Chapter 81: The Robot with Hidden Mysteries

On a night just like this, in Jiangcheng, the provincial capital of Eastern Chu.

Atop a tall building, the sky was clear, save for a solitary crescent moon.

A woman dressed in black held a phone that trembled lightly in her hand. The enchanting smile that had graced her beautiful face only moments before had utterly vanished.

“What happened?” asked the woman in purple across from her, her brow furrowing slightly.

“Something’s happened at home.”

“Something happened at your house?” The woman in purple sounded incredulous. “You must be joking. A family of ancient martial arts, wealthy, influential, with all those connections—how could anything happen?”

“It really did.” The woman in black slowly lifted her head. “My father and my three older brothers were all crippled at the same time. My mother was beaten and injured.”

“Don’t panic! Calm down!” The woman in purple finally grew serious. “Our Changsheng Group is in the gene industry. Our hospitals are the top in the province. Bring them here tonight—we’ll save them.”

The woman in black shook her head gently. “It’s useless. If I’m not mistaken, the one who did this is also a master of ancient martial arts. He knows exactly where to strike—he destroyed their spines and nerves. There’s no hope of recovery.”

“There are still practitioners of ancient martial arts in Fengcheng? Who?”

“The Fengcheng Detective Agency... Lin Xiaosu.”

Word by word, the woman in black named the culprit. Atop the high building, a wild wind raged, and in that moment, the temperature seemed to drop several degrees.

And under that same crescent moon, across the sea, at Base 101.

Behind Changye’s small courtyard, there was a laboratory.

In the laboratory, two human figures moved. One, clad in a white lab coat, stared unblinkingly at a computer screen. The other stood in a test pool, a vision of temptation, her body completely bare—well, except for a few silver tubes attached to her. Pale red blood flowed through those tubes into her body.

It only made her more alluring.

This woman, unclothed but for the tubes, was unmistakably Changye.

Which begged the question—who was the woman at the computer, adjusting various data?

She was also Changye!

Both figures were Changye, just in different forms. The one at the computer was her true self; the one in the test pool, the visage she used for missions. There were subtle differences between the two, but in terms of beauty, the true Changye surpassed her own creation.

“Add a bit more nutrient to the hips! And the grapes on her chest need a boost too! Curves—S-shaped, front and back!” A petite beauty leapt out from behind Changye, popping a bunch of grapes into her mouth and freeing her hands to point out adjustments.

This was, of course, Crescent Moon.

In this laboratory, only the three of them were present.

“That’s enough, isn’t it? We’re not running a beauty pageant,” Changye said.

“Are you dumb? Why did you create this thing? To make Lin Xiao S have impure thoughts, right? The perkier the rear, the fuller the chest, the faster he’ll make a move! Oh, and don’t forget—the ‘love zone’ is crucial. Double the sensitivity of the nerves there. The slightest touch and she’ll be dripping, so Lin Xiao S won’t want to let go, not even after eight times a day!”

Changye glanced at her, face twisted in mock disgust. “I told you, this is only to protect the Lin family matriarch. Not for... whatever you’re imagining.”

“Please, do you think you can fool me?” Crescent Moon retorted. “If you’re not interested in that, why did you write a shared password into the program? Tell me, Sister Changye, what are you planning to share with this robot? If not that, what, the joy of laundry, cooking, and gardening?”

Changye pressed her hand to her forehead. “This intelligent bio-robot is, in a sense, the first of its kind in the world. Shouldn’t I use shared access to obtain her sense of touch, smell, taste—her entire range of sensory data? This is a high-level, cutting-edge scientific experiment. Why is it that you always manage to see the most indecent angle?”

Crescent Moon studied her face, then broke into a crescent-moon smile herself. “There’s no contradiction! While you’re sharing the robot’s sensations, you could also solve your own long-standing problem. You’ve never been able to experience intimacy with a man, right? Let the robot do it! With shared access, whatever happens to her, you feel it too. That’s called taking the winding path to pleasure...”

“Get out!” Changye kicked her away.

Objectively speaking, Crescent Moon was projecting her own lasciviousness onto a scientist’s motives.

Changye truly had no such intentions.

Yes, she was poisonous—so much so that even a kiss could be lethal for her, let alone more intimate acts. But if she truly wanted to experience such things, there were countless ways to do so. Building a male-functioning robot would be a piece of cake.

No robot would mind her toxicity.

She genuinely sought to protect the Lin family through ingenious means, and to explore the full range of senses in the world’s first bio-intelligent robot.

But Crescent Moon’s wild speculations were relentless.

After so much of it, Changye was even tempted to seal up the robot’s “entrance” altogether, lest her scientific experiment devolve into something unspeakable. But after much deliberation, she let it be. A bio-intelligent robot should adhere to basic human principles; how could one joke from this little rascal warrant such a drastic change?

At Fengcheng Detective Agency, Lin Xiaosu descended the stairs with a jaunty gait and found two beautiful women deep in conversation.

Miao Ruolan and Zhou Xi.

As soon as Miao Ruolan saw him, she smiled. “Didn’t you say I should hire someone yesterday? Well, I found someone today.”

Lin Xiaosu was slightly surprised as he fixed his gaze on Zhou Xi.

Zhou Xi stood up. “I’m an easy employee to keep. Don’t need you to pay me—just feed me. Director Lin, do you want me?”

“Why so extreme?” Lin Xiaosu asked.

“For my parents’ vengeance. I’d planned to spend my whole life on it, and I might not even succeed.”

A debt of gratitude, then!

Lin Xiaosu understood completely.

Zhou Xi continued, “When we left yesterday evening, Uncle He gave us a thumbs-up through the glass. I think that’s what motivated me to throw myself into this.”

A slow smile crept onto Lin Xiaosu’s face.

Miao Ruolan beamed. “So you agree, don’t you?”

Lin Xiaosu smiled. “Five thousand a month. If you have to work overtime on holidays, double pay.”

Zhou Xi was stunned...

As was Miao Ruolan...

Lin Xiaosu explained, “Yesterday, I discussed four thousand with Ruolan—that’s the standard for ordinary hires. But you’re a trained professional, not ordinary at all. So, an extra thousand. Ruolan, what do you think?”

Miao Ruolan nodded without hesitation. “Agreed!”

“So it’s settled?” Zhou Xi said, hesitant. “No, this won’t do! I told you, I don’t want a salary. I meant it...”

Lin Xiaosu cut her off. “Here at the agency, we’re used to putting the past behind us. We don’t carry old shadows into the future—that’s the first thing. And the second...”

“What’s the second?”

“The second is, I like the people around me to be cheerful and sunny.”

He liked to be surrounded by light.

Zhou Xi felt as though something inside her opened up, letting in a long-lost ray of sunshine. Her eyes were now bright as a morning in spring. “But, our agency doesn’t have that much business. I really don’t deserve such a high salary.”

“Do you know why we don’t have much business? Because I set out from the start to focus on high-end cases! Fewer in number, but each one pays well. Just last night, a payment came in.”

Miao Ruolan was astonished. “You got paid?”

“For a case I helped the police with a while back—the state awarded us a hundred thousand. The money’s arrived!”

Both Miao Ruolan and Zhou Xi were overjoyed. They’d assisted the police before, more than once, but now there was finally some return—financial at that! This meant the agency had a second source of income, and the most legitimate, clean, even sacred kind.

Of course, they had no idea that this so-called reward for assisting the police had nothing to do with their recent cases for the Fengcheng authorities. County-level police would never have that kind of budget.

This was a reward Lin Xiaosu had received from Qianlong after tracking Dongzi to the ant’s nest.

In theory, the money was his alone and didn’t need to go into the agency’s account.

But Lin Xiaosu didn’t keep a cent for himself.

Why not?

There were probably two reasons.

First, the agency often collaborated with the police. Fengcheng’s police were poor and couldn’t afford to pay. He helped them for free most of the time, and though Ruolan never complained, her work was no less valuable. Zhou Mei got a police star; Ruolan deserved her due.

Second, maybe it was a matter of stubborn pride. Qianlong had once rejected him, and he didn’t want to owe them anything. He wanted everything on the level: he’d work for Qianlong as the agency, and Qianlong would pay the agency.

As for the money, Lin Xiaosu barely cared anymore.

Why earn money?

To find a wife!

Was that difficult?

For most people, yes—but for him, not really.

If he wanted to, Miao Ruolan in her pajamas was plenty tempting.

Even if he stuck to professional ethics and kept his distance, there were plenty of options outside. Even someone as unattainable as Changye seemed separated from him only by a protective suit...

Looking at their smiling faces, Lin Xiaosu grinned. “You two, hurry up and get your driver’s licenses. With this hundred thousand, we’ll buy a car.”

The agency was getting a car. No more running around on a little e-scooter. This was more than just a car—it was a symbol that the business was truly on track.

Getting a license used to be tough—written tests, training hours, even bribing instructors with cigarettes.

Now it was simplified.

Pass the written exam, demonstrate your skills, and you could get your license on the spot—no more pointless training hours.

From then on, the agency’s business gradually picked up.

Perhaps because Fengcheng Detective Agency had finally made a name for itself, the whole city knew to turn to them with their problems, and so all kinds of cases began to arrive.

Almost every day there was a new case—sometimes one, sometimes two...

Ordinarily, a single case could take months to resolve. With new cases coming in daily, everyone should have been run off their feet, but detective work at Fengcheng Detective Agency had already overturned all conventions.