"Be smart yourself, don’t go out unless it’s necessary. Let them do the grocery shopping, and try not to leave home alone in case someone tries to kidnap you for ransom. I’ll have a private detective keep an eye on the three of you for your safety."
"I know. Besides, I don’t even want to do the grocery shopping anymore. With the New Year around the corner, everything is getting more expensive. Mom and Dad still scold me for not bargaining and always buying the most expensive vegetables."
"You need to learn from me on this: let whatever they say go in one ear and out the other. Just endure it until you’re of age, and then you can just walk away. The world is wide and free, and you don’t know how great it is to live alone in a rented place."
Ye Bing’s face showed longing.
"Mmm, don’t worry, big sister, I’ll endure it until I’m of age."
Ye Nai patted Little Sister Ye’s head.
"Take a nap, I’ll wake you up in a bit. I need to find a private detective."
"Mmm, then I’ll sleep for a while."
Warmly tucked in a hotel room, with a full stomach, the drowsiness kicked in. Ye Bing couldn’t help but yawn, took off her coat, and rolled into the blankets, quickly falling asleep.
Ye Nai cleared the table, brought out her laptop, and entered the Awakener Center’s official website to look for a private detective who was still taking jobs.
She didn’t have the connections to ask thugs from the streets for help, as they were too heavy-handed in their work, which could easily lead to trouble for herself.
The private detectives listed on the Awakener website were openly taking assignments, and those registered on this official site tended to have some scruples. After all, if they botched a job, it wasn’t very hard for the client to track them down for recourse.
Whether it was an Awakener with a mental system superpower didn’t matter much to Ye Nai; even an Ordinary person with skills in tracking and conversation could work, as long as they had good techniques.
Good technique justified a high fee. Without it, the title of Awakener was useless. Botch a secret investigation and you might just startle the snake in the grass instead of catching it.
She sifted through the listings one by one. With the New Year approaching, not many private detectives skilled in catching philanderers and investigating debts were still taking orders, and the local selection was even bleaker.
The nearest ones were in Dongpo City, which, like Anyuan City, bordered East Ridge City and depended on the Secret Realm.
Ye Nai sent private messages to the private detectives she preferred, explaining her situation: her parents were in debt, debt collectors had already harassed the underage child at home, yet her parents wouldn’t clarify how much was owed, fearing deception. She hoped the private detective could investigate.
Hiring out-of-town detectives would mean extra charges for food and accommodation on top of their work and travel expenses. Paying more wasn’t the main issue; the main thing was whether they could provide results before the New Year.
Moreover, because of debt collectors who might resort to violent tactics, or even discovering her own investigations in progress, the private detectives needed to be capable of handling sudden dangers.
About an hour later, two detectives finally replied to her messages, willing to take the job.
So, through the official hiring system, she placed orders for both detectives to start the work, offering each a 20,000 RMB deposit with an additional 30,000 RMB upon completion.
Just like that, she spent 100,000 RMB.
Ye Nai didn’t tell either detective that another was working the same case; each would do their own work and she’d compare the results for any discrepancies.
This content is taken from fгee𝑤ebɳoveɭ.cøm.
She just hoped they wouldn’t run into each other while working.
The elongated East Ridge City stretched from Anyuan City to Dongpo City, with the latter being much closer—a mere two hours away by train.
Ye Nai woke Little Sister Ye, checked out of the hotel, and dropped her off at their apartment building on an electric scooter. As she did so, she received train schedules from the two detectives, both of whom had independently purchased tickets for the soonest departure, ensuring they’d arrive by nightfall.
"What are you looking at, big sister?" Little Sister Ye picked up the vegetables from the footboard and peered over curiously.
"The private detectives have set off," Ye Nai showed her the phone, "They’ve bought their tickets and are about to head out."
"Is hiring private detectives expensive?"
"It’s not about being expensive or not. I’d rather pay the detectives to find out what’s really going on than use the money to repay our parents’ debts. Their money has vanished to who knows where, yet they expect their children to pay it back. It’s ridiculous."
Ye Nai rubbed Ye Bing’s head.
"Go upstairs, and remember what we agreed upon. Don’t give anything away at home."
"Yeah, don’t worry Big Sister, I’m incredibly strong now."
Ye Bing, carrying groceries, dashed into the first-floor hall. She turned around, waved at Ye Nai, and headed for the elevator.
Watching her step into the elevator, Ye Nai mounted her electric scooter and left, heading to the city’s best hotel to book a room for some rest.
On her phone, team members were looking for her. Having not seen her for the whole day, they were asking where she was.
Ye Nai replied that she had returned to the city to buy New Year’s goods. Now that the express logistics were on holiday, even if they were on duty, the efficiency was significantly reduced, so shopping had gone back to being offline.
Standing in front of the window, she took a photo of the fireworks market organized by the official body across the street, with designated areas to buy and set off fireworks.
The mention of fireworks piqued everyone’s interest in the group, prompting Ye Nai to check if there were any large display fireworks available since the military camp had plenty of open space for such fireworks.
Ye Nai immediately went downstairs, crossed the street, and started buying fireworks.
She even started a group video call so that everyone could pick together.
She bought one of each style of the large display fireworks, then medium and small-sized ones, and also made purchases for others.
After going back and forth for two hours, she finally bought enough.
The next day, she rode her electric scooter around the city, earnestly doing her New Year shopping.
That evening, two private detectives separately sent her their initial findings.
The debt collectors had shown up themselves, and clear videos of them harassing family members and neighbors in the hallway were captured from multiple positions and angles. Upon close inspection, Ye Nai realized that the two private detectives had installed seven miniature cameras at her doorstep.
It was an all-encompassing siege.
With the facial capture, the identities of the debt collectors were easy to track. Both private detectives stated they could uncover the debt collectors’ background and debt situation by the next day.
Ye Nai patiently waited a day and received the results.
Her family’s debt was real.
Her parents’ salaries, which she had never seen before, had been used for financial investments, and the reason there hadn’t been any issues over the years was due to the steady returns. However, strangely, in the second half of last year, a basic broker introduced a stock fund to her parents, claiming it was a guaranteed profit.
At first, the returns were indeed good, but from the end of the year to now, the profits plummeted steeply, not only wiping out those returns but also the principal.
At such a time, cutting losses would not have been too significant, but they were swayed by the fund broker’s sweet talk and kept investing more money, leading to even greater losses.
The more they lost, the more they tried to recoup their losses by stubbornly pouring more money in. When they ran out of money at home, they borrowed 200,000 directly from a lending company for one month at an interest rate of 5%, amounting to 10,000 just for the interest.
How much money her parents still had left in the fund was unknown, and the private detectives couldn’t hack into the bank system to check their accounts. One could only say that the 210,000 was a crushing pressure.
No wonder they shouted on the phone last night that they needed 200,000.
Were they expecting her to repay the principal? Should she be thankful that they didn’t add interest?
Ye Nai looked at the investigative report and let out a cold laugh.
200,000, she’d rather hire private detectives.