Security guards were often little more than window dressing.
Even a commercial high-rise would have only one or two guards on the night shift at most.
Even an upscale residential complex would have just one guard on night duty.
A villa complex like this naturally had more than one or two guards on duty, but not many more.
I figured three or four was the limit.
"How are you planning to get in?" Meng Yifan was curious about my plan.
The Seventh Master, who had still been sulking, came over too.
Before I could answer Meng Yifan's question, a van pulled up and stopped by the roadside.
The door slid open, and five or six thuggish-looking punks climbed out.
They all looked young. Some were probably only sixteen or seventeen.
"Which one of you is Boss Chen?"
The punk leading them walked over.
I beckoned to him and handed over the thousand yuan in cash I had prepared. "Thanks for your help tonight. I explained everything clearly in my text just now. Once you take the money, I hope you'll get the job done properly."
A thousand yuan wasn't much. It really wasn't.
But to these wannabe tough guys, who had to pool their money just to buy cigarettes, it was a fortune.
The leader's eyes lit up when he took the cash. He chuckled. "Don't worry, boss. It's no big deal. We'll get it done."
With that, he took a bottle of Erguotou out of the van. They each took a swig, then he led the others straight toward the complex's entrance.
Meng Yifan stared in disbelief, then asked me anxiously, "What are you trying to do? Force your way in?"
I explained, "These guys will pretend to be drunk and get into a fight outside the entrance. The guards here should take their jobs pretty seriously. To keep the residents from being disturbed, they'll gather at the gate to keep an eye on things. The ones watching the cameras and patrolling will all come over."
"That's when we go in."
We would climb over the wall, brazenly and in plain sight.
Meng Yifan punched me playfully. "Fucking brilliant. Prison could use a talent like you."
The Seventh Master couldn't help giving me a look too. "So young, and already full of tricks for sneaking around and stealing. Come on. What are you waiting for? The fight will be over if we stand around much longer."
We quickly skirted around the main entrance and ran toward the back gate.
The punks had already started fighting outside the entrance. I saw a guard rush out of the booth and immediately grab his radio, presumably to call for backup.
We didn't have time to watch the show. We went straight around to the back gate and climbed over the wall.
As kids, Meng Yifan and I had both loved going back to the countryside to play. Climbing walls and trees was nothing difficult.
What surprised me was that the Seventh Master climbed the wall like a seasoned offender too.
Still so nimble at his age. Impressive.
Once we were over the wall, we didn't dare make ourselves too conspicuous, even though the patrolling guards had been drawn to the front entrance. We avoided the cameras as best we could and headed for Villa 24.
There was no need to go out of our way to investigate Du Ruhai's address. It was available online.
We soon reached Villa 24.
Before climbing over another wall, I took three masks and three hats out of my backpack.
Seeing how thoroughly prepared I was, the Seventh Master looked as if he had swallowed shit. "Once we go in, this becomes a different kind of offense. Burglary carries a prison sentence of up to three years..."
I immediately deployed the most persuasive phrase in our culture: "We're already here..."
There was nothing more to say. We had gone too far to turn back.
It was clearly too late to back out now, so we climbed straight over the wall into Du Ruhai's villa grounds.
Honestly, even though I worked in real estate, this was the first time I had seen such a luxurious villa.
That was the difference between people's lives. Being rich was fucking great.
This wasn't the time to marvel. We tried to get our bearings, but the villa was so huge that we didn't even know how to get inside.
Despite his reluctance to come in with us, the Seventh Master seemed more professional than either of us.
He led us straight around to a window.
We took a look and realized it belonged to a ground-floor bathroom.
"You're pretty good at this, Seventh Master," Meng Yifan teased.
The Seventh Master glared at us. "Du Ruhai isn't home, but we don't know whether anyone else is here. Remember, we're thieves right now, so we need to act like professionals. If we make a noise and someone inside hears us, there's no way we'll get away. Understand?"
We both nodded repeatedly.
Although I was the one who had talked them into coming, I was nervous too.
I was genuinely afraid of getting caught.
We took another look at the villa. It had three floors, with an attic above them, and not a single light was on anywhere.
If anyone was inside, they were probably asleep.
We figured that if Du Yuwei's body was being kept at home, it probably wouldn't be on the ground floor. The third floor or attic seemed most likely.
Under the Seventh Master's direction, we climbed into the bathroom one at a time, planning to head up to the second floor first.
The Seventh Master went first, followed by Meng Yifan. I climbed in last.
The moment I landed inside, before I could even steady myself, I froze. Every hair on my body stood on end.
The bathroom window faced the doorway. Beside it was a sink, with a mirror mounted above it.
In the mirror's reflection, I saw... a pair of red eyes watching me from behind.
I was too frightened to move. All I could do was keep staring into the mirror.
The Seventh Master and Meng Yifan froze beside me too. They had also seen those red eyes.
For a moment, none of us dared move. We strained to make out what those red eyes belonged to through the mirror.
But it was too dark to see clearly, and they remained perfectly still. The longer they stayed motionless, the more frightened we became.
The Seventh Master was still braver than us. In a flash, he spun around, pressed his back against the wall, and took a fighting stance.
But he soon let out a breath of relief.
"Fuck, that scared the shit out of me!"
Hearing the Seventh Master swear, we relaxed too, knowing there couldn't be any danger.
Sure enough, those supposed red eyes were actually two bright red candles, each burned down to less than a tenth of its original length. With no light in the bathroom except the faint moonlight filtering in, we had mistaken them for a pair of eyes.
Still, something about it felt eerie.
What normal person would light red candles at home?
In traditional culture, white usually represented mourning, while red represented happy occasions.
This was the Du family's home, and Du Yuwei had just died. Whatever candles they lit, they shouldn't have been red.
Someone had died. What was there to celebrate...
"Very strange."
The Seventh Master frowned and lowered his voice. "These were only lit for weddings in ancient times."
Meng Yifan and I exchanged bewildered looks.
A wedding?
Du Yuwei had only just died, and someone was already getting married?
Who could be so carefree, with no regard for taboos?
Before you continue