Chapter 253: Qingtu Temple

"No comment. Don't change the subject, kid. Let's talk about that five hundred thousand first." The pet store boss scowled at me and snapped, "I never wanted to sell the dog to you in the first place, but who could've guessed you'd actually steal him? It's absolutely despicable!"

"How is it stealing? I'm paying in installments..."

"Give me a break. Five hundred thousand for a local mutt? Cut the crap and bring Bai Qi back right now, and we'll call it even. I run a business to make money, not enemies, so I'd rather not call the cops and make this ugly." After a long tirade, the boss finally softened his tone. "Besides, that dog was left with me on consignment. If something happens to him and the previous owner comes asking, what am I supposed to do? Where am I going to find five hundred thousand to pay him off?"

"Previous owner? Boss, do you still remember what Bai Qi's previous owner looked like? Anyone who could raise a dog like Bai Qi is definitely no ordinary Daoist."

I was desperate for any news about the Scruffy Daoist. Seeing my cooperative attitude, the boss slowly opened up.

"He didn't look like anything special. Just wore a filthy Daoist robe with an empty wine gourd tucked at his waist. Walked with a swaying stagger, totally lacking any proper bearing."

I frowned. There was no way I could deduce any useful information from such a generic description.

"That old Daoist looked totally unkempt, but he still carried a bit of an otherworldly air in the way he moved, and he spoke with an archaic flair. That's why I agreed to sell Bai Qi on consignment in the first place." Thinking back to that day, the boss clicked his tongue in wonder.

"Honestly, I still can't believe it. That old Daoist was completely broke at the time. Man and dog were both starving, basically nothing but skin and bones. Taking pity on him, I kindly agreed to take Bai Qi on consignment and even gave the guy fifty bucks. But who knew? The moment that old Daoist walked out the door, he went straight into a convenience store and came back out carrying two bottles of cheap liquor."

The boss leaned against a steel cage and mimicked the Daoist's mannerisms. "He drank with reckless abandon, too. Just unscrewed the cap and chugged it straight like it was water. I watched him walk away with strides as swift as the wind. I swear, that old Daoist only got more energetic the more he drank."

Bai Qi's previous owner was definitely an eccentric. He acted wild and unconstrained by trivialities. Judging solely from the boss's account, he didn't seem like the type to scheme or employ underhanded tricks.

'Bai Qi shouldn't be a trap deliberately set by the old Daoist...' I thought, reflecting on the time I had spent with the dog. It had been brief, but I could feel genuine reliance and loyalty coming from him.

Tracing my memories back to our very first encounter in the pet store, a specific detail suddenly struck me.

When I accidentally tripped and crashed into the Tibetan Mastiff's cage, Bai Qi had been the one to save me. At the time, he had also done something highly unusual—an action that made me resolve to take him with me at any cost.

'Bai Qi was licking the Plum Blossom Brand on my wrist!'

That was the mark of an Underworld Live Show Streamer. Since it was our first time meeting, there was no reason for him to act so affectionately. Thinking about it now, he must have seen a similar brand somewhere else.

'Could that Scruffy Daoist also be an Underworld Live Show Streamer?' I shook my head, rejecting the idea. "Boss, think carefully. Did you miss anything about this Daoist? Like in your conversations, did he mention his background, or where I might be able to find him?"

"You want to find him?" The boss watched me warily, sensing ulterior motives. "I can't remember the exact details anymore, but I think the Daoist said one last thing. He said if someone was willing to pay five hundred thousand to buy the dog, to deliver the money to Qingtu Temple."

It wasn't my first time hearing of Qingtu Temple. During my broadcast on the Route 14 Spirit Bus, I had passed by the place and even had dealings with the temple master, Daoist Priest Xianqing.

"The Scruffy Daoist told you to send the money to Qingtu Temple. Could he be in cahoots with Daoist Priest Xianqing?"

I had muttered the words to myself, but the boss grew displeased when he heard them. "You really have a vulgar mouth. The man is a Celestial Master Daoist, for crying out loud. How does he become so utterly indecent the moment you start talking about him?"

"Sorry, I just remembered something." Since I had gotten the intelligence I needed, I had no intention of sticking around. "Boss, I'll pay you two hundred thousand first. I'll scrape together the rest of the money for you as soon as I can. Please stay, there's no need to see me out."

"Think you can just leave? You really think you can walk out of here? You spouted a bunch of random nonsense, just running your mouth." The boss grabbed tightly onto my clothes, a look of pity flashing across his face. "You're young. Why can't you do something decent with your life? Instead, you have to be a swindler. Don't say I didn't give you a chance. Return Bai Qi right now and we'll drop this. Once the cops get here, you're in for a world of pain. The guys down at the station aren't nearly as forgiving as I am!"

I was thoroughly amused by the man. "Alright then, I'll wait a little longer."

The boss dragged me out of the back room. The moment I emerged, the shop full of pet dogs immediately reverted to a half-dead state, acting as if they were facing a mortal enemy.

"It's like seeing a ghost. Every time you show up, the dogs in my shop need to rest for days before they get their spirit back." The boss clung to my clothes. He thought of a few superstitions regarding dogs, but looking at my thoroughly ordinary face, he opened his mouth and ultimately felt too embarrassed to ask.

We waited in the shop for over ten minutes. The sound of hurried, messy footsteps echoed from the street outside. Da Fei, the store employee, darted inside clutching his chest like a thief.

"Why is it just you? Where are the cops?" Seeing his employee acting so shifty, the boss instantly grew furious, assuming Da Fei had gone soft. "Give me the phone. If you won't call the cops, I will! A shameless scammer like him cannot be tolerated!"

"Boss, wait!" Da Fei hurriedly shut the shop door. Still clutching the front of his jacket, he ran over to the boss. "I withdrew the cash."

"What?!"

The employee raised his head and gave me a timid glance. "All the money from those two checks was withdrawn. It came out of the accounts for Qian Ding Pharmaceutical Company, but... it wasn't two hundred thousand."

He unzipped his jacket and pulled out stacks of cash wrapped in brown paper from against his chest. "The bank said one of them was a cash check for one hundred thousand. The other was a transfer check. Across three transactions, I was able to withdraw a total of three hundred thousand!"

Each stack of bills was ten thousand yuan and about a centimeter thick. It took Da Fei half a minute to pull all the money out of his coat. He arranged it neatly on a table—a massive, eye-catching sea of red. Even the dogs in their cages looked absolutely dumbfounded.

"N-no way, you're sure you got this from the bank? It's not counterfeit, is it?" The boss held a stack of money up to the sunlight. The watermark of the nation's leader smiled warmly back at him. "Holy shit, it's four hundred thousand in total!"

Da Fei kept his head down. "Tell me about it. When I walked out holding this massive pile of cash, I felt like I had just robbed a bank vault. I was terrified."

The extra money from that transfer check had to be the follow-up task payment sent over by Huang Boyuan. Looking at the massive pile of cash on the table, even I was a little surprised, but only a little. "Boss, you can relax and count your money here. I'll scrape the remaining one hundred thousand together for you as soon as possible."

With that, I shook off his hand and prepared to leave.

"Hold on!" The boss hastily rushed over. "You need to think this through. No matter how miraculous that dog is, he's still just a local mutt. Is it really worth five hundred thousand?"

"If you had asked me before, my answer would be that it's worth it—extremely worth it. But now, I've changed my mind."

"You regret it?"

"No, I just came to understand a very simple truth. There are some things in this world that cannot have their value measured in money. I haven't been with him for very long, but he's saved me many times. No matter how bad things get, from the bottom of my heart, I'm willing to trust him."

Leaving the pet store, I stepped out into the bustling crowd. In that brief instant, I felt as if I truly understood the meaning of the mortal world. Without glancing back at the table full of cash, I hailed a taxi and headed for Qingtu Temple.

That night, when I was sitting on the Route 14 Spirit Bus, one of the stops we passed was called Qingtu Temple. However, after asking the taxi driver, I discovered that there was no such stop on the official Route 14 bus map. He had never even heard of a place called Qingtu Temple.

'How could a perfectly fine bus stop just disappear? Could it be that stop only exists for the dead?' I wondered.

Carrying these questions with me, I followed the lingering impressions in my memory and had the driver drop me off at the Qicun Maternity and Children's Health Center.

During that broadcast, I had memorized all the stops the Route 14 Spirit Bus made. This Qingtu Temple was located exactly halfway between the Qicun Maternity and Children's Health Center and the Huayuan district.