I signaled them to not make too much noise and to quietly go downstairs.
We hid by the stairwell and saw a tall, skinny man sneak into the house. He wore a duckbill cap on his head and looked around furtively - he was clearly up to no good.
"Don't move, police!" Huang Xiaotao yelled.
The man looked up at us in shock and turned pale. He immediately turned to run outside, and we rushed after him. Wang Yuanchao moved as fast as a cheetah, quickly catching up to the man and tackling him to the ground. He took out handcuffs from the man's waist and cuffed him swiftly.
Nearby residents heard the commotion and came out to watch.
After we caught up, the man pleaded in a panicked voice, "Officers, I just saw the door was open and came in to check out the situation. I really didn't do anything..."
Huang Xiaotao stood with hands on hips and scolded harshly, "Just checking it out? Don't you know this is a murder scene? Do you have something to do with this case?"
The man was so frightened his face turned white. He frantically waved his hands, "Officers, officers, actually I...I wanted to see if there was anything worth taking."
Huang Xiaotao laughed. "Not afraid to admit it, turns out you're a thief."
The man's face fluctuated between pale and flushed. Some residents in the crowd recognized him, "It's this guy! He stole a piece of my clothing that I hung outside last month!"
"The vase that went missing from my home must have been stolen by him too!"
"That's right, and my son's bicycle that disappeared when I left it outside for just a moment."
The residents clamored loudly, denouncing the petty thief. Zhang Liu'er cowered with head lowered, desperately looking to us for help. Huang Xiaotao flashed her badge and said, "Everyone please remain calm. We are the police, and we will take this thief back for interrogation. We will recover all your stolen goods."
The residents quieted down after this. I said, "How can you make such rash promises?"
Huang Xiaotao winked at me and laughed. "Don't worry, this isn't our jurisdiction. If we can't recover their stuff, the local precinct can take the blame!"
I sighed. "Shouldn't we all work together..."
Huang Xiaotao grabbed Zhang Liu'er and asked his name and occupation.
This Zhang Liu'er was no professional thief, just an idle scoundrel. Finding loose security in this area, he would come around every so often to snoop around and see if there was anything easy to take. Sometimes he would snatch fermented vegetables and potted plants left on residents' balconies. He even took away a resident's entire pot of simmering chicken that was left by their door. Basically, he would take anything free for the taking.
Huang Xiaotao scorned him, "I've never seen such a shameless thief. You're a disgrace to your ancestor, the King of Thieves!"
Zhang Liu'er smiled bashfully, before Huang Xiaotao kicked him and he quieted down.
I asked, "You're always prowling around here. You must know there was a murder case here recently. Didn't you see police investigating nearby? Why did you still go into that house?"
"I didn't have any other intentions, just wanted to take a look inside," Zhang Liu'er fawned as he smiled at me.
"Were you eyeing something inside?" I interrogated fiercely.
Zhang Liu'er quickly denied, "No no, a house where someone died, what is there worth eyeing?"
Hearing this, I became alert and grabbed his shoulders anxiously asking, "What cat are you talking about?"
Perhaps I was too worked up, my grip painful on his shoulders. Zhang Liu'er shrank back, trembling, "Brother, brother, could you put away those red eyes first?"
I deactivated my Evil Eye. I pressed him to explain everything clearly.
Zhang Liu'er said recently he was very tight on money. His petty theft wasn't solving his problems, so he wanted to pull off a big heist - burglary!
He had staked out the murder victims' home, because the couple was never home during the day, only an elderly grandmother. The old woman had leg problems and poor eyesight. Zhang Liu'er disguised himself as a gas inspector to first enter and scope out whether there was anything valuable inside.
When only the grandmother was home, he successfully mixed his way inside and searched the house. In a storage room on the first floor, he discovered a cat statue that seemed to be gold-plated with exquisite, lifelike craftsmanship. Its eyes appeared to be gemstones. It looked to be worth a lot of money.
Zhang Liu'er immediately hatched a scheme to take this cat statue. But when he reached for it, the cat's eyes suddenly shifted towards him!
Zhang Liu'er jumped in fright, making some noise. The old woman asked what was going on from outside. Zhang Liu'er hurriedly placated her with excuses before leaving.
After a period of observation, he discovered the old woman would go to a neighbor's home to play mahjong every few days, leaving the house empty. He planned to take advantage of that to act.
But before he could, the family met that tragic fate - all three murdered. The scene was quickly cordoned off by police, so he had to abandon the idea.
He didn't expect to find the door open today when he passed by again, rekindling his thieving intentions. He wanted to go inside to take another look, but flipped his boat in the sewer instead.
After finishing his account, I contemplated - we didn't see any cat statue inside the house earlier. Could someone have taken it away?
Huang Xiaotao asked me, "What should we do with this thief?"
I said, "Weren't police investigating nearby just now? Find someone to take him back to the station to give a statement."
"Hey hey, brother, I already confessed everything. Why do I still need to give a statement? You guys seem busy investigating the murder case, I won't interfere with your work anymore. Just do me a favor and let me go, pretend I'm just a fart." Zhang Liu'er pleaded.
I laughed at his humor, and said, "Don't worry, handing you to the local precinct won't take up our precious time."
Zhang Liu'er bitterness, "Didn't I confess it all already? I didn't take anything!"
Huang Xiaotao angrily scolded, "Behave yourself. You've stolen plenty before right? Go back and account for everything clearly!"
Indeed, we saw a passing policeman and had him take away Zhang Liu'er to the nearby precinct for booking and giving a statement. We then returned to the murder scene. Luo Weiwi had come back, holding a bag of flour and asked, "Where did you guys run off to?"
I answered, "Out catching a thief."
"Catching a thief?" Luo Weiwi sneered. "You guys are so free. Here's the stuff you wanted."
I thanked her and took the flour, entering the first floor storage room to investigate again. Indeed there was no cat like Zhang Liu'er described. I opened the flour and sprinkled a thin layer by the windows, windowsills, and door.
Huang Xiaotao suddenly asked, "Oh right, didn't you use this trick last time when dealing with the female ghost at school? Could it be you suspect this house is haunted?"
ts me of treason?" "Correct. The host must return to the capital and gradually build up influence." "Wait—I have half a million soldiers, and you want me to go back to the capital to 'build influence'?" "Host, you are currently the Northern Garrison General, loyal to the Great Xia Dynasty." "Of course I am loyal to Great Xia! Absolutely loyal!" "But you keep referring to yourself as 'We'..." "Never mind the details! Summon all the regional commanders and military officers! We suspect treacherous officials are manipulating the court! They shall march with Us to the capital and purge the corrupt!" "......"
nd fell into a coma while saving his younger sister from an out-of-control car. He became a vegetable. No one knew that his consciousness had crossed into a world of cultivation. Over the course of sixty years, he began as the lowest kind of mine slave, struggling to survive amid mountains of corpses and seas of blood. By sheer chance, he eventually obtained the complete memories of a fallen Immortal King. Alchemy, medicine, formations, feng shui, physiognomy, artifact forging… Every great inheritance of the cultivation world was now his. But when he opened his eyes again, he discovered that ten full years had passed in the modern world. To pay for his treatment, his father had sold the family’s shop and house, leaving himself covered in lasting injuries and illness. His mother had cared for him day and night, and more than half of her hair had already turned white. His younger sister, who had been only fifteen back then, was now twenty-five. To help repay the family’s debts, she had been forced to lower her head and put on a smiling face in places of glittering lights and endless revelry. Only then did Chen Xuan understand that what he had lost was not merely ten years. He had lost the life his entire family was meant to have. The good news was that he had brought back the memories of an Immortal King’s entire lifetime. The bad news was that his soul had returned alone—his cultivation had not come with him. Spiritual energy was scarce, resources were depleted, and the modern world still had firearms, surveillance, capital, and laws. If he wanted to protect his family, break free from everyone’s control, and become truly invincible beneath the heavens, he would have to start all over again.
ive and Ruthless] Before his transmigration, Ye Xuan was playing a game called "Severing Emotions to Attain the Dao." The game's core wasn't about leveling up by fighting monsters, but about conquering various "bad women" with wicked personalities and cold, fickle natures. There was only one method to conquer them: stay unwaveringly by their side, then die at a critical moment, driving them to madness after losing the protagonist. The higher their level of regret, the higher the player's score. To dominate the server, Ye Xuan conquered all the bad women. In the early stages, he showered them with boundless tenderness, only to choose to sacrifice himself for them later, making them weep bitterly and drown in regret. Among them were: Xia Lengyue, the unfaithful immortal wife who chased after powerful men and discarded her husband like trash. Ye Qingcheng, the Demonic Venerable of the Joyous Union Sect, who appeared pure and innocent but was, in reality, promiscuous. Wu Lingxiao, the Empress of the Great Xia Dynasty, who lusted after men and loved maintaining a harem. Bai Qiangu of the Endless Demonic Sect: a bloodthirsty mass murderer. However, when the protagonist transmigrated into the game world, he made a horrifying discovery. Eight hundred years had already passed. The bad women he had conquered had now each become deities and revered ancestors. Faced with the endless stream of toxic women coming for him, Ye Xuan could only rely on his god-tier acting skills to carve a path of survival through this world of treacherous women.
s + Rent Collection Wealth】 At the start, he inherited a rundown house in the urban village from his grandfather. The house had no tenants, but the moment he was diagnosed with a terminal illness, a self-proclaimed empress from the Tianxuan Continent arrived as his first tenant. Ye Chuan soon discovered that with every new tenant moving in, not only did he receive massive daily payments, but he also obtained unique items related to their backgrounds. 【Acquired Bai Qianshuang’s related item: Tiger Strength Pill—dramatically enhances physical power!】 【Acquired Bai Qianshuang’s related item: Deer Blood Pill—significantly boosts vitality!】 …… From that day on, all sorts of bizarre tenants began appearing in the house: the empress from Tianxuan Continent, an apocalyptic sorceress from the Magic Realm, a mysterious scientific girl who fell through a spacetime rift… Every single day, he received strange, powerful items and endless money. Then one day, he suddenly realized—he had become invincible. Enough, enough! Stop giving me more!
