Chapter 60. The Treasure-Hunting Rat has been found, the middle-aged man...
More than three hours ago, after the Liu couple brought Liu Duoxin into the Xiao family home.
A young man dressed in a full gray tracksuit and wearing sports sunglasses rode by on a bright purple bicycle, clearly a passerby going out for exercise.
I happened to ride to the side of the path outside the Xiao family's house and stopped.
Inside the Xiao family's surveillance room, the man's every move was under video surveillance:
The man propped his bicycle up beside him, turned around, found a suitable spot on the edge of the flower bed, brushed off the dust, and sat down.
Then he took out a pack of unwrapped, gray cigarettes from his pocket, popped one out, lit it, and put it in his mouth.
When he stuffed the cigarette pack back into his pocket, he also pulled out a fist-sized plush toy from inside the pocket, which fell to the ground.
The man bent down to pick up the doll, flicked its surface with his index finger, a wicked smile playing on his lips. He exhaled a deep puff of smoke and then stubbed out his cigarette hard on the doll.
The flickering light from the cigarette butt made a soft sizzling sound as it touched the doll's fur.
The fur on the doll was ignited and then extinguished. A wisp of smoke drifted with the wind all the way to the window of a small building inside.
A few moments later, the man, having rested enough, casually put the doll back into his bag and rode away on his bicycle.
Twenty minutes later, the treasure-hunting mouse crawled out through a small hole in the wall.
She sniffed around where the man had been, then identified the direction he had left in and skipped after him.
"So, you ran off to find the treasure on your own?" Lin Xiaoxiao sat in a chair, holding a cup of warm tea in both hands, her face pale as she looked at the surveillance video in front of her.
Xiao Weizhi stood behind her, bent down and pressed his chest against her back, put his left arm around her shoulder, and stretched his right hand forward, constantly moving the cursor in front of him to speed up the video.
His voice was calm and collected: "Don't rush, the treasure hunt might just be because they're bored at home, so they're going out for a stroll."
As the video clip scrolled to the end, the treasure-hunting mouse disappeared at the end of the street.
Lin Xiaoxiao didn't believe that the treasure-hunting rat had just gone out for a stroll. She was convinced that there must have been something they hadn't discovered: "Treasure-hunting isn't the type to go out. It would never go out on its own initiative unless there was a special reason."
Xiao Weizhi patted her shoulder and comforted her gently, "Don't worry, I'll have someone check the surveillance footage on other sections of the road to see if we can find where it last disappeared."
Lin Xiaoxiao suppressed her anxiety and nodded, "Mm."
Seeing that she had calmed down, Xiao Weizhi took the communicator and walked to the side to contact people to request surveillance videos within a five-kilometer radius.
After a large number of videos were sent over.
The security team of seven or eight people spent several hours burying their heads in the video footage, and finally found the treasure-hunting rat again, which disappeared at the end of a street.
Xiao Weizhi contacted people again to find surveillance videos within a few kilometers of that area.
Several times in a row, the dirty treasure-hunting rat in the video disappeared into a dark alley and never came out again.
Upon arriving at this point, Xiao Weizhi sent people to that alley to search thoroughly, but they couldn't find the treasure-hunting rat that seemed to have vanished into thin air.
At this point, a day had passed since the treasure-hunting rat disappeared.
Xiao Weizhi scooped up Lin Xiaoxiao, whose eyes were dark and who was exhausted but still trying to hold on, and carried her upstairs. Suppressing his anger, he said in a tight voice, "Go to sleep. I'll have someone continue searching."
Lin Xiaoxiao grabbed his collar: "Weizhi, I can't sleep until we find the treasure."
Xiao Weizhi took her back to her room and put her on the bed.
Lin Xiaoxiao struggled to get out of bed, but he pressed her down onto the soft bed.
Xiao Weizhi sat on the edge of the bed, his hand resting on her ear. He bent down to look into her eyes and promised in a sincere tone, "You go to sleep first. I promise that during your rest time, I will do everything in my power to send people to search for the treasure."
Lin Xiaoxiao stared into Xiao Weizhi's eyes for a long time, then said softly, "Okay."
Xiao Weizhi placed a kiss on her forehead and said gently, "Sleep now."
Lin Xiaoxiao closed her heavy eyelids and fell into a deep sleep in a very short time. Her slightly furrowed brows indicated that she was still worried.
Xiao Weizhi gazed at her peaceful sleeping face, as if in that instant, he had removed the shackles from his body, and his temperament underwent a dramatic change, becoming deep and cold. His eyes behind his glasses were filled with a variety of chaotic emotions.
Sometimes conflicted, sometimes gloomy, sometimes calculating, sometimes worried...
A moment later, his eyelids slowly drooped.
When he opened his eyes again, the emotion in his eyes had been replaced by determination, and his face once again wore that gentle and refined mask, as if he had silently reaffirmed his previous choice in his heart.
Over the next six or seven days, the search area was expanded several times, from the vicinity of the Xiao family to most of the capital, but there was still no news.
During this period, many people came and went from the Xiao family home: staff members who helped Lin Xiaoxiao find the treasure; people who came to discuss cooperation; and people who worked for the Xiao family...
But none of this had much to do with Lin Xiaoxiao. She usually stayed upstairs, and even if they happened to run into each other, they would keep a certain distance.
That day, Lin Xiaoxiao, with a worried expression, went downstairs, walked through the connecting corridor that was more than ten meters long, and absentmindedly stepped into the living room.
She looked up and saw several unfamiliar men and women sitting in the living room, some older and some younger.
Each of them held a thick stack of paper reports, and on the table in front of them were several stacks of paper documents, each several tens of centimeters high.
Sitting on a single sofa, Xiao Weizhi noticed Lin Xiaoxiao coming downstairs. He immediately raised his hand to stop the conversation, put down the documents in his hand, and turned his head gently to ask, "Why did you come down?"
Lin Xiaoxiao pursed her lips, stood at the entrance of the living room, reached out to hold the door frame, and answered softly, "I didn't know you were busy. I just wanted to ask if there was any news about Shushu."
When there are outsiders around, she always refers to the Treasure-Seeking Mouse as "Mouse," but she only uses the name "Treasure Seeker" in front of Xiao Weizhi.
Xiao Weizhi said sincerely, "Don't worry, we will definitely find it."
Lin Xiaoxiao nodded.
She can still sit still because the contract within her body has not changed, meaning that the treasure-hunting rat is not in danger and is in a 'safe' environment.
Xiao Weizhi gave a reassuring smile, warned the people in front of him with his eyes, and then lowered his probing gaze, extending his hand to her: "Would you like to sit down?"
Lin Xiaoxiao shook her head and refused: "I'll go upstairs first, so as not to disturb your work."
Xiao Weizhi changed her sitting posture. She had originally crossed her left leg over her right leg, but now she sat with her legs wide apart: "Then you go upstairs and rest for a while. I'll come upstairs to keep you company when I'm done with my work."
Lin Xiaoxiao nodded: "Okay."
Before turning away, her gaze met that of the young girl sitting at the very end.
The girl's gaze towards her held a complex mix of emotions: pity tinged with barely perceptible envy, disdain mixed with obvious jealousy...
Lin Xiaoxiao frowned slightly. Had she seen this before? Why was this person looking at her like that?
Xiao Wei glared at the girl, who immediately lowered her head, no longer daring to look at Lin Xiaoxiao.
He urged gently, "Go upstairs first, I'll have Sister Luo prepare some food for you. I'll come right over when I'm done."
Lin Xiaoxiao's train of thought was interrupted again: "Okay."
Time flies, and twelve days have passed in the blink of an eye, but there is still no news of the treasure-hunting rat.
Lin Xiaoxiao, who had gained weight, gradually lost it due to poor eating and sleeping habits. Her sisters, uncles, and aunts who worked at the Xiao family were extremely worried and tried every possible way to prepare delicious food for her.
Despite trying every possible method, they were unable to stop Lin Xiaoxiao's weight from dropping.
On the thirteenth day, Lin Xiaoxiao sat by the window in the study, with a book that hadn't been turned in a long time on her lap. She turned her head and stared blankly out the window, her gaze fixed on the big tree outside.
She hadn't been sleeping well lately, and was in a daze all day long. She had a strange feeling in her heart, as if she had been living in a dream for the past year or so. It felt somewhat incongruous and unreal.
'Tap tap tap...' A rhythmic sound of leather shoes tapping on the floor rang out.
Xiao Weizhi strode into the room, holding a communicator in her hand, her expression somewhat delighted: "Xiaoxiao, I found it."
Upon hearing the word "found," Lin Xiaoxiao immediately turned around with delight. In her haste, she slowly stood up, but because she hadn't eaten much recently, she was too weak to move and slumped back onto the small sofa.
Ignoring everything else, she anxiously asked, "Have you found the treasure? Where is it?"
Xiao Weizhi strode in, reached out to help her up, and placed the communicator in his hand in front of her eyes. A video was projected out of thin air in front of her.
The video was an instructional video featuring a man whose face wasn't shown. The content was roughly about how to correctly identify the species of monsters and their valuable parts.
At the end of the video, for a few seconds, you can clearly see a hamster in a specially made cage in the corner of the background.
The cage is shaped like a round crystal ball, about half a meter in diameter. Inside, there is a small platform with a small nest, a running wheel, and some decorations, showing the care put into the hamster's owner.
The reason this video went viral is because knowledgeable people discovered that the crystal ball used to hold the hamster was made from a very rare mineral, carved and hollowed out from a single piece.
The frame supporting the spherical cage was also made of a very special type of wood.
That kind of ore is worth hundreds of gold coins per gram and is used year-round in cages used to imprison experimental monsters. Usually, a small piece is used, along with specially made inscriptions, to build the cage.
This man, using a single piece of ore to build a cage for a hamster, is simply outrageously extravagant.
At a glance, Lin Xiaoxiao recognized the hamster in the special cage as the treasure-hunting hamster.
She tugged at Xiao Weizhi's sleeve, pointed to the treasure-hunting rat in the background of the frozen video, and said urgently, "Weizhi, it's it, it's the treasure-hunting rat."
Xiao Weizhi reached out and gently patted Lin Xiaoxiao's back to help her catch her breath: "Don't worry, I'll have someone check the address of the person in the video, and we can go find him directly later."
With this expectation in mind, Lin Xiaoxiao waited from noon until evening.
All they received was news that one person had left and the place was empty.
The man and the treasure-hunting rat vanished into thin air, and no amount of investigation could uncover his whereabouts.
When Lin Xiaoxiao heard the news, she lost her grip on the cup, which slipped from her hand and fell to the ground, shattering into pieces with a crash.
Disappointment welled up in her heart again, and a wave of dizziness and powerlessness washed over her. In an instant, she felt as if her breath was blocked.
Lin Xiaoxiao placed her hand on her chest, opened her mouth slightly, and breathed heavily, trying to calm herself down.
Everyone present could see that Lin Xiaoxiao's emotions were not right. Before her consciousness went dark, they could vaguely see that they were panicking and in a mess.
For the next ten days or so, the man continued to update a video every day.
At the end of the video, you can always vaguely see the special cage containing the treasure-hunting rat.
The video gained popularity and spread widely.
Most young people in Beijing know that there is a teacher who makes educational videos. He is so wealthy that he uses expensive minerals to build a cage and raises an ordinary little hamster.
Someone is deliberately stirring up trouble, and chaos is gradually breaking out in the capital. Countless people are becoming greedy.
The goal is to find the teacher's address and seize the opportunity to steal the 'hamster cage' worth several gold coins.
Unbeknownst to everyone, a group of people discreetly entered the capital city, disappearing in the blink of an eye like drops of water falling into a river, leaving no trace whatsoever.
Just when Lin Xiaoxiao was feeling her lowest, Xiao Weizhi brought good news: they had found her.
The two got into the flying car and, after a three-hour drive, stopped in front of a dilapidated factory on the outskirts of the city.
Xiao Weizhi, holding a staff, stood in front of Lin Xiaoxiao and led her inside. The two of them walked forward step by step and slowly entered the factory.
The factory, spanning over 3,000 square meters, is filled with old, rusty, and unusable machines.
Countless spider webs covered the ground, and thick dust covered the floor; it looked like an abandoned factory devoid of any human presence.
In a secluded corner, there is a clean and tidy temporary dwelling, about 13 square meters in size.
There was a small, one-meter-wide folding bed, and several large trunks beside it. The lid of one of the trunks was open, revealing palm-sized pieces of tattered fur—some were mottled white, some pure white, and some slightly yellow…
About a meter away, there is a sewing machine used by professional tailors.
Next to the sewing machine was a headless mannequin wearing a brightly colored fur coat with excellent tailoring, looking elegant and beautiful.
Next to it was the cage that frequently appeared in the video background; it was empty, and the treasure-hunting rat was nowhere to be found.
'Pat pat pat—'
"Young Master Xiao, impressive skills. In just one month, you've managed to force me into hiding in this dilapidated factory in this remote corner." A voice came from behind an old machine that was over ten meters tall.
Immediately afterwards, footsteps sounded, and a middle-aged man in a black suit walked out from behind the machine.
Lin Xiaoxiao stared intently at the middle-aged man in front of her, who had a gentle smile on his face and had spoken to her at the auction.
She asked in a hoarse voice, "Where's the mouse?"
The middle-aged man turned to look at Lin Xiaoxiao, his tone very gentle, and with his warm smile, he gave off the feeling of an elder in the family: "Little girl, don't worry, you will see that little mouse."
"I'm just curious where you got the treasure-hunting rat. I've been searching for eighteen years and have captured hundreds, if not thousands, of lucky rats."
[Treasure-Hunting Mouse: A variant of the Lucky Mouse, only one in a million Lucky Mice might be born. It has an innate ability to find treasures. Its weakness is that its fighting strength is the same as an ordinary hamster; once captured, it has absolutely no ability to escape.]
Lin Xiaoxiao did not answer the man's question, but stubbornly asked, "Give me back the rat."
The man exuded a sense of smug satisfaction, as if giving his last words, continuing to mutter to himself, "Sometimes, I really envy people like you, who can obtain treasures that others only dream of without any effort..."
After talking for a few minutes, the man's eyes gleamed, and he proudly introduced his work to Lin Xiaoxiao: "Look, isn't that fur coat beautiful? I made it from thousands of lucky rats. One of its attributes is that it adds 8 points to luck."
"Unfortunately, there's not much usable fur from the lucky rat, so I always have to make it myself... Otherwise, I could make more..."
As the man described the process, Lin Xiaoxiao's stomach began to churn uncontrollably, and her face gradually turned deathly pale.
It was at this moment that she learned why the treasure-hunting rat had suddenly left home and stubbornly chased after it: because the man had captured its relatives, parents, brothers and sisters a few years ago.
Using a special method—making a unique doll from the fur of a treasure-hunting rat's kin, then igniting it and sprinkling it with a potion—they successfully lured the rat away from the Xiao family.
Just as the man was still talking incessantly, Xiao Weizhi received a signal in her earphone: Found!
He suddenly reached out and covered Lin Xiaoxiao's eyes, then gave a signal to a hidden corner.
Several figures, dressed entirely in black from head to toe, appeared behind the middle-aged man. With swift movements, they stabbed him through the neck in the blink of an eye.
Lin Xiaoxiao reached out and tried to push away the large hand in front of her.
Xiao Weizhi tightened his grip slightly, and a gentle voice sounded from the side: "Don't look, it's dirty. We've found the treasure, let's go home."
The next second, Lin Xiaoxiao was escorted out of the warehouse. The middle-aged man behind her coughed up several mouthfuls of blood, his expression one of ecstatic triumph: "God, my mission is complete! Please guide your most faithful believer!"
Upon hearing the word "God," Lin Xiaoxiao instinctively wanted to turn back and look for the middle-aged man.
Xiao Weizhi tightened his grip on her shoulder, his voice calm: "We're almost home from the treasure hunt, aren't you worried about it?"
Lin Xiaoxiao frowned and said, "I have something I want to ask that person."
Why did he suddenly mention God? Could it be that he's hunting for treasure for some unspeakable reason?
Xiao Weizhi smiled gently and asked, "Something very important? More important than treasure hunting?"
After several gentle yet firm rejections, by the time Lin Xiaoxiao realized what was happening, she and Xiao Weizhi were already on their flying car home.
She couldn't understand why this man wanted to hunt for treasure.
Lin Xiaoxiao never dreamed that the man's task was not actually to catch the treasure-hunting rat.
The middle-aged man's motive for catching the treasure-hunting rat was to disrupt the order of the capital, allowing certain individuals to take advantage of the chaos and quietly infiltrate the situation, facilitating subsequent arrangements.
It just so happens that at the auction he learned that Lin Xiaoxiao was Xiao Weizhi's female companion, and he also keenly discerned the true race of the treasure hunters. In the blink of an eye, a plan was formed...
Back home, just as Xiao Weizhi had said, there was a treasure-hunting rat huddled in a corner of the room, looking very depressed and unwilling to talk to anyone, with Red Tail jumping around anxiously next to it.
The treasure-hunting mouse has returned safely.
Lin Xiaoxiao immediately breathed a sigh of relief, now able to focus on eating and dealing with the pile of treasure chests.
During this time, she was in a bad mood and kept all the treasure chests in her possession, not in the mood to open them.
[The Mysterious Gas Potion Box (Diamond Level): Contains the impromptu creations of a certain genius pharmacist, containing all sorts of potions, some very potent, some quite strange. Recommendation: Use with caution!!!]
【Concealing Mask (Colorful - Seven-Star Level): Wearing this mask can change your height, appearance, and attribute panel. Even an eighth-level professional powerhouse cannot see through your identity. It is an essential item for robbing and pillaging.】
Lin Xiaoxiao was very lucky this time. She got two items from more than thirty boxes: one was a [Diamond Grade] and the other was a [Colorful - Seven-Color Grade].
Compared to that high-level one, the features were only slightly undulating, like a pure gray mask made of cheap plastic.
She was more interested in the box in front of her, filled with colorful test tubes of reagents that emitted blue smoke.
The 50-centimeter-long box was divided into squares that could just fit the test tubes of the reagents, and it was filled with hundreds of gaseous reagents.
Lin Xiaoxiao picked up a vial of medicine out of curiosity, but saw no instructions or markings on the bottle.
With curiosity, she opened the vial. Gas from the bottle floated out, circled around her once, and then disappeared.
Two more smoke clouds appeared after that, one blue and one purple.
It disappeared after circling around once, and after waiting for a long time, nothing special happened.
Just as Lin Xiaoxiao was beginning to suspect that the medicine might be defective or expired.
The potion took effect that night. After Lin Xiaoxiao fell asleep, her soul inexplicably detached from her sleeping body, forming an independent state—light, free to pass through walls, and even fly…
She was jumping and playing in the yard when a strong gust of wind blew her directly into Xiao Weizhi's study.
Under the warm yellow light, Xiao Weizhi sat alone on the sofa, with a black and white Roman chessboard in front of her.
He wasn't wearing glasses; his sharp eyes were fixed on the chessboard in front of him. His right hand casually picked up a black bishop and kicked away the last white cannon piece in front of him.
Just as Lin Xiaoxiao was about to jump in front of Xiao Weizhi, breathe out a breath, and scare him.
He said in a deep voice, "Uncle Jiang, I'm going to take Xiaoxiao to the Gu family's banquet in a while, and I'll screen the attendees again. I don't want to hear anyone say anything they shouldn't in front of her."
On the chessboard, White was left with only one queen, which was firmly surrounded by Black's king, knight, bishop, and horse, as if to foreshadow that Xiao Weizhi had already laid an impenetrable encirclement.
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