“Why are they so reluctant to admit that I worked here?!”
After leaving the small restaurant, Xu Qian was still complaining.
Zhang Heng, on the other hand, didn’t answer her question. “Next, let’s go to the house you rented before,” he said instead.
“Oh, so you are really here to listen to my tragic story?”
“No. I just need to further confirm some matters,” Zhang Heng said.
“And, what are those matters?”
“Let’s wait until you go to the house you previously rented.”
Zhang Heng waved a taxi down as he spoke. Xu Qian glanced at him, and she did not get in the car right away. Instead, she said, “You have been keeping it a secret since last night. Why don’t you just tell me everything? What do you want me to do? Our current relationship… is like two ants on a hotpot. Are you still worried I’ll betray you? When those men came into the restaurant just now, I didn’t ask for their help. During this period, I have been doing what you asked me to do—cover for you.”
“It’s not that I don’t believe you. It’s just hard for me to explain the whole thing. Also, ordinary people might find it hard to believe. I think it’ll be better if we make slow and steady progress.”
“Then why not tell me the conclusion first? From there, we can move forward step by step?”
“Well, I think you should try to stay away from your boyfriend,” replied Zhang Heng after thinking for a bit.
“What?”
“As I said, it’s hard for you to accept the conclusion.”
“I just don’t understand. Being with my boyfriend has nothing to do with my past.”
“This is what I want to prove to you next.”
Zhang Heng then gestured for Xu Qian to get into the car.
Although Xu Qian still had a ton of questions, she finally decided to do what Zhang Heng said, especially since the taxi driver was getting impatient and had started honking. Thus, she quickly hopped into the backseat.
Ten minutes later, they arrived at the place Xu Qian rented when she first moved to this city. It was a small ten-story residential building. It was said to have ten floors, but the original building had only six. So the top four floors were additional floors that were built on top of the original building. Not only that, the first floor had been transformed into shop lots and was rented out to the people who lived there.
Xu Qian pulled Zhang Heng to the side, found a safe passage, opened the door, and saw many shop lots. But, unfortunately, there was only a small passage in the middle that could accommodate one person.
It seemed like Xu Quan knew what Zhang Heng was thinking, so she said, “This is the first floor. No one cares about this kind of thing. These stores refuse to spend their money renting warehouses. So, they store all of their merchandise here. They have been doing this since I moved here. As for what happens if this place catches fire, I guess that we can only pray that it’ll never happen.”
Xu Qian led Zhang Heng through the piles of items while she talked. They came up to the elevator on the second floor and pressed the button to go up. Unlike the convenient single-person elevator in Yacheng District, these looked more like the elevators Zhang Heng was familiar with. The apartment elevators in China still used buttons, and the entire car would vibrate slightly when it moved.
Xu Qian pressed the button to the seventh floor. The first thing he saw after the elevator doors opened was many clothes left hanging in the corridor to dry. Xu Qian bent down, walked through the drying rack, and came to a house that had a half-missing number.
“This is the place I used to rent. What shall we do next?”
Xu Qian stopped outside the door.
“Are you sure this is the place? Do you remember who moved here after you?”
“Before I moved out, the tenant came to check out the place, and she even placed her luggage in the house. However, this apartment has a very high turnover rate, and after this long, I’m not even sure if she still lives here,” Xu Qian said.
“Let’s take a look first.”
Zhang Heng knocked on the door of the room.
After a while, the door was opened from the inside, and a man in only a pair of beach pants appeared. In an ominous tone, he asked, “Who are you looking for?”
“Jiang Hong, does she still live here?” Xu Qian asked.
The man glared at Zhang Heng and frowned.
“There’s no one called Jiang Hong here. You come to the wrong place.”
He was just about to shut the door in their faces but didn’t expect that someone’s hand would block it.
“The next time you lie, don’t pause. Others will know that you are coming with something that would benefit you,” Zhang Heng said as he stepped into the house. The expression of the man in the beach pants changed.
“Hey, boy, don’t bring trouble to yourself,” he growled.
As he said, he tackled Zhang Heng with his shoulder, trying to push him out of the house. Obviously, he had overestimated his strength and underestimated his opponent. Zhang Heng did not even dodge the attack, allowing the man to tackle him instead. The end result of that—Zhang Heng’s body moved a little, but the beach pants man was being pushed back by the ground reaction force. Pushed away from the door, he could only watch Zhang Heng walk into the house.
Xu Qian hesitated before following Zhang Heng into the house. As soon as she entered, though, she was immensely shocked at the sight before her. A naked girl was cuffed to the bed, and she had bruises all over her body. One of her eyes was swollen as well.
“Jiang Hong?” Xu Qian froze for a while before she could recognize the lady.
Zhang Heng grabbed the bedsheets and put them on Jiang Hong’s body. He then looked at the beach pants man and said, “She is a tenant here. Who are you? Thief? Robber? Did you suddenly decide to attack the girl while trying to steal her money?”
“What the hell are you talking about? I’m her husband!!!” the man yelled. “Who the hell are you guys? Why break into my house?!”
“Consider us the good Samaritans.”
Zhang Heng looked at the handcuffs on Jiang Hong’s hands and realized that an electronic lock was underneath it.
“What is the password?”
“What makes you think I will tell you the password?” sneered the man.
Zhang Heng did not respond. Instead, he immediately turned off the light bulb above his head and smashed it at the corner of the table while everyone looked at him in a surprised manner. He then pressed the man’s head against the wall, about to stab his eyes with the broken light bulb.
“You don’t have to do that. I will give you the password. The password is 8672.”
Seeing that the broken glass was less than a centimeter from his eyeball, the man was startled and quickly told Zhang Heng the password.
Xu Qian entered the password and unlocked the handcuffs. After that, she took out the clothes from the closet on the side for Jiang Hong to put on. The man wanted to speak at that moment, but he shut his mouth again when he saw the broken light bulb in front of him. It was not until Zhang Heng put down the bulb and Xu Qian and Jiang Hong were out of the house that he spoke again.
“Where are you taking my wife?”
“Take care of your own affairs.”
Zhang Heng put the gun back in his bag.
“Do something a husband should do. You could start by replacing the broken light bulb.”
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