Pang Wanchun sighed, "I had a much better life in my past life. If I didn't like someone, I could just whip them. Now look at me, I had to give the director over ten thousand yuan just to become a section chief."
Wang Yin squatted on the ground and said, "So you're saying I'm the one who's having the best time? Although it's tiring to haul goods to Xinjiang and the plateau all the time, no one gives me any trouble."
Bao Jin said, "Don't you still have highway robbers causing you trouble?"
Wang Yin offered Bao Jin a cigarette, took a few puffs himself, and said, "With our skills now, are we afraid of being robbed? I went to Inner Mongolia the other day, and I was fined 1,000 yuan for overloading. On the way, I ran into a group of robbers. They didn't rob me, but I managed to get over 2,000 yuan back from them. So this job wasn't a waste." As Wang Yin spoke, his face fell. "It's just that my son is such a troublemaker. He's only in first grade, but he's already writing love letters to the girls in his class and stealing my cigarettes. The teacher has called me in several times."
Bao Jin said, "Slap him!"
Wang Yin said, "How could I dare to hit a teacher? My son is in their hands."
Bao Jin cursed, "...I'll teach you to beat that little bastard son of yours!"
Wang Yin squatted on the ground, feeling dejected, and said, "We only see each other a few times a month, how can I bear to part with them?"
Fang La said disdainfully, "That's because you didn't discipline him properly. Look at my son, he didn't hold hands with a female classmate until he was in the second year of junior high school."
Everyone: "..."
Being uncultured is terrifying!
I stepped forward and said, “Heavenly Kings, since you’re all unhappy, why don’t you come to my place? Bring your sons and daughters with you. Our Yucai School is a talent cultivation base for the future. That way, you can see your Brother Fang La often, and National Preceptor Deng will be there too.”
Upon hearing this, Fang La and Wang Yin glanced at the heroes. Zhang Qing snorted coldly, "Since Brother Junyi said we have nothing to do with each other anymore, I'll just pretend I don't know you if you want to come." Zhang Qing suddenly raised his voice, "Hey Li, we can't call it quits! Once we have horses, I want to fight you again!"
Li Tianrun snorted, "Afraid of you?"
Wang Yin asked me, "What could I do if I went there?"
I said, "You take charge of the school bus first. When we start a driving class, you'll be the class leader, which is equivalent to a department head."
Wang Yin said, "Okay, it doesn't matter where you drive."
I asked Li Tianrun, "Are you coming or not?"
Li Tianrun said, "I need to ask my wife about this first..."
I put my arm around his shoulder and whispered in his ear, "At our school, salaries are paid separately in bank cards and cash—"
Li Tianrun looked at me with a puzzled expression.
"I think that way your monthly allowance would be 5 yuan a day!"
Li Tianrun grabbed my hand and said, "It's settled then!"
I looked at Pang Wanchun: "You're the only one left..."
Pang Wanchun shrugged at me in surprise: "I'm a civil servant!"
I said disdainfully, "Still thinking about your section chief? Does being a teacher mean you're not a civil servant?"
After thinking for a long time, Pang Wanchun said, "Then I'll take a leave of absence without pay and try working for you."
At this point, I had finally gathered all four Heavenly Kings. Of course, I had my own selfish reasons for doing this; Lin Chong's words, "Eight Heavenly Kings, each one invincible against ten thousand men," had left a deep impression on me! With these people as a foundation, even if the heroes were gone, our Yucai School wouldn't become an empty shell.
Fang La picked up the paper again, glanced at it, and threw it on the table. He said to Wang Yin and the others, "As for your new big brother, I think it's best to avoid dealing with him in the future. He's not a good person."
Wang Yin and the others said in unison, "He is not our new leader!"
Li Tianrun said, "This guy clearly saw that someone was going to attack this place, so he simply ran away without even saying goodbye to us."
I asked him, "What did that person look like?"
Li Tianrun said, "He's an old man. We usually call him 'Boss.' He said he came back from abroad. He's very mysterious every day and we don't see him often."
"Do you know who the person walking with him at night is?"
"I don't know. We're just his tools; that night owl is his confidant. I saw the two of them together this morning; I don't know when they ran away."
My heart skipped a beat, and I quickly asked, "You said he cultivated something called 'temptation grass,' where is it?"
Pang Wanchun interjected, "I've seen that thing once. It was grown in a giant pot. It's the main ingredient in the medicine we take, but I don't know where they're usually kept."
Wu Yong said, "If he left this morning, he shouldn't have had a chance to take the giant basin you mentioned. Otherwise, how could you not have noticed?"
I slapped my thigh: "That's exactly what I was thinking!"
Pang Wanchun said, "But I've looked at this house from all angles, and it's not there."
Lu Junyi said, "Such a big house must have hidden rooms or places we don't know about."
Wu Yong and I exchanged a glance and said at the same time, "Search!"
Xiang Yu was the first to run out, followed by the heroes and the Four Heavenly Kings, who scattered to look around the villa. However, half an hour later, they still hadn't found anything. I strolled around slowly, hands behind my back. Whether I found the item or not was another matter; just looking at this magnificent villa was quite something! I lingered for a while in a very inconspicuous little room upstairs. It was a small storage room, filled with all sorts of cleaning supplies. This luxurious place seemed perpetually spotless, but behind the scenes, it was meticulously cleaned inch by inch. One could imagine that in its heyday, this villa must have been staffed with servants who could only carry out large-scale cleaning when the owner was away or resting—a scene of great prosperity… But now there wasn't a single servant. Li Tianrun had told me that the cleaning was now done regularly by a paid cleaning company.
I rummaged through the drawers casually and noticed a faint glimmer of light in a corner of a cabinet filled with stacks of soap towels. I picked it up and saw a small picture frame; it was its glass that had just shimmered in the outside light. A small plush bear was attached to the top of the frame, clearly indicating it was for a child's photo. Sure enough, the photo showed a little girl smiling at the camera, already displaying a restraint and subtlety at such a young age, like a little politician. Her face vaguely reminded me of someone I'd seen before.
How did the picture frame end up here? Someone must have hurriedly shoved it in while cleaning the house. I took the picture frame to a bright spot to examine it closely, when suddenly a thought struck me. I called out to Fang La, who was downstairs, "Old Wang, you said the person who made you do the work is the new owner?"
Fang La said, "Yes, that guy bought this villa from someone else. So what?"
I excitedly stomped my foot: "I've found the original owner of this house!"
The crowd downstairs all asked in unison, "Who is it?"
I ignored them and took out my phone to dial. After a short while, a pleasant but cold female voice came from the other end: "Hello?"
"Miss Chen?"