Beihai Xinxiu was standing in front of their neighbor's house. For a moment, he stood there frozen. A medium-sized padlock was attached to the inside of the gate. For as long as Xinxiu could remember, the gate had only been locked at night. Early in the morning, their neighbor, Hongxi Gaochi, usually woke up from his sleep and started his activities. He would immediately go out of the house to unlock the gate and bring the lock into the house. That afternoon, the gate should be easy to open. If the padlock was still neatly attached, then it's likely that their neighbor was away. Since the old man only lived alone, it meant that the house was empty.

"Good afternoon Sir! Who are you looking for?" There was a voice from behind.

Xinxiu spun his head. Behind him stood a young man who was about twenty-five or twenty-six years old. His skin was very dark. Even darker than Zhengyi's skin tone.

"Who are you looking for?" The young man repeated his question.

"I want to meet Mr. Hongxi. But it seems he is not at home."

"He really has some business to do. Maybe he'll be back at seven or eight o'clock in the evening."

The young man then advanced closer to the fence. He reached into his trouser pocket and pulled out a string of keys. After reaching for the lock, he put one key into the lock. The lock opened, the young man opened the gate and went inside.

"Who are you?" Xinxiu had never seen the youth before.

"I am one of Mr. Hongxi's assistants."

"Assistant?" Xinxiu was surprised.

"I'm helping Mr. Hongxi with his work."

Xinxiu was stunned. He had no idea what their neighbor's job was. All this time, Xinxiu thought that their neighbor, Hongxi, didn't have a job. But now it turned out that the old man had an assistant. So maybe he had been wrong all along.

"Is there something important you want to tell Mr. Hongxi?"

"It doesn't really matter much," said Xinxiu. "I just want to water the plants. Coincidentally, three days ago, Mr. Hongxi borrowed our water hose."

"Oh!" The young man was silent for a moment. "Please come in first, Sir. I'll find the hose first."

Xinxiu entered their neighbor's yard. He followed the young man. After the door opened, the young man invited Xinxiu to enter. Since it was pretty hot outside, Xinxiu didn't want to turn down the offer. Waiting in the living room is much more comfortable than waiting outside the house.

"What's your hose like?" The youth asked after Xinxiu sat down on the sofa in the living room.

"Its color is dark blue. It is about thirty meters long."

Before the young man had time to respond to the information Xinxiu gave, the house phone rang. The young man immediately ran to the phone.

Stolen novel; please report.

Xinxiu really didn't want to know about other people's business, but because the young man answered the phone in such a loud voice, he couldn't help but hear what the young man had to say. From the words that came out of the young man's mouth, Xinxiu could draw a conclusion. The point was that someone was supposed to come to the house to deliver something. For some reason, which Xinxiu didn't know, the man's vehicle had a breakdown somewhere, which was actually quite close to the house. As a result, the vehicle could no longer run. The man did not want to leave his vehicle, so he asked the young man to leave the house and go to the caller to pick up the goods that should have been delivered to the house.

"Excuse me, Sir! I have to go for a moment to get something."

"You wanna go to get that stuff?"

"That's right, Sir! Near the grocery store out front. That guy's vehicle broke down there. He called from a pay phone in front of the grocery store."

"It's all right," said Xinxiu.

"If you're really in a hurry, you can find the hose yourself. There isn't one in the front yard, so maybe it's in the backyard, or in the warehouse. The kitchen door leading to the backyard isn't locked. Likewise, with the shed's second door, which overlooks the backyard. You can easily enter the shed."

Xinxiu nodded. Just like the shed room in their house, the shed in their neighbor's house also had two doors. The first door was the door that led to the dining room, the second door was the one that led to the backyard.

"But what about after I find the hose?" Xinxiu still didn't understand what the young man meant.

"I'm only gone for a while. So it's okay if you leave the house after finding the hose."

The young man seemed to be in a great hurry. He immediately said goodbye after saying that. Xinxiu could only shake his head. Their neighbor's assistant turned out to be very careless. Even though security in the housing complex was guaranteed, such actions were still not justified. If Xinxiu wasn't a good person, there would be a lot of bad things that could happen.

Wasting no time, Xinxiu went to the backyard. The shape was exactly the same as the backyard in their house. After looking around, he did not find the hose he was looking for. Xinxiu immediately moved to the door of the shed.

Luckily, the hose was there. Xinxiu took the water hose. As he was about to leave the warehouse, Xinxiu's attention was drawn to a rectangular wooden plank hanging on one shed wall. The wooden board looks very much like a blackboard. There was a photo of a very famous presenter stuck to the board's surface. As Xinxiu walked closer, he felt like he had stepped on something. Looking down, Xinxiu saw another photo lying on the floor. The photo sheets might have previously been attached to the same board. For some reason, the photo fell. Of course, that was just Xinxiu's hypothesis.

Xinxiu bent down to reach for the photo. He could not see what was depicted in the photo because the side of the photo containing the image was facing downwards. After turning the photo over, he was shocked. Just like the photo that was still attached to the board, there was someone clearly depicted in the photo sheet. Xinxiu also recognized the person in the photo he had just picked up. But that person was not a public figure, nor an important person in the city where they now live. The person in the photo was an ordinary man. At least that's what Xinxiu knew. The person in the photo was none other than Duanmu Shanquan, a middle-aged man who lived in the same house as him.

A thousand questions raced through Xinxiu's mind. They all knew their neighbor, but they didn't know much about him. When they meet him, they just say hello. Therefore, Xinxiu was absolutely sure that none of them would just give that person a picture of themselves. Duanmu Shanquan was also not the type of person to pass on photos or any other identification markers to others easily. Xinxiu still wanted to explore the shed further when he remembered that their friends were waiting for him. He quickly put the photo back in its original place, which was on the warehouse floor, right under the plank on the wall. Xinxiu came out of the warehouse, entered the house through the kitchen door, then walked straight to the door in the living room. After crossing the front yard, Xinxiu quickly exited through the gate and returned home.