Chapter 217: Chapter 184: Good Intentions Gratefully Accepted
"Hu——"
"Hu——"
After who knows how long, Yang Xiao groggily woke up, his eyelids heavy, but he managed to open them bit by bit with effort.
Beneath him was something hard and cold. He wobbled to his feet, thankfully still in that familiar office. The overhead lights were on, and lined up on the desk were his backpack, stacks of money, and that unfathomable Drama Robe.
"Deserve to be rich~~ Deserve to make a fortune~~"
"Win the lottery today~~ Be loved by a rich widow tomorrow~~"
The cell phone on the floor suddenly rang out. This was the ringtone Yang Xiao had set. Picking it up, the display showed it was a call from Beibei.
"Hello?"
"Captain, you’re back!!" Beibei’s voice resonated with urgency. "I called you so many times, why did you only just pick up?"
Only then did Yang Xiao notice the numerous missed calls on his phone. It was still dark outside; the time was 1:44 AM.
"How did you know I entered the Nightmare World?" Yang Xiao asked, puzzled.
"Have you forgotten? Director Nalan arranged for technicians to monitor your location at all times. Three hours ago, the monitoring equipment triggered an alarm; there was an unusual fluctuation in your office. The technicians judged that you had entered the Nightmare World," Beibei explained and then quickly asked, "So? Did you get the Resentful Eye?"
"Um... hold on a minute."
Yang Xiao, phone in hand, walked around the room. Nothing new had appeared. He then inspected his Drama Robe carefully but saw no changes. Facing the phone, he spoke the truth: "It seems not."
"It’s okay, the fact that you came back alive is best," Beibei sighed in relief after hearing Yang Xiao was unharmed.
"Alright, let’s leave it at that. Captain, get some good rest. We’ll talk about the details when we meet tomorrow. I’ll go inform Da Xiong and Ximen Xiu. They surely haven’t slept all night."
Just as Beibei was humming a tune, ready to hang up, Yang Xiao stopped her, "Wait, Beibei, something happened here. Can you come over right now?"
Beibei was incredibly efficient. In less than half an hour, she arrived in a whirlwind, bringing along both Da Xiong and a bleary-eyed Ximen Xiu.
Upon seeing Yang Xiao, Ximen Xiu was the first to stride forward and embrace him, eyes brimming with tears, the depth of his emotions stirring, "Captain! To pray for your safety, I didn’t sleep all night. I knelt before Buddha and burned incense for you, I..."
"Thanks, brother, but... I can smell alcohol on you," Yang Xiao said, unable to resist as he leaned in closer.
Beibei stepped forward and pushed Ximen Xiu away with indignation, "Ximen Xiu, have you no shame? It was at the KTV where I found you. You were drinking flower wine."
"And you called over a few hostesses," Da Xiong added, delivering another blow.
"What flower wine? I was there to enlighten them, to help them escape their life of misery. Praying for Xiao Ge alone has too little energy, so I called over a few hostesses," Ximen Xiu defended.
"Enough of that," Yang Xiao interjected, turning away. He picked up a piece of paper from the desk. A few simple strokes on it outlined a man’s face. "Think of a way to learn more about this guy."
Beibei took the drawing and glanced at it, "Is this a teammate you met during your mission? Did he give you a hard time?"
"No, we worked pretty well together. This guy’s got some tricks up his sleeve, but he claims he’s from the Patrol Defense Bureau and even tried to recruit me," Yang Xiao admitted, half amused, half exasperated.
Hearing this, Beibei examined the drawing closely, "That’s not right. I’ve met all the notable members from the seven Patrol Defense Bureaus in Rongcheng, and I’m sure this man isn’t one of them."
"Perhaps he’s an outside contractor," Da Xiong suggested, true to his character as a technical expert, always meticulous in his work.
Ximen Xiu couldn’t hold it any longer, snatched the drawing, took a photo with his cell phone, and sent it to a professional, "What are you dragging your feet for? Just report it directly? Does our Patrol Defense Bureau really need to go through all this trouble to find someone?"
While waiting, Yang Xiao narrated his mission to the trio, infuriating Beibei, "To frame and extort money under the guise of defending rights, no matter what the martial art is, they deserve to die!"
"Such small children already framing others, causing people to die unjust deaths, those three little brutes deserve more than death!" Da Xiong and Ximen Xiu rarely agreed on the same opinion.
An hour later, Ximen Xiu received a reply, "Found him!"
Looking at the information sent to his phone, Yang Xiao saw that the person in the photo was indeed Song Yan.
In the photo, Song Yan wore a dark blue gentleman’s suit, standing at the end of the long table, smiling at the camera, the elegance of a scholar perfectly merged with the demeanor of a Western noble.
In the center of the long table, an elegant tall candlestick was placed, with a blue flannel tablecloth underneath, and a set of neat Western-style cutlery was arranged on either side of the table, while at each of the seats sat a girl dressed exquisitely, conducting themselves with nobility.
"An etiquette trainer?" Yang Xiao was rather surprised by Song Yan’s professional introduction.
"That’s right, he specifically trains these rich families’ young ladies, and I heard that he is very popular amongst the wealthy madams," Ximen Xiu shrugged.
Sure enough, Song Yan was also a false name, according to the data, his real name was Fu Qingzhu, employed by a private high-end training institution in the center of Rongcheng, apparently, he was the star trainer.
The news of someone in Nightmare World impersonating Patrol Defense Bureau personnel and trying to recruit Yang Xiao directly alarmed Nalan Shuo. At 7 o’clock in the morning, he called all the team members for a meeting.
Except for Yu Shu, who was still in recovery.
Originally, Yang Xiao thought it was overkill, but Nalan Shuo corrected him very gravely, saying that this matter must not be taken lightly. A brother department had encountered a similar situation and the result was the disappearance of a team member who had gone to the meeting, and a month later, at a remote waste treatment plant dozens of miles away, the body of the missing team member was found, dead in a gruesome manner.
Beibei seemed to have heard of this incident, and her mouth opened slowly, "You mean...this person is an Evil Cultivator?"
"I can’t rule out that possibility," Nalan Shuo analyzed earnestly. "This Fu Qingzhu has deeply hidden himself. According to Yang Xiao’s feedback, this person is decisive and skilled, not an ordinary person. I had the technical department check his file and found some issues."
"His records are too clean, from birth until now, almost every important stage of his life is well-documented and verifiable, which is very strange for an ordinary person like him, as if..."
"As if fabricated deliberately, specifically to pass scrutiny," Beibei nodded slightly, immediately understanding the Director’s intention.
"Exactly, having no issues at all is his biggest problem!"
Frightened by Director Nalan’s warning, Yang Xiao felt even more uneasy, "Director, let’s do it this way, I think I won’t show myself, lest I get caught by them and end up like that brother."
"No, you must go, how else to lure the snake out of its hole?" Nalan Shuo stood up, patted Yang Xiao on the shoulder, encouragingly said, "Don’t be afraid. From my analysis, this Fu Qingzhu probably doesn’t know your real identity either. He sincerely wants to recruit you. After all, Evil Cultivators also need talents, and you, as one of the only two Chief Level Chiefs under me, Nalan Shuo, you are a talent."
"Of course, this is also a test for you," Director Nalan stated frankly.
"But... it’s not certain that they’ll come alone. Once a fight breaks out, can we beat them?" The horror of Evil Cultivators was something Yang Xiao could feel from his own Drama Robe, and the power of the opposition was his biggest worry.
Unexpectedly, such a statement seemed to provoke Director Nalan, "Nonsense! Look at the people here, we are strong and each of us has unique skills."
Yang Xiao turned to look at Beibei, who blinked, then visibly panicked, "Captain, don’t look at me, I have my period today, it’s not convenient to get physical with anyone."
Yang Xiao then looked at Da Xiong and Ximen Xiu in turn, both of whom shamelessly looked away, one with their head down, the other staring at the sky, simply avoiding Yang Xiao’s gaze.
In the end, it was Zhuge Zhijie who couldn’t stand it any longer, slammed the table with a bang, and stood up, "What kind of attitude is this? We cannot stand by when our captain is in trouble. Captain, I’ll go with you!"
Yang Xiao immediately felt even more nervous than before, hastily gesturing to refuse, "Zhuge, I appreciate your courage, thank you for the sentiment... please, sit down."
