Chapter 45

On Sunday, Chi Xia woke up naturally in her room. When she got up, the entire villa was deserted. Every tree, lawn and stone in the windows, beams, front hall and back yard was occasionally being rested by passing birds.

Chi Xia stood by the window. She used to live in a basement and didn't understand the wonders of windows. Now she realized that a window is a painting, with different scenery in each season. She stopped herself from instinctively opening the window to let in fresh air and left the tranquility and leisure to the white bird on the windowsill.

I went downstairs, but Xin Ran was nowhere to be seen.

The refrigerator in the kitchen was full of food that Xun Jiang had stuffed in yesterday. Originally, Chi Xia wanted to go to the dining room, mop up a chair, sit down, and have a proper meal, but looking at the house that seemed to clean itself in three seconds, she gave up. She stood in the kitchen, holding bread in one hand and a carton of milk in the other to finish her meal.

Is Xin Ran's extreme pursuit of cleanliness and tidiness an occupational hazard? Even in her own home, she habitually removes her fingerprints and traces of her life?

Chi Xia thought about where Xin Ran might be and went directly to the basement to find him.

Before he died, the man confessed that the Demon Fishing Academy had three informants. The informant group targeted the elite circles of the New Territories and the Dawn Assassin Organization, but they were able to disguise themselves and infiltrate the Demon Fishing Academy very well. Why?

Ye Feng is taking the open approach; he's been told he only has one informant, so he can't be relied upon. Xin Ran is different; he seems to have many methods and channels to obtain the information he wants. If Xin Ran is willing to help, gathering intelligence should be much easier.

Opening the basement door, the first thing you see is still Xin Ran's various tools for committing crimes as a master thief. Chi Xia felt that Xin Ran's personality was too contrasting. On one hand, he was meticulous in the villa, trying to erase everything, and on the other hand, he was straightforward in the basement, as if he was afraid that others would not know what he did.

"Xin Ran, Xin Ran?" Chi Xia called softly as she walked inside. It was a bad experience to be seen suddenly without prior notice.

"Gurgle."

The chair slid across the floor with a creak, and a long, slender, fair hand rose and shook it. "Here."

The circular computer desk behind the black-clad figure was lit, and the sounds Xin Ran made came from there.

Chi Xia: "I need your help. Name your price after it's done."

Xin Ran looked up, her face filled with a deep sense of confusion. Looking at Chi Xia, the frozen confusion slowly melted away. "What did you say?"

Chi Xia walked around the table, pulled up a chair from the side, and sat down. "I need information about the Magic Fishing Academy, the more complete the better. I will pay you afterwards."

The advantage of working at a prestigious academy is that you don't have to worry about food, clothing, or shelter. If you are accidentally bullied by students and hospitalized, even your long-standing ailments can be cured.

After the new policy was implemented and home visits began, Chi Xia received all sorts of black cards, gifts, and free vouchers. Now, Chi Xia has a total of two million yuan in compensation from Cheng Yang, which is even more generous than when she was working as an assassin.

Now that her life is relatively stable, she knows she has to be careful with her money. The company could go bankrupt at any time, and the boss isn't invincible. She has to protect her own life and livelihood.

Xin Ran opened the list she had compiled. "The Demon Fishing Academy has a big problem. Take a look at this first."

Chi Xia didn't dwell on the origin of the list. She scrolled down with her mouse and saw the detailed personal information of the teachers and students of the Magic Fishing Academy. It was different from what she had seen before; it was encrypted.

Xin Ran opened the faculty and staff's encrypted file. "It was restored in the first Rubik's Cube that Fang Jin lost. Just by looking at the information on our website, you probably don't know that our college is a disguised shelter. As everyone knows, the students are rich kids who are good-for-nothing, have no talent, and give up on themselves. But the teachers are even more diverse, they come from all walks of life."

Chi Xia pointed to the ones marked in red, "Dead?"

Xin Ran: "Do you believe that those few students in the class who shout the loudest could actually kill a teacher?"

Chi Xia recalled the situation of Class 3. They were unruly and gave her a hard time in the first class. However, they were not entirely trying to kill her because their pranks had a clear gradient.

They played all sorts of strange games in class without inviting the teacher to participate; it was purely for their own amusement. Later, they found their own performance amusing, and that's when they started to make things difficult for the teachers.

If the first dead fly disgusts the teacher, then the teacher is unlikely to take the initiative to uncover the next one. In other words, they gave the teacher ample room to react. Then, Cheng Mo and Ye Feng's pranks were Ye Feng's personal test. Chi Xia could see this as her catching Ye Feng's eye for a cooperation invitation.

Chi Xia pointed to one of them, "He suffered from severe depression and hanged himself in a mental hospital. According to the timeline, his last stop before his death was the Demon Fishing Academy."

Xin Ran nodded, "I'm starting to suspect that only half of the teachers at the Magic Fishing Academy are actually imparting knowledge. As for the others, look at their professions—they have absolutely nothing to do with education. Guess what these people are doing here? And how did they get their information?"

Chi Xia learned that it was her sister's suicide note. Afterwards, she specifically searched for the website of the Magic Fishing Academy and then remembered that she had accidentally seen an advertisement in the corner of a short video website while watching videos while eating noodles. So, she did not enter the academy through the official channels.

Now it all makes sense. She clearly had no relevant work experience, yet she was able to smoothly enter the prestigious academy to teach and even become the homeroom teacher of the lousy Class 2.

To make things easier, Xin Ran created a keyword list and divided the information into columns, making it even more obvious.

Chi Xia: "All the professional course teachers have clear and complete information on their academic qualifications, graduating schools, and professional titles, along with supporting documentation. Crucially, these teachers were all actively recruited by the school at high salaries. But the teachers here..."

Xin Ran: "That's right, the teachers here are the next targets of the Demon Fishing Academy's precise strikes."

Xin Ran and Chi Xia's names were prominently featured on the list of targets Xin Ran mentioned.

Xin Ran: "To be frank, my main job before was to 'retriev' things from the dead. I applied to the Demon Fishing Academy because there are fewer dead people now, which has cut off my source of income. People have to live. The benefits at the Demon Fishing Academy are too good, almost too good. It's like I'd be a fool not to come."

Chi Xia understood what Xin Ran meant by the decrease in the number of dead. Because of the precise strikes by the unknown group, Twilight was exposed, and before dying, it released the news that the boss had been killed and Dawn had disbanded. As a result, Dawn's assassins could no longer receive missions, and even 42 Dawn assassins were besieged by the unknown group using false information.

As for the excessively good benefits and terrible student reputation of the Magic Fishing Academy, it goes without saying who would be attracted to take the risk.

Chi Xia: "Is it possible that the actual person in charge of the Demon Fishing Academy is someone else?"

By any measure, it seems that the Demon Fishing Academy has been taken over by an unknown group.

Xin Ran laughed, "It seems that Ye Feng, this seemingly glamorous big boss, isn't very capable. He doesn't even know that he's taken over an empty shell."

Chi Xia: "Although Ye Feng took over, the actual business is still in the hands of President Feng. President Feng is managing the Demon Fishing Academy, while Ye Feng is focused on investigating the inside story of the Demon Fishing Academy."

Xin Ran stretched lazily, seemingly casually remarking, "If he weren't the eldest young master of the Yu family, he would have died eight hundred times over. Back then, President Feng was a prominent figure in Xinshi, but he was forced to abandon his wife and children and his family was destroyed, leaving him no choice but to sell off the Demon Fishing Academy. Ye Feng has just taken over and is already investigating so openly. I'm sweating bullets for him. He's really fearless."

Remembering something, Xin Ran withdrew her hand and looked at Chi Xia expectantly, "By the way, my younger brother Xiao Di's talent is to become invisible in times of crisis. I'm very curious, as the eldest son of the Yu family, what is Ye Feng's talent? Besides his family background, what supports him to be so unscrupulous?"

Chi Xia: "I don't know."

Xin Ran's eyes sparkled. "If you ask him, he'll definitely tell you."

Chi Xia replied indifferently, "I don't want to."

Xin Ran withdrew her expectations and continued looking at the information. "Alright then."

Chi Xia: "President Feng lost three mistresses and took back three sons. Does that count as a broken family?"

Xin Ran paused, his hand hovering over the mouse, and frowned slightly. "Promotion, wealth, and the death of one's wife—the pinnacle of life?"

Chi Xia: "Is it possible that when President Feng was threatened, he handed over actual control of the other party's Demon Fishing Academy?"

"Ding-dong!"

At this moment, a message popped up on Xin Ran's page. Without hesitation, he opened it directly in front of Chi Xia.

The sender's profile picture was completely black, and the signature was X: "What you requested is ready, as usual."

Xin Ran transferred 88,000 yuan directly to the other party and then closed the chat window. Chi Xia didn't ask what was so expensive, nor did he explain.

"Gurgle!"

Xin Ran's stomach, which had been churning in the basement all morning, started to protest and threatened to strike. He rubbed his stomach and asked, "What did you just say?"

Chi Xia stood up. "It's nothing, I'll go get something to eat."

The two went into the kitchen together. Xin Ran opened the refrigerator and said, "If Xun Jiang hadn't been on duty today, I wouldn't have had to cook. Do you want tomato stir-fry over rice? That's the only dish I know how to make."

Chi Xia: "The kitchen is so nicely decorated, I thought you could cook for yourself."

Xin Ran laughed and joked as she took out the ingredients, "You've wronged me. My greatest strength is that I can make a living even without lifting a finger."

"So, that's how you developed your amazing ability to liven up the atmosphere at the dinner table?"

"That's right. Who doesn't like a good listener who is also a loyal listener? Eating happily is a hundred times better than swallowing in silence. What's an extra set of chopsticks and bowls?"

Chi Xia glanced at the refrigerator, then took out mushrooms and chicken breast. "I know how to make stir-fried shredded pork with mushrooms. Let's each make a dish and eat together?"

"Okay."

The two took turns washing, chopping, and cooking the vegetables. After the two dishes were cooked, the rice that Chi Xia had put in the microwave halfway through was also heated up.

Xin Ran took out an opened bottle of wine. "I drank this at the Nuodun Affiliated Hospital before. I don't recommend it, do I?"

Chi Xia brought over two cups. "Fill them up."

Both of them were only so-so cooks, since they weren't the type to cook often. Xin Ran ate out wherever he could find food, and he also had a neighbor, Xun Jiang, who took great care of him. Chi Xia's basement house was even less equipped for cooking, so takeout was a way of life for her and her sisters. She made shredded pork with mushrooms after seeing it on a video.

The midday sun shone brightly, and a foot that had been stuck into the kitchen landed right on a wine glass, making the golden liquid inside sparkle and adding a touch of glamour to the dining table.

"Does Dr. Xun know what your main profession was before?"

Xin Ran slurped up a mouthful of the scrambled eggs with tomatoes she had made herself, "He didn't know that the less he knew, the safer he was."

"How are you going to explain this to him? It's such a big villa."

Xin Ran paused for a moment, slowly chewing the food in her mouth. "In any relationship, boundaries are very important. He never asked, he just didn't understand why I was living in such a big house by myself. It was neither cozy nor comfortable, so he would often come over and grumble to clean and cook for me. As you can see, he also had to fill up my refrigerator."

Chi Xia: "Dr. Xun is a good person."

Xin Ran burst out laughing, "Don't just randomly give out friend cards, he'll get mad at you if he hears that."

Chi Xia remained calm, picked up a shredded chicken and put it in her mouth, "Have you ever written a will for yourself?"

Xin Ran suppressed her smile, lowered her head, and took another bite of rice. "I've done it."

Chi Xia turned to look at him, "Dr. Xun will inherit all your property after you die, right?"

Why are you asking that?

Chi Xia's sharp lines softened with a touch of gentleness, like a ray of light at dawn. She raised her wine glass and smiled, "I think I can consider dating Dr. Xun."

Xin Ran paused for two seconds, then burst into laughter again, "So you're plotting to kill me, huh?"

“Ms. Chi Xia, I solemnly inform you that your idea is very dangerous.”