The weapon by the pillow

Chapter 83 The Mystery of a Single Word

Anping Lane is always quiet.

It wasn't dark yet, and the lights in the secondhand store weren't on.

Its door was open.

There were few people outside the shop, but two figures could be seen in the distance.

Two hunched old men, one in front of the other, were dressed simply and each carried a blue striped bag.

The bag was slightly torn, and the half-full bag of items clattered loudly.

They looked like an elderly couple who wandered the streets and alleys collecting scraps.

The old man walking in front was more meticulous in picking up trash, checking almost every single trash can.

Occasionally, I would pick up a plastic bottle or half a piece of cardboard, carefully shake it to remove any sticky residue, and then put it into the blue striped bag like a treasure.

Every now and then, he would put the bags down, hunch over, and stomp on them with his foot to press them down.

He would also do this for the old woman following behind.

At this point, they would say a few words, not loudly; sometimes it was an argument, sometimes...

"I remember we met here. It was already dark, and the shop was closed!" The one dressed as an old man was Cheng Tan. After discussing it for a long time, they still felt that disguising themselves as an old man who collects rags would be less suspicious.

"I remember there was a shop like that, and a phone booth next to it..." Cheng Jing said in a low voice, "but I've looked for a long time, and the phone booth seems to be gone!"

"I've also noticed a few oddities!" Cheng Tan's face was grim. "It feels like this place is hiding something. Maybe...maybe when the eight of us came here that day, right at this doorway, we'd already walked into someone's trap!"

"You mean, it's not just inside the building, the entire area outside is already being used for surveillance!" Cheng Tan's sudden discovery left Cheng Jing speechless for a moment. "What evidence do you have?"

"My evidence comes from two sources..." Cheng Tan glanced at the shop sign. "This shop is called a secondhand goods store. The font color on the sign is basically the same. This shop uses the 'Signature Font', but I remember the shop we were at near the entrance used the 'Wangcai Signature Font' for the character 'goods'. The fonts are basically the same, except the stroke of the character 'goods' is different—one curves upwards, and the other slants downwards. I remember that very clearly!"

"You don't know how? You've even researched this!" Cheng Jing was somewhat impressed.

"It's just a coincidence that the company that developed this software is suing someone because this font was pirated! I noticed some details about them! It indicates that there's something wrong with this store, and..." Cheng Tan continued, "The biggest difference is this sign in Anping Lane..."

"What's the difference?" Cheng Jing was even more curious. She hadn't noticed anything wrong along the way, but this hoodlum had actually found something.

"The sign for Building 7 in Anping Lane has an extra character!" Cheng Tan said in a low voice. Feeling that the two of them had been together for a while, he parted ways with Cheng Jing before finishing his sentence.

Until you reach the next trash can.

"Stop beating around the bush, just tell me already... I'm so impatient!" Cheng Jing asked impatiently as soon as she saw Cheng Tan squat down and step on the blue striped bag, "What's the extra word?"

"There's an extra 'building'!" Cheng Tan said in a low voice. "I remember seeing only the words 'No. 7 Anping Lane' back then, but today when I got here, the sign clearly says 'Building No. 7 Anping Lane'! Damn it, this is unbelievable!"

"What!" Cheng Jing was genuinely shocked by Cheng Tan's discovery. "You mean, it's possible that the entire Building 7 in Anping Lane is up to something!"

"Officer Cheng," Cheng Tan spoke again, "do you think it's possible... that we're not facing an individual or a group, but... a deeply entrenched... system? Or rather, an... 'immune mechanism' formed to protect some larger secret? Li Wan's death, Zhao Jianguo and Wang Bin's 'accidents,' Liu Li's disappearance, last night's live-stream farce, and even today's 'switcheroo'... are all this 'immune mechanism' at work, trying to eliminate the 'virus'—that is, those who try to touch or reveal the secret?"

Cheng Jing's hand, gripping the blue striped bag, tightened slightly.

Cheng Tan's speculation coincided with her master's veiled hints and her own deepest suspicions.

"Your nightmares might be some kind of 'adverse reaction' or 'misprojection' that occurs when this 'immune mechanism' is activated." Cheng Jing continued along this line of thought, "You unintentionally received some residual 'signals'—it could be the magnetic field remnants from the scene, fragments of the strong will of a near-death person, or...noise generated by the 'mechanism' itself. These signals interfered with your subconscious, forming those bloody dreams. And the murder weapon beside your pillow...maybe it's the 'mechanism' testing you, or...some kind of 'mark' that we can't understand."

This explanation is still mysterious, but it seems closer to the bizarre situation they faced than a simple supernatural occurrence or coincidence.

"If that's really the case," Cheng Tan felt his throat go dry, "then how big must this 'secret' be? Is it worth sacrificing so many lives and using such a massive scheme to cover it up? Jin Dafu's demolition company is probably just the tip of the iceberg."

"Perhaps the demolition itself isn't the key," Cheng Jing said, her gaze deep. "The key is what 'something' was unexpectedly discovered during the demolition process, or beneath this land. Li Wan may have unfortunately seen that 'thing,' or sensed certain people and events related to it."

"Could that 'thing'... still be here?" Cheng Tan's heart raced. "Right here, moved around by them? Does that so-called 'second secret room' still exist? Is it beneath that mezzanine we couldn't get into last night?"

"Possibly. But after last night, the 'thing' might have been moved, or... that entrance might just be another bait or trap," Cheng Jing analyzed. "Since the other party could change things so thoroughly, it's impossible for them to leave any truly important secrets behind."

It was already dark two hours before 10 o'clock.

"We can't keep pretending to be scavengers anymore; nobody can be scavenging at night!" Cheng Jing thought for a moment. "We need to change our identity! Old man!"

"What kind of impressive identity do you have?" Cheng Tan joked casually. "You wouldn't go to the 'senior citizens' activity center' to play mahjong... or maybe you'd play chess!"

"That's a really good idea!" Cheng Jing, spurred on by Cheng Tan's words, suddenly had an idea:

"I haven't been a mahjong champion since I became a detective, it's been years! How about we set up a mahjong parlor and play a terrifying game of mahjong!"