Chapter 9 Direct Dialogue and Indirect Attack

  This uncle was wearing a casual outfit, with a polo shirt on top and light-colored casual pants on the bottom. If I didn't know he was a grave robber, I might have thought he was a small boss. At this moment, he had just come to his senses and ignored my friendly handshake request, only to exclaim: "How did you get here?"

  I looked at him curiously and said, "Are you talking about the password for the building entrance? To be honest, there are many elderly people in this community who often forget things, so each building has written the password with a pencil on the wall next to the door. I just looked up and saw it, and after entering the password, can't we get in?"

  The old man spat and said: "Youngster, don't play tricks on me. How did you know I was here?"

  "I'm guessing."

  "Damn it!" The old man was momentarily tense and surprised, and his mouth couldn't help but utter dirty words.

  I walked into the bedroom with a smile, and just then the old lady from downstairs was sitting in the bedroom.

  I politely called out "Hello, old lady" and sat down in the chair beside her. I smiled at the uncle who rushed in and said: "If I tell you my thoughts, can you tell me your reasons for blackmailing me?"

  The old man's face turned iron-green and he said, "Cut the nonsense, speak quickly!"

  I slowly said: "Since you said you didn't bring a gun, I'll take my time. Because if we want to move a corpse without arousing any suspicion, we would usually use a blanket or something to wrap it up and carry it away. But this requires a car to come and pick us up, otherwise it's easy to get discovered. When I got home, my cat was still hiding in the corner of the wall, shivering with fear, which means that girl had just been taken away not long ago; there is a big puddle of water on the road outside the gate of our building, if a car came to pick us up, it would leave water marks, and today is a cloudy day, the water marks left by the car wheels wouldn't disappear so quickly. But that puddle of water was very intact, without any tire tracks. So there must not have been any cars passing by. Just now I asked the old lady if she saw a car coming to pick up goods, and she said it seemed like there were several, which made me wonder why she didn't tell the truth? And the old lady's speech had a strong Beijing accent, which made me even more suspicious. I thought to myself, is this old lady waiting for me here on purpose, trying to confuse my search direction? Oh, right, you also left a gap in my door, was that also on purpose, to make me think you guys took the girl out from the main door?"

  As I spoke, I glanced at the old lady, who was smiling at me with a face that seemed to have fewer wrinkles.

  "I continued: 'Anyway, since it's not a car that took the body away, then there must be another way. I know everyone in my building, no one new has moved in, and there are no thieves around. So the biggest suspect is your household next to my window. From my window, I saw that all the other balconies didn't have any quilts drying outside, only yours did. Today's a cloudy day, what's the point of drying quilts? The most likely possibility is that this uncle used the clothes rack on the balcony to cover up the body with a quilt and transported it over here along the rack, then brought her back into the house from the rack. This way, even if someone passed by on the opposite building or on the road below, they wouldn't notice anything. And I looked at the staircase landing and saw that the old lady who had been sitting there for a whole morning suddenly disappeared. I'm even more convinced it's your household! That's why I came over to take a look. Of course, I just heard you speaking outside the door and came in.'"

  The uncle was stunned.

  The old lady smiled and said to me: "Young man, you're pretty good. I saw the shadow of a person in you."

  I scratched my head and said: "Don't mention it, you're overpraising me. By the way, Uncle, which organization do you belong to?"

  The old man widened his eyes and said: "What did you say?"

  I smiled and said, "This old lady looks like she's your leader. I think you have a clear hierarchy, like a strict organization, with decision-makers, executors, and people who help smooth things over. And uncle, when you called me just now, you kept using the word 'we', which made it clear that this isn't just one or two people fighting. So I'm curious, what organization are you working for?"

  The old lady laughed, her wrinkles deepening. She said to the middle-aged man: "Ling Kong, don't hide it anymore. Just now when I heard you speak, I couldn't help but want to scold you. You're being led by the nose, it's really embarrassing. Your brain must have many roots to be able to wade through this muddy water!"

  The uncle didn't dare to lose his temper with the old lady, he just glared at me with round eyes and said: "You little brat, you're too..."

  "I leisurely said: 'You go ahead and speak first, since it's not about finding a painting, what do you want me to help find?'"

  That uncle almost collapsed: "How did you know again that it's not looking for a painting?"

  I thought to myself that you just said with such certainty that the painting was in my hand, but I only took a photo of it with my phone. It seems that you value the content of this painting more than its material worth. Although I thought so, I didn't say anything and just glanced at the old lady.

  That uncle had a gloomy and depressed face. Probably because he was too clumsy as a kidnapper: he had just kidnapped the ticket, but was caught red-handed by the master, and was blocked in the old nest.

  I still quite like this old lady, not pretentious or artificial, when exposed she openly acknowledges it, feeling her straightforward honesty is like a clear mirror and white paper. Compared to the uncle who lost face but refused to admit it, she is many times stronger.

  Look at that uncle wanting to speak, the old lady raised her hand and waved it, saying: "Today's matter, I am mainly responsible. Not a word was said correctly, and this young man saw through the flaw, haha. Young man, we are not some kind of strange organization, but just heard that you know a lot about that painting, and also know that you have a little beauty hidden at home, so want to ask for your help, nothing more. No malicious intent."

  "I thought you rented a house next to mine and set up a trap to cheat me, but now you're trying to brush it off so lightly? Do you think I'm that easy to fool? Although the other party refused to say anything, I had no choice but to smile and neither admit nor deny, just saying calmly: 'I'm not very interested in that painting, and I don't want to stir up any trouble. I know there's a lot of hidden meaning behind this matter, now that I've found your whereabouts, please return the girl to me, and I'll let bygones be bygones. How about that?'"

  The old lady shook her head and said, "No, no, not good at all. What's the point of this? There's no point at all. If everyone were as boring as you, the world would be too dull. Young man, we went to great lengths to rent a house and invite that little beauty over, just so that after you've completed the tasks we assigned to you, you can conveniently take her home with you. It saves you from running back and forth, wasting money on taxis, and it's also safer - what if someone finds out you like motionless beauties? Your reputation would be ruined! So, actually, we're doing this for your own good."

  Actually, I deduced that Xiao Luqi was in this room for several other reasons. For example: I found that although things were messy, the black cat pouch in the bag had not been lost, indicating that the person who stole the body was not Chen Ziqi's accomplice, otherwise they should have found the pouch and stopped there. It was also not Wang Yongshun himself, otherwise he would have had a black cat pouch too, and could have taken it out to control Xiao Luqi and leave without anyone noticing.

  The old lady smiled at me and said, "Young man, since you've discovered us here, if you take this girl away, we won't make things difficult for you. However, you still have to help us with something."

  I nodded and said, "I understand. Hiding a corpse is a crime in itself. And you know where I live, it's easy to steal from me. Since I care about this girl so much, I have to help you with your task. But can you guarantee that if I get the painting for you, you'll let me go?"

  The old lady nodded and said, "At my age, I have some weight in my words. Young man, I used to be a bit arrogant, if it wasn't for Leng Kong finding me, I might not have taken notice of your intelligence either. Now, this task is handed over to you, I believe you can complete it, as long as you nod your head, I promise not to bother you again in the future."

  "I smiled and said: 'Old man, I still want to know, what organization are you people from? How did you find my home?'"