Chapter 294 - 66: Diary

Officer Liu glanced at the clock on his desk. He couldn’t stay here any longer.

He stood up and patted Jiang Ran on the shoulder.

"I have a meeting to get to. You can slowly read through the full story in this copy of the diary."

"I made this copy just for you. I only selected the valuable entries and arranged them chronologically, so you should have no problem understanding it."

"But... promise me one thing, Jiang Ran. This evidence can’t be shown to outsiders, let alone letting you take a copy. Your contributions and efforts are plain to see, though, so we’ll bend the rules a bit. Just take it home, read it, and then burn this copy. Don’t pass it around to anyone else."

With that, he stood, left the office, and went to his meeting.

Jiang Ran stood up as well and left the East Sea City Public Security Bureau.

He went outside and hailed a cab.

He returned to East Sea University.

...

East Sea University, the Film Club’s activity room.

After pushing the door open, he found Chi Xiaoguo inside, pacing anxiously and shouting about calling the police.

"Jiang Ran! Jiang Ran! This is terrible! The Film Club’s been hit by a thief!"

She spread her arms, gesturing for Jiang Ran to look at the now noticeably emptier room.

"All of Sister Mengxue’s Rhine Cats are gone! They’ve been stolen!"

Jiang Ran smiled faintly and gestured for her to calm down.

"There was no thief. I’m the one who took the Rhine Cat dolls. I mailed them to Xiaoxue in the United States."

"See, Xiaoxue left for the United States in such a hurry the other day that she didn’t have time to pack everything. She asked me to slowly mail her things to her."

This was a white lie.

This criminal case, which involved multiple countries and several murders, was extremely complex. The final public announcement wouldn’t be released anytime soon.

So, to maintain some stability for the time being, and also to protect Cheng Mengxue’s reputation... Jiang Ran decided to hide the truth for now.

Two days ago, Chi Xiaoguo had asked why she hadn’t seen Cheng Mengxue at all since the end of the National Day holiday, and why she couldn’t reach her on WeChat.

Jiang Ran had explained that something urgent came up at the University of Pennsylvania, so Cheng Mengxue had to end her exchange program abruptly and return to campus immediately.

"They probably found some kind of enrollment loophole."

At the time, Jiang Ran had feigned a relaxed tone, explaining to Chi Xiaoguo with a smile:

"American universities have a lot of shady dealings. Maybe Xiaoxue’s dad bought her admission spot."

"But, it’s not exactly something to be proud of, and Xiaoxue herself wouldn’t want you guys to know. So just pretend you don’t know, okay?"

"This will probably take a long time to sort out. I don’t think... unless she comes back to the country someday, we’ll likely never see her at East Sea University again."

Chi Xiaoguo was very surprised to hear this.

Besides being surprised, she was also a little disappointed.

"Sigh... To think one of our Film Club’s Four Heavenly Kings has fallen so soon."

"Ahem."

Jiang Ran coughed lightly. "It’s alright. You know that old joke, right? The Four Heavenly Kings usually have five members! Even though Xiaoxue is gone, we can always recruit new members if we need to. I’ll keep an eye out for you."

In the end, Chi Xiaoguo had only known Cheng Mengxue for a little over ten days, all told. So, she didn’t dwell on the matter too much and calmly accepted the fact that Cheng Mengxue had returned to the United States.

As for the case of the missing Rhine Cat dolls...

That was another white lie.

Yesterday, at Jiang Ran’s request, plainclothes officers from the East Sea City Public Security Bureau had quietly come to the Film Club and taken all the Rhine Cat dolls.

After being brought back to the station, they were immediately disassembled and inspected by professionals.

Sure enough.

Many of the dolls had wireless listening devices planted inside, and four of the Rhine Cat dolls were even found to contain pinhole cameras.

Seeing the sophisticated equipment taken out of them... Jiang Ran felt a genuine chill run down his spine.

He was once again thankful for his "overly cautious syndrome."

It was precisely because of this concern that Jiang Ran had never once used the Positron Cannon since the Rhine Cat Legion had taken up residence in the Film Club.

It was a stroke of luck amid all the misfortune.

Otherwise, if his Positron Cannon and his trump card for traversing time and space had been exposed, there was no telling what uncontrollable direction the story would have gone.

The Rhine Cat dolls had been dismantled into pieces and couldn’t be put back together, so he had to tell a small lie, telling her they had been returned to their rightful owner and mailed to Cheng Mengxue in the United States.

As for the most expensive one, the rice cooker Rhine Cat...

He had bought that one himself, so it should have been safe.

But, out of his "overly cautious syndrome," Jiang Ran still had the professionals at the East Sea City Public Security Bureau dismantle it.

It later turned out that he had indeed been overly cautious. The rice cooker Rhine Cat was completely clean; there was nothing hidden inside.

The female officer in charge of the disassembly happened to be a Rhine Cat enthusiast herself and couldn’t help but sigh with regret.

"What a shame. This rice cooker Rhine Cat is very expensive. I was just looking at a resale site the other day, and the lowest asking price was 10,000 yuan."

Jiang Ran just smiled and said nothing.

’It was dismantled, and that was that.’

Even though this was the Rhine Cat that Mengxue had liked and cherished the most, Jiang Ran couldn’t shake the feeling that the thing was a bad omen.

On World Line 0, not long after Cheng Mengxue got the rice cooker Rhine Cat, the Worldline Jump happened, and disaster struck.

On World Line 1, the plot was largely the same. The tragedy also occurred shortly after the appearance of the rice cooker Rhine Cat.

’What on earth is the deal with this rice cooker?’

’How is it like a cursed Soul Artifact... a death sentence for anyone who touches it?’

Therefore.