The Missing Daughter – CH 006

Chapter 6. Living Alone 4

I locked the master bedroom door with my key.

Fortunately, there was a guest room here, so I wouldn’t have to sleep with a corpse.

Both the master bedroom and the guest bedroom had a subtle fragrance.

Although the scents differed, they were both calming and sleep-inducing.

Sha Xiaoxuan liked incense and perfume.

Her bedroom was filled with a cabinet of expensive perfumes and aromatherapy diffusers.

After finishing my chores and washing the coffee cup, I went to bed.

Tired from the day, I slept soundly.

The next day, I was woken up by my phone ringing.

I checked the time; it was already past nine in the morning.

The caller ID showed it was Mr. Zhao.

I was sleeping so soundly that I didn’t hear him angrily banging on the door. Luckily, my phone was right next to my ear, and the ringing woke me up.

I used to sleep poorly, even at night or on my days off. A phone call from my boss would force me to get up and go back to the office to work overtime, so I was particularly sensitive to the sound of a vibrating phone.

I answered the phone, told Mr. Zhao to wait a moment, then got up, put on my coat, tidied my hair, and opened the door for him. “Sorry, I slept too late last night and didn’t hear the knock. Come in.”

Mr. Zhao was carrying a much larger toolbox this time and had dragged in a lot of waterproofing materials. He looked very professional and experienced in the building maintenance business.

He went straight into the bathroom and started working.

Seemingly annoyed that I hadn’t opened the door for so long, he hadn’t said a word to me since he came in.

I watched for a while, and there was really nothing to criticize.

Either he was a normal handyman,

or he was a normal handyman who also committed murder.

Just as I was about to go to the living room to order takeout, I suddenly remembered something. “Mr. Zhao, you didn’t mention yesterday why you were working late. You looked like you were working really hard.”

Mr. Zhao scoffed, “You are so concerned about me. If you really cared, you’d open earlier so I could finish and go home to rest.”

I probed indirectly, “I’m so sorry; I was sleeping too soundly. But I’m curious, do you get overtime pay for working at night?”

Mr. Zhao, engrossed in cleaning the bathroom floor, replied, “We are just doing one job at a time. We don’t get overtime pay. We work from morning till night to pay for our kids’ tutoring.”

A while later, a loud machine noise came from the bathroom.

I covered my ears and went back to the living room.

Mr. Zhao had been there all day.

The body couldn’t be moved for the time being.

However, if there really was a problem with the waterproofing, fixing it was a good thing, since I’d still be doing a lot of work in the bathroom later.

If the blood leaked downstairs and the downstairs neighbor complained…

That would be a huge problem.

Since he was genuinely doing repairs, I gradually felt more at ease. I ordered takeout for lunch and also prepared a nice meal for Mr. Zhao.

“Mr. Zhao, what would you like to eat?”

“Nothing special; I’ll just buy a boxed lunch.”

“That won’t do; you’ve been working hard all morning. Would you like steamed chicken or roast duck?”

“Ah, no, those are too expensive…”

I smiled and said, “It’s alright, Mr. Zhao; I can afford this.”

I placed the order on my phone. “Sir, these aren’t expensive. What do you usually eat?”

Mr. Zhao wiped the sweat from his face with his sleeve, continuing to work on the bathroom floor without looking up. “Outside… A meal at a diner costs only ten or twenty yuan, but this takeout you ordered costs tens of yuan!”

I wasn’t really interested in the home repair industry; I just wanted to see if he was actually working in maintenance and understood the job. “How much do you earn doing waterproofing for one company? Don’t get me wrong, we are just chatting.”

Mr. Zhao replied naturally, “I don’t earn it all by myself. The shop takes a cut, so I only make my labor cost. The jobs in your neighborhood are pretty good, a bit higher than other places, but it’s only about seventy or eighty yuan.”

Lower than I expected.

No wonder he accepted the two thousand yuan while cursing my unreliable husband.

Two thousand yuan was a huge sum for someone desperately needing money to support their family.

But for me now and for Sha Xiaoxuan back then, it was just a wad of pocket money.

**

The extra tip, the generous lunch, and my deliberately humble attitude all changed Mr. Zhao’s opinion of me quite a bit today. Of course, the most useful thing I realized was the not-so-small tip I gave him today.

After a day of observation, I was certain.

Mr. Zhao was a thoroughly professional and highly skilled handyman.

He had seen me, which was the most troublesome thing.

Killing Sha Xiaoxuan was a simple matter; as long as the disguise was good enough, no one would find out.

But Mr. Zhao had a family and a job.

If he disappeared, the police would be at my door the next day.

But it wasn’t without a solution.

With money, a little plastic surgery, plus makeup, I could be unrecognizable.

When the time was right, I could move to a different place; abroad, anywhere would do. I already looked very similar to Sha Xiaoxuan.

As long as I still had her phone, social media, ID card, and bank accounts, in other people’s eyes, she would always be “alive.”

These days, so many young people didn’t live with their parents. Given her personality, it was common for her not to go home for the New Year.

Of course, I didn’t know this good news beforehand.

After going through all her chat logs, shopping records, and daily life updates on social media, I knew her better than her parents did.

Fortunately, Mr. Zhao didn’t find anything.

“Where’s your husband?”

After his change in attitude towards me, Mr. Zhao brought up this topic again.

I didn’t know if he was really concerned about this or testing me, so I could only answer, “He went out on business. I don’t know when he’ll be finished, but he’ll be back.”

Mr. Zhao said, “Oh,” and then asked, “You warned him about the cat abuse, right?”

I didn’t understand his intention in asking that question and didn’t answer immediately.

“Don’t overthink it. I’m not trying to blackmail you. It’s just that people who abuse animals usually have violent tendencies. I’m warning you, you need to be careful,” Mr. Zhao glanced at me. “Besides, this kind of thing is bad karma, and you’ll suffer retribution later…”

Seeing him stop his work and start lecturing me, I quickly said, “Mr. Zhao, how long’ll it take to finish tiling the floor? When can I use this bathroom normally?”

Mr. Zhao turned and glanced at the master bedroom behind him. “Don’t you have another bathroom in your house? This bathroom won’t be ready to be tested for water for at least another day. You can turn on the ventilation when you have time…”

He gave me a few more instructions.

But I was thinking about other things; this was a troublesome matter.

This bathroom was bigger and more convenient for handling corpses, but since the waterproofing had just been done, it would take at least a day or two before I could start working on it.

**

Mr. Zhao said he’d come back tomorrow.

But I had more important things to do tomorrow.

I gave him a little extra tip so he could work two more hours that night to finish fixing the floor.

Dinner was again takeout. Mr. Zhao was doing repairs in the bathroom, which was quite noisy, so delivery drivers, whether real or fake, wouldn’t linger.

After dinner, I went downstairs to pick up some things, leaving Mr. Zhao at home to finish the final touches.

The master bedroom door was locked. If he were a legitimate contractor, he wouldn’t break into a client’s bedroom.

Sha Xiaoxuan had a contact on social media.

She had bought many special tools from this contact that weren’t available elsewhere. I looked through this person’s other tools sold on social media; many were perfect for disposing of corpses. This kind of gray market wasn’t easy to trace.

Last night, I placed an order, paying extra for expedited delivery, to have it delivered to a collection point several kilometers away from the neighborhood.

Sha Xiaoxuan had her own car, quite valuable, while I used to be the department’s professional driver. Whenever someone needed a driver, regardless of work hours, I had to be on call. After driving to the collection point to pick up the box, I found several messages on my phone.

Panpan asked: 【How’s the travel plan going? I can’t wait to go on a trip with you!】

I replied: 【Crying.】

Me: 【I had a fight with my family about work. My mom said I’m too willful.】

Panpan: 【Huh? How could that be? Aren’t Aunt and Uncle the ones who love you the most?】

Me: 【Yeah, that’s why I’m angry too. They actually scolded me for an outsider!】

Panpan didn’t doubt my mimicry of the tone at all.

Me: 【You know, without my mom sending money, I don’t have enough in my account. After getting a new car, I spent all the money on it, so the trip has to be postponed. I don’t know when it’ll be again. I’ll see when my mom and dad apologize.】

Panpan: 【Okay then, how about we go out tonight? Don’t think about unhappy things. There’s a new bar that just opened; it’s super fun!】

Me: 【I’m not going. There’s a problem with the waterproofing in the bathroom. The handyman will be coming in the next few days, and you know how they are—they are always clumsy. If I’m not home watching, who knows what they might do in my house?】

Panpan: 【It’s so boring without you!】

Me: 【Didn’t you say there’s a murderer who hasn’t been caught yet? It isn’t safe to come home late at night. You should be careful, too.】

Panpan: 【Yeah, I almost forgot. Let’s stay home as much as possible and wait until they’re caught.】

Another message came from Xiaoxuan’s father.

【Call your mom when you have time; she’s worried about you!】

Of course, I didn’t call. Instead, I sent a text: 【So annoying! I told you not to keep calling me. I’m not a three-year-old who needs to answer my parents’ calls every day!】

【Tell my mom I got my phone back. I’m going on a trip with Panpan in the next few days, so please don’t bother me.】

The other end quickly replied: 【Drink less when you go out!】

【Share this webpage: Thirty Deadly Effects of Alcohol on the Human Body. Share it with your family and friends!】

Me. “…”

I replied: 【Okay, if you are really worried about me, just send some more money.】

This wasn’t the first time Xiaoxuan had asked them for money. They wouldn’t suspect anything until Xiaoxuan stopped asking for money.

A few minutes later, my phone account received a text message with a transfer of 20,000 yuan.

I didn’t expect it to be so fast, nor did I expect so much.

But sitting in the car, fastening my seatbelt, something suddenly occurred to me.

I opened a webpage and searched for keywords related to “home murder” in the city, but found no news.

Did this murderer really exist?

Why was there no news about him online?

I scrolled through my chat history with Panpan and found that in our conversations about sharing cats, we also shared some of her favorite jokes.

【Xiaoxuan, I felt like life is meaningless. I’m going to jump off the bridge and end this worthless life that nobody cares about.】

But the final result was—

【Just kidding, I lost a dare. They just wanted to see if you would come looking for me. You should go back, hahaha, love you~ I received your concern~ I was so touched; you are the only one who would come straight out to find me!】

And some others—

Xiaoxuan’s message: 【Panpan, I found a dead cat in my trunk, so weird… Didn’t we bury it together?!】

Panpan’s reply: 【What, did it come back to life? Impossible! Were you possessed by a ghost??】

Xiaoxuan: 【Don’t scare me; I was home alone!】

【Video call ended.】

Panpan: 【Hahahaha, your face looks so funny; I didn’t expect you to be such a scaredy-cat! Okay, I will stop teasing you.】

Panpan: 【I dug it out and put it in, just to scare you~】

Xiaoxuan: 【Why?!】

Panpan: 【Just kidding.】

Xiaoxuan: 【I…】

Panpan: 【Okay, you’ve been yelling at me for over ten minutes now; don’t be angry. How about I send you a new secret weapon in a while? A super big gift package~ delivered directly to your door, saving you the trouble of going to pick it up.】

…

Panpan liked to joke, play pranks, and make up stories.

The more bizarre and strange the story, the more vividly she would tell it, as if she witnessed it herself.

She knew the city had sent out many text messages about home safety, so she made up a completely new story, the content and characters of which were all incredibly lifelike.

The police hadn’t even solved the case yet, but she already knew what excuse the murderer used to enter the victim’s home. Was it really just hearsay?

Unless she was the one who committed the crime. Or perhaps the murderer didn’t even exist.

She just copied it down from some novel to scare people.

But to fake those chat logs, she’d need several accounts to act it out. However, Panpan probably knew that nothing could scare “Xiaoxuan” without some kind of convincing.

On the way back, there was traffic, and the red light ahead remained on.

My phone rang.

It was Mr. Zhao calling. He had finished his last work and was going to pick up his child from tutoring. He asked when I was coming home.

Looking at the long red light, I estimated it would be another half hour.

“Okay, I’ll go now. If you still have trouble with the bathroom, call me. I left a note in the living room with some things to be aware of.”

The light turned green, but the cars ahead still wouldn’t let me through. I heard an ambulance siren behind me. I maneuvered my car, making way for the other vehicles to create an emergency lane.

“Hello? Are you still listening? I’ll hang up if there’s nothing else.”

Watching the ambulance drive away, I snapped out of my reverie. “Thank you, Mr. Zhao. I trust your skills; it’ll be fine.”

After ending the call, I drove back to my apartment complex. Entering the elevator from the underground parking garage, I pulled my cap down low, adjusted my mask, and pretended to be on my phone.

Back at the door, I listened for any sounds inside.

It was quiet—not a sound.

I unlocked the door.

The entire living room was brightly lit after I turned on the lights.

The light from the crystal chandelier fell on the smooth wooden floor. The surrounding furniture was clean, tidy, and beautiful—it was like a palace.

I walked to the crystal coffee table and found the note left on it.

Mr. Zhao had indeed written some instructions.

But he didn’t want to waste time with rework, and I didn’t want any more trouble because of waterproofing issues.

After carefully writing down the instructions, I finally saw the last paragraph.

“I know you’re just trying to scare me by mentioning surveillance cameras. I’m a handyman; I’ve installed these things before. I didn’t see any cameras when I came to this house today. But I know what you mean. I’ve been in this business for many years. Don’t worry, I never touch anything belonging to my clients.”

Something was not right.

A sudden unease washed over me.

I stared at those words.

Suddenly, a chill ran down my spine, my scalp tingled, and my heart pounded.

Something was wrong.

What was wrong?!

I hurried to the master bedroom.

The master bedroom was still locked. After unlocking the door, I turned on the light.

Everything in the bedroom was as it was; the body was still there.

The eyes, never closed until death, stared fixedly at the ceiling, pupils dilated, eyeballs cloudy.

No, something was wrong…

Mr. Zhao wasn’t a murderer.

He wouldn’t touch anything belonging to the homeowner.

Yesterday I told him there was security camera footage, and he didn’t dare touch anything. Today further proved he was only there to renovate the bathroom floor.

So, he had no reason to open the package in the living room.

In the entire house,

there was only me, Mr. Zhao, and the dead body on the bed.

I checked; there were only a few rooms and no one else.

Sha Xiaoxuan’s death was complete, and Mr. Zhao and I didn’t open the package.

Then…

Who opened it?

My memory flashed back to last night.

After taking out the trash downstairs and returning home, I found the package had been opened. Mr. Zhao’s words from that time resurfaced in my mind.

He said, “Your husband, a boxing coach, I feel… you made that up to scare me? …The more respectable a person is, the more twisted they are. How can someone like that be a coach…?”

Why would he say “respectable”?

He couldn’t possibly have met my fabricated husband. Either Mr. Zhao was lying, but there was no need, or…

He had.

Not only had he met him, but he also felt the man didn’t look like a boxing coach.

Mr. Zhao meant that I made up my husband’s profession just to scare him.

So, he didn’t see through all my lies.

“I told him I was your husband, and he believed me.”

I heard the creak of the wardrobe opening in the guest bedroom, followed by a man’s deep voice and approaching footsteps.

Tap tap tap.

He said, “Miss, you’re more like my type than the woman living here.”

I finally knew who had opened the delivery box in the living room.

So Panpan wasn’t playing a prank this time.

【Living Alone Chapter/End】