The temperature that afternoon was about twenty degrees Celsius. The people on the street were either wearing short-sleeved shirts or thin t-shirts, but that person stood out like a sore thumb in his all-black get-up complete with a wool cap and mask. Song Qingchun continued shopping, trying her best to pretend not to have noticed the weird individual.
However, as she waltzed in and out the shops, she would glance at the many reflective windows and mirrors to pay attention to that person.
At 3 pm, Song Qingchun found a café on the fourth floor to rest and have a glass of warm milk. She sat at the table, flipping through the magazine for about twenty minutes when her phone rang. She glanced at the display before deleting the message in her inbox. Then, she called for the waiter for the bill, stood up, and left for the elevator.
Song Qingchun stepped into the elevator, and as the door slowly closed, she caught another glimpse of the mystery man in black. When the elevator reached the underground parking lot, Song Qingchun headed for her car directly. When she reached her car, she realized that the four tyres had been slashed.
Song Qingchun called the towing company before returning upstairs to the ground floor. Song Qingchun stood at the entrance to flag down a taxi. In less than half a minute, a taxi arrived.
Song Qingchun glanced at the person in the driver’s seat through the window before pulling the backdoor open to climb in. She gave the driver the Song family’s address. The driver didn’t answer. After Song Qingchun put on her seatbelt, he started the car.
Song Qingchun pulled out her phone, and as she lowered her head to look at the screen, she noticed the black outfit, cap, and mask that were hidden under the seat. Song Qingchun didn’t allow her gaze to linger. She closed her eyes, pretending to sleep.
Song Qingchun was quite a good actress because the driver thought she was so dim that he even turned around to pull her phone out from her fingers when the car stopped at a red light. However, she didn’t open her eyes. It was about half an hour later that she yawned lazily and rubbed her blurry eyes.
She pretended to be shocked as she looked out the window. The car had left Beijing city and was heading towards the highway. She asked curiously, “Where are we?”
Then, she sat up straighter and patted the driver’s seat on its back to pretend to kindly remind the taxi driver, “Sir, you got the wrong road…”
The taxi driver continued to step on the gas pedal as if she hadn’t said a word.
There was a partition between the backseat and the front seat, so Song Qingchun couldn’t have reached the driver even if she wanted to. Desperate, she turned towards the doors, but she realized they were locked. She pretended to panic as she demanded angrily where the driver was taking her as she started to look for her phone, telling the driver that she was going to call the police.
Knowing she wouldn’t find her phone, Song Qingchun started to plead and beg the driver.
Her pleas fell on deaf ear as the driver stared straight ahead while the car continued to zoom forward to an unknown destination.