major break.
Qin Jiujiu's maternal grandmother had served as the principal of Qingshui No. 1 High School during her lifetime. Her mother was the eldest, who had married and settled in Jingbei City. The second sibling, her younger uncle Chen Guang, currently worked at the municipal public security bureau as a deputy director in charge of criminal investigation.
Her grandparents had passed away successively in recent years, leaving behind a small villa that her uncle Chen Guang had been managing ever since.
In the original owner's memories, the family's annual reunions in Qingshui City were limited, and she wasn't close with her uncle either.
In the half-month or so since her transfer, although her mother had asked Chen Guang to look after Qin Jiujiu, perhaps because Chen Guang knew about the disgraceful things the original owner had done and felt ashamed, he hadn't initiated contact even once.
The family had somewhat of a passive attitude of letting her fend for herself.
The small villa wasn't far from Qingshui No. 1 High School. It had four stories, with each floor being relatively small in area. The interior decor was in the Chinese solid-wood style favored by the older generation, bearing distinct characteristics of a bygone era. There were five bedrooms in total, and they were cleaned regularly.
After coming in, Qin Jiujiu still stayed in the first-floor guest room where the original owner used to live. Opening the curtains and looking out from the floor-to-ceiling window, she could see a row of lush, short flowers in the small courtyard. Just a few meters outside the window stood a black fence, beyond which was the street scenery.
Receiving a monitoring alert that someone had entered the villa, Chen Guang finally remembered this exiled niece of his.
He had a bit of a headache. This niece had been spoiled rotten by the family since childhood—headstrong, domineering, and lawless. She was already in her third year of high school yet refused to study properly, taking the lead in school bullying, not to mention various other messes.
Chen Guang only prayed she wouldn't stir up any chaotic trouble for him in Qingshui City. At thirty-five, he still hadn't taken a wife and was already troubled enough; he didn't want to die prematurely while still single!
Chen Guang hurriedly brought over a shopping bag of snacks that girls loved. The two of them sat on the walnut sofa in the living room, staring at each other in silence.
The criminals Chen Guang usually interrogated were heinous criminal suspects, and over time he had cultivated an awe-inspiring aura. When not fierce, he exuded righteousness, but when he looked fiercely at someone, he could scare the timid out of their wits.
However, facing a family member and a junior at that, he still patiently asked Qin Jiujiu about her situation at the new school.
Qin Jiujiu answered properly and one by one.
Chen Guang secretly breathed a sigh of relief; the things he had feared before coming—like his niece talking back or getting angry with him—hadn't happened. Then he caught his breath again: could she be putting on a good-girl persona while up to no good behind his back?
At this thought, Chen Guang felt a tightness in his chest. Just as he wanted to lecture her and give her a stern warning, a call came from the bureau.
"Hello? Fine, I'll be back in a moment. Yeah, we can apply to increase the reward amount. Right, let's hold a meeting later to discuss it; clues still have to rely on the masses. Yeah, the fire department needs to be coordinated too; those arsonists are still capable of committing crimes. Alright, that's it for now, hanging up."
After hanging up, Chen Guang no longer had the mood for idle chatter. Recently, the bureau had been overwhelmed by this major criminal arson case. He hastily instructed Qin Jiujiu a few times, picked up his car keys, and left.
Qin Jiujiu's mind stirred: 001, what case is it?
001 was practically growing mold in the System Space when it was finally summoned by Lord Heavenly Dao. It even gave a start, looking somewhat flattered. Heaven knows how many hosts it had brought to small worlds to do tasks in the past, and those hosts would call out to it eight hundred times a day, seven hundred of which were asking for cheat items.
This arson case had already had a bounty notice issued, and 001 brought up the blue-background, white-letter reward announcement.
The announcement briefly summarized four severe arson incidents that had occurred in the city over the past two months, listing the identity information and photos of three suspects. The reward for reporting clues was ten thousand per person, and the reward for direct capture was thirty thousand per person.
Very well, having sown evil causes, there would naturally be evil consequences. It was something she ought to handle, and she might as well collect this easy money.
Qin Jiujiu was an energetic spiritual entity nurtured between heaven and earth. Born as Heavenly Dao, she governed the laws of cause and effect across the vast worlds.
However, since every world was filled with densely packed causal threads, even with her powerful soul force, she couldn't be bothered to sift through them one by one. Thus, she had created the Main System, and the Main System had spun off countless sub-systems, which only needed to run automatically according to programmed routines.
On Saturday afternoon, the sky was clear without a trace of a cloud.
Qin Jiujiu wore her only set of casual clothes: a milk-tea-colored semi-high-neck thin base shirt paired with a light-green knitted cardigan, light-white casual wide-leg jeans on the lower half, and a pair of matching sneakers. When going out, she looked in the mirror, felt it was too eye-catching, and put on a black baseball cap to press it down.
Following the positioning and tips provided by 001, Qin Jiujiu "happily encountered" Suspect No. 1 at a ramen restaurant in the nearby old town.
She wasn't here to catch people this time; doing so would make her motives seem too obvious, illogical, and unreasonable. According to the plan, she needed to scout the location first and ensure the surveillance cameras along the way could capture her and the suspect in the same frame.
Suspect No. 1, dressed in dusty migrant worker attire, was currently sitting in the ramen restaurant with his back to the entrance. His dirty mask was pulled down to his chin, exposing a dark, wrinkled face as he slurped down his noodles.
Qin Jiujiu stopped in the aisle in front of him, looked up at the extra-large menu pasted on the wall, and read the menu from top to bottom, then from bottom to top.
Suspect No. 1 finished his noodles, put on his mask, took two takeout boxes of fried rice, and stood up to leave.
Qin Jiujiu went out as well. Right across from the ramen restaurant was a surveillance camera. Ding! Successful frame-sharing.
She stood listlessly at the entrance, watching out of the corner of her eye as the other person walked into the residential complex opposite: Baihua Residential Area.