Chapter 73 – Night Chase

Lu Yuan quickly stood up from his desk and walked to the door, pressing his ear gently against the wall.

The sounds from the living room became much clearer. He decided to close his eyes as well.

The superpower of “720-degree holographic vision” was activated.

The scene in the living room appeared vaguely before Lu Yuan’s “eyes.”

“It’s so late! Why are you going out in the middle of the night?”

His mom, dressed in her pajamas, rushed out of her room.

“Chasing, chasing, chasing. You’re obsessed! It’s just a few hundred thousand; we can earn it back. What if something happens?”

Zheng Qiuling couldn’t help but wipe her eyes as she spoke.

“Keep it down, or you’ll wake up Xiao Yuan!”

Lu Xinghua stood at the door, changing his shoes and reaching for the car keys hanging on the hook.

“Don’t worry about this. I have to get that money back. Go to sleep.”

With that, Lu Xinghua opened the door and hurried out.

In the bedroom, Lu Yuan opened his eyes and glanced at the small alarm clock on his desk.

11:46 PM.

Lu Xinghua was actually going out at this hour to catch someone.

What if…

“Just a few days left, don’t let anything happen.”

Lu Yuan gritted his teeth and quickly decided to follow. Zheng Qiuling was still in the living room, so going through the front door was not an option.

Lu Yuan walked to his bedroom window and opened it.

He reached out to grab the bars on the security window outside, applying a bit of force.

“Creak•”

He pulled open a gap in the security window, just wide enough for a person to squeeze through.

These security windows were made of hollow stainless steel tubes. With Lu Yuan’s current strength, bending them was as easy as eating or drinking.

Lu Yuan lightly jumped onto the windowsill, holding onto the window frame with one hand.

His room’s window faced the street below. From here, he could intercept his dad, Lu Xinghua.

“Distance to the ground: 3.2 meters, with an error margin of no more than 5 centimeters.”

Lu Yuan looked down, and with an intelligence score of 13 points, he immediately calculated the landing height in his mind.

There was hardly any hesitation. He let go and slid through the gap in the security window.

“On the way back, I’ll just bend the bars back.”

As he descended, Lu Yuan thought to himself.

“Thud—”

With a soft thud, Lu Yuan landed steadily.

The noise was much quieter than he had expected.

It wasn’t even as loud as the sound of someone throwing a garbage bag from above.

“My agility points are only at 12. If they were higher, I might really be like a martial arts master in novels, landing silently and leaving no trace in the snow. Even if I jumped from the rooftop, I probably wouldn’t die.”

Lu Yuan instinctively glanced up.

Just then, he heard Lu Xinghua’s cough.

He quickly stopped daydreaming and scanned the area, locking onto the small pickup truck parked by the roadside.

He dashed over like a cat and silently slipped into the truck bed.

Soon, he heard Lu Xinghua’s footsteps approaching.

Lu Xinghua was on the phone and didn’t even glance at the truck bed.

“I’m on my way! I’ll be there soon.”

“Keep a close eye on them! Have you notified Old Liu and the others?”

“Alright, got it.”

Lu Xinghua hung up the phone, opened the door, and got into the driver’s seat.

Lying in the truck bed, Lu Yuan listened to the sound of the engine starting. He grabbed the edge of the bed with one hand.

With the other hand, he took his mobile phone from his pocket and quietly set it to silent mode.

The truck soon started moving, turned around, and headed towards the end of the street.

Lu Yuan’s heart was pounding wildly.

It felt like those times in his past life when he and his classmates would sneak out of the dormitory in the middle of the night to climb the wall and go to an internet cafe.

Nervous, with a hint of excitement.

This feeling quickly faded.

“A son helping his father is only right! If I’m caught, the worst that can happen is getting scolded.”

Any lingering doubts in Lu Yuan’s mind disappeared.

Lu Xinghua drove the truck quickly. This small pickup truck was used for family deliveries and was quite old.

The truck bed shook violently, and the cool night wind whipped past Lu Yuan’s face.

He didn’t dare move, fearing he might make a noise and cause Lu Xinghua to stop and check.

On the way, he carefully checked the home surveillance cameras on his phone. Everything was normal, which eased his mind.

He was worried that just after he left, the Ratman might “raid” his home.

He hoped such a clichéd plot wouldn’t happen to him.

However, Lu Yuan thought that the Ratman probably wouldn’t dare to come out now.

From the information revealed by Ge Wenjun and the news on TV, the shuttle, which refers to the people sent down from above, had already begun a cleanup operation against a certain faction in Jiaoyan City.

Given the Ratman’s cunning nature, he would never dare to show himself at such a critical moment.

A rat.

Even if it turns into a human.

Some instincts just don’t change.

A map of Jiaoyan City appeared in Lu Yuan’s mind.

As he watched the streets, road signs, and tall buildings flashing by on both sides, he silently calculated his real-time position.

He realized that Lu Xinghua was driving towards the outskirts of the West District.

Twenty minutes later, the pickup truck veered onto a country road, becoming bumpier.

Lu Yuan saw orange trees and farmland on both sides of the road.

Jiaoyan City was suitable for planting oranges, and many rural households around the city grew oranges, tangerines, and pomelos.

Lu Yueping had two acres of them. Every summer, Lu Yuan would spend a couple of weeks or even a month in the countryside.

Catching loaches and eels in the fields, fishing and catching shrimp in the small rivers, and eating early-ripening tangerines until he got heaty. It was such fun.

Five minutes later, the truck stopped.

Taking advantage of the moment Lu Xinghua turned off the engine, Lu Yuan quickly jumped out of the truck bed, crouched low, and rolled into the dense weeds beside him with a rustling sound.

“Lu-Ge!”

As soon as Lu Xinghua got out of the truck, two people holding mobile phones for light quickly stumbled over from a distance.

Hiding in the weeds beside the truck, Lu Yuan carefully raised his head to look ahead.

He saw another car parked in the distance.

Further away, he could see a house with lights on, standing on a dirt slope.

“Flap-flap”

Suddenly, a few night birds darted out of nowhere, almost skimming over Lu Yuan’s head.

Startled, Lu Yuan quickly lowered his body.

“What was that?!”

Lu Xinghua and the two men he was talking to were startled.

“It’s a crow.”

A short, thin man who had come to meet Lu Xinghua said, “This area is full of crows. I reckon it used to be a graveyard.”

“Stop talking nonsense in the middle of the night.”

Before the man could finish, the other person scolded him.

“Alright, let’s get down to business.”

Lu Xinghua, looking serious, asked the two men, “Where is Wang Zhichao?”

“In that house over there!”

They pointed to the house with the lights on, perched on the Dirt Slope in the distance.

“I followed him all the way here and saw him go inside with my own eyes.”

“Are you sure you didn’t see wrong?”

“No mistake. This isn’t something I’d joke about.”

“Then let’s go!”

Lu Xinghua, clearly the leader of the three, waved his hand and issued the command.