Xu Cheng shook his head. "It's fine, it's been a long time already. I will go to the bank tomorrow to pay you back."
"All good." Shen Yao replied, "That amount isn't much to me. At first, I was going to lend it to you on usury, but seeing the situation of this family, just take it as me helping the family out."
Shen Yao then continued as she glanced at Xu Cheng, "But I'm not doing you this favor for nothing in return though. Can you at least not give us trouble as the landlord in the future? Especially towards Ran Jing."
"I'm not trying to give anyone a hard time, I just thought that you two both take advantage of other men just because you are beautiful. But it is my mistake for misunderstanding you two, it was my bad," Xu Cheng replied.
Shen Yao said indifferently, "No, you are right, beautiful girls always think that men should pay for the beauty they get to look at, that's why almost every woman will go through all the trouble to present their most beautiful side, and those that weren't born with beauty will get some surgery. But you did remind me and made me realize that I was being a bit spoiled."
Speaking of this, Shen Yao was a bit puzzled as she tilted her cute face towards Xu Cheng and asked, "Tell me the truth, are you not attracted to me? At all?"
Xu Cheng replied awkwardly, "Uh… How should I put this… It's not that you are not pretty, you are just not my type."
Shen Yao snorted, "Then why did you get a boner earlier."
Xu Cheng could only laugh. "Uh… Well, now this is awkward."
Shen Yao snorted again, "Even if you like me, you are not my type."
But right after she finished, she asked Xu Cheng in curiosity, "Do you have a girlfriend or someone you like?"
Xu Cheng could only smile but didn't go deep into that topic.
At that moment, the phone in his pants pocket rang. After he picked it up, an anxious voice was heard on the other end, "Xu Cheng? Zhang Ruian's in trouble."
"What kind of trouble?" Xu Cheng frowned.
"He got set up." The colleague on the other end of the phone sighed. "He saw a wallet while he was on his shift, and… I don't know how to explain it, but I feel like it was a set-up. The people that took him away said they were from West Gate. You should get back to the bureau and help us figure out a way to deal with this."
"Okay, I'll be right there." Xu Cheng hung up and was able to go downstairs when Shen Yao chased after him and asked, "Where are you going?"
"Back to the bureau," he replied.
Seeing how anxiously Xu Cheng was waiting for a taxi on the side of the road, Shen Yao said, "Not many taxis are around at this time in this area; I will go get my car and just drive you."
Xu Cheng didn't reject the offer. When he went back to the bureau, his three colleagues that were also on the night shift were pacing back and forth anxiously. Seeing Xu Cheng arrive, they all rushed up to him.
"What happened? Why did West Gate take him? Are they provoking the police force?" Xu Cheng spoke in a deep voice.
The colleague that called him earlier frowned and answered, "To be honest, Zhang couldn't explain for himself too."
The other two nodded and sighed, "He picked up a wallet during his shift, and there was a lot of cash. We didn't know about it at first as well. Zhang didn't tell us, nor did he turn it in. As a result, he was caught by some people and was taken away. How should we deal with this? Zhang was in the wrong as well."
Xu Cheng frowned. "Are you guys sure that it was someone from West Gate?"
The three nodded. "We all went there and confirmed it."
Xu Cheng sighed. "How much was inside that wallet?"
"A hundred thousand."
Xu Cheng knew, this amount wasn't much but was still significant, especially to someone earning a patrol officer's salary, it would be a big temptation. After all, no one was a saint, and police officers were also human. If an officer picked up some money by luck and didn't break the law, not a lot of them would turn it in. The people of West Gate just exploited the defects of human nature and framed Zhang Ruian, but Xu Cheng felt that it was actually directed at him.
They probably couldn't find Xu Cheng in Shangcheng, so they decided to target his colleague to lure him out.
"You guys go patrol or do whatever duty you are supposed to be carrying out. I will go check it out," Xu Cheng said to the other three.
This was probably the only way for now.
After Xu Cheng changed into his uniform, he got onto a motorcycle and drifted out of the station.
Shen Yao followed behind as she cursed silently, "That b-----d forgot about me again."
She started her car and followed Xu Cheng to West Gate's casino.
When Xu Cheng was entering in his uniform, the guards attempted to stop him. However, He didn't say anything else, only directly grabbing one's arm and throwing him off the stairs. The other guard immediately didn't dare to come forward and just watched as Xu Cheng visited their establishment for the second time in a day.
Shen Yao saw the guard on the ground by the stairs, she purposely stepped on his palm, and cutely said, "Oops, my bad…"
Then, she walked up the stairs and followed him into the casino.
The two hundred or so patrons in the casino were alarmed at once upon spotting a police officer. It was just their subconscious mind, because after all, casinos were banned in the rest of the country, and they forgot for a second that they were in a legal one right now. They all frowned upon seeing Xu Cheng, but since there was just one officer, they didn't care much and went back to their games.
Xu Cheng directly went to the manager's office, finding Zhang Ruian tied up and kneeling by the desk. Xu Cheng looked at the manager with a dark face and said, "Let my colleague go."
The manager casually said, "I admit that you are in the right when it came to how I treated Yang Congxia, but this officer stole your stuff. The amount was quite significant, a hundred thousand yuan. This could be categorized as grand larceny."
"I didn't steal it, I just found it on the ground," Zhang Ruian shouted.
"Shut up." The manager glanced at him, and his assistant immediately went up to seal Zhang Ruian's mouth. Then, the manager looked towards Xu Cheng and said, "Your buddy broke the law, are you still going to try to get involved?"
"Aren't you guys targeting me? Now that I'm here, what do you guys want?" Xu Cheng said.
"You know we are targeting you?" At this moment, an underling went into another room and summoned a middle-aged man, who was another shareholder of this casino. The Old Master Qin from before had already gone to the hospital for a checkup, and so did the other twenty or so security guards that Xu Cheng had beaten up earlier. The people now were a new batch transferred over from West Gate's security company.
"I had been quite curious about what kind of person dared to do such a thing and whether he knew the rules of Shangcheng or not. After seeing you, I got it. It turned out to be a young and ignorant person." The middle-aged man played with the steel balls in his hand as he gave Xu Cheng a scornful look. "You want to take your colleague away? Sure, follow our rules. If you win, you can take him back. Of course, if you lose, then you will also be punished by our rules."
Zhang Ruian's mouth was taped, but his pupils widened as the middle-aged man spoke of his condition, and he nervously shook his head, trying to tell Xu Cheng not to agree.
Xu Cheng frowned. "You want us to gamble with you?"
"That's right." The middle-aged man said, "We operate casinos, so if you want to take someone out of here, you should play by the rules here. Of course, if you want to blow this up big and come with other officers to forcefully take away this guy, that's fine too. But then, we will pressure your police bureau and the city, and since it's technically grand larceny, we can follow the law, and with a hundred thousand yuan, it's going to be at least three years in prison."
The reason Xu Cheng came here personally was because he didn't want others to get involved, or Zhang Ruian might get a stain on his record or even lose his job. Now, it seemed like he was being forced to agree to their rules.