Chapter 26: Found

Qin Qing said, “You know it, then I don’t need to waste my breath explaining it again.”

“Don’t say that! I know it, but it doesn’t know me! Teacher Qin, I don’t know how to use this high-end equipment. You know me—I mean, that ‘Pet Communicator’ of mine is just a front. It’s just a shell, the core is still psychology,” Yang Sang said innocently, holding the compass. “Giving me something like this… aren’t you overestimating me?”

Qin Qing raised an eyebrow. “Don’t know how to use it? Even better.”

“Huh?” He looked like a dumb puppy about to be abandoned.

Qin Qing said, “What I mean is, you don’t need to know how to use it. The one in your hand has been modified by me. It’s not like an ordinary compass.”

Yang Sang held it up, turning it around and even checking it against the sun.

He hesitated, opened his mouth a few times, and finally said, “Um, Teacher Qin. I’m really, truly just a plain old mortal. Judging by now, I probably don’t have any spiritual roots or immortal bones either. I honestly can’t tell what’s different about this.”

He swallowed hard, shrinking back and muttering guiltily, “It looks like one of those cheap knockoffs from a street stall, with the plastic film still on. The only thing that might be worth something is the copper, but even that looks like it’s just plated.”

Qin Qing’s gaze locked onto him.

Yang Sang stepped back a pace, raised both hands to shield his head. “Master, please don’t get angry, don’t hit me! We mere mortals need your mercy.”

“I’m not asking you to judge the material! I’m telling you to test the function!”

Yang Sang mumbled “Oh” in confusion.

Qin Qing: “After we meet the cat owner, you just look at the innermost pointer. It will point in the direction of the cat. You take the cat owner and follow the direction to find it. You should be able to find the cat.” She wasn’t very confident when she said it, but the System Panel had never made a mistake so far.

Yang Sang hugged the compass and spun around a few times.

“No, Teacher Qin, this pointer always points north.”

“I said, wait until we meet the cat owner.”

“Oh.”

After meeting the cat owner, the lady was skeptical of them.

So Qin Qing performed a fake ritual-like action.

She motioned for Yang Sang to place the compass on the table in front of the cat owner.

“Watch closely,” she said.

Staring at the compass were not only the cat owner but also the curious Yang Sang.

Qin Qing cleared her throat twice. Yang Sang received the warning, and his stretched neck and tiptoed feet slowly returned to their original positions.

Qin Qing herself stabilized her mind, bending her middle and ring fingers inward on her left hand, with her thumb pressing down on the tip of her ring finger. This is the most commonly used Taoist finger gesture, which she had just searched for on her way here.

After completing it, she held this hand gesture in front of her chest.

She chanted: “Heaven and Earth are the profound origin, the root of all Qi. Cultivating for countless eons, to manifest my divine powers.”

After chanting this, she used her right hand to seemingly extract something from the cat owner’s glabella, like drawing silk or spinning thread, and then threw it onto the compass in front of them.

And shouted: “Go!”

The pointer in the center of the compass, which had been pointing north, suddenly shook wildly for a moment before returning to stillness. But the pointer no longer pointed north; instead, it consistently pointed in another direction.

The cat owner’s mouth dropped open in surprise: “This… this is?”

Qin Qing said solemnly: “This is to establish a link between you and your cat. The moving pointer on the compass indicates that your bond with your cat is very deep, and the link has been successfully established. If the intimacy between the two parties is not enough, this link cannot be formed.”

In reality, while she was performing the action, she copied and pasted the System Panel map onto the compass. The compass had no display screen, so after simplification, only the pointer arrow moved.

The cat owner was very excited: “Can I pick it up and look?”

“Of course,” Qin Qing smiled, and incidentally kicked the particularly disheveled Yang Sang. His hands and eyes were almost glued to the compass.

Fortunately, the cat owner’s attention was now drawn to the compass, so she didn’t notice Yang Sang’s gaffe.

Yang Sang winced in pain, looking aggrievedly at Qin Qing and then at the cat owner who was walking around the room holding the compass.

That compass was for him!

The cat owner finished experimenting: “It really works! No matter what direction I turn, this pointer stays in one direction. Does this mean my cat is there?”

“Yes. Next, my assistant will take you to find the cat.”

The cat owner was full of energy, completely different from her dejected state when they first met. She pressed on, “How far is the cat from me?”

“That’s uncertain,” Qin Qing mused. “Generally, small cats don’t wander far after getting lost. It’s just that they’re good at hiding, which is why they’re hard to find. Following the compass should help you find it quickly.”

The cat owner nodded vigorously: “Okay, okay, okay.”

Qin Qing took the compass back from her and tossed it to Yang Sang, who had been coveting it.

“You pack up, we’re leaving now.”

The cat owner was clearly awestruck by Qin Qing’s “ritual” and its outcome, completely trusting Qin Qing and following every instruction.

She also said: “I always said that the inventions of our ancestors are incredibly profound. I was truly too shallow before. Not encountering something miraculous doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. Indeed, if you live long enough, you’ll see everything. They used to call it a feudal bane, superstitious dross. In reality, blind faith in science is also a form of superstition. In China, we should embrace everything, and then our path will be wide.”

Qin Qing continued her professional smile: “You can’t say that either. You still have to believe in science. You can’t rely on metaphysics for everything. And it’s not that I’m slandering my peers, but many people haven’t truly grasped the essence. You also can’t blindly believe in metaphysics just because of this one time. In 99% of cases, please use scientific methods to solve problems.”

The cat owner trusted Qin Qing even more.

On the other side, Yang Sang, behind the cat owner, was silently experimenting with and observing the compass like a monkey jumping around.

It was truly an eyesore. Qin Qing could only keep the cat owner’s attention to let Yang Sang finish his antics.

While the cat owner was packing, she pulled Yang Sang aside: “Have you finished studying it? Do you know how to use it now?”

Yang Sang made an “OK” gesture and said mysteriously, “I know! This is a magical artifact refined by you, so even ordinary people can use it!”

Qin Qing: “…”

That’s the conclusion after studying it for half a day?

Qin Qing went along with it: “If you want to understand it that way, it’s not impossible.”

Yang Sang was moved again: “I never thought Teacher Qin would trust me so much, entrusting such an important magical artifact to an ordinary person like me without any reservations.”

How to put it, it’s actually not that important, just bought casually. The funeral shop owner asked for 128, and she haggled it down to 99.

After getting it, she processed it, taking less than 1 minute.

But there’s no need to tell him that.

Qin Qing finally instructed: “When you go to find the cat, you must pay attention to one issue.”

Yang Sang listened intently.

Qin Qing said: “The compass is just a medium for establishing a connection between the cat owner and the cat. This medium is established through the cat owner, so the compass must not be more than 50m away from the cat owner, otherwise it will lose its effectiveness.”

“Understood, you can rest assured.” Then he let out an “ah” sound, “Aren’t you coming with us?”

“No, I’m going to check out the second house on the list.” She then comforted him, “Don’t worry, with the compass, there won’t be any problems. If it really doesn’t work, call me. After you finish this order, come back and tell me about your experience.”

“Okay.”

With the compass handed to Yang Sang, Qin Qing went to handle the second order alone.

She chose to act alone for a reason: she wanted to conduct a second experiment.

After meeting the second cat owner, Qin Qing bound her phone to the System Panel and copied the cat’s location map from the System Panel to her phone.

Of course, this time, she didn’t perform any rituals.

Opening the map on her phone, there was a pin indicating the cat’s location, and the pin’s position changed as the cat moved.

Qin Qing did not open the System Panel at all while searching for this cat, but instead followed the directions on the phone map.

The process was quite smooth; she still found the cat without the System Panel.

After the owner picked up the cat, the pin on the phone map disappeared, and it reverted to a normal map.

Qin Qing put away her phone, having a rough idea in her mind.

She found a coffee shop near the third address to nap, waiting for Yang Sang’s trial results.

“How was it?” Qin Qing asked.

Yang Sang took a big bite of the sausage on his plate, his spirits high: “Since I started this cat-finding business, it’s never been this smooth. Straight to the destination, only taking a little time at the end to lure the cat out.”

“Any problems?”

“The only problem is that the compass can only indicate direction, not specific distance. So the journey isn’t very convenient, mainly because the direction of the road isn’t necessarily the direction of the compass pointer, which might lead to some detours and more time spent on the road. But overall, it’s very useful, the flaws don’t overshadow the advantages, and it’s even very smart. Once the owner picks up the cat, its pointer stops shaking and directly returns to north.”

Qin Qing pondered silently.

So, in comparison, the phone is better, but the compass can also be used. It will take some time, but not too much.

Therefore, the compass experiment was also successful.

She originally wanted to give Yang Sang the phone, but upon closer inspection, it would be hard to explain. It’s much better if the compass can be used.

Yang Sang asked, “Since this pointer has returned to north, do we need to perform another ritual next time we look for a cat?”

Qin Qing nodded, this was inevitable.

“Teacher Qin, can you teach me?” Yang Sang’s eyes sparkled.

“You can’t.”

“Why?” Yang Sang asked, and then immediately answered his own question, “I know, I don’t have the spiritual root for cultivation.”

Actually, that’s not it.

Both the phone and the compass are products of System Panel function transplantation.

Not all functions on the System Panel can be transplanted; in fact, only a few can be, and the map just happens to be one of them.

According to the System Panel’s transplantation rules, a single function can be transplanted to any physical item related to that function, but only one at a time, and it costs Energy Points or Experience Points.

In other words, theoretically, the System Panel can transplant a single function to any item, but the stronger the correlation with the function, the better the effect, and vice versa, the worse the effect.

For example, she could transplant the map function onto a blank piece of paper, but because of the poor correlation, it might not have much of a map effect. But if it’s a phone with a map or a compass that can indicate direction, it’s different. It will function according to the item’s inherent capabilities.

If the carrier for her Transplant Function was a paper map, it might even have a miraculous effect, better than the compass.

But that would be too conspicuous and too unreasonable.

Phone navigation is actually quite unreasonable upon closer inspection. For the sake of reasonableness, she experimented with the compass, which had a slightly worse effect. Fortunately, the experiment was successful.

The compass as a prop also fits the persona of a charlatan that Qin Qing has adopted.

The only problem is: the transplanted function needs to be triggered by the System Panel each time it’s activated.

For example, Qin Qing’s System Panel is currently bound to two physical objects: a phone and a compass.

These two items cannot be used directly by others.

Unless, after meeting the cat owner, she copies the map from the System Panel to the bound object. After finding the cat, the map on the bound object automatically disappears until Qin Qing copies it again.

Binding requires Energy Points or Experience Points, but copying does not.

It’s quite troublesome to use, and Qin Qing hasn’t found a convenient and plausible method yet. Perhaps with the System Panel upgrade, this point can be resolved well.

Think of the notebook, isn’t it also a bound Transplant Function carrier? It’s just more powerful, more complex, and more comprehensive.

She didn’t complain about the System Panel; she was thinking, is this limitation also a form of protection for the user?

Qin Qing also thought of another point: if the System Panel’s function is inherently used to increase the speed of demand consumption, then is her previous idea of overloading the System Panel with a high volume of orders really feasible?

She felt that she was being led by the System Panel in an invisible way.

She had just developed a slight urge to test and resist, and thought she had come up with a solution, but in reality, in a previous upgrade, the System Panel had already given her the missing pieces of her imagined solution as a reward.

This feeling was quite powerless.

Should she follow the System Panel’s line of thinking?

It seemed she had no other choice.

Looking on the bright side, increasing the speed of demand consumption can at least help people and earn money.

If Qin Qing were a bit more insensitive, she could completely treat the System Panel as an ordinary cheat, just like in those novels and stories. Using the cheat to accumulate wealth and conquer all, essentially being a chosen one, with no negative effects from the cheat…

But is that possible?

Qin Qing decided to follow the System Panel’s line of thinking for now and see how it goes.

Yang Sang also shared with Qin Qing: “The cat owner saw us using such a high-class item like a compass to find the cat, and she was very cooperative throughout the whole process, unlike some parents I’ve served before who just gave unhelpful suggestions and caused trouble. This time, the customer kept saying I was very professional and even asked if we took on other businesses besides finding cats.”

“Okay, then maintain good customer relations. Later, when the team grows, we can take on other businesses too.”

Yang Sang put down his fork: “Team?”

Qin Qing: “Yes, I plan to form a team. To build up this business, the market is big and it’s also a good deed. Since the compass I modified can be used by ordinary people, then we’ll try to get a piece of this cake. One person definitely can’t do it, so I’ll register a company.”

“Just finding cats?”

“Finding people, finding cats, finding jobs, finding clients, finding resources, finding lost items—we’ll take on anything that can be found. I’ve even thought of the company name: ‘Found’.”

It sounds good, auspicious. The main purpose is clear, and the result is distinct.

Qin Qing invited: “How about it, do you want to join? You’re already in this line of work, so you bring your own resources. You can do sales.”

Yang Sang: “Just like that, suddenly? So how many people are in our company now?”

Qin Qing: “Actually, we don’t even have a company yet. But if you agree, counting you, there will be two of us as reserves, and maybe Zheng Yi too.”

“Zheng Yi? You talked to Zheng Yi? Isn’t she still recovering?”

“No, I’m just planning to recruit her. Isn’t she in human resources? Anyway, she’s already resigned, and she’ll definitely be looking for a job after her miscarriage leave. If she can come, it’ll save me some trouble.”

Yang Sang asked: “Teacher Qin, you’re not going to recruit everyone from your former clients, are you?”

Qin Qing was indeed thinking that way. She could recruit new people slowly later, but for the initial team, she planned to find people she had already interacted with.

She would register the new company under the name of a consulting firm, but in actual operation, it would still wear the cloak of metaphysics. To avoid new recruits thinking their company was a scam when they joined, it would be better to have people who already knew her to some extent.

This would at least save time on mutual probing and allow them to start operations quickly.

Besides Zheng Yi, she also had her eye on Qin Fanghao from last night, but from last night’s probing, it seemed the girl had no intention of changing for now. She could only observe further; after all, she still owed her money.

–

For Han Jun, today was definitely the darkest day of his life.

Actually, nothing major happened that day; it was just that his job application was rejected again.

Being rejected for a job, how normal is that?

But what if this normal thing had happened many times in the past six months?

So many times that he didn’t even want to count the number of resumes he had sent and interviews he had attended, fearing that if he knew the exact number, he wouldn’t be able to persevere. He could only continue the cycle of sending resumes, interviewing, being rejected, and then sending more, interviewing more, again and again.

He couldn’t stop. He was 41 years old, with elderly parents and young children. He had a mortgage, his parents needed medicine, his children needed to go to school, attend winter and summer camps, study tours, and various classes. If he stopped, all the family burdens would fall on his wife’s slender shoulders, and she had already borne so much for him.

That morning, when he was changing shoes to go out, he noticed that the edges of his wife’s sandals, placed next to his, were already peeling and coming apart.

Han Jun then remembered that his wife loved durian and used to buy a lot in the summer, but he hadn’t seen her eat it once this year.

He used to work in public relations at a large company. When he entered the industry, no one guided him, and the colleagues who joined at the same time as him all looked like young people just like him.

A large part of their department’s work involved liaising with the government. Initially, when doing the same work, others always completed it faster and more easily than him. He just thought he wasn’t working hard enough. Later, he found out that most of these colleagues had direct relatives in positions with “chief” in their titles. When completing departmental work, the people they often needed to liaise with might be their various aunts, uncles, or even their parents’ direct subordinates.

This was an unwritten rule, an open secret in the industry, yet he, a naive newcomer with no connections or background, blundered right into it.

When he first learned about this unspoken rule, he defiantly tried to make a name for himself through sheer performance. He was intelligent, good-looking, had high emotional intelligence, and worked hard enough that he steadily climbed the ranks within the department over the years.

Six months ago, a management position in his department became vacant. By seniority, ability, contribution, current rank, and departmental prestige, he was the obvious choice to take over the role.

But instead of a promotion order, he received a layoff notice.

He got a seemingly substantial severance package, but his household expenses were even greater.

Then he spent six months looking for a job, with no results, even after lowering his salary expectations. If he didn’t find income soon, it was no exaggeration to say that in two more months, his family might not be starving, but they would certainly be living frugally, tightening their belts and eating meagerly.

Two months was the deadline he had set for himself, but in reality, his wife had already started to make sacrifices. The worn-out shoes he saw that morning stung him.

Today’s rejected interview became the last straw that broke him. He sat on the curb, oblivious to his image, chain-smoking, the smoke stinging his eyes and making tears stream down his face. He didn’t dare go home, afraid to face his wife, afraid to see the potential disappointment and anxiety in her eyes.

Cigarette butts littered the ground, and his eyes were so dry they no longer secreted moisture.

He saw riders on the street, roaring past red lights on their bikes. He pulled out his phone, fumbling to register.

The rider’s salary wasn’t high compared to what he used to earn, and he might not be as good as the younger riders, but it was still a source of income.

On the ground in front of him, amidst the cigarette butts, a pair of small white shoes appeared. Judging by the shoe size, they belonged to a woman.

Han Jun looked up, his dry, swollen eyes opening to see a young woman who was clearly sleep-deprived and yawning, leading a very beautiful black and white Border Collie.

The young woman asked him, “Looking for a job? Let me see your resume.”