Leon did not know that the Director was shamelessly obtaining benefits for him. At this moment, he was standing one kilometer away from the middle-aged nurse's house, using Sheephead's soul vision, warily "scanning" the souls of everyone in the vicinity repeatedly.
Though his first task after joining the Bureau had been completed without any significant danger—with the exception of a bruise on his shoulder from the recoil of a sniper—Leon always remembered the conversation he had with the Red-haired Director before joining, and that astonishing statistic.
The Purification Bureau's overall mortality rate was eight in a thousand, every month.
Both Senior Emma and the Red-haired Director had stressed to him more than once that no matter the situation, he must be cautious, cautious, and again, cautious, because the targets the Purification Bureau faced had so many "tricks" up their sleeves that you never knew when you'd meet one that just happened to "counter" your ability.
Even in the hospital, despite Senior Emma's Undying Body, she had almost failed, with most of her body swallowed into the hospital's slab. Had it not been for the prior arrangement with Sheephead as a sniper, she would have had to wait for the Director to save her.
What was even more terrifying was that this incident occurred just three streets away from the Purification Bureau. If Senior Emma had a mishap, the Director could still come to her rescue. But what if it happened in a remote, deserted forest? Or if the Red Brick Road Hospital could move and its position was difficult to determine?
Even with the Undying Body, she might not die, but she could still be trapped for months, years, or even in a constant state of absorption, awake but unable to move, confined within a concrete slab—*a fate far more painful than death*...
He took a deep breath and warned himself once again to be cautious, cautious, and more cautious!
After recalling the previous mission, Leon couldn't help but take two deep breaths, repeatedly cautioning himself that even if a situation seemed to have no danger, as long as it might involve any "abnormal" matters, he must remain vigilant.
*Though he had a unique badge add-on and was destined to keep growing in the future, if it came to survival capabilities alone, he wasn't even worthy to carry Senior Emma's shoes. But if she, with her Undying Body, could fail, why shouldn't he be doubly cautious?*
After repeatedly confirming the soul states of everyone nearby, especially the family of the middle-aged nurse, and confirming that their emotions were relatively stable and showed no signs of abnormalities, Leon stuffed the grumbling Sheephead into a shopping bag and quickly walked toward the street where the middle-aged nurse's family lived.
Showing the Purification Bureau's credentials to the apartment manager, indicating that he was a public official investigating the hospital director's corruption case, Leon, thanks to the credentials identical in format to the Police Department's, easily gained the manager's trust. The old lady manager even put down the unfinished knitting she was working on to personally lead him upstairs.
"Officer, the whole Hanna family are good people. Although she works at Red Brick Road Hospital, she is nothing like that money-grabbing director. Please, don't wrongly accuse the good people."
The apartment manager, who was probably in her sixties, with a head full of dense white curly hair, talked continuously while slowly leading Leon up the stairs:
"Twenty years ago, she was a little girl and already working at that hospital as a nurse. She has always been diligent and never made mistakes. When my husband broke his leg and was in the hospital for half a month, she took such good care of him, better than our own daughter.
The only problem she has is that she's too straightforward. By her seniority, she could have become the head nurse ten years ago, but the head nurse has to manage the drug records. Because she didn't want to collude with those people to falsify them, every time there was a promotion, it wasn't her turn..."
After talking endlessly about all sorts of things, the manager quietly passed by the sixth floor where the middle-aged nurse's house was, leading Leon to another empty unit on the sixth floor. Eyeing his expression, she cautiously asked:
"By the way, Officer, are you here to find Hanna to testify against those people conning patients like us? Or are you taking her for questioning?"
*It looks like if I said I was here to arrest her, you would have casually found an empty unit on the sixth floor, banged on the door for a while, and then told me she wasn't home, right?*
With a speechless expression, Leon stood on the fifth floor and couldn't help but remind her, "Ma'am... her house should be on the fifth floor, right? Did you go up one more floor than needed?"
"Ah? Oh, oh! I'm getting old, my memory's not too good, ha ha."
The manager's mental fortitude was pretty good. Even when exposed, she didn't panic but slowly moved back down the stairs. However, she still didn't lead Leon to the middle-aged nurse's house but rather toward another empty unit to the left of the stairs.
*No, I already know her house is on the fifth floor, and you're still trying to lead me somewhere else? That's a bit too much, isn't it?*
*This persistent guy probably investigated everything before he came!*
Seeing that Leon wasn't falling for it, merely standing at Hanna's door waiting for her, the manager let out a frustrated sigh and returned, sulking. She knocked on the middle-aged nurse's door and with a dark expression threatened:
"Let me tell you, if you're here to investigate, do it properly and don't try to mud-sling Hanna. The dirty business at the hospital has nothing to do with her! And if that kid Hanna comes back with even a scratch or something is wrong with her state, I'll definitely testify against you all for illegal interrogation!"
Under the manager's watchful eyes, the door to the middle-aged nurse's house creaked open, revealing a weary-looking middle-aged man.
Seeing the unfamiliar face of Leon, the bookish middle-aged man adjusted the glasses on his nose and said, somewhat surprised, "Excuse me, who are you looking for?"
"I'm looking for your wife, Mrs. Hanna."
Raising his voice suddenly to drown out the manager, Leon took the initiative to explain, "My name is Leon. Your wife was the nurse in the room where my sister was, I'm not sure if she mentioned me to you?"
"Oh, oh! She did! She did!"
Upon hearing Leon's words, the weary man's expression lit up, and he quickly opened the door, coming over to enthusiastically grasp Leon's right hand, shaking it fervently.
"Thanks to you and your colleagues for arriving just in time yesterday to turn off the hospital's gas valve! Oh, and if it hadn't been for your sister noticing something off and asking Hanna to climb down with the bedsheets, she might have...
Oh my! Really! I really don't know how to thank your family. We should have been the ones visiting you instead, but you came first!"
"You're too kind. My sister received a lot of your wife's care, and all she did was suggest tying the curtains. It's thanks to your wife they were unscathed in the end."
"No, no, no, it was your sister..."
Watching the two men at the door shaking hands vigorously, repeatedly thanking each other's family, the atmosphere notably harmonious, the manager, who had been closely observing, became utterly flabbergasted.
Wait... wait a minute... let me sort this out...