Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Fine, fine, fine-this just never ends, does it!

Even though the property management staff had already gone up to check, he was still trying to scam me!

I was just about to snap when a second thought stopped me. He knew my girlfriend’s address, and judging by the sound of it, he might still be in the hallway.

The money was a small matter, but having a grown man loitering in the hallway of her building was a genuine security risk!

I suppressed my temper and kept my tone light.

“Sure thing, brother. But do me a favor and return the money first. I’m almost there.”

I stared at my phone, stunned, as a notification chimed-he had actually sent the two thousand yuan back.

I had assumed he was just a scammer who would keep trying to shake me down for more. If he returned the money so easily…

If it wasn’t for the money, why was he still lying to me?

Did he think it wasn’t enough?

Outside the window, the rain continued to pour down like a deluge.

The good news was that the accident on the highway had mostly been cleared. The vehicles involved in the rear-end collision were being towed away, and traffic was starting to move.

I watched for an opening from the left-turn lane and forced my way into the straight-ahead lane.

The Land Rover behind me flashed its high beams at me in a fit of rage. I felt bad, but I truly couldn’t afford to care right now.

I had decided that even if my girlfriend got mad at me, I had to go over there today.

The app pinged with another message.

The delivery rider hadn’t sent a photo of the snail noodles this time. Instead, it was a five-second video.

In the video, the delivery rider was tiptoeing as he hung the snail noodles and milk tea on the door handle of my girlfriend’s apartment. A sound could be heard clearly coming from inside the door.

“Thud. Thud. Thud…”

The rider’s voice was still trembling; that kind of fear didn’t seem faked.

“Buddy, I gave you your money back. Just get here fast! I just sent a text to the police for your girlfriend. I’ve done all I can. I have a family to take care of, so I’m out of here.”

The delivery order was marked as completed.

My heart leaped into my throat.

After successfully merging into traffic, I risked a distraction to take a closer look at that five-second video.

I was one hundred percent certain the video showed my girlfriend’s place. Beyond the familiar decorations, the shoe rack, and the floor mat, there was one crucial detail: when she moved into this apartment, I had helped her replace the lock cylinder for safety reasons.

The doors in this complex were all standardized by the developer.

The new lock cylinder was a reddish copper color. At the time, she had even teased me, asking why I hadn’t bought a silver one to match the original.

In the delivery rider’s video, there were visible beads of water on the delivery bag.

And on the lock cylinder, there were clear marks of a forced entry attempt.

If this was a scam, it was far too realistic!

My throat tightened.

In a panic, I opened my WeChat chat with Xiao Zhang from Property Management and zoomed in on the photo he had sent earlier.

My girlfriend and I had been talking normally when she left work. It was already raining then, and since she took the subway, her shoes would have definitely been wet.

But in the property manager’s photo, the floor mat was completely dry.

My brain felt like it exploded.

That photo… was taken in advance!?

Furthermore, my girlfriend hadn’t received the snail noodles at all!

In the photo from earlier, she was clearly lying in bed in her pajamas.

Then why did the property management guy say what he said!

I was suddenly struck with a bone-chilling horror.

What was even more unsettling was that no matter how many voice messages I sent to the delivery rider, he stopped replying entirely.