Chapter 252: The Debt Owed

Standing in the messy room, I didn't bother tidying up. Instead, I left everything as it was and began to wonder who the thief could be.

The intruder hadn't taken the precious Qi Transformation Pill or the Dragon-Carving Brush. This left two possibilities: either they hadn't found the hidden compartment behind the bookshelf, or their objective was strictly the information regarding the Underworld Live Show, so they retreated the moment they got their hands on it.

I had plenty of enemies, but who among them would be interested in the Underworld Live Show?

It definitely wasn't an ordinary petty thief. Leaving aside whether they could outrun Bai Qi, I had several bearer checks tucked in my drawer, each starting at a hundred thousand, yet not a single one was missing.

The Two-Faced Buddha, represented by Lu Xing and Qiu Ren, had the capability. However, they had fought me late into the night, and both were injured. It would have been extremely difficult for them to slip in without leaving a trace.

Ruling those two out, my thoughts turned to Jiang Chen. That wealthy heir spent every waking moment plotting ways to trap me.

But this line of thought presented a contradiction. Jiang Chen had never heard of the Underworld Live Show. How could he know those seemingly casual, scribbled notes were actually the most important things I owned?

My gaze swept toward the Lacquered Wooden Coffin. I pushed open the lid, revealing the old man's coat and a black Daoist robe with a poisonous snake embroidered on the cuffs, both tossed amid the red mud.

'The day I helped Ye Bing get rid of the Little Ghost, I saw an old man telling fortunes by dissecting characters. His Daoist robe looked exactly like this one. The Daoist swallowed by the Lacquered Wooden Coffin must be connected to him. Could he be the one who stole the documents?'

That old Daoist was highly suspicious. First, his Daoist arts were profound; his skill in reading characters and faces surpassed even Blind Liu's. Anyone capable of dealing with Bai Qi was certainly no ordinary person. He was now my prime suspect.

'But why would he steal information about the Underworld Live Show? Could it be that this old Daoist already knew of its existence?' My thoughts were in a tangled mess, and I couldn't shake the feeling that there were other suspects.

Without taking the time to clean up, I grabbed two checks, stuffed them into my pocket, and hurried out the door.

With my lair burglarized, there was a high chance my secret identity as an Underworld Live Show Streamer would be exploited by someone with ulterior motives. I had to take precautions as soon as possible.

I hailed a taxi, tossed the driver twenty yuan, and told him to get me to the Jiangcheng Pet Market as fast as possible.

There were no witnesses at the scene of the crime, but Bai Qi had been there. The Changbai Mountain Guard Dog was highly intelligent and spiritually aware; his disappearance indirectly revealed a lot.

Bai Qi was missing, yet there was no blood in the room and very few signs of a struggle. That was what puzzled me the most.

What exactly had Bai Qi encountered last night?

About twenty or thirty minutes later, the taxi arrived at the pet market. I got out and headed straight for the shop that specialized in dogs.

Before I even stepped inside, several young people ran out. Seeing their strange expressions, I thought something major had happened.

"What's going on in this shop?"

I stopped a female student wearing glasses. The girl, carrying a backpack, replied timidly, "I don't know what happened either. I was just looking at the dogs when suddenly, a bunch of barks came from the back room. All the Chihuahuas and Poodles out front were so scared they stopped moving, like they'd suddenly fallen gravely ill."

The situation she described was exactly the same as when Bai Qi first appeared. Joy surged in my heart, and I quickened my pace.

"Boss, I'm here to pay my debt." Entering the shop, I saw two or three employees frantically circling the pet cages. Their dogs seemed to be possessed, shrinking back into the deepest corners of their cages and letting out long and short whimpers.

The clerks had no time to deal with me. They were bustling about, and one of them was even on the phone with a vet.

"What are you all doing? Where's the boss?" I stood in the middle of the pet shop. The dark eyes of all the dogs were fixed on me. They seemed wary of something on my body, or perhaps they were just terrified of me.

I had caused quite a commotion the last time I was here. Some dogs could see things that humans couldn't, and these little guys had probably noticed the yin energy wrapped around me.

"Don't panic. As soon as I leave, these pups will go back to normal."

After I spoke a few more words with the clerks, one of them finally recognized me. "You're that dog thief!"

"What do you mean, 'dog thief'? That sounds awful." I was just about to explain myself when the clerk took a step back, hung up on the vet, and looked as if he was about to call the police.

I quickly stopped him and pulled the check from my pocket. "I agreed to pay in installments back then. Here's two hundred thousand."

I flicked the check with my middle finger, but the clerk completely ignored me and immediately dialed the phone.

"Don't do anything rash. I'm really here to pay my debt."

It took a lot of talking to finally get him to put the phone down. But this clerk was smart; seeing that I was blocking him from calling the police, he grabbed my clothes tightly with one hand and shouted toward the back room, "Boss! That guy who stole the dog is here!"

A dozen seconds later, the sound of an iron door opening and closing came from the back room. A slightly chubby middle-aged man strode out like a miniature whirlwind. "Where's that bastard?!"

"Boss, calm down. Let's talk this out." I looked helpless, blaming my own impulsiveness for forcefully tricking Bai Qi away back then. But I couldn't entirely be blamed—the dog cost five hundred thousand. Even if I sold everything I owned, including my kidneys, I wouldn't have been able to scrape together that much money.

"You still dare to come back? Where's Bai Qi? Where did you hide him?" Faced with the boss's interrogation, I found it hard to answer. Looking at him, I figured that if I told him I had lost Bai Qi, he would call the cops on the spot.

"You don't need to worry about Bai Qi. I just have a few things I want to ask you." I slowed my speech and handed the two checks to the pet shop boss. "I promised you installment payments before. Here is two hundred thousand. I'll gather the remaining three hundred thousand for you as soon as possible."

"Two hundred thousand? Who are you trying to fool, kid?! Do you think I'd actually believe you again?" The boss swatted the checks out of my hand and put his hands on his hips. "Let me tell you, either you give Bai Qi back to me today, or I'll see you at the Public Security Bureau!"

"This really is two hundred thousand. Look here, it even has the official seal of Qian Ding Pharmaceutical Company." I could understand the boss's current mood. Being deceived was not a pleasant feeling. To keep the conversation going, I had no choice but to swallow my pride, bend down to pick up the checks, and lower my stance. "I admit I was wrong. Back then, I did have a fleeting thought of tricking you, but it was an absolute emergency. Lives were on the line, and I desperately needed Bai Qi..."

"Alright, enough of your rambling. Didn't you say there's two hundred thousand here?" The boss waved at the clerk next to him. "Da Fei, go to the bank at the far north end of the market right now and cash these checks. If the money in there is even a cent short of two hundred thousand, call the cops and bring them straight back with you!"

"You got it!" The clerk grabbed my checks and shot me a vicious glare. Before stepping out the door, he didn't forget to mutter, "Scammers these days are pretty good. They make their checks look completely real."

I stood helplessly in the room, forcing a bitter smile onto my face. Still, suffering a few grievances was absolutely nothing if it was for Bai Qi's sake.

"Boss, why don't we go into the back room and talk in detail?" I didn't want too many people to know about Bai Qi's situation, so I suggested changing locations.

"To the back room?" The boss gave me a highly vigilant look, as if I were preparing to steal his precious pet dogs all over again. "Impossible. If you don't return Bai Qi today, just wait for the police to come pick you up."

The boss was dead set on fighting me to the bitter end, his tone completely unyielding.

"Honestly, it doesn't matter to me. The problem is that the pet dogs in your shop are too delicate. I'm afraid they won't be able to handle it."

I pointed at the shivering, half-dead pack of dogs in the cages. The boss's expression turned somewhat ugly, likely because it had been the exact same way the last time I was here.

"You really are a bizarre person. With your clean-cut looks, you don't seem like the kind of lowlife who would do something like steal a dog."

"Your lecture is justified. Let's go to the back room and talk. I have some questions about Bai Qi that I need to ask you."

"Come on." Heartbroken for his dogs, the boss invited me into the back room. The last time I was here, these ferocious dogs had barked at me madly. This time, perhaps because I was carrying a Fate Ghost with me, they didn't dare make the slightest sound. They only bared their fangs, clearly terrified, yet still trying desperately to put on a fierce front.

"Speak. What do you want to ask?"

I lit a cigarette and sorted through my thoughts. "I want to know about Bai Qi's previous owner—the Scruffy Daoist who used him to pay off a debt for booze."

Bai Qi's previous owner was the other suspect in my mind. I had witnessed Bai Qi's combat prowess; anyone who could lure him away without leaving a single trace was highly suspicious.