Chapter 101

The old lady, lost in her own imagination, imagined Bei Qiao as a poor young woman who had to leave her hometown and cross the city to report to the authorities, even disguising herself as a man for her own safety. Seeing that Bei Qiao was reluctant to get on the rickshaw, the old lady didn't force her, but she insisted that she accompany the rickshaw driver to the government office, saying that a girl alone would be easily bullied, and having someone to help her would at least make her seem less vulnerable.

The driver standing next to them secretly compared the heights of the two and speechlessly discovered that he seemed to be a little shorter than this "poor" girl: Are you sure... she is easy to bully?

Bei Qiao tried to interrupt several times but to no avail, and finally just used his Qing Gong to slip away. The old lady looked up at Bei Qiao's light and graceful back, and couldn't help but give him a thumbs up: "No wonder he dared to venture out alone, his skills are really impressive!"

The silent driver standing by straightened his back silently: My God, after this girl stood up straight, she grew taller and is now half a head taller than me.

After shaking off the overly enthusiastic woman, Bei Qiao took a different route toward the government office. She stumbled upon the official Chamber of Commerce, which she had initially assumed would be a challenge to find. But she found it odd that, despite it being daytime, the Chamber's doors were closed, and there was no movement from within; the silence was eerie.

Could something have happened... Bei Qiao frowned, stood on the side of the road and looked around, planning to find a safe and enclosed space nearby to open the forum and ask the local players if they knew about it.

Although the street where the Chamber of Commerce was located wasn't particularly busy, it was still bustling with people. The Chamber of Commerce, which had always done good business, suddenly closed in broad daylight, a fact that the locals found quite strange. They wandered around, hoping to see if they could catch some excitement.

Bei Qiao randomly asked a few people and found that none of them knew what had happened inside. However, one person claimed to have seen a member of the Tan family and a constable walk in. "I'm absolutely right. It's definitely someone from the Tan family, an outsider who got rich by relying on the Cen family. He's always so arrogant. The last time he came..."

The others automatically ignored the man's subsequent nonsense and quickly concluded: The Tan family might be planning to bring the authorities to the Chamber of Commerce to confiscate their property, but there was no movement from within. It was unclear whether the Chamber of Commerce had reached some kind of agreement with the police, or whether the Chamber of Commerce was so stubborn that it dared even the police to detain them.

When Bei Qiao and others were watching the Chamber of Commerce gate, someone from the government office ran outside the hall and beat a drum, saying that they had discovered a group of suspicious people and asked the officials to go and eliminate them.

The prison at the prefectural government office was now completely occupied by the Cen family, leaving no room for anyone else whose identity was questionable. Upon learning of this, the prefect initially hesitated to intervene, as such matters often turned out to be misunderstandings. Furthermore, the entire prefectural government was incredibly busy, with some even staying up all night without a break. There simply wasn't enough staff left to verify the authenticity of the matter.

No, it seems like someone slept soundly last night!

"Why me again? Didn't they ask me to help with the Cen family case?" The young detective who was notified by his uncle to investigate the case was completely confused: "Just let me go alone, what if they really are bad guys? Uncle, you can't let your nephew down..."

"I just asked you to take a look around the inn, not go in and arrest anyone. What's that? Just go!" The prefect angrily kicked his nephew out of the study. "Hurry up, people are waiting at the door! Come back and tell me when you're done, and you can go straight home. Don't forget to tell your aunt that she doesn't need to keep dinner for me."

The prefect didn't know that his nephew was too lazy to even do the things that came his way, so he just picked up a hapless constable in the yard and pushed the job onto him. The constable, who was blamed, yawned and went out to inquire about the situation. After learning the location of the report, a gleam flashed in his eyes: How dare he set up an official inn in front of the natives? This person is suspicious!

That's right, the constable who was blamed was none other than the player Geng in the spam group. His name in the other world was Li Geng. His other identity was a game staff member, one of the constables working in the Luodan City government office.

"That's it, right? Are you sure you're not lying?"

"I swear, every word I say is true!"

"Then wait here. I'll go back and ask the master, and then I'll go with you." Every word was true? He called the official inn a den of thieves, the innkeeper the thief's leader, and the guests the new recruits. This guy was clearly lying. "By the way, what did you say your name was?"

"Cao Min Tan...Han Chen."

"Xiao Han, right? Got it." Li Geng rubbed his chin with his thumb and index finger, forcing the corners of his mouth to change, suppressing his smile: "Do you think I haven't seen you before?" Speaking of which, the person who led Old Xing to the official Chamber of Commerce before seemed to be that little someone from the Tan family. As soon as the Cen family collapsed, they started making trouble, and they specifically targeted the players. Who would believe them if they said they were not players?

"Fortunately they found me and Lao Xing, otherwise there would be trouble." Li Geng went back to the house to get his sword, opened the forum and quickly sent a private message to the acting shopkeeper Tang Xin: The vicious dog is at your door, make preparations quickly.

Tang Xin: Received.

"Fellow countrymen, it's time to work." After replying the message, Tang Xin sent people to call all the waiters and players in the inn who had nothing to do for the time being to come in front of him, and said something in a low voice.

After hearing this, the waiter players nodded excitedly and dispersed as she instructed. They pretended to be busy in front of others, but secretly looked for opportunities to quietly leave the inn through the back window or door of the room to do what the shopkeeper told them to do.

About a cup of tea later, Tan Chen, calling himself Han Chen, led Li Geng to the official inn. To prevent being discovered by other players, he led Li Geng along a less-traveled path, under the pretext of avoiding alerting the enemy.

Li Geng readily agreed, occasionally showing an impatient expression to Tan Chen on the way to reassure him. Just as the two of them stepped into the alley behind the inn, a sack suddenly fell from the sky and directly put Tan Chen into it.

"Fuck, help me..." Tan Chen rolled his eyes and fainted, struggling in vain with his hands: Who the hell is this? Not only did they put a sack on me, but they also put drugs in it! I don't have any money!

Three minutes later, another player with a similar build to Tan Chen, wearing Tan Chen's clothes, walked out of the alley and led Li Geng towards the inn.

"Boss, boss? Where are the people?" Li Geng walked into the inn with a swagger, pretending not to know Tang Xin. He quickly glanced around the store: Well, there were no suspicious people, and no other members of the Tan family.

"Hey, sir, are you looking for me?" Tang Xin quickly went up to him.

"Who are you?"

"My last name is Tang, and I'm the temporary innkeeper." Tang Xin gestured to the waiter to pour tea for Li Geng. "If you have any questions, just tell me directly. Until the new innkeeper arrives, I'll be in charge of the inn's affairs."

"Okay, as long as you're in charge." Li Geng pulled over a nearby bench and sat down, then drank the tea in one gulp. "Someone reported you were a den of thieves and harboring suspicious individuals. Could you explain?"

"Ah? How can you say that? We are doing serious business, everything is clean, this, this..." It was her first time acting, and Tang Xin was a little nervous. Fortunately, she only needed to act nervous, and by chance, she didn't reveal any flaws.

The player pretending to be Tan Chen looked at Li Geng, then at the shopkeeper Tang Xin, hesitated for a moment and hid behind Li Geng, pretending to dare to speak but not to admit: "Sir, this..." Help, what is the next line?

"Stay aside, I didn't say anything else." Li Geng carried the player to the bench next to him and sat him down. With him and the supporting column next to him blocking the view, others could only see the player's clothes but not his face.

After arranging the players, Li Geng and Tang Xin continued their performance. Seeing that there was something exciting to watch, the guests in the inn's lobby found a seat with a good view and ordered a pot of tea from the waiter, enjoying the fun while they drank.

Of course, the official inn would not harbor anyone. Except for the fact that the growth trajectories of these outsiders, players, before adulthood were fabricated to cover up each other, every day they made a living in this alien world was real and legal.

After a pretentious inspection of the inn, Li Geng finally shoved the player impersonating Tan Chen away, cursing, "Where's that suspicious person you were talking about? Don't think you can fool us just because your last name is Tan. Don't you know how busy the government office is right now?"

The player covered his face and groaned, not daring to show his face. With the help of Li Geng, he successfully left the inn.

The surname is Tan? The Tan family that always follows the Cen family around to drink soup? The onlookers' eyes lit up, and they grabbed some melon seeds and chased after them: How could they not watch the excitement of the Tan family?

Li Geng pushed the player into the alley, replaced him with the real Tan Chen, and half-dragged, half-supported him out of the alley: "Don't think you can get away with this by pretending to be unconscious. Get up!"

Tan Chen couldn't get up, of course. After being knocked unconscious, he was logged off. No matter how he tried to log in, the system would only reply: "The character is currently in a coma. Please try to log in again after the drug effect wears off."

The others didn't know, and Li Geng pretended not to know either. He shook Tan Chen a few more times in public, then cursed and dumped him in a roadside shop. He climbed onto a passing rickshaw and said he would go to the Tan family to ask for clarification after he woke up.

"Boss, I'm back." Li Geng, who returned to the government office, met the young captain of the police who had been waiting there at the door.

"I'm glad you're back. Tell me what's going on over there."

"Nothing happened. It's another false report."

"I knew it. You've worked hard. Go and have a rest."

"Then I'm leaving, boss." Li Geng yawned and returned to his room. After logging off, he quickly climbed out of the holographic cabin in the office, turned on his computer and sent an email to his superiors: The Tan family of Luodan City is suspected of collaborating with the indigenous people to persecute players, and he requested a detailed system investigation.