Super Soldier in the City

Li Yifei squinted his eyes, pulled out a cigarette, lit it, and tossed the remaining pack back onto the table. He watched these creditors bragging; Texas Hold’em, indeed, could make money fast but also lose just as quickly. Li Yifei had played it before.

After these people finished talking, Li Yifei chuckled and asked, "Where did you play?"

The second question went straight to the heart of the matter. He wasn’t busy today and was willing to chat with these people for a while longer.

Upon hearing Li Yifei ask about the location of the gambling, these people fell silent. An old man let out an awkward laugh, faked a cough, and said, "Well... Clan leader Li, this question is a bit tricky to answer. We actually don’t have a fixed location. Whenever we’re in the mood, we gather a few people to find a place to gamble, then leave quickly to avoid getting caught, since gambling crackdowns are quite strict now."

Li Yifei shook his head and said, "How come I feel that a fixed location would be safer."

Upon hearing this, one of the men said, "Clan leader Li, you’ve really got it wrong. Nowadays, it’s all about moving around. Today on the sea, tomorrow in a car, the day after in a hotel. Hit and run so as not to get caught."

Li Yifei made an "oh" sound and replied, "Haha, I must be ignorant then."

"No, no, you can’t say that. We’re just doing small-time gambling for fun. The stakes are low, unlike a big figure like you, Clan leader Li, where the stakes would be higher," someone started to flatter him.

Li Yifei said nothing, neither agreeing nor disagreeing, causing the man’s smile to gradually stiffen. In the end, he just let out an awkward chuckle to cover it up.

After about a minute’s silence, Li Yifei asked the third question, "So, could anyone tell me where my mother-in-law is?"

As soon as this question was asked, the room fell silent instantly. Even breaths paused for a moment. Li Yifei observed the expression changes of each creditor, glancing around them. He wasn’t in a hurry, waiting for these people to reply.

After a brief silence, a man smiled and looked at Li Yifei saying, "Clan leader Li, how to answer your question? We’ve only played a few times at the card table and haven’t seen her since signing the promissory notes. But we’re not worried since the reputation of you, Clan leader Li, and the Li family is well-known, so there’s no way you’d default on a debt. But your mother-in-law, I truly haven’t seen."

Li Yifei’s mouth curved into a faint smile. He nodded slightly, looking at the others, and asked, "Have you not seen my mother-in-law either?"

They all shook their heads, insisting they hadn’t met her. The old man even pretended to stroke his chin thoughtfully for a while, saying, "The last time I played with her, I still used my car to give her a lift to the provincial capital. Afterward, I didn’t see her again. I even asked her why she wasn’t staying at her son-in-law’s house but heading to the provincial capital instead. She just said she had something to do."

Seven gambling pals claimed they hadn’t heard of Li Xinyue’s mother, didn’t know her well, yet were willing to lend her tens of millions for gambling, which was indeed quite peculiar.

Li Yifei opened his eyes and said, "To be honest with you, we’ve lost contact with her too. We can’t reach my mother-in-law. There’s no news from her family either. It’s like she vanished into thin air. If you have any information, you must let me know."

"Ah, certainly, certainly! If we see her again, we will definitely tell you!"

"Right, gambling is gambling, but friendship remains!" a woman said.

Various creditors pounded their chests in assurance, their eyes watching Li Yifei, perhaps waiting for him to pull out the checkbook. But Li Yifei wasn’t anxious. He sighed and said, "I really don’t get what this old lady was thinking. Living such a good life, yet she insists on gambling. I even heard her say with her own mouth, she detests gambling the most, saying the gambling table is full of chain-smoking and hard-drinking people, making a horrible mess. Yet, not long after, she started gambling heavily herself!"

Li Yifei seemed to be talking to himself. His few sentences left those creditors looking uncomfortable, exchanging glances with each other. They said, "Actually, it’s nothing much. We don’t really smoke much either. Even when we do, we go outside mostly. We’re all friends; the gambling isn’t too rowdy!"

"Haha, really?" Li Yifei retorted. Without waiting for a reply, he said, "Give me the promissory notes. I’ll check them first."

The old man immediately said, "I’ll go first. I trust Clan leader Li. Here, this is the promissory note."

He placed the promissory note in front of Li Yifei and walked back to his seat.

Li Yifei took the note, flipped it over to look at it. There was nothing on the back, and on the front were a few lines indicating that on a certain date, a certain person owed Zhu Jianqiang XXX million Huaxia currency and was allowed to go to the Li family to ask for money from the daughter and son-in-law. Below was a fingerprint and a signature. Li Yifei had never seen Li Xinyue’s mother’s handwriting, nor could he tell whether the fingerprint was genuine or fake.

Of course, Li Yifei didn’t need to verify its authenticity because he already knew everything.

He looked at it for a few seconds, placed the promissory note on the table, gently smoothing out the creases, and tapped his finger on it, saying, "This is Zhu Jianqiang’s. What about yours?"

The other few looked at each other, hesitating. Li Yifei handed the note back, yet he did not give the old man a check. What did he mean by this?

The woman from earlier couldn’t resist any longer. She proactively handed her promissory note over and said, "Check mine first."

The IOU was presented with both hands, very respectfully, and Li Yifei took it with one hand. She didn’t find anything inappropriate from the other party.

She glanced at it; the signatures on the IOUs were almost the same, the last signature and fingerprint were somewhat different, but roughly the same.

Lightly nodding, Li Yifei placed the IOU back on the table, beside the previous one, then looked at the others.

This time, everyone was even more hesitant, secretly wondering what Li Yifei meant by this, why she only collected IOUs and didn’t pay.

"Um, Clan Leader Li, why don’t you settle the money first so I can go home and not delay your lunch," the old man who submitted the first IOU couldn’t help but say.

Li Yifei seemed to just notice him, smiled, and said, "Don’t rush. I’m not very familiar with my mother-in-law’s handwriting, so I need to compare each one. Handwriting can be imitated, but if all seven signatures are identical, then it’s the handwriting of one person. Moreover, there’s the fingerprint, which also needs comparison. According to your statements, you don’t know each other, aren’t familiar with each other, and didn’t gamble with my mother-in-law at the same time. Then, the fingerprints and writing shouldn’t have been signed and stamped together."

The few people were stunned by these words, nodded instinctively, but felt something was wrong, and after a slight daze, one of them said, "That’s the case, so... let’s hand them over to Clan Leader Li. After all, with so many people watching, Clan Leader Li would never renege."

Although saying so, they were uncertain in their hearts, yet had to hand them over to Li Yifei.

Gathering all seven IOUs, Li Yifei looked down at them for a few moments. Two minutes later, she looked at these people with a sarcastic smile, lightly tapping her finger on the seven IOUs, and slowly asked, "The writing and fingerprints on the IOUs should be genuine."

"Yes, absolutely genuine, it’s your mother-in-law’s, stamped with her thumb."

"Yes, mine too."

These people clamor, feeling anxious internally, seeing that the IOUs were gone and yet Li Yifei wasn’t paying.

Li Yifei nodded and said, "So, a new question emerges."

During Li Yifei’s pause, the creditors held their breath, staring at Li Yifei, eyes wide, asking, "What question?"

"The few sheets of paper are different, yet all the pens are the same. The pen is the same, the ink inside is the same. Could it be that my mother-in-law carried a pen everywhere to practice signatures? But as far as I know, this type of ballpoint pen is cheap, a few Huaxia currency, over a dozen, you can buy one, or even several!"

Li Yifei’s words made their faces change significantly, one of them turned pale, stunned looking at Li Yifei.

"Let me ask you, when you signed this IOU, what kind of environment were you in? You don’t need to say the location, just tell me the environment," Li Yifei pointed to the woman and said.

The other hesitated, stood up, and said, "That day was in a hotel, yes, in a hotel."

"Oh!" Li Yifei’s expression suddenly turned serious, slapped the table, and said, "Does your hotel have special paper for printers? This kind of paper is quite expensive, several times higher than ordinary printer paper, yet you said it was in a hotel?"

"It happened to be there!" The woman’s momentum weakened, somewhat afraid to face Li Yifei.

Li Yifei didn’t pursue relentlessly; instead, she looked at another man and said, "What about you, where was the IOU signed? I don’t need the exact location."

The man swallowed a mouthful of saliva and said, "We were on a small yacht, went out to sea to play."

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"A yacht, quite wealthy." Li Yifei chuckled, the smile abruptly vanishing, glaring at the other, saying, "How come there’s a BBQ smell on the yacht? Could it be you weren’t gambling but BBQing?"

"Uh... it was just leisure. Everyone was tired from playing, so we barbecued together, eating and drinking," the other answered.

Li Yifei nodded again, didn’t probe further, looked at the old man, and asked, "Are you still hale and hearty? This paper has a smell of lubricant, fruity fragrant type."

Lubricant, fruity? Li Yifei meant a condom, the old man immediately understood, feeling slightly unnatural, yet said, "That...this has nothing to do with the debt, right? I carried it in my pocket, and naturally, it had an additional smell with the condom in the pocket."

"Your explanations are reasonable, but..." As Li Yifei paused, the creditors obviously held their breath, waiting for her to ask. After two seconds, Li Yifei said, "Why does each IOU smell like BBQ, could it be you all ate BBQ? Or did you happily gather for a meal after returning yesterday? But, I remember you left separately, you and your group, the three of them in another group, and you two left individually, heading in different directions. BBQ alone is fine, but it’s all beef BBQ, this...is a bit too coincidental. How do you explain this?"