Ye Fei slammed his fist on the table, pointed at the girl's nose, and roared, "Why are you crying?!"

"Ye Fei! What are you doing?" Seeing the young girl’s terrified expression, Murong also hit the table and glared at Ye Fei.

 

Ye Fei winked. After three seconds of awkward silence, Murong suddenly understood: he was playing the bad cop.

 

She quickly sat down and said with a soft voice, "Xiaoyu, don't cry. If you had anything to do with this, just tell us the truth and I promise the police will leave you alone."

 

"I... I really don't know anything." Xiaoyu's eyes glistened with tears.

 

"Stop lying, I don't believe you!" Ye Fei scowled at Xiaoyu. "Lin Qingwan's reputation and career are at stake. This situation must be resolved properly, so you'd better start cooperating. I advise you to confess now, or else the cops will come and put you in handcuffs and it’ll be too late."

 

Ye Fei stared relentlessly into Xiaoyu’s eyes. He spoke slowly, but there was a kind of aggressive pressure about his tone.

 

"Xiaoyu, tell us the truth,” Murong added softly. “Don’t worry, I’ll protect you."

 

Xiaoyu lowered her head, not daring to look at Ye Fei. She stayed silent for a while. Finally, she looked to Murong with tears in her eyes and cried out, "I’m sorry! I’m sorry! I will tell you everything!"

 

Ye Fei and Murong were relieved. This pinhole camera business definitely had something to do with this young girl. However, she had only just come to the city and had a simple and kind-hearted character. If she was involved, she must have been coerced or deceived by someone else.

 

Ye Fei was afraid the little girl had been deeply cheated. If she had refused to say anything, he would have been forced to send her to the police.

 

This would have been the worst possible outcome and Ye Fei was not prepared to do it.

 

Xiaoyu sobbed for a while, then slowly revealed the truth of the matter.

 

As Ye Fei speculated, she had just come to the city. She didn't know more than five people in all of Shanghai.

 

A man named Qiangzai, one of the security guards at the villa community, was the one person she was closest to. He was the one who had installed the pinhole cameras.

 

At first, Xiaoyu hadn’t realized what these things were used for. She thought they were new security measures, but she eventually realized they were hidden cameras.

 

Frightened, Xiaoyu went to Qiangzai, but he threatened her and said she was an accomplice to the act and that if she called the police they would go to prison together.

 

This was more than the simple country girl knew how to handle, and she was easily brought to submission by Qiangzai’s threats. He went on to buy her cheap perfumes and jewelry. Not just to bribe her and keep her quiet, but also in an attempt to become her boyfriend and get to bed with him.

 

Xiaoyu was good-natured and trusting. After she unwittingly helped Qiangzai, she felt very guilty and couldn’t sleep well. Within the first week she already lost 10 pounds, and Lin Qingwan even gave her a day off to rest up and regain her strength.

 

The better Lin Qingwan treated her, the guiltier Xiaoyu felt, but she just didn’t know what to do.

 

Hearing Xiaoyu’s narrative, Murong felt her blood boil. Qiangzai was a rotten bastard. "Let’s go find him!"

 

"Wait a minute," Ye Fei stopped her. "I have one more question."

 

"Fine..." Murong grit her teeth, imagining how she would beat up that bastard Qiangzai.

 

"Xiaoyu, when were these pinhole cameras installed?" Ye Fei said softly.

 

Although Ye Fei’s voice was softer now, she was still afraid of him. Looked back to Murong, she murmured, "Ten days ago."

 

"How many times did Qiangzai come back to take out the footage?" Ye Fei asked.

 

Xiaoyu lowered her head and whispered, "Only once."

 

"When was that?" Ye Fei continued.

 

She thought for a while and answered, "It must have been three days ago."

 

"Three days ago… That’s a long time." Ye Fei grew a little nervous. A lot could happen in three days. He only hoped Lin Qingwan had luck on her side.

 

Ye Fei finally stood up and walked towards the door. "Let's go. Let's find Qiangzai."

Qiangzai worked security at the villa. He was supposed to be on duty that evening, but after asking at the security office, Ye Fei learned that he hadn’t come in to work.

 

"Oh, Qiangzai? He asked for a day off. He should be at home, I guess," another guard suggested.

 

"Xiaoyu, do you know where Qiangzai lives?" Ye Fei frowned. Things were not going as smoothly as he hoped.

 

She lowered her head and whispered, "Yes. He took me there once."

 

The area in which Qiangzai lived was not far from the villa community, but the environment was starkly different. There was sewage flowing in the street, filling the air with its sour stench.

 

Qiangzai lived in a shabby house with no glass in the windows, which were boarded up with gray plastic sheeting and crooked wooden planks.

 

Ye Fei frowned. He had seen many poor areas in his years abroad, but he didn't think that the gap between the rich and the poor was so large back home.

 

"Xiaoyu, go call him out, then run back here," Ye Fei said.

 

Xiaoyu hesitated for a moment, but she still walked to the front door of the house and raised her hand to knock.

 

Just then, she heard the sound of a man's rough breathing and a woman’s moaning and giggling.

 

She even clearly heard the woman say, "Oh, you’re amazing! Get back here and do that again!"

 

Qiangzai's voice laughed wretchedly, "Hah, wait till I finish this cigarette; then I’ll let you have another ride on this bull!"

Xiaoyu was stunned. Tears streamed down her cheeks again.