Do you remember its address?

The little chicken had been evasive in its answer to the Food Law earlier, and since the place is closed tomorrow, Xia Chuhe and the others can spend the whole day exploring the dungeon. If they're lucky, they might even get the dungeon core directly.

“Of course,” Li Qiusheng replied.

Xia Chuhe nodded: "Lu Dangui and I will take a detour to the front street for a walk. You guys rest first?"

No one objected. There were only 14 energy coins, which weren't enough to buy anything particularly good from the vending machine, and it was good to keep some just in case.

Xia Chuhe and Lu Danggui went out through the back door and took a detour to the front street. Some of the small shops on the front street had already turned off their lights, while the large shops were still lit.

A new line of small print appeared under the sign in front of the Flesh and Blood Restaurant: Closed for one day. Xia Chuhe tried to push the door open from the outside, but it wouldn't budge.

The shop next to the Flesh and Blood Restaurant, which is now dead, has also undergone a change. The sign that read "Opening Tomorrow" has been changed to "Grand Opening Today, 20% Off Everything".

On the way back, I could still hear conversations inside many of the brightly lit stores.

Strangely, there were rustling sounds coming from inside the darkened shop. When Xia Chuhe leaned closer to the shop door and pressed his ear against it to listen, the sounds disappeared.

Aside from these trivial and strange phenomena, Xia Chuhe and Lu Danggui found nothing.

However, when they returned to the shop, the others gave them a big surprise.

Four animals—tigers, leopards, and jackals—were found tied up in the shop.

Li Qiusheng said smugly, "Boss, these four are the ones I mentioned before, the ones who robbed us on the street. They really had a death wish, daring to rob our shop. Wang Yan and I took care of them in no time."

Wang Yan muttered under his breath, "It was clearly me who made the banging, you guys clean it up."

When the tigers, leopards, jackals, and wolves saw the person in charge arrive, they kowtowed and begged for mercy.

"We know we were wrong."

"Please let us go."

"I'll never do it again."

"Awoooooo!"

Xia Chuhe: "..."

Xia Chuhe: "Give me back the money you stole!"

The howls of tigers, leopards, jackals, and wolves ceased; no one had expected that the robbers would one day be the ones robbed.

Xia Chuhe winked at the eager Li Qiusheng: "Search."

The group of six took turns going up and down, searching the tigers, leopards, jackals and wolves six times, and scraped out a total of twenty-one energy coins, which was more than the profit from a whole night of anxious business.

Xia Chuhe was left with lingering effects from the two shadowy figures: "Doesn't money stolen need to be taxed?"

The tigers, leopards, jackals, and wolves were all taken aback and shook their heads.

Xia Chuhe's mind started working. If even robbing these small fry could yield a lot of energy coins, then a few of them could rob them faster and better than tigers, leopards, wolves, and jackals.

"Tell me, where did you steal these energy coins from?" Xia Chuhe sat down in a chair, looking righteous and upright, like a righteous official (if you ignore the sordid intentions behind this interrogation).

The tigers, leopards, jackals, and wolves all gave their confessions, one saying something incomplete, another adding to it.

In just a few minutes, Xia Chuhe figured out the main ways to rob someone.

The largest proportion of these robberies were shop robberies, euphemistically called extortion. Small, individually owned shops like the Flesh and Blood Restaurant could yield anywhere from two to ten coins at a time, depending on the shop's revenue for the night.

Secondly, there are the off-duty staff and ingredients; even a mosquito's leg is meat.

Xia Chuhe expressed his disgust at the behavior of tigers, leopards, jackals, and wolves, saying that it was no good to bully the weak.

"Which stores haven't been booked yet?" Xia Chuhe asked.

"We robbed you from east to west, and we just managed to rob you." The tigers, leopards, jackals, and wolves exchanged knowing glances, guessing Xia Chuhe's plan and wanting to set a trap for her.

Xia Chuhe frowned: "You're lying! You robbed so many stores, and this is all the money you got!"

The Flesh and Blood Restaurant is located in a relatively central position. If we really take it from east to west according to the sales volume as the tigers, leopards, jackals and wolves said, even if we only take two from each store, we would still make more than this amount of money.

Either the tigers, leopards, jackals, and wolves have hidden the money, or there is another hidden story behind it.

Xia Chuhe didn't call for Wang Yan; he simply started a fire himself, burning the tail tips of the tigers, leopards, jackals, and wolves until they were smoldering and begging for mercy.

"I said! There are some stores we won't rob!"

The tigers, leopards, and jackals, having been burned alive, confessed that they only dared to rob small, unaffiliated shops, such as the Flesh and Blood Restaurant...

A store like Despair's Taste is likely to be robbed because firstly, it has powerful backing and connections, so people wouldn't dare to rob it; secondly, large stores usually have skilled guards on duty to prevent robbery and theft.

Xia Chuhe grasped two key points from their words: "How do these so-called experts compare to us?"

The jackal flattered, "You all possess extraordinary fire, are exceptionally brave, agile, and highly skilled in martial arts. Those experts... ptooey, ptooey, those thugs are no match for you."

Xia Chuhe was satisfied. Running a small shop was not easy, and he couldn't snatch many good items. It was better to go and check out these so-called big stores. As for the background of the big stores... those with nothing to lose have nothing to fear. In just seven days, it wouldn't hurt to test the waters.

Thinking of this, Xia Chuhe had a sudden inspiration, but he didn't seize the opportunity...

Xia Chuhe asked his second question that concerned him: "You said you were guarding against robbery and theft, but you robbed people and stole things?"

The leopard nodded vigorously: "Yes, yes, yes, they're all petty scoundrels who specialize in stealing chickens and dogs."

Even robbery and theft have a hierarchy of contempt in the eyes of the leopard. It looks down on "petty thieves": "They only dare to go to shops that have turned off the lights and steal some energy coins left by the shopkeeper."

"Is the shop owner really that stupid? Why doesn't he take all the energy coins with him?" Xia Chuhe wondered.

"Take it away? Hmph, the shop doesn't have much money left. It's not just money that's missing. If we lose tables, chairs, and kitchen utensils, and then we run into some difficult customers the next day, it won't be something that can be dealt with by just giving a few energy coins."

Xia Chuhe understood.

So the rustling sound I heard on the street earlier must have been made by a thief.

Xia Chuhe pondered the essence of this instance. The known factions so far include shops, diners, ingredients, food law, tax collectors, and bandits/thieves.

The ingredients and the robbers/thieves are weak and pose little threat.

The diners and the food law are in cahoots. It is currently unknown how capable they are, but just because the food law supports the diners and they are always in a dominant position in the face of the shop, Xia Chuhe and others dare not make any rash moves.

As for the shops, although Xia Chuhe and his group owned shops, shops are categorized by whether they have a powerful backer or not. Xia Chuhe and his group naturally belonged to the latter group.

Xia Chuhe decided to first investigate the situation of the shops with powerful backers, and preferably find out who their backers were.

If a new force emerges, it might be able to use that force to attack diners and the restaurant law.