One hour later…
Chen Xiaolian and Roddy were both being interrogated separately in the police station. The two of them chose to remain silent during the whole process. After settling the necessary procedures, the two were sent into the detention cells separately as well.
Although they were placed in different detention cells, they possessed the guild channel. Thus, there were no problems in maintaining contact with each other.
After waiting for one hour, Chen Xiaolian was escorted out by a police officer back into the interrogation room.
“Is the matter resolved?”
Chen Xiaolian looked at the police officer before him. He was a fat Caucasian with some donut topping stains on his uniform. Chen Xiaolian smiled and said, “I believe the misunderstanding is resolved, right?”
The police officer looked at Chen Xiaolian, raised a piece of document in his hand, and said, “According to what you said earlier, the lady in the hotel room is your fiend. Since she is sick, you fellows took her to the hotel so that she could get some rest… is that how it is?”
Chen Xiaolian shrugged his shoulders.
“Right now, my colleague is at the hospital. The lady had already regained consciousness. Although she did say she lost consciousness due to being sick, she did not say anything about being friends with you fellows.”
“And?” Chen Xiaolian grinned.
There was an awkward note in the police officer’s tone as he said, “She had already left the hospital. She left alone.”
Truth be told, the police were also helpless. Back in the hospital, after the woman woke up, she refused to follow the police officer back to the police station to assist with the investigation.
Thus, Selina left alone.
To Chen Xiaolian, this was a key point.
“Well, if that’s the case, I believe there are no more issues here.”
“However, you lied just now.” The police officer said coldly. “You claimed to be her friend. But when my colleague asked her, she said she do not know you two.”
Chen Xiaolian smiled.
He looked at the police officer and said, “Is lying illegal now?”
“… … …”
Chen Xiaolian continued, “Besides, you are just being suspicious. You suspected that we might have done something bad to the woman. But now, things have been revealed. We are innocent.”
“… … …”
“As for whether or not she is our friend… I would like to ask something since I do not know much about American laws. Be it true or false, is it against the law to claim that someone else is a friend?”
“… … …”
“The law states that we can hold you here for 24 hours!” The police officer said furiously.
“Go ahead, not like I care.” Chen Xiaolian gave a harrumph. However, he then added, “I am curious about one thing though. Since my friend and I did not commit any crime, what reason are you using to hold us here? Because we claimed that a beautiful woman is our friend? I believe there are many fellow men who would utter such lies. So, if this is the reason you are going to go with… do you have enough space in your detention centre?”
After saying that, Chen Xiaolian continued coolly, “Or, after I leave, should I find a media company and file my complaints there? Maybe you are acting in a biased manner because of our different skin colour?”
The police officer fell silent.
From a procedural point of view, there were indeed no issues with these two fellows.
Their identification papers, visas were all legal. According to their records, these fellows had also experienced a hijacking case where Homeland Security eventually let them go.
Unexpectedly, they became involved in such an odd incident in New York City.
Were they kidnappers?
That was a possibility.
To their frustration, Selina had claimed to be all right and she left by herself!
Without a victim, how could they be kidnappers?
There was no accuser.
Chen Xiaolian was right about one thing.
Even though what they said earlier was different from what they said now… lying was not something that went against the law. At the very least, as far as this case was concerned, lying was not a crime.
They would have no issues holding them for 24 hours. The procedures needed for that could be arranged.
However… what should they go check in the 24 hours? The woman had refused to cooperate with the police and left.
This was America, a country that prided itself with the slogan of freedom.
If they were to forcefully detain these two fellows for 24 hours, some nosey media might catch wind of this and use this as a piece for their breaking news.
Well, the issue of racial discrimination was a huge issue that the New York police had no desire to deal with!
These days, the cases where black men were gunned down had triggered a rise in public outcry, putting a considerably huge amount of pressure on the American police.
Chen Xiaolian smiled and gulped down the cup of coffee.
The police officer left and returned after just 20 minutes.
There was an exasperated look on his face as he said, “You fellows can leave now!”
Chen Xiaolian stood up and asked, “Are there no more problems?”
The police officer ignored him. He simply brought Chen Xiaolian out. Roddy emerged from another corner, escorted by someone else. The two of them exchanged glances and smiled.
“Your personal belongings!”
The two of them were taken to a room where they signed a formal paper. Next, the police officers handed them a box. Inside the box were their backpacks and other belongings that the police had taken from the hotel.
Chen Xiaolian inspected the items and picked them up casually.
Both Chen Xiaolian and Roddy walked out through the police station. Unknown to them, a Caucasian police officer was looking at them through the windows on the second floor of the police station.
The police officer was holding onto a mobile phone in his hand.
“Mm, that’s right, they have been released… sure, this is actually nothing. It was a misunderstanding to begin with. There is no need for you to thank me, I am just doing my job. Besides, there is no point in continuing to hold them. All right, then. Don’t forget to send my regards to Charles,” after saying that, the police officer ended the call.
He kneaded his forehead and curiously observed Chen Xiaolian and Roddy who were already far away.
“A strange case… oh well, this is New York. Strange things happen every day.”
…
Chen Xiaolian and Roddy flagged a cab and returned to the hotel.
“Selina had left,” said Chen Xiaolian as they were still in the cab.
Roddy pursed his lips to the side and said, “So be it. I had thought that since she is wounded, it would be bad of us to just leave her alone. Since she chose to leave after waking up, then we’ll have nothing to do with her anymore.”
After the cab came to a halt before the hotel entrance, the two of them got off. When the hotel door attendant saw the two of them, he became surprised.
Chen Xiaolian deliberately threw a wink at the door attendant.
The other fellow was probably very surprised. Just two hours ago, he had seen the police take them away. And yet, they had now returned safe and sound.
Unknown to Chen Xiaolian and Roddy, Nicole was seated inside a car parked just opposite the road. She was looking at them with a complicated expression.
Mm, she was mainly looking at… Roddy.
…
“The metal sphere is gone.”
After returning to their room, Chen Xiaolian quickly went through the items they obtained from the police and the room only to realize that something was missing.
The metal sphere on the table had gone missing! It was also not inside their bags…
“Could the police have taken it away?” Roddy asked.
Chen Xiaolian frowned and said, “Logically speaking, they shouldn’t have… the police could not possibly suspect that there is anything weird about the metal sphere.”
“Could the police officers have lost it? I hear that the New York police have a very careless work behaviour. I hear that they may have lost some things and aren’t willing to own up to it.”
Chen Xiaolian stood up and said, “This item is… very important!”
Roddy stood up as well and asked, “What do we do now?”
“Go back!” Chen Xiaolian sighed. “We’ll start by searching the police station!”
“Now?”
Chen Xiaolian looked out the window and considered the time. “We’ll wait for night!”
…
Naturally, the police station’s evidence room was heavily guarded.
However, the evidences were separated into important and non-important categories.
Things like drugs and valuables were naturally stored in the important area.
As for the more general items, for example, the items that the suspects were carrying on their person, those would be put in the non-important area.
Under the night sky, the street appeared rather quiet.
Truth be told, the streets of New York would have much less people at night. In these big cities, regardless of what happened during the day, the night would often be a time where public safety incidents occur.
On the mouth of an alley behind the police station…
Chen Xiaolian jumped down from the window of the second floor. As for Roddy, he was standing at the mouth of the alley. He took a drag from a cigarette while casually glancing around.
He was not feeling nervous in the slightest.
It was just a police station after all.
Back in Tokyo, he had started up a tank and opened fire at the Japanese Special Forces while rampaging through the streets. It was not as though this New York police station was some highly dangerous place in comparison.
“How did it go? Did you find it?”
Roddy met up with Chen Xiaolian.
There was a grim expression on Chen Xiaolian’s face as he shook his face, “No… I had double-checked it, but I could not find our items. I had already searched everywhere.”
Roddy considered it and said, “Could it be… some police officer had taken it away? He or she might have thought of it as some toy and took it away. In the American movies, some police officers have itchy fingers. Maybe they thought it was a toy and took it away.”
Chen Xiaolian said seriously, “We have to get it back!”
He sighed and continued, “If this thing… if the one who took it accidentally bleed on it, that would mean the creation of an Irregularity. And if he accidentally reveals his circumstances, our secret will be exposed. We can’t simply ignore this! It is too dangerous!”
“What do you want to do?” Roddy thought about it and said, “Kidnap a police officer? Do we start with the caretaker of this evidence room?”
Chen Xiaolian sighed and glanced around. “Let’s go back to the car first. We’ll discuss this in detail inside.”
Their car was parked at the intersection of a crossroad 50 metres away from the mouth of the alley.
As the two of them were walking toward their car, Chen Xiaolian’s eyes suddenly focused. He had noticed a note on the front window of their car.
Soon, Roddy too, noticed it. He quickly strode forward and pulled the paper down. He glanced at it and a peculiar expression overcame his face. Then, he handed the note to Chen Xiaolian.
“I have taken the item away. You want to know where is it? If there is a chance, let’s meet up in the instance dungeon.”
There were peculiar expressions on both Chen Xiaolian and Roddy’s faces.
“This…”
…
Nicole slowly entered her own car that was parked in another street. She started up the car and slowly drove away from the street.
Her driving speed was neither too fast nor too slow and she turned on the car’s music. The powerful song ‘Worth It’ played out and Nicole gently hummed to the song while her fingers tapped to the beat on the steering wheel.
As the song was being played, Nicole smiled and picked up her mobile phone.
She made a call.
“Charles, I’m sorry for calling you so late. Tell Annie I’m sorry. I need a favour from you, mm… I want to extend my vacation… yes, I know I just started my vacation. However, I have a reason for doing this, a private reason… mm, yes, I am going on a long vacation, the longer it is, the better, ha ha ha ha… that’s great, thanks Charles.”
After ending the call, Nicole made another call to a different number.
“Hello, I want to book a flight ticket to China…”
A few moments later, Nicole tossed her mobile phone down and turned her attention to the front.
“I’m back. Hmm… although I don’t know why or how… but still… I’M BACK! Ha ha ha ha ha! This is really interesting! Very interesting…”