Chapter 107
Jongharng Chioujen
Jongharng Chioujen and Mingju Tsaehorng had arrived in front of the building where the painting exhibition was being held. Traffic was a little heavier than they had expected. But they were not too late. Chioujen looked at his watch. It's almost six and a quarter. The person named Juhrong had not yet seen his nose bridge.
"I hope we don't have to wait too long," Chioujen muttered.
Tsaehorng nodded. "I'll go inside first, Uncle. I have important things to do."
"Please." Chioujen smiled.
"After Mr. Juhrong arrives, Uncle, please invite him to come inside. It's more comfortable to talk inside the building."
"Okay." Chioujen answered curtly.
After that, Tsaehorng went straight into the building. Chioujen looked around him. There was a long bench there. He immediately moved and sat down on the bench.
About fifteen minutes of waiting there, a man appeared. He didn't enter the building. The man stood in front of the building's entrance while looking around. After watching the person for about ten seconds, Chioujen got up from the bench and walked over to the person.
"Excuse me, Sir! Are you looking for someone?" Chioujen said those words in as polite a tone as possible.
"That's right, Sir," said the man. "I'm looking for a person named Jongharng Chioujen."
Chioujen smiled as he bowed. "I am Jongharng Chioujen," he blurted. "Let's go inside, Sir."
The person looked doubtful. But it wasn't for long. When his mouth opened, a quite loud sound was heard.
"Look, Sir! I'm not Mr. Juhrong. At this time, Mr. Juhrong still can't come here. His work isn't finished yet. So he sent me here to tell this to you."
"What time will he get here?"
"He said that by seven o'clock it would be here."
"Before seven?"
"That's right, Sir!"
"Thank you," Chioujen said.
"I'll join you in waiting here until Mr. Juhrong arrives."
"It's okay, Sir," Chioujen said. "If you still have other business, I will not interfere."
"Mr. Juhrong said that I should stay here until he comes, Sir."
"All right. Let's just sit on the bench." Chioujen pointed at the bench where he had been sitting earlier.
They both then sat on the bench. The first five minutes, they said nothing. Each was preoccupied with their own thoughts. But then, Chioujen felt he need to know the identity of the person sitting with him.
"If I may ask, what's your name?"
"My name is Hershyh Goangjyh."
"Do you work in the same place as Mr. Juhrong?"
"No, Sir! I am his neighbor. We live in the same apartment building. We used to go home together. Because my working hours ended earlier than he did, after my working hours were over, I always went to Mr. Juhrong's place of work. Coincidentally, my workplace is also very close to Mr. Juhrong's workplace. He brings a motorcycle, so I always ride with him." Hershyh laughed as he explained this to Chioujen.
"Is your apartment building far from here?"
"It's quite far, Sir. Using a motorbike greatly shortens travel time. So I don't get home too late."
"Are you commuting together every day?"
"No, Sir. I go to work alone. My working hours start an hour before Mr. Juhrong's working hours. If I go with him, I will definitely be late. And I don't do that every day either. Usually from five working days a week, I only go home with him three times. Because twice a week, Mr. Juhrong has another schedule after work."
"So, yesterday you didn't come home with Mr. Juhrong?"
"No, Sir. But I accompanied him here. I intended to see the painting exhibition. I knew nothing about painting, but many friends in the office were talking about this exhibition so I decided to see it, so I could follow their conversation."
"Are you still here when Mr. Juhrong met his friend?"
"You mean Mr. Hertyan? The person who works as a nurse?"
"Do you know Mr. Hertyan?"
Hershyh nodded. "But I don't really know him. Mr. Juhrong did introduce him to me. I've only met him a few times." Hershyh seemed to be trying to remember. "I think, before yesterday, I'd only met that person twice."
"Did you see yesterday when Mr. Juhrong met Mr. Hertyan?"
"Yes. I saw them. But Mr. Hertyan did not see me. I saw them from the big window on the second floor of this building."
"So you're inside the building."
"That's right, Sir. When I got here, I went straight inside to see the paintings while Mr. Juhrong waited for someone here?"
"Is he waiting for Mr. Hertyan?"
"I don't know, Sir. Mr. Juhrong did not say who he would meet here. From above, I saw Mr. Juhrong talking to Mr. Hertyan."
"Is there anyone else apart from Mr. Hertyan?"
"When I saw them, Mr. Juhrong was having a conversation with Mr. Hertyan. Indeed, there was another person who was moving away from them. But I don't know if that person previously was talking to Mr. Juhrong, or he was just someone who just happened to be passing by here."
"Is that person this man?" Chioujen took a photo of Shannchyuan from his pocket and showed it to Hershyh.
Hershyh stared at the photo. After a few seconds, he shook his head.
"I don't know, Sir. The sun had not yet set. But I couldn't see that person's face. Besides, that person was wearing a hood and was always looking down. I am sure that the other two people I saw were Mr. Juhrong and Mr. Hertyan is because I know them and I did come to this building with Mr. Juhrong."
When he was about to put the photo back in his pocket, something caught it in Chioujen's pocket, so Chioujen had to take back the photo of Shannchyuan, which had been partly in his pocket. He also had to remove other objects that were in his pocket to check what caused the photo to get stuck.
The other objects were Yinqyueh's photo and a sketch of the mysterious girl's face. Chioujen placed the photo and the sketch on the bench, right between him and Hershyh. The man named Hershyh stared at the objects with a curious facial expression.
It turned out that there was a loose seam in Chioujen's shirt pocket. The unraveled lump of thread created a wedge so that Shannchyuan's photo could not enter completely. Chioujen had to tuck the thread aside so it wouldn't get in the way."
When Chioujen was about to put the photo and sketch back in, it turned out that Hershyh had opened the previously folded sketch paper. He observed the sketch of the mysterious girl's face with a very serious face.
"Have you ever seen the girl?" An idea popped into Chioujen's mind.
There is always a possibility that Beaushu went out with the girl.
"The big window on the second floor was very long. I was standing at the far right of the window. When I looked out through the window, about four or five meters to the left of where I was standing, there was a girl also looking out. She looked exactly like the girl in this face sketch."
Chioujen was surprised. He didn't know who the girl really was. Before disappearing, Shannchyuan said nothing about the matter at all.
Ah! This is so weird!
"Then what happened next?"
"There isn't any." Hershy shook his head. "The girl left immediately. I don't know where she went."
The girl is not with Beaushu. All this time, we thought Beaushu was following the girl. But if this person's words were true, then it was that girl who was watching Beaushu!
Chioujen watched Hershyh's face. The man didn't sound like a liar. After all, there was no gain for that person to lie to Chioujen.
Does Beaushu know the girl is watching him? If he knew about it, what was he actually doing?
However, Chioujen continued to believe that Shannchyuan must have had some reason to keep his plan a secret. He knew he had to report all the information he got to his friends back home. But he also had to keep Shannchyuan's plan, whatever it was, from going awry. This time he had to think quickly in order to find a middle ground between these two interests.
Hershyh returned the sketch of the mysterious girl's face to Chioujen, who put it back in his pocket right away.
"Thank you," Chioujen said.
"Are you looking for them?"
"You could say that." Chioujen nodded. He hoped Hershyh would not ask all kinds of questions. Chioujen had a hard time coming up with a plausible excuse.
The exhibition of paintings attracted the attention of many people. Since Chioujen and Tsaehorng had arrived at the place, there had been a lot of visitors pouring into the building. Chioujen didn't know since when a painting exhibition had become so eye-catching. As far as Chioujen knew, there weren't too many people interested in painting in Pyngyuan. Painting exhibitions that were of interest to visitors were exhibitions of paintings painted by well-known painters, not some newbie painters.
"Are the paintings inside really that interesting?" Chioujen wanted to know about it.
"You've never been inside before?"
Chioujen shook his head. "I work in another city. I just came back here two days ago. So, I haven't had a chance to look around."
"I know little about painting. But from what I've seen, the works inside do look quite interesting. There are lots of paintings with various genres in there. Maybe it's the diversity of painting styles that makes this exhibition interesting. Painting exhibitions by famous painters usually only feature painters from the same genre, or even it is not uncommon that such exhibitions only present a single painter."
Chioujen nodded. He felt he should also go inside to have a look. But definitely not now. There were many things that occupy a higher priority.
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