Chapter 15: Brother, Draw from This Box—The Power Is Strong!

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Cave diving? Zhang Dongyi’s words caused Lu Xingzhou to furrow his brow slightly.

Cave diving is an extremely dangerous form of exploration.

Even conventional diving is quite challenging for humans; diving in natural underwater caves—places where one can easily get trapped or lost at any moment—is an absolute disaster for most people.

Seeing Lu Xingzhou hesitate, Zhang Dongyi continued to explain, “The park has planned a fixed route. This expedition will follow the predetermined path in a loop, without venturing into unknown areas.”

Lu Xingzhou pondered for a moment. “Director Zhang, regardless of whether the route is pre-planned, even in underwater caves explored countless times by predecessors, numerous diving enthusiasts perish there every year.

If you’re sincere, you can become the top contributor in my livestream that day—whenever it is—and propose the cave diving challenge. I’ll go participate the very next day.”

Lu Xingzhou was unwilling to dive simply for money; the risks were too high, and rescue efforts extremely difficult if anything went wrong.

The chances of a successful rescue during cave diving accidents are not nonexistent...

But they are practically negligible.

However, if the challenge system could be activated, Lu Xingzhou was willing.

Having seen two different challenges proposed by top contributors, he roughly understood that the harder the challenge, the richer the reward.

Zhang Dongyi did not reject Lu Xingzhou’s condition; instead, he even gave him his contact information.

Everyone has their own terms in negotiations. Managing an entire park, Zhang Dongyi had seen countless bizarre contracts. Demanding to be top contributor on the day of the stream wasn’t too outrageous, so he found it acceptable.

Since he had gotten wet while rescuing someone from the river, Lu Xingzhou needed to change clothes immediately; otherwise, he risked catching a cold.

Zhang Dongyi no longer lingered. After exchanging a few polite words, Lu Xingzhou followed the lifeguard away.

Zhang Dongyi picked up his phone and called his secretary: “Check how many top contributions Lu Xingzhou’s livestream has today.”

“Only over fifty thousand?”

“Alright, keep an eye on it. If it doesn’t reach eighty thousand by noon, we’ll push to become top contributor.”

With Lu Xingzhou’s current popularity and reputation, eighty thousand to promote cave diving and generate publicity was a very good deal in Zhang Dongyi’s eyes.

Other streamers of equal popularity charged tens or even hundreds of thousands just to appear.

Moreover, they might not even want to do the cave diving themselves; they’d hire substitutes and take a few photos.

Lu Xingzhou returned to the camp with the lifeguard, briefly spoke on the livestream, then switched off the camera to wash up.

Opening the bathroom door, he found a fresh set of clothes laid outside.

He unwrapped the packaging—a black base-layer T-shirt printed with seven large characters: “Young people, let’s get hyped!”

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Lu Xingzhou put it on; it fit about right. “Pretty passionate, huh?”

After greeting the lifeguard, Lu Xingzhou was about to leave, but then realized the cigarettes in his pocket had gotten wet during the river rescue and he had thrown them into the trash.

He turned around and asked the nearest lifeguard, “Master, where’s the nearest tobacco and liquor store around here?”

The lifeguard glanced at Lu Xingzhou, especially noting the identical black T-shirt with the “Young people, let’s get hyped!” logo.

“Go to the lakeside, there’s a drink shop called ‘Mexican Flair.’ The owner’s right hand is missing his thumb. Tell him you want a pack of strong cigarettes; he’ll get you good ones!”

The lifeguard emphasized the words “good cigarettes” and spoke with sparkling eyes, as if savoring the memory of the flavor.

Lu Xingzhou was puzzled. Are these cigarettes really that potent? Can they actually leave such an aftertaste?

“Thanks, brother!”

———

Elsewhere, Zongyong Temple Police Station.

Captain Song Xiangchen of the Anti-Drug Squad led the team. The anti-pickpocket experts from the Criminal Police Unit formed a temporary support group, setting up an ad hoc command center inside the station.

Song Xiangchen stood behind a detective in a white coat: “An He, how’s the fingerprint search on the handbag going?”

Bai Anhe picked up the evidence bag on the table. “There are two sets of fingerprints on the handbag. One belongs to the thief Fu Fan; the other doesn’t match any fingerprint in the city bureau’s database.

I’ve submitted a request through CCIC (Criminal Information Center) to Black Tower (National Crime Technology Inspection Center) to compare it against fingerprints of criminals nationwide.

However, the second set of prints shows a strange anomaly: the suspect’s right thumb has no fingerprint. Either the suspect deliberately coated the thumb with glue or something similar, or the right hand is physically missing the thumb.”

Lu Jiangying sitting nearby looked confused. “Officer Bai, why would a drug dealer only cover the right thumb with glue?

If they want to hide their fingerprints, wouldn’t they cover all fingers?”

Bai Anhe explained, “It’s misdirection. If a suspect removes all fingerprints, the police might abandon fingerprint investigation altogether.

But if they make the police believe the suspect has a missing thumb, the investigation shifts to focusing on people with missing fingers, buying the suspect more time to evade capture.”

Lu Jiangying asked doubtfully, “But the pickpocket was caught, right? Why not just ask him?”

You Gaojie shook his head. “We did, but he said he only focused on the bag and didn’t pay attention to the suspect’s hand. He can’t recall if the right thumb was missing.

As for appearance, he doesn’t know much because they steal from behind, so victims rarely remember their faces.

Fu Fan said it was an ordinary person, around thirty or forty years old, about 175 cm tall, wearing a black T-shirt with some words printed on it. He didn’t notice clearly.”

Song Xiangchen asked, “What about the bank deposit slip? Have you investigated a certain Zhang Dazhu?”

You Gaojie nodded, “Found him. He’s from Minzhou, in his fifties, a migrant worker, never been to Shanhe City.

Probably identity theft, criminals used his info to open accounts to transfer assets. No progress on that lead.”

The officers fell silent; the evidence they had was too scant.

———

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Lu Xingzhou frowned. It was past eleven o’clock, and he didn’t want to return to the city. He wanted to find a hotel near Zongyong Temple to stay overnight.

But hotels around the scenic area charged exorbitant prices—single rooms were all above 1,500 yuan.

The cheapest were still over 600 yuan.

What’s worse, the 600-yuan hotels didn’t show pictures of their lobbies or rooms on their profiles. Instead, they had several heavily photoshopped images of girls so altered even their own mothers wouldn’t recognize them!

What kind of legitimate hotels are these?!

Taking a taxi back to the city would cost over a hundred yuan.

“Damn expensive! Maybe I’ll just find Officer You and see if I can sleep on a bench in the police hall tonight.”

Lu Xingzhou put his phone back in his pocket and looked up—he was right in front of the “Mexican Flair” drink shop.

The owner was closing up, folding umbrellas, seemingly about to shut down for the night.

Lu Xingzhou sized up the owner: about 175 cm tall, in his thirties or forties, missing the right thumb, wearing a black T-shirt printed with “Young people’s gathering place to get hyped.”

It seemed to echo perfectly with Lu Xingzhou’s own T-shirt that read “Young people, let’s get hyped!”

“Boss, a pack of cigarettes.”

The owner turned and looked at Lu Xingzhou, his gaze stopping on the logo on Lu’s T-shirt.

“I’ve run this shop for several years. You look unfamiliar—first time at my ‘Mexican Flair’ drink shop?”

Lu Xingzhou explained, “Yes, someone told me your cigarettes are strong, so I came.”

The owner nodded slightly. “Referred by a friend, huh? Alright, come inside with me.”

Lu Xingzhou followed the owner into the shop. Behind the counter, the owner crouched, rummaging until he pulled out a pack of cigarettes and slapped it on the counter.

“Since you’re a friend’s recommendation, I won’t charge you much—just a cost price of 3,000 yuan!”