Chapter 115: The Most Familiar Stranger
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Zhao Yu still thought catching the murderer was too easy. He never would have imagined that when he and Liu Xueshan entered the mountain, they would be searching for three whole days.
Even though Peng Xin already confirmed with witnesses that the person who appeared at the Qinshan Water Reservoir was indeed Yang Wentao, when they worked with the local police officers to do search-and-capture, Yang Wentao was nowhere to be seen.
For three days, Zhao Yu and Liu Xueshan cleared out all of the towns and villages to the south of the water reservoir, but they still had no results. Although Zhao Yu got a new hexagram everyday, he had yet to have an adventure that had anything to do with the case. Even the "Gen" hexagram that was related to work had not appeared.
On the first day, the system gave him the "Kan-Dui" hexagram. Zhao Yu had thought that he would meet some cuties and even get some money. In the end, he simply met an old classmate from a nearby town.
The classmate was someone Zhao Yu used to play with growing up. Not only were they students in the same elementary school, but they had even been tablemates. She had marred into a village and was a teacher there.
After their meeting, the classmate was incredibly happy, and invited Zhao Yu and Liu Xueshan to her home. She even gave Zhao Yu a huge bag of Jujube and noodles when they left.
When the system signalled that he had finished his adventure, Zhao Yu finally realized that the nearly two-hundred pound classmate was the woman he was supposed to meet for the day, and the jujube and noodles had been the reward! One could tell that everyday was a different adventure, and there was a significant difference in their worth!
Even though the process had been undesirable, the result was decent. That day’s adventure completion rate was sixty-five percent. He obtained something called the invisible GPS which let him locate his own position. Its effects lasted for an hour.
Zhao Yu pondered, "Just what can this thing be used for? Could it be to prevent myself from getting lost?"
The next day, Zhao Yu opened the "Xun-Li" hexagram. Out of the six hexagrams, Zhao Yu did not understand either of these two. Who would have thought that he would get them together! Xun meant wind, and Li meant fire, Zhao Yu pondered as he jotted notes down, but he still chad no idea what the two characters meant.
That day, he continued his work and searched for the suspect through the many villages with Liu Xueshan, but he did not encounter anything that could be considered an adventure.
After working for the entire day, Zhao Yu received a message at night notifying him that his salary had arrived.
Zhao Yu had recently became an official police offer, so his salary was a little over four-thousand yuan. Even though it was not much, it was enough for him to live off of; however, the Zhao Yu of this world had been very respectful to his parents. Every time he got paid, he only saved one-thousand yuan for himself, and he would send the rest to his parents. It was because of this that he had always lived so poorly.
Thinking about his own parents, Zhao Yu could not help but get a bit emotional. As it turned out, the Zhao Yu from his previous life and the one in this life were completely different! Because he had had too many brothers in his house, and he lived in poor conditions, the old Zhao Yu had left home before he had even graduated from middle school!
From day-to-day, he and his parents often disagreed. They did not see each other often, and they were almost like strangers. Even when he had been sentenced to death, he had not thought about seeing his family even once. To him, family was a completely foreign idea, but it was different now!
After he crossed over, not only was he reunited with a family, but he even became a good son! At first, Zhao Yu had not really thought about his situation. Even though the old Zhao Yu’s parents called him a few times, he just spoke to them neutrally. But now that he got his salary, he had to consider what to do more seriously. How he would face his parents, his siblings, and relatives from his hometown? This feeling of familiarity yet strangeness made him uncomfortable.
After pondering for awhile, Zhao Yu decided to continue doing what the old Zhao Yu had done—give the money to his parents! It was probably better to maintain the relationship for now! Besides, he did not even need money at that point, so even if he gave them all of his salary, there would not be any issue.
When Zhao Yu sent the money, the he quickly got a message from the system that his adventure had ended. This time, Zhao Yu’s completion rate was a high eighty-seven percent, and he had obtained another invisible eavesdropper!
"Woah? No way?" Zhao Yu could not help but be shocked. He had simply sent some money to his family. Why was the completion rate so high? Could it be that it counted as doing something good? And the more good he did, the higher his completion rate would be?
At the same time, Zhao Yu formulated a new idea. It seemed that either Xun and Li meant family! But he didn’t know which one. If he got the same hexagram later on, he would have to investigate it thoroughly.
Just like that, Zhao Yu and Liu Xueshan had walked and searched all day. When they got tired, they rented a room in a hotel and rested.
Then, on the third day, Zhao Yu caught a glimmer of hope! That morning, the system finally gave him the "Gen-Li" hexagram. The hexagram explanation was, "Gen for mountain and Li for fire. Fire within mountain, visible from afar, the five elements are conflicted."
Fire within mountain…Zhao Yu looked out the window and thought, "Right now I’m on a mountain! Could it be if there’s a fire somewhere, the suspect would be there?" Thus, after finally obtaining the "Gen" hexagram related to his work, Zhao Yu was quite excited, and was ready to leave early in the morning.
But at that moment, Liu Xueshan could not take it anymore! Over the past few days, the man became less and less interested. Not only did he not bother to look for the suspect, but he often complained and stopped working. Whenever Zhao Yu went from house to house, the man sometimes did not even bother to get out of the car. He only played his phone and made some calls, completely slacking off.
Seeing Zhao Yu get up so early to leave, Liu Xueshan finally could not anymore. "Zhao, just listen to me! Let’s just rest up! Can’t you tell? This is a complete waste of our time and energy!"
Hearing this from Liu Xueshan made Zhao Yu rather frustrated. In actuality, he had slacked off more than Liu Xueshan since he had joined the police force, but whenever it was not him who was slacking off, Zhao Yu became very agitated.
"We’ve already looked everywhere we should over these past few days. If Yang Wentao really ran to the southside of the reservoir, we would’ve already found something!" Liu Xueshan kept making excuses for himself. "See…"
"Whether it was the east or the north side of the reservoir, there isn’t any trace of Yang Wentao at all!" He continued, "I think this guy either ran up some uninhabited mountain, or out of city! Our search here is completely useless!"
Even though Liu Xueshan’s words had some merit, Zhao Yu could not help but be angry when he heard them. But once he thought about it, his eyes lit up and he asked, "Liu, don’t you think that maybe there’s another possibility?"
"Another?" How could Liu Xueshan know what Zhao Yu was thinking? He was instantly curious, "What possibility?"
"Out of west, south, east, north," Zhao Yu pondered as he spoke, "Aren’t we missing one? How about…we look east?"