Chapter 12

Chapter 12

A successful performance excited Cui Yueyi and the girl in the red dress. They wandered the streets late into the night, eventually found a 24-hour hotpot restaurant and successfully enjoyed a midnight snack.

The hotpot restaurant was a storefront restaurant with only one floor, and the floor-to-ceiling windows covering the entire wall provided an excellent view, allowing Tang Qiu to observe Cui Yueyi's every move even without entering.

While they ate inside, Tang Qiu hid in a dark corner across the street to watch. She waited another two hours, until the sky turned blue and sunrise was near, when the two girls, still reluctant to end their chat, paid and left.

The girl in the red dress took a taxi first. Several of her ex-boyfriends vied to see her off, but none succeeded. In the end, she dismissed them all, gave Cui Yueyi a hug, yawned, and quickly jumped into the car.

Cui Yueyi then hailed a taxi and left. As soon as her car started moving, Tang Qiu emerged from her hiding place and also hailed a taxi.

Fortunately, there weren't many people in Hongning City early in the morning, but plenty of empty taxis were available. Tang Qiu wasted almost no time getting a taxi.

As soon as she got into the taxi, Tang Qiu deliberately changed her voice and urged, "Follow that taxi ahead."

The driver was a heavyset middle-aged man with thick hair. He had seemed somewhat listless at first, but perked up immediately at her words. He turned his head with some difficulty to look at Tang Qiu, then said excitedly, "Sis, are you a police officer? Is there a criminal in that car ahead?"

Before Tang Qiu could answer, the driver excitedly drove the taxi like a race car, slammed on the gas, and shot forward. He confidently declared, "Officer, just you watch! I've been driving a taxi for over ten years. There's no alley in Hongning City I don't know. I'll definitely catch up with that car—I can even force it to stop."

The driver seemed as if he had been waiting for this moment all along. His eyes grew resolute, fixed on the car just ahead.

Tang Qiu was momentarily stunned. Then she quickly said in her altered voice, "No, that person owes me money. I've been looking for her for years, and finally found her. I can't let her get away. I mainly want to see where she lives. You don't need to follow too closely."

The driver was clearly not expecting that answer. He became deflated and asked unwillingly, glancing at Tang Qiu in the rearview mirror, "Ah, just money owed? Are you sure she didn't commit a crime?"

Tang Qiu nodded seriously.

Only then did the driver reluctantly believe her. He immediately slowed down, following the taxi carrying Cui Yueyi at a moderate distance.

Probably disappointed that his enthusiasm was all for nothing, the driver couldn't help muttering, "I always see these things in videos, and I thought it was finally my turn. Turns out I was overthinking. Ha, I had even rehearsed how to brag about it afterward."

He grumbled a few more sentences before remembering there was still a passenger in the car. Embarrassed, he glanced at Tang Qiu and struck up a conversation, "Sis, how much does that person owe you that you're chasing her so hard? Did you sue? You didn't have an IOU, I bet? That's indeed hard to recover."

Tang Qiu was economical with words, "One hundred thousand."

The driver hissed, "That is a lot. People these days—the debtor is the real boss. It's completely backwards. Sis, let me tell you, I had a friend who owed me tens of thousands. He promised to repay in two years, but two years turned into four, four into eight. Now my kid is seven, and I've only gotten back five thousand. It's so hard to make money these days. Every time I ask him, he cries poor—his dad is sick, his wife is sick, he himself is sick. If I push him harder, he says he'll meet me on the rooftop. It's so shameless. But I can't help it; I'm not as ruthless as him, and I can never bring myself to be harsh."

Maybe finding common ground, the driver chattered away without needing Tang Qiu to say a word, giving her advice the whole way.

When Tang Qiu got out of the taxi, the driver sentimentally wished her good luck in recovering the money.

What Tang Qiu found most incomprehensible was that when she offered cash, he refused, saying he had no change.

Tang Qiu simply tossed the money through the open front passenger window with her gloved hand as she closed the door. She didn't consider herself a good person, but she never owed a favor to good people.

In the brief moment it took to get out of the taxi, Cui Yueyi, who had gotten out first, had already swung her backpack onto her shoulder and walked briskly into the residential complex.

Tang Qiu didn't have time to observe carefully and quickened her pace to follow into the complex.

Fortunately, this was an old residential complex, large, with sparse greenery and wide spacing between buildings.

When Tang Qiu entered the complex, Cui Yueyi was walking straight ahead on the wide main road without looking around.

The sky was faintly brightening, the streetlights were still on, and there were no pedestrians on the road. Tang Qiu trailed far behind Cui Yueyi, successfully achieving her goal.

Standing under a tree by the main road, she watched from a distance as Cui Yueyi entered a unit of a building near the roadside. After waiting a few minutes, the light on the third floor turned on.

Tang Qiu took the opportunity to walk to the side of the building and looked up—Building 19.

After spending extra time to ensure safety returning home, Tang Qiu changed back into her everyday clothes and spent an ordinary but fulfilling day.

She went for her usual morning run and workout, then went to the fitness club and sparred with Coach Zhong for two hours. The only difference was that instead of spending the remaining time reading and learning about the original body's information, she slept until darkness fell again over the earth.

After she disguised herself, she went back to Cui Yueyi's residence.

When she picked the lock and entered Cui Yueyi's home, she deliberately checked the time: 2:15 a.m., March 26.

In fact, Tang Qiu didn't like passively waiting for a crisis to occur. Compared to protecting a target, she preferred to hunt the prey in advance, like when she intervened in Ji Shulan's fate the first time. But unfortunately, Cui Yueyi's life-threatening crisis would happen during the day, and most likely indoors. Since Tang Qiu couldn't enter while Cui Yueyi was at home, she had to hide in her home beforehand.

Tang Qiu carefully closed the door. Instead of immediately searching for a safe hiding place, she stood behind the door, letting her eyes adjust to the dim light. Then she turned on her portable flashlight, dimming it to the lowest setting, and began a careful and thorough observation.

Since there was a high chance she would need to engage in close-quarters combat with the prey indoors, Tang Qiu observed very meticulously.

Cui Yueyi's home was not large—about seventy square meters. However, judging by the personal items arranged, only she lived there, so it was quite spacious.

It had two bedrooms, one living room, one kitchen, one bathroom, plus a balcony. Tang Qiu first looked at the balcony—it was tidy, with clothes hanging out to dry and many potted flowers in the corners. The remaining space only allowed one person to walk through, nowhere to hide.

Tang Qiu then checked the two bedrooms, the kitchen, and the bathroom. In the end, she found that the only possible hiding place was the second bedroom.

The bed in the second bedroom had been removed, leaving only a wardrobe and a bedside table. The empty floor was cluttered with various items. Judging from the dust that had settled, it was rarely used by Cui Yueyi.

Tang Qiu opened the wardrobe as carefully as possible without leaving traces. Inside, it was stuffed messily with clothes, but with some rearrangement, it could still accommodate a person.

Tang Qiu hid in this wardrobe, closed the wardrobe door from the inside, closed her eyes to rest, and waited for the moment she needed to act.

Tang Qiu didn't know how long she waited in the wardrobe. She heard the sound of Cui Yueyi returning home and guessed it was almost dawn.

Cui Yueyi truly was a master of staying up late. Instead of going to sleep immediately after getting home, she washed up and then began vocalizing her singing at home.

Tang Qiu couldn't understand what she was singing at all. She only found the voice high-pitched and piercing, and wondered how the neighbors hadn't complained about such noise so early in the morning.

After vocalizing, Tang Qiu heard the sound of the treadmill. Having stayed up all night and still exercising, Tang Qiu thought that with such energy and perseverance, as long as she didn't die, Cui Yueyi was bound to become famous sooner or later.

When the treadmill sound stopped, Tang Qiu assumed Cui Yueyi would finally sleep. But then she heard noises from the kitchen—clattering sounds, and soon the aroma of food wafted over.

Tang Qiu easily identified it as instant noodles. She was a bit puzzled: exercising and then eating instant noodles early in the morning—wouldn't that cancel out the workout?

Tang Qiu patiently listened to Cui Yueyi slurping noodles, scrolling on her phone, washing the pot and dishes, brushing her teeth again, then scrolling on her phone for a while more before walking to the master bedroom opposite and going to bed.

After all this commotion, the person finally went to sleep. Tang Qiu's ears finally had some peace. She waited for a while. No other sounds came from the quiet house, so Tang Qiu closed her eyes again.

Just like countless nights alone in the apocalyptic world, Tang Qiu dozed lightly, always aware of any sound around her.

The faint sound of turning over in the master bedroom, the regular ticking of the clock in the living room, and the hum of the refrigerator in the kitchen—Tang Qiu heard them all. So when someone knocked on Cui Yueyi's door, before Cui Yueyi reacted, Tang Qiu's eyes opened first. Tang Qiu instinctively glanced in the direction of the sound, then lowered her head. By the light seeping through the crack in the wardrobe, she checked the time: March 26, 13:01.