Chapter Eighty-Two: The Invitation

“What do you think, Old Bai?” Hu Xiong turned his gaze toward Bai Chuan inside the car, wanting to hear his opinion. By rights, the Thirty-Sixth Bureau wouldn’t go to great lengths to investigate this sort of anonymous letter.

Southern Lin City was so vast, with countless hidden demons and monsters lurking in the shadows. The bureau’s main task was to eliminate those who killed and harmed people.

But Li Changqing’s case was unusual. He was too close to the bureau, already a prospective member, and he claimed to be a zombie.

Zombies, being sinister creatures, needed to feed on human blood to survive—far too dangerous.

“I have no particular opinion,” Bai Chuan replied coolly. “But if he really were a zombie, after all this time spent with him, we would have noticed the stench of the grave. Clearly, that’s not the case.”

Hu Xiong opened the anonymous letter and nodded in agreement. “That’s true. All right, let’s head to the wharf first and make sure we get to the bottom of things there.”

Li Minghao pulled out a dossier and, after flipping through it, said, “That wharf is backed by a group in the federal capital named Gard, mainly engaged in construction and pharmaceuticals. After Huang Chao went missing, Shen Qingdai was dispatched by this very group.”

“Gard Group’s assets rank among the top fifty in the Federation.”

The three of them discussed matters concerning the wharf as their car drove away.

Li Changqing was still in fairly good spirits. Just then, his phone began to ring.

He answered. The call was from Kelly Losetti.

“Hello, my friend. Where are you? I’ve managed to get the information on that Xia Ping.”

Li Changqing’s eyes brightened slightly. “I’m at the detective agency. Just come over directly.”

Soon enough, Kelly arrived by car.

Once inside, he settled into the soft sofa, produced a file, and placed it on the table, a hint of pride in his tone. “My friend, you were absolutely right to have me investigate him. I put quite a few of my contacts from the imperial nobility circle to work just to dig up his detailed background.”

“His name is Xia Ping. He lives very close to you. Four years ago, he went to study abroad in the Ramela Empire, but his grades were poor. I even had someone ask his former advisor about him.”

“He dropped out after a year and started working odd jobs at various restaurants in the Ramela Empire. During that time, he encountered and joined the Morro Gate, becoming a follower.”

“Morro Gate?”

Li Changqing frowned. “What’s that?”

“It’s a Ramela Empire church devoted to an ancient god, not very large—about a thousand members.”

The Ramela Empire had all sorts of religions, all legally registered and documented.

“But that’s not the most important thing,” Kelly Losetti said with a hint of disdain. “This guy ended up drowning in debt in the Ramela Empire, fled back to the Vermilion Bird Federation, and now goes around bragging that he’s a top student who studied abroad, conning people out of their money and affection. Two girls have already fallen for his scams.”

“And I’ve made another major discovery.”

“You should thank me for finding this out in advance.”

“He’s trying to get close to your sister, Li Lin. He visits her every few days, always acting attentive, though it seems your sister isn’t particularly interested in him.”

So there really was something amiss.

Li Changqing’s heart sank slightly. This was exactly why he’d asked Kelly Losetti to look into the man; if there were any problems to be found, it would save a lot of trouble later on.

“What should we do, then? We need to warn your sister right away,” Tang Xiaoyu said in surprise, quickly adding, “We can’t let her fall for his tricks.”

Li Changqing smiled. “The girls Xia Ping manages to fool are probably quite young. My sister isn’t the type to be easily deceived.”

Still, it was best to give her a heads-up. Although Li Lin wasn’t the kind of naive girl to fall for cheap tricks, women—when enraptured by sweet words and infatuation—could let their guard down.

“Kelly, find an opportunity to have someone deliver these documents to my sister,” Li Changqing said, gesturing to the files on the table. “Claim to be a federal police officer investigating the case of these girls being defrauded.”

Posing as police investigating a case was the best way to help his sister see the man’s true nature.

Then, after some thought, Li Changqing returned to his bedroom, took out thirty thousand Lang coins, and came back out.

After giving his sister one hundred seventy thousand, he was left with only fifty thousand.

“This is your commission. Hope it’s not too little.” Li Changqing placed the thirty thousand on the table. In truth, it was still too little considering Kelly had leveraged his noble connections to look into the matter.

The value of those connections alone far exceeded thirty thousand Lang.

“You’re the client?” Kelly Losetti was momentarily stunned, only just realizing it.

“Who else would bother investigating someone like this?”

“By the way, did those two girls go to the police?”

Kelly shook his head. “No. I have no idea what they’re thinking—obviously conned, yet they never reported him.”

“Then let’s send a copy of these documents to the police, too. We might as well do some public good.”

Kelly didn’t quite understand Li Changqing’s reference to “public good,” and asked curiously, “Public good?”

Seeing that Li Changqing didn’t answer, Kelly took a sip of tea, rested a moment, then went out to arrange for someone to pose as a federal police officer and deliver the warning to Li Lin at the bun shop.

“Kelly is really impressive—he got all this sorted in just a few days,” Tang Xiaoyu said admiringly, stealing a glance at Li Changqing. “He’s much better than you. You always need my help to catch the culprit.”

Every time Li Changqing solved a case, he needed her assistance—scaring people, coaxing the truth out of them, and so on.

Strictly speaking, it wasn’t really detective work, more like a kind of occult practice.

Li Changqing touched his nose. “Black cat or white cat, a cat that catches mice is a good cat.”

“All right, Chef Tang, make us a feast tonight—plenty of meat dishes. I’m planning to invite Master Huijing over.”

He had mentioned before that he’d invite Jinghui for a meat dinner. If Jinghui refused, Li Changqing would be left uncertain.

He didn’t have Jinghui’s number, but quickly found the contact for Tongxin Temple in the news. He called, saying that Master Jinghui’s last discourse on Buddhism had left a deep impression and that he wished to hear more.

The abbot, Tong Deng, was pleased, instructing Jinghui to leave early and spread the teachings of the Buddha.

In this world, there were many Buddhist followers, but not as many as in Li Changqing’s previous life—here, most of the devout were wealthy, willing to light incense and offer donations at temples.

Ordinary people, with little to spare, rarely set foot inside temple gates.

What they didn’t know was that Buddhism teaches equality of all beings; worship and offerings have nothing to do with the amount of money given.

Whether you donate a hundred million or nothing at all, it’s all the same in the eyes of the Buddha.