Chapter 55: Counter-Tailing

Lin Yun paused at the jewelry counter.

The salesclerk was enthusiastically promoting the store's goods to him, frequently asking and trying to confirm his choice, but Lin Yun turned a deaf ear to it.

Because all his attention was on Moke beside him.

At this moment, Moke was strutting boldly on the counter before him, excited by the sea of jewelry, occasionally turning his head to glance at Lin Yun, then continuing to immerse himself in his own world.

Presumably, in its cognition, the ordinary people around, including Lin Yun, could not see it.

It was not strange for it to have such a thought; after all, Lin Xiaolu and Moke had not the slightest suspicion of Lin Yun's ordinary identity until now, and Moke often walked freely before his eyes in daily life. And he had fully demonstrated my lord's composure, remaining unmoved no matter what Moke did.

The result was that even though Moke was currently tailing him, it dared not hide itself at all.

And if Lin Yun remembered correctly, more than half a month ago, when he had instructed it on how to supervise two newcomers in practicing magic, it had been full of confidence and boundless energy; who would have thought that immediately afterward it would have gone along with the corruption.

So be it; he should not have expected anything from it.

Sighing inwardly, Lin Yun actually wanted to continue ignoring its existence, but now Moke was lying completely directly below his field of vision, totally blocking the goods the salesclerk was introducing, causing Lin Yun's attention to be involuntarily drawn to it.

What to do?

He had no choice but to start thinking about this question.

After weighing it for a moment, he felt that continuing to indulge Moke like this was not a solution; he had to scare it a little to make it stop being so arrogant. So he directly extended his finger and poked toward where Moke was.

"Meow-ah!"

Startled by Lin Yun's sudden movement, Moke let out a strange cry, tumbled and scrambled aside, looking tense and somewhat uncertain as it stared at Lin Yun.

"Could you bring this one for me to see?"

Lin Yun completely ignored it and instead pointed his finger at a crystal pendant in the display case: "I can't see it very clearly through the glass."

When he reached out, he didn't even know which item he would point to; he simply wanted to bluff Moke, so he actually had no interest in this string of pendants. But since the action was done, it was better to play the whole scene out.

This set of words and actions was quite natural; analyzing it purely from the motive, there were absolutely no flaws, as if he just wanted to take a look at that piece of jewelry. So the distant Moke sighed with relief, and its originally tense mood instantly relaxed.

It began to believe again that it would not be discovered.

Shifting its body, it returned to Lin Yun's field of vision, sat down in a different spot, and wanted to continue its "tailing" at close range.

"Ah, excuse me—"

Lin Yun reached out toward its location again: "And show me this one too, thank you."

"Wa-ah!"

This time he didn't intend to poke Moke directly, so he merely made a simple gesture, but having had the previous experience, Moke's heart tightened again and it jumped up by reflex.

Only when it discovered that Lin Yun's hand did not really reach over did it understand this was merely a "false alarm."

But Lin Yun had no intention of letting it off so easily.

After that, he interacted with Moke several times, half-serious and half-joking, interspersing various feints to disrupt the pattern, making Moke completely unable to figure out his true or false intentions. On one hand, it still felt that Lin Yun seemed unable to see it, but on the other hand, it was frequently startled by Lin Yun's abrupt movements; in the end, it even began to doubt its own luck, finally learning to behave and staying honestly at a distance instead of constantly rushing over.

This distance was just right, so Lin Yun stopped looking for trouble with it.

One person and one spirit walked through the mall in such a strange relationship until, at some moment, Moke, utterly bored, picked up the phone on its neck. It spoke in a proper manner, then answered a call; after that, as if it had received some new instruction, it glanced at Lin Yun twice again, then flapped its wings, turned, and left.

Lin Yun quickly sensed it: the opportunity had arrived.

He did not know whose idea it was for Moke to tail him this time, but that did not hinder him from tailing Moke in reverse to see what the other party actually planned.

So he briefly surveyed the goods before him, politely and naturally bid farewell to the salesclerk in front of him, and set off in the direction Moke had left.

The shopping plaza on Saturday was bustling with people, densely packed with crowds; even in the luxury goods section, there were many customers lingering, so Lin Yun did not need to deliberately hide his tracks; he only needed to hang behind Moke at a slightly greater distance and slightly conceal his figure when its gaze swept over.

He followed Moke up the elevator to the third floor, then immediately saw Moke fly to the central atrium of the building and meet up with two girls waiting there.

Without a doubt, those were exactly the two people Lin Yun had expected.

He could recognize at a glance that the one with a simple single ponytail, wearing a short-sleeved shirt, mid-length shorts, and sandals—the three-piece set—was Lin Xiaolu; the other, with hair naturally draped over her shoulders, wearing a T-shirt over denim overalls shorts, was Xia Liang. Both girls were leaning on the atrium railing, seemingly looking down at something.

And upon seeing Moke fly over, and seemingly because there had been a disagreement during the earlier phone communication, Lin Xiaolu quickly started arguing with it:

—"What? You said you were always worried about being bumped into when you were too close? Then stay farther away."

"If you stay far away, you might lose track? How could you lose track of such a big living person?"

"How am I supposed to tail him? Watching from above the atrium is the safest; what if I go down and tail him personally and he discovers me?"

The faint conversation sounds were right in front of Lin Yun; because Lin Xiaolu had not deliberately lowered her volume, the content was clearly audible.

He looked down from the side of the atrium with some curiosity and discovered that from this angle he could just sweep his gaze over the luxury goods section; instantly he understood what the two girls were doing here.

"Xiaolu."

Just then, Xia Liang beside her spoke up with some worry: "Have you seen your father over there?"

"Why look? He's been strolling around those few places for over an hour, and up to now there's still only him alone."

Lin Xiaolu dragged out her tone, leaned her hands on the railing, raised her head, and said: "I'm starting to suspect someone stood him up."

"But, it seems I can't see where he is over here." Xia Liang smiled somewhat awkwardly. "Can you find him?"

"Huh?"

Reminded by Xia Liang's words, Lin Xiaolu hurriedly looked down, but after glancing left and right, she still could not see her father's figure; instantly she was dumbfounded: "No way, we really lost track?"

The words "How could you lose track of such a big living person" had been spoken from her mouth less than two minutes ago, only to be immediately proven wrong and slapped in the face, leaving her flustered and embarrassed, her earlobes even turning hot.

She hurriedly opened her phone, trying to locate him again, but only then remembered that Moke, which served as the locator, had already flown back, and she could no longer lock onto Lin Yun's position.

So Lin Xiaolu could only hold her phone and stand there in a daze.

The two girls were at a loss beside the atrium, while the culprit Moke acted entirely as if it were an outsider; the scene was momentarily quite awkward.

Not far away, Lin Yun let out a long sigh.

Since things had escalated to this point, he could only go and ask what was going on.

So he stepped forward, slowly walked to behind Lin Xiaolu, and then gently patted her shoulder:

"What are you doing?"

"Ya-ah!" Lin Xiaolu was so startled she almost jumped into the air.