For several days, the gloomy, drizzling weather had been pressing down on people so heavily that it was hard to breathe. Light rain had been falling on and off without end. Ji Mingrui pulled up his hood to use it as a rain cover and walked out of the Anjia flagship store with a stack of documents in hand. As he went down the steps, he said on the phone, “I followed the suspect profile you gave me and conducted a full-scale screening of all Anjia agents in the area. Don’t worry, I didn’t mention the murders. If I’d said it was connected to the two cases, it would’ve alerted the suspect.”
“I used another pretext instead. I said we’d received a tenant complaint—that the agent who showed her the apartment had worked with the landlord to drive the price up, making her pay extra, and now she couldn’t reach that agent. So she filed a report, and we came to investigate.”
As for the agent’s characteristics, he simply matched them against the conditions that Jie Lin and the others had provided.
Just now, in the HR office at Anjia, the manager had been completely docile the moment he saw Ji Mingrui’s credentials, obediently doing whatever he was told. He didn’t overthink anything Ji Mingrui said at all. “Yes, yes, we’ll fully cooperate. Officer, our Anjia group has always upheld a people-first business philosophy. What he did also violates our company rules, and we deeply condemn this kind of behavior! If the situation is confirmed, we’ll deal with him severely!”
Ji Mingrui quickly reached the car, opened the door, and got in, shaking the rainwater off his clothes. “There are thousands of Anjia agents in all of South China City. I went through the records one by one. The Yu Ting properties currently for sale aren’t few either, so there were a lot of agents who had shown properties yesterday. In the end, only three matched the requirements you gave. Two of them are off today, so I’ve sent you the detailed information and addresses for all three.”
The person on the other end gave a simple “Mm.”
It was noon now, and it was raining outside. There were few pedestrians on the street. The long road was covered in a misty blue-gray haze, and the usually bustling commercial street looked somewhat desolate.
The person who had just said “Mm” was sitting in a café.
Xie Lin wore a black overcoat, looking no different from usual, as though he were simply taking the most ordinary call. He added two sugar cubes to the coffee in front of him and then pushed the cup aside. “Your latte.”
Ji Mingrui’s mind was full of the case. He had been busy from late last night until now, after all—the killer might well choose today to strike, so he was on high alert. Suddenly hearing “latte,” he was shocked. “…You still have time to drink coffee?”
Xie Lin didn’t deny it and explained a little more. “Because the person next to me is a bit of a germaphobe and has almost dozed off. I ordered him some coffee to wake him up.”
Ji Mingrui was speechless, prostrating himself in admiration. “…”
As expected of his brothers.
In such a critical moment, they could still be bored enough to fall asleep.
Chi Qing was sitting beside Xie Lin. He really did look like he was about to doze off, though the main emotion on his face was still impatience.
The café they were in faced the dessert shop where Ren Qin worked. Through the glass window, they could clearly see what Ren Qin was doing across the street. They had split into three groups: Ren Qin would keep working as usual, as if she knew nothing, and continue to leave work and go home as normal; Xie Lin and Chi Qing were stationed nearby to keep watch in case anything happened to her; and Ji Mingrui had rushed back overnight to the police bureau to mobilize personnel and thoroughly investigate Anjia.
Chi Qing wasn’t very willing to sit in a crowded café, and given the situation, he might have to stay there until Ren Qin finished work.
If the person who had entered Ren Qin’s home really was the killer, then based on the killer’s habits, Ren Qin probably wouldn’t be in danger during the day. He usually acted only after nightfall, once the other person had fallen asleep.
Still, better safe than sorry.
What if their guess was wrong? What if the killer changed his method for some reason? No one could say for sure.
Chi Qing drank a few mouthfuls of latte. He was still wearing gloves today, which made him stand out in the café. People passing the transparent window first noticed his face, then his hands.
A waiter carrying a tray walked back and forth among the customers. When he bent down to serve their second coffee, Chi Qing had just finished a sip and was about to set the cup down. The waiter was hurrying to serve another table and didn’t notice his movement, so his elbow accidentally bumped Chi Qing’s coffee—
Chi Qing looked at the damp glove. “…”
“I’m sorry.” The waiter flusteredly put down the tray, grabbed a tissue from the side, and made as if to help wipe it. “I wasn’t paying attention just now. Let me clean it for you.”
For a germaphobe, having someone else help clean it would only make things worse.
“…Put it down,” Chi Qing said, looking at him. “Leave the tissue. Stay farther away from me.”
The waiter didn’t understand what he meant. “?”
In the end, Xie Lin took the tissue packet from him and smoothed things over. “It’s fine, I’ll do it. Don’t get too close to him. He doesn’t like it.”
The waiter could only think, somewhat secretly, that this person was already strange enough wearing gloves while drinking coffee, but he really was a strange person.
After Chi Qing removed one glove and dried his hand, he awkwardly left that hand hanging in the air. Because he was feeling that slight discomfort, even the bit of fatigue and drowsiness from earlier vanished.
The only thing that made him feel somewhat at ease was the fact that the person sitting beside him was at least familiar.
“Wipe it again,” Xie Lin said after looking at his hand a few times. “If that’s not enough, I can go ask them for more wet wipes.”
After Chi Qing finished wiping his hand, someone sat down in the empty seat beside him. A stranger, carrying a tray, placed it down very close to him.
Chi Qing’s motion paused slightly as his fingers stiffened without him noticing.
Instinctively, he wanted to tuck his hand into his coat pocket, but halfway through he realized the jacket he was wearing today didn’t even have pockets.
“…”
When bad luck struck, even drinking coffee could get stuck in your teeth.
In the end, Chi Qing had no choice but to try to pull his hand back into his sleeve. It was a very small detail, but Xie Lin noticed it. He suddenly raised his hand, resting his palm over Chi Qing’s retreating hand and guiding it down under the table.
Chi Qing said, “What are you doing?”
Xie Lin tucked his hand neatly into the pocket of his own expensive-looking overcoat and said, “My coat has pockets. You can use one.”
“…”
Chi Qing froze and forgot to pull his hand back.
His fingers touched the fabric, still faintly warm from the man’s body heat, and his whole hand was hidden away completely, not even his wrist exposed.
At the same time, Ren Qin was still working in the shop.
She had just finished serving several customers. As the minute hand turned round and round, she grew more and more panicked. She was afraid of getting off work. More than that, she was afraid that if this time she didn’t run into the two consultants upstairs, and if she left work, went home, took a shower, and fell asleep like the previous two victims… then she really would, as Chi Qing had warned her in the elevator, go to sleep and never wake up again.
After last night’s ordeal, Ren Qin’s mental resilience was clearly much better today than yesterday.
In the face of true danger, people often show unexpected toughness. She got through the entire morning without making a single mistake, smiling at every customer who came in. Even her coworkers hadn’t noticed how nervous she actually was and praised her, saying, “You’re back to normal today. That’s much better. Don’t be like yesterday again, all distracted.”
Ren Qin smiled. Only she knew that, from time to time, she would secretly glance across the street at the café.
Inside the café.
Ji Mingrui quickly sent over the files of the three agents who matched the profile.
“Those two who are off duty—we can’t get through on their phones, and they’re not at their residences either. It’ll probably take some time to reach them. I’ve sent over the files. Take a look first and see if anything seems suspicious.”
Chi Qing couldn’t conveniently scroll on his phone, so Xie Lin enlarged the page and set it between them.
Three files. Three completely ordinary faces that would be impossible to pick back out of a crowd the next second.
Chi Qing casually scanned the three ID photos, his gaze lingering for a while on the third one—to be precise, on the mole at the corner of the man’s mouth.
Xie Lin carefully looked through the first two. The first two agents were named Zhang Zhiyuan and Yi Xingguo…
Their personnel files were full of flashy, overblown information—monthly highest sales record of so many units, winner of the monthly top salesperson award, intimately familiar with such-and-such district, able to find any property you could imagine and then some.
“…Do personnel files really need to be written up that gloriously?” Xie Lin said, then noticed Chi Qing was still staring at the third photo. “What is it?”
Chi Qing said, “I’ve seen this person before.”
The third person’s file listed: Anjia agent, employee number 11963085, Zhou Zhiyi.
The man’s lips were slightly upturned in a smile, his photo utterly unremarkable.
He looked steady and reliable.
“When I was looking for a place, the agent from Anjia that the app auto-matched for me in that area was him, so I remembered him a bit,” Chi Qing said. “He said he was very familiar with this neighborhood, but when I actually viewed the property, he didn’t come. A colleague of his showed me the apartment instead.”
A few minutes later, after both of them had roughly reviewed all the files, Xie Lin asked, “Which two are on leave today?”
Ji Mingrui replied, “The one named Zhang and the one named Zhou. Both of them can’t be reached right now.”
“So these two are this month’s top sellers and they just switch off their phones when they’re off duty. No sense of professionalism,” Ji Mingrui complained gloomily because things were going poorly. “What if a customer wants to buy a house? Wouldn’t that mean losing a deal?”
Chi Qing: “…Say one less pointless thing.”
The afternoon passed quickly. Ren Qin had never had a day when work felt so short. Usually she always hoped the day would pass quickly so she could get off work and go home to lie comfortably in bed and rest. Today, though, it felt as if the time from clocking in to clocking out had been nothing but a blink.
“You’re off work. Aren’t you leaving?” her coworker asked after packing up and giving her another look.
“I…” Ren Qin said. “I’m not in a rush. You go first. I’ll stay and tidy up a bit, then leave.”
Her coworker hadn’t really been close to this new store manager before, but after these past few days together, she found her pretty easy to get along with. Seeing Ren Qin volunteer to stay and clean up, her tone softened. “You brought an umbrella, right? It still looks like it’s raining outside. Don’t stay too late. This area isn’t safe.”
Ren Qin: “…”
She knew very well just how unsafe this area was.
The coworker, seeing her reaction, thought she was new here and didn’t know what had happened in the neighborhood. “You don’t know yet? Two people died in two adjacent communities nearby. I heard the deaths were especially awful—one of them was stuffed into a refrigerator for a whole month.”
“…” Ren Qin forced a smile. “I know. Thank you. You go ahead.”
After her coworker left, she took out her phone and called the people across the street. While listening to the voice on the phone, she kept glancing at the big glass window of the café across the street. Once the call connected smoothly, she looked away again and tried to sound natural. “I… I’m off work now. What should I do?”
“Do what you’ve always done,” Xie Lin said softly. “Close up and go home as usual.”
Go home?
Ren Qin certainly didn’t think that place still counted as a “home.”
Since Ren Qin was off work, the two of them no longer needed to stay in the café. Xie Lin was planning to drive back when he remembered that the car key was still in his pocket. He touched the empty side but didn’t find it, so he checked the other side.
He didn’t find the car key. Instead, through the fabric of his overcoat, he touched Chi Qing’s hand, which was hidden in his pocket.
Xie Lin said, “I’m looking for the car key… move your hand and see if it’s in my pocket.”
