Chapter 72: The Second Competition Approaches

At twelve o’clock, Xia Yu entered the body of the black cat.

The field of vision suddenly became lower, which made him feel a bit unaccustomed. He ran around the living room briefly to get used to it, then opened the door and went outside.

He trotted quickly and soon arrived at the park where he had previously been attacked.

The black cat’s natural night vision was much better than his own, which was only at level 1. He easily located the place where the attack had occurred.

Standing there, he sniffed the air and began to distinguish the scents present.

Although a cat’s sense of smell was not as refined as that of top-tier dogs, it was still more sensitive than many dogs.

If not for the fact that cats are difficult to train, the ranks of the police would not consist solely of dogs.

The dark park was deserted, even couples avoiding it at night, so there were few interfering scents. Still, it took Xia Yu some effort to distinguish his own scent, Yan Wei’s, and that of the attacker.

He had smelled himself through the cat’s body, but had no prior experience of Yan Wei’s scent, since a cat’s sense of smell differs from a human’s, and he couldn’t rely on human memories for comparison.

He could only identify the scents based on the directions in which they led.

The scent heading toward the streetlight was Yan Wei’s, and the remaining one was the attacker’s.

The scent was faint, but by focusing, it was still detectable.

Following the scent, Xia Yu began his pursuit.

Unlike ordinary cats or dogs, which would need to sniff their way all along, Xia Yu was an intelligent cat.

He didn’t need to continuously sniff; he only needed to check at intersections to see which way the attacker had gone.

This greatly increased his speed.

After crossing two streets, he found the attacker’s hideout.

It was a garage converted into a small rental room.

Jumping onto the windowsill, Xia Yu observed the movements inside.

A tall, thin young man was bare-chested, applying medicine to himself.

Glancing at the wound on his abdomen, Xia Yu confirmed this was the culprit.

He didn’t recognize the man, but since the attack was targeted at Yan Wei, it was normal for the attacker to be someone he didn’t know.

The body exchange couldn’t be canceled midway and could only be ended after eight hours. Xia Yu yawned and dozed off in the cat’s body.

He remained crouched there until three o’clock, when he spotted a familiar figure.

It was the boy from the neighboring class who had failed his flashy attempt at impressing someone at the milk tea shop.

So it was him after all.

If he couldn’t have her, he wanted to destroy her?

Xia Yu continued watching.

The boy knocked on the door, and the young man got up and opened it.

“Bro, what happened to you?” the boy exclaimed, looking at the grimacing young man.

“Don’t ask. I just took a couple of steps and pulled my wound,” the young man replied, sitting on the edge of the bed to recover for three minutes.

“It was my mistake. I didn’t expect that woman to have such a capable bodyguard,” he added.

“You were discovered?” the boy asked anxiously. “You didn’t expose me, did you?”

“Am I the kind of person who betrays family?” the young man said. “Besides, I wasn’t discovered. I ran away.”

“You really weren’t discovered?”

“Unless someone is right now crouching by the window listening, there’s absolutely no possibility of exposure!” the young man swore confidently.

“Then you should leave now, immediately!”

Feeling the boy’s eagerness to distance himself, the young man grew resentful.

“I was injured helping you!” the more he thought about it, the angrier he became. “Why did you go looking for trouble with that girl for no reason!”

The boy also realized his behavior was inappropriate and tried to soothe his cousin.

“Because of that woman, I was scolded by the head teacher for an entire afternoon, beaten by my parents, and had my allowance withheld for a year. That’s why I was so upset,” he explained.

“I just wanted you to lie low for a while, in case you were discovered,” he added.

“Then let me take a nap first.”

With that, the young man lay down on the bed.

There was nothing more to see, so Xia Yu played with insects on the grass.

At 7:40 in the morning, he returned outside his home and knocked on the door.

Tuo Guo opened the door and let him in.

He then lay in the living room until eight o’clock, when Xia Yu returned to his own body.

First, he asked the teacher for leave, then headed to the police station, claiming he had a lead.

Five police officers followed him to the outside of the garage.

“Are you sure it’s in there?” the veteran officer from the previous night asked.

“After I returned home last night, the more I thought about it, the more familiar that person seemed. This morning, I finally remembered where I had seen him—he lives here,” Xia Yu said.

The five officers exchanged glances. The veteran officer had his four companions lie in wait, then took off his uniform, pulled out a set of casual clothes from his backpack, and changed.

He also retrieved a low-quality ballpoint pen and a notebook from the bag, then approached and knocked on the garage door.

“Who is it!” a voice came from inside the garage.

“Community security. Recently there’s been a campaign against gangsters and evil forces, and we need to register the residents in the community.”

After peering through the peephole and seeing an old man holding paper and a pen, the young man relaxed and opened the door.

He was holding a phone, still on a call with his cousin.

“I know, I’ll leave soon. Don’t worry, no one knows about that thing… The sound outside? It’s just community security, why are you so nervous… I’m hanging up now, my stomach still hurts a bit.” Putting the phone into his pocket, the young man took the paper and pen from the officer’s hand.

“I’m leaving today anyway. Do I still need to sign?” he asked.

“Yes, sign here.” The officer pointed to the spot on the paper with his hand, and at the moment the young man was distracted, he punched him straight in the face.

Before the young man, who had fallen to the ground, could understand what had happened, the veteran officer subdued him with a grappling move.

“Hey, what are you trying to…” Before he could finish speaking, the four officers who had been lying in wait surrounded him.

These four were officers who hadn’t changed into plain clothes.

“Officer, could there be some kind of misunderstanding? I just threw out the trash a bit carelessly,” he tried to bluff his way through.

The veteran officer sharply pulled up his shirt. “Then explain this injury first?”

Realizing that further argument was pointless, the young man lowered his head.

Xia Yu stood aside watching. The veteran officer had told him not to approach, so the culprit wouldn’t see him, to prevent any possibility of retaliation later.

Although the young man had already been arrested, Xia Yu’s heart was not at ease. The young man had sworn the previous night not to expose the boy from the neighboring class, and Xia Yu still needed to think of a way to ensure the boy received his due punishment.

What should he do?

While he was thinking, a voice came from the front again: “It was my cousin’s idea! He was the one who ordered it!”

“…”

He had overestimated the other party’s integrity.

With the young man’s testimony, the boy from the neighboring class was soon arrested and taken away even from school.

Since the attack had not caused serious consequences, the punishment for the boy from the neighboring class was not severe, but he had been expelled from school, and even his parents’ jobs had been affected.

Two days later, on Friday night, the family packed their belongings and left the city directly.

Xia Yu did not receive news of their departure.

At this moment, he was in Kaiyang, just off the high-speed train.

Tomorrow was the day of the second round of the instrument competition. There was a small banquet tonight, which most of the participants would attend.