On the Ark.

"What's going on?!"

The sausage in my hand was already half-cooked without me even realizing it, and it was emitting the unique aroma of grilled meat.

"W-w-w-w..." Grani's face was full of disbelief. "What's going on? How did the sausage suddenly become cooked? I didn't buy grilled sausages."

Lin Ye was also quite surprised, but he quickly figured out the reason. After all, Warfarin, who had set a precedent, was sitting not far away.

"Cough cough cough, you probably bought the wrong thing." Lin Ye coughed twice, trying to change the subject. "Um, Grani, give me the sausage, I'll feed Nian. Go call the tour group and ask when we're leaving and where we're going next. Tell them not to forget us."

"But this sausage..."

"There's no 'buts'." Lin Ye snatched the sausage from Grani's hand. "Maybe it's just that the sausage you bought is spoiled? Let me take a look. If it's not good, you can just throw it away."

Since Lin Ye had already said so much, Grani couldn't say anything more. He could only scratch his head and say, "Alright then, I'll go call the travel agency."

She walked along, still wondering.

"Wait a minute, I clearly bought sausages, how did they turn into grilled sausages?"

Seeing Grani walk away, Lin Ye breathed a slight sigh of relief. Then he looked at Nian again and found that Nian was staring longingly at the sausage in Lin Ye's hand, obviously wanting to eat more.

Just as Lin Ye was about to say something, the Iron-Eating Beast suddenly approached.

"I saw it! I saw it all!" said the Iron-Eating Beast. "No wonder it's a divine beast! Its mouth can even heat up food!"

Lin Ye glared fiercely at the Iron-Eating Beast: "You damn national treasure, can't you stop talking nonsense?"

"How is this talking nonsense? By the way, why do you keep calling me a dead national treasure?" The Iron-Eating Beast tilted its head, thought for a moment, and then shook its head. "Never mind, that's not important. I've discovered something more interesting."

Lin Ye suddenly sensed something was wrong: "What's going on?"

The Iron-Eating Beast chuckled, then turned to look at Nian, and slowly took out a raw egg from its pocket.

"Grilled sausages and fried eggs are the standard for Victoria's afternoon tea, you know!" the Iron-Eating Beast said excitedly. "Want to try some?"

Nian nodded.

“Then open your mouth,” said the Iron-Eating Beast. “I’ll let you taste what a fried egg tastes like.”

Chapter 541 Lin Ye's Identity?

Bang bang bang.

A knock came at the door.

Chen, who was reviewing documents, said without looking up, "Come in."

The Guardian agent nicknamed Xiaoming pushed open the door and strode in with a stack of documents: "Inspector Chen, I've found out what you asked me to investigate last time."

"What did I ask you to investigate?" Chen didn't remember immediately, so he didn't look up but instead looked intently at the documents in his hand.

Xiao Ming said, "That illegal immigrant named Hayashi Konosuke."

Yukinosuke Hayashi?

Chen was taken aback for a few seconds before realizing who they were talking about. He put down the documents in his hand and looked up at Xiaoming: "What did you find? Can you confirm that he is Lin Ye?"

Xiao Ming said, "This cannot be completely confirmed yet, and last time you asked me to investigate the whereabouts of the five people who smuggled in at the same time as Hayashi Konosuke."

Chen recalled something and then nodded: "So what did you find out? Are they also in Chernobog?"

No, they are already dead.

Chen's eyelids twitched: "Dead?"

“Yes.” Xiao Ming nodded. “All five of them are dead.”

Chen felt like he had struck gold, so he immediately put down the documents in his hand and said in a rather serious tone, "Tell me what exactly happened."

"Yes!" Xiaoming stood up straight and said in a reporting tone, "Last time you asked me to focus on investigating Chernobog, but we couldn't find any information about these five people in Chernobog. In other words, the five of them never went to Chernobog. So I changed my approach and used the town where they smuggled themselves ashore as the starting point and Chernobog as the destination, and devised a route that they were most likely to take to investigate."

"How can this be found?"

“It’s not hard to find out,” Xiaoming said. “Although Ursus is relatively chaotic now, the central areas, especially the cities near the capital, are still very strict. It is generally difficult for illegal immigrants like them to enter these cities. Therefore, if they want to survive in Ursus, there are not many places they can go. They are basically in the small towns and cities with chaotic management along the border. So their routes are not hard to guess.”

Chen nodded and said, "Go on."

“Yes,” Xiaoming said. “In my subsequent investigation, I discovered that they did not leave after arriving in Ursus, and just as I expected, they moved back and forth between several small towns on the border of Ursus. Then, they left behind lives in three places, with the last person dying in Grell City.”

"Gele City?" Chen frowned slightly.

“Yes.” Xiao Ming nodded. “At that time, Grenoble was less than half a day’s distance from Chernobog.”

Chen immediately guessed what was going on. She took the documents from Xiaoming and flipped to the last one, which was the report from the Grenoble Police Department, indicating that the time of death was four years ago.

Four years ago...

Chen's fingers gently rubbed against the report paper.

“The person you asked me to investigate also appeared in Chernobog four years ago,” Xiaoming said. “From a timing perspective, it matches up perfectly.”

Chen Wei nodded slightly, while softly reciting a few keywords: "Four years ago, Lin Ye, Lin Muxinguo, five people, Chernobog..."

She closed her eyes, and a rough guess surfaced in her mind.

Chen opened his eyes and then said softly, "Were they being chased and killed?"

“That’s my guess too.” Xiao Ming nodded. “After they landed in Ursus, they were very likely already being watched. The people watching them were definitely not ordinary people; their goal was to kill them all. This pursuit lasted for nearly a year, and they eventually succeeded in killing five people besides Lin Muxin. The fifth person died in Grell, less than half a day from Chernobog.”

Chen tapped the table rhythmically, seemingly deep in thought, before slowly saying, "A year-long manhunt, that's really ruthless. But considering this, the possibility that Lin Ye is actually Hayashi Mukonosuke is very, very high."

“Yes,” Xiaoming nodded, “It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say it’s 99%.”

"Then why did Lin Ye survive?" Chen asked. "Didn't you say that Grenoble City is less than half a day's distance from Chernobog? If the people chasing them really wanted to kill them all, why did they let Lin Ye go?"

There are two possibilities.

"You said."

“The first possibility is that three days after the fifth man died, Grenoble City, having foreseen the natural disaster, moved the entire city hundreds of kilometers away,” Xiaoming said. “Grenoble City then moved several more times, eventually settling thousands of kilometers away from Chernobog. This could very well have disoriented the pursuers.”

Chen nodded and asked, "What's the second possibility?"

“The second possibility is that the people chasing them were not locals of Ursus, but rather people from the Eastern Kingdom or the Yan Kingdom who had illegally crossed over to Ursus. Their numbers were limited, and after killing the last person besides Lin Muxing in Gler City, they were all wiped out,” Xiaoming replied. “Because besides the fifth person, there were three other bodies found at the scene, and judging from their injuries, they had obviously been in a fierce battle.”

"Is it the same in other places?"

“Reports from other places weren’t as detailed,” Xiaoming said. “Because of the size of Grenoble City, the military and police investigated the case thoroughly, so they were able to obtain relatively detailed information. Other places didn’t have that. It’s worth mentioning that the Grenoble police also determined that this was a revenge attack, and believed that…”

Chen looked up at Xiaoming: "What do you think?"

"We believe the assassin came from the East," Xiaoming said. "Because their fighting style is very similar to that of the Oni Warriors unique to the East."

"An Onimusha?" Chen's eyes narrowed slightly.

“Yes.” Xiaoming nodded. “Then do we need to continue the investigation? If we do, we can only start with Dongguo.”

Chen glanced at Xiaoming: "You think it was made by Dongguo?"

“Yes, aren’t the Onimusha the best evidence?” Xiaoming said. “I think it’s very likely a family feud in the Eastern Kingdom.”

Chen was silent for a moment before saying, "It's not just the people of the East who can hire Oni Warriors. In the East, there's another country where Oni Warriors are equally active, and on a much larger stage."

"Huh?" Xiaoming was a little confused. "You mean..."

“Start the investigation from Yan Country,” Chen said.

"Yan Kingdom? It's not impossible, but there are just too many powerful families there," Xiao Ming said with a wry smile. "How long could we possibly investigate, and where would we even begin?"

Chen glanced at Xiaoming and said casually, "Naturally, from the biggest one."

……

"Dr. Lin, the travel agency just told us that the nunnery seems to have been flooded due to the earthquake, so the rest of the itinerary will have to be changed."

"Oh? Where are you going?"

“Let’s go to Los Angeles,” Grani said. “I heard there’s a pretty big event there.”

"What kind of event?" Lin Ye asked casually.

"The engagement ceremony of the fourth princess of Yan Kingdom".

……

……

Author's BB: -119

Chapter 542 Departure from Los Angeles

"Um, am I remembering wrong?" The tour guide looked at Nian, who was being led by Lin Ye, with a suspicious expression. "I don't think there were any children in your group before, right? Shouldn't there have been an adult woman as well?"

Lin Ye said without changing his expression, "You're mistaken. We've always had a little girl here. She was the one who kept asking to go to the temple up there, so we went up with her."

"Is that so?" The tour guide nodded and said, "Those are indeed very naughty children. After all, there was an earthquake last night, and it's fortunate that you are all safe. If something happens to the tourists during the trip, I will be held responsible. It's better not to leave the group next time."

Lin Ye rubbed Nian's head and nodded repeatedly, "Don't worry. We'll keep a close eye on this unlucky kid from now on."

Because the Messiah turned into a cat, and then a new year was added, the travel agency definitely needed to explain. However, since the total number of people remained the same, Lin Ye insisted that the new year was the Messiah, and that there was a little girl in their group. Although the tour guide was somewhat puzzled, he dealt with so many people every day that he couldn't possibly remember everyone, so he believed Lin Ye's explanation.

only……

The tour guide pointed to Messiah, who was sleeping on Lin Ye's suitcase: "Where did you get this cat from?"

"Uh, I found it on the mountain."

Why were you picking up cats on the mountain?

"Well... it's all because this unlucky kid wanted it!" Lin Ye started rubbing Nian's head again, passing the buck to her. "This unlucky kid couldn't resist this cat after seeing it and insisted on keeping it. I had no choice but to bring the cat over and adopt it."

Nian was somewhat bewildered by Lin Ye's crazy head-rubbing technique and unknowingly took the blame for two things that Lin Ye had done wrong.

"Well, your family certainly has a lot going on," the tour guide said with a hint of helplessness. "But you'll have to keep a close eye on your daughter and the cat from now on, since our itinerary has changed and we're going to Los Angeles. It's a big city, and the fourth princess of the royal family is there too. You two mustn't be reckless, or you'll run into trouble."

Lin Ye nodded repeatedly: "Okay, okay, I will definitely keep an eye on this unlucky kid."

After the tour guide left, Lin Ye realized something was wrong.

Wait, how come he's an adult father?

What's going on? Judging by age, he's way his grandmother's age; judging by appearance, he's at most an older brother. Why is he called "Dad"? Does he even look that old?!

Lin Ye was a little annoyed, thinking that the tour guide was really clueless.