Chapter Twenty-Eight: Intimidation

The night before, Kang Ge and Yan Xue had already found out the room number where Lin Zhen was staying. The two of them crossed the lobby, took the elevator upstairs, and found the room. Since it was still morning, Kang Ge stepped aside and let Yan Xue go to the door and ring the bell.

There was no sound from inside. Yan Xue kept pressing the button again and again until, at last, some reaction came from within. A furious shout drifted out from far away: “Who is it?! Ringing the doorbell like your life depends on it this early in the morning—have you lost your mind?!”

“Hello, room service,” Yan Xue said, leaning closer to the door and doing her best to keep her tone gentle.

“Go away, go away, go away! No! When did I ever order room service? Are you insane?” The person inside shouted back in exasperation.

Yan Xue said nothing more and continued ringing the bell. The crisp chimes rang out one after another until the person inside finally lost patience. A rapid series of footsteps came closer and closer, and with the scraping click of the lock, the room door was suddenly yanked open.

“Are you trying to send me to my grave this early in the morning or what? I already said I didn’t order room service— I—”

Lin Zhen, wrapped in a bathrobe with her hair in a chaotic tangle like she had just crawled out of bed, flung the door open while still half asleep and began to complain. Only after a couple of lines did she realize the person standing outside was not a hotel employee at all, but Yan Xue. She froze on the spot.

“You... you... are you that police officer?”

“That’s right. Your memory isn’t too bad,” Yan Xue said with a smile. She gestured lightly toward the room. “My colleague is here too. Go inside first and change into something more convenient. Then we can talk.”

It was clear Lin Zhen was unwilling. That much was written all over her puckered mouth. But she had no choice. Yan Xue was blocking the doorway, and there was nowhere for her to avoid them. Besides, the windows in this hotel could only open a crack for safety reasons. Even if they could open fully, the floor was far too high for her to jump.

“Fine. Wait a minute, then,” she muttered listlessly and shut the door again.

Once the door closed, there was no more sound. Yan Xue and Kang Ge waited in the hallway. Guests from other rooms were going out for breakfast in the morning and, seeing two people standing by a room door, watched them with open curiosity. Many of them kept glancing back and forth at the pair, their eyes full of speculation.

A few minutes later, a hotel security guard arrived to inquire about their identity. Kang Ge showed his credentials and briefly explained the situation. Only then did the guard understand. He greeted them politely and left.

It was about ten minutes later before Lin Zhen finally opened the door again. She had changed her clothes and looked utterly defeated as she glanced at Yan Xue and Kang Ge standing outside. She waved them in.

After letting them into the room, Lin Zhen did not bother with pleasantries. She returned to the bed, sat down, leaned back against the headboard, and took on a lazy, listless air as she fiddled with her phone.

“Didn’t you leave your phone at home?” Yan Xue glanced at the device in her hand. It looked brand new.

“I had a spare SIM card. I bought this phone after I left,” Lin Zhen said, not lifting her head as she played with it. “Have you two eaten breakfast yet? Do you want coffee this morning? I was just about to place an order. I’ll get each of you a cup. My treat.”

“No need, thanks. We—”

“Enough. Two cups of coffee isn’t anything serious. Why are you being polite with me? Don’t tell me that drinking coffee with me would violate discipline or some other nonsense!” Before Yan Xue could finish, Lin Zhen had already grown impatient with the courtesy. In a couple of quick taps, she submitted the order and raised her phone. “I don’t care anymore. I ordered them to my own taste anyway!”

“All right, then thank you,” Yan Xue said. Since it had already come to this, she decided not to waste her breath and accepted it without fuss.

Lin Zhen looked at Yan Xue, then at Kang Ge. Suddenly, she stood up, grabbed her bag from the side, and rummaged through it inside and out. Then she picked up her shoes and checked the soles before finally starting in on her coat.

“What are you doing? What are you looking for?” Yan Xue asked, watching her bustle about without being able to tell what she was up to.

“I’m checking whether you secretly planted some kind of tracking device on me or in my bag!” Lin Zhen muttered as she turned her coat inside out.

Yan Xue was speechless at that. Kang Ge found it amusing and chuckled. “You should watch fewer science-fiction movies. You’re getting carried away.”

“Otherwise how could you two be so hauntingly persistent? I’ve hidden all the way out here, and you still managed to find me!”

“Technology these days isn’t advanced enough to put a miniature tracker on you,” Kang Ge said cheerfully, helping her understand. “But finding out where you are is more than easy enough. By the way, why did you run off again?”

“Nothing in particular. I was just bored staying at home with my parents,” Lin Zhen said, lowering her eyelids and picking at her fingers as she spoke in a vague murmur.

“You got bored staying with your parents, so you knocked them both out with sleeping pills?”

“What are you talking about? I have no idea what you mean. I don’t understand...” Lin Zhen kept picking at her nails. When she heard this, her posture became a little unnatural. She stiffened where she sat, too afraid to meet Kang Ge and Yan Xue’s eyes.

“If you don’t understand, then let us make it clearer for you. Your parents were sent to the hospital after taking too many sleeping pills! If they had not been rushed there in time, the consequences could have been disastrous,” Yan Xue said, shaking her head in disapproval. She let out a sigh. “If this were something else, we could say it was a family matter and leave it alone. But this time you really went too far. Do you know that if the dose had been any larger, your parents could have been in mortal danger?”

“Impossible! Absolutely impossible!” Lin Zhen could not accept the accusation, nor did she believe what Yan Xue was saying. “Don’t lie to me! Mortal danger? There were only four pills in total! I gave each of them one, and I kept two myself just in case. Just two pills, one each, and you’re telling me they ended up in the hospital? Mortal danger?”

Yan Xue smiled and said nothing. Kang Ge also watched Lin Zhen with amused eyes from the side.

“What are you smiling at? Isn’t what I said true?” Lin Zhen felt a chill at their smiles. Only after she questioned them did she realize what she had just admitted.

“You... you were tricking me all along...”

“In war, deception is fair game. Let’s not keep testing each other’s wits. It’s better to speak plainly,” Kang Ge said, seizing the moment to persuade her. “Otherwise, what’s the point of this? Clearly we’re on the same side. You feel uneasy and afraid, and you want protection. We’re the ones who can protect you. Yet the two of us are playing cat and mouse instead. That’s just wasting time and energy on useless things, and before long it could give someone with bad intentions an opening.”

Lin Zhen slumped back down on the edge of the bed. She had barely sat down when her phone rang beside her. The sudden ringtone startled her so badly that she leaped back to her feet and nearly threw the phone away.

“Why are you so nervous?” Yan Xue felt that Lin Zhen’s reaction was far too extreme.

“No one even knows this number! Who would suddenly call me?” Lin Zhen’s hands were trembling. The instant pallor that drained from her face, along with the terror in her eyes, made it obvious this was no act.

“Don’t panic. Didn’t you just use your phone to order coffee? This is a hotel, and the delivery person can’t come all the way up. Could it be the delivery driver calling?” Yan Xue reminded her to stay calm and not to frighten herself for no reason.

“Could it be that fast?” Lin Zhen only then remembered that she had indeed ordered takeout, but she was still tense beyond reason. She simply flung the phone at Yan Xue. “Then you answer it for me! I don’t dare!”

Yan Xue caught the phone and answered with some resignation. Sure enough, just as she had guessed, it was the delivery person calling. The courier was already waiting in the hotel lobby and asking Lin Zhen to come downstairs to collect the drinks.

Yan Xue agreed and hung up. Thinking that Lin Zhen would surely not have the courage to go down herself, she was about to take the task on in her place when Kang Ge rose very naturally to his feet and motioned for Yan Xue to keep talking with Lin Zhen while he went downstairs to get the coffee she had ordered.

“Do you really think this sort of state is good for you?” Yan Xue took the chance to reason with the still-shaken Lin Zhen. “Your dark circles are already very obvious. You clearly haven’t been resting well. You have two sleeping pills right there and you still don’t dare take them. Why? Are you afraid you’ll sleep too soundly and won’t wake up in time if something happens, or are you saving them so you can knock someone out and run later?”

“Really? Are my dark circles already that obvious? You can see that from so far away? My heavens, I’d better take a look in the mirror first!” Lin Zhen cried out in anguish and hurriedly abandoned Yan Xue to run into the bathroom to check herself. As she looked in the mirror, she complained, “Oh my god, it’s true! My dark circles are practically big enough to be sunglasses!

“I haven’t been sleeping properly lately at all, and I’m not getting enough rest. Look at my face, I’m completely worn out. Oh no! I’ve even broken out on my forehead! Good heavens, I can’t possibly be seen looking like this!”

Listening from outside, Yan Xue did not know whether to laugh or sigh. Just a moment earlier, Lin Zhen had been nervous and jittery for reasons that were still unclear, jumping at every little thing. Yet the instant she heard that she had skin trouble, she immediately shifted all her attention to that and threw even her previous fears to the back of her mind.

Should she admire Lin Zhen’s overwhelming vanity, or simply marvel at how impossible her personality was to pin down?

When Kang Ge came back carrying three cups of coffee and a bag of freshly baked bread rolls, Yan Xue opened the door for him. Lin Zhen still had not come out of the bathroom. Kang Ge looked at Yan Xue in confusion, and Yan Xue spread her hands helplessly, indicating that she was waiting too.

A little later, Lin Zhen finally emerged. She had a thin silk mask on her face. Seeing that Kang Ge was already back, she walked over on her own, grabbed a cup of coffee and a croissant, but after taking a few steps she remembered the mask on her face and stuffed the pastry back into the bag. She then pulled out a straw, inserted it into the paper cup, and drank cautiously, afraid she might wrinkle the mask she had just applied.

Watching her forget all her earlier anxiety the moment beauty was involved, Yan Xue did not know whether to laugh or cry. Was this girl simply carefree and not given to worry, or was she just far too hard to read?

“Back to the matter at hand,” Yan Xue said. “A mask alone won’t fix those dark circles. If you keep worrying yourself sick and fail to sleep properly every night, then unless you nail the mask to your face, it’ll all be pointless.”

There was something you must have heard countless times before: seize the ringleader first if you want to seize the thieves. If you truly want to feel at ease, you need to tell us the truth. Only then can the problem be solved completely. Hiding here and there will not solve anything.

“Exactly. If your personal safety is truly under such a serious threat, do you think running away is enough? Your parents are still at home, still living their normal lives. Haven’t you thought at all about the fact that a monk may run, but the temple cannot?” Kang Ge also stepped in at the right time after Yan Xue finished, helping guide Lin Zhen along.

From Lin Zhen’s reaction, it was obvious that she had not considered that possibility before. Otherwise, she would not have changed color the moment Kang Ge spoke. Even through the silk mask, the change in her expression was easy to see.

“No way. Could something happen to my parents?” she said nervously.

“So tell us, who exactly are you afraid of, or what are you afraid of? We’re the police. If you won’t even tell us, then who do you think you can go to for protection?” Yan Xue felt that Lin Zhen’s attention always seemed to drift off the center of the matter.

At last, Lin Zhen also realized the problem. She set the coffee cup down listlessly on the bedside table and dragged a pillow over from the head of the bed, hugging it in her arms. She looked somewhat frustrated and dejected, but from the way she sat, it seemed she was close to speaking.

“I regret everything so much right now!” she said with a long sigh. “My mom and dad always said I was too careless, that I never took anything to heart, and I never listened. Now it’s too late to regret it!

“I really regret it. I should never have gone chasing novelty or excitement in the first place. Wouldn’t it have been fine to stay with that little puppy of a boyfriend? Why did I have to make a scene and break up? Why did I have to stir up all this trouble? I honestly feel like smashing my head against a wall and ending it all.”

“If you were willing to smash yourself to death, then you wouldn’t have gone to such lengths to hide in the first place,” Yan Xue said bluntly. “There’s no use saying all that after the fact. Let’s talk about something serious. Who exactly are you hiding from?”

“If I knew who I was hiding from, would I not have already gone to the police station to file a report?” Lin Zhen replied in frustration. “Someone threatened me and said they were going to kill me. I don’t even know who that person is or what they look like. Of course I’m scared!”