Chapter 2309 — The Car Is Gone

Inside an inn in the border town.

By the time Sun Jingyan woke, it was already evening. Seeing her stir, Wei Zhao came back from the jade-pendant space into reality. "Awake? How do you feel?"

"I slept so soundly—the soundest sleep I've had in days!" Sun Jingyan was brimming with energy.

"Eat something, and then we'll head back," Wei Zhao said. He did not want to stay here any longer; everything had been dealt with, and it was time to go.

"All right." Sun Jingyan nodded. Truth be told, she wanted to leave too—Ruileida Town was far too dangerous, and she was eager to get away as soon as possible.

Wei Zhao and Sun Jingyan packed their bags and left the room together. They settled the bill on the ground floor of the inn, then made their way to the parking lot behind the building. Wei Zhao's eyes went wide, and after a long moment he spat out an angry curse: "What the hell—where's my car?"

Wei Zhao's Grand Cherokee was gone! When Wei Zhao and Sun Jingyan had left the border town, the car had been parked in the lot behind the inn. Because Wei Zhao had departed under Local Expert's arrangements, the car had simply been left in the inn's parking lot all this time.

It was an open-air lot, but even so, Wei Zhao had never imagined a car could be stolen from here.

Sun Jingyan was stunned as well. After returning to the inn, she had not gone to check on the car either; in her mind, the car should have been sitting right there, safe from harm. But now, staring at the empty space, her head throbbed. "What do we do?"

"…" Wei Zhao hesitated. It was just a car—honestly, its value did not pain him. But this particular car meant something different: it was the car in which he had driven Feng Xiaoxiao all the way to the Ice Palace, the companion that had seen him and Feng Xiaoxiao through the final stretch of their time together. That was why he held a special affection for it—and why he had never replaced it.

Now that the car was gone, Wei Zhao felt a pang of reluctance. After some thought, he decided to look for it.

For something like this, the best approach was to ask the local petty crooks—the car might have been missing for days, and there was no telling whether it was even still in this border town.

"Let me give Local Expert a call," Wei Zhao said, thinking of the man. If anyone deserved the name "Local Expert," it was him—his information was surely second to none.

He dialed Local Expert's number, and the man picked up quickly. "Hello? This is Local Expert."

"Local Expert, it's me—the one who asked for your help getting to Ruileida Town a while back," Wei Zhao said.

"Brother, it's you! Are you coming back? Should I send someone to pick you up?" The moment Local Expert heard Wei Zhao's voice, he perked up with excitement.

"I'm already back. No need to pick me up," Wei Zhao said.

"Oh, is that so? Then what did you want to see me about…?" Hearing that Wei Zhao was already back, Local Expert deflated a little—looked like he wouldn't be earning that fee after all.

"I need to ask you about something. Don't worry, the payment won't be any less than last time," Wei Zhao said.

"Ah! Then no problem at all, brother. Just tell me what you need—I'm Local Expert, after all!" Hearing there was work, Local Expert immediately perked up again.

"The same place as before—Dragon Gate Inn. Come over. We'll wait for you out front," Wei Zhao said.

"Sure, I'll be right there," Local Expert said briskly.

Sure enough, before long, Local Expert came rumbling up in a Jetta that was nearly ready for the scrapyard. Spotting Wei Zhao and Sun Jingyan, he jumped out cheerfully. "Brother, you were looking for me?"

"Let's talk inside," Wei Zhao said, gesturing toward the inn.

Wei Zhao and Sun Jingyan wouldn't be leaving today after all, so they checked back into their old room and brought Local Expert upstairs.

The inn's restaurant had already closed, so there was no food to be had.

Local Expert did not mind. He was here to make money; following Wei Zhao up to the room, he sat down and asked impatiently, "Brother, what do you need me to do?"

"The car I drove here before has been stolen," Wei Zhao said. "You're Local Expert—can you help me find out where it went?"

"Oh? Car's been stolen? That Grand Cherokee of yours?" Local Expert still remembered Wei Zhao's car.

"That's the one," Wei Zhao said with a nod.

"Well now…" Local Expert furrowed his brow, then said, "Brother, if I may speak frankly, I can probably guess which gang took it. But a car stolen by them is basically gone for good… That Grand Cherokee of yours didn't look like much—not in great shape, not worth a lot. Are you sure you want to get it back?"

"The car means something special to me," Wei Zhao said.

"I see… But brother, I'm just being honest—this won't be easy to pull off…" Local Expert gave a bitter smile, clearly wary of something.

Wei Zhao saw what he was thinking but had no patience for lengthy explanations. He only wanted the answer as quickly as possible, so he said flatly, "Two hundred thousand! By tomorrow morning, I want to know exactly where the car went. Can you do it or not?"

"Hiss…" The price made Local Expert suck in a sharp breath.

A stolen Grand Cherokee like that—one that couldn't be legally transferred—would fetch maybe a hundred or two hundred thousand on the black market at most. Yet Wei Zhao had offered two hundred thousand just to locate it, which made it plain he truly cared about this car.

Still, as the saying goes: the timid starve, the bold feast. Digging up this information carried some risk, but two hundred thousand—Local Expert's heart couldn't help but race!

"OK!!!" Local Expert shot to his feet, face flushed with excitement. "Brother, rest assured—leave it to me. It'll be done by tomorrow morning for sure!"

"Good, I trust you!" Wei Zhao said as much, but inwardly he was not entirely sure whether Local Expert really had the ability to dig up news of his missing car.

Local Expert hurried out of the room in high spirits to mobilize his contacts, while Wei Zhao wanted only the news of the car's whereabouts, not its recovery—and for Local Expert, that was not too difficult a task.

"Is this car important?" Sun Jingyan had not expected Wei Zhao to spend two hundred thousand just to get the car back. She knew it had been modified and was well suited to long-distance driving, but a lost car was a lost car—surely there was no need to go to such lengths to recover it?