No te apoyes en la barandilla oeste para retener el claro otoño

Capítulo 14

"Is the lady upstairs surnamed Zhou?" Jian Dongping asked.

"How did you know? Her name is Zhou Lili, she sings at that nightclub over there," the waitress said.

Finally found it! 254 Jinsheng Road, so this is it. Zhou Jin, got you!

Is she there?

"She's not here. She went out. Do you know her?" The waiter looked him up and down suspiciously.

"She gave me a room key. I want to go to her room. Which way do I go?" Jian Dongping felt there was no need to explain too much to the waitress. He couldn't wait to see Zhou Jin's room.

The waitress didn't seem to care. She looked at him indifferently and pointed to a door not far behind her: "Go up the stairs at the back."

"By the way, is your boss here?"

"He'll be here soon," the waitress replied, then suddenly asked, "Are you really Zhou Lili's friend?"

"yes."

"That's strange, she said no one knows she lives here."

“I’m the only friend who knows her address. We’re good friends.” Jian Dongping smiled slightly.

Lifting a greasy white curtain, Jian Dongping climbed the narrow, steep stairs of the dark corridor until a small door came into view. He wasn't sure if the key would actually open it, but he decided to give it a try.

With a mix of trepidation and excitement, he took out his key, but to his surprise, things went surprisingly smoothly. As soon as the greasy key was inserted into the lock, the door clicked open.

He opened the door, and Zhou Jin's residence was suddenly revealed before him.

The room was about 10 square meters, slightly messy. A few plastic ropes and scraps of paper were scattered on the floor. Two towels, dried to the bone, lay on the bed. A red cheongsam sat on the back of a chair. A stack of newspapers was piled haphazardly on the desk. A glass of water was half-empty, with dried rose petals at the bottom. The furniture was very simple: a small single bed, an old desk, a washbasin, and a worn-out wardrobe.

Jian Dongping opened the wardrobe; it was almost empty except for a gray miniskirt hanging there, with a large burn hole in it, clearly discarded. He then opened three drawers in the desk; the two smaller drawers were empty, while the large middle drawer contained a large file folder. Jian Dongping opened the folder and found a thick stack of color photographs inside. He quickly scanned all the photos, like dealing cards, and discovered that none of them showed Zhou Jin. This meant that these were likely taken by Zhou Jin.

The photos contained a variety of subjects: half-body portraits of men and women of various ages, hotel signs, and scenes of people drinking and eating at snack shops. Jian Dongping initially thought they were just random snapshots without a theme, but he soon discovered that each photo had a caption on the back. Some were just two or three words, others several lines. For example, a young girl leaning against a stone pillar, intently eating a pastry, was captioned "Dandan is keeping watch." A man drinking in a tavern was captioned "Old turtle drinking." Another photo of a small street scene was captioned "Rain, the street is wet. Leaving today, taking photos as a memento. Three days of searching resulted in disappointment." Jian Dongping felt that these seemingly unrelated photos, coupled with their captions, seemed to come alive, becoming a mirror reflecting Zhou Jin's life over the past few years. He decided to take the photos home and study them carefully.

After looking at the photos, he glanced at the pile of newspapers on the desk. They were all from another well-known local newspaper, *Tomorrow Evening News*. Since most entertainment newspapers these days, like *The Letter* Weekly, have advertisements and color pages, each issue is a thick stack. So, although it looked like a large pile, there were actually only four newspapers. Moreover, Jian Dongping carefully checked the dates and found that they were all consecutive, all from April. He wondered why Zhou Jin had deliberately placed these four newspapers on her desk. Then, he noticed a small pair of scissors tucked inside the newspapers. Was she planning to make clippings?

Which part of the *Tomorrow's Daily* would she be interested in? He immediately sat down and started flipping through the pages. He didn't know Zhou Jin very well and had no idea which part she would cut out of the newspaper. But, on which page had the scissors slipped out? He tried to recall, and found the page from which the scissors had fallen out. It turned out to be the serialized novel section. To his surprise, it was serializing Shen Biyun's autobiography, *Lady's House*, and the serialization had reached number 34. Was she planning to make a clipping of Shen Biyun's autobiography? He was about to draw a conclusion when he hesitated. He discovered that below *Lady's House* was Zhou Jin's own online novel, *My Absurd Journey*, and the serialization was exactly number 4. That meant it was issue 4. It seemed he would have to find Tony, the fake foreigner at *Tomorrow's Daily*.

He made a phone call to Tony.

"Hello, buddy." Tony answered the phone quickly, and his speech was always a mix of Chinese and English.

Do you know the editor of your serialized novel?

"Of course I know her. She's sitting diagonally across from me. May I help you?"

"I want the manuscript of 'My Absurd Journey,' do you have a way?"

Why?

"I find it very interesting and would like to read the full article. It would be best if you could introduce me to the editor; I have some questions I'd like to ask her."

“No problem, she’s a nice person. Her name is Nancy. Just say she sounds like she’s 18, and you’ll be all set.”

"So how old is she actually?"

“38. But she still considers herself a little girl. It’s okay, I’ll say hello to her. Don’t hang up.” Tony’s voice disappeared, and after a while, a high-pitched, shrill soprano voice came from the other end of the phone.

"Hi, is this James from *The Letter* Weekly?" James is Jian Dongping's English name, and he's rarely called that. The people at the weekly magazine always call him by his Chinese name, Dongping. Strangely enough, the woman closest to him calls him by his first name all the time, while complete strangers address him so affectionately.

"I'm James, Nancy. Hello."

"Tony said you wanted to talk to me about your serialized novel, 'My Absurd Journey'? What's going on?"

“I stumbled upon this serial today, and coincidentally, the author shares the same name as one of my columnists, Nancy. I’d like to know if they are the same person. Is your Zhou Jin a young woman?” Jian Dongping asked politely.

"Oh, yes, she's very young, but her demeanor is just average. She doesn't seem like someone from the city; she even looks a bit worldly. Of course, looks aren't important. What's most important is that her writing is very inspired. Actually, I've only met her once."

Is she particularly good with numbers?

“Right! Speaking of which,” Nancy chuckled, “she’s such a weirdo. The first time we met, I saw her staring at my teacup, and I thought there was something dirty in it. But then she started counting the tea leaves in my cup. She said there were 29 leaves in total. After she left, I counted them myself, and sure enough, there were 29 leaves.”

"That's her," Jian Dongping said with a smile. "Besides tea, what else has she mentioned?"

"For example?"

"For example, Shen Biyun's autobiography, 'The House of Ladies'."

"She mentioned it before, but she asked me about it later when we were chatting online. She asked me if the book had been published elsewhere."

"Was it published at the time?" Jian Dongping asked.

“It’s been published; it was published at the end of last year. I told her that, and she seems to be planning to buy a copy.”

"So how did you get in touch with her?"

“A friend saw her novel online and recommended it to me, saying it was well-written and that her novel seemed to be quite popular when it was serialized online. After reading it, I also thought it was good, so I left her a message, and she replied to me very quickly.”

When was that?

"It was in early March this year."

"Being noticed by the Tomorrow Daily is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for her. She must have given you the finished manuscript, right?"

"It's a completed draft; she finished writing it when it was serialized online. She said she needed to revise the last part, but lately, for some reason, I haven't been able to contact her. Are you able to get in touch with her?"

"I can't find her either, and I was going to ask you."

“Oh, people these days are so irresponsible,” Nancy complained.

Could you send me a copy of the finished manuscript?

“Sure,” Nancy readily agreed.

"Thank you, Nancy. Please send it to my email address. Tony knows my email address. It's nice to meet you," Jian Dongping said politely. "Oh, right, I forgot to mention, Nancy, your voice sounds like my 15-year-old cousin."

“James, thank you for your flattery,” Nancy chuckled, “but you seem too calculating; it doesn’t sound very sincere.” Nancy wasn’t a fool.

"Nancy, I just want to say that your voice is very beautiful, really." Jian Dongping tried his best to express his sincerity.

"Okay, James, I'll send it to your email. If you want to thank me, send me a bouquet of red roses."

“No problem,” Jian Dongping immediately agreed.

The restaurant owner was a burly, middle-aged man with sleepy eyes. He picked his teeth with a toothpick while lazily sizing up Jian Dongping, who was sitting opposite him.

"Are you Lili's friend?" he asked in a gruff voice, his mouth crooked.

"right."

What kind of friend?

“We’re such good friends, otherwise she wouldn’t have given me her room key,” Jian Dongping said calmly, looking at the restaurant owner. “I came here today specifically because I haven’t seen her in a long time. But she’s not here.”

"She went out." The boss sniffed and spat a large amount of phlegm onto the ground with a "plop."

Jian Dongping, a germaphobe, couldn't help but frown at the sight. From a young age, he had loathed people who spit on the street, and he had always hoped the country would enact laws to arrest and send all those who spit to labor camps. Unfortunately, the country seemed never to care about such issues.

"Her parents urgently need to see her. Do you know any way to find her?" Jian Dong asked with a flat face and a stiff tone. In his view, the boss who spat on the ground was a living sewer.

The boss cleared his throat.

"Damn it! She rents my place, I only care about collecting the money, why should I care where she goes? Besides, aren't all these women traveling all over the world? Who knows where she went?"

“But you and she seem to have a pretty good relationship, otherwise why would she name your… um… restaurant? ‘Dish and Rice 254,’ right?” Jian Dongping added, “Lili told me herself.”

"Tch! Asking her to name the shop means you're close to her?" The owner chuckled dryly, then changed to a more candid tone, "Of course, I'm a man too. Sometimes when a woman acts cute, it's hard not to get a little carried away. She said it sounded nice and that she liked it, so I just listened to her. Anyway, it's not that different."

Zhou Jin was indeed very good at acting coquettishly, which left a deep impression on Jian Dongping.

"So, how did she find your place? I don't see you even have any rental ads posted here." Jian Dongping's tone softened slightly, as he tried to ignore the phlegm on the floor and the grease on the table.

"It was through an acquaintance. Before her, there was a girl from Sichuan who stayed here. She also worked at a nearby nightclub, but later went back to her hometown. Lili was introduced by her." The boss lit a red double happiness eye cigarette for himself. "Those who stay here generally don't want people to know that they live here."

"Why?" Jian Dongping was quite puzzled by this.

"The reason is twofold. First, it's cheap here, only 300 yuan a month. Those girls love to brag about knowing rich men, so they don't want people to know they live in this shabby place. The other reason is that some of them are dating the gigolos at the nightclubs, and they're afraid they'll end up with someone else. They borrow this place upstairs, which offers a view of the nightclub's entrance and the corridor leading to the private rooms on the second floor," the restaurant owner chuckled. Jian Dongping guessed that before the place was rented out, he often spied on the lovers at the nightclub from there.

"Why did Lili rent your house?" Jian Dongping asked.

"She said she wanted to find a quiet place to live." The boss seemed to find this statement rather amusing.

Is the small room upstairs from the restaurant considered a quiet place to live? It's hard to say.

"Perhaps she also enjoys peeking at others," Jian Dongping asked tentatively with a knowing smile.

"She likes taking photos. She sits by the window, snapping away. I've seen her many times," the shop owner said.

What does she film?

"I don't know, it's all just random stuff. Once, she sent me a picture of a man walking out of a nightclub and said to me, 'Boss, you always say you can judge people, do you think this person is a good person or a bad person?'"

"What kind of man is he?" Jian Dongping asked.

Could it be Su Zhiwen? He immediately took out his PDA from his bag and quickly found a photo of Su Zhiwen and Shen Biyun in the photo storage. He had retrieved it from the weekly magazine's photo database the day before.

"The photo was taken from a distance, but the man's face is still clear. He looks refined and handsome, but you can tell at a glance he's not a good person. Hehe, I've seen plenty of men like that. They may have a way with women, but they're definitely not good people." The shopkeeper said with relish, "Lili yelled at the street to get a clear picture of the man's face. The man turned his head, and she snapped a picture."

"Is this the person you're looking for?" Jian Dongping pushed his handheld computer in front of his boss.

"Hmph, this guy." The restaurant owner sneered.

"You've only been with him once, how can you be so sure?"

“Who said I only passed by him once? I remember his face very well. He used to hang around this area a lot for a while, but I haven’t seen him for almost a year.” The boss tilted his head and thought for a moment. “Yes, it’s been a year. I haven’t seen him in a long time.”

When did Lili take his picture?

“Last year, around March or April, or not long after she arrived. She came in January, around that time, but I can’t remember exactly.”

"When was the last time you saw Lili?" Jian Dongping asked further.

The restaurant owner thought about it.

"It was probably around 1 or 2 p.m. on May 7th this year, the last day of the long holiday."

What was she doing when you saw her?

"Hey, she borrowed an old suit from me, and she had a mustache stuck to her face. Damn, she looked like a monster! She was waving around in front of me." The boss stretched his mouth into a long line, with an expression of both disgust and fear.

It turned out that the oversized suit was lent to her by the restaurant owner.

"Did she tell you where she was going? Why was she dressed like that?" Jian Dongping asked.

"She said she had an appointment with some people to play a fun game." The shopkeeper flicked his cigarette ash onto the ground. "I also asked her why she was dressed so strangely, and she said she didn't want anyone to recognize her. Damn, I thought, wouldn't people who know her recognize her right away?"

This means she's going to meet someone she doesn't know, or at least someone who has never seen her before. Who is she going to meet?