Chapter 156 Connections

"Hello, um...yes, this is Zuo Yan...no...Evelina and I don't have that kind of relationship you imagine...well...anyway...do you know everything that happened? Good...um...he's standing right in front of me...okay." Zuo Yan spoke briefly to the person on the other end of the phone, then looked up at Sheriff Doust and said, "Sheriff, would you mind taking this call?"

"Huh?" Doust was instinctively stunned when he heard this, and thought to himself, "This kid is asking for a beating, isn't he? He's the one who came here saying he wanted to provide clues, then suddenly started making a phone call halfway through, and now he wants me to take it?"

"What phone call? Whose phone call? What are you up to?" Doust asked loudly, raising his voice.

These were less questions and more like three scoldings.

Zuo Yan replied with a helpless expression, "Uh...the Minister of the Interior would like to have a word with you."

"Who?" Doust's eyes widened, and he turned his head to bring his ear closer to the other person; clearly, he suspected he had misheard.

"The Minister of the Interior..." Zuo Yan repeated those four words, but his voice grew softer and softer as he spoke the second time, until the last syllable was almost inaudible.

"Heh..." Doust laughed in anger, "Why don't you say it's the Prince of Wales calling?" As he said this, he snatched the phone from Zuo Yan's hand and shouted at the screen, "Hey! You moron, do you know the consequences of playing pranks on the police?"

After saying this, Doust held the phone and listened for about three seconds, and then the smile on his face froze.

Soon, Doust turned away and answered in a trembling voice, "S...ss...se...sir! I'm sorry, I didn't recognize your voice!" He supported his chin with his hand, and only then did he slowly return to a normal speaking rhythm. "Yes, yes...I'm Doust...I'm truly flattered that you remember my name! Yes, yes...I remember that dinner, you greeted me then..."

What Doust said afterwards was only known to him and the Minister of the Interior, because as he spoke, he had already left the room with the phone and gone somewhere alone.

About seven minutes later, Doust returned to the parlor, looked at Zuo Yan with a very complicated expression, and handed the phone back to him politely.

"So...you're a detective too." Doust's tone of voice when speaking to Zuo Yan was still not very friendly, but compared to the attitude he had seven minutes ago...it was much better.

Zuo Yan thought for a few seconds and nodded, "I guess you could say that..."

In fact, deep down he wanted to deny it...

Because he was with a detective of Vidocq's level all day long, Zuo Yan always felt that he was not qualified to call himself a "detective," so usually, whenever he was asked this question, he would deny this identity and emphasize that he was just the president of a university's reasoning club.

However, this situation was special; in order to stay at the scene and intervene in the investigation, Zuo Yan was willing to "use connections," and at this moment...to forcibly deny his detective status and cause unnecessary trouble...would be a bit too much.

"What do you mean 'sort of'? Zuo Yan is a very talented and famous detective." The next second, Feng Bujue looked proud and said to Doust, "Mr. Sheriff, the Chinese are generally very modest and low-key. Please forgive him for his unintentional flexing."

Although he didn't directly hear the content of the phone call, Feng Bujue had basically deduced the whole story from Zuo Yan and Doust's words...

According to the setting of *Second-Rate Detective and Cat*, Zuo Yan studies at a fictional university called "Difeng"; what kind of place is this school? Let's just say...it's probably even harder to get into than Hogwarts, and it's for normal humans to study.

Students who want to study at Difeng generally have to meet three conditions: ability, wealth, and status. Among these, the first two...are still relatively easy to handle, as long as you can pass Difeng's self-made perverted entrance test and your family happens to have tens of millions of dollars, you meet the requirements; but "status"...how should I put it...it's best to be a crown prince, it doesn't matter which country; if not royalty...the next best thing is nobility...anyway, it counts if you're related to nobility within three generations; if that's not possible, then the offspring of bureaucrats or *zaibatsu* can also do, after all, some countries have a short history and don't have nobles at all...but these children of officials and businessmen will definitely have to pay more sponsorship fees, after all, you guys are relatively "vulgar," and if you want to be a second-class citizen at Difeng...you have to give the school eight to ten million every year.

In short...this is a school that could never exist in reality. Long Aotian (and Mary Sue) types are as common as carp crossing the river at Difeng, it's no big deal; those who are not called "Long Aotian" due to their looks or bloodline are just academic overachievers and rich second-generation students, and these people...can't find girlfriends at Difeng.

So, back to Zuo Yan...as the protagonist of the novel, he is naturally different.

Zuo Yan's parents are both "archaeology" experts, traveling all over the world all year round, and they are rarely seen. Since Zuo Yan was sensible, he has called his parents "Bonnie and Clyde," the reason for which...you can all ponder for yourselves...

Although his family is rich, his bloodline is not connected to any powerful people, so in theory, he should have no connection with a school like Difeng.

However, coincidentally. In the year that Zuo Yan took the university entrance exam, Difeng tried a "reform." When recruiting students, the school relaxed the "status" requirement a little bit, so Zuo Yan, this "commoner," took advantage of the "policy" and sneaked in...

Of course, "commoner" is just a derogatory term for Zuo Yan used by some people in the school. In the eyes of outsiders, he still has to be classified as a Long Aotian...

To sum up, it seems normal and ordinary that Zuo Yan can talk directly to a foreign Minister of the Interior.

To put it bluntly...he called a classmate on the way here and asked them to do him a favor; then that classmate called their family, told them the situation, and as a result...in less than half an hour, that classmate's family had resolved the matter.

From Feng Bujue's point of view, even if Zuo Yan hadn't handed the phone to Doust in front of him, it wouldn't have been difficult to deduce Zuo Yan's method of intervening in the case...after all, Brother Jue already knew the other party's background information.

Now that Brother Jue has heard keywords such as "Evelina," he naturally knows exactly who Zuo Yan asked for help.

"Okay~ okay~ you two great detectives..." At this moment, Doust's expression and tone of voice contained not only helplessness but also a hint of hidden joy; it seemed that...his tense nerves were finally snapped by a kind of 'what the hell' attitude. "In order to avoid being screwed over at work and having to eat shit in real life...from now on...I'll retreat to the second line and be a spectator." He paused. "You two...can do whatever you want, please feel free to investigate. After you're done, please be kind enough to point me in the right direction."

As he spoke, he took out a small metal bottle from the inside pocket of his coat; the lid of the bottle was connected to the mouth of the bottle, and it opened with a flip. Doust picked up the bottle and with a single motion, poured a mouthful of an unknown liquid into his mouth.

"Uh...is that wine?" Zuo Yan had already smelled the alcohol, but he was asking a question he already knew the answer to.

"No, this is my blood, my ex-wife uses it to make afternoon tea every day..." After throwing in the towel, Doust's mysterious sense of humor suddenly went online. He seemed to be using this self-deprecating kind of *tu cao* to respond to Brother Jue's previous comments on his living situation. "...Want a sip?"

"He's not old enough yet." Before Zuo Yan could reply, Feng Bujue interjected and took the small bottle of wine from the sheriff's hand. "And you...my dear sheriff, what you need now isn't this cheap stuff..." With that, he tilted his head back and drank the remaining bit of cheap wine in the small bottle in one gulp. "I think we can start by checking John's wine cellar...to see if there are any clues inside."