The natives of this world were so fierce. Chapter 3: Gold coin
Qin Xiaoxia was actually more frightened than angry.
There was a strange thief who could enter his home without leaving a trace, and that thief seemed to have set his sights on the place.
The thief had come to steal things two days in a row. No, it couldn't really be called stealing. Even though this was only the second time, Qin Xiaoxia was almost instinctively certain that the two spatulas had been hidden in some hard-to-find corner of his home.
For now, the thief didn't seem particularly malicious, but stealing things only to hide them clearly wasn't the behavior of a sane person.
By that logic, it wasn't impossible that he might come in one day and hack Qin Xiaoxia to death!
I have to call the police now!
His life came first. However slow or lazy Qin Xiaoxia might be, after two days of this, he didn't dare take any more chances.
The police arrived quite quickly. Perhaps because Qing Town was small and the station was nearby, they showed up about ten minutes after his call.
Ding-dong.
When the doorbell rang, he looked through the peephole and saw two officers: a tall, thin man of about forty and a policewoman.
Click.
Qin Xiaoxia sprang to the door and opened it at lightning speed, giving the policewoman a fright.
"Officers, you're finally here! This thief has come into my home two days running. I have no idea what's going on, and it's pretty scary!"
"You're Mr. Qin, correct? My surname is Zhao, and this is my colleague, Xiao Liu. I've heard the basic details, but I still have a few questions. If you don't mind, shall we talk inside?"
The older officer, Zhao, spoke and gestured for Qin Xiaoxia to calm down.
Qin Xiaoxia hurriedly stepped aside and invited them in.
Five minutes later.
"You're saying this thief came into your home just to hide your slippers and spatulas?"
The policewoman sounded both surprised and amused.
"Yes, I'm baffled too. But I figured that even if they don't steal anything, someone being able to enter my home whenever they want is still a threat to my safety and property. That's why I called the police!"
Qin Xiaoxia still felt conflicted as he said this.
Saying something like that could easily make the officers think he was an idiot, but he couldn't lie about something like this either.
"So it was a spatula that went missing today?" Officer Zhao followed Qin Xiaoxia into the kitchen, studied the wok for a while, and asked.
"Yes, a spatula. I'm certain it's still in the house. The thief hid it somewhere."
Even Qin Xiaoxia felt odd saying that. If he were the officer, by now he'd definitely be wondering whether the caller was making a prank report or had something wrong with his head.
"You didn't hide it yourself, did you?" Xiao Liu suddenly asked.
Phew, she finally asked!
Qin Xiaoxia seemed to have been preparing his answer to that question all along. His face took on an expression of anger and disappointment, as though he had suffered a tremendous insult.
"Do I look like someone with nothing better to do? Filing a false report is illegal! My life's going perfectly well, and I have no interest in visiting a detention center. I didn't call yesterday precisely because I was afraid of being suspected like this. But apparently the thief got hooked on it, and I got scared enough to call!"
Officer Zhao hurried to smooth things over.
"Please don't get upset, Mr. Qin. Xiao Liu is still inexperienced. Besides, your situation really is unusual. We want to get to the bottom of it as soon as possible too."
Officer Zhao clearly took his work seriously. Even Qin Xiaoxia, who knew next to nothing about the law, understood that something this minor probably wouldn't qualify for a formal case. The officers could only come and have a look.
The three of them carefully inspected the inside and outside of the apartment, but found no signs of entry such as a broken window or a forced lock.
Incidentally, during the search, Qin Xiaoxia specifically checked the awkward corners around the apartment and found both spatulas behind the water heater.
But when he found them, the policewoman gave him a rather peculiar look. Yes, exactly the "suspicious look" that immediately sprang to Qin Xiaoxia's mind.
After more than half an hour of work, the two officers still hadn't found any useful leads.
Qin Xiaoxia was basically someone with few relatives, no enemies, and little reason to leave home. It was hard to imagine anyone deliberately targeting him.
"Mr. Qin, I suggest you change your door lock first. Make sure your doors and windows are locked before you go to sleep. If you can afford it, install a camera at home."
Before leaving, Officer Zhao gave Qin Xiaoxia some standard advice. Although Xiao Liu did her best to look serious, Qin Xiaoxia kept feeling that her eyes were shooting rays of suspicion at him.
Damn it, I knew you wouldn't believe me!
As the two officers left the building, they crossed paths with Gou Junbao, who was returning with a young woman. Both he and the woman were very curious about what the police were doing there.
Only a few minutes after Qin Xiaoxia closed the door, the bell rang again. He opened it to find Brother Gou back, with a reasonably attractive young woman in tow.
"Xiaoxia, did you see the police who came to our building?"
Qin Xiaoxia had already retrieved the stack of résumés from inside and casually handed it to Gou Junbao at the door.
"Yeah, I saw them..."
"Whoa, that's a thick stack. Thanks."
Before Qin Xiaoxia could say anything after the thanks, the shameless pair were already laughing and chatting as they entered the apartment opposite, barely sparing him any further attention.
Can't wait, can you? Gou, you bastard!
"Remember to send me my fee!"
Qin Xiaoxia could only shout across the hall to express his displeasure.
Bang!
The door slammed shut.
He'd already been in a bad mood, and having their lovey-dovey antics shoved in his face made it worse.
As for changing the lock, that would have to wait until tomorrow. Tonight, locking the doors and windows from inside and sliding the bolt into place should be enough.
Now that he'd found the spatulas, he still had dinner to cook.
The ingredients would lose their freshness if left too long, and he wasn't rich enough to waste them like that.
His specialties were sweet-and-sour pork and pork rib soup with corn, with a plate of leafy greens on the side.
Perhaps because he'd used up so much physical and mental energy that day, his appetite was especially good at dinner. He polished off more than half the food by himself and put all the leftovers in the refrigerator.
After tidying the kitchen, he went back to check his computer.
The programs he'd set up on his laptop had netted a decent haul, winning bids on popular goods such as new multifunction routers and premium liquor.
He knew merchants who would buy all of these, so selling them wouldn't be a problem.
Then he opened the horror short story he'd written yesterday and found that its traffic was unexpectedly high. Quite a few comments even asked the author to continue it.
Looks like you really do need firsthand experience to write a good story.
With that realization, Qin Xiaoxia decisively chose to write a continuation. On this website, once a short story attracted enough traffic, ads could bring in money too.
It was once again nearly midnight when he settled his nerves and went to bed.
He slept without dreams.
His bedroom window faced south, and the apartment was on the top floor, giving it excellent natural light. Amid an invisible ripple, the morning sunlight shifted its angle and fell across Qin Xiaoxia's face.
Qin Xiaoxia was already awake, but still groggy. He vaguely realized that his head wasn't on the pillow, and his neck felt uncomfortable.
Thanks to his poor sleeping habits, he was lying diagonally across the bed.
With his eyes closed, he reached to the side with his right hand, felt the pillow, and pulled it over to tuck beneath his head.
What Qin Xiaoxia didn't see was that, as he tugged, something beneath the pillow seemed to tumble off the bed with the motion.
There was a clear clink, followed by a sound like a coin rolling across the floor.
Qin Xiaoxia instinctively opened his eyes to see what had fallen.
Catching the sunlight, a glittering golden point rolled across the floor, then toppled over in the corner a few seconds later.
What's that?
For some reason, his heart gave a sudden jolt, and all his sleepiness vanished.
Qin Xiaoxia got out of bed and strode to the corner. Puzzled, he bent down and picked up a gold-colored coin, slightly larger and thicker than a one-yuan coin.
It bore ornate patterns that looked ancient and exquisite, along with writing he didn't recognize.
It felt heavy in his hand, with a substantial heft.
Could this thing be a gold coin?
For some reason, that thought burst irrepressibly into his mind the instant he saw it.