After finishing the snacks and cleaning up the dishes, it was time for school.
Xu Lin took three boxes of snacks out of the fridge and handed them to Ji Yun. "This one is for your bestie, and these two are for Ma Zhiyu and Li Bin."
"Um."
"What are you guys doing this afternoon?" Xu Lin asked the lazy Chu sisters and Liu Qinnuan.
"We're taking Liu Qinnuan to buy some daily necessities."
"Why buy daily necessities? You don't even live here," Xu Lin glanced at Liu Qinnuan, wondering what she was up to.
"I told my mom that I hired an assistant and am discussing it. I said I would be back late for a couple of days, and she actually agreed, so—"
"Oh, where are you staying?"
"At my place." Chu Fengyi unexpectedly took on a minor inconvenience this time.
"Alright then..."
As Xu Lin was speaking, the phone rang. He picked up the phone from the table and saw that it was Uncle Bai calling.
"Hello, what's up?"
"Xiao Xu, come here for a moment."
"Uncle, tell me slowly, what happened?"
Hearing the urgency in his voice, Xu Lin wondered if something had gone wrong. Had someone fallen from a scaffold, or something?
"The workers finished up and were about to leave, so I stayed behind for lunch. Now, a few guys said we treated them to a meal and insisted on handing out flyers for us."
"Just accept their good intentions."
"But when they were handing out the flyers at the intersection, they got into an argument with a woman who accused them of stealing her wallet. Now the police are here."
"What? Okay, I'm coming over right away."
Xu Lin was also a little amused and confused. What was going on? How could handing out flyers lead to accusations of theft?
Although the workers weren't his own, and it wasn't out of the question, but considering their wages, it seemed unlikely they'd steal anything.
"What's going on?"
"There's a situation. I need to go to the store. Monitor Ji, if I'm late for school, please ask the teacher for a leave for me."
"Got it."
"I'm heading out now."
"Be careful on the road," Chu Qingchan called out.
"Okay."
After leaving the room and the elevator, Xu Lin sprinted out of the community. Just in time, a taxi passed by, and he flagged it down immediately.
"Driver, to Xinghuo Road, by the bookstore."
"Sure."
There was no traffic on the way, and within 6 or 7 minutes, Xu Lin arrived near the store. He spotted the crowd gathered immediately.
"Make way."
"Don't push, don't push."
"I'm the owner."
With that, Xu Lin squeezed his way through and saw Uncle Bai and a few workers standing at the door.
On the opposite side was a middle-aged woman with an ordinary appearance, holding a yellow leather bag, and standing next to her were two police officers.
"What's going on?"
"Who are you?" The woman glared at him.
"I'm the owner."
"Get your parents here?"
"It's my store, my parents don't know about it, tell me what happened. Even the police were called here, thank you for your hard work."
"It's no trouble, no trouble."
The two policemen also waved their hands, and their colleagues went to check the surveillance video, so they had no choice but to stand here and watch the situation.
If the people want to take action at that time, they will be able to dissuade them. In fact, they are still quite rational.
But why does this handsome guy look familiar? Where have I seen him before?
"Your workers stole my stuff."
"Could you explain in detail?" Xu Lin asked with a smile, watching her calmly.
Her anger was somewhat diffused by Xu Lin's composed and polite demeanor.
"I was just passing by the intersection, and your people handed me a flyer. I didn't want it, but they stuffed it into my bag."
"And then your money went missing."
"Yes, my wallet is gone."
"Who handed out the flyers?" Xu Lin asked the workers.
"I did," said the young worker who had spoken with him a bit yesterday and seemed somewhat shy.
"Xiao Gen wouldn't take someone else's stuff!"
"Just because you say you didn't take it, doesn't mean you didn't!" The woman became agitated again.
"Please calm down for a moment. What was in your wallet?"
"800 cash, two bank cards, an ID card, and a bus card, among other things."
"Our workers definitely wouldn't have taken your wallet."
"How can you be sure your employees wouldn't steal? You can't know a person's heart by their face."
"No, no, you misunderstand. They're not my employees. They are construction workers from out of town, just helping with handing out flyers."
"So what?"
"Even without bonuses, they earn about 13,000 to 14,000 a month. I don't think they'd need to steal your wallet."
"…" The woman frowned slightly at his explanation but still said,
"Even if someone is wealthy, it doesn't mean they won't steal."
"That's your opinion, but let's stay calm and see what the surveillance footage shows."
"Alright."
"Do you have anything else in there? A few hundred bucks shouldn't be a big deal. I can use my ID card or bank card to make up for it."
Xu Lin lowered his voice and asked, because he noticed that the woman was using an Apple phone, wearing an expensive diamond ring, and the necklace around her neck was also real.
So a few hundred bucks is definitely nothing, there's no need to be so excited, there must be something else.
"How did you…"
"Looking at your attire, it doesn't seem like you're overly concerned about a few hundred bucks, or you wouldn't be this anxious."
"Actually… I have a bank card with a difficult password to remember, so I put the password inside the bag."
"..." Xu Lin couldn't hide his expression any longer.
How bold could she be!
"It's really easy to forget…"
"How much was it? Did you tell the police?"
"I did. Do you think the police would come this quickly for just a lost wallet? It wasn't a small amount—50,000 to 60,000."
"That's a significant amount. Let's check the footage. These workers are indeed from outside, just here for the renovation. It's impossible for them to have taken it, and they have no reason to. They can't run away, so it must be someone else."
"I'll check it out soon."
The middle-aged woman was calmer now, and Xu Lin's mind quickly came to a realization.
"Hey, ma'am, that's even better. The bank has records of withdrawals. It can pinpoint which ATM machine the money was taken from, and self-service machines have surveillance."
"Yes, young man, you're quite clever. But if we can recover it now, I'd still prefer to get it back."
"Understood. If it turns out one of our people did take it, I will personally ensure full compensation."
"No, no. Just getting it back is enough. I won't demand anything else."
Xu Lin nodded. The lady seemed quite reasonable.
"Xiao Wang, how's it going?"
A young police officer walked over with a helpless look and waved his hand.
"There is footage, but it's at a corner where the camera coverage ends—it's a blind spot…"
"Then…"
"What about the supermarket's surveillance? It's on all the time." The crowd around them began to help.
"Or the meat shop across the street? Their camera is high up and should have a good view."
"I'll go check it out."
"Alright."
Xu Lin suddenly had an idea.
He leaned over to the woman and whispered, "I've thought of a plan. Would you like to play along?"
"Play along?"
"Yes."
"Alright… How do you want to do it?"
"Just like this."
With that, Xu Lin straightened up, took a deep breath, and walked over to the police officers.
"Officer, look at how she's acting! She's trying to frame us! We really didn't take anything—just a few hundred bucks, who are we trying to cheat?"
"Calm down, we're going to check the footage right away. Please stay calm."
"Yes, yes."
The police officers, seeing the young man suddenly become agitated, grabbed his arms to prevent him from getting too worked up.
"She just said it was mainly the bank cards in the wallet. I said if someone stole something, they wouldn't know the bank card password. Then she said she put the password in the wallet. Do you believe that?"
Xu Lin shouted to the crowd, then took a deep breath and instantly became ethereal, his spirit suddenly spreading into the crowd.
As he finished shouting, a man wearing a baseball cap slowly started to move backward from the middle of the crowd.
"That's him!"
Xu Lin turned around and ran through the crowd, rushing towards the man quickly!
The people around were also stunned.
What happened? What's wrong with him?
But the next second, the man in the hat also ran away!
Xu Lin smiled instead and ran faster.
Can he outrun me? He must be dreaming!