Xia Yu followed behind him, watching as he reached the middle part of the ruins and entered a relatively intact house.
Quickly stepping forward, Xia Yu also entered the house.
Gong Liuzi glanced at him, licked his lips, and gestured for him to come over.
Xia Yu gave Gong Liuzi a look usually reserved for dealing with mentally challenged individuals until Gong finally abandoned his idea of capturing him for a stew.
Ignoring the black cat, Gong Liuzi moved aside a broken table. The noise from moving the table was loud enough to wake up the guard who had been dozing off nearby.
The guard had been sleeping so silently that Xia Yu hadn’t even noticed him before.
“Liuzi,” the old guard yawned, stood up, helped Gong Liuzi move the table aside, pulled back the carpet, and opened up a wooden panel.
Underneath the panel was a basement, from which excited shouts could be heard.
“Wanna bet? Wanna bet?”
“Win all! Hahaha!”
After Gong Liuzi descended, the old guard covered the carpet, placed the table back, and resumed sleeping nearby.
Having observed everything, Xia Yu turned around, exited the ruins, and headed toward a nearby police station.
Inside the station, two officers were on duty.
Seeing Xia Yu, one of the younger officers tried to entice her with a sausage.
After eating the sausage, Xia Yu leaped onto the police officer’s desk, grabbed a document in his mouth, and ran off.
The young officer was startled and immediately chased after him.
As a cat with agility level 2, Xia Yu could easily shake off the young officer, but his intention was to lure him along.
So he slowed his pace, gradually leading the young officer to the old village of Yang Lake.
Eventually, Xia Yu darted into the central house.
The young officer followed him in. He saw the black cat lying on a table, with the documents neatly placed aside.
He felt as if the black cat had been waiting for him, and along the way, it had intentionally allowed him to follow.
What the hell am I thinking about a cat?
After retrieving the document, he noticed the black cat was making a concerted effort to push the table and scratch the carpet, which struck him as odd.
A scene flashed through his mind of a mother cat summoning humans to rescue her kittens. The young officer moved the table, pulled back the carpet.
However, instead of finding a trapped kitten below, he discovered a simple basement entrance.
From inside came sounds like “winning hand” and “self-drawn.”
The young officer scratched his chin, took out his phone, and quietly reported to one side.
“Chief, I’ve uncovered a major case!”
“Really? Did some kid get lost?” The chief, who had been sleeping, replied grumpily.
For their ordinary grassroots police station, a missing child was already considered a rare major case.
“No, this is really a big one! I received a report from… uh, a cat. It’s like this…” The young officer explained everything to the chief.
“What? Don’t scare them off. We’re coming right away!”
Meanwhile, Gong Liuzi had gone down into the basement and was playing cards with several friends.
“Liuzi, I heard you scammed Xia Dongyang out of 1.5 million?” said a bald man.
“Where? Xia Dongyang could only come up with one million; he couldn’t even get the other 500,000!” Gong Liuzi modestly replied.
“Now that you’ve got the money, aren’t you going to celebrate?”
“Money? I don’t even have any. I already gave the million back to Old Xing.” Gong Liuzi sighed.
“You’re quite bold. Xia Dongyang isn’t much on his own, but his son isn’t someone to mess with.”
“Am I afraid of some kid? He’s walking the straight path now; what can he do to me?” Gong Liuzi didn’t want to continue this topic. “Come on, let’s start playing.”
After several rounds, with his card buddies deliberately trying to take him down, Gong Liuzi quickly emptied his pockets.
Cursing, he stood up, climbed the ladder, knocked on the wooden panel, waited ten seconds, and opened the hatch.
He saw a line of police officers; six of them surrounded him, watching.
“Finished playing?” one of the officers asked.
“Eh!” Gong Liuzi blankly responded.
“Then let’s go.” The officer gestured politely.
Gong Liuzi wasn’t immediately taken away in a police car. After apprehending all of them, the officers lined them up by height.
“Meow.” Seeing that they were really preparing to leave, Xia Yu let out a cry, informing them there was still one more hiding in the corner.
The old guard looked bewildered. He had just taken a nap, and when he opened his eyes, he found himself surrounded by a group of police officers. He could only curl up in the corner, praying not to be discovered.
But Xia Yu had exposed him.
“Hey, there’s another one who slipped through the net.” The chief was delighted. “Take them all away!”
Before leaving, Xia Yu rubbed affectionately against Gong Liuzi’s legs, appearing intimate.
This was an act of framing, though whether this frame job would succeed remained uncertain.
After settling things, Xia Yu went to the entrance of Yang Lake New Village, where the driver arrived on time to pick him up and take him home.
The next morning, Xia Yu saw the news reports.
“Last night, our city’s Yang Lake police station arrested fifteen villagers for illegal gambling.”
“Shocking! Fifteen strong men gathered in a basement late at night, playing enthusiastically!”
…
In one of the reports, Xia Yu saw the result of his framing.
“According to an insider at the police station, the operation was due to a black cat. The black cat mistakenly thought its owner going into the basement was in danger, so it brought the police for rescue.”
With this report, Gong Liuzi would definitely not get off easily.
Satisfied, Xia Yu put down his phone and let go of this matter.
The house belonged to Xia Dongyang. Xia Yu had never expected Xia Dongyang to give him the house; the loss was Xia Dongyang’s, and he and You Xue were just innocently caught up in it.
Moreover, Gong Liuzi was an old hand at this. As long as the police put in a bit of effort, they could follow the trail from him and expose a whole network.
Gong also liked to play big; he would probably be out of sight for a long time.
Putting this matter aside, Xia Yu began thinking about the musical instrument competition.
If he participated in the competition, he could get a recommendation to Hua University and also win a million-yuan prize.
However, participating in the competition would require a lot of time—at the very least, he needed to upgrade his music skills to level 4, maybe even higher.
This would take away from his programming study time.
Moreover, participating in the competition had a high chance of being discovered by An Siyao.
It wouldn’t be a big deal if the girl found out. Xia Yu, knowing An Siyao’s character, was certain she wouldn’t do anything drastic.
However, this would leave a clue. Whether this clue might lead to serious consequences later was something he couldn’t judge.
A small leak will sink a great ship.
Although he did have ways to prevent An Siyao from recognizing him, it would be too much trouble. The recommendation to Hua University and the million-yuan prize weren’t worth the effort.
Even without a recommendation, he could find other ways to manipulate students from Hua University to work for him.
As for the million-yuan prize, it was practically useless. Perhaps he could use it to redeem Xia Dongyang’s house, but what was the point of redeeming such a dilapidated house?
Xia Yu was a rather pragmatic person and had no sentimental attachment to the old house from his childhood.
At the time of the competition, he could just casually play a few notes.
Standing up, Xia Yu paced around the room, feeling like he had overlooked something.
After walking around twice, Xia Yu sat on the bed and tried saying, “Ah, competitions are such a hassle. I’ll just not participate.”
[You have received a test mission.]
Of course such a major event would involve a test!
Damn game company, if I participated, I’d be taken advantage of for free!
Xia Yu opened his email, deciding to first check what the rewards were and whether they were worth his effort.
Tai Sui Yellow Amulet Paper FuLu Taoist Love Talisman Traditional Chinese Spiritual Charm Attracting Love Protecting Marriage