Xia Yu followed him. He watched Tumor Gong enter the middle of the debris, where a room in relatively good shape still stood.
Walking quickly, Xia Yu entered the room too.
Tumor Gong stared at him. While licking his lips, he waved at the cat, asking him to come over.
Xia Yu looked at Tumor Gong with a dumb expression, making Tumor Gong abandon the idea to capture and cook him.
Not minding the black cat, Tumor Gong moved aside a shabby table. The sound was so loud it woke up a nearby watchman.
The watchman slept so silently that Xia Yu didn’t notice him earlier.
“Tumor, it’s you.” The watchman, an elderly man, got up with a yawn. He helped Tumor Gong move the table, lift up a carpet, and open a wooden flat.
Under the wooden flat was a basement. Sounds of excited yelling came from the space.
“How about this?”
“It’s a sweep!”
After Tumor Gong went down to the basement, the watchman put back the carpet and the table. He then went back to sleep.
Watching everything, Xia Yu left the debris and went toward a nearby police precinct.
Two police officers were doing the night shift at the precinct.
Seeing Xia Yu, one young officer lured him with a sausage.
Finishing the sausage, Xia Yu leaped onto the table and ran away with a file between his teeth.
The young cop was alarmed. He started chasing him.
As a cat with Lv 2 Cleverness, Xia Yu could get rid of the young cop easily, but his goal was to make the man follow him.
Xia Yu slowed down, luring the cop inside Yanghu Old Village.
Finally, Xia Yu snuck into the room.
The young cop followed him. He could see the cat lying on a table, the file was put aside neatly.
The man felt that the cat was waiting for him. The cat also made sure he was following along the way.
Weird, why am I so obsessed with a cat?
After getting the file, he could see the cat was trying hard to push the table. It was even scratching on a carpet. How odd.
As stories of cats asking humans to save their babies flashed in his mind, the cop pushed aside the table and flipped open the carpet.
Yet, instead of kittens needing saving, underneath was a shabby entrance to a basement.
He could hear sounds of gambling coming from the space.
The cop stroked his chin. He took out his phone and made a report in a low voice.
“Boss, I found a big case!”
“What? Did some kid get lost?” The precinct commander, who was sleeping, scolded in annoyance.
For cops at the community level, a missing kid would be a huge case.
“It’s a really big case! I got a… uh, a cat’s report… it’s like this…” The cop described the situation to his boss.
“What?! Don’t spook them. We’re coming over now!”
Tumor Gong, meanwhile, was gambling with his good friends in the basement.
“Tumor, I heard that you swindled one and half million from Xia Dongyang?”
“Nah. Xia Dongyang only got one million, he didn’t have the rest!” Tumor Gong said humbly.
“You aren’t treating us? You’re rich now!”
“I’m not rich. I gave that million to Old Xing.” Tumor Gong sighed.
“You’re crazy. Xia Dongyang is harmless, but his son is not a good enemy to have.”
“Why would I be scared of a kid? He’s a rule-follower. What can he do to me?” Tumor Gong stopped the discussion. “C’mon, let’s play.”
After a few rounds, with his buddies trying to take advantage of him, Tumor Gong ran out of money.
Tumor Gong cussed and stood up. He got on the ladder and knocked on the wooden flat. After 10 seconds, he opened the flat.
There was a row of cops waiting. Six cops surrounded and watched him.
“You are done playing?” One cop asked.
“Yes!” Tumor Gong, who was bewildered, answered.
“Let’s go.” The cop made a motion.
Tumor Gong wasn’t led to the police car right away. After the cops rounded up all of his friends, the men stood in a line according to their height.
“Meow.” Seeing the cops were getting ready to leave, Xia Yu made a noise, reminding them of someone else in the corner.
The watchman felt out of sorts. He was only napping a little bit. When he opened his eyes, the room was surrounded by police. He hid in the corner, hoping he wouldn’t be found.
But the cat gave up his location.
“Wow, there’s another one.” The precinct commander was happy. “Take them all away!”
Before they left, Xia Yu rubbed himself on Tumor Gong’s foot, acting all intimate.
He was trying to make the story work, it’s hard to tell if it would.
With this done, Xia Yu returned to the entrance of Yanghu New Village. The driver arrived on time to pick him up.
The next morning, Xia Yu saw the news.
“Last night, the Yanghu Police arrested 15 illegal gamblers.”
“Shocking! 15 Men Gamble in the Basement at Midnight. Crazy Scene!”
…
Xia Yu saw the results of his efforts in another news article.
“According to a police insider, the raid was started by a black cat. The cat assumed his owner was in danger in the basement, leading police to the rescue.”
With this report, Tumor Gong would be in jail for a while.
Putting down his phone happily, Xia Yu was now done with this problem.
The apartment belonged to Xia Dongyang, Xia Yu had never thought his father would give the place to him. Xia Dongyang lost the place. He and Youxue were just innocent bystanders.
Tumor Gong was also a long-time criminal. If the police tried at all, they’d find a lot more cases related to him.
Tumor Gong also liked to do big things. He’d be gone for a while.
With this over, Xia Yu began to think of the music competition again.
If he did the competition, he could get a recommendation to Huada University, and win a one million yuan prize.
But doing this competition meant he needed to spend more time practicing. He needed to reach Music Lv 4, or maybe even a higher level.
It would take away his study time for programming.
Also, it was very likely that An Siyao would recognize him.
It wasn’t terrible being recognized by her. Knowing what she was like, Xia Yu knew the girl wouldn’t do anything outrageous.
But if he left this clue, would this clue bring other serious consequences? He couldn’t tell.
A thousand-mile dam was ruined with a single ant nest.
He had ways to disguise himself from An Siyao, but it was a lot of work. The Huada University recommendation and the one million yuan in prize money weren’t enough to motivate him to do it.
Without the recommendation, he could use other ways to tempt Huada University students to work for him.
The million yuan in prize money wasn’t useful either. Maybe he could use the money to get back Xia Dongyang’s apartment, but why bother with that shabby place?
Xia Yu was a pragmatic person. He wasn’t emotional toward his childhood home.
He would just play randomly at the competition.
Standing up, Xia Yu paced in his room. He felt that he was forgetting something.
Turning a few times, he sat on the bed and said, “Ugh, the competition is so annoying. It’s better that I don’t do it.”
[You received a testing task.]
A-ha! These big game events really did need testing!
The game maker was so sneaky. I would have done the competition for free!
Xia Yu opened the message. He wanted to see the prize before deciding if it was worth the effort.