Chapter Eighty-Seven: Willful, the Loli Policewoman, and Her Troublesome Ways

He fished out his phone and saw that it was a call from Leng Nini. Lin Yang could not help but sigh inwardly; this was truly a case of speaking of the devil. He had only just been worrying that the little girl might be fretting, and now she was calling.

He tapped the green answer icon, but before he could even ask what was wrong, a voice at the other end came in a rushed, choked cry.

"Brother Xiaoyang, where are you? Hurry, come back! My dad's ill again!"

The call was from Leng Nini's phone, but the one speaking in a panic was Zhang Qiqi.

What had happened was strange indeed. Su Qin had laid out a full table of dishes, and everyone had eaten with relish, praising her over and over. Yet after Zhang Zifeng, who had just regained consciousness, was fed a bowl of lotus seed soup, nothing seemed amiss at first. Less than five minutes later, however, his face turned crimson and his neck flushed dark red; he began gasping for breath, then erupted into violent vomiting. He did not merely bring up what he had eaten—half his stomach contents seemed to come up as well. Seeing that things were going badly, Su Qin stayed by her husband’s side to care for him, while her daughter hurried to call Lin Yang for help.

After hearing Zhang Qiqi out, Lin Yang’s expression also darkened. He had only checked the man’s body that afternoon, even using his vital energy to nourish his meridians. How could he suddenly have taken ill again, and with such a violent onset? Lin Yang found himself puzzled.

After a moment’s thought, he began to suspect the bowl of lotus seed soup. Could it have been food poisoning? But if so, why had everyone else been fine? Or was it that the toxins within Zhang Zifeng’s body had reacted with the soup and triggered an allergic response?

Unable to make sense of it, Lin Yang could only put the matter aside for now. Zhang Zifeng’s condition could not afford any further delay. He quickly gathered his things, gave Tang Yixue a few brief instructions, and then drove away from her loving home.

Worried about Zhang Zifeng’s illness, Lin Yang floored the accelerator. He pushed the car to its limits, swerving, dodging, taking roundabout routes—using every possible means to save time. He sped all the way there, paying no heed even to the police car behind him with its lights flashing and siren wailing.

Damn it, this was a matter of life and death. Who cared about the police’s dignity now?

And oddly enough, because of the police in pursuit, the road ahead—once jammed solid—was abruptly split open by the two wildly racing cars, carving a passage through the traffic. In a sense, Lin Yang really ought to have thanked the police trailing behind him all the way.

After hanging up, Zhang Qiqi could do nothing in the room to help, so she ran to the doorway to wait for Lin Yang.

At that moment, every second felt as long as a year.

"Nini, why is Brother Xiaoyang still not here? Mom has called me several times. Dad is vomiting terribly, and Mom doesn’t dare use any medicine recklessly. This, this is driving me mad." Zhang Qiqi paced back and forth at the entrance, stamping her feet in anxiety. Her face was full of panic and worry; it was clear she was terribly distressed by her father’s condition.

"Oh, come on, Sister Qiqi, can’t you settle down for a moment? You’re making my head spin." Leng Nini reached out to stop Zhang Qiqi from pacing in front of her, puffing out her cheeks as she tried to comfort her. Yet her big eyes were already darting toward the street like a little thief’s, watching the only road by which a car could arrive.

It had to be said, the girl’s tongue was not at all unpracticed. The words had scarcely left her mouth when a black sedan came charging into view like a wild bull, fierce and brutish. Its terrifying speed made both girls feel a little sheepish.

So fierce, too fierce. Was he driving a sedan, or a cannon shell? Too fast.

With a screech, the tires locked hard against the road, the sound of the sudden braking echoing far and wide. The two girls, who had been caught in the collateral damage, hurriedly covered their ears against the harsh assault.

But before they could lower their hands, the police car that had been chasing Lin Yang also roared up in pursuit, and the piercing shriek of its brakes once more tortured their ears.

Because the two vehicles had braked almost at the same time, one in front of the other, the violent friction kicked up a cloud of dust. In the blink of an eye, the street that had already been troublesome was now filled with swirling grit. The choking dust swept toward them; if the two girls had not promptly covered their mouths and noses, they would surely have had a very unpleasant meal indeed.

Lin Yang, having turned his head, could not see the situation clearly and was immediately swallowed by the dust. He drew in a stinging mouthful of grit, coughing so hard that tears nearly sprang from his eyes.

Then came the heavy slam of a car door.

A policewoman with the face of a loli appeared before the three of them.

Her tight-fitting uniform was especially eye-catching, yet it could not conceal the girl’s small, shapely figure. A rounded cap covered the hair she had pinned up at the back of her head. Her childlike features drew all three pairs of eyes at once. Holding a police baton, she stood across from Lin Yang in a huff, cheeks puffed, cherry lips painted with a layer of pink gloss, and shouted indignantly, "Hmph, you’re under arrest, kid. You dared to run a red light in broad daylight and completely ignored this officer’s warning. You’re utterly lawless. I’m arresting you now on charges of disrupting traffic and public order."

Lin Yang was speechless—not because of what she said, but because, with the discerning eye of a lecher, he could tell at once that the girl before him was, to be precise, a little loli. By his estimate she could not be much older than sixteen, perhaps just old enough to have gotten her identity card ahead of time. After all, these days one could obtain an identity card at sixteen.

Still, beneath that loli face, the proud figure wrapped in the police uniform was quite a sight. Lin Yang glanced at her ample bust, then shamelessly let his gaze settle on Zhang Qiqi’s even fuller chest, which was far more generous than Leng Nini’s. He looked left, looked right, stroked his chin, and nodded and shook his head with shameless deliberation, paying the loli policewoman’s words no mind whatsoever.

"Hmph, pretending to be deaf and mute now? Weren’t you just very arrogant a moment ago?" The willful loli officer sneered coldly at Lin Yang, all haughty airs.

As she spoke, she drew a pair of gleaming handcuffs from her waist and shook them in front of him. "Boy, behave yourself now, or you won’t get off lightly. If you resist, I can add another charge: openly obstructing the police in the performance of their duties."

She stepped forward, intent on taking Lin Yang down on the spot. Seeing Lin Yang raise a defensive posture, she added coldly, "And if you resist, I don’t mind tacking on assaulting a police officer as well. Heh, that’s a serious offense, you know." The loli beauty police officer blinked at him provocatively, her long lashes fluttering, charming in the extreme.

Lin Yang was truly exasperated. Was he just unlucky today? This was a case of trouble springing up from nowhere. Since when had he ever seen this overbearing little police flower before?

A while back, when he had been driving the police bureau’s patrol car, he had cut quite a figure—running red lights every day and stirring up traffic chaos. During that period he had often clashed with the traffic police on patrol, and after seeing each other enough times, they had become familiar.

After squeezing a sum of money out of the uncle-and-nephew pair from the Leng family, he had extravagantly upgraded himself to the newest BMW. He had thought the one chasing him behind might be an acquaintance, and had even planned to get out and smooth things over after stopping. Who could have guessed that a fresh-faced little enforcer would pop out, ready to bring charges against him? And now that she had even drawn the instrument in hand, it did not look like a joke. Still, there was nothing to be done—he truly did not know this loli beauty police officer.

One could not blame Lin Yang for being unlucky; the young woman before him had an unusual background. As the daughter of Su Dongyang, the deputy chief of the Dongcheng District Public Security Bureau, and the younger sister of that little rascal Su Xiaodong, she was naturally cherished and indulged at home like a queen. Unlike her brother, who spent his days chasing women and living amid songs and revelry, this girl had inherited her father’s fierceness. She even made a fuss about not wanting to finish high school, insisting on going straight into the police bureau and getting herself a job.

Upon hearing her absurd yet practical suggestion, Su Dongyang felt both joy and sorrow. Of course he was glad his daughter was willing to follow in his footsteps and enter the police force, but the little girl had not even graduated from high school and was already clamoring to wear a police uniform, drive a patrol car, and show off.

Knowing his daughter’s temperament all too well—stubborn as a mule, impossible to turn back, the sort who would keep going even after hitting the south wall—Su Dongyang asked his old friend Wang Ergou, chief of the public security sub-bureau in Tianchen District, for help, and casually had the girl assigned to some tedious, thankless work in order to temper her sharp edges.

Chief Wang Ergou was truly honest; how could he disregard such earnest parental intentions when explicitly requested by a superior’s old friend? So he assigned the girl to traffic patrol.

On her first day on the job, the girl was brimming with confidence, determined to uphold the normal order of traffic. But after driving around for ages, she had still failed to catch even one little crook making a mistake, and that left her somewhat disappointed. She had been eager to flaunt her achievements before her father so he would agree to let her remain in the police force.

Little did she know that Lin Yang was the one who would suffer the bad luck. Heaven was not kind; he had run into Su Yaqin, newly assigned and desperate to find some unfortunate soul to deal with—the younger sister who had just graduated from middle school, and the daughter of Su Xiaodong.

Seeing that the man bold enough to run a red light still refused to surrender, the little girl grew angry as well. After all, she was the daughter of a district public security bureau chief. As the saying went, a tiger father does not breed a dog daughter. She, Su Yaxue, was also a black belt in taekwondo; she did not believe she could not deal with this shameless little brat pretending to be deaf and foolish.

Concerned about Zhang Zifeng’s condition, Lin Yang naturally had no desire to tangle with some loli beauty who had appeared from nowhere. With that, he turned and headed toward the villa.

Only then did Zhang Qiqi and Leng Nini, whose ears, eyes, mouths, and noses had all been brutally assaulted, recover their senses. Waving away the dust that had not yet fully settled, Zhang Qiqi rushed straight toward Lin Yang, who was coming toward them, calling anxiously, "Brother Xiaoyang, you’re finally here. Hurry, please save my father."

"Mm, Qiqi, don’t worry. Uncle Feng will be fine." Lin Yang smiled reassuringly.

The three of them were chatting in earnest, and their feet did not pause as they prepared to go inside. Completely ignored, Su Yaxue, who had just started her first day on the job, exploded in fury. Her voice was every bit as piercing as that of a professional soprano.

"Boy who ran the red light, take one more step and I’ll charge you with contempt for law and order and openly challenging the law of the people of this country. That’s a serious crime!"

With her left hand planted on the silver stainless steel handcuffs at her waist and her right hand raising the police baton to point at Lin Yang’s forehead, feet planted apart, she stood there in a rage, and she really did look the part.

"I’m busy. I have to save someone. I don’t have time for you right now. Once I’m done, I’ll go with you to the police bureau for a sit-down. It’s been quite a while since I was there, and I actually miss it a little." Lin Yang kept walking without turning his head, unaware of the furious expression on the loli beauty policewoman behind him.

Inside, he muttered to himself, "Mm, it really has been a long time. I wonder whether Chief Ergou has missed me."