Chapter 21

Chapter 21

Pei Yuming got off the subway one stop early again, but this time he did not go home. Instead, he boarded a train heading in the opposite direction, toward Lijing Road.

Lijing Garden was a high-rise residential complex, and the guard station downstairs was extremely strict. Residents had to use facial recognition every time they entered or exited. Pei Yuming did not look like a bad person, but to be safe, the guard still insisted that he contact the homeowner in front of him before he would open the gate and let him in.

Of course, Pei Yuming could not reach her. In front of the guard, he took out his phone and dialed his own number, putting on a show of making the call. Then he pointed at the phone and said, “She might be cooking and didn’t hear her phone ring. Just let me in first. When I see her, I’ll have her call your office back. Wouldn’t that be fine?”

The guard thought it over solemnly, but in the end, he shook his head.

Pei Yuming glanced at the gate, then estimated his chances of forcing his way in. Finally, he gave up with a sigh.

In truth, judging from his appearance alone, Pei Yuming was very deceptive, both in dress and bearing.

A guard working in a place like this dealt with elite professionals like him every day, so of course he could tell Pei Yuming was not some criminal. But rules were rules, and Pei Yuming was not a familiar face. If the guard refused him entry, nothing would happen. If he let him in and something did happen, the guard would bear full responsibility.

They could not take that risk.

Still, this guard was kindhearted. Seeing Pei Yuming looking discouraged, he lowered his voice and reminded him, “But if someone follows another homeowner in, we usually don’t stop them.”

Pei Yuming looked at him and said sincerely, “Thank you.”

Fifteen minutes later, Pei Yuming followed someone else through the entrance. The elevator required an access card, so he had no choice but to take the stairs. Fortunately, the floor was not too high.

There were only two apartments on the seventh floor. Pei Yuming had already prepared for that. He knocked on the door of 701 first.

The person who opened the door was an old man in his sixties. Pei Yuming met his eyes and spoke first. “Hello. Is your daughter home? I’m looking for your daughter.”

The old man looked him up and down. “Who are you?”

As an attending chief physician, Pei Yuming naturally had no shortage of mental fortitude or ability to handle pressure, but his acting skills were truly mediocre. He forced out a faint smile. “I’m your daughter’s colleague. My surname is Pei. She asked me to come find her.”

The old man frowned and waved him off. “You’ve got the wrong place. Ask around again.” With that, he started to close the door.

“Wait a second,” Pei Yuming said, stopping the door with his hand. “But she told me it was here.”

The old man was very impatient. “I only have two sons. No daughter. You’ve definitely got the wrong place!”

“You don’t have a daughter?” Pei Yuming confirmed again.

“What’s the name of the person you’re looking for?” the old man asked.

Pei Yuming paused. Instead of answering, he asked, “You really don’t have a daughter?”

The answer he got was the door slamming shut with a tremendous bang.

Pei Yuming startled and took a step back. He let out a breath, then turned to knock on the door across the hall.

This time, the person who opened the door was a woman of around thirty. She was not especially pretty, but she had a good figure.

When the woman saw it was someone she did not know, she was clearly surprised. But immediately after, she raised her eyebrows and asked, “Who are you looking for?”

Pei Yuming did not even know the surname of the woman across from him, so he could only bite the bullet and say, “I’m looking for Lu Dong. He asked me to come pick something up.”

At the mention of Lu Dong, the woman’s expression visibly changed. She looked at Pei Yuming warily. “He asked you to come here and pick something up? Pick up what?”

“The package you gave him last time,” Pei Yuming said. When she did not deny knowing Lu Dong, he knew he had found the right person. The person he had contacted using Lu Dong’s phone before had to be her.

“What did I give him? Don’t talk nonsense!” As soon as she heard that, the woman panicked. She raised her hand and tried to shut the door.

Pei Yuming reacted quickly and blocked it, then took a step forward and entered the woman’s home directly.

“You… what are you doing?” The woman clutched her outer layer around herself and ran inside, grabbing her phone from the sofa. “Get out right now, or I’m calling the police!”
Pei Yuming hurriedly waved his hands in explanation. “No, no, don’t misunderstand. I really only came to pick something up. I don’t mean anything else. Give me the thing, and I’ll leave right now.”

The woman looked at him suspiciously, as if weighing whether he was telling the truth. After a long while, she said in a negotiating tone, “I don’t have any here. If you want some, wait until I buy more next time, and I’ll have Lu Dong give it to you.”

Pei Yuming’s eyes lit up the moment he heard that. It really was Lu Dong. He had actually guessed right!

He anxiously took two steps forward, frightening the woman into screaming at once. “Don’t come any closer! If you don’t leave, I’m really calling the police!”

“Don’t. Don’t be scared. I won’t hurt you,” Pei Yuming soothed her. “I really don’t mean anything else. I need it urgently. How about this? Can you tell me where you get it from? I’ll go buy it myself. I promise, as soon as you tell me, I’ll leave immediately!”

When the woman heard that, she became visibly more nervous. She glanced around, took out her phone, and said cautiously, “Fine. I’ll look it up for you now. Don’t come over, okay?”

Pei Yuming did not suspect anything and immediately nodded. “Okay. I won’t go over.”

He watched her tap around on her phone, but he still felt uneasy. Afraid she might contact Lu Dong or call the police, he could not help taking another small step forward.

“Did you find it?”

The woman was so startled that she backed away again and again. Her voice trembled slightly as she said, “Wait. Wait a second.”

Pei Yuming waited another half minute.

But the woman across from him was still searching. He frowned and urged her, “Still haven’t found it?”

The woman glanced at him guiltily. “Almost.”

Pei Yuming sensed something was wrong. He took one big step forward and snatched the woman’s phone. On the screen was the police report text she had just sent. Immediately after, the phone vibrated, and a message from the police confirming receipt of the report popped up.

“You called the police?!” Pei Yuming was both furious and helpless. “Aren’t you afraid the police will arrest you too?”

The woman looked at him in confusion. By now, she had retreated all the way into the corner.

Pei Yuming glanced at his watch. This time, he stopped being polite. He walked over, shoved the phone back to her, and said coldly, “Hurry up and give me your source. Otherwise, when the police get here, you’ll have to explain yourself too.”

The woman took the phone with trembling hands, her voice a little aggrieved. “I bought it online… What are you even trying to do?”

“Online?” Pei Yuming clearly did not believe her. “They even sell this stuff online?”

The woman looked at Pei Yuming, somewhat surprised that his doubt was not an act, and explained in a low voice, “They’ve had it for ages. And buying this kind of thing online is actually more convenient.”

There did not seem to be anything wrong with that. Pei Yuming thought it over and felt she might be right.

But had online shopping really gotten this brazen? They even dared sell potassium cyanide?

Pei Yuming rarely bought anything online and did not even have his own account, so for a moment, he really could not tell whether the woman was telling the truth.

“Then did you have it mailed directly to him?” he asked again.

No matter what, he had to see direct evidence that Lu Dong had received potassium cyanide. Only then could he provide Officer Cao with a useful lead.

“Uh, yes.”

“Show me the shipping information, or the tracking number, something like that.”

The woman looked at him in confusion, as if trying to guess what his real purpose was.

“Hurry up and find it!” Pei Yuming deliberately put on a cold face to scare her.

The woman pursed her lips, unlocked her phone, and started searching.

Just then, a flurry of footsteps suddenly sounded outside the door. Pei Yuming looked back and realized the door was open. He had not closed it when he came in earlier.

Of course, it was not because he had been careless. He simply had not expected things to escalate to the point where the police would be called.

Seeing that he was only one step away, Pei Yuming gritted his teeth, turned, and ran over to shut the door.

But he was still too slow. Before his hand could even touch the door, the police officers rushing in pinned him down.