Chapter V: Dual Identity

After a short while, the barber shop owner truly kept his promise and arranged for several of the more senior hair stylists and assistants in the shop to come over. The small utility room suddenly became unbearably crowded. An Changpu had to instruct them to go back to their work first, leaving only one or two people behind each time for questioning. Otherwise, not to mention the lack of space in the utility room, voices talking over one another would probably have led to a shortage of oxygen by that point.

In this manner, they divided the people into several waves, interviewing them one after another. By the time they finished gathering information from those employees whom the barber shop owner deemed most familiar with Cui Lidong, the sky had already grown dark.

Basically, none of those people were particularly close to Cui Lidong; there was no sense of intimacy. Just as the owner had stated earlier, almost all of them brought up the issue of Cui Lidong's aloof personality, describing him as taciturn, not very proactive in interacting with others, and always quiet and keeping to himself. However, one point was directly or indirectly mentioned by these people throughout their conversations: although Cui Lidong was quiet and low-key, he was definitely not a soft pushover who was easy to bully.

Aside from the barber shop owner's mention of Cui Lidong's "underworld friends" not being decent sorts—which was corroborated by others—one of the hair-washing assistants even recounted another frightening act committed by Cui Lidong that shocked everyone.

"I used to work under him. The boss assigned him to guide me, to teach me techniques and skills, so I usually hung around him, helping him roll customers' hair or doing auxiliary odd jobs for coloring and perming. But after that incident, I felt somewhat scared in my heart and found an excuse to switch to assisting someone else," that hair-washing assistant told An Changpu and Qin Ruonan. "Cui Lidong had a pair of hair-cutting shears that he treasured like a baby. He carried them everywhere he went. When he was in the shop, he wore them on his waist like a cowboy strapping on a handgun; when he wasn't in the shop, he locked them in his toolbox. Anyway, except for himself, no one else was allowed to touch them. You know how people are—isn't human curiosity quite strong? The more mysterious he acted about it, the more curious people became. One day, he went out for a while on some business, and when he left, he casually put the shears into his toolbox, but didn't lock it securely. Another hair stylist in our shop took advantage of his absence to take those shears out and try them. As a result, when Cui Lidong came back and found out someone had touched his shears, he asked who did it. That hair stylist didn't think it was a big deal and admitted to it right on the spot. And guess what happened next?"

Although the assistant used a rhetorical question, he didn't actually expect Qin Ruonan and the other to respond, continuing on his own in a tone as if he had just seen an alien: "Just for such a trivial matter, he beat that hair stylist up! And it wasn't just a simple pushing and shoving kind of thing; he broke three of that hair stylist's ribs! Although he apologized afterward and paid for the medical expenses so the other person didn't plan to press charges, after that hair stylist was discharged from the hospital, he resigned and quit, saying he felt unsafe working with such a lunatic! Ever since then, even if those shears of his were left right in the middle of the path, everyone would walk around them and no one dared to touch them, all terrified that their ribs wouldn't be safe if they weren't careful."

"Were those shears of his special in some way?" An Changpu asked, puzzled. Hearing the assistant's account, he also felt that Cui Lidong's reaction was a bit over the top; to beat someone until they suffered fractured ribs merely over such a tiny matter seemed far too exaggerated.

"Actually, there was nothing special about them. If those shears had been gold-plated or diamond-encrusted, we wouldn't have found anything strange about it! It was precisely because there was nothing special about them and yet he treated them like a treasure that it wasn't right, don't you think?" The assistant curled his lip. "If you want to talk about anything special, the absolute most special thing about them was that those shears were meant for a left-handed person, and the direction of the blade sharpening was a bit different from ordinary hair-cutting shears!"

"Are left-handed hair-cutting shears much more expensive?" Qin Ruonan speculated about the possibility and followed up on the topic of left-handedness mentioned by the assistant. "Did Cui Lidong usually use this kind of left-handed hair-cutting shears?"

"Left-handed shears are definitely more expensive than right-handed ones, but not to the absurd extent of being excessively costly—maybe a hundred or eighty yuan more expensive. His seemed to be some brand-name high-end shears, which might be a bit pricier. Others in the shop said they could be worth over a thousand yuan. But even if they were worth over ten thousand yuan, touching them didn't break them; there's no reason to beat someone so severely just because of that!" The hair-washing assistant still seemed to have lingering fears about the incident that had happened right in front of him. Once he started talking about it, he couldn't stop chattering away, and even forgot about Qin Ruonan's other question.

"He usually only used those left-handed hair-cutting shears, right?" Seeing that he was solely focused on talking about the beating incident, Qin Ruonan had no choice but to ask again.

The assistant shook his head: "That's not the case. Didn't I just say that he treasured those shears immensely and carried them strapped to his waist all day long? So he almost never actually took them out to use; usually, he just used ordinary hair-cutting shears."

"Cui Lidong is left-handed. Are his ordinary hair-cutting shears also left-handed ones?" An Changpu asked. Noticing that the assistant showed a trace of a puzzled expression at the word 'left-handed', he had to rephrase, "I mean what you called a southpaw."

"Oh," the assistant suddenly understood, "That's not it. He knew how to use his right hand for haircutting. Before these unpleasantness happened, some people in our shop even joked that if Cui Lidong were to pick up shears in both hands, he could instantly transform into Edward Scissorhands."

The fighting and wounding incident triggered by a pair of shears, first mentioned by this assistant, was also verified by several others later on. Not only this incident, but they were also crystal clear about the conflict between Cui Lidong and Song Chengliang. It was just that some people seemed inclined to stand on Song Chengliang's side, while a few others maintained a completely indifferent, spectator-like attitude. It seemed that in this barber shop where Cui Lidong had worked for a year or two, his popularity really wasn't very good.

When Song Chengliang was brought up, these people instantly changed their attitudes. Among the few questioned, not a single one failed to praise Song Chengliang to the skies, lauding him as if he were peerless in heaven and earth.

"Brother Song is a capable man! He is definitely someone who has seen the big world," a hair stylist said with a face full of admiration when talking about Song Chengliang. "Just listen to him speak; you can tell he has such depth, such cultivation, and he really elevates you! I never expected him to encounter such a thing! It's completely unreasonable! It's truly a pity for a man like him!"

"Were you there when the dispute broke out between him and Cui Lidong that day?" An Changpu asked him.

"Ah, basically everyone in our shop was there. There were quite a lot of customers at the time, otherwise Brother Song wouldn't have looked for Cui Lidong. He had never asked Cui Lidong to cut his hair before," the hair stylist said with a hint of self-satisfaction and the sourness of professional jealousy. "If I hadn't already had three or four reservation customers waiting for me that day, it wouldn't have been Cui Lidong's turn at all. If you ask me, Cui Lidong's skill just wasn't up to par. He was just a little distracted and actually clipped the customer's ear with the shears without even realizing it! Brother Song's ear was bleeding at the time, bleeding a lot. If it were you guys, would you be anxious?"

"Was the injury very severe?" Qin Ruonan's mind conjured up the old wound on the ear mentioned in the forensic report, as well as those photographs of the two ears that had been cut off and discarded in a dumpster. Neither from the pictures nor from Dr. Zhao's description did it show how severe that wound was.

"Of course it was severe! I was watching from afar, and just the blood flowing out made me dizzy! The assistant tried to press on it to stop the bleeding, but couldn't. I remember the wound was showing white bone; maybe it clipped the ear cartilage!" the hair stylist said with some exaggeration.

Qin Ruonan frowned and glanced at An Changpu. An Changpu nodded at the hair stylist and said, "Thank you for your cooperation. You may go out now."

"Done? Is there nothing else to ask?" The hair stylist seemed somewhat disappointed. Seeing that they truly had nothing else they wanted to find out from him, he reluctantly walked out of the utility room.

"This person's account is somewhat exaggerated. I estimate that his relationship with Cui Lidong wasn't very good on ordinary days. Let's listen to what others have to say, gather information from multiple perspectives, and make a comprehensive reference," An Changpu shook his head and went to the doorway to call the next person in.

Subsequently, they chatted with a few more people, and it could basically be ascertained that Song Chengliang's general impression on them was talkative, bold, and eloquent. Every time he patronized the shop, he would chat away animatedly with the hair stylists, hair-washing assistants, and even the shampoo girls. Moreover, his personality seemed particularly adept at charming everyone and keeping relationships smooth, able to make every single person ecstatic and thoroughly happy.

Even other female customers who were cutting their hair in the shop at the same time were often doubled over with laughter by his witty performance.

As for the incident where Cui Lidong cut Song Chengliang's ear, synthesizing the accounts given by everyone, the final credible conclusion could roughly be boiled down to this: it was a fact that Cui Lidong was absent-minded, and Song Chengliang's ear indeed bled a lot. However, it was certain that it was merely a superficial injury, and the wound was not deep. Furthermore, at that time, Cui Lidong had indeed offered to accompany him to the hospital to check and treat the wound. Yet Song Chengliang, who had always been so well-liked, completely reversed his usual demeanor and flew into a rage as if he had become a completely different person. He was unyielding and demanding, immediately requiring Cui Lidong to pay him a hefty compensation. When they failed to reach an agreement, he repeatedly came back to the barber shop to cause trouble for Cui Lidong.

Those barber shop employees who had a favorable impression of Song Chengliang could not explain why Song Chengliang had suddenly changed his face and become such a stubborn brawler.

"Logically speaking, Brother Song shouldn't be the kind of person who would extort money! He is so capable, wealthy, and powerful, and knows quite a few star singers and celebrities—he couldn't possibly be that kind of person!" The female cashier of the barber shop spoke with a tone similarly filled with admiration when mentioning Song Chengliang, and she expressed incomprehension at his behavior.

"What did Song Chengliang tell you his job was?" An Changpu was somewhat puzzled. How could an ordinary food company employee, someone who relied on completing sales quotas to earn bonuses, be perceived as wealthy and powerful?

"He was a nutritional consultant at a very famous body-sculpting center right around here!" the cashier said.