The Watcher - Chapter 3

# Chapter 3

Surely not. Could a delicate little girl do something like that?

But what if she could?

If it was true, and I had something on Qin Yue, wouldn’t I get both her money and her body?

Brother Biao had died around eleven.

I hurried to pull up that night’s footage.

At exactly ten, Qin Yue ended her stream.

She dawdled, then picked up a pile of household trash and went out.

In this complex, getting to the trash disposal area required…

At ten fourteen, Qin Yue returned.

I checked the map.

Even by car, the place where Brother Biao had died was more than twenty minutes away. There was nowhere near enough time for a round trip.

I let the video keep playing.

It was the depths of winter and bitterly cold outside. Taking out the trash had left Qin Yue shivering.

She came back rubbing her hands and went straight to the kitchen to make tea.

At ten twenty-three, she returned to her bedroom to play on her phone.

Just like always.

But watching that figure from behind, I kept feeling something was wrong.

What was it?

Brother Biao’s death had brought a lot more police into the neighborhood.

Zhang Yong and I had to put our plan on hold.

Fortunately, Qin Yue had begun running at night to lose weight.

Once, when I was delivering food, I happened to catch her going downstairs.

Her tight workout clothes traced her lovely figure.

Suppressing the lust inside me, I pretended to be concerned. “Miss Qin, isn’t it dangerous to go running this late?”

Her eyes curved into a smile. “It’s all right. I usually stay nearby, just go as far as the stadium and turn back. Oh, did someone upstairs order all that late-night food?”

My heart lurched.

The bags were empty. They were props for a chance encounter.

Was she testing me? Or just making conversation?

I reacted quickly, forcing a couple of laughs and an easy tone. “Yeah. The other bags are for the next building. There’s been a lot of food theft lately, so I brought them along.”

Qin Yue looked enlightened and kept praising me for being so conscientious.

As soon as I got downstairs, I told Zhang Yong.

“Do it at the stadium. It’s still under construction. Not many cameras.”

The stadium was still being built, but the running track and landscaping along both sides were finished. Thick shadows filled the trees. It really was a good place to strike.

We checked the location and broke the streetlights on both sides.

Everything was ready. At ten that night,

Qin Yue changed and left right on time.

Zhang Yong was already in position.

I told him to be careful and not ruin her. He replied casually, “All right, it’s not our first time. Look at you, being pathetic.”

I laughed too. True enough.

The first time—that had been nerve-racking.

Our first victim had been a female teacher who thought she was better than everyone.

She’d caught Zhang Yong cheating and gotten him a disciplinary mark.

Zhang Yong couldn’t swallow it and wanted to teach her a lesson. After class that day, I pretended not to understand a problem and had the woman tutor me late into the night.

On her way home, Zhang Yong attacked her with his face covered.

Twenty-odd minutes later, I pretended to happen by.

After he was done with her, the woman had none of her usual authority left. Covered in blood, she lay on the ground like a filthy, crumpled wad of paper.

I went over, pretending to be shocked. “Teacher, what happened? Were you—”

Her utter terror gave me my first taste of power.

This was the nature heaven had bestowed on men. We were born with the right to control women.

Afterward, her family was afraid exposure would damage her prospects for marriage. They even paid me a considerable sum to keep quiet.

Zhang Yong and I had made plenty from that one reliable trick.

I gripped my binoculars, my gaze fixed on the intersection.

I watched that graceful figure draw closer and closer.

My mouth was dry. The thought that I would be able to do whatever I wanted with her, that she would carry a humiliation she could never wash away, made my blood surge uncontrollably!

Then Zhang Yong suddenly sent me a message.

[This Qin Yue’s quite somebody, isn’t she?]

[What do you think would happen if I told her the truth?]