Chapter 3: The Plumber of Xigong

  Mingying stared at me and said, "To be honest with you, I, including our organization, don't know much about Chen Ziqi. He is mysterious and elusive, and has a lot of money and power. You want to steal the painting from him? That's just a crazy dream!"

  The plastic cup of Star Ice Cream in my hand was slammed heavily on the table, I could no longer hold back the loneliness and confidence in my heart, trying to lower my voice, using a very low tone: "Original draft, is it useful?"

  Mingying was stunned, she seemed to always see me laughing and joking around, with a mouthful of nonsense, never serious, suddenly changing to such a serious and solemn look, it's probably very uncomfortable for her.

  "There's that...that original painting is good...but..." Mingying put down her proud attitude for the first time, and stuttered as she spoke.

  I sprang up abruptly, suppressing my voice and said fiercely: "Tomorrow night, I'll give you the painting."

  With that, he calmly walked away as if no one was around. Mingying was stunned on the spot and couldn't say a word.

  As I walked out of Starbucks, I hailed a taxi and headed straight to the Huxi Workers' Cultural Palace - where Chen Ziqi's small villa was located.

  I quietly walked around the small villa and then wandered around other places in the Western Palace for a long time before returning home.

  Back home, I stared blankly at the empty fridge.

  At this moment, Xiao Luqi is sleeping in the freezer on the sixth floor of the adjacent building, actually, she and I are only a concrete wall apart.

  This concrete wall is icy cold, blocking my thoughts of her.

  Luqi, just you wait, after I've settled everything here, I'll make sure to give you a peaceful life. No, not just that, I'll also bring you back to life, and let you awaken from the curse of deep sleep, bask in the warmth of sunlight once again, just like when I first saw you.

  I fed Mo Mo and then started putting things that were messed up in the kitchen and bedroom back in their original places.

  It wasn't until now that I realized what Ling Kong had taken away after making such a mess of this room.

  Missing one thing - the storage device of that pinhole camera.

  That's right, it's the storage device of that pinhole camera I used to threaten him after I defeated Maobin. The video files inside record evidence of Maobin pretending to be a ghost and then asking me for money.

  Now, this storage is gone.

  Ling Kong rushed into my room, was his purpose just to take away Xiao Luqi, and taking away this storage device was a sudden impulse, or did he have another purpose of helping Mao Bin destroy evidence?

  Could it be that Mao Bin is also related to this organization?

  I recalled that night, Mao Bin's loud laughter as he was leaving seemed to carry a strong sense of contempt. Could it be that he had known all along that the evidence in this pinhole camera would be destroyed by the people from the organization?

  I hastily opened the computer, first selecting to display hidden files in the settings, then opening drive C, and clicking open one folder after another, until after opening 7 or 8 folders, the video that I had copied from the camera's memory appeared before my eyes.

  Afraid of being sold out by wiretappers, I turned off the speaker. Then double-clicked and played.

  Ma Yin's "vulgar" dance moves are also shown on screen.

  I let out a sigh of relief, thank goodness that the people in this organization didn't know I had already made a backup, they only stole the storage device. It's strange, normally anyone with brains would think of the possibility that the contents of the storage device had been copied, so why did they only steal the storage device and not take the computer hard drive as well?

  Beyond comprehension.

  I got on bed and sat at the head of it in a daze.

  Little MoMo with a full stomach and a full belly, jumped onto the bed. She crawled straight up to my legs, looked at me, then buried her head in the gap between my legs and fell asleep comfortably.

  I really can't do anything about this little ancestor, I can only let it sleep quietly.

  Before I knew it, a wave of fatigue swept over me and I actually fell asleep sitting up.

  When I woke up, my waist and back were sore, it was only 3 am. I gently picked up Momo from my legs and placed her beside the bed. An ordinary cat would have woken up with just a slight movement; but this "sleep king" level little black cat didn't even bother to open her eyes, she just changed positions and continued sleeping.

  I forced a smile, rearranged my pillow and continued sleeping.

  The next morning, I took the subway to No. 10 Songyuan Road, Xuhui District, Shanghai Urban Construction Archives. After finding a staff member and showing my lawyer's certificate, saying that I was acting on behalf of a case and needed to investigate archived architectural blueprints, the staff member was quite enthusiastic and had me do some necessary registration before asking what files I wanted to check.

  I reported the approximate address of Chen Ziqi's villa. Because there are several small villas scattered in various corners of the Shanghai West Workers' Cultural Palace, I was afraid that the staff would make a mistake, and continued: "It was probably built around 1998."

  This date was seen on a manhole cover different from others beside Chen Ziqi's villa last night. Judging from the location and direction, the sewer connected to this manhole cover is exactly the sewer of Chen Ziqi's villa.

  After a while, the staff member took out a file box from the archive and handed it to me, asking me to go to a designated place to read.

  Eagerly opening the file box, the materials inside are very complete, including the four to five layers of land covered by the building, the structural floor plan and detailed data of each layer, all quietly waiting for me to browse.

  I first looked at the data of the land and the surface buildings, but found a strange problem: the area of the land was larger than the surface area including the garden. After looking at the drawings, I understood: if the shape of the building on the ground is like a "mouth" character, then the shape of the land is like a "convex" character. On the north side of the villa, that is, near the forest, the land has an extra piece compared to the surface buildings.

  Is this an escape tunnel for unexpected events or an underground storage room?

  I carefully looked at each picture, silently memorizing the structure of this villa in my heart.

  After finishing reading the materials, I quickly left the archives and took a taxi to Shunyi Road in Putuo District. I arrived at the entrance of the house where Auntie Chen Ziqi worked and put on the sunglasses I had bought specifically at Xigong. I wandered back and forth, waiting for Auntie to appear.

  After the last seemingly casual conversation, I have used some nonsense chat topics as cover to unintentionally figure out this aunt's daily routine.

  It was around 11:15 when Auntie came out pushing her bicycle. I pretended to be buying a drink by the roadside, turned my head and smiled at her, saying "Auntie, hello!"

  Because I was wearing exactly the same clothes as when she met me last time, Auntie immediately remembered me and smiled: "Young man, what are you doing here?"

  "To be honest with you, I studied next door."

  "Oh! A student of East China University of Political Science and Law? No wonder. By the way, I heard that this school is all graduate students, are you too?"

  I smiled awkwardly and said, "Yes, I'm studying here."

  Auntie gave a thumbs up and said: "Wow, high education!"

  I bought two bottles of iced tea and handed one to Auntie, who waved her hand repeatedly. I said, "Since I've already bought it, don't be polite." It's a big hot day, good for cooling off.

  Auntie took it and put it in a basket, thanked me twice, and asked what I was going to do with this.

  I said I want to go to Xigong Flower Bird Fish Insect Market to take a look, Auntie are you going to someone's house to do something? Why not walk together.

  Auntie looked at a worn-out cartoon electronic watch on her wrist, probably one that her grandson had worn before, and said it was just the right time, so let's go.

  All the way, it was all kinds of small talk, because Auntie was also responsible for cleaning Chen Ziqi's villa, so she had been to every room. I asked a lot with a deliberate and unintentional heart, asking while verifying with the blueprint in my mind.

  I saw that Auntie's bicycle basket had very few vegetables today, so I asked what was going on.

  Auntie told me that she received a phone call this morning and only the lady of the house and her little daughter are at home today, so there's no need to cook many dishes.

  I was thrilled to hear this, it's really a blessing in disguise. I quickly took out my phone and set an alarm clock secretly, which rang about 2 minutes later.

  2 minutes later, the alarm clock rang. I pretended to receive a phone call and answered it in a serious tone: "Hello? Hmm... Ah? Really? That's great, you wait, I have someone beside me who understands this stuff, let me ask them." Then I turned around and asked Auntie: "A friend of mine also lives near Xigong, her home's drainage pipe is clogged and smells terrible. She has no experience with these things, so I'm helping her ask, are there any companies nearby that fix drainage pipes? Hmm... Auntie, have you ever encountered this situation in your household?"

  Auntie said without hesitation: "Of course, you let your friend make this call." As she spoke, she took out her mobile phone and flipped through it a few times, reading out: "54199698".

  I asked if I could take a look at the number? Auntie didn't think much of it and handed her phone over to me very readily.

  "I picked up the phone and said, 'Hello? Yeah, grab a pen and take note, 54199698. Yeah, that's right, 54199698. Got it? Alright, that's all.'"

  I hung up the phone and returned the mobile phone to Auntie, thanking her repeatedly.

  Aunt smiled and said: "What's there to thank for? The newly renovated house is not as good as the old one. The drainage system is poor, and it often overflows with smelly water, which is really annoying."

  I smiled and asked if the rich man's villa was like that too? Auntie said it was an old house, so of course the drainage system often had problems.

  We chatted aimlessly like this until we reached Xigong, where I bid farewell to Auntie and headed towards the flower, bird, fish, and insect market.

  Of course, I didn't have the leisure to stroll through that flower, bird, fish and insect market, but instead walked directly towards the clothing and accessories market inside, which was where I bought sunglasses before. As I walked, I took out my phone and dialed a number, after pressing "54199698", it rang for a few times, then a male voice answered: "Hello?"

  "Hello," I said hastily, "Can you help fix the drain here?"

  "Uh, what's wrong with it?"

  "What's the name of this company?"

  "We are Ruihong Pipeline Repair Company. Is your drain clogged? Where is your home?"