Gao Xiaofei was picking beans, yes, you read that right. He was squatting in the kitchen, waiting for the water to boil, and in the time it took, he was sorting different beans from a bowl filled with red beans, green beans, and black beans.
This was a peculiar habit, something Gao Xiaofei usually did when he was feeling extremely distressed. Earlier that day, under the persuasion of Wang Feng, he had rushed to find Fei Keqing, intending to apologize first and then discuss other matters. However, Fei Keqing’s immediate response was “Let’s break up,” leaving him heartbroken.
Ping An’s operation tonight was in dire need of his help, but with his current dejected state, he dared not entrust him with such a crucial task. Although the parents’ argument stemmed from Ping An provoking a conflict, and he was merely an innocent victim, as a police officer and a good friend of Ping An, he clearly understood Ping An’s predicament and helplessness.
It wasn’t that he “hated” not seeing Ping An, but rather, he wouldn’t know what to say even if he did. Gao Xiaofei thought helplessly.
The water boiled, and the thermos was filled. The room was filled with steam.
Gao Xiaofei turned on the air conditioner, ready to shower and sleep. Just then, the doorbell rang.
The one knocking was naturally Su Tang, who felt she had a crucial role to play.
Gao Xiaofei opened the door, let his “dry girl” in, and without bothering to listen to her chatter about surveillance, he went into his master bedroom bathroom, leaving the living room for her to go wild in.
At 11:30 PM, Ping An, Liu Kedou, and a police officer named Xiao Qiao, came to the top floor of Unit B, Fourth Section, via the stairwell through the utility shaft.
The duplex apartment below was empty. According to Gao Da’s son, the resident of this apartment was supposed to be Liao Yuan’s father, the general manager of the wind power company. However, this general manager lived at the company most of the time and rarely returned home.
Even knowing there was no one downstairs, Ping An and the others remained quiet. He carefully set up the telescope, then walked towards Jiaozi’s home, looking at the balcony and then at Jiaozi’s brightly lit bedroom.
“If you jump from here, it’s Yang Jiao’s balcony, right? It doesn’t look that high, is it three meters?” Liu Kedou leaned over, looking at the balcony below.
“About that. Do you think someone might also know that the household below us is vacant most of the time, and that they jump from here to secretly enter Jiaozi’s bedroom?” Ping An suddenly asked.
“There’s a possibility!” Liu Kedou said. “You might not know, but these three buildings in the complex were actually only allowed to be built up to 20 stories. The duplex design is a violation, so these duplex apartments can’t be properly registered!”
“Oh, then why were they built?” Ping An asked.
“To show off!” Liu Kedou said. “Take this balcony, for instance. It’s obviously not safe and offers little effective theft prevention, but the developers were happy to build it like this!”
Ping An didn’t want to dwell on this topic and turned back to fiddle with the telescope. The night was long, and it was uncertain if anything would happen tonight. In fact, this hasty “hunting” operation was just an experiment for Ping An. He had never told anyone his suspicion—that as soon as he entered this complex, he would likely be under the gaze of a peeping Tom.
Ping An disliked the feeling of being watched, so he wanted to create a situation out of nothing, throwing a stone into the “weeds” of the wind power complex to see if a snake would emerge.
“Hey, Old Liu, why doesn’t the telescope you took from the police equipment room have infrared?” Ping An fiddled with the telescope for a long time, only to find that his professional-grade telescope was not as good as the “entry-level” technology used by the peeping Toms. At least theirs had an infrared feature.
“You’re talking about an infrared telescope, aren’t you? Those are too expensive, mostly military-grade for night vision. I think our bureau only has one, and it’s been borrowed by the provincial department,” Liu Kedou said.
“Infrared telescope? For night vision? What are you talking about? I mean an infrared pointer attached to the telescope, the kind that shows a red dot!” Ping An pointed to the building opposite.
“Oh, that infrared pointer is useless, just for show,” Liu Kedou said. “Speaking of which, I’ve always wondered why those peeping Toms, even if they peek, why they have to turn on the infrared and let the person being watched know? Are they just seeking attention?” Liu Kedou joked.
“No, Old Liu, are you saying that those peeping scoundrels can peek normally even without infrared?” Ping An asked.
“Yes, they can. Except for the lack of night vision, other functions are unaffected,” Liu Kedou said.
“Then why do they shine infrared lights around like that?” Ping An muttered to himself.
“Yeah, I’ve always wondered about that too,” Liu Kedou said.
The two looked at each other, speechless for a moment.
The situation was somewhat awkward.
Fortunately, at this moment, a sharp voice came from the walkie-talkie.
“Calling Roof, this is Below. I’ve arrived. Please give instructions!” Gao Da’s hurried voice came from the walkie-talkie.
“What time is it? Still giving yourself code names! Maintain silence!” Ping An said impatiently.
Unknowingly, it was already midnight.
A cool breeze blew in from the distant suburbs, bringing a refreshing coolness to the sweltering complex. With this coolness, the remaining residents began to turn off their lights and sleep.
Su Tang, who was leaning against the windowsill looking outside, was nodding off rhythmically. Unintentionally, her head fell heavily, hitting the telescope. The sharp pain jolted her awake, and her sleepiness vanished.
In the adjacent room, Gao Xiaofei’s snores were resounding loudly. Su Tang shook her head helplessly, thinking, “They really are ‘pig’ attributes, able to sleep no matter how upset they are.”
After leaning against the windowsill for a long time, Su Tang felt a bit thirsty and got up to find some water in the kitchen. Unfortunately, besides beer, there was only beer in the refrigerator. Being naturally averse to the smell of alcohol, she wouldn’t secretly drink a can. So, she casually picked up a plastic cup, poured some water from the thermos, and stumbled towards the living room.
Perhaps to enhance the atmosphere of the “undercover” mission, the spacious living room was dark. Only the scattered lights from outside illuminated the room.
Su Tang, holding the hot water, stumbled back to the windowsill. Just as she put down the cup, she looked up and suddenly saw a pair of human legs!
That’s right, a pair of human legs were forcefully “stepping” on the glass window outside. Before Su Tang could react, another pair of legs suddenly appeared on the glass window outside. The two legs were in a “half-squat” position, stepping on the broken bridge aluminum window. It was unclear how much force the owner of these legs exerted, but this “half-squat” caused the window to deform slightly and emit creaking sounds.
Girls in such situations would mostly scream. Even though Su Tang had a somewhat tough disposition, she couldn’t escape this common reaction. So, after being stunned for less than three seconds, she opened her mouth to scream—but in the end, she didn’t. Because a large hand came from behind her, covering her mouth tightly.
“Shh!” The one covering Su Tang’s mouth was naturally Gao Xiaofei. He was only wearing a pair of four-cornered boxer shorts, and he looked far from sleepy, his eyes wide like a leopard’s.
After signaling Su Tang to be quiet, Gao Xiaofei pulled her down to squat beneath the windowsill. Someone might ask, why didn’t they run while the person outside couldn’t observe? Because Gao Xiaofei was a police officer, and the person outside was unlikely to be a simple thief. Would a normal thief, unless crazy, climb to the 19th floor to steal? There could only be one explanation: it was related to Ping An’s mission tonight.
Su Tang and Gao Xiaofei squatted side-by-side below the window, their backs pressed against the wall. This sudden turn of events left the young girl flustered, but luckily, her “godfather” was by her side. She quietly looked up at her godfather’s face and found that he even had the leisure to pick his nose. Afterward, she disgustedly pulled her small hand out of her godfather’s large one.
Gao Xiaofei naturally didn’t feel his goddaughter’s disdain. He was completely focused at the moment, his mind racing through several capture plans—given the previous lesson of “pushing” a suspect to their death, he decided to wait for the SOB outside to come in first.
Time ticked by second by second. Su Tang felt like each second was an eternity for the first time. Through the shadow of the window cast on the floor, she watched the person outside completely press themselves against the window. At that moment, Gao Xiaofei suddenly gave her a look, signaling her to cover her head and hide. In a flash, before she could fully understand her godfather’s look, Gao Xiaofei suddenly stood up, quickly opened the window, extended his left arm, and grabbed the dark figure clinging to the window.
“Not sleeping at night, do you think you’re Spider-Man!” Gao Xiaofei’s scolding immediately rang out.
Su Tang instinctively stood up and looked out the window, finding Gao Xiaofei also pressed tightly against the window, his left hand firmly gripping the person outside.
“Come in here!” Gao Xiaofei roared, trying with all his might to pull the person outside in. However, for some reason, the person outside clung to the window as if glued, not moving an inch no matter how hard Gao Xiaofei pulled.
From Gao Xiaofei’s surprise attack to the stalemate, less than a minute had passed. As time went by, the person outside slowly recovered from the initial shock. The legs clinging to the window suddenly “stood” up with force, then pushed off, and the entire person left the window.
Seeing the person outside escape in this manner, Su Tang, who thought the intruder was surely going to fall to their death, couldn’t help but cry out. But then she noticed that the person outside was tied to a rope. In mid-air, they swung like a pendulum, swinging towards the balcony of the next unit, like a “ninja.”
Having escaped Gao Xiaofei’s control, the “ninja,” holding the rope and stepping onto the window of the adjacent balcony, suddenly exerted force, swung into the air, and then lunged towards Gao Xiaofei, who was still clinging to the window.
“Godfather, he has a knife!” Su Tang, standing inside, saw clearly that the “ninja,” who had returned, was holding a knife in his hand. And at this moment, using the momentum of the swing, he was fiercely “stabbing” towards Gao Xiaofei!
Gao Xiaofei naturally didn’t expect the opponent to swing back, let alone pull out a knife. Only when he saw the opponent charging towards him did he try to pull his arm back, but it was too late.
“Clang!” Just as Gao Xiaofei was about to be stabbed, a stool suddenly fell from the air, hitting the person outside squarely. The person was hit hard by the stool, let out a soft groan, instinctively covered their head with their hands, and then their entire body slammed against the window, and using the force, flew out again.
Gao Xiaofei, who was almost scared to pee, was unharmed.
How did a stool appear in the air? Let’s rewind ten minutes.
“In the dark, what can you see with a telescope that doesn’t have night vision?” Ping An muttered, who had been fiddling with the telescope.
“Those peeping Toms, they’re after the thrill. In the dark, they’re looking for incomplete beauty—don’t look at me like that. Back in my hometown, I caught a peeping Tom, that’s what they said!” Liu Kedou said gloomily, looking at Ping An.
Ping An was very frustrated. He discovered that Liu Kedou had a knack for killing conversations. They had only spoken a few times, and yet every sentence was a dead end.
The night was quiet, the rooftop was quiet, and Ping An’s heart was calm.
After a few awkward exchanges, he deliberately stopped paying attention to Liu Kedou’s actions and raised his telescope to look at the sky.
“Holy crap!”
Ping An casually looked up at the sky and saw a “colossal object” through the telescope.
“I didn’t expect there to be such a large drone!”
Ping An’s actions drew Liu Kedou and the others over. Although they didn’t have telescopes, they looked in the direction Ping An was pointing.
At this moment, the dark night was like a curtain, and a moving gray shadow suddenly appeared before their eyes.
As Ping An had exclaimed involuntarily, the body of this gray shadow was actually a large drone. How to describe this drone? It was a common propeller drone, with a fuselage the size of two suitcases, surrounded by four propeller blades. Below the fuselage were a pair of mechanical claws, and between the mechanical claws, a protruding spherical camera was flashing a red light.
“This thing—it’s damn big!” Liu Kedou exclaimed when he saw the actual object.
“Get down! I guess this thing hasn’t discovered us yet. Look, it’s flying towards us,” Ping An pulled Liu Kedou, signaling him to hide, and continued to stare at the approaching drone.
Upon seeing this “jumbo” drone, many of the mysteries in this series of cases suddenly had answers—Su Tang, Yang Jiao’s sighting of a “black shadow,” even the body that had fallen to its death on Yang’s balcony…
“Director Liu, we need to find a way to bring that thing down and take it away,” Ping An quietly said to Liu Kedou.
“I want to take it away too, but how? Pull it with a rope? Or should I shoot it?” Liu Kedou said.
“No rush, let’s see its objective first. I guess the person controlling this machine is likely nearby, or lives in this complex!” Ping An said.
The drone circling in the air seemed not to have discovered Ping An and his companions on the rooftop. After cautiously circling once, it slowly flew towards Yang’s balcony.
Watching the drone fly recklessly over his head, Ping An quietly took a slingshot from his waist.
“Old Liu, I’m going to hit its propeller. You and that brother jump onto Yang’s balcony and control it. Be quick. See the chair on the balcony? If necessary, beat it hard. It doesn’t matter if it’s broken. Bringing it back would be a great achievement!” Ping An said.
“Okay! I’ll give it a try. I’ve already messaged the brothers at the station to search around the complex for any suspicious individuals,” Liu Kedou loosened his collar, preparing to act.
The drone had now flown to the center of the balcony, less than two meters away, with its camera and mechanical claws facing the glass door.
Ping An took out his slingshot, aimed at one of the drone’s propellers, and was about to shoot when he noticed that the glass door of Yang’s balcony had opened automatically!
“This thing is quite high-tech!” Ping An thought in surprise, but his hands remained steady. At this moment, nothing else mattered; controlling this thing tonight would make the effort worthwhile.
“Whoosh!”
“Thwack!”
A piercing sound, followed by a sharp impact.
The two distinct sounds occurred almost simultaneously.
As expected, the shot was accurate. Ping An’s slingshot directly hit a propeller. The drone, suddenly attacked, began to fly erratically around the balcony. Liu Kedou was also swift. He jumped from the several-meter-high rooftop, rolled on the ground to stabilize himself, and with a short sprint, he grabbed the drone from below.
“Well done!” Ping An stood on the rooftop, his heart filled with joy as he saw Liu Kedou holding the drone. Liu Kedou was 1.8 meters tall and weighed at least 180 pounds. Unless you were a real aircraft, even a “jumbo” drone wouldn’t be able to overpower him.
However, even after Liu Kedou grabbed the drone, it wasn’t pulled down. Instead, it seemed to be pulling the other way in mid-air. After a brief struggle, their strengths were evenly matched.
“Xiao Qiao, come help me!” Liu Kedou, straining to pull the drone down, seemed surprised by the machine’s immense power. Gritting his teeth, he yelled to his colleague for help.
Xiao Qiao seemed to have been stunned by the behemoth. After jumping onto the balcony, he remained motionless for a while. Liu Kedou’s shout finally roused him. He hastily agreed and rushed forward, hugging Liu Kedou’s waist and pulling with all his might.
“Hold on, I’ll shoot again!” To resolve the battle quickly, Ping An raised his slingshot, preparing to fire at another propeller.
Just then, the camera under the drone’s body suddenly emitted a strong beam of light, which then aimed at Ping An standing on the rooftop.
The beam of light was unexpected. Ping An’s eyes were blinded, and he couldn’t see anything. After rubbing his eyes for a long time, his vision returned, only to find that the drone had somehow broken free from Liu Kedou’s grasp.
“Use the chair to smash it!” Ping An yelled, without time to ask why.
Liu Kedou was still holding a pair of mechanical claws, seemingly not having reacted yet. However, Xiao Qiao reacted quickly. He sprinted to the chair, lifted it, and threw it with considerable force. The power was decent, but the accuracy was… a bit off.
Ping An watched as the chair flew past the drone and fell to the ground. Vaguely, he thought he heard someone cry out in pain.
The drone, stumbling, flew out of the rooftop area but didn’t fly away immediately. It stopped in mid-air, seemingly observing something.
“Old Liu, don’t hesitate, shoot it with your gun!” Ping An seemed to feel the drone’s arrogance, no longer hiding himself, he stood on the rooftop, jumping and shouting instructions to Old Liu to fire.
As if sensing a real threat, the drone slowly flew away from the complex.
“Who is so unethical to be doing this late at night—Oh my god, Spider-Man?”
Below, from an unknown apartment, someone suddenly opened their window and started cursing, but was quickly terrified by a fleeting figure.
Back outside Gao Xiaofei’s window, the ninja, hit by the “stool from heaven,” was drifting outside the window on a rope. Seemingly injured, he no longer provoked Gao Xiaofei, and swinging on the rope, flew towards the west side of the building.
“Ping An, there’s an acrobat running back and forth in front of the building using a rope. Notify the people downstairs to grab him!” Gao Xiaofei stuck his head out and shouted upwards.
“Got it, I’ll notify Black Bean right away!” Ping An quickly made a call and then hurried to get down from the rooftop. As he was packing his telescope equipment, a red light suddenly swept across his eyes.
“Infrared!” Ping An quickly looked up, tracking the red light in the air, and finally fixed his gaze on the rooftop of Building C.
Taking out his telescope again, Ping An looked back unyieldingly.
On the rooftop of Building C in the darkness, a figure that had been crouching suddenly stood up. Perhaps seeing Ping An looking at him through the telescope, he quickly left the rooftop.
“Black Bean! Go immediately to the C building, Unit Three entrance and stop someone coming down from the rooftop. That guy has a telescope!” Ping An quickly issued a new order over the phone.
“What about the drone? And the Spider-Man on the building?” Black Bean asked on the phone, who was in hot pursuit downstairs.
“Don’t worry about them. You go block this person first!” For some reason, Ping An felt that the person peeking at him from the opposite building seemed more important.
What a lively night it was.
The drone in the air, the ninja lurking on the building, and a peeping Tom running downstairs. Ping An remained on the rooftop, feeling somewhat overwhelmed for a moment.
“Damn it, what secrets does this complex hide!” Ping An said angrily.
In the underground parking lot of Building C, two police officers on stakeout, having received instructions from Liu Kedou, were nervously observing the surroundings.
Since the operation began tonight, they had first patrolled the parking lot. Because the parking lot was too large from north to south, they each took the east and west sides, conducting a thorough search from south to north.
Places like underground parking lots are usually eerie. At first, there were still one or two residents driving home late, but later, except for the two patrolling officers, the place was deserted. The voice-activated lights, which turned off periodically, were troublesome. Later, the two simply stopped “coughing” and walked around with their flashlights.
Just as they were approaching the northern end, the police officer on the east suddenly spotted someone moving ahead.
He was about to raise his flashlight when he heard Liu Kedou’s voice from the walkie-talkie.
A friendly face! The officer shivered and shouted in the direction of the walkie-talkie: “Brother! How’s it going on your end?”
“Pretty good! Nothing much! According to the walkie-talkie, nothing’s happening upstairs either!” The other police officer slowly walked over in the darkness.
“Let’s go, we’ll search again!” Both shook their heads in frustration and returned from north to south.
Thus, they searched back and forth three times, and there was still no movement in the underground parking lot. Until, in the parking lot under Building C, a green trash can with wheels quietly slid past under their noses.
In the dimly lit underground garage passageway, the two police officers remained highly vigilant, currently shining their flashlights, carefully scanning every entrance and exit. A green trash can, without anyone pushing it, silently slid towards a door labeled “Motor Room.”
“Boss, are you sure it’s Unit Three? It’s been twenty minutes, and no one has come out! Should I go in and search?” After a while, Black Bean’s impatient voice came through Ping An’s phone. “The elevator is currently stopped in the underground parking lot. Should I go down and check?”
“No need!” Ping An suddenly thought of something. His eyes darted around. He said into the phone, “Go and help Gao Da stop that Spider-Man. I’ll go chase that peeping Tom.” Ping An came down from the rooftop, walked into the elevator, and pressed the floor for the underground parking lot.