Chapter 31: Chapter 31 - Close Partner
Zhang Dao, this person, was called blunt, to put it nicely, but to put it bluntly, he was called evil and easily offended.
But one thing that can be confirmed is that he has those gifted eyes that ensure that what he says is not empty talk. Even though the Bale family didn't know how powerful his eyes were, and Peter had sternly warned him to keep his mouth shut, Zhang Dao's words still planted a seed in the hearts of the Bale family.
It's just that this part would have nothing to do with Middendorffi and the others. They left the Bale family in disarray and took Zhou Tianlin back to the "Collector" with them, reporting Zhou Tianlin's cheating case to the police. However, the police could not take Zhou Tianlin away directly; Zhang Dao excused that Zhou Tianlin still had a special status and had to be brought back to the sect to deal with it first, and then handed him over to the police afterwards.
This part also has little to do with Middendorffi and Eli; they cooperated with the police to do the preliminary investigation, then left first. The police also sighed with them: "Before you also reported that induced suicide case, this feudal superstition fraud case is also you stabbed out, this all what luck ah."
Middendorffi said, "The Bale family has something to do with all these cases."
The police officers sighed even more at his words, "This Bale family is also enough to toss ..."
Middendorffi doesn't discuss his feelings with the police and returns home with Eli. And it wasn't until they got home that Eli asked Middendorffi, "You've been looking at your phone now and then since the return trip just now; what?"
"Sally said that her brother-in-law had been called back to her grandfather's house as well, and the whole family was discussing whether to identify Peter's DNA. It's been confirmed that the identification is going to happen. Peter's on fire right now and is vandalising the house." Middendorffi, in a subdued tone, described the scene as "hilarious" and "Sally is gloating. Because Peter, his divorced mum and his granddad are all gamblers. They're sucking blood out of Bale's house to support their expenses, and they're even stealing from Bale's house. If Peter can't ask for money from Bale's family, all three of those gamblers are going down."
Masato Ebashi
Eli's voice was cold, "She talked to you that much?"
"I didn't reply to her, and she's the one who keeps sending it to me." Middendorffi said, "She sent many miscellaneous words; that's what I've summarised."
"How come you always have someone to confide in?" Eli said, "You didn't reply but read it all."
"I just thought it seemed interesting that there was this complicated, ridiculous and incomprehensible thing between people." Middendorffi said, "It's amazing how Peter treats his family like that, and his family is just infinitely more tolerant and not punitive. Is that human nature?"
"It's just a choice those few people make. They can represent a certain group of classes, but by no means does everyone make the same decision as the Bale family when faced with a relative like Peter." Eli's tone loosened a bit more as he listened to his explanation, "You can watch if you want, but don't let any of this trouble get to you."
He paused momentarily and then couldn't help himself, "Sally's not a simple person; don't believe anything she says."
Middendorffi returned, "What she says, herself, has little to do with me; I just read it as a story."
Eli said a "hmmm" just as a new message came in on Middendorffi's phone. So Middendorffi lifted her phone again on the spot to look at it, and Eli casually asked, "What's the plot update again?"
"Sally gave me another fifty grand and said it was hard money for this trip to take Choutenayashi away." Middendorffi blinks, "She said it's for me, and you and Zhang Dao's are given separately, so she also wanted to ask me for Zhang Dao's contact information."
After Sally gave Middendorffi a direct transfer for the first time, she followed Middendorffi's suggestion and used all mobile phone transfers later. In Jennifer's case, she later settled for 100,000 in addition to the carriage fee. It is said that there is also a thank-you fee from her brother-in-law, mainly to repay Middendorffi for "kicking off" Jennifer's suicide by being lured by people on the Internet. This time, the money is related to the "Zhou Tianlin fraud case".
Eli and Middendorffi have been sharing the income equally, so Eli has no problem sharing the money. He only responded to Sally's request for contact information, "Let her ask the police for it. Zhang Dao took away Zhou Tianlin; the police must have Zhang Dao's contact information on their side so Sally can ask when she goes to the police."
"Good." Middendorffi didn't refute Eli and said whatever he wanted. He answered and started fiddling with his phone. Eli assumed he was getting back to Sally, but it turned out that Eli's phone soon rang as well.
Eli looked at it, and his brows furrowed, "Why did you give me all fifty thousand?"
"I did nothing this time; I just had coffee and watched a play." Middendorffi pulled a small bottle out of his pocket, "You caught this for me, and there's nothing else I can do to repay you, so I'll give you a little something for your hard work."
It was the bottle that contained the brat. It looked very lightweight, and Middendorffi took it straight away and banged it in his pocket, shaking and rattling it. He didn't seem worried about what would happen if the cap was accidentally knocked off, and Eli didn't care what he did with the bottle.
What Eli cared about was the content of Middendorffi's words. His brow furrowed tighter as he asked Middendorffi, "Do I lack your hard-earned money for this?"
"I know you don't lack it, but I want to give it to you." Middendorffi said, "Shouldn't have let you work for nothing."
"I wouldn't even offer to say I helped you catch this brat if I knew you'd pay me!" Eli stared at him, "Between us, this kind of hand-holding, you think it counts for something, don't you?"
"I know we're friends." Middendorffi wasn't Jangdao; he wouldn't be intimidated by Eli; he just looked back at him calmly, "But isn't there a saying that says, 'even a blood brother has to reckon with his friends'?"
"'Keeping score'? You want to settle accounts with me?" Eli narrowed his eyes slightly and slowly said, "Then there are a lot of things I haven't settled with you."
"... What?"
"Do you want me to ask explicitly?" Eli said, "Today in the cafe, Zhang Dao said you are a black hole in a human's skin, but I helped you. Why didn't you mention that you wouldn't let me 'work for nothing'?"
Middendorffi was silent.
"I helped you because it pleased me; I didn't ask you because I didn't force you; I can support you in what you want to do. But you can't treat me as if I were just like everyone else, and try to bluff me with all those human society clichés." Eli grabbed his hand again and looked at his palm, "When I oppressed Zhang Dao today, it affected you. Why else would you keep looking at your hand and holding it open for the ground test?"
Middendorffi jerked his hand back as hard as if it had been burned.
His eyes stared straight at Eli, with some hidden suspicion in the bottom of his eyes. Eli felt that he was already familiar enough with him, and it was also the first time he had seen him have such an expression, so his tone couldn't help but soften a bit again: "Don't be afraid; I said I won't force you. I wish you wouldn't be so detached as to put a price tag on some of my behaviour regarding money or other material things."
Middendorffi was silent for a few seconds before speaking again, "But then you can just give me stuff."
Eli was a bit teary-eyed at this and couldn't tell if he was being condescending, complaining, or just stating the facts, so he had to say, "Those were small, random things given to you, with no purpose, just to make you happy at most, not the same thing as you putting a price tag on something like that. If you don't like that thing, you can not take it. Do I still force you to give it?"
Middendorffi said, "As long as both parties are happy and give it away as they please, that's fine?"
"There's nothing wrong with giving gifts; it doesn't matter if you give them seriously or casually, but you mustn't go beyond your means and make the recipient or the giver unhappy. Unless, of course, you're deliberately trying to upset someone else." With that out of the way, Eli returned to his routine of explaining some of life's minutiae, "If you're giving it to me, at least I can't be unhappy when I receive it, right? Is it hard to believe that you're just trying to piss me off?"
Middendorffi was confused by his winding and had to answer the last question first and tightly, "No."
"In that case, I'll transfer half of it back to you, and I don't want to collect this extra half." Eli said, "And don't you ever take the liberty of giving me a cut like that again, understand?"
Middendorffi said, "Actually, it's supposed to be given directly to you by those giving the money; it shouldn't go through me ..."
"We're partners. I'm happy to give you a hand. I don't care how much money I get, and I'll arrange it however you want; I don't need you pussyfooting around with someone else there to get me paid." Eli said, "Those parties, it's enough for one of us to add contact information anyway; there's no need to have them build a wall of secrecy between us."
Middendorffi was genuinely bewildered, "Is that how it works between partners?"
Eli said, "So let me ask you this: if something happened to me, would you fight tooth and nail to save me?"
"Of course, I would."
"Then, in my case, partners who are close enough to be on the level of life and death can be like that." Eli paused, adding a patch, "I only do that with you."
"... Oh." Middendorffi seemed to understand. Eli reminded him, "You can't do that with anyone else either."
"There was no one else," Middendorffi replied naturally and looked down at the 25k that had come back on his phone. Eli looked at him and laughed silently.
"I remembered something." Middendorffi suddenly looked up again, "I think Zhang Dao was going to pay us an agency fee, but after going straight to Bale's house, he hasn't paid it so far."
He was just now treating money as something outside his body, and now he was starting to count on that little agency fee; Eli listened to it with amusement. But Eli regained his severe expression and returned, "I have his contact information; I'll ask him for it."
Middendorffi nodded: "Good."
So Zhang Dao, who was still at Zhou Tianlin's house, waiting for the police to take Zhou Tianlin away after the raid, received a very mercenary message from Eli.
Eli: [When will the agency fee be paid?]
He even added a "patch": "You can transfer the money directly from your mobile phone.
Zhang Dao: "..."
--Is it true that people love money so much?
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