Chapter Twenty-Two: The Next Victim

Qin Luming naturally ignored him. While the title "private detective" sounded intimidating, unlike in foreign countries, private detectives had no legally defined status in their own country. Since the 1990s, it had been forbidden for any unit or individual to establish so-called private detective agencies. Even legitimate investigation companies could only exercise the legal right to know of ordinary citizens; they had no criminal investigation powers.

In other words, to a law-abiding citizen like Qin Luming, these "private detectives," no matter how well they conducted their business or how capable they were, were merely errand runners. If he didn't want to deal with them, he wouldn't.

The fact that the man introduced himself as a private detective right off the bat clearly indicated he was trying to leverage a potential information imbalance to bluff Qin Luming. Qin Luming naturally walked away.

As for what the man's actual purpose was, Qin Luming didn't care. After a moment's thought, the keyword was "detective." The only connection he had recently with anyone investigating him was the disappearance of Gu Qing'an.

Qin Luming was interested in Gu Qing'an's disappearance, but he wasn't interested in others investigating him because of it. In reality, it had nothing to do with him, and he couldn't reveal what he knew.

He couldn't exactly tell this private detective that Gu Qing'an had transmigrated to another world, and that the person from that other world might be the real culprit who abducted Gu Qing'an.

Qin Luming rode his bike to school. He had noticed a black Mercedes-Benz van following him. When he reached the scooter parking area near the school, Qin Luming returned his scooter. The middle-aged man from earlier got out of the van again.

He still carried himself with a suave and composed demeanor, giving the impression of someone highly capable. Clients generally preferred to hire people with such an aura.

Qin Luming had already seen his electronic business card: Ke Mu... The card didn't display any intimidating titles like "private detective."

"Mr. Qin, could I have a few minutes of your time?" Ke Mu walked over and said, not dwelling on Qin Luming's abrupt departure earlier.

"Go ahead," Qin Luming replied, raising his hand to check the time.

Ke Mu's gaze followed Qin Luming's to his watch. Ke Mu smiled, "Mr. Qin has excellent taste. This watch is quite difficult to obtain."

"Thank you."

"I've been commissioned by Mr. Gu Cheng to help find Mr. Gu Qing'an," Ke Mu stated directly. "The reason I mentioned being a private detective earlier was to get Mr. Qin's attention."

"I understand."

"I heard from Miss Gu that you found Mr. Gu Qing'an's lost phone by chance at the Zinc Factory. Thank you very much," Ke Mu said, choosing his words carefully, knowing Qin Luming was not easy to deal with.

Qin Luming's tone and calm demeanor suggested he was no ordinary university student. The man hadn't leaked much personal information online, and the photos and updates on his social media made it difficult to extract useful key data to help Ke Mu understand him.

While the profession was once in a gray area in China, it had become a black area after private detectives were convicted of illegally obtaining personal information ten years ago. Ke Mu was well aware that since the "private detective" title wouldn't bluff the other party, he had to proceed according to protocol first. They could discuss other matters once they had some leads.

"It was just a small favor, happy to help," Qin Luming said, listening to his preamble. These people were skilled in their speech. After failing to bluff him, they resorted to casual questioning, actually using repeated expressions of information to observe Qin Luming's micro-expressions and actions.

Qin Luming hadn't studied these tactics, but he had flipped through some psychology books while writing novels. This allowed him to better portray characters in his novels with detailed actions, speech habits, and psychological activities, making them more three-dimensional and fuller, giving readers the feeling that the characters were truly alive.

He naturally applied what he learned, intentionally or unintentionally, to his daily life.

"After unlocking the phone, we discovered that before Mr. Gu Qing'an went missing, he had inquired in a novel group about personal information of a web novel author named Ma Shilong. Miss Gu also mentioned that when you heard Mr. Gu Qing'an's name, your first thought was that Ma Shilong had written a novel called 'My Wife is the Empress of the Zhou Kingdom,' and the male protagonist of the novel was named Gu Qing'an," Ke Mu said, staring at Qin Luming and emphasizing the names Ma Shilong and Gu Qing'an.

Most people would have an unconscious reaction when hearing names spoken with emphasis.

Qin Luming was somewhat surprised. So Gu Qing'an not only transmigrated, but he also knew he had transmigrated into the world of Ma Shilong's novel. He guessed Gu Qing'an might have intended to find Ma Shilong, but based on Qin Luming's observation when he met Ma Shilong that day, Ma Shilong likely hadn't met Gu Qing'an yet.

"I heard Mr. Gu Qing'an was in a coma for many years. Could it be that before he fell into a coma, Mr. Gu Qing'an commissioned Ma Shilong to write this novel, requesting to be the male protagonist?" Qin Luming considered this possibility and didn't mind discussing it with Ke Mu.

Ke Mu frowned. He hadn't really considered that possibility... Currently, there was no clue regarding this matter. This question, which seemed unrelated to the disappearance case, was something he had to pay attention to, to see if any useful information could be extracted.

For investigation companies, besides commercial commissions, finding people was also one of their most common requests.

However, Gu Qing'an's disappearance was truly bizarre. A vegetative state patient who had been in a coma for over a decade waking up was the first strangeness. Waking up and immediately being able to move freely and regain normal consciousness was the second strangeness. After waking up, he ran to an abandoned Zinc Factory and disappeared, which was the third strangeness.

Connected to this Gu Qing'an was a reclusive web writer who had no contact with the Gu family. Then, the second-year university student who found the phone, who seemed suspicious, came from an extremely wealthy family but had no possibility of having known Gu Qing'an before... because when Gu Qing'an fell into a coma, Qin Luming was just a child. After that, even Gu family members needed Gu Cheng's permission to visit Gu Qing'an. Gu Qing'an and Qin Luming had no chance to interact... These were two more points that were difficult to understand.

"It's possible," Ke Mu nodded. "I'd like to ask Mr. Qin, are you familiar with Ma Shilong?"

"I've read his books, but I don't know him personally," Qin Luming shook his head.

"Then I won't bother you further. I hope Mr. Qin will keep my business card. If you discover anything, you can contact me," Ke Mu said, knowing he couldn't get any more useful information from Qin Luming at the moment.

"Okay." Qin Luming opened his phone, received the electronic business card Ke Mu sent, and then walked into the school.

Ke Mu remained standing in place, looking up towards the east. The morning sun, which had revealed a corner of its light, was now completely obscured by dark clouds.

"Boss, any findings?" the driver of the van got out and came to Ke Mu's side.

"This Qin Luming also asked Ma Shilong's address in that reader group, and then Ma Shilong also disappeared," Ke Mu said. He hadn't mentioned this to Qin Luming earlier. Qin Luming might have secrets he didn't want to reveal, but choosing to conceal them because he didn't want to get more deeply involved was understandable... Ke Mu didn't assume Qin Luming was the mastermind.

"I think this kid is probably involved," the driver said based on his intuition. For people in their line of work, intuition was a crucial sense of direction. Often, the direction of an investigation and breakthroughs in difficult cases relied on intuition.

"I, on the other hand, think... Gu Qing'an is missing, Ma Shilong is missing. So if someone else goes missing next, could it be this Qin Luming?" Ke Mu shook his head slightly. Years of experience told him that Gu Qing'an's disappearance was somewhat strange, and it was best not to get too deeply involved. The possibility of Qin Luming being the mastermind was extremely small, but the possibility of him being the next person to disappear was quite high.

The driver trembled. As expected of the boss. If only he had such timely directional thinking. At that moment, he wished he could say, "My admiration for the boss is like a surging river, unending, like a flood from the Yellow River, uncontrollable," but that meme was too old. So, he could only look at Ke Mu, who was lost in thought, with reverent eyes, quietly accompanying him with a deep, gentle gaze.