Chapter 129
Chapter 129
Qin Song went to Tianfeng Hotel.
Before he left, he spent a full half hour mentally preparing himself.
Huahua had once told him, “The more afraid you are of something, the more you have to face it.” Though the line came from some palace-intrigue drama character Qin Song knew absolutely nothing about, it could not have been more fitting for his current situation.
Hu Heng told Qin Song that Room 302 had never been opened to the public again.
The two of them went upstairs together. Qin Song had just taken out the room card when he paused.
After a moment, he turned and shoved the card into Hu Heng’s hand. “You do it.”
Hu Heng opened the door.
Qin Song stepped inside and caught the faint smell of dust in the room.
He looked around, then asked in surprise, “Where did all the stuff in here go?”
Hu Heng scratched his head. “We packed everything into a big suitcase and tossed it into the storage room. To be honest, I didn’t know what to do with it either. Couldn’t throw it away, couldn’t burn it, so I just left it there.”
Qin Song nodded, walked over to the window, and pulled the curtains tightly shut.
The room instantly went dark. Hu Heng asked, “What are you doing?”
Qin Song said, “Did you know there was a camera in this room?”
Standing in the darkness, Hu Heng replied, “No.”
Qin Song said, “I want to see where exactly this camera was installed!”
With that, he raised his phone, turned on the camera, and began shining it around.
He recalled the angle from which that video had been filmed and swept the corners of the walls several times, but he still did not spot any glint that would indicate the location of a pinhole camera.
Hu Heng said, “Huang Yuanrui lived here for so long. If someone else had installed a camera, she should have noticed it ages ago.”
Qin Song pulled open the curtains and let the light in. “Yeah. I think it’s strange too.”
He turned around and smacked his own forehead. “Old Hu, do you think it could’ve been some pervert who had a crush on her, so he installed a camera in her room and peeped on her private life every day, until one day he witnessed me hitting him?”
Hu Heng looked at him without saying anything.
Qin Song continued, “Now this pervert is trying to avenge Huang Yuanrui, so he’s coming after me? Right, that would explain why he doesn’t want anything and is just trying to scare me. Because his target was never money. It was me!”
Hu Heng said, “That makes sense. A girl like Huang Yuanrui was never exactly innocent. Remember when you asked me to investigate her before, and I found out she’d been dating several men at the same time? So I think what you’re saying is very possible.”
Qin Song gave a cold laugh. “I really never expected someone that obsessive could still be liked by someone even more obsessive.”
Hu Heng patted him on the shoulder. “If that’s the case, then you have even less reason to be afraid. He’s just some little man hiding in the dark. Maybe he’s a fat shut-in without even a job, or some gross slob who picks at his feet all day.”
Qin Song said, “That’s true. Huang Yuanrui didn’t even look twice at him, and he had to stoop to spying on her from the shadows. He’s nothing but a sewer rat.”
Hu Heng said, “Block that number. Don’t look at any messages he sends you from now on.”
Qin Song suddenly said, “I want to go to the storage room and take a look.”
Hu Heng froze. “Go… look at what?”
Qin Song lowered his voice. “The ashtray.”
Hu Heng thought it over carefully. “The ashtray… should have been packed up with everything else. Come on, I’ll take you to look for it.”
There were four rows of large shelves in the storage room, with a few packages and boxes scattered across them, all neatly arranged.
Qin Song wandered between the four storage racks for ages, but he still couldn’t find Huang Yuanrui’s things.
“Old Hu, which box are her things in?”
Hu Heng said, “I remember they were all stuffed into a black suitcase.”
“A black suitcase…” Qin Song muttered, then kept looking. Still nothing.
Hu Heng asked, “It’s not here?”
As he spoke, he bent down and started searching with Qin Song.
The two of them turned everything on the shelves upside down, panting by the time they were done, but came up empty-handed.
Qin Song plopped down on the floor and wiped away his sweat. “What the hell? How is there nothing?”
Hu Heng twisted open a bottle of water and handed it to him. “Stuff that’s been left here unclaimed for too long might get secretly taken home by the cleaning ladies.”
Qin Song reached out and touched a cloth bag on the shelf beside him. Sure enough, it was covered in a thick layer of dust. It looked like it had been sitting there for a long time.
Hu Heng said, “Huang Yuanrui’s things were all designer brands, and they’d been sitting here the whole time. I think there’s a good chance someone took them all.”
Qin Song started cursing. “Fuck. Who’s that damn sticky-fingered? The front desk? The cleaners?”
Hu Heng said, “Could be either.”
Qin Song asked, “Can we ask for them back?”
Hu Heng spread his hands helplessly. “The front desk and cleaning staff have gone through several rounds of replacements by now. Where would we even start?”
Qin Song irritably rubbed his eyes with the back of his hand.
Hu Heng said, “Now that the ashtray’s gone too, can’t you just pretend none of this ever happened? Block that number, go home, and live your life in peace!”
Qin Song forced himself to nod.
That afternoon, Qin Song took the high-speed train back to Mingdu.
He felt like his and Hu Heng’s line of reasoning made decent sense, yet at the same time, something about it seemed off.
As for exactly what was off, he couldn’t say.
He opened the text conversation with the Unknown Number, hesitating over whether to block it.
He kept feeling that once he blocked it, he would be closing the door from its world into his.
On the surface, that did seem like an efficient solution.
But if he thought about it more deeply, once the front door was shut, it might become even more pervasive.
Besides the door, it could come in through the window, the sewer, the chimney, the exhaust fan… and it would no longer communicate with Qin Song in writing beforehand.
Just as Qin Song was struggling with the decision, his phone chimed.
He glanced at it, and his scalp nearly went numb-
The Unknown Number had sent another message!
As if it knew it was about to be blocked, it had once again started tapping at Qin Song’s door with its grinning tentacles.
Qin Song glanced at the passenger to his right. It was a mother with her child. The child was begging her mother for corn chips, and the mother said she was only allowed five a day, and she’d already had her quota.
Qin Song partially shielded his phone screen with one hand and tilted his head to read the text.
“Mr. Wang Hai, I wanted to apologize to you today.”
Qin Song’s heartbeat quickened slightly. Was the other party finally going to let him go?
He replied, “Apologize for what?”
After about two minutes, the Unknown Number said, “When I type the letter h on my phone, the first character that appears is: He. I wanted to tell you that I made a typo back then. I believe my mistake misled you, wasted your time, and caused you to suspect someone unnecessarily. For that, I apologize.”
Qin Song’s heart sank again.
A minute later, the Unknown Number sent another line:
“Actually, my surname is Hu.”