Chapter 92: The 27th Round Begins
Manager Xiao Zhang continued: "This monitoring room is usually locked, with only one key that I keep. But since the monitoring room isn't used much, I usually leave the key on my desk in the management office. If someone really took it to secretly open the monitoring room or made a copy without my knowledge, there's nothing I could do about it."
Having gotten the answers he needed, Xiao Zhang was allowed to leave. Only Mike and his team remained.
At this moment, Zhou Yan stepped out of the monitoring room, looked around outside for a while, then came back in. She said to Mike: "Mike, I just noticed there are cameras outside the monitoring room too. Check who entered the monitoring room during the time after my father and brother disappeared."
Zhou Yan offered her suggestion, but Mike shook his head: "Won't help. Whoever edited the footage would have thought of that too - they definitely edited out their own appearances in the monitoring room footage as well."
Despite saying this, Mike still checked. As expected, nothing useful was found.
"This is indeed a tricky case, but don't worry - I've handled trickier ones before." Mike stood up and said to Zhou Yan: "Starting now, I need to stay in apartment 404 for some time to facilitate my investigation."
Zhou Yan immediately agreed: "Absolutely no problem. Let me know if you need anything else."
While Zhou Yan agreed, Shen Xing jumped in to object: "I oppose this! That's supposed to be your brother and my future marital home. How can we let someone else live there?"
Zhou Yan looked Shen Xing up and down dismissively, curling her lips: "Shen Xing, be reasonable. While it's true this apartment was meant to be your marital home with my brother, did you contribute any money to buying it?"
Shen Xing was momentarily speechless, but soon began defending herself: "Fine, he can stay there. But have you considered where I'm supposed to live if he moves in?" Zhou Yan replied: "You can stay there with Mike."
Shen Xing's face twisted with anger. Eventually, it was Zhou Yan's boyfriend Li Miguo who mediated: "How about this, Shen Xing - you go upstairs and pack your things, stay somewhere else temporarily. This is all to find Zhou Yan's brother, your fiancé. Please be understanding - surely you want to find him soon too?"
In the end, Shen Xing couldn't win against Zhou Yan. After everyone went upstairs, she packed her personal belongings and vacated apartment 404 for Mike.
Shen Xing only packed roughly, taking about two hours. After that, Mike stayed in 404 with the keys, while Shen Xing took her personal belongings and drove off in the Mercedes to find temporary accommodation.
She was quite clever about it - decent places cost money, and she wouldn't settle for anything inferior. Plus, now that she was pregnant with Zhou Wu's child, she planned to move in with Zhou Wu's mother during this period.
As for Zhou Yan, Li Miguo, and Li Miguo's classmate Jimmy, they didn't ride in the Mercedes that Shen Xing had driven them in. They seemed to have other plans, so they waited by the roadside outside the apartment for a ride-hailing car.
"Jimmy, is this detective you found reliable?" Zhou Yan asked the white boy Jimmy.
Both Jimmy and Li Miguo stood at 185cm tall, looking even taller at about 187cm with shoes on. Their handsome appearances made them quite a striking sight standing together.
"Don't worry, Mike is one of the top ten private detectives in the entire U.S. Do you know what his minimum fee is for taking a case?"
That Mike the detective could speak Chinese wasn't too surprising - after all, he wouldn't take cases here without knowing the language. But Jimmy, an American, speaking Chinese was quite unexpected for just a regular college student. According to Jimmy himself, he had great interest in China's long history and culture, so he learned the language on his own.
"How much?" Zhou Yan asked curiously.
Jimmy held up one finger.
Zhou Yan said carelessly: "$10,000 USD?"
Jimmy shook his head.
Zhou Yan exclaimed: "$100,000 USD? That's about 700,000 Chinese yuan - quite expensive indeed."
Jimmy shook his head again.
This time Zhou Yan's eyes widened: "Don't tell me - $1 million USD?!"
Jimmy finally nodded: "Exactly $1 million USD, and that's just the minimum fee. It's practically priceless - without my connection, you couldn't hire a detective of Mike's caliber even with years of advance booking!"
Zhou Yan still looked shocked. $1 million USD equaled about 7 million Chinese yuan - and that was just the minimum fee! Even as a wealthy heiress, she felt the pinch, never expecting the detective to cost so much.
"Jimmy, you said that's the minimum price - how much is he charging for our case?" Zhou Yan asked again, mainly worried Mike might demand several million dollars later - tens of millions of yuan. That would be significant even for her family.
"Relax, it's a friends-and-family discount - just $1 million USD," Jimmy said with a bright smile.
Zhou Yan exhaled in relief, easing her tension. Jimmy then said: "Alright, leave your father and brother's case to Mike. Let's the three of us go have some fun! We're here after all!"
Zhou Yan nodded: "Fine, I'll play host and show you two around!"
...
Four days passed after that day.
The "Far Neighbor" game's 27th round began broadcasting again.
Live stream room:
Middle-aged Uncle: [Wow wow wow, it's broadcasting again - the 27th round! Have you noticed how short the intervals between recent rounds have been? Just one week apart!]
Domineering Female CEO: [Yes, the intervals for these three rounds have been quite short. I remember long ago there was one round with a two-month interval - I felt completely listless during that time.]
The live stream room became lively again. On screen appeared the familiar dark studio. As in previous rounds, the long-haired female host emerged from the darkness.
This time, she wore a black cheongsam with golden patterns, exuding an air of noble mystery. With a gentle smile, she spoke in clear, pleasant tones:
"Welcome everyone to the Far Neighbor game live stream room. This is the 27th round."
"Without further ado, let's introduce this round's five lab rats."