Chapter 288: Liuba

Golden Turtle knew that Liuba lacked neither money nor interest and fun; nowadays he only took jobs that interested him. This time he had run into trouble and nearly lost his life, so he summoned Liuba, who was out sightseeing, to help. Liuba neither said yes nor no, but came out of regard for his friendship with Golden Turtle to check on his injuries and, by the way, learn about the job Golden Turtle had taken on.

But after hearing the details of the job, Liuba lost interest; he had encountered such things many times—struggles between second mistress, third mistress, even nth mistress, and the feuds among illegitimate children—he had seen them all. Once or twice he found it rather amusing, like being part of a grand palace intrigue drama, where he himself was a key factor controlling the plot, even able to turn the tide, which further piqued his interest, letting him experience that thrilling and novel feeling, and even as an onlooker watch the leading and supporting actors' disgraceful behavior on and off stage.

But after frequent exposure, it became boring.

So, after these few days of contact with Liuba, Golden Turtle could see Liuba's clear reluctance—if he were interested, he wouldn't be lounging around all day—but now this text message actually managed to pique Liuba's interest.

After thinking about the content of that recent text, which told Golden Turtle where the evidence left by the person who attacked him with a knife that night was now located—information Golden Turtle indeed needed—he had, over the past few days under the pretense of nursing his injuries, refused some unreasonable demands from his employers; they were private detectives, but not suicide detectives. Since he realized the people involved were not so simple, he needed to investigate further, even rethink his approach, to figure out what could be looked into and what should be avoided. As for the number that had just sent the text, Golden Turtle only glanced at it casually; it was an unfamiliar number, and he thought it was probably someone who knew him trying to curry favor or some internal strife on the other side, but evidently the matter differed from what Golden Turtle imagined, and Liuba's reaction showed that the number was unusual.

"Do you know him?" Golden Turtle asked.

Liuba shook his head. "I don't know him. But I heard about him not long ago." Although at that time Liuba wasn't even in Chu Hua Shi, let alone the province. He liked to pay attention to interesting things, and one of them was this string of four sixes. He always felt that behind this phone number lay an interesting secret. He had planned to wait until the number stirred up some trouble again before showing up. He hadn't expected to run into it now.

"Mind if I use your phone for a moment?" Liuba said, shaking Golden Turtle's phone number at him.

Golden Turtle waved his hand. "Go ahead," he said indifferently.

Liuba looked at the number, then dialed it, just as he had expected—the other party had already turned off their phone.

Was it due to caution, or some other reason?

Since Liuba himself had been involved in that problematic milk‑tea powder and problematic candy case, he had continued to follow it; otherwise he wouldn't have discovered this interesting matter. Even the police had previously paid attention to that number, but they had never turned up any useful information.

After hanging up, Liuba returned the phone to Golden Turtle, saying, "I'll go with you to pick up the things mentioned in the message… and swing by a place."

Golden Turtle had no objection.

When Zheng Tan sent that text, it was only because he had happened to hear Jiao Yuan and the others mention that problematic kid; although the kid had probably kept a low profile these days out of guilt, he hadn't caused trouble for Jiao Yuan and his friends, nor had anyone heard anything about him, and Jiao Yuan had even heard from a ninth‑grader that the kid was doing fairly well lately.

Knowing Golden Turtle hadn't found the person, Zheng Tan, wanting to cut off any hidden danger and prevent that person from continuing to harass Jiao Yuan and his friends, immediately passed along a clue as soon as he saw Golden Turtle's number.

After sending the text, Zheng Tan paid it no mind, turned off his phone, went out for a stroll, and didn't believe that Golden Turtle and his crew could fail to find the person based on the clue.

That day, Zheng Tan was at Er Mao's place listening to Er Mao and Wei Leng chat; it was the weekend, Er Mao's girlfriend had something on these two days and wasn't in the province, and Wei Leng was going to his mother‑in‑law's house that evening to pick up his wife, so beforehand they just hung out at Er Mao's, shooting the breeze.

"Damn, that Peanut Candy has been loafing around again these two days," Er Mao said angrily.

Er Mao's "Peanut Candy" refers to Peanut Candy; lately Hei Mi has been lounging on his own balcony, and when Peanut Candy wanders over to Dongqu Dayuan he lets out a few yowls—once he even got into a fight with Sahala, and after that he keeps coming back to yowl a few more times.

"Why are you stopping them? Just let them communicate their feelings and keep breeding," Wei Leng said.

"You make it sound easy!" Er Mao snorted. "Anyway, I just don't like the look of that Peanut Candy. Senior Brother Wei Leng, you don't understand—you've never felt this."

"What feeling? Tell us."

"The feeling of marrying off a daughter."

Wei Leng chuckled. "You sound like you've married off a daughter yourself. Tell us exactly what it feels like."

"It's like… I finally raised a fine cabbage, only to have a stupid pig root it up."

Wei Leng, Zheng Tan: "……" That line is very familiar; it's just that the speaker's perspective is different.

As they were speaking, a cat's yowl came from below.

Er Mao squeezed the beer can until it crackled, "Here we go again!"

Zheng Tan watched Er Mao like that, knowing that if Peanut Candy kept teasing him today, Er Mao would probably have to go downstairs and throw down.

Jumping off the sofa, Zheng Tan left the staff building and lightly slapped Peanut Candy, who was sitting on the concrete open space in the courtyard.

When Peanut Candy saw Zheng Tan, he didn't yowl as before; he mewed twice, sounding rather aggrieved, glanced at Er Mao waving a mop in protest from the third‑floor balcony, bared his teeth, then turned and left.

Zheng Tan felt that the conflict between Er Mao and Peanut Candy seemed to be growing worse, and he didn't know which side would give in first.

Having come down, Zheng Tan had no intention of going back up; he left the compound, intending to stroll around, and took the chance to check his phone for any messages.

As he was walking, Zheng Tan suddenly felt a gaze fixed on him. He looked up and saw a person dressed much like the other students standing there, except for a short ponytail tied at the back of the head.

Seeing the ponytail, Zheng Tan could immediately tell who it was.

Zheng Tan looked at that person—no satchel, no large bag, and even after seeing Zheng Tan, the person turned his pockets inside out to show him, indicating he hadn't brought a spray gun this time.

The person was Liuba.

Even though the person appeared to be carrying nothing dangerous, Zheng Tan eyed him warily.

Compared to Zheng Tan's wariness, Liuba, upon seeing Zheng Tan, chewed his gum, blew a bubble, then smiled and said, "Yo, long time no see."

Zheng Tan continued to regard him warily.

Liuba raised both hands to indicate to Zheng Tan that he was holding nothing, then walked toward him, veering off at about four or five meters away and heading toward a nearby sports field.

Zheng Tan thought it over and followed, but kept a distance of about ten meters; otherwise he wouldn't feel at ease, since he still didn't know the person's true background, and it was wise to stay alert.

Liuba hadn't gone far; he found a spot to sit down at the edge of the sports field nearest the compound, not in the stands but on the grass beside the field.

"Being a cat is great—leisurely, doing whatever you want, no life pressures," Liuba sighed.

Zheng Tan, hearing this from a nearby tree, snorted inwardly—not every cat is free of life pressure, and some even suffer from psychological issues, though it's hard to tell.

Besides, Zheng Tan didn't care about others; he was just wondering how Liuba had ended up here—wasn't he the one Golden Turtle had called for help that day?

As Zheng Tan was thinking, a student who had come to retrieve a ball kicked it back onto the field, then sat down where he was, wiped his sweat, caught his breath, and said to Liuba, who was sitting there, "Hey buddy, which department are you from? Want to kick a ball around? We're short on people over here, and there are even cute girls watching." He gave Liuba a wink, lifted his chin, and pointed in a direction, saying, "That's our department's 'Queen Bee'."

Zheng Tan looked over; it was a bit far, but he could still see a few girls standing at the edge of the football field. From that distance they all looked fine—he just didn't know which one the "Queen Bee" referred to.

"Queen Bee?" Liuba asked doubtfully, his eyes hinting at something deeper.

The student didn't notice Liuba's oddness; instead, he said proudly, "That's our department's recognized campus belle—because her name contains the character 'abundant', people later jokingly called her the 'Queen Bee'. She's pretty, gets good grades, and is well liked; normally she doesn't have to do anything in the department, and people naturally help her out—whether it's guys from our department or from other departments, they all end up bowing before her pomegranate skirt."

"You must have it rough then," Liuba said.

Zheng Tan always felt there was more to Liuba's words.

The student was a bit thick‑skulled; hearing Liuba's words, he remained cheerful: "Of course, we take on all the heavy and tiring work, and people scramble to run errands for us—how could we let our 'Queen Bee' get worn out?"

Zheng Tan stared at Liuba, thinking his expression was off.

Sure enough, after a few seconds of silence, Liuba murmured, "Brother, do you know about the mating flight issue in honeybees, those social insects?"

Zheng Tan: "……" He had a bad premonition.

The male student also shook his head blankly—they weren't biology students, so how would they know such things?

"When a new queen bee flies out on a nice day, she releases pheromones to attract drones; those that catch up prove they're strong and fit, so the queen mates with them, indulging herself. Afterwards, that drone probably dies of exhaustion—basically he doesn't survive. Then the queen continues flying, mates with another strong drone, the drone meets the same fate, and so on… until she feels she has enough offspring and stops—that's the 'mating flight' of bees." Liuba said slowly.

Zheng Tan and that already‑dumb student both swallowed their saliva, as if they had just heard a chilling tale. (To be continued…)