Although everything was smooth, the journey was quite tiring. Luckily, for some reason, that day was quieter. Qiuzhen arrived at his destination at almost one o'clock in the afternoon.
"Good afternoon Mr. Zhonghang!" Shantian Hanrong's face brightened when the young man saw Qiuzhen.
"Good afternoon Hanrong. How are you today?"
"I am fine, Sir! How about you? Is your head not hurting anymore?"
Qiuzhen laughed. "My head is fine. Don't worry."
Actually, Qiuzhen still felt a little uncomfortable. Especially on a certain part of his head, which was previously hit quite hard. But he didn't want to exaggerate it. There were far more important things for him to do.
"Would you like to take more things from Mr. Gongyang's unit?" Hanrong leaned forward.
Qiuzhen's purpose in coming to the building was not to take some of Songfei's belongings. Qiuzhen was still curious about what happened to him yesterday. He would check the ninth floor one more time. He knew he would most likely not find anything. But at least he could get rid of the curiosity that had plagued him since yesterday.
"Look, Hanrong. I'm still curious about what happened yesterday. So this time I'm going to check the ninth floor. I hope today I can find a clue as to what really happened last night."
Hanrong was dumbfounded at Qiuzhen's explanation. But, it wasn't long. Hanrong got up from the reception desk. He stepped forward towards Qiuzhen right away. "Do you need my help?"
"If you are willing, of course, I will be delighted."
"Thank you, Sir! I am delighted to be of assistance to you."
"But shouldn't you be on guard here?"
"I guess it's fine if I have to leave this place for a bit. Besides, sitting here all the time doing nothing is pretty boring."
"I hope this won't be a problem," Qiuzhen said.
Hanrong shook his head, smiling. He walked towards the entrance of the building. After locking the front door, he returned to where Qiuzhen was standing.
"What if someone visits this building while we're upstairs?"
"I usually lock this building when I go out for a while when I have a little need. The situation is similar to what is happening now." Hanrong's voice sounded steady.
"Then they'll just stand by the locked door until you come back?"
"True, Sir! But that rarely happens."
After that, the two of them went up to the ninth floor. When they got there, they immediately checked carefully. They found plastic food wrap in front of the service elevator on that floor. The service elevator had been out of service for a long time, but it was possible that someone was standing or sitting there.
Hanrong couldn't remember exactly when was the last time he cleaned the floor in front of the service elevator. He said that last week several tenants came to this building. Maybe it was those people who left the trash.
Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.
Hanrong couldn't tell how long these things has been here! It seems that this kid is telling the truth.
Next to the service elevator was a small room. The room was unlocked, so they could easily get inside it without having to go downstairs to get the key. Inside the room, there were several things scattered on the floor. Qiuzhen guessed that this room was used as a warehouse. On one side of the room, there was a fairly large object. It was made of metal. Qiuzhen didn't know what it was. It looked like a chest, but at the top, there was nothing that looked like the lid of a chest in general. There was only a layer of metal. This thing was like a box bench with a hollow inside.
"Is this a bench?" Finally, it came out of Qiuzhen's mouth.
"I don't know, Sir! This stuff has been here for a long time."
"Can you open it?"
Hanrong shook his head.
The two of them began to grope the entire surface of the object. Upon closer inspection, they discovered that there were small cracks that they might be able to use to pry open the top of the coffin-like thing. However, since it was impossible to remove the iron layer by hand, Qiuzhen asked Hanrong to get down to his room to get the right tools to pry the metal layer out.
The time Hanrong took to retrieve the tool turned out to be slightly longer than Qiuzhen had expected. After Hanrong arrived, they tried to open the thing that looked like a chest. It turned out to be almost empty. Inside was only a metal coin. Apart from that coin, there was nothing else inside.
Qiuzhen took the coin. Instinctively, he observed it for a moment. It was an ancient coin. He wasn't an expert in that field, so there weren't many conclusions he could draw. Qiuzhen then put the coin into his trouser pocket.
Since he felt there was nothing else he could do, Hanrong asked Qiuzhen for permission to return to his post. He said that he had left the reception desk too long. Qiuzhen had realized from the start that he couldn't hold back Hanrong for too long. Qiuzhen thanked Hanrong.
Qiuzhen was still curious about the ninth floor. Since he had come a long way to that place, of course, Qiuzhen couldn't just go home empty-handed. He went up to the tenth floor to rest for a while. After sitting on the couch in the main room of unit 1008 for about ten minutes, Qiuzhen came out again. He went downstairs to meet Hanrong at the reception desk.
"Does this building keep the blueprints of this building?" asked Qiuzhen. He actually knew that the blueprint for a building was unlikely to be stored in the building itself. But it never hurt to ask.
"What?" Hanrong looked at Qiuzhen with an incomprehensible look.
"Ah! I mean, are there any design drawings of this building stored here?"
"I don't know, Sir! There might be, but I don't know where it is."
"Where are the important documents or files stored in this building?"
"Probably in the Managing Manager's room, Sir!"
"Managing Manager?"
"It's kind of like a General Manager, but his scope of work focuses on the day-to-day management of the building. Here, we refer to the position as The Managing Manager."
A unique term!
"Oh! May I have a look around the room?"
Under normal circumstances, it was almost impossible for the building administrator to let a friend from the building's tenants enter the Manager's room and check the files in the room. However, at that moment, the situation could not be considered normal. There was no Managing Manager on duty there. So it could be said that Hanrong was the highest-ranking executive in charge of the building at that moment.
"I don't think that's a problem, Sir!" Hanrong nodded. The young man seemed so sure of the decision he had made.
I hope Hanrong won't lose his job if this is found out by his superiors.
Then Hanrong escorted Qiuzhen to the Managing Manager's room. The position had been vacant for a long time. Qiuzhen didn't know since when the building didn't have a Managing Manager. However, as far as Qiuzhen could remember, since the first time Songfei had invited them into the building, there had been no Management Manager on duty there.
Arriving at the door, Hanrong stopped. "I forgot to bring the key, Sir. Please wait here for a moment. Let me get the key first."
Qiuzhen nodded.
I hope it's just because Hanrong forgot to bring the key. But I couldn't rule out the possibility that Hanrong took this opportunity to report this to certain people, who are most likely not his official superiors in this building.