Explanation

Time rewinds to just over half an hour earlier. After leaving the breakfast stall, Wen Yiqian had already formed his deduction.

To confirm it as quickly as possible, he had driven straight toward the hotel.

Worth mentioning: Wen Yiqian had never actually obtained a driver’s license, having failed the practical test three times without passing.

In his view, though, as long as you knew the basics, a license was a formality. What were the odds of something going wrong?

Boom!

Perhaps due to the impatience gnawing at him and a head full of competing thoughts, this particular fool managed to rear-end the car in front of him.

Fortunately, he hadn’t been going fast and had braked in time. Beyond the shock, he was unharmed.

He was fine. The driver he had hit was not: badly startled, and now staring at a dent in the back of his car. He called the police on the spot.

“I’m not interested in arguing. Let the police sort it out,” said the middle-aged man, his face tight with anger.

No matter how many times Wen Yiqian apologized, it made no difference. The man had no intention of letting it go.

After the standoff dragged on a while, Wen Yiqian calculated that the traffic police would be arriving soon, and things would only get messier from there.

The criminal police hadn’t managed to drag him to the station. He was not about to let the traffic division do it instead.

Wanting nothing more than to find An Zhi and move on, he thought it over, pulled the car key from his pocket, and pressed it into the man’s hand. “Say no more. The car is yours.”

Then, under the man’s stunned stare, he walked away.

He had briefly considered a more dramatic exit.

Something along the lines of the unflappable tough guys in dramas: one clean punch, leave the man on the ground, drive off without looking back, engage in a thrilling high-speed chase with the police on the highway.

Two problems with that plan.

First, the man he had hit was clearly built far more solidly than he was. In a fight, Wen Yiqian’s odds were not good. Being the one left on the ground was more likely.

Second, having never passed the driving test in the first place, the most probable outcome of trying to flee by car was being surrounded by police within five minutes and thoroughly humiliated in front of everyone.

“Safety comes first on the road. No license, no driving.”

Wen Yiqian muttered the words to himself repeatedly, wearing an expression of genuine regret.

He had looked fairly composed handing over the car as compensation, he would grant himself that. But he also knew that when Li Weiguo came looking for repayment, it was going to be painful.

On top of everything else, Wen Yiqian was unfamiliar with Ditan City’s layout at the best of times, and his sense of direction was nonexistent. Without the car’s navigation, he had no idea how to get back to Happiness Residential Complex.

With eighty-four yuan to his name, a taxi was out of the question.

Fortunately, he still had a working mouth. After asking for directions, it turned out the hotel was not too far on foot.

Half an hour of walking later, he arrived.

That was the story of the past half hour, and buried in it was the answer to how he had found An Zhi.

…

Back to the present. Wen Yiqian got up and prepared to leave the hotel.

“Hey, hold on a second,” the receptionist called after him, phone in hand, a bright smile on her face. “Can I add you on WeChat?”

Wen Yiqian thought for a moment, then walked back over. “Could I borrow your phone to make a call first?”

“Sure.” She handed it across.

“Thank you.” Wen Yiqian smiled slightly, took the phone, and without a moment’s hesitation dialed the police non-emergency line right in front of her. “Hello. I’d like to turn myself in. Send Li Weiguo to come find me. My name is Wen Yiqian.”

He hung up cleanly and looked at the receptionist, whose expression had gone somewhat rigid, with a mild smile. “Still want my WeChat?”

…

Ditan City Police Station, Interrogation Room.

This was Wen Yiqian’s third time in this seat. It was starting to feel familiar.

“We had an agreement.” Li Weiguo’s expression shifted between confusion and suspicion. “I let you go, and you bring An Zhi back. What are you playing at now?”

“I’m here to come clean.”

“Come clean.”

“I was performing the whole time. I never took An Zhi. The reason I made those demands was so I could investigate on my own terms.” Wen Yiqian laid it out plainly.

“You expect me to believe that?” Li Weiguo said flatly.

He genuinely did not want to accept that the look in Wen Yiqian’s eyes that morning had been theater.

“Believe it or not, just hear me out first.” Wen Yiqian kept his tone even. “An Zhi isn’t missing. She’s hiding. She’s been at the Crescent Moon Hotel across from Happiness Residential Complex.”

“Impossible.” Li Weiguo was on his feet.

“If you don’t believe me, pull the hotel’s surveillance footage. Around four in the morning. It’ll surprise you.”

Wen Yiqian hadn’t tried to view the footage while he was there. Hotel surveillance was typically managed from a dedicated monitoring room, not accessible through the front desk. Getting to it wouldn’t have been straightforward.

Li Weiguo studied his expression for a long moment, then frowned and sent someone to check.

With plainclothes officers already stationed near Happiness Residential Complex, the response moved quickly.

In under an hour, Li Weiguo was sitting in front of the Crescent Moon Hotel’s footage from around four in the morning.

With a precise time window, he didn’t have to scroll far before a familiar figure appeared on screen.

The person had made an effort to disguise themselves, but he knew her immediately.

It was An Zhi.

Li Weiguo sat with that for a moment.

The footage had already been verified by technical staff. It couldn’t have been tampered with.

Which meant what Wen Yiqian had just told him was likely the truth.

“Why would she do this?” Li Weiguo asked carefully.

“Isn’t it obvious?” Wen Yiqian spread his hands. “To set me up.”

He looked mildly resigned. “You saw how she was last night: she’s watched too many films and convinced herself I’m some kind of criminal mastermind.”

“So before she dropped me off, she took a gamble and sent that email to her colleagues.”

“Then on the drive back, she kept pushing me, saying she would make me show my true face no matter what.”

“And when we got back to the complex, I ran out of patience and pretended to be a creep to frighten her.”

“What you saw on the surveillance footage: that was me trying to scare her off. Nothing more.”

There was no reason to lie about any of it, so he didn’t.

“Pretending to be a creep?” Li Weiguo latched onto the phrase.

“Yes. It’s a fairly particular skill of mine,” Wen Yiqian said, without much embarrassment. “I used it yesterday on those two psychopaths, and today…”

He paused and glanced across the table. “I used it on you as well.”

(End of Chapter)