The two of them maintained a voice call, with An Chen continuing to work on his side hustle at the internet cafe's front desk.
The internet cafe entrance was blocked by the construction site, and after what happened last night, no one came to surf the internet today; only a few customers were in the private rooms, and they didn't need to be managed, so it wouldn't have been a big problem even if An Chen wasn't sitting at the front desk.
However, he couldn't be at the construction site with Su Xiaojiu, watching that excavator, so he could only maintain constant contact with Su Xiaojiu from here and act when the situation called for it.
Su Xiaojiu, on the other hand, wandered around the construction site, occasionally keeping an eye on the excavator that was constantly making loud noises.
Even the simplest electric drill was a strange and wonderful thing in her eyes.
Before long, An Chen suddenly heard a strange cry from his headphones; the sound wasn't Su Xiaojiu's, but probably a worker's, picked up by the phone.
“Who the hell took my hand drill! I just put it here!”
An Chen: “...”
He already knew the answer.
It seemed that when there was no danger on the construction site, Su Xiaojiu was the greatest danger.
An Chen only hoped that Su Xiaojiu wouldn't move the construction Materials.
Losing a hand drill might still be the worker's own problem, but losing twenty bags of cement and three bundles of rebar would be a big problem...
The key was that Su Xiaojiu could actually do it.
“Did you steal it?”
“Hehe.”
Everything was unsaid.
“Stop stealing! Your Fellow Daoist isn't here yet. Do what you're supposed to! Be careful not to get caught!”
“I'm just playing for a bit; I'll return it later.”
Su Xiaojiu stuck out her tongue and turned her attention back to the excavator.
“Besides, this iron lump is working perfectly, isn't it still...”
“Ah, holy crap!”
Before she could finish speaking, the driver in the excavator's cab let out a scream, his collar was inexplicably grabbed, and he was thrown out of the cab, then fell heavily to the ground.
But there was clearly nothing beside him.
“What happened?”
An Chen also heard the commotion from Su Xiaojiu's side.
“That excavator driver grabbed his own collar and threw himself out!”
Su Xiaojiu exclaimed, then added:
“It must be that thief who stole the excavator, our Fellow Daoist has appeared! His Stealth Talisman is more Advanced than mine, or he might have used other Stealth methods; I can't see him with my naked eye!”
“Is there any way to determine his position?”
“Yes!”
“Find him, try not to make too much noise, just find him. As for whether to catch him, let's talk about it when there are fewer people.”
This time's goal, naturally, was to catch this car thief.
Su Xiaojiu took out a handful of seeds and scattered them forward; the seeds were very small, and the dim lights of the construction site at night couldn't illuminate them clearly.
The seeds scattered on the ground, and surprisingly, they grew tiny roots, burrowing into the soil and growing very quickly, instantly forming small vines a few centimeters long.
All the small vines grew underground in one direction, eventually gathering half a meter beneath the tractor.
A few small vines broke through the ground and suddenly sprayed spores; the spores seemed to have touched something, stopping in mid-air and outlining a pair of small legs.
This type of plant is particularly sensitive to spiritual Qi; if someone uses spiritual Qi, it will grow in that direction and then leave spores on the person.
“Found you!”
Su Xiaojiu rejoiced and rushed over.
The person whose leg was sprayed with spores also seemed to have noticed this; the outlined small legs moved frantically, seemingly trying to shake off the spores, but these spores were not only extremely sticky but also grew tiny thorns that pricked into the object they touched.
The thorns could even pierce the skin and continue to grow under the skin, forming barbs; they could only be removed by pulling hard or burning them with fire.
In fact, cleaning this stuff wasn't difficult; you just needed to scorch it a few times with fire and then scrape it off, but the other party clearly didn't have the conditions for that right now.
This thing was mainly used to quickly reveal the enemy in battle, catching people by surprise.
“What the hell is that!”
An exclamation came from the unseen, a male voice, rather high-pitched.
The next instant, the huge excavator suddenly disappeared, and then the small legs outlined by the spores moved quickly.
Su Xiaojiu didn't make a sound, just chased after him, holding her phone in one hand and pressing the other on the hilt of her sword at her waist.
This time, An Chen finally returned her sword to her.
After all, while the person who stole the excavator wasn't necessarily an enemy, he wasn't a friend yet either.
The two rushed out one after another, but in the eyes of the people on the construction site, they saw nothing.
Only an excavator had vanished into thin air.
“Oh, my neck... Hmm??”
The thrown driver got up, straightened his collar, and rubbed his butt, grimacing, but when he looked up, he found nothing in front of him.
“Where's my excavator? Where's my big excavator?!”
“It... it disappeared...”
His coworkers stammered in response.
The construction site manager also hurried over, and seeing the scene before him, he closed his eyes and fell straight backward.
People around him immediately went to support him, pulling him up before he hit the ground.
He wasn't really fainting, but since things had come to this, it seemed a bit out of place if he didn't collapse.
He was helped up and stopped collapsing, instead, he furiously cursed.
“Which immoral bastard, I wouldn't say anything if you just stole two steel bars, but why the hell are you stealing an excavator for no reason? If you steal one, fine, but you steal one in the morning and then come back in the afternoon? Do you think this is a monster spawn point, damn it!”
Then, he used every curse word he could think of to viciously scold the excavator thief until his throat was choked by saliva and he stopped.
“Cough, cough, cough...”
“Head Wang... Actually, there's something you said wrong.”
Someone beside him handed him a bottle of mineral water and said softly.
“What?”
The manager drank some water, but his face was still flushed red, full of lingering anger.
“That wasn't stealing at all, it was outright robbery. This time, there was even a driver sitting on top, who was directly pulled down...”
“I #%•*%”
...
Su Xiaojiu followed the person across a street, chasing him until he stopped in a dark alley.
Fortunately, before this, An Chen, considering she didn't know the way yet, had taken her for a tour of the surrounding area and sent her a map on her phone, so she still had some impression of this place.
She probably could find her way back later.
Su Xiaojiu didn't know if the other party had discovered her, so she tried not to make any sound and quickly followed.
The person suddenly revealed himself in the alley and looked back in Su Xiaojiu's direction.
“Come out, Fellow Daoist.”