A peaceful and tranquil day passed.

In the evening, the two ate hot pot at home. Ah Chou also climbed onto a dining chair, acting like a proper family member. After eating their fill, Cheng Lele trained Ah Chou to catch a ball. Ah Chou seemed to really like this activity. Even after Cheng Lele grew tired of it, Ah Chou was still biting at her pant leg, demanding one more time.

Cheng Lele had no choice but to throw it a few more times. Chen An came out after washing the dishes and was discussing installing a dishwasher at her place with Cheng Lele. They had only exchanged a few words when suddenly the power went out. Ah Chou barked a few times in fear. Both of them turned on their phone flashlights and, together with Ah Chou, went outside to the brighter courtyard, while Chen An went to check the electrical box by the door.

Several households upstairs were also shouting about the power outage. It turned out the entire area had lost power.

Chen An entered the house. His flashlight inadvertently swept across an object and suddenly caught a faint red light. Because the surroundings were pitch black where one couldn’t see one’s hand in front of one’s face, that bit of red light happened to be captured by his attentive eyes.

Cheng Lele was still outside coaxing Ah Chou. Chen An calmly walked to the light source and picked up that panda.

The panda’s black leather jacket had a fixed zipper pull—gray plastic and glass-like, not quite matching the panda’s style. Looking carefully, one could see rough adhesive on the back of the zipper pull.

Chen An placed his phone to the side, held the stuffed animal steady with one hand, and forcefully pulled at the button with the other. The button immediately fell off, revealing a small hole with irregular edges. Chen An tore open the fabric with both hands, and a micro camera fell out.

Chen An pulled out a tissue, placed it in his palm, picked up the camera, unplugged the connecting wire, rummaged in a drawer for an IKEA zip-lock bag, put it inside, and then placed it in his pocket. The torn-apart panda was also properly stored away by Chen An.

Then he downloaded an anti-spy camera software. After installation, he carefully checked every corner and preliminarily confirmed that only that panda had a camera installed.

He took the hat and scarf from behind the door to the courtyard and grabbed Cheng Lele, who was still playing with Ah Chou: “Good baby, let’s stay at a hotel tonight.”

Cheng Lele was training Ah Chou to stand and sit on command and responded: “Why go to a hotel? The power might come back on soon.”

“It’s too cold inside without the heating and air conditioning.”

“Really?” Cheng Lele muttered strangely. “I don’t feel cold.” As she spoke, she touched his hand. “Isn’t this quite warm?”

After a pause, Cheng Lele suddenly looked at his chest and asked nervously: “Is it because your heart isn’t good, so you’re more afraid of the cold?”

Chen An was silent for a moment and said: “Yes.”

Cheng Lele immediately agreed to find a hotel to stay at and specifically comforted him: “There’s nothing wrong with men being afraid of the cold. Look at Iron Man—his heart isn’t good either. He usually has to wear armor when going out, and even his mansion is built in sunny California, but he’s still my favorite man.” After speaking, she added two more words: “One of them.”

Chen An hummed in acknowledgment and put the hat on her and tied the scarf. Cheng Lele asked hesitantly: “Aren’t we packing anything?”

“No need, let’s just go. It’s too dark inside.”

Cheng Lele said: “Little Ge, not only are you afraid of the cold but also afraid of the dark?”

Chen An said directly: “Yes, my heart isn’t good, and I’m especially afraid of vampires coming out. Let’s go quickly.”

Cheng Lele couldn’t tell whether Chen An’s words were true or false. She just felt Little Ge was a bit strange—he didn’t even respond to such silly talk about Iron Man and was in such a hurry to get to a hotel.

After being pulled along by Chen An for a few quick steps, Cheng Lele came to her senses and pulled him back: “Little Ge, I know now.”

Chen An stopped and looked at her: “What do you know?”

Cheng Lele smacked her lips and looked at him teasingly: “Are you taking me to a love hotel? Little Ge, although the saying goes, in this world there are only exhausted oxen, not plowed-out fields, but doing this too frequently isn’t good for either of our bodies… Look at your heart, afraid of cold and tired… Don’t play too exciting games either…”

Chen An fiercely yanked the two small balls hanging from the scarf: “Is your little head full of nothing but dirty thoughts?”

“No, then why are you in such a hurry…” Cheng Lele was pulled forward by Chen An.

Ah Chou chased after them from behind. Cheng Lele asked: “What about Ah Chou?”

“Let’s go to the guesthouse.”

“Huh?”

Chen An pushed the constantly questioning Cheng Lele into the car: “Which guesthouse?”

Chen An didn’t know where the guesthouses in Taixi were either. After driving for a stretch, he answered: “Jingping Temple.”

Cheng Lele called out: “To find Du Xing? But I haven’t bought any snacks yet. I already promised him.”

Chen An said: “Buy some on the way.”

Halfway through the drive, Chen An got out of the car and bought a pile of snacks together with Cheng Lele.

Cheng Lele also picked out a Rody toy. Chen An took it over, took apart all the components, confirmed there was nothing improper installed inside, and then said: “Let’s go pay.”

Cheng Lele looked at Chen An holding the parts. Chen An added: “I’ll assemble it, okay?”

“Are you alright? Are you under a lot of stress? I heard people under stress like to take things apart. Do you want me to buy you some bubble wrap to pop for stress relief?”

Chen An touched her head and said: “A little bit. I might need to see someone tonight.”

“This late?”

“Yes, information came in at the last minute.”

“That’s so hard on you, isn’t it?”

“With you here, I don’t feel it.”

Cheng Lele touched Ah Chou’s dog head poking out and said: “Your dad really knows how to talk.”

After settling Cheng Lele, Chen An discussed security issues with the old abbot. The temple was full of monks with some martial skills, so they weren’t afraid of bad people entering, but to be safe, the old abbot still had someone keep watch.

Chen An got back in the car. Uncle He sent a WeChat message saying he had already exited the highway toll station. Uncle He used to be Cheng Dong’s subordinate and had gone through life and death with Cheng Dong for many years. He was also present at the sacrifice. After Cheng Dong’s death, Uncle He transferred to clerical work due to psychological trauma. Later, unaccustomed to desk work, he resigned and opened a security company in the provincial capital. After a few years, it went under, so he turned to become a private detective.

The investment field had professional background investigation companies, but when it wasn’t convenient to hire background investigation companies, Chen An would find Uncle He to do it, making him one of Uncle He’s major clients.

Chen An temporarily didn’t want to report to the police. Once he reported it, Cheng Lele would be required to assist in the investigation.

He didn’t want her to know about these filthy and foul matters. His good baby only needed to be happy and carefree.

The two arranged to meet at the house.

When Uncle He heard it was Cheng Dong’s daughter in trouble, he called his assistant and, bringing detection equipment, rushed over without stopping.

The power had already been restored. Uncle He and Ma Bao took the detection equipment and thoroughly searched both floors, ensuring there were no more hidden cameras or listening devices. The three then sat in the living room to talk in detail.

Chen An took out the damaged panda and the camera and handed them over.

“The stuffed animal was placed here, roughly in this direction.” Chen An pointed to the bay window.

“How long was it there?”

Uncle He wanted to light a cigarette. Chen An brought out a disposable paper cup, put some water in it, placed it on the coffee table, and said: “Two days. Because we happened to encounter a power outage, it was found by the phone light and discovered quickly.”

“How did this little panda come about?”

“Five minutes after she and I finished shopping at the supermarket in the north city shopping center, we encountered a panda-shaped mascot at the west gate entrance. I checked the payment time—it was 17:25. The mascot suit was seventy percent new, about one point eight meters tall, with a gray stain resembling the Greek letter xi on the chest area of the suit.”

“What does xi-shaped mean?” Ma Bao asked.

Chen An dipped his finger in water and drew a ξ symbol on the coffee table.

“Any other information?”

Chen An bowed his head and thought for a while, as if he were a precision instrument rewinding and playing in slow motion. He screened frame by frame and said: “He watched Starlight Cinema’s Christmas Eve performance. When taking the little panda, he used his left hand—possibly left-handed, but he didn’t make many movements, and wearing the mascot suit made movement inconvenient, so there may be interference. Use your discretion. Also, the night we came back, we were on the second floor. He probably thought no one was home. Around eight-thirty, a helmeted person came to scout the place, was discovered by the dog at home, and hurriedly left. Everyone in our building is elderly and rarely orders takeout, though we can’t rule out that it was really delivered to the wrong place. The old residential area has no surveillance. The car parked at the outermost part of the entrance that day was a BYD e5, license plate Jiang E89144—check if it had a dashcam.”

Ma Bao asked: “You remember the license plate number so clearly?”

“Because it’s numbers from the Fibonacci sequence, left a deep impression.”

Just as he didn’t ask what xi was, Ma Bao expressed silence about this Fibonacci. Holding his pen, he paused and asked again: “891—?”

“89144.”

Uncle He took a drag of his cigarette and asked: “Was anything captured on camera?”

“Probably not during the day. As for at night…” Chen An paused. “We were here…”

Chen An didn’t finish, but both understood his meaning.

Ma Bao held the camera up to the light: “This one doesn’t have infrared function, which means without light, it can’t capture things clearly. Did you turn on the lights?”

“Yes, I know.” Chen An nodded. “The lights weren’t on, but the day before yesterday was the thirteenth day of the lunar calendar, and the moonlight was very bright. Because we have a dog, we added a ground light in the courtyard area, so the light inside the house wasn’t very dark.”

“Do you have any suspects?”

“Yes. Jiang Litao, president of Anni Film Industry, Huang Tiangou, former operations director of Tongda Cinema Chain, and Li Chaoxi, general manager of Dahai Cinema.”

“Who are you leaning toward?”

“I’m more inclined toward Huang Tiangou.”

“Go on.”

Chen An said: “The zipper pull on the panda mascot was added later, with rough workmanship, indicating he has limited funds or insufficient technique. If Anni Film Industry or Dahai Cinema hired someone like this, whether they could get what they wanted is one thing—they’d more likely create trouble for themselves. Because of the filming a few days ago, the relationship between Starlight and Peace and Joy isn’t a particularly big secret anymore. Huang Tiangou might have come to his senses and retaliated, but I still have a lot of dirt on him. The Beijing investigation company later supplemented evidence of his bribery. Unless he really wants to leave Earth, he should have reservations. He’s not the type to take everyone down with him.”

“Not taking everyone down with him, but maybe he’s gotten bold and wants to use this to threaten you?”

Chen An looked at the ceiling and was silent for a moment, then said: “Think about it—just one stuffed animal, nothing else installed. How could he be sure this stuffed animal would capture video unfavorable to us?”

Ma Bao said: “Maybe the delivery person was there to install additional equipment, and that stuffed animal was a test balloon.”

Chen An rubbed his forehead: “This person dared to install a micro camera but didn’t dare install infrared function, indicating this person is very timid or very cautious. Lele is a working professional and basically isn’t home during the day, so he can only see her at night when the lights are on. After installing all that just to see that little bit of time, what’s his goal? It can’t be for money or to capture inappropriate evidence to threaten me.”

Uncle He picked up the thread: “Perverted-style liking. Very likely a first-time offender. Not much money. Do you have names?”

Chen An heard this and wiped his face: “Lele did an event the other day and was liked by many people. I don’t know if someone like that was mixed in.”

The suspect pool was instantly diluted into the masses, making the matter complicated again. He wanted to smoke a cigarette to calm down, but thinking he still needed to see Cheng Lele later, he held back and said: “We happened to go to the north city that day. He might have followed us all the way there. I’ll send you my driving routes over the past few days. Have someone check the surveillance cameras and see if there were any cars following me to investigate.”

Uncle He said: “This person either wears a helmet or mascot suit, acts cautiously, should have basic counter-reconnaissance ability, but he’s a first-time offender. What you’ve provided is detailed enough—it won’t be hard to investigate.”

“I need it fast, Uncle He.”

“I know. Old Cheng’s daughter—I can’t let her be at any risk.” A cigarette burned to its end. He Huan extinguished it and said: “But in this situation, even if we catch him, it’s just administrative detention. The cost of crime is very low.”

Chen An furrowed his brow.

Uncle He stood up, saying he’d go secure the evidence tomorrow. Before leaving, he added another sentence: “Ask Lele’s side again, see if she has any suspects. If there’s a target, the investigation will be faster.”

These seven years of Cheng Lele’s life were a restricted zone. He didn’t ask, so she didn’t mention it. Even when she did mention things, it was all splendor and glory. Even Huang Tiangou was dug up by him himself. What names could she give him?

He feared that asking a few more questions would make him suspicious and paranoid again.

Chen Xiaomu was already wearing the same pants as Cheng Lele. Chen An decided to make a night visit to Zhong Ming.