Chapter 42  : Arrested

It was drizzling early in the next morning.

 Tang Hao sat cross-legged on his bed, absorbing the Liquid of Spiritual Condensation in his body.

 He did not sleep again that night. As his level of cultivation grew and his physique changed, he did not feel tired even after staying up for long periods.

 His sleeping time had been substituted with time for cultivation and studying knowledge imparted by the pendant, including medical skills, talisman-making, and sorcery.

 The techniques of talisman-making and sorcery required one to be in the middle period of the State of Qi Channeling. Tang Hao’s level of cultivation was currently not enough, though he could first learn the techniques so that he could easily master them in the future.

 Especially talisman-making, which required a thorough study into the deep and complicated domain of talismans to even become a novice in the art.

 He opened his eyes after a long while.

 He had absorbed another portion of Liquid of Spiritual Condensation and had increased the amount of qi in his body.

 “I’ll have to go shopping in the medicinal herb market today!” He mumbled while calculating.

 Three days had passed in the blink of an eye since he quit his job.

 He had spent the past three days at home, only going out the night before to deliver more potions to President Biao and Sis Xiangyi.

 It was time to go out to buy more medicinal ingredients.

 Tang Hao was in no rush to move house. All the preparations for the mansion was complete and he could move in anytime.

 He rode his little three-wheeled motorcycle into town and went straight for the medicinal herb market.

 After a few rounds in the medicinal herb market, he had acquired ingredients for weight-loss potions, aphrodisiac potions, beauty enhancement cream, and health-care potions. He had bought multiple portions for each type of concoction.

 Especially the ingredients for aphrodisiac potion and beauty enhancement cream. These two concoctions were very high in demand. The aphrodisiac potion was very lucrative, selling at twenty thousand yuan per bottle.

 After that, he left the medicinal herb market.

 He had not driven for too far before he saw two police cars driving in his direction.

 Tang Hao glanced at them then turned to look elsewhere. He did not have a good impression of police officers. They had framed him at the bathhouse in their first encounter, then he was wrongly accused in the next.

 He smirked and continued driving.

 He soon noticed that something was amiss. The two police cars changed directions abruptly and drove toward him. They braked in front of him and blocked his way.

 The doors to the police cars opened. Out rushed a squad of police officers.

 One of the police officers was a female. Her face was perfectly shaped like a pumpkin seed, and her delicate features could launch a thousand ships. Her body was tall and slim, and it curved at all the right places.

 Tang Hao was surprised when he saw her. ‘Wasn’t she the beautiful female police officer from the bathhouse? I think her name is Zhao Qingxue.’

 Then, his expression changed. ‘Wait, this doesn’t seem right at all! Why do they look like they’re coming to arrest me?

 ‘But what did I do though?’ Tang Hao was puzzled.

 “Hey! What’s going on?” He shouted.

 “What’s going on? Hmph! Don’t you know what crime you have committed?” A middle-aged police officer laughed coldly, showing an expression of disdain. “You’re still so young but you’re already human scum.”

 The other police officers also showed him expressions of disdain.

 Zhao Qingxue looked absolutely disgusted. “Squad Leader Sun, there’s no mistake, that’s him. We caught him last time in a bathhouse during a prostitution ring crackdown. He was lucky at that time to get off scot-free. I didn’t expect him to be a rapist, too.

 “I knew it. This person is a pervert. Pure human scum.” Her face was ice-cold as she glared at Tang Hao.

 “So he has a former record of ****… Prepare to be locked up for a long time, kid.” The middle-aged police officer laughed coldly.

 Tang Hao was thoroughly confused when he heard all that. ‘Rape? What’s going on? When did I ever do something like that?

 ‘That’s impossible!

 ‘Unless… I’m being framed again?’

 “Officers, wait. There must be some kind of mistake here. Did you mistake me for someone else?” He said urgently.

 “Heh! How could we mistake you for someone else? It’s you, alright!” The middle-aged police officer smirked, then ordered the police officers around him. “Cuff him up and haul him away.”

 Two police officers rushed forward and pinned him down.

 Tang Hao felt angry all of a sudden. He had been called a rapist when he was innocent, and it did not look like they had been mistaken. The only possibility left was that he was framed again.

 At that moment, he could not think of who could have done it.

 ‘Zhang Tianhao?

 ‘No, he doesn’t have that much power. The crime of rape was a serious offense.

 ‘So if it’s not Zhang Tianhao, who else could it be?’

 Tang Hao was clueless.

 The two police officers treated him roughly. They folded his arms behind his back and pinned him onto the hood of the police car. Tang Hao was furious and wanted to break free of their grip.

 With his strength, he did not have to struggle too hard to shrug off these two people.

 He restrained himself not to do so after thinking about it. He was innocent, and therefore had nothing to be afraid of. He did not want to be framed with another crime of assaulting the police.

 Clack!

 He could feel the coldness of the handcuffs as they went around his wrists.

 “Officers, I’m really innocent.”

 “Nonsense. That’s what all the criminals say when we haul them in, and how many of them turn out to be innocent anyway? Enough talk, let’s go.”

 The two police officers shoved Tang Hao into the car, then the cars left.

 In under twenty minutes, Tang Hao found himself in the interrogation room once more.

 Two police officers sat in front of him, one of them was the Squad Leader Sun. Zhao Qingxue and another police officer were observing at the side of the room.

 “Tang Hao, I’m asking you, where were you at 8.30 pm last night?” Squad Leader Sun asked menacingly.

 “Eight-thirty? I was at home. No, I was on the way home,” Tang Hao replied after thinking for a while.

 “So this must be you then!”

 Squad Leader Sun opened the case file in front of him and retrieved a photograph. He pushed it in front of Tang Hao.

 This was a photograph from a security camera. There was a little three-wheeled motorcycle in it. Tang Hao looked closely and saw that he was in the photograph.

 “That’s me. What about it?” Tang Hao asked confusedly.

 Squad Leader Sun smirked. He retrieved another photograph. On it was a woman about twenty-four or twenty-five years of age. She looked pretty, but her eyes were swollen and looked languid.

 “Does this person look familiar?”

 Tang Hao looked at it and found her somewhat familiar. “I’ve seen her before, last night on this street. She was a little drunk, and I helped her get up.”

 “Ha! So you’re admitting it!” Squad Leader Sun laughed coldly.

 “What did I admit?”

 “The crime, of course! She is the victim. Are you still trying to argue out of this, kid? The crime scene is at an alley not too far away. You must have been aroused and tailed her into the alley, where you committed the crime!

 “We’ve found hairs on her body and skin flakes in her fingernails. We’ll just have to match them with your DNA and we’ll know if you really did it.”

 Squad Leader Sun slammed the table and stood up. His eyes were as fierce as a tiger’s while glaring at Tang Hao.

 As a veteran police officer, Squad Leader Sun carried a threatening aura on him. Any normal criminal would have been intimidated being glared like that.

 Tang Hao was not a normal person though. Furthermore, he was innocent. The glare had no effect on him.

 “Officer, I didn’t do it. Please don’t frame innocent people!”

 “Innocent people? Hah! You’re innocent? Don’t try to argue anymore. She had singled you out as the criminal, and the security camera had captured you following into the alley after her. With the hair and skin flakes, that’s enough evidence to lock you away. You still say you’re framed?” Squad Leader Sun slammed the table again and roared.