Chapter 015
Shimen Yihshyong
Liuchiou Yinqyueh suddenly stood up. "Can I go outside to look at the plants in your backyard?"
Yihshyong thought chatting with them made Yinqyueh thrilled. But this time, they were about to have a serious conversation. It's about the fate of their friend. He realized Yinqyueh knew nothing about Songfei. Maybe she was afraid her presence would only interfere with their discussion.
"It just so happened that I am fond of plants. I will only be here for three days. So I better take this opportunity to have a look." The girl's voice was very cheerful.
Yihshyong nodded. From the look in Yinqyueh's eyes, it wasn't hard for Yihshyong to guess that the girl really liked plants. The girl was telling the truth when she said she wanted to take a look at their yard.
The house they lived in was indeed full of plants. There were two yards. The front yard and the backyard. People could see that the front yard was not big but quite beautiful. The backyard was much more expansive than the front yard. Everyone would admit it was amazing. Both courtyards were overgrown with various plants was very refreshing to the eyes. Some plants grew in pots.
The land was about three hundred and fifty meters. It was thirty-five meters long and ten meters wide. Their house was fifteen meters by ten meters. It was rare for a house with a vast yard to be in the middle of the city. Moreover, the location was very strategic.
"So you want to take a look at the garden in the backyard?" Shannchyuan smiled at the girl.
"Hmmm." Yinqyueh nodded. "It looks so beautiful. So I wanted to take a close look."
"Oh yes, please!" said Shannchyuan. "But aren't you afraid your clothes will get dirty?"
Yinqyueh laughed. "It's just dirt. If my clothes get dirty, I just need to wash my clothes. No big deal."
"Shinnshiow, please take Yinqyueh to the backyard. After that, you come back immediately."
"Okay, Dahge!" Shinnshiow at once stood up. He led Yinqyueh away from the living room. The two of them headed straight for the kitchen in the back.
There was silence as they waited for Shinnshiow to return. After Shinnshiow returned, they resumed their conversation.
"Yesterday, before arriving at Dafeisy Tower, I coincidentally ran into Linqhwu Ueideng." Shannchyuan cupped his palms and placed them in front of his mouth.
"Linqhwu Ueideng? Is that Songfei's very busy friend?" Iren's mouth remained slightly open after he finished launching the question.
Linqhwu Ueideng rarely appeared at events that Songfei organized. Yihshyong had heard Songfei say that his friend was a very busy person. It was almost impossible for him to take the time to attend the games that Songfei had planned. But as far as Yihshyong could tell, Songfei never looked annoyed, irritated, or disappointed. The young man always invited all his friends who were not the detective and mystery club members, even though he knew most of them would definitely not come.
"That's right," said Shannchyuan. "He said that one week ago, Songfei had called him." Shannchyuan then told his friends what he had heard from Linqhwu Ueideng. He said everything except the part where Linqhwu Ueideng said that Chioujen was one of the two people Songfei thought he trusted the most in handling the matter.
"Do Dahge think Songfei's current situation is similar to the situation he was in before?" Yihshyong asked. He tried comparing what was happening now with the previous situation when Songfei was being chased by a debt collector.
"I don't think Songfei's situation this time is the same," said Shannchyuan. He asked Mr. Linqhwu and me to keep his things. That means someone is after those things. Moreover, Songfei's belongings that he entrusted to Mr. Linqhwu were taken by someone. So now, let's just discuss matters related to the things that Songfei left with us.
"You have opened this bag, haven't you?" Yihshyong looked at Shannchyuan. He pointed to the large bag that Shannchyuan had brought home.
"Yes. But I only took the iron handcuffs. I have not examined the other items in there," replied Shannchyuan.
Then they started to open Songfei's bag. They took the items inside the bag out one by one and placed those stuff lined up on the floor. Apart from the iron handcuffs that Shannchyuan had used to bang on the side of the elevator, there were several pieces of clothes, a mustache razor, a toothbrush, a towel, a notebook, and a large brown envelope.
They watched the items for some time. Then Shannchyuan took the notebook and brown envelope and placed them on the table. He let Yihshyong put the pile of clothes, whiskers, and towels back into the bag. Shannchyuan opened the notebook. He paused, staring at the pages in the book. Iren sat right next to him so he could see plainly the contents of the sheets.
"What letters are these?" A confused look was clearly visible on Iren's face.
The sheets in the notebook contain writings they do not understand. They couldn't read the letters. Shannchyuan looked at Jenqyih while handing him the book.
"Look at this. Can you recognize it?"
Jenqyih was an expert in languages. He knew many ancient languages and characters. After observing the letters in the book, Jenqyih shook his head, saying, "I've never seen writing like this. It's like a cursive version of the Etruscan script. But it's not an Etruscan script. It's just that some parts look a bit alike."
Let alone the cursive version. I don't even know what Etruscan is!
Yihshyong laughed inwardly. But he still tried to put on a serious face.
"Why did Songfei write notes using letters like this?" Shinnshiow rubbed his forehead.
Shannchyuan sighed, then said, "First, we know Songfei likes mysterious things. Perhaps he used secret letters to record personal things. Although I have never seen Songfei write in foreign writings like this."
He paused his words. Looked at his friends' faces. He seemed to want to make sure that everyone listened to what he had to say.
"Second, we don't know exactly who owns this notebook. Songfei could have found this book and kept it."
"What if we ask Songfei's friends?" Shinnshiow looked at everyone.
"Do we know the addresses or telephone numbers of Songfei's friends?" Iren asked Shinnshiow back.
Under normal circumstances, it sounded like a good idea. But the situation was not normal.
Yihshyong could only shake his head.
They all fell silent. Clearly, the question was rhetorical. It was true that so far, Songfei had often invited them to take part in his activities. There, they encountered people who had the same interests as Songfei. But outside of these activities, they never met Songfei's friends from the detective and mystery club. Even they also didn't know the identities of Songfei's comrades. For example, their full name and phone number.
"What if we go to Songfei's residence to ask the people there?" Shinnshiow didn't seem to give up on questioning the people who most likely had frequent contact with Songfei.
Iren looked at Shinnshiow. "Three months ago, Songfei has moved from there. He promised to take us to visit his new house. Until our last meeting with him two months ago, he had not told me his new address at all."
They just realized Songfei was more mysterious than they initially thought. So far, they only ever visited Songfei's home once. The place was far away. Close to the border of this city with other towns in the west. Their meetings with Songfei usually took place at some places other than his house. Namely, Dahfeisy Tower, the places he held mystery games, and public places that he often went to when he was planning things, such as restaurants, cafes, city parks, and so on.
"Talking about Songfei, I thought of Tsaehorng. He asked about Songfei when we met two days ago," Iren said.
"Yes. If it wasn't for the event arranged by Songfei, we wouldn't have found Tsaehorng on time. In fact, maybe we would never meet him at all," Yihshyong said. He remembered the first time they'd met Tsaehorng. They'd were taking part in one of the mystery and detective game shows held by Songfei.
Apart from indoor games, Songfei also sometimes designed outdoor games. This small forest right on the outskirts of this city, to be precise in the northern part of this city, was indeed a perfect place to host such a game. About six months ago, while playing the game and exploring the forest, they found a small hut in the middle of the woods. There they found Tsaehorng bound and starving. Songfei then stopped the game because they all had to take Tsaehorng to the nearest hospital.
At that time, Tsaehorng was a member of a gang of delinquents. After joining for some time, he felt he did not fit in, so Tsaehorng wanted to leave the group. This made the other members angry. They kidnapped Tsaehorng and took him to a hut in the middle of the forest. Tie him up and leave him without food or drink. Luckily, Shannchyuan and his friends came to help him. Thanks to Songfei. After all, he was the one who insisted on playing the game in the forest. So, it made sense if Tsaehorng had always felt indebted to Songfei.
"We must not involve Tsaehorng in this matter. He has already helped us to get those amazing lockers. It's inappropriate if we ask for help with anything else," said Shinnshiow.
"I don't think we can call this matter as 'anything else.' Tsaehorng also knows Songfei. In fact, he feels indebted to him," replied Jenqyih.
"Maybe we should tell this to Tsaehorng. Regarding the matter of whether he wants to help, let him decide himself. I think Tsaehorng has the right to know about this matter," said Iren.
"But if we tell him about this, maybe it makes him have no choice but to help. If we are in his position, and we know what happened, wouldn't we feel bad if we don't help?" said Yihshyong.
"This is a delicate matter. We need to ponder carefully before we decide," Shannchyuan tried to intervene. Then he continued his words. "But for sure, we all have to meet Tsaehorng to say thank you. We'll talk about this further. Now let's continue the discussion about the items in this Songfei's bag."
They all agree with Shannchyuan's words. The priority now was to analyze the items on their living room table.
Their attention then turned to the large brown envelope. This was an ordinary envelope that held documents that were the size of folio paper. This envelope was not empty. Shannchyuan opened the envelope and peeked inside.
"Hmm," said Shannchyuan curtly.
He took out the contents of the envelope one by one. It contained a piece of paper, a photo, and what appeared to be a map. The piece of paper was full of handwriting. The writer, whoever he was, wrote the writing on the paper in red ink. Usually, people write in black or blue ink. People only used red ink in certain situations. For example, when a teacher was giving low grades to a student. People could not write essential letters or documents in red ink.
Shannchyuan read the scribbles on the paper seriously. The writing was irregular. It was not an essay or explanation intentionally written for others to read. It was more like a personal note written just as a reminder. The irregular shape showed that the scribbles were not written at the same time. So it most likely referred to different things.
They had seen the notes Songfei made many times. When designing a mystery game, Songfei usually took careful note of everything he thought about. So, they all already knew what Songfei's writing was like. The scribbles on the paper were not Songfei's writing at all. However, if it wasn't Songfei's writing, then it was hard to believe that there was no note that Songfei had made at all in that bag. The big blue bag was supposed to be Songfei's, so it made sense that at least there was Songfei's handwriting in the notes in the bag.
Then they turned their attention to another object, which was a map. This map was literally just a white paper sheet the size of a folio drawn in black, blue, and red ink. It didn't look like an actual map, but all agree that thing looked almost like a map.
There was the sound of approaching footsteps. Yinqyueh, who had been looking at the plants in the backyard, suddenly appeared in the living room. She immediately stood in front of Shannchyuan. "Looks like you forgot to water the plants, huh? Can I borrow the water hose? Let me water the plants for a while."
Shannchyuan turned to Shinnshiow. "Isn't there a hose in the backyard?"
Shinnshiow seemed to wake up from something. "Oh yeah. Three days ago, the next-door neighbor borrowed our water hose. Until now, he has not returned it yet. I'll go over there to get it back."
“Mister Shiuander or Mister Horngshi?” Asked Yihshyong. Shiuander Janji was their neighbor who lived in the house to their left. He was the one who received the package two days ago. Meanwhile, Horngshi Gauchyh was their neighbor who lived in the house to their right.
"Mister Horngshi!" Shinnshiow's voice was steadfast. After saying that, Shinnshiow immediately came out and went to the next house to ask for their water hose.
While waiting for Shinnshiow to return, Yinqyueh sat in the living room. Her gaze swept over some items on the table. Then she leaned closer to the photo. The image looked like an old photograph, but the picture was still evident. In the photo, seven people were standing. Yinqyueh looked at the faces. Yihshyong observed Shannchyuan noticed what Yinqyueh was doing. Maybe Shannchyuan hoped the girl would make a surprise.
"This person," Yinqyueh said, pointing to one face in the photo.
Yihshyong, Shannchyuan, and others followed Yinqyueh's finger toward one face there.
Yinqyueh continued her words. "This is the woman who I saw yesterday!"
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