Netherworld Investigator

The atmosphere in the car became awkward again. It seemed that since last night, I had developed feelings for Huang Xiaotao. And from her reactions, it seemed that she too might have the same feelings for me?

I know it wasn’t right to observe a girl using Cave Vision, but this was a special case, and it should warrant an exception. I had to figure out if Huang Xiaotao had any feelings for me. 

I noticed that Huang Xiaotao placed her hands on both sides of the seat, only inches away from my hand. I hovered my hand slowly towards hers, all while my heart was thumping in my chest. But before our hands touched, Huang Xiaotao suddenly retracted her hands—I thought she must’ve seen through my trick and was not amused, and I was completely disheartened by this turn of events. 

To my surprise however, that fair hand of hers ended up on my burning cheek. Huang Xiaotao was touching me with the back of her hand. The hand was so smooth and cool—it felt like it was made of jade.

“You’re sweating. Is it too hot in here?” asked Huang Xiaotao.

“Did you turn on the AC?”

Huang Xiaotao chuckled and sighed. It turned out that she had forgotten to turn the air conditioning on. She then casually rested her hand on top of mine. I thought it was an accident and that she was going to take it off immediately after realizing it, but seconds passed and her hand was still there. In the silence of the car, I could hear the sound of her heart pounding in her chest—she was nervous too!

That knowledge unexpectedly calmed me down. We sat there wordlessly for a few minutes, but I could clearly feel that there was something in the air—something between me and Huang Xiaotao that required no words to explain. I knew she could feel it too.

I glanced at her, and she actually looked at me at the same time, and then we both quickly looked away. Huang Xiaotao removed the hand that was placed on top of mine.

Then, a voice in my head urged me to take action, telling me to act like a man for a change. I turned towards Huang Xiaotao, drew a breath to drum up my courage, and grabbed her shoulders. They felt small and slender in my hands. I subconsciously braced myself for getting yelled at or pushed away, but she did not resist at all.

That was all the encouragement I needed. I moved in closer to her. As our faces were about to touch, I noticed that her cheeks were faintly flushed, and she was biting her lips and looking into my eyes shyly. I closed in on her lips, barely able to stand the anticipation of a kiss.

Our faces were getting closer and closer until we could feel each other’s breath. Huang Xiaotao closed her eyes, seemingly looking forward to the kiss too!

Then, my phone rang. The atmosphere with all the special moments that built up to it was completely ruined.

I sat back in frustration and picked up the phone. It was Dali. After pressing the answer button, I heard his voice yelling, “Dude, help!”

“What happened?” I asked.

“I forgot the toilet roll! You need to come and save me now!”

I sighed heavily, trying to resist the urge to bite Dali’s head off. 

“Okay, just give me a minute, I’ll be right there,” I said.

I hung up and told Huang Xiaotao, “I have to go save Dali.”

“Okay,” she answered monotonously. She continued to face the window, away from me, probably to hide her blush.

I was hit by a gust of cold wind the second I stepped out of the car. It brought me back down to reality and I began to reconsider what I had just done in the car. Had I gone too far? Would Huang Xiaotao hate me for what I did? I then fell into a downward spiral of self-doubt and endless worrying. My mind felt like it was wrapped in a dark cloud.

I soon ‘rescued’ Dali and we both went back into the car. With such a massive third-wheel like Dali, the atmosphere that was in the car when Huang Xiaotao and I were alone together was completely gone without a trace.

We waited for two more hours, then I noticed a few workers walking out of the factory. It was lunchtime. Our eyes were fixed on the factory gate with bated breaths.

After a huge number of workers had left the factory, Yu Jun finally drove out in his Passat. Huang Xiaotao waited until he had driven a certain distance before she started the car and followed him. She texted as she drove. After half an hour, we followed Yu Jun to an old residential building. 

Huang Xiaotao looked at her phone and said, “I just confirmed with Officer Liao. This isn’t where Yu Jun lives.”

“He’s probably got a mistress here,” Dali guessed.

“No, not a mistress,” I said. “This is probably where he keeps his ‘cat.’”

Yu Jun walked into the building. I couldn’t decide whether we should continue to stalk him here or to follow him. Huang Xiaotao said, “We’ll go inside and search the house after he’s gone.”

“But we’ve got no search warrants!” Dali reminded her.

“We’ll never solve the case if we wait for that!” Huang Xiaotao countered.

We noticed that Yu Jun was standing in front of a window on the fifth floor with a grave expression on his face. He seemed to be talking to someone. He then glanced out of the window, then quickly pulled the curtain up. 

“Did he notice us?” asked Dali nervously.

“I don’t think so.” Huang Xiaotao shook her head.

After a while, Yu Jun came down and drove away. We walked to the front of the building when a guy in a sweater came downstairs holding something in his hands. He walked past us without giving us any notice.

We went up to the fifth floor and stopped in front of a door. Huang Xiaotao pulled out two hairpins from her hair and handed them to me.

“Great Detective Song,” she said, “it’s time for you to show off your magical powers.”

I was reminded of our last conversation when I last picked a lock with her hairpins and said, “I’ll buy you nicer pins later!”

“Good!” laughed Huang Xiaotao. “That’s an improvement!”

It didn’t take me more than a minute to unlock the door. We entered the room and saw that it was almost empty. There was no furniture at all safe for a bare bed frame. Obviously, this was a temporarily rented house. There was no sign of the Wealth Beckoning Cat here, although I did notice a small pile of ashes on the floor in a corner of the room. 

We almost turned the room upside down searching for the Wealth Beckoning Cat. We even opened the window and checked the window sill—but all was in vain.

“Could he have snuck it out somehow?” asked Huang Xiaotao.

“Shit!” I cursed. “That guy we walked past downstairs!”

“Let’s chase him!” barked Huang Xiaotao.

We flew downstairs. But no matter how fast we ran we had been delayed for five minutes searching the room upstairs. The man must’ve gotten pretty far away by now. An idea flashed into my mind, and with a glimmer of hope, I called Wang Yuanchao and asked him where he was right now.

“Guangming District,” he replied.

I was overjoyed.

“We’re here too! Is Bai Yidao here?” I asked.

“Yes, I just saw him enter a building,” answered Wang Yuanchao. “But he just got out, and he’s holding something in his hands.”

“Is your car engine on?”

“Yes!”

“Then send your location to Huang Xiaotao’s car with GPS,” I instructed. “We’ll be following close behind you!”

After hanging up the phone, I told Huang Xiaotao to quickly get into the car and drive. I briefly explained the current situation to her: the man we walked past in front of the building was Bai Yidao, and just as I expected, he and Yu Jun knew each other. Moreover, the Wealth Beckoning Cat was most probably in Bai Yidao’s hands right now.

We used GPS to lock in on Wang Yuanchao’s location and followed him all the way. After a while, he parked his car behind a hotel. He then got out of his car and came over to us.

“Bai Yidao just entered the hotel,” he said.

“He must be dealing with the Wealth Beckoning Cat right now,” said Huang Xiaotao.

“Then what are we waiting for?” asked Dali. “Let’s charge in and catch him red-handed with the evidence!”

“No!” I frowned and shook my head. “We’re still not sure how deep Bai Yidao is in this. Perhaps he is Yu Jun’s accomplice, or perhaps he’s only helping him this one time. It’s not a good idea to corner him right now. We don’t know what he’ll do if he gets desperate. Besides, he must be carrying a gun too.”

“You shouldn’t worry about that,” said Huang Xiaotao. “Wang Yuanchao alone could easily deal with ten Bai Yidaos.” 

“But we’d better be safe than sorry,” I asserted. “We’re not far from the police station. Perhaps you could call Officer Liao so he could bring some people over? Then we’ll all rush in together—that way we’ll get more witnesses too.”

“Excellent idea!” Huang Xiaotao excitedly clapped her hands. “That way Bai Yidao has nowhere to run!”