Half an Hour, 30,000 Yuan

Miao Ruolan was startled...

5,000 wasn't enough?

Sister Song sprang to her feet. "5,000 isn't enough? 5,000 can buy a dog!"

"I don't like hearing you say that, Sister!" Lin Xiaosu said. "Were you looking for a dog? That was your baby! You look like a woman from a wealthy, luxurious family. Is your baby worth only 5,000 yuan?"

This was called using her own methods against her!

Miao Ruolan's teeth ached a little...

Sister Song choked on her words. "Then how much do you want?"

"30,000!"

"30,000?" Sister Song nearly jumped up.

Lin Xiaosu sat down in front of her. "What? Are you a little strapped for cash, Sister? Or... do you think your baby isn't worth 30,000 yuan?"

Miao Ruolan's eyes quietly darted about. If a smile appeared on her face, it was probably a wicked one.

This little rascal was too bad. He was squeezing her like this—how was she supposed to answer?

Sister Song's face darkened like water. After hesitating for a long time, she gritted her teeth. "Fine! But I have a condition!"

"Let's hear it," Lin Xiaosu said.

"Within two hours, I want to see my baby. If I see her, I'll pay the remaining balance in full! If I don't, you'll return the deposit at double the amount!"

Now it was Miao Ruolan's turn to be caught in a dilemma.

Two hours?

There was a time limit on finding something? This...

A smug smile appeared on Sister Song's face. "What? Are you lacking ability? Or lacking courage?"

Lin Xiaosu raised a hand. "We'll take it!"

The contract was signed.

A 5,000-yuan deposit would be paid first. The dog had to be found before noon on May 17. Party B would then pay the remaining 25,000 yuan. If the dog could not be found by then, Party A would return Party B's deposit at double the amount, totaling 10,000 yuan.

The rest of the terms were standard clauses. Only the final one was handwritten.

Miao Ruolan hesitated a little, but after Lin Xiaosu nodded, she signed her name anyway.

It was exactly ten o'clock.

Lin Xiaosu looked at the photos of the dog on Sister Song's phone. It was a little Teddy. The photos showed all sorts of poses—on the bed, eating, wearing flowers. Those were not the important part. The important part was the background behind the doghouse: a piano, a villa, luxury cars, elegant afternoon tea.

Showing off photos of the dog was not really about showing off the dog. It was about showing off a refined life, showing off one's social standing.

Lin Xiaosu swept his gaze over them. "Let's go."

He followed Sister Song out the door and got into the luxury car that had appeared repeatedly in her photos.

The car drove to a small park outside Fengcheng Tower. This was where Sister Song walked her dog with several close friends. They had been chatting happily, but when they turned around, the dog was gone.

Lin Xiaosu silently sighed toward the sky in the little park, lamenting that his Heavenly Dao Insightful Eye had truly fallen so low that he was using it to find a dog!

Then he lowered his head and used Time Reversal to trace the trail.

He left the park and entered an alley beside it. Ahead was a noisy market: Fengcheng Vegetable Market. The morning market had just ended, and rotten vegetable leaves, fish heads, and animal entrails littered the ground.

Sister Song frowned deeply. "My baby doesn't even walk on dirt roads. Would she really come to a place this filthy?"

Lin Xiaosu ignored her. Passing through a small door in the vegetable market, he saw a riverside beach outside. Household garbage was scattered everywhere, and several little dogs ran around there with particular joy.

Lin Xiaosu smiled and gently raised a hand, pointing at one of the dogs. "Baby changed clothes. Can you still recognize her, Sister?"

Sister Song stared at the little coal-black ball covered in mud, whose original color could no longer be seen, and rubbed her eyes. "Baby, is that you?"

The little coal ball scrambled over, then leaped up. A collar around her neck was revealed, and Sister Song's eyes lit up. "It really is you! How did you end up like this..."

The little dog stuck out her tongue and licked Sister Song's face. Caught off guard, Sister Song was licked squarely. Her expression changed at once. "Pah! Why do you stink so badly? What did you eat?"

Miao Ruolan wore an expression as if her teeth hurt...

What had the dog eaten?

Did she really need to ask?

Lin Xiaosu raised his phone and held it before Sister Song. "Sister, it's 10:29 now. The mission was completed successfully. Please pay the remaining balance!"

Sister Song put the dog down, fastened the collar properly, and held the leash in her hand. Slowly, she raised her head. "You really want to charge 30,000 for just half an hour?"

"It's written clearly in black and white in the contract. How could I not charge you?" Lin Xiaosu said. "Besides, Sister Song, you're one of Fengcheng's wealthy ladies. 30,000 yuan isn't some insurmountable hurdle for you. If you refuse to pay and word gets out, how will you keep up appearances? So I can only charge you."

With a dark expression, Sister Song took out her phone and scanned Miao Ruolan's payment code.

She led the dog home for a bath without looking back.

Miao Ruolan and Lin Xiaosu walked back side by side. After leaving the vegetable market, crossing the pedestrian street, returning to the detective agency, and drinking half a cup of tea, she finally let out a soft breath. "Xiaosu, isn't our price a little too high? 30,000 yuan for half an hour... it's really hard to imagine."

Lin Xiaosu smiled. "That's the special nature of the detective business. We need to set a threshold."

"A threshold?"

"Yes. If I charged her one or two hundred yuan, we'd have far too much work in the future, and the value for our time would be terrible. We'd be busy all day long just to earn a little hardship pay. That's not what I want."

"But if you set the threshold so high, will anyone dare come to us in the future? Won't we end up doing one-off business?"

"Don't worry. People have their flaws. Sometimes, the more outrageous your price is, the more people will come knocking. If this wealthy Sister Song posts about her experience on social media, we'll become famous among Fengcheng's wealthy ladies. Maybe in the future, the way they show off their wealth won't be by drinking afternoon tea, but by being able to afford Fengcheng Detective Agency's sky-high investigation fees."

Miao Ruolan blinked. "Would Sister Song really post about this?"

In her understanding, Sister Song had looked utterly miserable and constipated, as though she had suffered a silent loss. Would she really show it off?

Lin Xiaosu smiled softly. "She will! You can hardly imagine the logic of those women who have a little money but are terribly shallow... If you don't believe me, look at her social media."

Miao Ruolan actually did.

After scrolling through a few posts, a new update popped up.

It was Sister Song's newly posted status...

She was holding the dog and sitting outside her villa, with the caption: "Baby got lost today. I asked Fengcheng Detective Agency for help and only got her back after spending 30,000 yuan. Baby, one little escape cost you a month's worth of food. Mommy is grounding you for three days!"

Miao Ruolan was dumbfounded. "She didn't accuse us of charging too much. She was just showing off her wealth... What she emphasized was that 30,000 yuan was only one month of food for her dog."

"That's the logic of wealthy ladies! Money can be lost, but an opportunity to show off can't be missed!"

"It really is a bit ironic. Wealthy ladies pride themselves on being out of touch with ordinary life, even make a point of it, yet their pets are incredibly down-to-earth. Given the chance, they run out into the wild and roll around..."

"That's why, sometimes, people really aren't as good as dogs! At least dogs live honestly..." Lin Xiaosu stood up. "I'm going to the library to read. Call me if anything comes up."

The library was right across the street. It was only a few steps away.

At the street corner stood a black sedan. There were two people inside. The driver was a young man, while the passenger seat held a middle-aged man wearing gold-rimmed glasses that made him look somewhat scholarly.

"Boss, as long as he's with Miao Ruolan, we have no chance to make a move," the young man said.

"We have to wait for a chance even if there isn't one!" The boss let out a soft breath. "As long as he's around, we're in danger."

"Yes. Huang San's failed deal should have cost us only one bag of goods. But after he got involved, seven people along the entire line were arrested. I also found out that he handled the child kidnapping case at the Fighting Gym last time—it was solved that very day. Even the murder case in the hidden meditation room at Lingyin Temple, he figured it out. He found Sister Song's dog in half an hour just now. This person seems to have a special ability to trace connections. Someone like him can't be allowed to put down roots in Fengcheng!"

"He knows this line of work is dangerous too, so he found Miao Ruolan as a partner!" The boss lightly adjusted his glasses.

"Is Miao Ruolan really that strong? She looks so quiet and refined..."

"She's an inheritor of ancient martial arts, no small matter. Remember, as long as Miao Ruolan is by his side, do not make a move under any circumstances. If Miao Ruolan separates from him, don't miss the chance. The money has already been transferred into your account, and a false identity has been prepared for you. Once you succeed, leave immediately and fly far away!"

"Don't worry!" The young man licked his lips, a fierce glint flashing in his eyes.

The black sedan started and merged into the flow of people...

At noon, Miao Ruolan entered the library. When she saw Lin Xiaosu, he was half reclining on a sofa and looking at a screen in front of him. The screen rotated before him, displaying a map of longitude and latitude. This was another way to read at the library: electronic reading.

Electronic reading was linked to a database containing everything from astronomy to geography.

As long as you were interested in reading, you could search for any public information and have it displayed on the electronic screen for you to read.

"What are you reading?" Miao Ruolan placed a lunch box in front of him.

"Geography."

"You're interested in geography?"

"Of course. In the detective business, I'll inevitably have to travel north and south in the future... Hmm? Beef over rice?" Lin Xiaosu opened the lunch box, and a delicious fragrance hit him.

Miao Ruolan smiled softly. "It's our grand opening today, and you made 30,000 yuan in one go. Can't I add a dish for you?"

"It's us! We made 30,000 yuan!" Lin Xiaosu lightly brushed the tip of his chopsticks against Miao Ruolan's nose.

Miao Ruolan seemed to enjoy this kind of intimacy from him. She smiled sweetly. "You eat here. I'll borrow a book too."

When Lin Xiaosu left the library and returned to the shop, he immediately saw the book in Miao Ruolan's hand: "Investigation Studies"...

"You really started studying?" Lin Xiaosu said.

Miao Ruolan said, "You're so talented and still work so hard. What reason do I have not to work hard?"

"Working hard is good. Can you understand it?"

Miao Ruolan scratched her head. "It definitely goes in, but whether it stays is a huge question. I feel like my brain is a sieve. Knowledge goes in from the front and out from the back..."

She spent the entire afternoon reading seriously.

She continued reading throughout the night.

By dawn, she felt as though a crack had opened in her mind regarding the profound discipline of detective work, yet it also felt as though nothing had opened. In any case, her head was full of all kinds of terms...

"It's raining!" Lin Xiaosu came out of the room next door.

"Nothing better happen in weather like this. Investigation Studies says rain can erase traces and wash away scents."

Lin Xiaosu smiled. "Don't tell me you read all night."

He was right!

She really had read all night.

Miao Ruolan smiled softly, went downstairs, and opened the shop's door...

She went outside to buy breakfast. Just as she returned carrying fried dough sticks and soy milk, a car came speeding over. A middle-aged woman got out and hurried toward the detective agency. Using the Investigation Studies she had read all night, Miao Ruolan judged that this woman... was in a great hurry.