The two of them bickered for quite a while.

Li Mengmeng said he had left, while the other party insisted he hadn't. Eventually, Li Mengmeng couldn't take it anymore and muted her phone.

She buried herself under the covers and slept.

Completely exhausted.

She slept until around 10 AM the next morning. When she finally checked her phone again,

there were dozens of messages, all from the middle-aged man's wife.

Li Mengmeng was utterly speechless.

The man had gone back yesterday - he wasn't even at her place.

"Maybe he has another new lover. After leaving me, he went to her place."

Li Mengmeng thought to herself, ignoring all the messages as she prepared to go back to sleep.

But less than thirty minutes later,

there was knocking at her door.

"Open up! This is the police!"

The voice from outside startled Li Mengmeng.

"The police?"

She couldn't believe her ears. Why would the police come to her place?

Flustered, she threw on her pajamas and went to open the door.

There stood five people.

Two police officers led the group, followed by

a young couple and a middle-aged woman.

Li Mengmeng recognized the middle-aged woman - she was the wife from last night.

As for the young couple...

"Huh? Aren't you the new residents from last night's welcome party?"

Li Mengmeng remembered this pair - the man was Zhou Wu, the woman Shen Xing.

"They're my son and daughter-in-law."

The middle-aged woman spoke up.

Li Mengmeng was stunned. What a coincidence!

She was living in the same apartment building as the middle-aged man's son and daughter-in-law?

No wonder she'd heard him mutter yesterday: "What's so great about this apartment? Why does everyone want to live here?"

So his son and daughter-in-law lived here too...

"Then why did you bring the police to my home? Surely having an affair with your husband isn't illegal?"

At worst, extramarital affairs were a moral issue, not a legal one.

The middle-aged woman snapped: "I don't care about your affair! I just want to know if my husband is still here!!!"

Li Mengmeng frowned: "Lady, I already told you on the phone - your husband left long ago. He's not here. Why won't you believe me?"

Middle-aged woman: "You say he's not here, but he never came home last night."

Li Mengmeng: "Maybe he's with another lover. Your husband's rich - nothing stops him from finding young pretty girls."

Middle-aged woman: "Enough talk. Let us search your place to see if he's really not here."

Li Mengmeng stepped aside: "Go ahead. I've got nothing to hide - I'm not lying."

The group searched the apartment.

It wasn't big, so they finished quickly.

Indeed, there was no sign of the middle-aged woman's husband.

"That bastard! Where did he go? He's not answering calls or messages!"

The middle-aged woman stomped her foot in frustration.

Li Mengmeng said: "Now that you've confirmed he's not here, can you leave?"

The woman glared hatefully at Li Mengmeng: "You've been with him so long, and now he's disappeared all night - aren't you worried at all?"

Li Mengmeng shrugged: "Why worry? He's a grown man."

The woman muttered: "Damn it... look at the kind of vixen you chose. Now you've suddenly disappeared and she doesn't even care. Your taste is terrible - you might as well die!"

Little did the middle-aged woman know her angry words would prove prophetic.

After seeing off the police, Zhou Wu and Shen Xing drove the middle-aged woman (Zhou Wu's mother) home.

During the ride, she kept cursing - that bastard husband of hers must be off with some other vixen.

Despite her anger, she was genuinely worried about her philandering husband.

This had never happened before -

being unable to contact him for so long.

Unlike his concerned mother,

Zhou Wu wasn't worried about his father at all.

In fact, even if something happened to his old man, he wouldn't care.

On the contrary - he'd be happy!

Why?

Because if something really did happen to his father,

he could directly inherit the family textile factory and become the boss.

He'd control everything.

Zhou Wu actually resented his father - in recent years, the old man had spent way too much money on women.

An obscene amount.

Why did it bother him?

Because he considered his father's money as his own future inheritance. So every penny his father spent now was essentially his money being wasted.

Though he wished misfortune upon his father, he knew it was unlikely.

The police had already checked the apartment's surveillance -

it showed his father driving away from the complex. Where he went afterward was unclear since the street cameras happened to be broken.

As for searching that vixen's home? That was just his mother picking a fight.

After all, the man had driven away - why would he still be there?

...

Alice Apartment 904.

Cycle 26, Day 2. Sunday.

When Xiao Q woke up that morning, he saw a bank notification on his phone - 10,000 yuan had been deposited.

This gave him pause; it took him a while to process.

Though he'd been mentally prepared, actually receiving the money felt surreal for a kid from an ordinary family.

But remembering how he and Ke Bei had nearly been killed by that chainsaw-wielding man last night sent chills down his spine.

"This money literally comes with blood on it."

He sighed.

Just then, the phone clenched in his right hand suddenly rang.

Looking at the screen - it was Xiao Peng calling.

He answered immediately.

"Xiao Peng, what's up? Just to be clear - I'm not hanging out with your friends."

"Not about hanging out. I just... Xiao Q, I need to talk face-to-face. Vent a bit. Too much has happened recently."

"Sure. Come to Alice Apartment 904 then! I'm here."

"Alice... 904? You joking?"

"No joke. You'll understand when you get here. I don't kid about stuff like this."

A long silence followed before one word came through: "Fine."

The call ended.

Half an hour later,

when Xiao Peng stepped back into the familiar Alice Apartment 904,

he found everything unchanged.

There stood Xiao Q on the balcony, surveying the view below.

Xiao Peng strode over and demanded:

"What's going on? Why are you here?"

Xiao Q flashed a mysterious smile:

"Let's not start with that."

"Xiao Peng, I've discovered an earth-shattering secret about Xiao Nuo. Want to hear it? Though... it's dangerous. You might regret knowing."

The moment Xiao Nuo was mentioned, Xiao Peng forgot all about questioning Xiao Q's presence.

"About Xiao Nuo? Tell me! Do you know where she is?"