Chapter 4: Dangerous Element

Whether it was because An Changpu rejected her too quickly, or because the commission she thought was easy to get had vanished into thin air, the shampoo assistant's expression looked somewhat disappointed. She ignored An Changpu's question and instead tried once more to recommend some hair conditioning treatments to him. She went on to emphasize that men nowadays needed grooming too, especially good-looking men who should know how to make the most of their advantages. Her non-stop persuasion left An Changpu completely overwhelmed. Several times, he signaled Qin Ruonan to rescue him, but she only watched from the sidelines with a suppressed smile.

At long last, the shampoo assistant gave up her lobbying and lost her enthusiasm for An Changpu, whom she regarded as an absolute penny-pincher. Dropping a remark that the boss would be there soon, she turned on her heel and walked out.

"I'm really glad that girl didn't go into multi-level marketing. With her kind of relentless persistence, she might actually have managed to drag a whole crowd down with her!" An Changpu rubbed his temples and looked at Qin Ruonan in puzzlement. "It's strange. Shouldn't you women be considered the high-consumption demographic for hair salons? Why was she pestering me endlessly instead of putting any effort into you?"

"Because I'm not easy to talk to, and my expression tends to turn sour quite easily. As for you, you look like a nice guy at first glance—a real friend to women. It wouldn't make sense not to target you." Amused by An Changpu's predicament, Qin Ruonan couldn't help teasing him a little maliciously.

"It looks like I need to learn from Brother Feng or Dr. Lu and cultivate my own imposing aura!" An Changpu sighed helplessly.

Before long, the owner of the hair salon arrived. He was a young man in his thirties, dressed rather fashionably. Presumably, he had already heard some details from the shampoo assistant before coming to the small storage room, so as soon as he stepped through the door, he enthusiastically greeted An Changpu and Qin Ruonan: "Sorry to keep the two of you waiting! My apologies! There were some minor matters at my other shop that I couldn't get away from."

As he spoke, he scooped a large, sealed package of disinfected, pre-packaged towels off a nearby shelf, placed it on the floor as a makeshift cushion, and sat down on it.

"Have a seat too!" After sitting down, he noticed that both An Changpu and Qin Ruonan were still standing, and hurriedly pointed to the packs of towels on the shelf behind them.

"We'll stand, it's fine. Please don't stand on ceremony."

"Alright then, ask whatever you need to ask!" The boss was a straightforward man who didn't beat around the bush and took the initiative to question An Changpu and Qin Ruonan.

"Tell us about Cui Lidong."

"He hasn't been with me the longest, but in our industry, the turnover rate is sometimes quite high. All things considered, the time he's spent at my shop isn't short either," the salon owner said, habitually reaching into his pocket for a cigarette. Realizing that he was in the storage room for disinfected towels and that smoking might be inappropriate, he put it back. "To be completely honest, I wasn't particularly satisfied with Cui Lidong. If it weren't for his excellent haircutting skills, which brought in quite a few returning customers, I probably would have had him look for another employer long ago."

Hearing this, An Changpu grew interested: "Did he perform poorly here, or did he have some bad habits or misconduct?"

The boss waved his hand. "Misconduct or bad habits are out of the question. He was usually quite quiet. When there were customers, he worked; when there weren't, he would just sit by himself in the corner and listen to others talk and chat without making much noise. In all fairness, he was also quite diligent. Whenever it was his turn for duty, he would help clean up the hair and trash on the floor. The reason I wasn't entirely satisfied with him and occasionally wanted him to look for other opportunities was mainly because he always had various friends coming to see him. I didn't know much about Cui Lidong's background, only that he wasn't a local, but those friends of his who kept showing looked like bad news."

The owner's words drew the serious attention of Qin Ruonan and An Changpu. Generally speaking, the more a service industry deals with all sorts of people from every walk of life and social stratum—especially places like restaurants and hair salons that everyone needs—the more diverse individuals one encounters over time. With enough experience, one can indeed develop a sharp sense of observation.

Businessmen, in particular, have an innate instinct for self-preservation and risk avoidance. For the salon owner to feel that those people looked like bad news—to the extent that he even considered firing a stylist who was quite popular with customers—was enough to prove that those so-called friends were definitely not kind-hearted folk.

"Roughly how many people were there in total among the ones you mentioned? What kind of people were they? Did they come to see Cui Lidong frequently?" An Changpu asked.

"I can't say for sure how many there were in total; the people who came each time weren't fixed. When there were few, it was one or two; when there were many, four or five. There were a few who came to see Cui Lidong quite frequently and looked familiar to me, but I didn't recognize the ones who only tagged along occasionally. They haven't come around much lately, but a few months ago, they used to show up once or twice a week. As soon as they stepped into the shop, they would be loud and boisterous. They didn't care even if Cui Lidong had customers, crowding around him and making pointing gestures while talking, which made the customers very unhappy. So later on, whenever they came, I would give Cui Lidong time off and tell him to go outside with his friends to 'catch up' so they wouldn't affect the business in the shop."

As the boss spoke, he seemed to be recalling their appearances. Halfway through, he suddenly remembered that among those people, there was a particularly familiar face, so he added, "I remember now. Although I didn't know those fellows who frequently came to look for Cui Lidong, there was one time when they brought someone along whom I do recognize. He's a notorious hoodlum in our city. Once, I heard a friend of mine who also does business mention that a restaurant owner had offended that hoodlum, so he brought eight or ten men to that restaurant every day. When there were no customers, they would order two taels of rice, take one table each, and count the grains of rice one by one, simply refusing to leave. Every single one of them looked fierce and menacing. In the end, no one dared to go there to eat, and the owner couldn't take it anymore, so he willingly gave the hoodlum a sum of money, begging him to spare him and stop interfering with his business in the future. So when I saw that guy tagging along as well, I was scared to death."

"What was their purpose in coming to see Cui Lidong? How did Cui Lidong treat them?" Qin Ruonan pressed further.

"I don't know what they actually came to see Cui Lidong for. Some of the people who came seemed very familiar with him, while others just seemed to have tagged along out of curiosity and didn't really know him. As for Cui Lidong, his attitude toward them was rather lukewarm. Sometimes, when they interrupted him while he was cutting hair for a customer, he would even show clear impatience," the boss drew in a worried breath. "That's why I've always felt uneasy, fearing that one day Cui Lidong might push those hard-to-deal-with characters too far and drag my shop down with him as well. I've had the thought of letting him go, but on one hand, I was afraid his returning customers wouldn't come back, and on the other hand, I was also afraid that Cui Lidong might be in cahoots with them. If I fired him and he held a grudge and targeted me, I wouldn't be able to handle it either. To tell you the truth—and please don't laugh at me—doing business isn't easy. One misstep and all my assets could go down the drain. So I've been in a very difficult position. As for Cui Lidong, he felt rather dangerous to me, or at least that's how I perceived him."

"Aside from those friends who didn't seem to have good intentions, was there anything else about Cui Lidong that made you feel he was dangerous?" An Changpu hoped the salon owner could provide more details.

The hair salon owner shook his head instead. "I have two shops, and they are quite far apart. That branch opened later than this one and isn't on the right track yet. Plus, my wife just had a baby at home, so I don't spend much time at this location. I basically just come by every day to take a look and stay for a little while, unless there's something special and someone calls to notify me. They only called me just now to say the police were here asking about Cui Lidong, which is why I came over. In the past, when Cui Lidong's friends came by, the staff here would get scared that something might happen and would secretly call me to come and check on the situation."

"Did Cui Lidong have any relatively close relationships with anyone in the shop usually?"

"As far as I know, there weren't any. Like I just said, apart from work, he was always quite quiet and didn't seem very sociable," the boss hesitated, saying with some uncertainty, "However, my word might not be entirely accurate. I never poked my nose into what kind of personal relationships they had behind the scenes. All I know is that Cui Lidong didn't live with the other stylists in the apartment I rented; he rented a place of his own outside. If you want to ask about Cui Lidong, I can call the other stylists and assistants who have worked here about as long as he has. They spent more time with him than I did and might be able to help you better than I can."

"That would be best if possible. When we came in just now, we saw that your business is doing quite well. We'll try to keep it brief and won't take up too much of your time or disrupt your business," An Changpu said politely to the salon owner.

The boss waved his hand indifferently. "You can never earn enough money; more or less, it won't make a difference for just a little while! When we heard earlier that Cui Lidong was suspected of murder, everyone in the shop got a huge scare upon learning there was a murderer hiding right among us. So go ahead and ask however you need to today! If he was wronged, at least we'll know there isn't a killer lurking beside us. And if he really did commit murder, let them sentence him quickly—lock him up for life or just execute him by firing squad—that way we can actually feel at ease, otherwise it always feels creepy."

True to his word, the salon owner went out personally to call over the stylists and assistants who usually spent the most time with Cui Lidong, asking An Changpu and Qin Ruonan to wait a moment.

"It sounds like the boss secretly prefers to believe that Cui Lidong really is the murderer. Did you hear how uncertain his tone was just now when he mentioned that Cui Lidong might have been wronged?" An Changpu shook his head with some helplessness. Originally, Cui Lidong's background and family circumstances were already disadvantageous to his situation; he hadn't expected even his employer to view him as a potential danger.

"The truth is sometimes in the hands of the majority, but other times it rests with the minority. Let's listen to what the others have to say first," Qin Ruonan said.