Chapter Eighty-Nine: The Art of Invisibility

I can tell you’re awake, so stop pretending and get up already!

I’m not… Don’t make things up… My eyes are shut…

I can see your bulb-like eyeballs rolling under your lids. You gave yourself away ages ago, so what are you still acting dead for?

Boss, I smell a thick stench of fraud. You’re definitely trying to trick me. I haven’t even moved a single hair…

Nonsense. If your eyes are shut, how do you know you haven’t moved? Open them and see for yourself—your backside has already shifted by a hundredth of a centimeter while we’ve been talking.

Li Bashanhe slowly opened his eyes, glanced at his backside, and looked at Zhang Xiaoman with a sulky expression. “You’re lying! My backside didn’t move at all…”

Zhang Xiaoman smacked him hard on the head, his face dark with anger. “What did I tell you earlier? I told you to keep your wits about you. Did you only hear half of it? Did your wits grow on your butt? You spend all day boasting about how amazing you are—climbing to the heavens to pluck the moon, diving into the sea to catch turtles—and then at the crucial moment, you can’t even last a second. Bah! You’re just a polished silver spear with a wax tip!”

Li Bashanhe flushed red and argued, “That bastard played dirty. He ambushed me with a woman’s underwear…”

“Idiot. Do you expect every other person to shake hands with you and count to three before they strike?” Zhang Xiaoman rolled his eyes, took a deep breath, and forced himself to calm down. He gave Li Bashanhe a sidelong look, still trying to defend himself. “Forget that. Tell me—what did the guy actually look like?”

Li Bashanhe lowered his head, twisting the hem of his clothes between his fingers. “Hard to say…”

“How is it hard to say? Say whatever you saw…” Zhang Xiaoman glared at He Wei, who was still snickering beside them. “You should’ve learned suspect sketching in police school, right? What are you standing there grinning for? Draw exactly what he tells you.”

He Wei barely held back his laughter, gave a soft “oh,” and pulled a palm-sized notebook from his pocket, then took out a pencil about the length of a thumb. He blinked expectantly at Li Bashanhe.

Li Bashanhe scratched his head and coughed awkwardly. “It really is hard to say…”

A flare of irritation rose in Zhang Xiaoman. He took another deep breath and kept his voice even. “Close your eyes and try to remember the scene. I’ll ask, you answer. Did he have eyes?”

“Yeah. Two of them, bright as headlights.”

“A nose?”

“Probably. He was wearing a mask, and it bulged out in a triangular shape. The nose must’ve been pretty sharp and straight.”

“I won’t ask about the mouth. With the mask on, you probably couldn’t see it anyway… What about the ears? Any special features?”

“His ears stood straight up, like two antennas.”

“Face shape? Round or oval?”

“Neither. It was a square, proper blocky face.”

Zhang Xiaoman glanced sideways at the portrait sketch in He Wei’s notebook and said with a black face, “Are you fucking kidding me? What the hell is that supposed to be?”

“A Transformer, isn’t it? Looks like one, right?” He Wei lifted the notebook and shrugged, pointing at Li Bashanhe. “He was the one teasing me. Draw it according to his description and it’d be the Autobot leader, wouldn’t it?”

Seeing Zhang Xiaoman glaring at him with fire in his eyes, Li Bashanhe said miserably, “Boss… I never even got a proper look at that bastard. Before he slid down, a bad omen suddenly fell from the sky and blinded me… You know me—unmarried for decades, an old virgin, never seen this sort of thing before. I got thrown off for a moment. By the time I reacted, I was hit over the head with a brick…”

Zhang Xiaoman glanced at the brick broken in two on the ground, sighed, and patted Li Bashanhe on the shoulder. He was about to say something when a report suddenly came through from the bee-keeper’s sighting over the Bluetooth earpiece. He immediately straightened and said urgently, “Where are you? Keep an eye on the suspect’s features, and don’t get too close.”

While Mingchaqiutiao pretended to hold a magazine and browse it, he deliberately slowed his steps and merged into the crowd crossing the intersection. “He’s wearing a brown overcoat. He’s taken the mask off for now, but he’s keeping his head down, so I still can’t judge his build or face… He just passed the traffic light, on the street by Mount Five Market… I’m about ten meters from him. He shouldn’t notice me…”

“No, too close. Back off more…” Zhang Xiaoman turned to He Wei and said, “Go around behind Mount Five Plaza and look at him from the front. Let’s see the bastard’s true face.”

He Wei nodded, wiped the grin from his face, and ran quickly toward the street behind Mount Five Market.

Li Bashanhe rubbed his hands together and lightly bumped Zhang Xiaoman’s shoulder, trying to get friendly. “Boss, what should I do next?”

Zhang Xiaoman threw the pink undergarment at him. “The thing was probably swiped by that bastard from the rooftop. You’re in charge of returning it. Also, when you have time, go rescue the brother who slipped off the ledge too. If he keeps hanging there, he’ll dry out into jerky… Then you two can stay wherever it’s cool. No need to come back here and make yourselves a laughingstock.”

Li Bashanhe looked down at the pink underwear in dismay and muttered, “Damn it, I really left the house without checking the almanac. How am I supposed to hold my head up in the society after this? What a disgrace…”

At that moment, a woman’s voice suddenly exploded beside Li Bashanhe’s ear. “Well, well, so I finally caught you, you shameless clothes thief… You filthy pervert! I’m going to break your legs today and make sure you can never stand straight again in your life!”

Zhang Xiaoman looked back at the fleshy mountain behind Li Bashanhe, swallowed, and pretended not to know him as he quickened his pace toward Mount Five Market. Seeing Mingchaqiutiao’s back drawing nearer ahead, he said softly, “Mingchaqiutiao, stand down. Keep watch inside Mount Five Market while I keep following…”

Mingchaqiutiao touched the Bluetooth earpiece with his right hand and gave a low “yes,” then turned at once and went into Mount Five Market.

Just then, the man in the brown coat ahead glanced back over his shoulder. Finding nothing unusual, he frowned and continued walking at an unhurried pace in a certain direction.

Zhang Xiaoman emerged from behind a passing pedestrian, let out a murky breath, and trailed the man in the brown coat at a moderate distance.

A little over ten seconds later, He Wei came hurrying toward the man in the brown coat from the opposite direction. He pulled out his phone and pretended to be on a call. “Honey, I don’t think this is going to work… I just brought some people to meet that guy, but he kept his head down and wouldn’t say a word no matter what anyone asked. I was almost tempted to kick him myself. How’s anyone supposed to know what kind of person he is if he’s this shy?”

Zhang Xiaoman thought for a moment. “Don’t rush… Li Jun, drive past Mount Five Market right now, and when you see He Wei, lay on the horn!”

Li Jun immediately started the van, eyes fixed ahead through the windshield. He released the handbrake, stomped the accelerator, and the van surged onto the street. Just as it neared He Wei, he slammed the steering wheel several times.

Beep beep beep!

As the man in the brown coat passed He Wei, the horn startled him into suddenly lifting his head.

He Wei caught a glimpse of the man’s face and immediately furrowed his brows into a deep knot. He touched the Bluetooth earpiece with his right hand. “Uncle Man, something’s off. He’s a fat guy with a grinding-stone face. Doesn’t seem like that bee-keeper…”

Definitely not. How could the one who raced the meteors on the rooftop be a fat man?

Zhang Xiaoman stopped at once, scanned the surroundings, and murmured, “Where did it go wrong…” Just as he was about to turn back, he suddenly saw a man take off his coat, reverse it inside out, and put it on again. Zhang Xiaoman’s eyes lit up. “A reversible coat… Mingchaqiutiao, pay attention to the black-clad man who entered the mall through Gate Three. It’s fine to stay a little closer this time. There are lots of people in the mall anyway…”

Mingchaqiutiao licked his somewhat dry lips and looked around. Seeing the black-clad man walking toward him, he turned to glance at the display case beside him. When the man in black passed by, he followed quickly. “That guy put his mask back on… I can’t see his face… He’s heading toward the restroom. Should I follow him in?”

“Go in after him!” Zhang Xiaoman waved to He Wei. “He Wei and I will be there soon. Don’t act rashly. Just pretend you’re going in to take a leak and figure out which stall he entered.”

Mingchaqiutiao agreed and slowly followed the black-clad man into the restroom. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the man enter the middle stall. After relieving himself, he left the restroom and waited to the side, his face anxious, for Zhang Xiaoman and He Wei to arrive.

Thirty-seven seconds later, Zhang Xiaoman and He Wei finally reached the restroom entrance. After looking inside, Zhang Xiaoman asked Mingchaqiutiao in a low voice, “He’s still inside?”

Mingchaqiutiao nodded and pointed at the middle stall. “That guy’s in there. I checked just now. This restroom is completely enclosed, with no windows, and there’s no way to climb into the ventilation ducts…”

He Wei raised his brows in excitement. “Caught in a jar!”

Zhang Xiaoman fixed his gaze on the middle stall door, feeling vaguely that something was off. He signaled to He Wei with his eyes. “You go have a look first. Be the one to knock.”

He Wei nodded quickly, walked up to the middle stall, and tapped the door a few times with his right hand. “Brother, hurry it up, please. I’ve got diarrhea. It’s urgent!”

There was no sound behind the door. No response.

He Wei tapped again and called, “Brother, are you in there?”

Still no answer. Only He Wei’s own voice echoed in the restroom.

Zhang Xiaoman and Mingchaqiutiao followed over then as well. Zhang Xiaoman pushed at the door, bent down, lay on the floor, and peered through the gap at the stall’s interior. Straightening up, he brushed the dust from his clothes and shook his head. “He’s not inside. There are only two leather shoes on the floor.”

He Wei refused to believe it and kicked the latch area of the stall door. The door swung open at once. Staring at the empty stall and the two shoes on the floor, he frowned. “That’s strange. Could that guy really know invisibility?”

At that moment, the sound of a flushing toilet came from the innermost stall. A young man dressed like a beggar stepped out and stared blankly at Zhang Xiaoman and the others. “Uncle Man, why are you here?”

Zhang Xiaoman narrowed his eyes and examined the young man, then walked into the innermost stall to check the trash bin, finding no other clothing.

Just as everyone stood frozen in place, the outermost stall nearest the door suddenly swung open. A dark shadow darted out at speed, rushed into the mall, and melted into the crowd...