286 Mr. Moustache (1/2)
In reality, it was not that Ye Shuang was astute, but the moustache was too blunt. When Su Zheng mocked the person as unskilled, the man's face already darkened—it was difficult to not see.
If you are not the culprit, why would you be angered about that?
Other than the fact that the person being mocked was Moustache, Ye Shuang could not figure out any other explanation. Ye Shuang smiled and looked over the pictures in Su Zheng's phone. She lifted her head to ask, ”Brother Zao, have you been having some money problems recently?”
Honorable thieves were not like pickpockets who stole from others to survive. To hear Su Zheng say it, when they wanted to do something, they would go for something big. To steal from innocent people to survive, that was below their standard.
However, everything had an exception. If there was really an emergency, going after money was completely normal. After all, these people did not have a justice-filled worldview anyway. Wanting them to follow the rules was too unrealistic. For example, the worst thing Su Zheng ever done was when she visited a breakfast shop. She ordered her food and realized she forgot her purse. Therefore, the girl very shamelessly extended her hand to an innocent high school student's bag…
”Earlier, I saw that your business with the man fell through, and I don't think you are that familiar with the Yan family, so my guess is that you are trying to gather money and had to accept that order.”
Ye Shuang was saving face for the man. Her whole explanation made out that Brother Zhao was being forced—he tried his best to sell himself, but the man did not bite. The man was very poor! And for some reason, he was in desperate need of money. That was Ye Shuang's conclusion.
”Brother Zao, you are in need of money?” Su Zheng tried to console the man. ”Nowadays, it is indeed not easy for us to survive. Brother Zao, you're already doing quite well. When I was walking down the street of Jing Hu City, I saw someone who was supposed to be dealing in fake antiques selling fake celebrity signatures. I heard it's because the partner was too amateur, and with one careless mistake, he even lost his original customers…”
The moustache was expressionless for a while. ”Are you mocking me?”
”No, I'm not!” Su Zheng replied—all she said was the truth.
Ye Shuang coughed and tried to rein the conversation back and away from Su Zheng. The girl was a straight shooter and did not know how to use tact in conversation. ”Brother Zao don't mind. We just came to ask who the client was who hired you to crack the safe. We have no other meaning.”
”How can people in this business sell out our clients so easily…” the moustache said with honor.
”Do you want to receive the one-time information fee, or would you like me to introduce you to jobs available to a high class technician?” Ye Shuang very expertly entered the negotiation mode, and she started to scroll through the list of clients in Shanghai who had such needs in the past.
”…I'll select the second one.”
…
The information they got from Moustache made Ye Shuang and Su Zheng feel bad. It was nothing else because they were one step too late—the man who had been talking business with Moustache earlier was the client who approached him to crack the safe. Of course, they understood that the culprit would not show up directly. After all, they could be recognized, and if they were exposed, it would be hard to explain. If it was really one of the wives, Moustache might think that they were trying to cheat on their other half.
”What should we do now?” Su Zheng leaned against the window and sighed. ”If we'd known that was the client, we shouldn't have shown up before that man… Now, if we show up at the Yan family, people might recognize us.”
”That's unavoidable. Who would have thoughts things would be so coincidental?” Ye Shuang focused on driving. ”Now we can only conduct our investigation in the dark. Since the man was a lackey, eventually, he will connect with the real boss. We can go through that or ask Ol' K check his contact records…”
”But this is a single-person case, Sister Shuang,” Su Zheng grumbled. ”If we're counting Ol' K's fee, I basically won't earn anything from that 100,000. The cheapest fee he'll take for one investigation is 10,000.”
Ye Shuang thought about it and said, ”We mustn't look at it that way. Good friends should help each other… How about a trade, you can help him for free next time?”
”I'll ask around first, and if there's really no clue, then I'll go to Ol' K.”
Actually, Ye Shuang did not think that there was a need to dwell on that consideration. She thought back to the cooperation that she had with Anthony. The man never once brought up the issue of payment. Then again, Ol' K did not have Anthony's skill of transferring one RMB from everyone in the world into his account, and as a team member, he was used to separating private life from work life. Ye Shuang could not force other people to follow her method of business, so she did not say anything.
”It really depends on you. After all, this is your case… What the f*ck!” Suddenly, the car turned. After a beautiful drift, Ye Shuang stepped on the brake. Ye Shuang and Su Zheng were flung forward in their seats. If not for Ye Shuang's hands that quickly went over to shield Su Zheng, this girl, who normally did not like to wear her seatbelt, would have crashed into the windshield already.
”What's going on?” Su Zheng was still in shock, and she patted her pulsing heart. Ye Shuang looked at the front of the car.