Inside the metal casing of the pen, he unexpectedly found several small slips of paper!

Those little slips were placed vertically against the metal casing, and under the light, he could vaguely see quite a few words written on them.

Each word was quite big!

At that moment, Chen Xiao felt his entire body go numb.

He knew that the contents of those slips must be extremely important!

Without telling anyone, Chen Xiao fetched a pair of tweezers and carefully extracted the slips one by one.

Even though he was very careful, he still ended up tearing some.

However, that didn’t matter; he just hoped that the handwriting on them hadn’t faded beyond recognition over time.

Finally, he managed to extract all the slips.

There were four slips in total, each trimmed to a width of half a finger and less than a finger long.

The first slip read: Qingming, I saw a murder at the tomb!

The characters were large, and there were even some wrong characters that Wan De had substituted. But then he probably noticed it, so the handwriting got smaller and there were no punctuation marks.

The second slip read: I have seen the killer’s back before but can’t recall the name

The third slip: Later, he found me, and I remembered it was at Songshanping

The fourth slip: I can’t report it. He will kill Xiao Xiaosai. I can only run

Four slips, dozens of words.

But when the name Xiao Xiaosai appeared, Chen Xiao was stunned!

He felt his scalp tingle continuously, and there was a faint ache in his heart.

Because the most complex word on the slips was “Xiaosai.”

Who is Xiao Xiaosai?

It is Chen Xiao!

Old Chen said Chen Xiao’s name was inspired by Wan De mentioning that a true man should live casually and elegantly!

He couldn’t even write the character for “tomb,” but he wrote the character for “Xiao” beautifully!

At this moment, Chen Xiao suddenly felt his eyes warm up, but he also felt deeply guilty.

He couldn’t control his emotions at all!

The uncle who could write his name so well was now nothing but a vague memory.

Lin Xi, after recognizing the handwriting, also stared blankly at Chen Xiao.

But Chen Xiao was looking at Old Chen, his eyes reddened.

Old Chen was not in a good state either, his lips trembling as he said, “Did, did he get silenced by someone?”

Chen Xiao kept taking deep breaths.

Having lived two lives, his previous life was an indifferent mess.

In this life, he always tried to make amends to those he owed.

But now, Wan De’s slips have hit him hard.

This isn’t about ‘I didn’t kill Boren, but Boren died because of me’; this is about Wan De being silenced because he was trying to protect him!

That person must have threatened Wan De with Chen Xiao’s safety, making him unable to report or call the police.

And that person was from Chen Xiao’s village, from Songshanping!

Songshanping wasn’t just home to those with the surname Chen; it had other surnames too.

But Songshanping wasn’t very big, in ’91 it could barely hold two hundred households.

Wan De was very close with Old Chen, so he must’ve frequented Songshanping, thus recognizing the murderer but just not recalling the name.

The murderer never told Wan De his name from start to finish!

It’s a pity that Wan De didn’t leave more details about the murderer’s characteristics!

If he had, they could catch the killer right now!

Chen Xiao kept taking deep breaths to adjust his emotions and thoughts.

He didn’t comfort Old Chen; he had too many things to think about now.

For instance, who was the person the murderer killed?

Looking at the pen with the letters LX on it, Chen Xiao asked himself: “Could it be him? Could it be LX? Or the person who gave the pen to LX?”

Chen Xiao was confused, and Lin Xi noticed that everyone in the room was not quite right.

He first comforted Old Chen for a few moments, then let Yang Ying take Old Chen to the bedroom.

Afterwards, Lin Xi tugged at Chen Xiao’s sleeve, “I understand how you feel right now, but you need to remain calm. You can’t let your emotions cloud your judgment. It might backfire, bringing harm instead of benefit!”

Chen Xiao snapped out of it, took another deep breath, and silently nodded, “I know, I’ll first call Li Hui, ask him to take this pen for examination, see if anything can be identified.”

Lin Xi nodded and didn’t say more.

After Chen Xiao finished the call and returned to the room, he lay down on the bed.

Lin Xi didn’t say a word, just lovingly embraced him from behind.

As the night grew deeper, Chen Xiao, emptying his emotions and thoughts, slowly fell asleep.

However, when midnight struck, Chen Xiao abruptly opened his eyes.

A calendar appeared in his mind once again.

The calendar hung on the wall, fluttering in the windless air, finally settling on a date.

[August 22, 2006.]

[Lunar Calendar: July 29.]

[Suitable: Almsgiving, Sacrifice, Prayer, Pest Extermination…]

[Avoid: Marriage, Housewarming, Homebuilding…]

[Yang Gong’s Day of Abstinence, avoid major events!]

Yang Gong’s Day of Abstinence marked the arrival of another special day!

However, regarding this day, Chen Xiao recalled a rhyme.

“Immortals leave behind thirteen days, be cautious or much could go astray.”

“Start of construction, disasters might be the result, perhaps by fire or other harm.”

“Marriage too should be held off, lest bad luck greet the knot.”

……

Chen Xiao considered the words about Yang Gong’s Day being a day to avoid all activities, understanding that it was not a good day.

For Chen Xiao, currently, there wasn’t anything significantly pressing in his life.

With the calendar’s appearance, he was only concerned about one thing.

What the reward would be!

Up until now, he had acquired skills in sophistry, capture, construction, killing, and crafting.

So each time a reward appeared, he was unbelievably eager.

However, just as thought about this, the Great Seal that had appeared when he acquired the sophistry and killing skills appeared again.

The presence of the Great Seal signaled that this time the skill was a reversal.

Sure enough, the bottom of the Great Seal pressed down on the calendar.

But there was only one word—Thief!

Every time a skill appeared, Chen Xiao would fall into deep thought.

But this time, Chen Xiao felt that the word “Thief” didn’t need any analysis.

In fact, anyone with a few years of education probably wouldn’t question this word.

But Chen Xiao wondered, having obtained so many skill rewards, he felt confident dealing with cases of varying sizes.

Why would he need a skill like theft?

Was he supposed to steal something?

He thought the calendar wouldn’t be so direct.

“There’s a saying that the fewer the words, the more serious the matter! Could it be that the fewer the letters in a calendar reward, the more potent the skill?”

Chen Xiao couldn’t find a better explanation and could only console himself with this thought.

Closing his eyes once more, Chen Xiao felt his body changing again.

Eventually, he got out of bed to experience it firsthand.

He was amazed to find his body felt surprisingly light and agile.

Like, something that originally took him a minute to craft, he now felt confident he could accomplish in forty or even thirty seconds!

Feeling the changes in his body, Chen Xiao stood stunned in the darkness.

Could it be he was really to transform into the legendary Gentleman Thief, Chen Xiao?

The thought of that possibility made Chen Xiao find it somewhat ridiculous.

Suddenly, Lin Xi turned over, apparently not finding him beside her, sat up.

She switched on the light to see Chen Xiao standing by the bed, and sleepily asked, “Honey, you’re not asleep yet?”

“Mm, just stretching a bit.” Chen Xiao made up an excuse.

“Stop moving around, tomorrow morning it seems Captain Li will be coming. Hold me, or I can’t sleep well.”

Lin Xi wasn’t merely asking for a cuddle; she was worried that Chen Xiao would continue to feel guilt from those slips and be unable to rest.

Chen Xiao nodded, stopped pacing.

But in the dark, Chen Xiao slowly reached his hand out from the covers.

He was holding a necklace in his hand.

In his palm, he could clearly feel the lingering warmth of it.

Its owner Lin Xi, however, hadn’t the slightest reaction at that moment!

Was this the tip of the iceberg of the theft ability? Or its essence?

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep