Chapter 41

Chapter 41

A man suddenly arrived at the door, his presence preceded by the stench of cigarettes and sour body odor that could be smelled from a distance.

His expression and attitude were foul, yet Wen Hao treated him like an honored guest.

Hearing the commotion, Yin Minmin poked her head out to take a look, let out a sharp yelp, and immediately ducked back inside.

After a flurry of clattering from within the room, she quickly ran back out wearing a dark blazer. She looked brimming with professional enthusiasm; if not for the pink pig slippers on her feet, she might have actually looked the part.

Wen Hao and Yin Minmin ushered the man into a room that resembled a conference area.

The man stood at the door, surveying the table piled with old newspapers, messy snacks, and magazines. His eyes were full of suspicion.

Yin Minmin lunged forward, clearing the tabletop with a strained, awkward smile. “Wen Hao, hurry up and go make some tea for this gentleman!”

As a new hire, Qin Ying didn’t say a word. She took the initiative to find a rag and began wiping the table.

Wen Hao looked troubled. Muttering under his breath, he went out and soon returned with several bottles of ice-cold Coke. It was clear they didn’t have any tea leaves for guests at all.

Around the barely cleaned table, the hissing sound of Coke bottles being opened filled the air.

The man who had come looking for Old Miao took a heavy drag of his cigarette. His gaze swept over Yin Minmin’s pink slippers before he finally asked, “Are you people… actually reliable?”

As soon as he spoke, Wen Hao kept adjusting his glasses, while Yin Minmin’s eyes darted around guiltily.

“We’re reliable,” Yin Minmin said, her voice lacking any confidence. “Old Miao is out on business and his phone isn’t going through. Why don’t you tell us what happened first, and we’ll pass it on to him when he gets back?”

Some people are just bullies; the moment the man heard Yin Minmin’s tone and saw she was just a young girl, he immediately flew into a rage at her.

“Pass it on? Can you even handle passing it on? This is a matter of life and death, and you think a ‘message’ is enough?”

The man’s fingers, stained a cured-meat yellow from cigarette smoke, nearly poked Yin Minmin in the face.

Wen Hao’s expression changed, and he quickly moved to protect her. “Calm down.”

“Calm down my ass!” the man interrupted, spraying saliva all over Wen Hao’s face. “I’m going to be killed because of you people!”

As he spoke, he ground his cigarette out ruthlessly on the conference table Qin Ying had just wiped.

“Just like the police-useless, the lot of you!”

The man’s bad-breath-laden spittle was flying everywhere. He was about to say more when a sudden chill hit the top of his head.

An icy liquid trickled down his hair and collar, seeping into his clothes.

The conference room fell silent.

Qin Ying stood there expressionless, holding an empty Coke bottle.

“If you want to act like a thug, get the hell out.” With a casual flick of her wrist, she tossed the bottle, and it landed with pinpoint accuracy in the trash can by the door.

Qin Ying crossed her arms and looked down at the man. “Don’t make me slap that filthy mouth of yours.”

She was naturally striking and stood at 170 centimeters tall; when she looked at someone, her presence was intimidating.

People with a mean streak tend to buckle before the strong and prey on the weak. Seeing that Qin Ying was not to be trifled with, the man turned his spear back toward Yin Minmin. “Is this the attitude of a public official?”

He wiped the sticky, cold Coke from the back of his neck.

Just as he was about to demand accountability, Qin Ying said coolly, “I’m just a contract worker who started today.”

“If I beat you up, the worst that happens is I lose the job.”

Qin Ying suddenly let out a soft chuckle, pointing at the purple-bruised finger marks on the man’s neck.

“You’re the one who can’t afford to wait. Aren’t you afraid you’ll actually strangle yourself to death one of these days?”

Hearing this, Wen Hao and Yin Minmin were still a bit dazed, but the man’s face instantly turned deathly pale.

He turned his head stiffly to look at her. “You… how do you know?”

Qin Ying didn’t answer. She tapped her knuckles twice on the table and pointed at the cigarette butt he had crushed into the surface. “Clean it up.”

The man’s chest heaved violently a few times, but in the end, he didn’t dare lash out. He obediently used his palm to wipe away the cigarette debris.

Yin Minmin and Wen Hao breathed a sigh of relief, both turning to look at Qin Ying as she sat down with her arms crossed.

“I’ll do the questioning. You two take notes.”

Qin Ying didn’t actually know their standard operating procedures, so she just gave a casual direction.

Yin Minmin nodded repeatedly and ran out in her little pink slippers to grab her supplies.
Her excited scream echoed from outside the door: “Finally, someone reliable has come to this place!”

…

“Name.” The light in the room was poor, so Qin Ying turned the glowing desk lamp toward the man being questioned.

The man, his eyes momentarily blinded by the glare, still had cigarette ash on his palms. He was behaving himself now, answering in a low voice, “Zhang Tao.”

“Louder. Haven’t you eaten today?” Qin Ying raised her voice slightly.

An inexplicable atmosphere of authority made the man named Zhang Tao instinctively press his wrists together on the conference table.

He shouted, “Name: Zhang Tao!”

“Age? When were you released? Why are you here?” Qin Ying interrogated him like a prisoner, and no one present felt there was anything wrong with her approach.

“I’m forty-six. I got out of prison in April the year before last. I’m here because I’ve run into some trouble. Someone told me to come to the Third Cultural Heritage Preservation Institute to find Miao Lixin.”

After shouting his answer, his hand twitched before he stopped himself.

He looked at Qin Ying and asked, “I have a letter of introduction in my pocket. Can I take it out?”

Only after receiving Qin Ying’s permission did he pull a letter with a red official stamp from his pocket and hand it over with both hands.

Qin Ying took it and scanned it. The letter had actually been issued by the police.

She passed it to Yin Minmin and Wen Hao for inspection.

“It’s real.”

Wen Hao pushed up his glasses again.

Qin Ying gave a grunt of acknowledgement. “Continue your statement, Zhang Tao.”

Zhang Tao immediately straightened his back. “Yes!”

As cicadas chirped noisily outside the window, Zhang Tao poured out everything that had happened to him.

Qin Ying came from generations of police officers; she could recognize someone who had done time or lived a life of crime at a single glance.

As she suspected, Zhang Tao had a history with organized crime and had been imprisoned. After getting out, he had spent his time idling about until he used some connections to land a job as a night inspector at a Sewage Treatment Plant.

He claimed he was a diligent worker; Qin Ying listened quietly without exposing or interrupting him, merely letting a mocking smile play on her lips.

Zhang Tao said the strange occurrences began over a week ago.

That night, while on patrol, he suddenly heard a pitter-patter of footsteps wandering near the Bar Screen in the Primary Treatment Area.

The Bar Screen was the first step in sewage treatment, used to remove large floating debris like branches and plastic bags.

If a person were to be sucked in, it would be extremely dangerous.

Still wanting to keep his job, Zhang Tao headed toward the area with his flashlight.

When he got close, he saw a small, hunched shadow wandering around.

With its back bowed and waist bent, it looked like an Old Woman.

Zhang Tao had downed a few drinks that night and assumed it was some scavenger who had snuck in to hook out plastic bags.

He immediately let out a torrent of abuse and gave chase.

To his surprise, the shadow on the bank was startled by his cursing. It leaned back and fell straight into the Sewage Pool.

Zhang Tao broke into a cold sweat, terrified that he’d caused a death.

The surface of the sewage was covered in floating debris, making it impossible to see what was happening.

He didn’t have the guts to jump in and fish her out, so in the end, he fled in a panic.

He originally wanted to report it but didn’t dare, thinking he would just wait until someone discovered the body.

Qin Ying watched his face closely, raising an eyebrow at this point.

No body was ever found at the plant. Instead, Zhang Tao suffered through a night of alternating chills and fever, waking up sick the next day.

As he lay in bed in a half-dreaming state, he suddenly felt like he couldn’t breathe.

Just as he was about to suffocate but couldn’t wake up, he felt someone grab his wrists.

Immediately after, a basin of cold water was splashed over him.

Zhang Tao woke from his dream drenched in sweat.

He found several security guards from his dormitory pinning him down, only managing to pry his hands away from his own throat with their combined strength.

As it turned out, he had nearly strangled himself to death in his dream.

From that day on, Zhang Tao couldn’t be without someone by his side when he slept.

The moment no one was watching, he would grab his own throat and let out one laugh after another, sounding like a screech owl.

He would mutter over and over: “A life for a life.”