weddingnovel Chapter 23, The Search
Chapter 23, The Search
Half an hour later, the Qimingxing X7 stopped on the dirty and messy street.
Such an eye-catching car naturally attracts attention, and from the moment it stops, it draws glances from all directions.
Yan Xi got out of the car and, at Cheng Chen's request, temporarily deactivated her transformation.
"Is it okay to park on the side of the road?" she asked with some concern, subtly suggesting, "The safety around here... isn't very good."
"It's okay."
As the Demon King of the Beast Taming School, he always carries a kitten with him when he goes out.
He placed the white apricot on the hood of the car and patted the cat's bottom: "It will keep an eye on things for us, so there won't be any problems."
Yan Xi guessed that this cat was the calamity beast he had contracted, but calamity beasts always correspond to size with power, the larger the size, the stronger the magic. What use could a kitten that he could hug with one hand be?
She nodded and said to Cheng Chen, "Producer... if anything unexpected happens, I will do my best to protect you."
Cheng Chen glanced at her in surprise. After hearing his real name and seeing his strength, could she still say such a thing?
"I know you don't need my protection, so saying that is just being presumptuous."
Yan Xi nodded and said frankly, "But one thing is one thing. Since you, the producer, are helping me, I should also show my appreciation."
"Help you?" Cheng Chen laughed. "Maybe I'm just here to get rid of the trouble you caused me?"
Yan Xi ignored those words.
No matter what perspective you take, the fact remains that she caused a lot of trouble for the company.
If Cheng Chen only wanted to resolve the trouble, there was no need for him to reprimand Gao Xiao—Gao Xiao was different from the association; he was not an outsider, but a loyal old employee who had stayed in the Yin Mansion after experiencing changes.
He wanted to protect her.
For this reason alone, Yanxi deserves to be grateful.
But why should we protect her?
But Yanxi couldn't bring herself to ask such a question, so she took a deep breath and took the initiative to walk ahead.
Seeing that his probing had gone unanswered, Cheng Chen shrugged in frustration and said, "Alright, then I'll leave it to you."
The two followed the path Yan Xi had taken the day before and arrived near the old residential building.
Downstairs, not only were there several reporters and photographers gathered, but there was also a live streamer broadcasting live on his phone.
But they all gathered together, and their expressions suggested they had gained nothing.
Yan Xi took the initiative to walk up to them and start a conversation, patting one of the photographers on the shoulder, "Y-you...hello."
The photographer was startled, but when he turned around and saw a quiet and lovely young girl, his attitude immediately softened.
She tilted her head and asked, "I live nearby. Is something wrong here?"
This kind of news, which has gone viral online, isn't exactly exclusive, and since Yan Xi proactively claimed to be a passerby, the other party released the camera and replied:
"Hello, hello. There was supposedly a kidnapping here last night, and the perpetrator was a magical girl. Look, that room on the third floor… the windows are still shattered, but the room is empty. We're trying to find someone to interview you. Did you hear anything unusual last night?"
Yan Xi quickly shook her head, bid farewell, and returned to Cheng Chen's side.
After listening, Cheng Chen slightly released his magic power to sense the place, and sure enough, the place was already empty.
They ran away.
He opened his eyes and suddenly touched Yan Xi's brow with his finger.
Then Yan Xi seemed to see a scene: two cars stopped downstairs in a hurry, three people got out of the cars and joined the four people she had met yesterday. After saying something, the group got into their cars and finally split up at the intersection and went in different directions.
"This is…"
"You'll be able to use the techniques of magical perception once you raise your perception to level three," Cheng Chen said with a smile. "I'll teach you in future magic lessons, but I'll let you experience it first."
Magic perception is similar to a biological instinct; magical girls, monsters, and demons all possess this ability from the moment they acquire magic.
But to achieve what Cheng Chen did—to directly reconstruct the scene that occurred here a few hours ago simply through perception—she dared not even imagine how long it would take to hone such simple instincts.
Although she knew that Cheng Chen was quite capable, she didn't have a concrete idea of his abilities. Now, this impression was gradually building up, making him seem increasingly unfathomable.
Yan Xi's gaze changed again, now showing a hint of admiration.
Cheng Chen had no idea what kind of image she had become in Yan Xi's imagination, and was still engrossed in the detective game.
"It's really intriguing. They're clearly the victims, so why did they run away so quickly?"
He pondered for a moment and then laughed. "The more they act like this, the more it proves there's something wrong with them, isn't it?"
"Um."
Yan Xi collected her thoughts, hurriedly avoiding his gaze, looked around, and asked, "Producer, what should we do next?"
"Change your target."
Cheng Chen answered lazily.
His senses weren't sharp enough to find two missing cars in such a large city.
"Are you going to see... Aunt Qian?"
Yan Xi came to a conclusion after a moment's thought.
Cheng Chen nodded in satisfaction, "It seems you're quite clever when you're not being a reckless fool."
Qian Zhen was the one who released the video. How did she obtain the surveillance footage from the group of people who escaped? And what was her purpose in releasing the video?
Yan Xi pursed her lips and took a step back. She wasn't just impulsive.
"I'll lead the way; I know where Aunt Qian's house is."
"Let's go."
Cheng Chen had no objection, and the two set off again.
……
"waste!"
A thunderous roar came from the phone, and the boss pulled the phone away from his ear.
"Your idiot subordinates released the surveillance footage, and you, Lu Kai, promised to find that woman within half an hour! Now twelve hours have passed, it's dawn, and the video is still trending, getting hotter and hotter!"
"Boss, please calm down."
He's the boss in front of his underlings, but he's a grandson in front of the person on the phone, and can only humbly appease them.
"I've found the woman's house and gone to several card rooms and casinos where she frequents, but I haven't found her anywhere. It's like... it's like... she vanished into thin air."
"out of thin air!?"
The roar grew louder, followed by a series of harsh curses.
After finally calming down his boss, Lu Kai put away his phone and wiped the cold sweat from his forehead with his sleeve.
He's been holding in a lot of anger since last night.
After the magical girl suddenly broke into their base and took the person away, Lu Kai immediately contacted the mastermind behind the scenes to ask for instructions. The mastermind's order was only one word: Retreat!
So he personally went to the basement he had dug out near the residential building to collect the key documents and had his underlings deal with the clutter in the stronghold.
At this moment, the gambling addict who had sold his son and daughter suddenly came back for some unknown reason, demanding to see her daughter.
They didn't even want the money they had taken as collateral; they threw it all on the ground.
But her daughter has already been taken away by the black magical girl.
The boss's order to retreat was urgent, and Lu Kai himself was not around. The underling had no idea how sensitive the matter was, so in order to get rid of the man as soon as possible, he directly told the woman about it.
The woman cried and made a scene, demanding that they return her daughter.
After being threatened with fists and kicks by his underlings, he became obedient and asked to copy the surveillance footage to report the incident to the police.
My brother agreed.
Lu Kai's head throbbed and his blood pressure spiked at the thought of it.
Sometimes the truth isn't some conspiracy or scheme, but rather a terrible teammate.
What happened next was predictable: Qian Zhen left after getting the surveillance footage, and his underlings packed their things and met up with him. The group then hurriedly ran away. It wasn't until the video appeared on the trending topics that Lu Kai realized what had happened.
Then the boss flew into a rage and told him to find someone.
Lu Kai didn't understand what the boss was doing, but he knew that "Sanctuary Disaster Relief Institute" was a fake, and that they usually did things like swindling and deception.
Even if it doesn't attract magical girls, it would be enough to give them a hard time.
But where did that woman hide?
Lu Kai simply couldn't believe that a gambling addict could hide so well. There must have been someone plotting this behind the scenes, probably involving a power struggle between the boss and a competitor.
He didn't dare ask any more questions, and just kept searching for people in his heart.
Two henchmen came running back from a short distance away, equally covered in sweat and panting: "Boss, we've searched everywhere, but it's not there."
Lu Kai gritted his teeth: "Keep searching! Even if you run your legs off, find him!"
If we can't find it, then we're really doomed.
He knew very well that his boss's background was not so simple.
He had personally witnessed the handover of work with the boss's secretary during a previous meeting: that boss's secretary—
He is a demon with extraordinary power!
……