She neatly packed everything away and then went downstairs.
Only Xu Qingya was in the living room. She asked, "Where's your sister?"
"She just went out," Xu Qingya said. "It seems like Sister Weiwei needs to talk to her."
Liang Shi: "Okay."
She didn't pay much attention to it.
But by nine o'clock in the evening, Xu Qingzhu still hadn't returned.
Liang Shi waited in the room for a while, glancing at the door every now and then.
For some reason, at one point, she had the illusion that she was a "waiting-for-wife stone".
She was so bored that she removed the carpet and found a new one in another room.
Stepping on the soft carpet always gives me the feeling that something is about to happen.
At 9:20, Liang Shi couldn't help but call Xu Qingzhu.
The phone kept ringing, but no one answered.
She sent a few more WeChat messages.
Still no one replied.
The same applies to text messages.
She grabbed a coat and went downstairs. The first floor was deserted and eerily quiet.
The sound of footsteps on the solid wood ladder was loud.
It was desolate and lonely.
Liang Shi's unease grew stronger.
She dialed Xu Qingzhu's number again, but immediately turned off the phone.
Just as she was about to call back, she received a multimedia message.
The photo was sent from an unknown number. The background of the photo was a dimly lit private room filled with smoke. A group of people, men and women, sat at a round table, all with lewd smiles on their faces.
Bai Weiwei and Xu Qingzhu sat under the dim light. Bai Weiwei was already drunk, and Xu Qingzhu wasn't much better off.
There were six wine glasses and a die in front of them.
Liang Shi frowned, about to ask, "Where is this?"
The other party has already sent it.
Liang Shi, you're about to be cuckolded.
Liang Shi: [Who are you? Where is this?]
A few seconds later, a text message arrived: "Your wife is playing Russian roulette with someone at Huayue International."
If you had arrived any later, I wouldn't know whether you'd been given the wine or the person.
Chapter 23
Even if she didn't say it, Liang Shi could guess it.
Russian Roulette is a drinking game with six cups of alcohol. Players take turns rolling dice, and the number rolled determines which cup of alcohol they drink.
The game ends when the glass corresponding to the number you roll on the dice is empty.
However, you will be the one to fill this glass.
If you're lucky, you basically won't have to drink more than a few glasses.
But if you're unlucky, you might have to drink six cups by yourself.
Liang Shi had seen this before at a dinner party after casting actors for a film crew; they drank more than twenty bottles of beer in less than half an hour.
Several female students from the performing arts department were forced to drink a lot of alcohol, and the directors and producers began to reach out to them inappropriately.
Liang Shih couldn't stand it anymore and left the game.
I also called the girls' teachers.
It's unclear whether those people succeeded or not, because although she got the role through the audition, she chose to give it up due to the atmosphere of that production crew.
Although it was still a pretty good script.
Judging from the photo, the wine glass is not small.
There were also many bottles scattered on the table, lying haphazardly, including not only beer, but also some cheap wine and beer.
Beer bottles were the most numerous.
Inside the private room, some of the men and women appeared extremely excited.
Liang Shi glanced at the message, confirmed the location, and immediately went out.
Just then, Xu Qingya came out of the room. Seeing her hurried figure, she couldn't help but ask, "Sister Liang, where are you going?"
Without turning his head, Liang Shi took a pair of comfortable sneakers from the shoe cabinet and said, "Go find your sister."
Xu Qingya was taken aback. "She's not back yet?"
"At Huayue International," Liang Shi said, "we were trapped together with Bai Weiwei."
"Damn it." Xu Qingya cursed and stuffed her phone into her pocket. "I'll go with you."
"Do you know Huayue International?" Liang Shi asked.
Xu Qingya casually tied her hair up. "Who doesn't know Haizhou? It's a notorious money pit. People who go there are all reckless and fun-loving. Sometimes they get drunk and party so much that they don't care about anything. There was even a murder case a few years ago."
"How come this place hasn't gone out of business yet?" Liang Shi complained irritably, completely unaware that his mind was already completely disturbed by that photo.
“It won’t collapse,” Xu Qingya said. “They only provide the venue, not the goods. Most of the items are bought on the black market by those scumbags. And do you know who Huayue International is backed by?”
"Who?" Liang Shi asked.
She didn't realize that she would have to rely on a fifteen-year-old girl to educate people.
However, this shows that Xu Qingya knows quite a lot.
He should know more than Xu Qingzhu.
Perhaps because Xu Qingya often hangs out with some good-for-nothing rich kids, she knows these places well.
“The Shen family.” Xu Qingya shrugged. “Who would dare to easily touch Huayue International? To do so would be to openly oppose the Shen family.”
Liang Shi didn't know the background of the Shen family, but it was clear that now was not a good time to ask.
She quickly suppressed her curiosity and said, "Go find your sister first."
//
Xu Qingya tried calling Xu Qingzhu several times from the car, but the phone was always switched off.
Thinking of Bai Weiwei, Liang Shi searched for Zhao Xuning's contact information in her address book. Fortunately, she had been quick-witted and found Zhao Xuning's mobile phone number in the hospital's information column, thinking that she could contact him if there was an emergency in the future.
And now we've actually run into one.
She dialed Zhao Xuning's number, but he seemed to be asleep and sounded slightly impatient, "Who is it?"
Liang Shi said gently, "I am Liang Shi."
Zhao Xuning paused, slightly suppressing his impatience, but his tone was still far from pleasant, "What are you looking for me so late?"
"I'm sorry," Liang Shi apologized first.
Zhao Xuning was straightforward: "Get to the point if you have something to say, otherwise I'm hanging up."
“Yes,” Liang Shi said. “Bai Weiwei is at Huayue International right now.”
"Just her?" Zhao Xuning said, "She goes there often."
“They were playing games with someone,” Liang Shi explained. “I don’t know why, but they also invited Xu Qingzhu over. Someone just sent me a photo; they’re both drunk.”
"Damn it," Zhao Xuning cursed under his breath, "These bastards are inhuman."
"Huh?" Liang Shi had just turned the corner, and Zhao Xuning's voice was too soft for her to hear, so she asked, "What did you say?"
Zhao Xuning said impatiently, "It's nothing."
There was a rustling sound coming from the other end of the phone; it must be someone changing clothes.
"Which private room number exactly?" Zhao Xuning said, "I'm closer to Huayue International from here, let's go there first."
"..."
Liang Shi was taken aback and said rather awkwardly, "I didn't ask."
Zhao Xuning: "...?"
On the other end of the phone, Liang Shi could already imagine how Zhao Xuning was going to curse her—"You call me without even knowing the room number?"
Liang Shi coughed softly, "I'll call and ask now."
He hung up the phone and dialed the number he had just been calling.
But that number is no longer being answered.
At the same time, Zhao Xuning sent a text message: "Show me the photo."
Liang Shi asked Xu Qingya to forward the photos to her.
After Xu Qingya sent the photo, she zoomed in on it and recognized it almost simultaneously with Zhao Xuning: "This is 7588."
Zhao Xuning's text message also arrived, and she guessed it was 7588.
Liang Shi was surprised. How could he recognize him?
"How did you recognize him?" Liang Shi asked.
Xu Qingya turned off her phone screen and put it back in the storage box. "Each private room at Huayue International has some iconic items or buildings. For example, the numbers one through twelve are based on the Chinese zodiac, and each private room is decorated according to the zodiac theme, with some elements related to the zodiac. The numbers after that are random. The symbol for 7588 is a deer. There is a deer on the table in the photo, the light and shadow projected on the wall are also deer, and there is also a deer ornament in the lower right corner."
"Okay." Liang Shi didn't expect there to be so many interpretations even for a private room.
Even though she wasn't exactly unsophisticated, she was still taken aback.