HLM – Chapter 978 A Ghost at Mischief

The first weekend arrived, and Sunset Town’s annual warehouse clearance sale began.

Now that the town had more residents and shops, every household had more equipment and items, and there were always some unnecessary things that could be sold for a little extra pocket money on days like this.

Wang Bo also gathered some things and brought them to town, just as he was preparing to open his stall, Conely came over and said, “Boss, there’s something strange happening at the police station lately.”

“What is it?”

“Here’s the thing—I’ve been observing for several days. No matter how much fuel our police cars consume in a day, the tanks are always full the next day. So yesterday, I set up a surveillance camera, and today I found something new.”

Wang Bo thought for a moment. “Could it be that Atulu or someone else is refueling the cars every night?”

“No, it’s a ghost playing tricks!”

“A ghost? You know what a ghost car is, right? You’re not joking, are you?” Wang Bo looked at him suspiciously.

Conely grinned. He clearly remembered the recent rumors about the “Highway 8 Ghost Car,” which had stirred quite a sensation in New Zealand and even attracted some media coverage.

“This time, someone is imitating us. Look, check the surveillance footage.”

Conely opened his phone to show Wang Bo. The footage showed that past eleven at night, when the area around the government building was completely empty, a young man rode a bicycle swaggeringly and drove off one of the police cars.

The car he drove off was the Highway Warlord, heading east, clearly towards Oak City.

By four in the morning, the car returned. The young man parked it properly, then rode his bicycle away as casually as he had come.

“This kid is pretty audacious,” Wang Bo squinted. “I’ve just been dealing with the Highland Maori recently, yet he still dares to provoke me!”

Conely said, “It’s been like this for the past few days. We can catch him tonight, but boss, do we want to press charges? Every time he returns the car, the tank is full.”

Indeed, pressing charges was tricky. This wasn’t car theft; under New Zealand law, it could only be considered a property rights violation.

But Wang Bo had to deal with it. Even though the young man was kind of silly and cute, always refueling after taking the car, breaking the law meant facing legal consequences.

Thankfully, the car hadn’t caused any accidents yet. If he had crashed and killed someone, the liability would have fallen on Sunset Town. And they still didn’t know why he was taking the car.

Judging by his behavior, both Conely and Wang Bo guessed that he was probably driving to Oak City to hit the bars and flirt.

While they were discussing this, a visitor arrived. Seeing Wang Bo arranging a pile of goods at the street corner, the visitor asked, “Hey, Mayor, how’s business? Is the foot traffic good?”

Wang Bo nodded. “Not bad. What about you? Looking to buy something?”

The man shrugged. “Oh, no. I’m not here to buy. Since business is good here, I thought I’d sell something too. There’s no one in front of my warehouse.”

Wang Bo: “……”

A little later, a few children ran over. “Mayor, Mayor, do you have cotton candy?”

Wang Bo shrugged. “Of course. See? My machine’s right here, waiting for you to buy some.”

Ron rode over on a bike similar to the ones used in his hometown for selling eggs, with two baskets on the rear, except instead of eggs, they were filled with bottles of drinks.

“Mayor, do you want a drink?”

Wang Bo peeked in. “Wow, these drinks look great. Ron, you’re really skilled. I’ll have a cup of banana milk.”

Ron chuckled. “I’ve recently become obsessed with making drinks. I think I might become a super bartender in the future!”

Such ambition was worth encouraging. Wang Bo gave him a ten-dollar tip and also promised that he could come to the ranch to milk cows, and any milk he milked himself, he could take for free.

Dale overheard this and said, “Teacher, I think I’ll become an excellent banker in the future.”

“That’s great. And then?”

“Then you can give me the money at home to manage, okay?” she asked eagerly.

Wang Bo gave her a playful scolding. “Unless I have a hole in my brain!”

The warehouse clearance sale was mainly about giving people a chance to interact; the actual sales didn’t matter too much.

In the evening, after dinner, the group prepared to catch the ghost.

Atulu was also called, and Conely showed him the footage.

After watching it, Atulu blinked. “I bet this guy drove to the Windmill Strip Club, didn’t he?”

Conely said, “We also think he drove to a bar to flirt. Wow, how did you even guess which bar he went to?”

“Have you met him at the bar?” Uncle Bing, playing with his Finnish knife, asked.

Atulu threw his egg tart to the ground and yelled, “I did meet him! That bastard! A few days ago, I wanted to drive my wife to Queenstown for shopping, but she found a receipt from the Windmill Strip Club in the car! She wouldn’t listen to my explanation and thought I went to play. She scratched me badly!”

Wang Bo recalled. “So that’s why you only took one day off?”

“I must catch this bastard and deal with him!” Atulu gritted his teeth.

From the bushes nearby, Uncle Bing whispered, “Conely, why are we hiding here instead of in a house?”

“Don’t you think this looks like Garen?”

“……” Uncle Bing was speechless.

Wang Bo hid in the car, lying across the seat while supervising his territory on the sand table, occasionally drawing lottery rewards.

This time he drew a “Heart of a Residence” and placed it in the nearly completed villa district. Once the environment optimization finished, he could sell it for profit.

The past few days had been busy, and Wang Bo was tired. Lying in the back seat for so long, he unknowingly fell asleep.

Until the car jolted and the engine sounded. Wang Bo rubbed his eyes awake, only to see a face full of panic in front of him.

“Ghost!” the young man shouted, simultaneously stepping on the gas. The car plunged straight into the nearby bushes.

Wang Bo reached out and grabbed him. “I am the chief of police of Sunset Town, New Zealand. I hereby notify you that you are under arrest.”

From the house behind them, Uncle Bing and Conely rushed out. The young man did not resist, crouching by the car hood with a sullen face.

“Where’s Atulu?” Wang Bo asked. “Stop him; don’t let him impulsively hit the suspect!”

The young man shivered several times at these words.

“Probably asleep?” Conely said.

Wang Bo couldn’t find the Maori man in the house, so he called him. The phone rang from the bushes by the roadside.