Early that morning, Lin Xiaosu woke with a start at the sound of a dog barking. The moment he opened his eyes, he felt true energy flowing through his entire body. With a light tap of his toes, he reached the door. Opening it, he saw Miao Ruolan.
Miao Ruolan was holding his clothes, which had somehow been pressed perfectly straight.
"You even ironed them for me?"
Miao Ruolan smiled faintly. "Mainly because I was afraid they wouldn't dry. A pass with the iron dried them last night... You're going out to handle the paperwork today, Boss. You can't exactly run around in my dad's ragged pajamas."
Lin Xiaosu took the clothes. "Let me correct you on something. We're partners. I'm your boss, and you're mine. Besides... Ruolan, whatever job you do, you're worth far more than two thousand a month."
The corners of Miao Ruolan's lips quietly curved upward. "Why don't you tell Old Zhou that? He pays me seven hundred and fifty for half a month's work, like he's doing me some huge favor..."
"Once we open the detective agency, we'll take him apart!" Lin Xiaosu's reply came from inside the room.
Miao Ruolan burst out laughing.
When she was with him, she seemed especially prone to laughter.
Lin Xiaosu came out of the room. With his sharply pressed pants, crisp jacket, and an air of vigor that seemed to reach the tips of his hair, he was actually starting to look a little handsome in Miao Ruolan's eyes.
In the courtyard, the little electric bike had already finished charging. Just as Miao Ruolan swung a leg over it, she suddenly stopped. "How about you drive?"
Lin Xiaosu did not decline. He got on the electric bike and sped off with Miao Ruolan behind him.
The mountain road was narrow, with cliffs on both sides. Yet the little electric bike swept up leaves along the roadside and shot through the dense forest in a blur...
Miao Ruolan held his waist from behind, and a flush rose to her cheeks once again.
It was not nerves. With their current ancient martial arts skills, nothing could happen to them here. Even if the bike overturned, they would both have time to react.
She simply felt as though she had chosen the wrong approach again...
Yesterday, she had driven with him behind her, his arms wrapped around her, leaving her whole body a little weak.
Today, she had not dared to drive with him behind her.
So she had switched to having him drive her.
With that change, things were more natural in the back, but the front was a little sensitive. If this guy drove slowly, she could naturally keep some distance from him. But once he sped up, the inertia...
She had originally wanted to remind him not to rely on his ancient martial arts training to speed along a road that was not suited for speeding.
But under the influence of those strange feelings, she seemed to have grown lazy and did not want to remind him.
What she did not know was that Lin Xiaosu's driving today had absolutely nothing to do with whether he practiced ancient martial arts. He had long since become a top-tier motorcycle rider. At Test Site 101, he had performed high-difficulty maneuvers a hundred times more dangerous and thrilling than this countless times.
A few of those maneuvers had even been added to the system as trial projects for new members.
Once the electric bike came down from the mountain road and onto Fengcheng Avenue, its speed slowed considerably.
They rode all the way to Fengshan Police Station.
Miao Ruolan looked over the police station building. "Are we handling the paperwork here?"
"Yeah. A detective agency is different from an ordinary business. It needs to be registered with the police... Officer Zhou!"
Lin Xiaosu raised his voice on the last three words.
A car that had just come out from inside suddenly stopped. The window rolled down, revealing Zhou Mei.
Heaven was his witness—Lin Xiaosu had clearly seen a flash of delight in the officer's eyes. What was going on?
"You... what are you doing here?" Zhou Mei asked.
A young male police officer in the passenger seat leaned his head back slightly to make it easier for Zhou Mei to speak with Lin Xiaosu.
"I have something I need to discuss with you."
Zhou Mei said, "All right! Xiao Sun, put what we're doing on hold for now."
"Sister Zhou, we can't put this aside. Captain Zhang is watching this closely. He told us we absolutely have to—"
"Are you listening to me or to yourself?" Zhou Mei shot him a glare. "Get out. Take Mr. Lin to the reception room and make him some good tea while he waits for me. I'll park the car."
The young officer surnamed Sun could only get out, lead Lin Xiaosu and Miao Ruolan to the reception room, and make them tea.
He truly did not understand.
How urgent was the matter they had on hand?
Sister Zhou was an experienced officer. How could she fail to distinguish priorities at a time like this? She was actually receiving visitors now...
As he pondered this, Zhou Mei came in.
She smiled warmly. "Tell me first, what did you need me for?"
"Officer Zhou, here's the thing. I'm planning to open a detective agency in Fengcheng. According to the regulations, I need to file a registration with the public security department..."
Xiao Sun interrupted, "Mr. Lin, there are people at the front desk handling registrations. You can just go to the service window. Sister Zhou, we should get going..."
Zhou Mei did not rise. She merely smiled lightly. "Sorry, Xiaosu. Xiao Sun was just assigned here, so he doesn't understand how things work. Please continue."
Lin Xiaosu smiled faintly. "Officer Sun spent the whole night watching surveillance footage and did not sleep at all. He's focused entirely on solving the case. That kind of dedication deserves recognition. If you have something urgent, go take care of it first. I can handle the registration at the window myself."
Officer Sun's brows suddenly furrowed. "How did you know I spent all night watching footage?"
"..." Zhou Mei was equally surprised.
Even though she knew about Lin Xiaosu's abilities, she still could not accept something this fantastical.
It was one thing to tell that someone had not slept all night—that was simply sharp observation. But knowing he had spent the night watching surveillance footage? Unless he had been lurking outside the man's window watching him...
Lin Xiaosu smiled. "Just look at Officer Sun's eyes and it's obvious. The signs of staying up all night are very clear. Then what did he do all night? Different activities leave different traces in the eyes. The rims of his eyes are somewhat bloodshot, showing that he had kept them wide open and fixed in place for a long time overnight. Combined with the fact that the two of you were hurrying out, I boldly concluded that Officer Sun spent last night watching surveillance footage for criminal leads."
Zhou Mei and Officer Sun looked at each other.
Zhou Mei let out a soft breath. "I'm convinced! Are you telling me this proves you have what it takes to open a detective agency?"
"Of course. If I'm going to open a detective agency, I naturally need the corresponding professional ability. Otherwise, wouldn't it be a joke?" Lin Xiaosu lifted his teacup.
Zhou Mei said, "Opening a detective agency isn't just about filing a registration. There's a pile of procedures involved. If you handle them yourself, you probably won't get it done in less than two months."
"I know. But what else can I do? I'll take it step by step."
Zhou Mei said, "I can handle the paperwork for you. I'll take care of it, and everything will be ready within a week at most."
Lin Xiaosu smiled. "..."
"Don't be happy too soon. I have a condition!" Zhou Mei said. "Help me think of a solution for the case I'm working on. Only if you can help me solve this problem will I devote my full attention to helping you!"
Officer Sun, seated sideways in an office chair nearby, gave a slight twitch of his hand and looked at Zhou Mei in disbelief.
She was inviting an outsider to help...
Was that even within procedure?
Lin Xiaosu gently shook his head. "I knew you'd pull something like this! But since I need your help, what choice do I have? Fine. I'll help you, then you help me!"
Zhou Mei grew excited. "Xiao Sun, bring the case file over!"
"Sister Zhou, this..." Xiao Sun hesitated.
"I know what you want to say. Don't say it. Bring it over!"
Miao Ruolan clearly did not understand the unspoken tension between them.
If this had been the old Lin Xiaosu, he would not have understood either.
But was he still the same man he had once been?
He understood that this was about rules!
Details of an active investigation could not be leaked. That was discipline.
Zhou Mei had no choice but to seek his help out of her urgent need to solve the case quickly, but that was fundamentally a violation of protocol.
The best way to resolve such a dilemma was to avoid discussing the details and only address the single most crucial point...
Lin Xiaosu spoke. "There's no need for the case file. Officer Zhou, just tell me about it."
"All right. This started with a good deed..."
Someone had found a handbag. Unable to locate its owner, the person turned it in at the police station.
If it had been an ordinary handbag, that would have been a textbook good deed.
The problem was that when the bag was opened, there was no cash inside—only drugs! A full three kilograms of them!
A drug case involving such a terrifying quantity was already enormous for this small county town!
The criminal investigation unit was now trying to find the owner. The location where the person who found the bag said he had picked it up was in a surveillance blind spot. They had pulled a huge amount of footage from nearby cameras for analysis—this was the footage Xiao Sun had watched all night—but they still could not find the owner.
That was the situation: a shocking major case triggered by a good deed.
In an ordinary case of returning lost property, the owner would thank the finder for his honest character. But in this instance, whether the owner would be grateful or curse the finder's ancestors for eighteen generations was impossible to say.
In any case, everyone on the team found the situation both absurd and exasperating.
No matter how many ridiculous aspects the case had, they could not laugh, because their superiors had issued a strict order: the case had to be solved within three days. Otherwise, once too much time passed, the people in that criminal network would move their assets and relocate their personnel, and in the end, they would not catch a single one of them...
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