Around 9 PM, the music for the square dancing in the district's activity area had just stopped. The older women, waving their sweat towels, were gossiping about which girl had a falling out with which family, and which daughter-in-law was getting close to Old Wang next door. Suddenly, they heard the security guard's loudspeaker and immediately gathered around.
Zhang continued shouting through the loudspeaker: "Attention all residents of the district! Attention all residents of the district! A man dressed in black with black pants and wearing a baseball cap (it's unclear whether it's blue or green) has just forced his way into the district without registering. Please lock your doors and windows. If anyone knocks on the door, please verify their identity. In case of emergency, please call 110 immediately!"
Zhang repeated these words over and over through a loudspeaker, word for word.
Of course, since it was the first recording played, it was exactly the same word for word.
The sound went around and around, ensuring that everyone at home heard it at least twice. Even Li Lechen, who lived on the sixth floor, heard it clearly.
It must be admitted that Zhang and his other security guard colleagues did a really good job in terms of district security, so much so that although Jiahe District is relatively old, the safety index here is still quite high.
Meanwhile, Zhang was enthusiastically sharing his experience with the equally excited middle-aged women.
“You guys have no idea, that guy!” Zhang gestured, “I felt something was off about him as soon as he got to the door. It’s so hot, and it’s late at night, why is he wearing a hat?”
“My husband, Lao Pan, wears a hat all night long,” Dongzi’s mother from Building 1 chimed in.
"Your husband, Lao Pan, is bald, he can't stand not wearing a bra," Wang Dazhuang's mother teased with a sly smile.
"Wearing it doesn't necessarily work..." Someone casually uttered a sentence, and the surroundings fell silent for a few seconds before everyone burst into laughter, except for Dongzi's mother who rolled her eyes repeatedly.
If I deny it, I'll be letting myself down; if I admit it, I'll be letting my husband down. I'm really torn!
Fortunately, Zhang kept the conversation going, and he continued, "I yelled at him and asked him his name and which building he was looking for. Guess what he did?"
The middle-aged women shook their heads repeatedly, their cooperation remarkably seamless.
Zhang answered with satisfaction: "He's going to Building 1, a relative lives there."
"One building?"
For some reason, everyone instinctively looked at Dongzi's mother. There was no way around it; her family was the only ones living in Building 1. And because Building 1 faced the street with shops downstairs, the living conditions weren't great. Most importantly, an accident had occurred in Building 1 a year ago: a couple from out of town renting room 301 forgot to turn off the gas after showering and died of poisoning.
Afterwards, the landlord of 301 tried to sublet or sell the house several times, but failed because two people had died. This even caused the price of the entire unit in the building to be several thousand yuan per square meter cheaper than other units in the same area.
To this day, 301 remains empty.
Then, all the residents of Building 1 moved out, leaving only Dongzi's family.
Zhang finished his suspense, whetting everyone's appetite, and continued in a dramatic tone: "I was suspicious then, so I asked him what number his relative lived in, but he didn't quite remember. Then he pretended to make a phone call in front of me, but after a while no one answered, and he said it was an emergency, so he asked me to let him in."
"And then?" everyone pressed.
"I just showed him my ID card for registration," Zhang said, becoming increasingly smug, wishing he could give himself seventeen or eighteen thumbs up for his actions. "He told me he didn't have his ID card with him. I didn't make things difficult for him, I just asked him to fill in his complete information. And he actually did. And guess what happened?"
"What?!"
"When I saw the ID number he wrote down, I knew it was completely fake! I exposed him on the spot."
"You can tell a fake ID number just by looking at it?" The aunties instantly looked at him with admiration, making Zhang even more smug.
"The middle few digits of his ID card are his birthday, right? That guy actually wrote that down. Could he be a time traveler from two thousand years in the future?"
"Then what?"
"And then?" Zhang paused, then said regretfully, "I never imagined that after being exposed, he would force his way in, and so fast! In the blink of an eye, I don't even know which building he'd disappeared into. That's why I warned everyone to be careful; he's definitely a thief!"
Upon hearing this, the women nodded in agreement and decided to hurry home to tell their husbands and children to secure the doors and windows and prepare knives. Oh no, knives were probably out of the question; they might become easy tools for criminals, turning theft into robbery and murder.
After the women dispersed, Zhang picked up the megaphone and continued shouting throughout the area: "Everyone should pay special attention to a man in black clothes and black pants; he may have thrown away his green hat. In short, everyone should keep their doors and windows closed, safeguard their belongings, and be mindful of personal safety. In case of emergency, call 110 immediately."
As soon as he finished speaking, a navy blue baseball cap that had just been thrown into a trash can was picked up again from a dark corner of the area. It was truly baffling. The man held the cap up to his eyes again in the moonlight. Wasn't this supposed to be blue? How did it turn green?
But dark blue...blue...blue, isn't blue just green? Could it really be a green hat?
The saddest thing isn't having a girlfriend and being cheated on, but not having a girlfriend yet constantly being cheated on.
Because of security guard Zhang's dedication, he tirelessly and patiently used a loudspeaker to remind everyone to be wary of thieves. The man in the baseball cap, who was originally planning to gather some information, could do nothing at this moment.
He was indeed known as "Swift as a Kick" in the organization, running incredibly fast, but not fast enough to scale walls or disappear underground. The hat could be removed, but Da Xia's all-black clothes couldn't be taken off.
Therefore, they can only wait for an opportunity in the shadows, or disguise themselves again before taking action.
Fortunately, it has been confirmed that the tall, thin boy with black-rimmed glasses lives in this area, which is a great find.
Because an unidentified person broke into the district, Zhang's security work continued after being alerted by loudspeakers. He patrolled the entire district almost every half hour until 3 a.m., and then the shift changed.
The poor man in the baseball cap was hiding in a garbage transfer station, which stank horribly and was swarming with flies and mosquitoes. The worst part was that he couldn't even doze off, constantly waiting for a chance to slip away, only managing to get a break when his shift changed.
After that night, the man in the baseball cap came to a conclusion: to enter the district, one must have a respectable identity.
So, after a short rest, he applied for a job as a water deliveryman for a bottled water company.
Nowadays, to be a good hoodlum, you need both courage and wisdom. The man in the baseball cap put on a water deliveryman's clothes, changed into a white baseball cap, and rode a tricycle full of bottled water, his narcissism overflowing.
Now I can finally sneak into the district openly and even enter people's homes openly.
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