《Once Upon a Time in a Foreign Land》Chapter 016 : Zhonghang Qiuzhen
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After walking for a while, Qiuzhen didn't realize he had arrived in front of the building. It was quiet, but a sedan was parked a few dozen meters away. The windshield was dark, so Qiuzhen couldn't see if anyone was in the car. Actually, even though the car's windshield wasn't dark, it was most likely that Qiuzhen couldn't see clearly the inside of the vehicle either, because apart from it being night, he wasn't too close either.
The gate was closed but not locked. Qiuzhen immediately opened the gate and walked towards the entrance of the building. Near the gate, there was a security post. There should have been a night watchman there at this hour. But the security post was empty. Although this building was almost empty, they should still pay attention to security issues.
Actually, it was also strange to build a towering building in a quiet suburban area like this. If it was built in the city center, people would say this building is not a tall building, but in a suburb like this, many people would call it a skyscraper. The ground floor of this building was eight meters high so that people felt small when they were inside. The first to the twelfth floors were each four meters high. Then, on the roof of the building, there was a building that Qiuzhen didn't know the function of, but it was about six meters high. So the total height of this building was sixty-six meters. Of course, that didn't include the antennas and lightning rods installed on top of this building.
Qiuzhen entered through the front door of the building. There was no one at the reception. Qiuzhen immediately headed to the room where the custodian of the building was. Qiuzhen saw Hanrong, the building custodian, sitting alone in that room. As soon as he saw Qiuzhen, Hanrong immediately stood up and said hello.
"Good evening Mr. Zhonghang."
"Good evening. Hanrong, you're not home yet?"
"Not yet, Sir. Now I want to go home. Do you want to go up to the tenth floor?"
"Right. I want to go up there. Mr. Gongyang told me to get something."
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"Oh yes. Since about a week ago, Mr. Gongyang has been calling me. That time, he said his friend from the six dragons would come to get some of his stuff. Did you bring the key?"
Qiuzhen laughed. Songfei dubbed the six of them as six dragons.
"Yes. Songfei gave me these keys." Qiuzhen showed the keys that Songfei had sent to him.
"Yes, then you just go upstairs. Later, when you come down and I'm home, please lock the door, Sir."
"Let's make it like this. It's already night. My house is also far from here. So I thought I'd just stay here tonight. So if you want to go home now, just lock the doors and fences."
"Okay then Sir," Hanrong replied.
"I didn't see the night watchman. Is he not coming tonight?"
Hanrong shook his head. "I don't know, Sir. Maybe he will coming soon. Even then, I think he's just standing guard outside."
Hanrong briefly tidied the table and chairs in the room. After that, he took his bag and walked out of the room. Qiuzhen followed behind him. Locking the door to the room, he asked. "Aren't you going to meet Mr. Duanmu here?"
"Who told you we would meet here? Ah, is Mr. Duanmu here now? What time did he get here?"
Hanrong was a bit confused in answering the series of questions that Qiuzhen asked in succession.
"Earlier, around dusk, he arrived here. Then he went straight up. I actually wanted to go home. Then, because I had some business, I went out. I went briefly to the shop near the intersection. I wasn't there long. The plan is to come back here and then go straight home because I have an appointment with my friend. It turned out that later I met my friend at the shop near the intersection. Then we discussed things that we would have discussed at home. So I was there for quite a while. When I came back here, I did not see Mr. Duanmu. I don't know if he's still upstairs or gone home. Looks like he's still here., because when I got here, the doors and fences weren't locked. Previously I told him to lock the doors and fences if I wasn't here when he was going home."
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"When you came back here, didn't you see anyone?"
"I didn't see Mr. Duanmu, but I met other people."
"You mean the other tenants in this building?"
"No, Sir! I've never met them before. I don't think they're either family or friends of the people who rented the space in this building. I don't know who they are. Please don't tell anyone. They didn't seem like nice people. I'm afraid I'll be punished if I get caught letting bad people in here," said Hanrong.
"How long have they been gone?"
"Just a moment ago, Sir! After they left, I went straight to my room. About five minutes later you came."
Qiuzhen stared intently at Hanrong. His instincts told him that something strange had happened here.
Maybe the car parked outside was their car.
"When you entered the building, what were they doing?" asked Qiuzhen.
"Looks like they're looking for something. I don't know what they're looking for."
Qiuzhen frowned.
If they were still looking for something when Hanrong came in, it meant they hadn't found what they were looking for. Whatever that is!
"After that, you didn't go upstairs to check if Mr. Duanmu was still upstairs?"
"No sir."
"Has it not occurred to you the possibility that they are thieves or bad people? After all, what if Mr. Duanmu caught them red-handed while the bad guys were stealing? What if they injure Mr. Duanmu?"
Hanrong looked terrified at Qiuzhen's words.
He must be panicking right now. If this is true, the building management will not hesitate to punish him.
"I wanted to go up to the tenth floor. But I'm afraid to disturb Mr. Duanmu. I think he might have overslept upstairs."
Qiuzhen looked at Hanrong again. He remembered Hanrong was indeed a bit of an idiot, so it was only natural that he didn't think about many things.
"We'd better check upstairs now," said Qiuzhen.
The two of them then went up to the tenth floor to look at the unit that Songfei had rented. Qiuzhen opened the unit's door and, together with Hanrong, inspected all parts of the unit. Shannchyuan wasn't there.
Qiuzhen sat on a chair in the main room of the unit. He tried to understand what had happened.
It seems that Songfei also asked Beaushu for help to retrieve and store his things. Then did those people have anything to do with the party that threatened Songfei's safety?
After pondering for about two minutes, Qiuzhen then stood up. He didn't want to keep Hanrong there any longer. The young man had already said that he was going home.
Qiuzhen looked directly into Hanrong's eyes. "You go home now. You lock the front gate and the front door of this building. After that, you exit the building to the backyard. You left the complex through the door in the backyard. After locking the back door, you headed straight home through the small lane that paralleled the main road ahead. Doesn't that road also lead to the main road at the crossroads? If I remember correctly, the end of the alley was only about twenty meters from the entrance of the underground station. After exiting the street where the subway station entrance is, you go home as usual."
"Why should I do that, sir?" Even though Hanrong obeyed, he still asked Qiuzhen's reason.
"On the street in front of this building, there is a car parked there. I'm afraid they are in the same group as the people you barged into this building. Earlier, they most likely saw me go inside. Don't let them see you leave this building. So at least in their minds there are still two people guarding this building."
Qiuzhen had tried to keep his explanation as simple as possible. But Hanrong's face still looked confused at Qiuzhen's words. Luckily, Hanrong didn't raise any objections. He was really a good kid. He nodded as he listened to Qiuzhen's words.
"Okay, Sir. I'll be right back now." Hanrong bowed to pay respects to Qiuzhen.
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