Chapter Fifty-Four: "The Marriage Broker"

"Marriage ads? How did you know about that?" Upon receiving word that someone had recognized Lumin, An Changpu and Xiao Wei hurried over. As soon as Xiao Wei saw the hotel owner who claimed to recognize Lumin, he immediately voiced his suspicion. "Is your business so bad that you barely get any guests all year, or do you interrogate every single person who stays here? How can you be so sure?"

"Listen to yourself! Helping people is becoming a mistake, is it?" The hotel owner was clearly displeased by this line of questioning. "You come here looking for someone, I say I remember them, and you still doubt me? Fine, then! I won't say another word!"

With that, he folded his arms across his chest, turned his back, and sat behind the small bar in the living room, making it clear he had no interest in further conversation.

Realizing his words had backfired and annoyed the man, Xiao Wei felt a bit embarrassed. He had meant to help but ended up making things worse. Now at a loss, he looked pleadingly at Qin Ruonan, thinking that perhaps, as the only woman present, she might be able to break the ice more easily.

Qin Ruonan, catching his gaze, could only offer an awkward smile, unsure what to say. Xiao Wei had misjudged her; if she needed to use her presence to command respect, she might manage, but defusing awkward situations was hardly her strength.

So she, too, looked to An Changpu for help. An Changpu sighed inwardly, a little exasperated. In his mind, where men and women worked together, it was usually the woman's job to smooth things over and the man's to play the tough guy. Yet somehow, with him and Qin Ruonan, their roles had reversed—a blow, however slight, to his masculine pride.

But setbacks aside, the matter at hand could not be delayed. He pulled from his pocket a pack of "prop" cigarettes, shook one free, and offered it to the hotel owner. The owner glanced askance at the smiling young man, plucked the cigarette, and tucked it behind his ear, neither smoking nor speaking.

"How should I address you, brother?" An Changpu took out a lighter, gesturing as if to light the man's cigarette.

The hotel owner, unaware he was dealing with detectives, assumed they were just people searching for someone. Annoyed, he brusquely pushed away the offered lighter. "No need. The smoke lingers, and future guests might not like it. If there's nothing else, you all should go. When more people come, the place is too small to stand around."

Qin Ruonan pressed her lips together, a trace of displeasure on her face. She glanced at An Changpu and, after catching his warning look, lowered her gaze and remained silent.

An Changpu surveyed the place. The small house serving as a hotel was only seventy or eighty square meters. The square little living room was surrounded by open doorways, except for a single bathroom. The rooms themselves were cramped, clearly partitioned from the original layout.

Most of the doors stood open. Now, with no one speaking—not even the hotel owner—the house was silent, a sign that his earlier words had simply been a dismissal. Business here could truly be described as "so quiet you could hang a door with cobwebs."

Perhaps An Changpu's glance around made the owner self-conscious. He cleared his throat to save face. "Most people here just rent by the hour, waiting for a ride. When the time comes, this place fills up fast!"

An Changpu smiled, not exposing the lie. He leaned on the small bar, drawing closer, and lowered his voice. "Those two are my girlfriend and her brother. Here’s the thing: the woman in the photo ran off with her father's tens of thousands of yuan, and now we can't find her. The old man’s fallen seriously ill from the worry and asked us to help look. The siblings are anxious and may have spoken out of turn—please don’t take it to heart! If you know anything, tell me, help us out. Otherwise, I’ll be running here every day until my legs give out."

The hotel owner looked at An Changpu, then at Qin Ruonan and Xiao Wei behind him, a spark of curiosity in his eyes.

"So what, you're saying she conned your future father-in-law? How did they meet—through a matchmaking agency?" Instead of answering An Changpu’s question, the owner began probing in return.

An Changpu scratched his head, a little embarrassed. "You said 'future,' right? How would I know all the details? The old man never told me how he met her. Now she’s missing, the money’s gone, and he’s in the hospital. At his age, his children are bound to be anxious, so we’re just asking around. Have you seen her lately?"

"Actually, I haven’t seen her recently!" The owner bared his teeth, thinking for a moment, then shook his head helplessly. His tone was much softer, mostly curious now. "Why not try asking at the matchmaking agencies outside? Maybe they’ve seen her lately!"

"Are you sure she’d have registered at a matchmaking agency?" An Changpu asked, hope and uncertainty in his voice.

Perhaps his tone made the difference, because the owner, far from getting angry, grinned silently and patted An Changpu on the shoulder. "Little brother, I work in the service industry. I may not be good at much, but I’m pretty sharp at reading people. It doesn’t take much—just a few words, and I can guess who someone is, where they’re from, and I’m rarely wrong!"

With skills like these, how have you not figured out that the person feeding you lines is a detective? Qin Ruonan almost laughed, watching the owner.

An Changpu, meanwhile, looked at the owner with sincere admiration. "Could you give me some pointers?"

"It's not about pointers—I just feel sorry you got taken in! I always thought that woman was a marriage scammer. A single woman, from out of town, in a city like this—a place nobody would choose over a big city. I asked her if she was here for business or to see relatives, and she said she was here to find a husband." The owner curled his lip, his tone and expression dripping with disdain—a feeling that seemed to predate An Changpu’s story, but was now confirmed by it. "She’s stayed here four or five times! Just from what I remember, at least four different men have come looking for her! That’s not normal, right? And the way she spoke—always deliberately soft and delicate, just putting on an act. Not an honest person!"

Qin Ruonan, having listened for a while, finally couldn’t help herself. She stepped forward and asked, "Do you require ID to check in here?"

She was curious what kind of identification Lumin might have used.

"No, just a deposit," the owner replied, misunderstanding her intent and thinking she was simply trying to find out the woman's name. "But I do vaguely remember, when one of the men brought her back, he called her something like 'Bing'..."