"You're a girl, how come you like this kind of subject matter?"
Lin Chuan frowned slightly, asking in bewilderment.
In the private room of the esports internet cafe, Xia Qingqing twirled her hair on the right side, revealing her delicate right face, and smiled lightly, "I'm just curious about what those drug lords are all about."
"Hmm, I'm curious too,"
Shen Qianqian nodded lightly and echoed softly.
Lin Chuan inwardly clicked his tongue. True to form for a police officer, her reading preferences were indeed a little different.
"When I have the time, I'll binge-read your new book. Oh, what's the overseas version called?" Xia Qingqing blinked, her face wearing a light smile.
It was evident.
Her mood was very cheerful when talking with Lin Chuan, without the previous heaviness and preoccupations, radiating once again a youthful and lively aura.
Lin Chuan could only share the names "Black Ice" and 'Mr. Lin' with the two policewomen.
The two of them made a mental note of it.
"The overseas one is in English, you all..." Lin Chuan hesitated.
"That's not a problem for me," Shen Qianqian said with a smile.
"Nor for me,"
Xia Qingqing also said with a smile.
"Okay, Qianqian, it's your turn to ban a hero!" Lin Chuan glanced at the computer screen and reminded the two.
"Oh, right, I'm on it!"
Shen Qianqian immediately got into game mode, her gaze sharpening in concentration.
Beside her, Xia Qingqing covertly glanced at Lin Chuan next to her and smiled knowingly. Lin Chuan was mid lane, she was jungling, a dream combination of mid and jungle.
Shen Qianqian was playing top lane.
Wang and Xue, the little couple, took the bottom lane and support positions.
The private room was filled with laughter and cheer.
Without realizing it.
Outside the Forbidden Summit Esports Internet Cafe, the neon lights had already dimmed, summer cicadas chirped incessantly, and the occasional evening breeze brought a hint of coolness.
Indeed, the night had deepened.
In the private room, the five played together, with wins and losses.
Fortunately, they were all seasoned gaming buddies by now and knew each other's temperaments and competitive levels, so the session did not turn into 'the silent five in an internet cafe, growing quieter with each game'.
After a five-person ranked game, they were able to speak calmly, which was already a victory.
Shen and Xia, still smiling coyly, exited the private room with Lin Chuan.
By this time, the Forbidden Summit Esports Internet Cafe was not very crowded anymore.
At the small office in front of the internet cafe, a man emerged hurriedly and just as he looked up, he spotted Lin Chuan: "Lin, you're here to use the internet!"
"Uncle, I didn't expect to see you here,"
Lin Chuan said with a smile.
The man who greeted Lin Chuan was none other than the uncle of the little landlady, Zhang Xinxin, Zhang Ren.
After getting together with the little landlady, Lin Chuan, following her lead, also called Zhang Ren "uncle."
"Coming to use the internet and not even saying hello to your uncle, we're all family here, no need for formalities." Uncle Zhang Ren's tone clearly treated Lin Chuan as one of his own.
Lin Chuan smiled, "Then I won't stand on ceremony, haha."
Uncle Zhang Ren laughed heartily and then patted Lin Chuan's shoulder, saying, "Lin, I've got things to do, can't accommodate you right now. Another day, come over to my place and I'll treat you to my newly acquired Da Hong Pao tea."
With that, Uncle headed toward the door.
Carrying his briefcase, he walked swiftly. He dove into his car and with a press of the accelerator, vanished into the night.
Lin Chuan, however, was frowning, his nose sniffing the air once again.
When Uncle Zhang Ren approached Lin Chuan, a distinctive, subtle scent suddenly filled Lin Chuan's nostrils.
That scent, Lin Chuan had only encountered in the virtual world.
Unexpectedly, he smelled it on Uncle Zhang Ren now.
"What's wrong?"
Seeing Lin Chuan standing still, Shen Qianqian asked.
Lin Chuan looked at Shen Qianqian and smiled, saying, "Nothing, let's head back first."
"Okay, I'll drive you and Qingqing back."
Both Lin Chuan and Xia Qingqing readily agreed.
As for Wang Zikai and Xue Qiqi, they had gone out for a late-night stroll.
The car meandered down the silent streets, under the dim neon and amidst the chorus of insects, all contributing to the tranquility of the night.
Lin Chuan returned to Linjiang Mansion, pressed his fingerprint to enter, and went up to his 30th-floor nest.
"Chairman, you're back!"
The little landlady was wearing a light blue pajama set, her skin as white as snow, her graceful figure subtly revealed, shining like polished jade.
Lin Chuan sniffed his T-shirt and said, "I'm going to take a shower."
"Okay,"
The little landlady nodded, poured a glass of water for Lin Chuan, and placed it on the coffee table, waiting for him to come out of the shower to drink.
Lin Chuan's mind was still on Uncle's matter, so he showered quickly.
"Xinxin, there's something I want to ask you." Lin Chuan sat down next to the little landlady and took a sip of water from the glass on the coffee table.
"Chairman, what is it?"
The little landlady blinked and asked with a smile, her lips pursed in a coy manner.
Lin Chuan's expression became more solemn and serious: "Xinxin, your uncle doesn't have any bad habits, does he?"
The little landlady furrowed her brows in confusion, "No, he does business legitimately, just loves to drink tea. He's much more respectable than Old Zhang."
Lin Chuan took another sip from his glass, his face lost in thought.
In his heart, he was recalling the scent he smelled upon meeting Uncle tonight.
Others might not recognize that scent and could mistake it.
But Lin Chuan wouldn't misidentify it or mistake it.
Because that was the scent of 'addictive drugs'.
As everyone knows,
that kind of "addictive drugs" are chemical synthetics with corrosive properties, and therefore they inherently have a very strong, irritating odor, similar to that of metals, which is released when the "drugs" are heated.
Because the chemical residues of the drug are very difficult to dissipate, people who "take drugs" will have a strong metallic taste in their mouth, and this smell will cling to their clothes as well.
This is the common odor of "drugs."
Generally speaking, narcotics detection dogs sniff out drugs by these distinctive odors.
However, the smell on Uncle Zhang Ren was not this strong metallic scent, but rather a faint chemical smell.
Lin Chuan matched this smell with the "New Type No. 3 Drug" he fabricated in the novel.
This New Type No. 3 Drug could indeed eliminate the metallic smell.
But it still couldn't escape Lin Chuan's "professional" nose.
What Lin Chuan hadn't expected was the existence of such "drugs" in reality.
"Chairman, what's with my uncle?"
Zhang Xinxin leaned close to Lin Chuan and asked softly, her brows slightly furrowed, showing her confusion.
"Nothing, I just saw him rush out in the middle of the night with a briefcase, seemed a bit urgent, so I got a little nosy," Lin Chuan replied as he stroked the Little Landlady's hair, deciding to keep it from her for the time being.
And Uncle Zhang Ren had a rosy complexion and lively eyes, unlike someone who takes 'drugs' with an emaciated body and a listless demeanor.
'Hopefully, he was in some places by accident and got contaminated,'
thought Lin Chuan to himself.
However, he also kept a closer watch on Zhang Ren, just in case.
But the Little Landlady didn't let her suspicions fade, instead frowning even more, pouting, "My uncle doesn't do much business, and his way of doing things is always methodical and slow. It's strange that he would take a briefcase and be in a rush in the middle of the night."
Lin Chuan nodded, "By the way you describe it, it does seem a bit strange."
"Chairman, have you noticed that Old Zhang is also acting weird?" the Little Landlady suddenly said.
"Oh, Old Zhang?"
Lin Chuan was taken aback and asked, "I haven't been to the Antique Shop for a while. What's wrong with him?"
The Little Landlady pouted and spat, "I've noticed that he's been avoiding me these past few days. He keeps telling me not to go to the Antique Shop and to stay here, and to not go back to Happiness Community if it's not necessary."
"Maybe Old Zhang has a new romantic interest,"
Lin Chuan teased with a chuckle.
The Little Landlady shook her head, "No, if he wanted to marry a second one, he would tell me."
"Then have you asked Old Zhang what's the matter?" Lin Chuan inquired.
"He won't say anything!"
The Little Landlady huffed, somewhat annoyed.
Lin Chuan pulled the Little Landlady into his arms and gently patted her back, comforting her, "Then it must be nothing. If there was something serious, he would definitely tell you."
The Little Landlady took a deep breath, her chest rising and falling, "I'll check his recent situation to see if he's hiding something from me!"
"I've dealt with Old Zhang a lot, he's an honest person,"
Lin Chuan said with a smile.
"Since the chairman says so, I'll trust Old Zhang for now," the Little Landlady murmured, a hint of a smile appearing at the corner of her mouth.
"It's late; it's time to sleep,"
Lin Chuan picked up the Little Landlady and walked into the room.
Lights out, sleep.
The Little Landlady seemed to have something on her mind, no longer whispering secrets with Lin Chuan before sleep, just tightly holding his arm, curling up into a ball like a wounded kitten.
Lin Chuan noticed her unusual behavior as well.
But he didn't know the reason. Could it be because of Uncle Zhang Ren's incident tonight, and Old Zhang's behavior these past few days?
Were they connected?
Lin Chuan couldn't figure it out and fell into a deep sleep as he pondered.
The next day.
In the morning, Lin Chuan slowly woke up.
He walked out of the room, stepping onto the balcony, looking outside the window.
The sky was like a piece of silk dyed in shades of gray, with layers upon layers of dark gray clouds, somber and oppressive.
The Anling River appeared as a dim jade belt, winding eastward. When the wind blew, ripples danced across the river, and the bamboo groves and green trees on both banks swayed nonstop in the wind.
"This weather, changing so suddenly, looks like it's going to rain,"
murmured Lin Chuan, then stopped caring about the weather and turned to check the system panel.
[Work: "Black Ice".]
[Status: Released and on sale overseas.]
[Current Popularity Value (Average Subscription): 5108/50000.]
[Assessment Task: Create 99% pure 'Drugs' (Pending).]
"Yesterday morning it was just over nineteen hundred average subscriptions, now it's over five thousand, not a bad increase at all. It really helps to have a dedicated discussion forum to promote the work. Not bad, not bad,"
Lin Chuan noted the average subscriptions and smiled.
However, when he glanced at the task below, he couldn't help but spit.
This assessment task, it's really no job for a human!
Sigh...
Lin Chuan sighed lightly.
Just then, his phone vibrated with a message alert.
Sender: Old Zhang.
Lin Chuan instinctively furrowed his brows; Old Zhang seldom sent messages to him, and here was one early in the morning.
It was like hearing from a classmate you haven't contacted since graduation sending a sudden message—it's either a wedding invitation expecting a gift, or someone looking to borrow money, always unsettling.
Lin Chuan was feeling this kind of unease now.
He took a deep breath and finally opened the message from Old Zhang.
——Lin, come to the Antique Shop when you have time today; I have something to discuss with you. Don't let Zhang know.
Lin Chuan's frown deepened!
Old Zhang, you really do have something going on!

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