A spirit descends, Gardevoir is my childhood friend?

"Yes, Grandpa is checking now." At this moment, Grandpa finished his phone call and looked at Lin Xiaolin.

“I asked around, and none of the trainers at or above the Elite Four level have come to Star City recently. But it’s absolutely impossible for someone below the Elite Four level to steal something right under the noses of so many psychic Pokémon.” After saying that, Grandpa fell into deep thought.

"By the way, Xiao Lin, where did you hide your things?" Lin's mother suddenly asked.

"The bedside table? What's wrong?" Lin Xiaolin looked at her mother in confusion.

"Was anyone else at home when you came back this afternoon to put your things away?" Lin's mother asked again.

"It seems like nobody's home. None of you are here, except... only Aunt Jiang?" Lin Xiaolin suddenly seemed to realize something. Aunt Jiang—only Aunt Jiang knew where he hid the things! Because Aunt Jiang had just been mopping the floor outside his bedroom door at that moment!

"By the way, Mom, why didn't I see Aunt Jiang tonight?" Lin Xiaolin suddenly turned to look at her mother.

"She said she wasn't feeling well in the afternoon, and left after finishing dinner." Lin's mother and grandfather suddenly realized this.

At first, everyone thought it was a powerful trainer who stole it quietly, but is it really possible to steal only one item? And there wasn't a single trace of searching. It turns out there was a thief among our own people!

"Qingqing, you should call Xiaojiang right now and find out the truth," Grandpa urged Lin's mother to make the call.

"Okay, I'll make the call right away." To be honest, Lin's mother didn't really believe that Aunt Jiang would come to steal things.

After all, Aunt Jiang had been a nanny in the Xiao family for over ten years. The Xiao family treated her well, giving her room and red envelopes during holidays. Her salary was over ten thousand yuan, which was considered high in the nanny industry.

"Beep beep~ The number you dialed is switched off." Hearing this, Lin's mother's heart skipped a beat.

"What's wrong?" Lin Xiaolin asked from the side.

"It's turned off." Upon hearing this, everyone knew something was wrong.

Grandpa Xiao immediately took out his phone and called the director of the Security Bureau, who was the same person he had referred to as the police chief in his previous life.

"Hello, Mr. Xiao, what's the matter?" A respectful voice came from the other end of the phone.

"Xiao Zheng, go and investigate someone for me now, the one who used to work as my housekeeper, surnamed Jiang. You should have her information on file. She stole a valuable item from my dojo."

"Yes, I'll send someone to investigate immediately. Also, Mr. Xiao, do you want to handle this openly or covertly?" The voice on the other end of the phone suddenly lowered.

"My Xiao family is upright and honest, why would we need to do anything underhanded? Send another group of people to my dojo to check the surveillance footage. We have evidence." Grandpa was instantly furious.

"Yes, yes, I misunderstood Elder Xiao. I'll be right there." The phone call ended after he finished speaking.

The term "open handling" refers to normal case handling, following all formal procedures. "Closed handling," on the other hand, refers to situations where powerful figures want to deal with minor individuals but lack legitimate evidence. In such cases, certain individuals are tasked with creating "accidents."

This is why Old Master Xiao was so angry just now. His Xiao family, spanning three generations, has never done anything against his conscience.

-

50/3.45

Bonus chapter delivered! Thank you everyone for your support and the little gifts ╰(*°▽°*)╯

Chapter 59 House Thief

While waiting, Lin Xiaolin told Yan Fan about the situation that evening and said that she wouldn't be playing games.

Shortly after the message was sent, a police car drove into the dojo's parking lot. Two police officers entered the dojo and saw the Xiao family members waiting at the entrance.

"Hello, Mr. Xiao, I'm Liao Qing, the officer in charge of collecting evidence this time. My badge number is xxxx. Please take me to see the evidence first." The young officer walking in front greeted Mr. Xiao respectfully.

"Okay, come on." With that, Elder Xiao led the two into a monitoring room, which contained nearly a hundred monitors that recorded most of the dojo.

Two staff members were seen quickly retrieving surveillance footage. After a short while, one of the staff members waved to the crowd.

"Here." The staff member pointed directly to a monitor screen. This monitor showed the fifth-floor living room. The fifth floor had the fewest monitors in the entire dojo; there was only one in the living room, and no other places had any.

The surveillance footage was playing at double speed. First, Lin Xiaolin and the other two returned to their room. Then, Aunt Jiang was mopping the floor in the living room. As she mopped, she walked to the door of the room and started mopping the floor there as well.

A little while later, Lin Xiaolin and the other two left. As Lin Xiaolin was leaving, she said something to Aunt Jiang, then said goodbye and ran off.

Aunt Jiang pretended to be casually mopping the floor, starting from the innermost room and quickly entering Lin Xiaolin's room.

A short while later, Aunt Jiang came out again, dragging a mop. However, one of the pockets of her coat was visibly bulging, and it was obvious that there was nothing in the pocket when she went in.

Fortunately, the surveillance footage was in high definition, otherwise we really wouldn't have discovered it.

Then Aunt Jiang went into the kitchen, and when she came out, her coat pockets were empty again. Afterwards, Aunt Jiang pretended nothing had happened and tidied up the house. It seems she is quite familiar with the surveillance cameras.

Then Lin's mother returned. Aunt Jiang cooked her a meal, then went into the kitchen, put down her apron, changed her clothes, picked up a bag, greeted Lin's mother, and left.

The surveillance footage has finished playing, and thanks to the ultra-high-definition camera, the evidence is quite clear.

"Okay, we'll make a copy of this surveillance footage first. Just wait for our updates. Our other team has already started the search." As he spoke, the young officer took out a USB drive and handed it to the staff.

After making the copy, the two officers left in their police car. They didn't ask any further questions; there were some things they shouldn't ask.

"By the way, Xiaolin, what's in that box? I'll tell Xiao Zheng so he can find it easily." After returning upstairs, Grandpa looked at Lin Xiaolin.

"It's a purple fruit. It's related to the research my father is doing. This fruit can be used to make Poké Balls that are extremely powerful, more than a hundred times stronger than ordinary Poké Balls. Capturing ordinary Pokémon is a piece of cake," Lin Xiaolin could only say modestly.

"How did you figure that out?" Grandpa asked, frowning.

“My father has recently been researching Poké Balls, using other berries to create different Poké Balls. That particular berry had been in the association’s warehouse for over ten years without rotting and it also had a suppressive effect on Pokémon, so I just made my own guess.”

Grandpa sat on the sofa, lost in thought for a while.

He said, "If we follow your theory, this berry must be very valuable, and the Poké Ball made from it would be extremely rare. After all, it's an A-grade research material, and I estimate there aren't many berries like it in the entire association." Grandpa nodded in agreement, confirming Lin Xiaolin's idea.

After sending the message about the tree fruit to the bureau chief, my grandfather started waiting.

The family sat on the living room sofa, waiting for news. It was almost eleven o'clock, and no one was in the mood to sleep because the news about the tree fruit had not yet been confirmed.

"Beep beep beep~" Grandpa's phone rang, instantly pulling Lin Xiaolin back to reality.

"Hey."

"Hey, Elder Xiao, the matter is resolved. It was indeed she who stole the tree fruit, but the tree fruit was pawned to someone else. We negotiated with the people there, and they said they would return it for two million Alliance Coins. What do you think?" The respectful voice of the Security Bureau Director came through.

"Okay, I'll transfer the money to you. Let's redeem the tree fruit first, and we'll talk about the rest later." With that, Grandpa sent a message to Lin Xiaolin's uncle.

Finally, just before 12 o'clock, a middle-aged man with a large belly and thinning hair came to the door, panting, carrying a bag.

"Phew~ Elder Xiao, here are your tree fruits." This portly middle-aged man was the director of the Xingcheng Security Bureau. He personally handed the bag to Elder Xiao with both hands.

"Okay, thank you for your hard work, please have a seat." After taking the chair, Old Xiao pointed to the sofa next to him. Lin Xiaolin understood and quickly got up to go to the kitchen to get a cup and poured a glass of water for the director of the security bureau.

The head of the security bureau finished the water in his glass in one gulp before catching his breath.

"Mr. Xiao, it's so late, so I'll get to the point. Jiang Lan's (Aunt Jiang's) husband is a frequent gambler, and he's been caught several times, with Jiang Lan being forced to pay up. We've also learned that Jiang Lan took a lot of jewelry as collateral, which we suspect was stolen from you. However, most of it has already been dealt with, and we haven't heard anything about it yet. If you want to get it back, we can dig deeper."

"Oh! That explains why I keep losing my jewelry." Lin's mother exclaimed. She had lost quite a few pieces of jewelry, but since they weren't worth much to them, she didn't care much.

Grandpa frowned again. He never expected that his family would raise such an ingrate. No matter how good the reason was, stealing was stealing, and there was no room for explanation.

"Where is she now?" Grandpa asked.

"We finally found out that she and her husband seemed to realize they had stolen something big and were afraid of your retaliation. They were already on a train leaving Xingcheng for a neighboring city, but we have already contacted the other party. The two of them have been apprehended by the security bureau on the train and will be escorted back tomorrow."

"Okay, thank you for your help this time. As for the jewelry, there's no need to investigate. If there's anything I can do for you in the future, just let me know. As long as it's not against my principles, I'll agree."

My grandfather's words implied that he owed the bureau chief a favor, since the bureau chief had diligently searched the entire city late at night and had spent a considerable amount of manpower and resources.

"Not at all, it's what we should do. Thank you, Elder Xiao. I won't bother you any longer, it's already so late. I'll call you personally when we escort him back tomorrow."

The head of the security bureau immediately beamed with joy, his face practically splitting into a grin. He gave a respectful greeting and then left.

Chapter 60 Common Trainer License

"Let's go see it tomorrow then. It's so late tonight, go to sleep." Grandpa said, and went into his room. It was too late for him to go back downstairs to sleep.

Lin Xiaolin happily carried her tree fruit back to her room, this time hiding the tree fruit and key stone inside the wardrobe and locking it from the inside.

She sent Yan Fan a message to let him know that the matter had been resolved, and then went to sleep soundly.

The next morning, Lin Xiaolin stretched and looked at the time—it was past ten o'clock. Hmm, not bad, she got up pretty early.

After getting up and washing up, I went out and saw Lin's mother and grandparents sitting on the sofa chatting, while Aunt Liu was cleaning.

"Good morning, Grandpa, Grandma, Mom, Aunt Liu." Lin Xiaolin yawned and greeted them.

"It's still early, it's almost noon." Lin's mother glanced at him, and Lin Xiaolin scratched his head, then sat down on the sofa without saying a word.

"By the way, Xiao Jiang was sent back today. Xiao Lin, do you want to go see him?" Grandpa suddenly asked from the side.

"I won't go. You guys handle it. I'm going to my dad's research institute this afternoon." Lin Xiaolin waved her hands repeatedly.

After lunch, Lin Xiaolin took Xinlinbao and Xiaolan to her father's research institute, attracting the attention of many passersby along the way.

Upon arriving at the research institute, it was Qi Lan, Lin's father's student, who opened the door for Lin Xiaolin.

"Brother Qi, where's my dad?" Lin Xiaolin greeted him and went inside. Xinlinbao and Gardevoir were sunbathing in the courtyard outside the research institute.

"Master is still adjusting the data." With that, Qi Lan led Lin Xiaolin inside.

I saw Lin's father busy in front of a small Poké Ball manufacturing machine.

"Dad, how's the research going?" Lin Xiaolin asked as she stepped forward.

"Xiao Lin is here. Let's go upstairs. We'll stop for now." Lin's father said, standing up and yawning before leading Lin Xiao Lin upstairs.

Lin Xiaolin couldn't bear to look at her father's dark circles; it seemed he had been working on research all night again.

"Dad, how's your progress? It's been months and there's been no reaction." Lin Xiaolin asked, sitting on the sofa.

"What nonsense! This research might take others years to complete. Luckily, Rotom helped me collect data. The materials, temperature, and compatibility required for each type of Poké Ball are different. No wonder so few people study Poké Balls."