The Su family estate was a sprawling fortress of minimalist glass and dark basalt, perched on the highest cliffs of Jinghai. This was the home of Su Qing, the "Wallet" of Lu Cian's operation, whose financial resources were the only thing capable of funding the Bond-level gadgetry the police department's budget lacked. As Lu Cian's cruiser pulled into the driveway, the Omniscient Detective System (ODS) flickered with a new prompt.
[System Notification: Spending 5,000 Justice Points...]
[Skill Unlocked: Psychometry (Level 5)!]
[System Note: Careful, Superintendent. Touching the past is like touching an electric fence—it's the emotions that burn, not the facts.]
Lu Cian stepped into the foyer, where Su Qing stood waiting. She looked at his rumpled uniform with an arched eyebrow, her expression as cool as the marble floors. "I heard you bullied the Commissioner into a forty-eight-hour deadline," she said, her voice like silk. "Is that why you're here? To beg for my satellite array?"
"I don't beg, Miss Su," Lu Cian replied, his voice raspy from the metabolic debt of his earlier chase. "I trade. You want the person who tried to frame your business rivals caught, and I want the evidence they left behind."
She led him to a high-security vault where the salvaged remains of the micro-drone—the one Lu Cian had tracked from the penthouse—sat on a velvet-lined tray. To anyone else, it was a piece of carbon-fiber junk. To Lu Cian, now equipped with Psychometry, it was a recording of a crime.
He reached out, his fingers brushing the scorched casing.
The world didn't change visually, but a wave of raw, nauseating "Betrayal" and "Lust" slammed into his mind. This wasn't a mechanical failure or a cold-blooded assassination; the person who had programmed the drone felt a twisted, intimate connection to the victim. It wasn't just a job for "The Cleaners"—it was a crime of passion disguised as a professional hit.
[Psychometry Feedback: Analysis Complete.]
[Dominant Emotion: 'Jealousy'. Target Identity: 'The Artist'.]
Lu Cian pulled his hand back, his breath hitching. His eyes, glowing with the remnants of the HUD, fixed on Su Qing. "Your father's associate, the one who handled the Azure Dragon contract," he said, his voice dropping to a dangerous whisper. "He didn't just hire a killer. He is the performance artist."
Su Qing's composure cracked for a micro-second, her pupils dilating as the Micro-Expression Reader flagged her shock.
[Netizen Comment: 'Wait, did he just link a high-level executive to a serial killer group?!'] [Netizen Comment: 'Superintendent Lu is playing with fire! The Su Group will crush him!']
"You have no proof," Su Qing whispered, echoing the words of the criminals Lu Cian had already dismantled.
"I don't need proof yet," Lu Cian said, his Terror Aura beginning to leak into the room, making the security guards at the door shift uncomfortably. "I have the 'Emotion'. Now, use your satellites to find where a 'Jealous' man would hide his next masterpiece."