Chapter 351: Riding the Face Export

Arrived at the Neighboring Town.

Met, introduced each other, and exchanged a few pleasantries.

After all, it was an investigation.

Under the lead of the Neighboring Town police, we proceeded the same way as at Zhen Shang Ma Tou, boarding each boat one by one to inspect.

After looking at several boats,

The Neighboring Town police frowned, "No, buddy, you're here to investigate, right?"

Liu Long smiled, "Of course."

The police let out a "Heh" and said, "This really broadens my horizons; you guys are just skimming through—what can you possibly find?"

"Even if the lost Crab Pots were placed in front of us, could we recognize them?"

"What markings are there?"

Liu Long had no answer.

Wu An said, "I can recognize them."

The police let out another "Heh"; "You say you can recognize them, so you can?"

"How can we be sure those are yours?"

"We're not messing around."

Liu Long still defused the situation, forcing himself to say that the department leadership assigned us this case, whether we could find anything was another matter, but we should at least follow the procedure.

In fact, he and Yu Kai Lang had long harbored this doubt, but out of face they said nothing.

The blame now could only be passed to the department leadership.

The police suddenly understood that it was a leadership matter, so he said nothing more, smoked a Cigarette while leading the way, and arrived at a yellow‑white fishing boat. The boat owner was on deck, smiling and greeting, "Brother Huang, such a big show."

"Yeah." The police, who was Huang Xuejun, hummed, tipped his head back, and said, "Someone in the Neighboring Town lost several Crab Pots at sea and came to us for help."

"Lao Ma, your boat returned at 5 p. m., right?"

Lao Ma, the boat owner, was short, skinny, dark‑skinned, nothing remarkable at a glance; the fishermen around here all look like that.

Lao Ma and his crew came aboard, lit a round of Cigarettes, and laughed, "This is rare—just a few Crab Pots lost, and you come to us?"

Huang Xuejun refilled his Cigarette, let out a "Hey", and said, "Who says it isn't?"

"Anyway, it's just a formality."

"Stay with us, don't let them damage anything on your boat."

Lao Ma smiled, nodded, greeted Yu Kai Lang and the others, and said, "The catch was decent today, so I came back early; the fish were sold, and the boat is all tidied up."

Yu Kai Lang asked, "What exactly did you catch?"

Lao Ma was startled, "Do you need that much detail?"

Yu Kai Lang replied, "Just a routine inquiry."

Lao Ma said, "Sea fish, Shrimp Crab and the like, nothing special."

"All the operating tools are here."

There are Trawling gear, Crab Pots, harpoons and the like…

Yu Kai Lang scanned the area and said, "Mainly Trawling operations."

Lao Ma nodded, "Occasionally we drop Crab Pots; after all, we just toss them into the sea, it's no trouble, we haul them up every few days."

Wu An watched and noticed nothing unusual.

Lao Ma's demeanor was also beyond suspicion.

Seeing a Crab Pot, he reached out and touched it.

That touch.

Luck Value: (+6)

He touched another Crab Pot.

Luck Value: (+7)

Damn!

If it weren't for the Luck Value, he would have believed the nonsense of that damned thing.

He looked up; Lao Ma was chatting and laughing with others, showing no hint of nervousness.

Indeed.

These Crab Pots were ordinary mass‑produced items, with no special markings at all; presumably Lao Ma had inspected them carefully, which is why he felt comfortable leaving them on board.

He guessed that Lao Ma might want to keep the Crab Pots for himself.

The Crab Pots were stacked together; he brushed them aside, counted carefully, and found exactly seven.

So…

There were originally no Crab Pots on Lao Ma's boat; his vessel was solely for Trawling.

A Trawler should be doing Trawling, not sneaking to steal his Crab Pots.

Wu An, at that moment, was completely stunned, instinctively reached for his harpoon, wishing he could just fire it and kill that bastard who stole his Crab Pots.

Yu Kai Lang saw Wu An rummaging through the Crab Pots, his expression shifting, and asked, "What's wrong? Something off?"

"This is…" Wu An began, then quickly held back, turned his words, and said, "These Crab Pots look a lot like mine."

Having said that.

He let go, stood up.

【8】 While Lao Ma was chatting and laughing with Huang Xuejun, he turned his head, let out a hearty laugh, and said, "I bought these Crab Pots off the shelf; they look a lot like yours—did you also just pick them up at the market?"

Elder Ma, who was chatting and laughing with Huang Xuejun, turned their head to look over, gave a hearty laugh, and said: "My crab pot is just something I bought casually; yours looks quite similar to mine—could you have also bought it casually at the market?"

Wu An replied lightly, "Yes."

Lao Ma said, "Things bought at the market aren't valuable; you're making a big deal out of nothing."

"I heard you have connections; that doesn't give you the right to act like this."

"It's late at night, and you let these old people follow someone."

"How dare you?"

Wu An clasped his hands together, fingers snapping loudly; his left hand pulled his right hand, saying, "Hold back, don't act," while his right hand pulled his left, urging, "Never act rashly."

After a while he gritted his teeth and said, "The Crab Pot's haul is pretty good—it's all Nine‑section Shrimp. The catch is worth up to six figures; we can't afford not to find it."

Huang Xuejun slightly opened his mouth, stunned by what he heard.

Lao Ma squinted and laughed, "Don't say that. My Crab Pot also yielded a lot of Nine‑section Shrimp."

"It looks like the season for harvesting Nine‑section Shrimp has arrived."

"Hahaha."

After saying that, he laughed to himself.

Wu An didn't smile.

Yu Kai Lang looked at Lao Ma, his brows furrowing.

Lao Ma folded his smile, coughed twice, and said, "Doesn't look funny."

Huang Xuejun stepped in to smooth things over, "Lao Ma, you're happy about making money, but they lost a Crab Pot; it's strange to be laughing."

"Alright, alright. Since there's nothing found, let's hurry to the next ship."

Yu Kai Lang looked toward Wu An.

Wu An said nothing.

Yu Kai Lang gave the usual remarks, saying that if anything is discovered, they should inform us promptly.

Lao Ma cheerfully nodded, patting his chest, "Of course."

Everyone disembarked.

Lao Ma said, "I'll see you off; I'm leaving as well. Today's haul was good; I'll head to the tavern later for a couple of drinks."

Lao Ma followed them toward the next ship.

He came to Wu An's side and said, "Handsome, it's easy to find."

"With such a big loss, if we don't find it, we might not get a good night's sleep for days."

"We're all making a living at sea; having something stolen hurts deeply; we can really empathize."

"Just thinking about it makes me angry; you must be fuming."

"Brother, I'm here; I wish you success in finding it."

Yu Kai Lang and the others heard it and felt nothing in particular, only that Lao Ma was talkative and verbose; his words sounded like consolation but felt a bit uncomfortable.

Especially since he kept laughing while speaking.

Wu An listened, his anger flaring.

What is provocation?

This is it.

He delivered a face‑riding insult right there.