Chapter 30

Throughout the rest of the call, Pei Huai only glanced at Xiang Mingqi, his eyes devoid of any emotion. He listened intently to the girl's story, only speaking when only soft sobs remained on the other end.

"I understand." His thumb flicked to a button on the homepage. This was a mandatory app for all new Bangkok hotel employees. It was used to forward calls, directing them to the Organization Management Department, where a specialist would be dispatched to discuss the details with the client. "The details of the charges will be explained to you. Please understand this is the process for establishing a client."

"Ah, is that the brother from before? I..." She was about to say something, but Pei Huai cut the call short with a "Good luck!" He tossed the phone back to Xiang Mingqi, deposited the advance payment into the pet hospital's front desk account, and walked out.

They arrived at the dark and deserted park path and Xiang Mingqi approached him with a scowl on his face.

"Brother, isn't it time for you to go home and rest?" He spread his fingers apart, pulled down his eyelids, and made a face with his tongue out. "Look, if you don't get enough sleep, your dark circles will droop to the corners of your mouth. Have you been too busy these past few days? How about I massage your shoulders?"

The moment the rising ending tone was pushed to the roof of his mouth, a hand grabbed his neck and slammed him against the tree trunk.

"Xiang Mingqi." The leaves fell down in a triumphant manner. Pei Huai leaned towards him, his pupils constricted, and his voice was sinister. "In principle, the Bangkok Hotel will not refuse any commission. Because it is a paid project."

The force of that hand was strong enough to crush the throat. It was not a pleasant feeling. Xiang Mingqi showed a pained expression and quickly raised his hands in surrender: "Brother... cough."

"I don't care whether you care about me or have other motives. But you must do your job well here. Please transfer this type of call to the department immediately next time."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I heard it during the new employee training. They specifically, ahem, talked about it once." He seemed to be on the verge of suffocation, frantically taking in fresh air. "I just didn't remember it just now, I..."

"You didn't expect it." He was interrupted by the five fingers that closed again and penetrated deep into the flesh.

"Brother, I was wrong, I was wrong, please—"

"You just lied to me."

"No, no, no, no, how dare I!" The latter's pupils suddenly constricted with fear, and he raised his arms above his head. "I promise I won't do this next time. I promise I won't slack off or be absent-minded. I will keep my eyelids pressed to my forehead during class. Please, please, spare me. I'm still so young."

Pei Huai hadn't intended to kill him, he just wanted to give him a few words of advice. He didn't expect Xiang Mingqi to react so violently, and he felt a little overwhelmed.

Fortunately, while he was at a loss, the phone suddenly rang. He pulled his hand away and turned to answer the call.

The operator was an old friend of his, one of the founders of the Bangkok Hotel-Kennesaw branch. She was a girl with an enthusiastic voice named Su Minxian.

"Puff, puff—puff." She was imitating strange noises to adjust the microphone. "A new commission has come in. The requirement is to find a certain cat. It has a white fur on its tail and green eyes. The client said the deposit will be prepaid to your card, and the balance will be discussed later. The fee we've negotiated isn't much, probably the girl's living expenses, about a little over a thousand. Is that okay?"

"Can."

"Let's talk personal: You're actually helping a little girl find a cat? That's progress. Could it be that our company's handsome guy is in a passionate relationship recently?"

"……No."

"Well, okay. I don't expect you to be honest anyway. I won't say much. You'll be unhappy if I say too much." Following his definite answer, the call was transferred back to the client.

Not knowing what Su Minxian said to her, the girl didn't dare to answer, but just asked him in a pleading tone.

"Um, um, is it okay now?"

Pei Huai did not respond to the client's question immediately. Instead, he used his thumb to press one end of the bandage tightly, tied it along the finger bones, and tied it firmly because the part passing through the thumb was pulled to the extreme by his teeth.

"I've confirmed the details. Now, the Bangkok Hotel will officially accept your commission." He hooked the brass knuckles of the trench dagger with a single finger, before his four fingers could penetrate it, turning the inner blade outward. "—Happy cooperation."

-

Before all the surveillance footage around the cat cafe was fully retrieved, the Bangkok hotel had already located the part-time student's address. Around the same time Zhuangzhuang disappeared, part-time student Wang Qi also disappeared. If it weren't for the cleaning lady's fondness for cuddling the cats during her shift change, the situation could have been much worse.

Until now, the store has not been able to contact the part-time student.

The location marker stopped at the southwest corner of an unfinished building. Due to construction delays, the workers who had previously lived nearby have gradually moved out. It's said that a part-time student had been stranded there for over two months, and this address was also listed on their file.

"Wow, I've been thinking about it and I still find him suspicious." Standing in front of a sparsely lit tin shack that looked lonely at night, Xiang Mingqi put his hands in his pockets, twirling a half-sliced ​​candy stick between his lips. "Evidence one: the scratches on his arm. Evidence two: he's like a durian, hiding from the cat. To sum it up, this guy isn't the murderer. I'm doing a live handstand."

Pei Huai ignored him with his eyes downcast, and walked over to try the door. It wasn't locked.

After reducing the noise of the lock as much as possible, I opened the door inward. The first thing I saw was the induction cooker on the bench, the socket connected to a badly stained power strip. There was still batter stuck to the bottom of the pot.

The path from the front door to the house was difficult to walk on, with a dense trail of water left by the soup. Pei Huai's expression was complicated.

There was a bag of garbage piled up at the door, unsealed. Looking down, one could see the uneaten biscuits and instant noodle boxes inside. Further in, the space was separated only by a bamboo curtain.

A faint light shone from behind the curtains, and the sound of keyboards and mice clacking could be heard. Xiang Mingqi immediately crouched down, ready to take action. Before he began, he gave Pei Huai a playful wink and a thumbs-up.

Pei Huai looked around as if he hadn't seen him. Two bags of imported cat food and four slanted ceramic bowls were piled against the wall, with no food left.

At this moment, a muffled sound of metal being knocked to the ground came from behind the bamboo curtain.

In less than a second, Xiang Mingqi rushed in and knocked the person inside to the ground. The house was filled with the sounds of cats meowing, heavy objects falling, static, and many other indescribable noises.

"Who are you and what are you going to do?!" A little light reflected Wang Qi's face. He was shouting and struggling, but he couldn't get rid of the entanglement of weight.

"I don't know who I am either." Xiang Mingqi grabbed his arm and pressed his knee against his back, saying, "It's mainly because I haven't thought of a stage name yet. Otherwise, you can just call me Ah Fei."

While they were talking, Pei Huai stepped over the two men on the ground and took a look around the computer desk.

There were four cages in the corner, arranged on upper and lower levels. A British Shorthair, startled by their arrival, slipped and knocked over the litter box. Pei Huai took a quick look. Both cats had their own dedicated cardboard boxes, pee pads, beds, and scratching posts. Only one cage was empty.

Among them, a young cow that was not in the cage was crawling on the ground, its ears as low as wings, its hair standing on end, and its front paws slashing left and right towards Mingqi's face.

"Wow, I can't help it. Why does he have an accomplice with thick eyebrows and big eyes?"

Pei Huai casually pulled out a swivel chair and sat in front of the computer to confirm its contents.

There's a prominent, unnamed folder on the desktop. Clicking it reveals a multitude of video recordings nestled within subdirectories. Double-clicking one reveals a roadside video of a cat trapped in a cage at a park.

The incidents occurred in more than 30 locations, and most of the cats caught were stray cats, with a few domesticated ones as well.

Seeing this, Pei Huai kicked the wheels of the swivel chair and walked over to the part-time student. When the student ducked his head to avoid it, he bent down, extended his index finger, and lifted his stubbled chin.

"Are you looking for it too?"

The man on the ground looked up at him, his eyes full of surprise, and then he lowered his head as if he realized something.

"Um."

"Let him go, Xiang Mingqi." Pei Huai leaned back in his chair and looked down at the two people under his feet.

"Hey, he's the suspect who stole the overweight cat." Xiang Mingqi buried his face in the man's back, mainly because he was beaten by the little cow and couldn't raise his head. "You have such a wretched face, and cats hate cats. There must be something fishy going on. Tell me, why did you want to kill that fat guy?"

"My complexion is bad because I'm writing outsourced program code. Cats don't like me because I have a lot of worms and I often use Fengyoujing."

"Oh, programmer, that's fine... No way, do you think I'm a three-year-old?"

As soon as he finished speaking, Pei Huai stepped on the younger generation's shoulder and kicked the chattering boy aside. The old swivel chair continued to make noises and turned to face Wang Qi.

"Don't be nervous. We have the same goal." He spoke calmly, interlocking their fingers. "A cat went missing from the store you're working today. He and I are here for this."

The man stood up, patted his dusty jeans, nodded quietly, and walked towards the computer desk, asking in a low voice: "Please move aside." The latter cooperated by moving his shoulders and moving back.

Wang Qi tapped his index finger twice, and a surveillance video from 10 pm to 12 am popped up.

From the content, Pei Huai could confirm that at 10:02, Wang Qi, unable to resist his sleepiness, fell asleep at the front desk. Apparently, he remained lying on the counter without moving until 12:00, when Zhuangzhuang disappeared.

At 11:50, the time closest to midnight, a figure wearing a black hoodie wandered in front of the store, eventually entered the store, and took Zhuangzhuang away from the cat climbing frame.

"The main entrance to the mall is closed at this time. There's only one security guard." Wang Qi took a picture of the space and pointed to the time displayed in the upper right corner. "So, finding an eyewitness is unlikely."

Pei Huai raised his eyelids and looked at him: "What have you found so far?"

"I found an underground bar." The latter felt a little embarrassed by his stare, and clenched his fingers into the flesh of his palms. "But I don't have a pass or an invitation, so I can't get in."

"Speakeasy?"

He nodded, suddenly panicking as if he had grasped a lifeline. "I'm not sure what it's like inside. I know the security at the entrance is tight. Last time, I followed a cat thief and found him entering the bar. But the security guards immediately saw that I wasn't from there and kicked me out."

He hadn't finished speaking. In his panic, all his emotions were on the verge of exploding. He spoke faster and faster, waving his hands. "I've been looking for my cat. Her name is Coconut. She went out last time and never came back home. I saw it on the surveillance camera later. It was someone in black who took her away. Are you looking for Zhuangzhuang? Can you help me look for her too? She's white with two small black spots on her head. She's easy to spot."

"...Judging from the video, the man weighs around 85 kilograms and is no taller than 1.9 meters. He has a street tattoo on his throat. His neck is thick, and there are fractures in his wrist bones. They were caused by direct impact." Pei Huai paused for a moment before answering. "This is a hallmark of underground black boxing. What's the name of the bar?"

Wang Qi didn't expect him to progress so quickly, and even made a judgment without knowing anything. He answered blankly: "Centipede, Centipede Girl."

"--Ah, I know this place." Xiang Mingqi finally broke free from the little cow that was hitting him in the face, got up from the ground, rubbed his face pitifully, and said, "It's always popular on Weibo, a couple's bar. I just happened to see it on the homepage today."

"What activity?"

"Hottest Couple Contest."