Gu Fan cautiously and silently crawled up to Su Hui like a spy. He then put on a face as if he were swearing to the heavens, "By all that's good and right, I haven't done anything. Is it really true that someone is watching us from outside? Don't scare me, Officer."
"Do I look like I'm doing this to scare you?" Su Hui replied, her face was serious. She then took out her phone, attached a small telescope to the camera, and placed it at the window.
Gu Fan silently acknowledged Su Hui's preparedness typical of a policewoman as he saw the view from outside, shown on her phone screen.
At the moment, Lu Yi and Lin Xi were both hiding behind the couch, watching Gu Fan and Su Hui speaking. They were quite scared, even envisioning a group of heavily armed men storming in from outside.
"Oh God, I don't want to be kidnapped," Lin Xi said frightened. But Lu Yi comforted her, "Don't worry, we have a police officer here, don't we?"
Su Hui made a quieting gesture, immediately silencing Lin Xi and Lu Yi. Then Su Hui and Gu Fan continued to stare at the phone screen, watching a black car parked across the street. There were shadows occasionally moving inside, but it was too dark to see clearly.
"When I first moved here," Su Hui began, "I noticed a car parked in the same spot every night. First, it was a white car, then red, and now black. The cars change daily, which doesn't fit with a local resident, and if it's simply parking, why would it always be in the same spot?"
"I see, so you started to be suspicious." Gu Fan once again admired Su Hui's police instinct and counter-surveillance abilities.
Su Hui nodded, "I calculated that the car is positioned perfectly to observe your house. I think someone is watching you. I've handled similar cases before."
Upon hearing this, Gu Fan started to sweat with fear, realizing they had been under surveillance for many days. Thankfully Su Hui noticed, otherwise, he had no idea what might happen.
"So, what do we do now? Should we go out and confront them?" Gu Fan, just a regular college student, had no experience dealing with such situations and could only hope that Su Hui would come up with a plan.
Shaking her head, Su Hui said, "Without evidence, I can't legally apprehend them. Besides, this is just my speculation, not a proven fact. We need more certainty."
Gu Fan immediately pressed, "Then, what's your plan, madam?"
"If you want to know, it's simple. We'll lure the snake out of its hole," Su Hui said with a cunning smile.
After hearing this, Gu Fan was stunned for a moment before letting out a bitter laugh, "So you want us to be the bait."
"Exactly. Without doing so, we won't be able to confirm their real intentions." After saying this, Su Hui turned to Lu Yi and Lin Xi hiding behind the couch, still looking terrified, then strictly commanded, "You two, go upstairs, turn on the lights, open the curtains, and stand by the window pretending to chat. Remember, don't look outside, especially at the car parked across the street. Don't let them know we're onto them."
"What if they remember what we look like, won't we be in danger?" Lin Xi, being a girl, was still very afraid of this situation.
In the end, it was up to Gu Fan and Lu Yi to carry out this task. They ran upstairs according to Su Hui's instructions, turned on the lights, stood by the window, and pretended to chat and laugh, intentionally making themselves visible from outside.
"I see it, I see it. These guys are really watching us. They are even using a telescope," Su Hui said coldly. Now, she was one hundred percent sure.
Lin Xi came to Su Hui's side and timidly asked, "What do we do now? Should we call the police?"
"They're just watching, not taking any actions. There's nothing we can do for now," Su Hui said, and then added after a thoughtful pause, "But I have recorded a video on my phone. I need to gather more evidence."
Afterwards, Su Hui gathered Gu Fan, Lu Yi and Lin Xi and gave them a task, using the same strategy of luring the snake out of its hole.
Upon hearing Su Hui's plan, Gu Fan looked worried and complained, "We really are the bait. What if something dangerous happens?"
Addressing this concern, Su Hui said, "If they meant you harm, why would they keep watching your house for so many days? So don't worry, be bold."
"Easier said than done!" Lu Yi and Lin Xi both expressed their nervousness, but for now, they had to follow Su Hui's suggestion, transform from being passive to active. They needed to make their move if they were going to have any chance.
Therefore, under the uncomfortable feeling of apprehension, Gu Fan, Lu Yi, and Lin Xi all went out together, and that too late at night. The streets were empty, devoid of any pedestrians, as Lin Xi spoke to her parents, assuring them of her safety, stating that she was on her way home. It seemed as if Gu Fan and Lu Yi were simply escorting Lin Xi home, a routine outing.
Not long after Gu Fan, Lu Yi, and Lin Xi had left, the car parked on the side of the road remained motionless. Once they were out of sight, the car's light finally turned on. However, the car did not pull away, instead, the car door opened and a man stepped out to smoke a cigarette.
Su Hui could see the smoking man glance towards the direction Gu Fan and the others had taken but made no move to follow, waiting until they were almost out of sight before hastily pursuing them.
"Just as suspected, they're trailing you." Su Hui immediately called her on-duty colleague, informing them of the situation and asking them to come and question the man.
However, not long after Su Hui finished her call, the smoking man came running back. He did not chase after Gu Fan and anyone else, simply returning to his car and driving off.
This left Su Hui dumbfounded, wondering whether she was being overly sensitive. These people weren't following Gu Fan, otherwise, why would they stop halfway?
Baffled, she made another call, informing Gu Fan that the suspicious individual had left and urging them to return home quickly after dropping off Lin Xi and to be careful along the way.
For the rest of her shift, Su Hui repeatedly watched the recorded footage. It was clear that someone had been observing the house with binoculars, showing an intent to follow Gu Fan and his friends, but why had they suddenly left so abruptly?
When Gu Fan and Lu Yi returned, Su Hui immediately questioned them if anything unusual had happened. They both insisted that they had followed Su Hui's instructions, walking straight ahead without ever looking back.
This only added to her difficulty. Su Hui had thought the sudden departure of the tracker might have been due to a fear of detection by Gu Fan. Now that Gu Fan had not looked back, there was no reason for the tracker to have felt any risk of being discovered.
Su Hui even checked the car's license plate, finding out it was rented. As for who rented it, the car rental company's client information was confidential, and she couldn't investigate it further at the moment, even as a police officer, without a search warrant.
She could confirm two things at this point. Firstly, someone had indeed been observing Gu Fan's house. Secondly, they did not know that Gu Fan had discovered this surveillance. Therefore, if they did indeed have ulterior motives, they would continue their surveillance the next day. Hence, it all depended on tomorrow.
However, what puzzled Su Hui the most was the precise reason why someone would go to the extent of tracking and monitoring Gu Fan and his friends.
Despite her repeated questioning, Gu Fan could only shrug. He had no idea why all this was happening. He was a mere university student, with nothing of value at his home. Why would thieves target him?
As the saying goes, it's not the thief that you fear, but the idea of being targeted. Gu Fan could not express his suspicion that this group could be linked to the disappearances of Zhao Rui and Li Xiaoyan since doing so would only confuse Su Hui further. After all, why would this group be abducting seemingly ordinary university students one after another?
But whether Zhao Rui and Li Xiaoyan's disappearances were supernatural events or an orchestrated act, Gu Fan was unsure. Having discovered the surveillance and stalking today, his heart was filled with an unprecedented wave of fear and apprehension. Now, everything depended on the coming night.
However, when Gu Fan, Lu Yi, Su Hui, and Lin Xi anxiously waited for the next night, the same spot across the road was devoid of any suspicious vehicles and there were no suspicious individuals lingering in the vicinity.
"Could it be that I made an error in judgment?" A disbelieving Su Hui speculated, unwilling to accept this reality.
Actually, Lin Xi wanted to tell Su Hui that this certainly was not a mistake in judgment because Lin Xi and Gu Fan had not been stalked for the first time. There was definitely something fishy.
But Gu Fan advised Lin Xi not to say anything, as many things were too strange to explain logically. Furthermore, they had only just met Su Hui recently and couldn't fully confide in her.
The mysterious locked room, Zhao Rui's disappearance, being stalked after returning from the trip, then Li Xiaoyan's disappearance, and now their house under surveillance, the more Gu Fan thought about it, the more chills ran down his spine. He repeatedly advised Lin Xi to return home early in the evening and stay with her parents as much as possible.
As for Lu Yi, he had already moved to Gu Fan's house according to Gu Fan's advice, and they were ready to stick together through thick and thin. Gu Fan had a bad feeling that a third person would soon go missing, and he had no clue who this third person might be. He certainly didn't want it to be any of them and at the same time, he also wanted to figure out what was exactly happening, as he didn't want to live in fear every day.
"Is there something valuable at my home, or is it something else …" Suddenly, a possible explanation, a possible resolution to all the strange occurrences dawned upon Gu Fan.