Police Officers

Liu Tang ended up taking two hours in the shower. He was too immensed in the flowing water, reminding him of a waterfall but was inside a room.

He walked out, drenched with the water and made his floor wet. By the time he realized it, the hardwood floor of the apartment was already filled with water.

"Damn it!" Liu Tang cursed. He walked back inside the bathroom and saw the towel. He dried himself off and prepared for bed.

A clock was displayed on the night stand, showing the time which was a quarter past midnight. Where Liu Tang came from, they used a sundial to tell the time. The numbers in the sundial were the same as the numbers in the clock, so Liu Tang could understand it easily.

With a sigh, Liu Tang fell asleep without knowing what craziness would come his way the next day.

Knock. Knock. Knock.

A series of knocking on his door woke Liu Tang up. When he opened it, he saw two men wearing blue uniforms with badges on their chests and a cap was sitting comfortably on their heads.

One of them whom carries a pen and a notepad asked Liu Tang. "Good morning sir, we're from the police stationg and we have a murder case right beside your apartment. Can we ask you a series of questions?"

Liu Tang did his best to pretend that he didn't knew anything. The Bureau of Transmigrated Cultivators did their jobs in cleaning the mess that the Taotie made, but they left the nurder scene untouched. But why? Liu Tang thought.

"Which apartment, sir?" Liu Tang asked to which the officer replied by pointing at Quan Rui's apartment unit. "Quan Rui? She died?"

"More like mauled," the police officer without the notepad replied. "So, can we ask you the questions now?"

Liu Tang nodded vigorously. He let the police officers enter his apartment where they made themselves sit on the sofa. Liu Tang sat on the chair in front of the sofa, sighing.

"Who could've done that?" Liu Tang asked.

"You can call me Officer Yuan," the police officer said without acknowledging Liu Tang's question. "Where were you at the time between nine and eleven in the evening?"

"I was home by ten in the evening," Liu Tang answered. "I walked from the cafe I worked at."

"Several eye witnesses pointed out that you were the person last seen with Ms. Quan," the other police officer said. "Do you deny the said allegations?"

"No," Liu Tang answered. He must do his best to clear his name, this is by answering their questions truthfully aside from the events after Quan Rui opened his door. "She helped me open my door because I forgot how to do it."

Yuan narrowed his eyes, "You forgot how to do it?"

"I had an accident a couple of days ago," Liu Tang said. He was using all the knowledge he gained from talking to DongFeng, mimicking the man's speech patters and information he said to him. "I hurt my head and I forgot a lot of things."

The police officers looked at each other before the other one asked. "So, after ten PM, you didn't have any contact with Ms. Quan?"

Liu Tang shook his head. "No. I went inside and took a bath."

Yuan suddenly stood and opened the door to Liu Tang's bathroom. He walked inside and looked around, trying to find something. "I don't see any blood stains here."

An empty bottle was sitting on the corner of the shower area with the clothes that Liu Tang wore the night before. This raised Officer Yuan's suspicions, making him take a couple of photos of the scene.

"What are your clothes doing at the corner of the showe room, Mr. Liu?" Yuan asked. "You seem to have thrown them there after washing them."

"I forgot that I needed to take my clothes off when I shower," Liu Tang answered. It was a good thing that he was quick witted. Any question that was thrown at him was replied with ease.

"You forgot?" Yuan scoffed. "This is interesting."

"Officer Yuan, you don't seem to believe my words," Liu Tang stood and pursed his lips. "Why is that?"

"Oh, Mr. Liu, I didn't say anything," Yuan smirked. He called for his co-worker and they both let themselves out. "We'll be back for further questions, sir. Have a great day."

Liu Tang was not afraid. He smiled at them and gave them a little bow, filled with sarcasm. "Have a great day, officers."

Right after the door closed, Liu Tang felt his feet lose their energy. He fell into the sofa right on time for his phone to ring.

"How do you use this?" Liu Tang asked, seeing DongFeng's name on the screen. He read ever single word there found the right button to press.

"Where are you?!" DongFeng yelled from the phone. "ShuChun is mad– no, she's furious. She doesn't like late workers, have you forgotten?"

"Interesting," Liu Tang inspected the phone. He raised it, tuned it, and took a peek closer. "How does this work?"

"Are you messing with me right now?!" DongFeng yelled. "Come to work or else you'll get fired. Don't think that just because ShuChun is fond of you, you'll get off the hook with this one."

From DongFeng's words, Liu Tang could see why the man was hostile towards him. There was a competition inside the cafe, between two employees with one getting jealous over the other who did absolutely nothing wrong to him.

Liu Tang chuckled at DongDong's reaction. "I will be there soon. I'm going to change my clothes now."

"You better," were DongFeng's words before he dropped the call, leaving Liu Tang to listen to the long beep.

"Wow," Liu Tang chuckled. "An extremely jealous guy."

Liu Tang scoured for thid Liu Tang's clothing. He wore something similar to what he wore the day before which was a dark blue button down shirt paired with black pants and a pair of sneakers.

With one last look in the mirror, Liu Tang smiled. "I still look good."

He walked outside and navigated his way back to the cafe. He just have to remember the turns and the roads that they took the day before, then he would ride the bus to the cafe.

"Alright then," Liu Tang was determined. "I can do this."

As Liu Tang walked the streets to find his way back to a cafe, a white car was following him from a distance. He didn't notice this, but the two men inside the car had all their eyes to Liu Tang.

"Let's follow him for now," Yuan said to his colleague. "I know he has something to do with her death. My gut is telling me so."