Right now, Qin Xiaoxia was more terrified than angry.

A bizarre thief could get into his house without a trace, and it seemed this thief had now targeted him.

The thief had come to "steal" things two days in a row. No, it wasn’t really stealing. Even though this was only the second time, Qin Xiaoxia’s gut told him the two spatulas were definitely hidden in some obscure corner of the house.

For now, it seemed the thief didn’t have much malicious intent. But stealing things only to hide them? This was clearly not the work of a sane person.

’At this rate, it’s not impossible they’ll come in and hack me to death one day!’

’That’s it, I have to call the police!’

Personal safety was paramount. No matter how slow-witted or lazy Qin Xiaoxia was, he couldn’t afford to be complacent after this had happened two days in a row.

...

The police arrived pretty quickly. Perhaps it was because Qingzhen wasn’t very big and the station was nearby. They showed up about ten minutes after he called.

"DING-DONG~"

When the doorbell rang, he looked through the peephole and saw two people: a tall, thin male officer who looked to be in his forties, and a female officer.

"CLICK."

Qin Xiaoxia leaped to the door and threw it open at light speed, startling the female officer.

"Officers, you’re finally here! This thief has gotten into my house two days in a row. I don’t know what’s going on, but it’s terrifying!"

"You must be Mr. Qin? My name is Zhao, and this is my colleague, Xiaoliu. I’ve been briefed on your situation, but I still need to ask you a few questions. If you don’t mind, could we come inside to talk?"

The older officer, Officer Zhao, spoke, gesturing for Qin Xiaoxia to calm down.

Qin Xiaoxia quickly stepped aside and invited them in.

...

「Five minutes later.」

"So, you’re saying the thief broke in just to hide your slippers and spatulas?"

The female officer asked, a mixture of surprise and amusement in her voice.

"Yeah, I’m baffled too. But I figure that even if nothing was stolen, someone being able to get into my house whenever they want is a threat to my personal and financial security. That’s why I called the police!"

Qin Xiaoxia felt very conflicted saying this.

It was the kind of story that would make the police think you were an idiot, but he couldn’t exactly lie about it.

"So it was the spatulas that went missing today?" Officer Zhao asked as he followed Qin Xiaoxia into the kitchen, his eyes lingering on the wok for a moment.

"Yes, the spatulas. I’m certain they’re still in the house, hidden by the thief."

Even as he said it, Qin Xiaoxia felt how strange it sounded. If he were the police, he’d definitely be starting to suspect the caller was a prankster or just plain crazy.

"You didn’t just hide them yourself, did you?" the younger officer, Xiaoliu, suddenly blurted out.

’Phew... She finally asked.’

As if he had been waiting for this exact question, Qin Xiaoxia’s face twisted into an expression of immense insult, a mask of anger and disappointment.

"Do I look like the kind of person who has nothing better to do? Filing a false police report is a crime! My life is perfectly fine, and I have no interest in visiting a holding cell. I didn’t call yesterday precisely because I was afraid of this kind of suspicion. But I didn’t expect the thief to get hooked. I only called the police because I was genuinely scared!"

Officer Zhao quickly stepped in to smooth things over.

"Please, calm down, Mr. Qin. Xiaoliu is still inexperienced. Besides, your situation is indeed unusual. We also want to get to the bottom of it as quickly as possible."

It was clear Officer Zhao was a responsible man. Even Qin Xiaoxia, who was practically legally illiterate, knew something this minor probably wouldn’t warrant an official case file; the police could only come out and take a look.

The three of them meticulously searched the apartment, both inside and out, but found no signs of forced entry, like broken windows or picked locks.

Incidentally, while they were searching, Qin Xiaoxia made a point to check all the most obscure corners of the apartment. He found the two spatulas behind the water heater.

It was just that when he found the spatulas, the female officer gave him a very strange look. Yes, it was exactly what Qin Xiaoxia had instantly recognized: ’the look of suspicion’.

After more than half an hour of fruitless searching, the two officers still hadn’t found any solid leads.

Qin Xiaoxia was basically a loner with no family to speak of and no known enemies. He rarely even left the house. It was hard to imagine who would single him out.

"Mr. Qin, I suggest you change your locks. Make sure your doors and windows are secured at night. And if you can, install a security camera."

As they were leaving, Officer Zhao gave Qin Xiaoxia some standard, by-the-book advice. As for Officer Xiaoliu, though she tried her best to look serious, Qin Xiaoxia could feel the suspicious glares she was shooting his way.

’Dammit, I knew they wouldn’t believe me!’

As the two officers were leaving the building, they crossed paths with Gou Junbao, who was returning with a girl. Both he and his companion were clearly curious about why the police were there.

Just a few minutes after Qin Xiaoxia had closed his door, the doorbell rang again. He opened it to find Brother Gou had returned, and he’d even brought a decent-looking girl with him.

"Little Hero, did you see the police in our building?"

Qin Xiaoxia had already retrieved the stack of résumés from inside and casually handed them to Gou Junbao at the door.

"Yeah, I saw them..."

"Whoa, that’s a thick stack. Thanks."

Before Qin Xiaoxia could say anything else, the damn couple was already laughing and chatting as they entered the apartment across the hall, not giving him a second glance.

’So impatient! Gou Bi Pond!’

"Remember to send me my fee in a red packet~~"

Qin Xiaoxia could only shout his dissatisfaction at the opposite door.

"SLAM~"

His door was slammed shut.

He was already in a bad mood, and having their PDA shoved in his face just made it worse.

As for changing the lock, that could wait until tomorrow. Tonight, he would bolt the door and lock the windows from the inside. That should be safe enough.

Now that he’d found the spatulas, he still had to cook.

The ingredients would go bad if he left them out, and he wasn’t well-off enough to be that wasteful.

He made his specialties: sweet and sour pork tenderloin and a pork rib soup with corn, plus a side of leafy greens.

Perhaps because he’d expended so much physical and mental energy, he had an unusually large appetite for dinner. He devoured most of it himself and put the leftovers in the fridge.

After cleaning up the kitchen, he went back to his computer.

The scripts he had running on his laptop had made some good catches, sniping some new multi-function routers and brand-name liquors—all hot-ticket items.

He had regular buyers for these things, so he wasn’t worried about being unable to sell them.

He then checked the short horror story he’d written the day before and was surprised to see it had a high number of views. There were even a lot of comments asking the author for a sequel.

’I guess you really need personal experience to write a good story.’

With this realization, Qin Xiaoxia decisively started writing a sequel. On this website, you could earn money from ad revenue if a short story got enough traffic.

It was nearly midnight again when he finally calmed down and went to bed.

He slept through the night, dreamlessly.

His room was on the top floor with a south-facing window, so the lighting was excellent. The morning sunlight, passing through some invisible ripple, shifted its angle and fell upon Qin Xiaoxia’s face.

Qin Xiaoxia was awake but still groggy. He vaguely sensed his head wasn’t on his pillow, and his neck felt a little sore.

He was a restless sleeper and was now lying diagonally across the bed.

With his eyes still closed, he felt around with his right hand, found the pillow, and pulled it under his head.

What Qin Xiaoxia didn’t see was that this sudden tug sent something that had been under the pillow flying off the bed and onto the floor.

A clear "CLINK!" was followed by the sound of something like a coin rolling across the floor.

Qin Xiaoxia subconsciously opened his eyes to see what had fallen.

A point of brilliant gold, glinting in the sunlight, rolled across the floor before clattering to a stop in the corner a few seconds later.

’What was that?’

For some reason, his heart skipped a beat, and all his sleepiness vanished.

Qin Xiaoxia got out of bed and walked quickly to the corner. Puzzled, he bent down and picked up a golden coin. It was slightly larger and thicker than a standard coin.

It was engraved with intricate, ancient patterns and inscribed with characters he didn’t recognize.

It was surprisingly heavy in his hand, with a satisfying heft.

’This thing... it couldn’t be a Gold Coin, could it?’

For some reason, that was the very first, irrepressible thought that popped into his head.