Reborn in Japan as a Chef God
Chapter 236 - 235: Strange Home Burglary (Subscribe Please)

Chapter 236: Chapter 235: Strange Home Burglary (Subscribe Please)

Taoyuan Platform Town.

A commercial van was parked at the roadside.

"Thank you, Mr. Dojima!"

From the passenger seat, Dubian Yuuki put down her phone and stared out at the highway through the car window.

This road was the essential route back to Tokyo, and Dojima Yin had just subtly hinted something over the phone without saying much, only revealing the number plate of the sports car.

In fact, last night, Dubian Yuuki almost interviewed Xia Yu but was stopped by Dojima Yin, who prevented her from getting close.

It wasn’t long before a red sports car sped by.

"Follow that—"

Dubian Yuuki excitedly instructed the driver.

Happening to be on the freeway back to Tokyo as well, Dubian Yuuki eagerly wanted to discover the identity of that mysterious chef, a young ’almost’ top-tier chef. If he agreed to feature his profile and recipes in "Taste Weekly," she could already imagine how the subsequent issues would sell like hotcakes and capture the attention of all of Neon.

The business van’s pursuit might not have alerted Liangzi Lina, as the two vehicles, one after the other, slowly drove into Ameyoko Old Shopping Street about two hours later.

"This place... it’s so desolate!"

Dubian Yuuki’s eyes surveyed the scene outside through the car window.

As the car just moved from the new district to the old district, a sense of desolation enveloped them.

On the streetsides, not only were there few pedestrians, but most of the shops along the street were also shuttered.

Dubian Yuuki had visited this area before, there were even two quite decent ramen restaurants and izakayas that had been featured in the "Taste Weekly" special recommendation column for Tokyo.

It seemed like just two or three months ago.

Was it possible that in less than half a year, this culturally rich old street had declined so much? Dubian Yuuki felt pity.

The red sports car finally stopped in front of a three-story building.

"Stop—"

Dubian Yuuki told the driver to stop, her gaze following through the window and instinctively reading the sign hanging on the first floor, "Xia’s Chinese Restaurant?"

"Shall we get out?" asked the driver.

"Wait," Dubian Yuuki said. In her sight, about twenty meters away from the red sports car, a man and a woman alighted.

The slim woman dressed in a white shirt and jeans was of course someone Dubian Yuuki recognized. A flicker of excitement in her eyes, she hadn’t expected it to truly be the female chief of Neon Department, Liangzi Lina, the idol of countless female chefs in Neon!

As for the man...

Dubian Yuuki looked and gasped.

Last night by the lakeside, the lighting was already poor, and she could only dimly make out that Xia Yu was very young, but she had never thought that this "young" would actually be underage!

"He looks like a high school student, doesn’t he?" Dubian Yuuki couldn’t help thinking.

Liangzi Lina clearly noticed the car and glanced their way; Dubian Yuuki’s heart trembled, knowing she had been spotted.

Xia Yu had also noticed the van.

On the whole street block, there was just Liangzi’s car and that commercial van; it was impossible not to notice.

Without giving it much thought, Xia Yu found the keys, alighted from his car, and unlocked the door.

"Bang!"

Pushing open the door of the restaurant that had been closed for a week, swoosh, a little shadow darted inside before him. Seeing this, Xia Yu couldn’t help but shake his head and smile, "This little thing missed home too!"

The storefront was still tidy, preserved exactly as it was a week ago. Xia Yu’s fingers casually brushed over tables and chairs and then he lifted his hand to look—his fingertips were clean, not a speck of dust.

"Meow—"

Suddenly, a somewhat piercing cry echoed from the second floor.

What happened?

Xia Yu’s complexion changed slightly, he quickly crossed the storefront, passed the open kitchen, and as he glanced through the kitchen window, his entire body stiffened as if struck by lightning.

Chaos!

All the cabinet doors were open, bottles and jars either fell on the countertops or shattered on the floor, with glass shards everywhere.

A cat’s cry came from upstairs, could the upper floor have suffered as well?

Ignoring shoe changing, he dashed up to the living room on the second floor.

As expected, the doors of the two bedrooms were wide open, everything inside overturned and in disarray; wherever there were cabinets or any possible hiding spots, someone had rifled through them.

"Burglary?"

Xia Yu took a deep breath and pulled out his phone to call the police.

He didn’t touch anything, and waving to the cat that was crying out, he picked up the little creature and carried it downstairs.

Soon, the sound of sirens echoed through the Old Shopping Street.

Several police cars from the Taito Police Station stopped outside, and uniformed officers went in and out.

A middle-aged man in an overcoat slightly bowed to Liangzi Lina, then took out a pen and notebook to ask Xia Yu.

"Mr. Xia, our officers have checked, and nothing of significant value seems to be missing from your store; the computers and laptops are still here, so we currently rule out ’theft of property’..."

The middle-aged man slowly spoke, watching Xia Yu, and because of his nationality, he specifically asked, "Did you lose any cash or jewelry?"

Xia Yu shook his head.

"I don’t have the habit of keeping cash at home. And as for jewelry, even less so!"

"Is that so..."

The middle-aged man hesitated.

Xia Yu hadn’t expected that this call to the police would involve a chief inspector. This inspector was likely in charge of burglary cases at the Taito District Police Station.

About half an hour later, the investigatory officers reported to the leading inspector.

"The suspect entered by picking the lock at the side door. We found no suspicious fingerprints on the doorknob, and the intruder left no hair or other evidence while rummaging through the inside."

"Did the nearby surveillance footage yield anything?" the middle-aged inspector frowned.

"Nothing, the street cameras showed that everything was normal."

Eventually, the police cars left with their sirens blaring.

Xia Yu returned to the restaurant, asking Liangzi Lina to help clean the kitchen.

As they took a large bag of trash to the door, Liangzi Lina, facing away from the kitchen, stopped and asked, "Who do you think created this burglary incident?"

"It was more like an attempted theft, I didn’t lose anything."

Xia Yu shrugged, appearing calm but actually suppressing his anger inside.

Thinking it over.

Who else had he offended recently besides the ’Gourmet Club’?

Would the ’Gourmet Club’ stage a burglary to search for something in his house? If it were out of spite, creating a fire to look like an accident would be much more cunning.

Linking this to the ’Gourmet Club’s’ Tokyo Three Tigers Construction Company aggressively buying up the shopping street shops, Xia Yu vaguely felt that the ’Gourmet Club’ wasn’t just acting on a whim but with some sort of secretive agenda.

"Right!"

Slapping his forehead and watching Liangzi Lina take a bag of garbage out of the store, Xia Yu quickly turned back to look at the large water tank in the corner of the kitchen.

The kitchen had been remodeled, this thing in the corner was inconspicuous.

The water was ice cold; as he reached in, Xia Yu shivered.

"So cold—"

Soon, he felt something smooth like a pebble, a chicken egg-sized stone, and Xia Yu seemed to breathe a sigh of relief.

One of the incredible things from Xia’s Restaurant, it couldn’t be lost.

"System, is there an identification result for this stone?"

Beep.

Data popped up.