I don’t know how much time had passed.
A figure approached Brian, yawning, "Morning, Brian. You’re looking at that painting again?"
Brian jolted back to consciousness.
He looked up and saw it was old Hardenn.
That Hardenn was exuding a woman’s scent today, too. His lecherous spirit never changed.
He nodded, "The recent cases haven’t been very challenging, so I let Green and the others handle them for practice. I’m bored, so I thought I’d study some paintings and get a feel for the artistic atmosphere."
"Studying art, that’s great!"
Old Hardenn quite agreed,
"Brian, let me tell you, art is all about one word, expensive!
My neighbor’s daughter used to work part-time at a hotel, earning just a few hundred dollars a night, and I heard that’s after some gold medal test driver appraised her.
That test driver seems to have quit the trade.
Without regular driving reports, her price kept falling.
Later, she went off to art school after working hard at the community college, and now I hear she’s making four figures a night.
That’s the charm of art!
Once I get my paycheck, I also want to experience the artistic atmosphere.."
Saying this, he smacked his lips.
He’d earned quite a sum helping Brian set up the website.
Too bad, after setting aside college funds for the kids at home, what was left had been entirely spent on his escapades.
Brian: ...Why do I feel like you’re teasing me, old Hardenn?
Old Hardenn felt a bit creepy under Brian’s judgmental gaze, thinking the other guy despised him for robbing the cradle, and hastily explained, "Don’t get me wrong, Brian, you know how pricey art school is. I’m just following the Lord’s teachings, helping out where I can, doing good deeds.."
Brian still looked at him.
He wanted to see just how thick Hardenn’s face was.
Under his meaningful look, old Hardenn finally couldn’t stand it and retreated back to his own desk.
After old Hardenn rolled away to his desk to sleep, Brian retracted his gaze.
He rubbed his forehead and picked up the lines he had unconsciously sketched out.
Well, they weren’t exactly lines.
This thing was dense and had taken on some kind of bird-like shape.
Actually, he had gone into an Overclocking State in his brain, which wasn’t without considerable energy expenditure.
With this state, Brian seemed to understand a bit more about how this landscape painting had been created.
The so-called Curse Pattern was actually a kind of line drawing created through visual distortion, not a real landscape painting.
Similar to video recording, where frames are the unit of measurement.
Ordinary people don’t notice the pauses when they watch movies and television.
But those with enhanced neuronal response focusing intently can actually see the strange phenomenon of countless frames linked together.
It’s the same with this landscape painting.
Just that the ink would spread and blur, reducing the sense of separation between the lines, so most people fail to notice there’s something off with the painting.
Having nothing better to do,
Brian simply began to deconstruct the painting, ready to restore it to its original lines on paper.
The whole process was even more taxing on his spirit than he imagined.
Every time he deconstructed a part, Brian needed to close his eyes and rest for a while.
He kept at this the whole day.
While Brian was slacking off, Shi San and Green were much busier.
Green lazily took Shi San for a meandering drive through Los Angeles.
In each community, he would park briefly to let Shi San stick his head out and take a deep sniff.
Shi San’s sense of smell became freakishly sensitive, able to detect a variety of distinct smells, especially his own urine, within several kilometers.
the duo visited hundreds of communities, identified seven system dens, more than a dozen illegal gatherings, and two gay bars hidden in University City. They caught a female pimp hiding a large number of male "pheromones" and accidentally apprehended a group of arms traffickers.
As for minor crimes, they had surpassed dozens.
All of this kept the local police officers extremely busy.
Looking for a motorbike thief, it turned into something akin to a city-wide crackdown.
If those arrested knew the cause and effect, they’d probably curse that little thief’s ancestors.
As evening approached,
Shi San rubbed his nose with his paw, "Green, how many more communities?"
He had sniffed too many messy smells today and felt like he needed to wash his nose.
"Twenty-three affluent communities, eight ordinary ones left."
Green glanced at the computer on the passenger seat and reminded, "Oh, by the way, Shi San, how do you tell the difference in your urine? I remember in a couple of communities earlier, we have our clients.."
Clients, those were the people buying Shi San’s urine.
They still didn’t know that what they thought was some kind of alternative energy drink was actually dog pee.
Nowadays, quite a few well-off people would have a little cup after activities to recover some energy, which meant fewer domestic disputes in Los Angeles of late.
Shi San flicked his ear, "Simple. The taste of the drink has got to be just right, so I removed some potent pheromones, but it’s different for marking territory, plus it’s been a long time since I left a scent on Brian’s motorcycle. That smell.."
Shi San stopped talking, his eyes widened, and he stared at a passing van, "Quick, quick, quick! Follow it!"
Green perked up, checked the rearview mirror, saw no other vehicles around, and immediately drifted to change direction, chasing after it.
That sudden move probably caught the van driver’s attention.