When Rose was about to leave, she noticed Li Du was putting on his tie, wearing a dress shirt and pants while standing near the door.
"What’s wrong with you? Did you forget to take your pills today?"
Li Du felt exasperated, with no words to rebut.
"What are you doing?"
He replied irritatedly, "I’m going to help you catch those thieves. But since I am not an American citizen, if I catch those two, you guys have to give me some appreciation and award."
Rose couldn’t control her laughter. "You? Forget it. I’ve heard that you’ve made quite a fair amount of money from storage auctions. There’s no way that you would take such a risk just for that little bit of prize money. Also, we don’t need to rely on the public for such work."
Li Du said, "Since you know that I’m making a good income from storage auctions, then you should have heard some rumors about me, right? I can use some secret magic to tell if a house has anything valuable without entering.
"Those two thieves would definitely have the valuable things they stole with them. I would be able to tell from outside. Then there would be no need to even enter and search. Do you want my help?"
Rose looked nearly convinced. "Do you really use secret magic?"
Li Du rolled his eyes and said, "Of course not! I just have a better eye at observing than most people. I’m going with you to knock on their doors. If there are any issues, I’ll be able to tell!"
Rose hesitated for a moment, and then said, "Okay, thank you."
Li Du was quite surprised; the uncaring landlady actually knew how to give thanks. This was the first time he had ever heard the word from her.
The district that they were going to search in was unsheltered and spread out. The heavy rain greatly increased the difficulty of the officers performing the search.
With the car parked on a street outside the district, they stood on the street and Rose took out some documents, passing them to Li Du.
The documents had various photographs of the two suspects; front, side and back. The two were African-Americans, one of them was bald with a scar on his lips. The other had an afro, with tattoos on his neck.
Li Du asked, "According to the info that you have, these two would probably be at…"
"Hey, who the hell are you?" A rough voice came from in front of the two, and a black muscular male walked over with his forehead creased.
The black male was about six feet tall; with a thick and round waist, his uniform tightly clenched onto his large muscles.
When she saw the muscular man, Rose gave him a frigid look and said, "Don’t bother about him. What do you want to ask about?"
The gorilla-like man then walked over and lunged to push Li Du, who could now control the powers of the bug to a masterful level. He immediately activated time deceleration, easily evading the outstretched arm.
Seeing his dodge, the man was stunned for a second, and then said furiously, "I’m talking to you, are you deaf? Also, Banana Girl, I saw that you gave this guy our classified info—what are you thinking?"
Rose coldly stared at him and said, "Chuck, are you looking for a fight? P*ss off, don’t interfere with our operation."
"Your operation? When did our station have another Banana Boy? How would I not have known?" The gorilla man, Chuck, snickered.
"F*ck you!" Rose gave him the finger, showing off her tough side again.
Chuck pointed to her and said, "You want to f*ck me? Come, you like to be on top or—"
Rose wanted to hit him with the documents, but Li Du held her back and smiled to Chuck, saying, "I am someone from the public who came to provide a tip-off. In fact, I live here. Officer Chuck, you should best clean up your mouth, or else you won’t be getting any info."
Chuck replied in disdain, "Trying to pull a bluff? If you have any info, then say it, and if you don’t have any, I’ll break the bones in your legs!"
Five cops wearing the clothes of ordinary citizens came over. A middle-aged white male with a full head of blond hair said sternly, "Chuck, Rose, what the h*ll are you two doing? D*mn it, do you think we have time to waste?"
"Boss, Rose gave our classified info to some random guy," Chuck said, "and I’m suspecting that he’s in cahoots with those thieves. If he goes out into the public with this info, we will never be able to catch those guys!"
The middle-aged man glared at him and said, "Rose already told me she had found a helper. I’ve given my approval. Don’t waste time, go to work!"
Chuck said disapprovingly, "This kind of guy as a helper? Might as well get a dog."
Another black officer said, "Boss, we don’t need this kind of helper. This is an undercover operation. Letting a stranger on board? What’s more, he’s Asian!"
"Chuck and Louise are right, Boss, we shouldn’t risk it."
"Rose has always been reckless in the ways she operates. Two months ago, she blindly believed some women, which allowed two of the druggies that were with those two b*tches to get away!"
Except for the middle-aged officer, the rest were all voicing their doubts and criticizing Rose. The latter was indifferent, her eyes frigid and cold as ice, seemingly paying no heed to the words.
Li Du could not take it anymore and began speaking, breaking up the chatter. He said to the middle-aged officer, "Sir, Officer Rose understands my capabilities. If the suspects are in this district, then we will definitely be able to nab them."
A few cops curled their lips in disdain, and one of them ridiculed, "You’re sure confident and passionate about this, are you some saint sent by God?"
The middle-aged officer waved his hand to stop them. With his forehead creased, he said, "If information has been leaked about our operation, then Rose will be held responsible. We don’t have time for any more nonsense, so all of you get to work."
Hearing this, Li Du was annoyed. He scoffed, "So this is America’s sacred police force. Your colleague has gone to look for help, and if there are any problems, she will be held responsible instead of praised." He shook his head. "If this is the case, then I guess I shouldn’t help anymore."
Chuck stared at him and said, "What, are you trying to leave after getting information on us?"
The middle-aged cop could tell that Li Du had some other intentions behind his words. He asked, "What are you trying to say?"
Li Du raised up the photographs and said, "If Officer Rose and I find them, these officers will apologize to her, and then Officer Chuck will be banned from calling her ‘Banana Girl’ and is to call her ‘Officer.’ If any of the information was leaked, we will take joint responsibility."
The middle-aged officer pondered for a moment, and said, "Alright, move out!"
Seeing that Li Du and Rose were about to leave, Chuck pointed at his car and said, "Kid, from today onwards, if you see this car, start running."
Li Du said with a sarcastic smile, "The next time you see Rose, remember to call her ‘Madam.’"
He dragged Rose away.
With the downpour, their pants were quickly soaked. Rose suddenly shook his arm off and said with rage, "Who said you could make such a promise with Greg? Who’s going to share joint responsibility with you?!"
"Enough nonsense. If you don’t want to accept the responsibility..."
"I’ll find them myself—you stay away!" Rose stubbornly cut him off.
Li Du turned back to look at her pouting face. For some reason, he thought of a striped polecat. He laughed and said, "If you can find them, then we’d be gods. I think we should just count on me."
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