Thriller Night Talk

Chapter 22: Was there anyone other than Miss Yan Shuangshuang?

Translator-Rhapsodite

Editor-simpforlife, Proofreader-Ghostie

The one who had called out to Bei Quan and Wei Fuyuan was Lisa Media’s prop master.

He had, in fact, been eavesdropping on the pair’s discussion with the girls. He had even attempted to interrupt them numerous times but had been unsuccessful. He decided it’d be easier to wait until the girls busied themselves with their own affairs before summoning the courage to approach them.

It was not convenient to talk at the shooting scene, so Bei Quan invited the prop master to a western restaurant near the villa after work. He wanted to buy him dinner, so that they’d have a chance to comfortably talk about ‘Yan Shuangshuang.’

The prop master’s surname was Xie. He was in his early thirties. When Bei Quan inquired, he found that he also had a beloved wife and children. Given that fact, it was given that he should not think about another woman at all, and yet, all Mr. Xie wanted to talk about was ‘Yan Shuangshuang.’ It was as though he didn’t care about his family at all.

“I don’t know what’s going on. The company simply doesn’t acknowledge the existence of ‘Yan Shuangshuang’!”

The prop master only wished to talk to someone. After sitting down, he didn’t even glance at the menu. As long as he had a glass of water, he couldn’t stop himself from talking about ‘Yan Shuangshuang’ with Bei Quan and Wei Fuyuan.

“She is clearly an employee in our company!”

Bei Quan, “Oh? Why are you so sure?”

“Of course, I’m sure!”

The prop master increased the volume of his voice, “I’ve seen ‘Yan Shuangshuang’ more than once!”

Green veins bulged out on the back of his hands as he tightened them into fists on the table.

“We talked! Shuangshuang even smiled at me! I know very well that it was not an illusion. How can such a lovely girl be my illusion?!”

Bei Quan and Wei Fuyuan looked at each other.

The prop master didn’t seem to realize it, but when he mentioned ‘Yan Shuangshuang,’ he became unnervingly excited.

But, neither Bei Quan nor Wei Fuyuan had any intention to enlighten him.

“Can you tell me about your first encounter with ‘Yan Shuangshuang’?” Bei Quan smiled, “and what you two talked about?”

“The first time we met was about a month ago. A colleague had come over to the photography department with Shuangshuang to collect the washed samples. We coincidentally bumped into each other in the corridor, and the other party took the initiative to introduce Shuangshuang to me…”

The prop master answered quickly, concentrating on recalling the scene in his mind.

“She was wearing a slim beige suit that day, with a ponytail, and a matching colored hair tie.”

“She greeted me with a smile and called me ‘Brother Xie.’ Her voice was very sweet, and she was very polite… She also seemed to be a little shy when she smiled. She looked down when she looked at me. She felt so pure…”

“I… I think she is the cutest girl I have ever seen…”

“Wait.”

Bei Quan’s hand interrupted the prop master’s rambling.

“You said a colleague introduced Miss Yan to you?” He squinted. “Who was this colleague?”

“Ah?”

The prop master was jarred.

“Just…a female colleague.”

He hesitated for two or three seconds before he replied with uncertainty, “Anyway, it was probably a colleague from our company.”

In fact, the prop master, surnamed Xie, had been a little vague about the scene that day.

Aside from ‘Yan Shuangshuang’s’ smile, which had clearly been branded in his memory, he couldn’t remember anything else that he had been doing at that time– not even the colleague who was next to him.

To the prop master, ‘Yan Shuangshuang’ seemed to be a streak of bright red color on a black and white painting.

From the moment she appeared in front of him, it was as if the warm sun began shining brightly on his busy and gloomy life. After just one glance, he had found himself fixated on her smile and couldn’t help but become deeply obsessed with it.

Bei Quan supported his chin on one palm and asked with a smile, “What did you talk about with Miss Yan that day?”

“Nothing.” The prop master shook his head, “She just said hello and left. I didn’t have a chance to say anything more to her.”

Bei Quan nodded, “What about after that?”

“I saw Shuangshuang again; it was probably about two weeks ago.” The prop master replied, “But we were separated by a corridor and couldn’t speak. But when she saw me, she smiled, and nodded at me!”

The prop master unconsciously turned his head and looked at the crowded street outside the window. His eyes were glazed over. It was obvious that he was reminiscing about that day’s events.

“Shuangshuang is a gentle girl… I don’t know why the company denies her existence, or where she is now…”

“I’m worried that something has happened to her… Did she resign? Or is she being hidden by someone??”

“If only I could see her again…”

Wei Fuyuan frowned.

He had the impression that the man sitting across from him, this man surnamed Xie, was an extra-terrestrial guest on planet Earth whose brain circuits could not be understood by the rational human population.

What kind of stupid man with a family becomes so obsessed with a woman who he has only seen twice and spoken with once?

——Even if ‘Yan Shuangshuang’ was as beautiful as an immortal, it would be absurd for all men to fall in love at first glance!

Mr. Wei had met some of the most gorgeous actresses in the entertainment industry today, and he was sure that even they didn’t have such bewitching magical prowess.

Beside him, Bei Quan asked, “When you saw Miss Yan the second time, was there anyone next to her?”

The prop master was stunned again.

He stared at Bei Quan vacantly, his expression seemingly blank.

“I don’t remember…” He thought for a while and replied, “At that time, I only looked at Shuangshuang and didn’t care about the others around me. Why are you asking this?”

“No reason.”

Bei Quan said, “I just thought that if more people can prove that Miss Yan is an employee of your company, the police might pay more attention and help find her whereabouts as soon as possible.”

Then he smiled, “After all, Mr. Xie, you are worried about her safety, aren’t you?”

“That’s right!”

A look of realization suddenly crossed his face as he arched his eyebrows in an effort to remember.

“Yes, she was indeed next to other people ……the person should be a woman!”

He thought hard for a while and shook his head frustratedly, “But I really can’t remember who that lady was…”

————————–

Bei Quan and Wei Fuyuan returned to the Sāntúchuān. As soon as they entered the door, they were hit with a charred aroma.

“Oh, how fragrant! You must be cooking delicious food!”

Bei Quan cheered as he threw his suitcase and black umbrella on a nearby chair and went straight to the kitchen.

Wei Fuyuan followed. As soon as he entered the kitchen, he saw a scene that almost stopped his heart.

He saw Tian Jia Xin standing on a bench with a gigantic pan in front of him, spitting out blazing flames with smoke billowing around and oil splashing everywhere with a sharp ‘crackling’ sound. A pungent burning scent wafted in the air.

Tian Jia Xin leaned over to poke around, his chubby little hand clutching a large bamboo basket. With his other hand, he picked up palm-sized milky white blocks from the basket and carefully placed them one by one into the oil pan.

The petite baby was just around 90 cm and the hot oil pan was enormous. Wei Fuyuan was terrified that if Tian Jia Xin’s feet grew shaky, he would slip and fall onto the hot pan and be fried to death!

The image was so psychologically disturbing that Young Master Wei didn’t have time to process it. He rushed over, took Tian Jia Xin off the bench, spun half a circle and swiftly placed the infant on the ground.

“Bei Quan, do you have any shame left!?”

Wei Fuyuan didn’t even bother to call him ‘boss,’ he turned his head and opened his mouth to scold Bei Quan, “Allowing such a young boy to go into the kitchen and cook by himself!!”

“Do you know how dangerous the situation was right now? If he didn’t have a firm foothold, he would have fallen straight into the pot, you know! What would you have done if he got burnt!?”

He whipped his head around and shouted at Tian Jia Xin, “How old are you? Ah, if you want to eat, simply ask the adults around to cook it for you!”

“Oh…”

Tian Jia Xin didn’t refute and pursed his lips. He raised his hand to point at the oil pan and said grievously, “The three delicacies I fried are going to get burned.”

Wei Fuyuan was taken aback, then yelled ‘Fuck’ again. Without saying a word, he picked up the spoon and salvaged the wreck on the oil pan. It was worthwhile to rescue a few pieces with slightly scorched edges.

“You were going to fry everything in this basket, right?”

He took the bamboo basket from Tian Jia Xin’s hand, rolled up his sleeves, stood in front of the oil pan and began to work according to the baby’s command.

This was actually the very first time that Young Master Wei cooked himself.

To be honest, simply frying a few snacks was a lot more difficult than he had anticipated.

Every time Wei Fuyuan put the dough in, the scorching hot oil would sizzle and jump up to splash at his hands. Although it did not cause any serious burns, it was still very painful.

And, he wasn’t sure if the stove in this kitchen was too old, or if the stuff used for the food was of poor quality. Chalk-like white smoke spread around the pot. It smelled nice, but the smoke made his eyes sting.

After frying a quarter portion, Young Master Wei wanted to quit, but when he turned around and saw Tian Jia Xin raising his pint-sized hand in a wave, he had no choice but to grit his teeth and endure it again.

——The work that a three-year-old tiny child could do, how could I, a grown adult man, give up on it?!

Twenty minutes later, when Wei Fuyuan brought over a large plate full of fried food to the table, Bei Quan had already served the rice and was eagerly waiting.

Young Master Wei stared at Bei Quan and clenched his teeth silently.

He berated in his heart, “Hmph, this young boss with healthy hands and feet would even let a kid to cook and sit here and do nothing by himself. How shameless!”

Facts had proved that Bei Quan not only didn’t feel guilty at all but even ate the food quite gleefully.

Tian Jia Xin’s dough was filled with mushroom, eggplant, and pumpkin pieces. They were marinated and seasoned first, then wrapped up in egg batter and fried to make them crispy. The only thing remaining to do was dipping it in some sauce and taking a bite. The outside was slightly scorched but the inside was soft. It was delicious.

Wei Fuyuan was accustomed to consuming delectable appetizers, but he typically had no qualms with any food as long as he could fill his stomach. He could dine at a high-end restaurant or gobble some snacks at the school cafeteria.

He didn’t know if it was because he had fried the snacks himself, but Young Master Wei thought the plainly fried three delicacies were truly scrumptious.

With the mindset of ??not allowing himself to suffer in vain, he sat across from Bei Quan, swept up a large plate of fried food, and ate three full bowls of white rice.

When he put down his chopsticks, Wei Fuyuan realized that he had overeaten. He stretched out on a chair and felt uncomfortably full when he moved.

“Full.”

Bei Quan piled the empty dishes into the kitchen sink and made his way inside the study. When he came out, he had an extra folder in his hand. He smiled and said to Young Master Wei, who was in an incapacitated state due to overeating.

“Now that we are full, let’s sort out the current clues regarding Yan Shuangshuang’s case.”

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