Finding Talent

No matter how urgent finding someone was, it would have to wait until after school. After taking the call from the police station, Xia Xu picked up a rice bowl with toppings outside the school gates and returned to the classroom.

It was lunchtime, so the classroom was even quieter than before. To be precise, there was only one person inside.

The entire classroom was deserted except for Tang Youxin, who was still in her seat, eating in tiny bites.

Perhaps because no one else was around, Tang Youxin wasn't hunched over her desk to eat this time. Still, she looked furtive, glancing back toward the rear classroom door like a thief after every little bite.

And sure enough, she happened to turn around just as Xia Xu arrived, their eyes meeting.

Eek!

As though she'd been caught red-handed doing something bad, Tang Youxin froze. Even her chewing came to a halt.

Only after a moment did she recover and hurriedly hold up her food for Xia Xu to see. "I... I'm eating steamed buns this time!"

"What, this is what you call eating better?"

It took Xia Xu a moment to realize what Tang Youxin meant, leaving him unsure whether to laugh or cry.

Tang Youxin was afraid he would insist on feeding her again, so she was emphasizing that she'd already improved her meals.

"They're meat buns. They're really tasty. I like them."

Thinking Xia Xu still wasn't satisfied, Tang Youxin grew anxious, her face flushing red.

"All right, eat them if you like them."

Xia Xu chuckled and sat down in the seat beside her to eat his own meal. As he did, he picked up a piece of spare rib and offered it to her. "Here, have a braised spare rib."

"No."

Tang Youxin ducked her head away.

"Open your mouth. Just one piece."

Xia Xu put on a stern expression.

"Then... just one piece."

Having already been fed spicy hot pot by him before, Tang Youxin hesitated briefly before shyly accepting it.

True to his word, Xia Xu didn't offer her any more food and simply tucked into his own meal.

With many things, going too far was as bad as not going far enough.

Tang Youxin was merely a little frugal. It wasn't as though she couldn't survive and was about to starve to death. Clearly, she didn't want other people's charity or pity, nor was she in such dire straits that she had to accept them.

Offering her a little food could pass for a normal interaction between friends, like sharing a snack for her to try. Buying her meals every day, however, would only backfire and hurt her feelings.

Lunch, a midday rest, classes-the school day passed uneventfully.

Since it was still early, Xia Xu grabbed a few bites of dinner at a small shop outside the school gates, then hurried straight to the development area near yesterday's construction site.

Last night, he'd already located the three nearby branches of Xieyou Travel Agency. All that remained was to check them in person and narrow down where the old man from the construction site might appear.

There also happened to be a job market along the way. It probably hadn't closed yet, so he could take a look.

After all, he was now a "boss" with fifty or sixty thousand in his bank account. He could afford to hire someone properly. The question was whether anyone would be willing to do this sort of surveillance and tailing work. Given a choice, most ordinary people probably wouldn't want to get involved in such a morally gray job.

Besides, this wasn't something just anyone could do well. Reliability was one concern, and ability was another. Tailing someone over an extended period without being spotted or losing them took real skill.

Following Xue Mingjie last time might have seemed easy, but that was only because he wasn't on his guard. Following someone once or twice was one thing; doing it for a long time without being discovered was difficult.

If you kept appearing in someone's field of vision, even if he didn't consciously notice, his instincts would start telling him something was wrong.

Still, that wasn't much of a problem for Xia Xu. He could inspect people's status panels, after all. At worst, he'd spend some time finding someone with a talent for surveillance or investigation.

"Sir, you can drop me off at the entrance just ahead."

Riding on a motorcycle taxi, Xia Xu asked the driver to let him off outside a job market.

The name Star City Glorious Human Resources Market hung prominently above the entrance. It was already five or six in the evening, close to closing time, but the place was still packed with people.

Naturally, he'd come here specifically because the people here were already looking for work.

If he approached random people on the street, even someone who met his requirements might refuse. Most people had steady jobs of their own and wouldn't resign just to earn a few thousand or ten thousand.

That was especially true when the work involved tailing and surveillance. Even if it wasn't illegal, who knew whether it might drag them into something dangerous?

[Name]: Zhu Min

[Life level]: 1

[Fate potential]: Unemployed drifter (0 stars)

[Talent potential]: None

[Special]: None

[Obsession]: Doesn't want to work.

[Affection]: 0

"Just my luck."

Naturally, Xia Xu wasn't qualified to set up a recruitment booth yet. He could only inspect the job seekers' stats one by one in the hall, and the very first person had already given him a lousy start.

An unemployed drifter for a fate? That was fucking ridiculous. Did that mean he'd never work a day in his life? He was either some rich kid or a layabout living off his parents.

"I knew it wouldn't be that easy. If all else fails, I'll just find someone willing to do it and make do for now..."

After checking several more people in succession, Xia Xu felt helpless.

Although the people here were all job seekers looking for work, finding someone who met his requirements among them was still like searching for a needle in a haystack. There were over a thousand people crammed into the job market alone. Who knew how long it would take to check them all?

Besides, most people here had unremarkable one- or two-star stats, and even two stars were rare.

After all, people with strong qualifications, such as advanced degrees or outstanding talents, could naturally find jobs without much trouble. They didn't need to crowd into a job market every day. Those who kept coming here were precisely the people who struggled to find work, or fresh graduates.

Xia Xu spent over forty minutes at the job market, staying until it closed at six thirty. Only then did he reluctantly leave empty-handed, looking just as dejected as the other job seekers.

Over those forty-odd minutes, he'd checked several hundred people. Some did have talents for surveillance or investigation, but when he approached them with the explanation that he was hiring for private detective work, almost no one agreed.

The first problem was the nature of the job. However respectable the term "private detective" might sound, it wasn't legal in the Xia Kingdom, and frankly, it didn't have much of a following.

It wasn't that there was no demand for the service, but that there was no culture of admiring detectives or similar professions. Here, it was an extremely obscure niche occupation-or perhaps not even a real occupation at all-and hardly something to boast about.

The second problem was probably him, the boss. He'd come in a rush today without preparing anything. He looked like a high school student and hadn't even had time to change out of his school uniform. One glance would make people doubt his credibility, and if they actually asked for company credentials or anything similar, he had none to show them.

Still, today was only about getting a feel for things. He could always come back tomorrow. He'd already lost track of Zhang Jianmin, and he hadn't encountered any other plots, so it wasn't so urgent that he absolutely had to hire someone today.

"Sir, take me to Era Scenic Gardens. And sorry for the trouble, but could you make a detour past these two places on the way..."

With the job market closed, he could only return tomorrow. After leaving, Xia Xu hailed a taxi and headed straight for his next destination without delay.

Era Scenic Gardens was the residential complex where Xue Mingjie and the others had gambled yesterday.

There were three branches of Xieyou Travel Agency within the area he'd deduced yesterday. Checking them one by one should lead him to the old man from the construction site mentioned in the plot of "The Dying Man."