Chapter 37: Different People, Different Treatment

“Detective Lin... Detective Lin, are you there?” the woman called out.

Lin Xiaosu descended from the second floor. “Is something the matter?”

With a thud, the woman dropped to her knees. “Detective Lin, I beg you, please help me find my son. He’s missing…”

“Get up, ma’am!” Lin Xiaosu quickly reached out, grasping her shoulders.

Tears streamed down the woman’s face. “My son didn’t come home last night. I thought he’d gone to his grandmother’s, but when I called my mother, she said he hadn’t been there. I reported it to the police last night, and they searched all night but found nothing. Someone told me Detective Lin is the best at finding people, so I hurried over to find you! Please, I’ll pay whatever your fee is. Here’s a ten thousand yuan deposit…”

Miao Ruolan stood dazed at the doorway.

This time it’s her real son!

But on a rainy day like this, can he really be found? The police have searched all night with no result…

“Hold onto your money for now,” Lin Xiaosu said. “Let me see a photo of your son.”

Flustered, the woman stuffed the cash back into her bag, then took out her phone to show Lin Xiaosu a picture of her son.

He looked about ten years old, a bit thin. In the photo, he stood with several classmates. Their faces were bright with youthful joy, all smiling, except for him. He hid in the corner, biting his finger, his eyes filled with longing as he watched the others—wanting to join in, yet too timid to do so.

His clothes were worn and old.

“He disappeared after leaving school yesterday, is that right?” Lin Xiaosu asked.

“Yes!”

“Did anything unusual happen before he left yesterday?”

“Before he left, he… he said the school required new uniforms and asked me for 270 yuan. I didn’t have the money, so I scolded him a bit. The old uniform isn’t unwearable, why insist on buying a new one? He wiped his eyes and went to school…”

A faint unease stirred in Miao Ruolan’s heart. Could it be the child was hurt and took a wrong turn because of it?

“Take me to the school gate!”

At the entrance to Fengcheng Second Elementary, Lin Xiaosu retraced the scene from yesterday’s dismissal. He saw the boy.

He had left the gate alone and walked toward the Yishui Riverside.

Most of the riverside park had been beautifully renovated, but no matter how lovely a park, there are always some shadowy corners. The boy walked right into one such scar, drifting farther and farther away.

“He came here? That’s the shortcut to my mother’s house, but why didn’t he show up there…” The woman’s voice trembled with both sorrow and fear.

She knew her son was proud—children from poor families often are. All the others had new uniforms; he alone did not. If his classmates laughed, he might not understand and do something foolish. Please, don’t let it be the river. Please, please, don’t let that happen.

It was wrong of her to complain, wrong to let him see the family’s hardship. All she wanted now was for him to be safe.

Suddenly, Lin Xiaosu stopped, his gaze falling into a deep gully below. Tangled grass grew long and wild there, and lying quietly amid the green was a boy, his face pale as snow—it was the missing child.

Miao Ruolan’s heart leapt. “Here!”

The gully was over two meters deep. She jumped down in one bound. As she landed, the wind above stirred, and the woman leapt in after her, crying out her son’s name in a voice torn with anguish, “Huai’er!”

Miao Ruolan’s trembling fingers reached for the child’s nose. “He’s still breathing!”

The mother seized him in her arms, calling desperately.

But the boy did not respond; his breaths were faint, barely there.

Lin Xiaosu climbed down into the gully as well, his fingers touching the boy’s leg and gently lifting the trouser. The calf was red, swollen, and burning.

“A snake bite!” Lin Xiaosu declared. “We must get him to the hospital—now!”

“Let’s go!”

Miao Ruolan leaped up, carrying the boy out of the gully—her skills on full display for the first time.

Lin Xiaosu reached down and hauled the mother, limp with shock, up after them.

The group rushed to the hospital.

In the emergency room, the doctors sprang into action. About ten minutes later, a doctor emerged, smiling. “You brought him just in time. Half an hour later, and we wouldn’t have been able to save him.”

“My son… Huai’er, is he… is he alright?” the mother asked, her voice trembling.

“Don’t worry. It was a snakebite, and the cold and hunger made it worse. The antidote is working now, and he’s awake.”

The mother rushed toward the emergency room but turned back at the door, falling to her knees before Lin Xiaosu, holding out the ten thousand yuan. “Detective Lin, thank you for saving my son’s life. I only brought ten thousand with me; the remaining twenty thousand, I’ll deliver to your office tomorrow.”

Doctors and nurses alike stared in astonishment.

A detective?

What an unusual profession…

And a thirty-thousand-yuan fee? That was certainly tempting.

“Forget the money—it was just a small effort,” Lin Xiaosu said, helping her up and slipping the cash back into her bag before turning to leave.

The sun was setting in the west.

The river glimmered in the fading light.

The crowds in the streets thinned, and the business district’s neon lights began to shine.

A black car stopped outside the detective agency. A beautiful woman stepped out and entered.

It was Zhou Mei.

Upon entering, Zhou Mei accepted the tea Miao Ruolan handed her and, smiling at Lin Xiaosu, said, “The agency’s only been open two days, and I’ve already heard two very different stories about your fees. Both are quite… unconventional.”

“Oh?” Lin Xiaosu looked up from his book.

“Yesterday, someone came looking for a fake son, and you charged real money—thirty thousand, no less! Today, someone came looking for her real son, handed you cash, and you worked for free. What’s your pricing policy? Purely at whim?”

Lin Xiaosu sighed. “You think I wanted to work for free? The woman couldn’t even give her son enough for a school uniform. How could I bring myself to wring money out of her?”

“So you have a conscience, after all. Not bad,” Zhou Mei’s eyes sparkled mischievously. “It seems if I need you for anything, I don’t have to worry about money—after all, I helped you get your license and rent your office. You wouldn’t dare charge me, would you?”

Lin Xiaosu’s eyes widened. “Drop it! Business is business. The license and office were thanks for a favor. If you want me on a case, just follow your provincial department's fine tradition—ten thousand minimum!”

“You heartless thing! I was just praising you for your integrity.”

“If you’re going to kidnap me, at least use a different word. I’m a businessman—you want me to talk about ideals? Even my mother knows my greatest ideal is to make money…”

They bickered back and forth, and Miao Ruolan couldn’t help but laugh.

Zhou Mei noticed and shot her a look. “Don’t laugh. He’s making things difficult for you! How will you set your fees for future cases? There’s no standard at all.”

It was true—if the boss had no standard, how could his staff know what to do? Lin Xiaosu’s pricing was as whimsical as the clouds; how was Miao Ruolan supposed to do business?

Lin Xiaosu picked up the thread. “On the contrary—this gives Ruolan complete freedom. If I do as I please, so can she. From now on, Ruolan, set your own prices—if you like the client, it’s free; if you don’t, charge them through the nose!”

Miao Ruolan was stunned. “Really? But I warn you, I’m not very clever. Sometimes I don’t even understand when people are joking…”

The three of them, close in age, sat together that night and talked long into the evening, growing more relaxed as the hours passed.

As midnight approached, Zhou Mei finally stood to leave. Lin Xiaosu and Miao Ruolan saw her to the door. Before getting into her car, Zhou Mei beckoned Lin Xiaosu closer with a curl of her finger.

He leaned in, and her breath, scented and soft, whispered into his ear, “Be careful—someone’s after you.”

She got in her car and drove away.

Lin Xiaosu’s eyes swept the street before he returned inside.

Night had fallen. The doors were locked and bolted.

He went upstairs. Miao Ruolan entered his room. “Zhou Mei told you to be careful—who was she talking about?”

Zhou Mei’s gesture had been intimate. If Miao Ruolan were his girlfriend, she might have interrogated him on what Zhou Mei had whispered. But as a practitioner of ancient martial arts, Miao Ruolan’s senses were keen—she’d heard Zhou Mei’s warning clearly.

Lin Xiaosu replied, “She means the drug dealers and those behind them.”

“I looked into it. The guy who lost the package was called Huang San. After the police caught him, they arrested six more. I never imagined such a small city would have such a large drug ring.”

“Fengcheng may be small, but it connects to three rivers,” Lin Xiaosu said. “There are signs this is a major drug hub for the central region.”

Miao Ruolan gazed out the window. “Do we have to get involved?”

“I don’t want to get mixed up in such filth,” Lin Xiaosu said. “But sometimes, the wind won’t stop just because the tree wants to be still. Even if we leave them alone, we’re already a thorn in their side. It’s time to root out this cancer.”

“Alright. What do you need me to do?” she asked.

“For now, we take cases as usual, investigate as usual, and wait for the right opportunity…”

Miao Ruolan left, closing the door behind her.

Lin Xiaosu sat cross-legged and began his nightly routine.

He was training.

Strangely enough, when he used to study, it always took a push from behind to get him to pick up his books. Now, with no one urging him on, he was diligent.

Perhaps it was because martial arts stirred more passion in him than study ever did.

Since unlocking the Spring Renewal Technique, he hadn’t missed a single day, meditating and practicing endlessly.

This technique was unlike ordinary martial arts. Most required running energy along a fixed route, making daily practice tedious and monotonous, focused only on strengthening the internal energy.

But the Spring Renewal Technique’s route wasn’t fixed.

Every day, he could try a new path, making his inner force flow along a completely different circuit, like opening a mystery box in a game—you never knew what would change, or what new abilities might awaken. Even the founder hadn’t foreseen all the possibilities, for the human body contained nearly endless meridians and infinite combinations.

Lin Xiaosu had tried one route, the very one the sect’s founder had first devised.