roccoschili Chapter 28: The Guest Outside the Window
Chapter 28: The Guest Outside the Window
Cheng Xiaojin squatted down.
He didn't turn on the light, but used the dim light from the street lamp outside the door to bring his face less than a foot from the floor and stare at the shoe print.
Leather shoes, flat, no heel, with fine, evenly spaced horizontal treads on the sole. Size not large, maybe 41 or 42 at most.
He took out his phone and took one picture, then another, from different angles, making sure the texture was clear before standing up.
Then he turned on the light.
The rental apartment is so small, you can see the whole thing at a glance.
The bed hadn't been moved; the blankets were still rolled up in the same way he left.
There were three cigarette butts in the ashtray on the table, no more, no less.
The camphor wood chest was placed in the corner. He went over and took a look. The strand of hair he had left on the lid before he left was still there, bent over and resting on the clasp, unbroken.
No one has touched the box.
Grandpa's notes aren't here, nor are the tattered scrolls; they're all locked up at Grandpa Ma's house.
Cheng Xiaojin walked around the room, checking each drawer and cabinet one by one.
The clothes hadn't been turned over, the utility bills were still tucked in the bedside table, and all the three hundred yuan in change under the pillow was still there.
This person didn't come in to steal anything.
He walked to the window, drew back the curtains, and carefully looked at the windowsill.
On the left side of the inside of the windowsill, there is a gap between the curtain and the window frame. Normally, this gap is completely covered when the curtain is drawn.
There was a piece of cardboard tucked inside the seam.
Business card size, stiff cardstock, white background, no printed text.
Cheng Xiaojin pinched the cardboard out with two fingers and flipped it over.
There is a line of handwritten small characters on the back, the handwriting is so neat that it looks like printed text, each stroke is regular and proper, and it was written with a blue-black ink fountain pen.
"Brother Cheng, I know the item isn't with you. I'll visit another day."
There was no signature, no contact information, and no date.
Cheng Xiaojin felt a tightness in the back of her neck.
Brother Cheng.
Among the hundreds of people in Panjiayuan, some called him Little Jinzi, some called him Boss Cheng, and some called him that kid, but no one called him Brother Cheng.
This form of address carries a scholarly air, and its politeness implies equality; it's not a senior addressing a junior, nor a buyer addressing a seller, but rather a professional addressing a professional.
He brought the card to his nose and smelled it.
The paper had no smell, but the faint sandalwood scent in the room hadn't completely dissipated.
Cheng Xiaojin stuffed the cardboard into his pocket, took out his phone, and dialed a number.
Tieguai Li caught it very quickly.
"Old Li, is it a convenient time for you to talk now?"
"It's convenient, I just finished eating instant noodles, what's up?"
"My house has been broken into; they climbed in through the window."
There was a two-second silence on the other end of the phone.
"One of Fatty Sun's men?"
"No, the technique was too clean. The window latch was locked back in from the outside, and the tape on the door wasn't even touched. If Fatty Sun and his gang had this skill, they wouldn't be able to survive in Panjiayuan."
"Did you lose anything?"
"Nothing was lost. The notes and tattered scrolls weren't even at home to begin with, and no one touched the camphor wood chest. But he left something behind."
"What is it?"
"There was a note that said, 'Brother Cheng, the item isn't with you. I know. I'll visit another day.'"
Tieguai Li gasped on the other end of the phone.
"Does he know you have something?"
"He knew I had something, and he knew it wasn't in the rented room."
"Fuck..."
"Old Li, pay attention to his wording. He said the item isn't with you, but he didn't ask for details about its whereabouts. He knows the item exists, but he doesn't know who it's hidden with."
How can you be so sure he didn't know?
"If he knew I was with Master Ma, would he have needed to climb through my window? He could have just gone straight to Master Ma's house."
Tieguai Li grunted, his prosthetic leg slamming twice on the concrete floor.
"Then who exactly is this person? Not Fatty Sun, not Boss Lin?"
"The man who works for Boss Lin is the one with the short hair and a nose scar, who drives a black Range Rover and stays at a hotel outside Jianguomen. This kind of method of leaving a note through a window is not something smugglers do. Smugglers want to investigate your background, so they use surveillance and bribery, they won't go into your house themselves."
"That's the third group."
"Yes, the third wave."
Cheng Xiaojin sat on the edge of the bed. "Old Li, can you help me with something? This person left a note not to warn me, nor to steal anything; he was saying hello."
"greet?"
"The phrase 'I'll visit another day' is the rule in the martial arts world for sending invitations. If you're going to visit someone, you should first send an invitation to let them know and give them time to prepare."
Tieguai Li pondered for a few seconds on the other end.
"You mean, this person isn't here to cause trouble?"
"I can't say what his purpose was, but he searched my house and didn't touch anything, which means he didn't have any malicious intent at least for now. He left a note to let me know he was here, instead of sneaking around to spy on me and then leaving. This kind of behavior is either a sign of goodwill or a show of force, but either way, it shows that he wants to talk to me in person."
"What are we going to talk about face-to-face?"
"I don't know. But he calls me Brother Cheng, not Boss Cheng or Little Jin. He treats me like a colleague."
"Competitors? What competitors?"
Cheng Xiaojin did not answer this question.
"Old Li, check all the doors and windows, and make sure there's no problem with the hidden compartment under the worktable. Before I go to Houhai tomorrow, I'll go see Master Ma first and tell him to be extra careful."
"Okay, be careful."
After hanging up the phone, Cheng Xiaojin took the note out of his pocket and read it again.
He flipped the paper over and looked at the edges of it under the light.
There is a very fine crease in the lower right corner of the cardstock, as if it had been pinched by something, leaving two parallel shallow lines.
Indentations in the business card holder.
This person carried a business card holder with him, using stiff cardstock instead of regular paper, and wrote in blue-black ink with a fountain pen. He smelled of sandalwood and wore flat leather shoes.
Pay attention.
He's not a brute, not a thug, and not a gangster.
Cheng Xiaojin slipped the note into the utility bill on the bedside table, got up, closed the window, locked the door, and went downstairs.
By the time I reached the entrance of the building, it was already completely dark.
The last rays of light from the west squeezed in through the gap between the two buildings, stretching his shadow long and close to the concrete ground in front of the unit door.
Cheng Xiaojin glanced back at his window.
On the fourth floor, the curtains were drawn, the lights were off, and everything seemed normal.
But his gaze shifted upwards, landing on the rooftop of the residential building across the street.
There was a person on the low wall of the rooftop.
The distance was too far to see the face clearly; only the outline of a human figure could be seen, dressed in light-colored clothes, which stood out brightly against the gray-blue sky.
The person was standing on the edge of the rooftop, with his hands seemingly in his pockets, in a very relaxed posture.
Cheng Xiaojin paused for less than a second.
Then the person turned around and disappeared behind the low wall on the rooftop.
Light-colored clothes.
Cheng Xiaojin's mind went through everyone he knew.
Sun Pangzi's men were all wearing black T-shirts, with buzz cuts and gray jackets, and the short-haired man with a nose scar wore a dark coat.
No one was wearing light-colored clothes.
He clenched his fist, turned around, and strode quickly toward Panjiayuan.
Boss Lin is waiting for him. He has to attend the event in Houhai tomorrow. He needs to know who's on the rooftop and who he can get to.
But he remembered one detail.
The light-colored dress was dazzlingly white in the twilight, spotless and without a single wrinkle.