310 Cedrick X Anthony 2 in 1 (1/2)

Shirking off the responsibility was actually a small problem; the real trouble came much later. Cedrick was too famous internationally. His slip up was almost instantly known across the world within specific circles.

It was not an exaggeration to say that the name Cedrick was at the top of the watch list for most of the countries that knew about the master thief. The whole world… no, that was not true, but at least more than ten countries had called to congratulate China on its recent development in economics, politics, resources, agriculture, and so on. Then, after exchanging pointless pleasantries—well, there were those who cut right to the chase—they would move the topic eventually to Cedrick.

”The gentleman?” The leader of the national security department was confused. ”Who is this kid? How come so many country leaders have called to bring up his name today?”

The agent wiped the cold sweat off his forehead. ”He's a very famous thief… Er, in any case, he has become quite famous over the last few years. I hear he has managed to avoid detection and arrest even though he has stolen many high-profile items, so everyone is having a headache over it. Since they heard our country has managed to arrest the man, they quickly called to ask about it.”

”Well done! Finally, something to make our country proud!” The leader raised his brow and slapped the table, and he nodded with great satisfaction. ”Who did it? Pay special attention to the person who did it. If they are really talented, then we should focus on cultivating such rare talent.”

The agent wiped his sweat again. ”It was not done by anyone from the national security department. I hear it was a local traffic officer in San Lin City who caught the man…”

Thankfully, he had pulled up the information earlier, or else he definitely would have had no answer to give. After all, who would have thought the master thief Cedrick would fail at a place like this?

The leader was silent for about half a minute. ”…Then so be it. Have the people in San Lin City detain the man for several more days while we discuss what to do with the culprit. Whether we should extradite him or not will depend on the conditions given by the other countries.”

The leader knew that this was a valuable chip that he had gained. Even though it was not his department that caught the guy, it did not affect the fact that it could be used to form trades with other countries.

Sweat cascaded from the agent's head like a waterfall. ”But… but the case has been settled in private already.”

”Oh, then… Wait a minute, what did you say‽” The leader suddenly widened his eyes.

The agent felt like his bladder was about to explode. ”I… I hear it's because the owner of the car came over and said it was just a misunderstanding. Then, Brother Han also made a call to say that they have a special guy for this guy…”

The leader was stunned speechless.

”Boss.” The agent was panicking. ”If you really think it's not right, should we send out someone to go and investigate? After all, we have the address…”

Investigate your head!

…

After dinner, before they had the chance to discuss what had happened that day, Han Chu already went out to the balcony to answer a call. When he returned from the balcony, the first thing he did was stare silently at Cedrick, who was sitting on the sofa.

Cedrick moved from openness to confusion and finally discomfort. He could not resist the urge to change his posture on the seat, and then he coughed and asked, ”Is there a problem.”

Han Chu nodded calmly and rattled off a long list of countries. While Cedrick was looking at him in confusion, he concluded, ”These are the names of all the countries that have called China's national security department today.”

Cedrick understood it immediately.

Brother Shuang was coming out from finished washing the dishes. The sleeves of his white shirt were rolled up to his elbows to reveal the toned lines of his muscular arms. Due to the high weather and the work that dealt with water, keeping his shirt buttoned up to the top appeared much too formal, so Brother Shuang raised his hand to remove the top button to make him feel more comfortable… As the tapered finger moved to undo the button, it exposed the man's clavicle and the great muscles underneath the shirt. It made the man look so seductive and delicious.

It was fine for most of the males who were presented, but Su Zheng, who represented the thief collective from China, had a hard time focusing. She looked at Brother Shuang with a blush but did not say anything for a long time. Her pair of eyes was eerily bright, and her expression that said 'lick, lick, lick' was too embarrassing for other people to take a second look at her.

With the face, the cooking skill, and the body, jumping over to this team was the best decision that she had ever made in her life! The best, not one of the best!

”Is there a problem?” Brother Shuang sat down on the other side of the sofa after he removed two buttons. He raised his hand, wanting to grab a glass of water, and then realized he forgot to take a glass for himself. Before he could stand up, Su Zheng already tagged her immaterial tail while she happily pushed the entire water jug toward him.

Han Chu's attention was pulled over, and he looked Su Zheng, who was waiting for a compliment. Then he turned to look at Brother Shuang, who was spreading his pheromones indiscriminately. He eventually pulled his gaze away and suddenly changed the subject by saying, ”I hope there will not be any tedious relationship problems among my agent's teams.”

Ye Shuang felt a sudden ache in her knees. She thought about it but still could not understand, so in the end, she gave up dwelling on it.

She patted Su Zheng's head to show her gratitude, and then Ye Shuang turned the topic back to serious ground. ”Actually, as long as Cedrick stays in China, there will eventually be a problem. After all, so many parties are paying close attention to his movement… Currently, I don't even think those things are that important, as long as we can settle the problem within us as soon as possible.”

At this point, Ye Shuang suddenly frowned and looked at Cedrick with hesitation. ”…I suddenly realized you actually have no use for us at all, right?”

The man had mainly come over for Anthony, and there was no cooperative or business relationship between them. Yet, she had extended her neck out to help the guy—this was truly finding problem for herself. When he heard Ye Shuang say that, Cedrick's heart instantly skipped a beat.

Still, Han Chu added more oil to the fire. Perhaps purposely, he changed to English and said in a calmness that seemed like he had not even blinked, ”He is indeed of no use to us. Shall we release him to the crowd? Or we can send him to Yao Zhixing as present. That is not bad either.”

Everyone there turned their gaze to Cedrick. Even Su Zheng, who did not understand any foreign languages, also followed along. After all, it was easier to follow the majority. Cedrick felt the giant pressure on his shoulders. and then he turned his blinking eyes to Anthony and asked in a hopeful tone, ”…Anthony?”

”We don't know each other, buddy.” Anthony shrugged and stated his position of just watching from afar.

”Ignoring me again!” Su Zheng, who did not have a translator, was angered. She had thought that this should be a good show, but the sad thing was that she did not understand a single word at all.

”No matter what,” Ye Shuang sighed as she turned her head to Anthony, ”Tony, why don't you have a chat with Cedrick first? If you really don't want him here, we'll figure out a way to send him away. After all, he has a criminal record, so kicking him out of the country should not be too hard.”

”Actually, I just came here to meet Anthony, but it looks like my presence is not so welcomed here after all…” At this point, Cedrick sighed, and he raised his eyes with some disappointment. ”Anthony, can you really not remember that Halloween Party at all?”

”Hmm… To be perfectly honest, I really have no memory of you at all.” Anthony went for the assault and then turned to help fill in the blanks for Han Chu and the rest. ”But I did investigate the gentleman. This Cedrick is quite a famous magician, and he comes from a good school. I've studied his theft records, and the items he stole are mostly not that expensive, so I don't think he's doing this for the money… maybe for some kind of spiritual satisfaction?”

”Let me see that research.” Han Chu asked Anthony directly for Cedrick's personal profile.

When Han Chu got it, Ye Shuang naturally leaned over to look. Then, Anthony was left behind to continue shooting questions at Cedrick. ” So, if we start from the assumption that what you're doing is for personal satisfaction, you came to find me due to something bad that happened to you at this Halloween party, and this bad thing was caused by me, so you came to me to seek revenge?”

”That doesn't sound likely.” Han Chu skimmed through the information very fast. He only selected the important points to read and skipped over the details. He paid special attention to what happened to Cedrick three years ago, and he softly interrupted him. ”If this is his attempt to seek revenge from you due to something that happened three years ago, then he should have been very hostile toward you. But from Xiao Shuang's report and the previous conversation that you two have had, he doesn't seem to have that kind of emotion toward you… Even though this is nothing conclusive, it can at least help us speculate that Cedrick does not care that much about winning or losing. That way, he would not have cared so much about what happened before.”

”I do mind!” Cedrick corrected the record, but then he sighed in a helpless tone. ”But what you said isn't wrong either. It is not because I want to show off my thieving skill that I started my career. However, it is not as you said because I want to pursue some kind of spiritual satisfaction either… To be honest, I actually want to reach out to Anthony because I need a favor from him.”

Han Chu raised his eyes to look at him and then added an emotionless 'hmm' before lowering his eyes once more to say, ”Hand in the money and take your place in line.”

”Don't reject me first, listen to my… Hmm?” Cedrick was stunned.

Han Chu closed the laptop and tossed it aside. ”What I mean is, we are not interested in your reason for looking for Tony, but if you want to ask Anthony to use his skills to do something for you, then you have to follow the procedure and sign a headhunting contract. Whether he decides to take the case or not, or how much payment is required, that is something that has to be decided after we assess the difficulty of the case.”

Don't think you can jump the queue simply because you are internationally famous. If you need help from us, of course, you have to pay first.

Anthony was actually not as hard to deal with as many people thought. He normally did not like to lend a hand because, one, there was really no reason for him to go out of his way to help others, and two, others had a really hard time even meeting Anthony in person… Therefore, Cedrick had really overthought it. Actually, he did not even need to come to China—he only needed to get an appointment through Sister Shuang…

Cedrick was surprised by how distinctly Han Chu separated his business and personal life. After being stunned for quite some time, he finally recovered his power of speech. ”Er… You mean you are willing to help me?”