Chapter 66: The Mysterious Call
Chapter 66: The Mysterious Call
The hallway was short, and it ended after only seven or eight steps. Kang Xin’s room was at the very end of the hallway.
Kang Xin stepped inside, and Li Zian followed right behind her into the room.
“You… why are you following me?” Kang Xin’s voice was very soft.
Li Zian was surprised and said, “Didn’t you ask me to come with you?”
Kang Xin looked completely confused.
She had only glanced at his profile because she found him handsome.
How could he have thought that she was hinting for him to follow her into her room?
“Uh, then… should I go back?” Li Zian felt very awkward and pulled his foot back from the doorway.
Kang Xin said, “Never mind, just come in.”
“Um, won’t it be… inconvenient?” Li Zian was a very polite person.
Kang Xin glanced at Li Zian and said, “You’ve already followed me here. What kind of inconvenience do you think there might be?”
Li Zian gave an awkward smile.
He entered the room.
The room was small. Under the window on the side wall, there was a computer desk. Next to it was a single bed with a quilt and pillow, along with the clothes she had taken off to change into her nightgown. The wardrobe was also small and had an old-fashioned style. A few celebrity posters were stuck on the wall—some male, some female. Li Zian only recognized Michael Jackson.
The room was simple and plain, which suited its owner’s identity as a college student.
Kang Xin walked over to the computer desk, pulled out the chair, and sat down. She grabbed the mouse and moved it; the computer screen woke up, showing a wallpaper of a group of Terracotta Warriors. She opened the drawer, picked out one cable from several connected cables, then connected Ma Fuquan’s mobile phone to the computer to copy the audio file.
The audio file was not big and copied over in just a few seconds.
Kang Xin opened the copied audio file and played it through the computer speakers.
This time, the sound played was the same as before when it came from the mobile phone. The person first mumbled for a while, then said some words that sounded like gibberish and were completely incomprehensible. However, the mobile phone’s speaker definitely couldn’t compare to the computer speakers. This time, there was a bit of noise in the audio, but it was a pity that the sounds couldn’t be clearly made out.
“Is that background noise?” Li Zian asked.
“Probably, but I can’t make it out clearly. It might require professional equipment to analyze and restore it,” Kang Xin said.
Li Zian suddenly remembered his super hearing when he was burning incense, and his heart stirred. “Kang Tongxue, could you copy this audio file for me too, and put it on my mobile phone? I want to listen and study it as well.”
He took out his mobile phone, unlocked the screen, and handed it over.
Kang Xin took the mobile phone and looked at the wallpaper on the screen. It was a photo of Li Xiaomei.
“Is this your daughter?”
“Her name is Li Xiaomei.” A warm feeling rose in Li Zian’s heart.
“Her mother must be very beautiful, right?”
Li Zian smiled and said, “Beautiful.”
His smile held bitterness and helplessness, but only he himself knew it.
Kang Xin changed to another cable, connected Li Zian’s mobile phone to the computer, copied a copy to the mobile phone as well, and then returned the mobile phone to him.
Li Zian held his mobile phone and asked, “Kang Tongxue, are you sure that person was speaking Kharosthi?”
Kang Xin shook her head. “To be honest, I’m not sure either. It’s just a guess. I’ll try to translate it, but it will take some time. It can’t be rushed.”
Li Zian said, “Let me leave you my phone number. If you manage to translate anything, you can give it to me, okay?”
Kang Xin smiled and said, “Okay, Uncle.”
Li Zian felt a bit speechless and said, “I’m only five years older than you. Why do you keep calling me Uncle?”
He picked up a pen on the computer desk and wrote his mobile phone number on a piece of paper.
“Sometimes you talk just like my dad. If I don’t call you Uncle, what should I call you?”
“That’s for your own good.”
“Uncle, when you say that, your tone is exactly like my dad’s.”
Li Zian: “…”
Kang Xin pursed her lips and smiled. “I’m just teasing you. It’s just a habit, and I don’t want to change it. And also…”
“What?”
“Thank you. I won’t say what for.” Kang Xin said.
Li Zian smiled and said, “I know. I’ll go out and chat with the two uncles.”
“I won’t join the three uncles chatting. Take Uncle Ma’s mobile phone out with you too.” Kang Xin also handed Ma Fuquan’s mobile phone to Li Zian.
Li Zian took the mobile phone and walked out.
“Oh, by the way, is this mobile phone number also your WeChat ID?” Kang Xin asked.
Li Zian turned around and said, “Yes, add me. It’ll be convenient for contact.”
“I don’t know where I put my mobile phone. Let me look for it.” Kang Xin stood up to search for her mobile phone. She picked up the clothes that were on the bed, and as a result, a pair of red underpants fell out from the pile of clothes, very eye-catching.
Her face turned red instantly.
Li Zian said awkwardly, “Um, I’ll go out and chat with your dad and Uncle Ma.”
Back in the living room, Li Zian returned the mobile phone to Ma Fuquan.
Just as Ma Fuquan took the mobile phone, it started ringing with an incoming call.
Li Zian’s heart stirred. He shifted his gaze to the mobile phone in Ma Fuquan’s hand, hoping it was the mysterious caller. But the screen displayed the words “Yellow-Faced Woman.”
“Sorry, it’s my wife calling. I need to take this.” Ma Fuquan stood up and walked toward the corner of the door.
Kang Haichuan lowered his voice and said, “Old Ma’s wife is really fierce. Old Ma is henpecked.”
Li Zian smiled, not expecting Professor Kang to have a playful side too.
“Professor Kang, what did you two talk about earlier?”
“Nothing much, just about that phone call. It’s really strange. I suspect it’s Huang Bo, but Old Ma says it’s not. He knows Huang Bo’s voice better than I do—after all, they’re neighbors. It’s been so many years; I’ve forgotten what Huang Bo’s voice sounds like, but he definitely remembers. They’ve been friends since childhood and are neighbors.” Kang Haichuan said.
Li Zian thought to himself, if it wasn’t Huang Bo, then who could it be?
Beep beep—his WeChat made a notification sound.
He woke up his mobile phone and took a look. There was a new friend request. He tapped into it.
It was a new friend named “Caramel Macchiato” who sent the add request, along with a message: Uncle, it’s me.
He didn’t need to guess; he knew it was Kang Xin.
Li Zian accepted the friend request, then sent Kang Xin a picture of a wide-eyed husky.
“Mr. Li, what do you think about this matter?” Kang Haichuan asked.
Li Zian put his mobile phone away, thought for a moment, and then said, “I don’t know either. I hope Kang Xin can translate that audio file. Only by understanding what the other person said can we possibly figure out their identity and motive.”
“For now, that’s the only way,” Kang Haichuan said.
Just then, Ma Fuquan walked over. “My wife says her stomach hurts. I have to hurry back to take her to the hospital. You two chat slowly, and we’ll contact each other later.”
Li Zian said, “It’s getting late. I should head back too.”
Kang Haichuan said, “Let me see you out.”
“No need, no need, Professor Kang, please rest.” Li Zian followed Ma Fuquan and left Kang Haichuan’s home.
Outside the residential area, a taxi was parked by the curb.
Ma Fuquan really wanted to get in the car but said politely, “Mr. Li, why don’t you go first?”
Li Zian said, “You go first. You need to hurry back to accompany Aunt to the hospital. I’m not in a rush. I’ll just call a ride-hailing car and wait a minute or two longer.”
“I’ll head off first then.” Ma Fuquan pulled open the car door and got in, then leaned out from the passenger seat and waved to Li Zian.
A strange, inexplicable feeling suddenly welled up in Li Zian’s heart, but it was gone in an instant, disappearing before he could fully grasp it.
The taxi drove away.
Li Zian thought to himself, “I shouldn’t have gone to Kang Xin’s room earlier. I should have done a divination for that Section Chief Ma—maybe there would have been some hint. Next time we meet, I must remember to do a divination for him.”
A few minutes later, a ride-hailing car stopped at the entrance of the residential area. Li Zian got in, and by the time he arrived home, it was almost midnight.
Before he finished entering the password, Li Zian suddenly paused. He glanced at Mu Chuntao’s door, then, as if drawn by some unseen force, walked over.
He felt a little guilty for skipping Prof. Mu’s civil engineering class earlier.
It’s hardest to accept a beauty’s kindness.
Mu Chuntao’s door was tightly shut, with no gap at all.
Li Zian gave a wry smile. “She left the door open for you, but you closed it yourself. How can you expect her to open it again and leave it for you once more?”
He stepped back, opened his own door, and went inside. As he closed the door, he looked at the white vase in the foyer, and the image of Hank Baynes surfaced in his mind again. He shook his head, clearing that guy’s shadow away, then went into the house.
The room was quiet and felt cold and empty.
Li Zian took out his mobile phone, found the audio file Kang Xin had copied for him, and tapped the repeat play button.
A low growling sound, like a dog before it barks, came from the mobile phone, followed by a series of gibberish speech. The voice was hoarse and low, giving off a cold feeling.
The background noise was very faint. Li Zian listened two more times but still couldn’t make it out clearly.
He took a stick of sandalwood incense from a drawer, then brought over a dried-up radish tip from the windowsill. He stuck the sandalwood incense into it, lit it, and placed it on the floor.
A wisp of blue smoke curled upward, and the scent of sandalwood began to spread through the air.
Boom!
The moment the Great Sluggish Cauldron awakened, it was as if a switch had been flipped. Many sounds that were inaudible just moments before now poured into Li Zian’s ears like a tide.
The sound of wind blowing past the window, moving from west to south.
On the road by the river, a vehicle drove by. Perhaps it encountered a red light, and he heard the sound of a brake being applied.
The neighbor downstairs was watching TV; a football match was playing. He caught a familiar line: “There isn’t much time left for the Huaguo team.”
The neighbor upstairs wasn’t asleep either; it sounded like they were playing a clapping game—the sound of clapping reached his ears.
The elevator was running; someone was going upstairs, and it stopped after just a few seconds. Then, the sound of the elevator doors opening also reached his ears.
And many other subtle sounds that he couldn’t hear before were now audible, all because he had lit a stick of sandalwood incense. There was no explaining why it happened this way.
Li Zian ignored the various faint noises from the surroundings and focused his mind, listening carefully to the sounds coming from his mobile phone.
“Holuo hulu, ai li de lu, ya xi kaka…”
Suddenly, some background sounds hidden within the speech entered Li Zian’s ears.
“Woo—”
That was the sound of a ferry horn.
“Sir, would you like to buy some flowers? These flowers are very fragrant and would suit your girlfriend perfectly.”
It was the voice of a flower-selling girl.
“Move aside, don’t block the way.”
That was a passerby’s voice.
There were also footsteps and the sound of cars driving on the road—it was all very noisy.
Abruptly, another faint sound rushed into Li Zian’s ears.
“Handsome, take a look, it’ll do you good.”
Li Zian was stunned for a moment, and the image of an auntie appeared in his mind.
Wasn’t this the voice of that auntie who had handed him a flyer?