118: Chapter 118 Gathering Information

Her face turned pale instantly, as if she had heard an extremely terrifying name.

"No... I don't know him!" Her voice became shrill. "Big brother, I just remembered I really have something to do. The money... I'll refund you half..."

She stood up to leave, her movements frantic, bumping into the chair.

Cao Kun grabbed her wrist. Her wrist was very thin, the bones felt prominent against his hand, and her skin was ice-cold.

"Sit down."

His voice wasn't loud, but it carried an unquestionable power. It wasn't the tone of a negotiation, but a command.

Xiao Li trembled all over, as if struck by an electric current.

She slowly sat back in the chair, and tears suddenly fell, large droplets splashing onto the tabletop.

"I... I really don't know any Li Hao... Big brother, please let me go. I'm just a sex worker, I don't know anything..." She spoke incoherently, tears mixing with the makeup on her face to leave streaks of grime.

"What are you afraid of?" Cao Kun released his grip, his voice softening. "Tell me, maybe I can help you."

"You can't help..." Xiao Li shook her head desperately, tears flying everywhere. "No one can help... They have knives, they have electric batons... We can't run away... We can't run..."

She seemed to have fallen into some terrifying memory, and her body began to shake, more and more violently.

She hugged her own arms, her nails digging into her flesh, leaving deep marks.

"Who are they?" Cao Kun pressed. "Who has knives? Who has electric batons?"

Xiao Li suddenly looked up, her eyes filled with extreme terror: "No! I can't say! They'll find out! They'll... they'll..."

She couldn't go on, only shaking her head desperately.

Cao Kun stopped pressing her.

He called the waiter to settle the bill, then supported Xiao Li as they walked out of the congee shop. Once the cold wind blew outside, Xiao Li shivered and cleared her head a bit. She broke free from Cao Kun's hand and said with her head down, "I can walk by myself."

Cao Kun looked at her, knowing he wouldn't get any more answers tonight.

However, judging from Xiao Li's performance...

She was being controlled, and very thoroughly at that. The other party likely wasn't just the Li Hao mentioned by the system, but had other accomplices as well.

It seemed he needed to do more digging.

"I'll take you back," he said.

"No! No need!" Xiao Li reacted violently. "Just leave it at that. The alley is narrow, a car can't get in."

Cao Kun watched her get out of the car, wrapping her old down jacket tightly around her, like a red fallen leaf drifting into the dark alley.

The sound of high heels gradually faded, finally disappearing into the howling cold wind of the late night.

He didn't leave immediately.

Sitting in the car, Cao Kun lit a cigarette.

The crimson cherry of the cigarette flickered in the darkness.

He looked at the mouth of the alley; it was like a black hole, swallowing all light and the figure of that young woman.

Cao Kun stubbed out the cigarette and started the car.

He didn't go home, but instead drove a loop around the Lotus Lane area. This area was very dilapidated.

Many houses were empty, their windows broken like pairs of hollow eyes.

But there were also a few houses with lights on, mostly cheap rental rooms with curtains so thin they were translucent, showing flickering silhouettes inside.

As he passed an alley, Cao Kun caught sight of a house number.

No. 89 Xinglong Street.

It was a three-story self-built house with mottled exterior walls. The windows were all covered with newspaper, making it stand out conspicuously among the surrounding houses.

Cao Kun couldn't help but take a few more looks.

He didn't find any clues.

However, Cao Kun always had a faint feeling that this house was unusual.

Finally, he drove directly home.

...

Early the next morning.

To quickly figure out the situation...

Cao Kun decided to let a Private Detective assist him.

When he helped Shen Muli last time, he used a Private Detective once and felt they were quite useful.

He found a Private Detective.

Cao Kun asked the other party to help check on Xiao Li, as well as the occupancy situation of No. 37 Lotus Lane that Xiao Li had mentioned.

The Private Detective was very efficient and had feedback by the afternoon.

"Boss, No. 37 Lotus Lane is a multi-tenant rental house. The landlord's surname is Wang, a local. Three people live in the house, all migrant workers," the Private Detective reported over the phone. "One of the girls registered under the name Wang Li, twenty-one years old. I don't know if she's the Xiao Li you mentioned."

"But the landlord says she hasn't been back for half a month."

"Half a month?" Cao Kun frowned.

"Does she have any friends? Did you ask the people living with her what they say?"

"I asked the neighbor, a delivery guy. He said Wang Li usually keeps to herself and rarely talks to people. Sometimes she goes out at night and only returns in the early morning. He hasn't seen her for these past two weeks and thought she had moved out."

"The landlord didn't call the police?"

"No, the landlord said this kind of tenant has high mobility. It's normal for them to be here today and gone tomorrow."

Cao Kun was silent for a while.

Xiao Li said she lived at No. 37 Lotus Lane, but she hadn't been back for half a month.

Then where has she been living for these two weeks? Sleeping on the streets? Impossible, a winter night in Zhongzhou would freeze a person to death.

"Is there any other information?"

"No other information for the time being."

"Understood."

Then he suddenly thought of the house he saw last night and quickly said to the Private Detective.

"Check No. 89 Xinglong Street for me as well."

"Sure, no problem," the other party agreed readily.

...

At ten o'clock that night, Cao Kun drove to that street again.

He had specifically swapped cars with someone else at the company for an ordinary black sedan, which he parked in the shadows across the street and turned off the engine.

The window tint was very dark, making it impossible to see inside from the outside. He just sat there in the darkness like a lurking leopard, quietly observing.

At exactly ten o'clock, Xiao Li appeared as expected.

Still the same outfit, still under that streetlamp.

She hunched her shoulders, hands tucked into her down jacket pockets, constantly stomping her feet.

Tonight was even colder than last night; the weather forecast said it would drop to minus eight degrees by midnight.

But she wasn't alone tonight.

There was another girl who looked younger, possibly not even twenty, wearing an ill-fitting men's down jacket.

It was obviously too big, the sleeves so long they covered her hands.

She was shivering from the cold, her face pale and her lips purple.

The two girls occasionally whispered a few words, but mostly they stood in silence, like two lifeless sculptures, letting the cold wind whip snow particles against their faces.

The younger girl coughed from time to time, her voice dry.

Cao Kun waited for an hour.

During that time, several drunken men approached them.

Xiao Li attended to one, a middle-aged man in his forties with a beer belly, walking unsteadily.

The two spoke in low voices for a few moments, then ducked into the adjacent alley together.

There were no lights in the alley, it was pitch black.

Twenty minutes later, Xiao Li came out alone, her hair a bit messy. She tidied her clothes and stood back under the streetlamp.

The younger girl glanced at her but didn't speak.

Another half hour passed, and the younger girl also took a customer. It was a young man wearing glasses, looking like a white-collar worker who had just finished overtime.

He seemed very nervous, looking left and right before entering another alley with the girl.

Fifteen minutes later, the younger girl came out, counting money as she walked. After counting, she stuffed it into her pocket and stood back beside Xiao Li.

"Is it enough?" Xiao Li asked softly.

"Still three hundred short." The younger girl's voice carried a hint of a sob. "Brother Qiang said I must hand over five hundred tonight, otherwise..."

"Don't say it." Xiao Li interrupted her, patting her shoulder. "Wait a bit longer, maybe there will be more customers."

The younger girl nodded, but her eyes were already filled with despair.

...