The teenager was startled, his face turning pale.

"No way, I asked around in advance. This is just a regular residential area, right?"

"Let's start talking—who sent you here?"

"Who are you? You're not the owner of the villa next door, are you?" The teenager's eyes darted as he tried to avoid giving a straight answer.

"Think carefully. If I show my ID, then it'll have to go through official channels. Also, I got someone to detox you—shouldn't you thank me first? Basic manners, right?"

The teenager blushed from the scolding and mumbled obediently.

"Thank you for saving me, uncle."

He glanced at the Little Zombie and Sparrow Cat beside him and added,

"Thank you both for saving me too."

"Alright, now tell me—what's going on?"

The teenager hesitated, took out his phone, and tapped on an icon showing a skull biting a gold coin. He opened one of the pages.

"See, this is it. I saw someone posting a bounty on the local forum today—offering ten Skeleton Coins."

"Said to come here, to that villa, and check if there's a certain item inside."

"A jade stone wrapped in a Yellow Talisman."

"I read the post several times. It's not about stealing, just confirming its existence."

"So I thought I'd give it a shot."

"Ten Skeleton Coins—if you cash them in under the table, that's twenty or thirty grand."

"If not for cash, you can buy some other stuff on the forum with them."

"Like this Nightwalker Clothes I'm wearing—bought with the Skeleton Coins I saved up."

"You know about the Scorching Sun Department?"

"Yeah, I know..."

"You seem to know a lot, so what made you so brave?"

The teenager looked down and didn't speak.

Qin Kun sighed helplessly. Clearly, this kid hadn't been taught a real lesson until today—one mistake, and he nearly died.

The teenager was obviously not just your average petty thief. If he'd tried to pick Old Xi's lock and died, all the Scorching Sun Department would do is collect his corpse.

Because Old Xi really does have dangerous goods—legally owned, too.

If you try to steal something the Scorching Sun Department has designated as dangerous, and end up dead, no one's going to argue on your behalf.

Qin Kun flipped through the teenager's phone, checking the posts—there were bounties of all kinds.

But mostly, it was stuff hovering in legal gray areas. He even saw a bounty post for a hitman, but as soon as he saw it, an admin popped up saying the post was against the rules, and immediately banned the account.

When he refreshed, the post was already gone.

This was pretty much a textbook Skeleton Black Market forum—you needed an invite to register. If you weren't logged in, it just looked like a game forum.

The Scorching Sun Department knew about these things, but like every man's guilty pleasure, you can never really stamp it out.

As long as things didn't get too big, too out of control, or too far over the line, they generally looked the other way.

As long as it was kept within certain limits, it was fine.

"Kid, do you understand your own situation now?"

"I get it. I'm the test dummy," the teenager said, a bit discouraged.

"Hey, at least you know. Alright then, what's your name? ID number? Where do you go to school?"

Qin Kun was mid-interrogation when Wen Yan walked over yawning, holding a water cup, looking groggy as he glanced at the backyard. Seeing people back there, he finally woke up a bit.

After hearing Qin Kun explain what happened, Wen Yan sized up the teenager and took the phone from Qin Kun's hand.

"A senior in high school, and you still have time to sneak out at night to pick locks? Too much free time, huh? Where'd you learn to pick locks?"

"There are videos online..."

Wen Yan casually slipped the phone into his pocket.

"See? That's the danger of playing with your phone. Phone's now evidence—confiscated. Go home and focus on school. Stop messing around."

Seeing the teenager wanted to protest, Wen Yan went on,

"You wanna be a thief, and all you think about is picking locks—that's what happens when you slack off in school, no sense of the bigger picture. Go home, study hard, and think about what you actually want to do in the future."

The teenager's face changed, and whatever he was about to say, he swallowed. He didn't dare talk back anymore, let alone ask for his phone.

Now he basically understood what kind of place he'd broken into—any random person here could see right through his "profession", and he hadn't told anyone about it at all.

Wen Yan looked through the forum posts, then went into the house to grab something.

"Write down your account name and password."

He handed the teen some paper and a pen, and slipped him a brand-new phone—it was a spare, originally meant for Sparrow Cat and Little Zombie.

But those two just liked to huddle together and watch the same phone, so it'd stayed unused.

"There's a SIM card in it, and it's got encryption. Until your college exams are over, don't even think of turning it on. If you turn it on early, and get poisoned again, no one's saving you next time."

The teenager's hand shook, almost dropping the phone. But seeing the new model, he really liked it—he'd taken this gig to earn a bit of cash, after all.

The teenager obediently wrote down the account and password, knowing that this phone number and forum account were no longer his. The fact that he was leaving here alive today—well, that was already good fortune.

Wen Yan didn't make things difficult for the kid—told him to take the new phone and get the hell out. Didn't he have school tomorrow?

He just asked for his name, and with the Scorching Sun Department's phone, checked—where the kid went to school, his home address, last month's exam results, even how much money in his bank account—all crystal clear.

Just an ordinary kid from a regular local family—had just over a thousand in his bank account. The biggest recent purchase? A lock-picking kit. Just a few small tools, but the scammy seller soaked him for two hundred yuan.

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