Chapter 60: The Tragedy Caused by Skipping Orders

After leaving the police station, Jiang Yun contacted Fourth Son’s Shop to have the tire reinstalled on his car and took the opportunity to check for any other problems.

Since the thief hadn’t used force to remove the tire, the reinstallation was straightforward.

During the inspection, nothing else seemed amiss, so Jiang Yun drove the car home that very afternoon.

But even after he got home, Jiang Yun couldn’t shake the feeling that something was off.

Why had the officers at the police station all looked at him that way?

Ding-ding-ding!

Just as Jiang Yun was puzzling over this, his phone rang again.

This time, it was Dimwit Girl.

“What is it?”

“Yun, did your car get ‘Wei Ma-ed’?”

Jiang Yun: ???

“How do you know?”

Jiang Yun asked, baffled.

After all, he’d already ended his livestream by the time he discovered the tire was missing.

Logically, only he and the police should know about it.

“How do I know? The whole country knows now!”

Jiang Yun: ...

“The police posted it on TikTok?”

Jiang Yun realized immediately.

Given how much traffic Douyin gets these days, it’s common for official agencies to have accounts there.

And he was a million-follower influencer now; if the police solved a case for him, it was only natural they’d use the opportunity for some publicity.

Still, if they were going to promote it, why hadn’t they let him appear in the video and say a few words of thanks? Wouldn’t that have been even more effective?

With this, Jiang Yun’s doubts only deepened.

“Yeah, you’re trending big time. You’ll probably be number one on the hot search again tomorrow—three days in a row now. Even I can’t compete with your numbers anymore~” Dimwit Girl sounded a bit envious.

Three days atop the hot search—that kind of exposure was nothing short of explosive.

At the very least, that meant millions of new followers.

“Wait, wait, even if they posted it on Douyin, it’s just a simple theft case. How could that possibly be number one on the hot search?”

Jiang Yun’s mind was swirling with suspicion.

A theft case, number one trending?

Even if he was the victim and an influencer, that shouldn’t be enough.

He only had a few million followers—how could he have that much influence?

“Oh, this isn’t something I can explain over the phone. Just check Douyin yourself. I called to ask if you wanted to play some games with me tonight, let me hitch a ride on your traffic.”

“Uh... my stream might be pretty late tonight.”

He didn’t understand what she’d meant earlier, but he caught on to the second part.

“How late? Don’t you usually stream at midnight?”

“No, tonight it’ll be after two.”

“What??? Why?”

“It’s nothing. I just want to make it a bit more ghostly. Too many people in the chat; I can’t keep up with the messages.”

Dimwit Girl: ...

Did he hear himself? Too many viewers in the chat, so he had to stream at an even worse hour to filter the audience. What kind of normal streamer would do this?

What she didn’t know was that Jiang Yun wasn’t really trying to be edgy. The main reason was that the platform was undergoing maintenance and wouldn’t be back up until after two.

Jiang Yun wasn’t sure if streaming during maintenance would count towards his hours, so he figured he’d just wait until it was over.

“Can’t you start a bit earlier?” Dimwit Girl said wistfully.

She really wanted to ride this wave of Jiang Yun’s popularity.

“We’ll see. I’m not really in the mood for gaming lately. Just chatting with viewers is nice enough.”

After a few seconds of silence, Dimwit Girl said, “Then why don’t you do an outdoor stream?”

“Uh... sure, that works.”

For Jiang Yun, as long as he got his stream hours in, it didn’t really matter what he streamed.

“Then let’s meet at Chunxi Road Night Market tonight. I’ll stream too. We’ll pretend to bump into each other by chance and I’ll siphon off some of your viewers.”

Jiang Yun: ...

“You’re just going to hitch a ride?”

“Yep, just a little!”

“All right, I’ll let you.”

“Deal! Don’t stand me up!”

“Don’t worry, I said you could, so you can.”

“Great.”

After hanging up, Jiang Yun opened Douyin.

He remembered that Dimwit Girl had said he’d be trending again tomorrow, so the answer had to be there.

He searched his own name.

A related trending tag popped up: “A tragedy caused by order jumping.”

And next to it, the word “soaring,” indicating it was climbing the ranks fast.

Jiang Yun: ????

What on earth was this?

Following the tag, he found a video posted by the Chengdu police half an hour ago.

“Last night, the vehicle tires of well-known influencer Brother Yun were stolen...”

As the narration began, the police had helpfully inserted surveillance footage from the area.

Jiang Yun appeared in front of his car.

Stunned.

A close-up of the missing tire.

A close-up of his face.

“Where’s my tire?!”

Background music played.

“Wei Ma Ye!”

Jiang Yun: ...

All right, all right, he’d already said they shouldn’t let post-00s run the official accounts.

“After receiving the victim’s report, our city’s police responded quickly. After collecting evidence, officers tracked down the suspect and made an arrest within an hour.”

At this point, the video switched to dashcam and other surveillance footage.

“But during interrogation, the suspect revealed a case of shocking scale!”

The screen changed to a man with a blurred face sitting in the police station’s interrogation room.

Officer: “Name, age, gender, place of origin.”

Suspect: ******

Officer: “Why did you steal the tire?”

Suspect: “To sell it.”

Officer: “What for?”

Suspect: “To get married.”

Officer: “Married?”

Suspect: “Xiaofang said she can’t marry me unless I have five hundred thousand yuan.”

Officer: “Even if you’re saving for a bride price, you can’t break the law! Besides, there are new regulations about bride prices...”

Suspect: “It’s not a bride price, it’s ransom.”

Officer: “Ransom?!”

The two officers exchanged a glance, eyes filled with confusion.

The suspect went on, “Their boss said without five hundred thousand, they won’t release her. It’s like this for everyone.”

Officer: !!!

Both officers’ eyes widened, feeling they’d stumbled onto something huge.

One coughed into his hand, while the other calmly asked, “Everyone? There are a lot of people?”

The suspect shook his head. “I don’t know, but Xiaofang said there are twenty or thirty.”

Officer: !!!

“You know their boss?”

“No, I only know what Xiaofang told me.”

“Have you met Xiaofang?”

“Yes, she works in the *** district. I go see her every few days, help her with her business.”

Officer: ...

Damn!

So it was prostitution all along!

They’d thought they’d uncovered something earth-shattering.

Second-class merit, maybe even first-class—gone!

But what the suspect said next made their hair stand on end.

He liked streaming: a song, “Tears of the Dancing Girl,” left Dimwit Girl dumbfounded—please like and follow: () Streaming: “Tears of the Dancing Girl,” left Dimwit Girl speechless.