Chapter 1 The Elevator Encounter

The elevator doors closed, but Feng Bujue's gaze remained fixed on the young man and the cat.

He didn't know why, but upon seeing them, Brother Jue felt a strange, familiar, even somewhat affectionate feeling.

Brother Jue himself was very puzzled by this, so he immediately launched a search in the attic of his memory, but... he couldn't find any recollection of having crossed paths with this person or this cat before.

"Which floor are you going to, sir?" A few seconds later, the young man's voice interrupted Feng Bujue's thoughts, bringing him back to his senses.

"Well..." Feng Bujue hesitated for a moment, then replied directly in Chinese (the young man had been speaking English before, but in Thriller Paradise, the system would allow players to understand various languages through thought-level translation while preserving the original pronunciation), "Seventh floor." As he spoke, he raised his hand and pressed the button for the seventh floor.

"What a coincidence, I'm also staying on the seventh floor." Hearing this, the young man smiled and responded, also switching to Chinese.

At this point, the two had tacitly revealed their nationality; in this kind of "meeting a fellow countryman in a foreign land" situation, it was easy for them to strike up a conversation.

"Heh heh... that's quite a coincidence." Feng Bujue quickly put on his "business smile" and took the initiative to get close to the other party, "By the way, my name is Feng Bujue." He introduced himself seamlessly and extended his hand.

"Hello, my name is Zuo Yan." Zuo Yan politely shook his hand in response.

"Zuo Yan?" As soon as Feng Bujue heard this, he quickly repeated the name with a questioning tone, and the expression on his face involuntarily began to change.

At that moment, Brother Jue actually knew the other party's identity, but... he was still a little afraid to believe it.

"Yes, that's right." Zuo Yan asked suspiciously, "Is there anything strange about it?"

"May I ask..." Feng Bujue narrowed his eyes, glanced at the cat peeking out of the sports bag, and then said, "Are you a student at Difeng University?"

"Eh?" This time, it was Zuo Yan's expression that changed.

He paused, thought for two seconds, and then said, "That's right, I am a student at Difeng, um... may I ask how you knew?"

Although Zuo Yan was a little surprised to hear a stranger he had met less than two minutes ago mention his school, there was nothing to hide about it.

"I..." Brother Jue only took half a second to think of what to say next, "I seem to... have heard of you." While searching for a reasonable explanation for his question, he launched a further probe, "Have you assisted the police in solving a few cases?"

"Uh..." When Zuo Yan replied, he glanced, intentionally or unintentionally, at the cat in his bag again, "That... there have been a few times, but I just happened to be at the scene of the crime, it's not really 'assisting'."

Ding—

As they were talking, the elevator arrived at the seventh floor.

Feng Bujue naturally stepped aside and made a "please" gesture, letting the other party go first.

Zuo Yan nodded slightly at him in response and took the lead in stepping out.

Feng Bujue followed him out of the elevator and continued the previous topic, "Then that's right... I must have heard about you from a police friend, but I don't remember where or who told me."

His words were impeccable...

He didn't reveal any accurate information, but at first glance, there were no flaws.

Because when people are chatting, they often only remember the "things" they heard, but they may not remember who said them or where they heard them.

"Mr. Feng..." Zuo Yan seemed to have thought of something and wanted to reply.

"If you don't mind, you can call me Brother Jue." Feng Bujue interrupted him and said with a rather friendly attitude.

"Oh... Brother Jue." Zuo Yan continued, "It sounds like... you have a lot of friends who are policemen?"

Zuo Yan's reaction was also very quick. The only truly useful information in Brother Jue's sentence was the four words "police friends," and Zuo Yan instantly captured this key point and made a reasonable inference based on the other party's context and logic.

To Zuo Yan's question, Feng Bujue could only answer "yes," because only someone who "has many police friends" would not remember which police friend told them about this matter; if a person only has one police friend, he would never say something like "I heard it from a police friend, but I don't remember who."

"Yes." A second later, Feng Bujue replied with a very calm attitude, "To be honest, I'm also a detective, so I know quite a few police friends. Speaking of which... I've met Officer Qiao Chi, who is quite famous in your Moon City, a few times, but we're not very familiar."

Obviously, Brother Jue had already thought about the next few steps when he said the previous sentence; he wanted to use Zuo Yan's question to make his words more credible.

"Brother Jue..." Zuo Yan continued, "Why did you say you 'also' are a detective..."

"Heh... because you are also a detective, aren't you?" Feng Bujue said.

"No, no..." Zuo Yan was still very modest, "At most, I'm just the president of the university reasoning club. Assisting the police was really just a coincidence that I was at the scene..."

"Alright, Zuo Yan." Feng Bujue patted him on the shoulder, "You don't have to explain these things to me..." He smiled playfully, "Being able to frequently appear at different crime scenes is also a characteristic of famous detectives, isn't it?"

As they talked, they didn't stop walking. As they talked, Brother Jue arrived at the door of his room.

"Eh~ I'm here." Feng Bujue said, stopping, "Which room are you staying in?"

"My room should be the one at the end of the corridor, 0716." Zuo Yan looked down at the door card in his hand and the small envelope with the floor plan attached, and replied.

"Oh." Brother Jue replied in a very casual tone, "I should be staying on the island for a few days. Let's hang out together when we have the chance."

"Um... okay." Zuo Yan spoke a little slowly, but overall he was very appropriate, "Then... see you later?"

"See you later." Feng Bujue said goodbye to him as he used his key card to open the door to his room, 0707.

"Oh, right!" Just as Zuo Yan turned to leave, suddenly, Brother Jue seemed to remember something again and stopped him.

"Is there anything else?" Zuo Yan turned back and said.

"Heh heh..." Feng Bujue smiled, "I almost forgot to ask..." His eyes flickered slightly, "What's the little guy in your bag... called?"

Hearing this, Zuo Yan looked down at the kitten that was peeking out of the sports bag, shrugged, and replied, "He's called Victor."

"Ah~ Is that the name of that great detective, right?" Feng Bujue still had a smile on his face, undoubtedly asking a question he already knew the answer to.

"Yes." Zuo Yan nodded and added, "Franciscus Eugenius Victor."