Chapter 47: Chaos

That troublemaker actually had the nerve to call the cops?

Lorenzo, Alicia, and I were totally caught off guard, just standing there like deer in headlights.

"Hey, are you guys out of your minds?" Alicia stepped up, snapping, "You think you can call the cops on us? Let's see who they side with when they get here!"

Before she could finish, a group of cops burst in, demanding, "Who made the call?"

The two folks on the floor remained sprawled out. Spotting the officers, they immediately pointed at us, exclaiming, "It was us! Officers, you gotta assist us! We were just minding our own business, eating and drinking, and these three jumped us for no reason!"

Alicia was fuming, ready to go over and give them a piece of her mind.

Lorenzo quickly held her back, while I just shook my head, thinking this was all happening way too fast—I didn't even see those two pull out their phones, so how did the cops get here so quick?

"Well, well, look who it is! Isn't it Mr. Howard, or should I say, waiter Dennis!"

That annoying voice was all too familiar. I turned to see Jared, the captain of the Willow Street police station, standing at the door with a smirk on his face.

"Dennis, isn't that the shopkeeper?" Alicia didn't know Jared but spotted another guy and pointed him out to me.

Sure enough, it was the shopkeeper who sold us those fake goods earlier today.

Right now, he was standing next to a young cop, looking all smug.

If I wasn't mistaken, this cop was probably a deputy chief from the South District of Majestic City, the shopkeeper's brother.

Lorenzo shot me a look, and I just sighed, "Well, if it isn't Mr. Clark. Fancy running into you here. What brings you to this neck of the woods, Mr. Clark?"

Jared motioned for the restaurant owner to close the door, "I'm here to visit an old friend. Oh, and this is Deputy Chief Miles Chapman from the South District of Majestic City. Didn't expect to find you causing trouble here, really making our hometown look bad!"

"Jared, these folks aren't just causing trouble!" the shopkeeper chimed in, "You just got here, so you don't know. This afternoon, they tricked me in my store, taking a priceless sheepskin calligraphy scroll for next to nothing. I was about to call the cops on them, and then I ran into them here!"

Jared sneered at us, "You guys are a disgrace, pulling off scams and tricks! My uncle got duped by you too!"

Lorenzo, Alicia, and I exchanged looks. It was obvious the shopkeeper and Miles had set us up from the start, eyeing that sheepskin calligraphy scroll!

And Jared? He was definitely in on it too!

"Arrest them and take them in for questioning!" Miles barked, not wasting a second.

Lorenzo whipped out his phone to call a friend, and I quickly stepped forward to stall. This was Majestic City; even Ronald couldn't bail us out here!

"Miles, what's going on here?"

Before the cops could move, a few more officers walked in. The leader, who looked pretty high up, saw Miles about to make an arrest and stepped in.

Miles turned and froze, "Mr. Larson! What brings you here?"

He said this while bowing slightly and hurrying over. The officers who were about to nab us quickly backed off, whispering, "Isn't that Deputy Chief Blair Larson from the city bureau?"

"Yeah, what's he doing here?"

Alicia nudged me, "Hey, isn't that the mute guy?"

"The mute guy?"

I followed her gaze and saw the wealthy man who couldn't speak, the first customer at Fortune Antiques, standing next to Blair.

He had previously handed me a business card identifying himself as Parker Thornton, the chairman of a prominent corporation in Emberfall City, evidently present for an inspection.

"Hey? Mr. Howard?"

Parker spotted me and hurried over, "Mr. Howard, what are you doing here?"

I gave a wry smile, "Just a little misunderstanding. What brings you here?"

"Oh! I'm here with a few other CEOs for an inspection. Saw Fortune Antiques, so I stopped by. By the way, Blair, my classmate, is joining for a networking event tonight. Invited him and his colleagues after work. We needed a place to eat, then ran into you. What a coincidence!"

After saying this, he noticed our situation, turned to Blair, and had a quick word. Then he introduced us all and pulled the shopkeeper aside to give him a piece of his mind, sorting everything out and setting up a meet at the networking event.

With that, we lost our appetite, paid the bill, and headed straight to the small lecture hall at the art market.

Tonight's networking event was being held there.