PD -Chapter 197 Suspicious Woman

We didn’t go to the booth seats, nor did we book a private room. Instead, we sat at the bar, chatting up the bartender, trying to get some information about the deceased girl.

But at that moment, Liu Xiaopeng suddenly looked strangely toward the crowd. I glanced at him in confusion, about to ask if he had noticed something, when he abruptly stood up and walked into the crowd without a word.

“Where is he going?” Tang Shanshan asked me.

I shook my head, picked up my drink, and followed her as we went after him.

We pushed through the crowd and soon saw Liu Xiaopeng near a booth area, chatting with a very provocatively dressed girl.

The girl was very beautiful—tall nose bridge, large deep eyes. She looked like she might be mixed-race.

She seemed extremely excited to see Liu Xiaopeng, waving her hands animatedly as she spoke while sitting on the sofa.

I frowned. After thinking for a moment, I decided to go over and take a look anyway.

“Hmph!” Tang Shanshan suddenly snorted coldly behind me. “This kid is actually flirting behind Zhu Zhu’s back!”

Her tone carried obvious anger, which made me hesitate for a moment about whether we should still go over.

But by then, we had already reached the center of the dance floor. The place was packed, and we were immediately pushed forward by the crowd.

I sighed and simply moved forward a bit more.

“Ai Lin, why are you here?” Liu Xiaopeng stood by the sofa, asking the girl in surprise.

“Why are you here too?” the girl said excitedly as she stood up.

“I… I came to see a friend,” Liu Xiaopeng replied after a moment of hesitation, coming up with an excuse.

“Aren’t you supposed to go to Tibet?” Liu Xiaopeng asked.

The girl’s smile faded. She sighed.

“My altitude sickness was too severe. I only stayed in the Tibetan area for a day after I went in… then I came down, and later came here with some friends. I might stay here for a while.”

“Oh my god, we’re really so destined to meet again, Xiaopeng,” the girl said, looking at him with sparkling eyes.

“Yeah… I thought after we separated, it would be hard to meet again, but I didn’t expect it to be so soon…”

Cough cough…

At that moment, Tang Shanshan beside me deliberately coughed loudly twice as she pulled me forward, attracting the attention of Liu Xiaopeng and the girl called Ai Lin.

“Xiaopeng, who is this beautiful lady?” Tang Shanshan asked with a forced smile, sizing up Ai Lin.

“Oh right, I forgot to introduce you,” Liu Xiaopeng said, glancing at us. “This is Ai Lin, a friend I met on the road a while ago. She’s a traveler—like a vlogger.”

“Ai Lin, these are my two friends—also my landlords and bosses, Sister Shanshan and Brother Han.”

“So this is the boss you mentioned?” Ai Lin looked at me.

“Xiaopeng mentioned me?” I asked with a smile.

“Of course,” she said. “A boss who only pays him 2,000 yuan a month, won’t let him become a full employee, and makes him do all the dirty and tiring work. A stingy boss like you—he mentioned you once and I remembered it.”

“Uh…” I froze.

I had expected something else, but I didn’t expect her to be defending Liu Xiaopeng so passionately. It was genuinely awkward.

“Ai Lin…” Liu Xiaopeng quickly interrupted her and looked at me. “Brother Han, she’s joking.”

“Uh… you guys chat. Shanshan and I will go have a drink over there.” I said awkwardly and quickly pulled Shanshan away.

“This kid is getting worse and worse. Look at him, even hugging someone else!” Tang Shanshan kept pointing back as we left, like a middle-aged aunt catching her friend’s husband cheating.

We wandered around the bar for a while, but didn’t get any more useful information. The noise made my head uncomfortable, so we paid the bill and went outside to the alley to wait for Liu Xiaopeng.

It was just before ten at night—nightlife had only just begun—so the alley didn’t feel as eerie as the one in the surveillance footage where the victim had walked.

As we walked further, I noticed there were even more surveillance cameras installed in the alley.

Soon, Liu Xiaopeng finally came out.

“Nice, kid. How did you meet such a stunning mixed-race beauty?” I teased him.

After thinking for a moment, Liu Xiaopeng replied, “We met on the road. I didn’t really know where I was going after leaving home, so I just wandered. I met her while hitchhiking at a highway exit. She was also alone, saying she wanted to trek to Tibet.”

“And then you two got together?” Tang Shanshan said angrily.

But Liu Xiaopeng didn’t seem to notice her tone. Instead, he looked thoughtful.

“I thought I’d never meet her again after we separated, but this coincidence is too strange… why would she appear here too?”

“You mean… she might have followed you here?” I asked.

Liu Xiaopeng shook his head noncommittally.

“Liu Xiaopeng!” Tang Shanshan suddenly stopped and grabbed my arm, shouting angrily, “Do you know how sincere Zhu Zhu is to you?”

“How can you… how can you treat her like this!”

She was getting more and more emotional, her voice rising.

“I just feel like meeting her here is strange,” Liu Xiaopeng continued to think aloud.

Only when he noticed Tang Shanshan’s anger did he react and shake his head.

“I really have nothing with her. We just met on the road a few days ago. When I met her, you guys were in Shennongjia… and now we meet again here, right when that heart-eating shadow appeared. I just feel… she’s very strange.”

“Maybe it’s just a coincidence. Stop arguing. Let’s go back and ask if Yan Shu found out what that eye symbol means.”

I sighed. We still had work to do and didn’t want this small episode to waste time.

But Liu Xiaopeng shook his head.

“I need to keep an eye on her and find out what her purpose here really is.”

I frowned. “You don’t seriously think that girl has something to do with the dismemberment case we’re investigating, do you?”

“I feel like she has too many mysteries. Every time I run into her, something unusual happens… and now that I think about it, both encounters felt too deliberate,” Liu Xiaopeng said thoughtfully.

“Heh,” Tang Shanshan sneered. “What ‘deliberate’? I think you’re just attracted to her and making excuses!”

“Shanshan!” Liu Xiaopeng shouted, about to explain—but realizing anything he said would be useless, he swallowed his words and shook his head.

“Leave the investigation of the eye symbol to you two,” he said to me.

With that, Liu Xiaopeng turned and walked off alone in the opposite direction.