"Yes. I'm really scared now. I don't dare contact him. I took my things and left that day, and I haven't contacted him since. Then, a couple of days ago, the landlord—the landlord called me..."
"What did he say?"
"I didn't dare answer. I hung up right away. Then he sent me a text. This is it."
Rustling...
"'Xiao Yu, this is your landlord, Zhang. How come you haven't paid next month's rent yet? Is something making it difficult for you? If something's going on, just give me a call. Don't keep it to yourself. We can work anything out.'"
"Yes, that's the one. That's exactly what it said. Look at the messages above it. The texts he sent when I transferred the rent to him over the past few months were all casual, just like this one. But that day—when I saw him, I called him, and he was really creepy! He..."
"Right, we understand."
"I didn't know who else to turn to. I found you online, so I contacted you. As long as you can resolve this, we can work out everything else."
"If you don't mind, could we contact your landlord now?"
"Now? Here? Oh... I, I don't really know..."
"He hasn't attacked you, right?"
"No, he hasn't done anything. It's just that the way he looked was so frightening... And the way he looked in the video, those eyes..."
"I understand. We'll call him now."
Brrring—brrring—
"Hello, who's this?"
"Hello, may I speak with Mr. Zhang? Mr. Zhang Dongliang?"
"That's me. Who is this...?"
"We're colleagues of Mr. Yu Ao."
"Oh, oh! Xiao Yu's colleagues... What can I do for you? Is something wrong with Xiao Yu?"
"Yes. Our company had an urgent matter come up, so we sent Mr. Yu out of town on