"What do you want to drink?"
Zhang Shutong asked Gu Qiumian.
"They actually have Yuenyeung milk tea?"
She craned her neck from the back of the line and saw the price list in the store, as if she was here for the first time.
"They have it, but I advise you not to have high expectations."
Zhang Shutong knew that Yuenyeung milk tea was a mixture of milk tea and coffee, a popular practice from Hong Kong-style cafes. Fancier places would also add some condensed milk, but it was absolutely impossible in a small shop like this.
The so-called "Yuenyeung" was probably just Yuenyeung-flavored milk tea powder mixed with hot water. After hearing this, Gu Qiumian lost interest and said to order whatever, as long as it wasn't strawberry flavored, which she couldn't drink.
Zhang Shutong nodded and told her to walk around the street, but not to go too far, and he would go to queue up alone—there were some things he needed to ask that weren't suitable for her to hear.
There were six people in front of him, and he estimated he would have to wait for several minutes. He recalled the information provided by Ruoping.
—This "Lai Yibei" milk tea shop is not a husband-and-wife store, but strangely, the couple has both taken turns helping out here.
According to Ruoping, the woman used to be the one busy, but suddenly one day, about a week ago, it was the woman's husband instead. The time they came to eat at the Huyu restaurant, the milk tea was made by that man.
And today it was the woman again.
Zhang Shutong immediately made three deductions:
First, the couple taking turns to help out is definitely not the norm. Either they can support the whole family and both are in the shop; otherwise, one of the couple has another job.
Therefore, that "one-week" rotation period was likely due to something that happened at home.
The second deduction was, looking at the woman's age, she was in her forties, about the same age as Gu Qiumian's family's nanny, so her child was probably his age, in middle school, which is a time of high expenses;
He also observed the woman's clothes, two dirty sleeves, a washed-out apron, and saw the mobile phone on the counter, which was still a keypad phone, which matched the guess of her having average financial conditions.
As for the third one, it was more of a doubt than a deduction;
In his opinion, the "culprit's" shop must have been on the verge of collapsing, which is why they would take a desperate risk, but this milk tea shop's business seemed to be good, as it was one of the few places on the street where people queued up.
But whether it was a guess or a doubt, it would be revealed soon. He just had to wait patiently.
In addition to waiting for the milk tea, he was also waiting for a reply from Du Kang.
Not long ago, the other party sent a message saying he had seen the outline of the Gu family's villa from a distance and should have already arrived.
Sure enough, a notification appeared on his phone the next second. Du Kang said he had arrived safely at the "castle" and had taken a photo.
The scene in the photo was similar to what he saw in the morning, a patch of wilderness, but with less mist.
Zhang Shutong glanced at the time, it was a little past eleven, just the right time to make lunch.
"That's good," he immediately made more arrangements, "...but you must be careful. If you find something wrong, ride away."
Du Kang replied with an "OK" emoji, indicating that he just had to wait for his good news.
There were still five people left in the line in front of him.
It took him about three minutes to chat with Du Kang, and the milk tea in this shop was made from instant powder. It only took a few minutes to brew with hot water, and even if he was generous with the time, one minute to make a cup was enough.
Zhang Shutong observed the woman's operational process and overturned his previous guess—
The reason for the queue was not that the business was so good;
It was because the woman was not very skilled at operating, and even with the simplest milk tea powder, she often couldn't find the flavor she was looking for and had to rummage for a long time.
When it was finally Zhang Shutong's turn, he ordered the two most troublesome drinks, with pudding, pearls, and Oreo crumbs all added, and took the opportunity to chat with the other party.
Zhang Shutong started by saying, "Aunty, long time no see."
The woman was also kind, and when she heard this, she beamed and said it was a coincidence, that it was her first day back and before that it had been her partner.
She opened a jar and complained, "Look at him, he's only been helping for a few days, and he's made a mess of my things, I can't find anything."
After chatting for another two sentences, Zhang Shutong learned that she had sprained her ankle a few days ago and couldn't stand for long, so she had asked her husband to help out temporarily.
"Then Uncle can finally rest for a few days." Zhang Shutong deliberately tried to get information.
"How can he? I just came back today, and he went back to work."
"Working?"
"It's not what you'd call a proper job," the woman grimaced, "Well, it's at that mall."
"That mall" was naturally Gu Qiumian's family's mall.
Zhang Shutong caught the key phrase:
"Is that so? I just came back from there."
"You students all like to go there now, wherever it's lively, you run there."
"Not really, I specifically took a detour to buy milk tea," Zhang Shutong forced a smile through the disgust. "The milk tea at your place is still better. You can't buy it at the mall."
Anyway, he only said good things, and the woman also agreed, "That's right, that's right. What's so good about the mall? Let me tell you, the things they sell inside are exactly the same as the ones on our street, just like those clothes. They get the goods from the same place, but as soon as they put them on the rack, they immediately become dozens of yuan more expensive. It's a business with no conscience."
As soon as they talked about the mall, the other party indeed stopped smiling, and her tone wasn't very pleasant.
Zhang Shutong knew his chance had come, so he casually asked if she had heard what happened last night—anyway, it would be spread around soon.
The woman sighed when she heard this, and her tone was somewhat complicated. She said that this news spread really fast, but you probably don't know, those few people were from our commercial street. They were arrested by the police. It's true that everyone dislikes the Gu family's boss, but doing something like that is a bit too much.
Her expression didn't seem fake.
Zhang Shutong carefully observed for a moment. It seemed that the woman belonged to the second faction.
Similar to the boss of the Huyu restaurant, she disliked them, but not to the point of a complete fallout.
To be honest, at this point, he could basically rule out the milk tea shop. It was impossible for the culprit not to seek revenge but to run to the mall to work for Mr. Gu. In the eyes of the extremists, this was no different from surrendering.
But Zhang Shutong had finally found a target that met the conditions. To be safe, he still made a final confirmation:
"Then why did Uncle still go to work at the mall?"
"I don't know what he's thinking. I advised him several times. There's so many places you can make a living, but he just had to go there. It's so unlucky to have to face them every day. But what can I do if he doesn't listen?"
The woman was adding pearls and, after speaking, threw the iron spoon onto the counter with a crisp clatter.
"Doesn't Uncle dislike the Gu family?" Zhang Shutong asked in "surprise."
"Why wouldn't he? He curses them to high heaven. Especially when he's had a little to drink, he'll definitely curse them to a bloody pulp, and he brings my son along to curse with him. I told him not to learn from your dad, but he doesn't listen."
The woman put her hands on her hips and cursed:
"That little bastard, since I can't control him, I'll just let him be."
It seemed that every middle-aged woman was accustomed to cursing their own children a few times. His own mother was an exception.
But while the woman said this, she didn't seem to take it too seriously. It seemed that cursing the Gu family was a right given to her by heaven. It would be abnormal not to curse them, and it was already a sign of their broad-mindedness that they didn't take action.
This reminded Zhang Shutong of Li Yipeng. A child growing up in this environment would be hard-pressed not to be influenced.
Now there was only one question left. Was the woman's husband the mastermind he was looking for?
From every angle, it seemed a bit far-fetched.
Zhang Shutong was pessimistic.
Unless the man's "going to work" at the mall was a lie to his family, and he was actually doing something else.
But this still didn't explain why he would go to work at the mall. He couldn't just assume he had malicious intentions because of it.
Or there was another possibility, that the culprit in the original timeline, fearing being caught because the arson case happened ahead of time, temporarily canceled this weekend's action.
But as he had said to Qingyi before, their ability was limited, and if they were to try and figure out the culprit's situation, there were simply too many possibilities;
He could have canceled the action because he was warned, or he could have canceled the action because he drank too much cold water in the morning and had diarrhea, or it was possible that the other party had no intention of acting today...
So it was meaningless to try and guess the "possibilities."
Instead, they should use reverse thinking—
No matter how many possibilities there were, what Zhang Shutong had to do was to eliminate them all and leave only one:
That the culprit would definitely act today, Saturday, December 8th.
Maybe it was like painting the target first and then shooting the arrow, but without this target, it would be difficult to conduct any investigation.
Otherwise, they could only remain at a standstill.
He had a rough idea in his mind and was a little frustrated. He had already taken out his phone and was ready to continue planning the shops with Ruoping;
On the other side, the milk tea he ordered was almost ready. The cup was filled with pudding and pearls, and only the crushed Oreos were missing.
At this time, he heard the woman turn back and shout:
"Don't just play on your computer, take out the Oreos for me—"
Her husband had gone out, so the person she was talking to could only be the "son" she had just mentioned.
The woman urged him several times, and finally, there was some movement from the back room.
A cloth curtain hung in the back room. The other person reached out from behind the curtain and handed the large bucket of Oreos to his mother.
Zhang Shutong's gaze moved from the person's hand to the large bucket of Oreos, and he seemed to be in deep thought.
So that's how it is...
All the clues came together at this moment.
Maybe he was really destined to be with Oreos.
"Where does Uncle work at the mall?" he suddenly asked. "Maybe I ran into him."
"Him? He's inside the supermarket, there's a cooked food stall there."
As she spoke, the woman had finished the last part of the preparation. She put the milk tea under the sealing machine and smiled:
"Next time you want to eat pig head meat or pig ears, you can find him there. Just tell him you're from the Lai Yibei milk tea shop, and he'll cut you more."
"Then thank you, Aunty."
Zhang Shutong also smiled.
Now, there was only one thing left to confirm.
The operation officially entered its third phase—
...
"What did Shutong say?" Feng Ruoping looked at Qingyi, who was staring intently at his phone. A second ago, a new message had arrived.
The two had just walked out of the mall and were discussing where to go. Qingyi's bicycle was gone, but her own was too small, a typical women's bicycle, and it would be a bit difficult for two people to ride on it, so they were just wandering aimlessly nearby.
Who told Shutong to give them the instruction to "stand by"?
She thought weakly, "stand by" probably meant they couldn't go anywhere for now.
The girl was a little tired. She had originally come here happily to go shopping, so why did it turn into just wandering the streets?
The scene in front of her was desolate, with people coming and going. She felt it was an impossible task to find the so-called "culprit" in this vast crowd, no matter how smart Shutong was.
It would have been better to listen to her and go to the police station in the first place.
It's not like the few of them were more powerful than the police.
Just as she was having such a thought, things seemed to take a new turn.
Qingyi suddenly turned off his phone:
"We have to go back."
"Don't tell me someone forgot something..." Feng Ruoping said weakly.
Or was it related to his previous message in the group chat about "the operation entering the second phase"? Boys were always so mysterious and childish.
"No, we're going to find a place in the supermarket." The young man frowned. "There's a cooked food window, do you have an impression of it?"
"A cooked food stall... it should be on the north side." Feng Ruoping asked curiously, "So why a cooked food window again? Didn't he say he found a suspicious shop on the commercial street? How's the investigation going?"
"We have a lead," Qingyi said simply. "Let's just go first. He told us to hurry..."
"He's having a date, and he's just putting us through all this trouble..." Before she could finish her sentence, she saw that Qingyi had already turned around and run off. The girl had to stomp her foot in frustration and quickly followed, "Slow down, I'm not wearing sneakers today!"
...
"Is your aunty near-sighted?" Zhang Shutong casually asked as he handed a full-cup milk tea to Gu Qiumian.
"I think so?" Gu Qiumian was unsure. "She has a pair of glasses, but she doesn't wear them often. I'm not sure if it's serious."
Zhang Shutong nodded.
Then that made sense.
He sent a new message to Du Kang on his phone.
"I might have to trouble you later." The two of them walked towards the bicycle with their milk tea. Zhang Shutong patted the back seat. "I'm taking you somewhere now."
...
"Did he leave?" Meng Qingyi asked breathlessly. "Did he just leave, or did he go to the bathroom?"
The cooked food window was empty, with only pig liver hanging on hooks.
Next to the window was a scallion pancake stall, where a plump woman in a white apron was standing.
The plump woman was kneading dough. She wiped the flour from her face with her pinky finger and shouted without looking up:
"No, he said he had an urgent matter at home. He just started working here today and already left. Why don't you two walk around and come back later? The manager will arrange for someone else to come."
Meng Qingyi recalled what Shutong had told him and asked again:
"Was there anything unusual about him when he came here today?"
The woman couldn't help but laugh:
"Are you two kids playing a detective game? Just like my youngest son, he's always reading some adventure tiger team book."
As she spoke, she waved her hand and shooed them away:
"Go, go, go, I'm busy. Go play somewhere else if you want to play."
"It's the Adventure Team..."
"Don't argue with her." Ruoping pushed Qingyi away in disgust. She first called her "Aunty" sweetly, and then said she wanted to buy five yuan worth of scallion pancakes. While the woman was busy, she started chatting about her young son, asking how old he was this year, what grade he was in... The woman said third grade, and Qingyi's face instantly darkened.
In short, once the woman's chatterbox was open, she pushed Qingyi forward and motioned for him to ask whatever he wanted to ask quickly.
The woman then said with a wry smile, "Girl, you don't have to go to all this trouble. It's just that Aunty really doesn't know what to say. What do you mean by unusual?"
As she said this, she subconsciously recalled:
"There was nothing different, really, just some small talk while he was working. He asked if we knew that the boss's house was burned down last night."
"And then?"
"Who would know about such a big thing? I thought he was lying, but the manager suddenly called us out for a meeting this morning and said no matter what we heard, not to spread it around. The boss would send someone back today..."
"This morning?"
"Around ten something."
"Then that was before we came?" Ruoping interjected.
"Then that's it." Qingyi suddenly realized. "No wonder he had to come to work today, it was for this news."
"What do you mean?"
"This isn't the place to talk. Let's talk as we walk."
It was lunchtime now. The two of them hadn't even asked many questions before other customers came, but the young man seemed to have gotten the information he wanted. He called Ruoping and left.
"We can basically confirm who it is." Qingyi typed as he walked and suddenly sighed, "A blind cat ran into a dead mouse."
"You're the blind cat."
"I'm not talking about us. I'm talking about that man. In a way, he's quite lucky. Now we don't have to worry about who it is."
"Try being so mysterious again?" Ruoping reached out with her claws.
"Shutong just told me that he and Gu Qiumian bought pig liver here."
"And then?"
"And then it's just what we heard," Qingyi spread his hands. "As soon as they left, the person selling the pig liver also left."