The most shameless alchemist in history

“Mr. Redu, please wait a moment.” Ellie bit his lip and called out to Redu.

"What else is there? Let me tell you beforehand, I'm not going to mess around with you. You have to go home now, you absolutely have to go home!" Du Lei solemnly declared.

"Of course I know that. I just wanted to give you a little parting gift, Mr. Redu." Ellie put his hands behind his back and said with a sweet and lovely smile.

"A gift? What gift? Hey, I'm not taking any of your cash." Dure thought Ellie was going to give him cash again, so he quickly waved his hand. The people who came looking for Ellie were catching up with him. If they saw him taking something from Ellie, they'd probably chop him to pieces.

"Don't worry, don't worry, I won't give you such vulgar things, Mr. Redu. Please come over and have some." Ellie waved her hand.

"Come closer? Is that okay?" Du Lei frowned, looking at Ellie's mysterious expression, wondering what he was up to.

"Come a little closer, a little closer." Ellie was still dissatisfied with the distance.

"Is this alright now? You have to tell me what you're going to do." Dure sighed; this Ellie was really hard to deal with.

“Of course, so the gift for Mr. Redu is…” Ellie suddenly leaned in and gave Redu a light, quick kiss on the cheek.

"Hey, what are you doing? We're all men, don't you think it's weird that you suddenly kissed me?" Du Lei was startled by Ellie's actions. He took a step back, staggered, and almost fell over the railing, but he reacted quickly and adjusted his balance in time.

"Hehehe, this is just a custom from my hometown, Mr. Redu, please don't take it to heart. So goodbye." Ellie waved at Dure and smiled slyly. At this moment, more than a dozen people surged over from both sides of the clock tower, looking at Dure menacingly.

But Ellie waved back and whispered something. After giving Dure a suspicious look, the men looked away and carefully escorted Ellie down the clock tower.

They quickly disappeared in the afterglow of the setting sun.

496 didn't queue up.

When one strange person meets another strange person, strange things always happen. Du Lei believes that he is perfectly normal most of the time, except for a tiny bit of time when he is a little bit abnormal. Usually, he is alone during these times.

But he didn't know why, today he had absurdly run around the whole city with a stranger, like playing hide-and-seek. Actually, he knew the answer. He had been too tired these past few months, and he didn't know if he had met his expectations.

Even if someone acts strangely once in a while, there's nothing wrong with that, right? Du Lei used this thought to excuse himself, and maybe that way he wouldn't feel so guilty. As for the other strange person, it was undoubtedly Ellie; he exuded strangeness from head to toe.

After all, no normal person would present a stack of cash, especially in gold coin denominations, upon first meeting someone. It's not only strange but also incredibly wasteful. For a moment, Du Lei felt very sorry for his father. With such a spendthrift son, life must be anything but peaceful.

But that's other people's business. At least Ellie has a father who lets him squander money, but what about himself? Du Lei tried his best to restrain himself from thinking about unnecessary things and to make sure that he had something to do every minute, whether it was cultivating, studying, or thinking about problems.

He had become accustomed to this way of life, and even his companions were used to him always presenting himself in this manner. So when he returned, he found that there had been no progress whatsoever in the intelligence gathering he had done over the past half-day, which puzzled Leopard Tail and the others.

"Hey, Du Lei, what's wrong with you? You've been gone for so long and haven't found out a single piece of information? Did you go off to have fun? Or did you sign up for a tournament?" Leopard Tail looked at Du Lei with a surprised expression.

Normally, Du Lei never fails when he goes out to gather intelligence. It's normal that they don't get any valuable information, but it's extremely unusual for Du Lei to return empty-handed. Leopard Tail scrutinizes Du Lei from head to toe, as if trying to figure out what's different about Du Lei today compared to usual.

"Register? Register for what?" Du Lei glared back at Leopard Tail. In Leopard Tail's eyes, he was like a strange and unusual animal.

"Of course, it's the name of the richest man, Ababa, that everyone knows on the streets, where he arranged a blind date for his daughter. Almost every man in Lan City signed up, and the line stretched for miles. I even saw Boss Kotetsu join the queue." Leopard Tail continued to scrutinize him with a suspicious look.

"Who did you see queuing up? I was gathering information, do you understand?" Just as Leopard Tail was questioning Du Lei, Tiger Che walked in and heard him say this. Tiger Che angrily stepped forward and smacked Leopard Tail on the head, making the latter howl in pain.

"Of course I saw it with my own eyes! You were right next to me in line, I'm absolutely sure I didn't see wrong! Waaah, Boss Kotetsu, you can't just hit people like that! That's so unfair!" Leopard Tail protested loudly. He had been bullied by Kotetsu quite a bit before.

"So now you're arguing about who gets to be first in line?" Du Lei interrupted Hyo-o and Kotetsu's argument and asked them.

"Well..." Leopard Tail realized he had let something slip and, feeling guilty, naturally dared not bring up the previous topic again.

"That was necessary work I did to gather intelligence, and I'm sure you did too, right, Hyo-o?" Kotetsu patted Hyo-o's shoulder, making sure they were on the same page. Otherwise, it would be too embarrassing for him, the captain of the guard, to neglect his duties and go on blind dates.

"Yes, yes, that's right, it's for work!" It was rare for Leopard Tail to reach a consensus with Kotetsu; the two were practically the closest comrades-in-arms.

"So what information have you two found out?" Du Lei sighed and asked the two men about the progress of their work.

"I've found out that Ababa is a very wealthy man from the East China Sea. He doesn't belong to any country on the continent, but his wealth is astonishing. It's said that a long time ago, Ababa did business with the infamous Blackfire Duke Lin Ye." Hu Che coughed and began to introduce his information.

"Duke Lin Ye of Blackfire? I've heard some things about him, but... those were all decades ago, weren't they? If this rumor is true, then Ababa must be from the previous era, at least a man in his sixties or seventies. How old would his daughter be?"

Although Dure had never seen Ababa in person, he had read some of the most basic history, or rather, a vague history, because most of the records about Duke Lin Ye of Blackfire had been erased, and the evaluations of him in the books he could find were nothing more than notorious negative evaluations.

“If Ababa is in his sixties or seventies, then his daughter should be… in her forties or fifties, I think,” Kotetsu scratched his head and gave an answer.

"What? You're saying that the lady who posted the marriage proposal is already in her forties or fifties? That old?" Leopard Tail was shocked by this number.

"What, you queued for so long today and didn't see that lady?" Du Lei asked him.

“I haven’t seen her. There isn’t even a portrait of her. I don’t know what she looks like. Now you’re suddenly telling me she’s in her forties or fifties… Isn’t that a bit too much for me to handle?” Leopard Tail’s eyes twitched, caught off guard.

"So, were you going to gather intelligence or just to queue up today?" Du Lei asked again, this time emphasizing his words.

"Huh? Of course, it's to queue up... no, it's to gather intelligence. By the way, the intelligence I gathered is that Ababa has acquired the railway company in Lan City. He plans to change the railway route to something like his daughter's honeymoon trip around the continent after her wedding."

Leopard Tail quickly changed his tune; he couldn't let Du Lei realize that he'd spent most of the day queuing and hadn't done anything productive.

"Your information is as good as if you didn't do any research at all." Dure hadn't expected to get much useful information from him anyway.

"Ahem, hey you guys, you've been talking about lining up since earlier, do you all want to be someone's son-in-law?" Bee Sting walked over at this moment, she had also heard Du Lei and the others talking.

"How could that be? That's not true. We still have a mission to complete, and we'll definitely finish it. Why would we become someone else's son-in-law? Hahaha, right?" Leopard Tail quickly put on a smiling face. His argument with Kotetsu and Du Lei was an internal dispute.

Now that Bee Sting is questioning us, we must unite against them.

"So what solutions have you come up with? We can't just sit here waiting; we need to get the train moving as soon as possible so we can get to Rock City quickly." Bee Sting sighed; her main concern now was when to set off.

During the day, she had seen how crazy the people queuing in Lan City were. She was really afraid that if she delayed any longer, she would waste time and these guys in front of her would also join the queue and not do anything else.

"As for a solution... hey, hurry up and tell me." Leopard Tail kept giving Kotetsu and Durei meaningful glances, hoping he would come up with a solution was simply too unrealistic.

"Didn't you just say you had a solution?" Kotetsu glared at him, not about to accept this burden that someone else had thrown at him.

"When did I say that? That's not true." Leopard Tail firmly denied it.

“There is a way…” Du Lei thought for a moment and replied.

497 (borrowing)

The city of Storms was much quieter at night than during the day, but it was also completely different from the deathly silence caused by the Great Fire of Harrenhal. After all, Storms was a bustling metropolis, and even as night fell, many places in the city were still adorned with glittering lights.

However, these places are exclusively for the nightlife of high-ranking officials and nobles, and have little to do with ordinary people. Under the cover of night, a group of people quietly left the hotel and headed straight for the train station. Usually, no one goes to the train station this late.

One reason is that there are very few trains running at night, and most trains depart during the day. Another reason is that the train station is now closed, so there's no point in going there, since the trains are not moving. Everyone in Lanzhi City knows this.

Du Lei and the others knew this, but even so, they still made their way to the outside of the train station in the dark. There were only a few guards patrolling outside the train station with flashlights. They were patrolling mainly to prevent theft. However, the security in Lan City had improved a lot recently.

Even thieves are lining up for it. Once you become Ababa's son-in-law, you'll be sitting on a mountain of gold and silver. Who would still bother with pickpocketing? In fact, even the guards are tempted, but some are too strict with their wives, while others have grown old and become indifferent.

They simply conducted their routine patrol and then went home to get a good night's sleep, naturally unaware that someone would sneak into the train station at this time.

"Hey, Dure, is what you're saying going to work? I'm confirming your plan again. You're actually going to drive the train away overnight, right?" Leopard Tail asked Dure again to confirm his plan. He was shocked when Dure brought this up; he had heard of stealing money and things.

On a more extreme level, I've heard of people emptying out entire jewelry stores or being caught stealing and having their owners kidnapped, but I've never heard of someone stealing a train. If that got out, nobody would believe it.

"Do you have a better plan? If so, tell me quickly, I'm all ears." Du Lei stopped and looked at Leopard Tail.

"Well... of course I don't have any, but it just feels a bit unreliable." Leopard Tail knew he couldn't find a better way, so he could only rely on Dure. After all, it wasn't difficult to deal with Dure alone, but the difficulty was that everyone's eyes were on him, which made him very uncomfortable.

"Although it is indeed quite difficult, I have gained some experience since I drove a train underground in Chunfeng Town before. If everyone works together well, driving a train away shouldn't be a big problem," Du Lei said with great seriousness and earnestness.

At dusk, he sorted through all the clues and came to the conclusion that they had to rely on the train to get to Rock City, but the train couldn't be started, so they had to find a way to start it. As for finding a way to start it, they could do it on their own without permission from others.

“But isn’t this kind of behavior a bit inappropriate, like stealing a train or something…” Wenli was very worried about this. She had never stolen anything in her life, let alone something as shocking as stealing a train. This would definitely make the news and be in the newspapers.

"It's not stealing, it's borrowing, you understand? Besides, the train is just sitting here anyway, it's a waste of resources to leave it unused. And if we really feel bad about it, we can just send the rental fee back to the railway company through the post office after we arrive at Rock City, right?"

Dure spoke with conviction, claiming that he had already reviewed the entire matter and only acted on it after deeming it feasible.

“I understand. This is the only path we have. Go for it, kid. I support you.” Hu Che offered his opinion. He was on Du Lei’s side. With Hu Che’s support, Bao Wei and the others stopped talking and nodded in agreement.

“Alright, let’s get on the train now and start with the boiler room…” Du Lei began to assign tasks. This was originally Kotetsu’s privilege, but Kotetsu tacitly allowed Du Lei to give orders because he believed that Du Lei could do a better job.

Under Dure's arrangement, everyone worked together and soon they sneaked into the train. Although there were locks on the outside, they were not difficult for Dure to open. He easily opened the locks and soon slipped into the boiler room.

"Same as always, you guys light the coal stove first, I'll go... Hey, Leopard Tail, and Uncle Kotetsu, where are you guys?" Du Lei turned around, trying to get Leopard Tail and Kotetsu to help him, but when he turned around, he suddenly noticed that he didn't see Leopard Tail and Kotetsu anywhere.

"Where did you go? We agreed to keep working, where are you?" Du Lei was a little angry. He immediately got out of the car to look for the two men. Maybe they went to the toilet halfway, Du Lei thought.

The moment his head popped out of the carriage, something pressed against his forehead. Du Lei became alert and tried to escape, but he gave up the idea the next second because he realized that it was the muzzle of a gun and that if he made any rash moves, the other party would pull the trigger.

"Your companions are all here, they've been arrested." A cold voice rang out, and at that moment, the lights in the previously dark station suddenly came on, allowing Dure to see the scene outside.

A large number of guards armed with gunpowder guns surrounded them, and Kotetsu, Hyobi, Winry and others were all arrested, causing Dure to break out in a cold sweat.

"Um, isn't there some misunderstanding here? We just came out for a walk and somehow ended up here, right?" Du Lei put on a smile and tried to smooth things over, as he hadn't figured out where the other person came from.

I don't know if these people came for Winry or for something else.

"Taking a walk? You went for a walk to the train station and even broke the train's lock, is that it?" The man holding the gun to Du Lei's forehead was a young man who looked to be in his early twenties and was wearing a blue uniform. Du Lei looked closely and saw the words "Storm City" on it.

He then realized that the other party was from the Storm City Police Department.

"Really? No, we didn't do it. I just saw a suspicious figure around here, so I followed him to check things out. I was just about to report to you, sir, but you arrived first. Sir, go after him! Don't let him get far!"

Dure pointed ahead, trying to distract the other person.

"So you really are a good citizen. Whether you're innocent or not, just come with me. Take them away." The young man waved his hand, and his men arrested Du Lei and his group.

498 Being targeted

If cats are the natural nemesis of mice, then police are the natural nemesis of thieves. For Dure, stealing a train was a first for him, but picking locks was a piece of cake. He had used his lock-picking skills to help them escape back in Harrenhal.

But for Winry, she had never done anything sneaky before. This unprecedented first time she did something sneaky was stealing a train, and to make matters worse, she got caught by the police. Kotetsu originally wanted to do something else.

After all, Hu Che could tell that apart from the young officer in charge, the rest of the police officers were insignificant. Even if they had gunpowder guns, they could easily deal with them. He wanted to force his way out and let Du Lei take the opportunity to drive the train away.

But Dure gave him a look that this was not appropriate. Although Kotetsu had many questions, he chose to believe Dure and gave up resisting. The young police officer took them to the police station and interrogated them. Dure had already colluded with Kotetsu and his group during the interrogation.

Although they weren't allowed to talk on the street, their eyes were enough to say everything. Besides, there was also Ape Arm among them. During the time he spent with Ape Arm, Du Lei gradually learned to understand some things through gestures. With eye contact, no matter how they were interrogated at the police station, he could talk nonsense.

The police couldn't get any information out of them, so they had to detain them temporarily. Du Lei and Hu Che were detained together.

"You brat, it's all your fault for coming up with this terrible idea. Now we're all locked up. Luckily, we took all the blame and it has nothing to do with Miss Wenli and the others. Otherwise, if Miss Wenli had been imprisoned, could you have taken responsibility for that?" Leopard Tail kept complaining.

He already had doubts about Dure's strategy of stealing the train, and now that he'd been caught red-handed, it was no wonder he was unhappy.

"Now is not the time to complain about these things. Du Lei, why don't you let me take action? We can easily deal with these police officers. Why do we have to obediently go to jail? Isn't that just asking for trouble?" After scolding Baowei, Hu Che asked Du Lei about his intentions.

He simply couldn't understand why Dure opposed his action to drive the police officers away; wasn't that just asking for trouble and ending up in jail? It was utterly unreasonable.

"Don't you think the timing is a little too clever?" Dure asked them.

"What timing? What are you talking about?" Kotetsu was baffled. This kid always said things that sounded mysterious.

“I mean, the timing of these police officers rushing over is strange. They didn’t come earlier or later, but they came right after we boarded the train.” Dure pointed out the crux of the problem. He was good at noticing details, and details could always uncover important clues.

"Well..." Kotetsu frowned and thought carefully. The timing of their arrest was too clever. If it had been a few minutes earlier, they wouldn't have arrived at the train station yet and wouldn't have been caught red-handed. If it had been a few minutes later, they might have already left on the train.