"Ugh, don’t get me started. I wanted to hang around for a few more days, but if I stayed any longer, I was afraid I’d never be able to leave."

Fang Chenyi was a little confused. He first gestured for the flight attendant to leave, then turned to the fat man and asked in a low voice,

"’Never be able to leave?’ What do you mean by that?" 𝓯𝙧𝙚𝒆𝙬𝙚𝒃𝙣𝙤𝒗𝓮𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

Fang Chenyi couldn’t quite figure it out. ’In broad daylight, would someone really dare to do something illegal?’

But then he remembered what the security guard had said when he left last night, and the two mugger-beggars he’d run into. He dismissed his own thought. This wasn’t Huaxia; anything was possible here.

The fat man heaved a long sigh and began to recount to Fang Chenyi the series of events that had transpired since the auction.

"Sigh... After the auction, I left with the crowd, but an old friend suddenly wanted to catch up. So we went back into the hotel for some tea, and I sent the car that was there to pick me up on its way. But guess what?"

Fang Chenyi shot the fat man a helpless glance. ’Looks like this guy didn’t run into any real trouble. Otherwise, why would he still be trying to build suspense?’

Still, remembering that the guy had helped him out before, Fang Chenyi decided to play along.

"Yeah, what happened? Don’t tell me they wouldn’t refund your car fare?"

The fat man slapped his thigh. "If only it were that simple! Let me tell you, I’d just turned around when I heard a deafening BANG! I whipped my head back and saw the car I’d rented get slammed by a huge truck right in the middle of the road! And it didn’t stop there. The truck kept pushing the car until it shoved it into the small lake on the side of the road."

"Oh? You’re saying the car in that accident out front was the one you’d hired?"

When Fang Chenyi had finished his business with the auction house and came out, the aftermath of the accident was already being cleared up. But Fang Chenyi had his own matters to attend to, and besides, he wasn’t one for gawking, so he hadn’t gone over to look.

He just never imagined it had been this guy’s car.

’That was a close call. If he had been in that car, he really might not have made it back.’

"That’s incredibly lucky. But accidents happen. You just have to be more careful from now on, right?"

But as soon as Fang Chenyi said that, the fat man immediately retorted,

"Careful? My dear brother, you still don’t get it! That was aimed at me! If it was just that one thing, I wouldn’t have said anything. At the time, I thought it was just an accident too. But it wasn’t over. After having tea with my friend, I went back to my hotel. And guess what?"

Hearing the guy trying to build suspense again, Fang Chenyi was truly at a loss for words.

Fortunately, this time the fat man continued without waiting for Fang Chenyi to take the bait.

"I got back to the hotel, swiped my key card, and the moment I walked in, I saw that my room was completely trashed."

Hearing this, Fang Chenyi frowned and asked,

"Did a burglar get in?"

"Sigh, if only it was just a burglar. Last night, I... uh..."

He stopped mid-sentence, suddenly glancing at Bai Menghan, who was sitting next to Fang Chenyi. He lowered his already loud voice even further, speaking at a volume only the two of them could hear.

"Hehe, well, I figured since I finally made it to a foreign country, I had to... you know, enjoy the local talent. And after enjoying, you gotta have a souvenir, right? So I secretly set up a camera."

Fang Chenyi felt his face darken at this. ’A guy with his build... chasing after tall foreign women? He’d be lucky if he could even reach.’

Seeing Fang Chenyi’s exasperated expression, the fat man gave an awkward chuckle before continuing.

"Ahem, anyway... I was probably too tired that night and passed out, forgot to turn off the camera. Ah, let’s skip the details. The point is, I got back to the hotel."

The fat man waved his hand, getting straight to the point.

"So I see the room is a total mess, and I’m thinking, ’Did a thief get in?’ Then I think, ’If only I had a recording.’ And with that thought, I slapped my thigh—hey, you’re not gonna believe it, but I hadn’t touched the camera from last night! I took it out to check, and sure enough, it was still on. I was so excited! Now I had evidence! I could just call the cops and be done with it. But guess what happened?"

Fang Chenyi really wanted to go up and kick the guy. ’What is his problem? He can’t get two sentences out without telling me to guess!’

As if sensing Fang Chenyi’s exasperation, the fat man gave another awkward smile and stopped trying to build suspense.

"I took one look at the footage and—holy crap! Those weren’t thieves who came in, they were assassins! I’m telling you, brother, three guys came in, and every single one of them was holding a gun! Holy crap! And based on their movements, they just checked all the places someone could hide. Once they saw no one was there, they turned around and left."

At this point, the fat man patted his chest, still shaken. "Brother, you tell me, could I possibly stay there after that? If I’d stayed one more day, I’d probably be meeting King Yama by now! I left the hotel and ran straight to the airport without even daring to check out. Sigh... who could I have possibly offended?"

Fang Chenyi’s brow furrowed slightly. He didn’t answer the fat man, lost in his own thoughts instead. By this time, the plane had begun to taxi down the runway.

Following an announcement from the flight attendant, the plane began to accelerate for takeoff.

Throughout this time, Fang Chenyi remained frowning in thought. He had a nagging feeling that there was more to this than met the eye, and his intuition told him that it was somehow connected to him.

After a long moment, the pensive Fang Chenyi suddenly slapped his thigh, startling the fat man beside him.

"What’s wrong, brother?"

Fang Chenyi looked at the fat man and asked,

"Do you remember that old foreign man who was bidding?"

The fat man paused, confused. "An old man? What old man?"

"The one who wanted to buy my art album for a low price."

Fang Chenyi’s reminder immediately jogged the fat man’s memory. There *had* been an old man who wanted to lowball him for the art album, and everyone else seemed to be very deferential to him. At the time, he hadn’t thought much of it, just focused on making a little extra cash off this young brother. ’Could it be... that old man was behind all this?!’

He turned and saw Fang Chenyi give him an affirmative nod, which instantly confirmed his suspicion. ’Since I got here, I haven’t really interacted with any strangers, let alone gotten into a fight with anyone. Thinking about it that way, it has to be that old man! I just never would have thought that foreign geezer could be so vicious!’

As they spoke, the plane leveled off, and the flight attendant reappeared, pushing the service cart.

Fang Chenyi glanced at the white clouds outside the window and said coolly, "Since this matter is related to me, I’ll help you take care of it."

[To be continued...]