Reborn Cat Sheriff

Chapter 220 Mission Impossible

Suddenly, a man with a goatee stepped into the old shop, but who didn't look that old.

His face was very thin, making his cheekbones appear very prominent. Combined with his narrow but long eyes, he inexplicably gave the impression of being a cunning fox.

His attire was quite ordinary: a jacket and casual pants. However, the high-top hiking boots worn under the brown trousers created an oddly incongruous look.

Lin Ge was initially worried that it would affect Chef Xu's business, but when he suddenly sniffed the air, his expression changed slightly.

Lin Ge smelled a familiar scent emanating from this person, and even his appearance evoked a strange sense of familiarity. He stopped eating and stared intently at the man, the more Lin Ge looked, the more uneasy he felt, and his vigilance grew stronger.

He remembered now; this man gave him a similar, indescribable feeling of being a tomb raider, much like Wu Laosan. His dark, almost black hands, his shifty eyes, and the earthy smell emanating from him were all very similar.

Upon seeing the visitor, Chef Xu blinked twice. However, he did not rise to greet him; instead, he exhaled a long puff of smoke, indicating that he was not welcoming to unwelcome guests.

"Wei Fox, what are you doing here?"

Xu Lao Er started speaking Mandarin, which surprised Lin Ge. Had this guy been playing with a cat while muttering in dialect?
"Hmph! Can't I come here if there's nothing wrong? Your shabby shop is really deserted, it's almost going out of business, isn't it? Tsk tsk... You even do business with a cat, what, you don't have any talking customers, so you're not even picky about animals anymore?"

The guy called Wei the Fox completely ignored Lin Ge's fierce gaze and even walked closer to continue his provocation: "If I remember correctly, you've been living off your savings for almost eight years now, haven't you? Can you really make a living with this shabby shop? All that money you painstakingly saved up back then, is it really worth it to just throw it all down the drain in this crappy place? To be honest, I don't think there's anything wrong with you buying it; after all, it's a family heirloom. It's just… you're really not cut out to be a chef! Kid, what are you looking at? Finish your food and get out of here. Don't meddle in adults' affairs! I'm paying for this meal, now take your cat and get lost, don't ruin my mood…"

Halfway through his sentence, Wei Fox glared fiercely at Luo Jue, who had turned to look at him, his aura becoming extremely menacing.

Luo Jue, who had initially only been curious, suddenly had a fierce glint in his eyes.

He was never a well-behaved child, and he wasn't taught obedient and sensible rules from elementary school. Without saying a word, he simply turned the chopsticks around and gripped them tightly again. Luo Jue looked at Lin Ge, waiting for it to issue an attack command.

The cook, Xu Lao Er, caught a glimpse of Luo Jue's actions, and a hint of surprise flashed in his eyes.

But before Luo Jue could lash out, Xu Lao Er waved his hand at him and said, "What money? It's free, it's just for you to eat. And this cat, go home as soon as you're done eating! Things aren't peaceful outside these days, don't wander around alone all the time, or you might get bullied."

These words were pointed, but Luo Jue ignored them and only watched as Lin Ge did not respond to Chef Xu.

With outsiders present, Wei Fox didn't say anything more. He simply sat down opposite him, took out a black cloth bag from his pocket, and then pulled out a piece of white paper from his inner breast pocket. He poured some tobacco from the cloth bag onto the white paper and began slowly rolling a handmade cigarette.

His refined demeanor, combined with his somewhat sinister aura, does indeed give him a captivatingly sinister air.

But Lingo acted as if nothing had happened, and continued to eat his fish patiently with his head down.

However, the atmosphere of the restaurant still affected the taste of the fish. Lin Ge, who was used to the smoky atmosphere of the police station, was not used to the smoke in this restaurant and stopped eating after a couple more bites.

Looking up at the cook, Lin Ge turned around, jumped off the table, and walked out without a word.

Luo Jue also put down her chopsticks and quickly followed.

After the man and the cat walked away, Xu Lao Er silently began to clear the dishes. Wei Huli, who was next to him, finished rolling a cigarette, poked it twice on the table to pack the tobacco down, took out a match, lit it, and took a long, slow drag.

"Wei the Fox, Wei the Fourth, I'm quitting!"

After washing the dishes, Xu Lao Er wiped his hands on his pants and walked over, saying, "I don't want to get involved in your affairs. Whatever it is, it has nothing to do with me. Right now, I just want to stay in this shop that the old man left me and slowly get by."

"I know."

Wei Laosi nodded and said matter-of-factly, "But no matter what, you were once brothers in the same boat. I am Laosi, you are Laosi, we swore brotherhood and even knelt before Guan Yu. You can't not help your brother when he's in trouble."

As he spoke, he exhaled smoke, and soon the smoke from his homemade cigarettes thickened and enveloped his entire face.

Xu Lao Er was slightly moved, hesitated for a moment, and then whispered, "What happened? And why are you the only one who came this time?"

"The eldest is dead! The third has been captured! The fifth has already escaped, leaving me, a foolish fox, to fight like a trapped beast." Wei Lao Si didn't hide anything, and sneered, "Xu Lao Er, my second brother! I don't want to disturb your peaceful life, but you can't just stand by and watch me die. I don't ask for much, just help me leave Zhuzhou City, and preferably leave the Southern Province for the Western Province. If you do that, we'll settle all our grudges, and I promise I'll never bother you again."

"Tell me first, what exactly happened!"

Xu Lao Er was not so easily fooled. Upon hearing this, he did not say whether he agreed or refused, but simply asked Wei Lao Si to explain the matter clearly first.

Wei Laosi didn't hide anything. He got up and went to the door to look around. He made sure that the two shops around him were busy and hadn't noticed this place. Then he returned without closing the door and sat down next to Xu Laoer, in the same spot where Luo Jue had been sitting.

Seeing a cat collar in the corner of the floor, he didn't care and simply kicked it into the innermost corner of the table.

Xu Lao Er was deep in thought and smoking, so he didn't see this scene.

"Zhu Laowu and I killed the boss!"

Wei Laosi's words were like a thunderbolt, leaving Xu Lao Er completely stunned. He abruptly looked up at the fox-faced Wei Laosi, never expecting the guy to say such a thing.

"He deserves to die!" Wei Laosi took another drag of his cigarette, lowered his head, and said in a deep voice, "I only found out recently. This bastard sold the things he dug up abroad, violating a taboo in our line of work. We're tomb raiders, not antique dealers. We don't care how much money the buyers make. But once the stuff gets tainted by these foreign devils, strange things might happen in the tomb, and we might suffer retribution. You understand that, right?"

Xu Lao Er listened and sneered, "Stop talking nonsense. Just tell me how much money that idiot embezzled from you? He even went so far as to kill you. It seems you've been fooled quite a bit over the years!"

Wei Lao Si's cheek twitched. He lowered his head, took a drag on his cigarette, and said hesitantly, "A few million, I guess! Who told him to be the only one who understood foreign languages? We were kept in the dark about the price he was selling it for. After you and Lao San retired from the business, we followed him and pulled off a few big deals. But we never expected him to cheat even his own brothers! Hah… He sold an eight-treasure unicorn inkstone for Euros but tried to cheat us with our local currency. He really asked for trouble!"

"So, you killed him? And even... implicated the third brother?"

Before Wei Laosi could finish explaining everything, Xu Laoer already guessed what would happen next. Otherwise, how could Wu Laosan, who was content to stay in the village, have been inexplicably arrested by the police?

“The third brother did it voluntarily. After all, he’s not as good at cooking as you are, and he’s had a tough time these past two years.”

Wei Laosi, his expression unchanged, calmly changed the subject, saying, "Although Lao San wasn't involved in the murder, he was the one who buried the body. After all, the Moving Mountain Clan is different from us Unloading Ridge Clan; they're more professional in their work. It's just that... something still went wrong in the end. Zhu Laowu, in a moment of cleverness, mixed up the eldest brother's head with another corpse they happened to find. But the police came quickly, and Lao San took the blame for us."

Xu Lao Er remained silent, fully aware of the implications of Wei Lao Si's words in which he distanced himself from Wei Lao Si.

He had a general understanding of what had happened. He knew what Wei Laosi hadn't said, and could guess most of it. Xu Lao Er was somewhat surprised, but not surprised, that Zhu Laowu had escaped while Wei Laosi was trapped in Zhuzhou City.

This old man has been deeply involved in real estate these past two years. He did make a fortune a few years ago, but now his entire fortune is trapped in a concrete frame and he can't get out. If he leaves, won't all his fortune go down the drain?
It seems he had no other choice but to come to us; otherwise, he wouldn't have come looking for us at all.

Xu Lao Er lowered his head in thought, and Wei Lao Si said no more. Everything that needed to be said and explained had been said; what Xu Lao Er would choose next, no matter how much more was said, was meaningless.

"Fourth brother, turn yourself in."

Xu Lao Er suddenly spoke up.

"Turn yourself in? Are you kidding me? Second brother, even if the murder was done by the fifth brother and I wasn't the mastermind, with all the tomb raiding I've done over the years, even if I really turned myself in, I probably wouldn't get out anyday, right?"

Wei Laosi was both surprised and angry.

"But I've been a cook for eight years! What do you think I have left to do to get you out of here under police blockade? Forget about leaving Nanchuan Province, I couldn't even get you out of Zhuzhou City right now!"

Xu Lao Er raised his foot to kick the table, but then remembered that it was his family's heirloom table and chairs, and he forced himself to hold back.

Wei Laosi sneered, looked around and gritted his teeth, "I don't care! Xu Laoer, it's either die together or live together! You've cleaned up your act for eight years, but you've still been involved in a lot of things before! If I get caught, I'll definitely implicate you to get a reduced sentence! So think it over! Of course, you can also kill me now, then we won't have to go through all this trouble! Hehe... If I remember correctly, this shop has been open for over thirty years, right? If you get caught, it can finally die too."

"..."

Xu Lao Er fell silent.

After eight years of being a good person, how could he possibly kill anyone? Besides, he was just a tomb raider; how could he possibly do something as ruthless as Wei Laosi and Zhu Laowu, who turned on their own brothers?

But... what should we do about the threat from this old fox?
Seeing that Xu Lao Er was intimidated by his words, Wei Lao Si felt confident and planned to strike while the iron was hot and finalize the escape plan now.

"Meow?"

Suddenly, a cat's meow rang out from outside the door.

The two people inside the door suddenly stiffened. They hadn't expected that even though they were fighting fiercely and were always on guard against the outside, their conversation had still been overheard.

But when he saw it was the cat, Wei Laosi breathed a sigh of relief.

Thankfully it wasn't human, otherwise it would have been a real problem.

"Meow?"

Lin Ge, suppressing the goosebumps all over his body, innocently walked in while meowing like a cat.

Wei Laosi ignored the cat and went outside again to check. He was relieved to find the child with the cat standing far away at the alley exit by the roadside.

Turning back, I saw Lingo leaving again with the collar in his mouth.

Seeing that the cat had only returned to retrieve its lost items, Wei Laosi breathed a sigh of relief and didn't choose to kill the cat to silence it. Of course, he figured he wouldn't be able to catch it anyway; the cat wasn't as stupid as his eldest brother. After the cat left, he closed the shop door this time.

Outside the door, Lin Ge was tense all over.

This was the first time he'd ever done something like this, and he felt like his cat life was about to end prematurely. Heaven knows what he was thinking when he discovered Wei Laosi was acting strangely, and why he suddenly pulled off the collar and kicked the ground with his hind legs.

At the time, my only thought was that since the new collar had a camera installed, I should at least see if it would work.
On a whim, Lin Ge played a game of espionage right in front of the two tomb raiders. Who would have thought that the cat collar on the ground could record a video? And who would have thought that a cat had secretly overheard their entire conversation from outside?

Fortunately, nothing went wrong.

(End of this chapter)