Chapter 332: Who Is This Appraiser Lin?
Although he had only met Lin Jin once, Escort Zhang absolutely worshiped the man.
After all, not everyone could experience an encounter as incredible as the one he came across last night. For someone who to be able to effortlessly evolve so many pet beasts in one go, protecting the Qiao family from trouble should be a cinch for him.
When they spoke, Escort Zhang sang nothing but praises for him.
When Qiao Feigong heard of Appraiser Lin again, he felt somewhat strange. To think Escort Zhang was so impressed by this one guy.
As a youngster, Qiao Xing’s thinking was much more simple. He found it baffling when his father chose to submit to misfortune and let the issue go. To not find faults with the person who just robbed their family was like suffering a beating and still having to apologize to the culprit. He felt sick of being on the losing end of this whole incident.
But since his father had spoken, he kept quiet. Now that Escort Zhang was bringing up this person again, Qiao Xing was instantly irked.
“Who does that Appraiser Lin think he is? If he’s really that capable, he wouldn’t have stolen our goods like a bandit. How shameless! I chose to keep quiet earlier but I can’t help but feel that this person might have just given you a fake name. If you really were to look for him, you might not even find him at all,” Qiao Xing said.
Escort Zhang was dumbstruck.
It seemed the Qiao family had thought of themselves as unfortunate instead, refusing to believe in his words.
Following a sigh, Escort Zhang said no more. He couldn’t blame them because these were all just rumors to the Qiao family and he wasn’t their family member.
Qiao Feigong might believe him but the man didn’t plan on getting Appraiser Lin’s help. If Escort Zhang insisted, they might find him annoying, or worse, they might regard him as being in cahoots with Appraiser Lin.
After thinking it through, Escort Zhang stopping bringing it up and announced his departure.
Upon returning home, Escort Zhang’s wife was baffled when she opened the door. Before Escort Zhang left, he mentioned he would be gone for at least half a month but now, here he was, back home after about two days.
“Why are you home so soon?” Mrs. Zhang was a virtuous woman. She helped put away her husband’s belongings including his weapons.
She also led the mountain lion to their beast pen in the yard.
Escort Zhang smiled. “Something amazing happened so I came back in advance.”
“An accident?” Mrs. Zhang was shocked. “What happened? Has the agency…”
“It’s more like a blessing in disguise.” Escort Zhang briefly explained the situation. Unlike other men who disliked women butting into their affairs, Escort Zhang chose to tell her because Mrs. Zhang was a pretty intelligent person. At times, she would even help him brainstorm ideas.
Thus, Escort Zhang told her what happened.
Mrs. Zhang gaped as she listened. Everything sounded so bizarre to her.
“You’re saying that this Appraiser Lin can move on clouds? He can also effortlessly evolve nine of the escorts’ pet beasts in one go? Doesn’t that make him sound almost divine?” Mrs. Zhang clearly seemed skeptical.
Escort Zhang looked helpless. “It does sound like an exaggeration but I’m telling the truth. In fact, I think that Appraiser Lin is actually much more amazing than we were led to believe.”
“Darling, I believe you.” Mrs. Zhang smiled. She obviously understood Escort Zhang more than the Qiao family. This man had an honest character so even if he didn’t have much going for him, lying wasn’t something he would typically do.
Especially when it came to something as serious as this.
“If that’s the case, isn’t Sanshi now Rank 3?” Mrs. Zhang asked after digesting the information.
“That’s right.” Delight returned to Escort Zhang’s face when this was mentioned.
Having been an armed escort for so many years, life wasn’t exactly hard at home. They weren’t rich, but they were slightly better off than the average family.
Many of his colleagues were worse off than him, so most of the time, being the good friend that he was, Escort Zhang would help them with their finances. For this reason, his family didn’t have much money saved up.
Sending his son to school cost him quite a lot too. Last year, in particular, they had spent quite a bit to get their son a nice pet beast as well so life hasn’t been the smoothest as of late.
But now, things were different.
Everyone knew that pet beasts were everything. A pet beast of high rank held great significance for their family.
Although Ji’an Security Services was a long-established agency, the jobs they received didn’t pay much. They couldn’t even get big jobs because their agency only had one Rank 2 pet beast, which was Escort Zhang’s docked-tail mountain lion.
It was good enough that one Rank 2 pet beast could afford to support the entire agency.
But if they had a Rank 3 pet beast, things would be different. Their agency’s status would now rise again. One could imagine how bright their future would be.
This was clearly a huge turning point for them.
Mrs. Zhang didn’t know much about pet beasts but since Escort Zhang said his lion had evolved, that must be true.
“Since you don’t have anything scheduled for the next few days, why don’t we pay our hometown a visit?” Mrs. Zhang asked after getting an idea.
Escort Zhang glanced at his wife, knowing exactly what she was thinking.
She probably wanted to show off the Rank 3 pet beast to their family. After all, some tiny villages had probably never seen a Rank 3 pet beast their whole life.
What’s more, Mrs. Zhang’s family was relatively prominent in their village. Back then, Escort Zhang was young and somewhat incompetent so their marriage brought about contempt and mockery.
All these years, despite Escort Zhang staying silent, Mrs. Zhang knew he wasn’t able to let that memory go.
Now that Escort Zhang’s pet beast was Rank 3, his status had shot up immediately. If they were to go back now, no one on her side of the family would ever look down on her husband anymore.
With this, the knot in Escort Zhang’s heart could also be untied.
“My beloved wife, thank you.” Escort Zhang reached out to hold Mrs. Zhang’s hands in his own, caressing them before saying, “I won’t be able to leave for the time being. I promised the Qiao family that I’ll be helping them out in two days.”
“The Qiao family? Help with what?” Mrs. Zhang looked curious.
“Who knows? But I can tell they’ve run into some trouble and have been recruiting experts. I only casually offered my help but they actually accepted it. Maybe it’s because our Sanshi has evolved. Otherwise, they wouldn’t have accepted my offer that readily.”
Escort Zhang was spot on.
Qiao Feigong only allowed him to help solely because his pet beast evolved up to Rank 3.
“The Qiao family is facing trouble that requires them to recruit experts?” Mrs. Zhang thought more of the situation. Perhaps it just the thought pattern of women, but she immediately considered the negative possibilities.
To her, the Qiao family had been prosperous for many generations. They were, after all, the wealthiest family in Reed City. Even the city lord had to show them respect. They even had connections in the royal capital.
For a family this powerful, forget the average folks, even Escort Zhang’s family paled in comparison to theirs.
For a family of their scale to come across a problem that would ruffle their feathers this much. Surely, it was something that might prove fatal if underestimated.
Mrs. Zhang’s first concern was whether Escort Zhang would end up provoking trouble by helping them out.
A prominent family like the Qiao’s could afford to endure turbulence but they sure couldn’t.
Thus, a worried expression appeared on her face.
“Don’t worry, I’m just going to help. Also, there shouldn’t be any problems.” Escort Zhang didn’t think too much about it. He had considered that possibility too but then, the Qiao’s were such a huge family that such obstacles were inevitable. Life was never smooth, and this was so, even when they’re such a big clan. Technically, they should be able to brave this upcoming storm with little problem.