48 Hours a Day

Zhang Heng opened the security door downstairs for Shen Xixi. The first thing she saw when she walked up was the messy living room.

“You just fought here?”

“No, I was fighting in the bedroom. As for the living room… I think this is the prime example of a modern teenager’s living environment.”

Shen Xixi thought for a while, “Are you saying that they never clean up the house?”

After that, she squatted down, rummaged through the trash can with a pair of disposable chopsticks on the table, and dished out two pieces of facial masks.

“It seems that the person we are going to rescue has been living here quite comfortably for some time.”

Shen Xixi tossed away the chopsticks. “What do you think? Is this just another young couple eloping?”

“I don’t think the two of them are lovers,” Zhang Heng said, “Perhaps the man really likes the woman, or he wouldn’t have worked with her to do such a thing. On the other hand, I think the woman has no intention to develop a romantic relationship with the man for now.”

“Why do you say that?”

“I searched the house briefly before you came up, and I couldn’t find the one thing that is commonly used by couples.”

Shen Xixi raised his eyebrows, “Are you talking about…”

“The man and the woman have lived together under the same roof for more than a week. And the two seemed to have never left the house as well. If they fancied each other, it would have been difficult for them to control their sexual desires.”

“That’s true. Why would Yogurt fake her own kidnapping?”

“You should ask 1810,” Zhang Heng said.

…

Forty minutes later, 1810 met up with Zhang Heng and Shen Xixi. Although it was almost midnight when he received the call, he still had not gone to bed at that time. He appeared to be still worried about Yogurt, and once he heard that Zhang Heng found something new, he instantly looked for him.

On the other hand, Spider-Man was stunned by Zhang Heng in the master bedroom half an hour ago and had transformed back to a figurine. However, there was still a small hole in his chest. Zhang Heng was playing with it in front of the bookcase.

While 1810 was on the way to meet them, Shen Xixi had told him everything that happened tonight. His face remained dry and expressionless. After a long silence, he asked Shen Xixi, “What is the name of the person you saw downstairs?”

“Shen Dongxing,” Zhang Heng said, “His name is on the parcel.”

“You saw the guy named Shen Dongxing kidnapping yogurt? Doesn’t this prove that Yogurt has nothing to do with this matter? That means she’s just a victim.”

“But Simon heard Yogurt asking Shen Dongxing to escape the place with her,” Shen Xixi said. “If you saw the situation in the house, you should know that Yogurt is not the victim here.”

“Her voice can be faked, and the fact that she was not imprisoned is not enough to prove that the man didn’t kidnap her. He may have some other way to make Yogurt stay in the house. According to what you said, the kid is also a player, and he may possess some unique game items,” 1810 said.

“It’s possible.”

Before Shen Xixi could say anything, she saw Zhang Heng nodding. He put down the Spider-Man figurine and said, “So you want us to continue investigating until we find Yogurt?”

“Yes, wasn’t that the agreement? Once you find Yogurt, I will pay you the balance,” 1810 said. He still behaved politely, getting up to shake hands with Zhang Heng. “Both of your investigation abilities are truly amazing. You guys have made so much progress in less than one night. I hope you two can keep up the good work and rescue Yogurt sooner.”

Shen Xixi frowned and wanted to say something, but 1810 had readied himself to leave. “Sorry, I left the house secretly just now. I can’t stay outside for too long. Otherwise, my wife will start to ask me questions. Please see if you can find more useful clues here.”

Shen Xixi stood in front of the window sill while watching 1810 hastily leaving the apartment and returning to his car.

“What do you think? He is acting weird tonight. The whole thing is so damn obvious. No one kidnapped Yogurt. Every evidence we presented him is enough to prove that he was wrong about this whole thing. However, he still insisted that he was in the right. If he cares so much about Yogurt, why would he leave as soon as we finished talking to him? He didn’t even take a good look at the house.”

“I agree with you. And one more thing. The strong scent of stale tobacco on his body was overpowering. If I remember correctly, he has a child. He should not be able to smoke at home. That means he smoked at least seven to eight cigarettes while he was driving just now,” Zhang Heng said.

“He is very anxious. Why? We are very close to finding his daughter.”

“I have some idea, but I need to look for more evidence first,” Zhang Heng said. “Wait a minute, I’ll make a call.”

After half a minute, Zhang Heng hung up the phone. “We have another guest tonight. Would you mind?”

“Who?”

“Black Swan.”

Black Swan happened to live around the area, and it would only take her less than fifteen minutes to get to them. When Zhang Heng opened the door, he saw that she was in her pajamas. She appeared to have just gotten out of bed and had rushed to them as quickly as she could.

But as a woman herself, Shen Xixi quickly noticed that Black Swan’s hair was tied up and not messy. There was some light makeup on her face as well. It made no sense that she did not change her clothes. However, Shen Xixi chose not to expose her.

“Here’s the situation…”

Black Swan spent three minutes briefly explaining the seemingly inconspicuous conflict at the dinner table before Zhang Heng and Shen Xixi arrived at the restaurant.

But with Shen Xixi’s wittiness, she quickly realized how this matter had nothing to do with 1810’s reaction. She might not be as observant as Zhang Heng, but she was far from stupid. Otherwise, she would not be elected as the leader of the union.

“Ever since you exposed him, 1810’s reputation among his team has been severely affected. The reason why everyone still obeys him is because he is still the captain. If they find out that Yogurt was the one who planned the whole thing, they would definitely not let them off the hook so easily.”

“Yes.” Black Swan pulled out a box of slim, menthol cigarettes from her pocket and pulled a stick out.

“Do you mind?”

Shen Xixi shook her head. After that, Black Swan lit a cigarette, took a drag, stretched, and leaned back on the sofa. When she sat like that, she inadvertently revealed her bosom a little more. Nonetheless, she acted like she did not notice it.

“500 game points is no small amount. Everyone in the team contributed to gathering this many game points. Yogurt is the latest member of the team, and she doesn’t get along well with others. At most, we are just acquaintances to her. For the sake of 1810, we treated her as our little sister. Now that she is missing, some of us had to give out our hard-earned game points. For her, however, she’s just playing hide and seek with us. Hehe.”