Caught red-handed.
Fu Qian's appearance at the moment was certainly unusual, but compared with something like a candlestick, it still lacked a certain vintage charm.
Under the staff member's keen gaze, it wasn't easy to come up with an excuse.
"How can you call it stealing? This item and I are bound by fate."
But how could such a thing stump Professor Fu? He immediately snorted and declared that treasures belonged to the virtuous.
"You're quite honest, at least..."
The staff member seemed not to have encountered anyone this brazen before. After a stunned pause, they offered high praise.
"So are you going to confiscate it?"
Maintaining the composure expected of an intellectual, Fu Qian didn't get carried away just because the other party had praised him a couple of times. He toyed with the candlestick in his hand, confirming how the official procedure was supposed to go.
"So you didn't hear what I said?"
The staff member, however, seemed displeased by the question, their expression turning cold.
"I told you in the first sentence: pedestrians don't need to be inspected."
Got it. This wasn't part of their job.
Ignoring the other person's tone, Fu Qian even felt sympathetic toward them at that moment.
Forget that he'd been caught red-handed. The other party had practically confessed, too. Handing him over would be an easy accomplishment... but was it actually part of the job or not?
I'm here to work the keyboard. If someone comes in and beats the boss to the floor, what the hell does that have to do with me?
Now that was professional ethics.
As someone with a strong sense of ethics himself, Fu Qian easily empathized with the staff member's reasoning. He couldn't help but feel that choosing to make contact as a pedestrian had been