Captured By The Cold Detective (BL)-Chapter 188: Room 606

"Hmm?" Tak Jung-Hwa blurted out the first question that came to mind. "As handsome as me?"

Little Guo rolled his eyes with an utterly fed up look. "More handsome than you. He..." he lowered his lashes to mask the swirling emotions in his eyes. "He also likes to smile and laugh... just like you."

Tak Jung-Hwa keenly sensed that the young man’s mood had suddenly become melancholic. He thought that Little Guo was recalling his deceased brother. No wonder he was sad, he must have missed his brother so much. Poor little guy...

Tak Jung-Hwa could only pat his head and comforted him with a gentle smile, "You love him a lot, huh?"

Alas, who could have guessed that Little Guo’s expression would harden as soon as he heard that? He looked even colder than the time when Tak Jung-Hwa broached the topic about his deceased brother. Before Tak Jung-Hwa could even react, the little guy slapped his hand away, pushed him out of the temple and emphasized harshly, "I hate him down to the bones!" Then he slammed the door right on Tak Jung-Hwa’s face, almost breaking his perfect nose.

Tak Jung-Hwa: "..." Why are teenagers so sensitive nowadays?

Alright, he was wrong. So Little Guo was not talking about his deceased brother. But if it was not him, then who? Also, his expression did not look like he hated that person...

Tak Jung-Hwa shook his head and shelved the doubt to the back of his mind. Turning to the other officers, he gave a succinct summary of what he had talked about with Little Guo. However, he did not mention anything about Marius Morningstar at all. He reasoned that it was because he had agreed with the little guy not to involve his deceased brother, and he was a man of his words.

After all, he had only been here for a while and he was not a permanent member of the team. The relationship between him and the other officers could only be considered cordial at most. It was not like he did not trust them, but he would like to keep some matters only to himself for fear that there would be an information leak.

He had read the file for 510 murder case and agreed that there were some dubious points, especially the person who had delivered the box of crucial evidence to the police station in time of need. He would really like to trust that there was no traitor in the police station, but it would not hurt to be more careful.

In return, the officers also relayed what they had found in the temple. They merely spoke one or two sentences about the memorial tablet and did not think too much about it. Aside from that, there was nothing suspicious.

"Alright, let’s check out that apartment first, shall we?" Tak Jung-Hwa inquired.

The men nodded in approval. Thus, they set out toward the location Little Guo had told them. It was not far from Mingguang Temple, only seven to eight minutes walk at most. That’s why Little Guo could pass through it when he was strolling around in the middle of the night.

Old apartments were a common sight in Jiangnan Road, and the building in front of them was one of the better ones. At least, the condition was not bad and the hallway was not so narrow that they had to hunch their shoulders to pass.

The landlord was cracking melon seeds while watching a comedy show on TV when five police officers suddenly showed up in front of him. He was so shocked that he almost overturned the entire bowl of melon seeds. Scampering out of his office, he stammered with a pale, frightened face. "P–Police? W–W–What are you doing here? No, I... I am running an honest business here! Even though sometimes I charge one or two hundred yuan higher, it’s all because the electricity fee has been rising lately! I–It’s not a crime!"

The corner of Tak Jung-Hwa’s lips twitched. He gestured for one of the officers who stepped forward and showed Cui Yan’s photograph. "Have you seen this person before?"

"Ah, yes, yes, it’s Master Cui! He rented a room here!"

"How long has he been living here?"

The landlord tried to think hard under great pressure. His oily head was soaked in sweat. "It should be... around five years ago? He only returns once or twice a week though... Oh! But he always pays the rent on time, so I don’t need to bother him at all..."

Without waiting for the officers to interrogate him, he immediately spilled everything he knew. "Ah, that’s right! A few days ago, he came looking for me in the middle of the night! He said that he needed to make a long trip this time, maybe more than a month. He asked me not to cut the electricity and water in his room and hand me a few months’ payment in advance. Now that I think about it, he was indeed a little strange at that time."

"So... he has already left?" Another officer asked.

The landlord nodded like chicken pecking rice. "As soon as he made the payment, he left right away! I don’t know where he went. Really!" He raised three fingers to the sky. "I can make a vow if you don’t believe me. If I lie, may I be—"

"Alright, alright," the officer cut him off impatiently. "So you still have his contact information and ID, right? Hand it over to us."

While the landlord went to flip through his record book, Tak Jung-Hwa was lost in thought as he stared at the various advertisements stuck on the wall. The landlord’s statement matched with Little Guo’s. The time when Cui Yan came back to this apartment should also be the time when the youth took an aimless stroll outside. So the fact that Cui Yan was in a hurry could be confirmed.

But what was he in a hurry for?

He even dumped a few months’ rent money and especially asked the landlord not to cut off his water and electricity... was it because he feared that his room would be rented out or... was there another reason behind it?

"H–Here is his contact information...!" The landlord’s voice snapped him out of his thoughts. The officer took it, snapped a photo and sent it to the technician so that they could track Cui Yan’s whereabouts. As he was watching the five tall and robust officers in front of him, the landlord could not contain his curiosity. "May I ask... what kind of crime has Master Cui committed? Did he finally get caught red-handed in his scam?!" He slapped the table with a righteous look. "I have always felt like something is off with him! How can someone like him become a feng shui master?!"

"Someone like him?" Tak Jung-Hwa repeated, intrigued. "Like what?"

"Like..." the landlord leaned forward to whisper to him. "You have no idea ah, this Master Cui chose his client based on their wealth and appearance. If they’re filthy rich, then he will choose them. If they’re a beautiful woman..." he gnashed his teeth angrily. "He will definitely choose them! Did he think I am not counting how many times he has brought a woman here?! It’s only because he did it in the middle of the night that nobody noticed his true colors! And guess what? The woman is always different each time!"

Tak Jung-Hwa: "..." What was with this sour tone?

Alright, it seemed like Cui Yan had not changed much. On the front, he was a respectable and mysterious feng shui master, but deep down, he was still the same lecherous man he was seven years ago.

Tak Jung-Hwa nodded and told the landlord, "Grab your keys and bring us to his room."

"Ah?" The landlord blinked in surprise. "You want to search his room?"

Tak Jung-Hwa raised a brow. Then he bared his teeth in a grin, "Otherwise?"

The landlord shut his mouth and obediently went to fetch the master keys. He led Tak Jung-Hwa and the others to the elevator that creaked and screeched dangerously like a wheezing old man on the verge of breathing its last. Tak Jung-Hwa had never ridden in such an elevator before. There were a few times when he thought that it was going to snap and crash down, and the six of them were going to die in such a tragic manner.

Much to his relief, it did not happen.

The six of them safely arrived at the highest floor – sixth floor – and stopped in front of room 606. "Here it is," the landlord said in a whisper. He looked at the five officers and gulped, "A–Are you guys sure?"

"Open it!" An officer snapped impatiently. "Why are you talking so much? Or do you want me to do it instead?"

"No, no, I can. Let me do it..." he wiped the sweat on his forehead, fumbled through the ring of keys with shaky hands before grabbing onto one that was labeled with 606. He tremblingly inserted the key and twisted it.

Click.

The door was opened.