"What's wrong? You look flustered," Chen Yiming asked when he saw Chen Shaojie run out of the house.
Chen Shaojie exited the house and turned to close the door. He only heaved a sigh of relief when he heard the door shut fully.
"Cousin, there's something strange about this family," Chen Shaojie whispered into Chen Yiming's ear without even taking the time to catch his breath.
Chen Yiming fell silent and did not ask for the reason immediately. Instead, he shut his eyes and tried to recall the couple who had answered the door.
Soon, he discovered some clues.
This couple's pace of walking was different from ordinary people. The muscle memory that martial arts practitioners had developed over the years was not something that could be completely erased with a simple disguise.
They could deceive Chen Shaojie and He Chunping, who had yet to learn martial arts. However, if they wanted to deceive Chen Yiming, they had to be experts in the art of disguise.
"Tell me the details."
Chen Yiming gestured for Chen Shaojie to continue.
"This family has two children. I didn't see them, so I asked where they had gone. They said the children had gone to play at a relative's house."
"Anything else?"
"When I compared the photos on their identity cards, I felt that it was a little strange. They were only 90% similar, and in particular, they had a completely different air about them."
"Did you check the rooms?"
"I did. I even touched the bedsheets in their children's room. There was a layer of dust on them. It didn't feel like people had been living there."
Chen Shaojie told him everything he knew.
"I see."
Chen Yiming combined all the information from his cousin and the clues in his memory, and made a guess at the truth.
It was highly possible that this couple had killed the whole family and disguised themselves as them.
"Shaojie, this couple might be quite strong in martial arts. If I can't control my strength well and accidentally kill them, will the reward be affected?" Chen Yiming asked.
Previously, Chen Shaojie had only told Chen Yiming that the reward would be based on the number of people caught. Chen Shaojie had not mentioned whether the reward would be affected if he broke their limbs or accidentally killed them during the arrest.
"Look at my memory, I forgot to tell you something so important."
Chen Shaojie slapped his head and said, "These unidentified persons, after being captured by the city patrol team, would actually be sent to the logistics department. Then, they would be assigned to work on the front line. It's said that they would specially be assigned to dangerous tasks.
For those that we capture, if they are completely unharmed, we can receive the full reward. If they are disabled, we will only receive half the reward, and if they are dead, we won't receive a single cent.
The department will also conduct a blood test to determine the strength of the person captured. I heard that someone in the disciple realm would be worth as much as ten times the reward of an ordinary person."
Hearing this, Chen Yiming finally understood.
It turned out that this household verification mission was not purely to deal with the chaos in the village. The main purpose was to have an excuse to arrest the outsiders who had sneaked into East Lake City. Then, they would deal with the criminals according to the law and specially assign them to dangerous jobs that no one else would be willing to do.
Chen Yiming shuddered at the thought.
"Is it possible that the city patrol teams would capture innocent villagers by treating them as unidentified persons to earn a quick buck? Then, the department could just turn a blind eye in order to complete the job."
"It's best if we move out tomorrow."
Chen Yiming was even more determined to move.
After making up his mind, Chen Yiming instructed, "The two of you wait for me outside. I'll go in alone and restrain that couple. If I can't restrain both of them at the same time and one of them escapes, you guys protect yourselves and don't try to stop them. After I capture one of them, I'll go after the other."
Chen Yiming wasn't confident that he would be able to restrain the two of them if he had to ensure that he wouldn't harm or kill them. However, since he had undergone three transformations, he would just need to spend some time chasing after them in the worst case.
As for the couple, it was almost impossible for them to have undergone three transformations. This was because most of the mutant beasts in the wilderness outside the city had only reached the third transformation. It would not be a problem for them to escape from the beasts even if they could not defeat them if they were at the same level. In that case, they would be able to live in the wilderness for a long time and there would be no need for them to hide in the village in the city.
"Okay, we promise not to act rashly. We'll follow your arrangements."
Chen Shaojie nodded.
This was the reason why he had asked Chen Yiming to work with him instead of anyone else. At the very least, he wouldn't be used as cannon fodder since they were relatives.
"Consultant Chen, you have to be careful too."
As a girl, He Chunping was concerned.
After coming up with a plan, Chen Yiming took a few steps forward. He planned to catch the couple off guard and break through the door.
Suddenly, heavy footsteps sounded.
There were two sources of the sound. One was at the corner of a house in front of them, and the other was at the corner of a house behind them.
In the next moment, the street that Chen Yiming and the other two were in was blocked by the two unknown persons.
The man had completely changed from earlier. He was over two meters tall with long hair draped over his shoulders, and his eyes were as big as bells. In addition, he was wearing short sleeves even though it was winter, revealing his muscular arms.
In contrast, the woman had not changed much. Her figure was still the same, but she no longer had the same face as earlier. Instead, it was the face of someone no older than 30 years old. She held a dagger in her hand, which reflected the streetlight with a blinding white flash.
The man was Zhao Baolong, and the woman was Dong Fen. Both of them had already undergone their second transformations, and were originally members of a group of bandits living in the wilderness.
The leader of the bandits, who had undergone three transformations, had died in an accident in the midst of the chaos from the war in the west. Naturally, the robbers couldn't live in the wilderness anymore, so they split up and found their own ways to survive. The couple was forced to sneak into the city and hide in the village while waiting for the war to end.
"Cousin, what should we do?" Chen Shaojie said nervously as he looked left and right, his entire body starting to tremble.
Their path was blocked from both the front and back. It was completely different from the situation in the plan they had made previously, and there was nowhere to hide.
"Consultant Chen…"
He Chunping's voice came out in bits and pieces. She was obviously panicking.
As a girl, even if she had a little martial arts foundation, she had never experienced any actual combat. She only had a little experience of fighting in the ring.
The two of them were different from Zhong Chaofeng and Lin Yongxin. They were newly recruited members and had only received simple training. This was the first time they had encountered such a situation.
Chen Yiming didn't reply. He wanted to observe the situation first.
It would be best if one of the couple was on guard against the three of them escaping while the other attacked. This way, he would be able to restrain one of them quickly and then deal with the other.
Otherwise, if he made the first move, there was a high chance that the two defenseless people beside him would be taken as hostages and he would lose control of the situation.
If Chen Shaojie was held hostage, Chen Yiming couldn't take the risk of getting him killed. It would be difficult for him to explain himself to his relatives.