Chapter 138

A Qing asked, "Isn't the fishing boat broken?"

Wu An laughed, "That's exactly why it's broken—I want to buy it."

Otherwise, how could we drive the price down?

Lin Hu, Lin Hu, you never would have imagined that messing with me would actually do me a big favor!

A Qing scratched his head—he simply couldn't keep up with Wu An's mind.

Seeing Wu An's confident expression, he couldn't be bothered to think further.

Anyway, he just follows his brother.

No need to waste that brain.

A Qing turned back; far off he could see Lin Hu standing on the reef, gritting his teeth and saying, "Brother, if we can't find evidence, we might as well deal with Lin Hu!"

Wu An thought, nodded, and said, "I'm afraid so—if we can't establish guilt, we can't arrest anyone."

Mainly we still have to rely on surveillance.

Other evidence or clues are out of the question; the dock is busy with people coming and going, and even if Lin Hu left any traces, they've surely been destroyed and can't be found now.

Only surveillance.

But yesterday he observed that the surrounding shops' cameras probably can't capture Lin Hu committing the crime in Jin State.

So it's likely we can't pin the crime on Lin Hu.

All we can say is that Lin Hu is the biggest suspect.

A Qing spat on the ground and said, "That's not acceptable!"

"We were lucky this time not to be messed with by Lin Hu; next time we might not be."

"We need to give Lin Hu a lesson."

Wu An scooped some sand, covered the spit, and asked, "Do you have a method?"

A Qing said fiercely, "Same as yesterday—we'll first hit him with a blunt stick, preferably half-dead."

Wu An shook his head: "Hitting with a blunt stick is possible, but it still doesn't relieve the hatred."

"What if he turns around and kills us?"

"He's not some scumbag like Guang Liangjun; his muscular build is more than both of us combined."

A Qing shouted, "That's simple—we can ask Boss Gao to lend us a few people."

"Brother, I've seen them fight; they're all professionals."

"Even a few Lin Hus combined wouldn't be a match."

Wu An frowned; that's even less suitable—not that A Qing's method wouldn't work, but the more people involved, the more likely problems arise.

Moreover, we'd then owe Gao Qiangqi a big favor.

And it's still dirty work.

He doesn't want to; for his father and elder brother's wife, he also must keep himself clean, preserve his reputation—aside from anything else, if Lin Hu finds out he hired people to beat him, once it gets out, he won't even be able to stay in the village, and it'll implicate his father being pointed at.

He said earnestly, "In this world of martial arts, besides fighting and killing, there are also human relations and worldly affairs."

A Qing scratched his head: "What does that mean?"

Wu An: "We'll play it sneaky."

A Qing suddenly understood.

The two continued walking east toward the dock.

After a while, Wu An remembered and quickly called Qin Zong to reserve a high-end table; Qin Zong answered the phone quite pleased—only a few days had passed, yet Wu An had already patronized the place twice.

This frequency is even higher than Gao Qiangqi's.

……

Upon arriving at the dock, Lao Xie was receiving goods; seeing him, he laughed and greeted: "Hey, A An, you're going out to gather seafood?"

Wu An nodded and greeted: "Boss Xie, business is booming!"

Lao Xie waved his hand: "Just scraping by."

"You haven't been around lately."

"You've been busy in town lately?"

Wu An echoed a sentence.

Nearby stall owner Lao Chen also chimed in, sneering: "Lao Xie, you don't even know, huh? That pretty boy is now a big deal—he's going to buy a fishing boat."

"Although in the end he didn't manage to buy the boat, he still stirred up trouble."

"Otherwise, how could he possibly come out to gather seafood?"

Lao Xie was somewhat surprised.

Wu An smiled, took A Qing, and continued walking along the seaside.

Then they heard Lao Xie speaking up for him: "Old Chen, you're saying this too early—what 'finally'? We've barely started."

"A An has money; where can't he buy a fishing boat?"

Lao Chen snorted: "I just wanted to disgust him a bit."

"And you still speak up for him—he doesn't even come to you for seafood anymore."

Lao Xie shook his head: "Old Chen, one thing is one thing."

"Doing things this way, you can't be a decent person."

"Damn, you're still lecturing me?" Lao Chen retorted: "You're the only good person."

A Qing several times turned back looking for trouble, but Wu An held him back; now arguing with Lao Chen, he couldn't gain any advantage—after all, his fishing boat indeed wasn't bought and that got him locked up.

After a while, A Qing said, "Lao Xie is not bad."

Wu An smiled: "He's not bad—you just found that out?"

He'll speak for you.

I heard it.

Then how could you not know?

Wu An was startled; A Qing was right. Even if Lao Xie deliberately let him hear it, that person truly did speak for him.

Lao Xie may not have offered a high price, but at this dock in the Village, his character is beyond question.

The days ahead will be long.

Even if there are ships later, he can't go to sea every day, so relying on Lao Xie to speak for him, he'll stick with Lao Xie for future sea‑hunting here.

Today is a small tide.

There aren't many people chasing the sea; the two brothers had just arrived when they saw Gu Anran off in the distance.

Gu Anran also saw them and waved.

They walked over.

Gu Anran asked, "You've arrived."

Wu An replied, "Arrived."

Villagers nearby saw them and started teasing.

"Anran, this handsome lad!"

"Haven't seen this handsome guy for several days; thought he'd been eliminated."

"Handsome one, Anran is a prized flower of our Village, in high demand; you'd better hold on tight."

Wu An saw Gu Anran greeting an auntie, indicating they're fairly close.

Wu An saw the auntie smoking and quickly handed her a cigarette: "Auntie, I'll still need your guidance later."

The auntie looked up, "Yo, Hua Zi," she smiled at Wu An and said, "Handsome, not bad."

After a few idle words, Wu An learned the auntie also bore the surname Gu, was Gu Anran's neighbor, part of the same clan but a distant branch, five generations removed and with two more twists.

Don't be fooled by just being neighbors; as the auntie put it, she watched Anran grow up, even closer than Gu Anran's own elder uncle.

Wu An believed her.

Gu Anran's elder uncle appears in Father's notebook, a scoundrel even worse than him.

Just from Gu Anran caring for his grandmother alone, the picture is clear.

Gu auntie said little and quickly walked away to her chores.

The neighboring village's coastline isn't great, and it lacks Xixi Village's unique "Golden Sand Beach"; the area is riddled with reefs, even the beach side has many rocks.

As far as he knows, Xixi Village will develop tourism in the future, while the neighboring village stays the same; the savvy folks all set up businesses here in Xixi Village.

He applied every Luck Boost available, and after a round of operations, the Luck Value was down to 49 points.

He got busy.

He grabbed a rake and started digging; each swipe uncovered clams, though not as good as before—better than nothing. As he kept digging, he unwittingly reached a more remote spot, the tide washing his feet, with few people around, and he found many holes.

They looked like sandworm holes.

With the rake, it was only shallow; even if he dug through, nothing came out. He fetched a sand shovel, aimed at a hole, and dug diagonally.

A quick thrust.

A slight scoop yielded two sandworms.

And they were both large.

He dug again.

This time a single shovel brought up three sandworms; these are worth more than clams.

He quickly called A Qing and Gu Anran over.