Chapter 115 - 50: What Did Zhang Shutong See?
"No, we’re looking for a place inside the supermarket." The young man frowned. "There’s a cooked food counter. Do you remember it?"
"The cooked food stall... That should be on the north side," Feng Ruoping said, curious. "So why the cooked food counter now? Didn’t he say he found a suspicious shop on the commercial street? How’s that investigation going?"
"We have a lead," Qingyi said simply. "Let’s go first and talk later. We need to hurry..."
"He’s got it good, off on a date while making us do all the work..." Before she could finish, she saw Qingyi had already turned and sprinted off. The girl could only stomp her foot in annoyance and hurry to catch up. "Slow down! I’m not wearing sneakers today!"
...
"Is your auntie nearsighted?" Zhang Shutong asked casually, handing a ’Grand Slam’ milk tea to Gu Qiuyan.
"I think so?" Gu Qiuyan said, unsure. "She has a pair of glasses, but she doesn’t wear them often. I don’t know how bad it is."
Zhang Shutong nodded.
’That makes sense.’
He sent another message to Du Kang on his phone.
"I might need your help with something later." The two of them walked toward the bicycle, milk teas in hand. Zhang Shutong patted the back seat. "I’m taking you somewhere now."
...
"He’s gone?" Meng Qingyi panted. "Did he just leave? To the bathroom?"
The area behind the cooked food counter was empty, save for some pork liver hanging on hooks.
Next to the counter was a scallion pancake stall, where a plump woman in a white apron stood.
The plump woman was kneading dough. She wiped some flour from her face with her pinky, shouting without looking up:
"Nope. Said he had a family emergency. Left on his very first day. Why don’t you two walk around for a bit and come back? The manager will have someone else cover the spot soon."
Meng Qingyi recalled what Shutong had told him and asked,
"Did he do anything unusual when he came in today?"
The woman couldn’t help but chuckle.
"Are you two kids playing detective? You’re just like my son, always reading that... what’s it called... ’Tiger Adventure Squad’ book."
She waved her hand dismissively.
"Shoo, shoo. I’m busy here. Go play somewhere else."
"It’s The Tiger Team—"
"Just drop it." Ruoping shoved Qingyi aside with a look of disdain. She first called out sweetly, "Ma’am," then asked for five yuan worth of scallion pancakes. While the woman was busy, Ruoping started chatting about her son, asking how old he was, what grade he was in... When the woman said third grade, Qingyi’s face instantly darkened.
In short, once the woman was warmed up and talking, Ruoping pushed Qingyi forward, signaling for him to ask his questions quickly.
The woman didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. "Dear, you didn’t have to go to all that trouble. It’s just that I really don’t know what to say. What do you mean by ’unusual’?"
As she said this, she subconsciously tried to recall.
"Nothing really stood out. We just made small talk while working. He mentioned that the boss’s house burned down yesterday and asked if we knew about it."
"And then?"
"Who would know about something that big? I thought he was making it up. But then this morning, the manager suddenly called us out for a meeting and told us not to spread any rumors we might hear, that the boss was sending someone back today..."
"This morning?"
"Around ten o’clock."
"That was right before we got here, wasn’t it?" Ruoping chimed in.
"Then it all adds up." Qingyi had a flash of insight. "No wonder he came to work today. He was after this information."
"What do you mean?"
"This isn’t the place to talk. Let’s walk and talk."
It was lunchtime, so other customers arrived after they had only asked a few questions. But the young man seemed to have gotten the information he wanted and called for Ruoping to leave.
"We can basically confirm who it is." Qingyi typed as he walked, then suddenly remarked, "Talk about a blind squirrel finding a nut."
"You’re the blind squirrel."
"I wasn’t talking about us. I meant that guy. In a way, he’s pretty lucky. It saves us the trouble of figuring out who did it."
"You want to try being mysterious again?" Ruoping brandished her claws.
"Shutong just told me that he and Gu Qiumian came here to buy pork liver before."
"And then?"
"And then it’s just like what we just heard," Qingyi said with a shrug. "As soon as they left, the person selling the pork liver left too."