The Tale Never Ends Chapter 134 The Marauder and the Burglar

I said nothing at first, leading him to a snooker lounge where we had a game of billiards.

But he could see that I had something to talk to him about. Unable to concentrate with the game, he pointed his snooker cue at me and bellowed, "Come on! What is it that you wanted to talk about!?"

To me, the Center was a joint venture; a shared interest that should be equally divided between us three. So was the decision which I strongly believed that we should make together. Apprehensively, I asked Lin Feng, "So, how go things between you and Yuanyuan?" He was surprised to hear me saying this; this was one of the last questions he was expecting to hear from me. "Well, what else? We're still the same," he answered after shrugging his shoulders, "My parents are fine. But I have yet to meet her parents." I nodded and took a swig from my can of Coke. "You know Chongxi also has a girlfriend now, do you? A girl called Xiao Yu?" He merely nodded. My head bobbed slowly too as I continued, "I talked to him about his relationship just days ago. There's been a problem..." Stunned, Lin Feng asked immediately, "What's wrong? Are they quarreling?" Shaking my head, I said, "No. It's just the meeting between her parents and his teacher..."

Still, Lin Feng could not understand what was wrong. "What's wrong with you," he snapped, "what is with your hesitation today." I sighed. "I'll be frank, Lin Feng," I muttered at last, "We've barely made much money at the Center aside from the 1 million yuan we got from Zheng Shuang's uncle. I was thinking if we should take out the money for Chongxi. You and I, our families hardly have a problem with money. But Chongxi is different, you see. His girlfriend is from a wealthy family. There would surely be expectations from her family..."

One million yuan was hardly a small sum of money. Moreover, it was the first time I had to discuss with my closest friend about the most sensitive issue of money. It would surely be easy to imagine how jittery I was.

Lin Feng fell silent for a second before he slapped at his forehead with dawning comprehension. "Oh my! I have not thought of this! It's true, what you said! The Blind Master barely has any wealth for Chongxi! He'll need money for a wedding!" I nodded in agreement. But Lin Feng was quick and straightforward, "Well, it's not that we need the money! Our families have left us enough assets. But our pal here is alone. I agree with what you say!"

What I was dreading about this test of our friendship turned out to be a tremendous relief. I remember hearing a quote: a real friend is one who walks in when the rest of the world walks out. The same could be said of Lin Feng who readily agreed to my proposal to help Chongxi. With our conundrum resolved, we were in marvelously good spirits that we enjoyed game after game of billiards, forgetting the time that when we returned to the Center, it was already three in the evening. But to our surprise and shock, Chongxi was not at the Center. There was only Edelweiss and the six ghosts of the Seven Sisters chatting happily.

"What is going on," I asked as soon as I walked in. But "We have never seen Chongxi today," Xiao Qi replied, "The Center was closed when we arrived. Chongxi was already long gone!" "Where could he be?" I asked myself. But he might be out with a customer. Chongxi had no lack of customers coming to seek advice from him regularly, in the affairs of Fengshui or simple fortune predictions.

I set aside my worries and sat down on the couch. Edelweiss began asking me if I would like anything for dinner, to which I replied that anything would do. She went out shopping not long later.

As soon as she left, Xiao Qi's spectral form glided close. "Remember what I once said to you, Shiyan?" She was sniggering as she was saying, "I knew then that you had fallen for Edelweiss. But you denied. Look at you now..." I responded with a simple smile. What a busybody, I reflected, as I remember what she said to me then. "Yeah, yeah, yeah! That makes you Ms. All-correct! Away you go! Stop buggering me!" I snapped, and with a displeased scowl, she floated upstairs to have fun with her sisters.

I went upstairs to join Lin Feng in waiting for Edelweiss and Chongxi to return. But as time passed, an untold dread grew within me as I peered at my watch that said six o'clock in the evening. Still, there was no sign or news at all about them. Just then, my phone rang. On my screen was a number I could not recognize. I answered the call and a frantic voice called my name. "Shiyan! Brother, where are you now!?" It was Zheng Shuang. Only then I remembered: I was using a new phone with a new SIM card because I damaged my phone when I fell down the ravine at Inner Mongolia. I had forgotten to save Zheng Shuang's contact into my phone.

"I'm at the Center, what's up?" I replied. "Bro, you need to come here at once. There's something that I need your help with," he uttered strangely. There was a definite air of guardedness in his voice, a grim undertone that has never been there before. "What's going on," I prodded again, and only then he admitted, "We are solving an assault case at the station. It's a thief, a regular perp here; he stole a girl's purse but was terribly beaten by the girl. It would have been a simple matter, but we found that the girl was carrying a controlled weapon—a knife." "But is hardly within our line of business," I almost blurted. "Sounds kinda vanilla to me, Brother. Does not seem to be related to anything paranormal," I said. Then the air of hesitancy and tension returned into his voice before he summoned enough courage to speak truthfully, "Err... I know... B-but... Still, we need you to come at once. Some of my guys questioned the girl about the provenance of her weapon. She said it was a gift. But when I asked her where she was from, she said she was from the De Chang Center for Paranormal Studies."

Here I was, sitting with my legs crossed and sipping on my Coke, when what Zheng Shuang said had me spewing out everything in my mouth! The girl must be Edelweiss! Putting down my can, I barked into my phone, "Wait for me! I'll be right there!" I ended the call and rushed out the door. I started the car and slammed the pedal, getting as quick as I could to the station while hoping that things at the police station would never be worse!

As soon as my car veered into a station, a pair of police officers whom I knew was squatting by the gates, sharing a smoke as they talked. They recognized me and stood up at once. I hopped off my car and asked them, "Where's your captain?" They smiled at me and reported, "Captain Zheng is at the office inside. He's trying to mediate a quarrel. Do go in quickly!" "Oh my God! This is turning into a very hairy business!"

Without any appetence for niceties, I quickly bolted through the doors, weaving through the corridors and office area into Zheng Shuang's room. The office was almost empty now, with barely a handful of officers who were working on shift. My anxious footsteps echoed in the bare corridors as I finally found Zheng Shuang's office still illuminated brightly. I tore through the door to find Edelweiss holding a man by the scruff of his neck, raining punches on the badly-swollen face of the poor man! Zheng Shuang was trying his best to placate her but to no avail, the vehement temper of Edelweiss, especially when she became angry, was not one that Zheng Shuang could ever hope to douse!

I immediately rushed to her, asking her to stop and spoke softly to calm her down. Fortunately, my presence had done its magic: Edelweiss dropped the man dismissive to the ground and stop. The man, his face purple and blue and his eyes red and swelling, collapsed like a rag doll. "Oh my God, Shiyan!" Zheng Shuang exclaimed under his breath, "Finally, you're here!"

As it turned out, Edelweiss had gone to a KFC branch to get some food. Caught up in a crowd, her purse was stolen by a pick-pocket. But she was able to catch the perpetrator red-handed. But instead of returning the purse to her, the man had tried to dismiss her accusations and lie his way out of trouble. What was more, he even threatened violence when Edelweiss refused to let him go. Incensed by the thief's shameless and devious manner, she gave him a punch so powerful that he immediately crashed to the ground.

Just when Edelweiss thought that the matter would be resolved, the thief instead began feigning innocence and cried loudly to anyone who bothered to listen to him, saying that he was being wrongfully beaten and screamed for justice. But Edelweiss, being a proud marauder who lorded over the Mongolian prairies with pride, could never stand being dishonored by such crookedness. With her anger now burning to its boiling point, she began raining an onslaught of punches upon the burglar...

Chapter end