Tokyo, but I'm a deceitful scumbag.

But just as she was about to take out her money, the doorbell rang again.

Upon opening the door, they discovered a handsome young man in a police uniform standing outside!

Good morning, grandpa!

Hideyuki Hoshino greeted him with a smile.

Chapter 195 The Fox: Rivals are rivals!

"H-hello."

After exchanging pleasantries, the old lady scratched her head and asked, "Officer, may I ask...?"

"Well, we've been doing a science outreach activity recently."

Hoshino Hideyuki entered the house with an irresistible smile, turned around and saw the middle-aged man from the water company, and said, "Oh, you have guests at home?"

The middle-aged man nodded somewhat stiffly: "Ah, um..."

"Haha, it's okay. If you're not in a hurry, come and listen too! We'll explain criminal methods; the more listeners, the better!"

Hoshino Hideyuki patted the middle-aged man on the shoulder in a very familiar manner, then took out a stack of flyers from his pocket, separated two and handed them to the old lady and the middle-aged man, smiling as he said:

"Recently, there has been a series of scams in this area."

The old lady adjusted her reading glasses and asked suspiciously, "A series of scams?"

"That's right, it can also be called nested fraud. In general terms, it means first giving you a very simple scam as bait, so that you can easily see through it and lower your guard, and then believe in a deeper scam."

As Hoshino Hideyuki spoke, he patted the shoulder of the middle-aged man next to him and said with a smile, "Let's take this friend from Takarada Waterworks as an example."

Middle-aged man: "Huh? I..."

"Hmm, could you please do me a favor?"

"Suppose this friend is a fraudster using the above tactics, he won't directly try to scam you. Instead, he'll first approach you, introduce himself, and give you a business card. Since there's no financial stake involved, you won't be wary of him at this point."

Hoshino Hideyuki tilted his head and smiled:

"Next, he will have his accomplice appear in front of you. He might be a young man in a cheap uniform who will tell you obvious lies, such as that there is a problem with the water quality and it needs to be inspected. He will be eager to get you to spend money."

"At this point, you'll naturally refuse and then think of him. Comparing the two, you'll find him more trustworthy, making it easier for you to open your wallet and buy some unreasonably expensive services from him... Well, that's roughly the logic, sir. Don't you think it's hard to guard against?"

The middle-aged man touched his nose: "Yeah, it's really hard to defend against..."

The old woman's eyes subtly changed.

"Ahem, I suddenly remembered something urgent, oh right, my wife is about to give birth! Sorry, I'm in a hurry, goodbye!"

The middle-aged man slammed his hand on the table, finished speaking at lightning speed, then quickly put on his shoes and ran out of the house.

The old woman stared at his retreating figure for a moment, then asked Hoshino Hideyuki, "So... he's a con artist?"

Haha, you reacted pretty quickly, old man.

But he's not the only con artist; I am too.

Hoshino Hideyuki shrugged. "Who knows? Oh, by the way, you can keep this."

He handed the filter left behind by the middle-aged man to the old lady: "It's not worth much, but it's actually quite useful. If you're worried, just install it on the faucet."

"No, this won't do, I haven't paid yet..."

"That person won't be coming back. If you don't use it, you'll have to throw this thing away."

As Hoshino Hideyuki spoke, he walked to the door, put on his shoes, and waved goodbye to the old lady, saying, "Grandma, next time someone tries to get money from you, be more careful!"

With a loud bang, the door opened, and the fox left the house.

The only remaining elderly woman rubbed her eyes, feeling that everything that had just happened was a bit too magical...

Just when I was about to be scammed, the police suddenly appeared and helped me...

"Oh, I forgot to say thank you! Ugh, my brain!"

A minivan was parked on the side of a path a few hundred meters away from the old lady's house.

On the bus, the young man in the suit and the middle-aged man from before were sitting together.

The young man frowned and asked, "Failed? Why?"

The middle-aged man smirked and said, "A policeman suddenly appeared out of nowhere, and he seems to know our tricks all too well..."

The young man blinked and stammered, "You...you're talking about a policeman, is he very handsome? And...and always smiling?"

"Oh right, right, how did you guess so accurately?"

As the middle-aged man was wondering what was going on, he noticed that his companion's gaze was a bit off. He immediately froze, his neck twitching as he turned his head...

Sure enough, outside the half-open car window was Hideyuki Hoshino with a smile on his face.

"It's nice to see you again, Mr. Kato~"

The fox accurately pronounced the middle-aged man's surname, then looked at the young man and said, "This must be Mr. Kobayashi, right? Oh my, he's much more handsome than he looks in the photo."

Kobayashi and Kato looked at each other in bewilderment.

Spicy balls!

Isn't this all been thoroughly investigated?

In an instant, Kobayashi in the driver's seat wanted to step on the gas and drive off, but the older Kato stopped him with a look.

The name and fraudulent methods have been exposed. What's the point of running away now? Are you just throwing away your belongings?

There was only one person on the other end, let's talk first!

"Excuse me, who exactly are you?" Kato turned around, smiling obsequiously. "What is your purpose in seeking us out?"

"Don't be nervous, I'm not a real police officer, and I mean no harm."

Hoshino Hideyuki raised his hands and said, "I'm a con artist too, I just want to do business with you two~"

The two men were taken aback, exchanged another glance, and this time Xiaolin spoke first: "What kind of business?"

Hideyuki Hoshino shook his head: "For a con artist, the methods and the target are very precious secrets, so I'm sorry, I can't tell you yet... because I'm not sure if you are worth inviting. You have to prove it first."

Kobayashi immediately snapped, "Hey, don't look down on me!"

Kato frowned slightly, thinking that it wasn't surprising that the other party was arrogant since they knew his name. His immediate priority was still gathering intelligence, so he said quite humbly:

"So, how do we prove it?"

Hideyuki Hoshino pointed to a street corner not far away, where a man in his thirties was standing, holding a brown wallet, talking on the phone and looking around.

“That man just found a wallet—yes, the one I threw away—and he’s looking for the owner. All you have to do is walk up to him and trick him out of the wallet.”

"As for what was in the wallet... I can only say that it contained identification documents and 100,000 yen in cash."

"As long as you manage to get the wallet, regardless of whether the deal goes through or not, the 100,000 is yours. Consider it compensation for ruining your business. How about it?"

Kobayashi initially wanted to refuse, thinking, "Why should I bother being tricked by you?" But when he heard that he could get 100,000 yen, he immediately hesitated.

Kato gritted his teeth inwardly. Based on his experience, he still felt that Hoshino Hideyuki was up to something, but at present, he didn't seem to have any reason to refuse at the risk of exposing his identity.

Or... how about giving it a try?

The middle-aged man and the young man exchanged a glance, and then nodded together.

"We can't let this kid underestimate us!"

ten minutes later.

Kato, who was well-prepared, found the man first, while Kobayashi pretended to be a passerby to keep watch.

He put on a familiar,憨厚 smile and said, "Hello, um, excuse me, but this wallet you're holding is the one I just lost..."

"Are you sure?" The man squinted and sized up Kato.

"Yes, I'm absolutely certain there's still some of my cash inside..."

"That's it..."

Kato felt something was off.

The person who found the wallet shouldn't have this attitude when they meet the owner. Shouldn't the proper procedure be to be polite, carefully check what's inside, and then return it with a smile?

He prepared a whole set of talking points for this!

Click.

what?

Suddenly, a flash of silver light appeared, and Kato looked down to find a handcuff on his wrist.

"I'm a police officer! Please cooperate with the investigation!"

"Ha, I didn't expect you to walk right into my trap as soon as the evidence was discovered. Tell me, what's with the counterfeit money and those dozen or so DVDs of bestiality and animal cruelty in this wallet! You counterfeiters are getting more and more disgusting..."

Kato:?

Plainclothes officers from the search team?

And tell me, what's in this wallet?

Maru, you've been tricked!

Chapter 196 Fox: Huh? The plot can unfold like this?

Kato instinctively turned around, wanting to find Hoshino Hideyuki.

Then he saw the handsome Tokyo guy smile brightly in the bright sunshine, wave at him, turn around and get into the driver's seat of the van, step on the gas, and drive away!

what?

Damn it! Eight ducks! Arminus!

"Where are you looking? Get down here!"

On the front, the plainclothes police officer was very dissatisfied with Kato's underhanded actions and was about to take action.

In the blink of an eye, Kobayashi, who was standing by, hesitated for a moment but decided to show some loyalty. He lunged forward and slammed his shoulder into the policeman's back with a loud thud.

"what!"