Chapter 2: Sudden Change in the Dark Night

  In the following days, Ye Feng felt that Liu Meimei must have already forgotten him. He and she were just acquaintances, not friends, and they didn't even qualify as acquaintances. Liu Meimei had simply happened to ask for his help with a small favor.

  But for several nights in a row, he would dream of Liu Meimei, dreaming of her gentle and soft smile at him, dreaming of her calling out his name in a warm tone.

  Ye Feng felt that his secret love for Liu Meimei was not painful, but guilty, a guilt that tormented him, being unable to forget a woman he had only met once, what kind of torment was this?

  Later in the villa area, Ye Feng met Liu Meimei several times again. Every time he met her, Liu Meimei would take the initiative to call out Ye Feng's name. In the hot summer, she would even sometimes give him an ice cream when passing by the greening worksite where Ye Feng worked on his way home, without saying anything extra, just smiling and saying: "Ye Feng, it's so hot today, I'll treat you to an ice cream."

  Then Ye Feng took over the ice cream, Liu Mei Mei smiled at him and skipped away.

  Ye Feng's face turned bright red, his heart racing faster, and a group of colleagues envied and teased him with laughter.

  Ye Feng thought to herself, she must have a crush on me, otherwise why would she buy ice cream for only me among so many people in the park, and do it for several days in a row.

  It has to be said that Ye Feng, who had never been in love before, easily misunderstood the thoughts of a beauty teasing a migrant worker, and if this misunderstanding continued, it could be fatal.

  Because of an ice cream, Ye Feng and Liu Mei Mei's relationship gradually warmed up, their communication began to increase, Ye Feng occasionally went to Liu Mei Mei's home after work, chatted with her, told her stories about family life in the countryside, and listened to her talk about her university life and career experiences that he had never experienced.

  After a period of communication and interaction, Ye Feng was no longer nervous in front of Liu Meimei. He gradually began to dare to look her straight in the eye and even tried to ask her some questions, such as what she did for work, why she was always alone in the villa, and if she had any family or friends. Although she never answered any of Ye Feng's questions, this didn't prevent his impression of her from getting better and better. Ye Feng increasingly felt that Liu Meimei must have a good impression of him.

  One day, Ye Feng saw Liu Meimei and a young handsome man appearing in the villa area, and they entered her home with intimate behavior. The fire in Ye Feng's heart suddenly cooled down, and he mocked himself: "Ye Feng, you are just a migrant worker living at the bottom of society, what makes you think Liu Meimei would like you."

  That young and handsome man should be a policeman, because after that day he often wore police uniform and drove a police car to the villa area to find Liu Mei, what made Ye Feng feel even more sad was that once Liu Mei's home toilet drain was clogged again, she called Ye Feng to come over and help clear it, but the policeman was also at her house.

  Ye Feng was unclogging the pipes in her bathroom at home, but she could hear her and the police officer flirting shamelessly outside. At that moment, Ye Feng suddenly felt that having a crush wasn't just suffering, it also hurt a lot.

  The major turning point in Ye Feng's fate began with the third clogging of the drain pipe in Liu Meimei's bathroom. For the third time, she asked Ye Feng to help clear the pipe, and this time, she made a request to him.

  She asked Ye Feng to thoroughly pry open the floor tiles of the bathroom this time, and take a good look at why the drain pipes were always clogged. Ye Feng was also puzzled about it, so he agreed to her request without much thought.

  However, it's strange that Ye Feng alone can't complete the renovation of the pipeline in a short period. Ye Feng suggested asking a colleague to come and help, but Liu Meimei firmly refused. Her reason sounded very far-fetched, she said she had mysophobia and could only allow Ye Feng to work on the renovation alone, unable to accept others working with him.

  It's just a matter of spending some time and effort, so Ye Feng didn't persist, specially returned to the workshop for a trip, took some necessary tools, and started transforming her home bathroom by herself.

  Unlike before, this time Liu Mei stayed by Ye Feng's side and watched him start the renovation. Ye Feng couldn't shoo her away, and her expression looked very tense, as if she was expecting something, yet also afraid of something.

  When Ye Feng pried open the bathroom tiles, a shocking scene appeared. Ye Feng never expected that under the bathroom tiles, there was actually another cave.

  A large block of space under the floor tiles was hollowed out, about two meters square. The drainage pipe originally should have passed straight through this space, but for some reason, it was artificially changed and bent around several corners to bypass this space. Because the pipeline is tortuous and complicated, it will often cause blockages.

  In this two-meter square space, there is a very large and long dark green rectangular box that does not appear to be made of wood, but rather looks like it's made of iron, perhaps with a lot of rust due to age.

  Ye Feng looked at Liu Meimei and found that she had an extremely excited expression on her face, her body was slightly trembling. When Ye Feng stretched out his hand to take out the rectangular iron box, Liu Meimei suddenly grabbed his hand and said: "Ye Feng, thank you, I'll take care of the rest, you can go now, don't mention this to anyone, this box, I guess it's something my parents intentionally left here, involving some family ***, sorry I can't tell you, anyway, thank you very much, you can go."

  Ye Feng had many doubts in his heart, but he didn't know what to ask her either. He tidied up a bit and then left her home.

  For many days after that, Ye Feng did not see Liu Meimei again until the landscaping contract of the engineering team was about to be completed.

  One evening, Ye Feng was sleeping soundly when the ringing of his mobile phone on his pillow woke him up. He opened his eyes dazedly and saw that it was a call from Liu Mei Mei.

  Ye Feng excitedly answered his phone and said hello.

  "Is that you, Ye Feng? Where are you?" On the other end of the phone was indeed Liu Meimei's voice, which sounded a bit shaky and urgent.

  "It's me, I'm in the workshop, why are you calling me so late? Is there something going on?"

  "Yefeng, don't ask me anything now, I have an urgent matter that requires your attention, come to my place quickly."

  Before Ye Feng could ask what it was about, Liu Meimei had already hung up the phone.

  Thinking of Liu Meimei's beautiful face, thinking of the ice cream she bought for him on a hot summer day, Ye Feng put on his clothes and went to Liu Meimei's house at half past two in the middle of the night.

  He had just entered Liu Mei's home when something unexpected happened. His head was pressed against a cold, hard object.

  As soon as Ye Feng turned his head to see what was pressing against him, his spine suddenly chilled, and a kind of instinctive fear surged into his heart.

  The thing on his head was a black gun, Ye Feng had seen it on TV before, this kind of gun is commonly used by detectives, whether it can kill someone at a distance or not Ye Feng wasn't sure, but at such close range, once the gun was fired, he would definitely die without a doubt.

  But what's even more chilling to Ye Feng is that the person holding this gun to his head is actually that police officer, the one who seemed very close to Liu Mei.

  The policeman was not wearing a uniform at this time, but wore a black casual suit, coldly looking at Ye Feng. When his gaze met Ye Feng's, Ye Feng found that his eyes seemed to reveal a sense of contempt and ridicule.

  "Brother, you'd better not move randomly. The safety of this gun has been removed. If you move randomly, I might accidentally fire it."

  Ye Feng's face was covered in cold sweat, he had no idea what was happening. Why did Liu Meimei suddenly call him over in the middle of the night? Why was this police officer also here? And why was he threatening him with a gun?

  Ye Feng felt that his brain was a bit slow to react, and his instinctive fear overwhelmed everything. He didn't dare speak or make any slight movement, just standing there stiffly.

  At this time, Liu Mei came down from upstairs. Her face looked very pale with several red marks on it, as if she had been slapped hard in the face. She was wearing a transparent silk nightdress, and under the light, Ye Feng could even clearly see her snow-white breasts behind the nightdress. What's more strange is that Liu Mei was still holding a sharp knife stained with blood in her hand.

  She took a step forward, trembling, and walked up to Ye Feng. She raised the knife in her hand as if she wanted to give it to Ye Feng, but every time she lifted it to her chest, she would weakly lower it again. Her pale face twitched with muscle spasms, and her teeth had bitten into her lips, drawing blood.

  Ye Feng still didn't understand what had happened until now, he plucked up the courage to ask: "Liu Meimei, what exactly happened? And why is your boyfriend pointing a gun at me? What's going on?"

  As soon as Ye Feng finished speaking, he felt a burning pain on his forehead. The police had struck him hard with the butt of their gun, although it didn't bleed, but it hurt terribly.

  The police then snatched the knife from Liu Mei's hand, wiped it repeatedly with a cotton cloth from his pocket, and forcibly stuffed it into Ye Feng's hand. He then pressed the gun against Ye Feng's occipital bone and said in a cold voice, "If you don't want to die, go upstairs."

  Ye Feng was terrified in his heart, this kind of thing he had never experienced before, and he also regretted it, regretting that he shouldn't have come to Liu Mei's house. But now everything is too late, he was confused and threatened by a policeman with a gun, and he didn't even know why the policeman would threaten him.

  Ye Feng unconsciously gripped the knife and walked up to the second floor, coming to a stop in front of a bedroom door. At this moment, he heard Liu Mei Mei say from behind him: "Liu Yong, do we really have to do this?"

  Liu Yong, should be Liu Mei Mei's policeman boyfriend's name.

  "It's come to this, is there a better way? If anyone's to blame, it's just that this guy was unlucky. Many people in this villa district, especially the neighbors, know that this migrant worker likes you and often comes to your home, so he has enough reason to have evil thoughts about you. He came to your door at midnight, but didn't expect to be caught by that person who had just returned, leading to a fierce argument. Xiao Mei, I'm a police officer, I understand criminal psychology very well, this matter makes it most suitable for the migrant worker to take the fall. With such an idiot, I guarantee we won't have any problems."

  "But Liu Yong, how are we going to tell the police? Will they believe he's the murderer?"

  "Don't worry, just tell me the suspect's name and the police will investigate. The road from the worker's shed to the villa has surveillance cameras, not to mention that the knife has his fingerprints on it. And this kid even entered the scene, leaving behind plenty of evidence. Plus, with my help from the side, he'll take the fall without any issues. As for me appearing in the surveillance footage, don't worry, I have a way to take care of it and delete and reset it in no time."

  Liu Yong and Liu Mei didn't understand Ye Feng's words at all, until they pushed Ye Feng into the bedroom, then Ye Feng somewhat got some clues.