Chapter 153: Something Feels Off, But I Can't Quite Put My Finger on It

When Bai Qingming returned carrying a bag of oranges, Sister Diao was still standing right where she had been left, but she was now holding a red handbag.

"Where did you get that?"

"Just picked it up."

Sister Diao answered honestly.

Just a moment ago, she noticed something red on the roadside. Out of curiosity, Sister Diao walked over to take a look.

To her surprise, it was a shoulder bag.

And it was even a women's designer handbag from LV.

Except that Sister Diao quickly recognized it as a counterfeit.

Opening the bag, a pile of items was revealed inside.

A bunch of knock-off cosmetics, three condoms, two pairs of stockings, and... a long, rod-like object.

Bzzzzz—

Before Sister Diao knew what she touched, the thing actually started vibrating on its own, giving the old woman a start.

"This thing is kind of fun."

Sister Diao pulled her hand back.

"If you like it, I'll buy you one."

Bai Qingming found it bizarre. It was just an electric toothbrush; had this chick really never used one before?

"Check if there are any ID cards or anything inside?"

Bai Qingming prompted, and Sister Diao shook her head.

Aside from the aforementioned items, there was also three thousand yuan in cash inside the bag.

There was nothing that could indicate the owner's identity.

However, it was obvious that the owner of the bag was definitely a female.

And so.

To uphold the traditional virtue of not keeping found property, the two of them stayed put and tried waiting for the owner to come looking for it.

After waiting for a full twenty minutes without the owner showing up, Bai Qingming thought for a moment, told Sister Diao to go home, and hailed a cab to the police station himself.

Jiangcheng Police Station.

As soon as he stepped through the door, Bai Qingming spotted an acquaintance.

"Yo, Captain Liu, busy as usual!"

At that moment, Captain Liu was leading a bruised and battered young man who was trembling all over.

"What are you here for?"

Captain Liu asked.

Bai Qingming waved the wallet in his hand and recounted the story of picking up the bag.

"Come with me first."

Captain Liu seemed to have something urgent to handle, so he led Bai Qingming and the young man into the reception room.

"You two sit here for a moment, I'll be right back."

Dropping those words, Captain Liu hurried away, leaving only Bai Qingming and the young man in the room.

"Buddy, want some water?"

Although Bai Qingming didn't work at the police station, he was a frequent visitor and very familiar with the place. Without needing anyone to serve him, he expertly brewed a cup of tea for himself.

The young man shook his head and glanced at Bai Qingming. He kept feeling like this person looked very familiar.

Seeing that it was almost time for his live stream, Bai Qingming casually turned on his broadcast.

"Brothers, does this place look familiar? I'm here drinking tea again."

The popularity of the live broadcast surged instantly, and barrage comments appeared one after another.

"The streamer is something else, locked up again? Could it be that another murderer delivered a free kill to the streamer?"

"Where is my Brother Wang? Why isn't he with you this time!"

"Streamer, streamer, I heard my idol Wu Yifan is in there too. Can you help me get an autograph?"

"Get an autograph my ass, your idol is busy working the sewing machine right now and has no time to deal with you guys."

The viewers began joking around in the chat.

Seeing this, Bai Qingming smiled slightly.

"How could there be so many murderers? This time I just picked up a bag with a little cash inside, so I came to hand it in."

Hearing this, the chat started up again.

"No way, no way? Does anyone actually return a bag with money in it these days?"

"What picking it up, you clearly dropped it yourself."

"Are you kidding me? You guys probably don't know the streamer's net worth; does he care about that pocket change?"

"The streamer doesn't lack it, but I do! Hand it over, you!"

The young man sitting nearby watched Bai Qingming's actions, and suddenly, realization dawned on him.

"Aren't you that, what's-his-name, the dog who sang the 'Song of the Single Dog'—cough, cough, aren't you that streamer?"

"That is indeed me."

Bai Qingming nodded modestly.

He was somewhat surprised to run into one of his own fans here.

"Little brother, judging by your looks, you're still a college student, right?"

Bai Qingming took the initiative to start a conversation with the young man.

"Sophomore."

The young man replied.

"What's the deal with the injuries on your face?"

The young man touched his face. "Owed some people a bit of money, didn't pay it back in time, so I got beaten up."

"How much did you owe?"

"I only owed thirty thousand yuan, but when it was time to pay, they told me to pay three hundred thousand, saying it was compound interest. I didn't have the money, so I got beaten. Good thing the police uncles arrived quickly, otherwise those guys said they were going to break one of my legs."

Hearing this, Bai Qingming understood.

This kid had definitely gotten mixed up with campus loans or something similar and been scammed.

You couldn't really blame anyone else for this; he only had himself to blame.

"Then what did you spend the borrowed money on?"

Out of curiosity, Bai Qingming asked one more question.

"I didn't have the heart to spend it; I spent it all on my girlfriend."

An honest and simple smile appeared on the young man's face. The moment his girlfriend was mentioned, he seemed like a completely different person.

In the chat.

"This kid is still too young. He should have told those thugs: 'I borrowed this money based on my true ability, why should I pay it back?'"

"There are over a hundred households in my village who make their fortune entirely by defaulting on online loans. Now every family is building two-story villas."

"Excuse me, I heard that if you can't pay back online loans, you're required to pay with your body. Is that true? I'm a guy and I have a bold idea."

Just as the viewers were letting their imaginations run wild, the young man changed the subject and looked at Bai Qingming.

"Streamer, seeing as I'm your fan, can I ask you a favor?"

"My girlfriend also loves watching your live streams. Can you do me a favor and give her a call? Just say I'm your younger brother and we're very close, that way she won't break up with me."

The young man pleaded.

"Break up?"

Bai Qingming didn't catch the young man's meaning.

"Yeah, streamer, you don't know this, but my girlfriend is the campus belle of our school. She's pretty, has a great figure, is extremely self-disciplined, has no bad habits, loves to read, and even goes out to work part-time four or five days a week."

"The most important thing is that my girlfriend is a good girl. Every time I took her out to play using the borrowed money, she would insist on booking two separate rooms to sleep in, saying she wanted to save the surprise for after marriage."

"Such a good girl, I was already unworthy of her to begin with, and now that she heard I owe money, she's very angry and wants to break up with me."

"Streamer, please help me. I really love my girlfriend and I don't want to break up with her."

The young man started crying as he poured his heart out.

Every word he said was heard loud and clear by the viewers in the live stream.

In an instant, everyone went silent.

Something felt off.

Yet they couldn't quite put their finger on what was wrong.

Bai Qingming fell silent.

He didn't know what to say.

Thinking on the bright side.

Perhaps the guy's girlfriend was naturally conservative, which was why she demanded separate rooms.

Thinking on an even brighter side.

Maybe the girlfriend felt that a guy who borrowed money and couldn't pay it back had integrity issues, which was why she initiated the breakup.

Thinking about it that way, it didn't seem entirely wrong either.

Right at that moment, the door to the reception room opened.

Captain Liu walked in at the front.

Behind him were a dozen young women dressed in various outfits.

"Everybody squat down."

At Captain Liu's command, these women squatted down near the heating radiator.

Captain Liu had just received a temporary task for an anti-prostitution raid, and these women had been caught on the spot.

Judging by their attire, the identity each woman was cosplaying varied quite a bit.

There were school teachers, secretaries, twin-tail lolis, female college students, and the like.

The anti-prostitution operation had been so sudden that they didn't even have time to change back into regular clothes.

Bai Qingming and the viewers were seeing a scene like this for the first time, and everyone found it quite novel.

"Good grief, the second one from the right, the woman wearing black silk stockings—she's my English teacher, would you believe that?"

Someone posted this in the chat.

Whether it was true or fake, quite a few people added him as a friend, sending private messages asking for contact info, claiming they had a friend who loved studying very much and wanted his teacher to tutor them in English.

However, right at that very moment.

The young man from earlier suddenly rushed uncontrollably toward the girl dressed as a female college student and grabbed her by the shoulders.

With his face covered in tears, he stared at the girl with a look of utter disbelief, and then slowly spoke.

"Babe, is this what you called a part-time job?"