Guan Zhiyan finally finished examining the surveillance footage.
She recorded everything she'd seen, then looked up at a cleaner passing by.
Curiously, she asked the shop owner, “Do the same cleaners work on each floor, or do they rotate?”
“I'm not really sure. I've never asked them,” the owner replied. “I haven't noticed a pattern either. Their shifts aren't fixed. Some like working and want extra money, so they can work another day or swap shifts.”
A moment later, the sound of machinery came from nearby. A cleaner rode into view on a machine, making her way around the mall as though on patrol.
Zhou Xun seized the opportunity. He immediately approached and showed her his police identification.
Startled, the cleaner leaned back slightly. After he pointed toward them, she parked the machine in a safe place and followed him into the clothing shop.
She wore a gray, short-sleeved work jacket, so clean and neat that it was probably freshly changed, and white cloth gloves. Her short hair fell to her shoulders. There weren't many wrinkles on her face; she couldn't be very old.
She looked up fearfully. “I... Officer, I don't know anything.”
Guan Zhiyan smiled. “Don't worry. We're just asking about evidence in a case. Routine questions.”
The cleaner nodded nervously again. Once she seemed a little calmer, Guan Zhiyan asked unhurriedly, “Do you know this young woman?”
She had just received the latest photograph and showed it to her. The cleaner barely glanced at it before the color of the clothes seemed to spark sudden anger.
Almost through gritted teeth, she said, “I know her, Officer. She came to this mall not long ago and argued with another woman. I was about to clean and asked them to move aside. The woman in this photo cursed at me, then shoved the other woman against my machine.”
“She was a lunatic!” the cleaner continued. “Then a man came out from behind this clothing shop, and that finally ended the scene.”
“What did he look like?” Zhou Xun interrupted.
The cleaner thought. “Facial hair, a square face, wearing a suit. Looked rich, but the things he brought out weren't what a rich man should be giving.”
She wasn't lying. Who gave someone just a flimsy dress?
“Someone in our work group said he took this woman to the jewelry shop on the second floor, saying he'd buy her a necklace. But it was just talk. He said he'd come back to buy it three or four days later. No one ever saw him.”
These days, if you promised something, you should do it, instead of finding ways to deceive people. Girls liked wealthy men who kept their word, someone who could provide a home, someone reliable who could protect them. Love alone couldn't keep a girl around. Practicality and money mattered most.
Right—who would stay with someone penniless?
Then the cleaner seemed to remember something else. “Oh, and he didn't come here only once. Sometimes he brought other women too. They'd always browse the second floor, and he bought different things for each of them.”
If that was true, their speculation that all those women wore those few dresses couldn't hold. Yet none of those items had been found at the scene. Had everything been taken back?
“All right. We've recorded that,” Guan Zhiyan said after thinking. “If you learn anything else, call Captain Zhou.”
Seeing her look at him, Zhou Xun gave the three people his number.
All three took out their phones and saved it.
“All right. I'll ask the others too. We'll do everything we can to help, Officer.”
After leaving the mall, Guan Zhiyan sent everything she'd learned to Zhou Xun. Reviewing it, he quickly identified where the man lived. All told, the journey wasn't very far.
He stared at his phone for several seconds, paused, and said, “Let's go and take a look.”
No unnecessary words. His decision was immediate. Guan Zhiyan nodded.
Without delay, they drove to the residential address provided for Qiu Ning.
Only now did Guan Zhiyan see that Qiu Ning lived in one of the better residential areas within Hengshuo City's urban villages. Calling it a residential complex was generous: the homes were small, under a hundred square meters, with one room and a kitchen.
For many people coming to work in Hengshuo, these urban villages were their only option. Rents were inexpensive, roughly eight hundred to fifteen hundred a month. She had once researched them for an online friend. Later, deciding the area was too unsafe, she'd suggested finding somewhere farther out instead.
The commute might be longer, but at least her safety would have some reasonable protection.
She didn't know what had happened afterward.
Attempts to contact her had gone nowhere. She only knew the friend had changed her number.
At that thought, she quickly shifted her gaze to the registered place of origin.
“Too many things happen in urban villages.” Guan Zhiyan couldn't help drawing in a sharp breath. Coming back to herself, she added with concern, “Being deceived... I'm thinking what this so-called Mr. Li gave her really would have been enough to live on in the city.”
Among those bodies... one should be Qiu Ning's too.
She sighed deeply and looked at Zhou Xun. Apparently trying to work out how to answer, he nervously licked his lips before finally looking at her.
Their eyes unexpectedly met.
“Everyone's trying to figure out how to survive, so...” Still searching for words, Zhou Xun hesitated again, then continued, “This isn't her fault.”
Finding a foothold in a major city was difficult enough, let alone carving out a place of one's own. Without any help, it was impossible to quickly find a path.
She only hoped none of this would happen again.
But... that was impossible.
The urban village was in Wusheng District, on the outer edge beside Zhaoning District. It was neither particularly old nor new, more a district where young people struggled to establish themselves. There were few elderly residents, and it was farthest from the nearest commercial area.
Wusheng was rather desolate. The subway had only just arrived, housing was still under construction, and there were few parks.
Traffic was sparse. After winding through several streets, they entered a small lane. Right away, they saw numerous shirtless men smoking, with quite a few women smoking among them.
Guan Zhiyan didn't intend to study the scene outside.
To her, those men going out without shirts seemed almost like a crowd of naked people.
Zhou Xun's driving was constrained too. He looked outside impatiently, frowned, and clicked his tongue.
After nearly ten minutes stopped in one place, they finally moved. As they circled around, the streets grew narrower and shorter. Eventually, they had to park at the roadside and continue on foot.
Guan Zhiyan was harassed the moment she got out. A man holding a drink approached with a smile, examining her closely before rubbing his chin.
“Well, hello, beautiful. Just arrived in the big city? Looking for a room?”
She rolled her eyes and had no intention of answering.
But he was plainly drunk and meant to put his hands on her. Zhou Xun had already hurried around and seized his wrist, glaring at him without a trace of goodwill.
“What do you think you're doing?”
The man sobered instantly, his swagger vanishing. “No, I thought she was here to rent a place. I didn't realize...”
Zhou Xun lowered his gaze, an inexpressible anger rising.
“Don't let me see you again!”
Clutching his bottle, the man hurried away.
“Zhiyan, are you all right?” Zhou Xun set aside his anger and looked at her.
She shook her head. “I'm fine. Let's deal with Qiu Ning first.”
The rest of the walk wasn't particularly smooth either. Without Zhou Xun, others would have approached to harass her. Experiencing it herself, she wondered how Qiu Ning had survived here. Without someone reliable nearby to protect her, how could she even have got past that first encounter?
After a long walk, they stopped before a somewhat dilapidated “high-rise.” Looking up, they saw several oddly dressed men and women descending arm in arm.
“Oh, big brother, didn't I tell you to come find me at the karaoke place?”
“I missed you...”
“All right, all right. I'll show you what a real thrilling encounter is!”
Arms around each other, they cared nothing for the looks people gave them.
All they knew was living for the moment, doing whatever made them happy.
Guan Zhiyan moved aside. “Old Xun, fifth floor. Room 503.”
“I'll go first.” Zhou Xun started for the stairs, then stopped as something occurred to him and looked back. “Planning to hold my jacket hem again?”
This wasn't the time for jokes. Guan Zhiyan didn't think it necessary and shook her head.
He said no more, doing his best to protect her.
They climbed to the fifth floor and, after searching, finally found 503.
Flowers stood outside the door, leaning to one side but not yet wilted. Someone had apparently returned to water them recently, though it might have been another person helping.
She surveyed the surroundings until Zhou Xun's knocking drew her attention.
He knocked rapidly, with a distinct note of urgency.
No one answered. Just as he was about to try again, a neighboring door opened. A woman with vividly dyed red hair and a cigarette between her lips, wearing a red qipao, gave them an exasperated look.
“What's all that knocking for? Don't you know other people live here?”
Then she suddenly asked, “You're not here to collect money from Qiu Ning, are you?”
Zhou Xun played along. “That's right. The bitch owes me plenty. What, you know about it?”
The woman scoffed. “Qiu Ning usually works in that building over there, and she hasn't been back for a while. You've no chance of finding her!”
Her Sichuan dialect almost shifted into Mandarin as she spoke, quite fluently.
“Where did she go?” Guan Zhiyan asked.
Her tone was more refined, so the woman apparently judged her easy to push around and immediately raised her voice. “How should I know? All I can tell you is she went off to dodge her debts, or maybe she ran away with that big boss!”
“Big boss?” Zhou Xun sneered. “I've known that woman for ages. What big boss? If she had one, wouldn't she have paid me back already?”
The woman lit her cigarette. “His surname's Li. Li Tan. They call him a big boss, but he's stingy as hell. He even had Qiu Ning borrow hundreds of thousands in her own name.”
She couldn't keep from laughing bitterly.
“Back then, as an older sister to her, I told her not to trust a man like that. At first, I just advised her. Then—I heard from a friend that Li Tan isn't any big boss at all. He's a complete pervert!”
Growing more agitated as she spoke, the woman finally lowered her cigarette and spat on the ground several times.