WWY Chapter 22

Chapter 22 Mysterious Friend: The Sixteen-Sided Dice Gold Pendant…

Chapter 22 Mysterious Friend: The Sixteen-Sided Dice Gold Pendant…

To prevent the wound from becoming inflamed, Lan He took a few antibiotics in advance. Then, because the pain from the wound kept him awake, he took a handful of painkillers.

Once the medication took effect, the wound finally stopped hurting. Just as he was drifting off to sleep, the phone suddenly rang.

He cleared his head and picked up the phone to see that it was Qing Gu, so he threw the phone down again.

He didn’t really want to answer, but it kept vibrating incessantly.

He propped himself up in bed, forcefully swiped the answer key, and said with great vigor, “What is it at this hour of the night!”

“Huh? Night?” Qing Gu’s slightly drunk voice came through the receiver, “Oh–sorry, sorry, I’m on vacation in Las Vegas, time difference, time difference, ah, forgot!”

Lan He helplessly lay back down on the pillow: “You’re drunk, aren’t you?”

“Yeah, hehe!” Qing Gu giggled foolishly, “It’s better to be out having fun, no one cares how drunk you get. No dad, no older sister, hehehe, their heads are full of family and business, so annoying!”

Lan He rolled over, automatically imagining the accompanying emoji.

“Is there something you need? If not, I’m hanging up. I’m trying to sleep!”

“Yes, yes, yes! Why don’t you come find me? You’re just staying at home anyway!”

“Not going.”

Qing Gu, undeterred by the cold rejection, said, “I’m saying, what’s the point of just painting at home all the time? I’m living in paradise here, come and experience it!”

Lan He said coldly, “Who are you calling ‘brother’? Have some respect. You want me to tell your sister?”

Qing Gu immediately went silent.

“Brother-in-law!” After a long pause, he slurred and solemnly called out, “What gift do you want? I’ll bring it back for you!”

“Spare me.”

“Don’t be polite! We’re family!”

In order to get rid of the drunk, Lan He thought carefully and actually thought of something.

“You’re in Las Vegas?”

“Yeah! I’m cruising around in the desert, soCool ah ah ah ah ah–How!”

“…” Lan He suspected that the last “How” was from eating sand.

After a few seconds of awkward silence, he said, “Qing Gu, when you come back, help me get a necklace!”

“For my sister?”

“No, for a male friend.”

“Oh… You have other male friends besides me? Fine, fine, fine, what kind do you want?”

“There’s an old jewelry store on Fremont Street. Go help me buy the sixteen-sided dice-shaped gold pendant and match it with a 4mm red agate chain. No extra accessories.”

“No problem!” Qing Gu patted his chest confidently, then suddenly reacted, “Hmm? Lan He, have you been to Las Vegas? You seem pretty familiar with the terrain!”

“Been there twice. That’s all, remember to bring the necklace back for me.”

“I was planning to stay two more months before going back! How about this, you don’t have to worry about it. I guarantee it’ll be in your hands in three days!”

“Alright, thanks!”

Without waiting for Qing Gu to say anything more, he directly turned off his phone. He tossed and turned several times, but couldn’t fall asleep.

After all this, he couldn’t sleep at all, so he simply got up and rummaged through his closet. He found a small box in the bottom drawer, carefully caressed the box cover a few times, and took out a necklace.

A sixteen-sided dice gold pendant, each side engraved with a number. Seemingly without any pattern, the chain was a 4mm red agate chain, with three beads that had been chipped and cracked. Under the light, the red agate was clear and lustrous, exuding a low-key luxury.

He stood in front of the mirror and, with a small movement, held the necklace up to his neck, grinning.

–

Auntie Long prepared a hearty and nutritious breakfast, saying she wanted to give Lan He some nourishment.

To her, Lan He was like the kind of grandson that grandmothers dote on the most, able to eat anything she cooked with great relish, maximizing her emotional value.

Lan He came to the table, looking at the elaborate breakfast in front of him, and excitedly rubbed his hands.

Auntie Long served him meat porridge and saw that he was wearing a light purple turtleneck T-shirt today, completely covering everything below his chin. She was not very happy: “Lan He, why are you wearing a turtleneck again? You can’t cover that wound up so tightly! Sigh, why are you so careless when you walk? You can even get a clothesline wrapped around your neck!”

“Bad luck, the rope just happened to break and wrapped around me several times. Jiu Ya was too dumb. It took him a long time to find me. I was almost strangled to death!”

Jiu Ya, who was eating a small steamed bun on the side, could only grin sheepishly and take the blame.

Auntie Long didn’t seem to be able to imagine what the scene would have been like at the time, and finally complained to Jiu Ya: “What kind of bodyguard are you?”

“It’s not all Jiu Ya’s fault. I just feel like I’ve been unlucky lately. Isn’t there a movie, that whatchamacallit, *Final Destination*.” Lan He took a delicious sip of the salty and savory meat porridge and said nonchalantly, “I might be fighting against the Grim Reaper invisibly. If I really die one day, don’t be sad for me!”

Auntie Long’s willow-leaf eyebrows shot up, and she forcefully pushed the back of his head: “Don’t talk nonsense, you child! Bah, bah, bah, children’s words are harmless!”

Lan He laughed shamelessly with Auntie Long, finally covering up the matter.

Including the driver, Lao Ni, the four of them were happily eating breakfast when suddenly the sound of an engine came from the courtyard. Lan He glanced at the security monitor; it was Si’nian He’s car.

Auntie Long quickly ran to open the door, smiling amiably as she took the file bag from his hand: “Young Master He, you’re back just in time, we’re having breakfast!”

Si’nian He nodded in greeting and walked straight to the table, staring intently at Lan He.

Noticing that the atmosphere wasn’t right, Lao Ni quickly took his bowl and left. Jiu Ya also stood up and walked behind Lan He, his clever little eyes darting back and forth between the two brothers.

Auntie Long served Si’nian He some porridge, trying to smooth things over: “Young Master He, why are you back so early? You could have had the secretary run the errand!”

Si’nian He never gave Auntie Long, the nanny who had taken the place of his mother, a cold shoulder. He replied, “I have to go to a neighboring city to take care of something this morning, so I stopped by to take a look.”

Auntie Long smiled: “Then hurry up and eat!”

As she spoke, Si’nian He’s gaze never left Lan He’s face, while he acted as if nothing was wrong, drinking his porridge and eating buns without even raising his head.

“Brother, did you go on a date with Ya Gu yesterday?”

He had originally wanted to take the initiative by using a questioning tone, but the other party didn’t fall for it at all, and he was defeated in the first round, feeling somewhat annoyed.

Lan He finally raised his eyelids: “Yeah, what’s so strange about going on a date?”

Si’nian He hated that he couldn’t make Lan He see reason: “Brother, you can’t be with her! She’s just after our family’s money!”

Lan He nodded: “Yeah, I know. So what?”

Si’nian He opened his mouth, not knowing what to say.

Lan He snatched a bun from the steamer in front of him and glanced at him: “According to Dad’s wishes, I always have to find someone to marry. No matter who that person is, there’s a suspicion that they’re after our family’s money, so why can’t it be Ya Gu?”

Si’nian He pushed away the bowl of porridge in annoyance, glaring at him.

Jiu Ya looked down at his toes, muttering to himself: “That makes a lot of sense!”

“Anyway, it can’t be Ya Gu!” Si’nian He glared at him and said loudly to Lan He, “Haven’t you been online? This marriage itself is an advantage for the Gu family. Plus, with Father’s passing, public opinion is very unfavorable to our He family!”

“Ah’nian…” Lan He narrowed his eyes, scrutinized him for a moment, and said something shocking, “Why does it seem like you’re jealous? You’ve been urging me to divorce Ya Gu all along, and now you’re hindering me from getting close to her. What’s the meaning of this? Could it be… Ah’nian, do you like Ya Gu?”

Si’nian He stood up with a “thump”: “Brother! What nonsense are you talking about! You’re insulting me!”

His face instantly turned into a tomato. He didn’t eat his meal and turned to leave as if he was furious.

Auntie Long panicked and hurriedly trotted after him to persuade him, but Si’nian He got straight into the car, accelerated and drove away.

“Lan He, how can you speculate about Young Master Si’nian like that? He’s not that kind of person!”

“Who told him to provoke my relationship with Ya Gu first!” Lan He shrugged innocently, giving Auntie Long a grateful smile. “I’m full, I’m going to go paint!”

–

At exactly eight o’clock in the morning, a melodious birdsong rang out in the business suite of the White Oak Hotel, the wake-up service that had been booked the night before.

Tuxi Ling slowly opened his eyes. After seeing his surroundings clearly, he suddenly perked up, scrambled out of bed, and swept away the heaviness that had been weighing him down, as if he had been injected with stimulants.

After several days, he finally got a full night’s sleep.

Before going to bed, he had thought that Lan He would find a chance to make trouble, but he was very well-behaved, which was good.

He should go back to the team, but before that, he should say goodbye.

He went next door and knocked on the door for a long time, but there was no response from inside. Instead, he attracted the attention of the floor attendant.

“Sir, is there anything you need?”

“Oh, I’m looking for the person in this room…” He stopped, feeling that it wasn’t right to say he was looking for a guest, since he was clearly the owner. So he simply said the full name, “I’m looking for Mr. He.”

The attendant looked at him strangely: “Mr. He isn’t staying in this room. He dropped you off last night and left.”

Tuxi Ling was stunned, and an indescribable emotion immediately surged in his heart.

He thanked the attendant and walked towards the elevator, feeling that he should also call Lan He to express his gratitude.

Just as he took out his phone, before he could dial, the screen lit up.

“What is it?”

“Ling, are you up?”

“Yeah, get to the point.”

“We used the network cache to capture a platform user’s ID. The original language of the post was Chinese, and the posting time was two hours ago. Little Xu requested help from the network reconnaissance branch, and after finally bypassing the platform, we found this person’s IP address. We’ve already contacted the local police to investigate!”

“Got it, I’ll be back right away!”

When Tuxi Ling returned to the second squad, Little Xu’s face was beaming with joy, surrounded by several people. The computer screens in front of them were colorful, showing the foreign gaming platform.

Tuxi Ling went over: “What’s the situation?”

Seeing him come, everyone made room for him in the very center.

Shengbo Xia shouted, “Ling, we borrowed his account from that guy. However, he only plays ordinary games on the platform, nothing to do with gambling.”

“Is it possible to find out what Qin Man did on the platform?”

“We checked. Qin Man has only been involved in a few types of gambling games in the past year. By searching player information, we’ve locked in several suspicious accounts that have played with him. We’re checking them one by one. So far, one of them has played with Qin Man very frequently, and it’s not just one type of game.” Little Xu pointed to an account with a long string of characters and then opened Qin Man’s top-up record for everyone to see. “The platform uses virtual chips for payment, but buying chips requires topping up. But in the last few times, without any spending from Qin Man’s bank card, the platform still gave him a large number of chips, always in whole numbers.”

Tuxi Ling asked, “Can he get credit?”

Little Xu nodded: “Qin Man should have used the platform’s loan function.”

Li Wu said angrily: “Wasn’t it easy for his parents to support him in his studies? A gambling addict deserves a bad end!”

Shengbo Xia sighed: “There’s nothing we can do about it. Although gambling is illegal, this platform is legally operated. We can’t control it. We can only tell the network security and report this situation to the higher authorities to see how they classify this platform as a blacklist and prohibit domestic players from accessing it.”

Tuxi Ling pointed to the complicated unfamiliar ID on the screen: “Can you find the owner of this account? Any clues will do.”

Shengbo Xia reminded: “Why? He’s legally gambling!”

Tuxi Ling insisted: “Check it out. I always feel that the situation is strange. Why does Qin Man always gamble with this person? Do they know each other?”

Shengbo Xia perked up: “You suspect they’re friends in real life? That seems very possible!”

As they were talking, Little Xu had already clicked on that person’s homepage through Qin Man’s “his friend” page. The other party’s player information was immediately displayed. He entered an interface, constantly scrolling down with the mouse, his eyes widening.

“Ling!” Little Xu’s shout attracted the attention of several people who were guessing about the case. When they looked at the screen, they were also stunned.