Superstars of Tomorrow

Generally, when Curly Hair didn’t cooperate for a checkup, that meant he had done something. Thus, when Fang Zhao brought Curly Hair home, he gave Curly Hair a checkup.

Curly Hair didn’t have any external injuries. He hadn’t even shed a strand of fur when escaping the exhibition hall. Other people thought that Curly Hair had been fortunate, escaping the blaze and avoiding being crushed by falling objects, but Fang Zhao knew that might not have been the case.

When Fang Zhao extracted the bits of metal lodged between Curly Hair’s teeth, he knew that the matter was indeed not that simple.

Fang Zhao had already gained understanding of the matter at the manor from others. He knew that the cages in the designated area for dogs had been broken and, until now, the culprit hadn’t been found.

Fang Zhao sighed. "Where are you injured this time?"

Curly Hair lifted up one of his front paws.

Fang Zhao pinched the paw and took a meticulous look. He found an extremely fine scratch on one of the little pads of Curly Hair’s paw. The skin hadn’t even been broken. It would be all right in just a bit.

As for the fragments of metal lodged between Curly Hair’s teeth, Fang Zhao saw that the edges of the bits of metal had signs of dissolution. Even if they weren’t extracted, they would dissolve completely.

After dealing with the metal bits and washing them, Fang Zhao applied some medicine to Curly Hair’s paw just for show.

"All right, go elsewhere and play." Fang Zhao hadn’t found out all the information. He needed to know more details about the scene.

Having obtained permission, Curly Hair let loose and ran to play his games. Fang Zhao used his identity as the dog’s owner and a good friend of Will Jr. to find out more about the incident.

The police had been rather efficient. Given the clues they had and the pressure placed on them by furious artists and entrepreneurs, they had already found the primary culprit. Indeed, the incident at the exhibition hall had been man-made, and it was an act of revenge. The culprit behind it had already been apprehended.

The person behind this incident was an antique dealer who had old grievances with the manor owner. Not too long ago, the manor owner had employed some methods to snatch an art piece from the antique dealer, thus incurring his wrath. This time, the manor owner had made announcements for this private exhibition beforehand, and the antique dealer had set his sights on them.

According to the antique dealer’s account, his act of revenge this time had been purely targeted at the manor owner’s private collection. He hadn’t wanted to cause any deaths and had made considerations regarding where to set off the bomb and ignition devices. As long as one wasn’t too weak or unlucky, those at the exhibition should have had ample time to escape.

However, a physically weak and unfortunate individual, Will, whose brain circuitry was different from most, had been there. This time, he had sprained his leg and was all bruised and battered. Many people who had seen Will being sent to the hospital had been stunned!

Inside the police post, the furious manor owner and the downcast antique dealer had been verbally sparring for close to half an hour already.

The manor owner: "You deranged crackpot!"

The antique dealer: "You backstabbing b*stard!"

The manor owner: "You extremely wicked and sinister fellow! Bribing my manor staff to hatch a plot together! Destroying my collection and at the same time coming up with a plan to steal dogs!"

Traces of fury showed on the antique dealer’s overcast face. "You are making false accusations! I am f*cking allergic to dogs!"

The police officer to the side watched as the two went at each other without hitting any important points, so he interrupted them. "Who disrupted the surveillance systems at the designated location for the dogs and the few storehouses beside it?"

The antique dealer erupted. "I already said! I admit to everything else, but the storehouse surveillance had nothing to do with me! I have been wrongly accused! Perhaps it was the people of their manor trying to take advantage and profit themselves! Since the manor owner is such a self-seeking son of a b*tch, the staff of the manor can’t be any better!"

Hearing the other party continuing to vilify him even though he was in this state, the manor owner slammed his hands down on the table and stood up. "You still dare to argue! Didn’t you blow up the exhibition hall? Didn’t you get someone to set the fire?!"

"Those, I admit..."

"Then who else but you could have caused the incident in the storehouse?! Trying to steal dogs was definitely you! Stealing dogs to sell for money! At that time, there was a dog valued at 200 million!"

The antique dealer rushed over, wanting to hit someone, but he was held back by the handcuffs and quickly restrained by the police officer.

Seeing the two engaging in a verbal spar once again, the policemen’s heads ached. They had found clues about everything else, but they hadn’t found a single lead regarding the malfunctioning surveillance system where the dogs were being kept or at the storehouse. After asking the manor owner a few more questions, he was allowed to leave.

Although no lives had been lost and few people had been hurt, injuries were still injuries, serious or light, physical or mental. Many of the people attending the exhibition had been scared, and they placed the blame on the manor owner. Why were we implicated in a grudge against you? You clearly knew that you would incur the wrath of others, so why didn’t you have adequate security for such an important event as an art exhibition?

In short, the manor owner had a responsibility that he couldn’t shirk! In the next few years, there wouldn’t be many people willing to attend his private art exhibitions. Even if he increased his security by tenfold, those invited to participate would take some time to consider it. Art exhibitions were aplenty, whereas everyone only had one life. Even if the antique dealer wouldn’t do anything next time, what if another lunatic appeared?

The manor owner had suffered a disastrous loss. Even though he had insurance, the works that he had painstakingly painted, as well as his collections, would never return.

When he returned, the manor owner got his men to meticulously check out the goods in the warehouses. He actually believed the antique dealer’s words. Since the antique dealer had already admitted to setting fire to and blowing up the exhibition hall, there wasn’t any reason for him to lie about the warehouses.

There wasn’t really anything of value in the warehouses. The most expensive objects were the surveillance installations for the dogs, especially Fang Zhao’s dog, which was worth 200 million. However, not a single dog had been lost!

The manor owner’s head was swimming with all sorts of plots. For example, perhaps someone had placed an extremely valuable object in his warehouse and used the confusion to shift it somewhere else. Didn’t such things happen in movies?

The manor owner searched through a few warehouses but still didn’t find anything.

Or perhaps the items had been taken away in the chaos?

Since he couldn’t find any useful information, the manor owner decided not to pursue the matter further. He still had other matters to attend to. All of the people he had invited were reputable artists or entrepreneurs, and he would have to apologize to each of them in turn, especially the unfortunate Will Jr. Will had been the one to suffer the worst injuries, and it was rumored that he had suffered psychological damage.

As the manor owner was busy handling matters, Fang Zhao came over. The manor owner interacted with him for a bit before having the housekeeper bring Fang Zhao to take a look at where the dogs had been kept.

The manor’s housekeeper told Fang Zhao that two of the dogs that had run out of the allocated area had helped apprehend a suspicious character, and it had been proven that the person had participated in the arson. However, no clues had been found as to how the dogs had escaped the cages, nor had the appliance used for breaking the cages’ locks been found.

"It is too difficult to determine how the cages were broken into. I reckon it was some sort of rarely seen pliers," the housekeeper said.

"Can I take a look at the surveillance footage?" asked Fang Zhao.

"Sure."

The housekeeper transferred to him the surveillance footage of this area.

On the surveillance feed, everything was normal at the start. Fang Zhao witnessed Curly Hair’s show of authority towards the other dogs, as well as him eating happily. When the incident in the exhibition hall occurred, a loud explosion startled all the dogs in the area and they started barking, after which the screen flickered. There was nothing else.

"Everything afterward is just like that. The surveillance installations failed." The housekeeper continued, "It wasn’t just here. All the surrounding warehouses had the same situation."

"Can I take a look at the surveillance footage from the surrounding warehouses?" Fang Zhao asked.

The housekeeper hesitated for a bit before replying, "Yes." All of the warehouses were filled with junk anyway; there wasn’t anything to hide.

The beginnings of the footage from the warehouses were all the same. At a certain point, they all encountered the same problem, and after flickering for about a second, they all failed.

In the area that had been allocated for the dogs, the surveillance footage flickered the most intensely. Nothing could be seen in that one second, as though the whole system had malfunctioned. As for the footage of the area outside the warehouses, although the footage flickered at the same time, some blurry silhouettes could still be seen.

Although Fang Zhao didn’t show it, his heart pounded.

He had seen something similar before!

That "point" that had only lasted about a second.

Back then, Fang Zhao had obtained surveillance footage from when he’d returned to the black street. During the period where he was "reborn," he had seen that "point" in all the surveillance footage! But the "point" hadn’t affected the surveillance instruments afterward. However, here, after the "point," the surveillance equipment at the designated location, as well as the nearby warehouses, had all failed.

Fang Zhao took a look at the area that had been allocated for the dogs. It was a mess. Fang Zhao could picture the chaotic scene from when those dogs were released.

"Where is the door?" Fang Zhao asked.

"The door here is locked by a passcode, and identity verification is required. However, at that time, it also malfunctioned. Afterward, the doors opened automatically..." The housekeeper felt that these sorts of locks weren’t reliable. So be it if it malfunctioned, the door should still remain shut. How could it open on its own!

Fang Zhao asked about some other stuff, then left the manor.

After he returned to his Huangzhou dormitory, Fang Zhao called out Curly Hair, who was in the midst of a gaming session.

Having been interrupted midway, Curly Hair whined and tried to curry favor as he rubbed himself against Fang Zhao’s leg. When he saw Fang Zhao’s stern expression, his wagging tail stopped and his ears drooped as he lay on the ground.

Fang Zhao stared at Curly Hair and asked, "Did you spoil the surveillance system?"

Curly Hair tilted his head and glanced at Fang Zhao, puzzled. His gaze was cautious and confused.

Fang Zhao paused for a bit before asking, "Did you bite off the cages’ locks?"

"Woof!" Curly Hair raised his head and wagged his tail, pleased, as if trying to get Fang Zhao to shower him with praise.

Seeing Curly Hair this way, Fang Zhao wondered.

The strange occurrence with the allocated location and the surrounding warehouses might have had something to do with Curly Hair, but Curly Hair himself wasn’t too clear about it—or perhaps he didn’t understand it. Of course, this was just Fang Zhao’s own guess.

During the incident at the exhibition hall, Curly Hair had bitten the lock off his own cage. Then he had quickly broken the other cages and released all the other dogs. With these obscure facts, Curly Hair was very delighted and wanted to show Fang Zhao: look at how clever I am!

As for everything else, Fang Zhao couldn’t ask. Curly Hair was clever, but he couldn’t explain things clearly. Fang Zhao just couldn’t ask a dog to speak human words.

Luckily, there wasn’t any evidence pointing at Curly Hair. From Fang Zhao’s own observations, if the manor owner couldn’t investigate what had gone on in the warehouses, he would place the blame on the antique dealer. Compared to the matter with the exhibition hall, the area that had been allocated for the dogs and the surrounding warehouses weren’t so important.

Curly Hair fell silent when he saw Fang Zhao quietly pondering. He remained crouched and glanced at Fang Zhao from time to time before gazing at the gaming helmet a short distance away and whining.

Fang Zhao waved his hand. "Go play."

Curly Hair rushed over in delight, buried himself in the helmet like a pro, and started to game.

Fang Zhao rubbed his face with all his strength. What exactly am I rearing!?