[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"origin-reborn-in-2014-i-am-the-king-of-criminal-investi":3,"chapter-reborn-in-2014-i-am-the-king-of-criminal-investi-reborn-in-2014-i-am-the-king-of-criminal-investi-chapter-83":6},{"origin":4,"title":5},"chinese","Reborn in 2014: I Am the King of Criminal Investigation",{"chapter":7,"nextChapterSlug":19,"prevChapterSlug":20,"totalChapters":21,"novelImage":22},{"id":8,"novel_id":9,"title":10,"slug":11,"index":12,"content":13,"wordcount":14,"created_at":15,"updated_at":15,"volume":16,"translator":17,"content_hash":18},2315939,4529,"Chapter 83: I Love Listening to Stories","reborn-in-2014-i-am-the-king-of-criminal-investi-chapter-83",83,"\u003Cp>“Who is it?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>From the two-story self-built house, another man, around fifty years old, stepped out.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>When he saw Yu Dazhang gripping the boy’s arm tightly, his eyes instantly turned fierce.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Let go!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Yu Dazhang remained unmoved, still holding the boy’s arm, pulling him slightly closer before saying:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“First, pay for my clothes.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Both men turned their gazes to Yu Dazhang’s clothing.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After a moment, the middle-aged woman spoke.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Your clothes are fine—no damage at all.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“What kind of eyes do you have?!” Yu Dazhang shouted:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Can’t you see it’s coming apart?!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The woman leaned in closer to look:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Still nothing.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Trying to cheat, are you?” Yu Dazhang glared at them.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Enough, enough.” The man stepped forward, shoving the woman aside, then said to Yu Dazhang:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Just say how much.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Yu Dazhang opened his palm and extended it forward:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Fifty thousand. Not a cent less.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“What?!” Both screamed in unison, their cold expressions instantly replaced by fury.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Is it really that much?” Yu Dazhang lifted his chin, looking down at them with contempt:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“If you can’t afford this, no wonder you live up on the mountain.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The man and the woman fell silent, glaring at him with rage.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“How about this,” Yu Dazhang said, sounding surprisingly reasonable:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“No money’s fine—I’m hungry. Let the meal cover the debt.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This place is definitely suspicious.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He deliberately acted like a reckless brute to provoke them, lowering their guard.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>What’s Zhang Sen’s condition? Are the two missing officers in the cellar?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>None of this is certain yet.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The only thing confirmed right now is… that smell is definitely human blood.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>With Yu Dazhang’s current sense of smell, he couldn’t be wrong.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Animal blood and human blood have distinct odors.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Sheep blood smells hot and greasy, pig blood is foul, chicken blood reeks of musk—only human blood is salty and metallic, with a sharp iron-rust tang.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The first priority now is to keep them calm.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Even if curious, he couldn’t go near the cellar—exposing his back now was no different from suicide.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>That’s why he kept holding onto the boy.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“If you want to eat, why didn’t you say so earlier?” The man stepped aside, gesturing for him to enter:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Come in—my family’s just about to eat; an extra pair of chopsticks won’t hurt.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Yu Dazhang smiled, pulling the boy along behind the man.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Inside, he was stunned by the interior.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Outside it looked old and worn, but inside it was dazzlingly opulent.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It was exactly the kind of place where gold leaf covered every surface, glowing bright.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>If he had to describe the style in four characters, Yu Dazhang could only say: crude yet lavish.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He released the boy and sat on the living room sofa, chatting nonsense with the man.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Though he appeared fully focused on the man, he was constantly observing the other two people in the room with the corner of his eye.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In this village, he dared not relax for a second—anyone could be a threat.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The woman moved swiftly, and soon the dishes were set on the table.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Four dishes and one soup—fairly generous.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Come on, eat while it’s hot,” the man said, sitting down at the table:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Just simple farm food—I don’t know if it suits your taste.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Yu Dazhang didn’t hesitate; he sat beside him, picked up the chopsticks, and rubbed them twice with his hand.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Eat,” the man urged again.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Yu Dazhang rubbed the chopsticks two more times.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Try this mushroom stir-fried with cured pork,” the man pointed to a dish:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“We picked these wild flat mushrooms ourselves—very fresh.” Yu Dazhang opened his mouth and blew two puffs of air onto the chopsticks.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Go ahead, pick some up—don’t be shy,” the man pressed.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Yu Dazhang separated the two chopsticks, holding one in each hand, then rubbed them together vigorously.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The man stopped offering; he felt if he kept insisting, his own chopsticks would snap from the friction.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He picked up his chopsticks, grabbed a bite at random, and began eating quietly.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Yu Dazhang still didn’t move his chopsticks—he called out to the middle-aged woman:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“You should come eat too.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The woman glanced back at him, face cold, saying nothing.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Ignore him. Eat your meal,” the man gestured with his chopsticks:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“In our village, when guests come, wives and children don’t sit at the table.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Please... collect... 6...9...books...!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He turned and snapped at the woman:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Stop hovering around us—take the kid out for a visit.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The woman nodded, then pulled the boy out the front door.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Yu Dazhang still didn’t touch his chopsticks. Watching the mother and son leave, he set the chopsticks down and turned to stare at the man:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Is that child yours?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The man froze mid-bite, slowly swallowed, then raised his head, expression blank:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Why ask that all of a sudden?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“He doesn’t look like you,” Yu Dazhang said, jokingly:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“But he does look a lot like that old woman—did you get cheated on?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He was deliberately provoking the man.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Since entering the house, he’d noticed the man always stayed near the bedroom.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Even when seated in the living room—on the sofa or at the table—he deliberately kept himself close to the bedroom.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As if only then did he feel safe.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Most importantly, Yu Dazhang noticed the man was constantly on guard.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>On the surface calm, his arm muscles were taut, his eyes half-lidded—ready to strike at any moment.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Even in this state, the man continued eating normally.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Anyone without suspicion would be fooled by his act.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This meant he’d done it before—habit had become second nature. He’d surely used this tactic on many others.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Looks like you’re not hungry after all.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The man put down his chopsticks, wiped his mouth with his palm, pulled out a cigarette, lit it, and took a deep drag before saying:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Since you’re interested, I’ll tell you a story of my own.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Great,” Yu Dazhang smiled.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“I love hearing stories.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The man took another drag, exhaled slowly, then spoke leisurely:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“In 1988, I was twenty-six.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Though young, I’d already spent five years at sea, visited at least twenty countries.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Back then, I was considered well-traveled.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“That same year, my family arranged a marriage for me—the girl was beautiful; we married quickly.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Soon after, I went back to sea—this time, seven months.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“When I returned, everyone in the village pointed and whispered.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“From my family, I learned my wife, married less than a year, had cheated.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Do you know what I did then?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The man flicked ash.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Then he brought the nearly burnt-out cigarette to his lips and took another drag.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After crushing the butt in the ashtray, he turned to look at the fat man—only to find a black barrel of a gun pointed directly at him.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Keep going,” Yu Dazhang said, gun pressed to the man’s chest, face grim.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>What did you do at the time?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The man opened his mouth:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I forgave her.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>(End of chapter)\u003C\u002Fp>",1150,"2026-06-20T14:22:46.062Z",1,"Qwen3-Next 80B","8383b0ae95f534f7bb7256154c645aeddd1ff6c97e2c4944444e82a64bd4d43c","reborn-in-2014-i-am-the-king-of-criminal-investi-chapter-84","reborn-in-2014-i-am-the-king-of-criminal-investi-chapter-82",763,"https:\u002F\u002Fnovelzhen.com\u002Fimages\u002Fcovers\u002Freborn-in-2014-i-am-the-king-of-criminal-investi-cover.jpg"]