Puzzle Madness

Chapter 45 Late Night Snack
The food stalls were still bustling with noise. Women carrying guitars, small speakers, and microphones walked past each table, holding up wrinkled, plastic-wrapped playlists and asking customers to request songs. Someone, after a series of losses at the dice table and unable to drink any more, pretended to order "Sunshine Always Comes After the Rain."

Amid the distorted singing voice with noise coming from the speakers, no one noticed the agent who had just been on the brink of life and death.

Richard squeezed his eyes shut, then opened them again, his eyeballs bloodshot like spiderwebs. He suddenly took off his glasses, stuffed them into the breast pocket of his casual suit, and wiped the sweat off his face with his palm.

This time, he was finally able to look directly into Doudou's eyes; but perhaps because of astigmatism or myopia, and because he had taken off his glasses, Richard's eyes were a little blurry and wandering:

".Really? That's good, I understand your needs. Doudou - I can promise you, I won't let you get bored. Please rest assured."

The mathematician shifted the arms of his glasses on his ears, as if he wanted to say something, but he swallowed his words back.
Why hadn't I thought of this? As long as he took off his glasses, Doudou's face looked a lot blurrier, and his eyes didn't seem so scary anymore; they even looked a little friendly.

Thus, the division of labor temporarily established by the small group became clear - one person was responsible for completing the difficult summer homework, and the other provided unforgettable summer entertainment.

At this moment, the owner of the food stall brought out the dishes they had ordered earlier:

There were fried eggs with five willow leaves, sugarcane shrimp, raw pickles, a local favorite of Jiaozhi Autonomous Prefecture, a plate of sour food, and a plate of conch. Although beer bottles were clinking everywhere, they didn't order any alcohol.

Doudou carefully arranged the disposable dishes and chopsticks to prevent them from breaking into pieces in his hands:
"Come on, eat! Tonight looks like it's going to be quite long. Great! This is how it feels like summer vacation. Don't be shy, don't be shy. Whoever has the most money will treat. So, I'll start eating first."

Snap: Richard opened the disposable chopsticks and picked up the food first.

No one touched the raw pickles, save the mathematician who had ordered them. Doudou spent a long time setting the table, only to reach for a dish when his chopsticks snapped in two. He got another pair, only to have the same fate. Soon, the table was covered in broken wood. Finally, he ran to the food stall's sterilizer and grabbed a pair of iron chopsticks: they were slightly warped by a squeeze, but at least they were usable.

On the contrary, Richard had a big appetite and even talked more - I don't know what kind of intense exercise he did during the day, but he also ordered two bowls of white rice; he kept picking up dishes and stuffing food into his mouth; he looked like his head was going to be moved if he didn't eat.

Along with his appetite, his talkativeness also increased:
"My friend Doudou, there's something very interesting about that Iron Butcher I mentioned earlier. Do you want to hear about it?"

Richard added a strange suffix and title after [兜兜], and then continued to eat his meal with big mouthfuls.

Doudou rested his elbows on the table and held his face in his hands:
"Ah, isn't that the iron ruler killer you just mentioned, using a triangle ruler to split bullets - and also using a triangle ruler to smash cement? I can smash cement too! Sometimes when I'm in a good mood, my strength goes all over the place; look at all the broken chopsticks on my table."

"Are you saying that someone in the Asia-Europe Post has special abilities? Is that what you mean? It sounds like a science fiction movie."

The mathematician swallowed the raw pickled shrimp - clear muscle traces of swallowing could be seen on his withered neck:

"You know him. You know Doudou's situation. Is that why you brought the topic up this way?"

Richard frowned. The politeness and caution at the beginning of the conversation had disappeared. He looked like he had known the two of them for many years.
"What are you talking about, Doc? I think we all know: there's no need to be so secretive. Didn't you see that Doudou's eyes can rebound bullets? And he dug through a concrete wall with his bare hands?"

Doudou was still putting food into his bowl. He had a fixed eating routine—stuff it into his mouth, chew it three times, and swallow it. It was unclear whether he could even taste the food.
"What? You can't speak ill of others to their face. Are you talking about me behind my back?" The mathematician turned around, his face showing unusual indignation.
"Who would see you and ask if they could kill you? And now they're trying to steer the conversation in the same direction: This guy must have known about your superpowers—er, why you're so...strong."

"Although he's acting very generously now, I don't think we can fully trust him."

Doudou ate the conch—he didn't even use a toothpick to pick out the flesh, but stuffed a handful into his mouth like candy, chewed the shells together with a crunching sound, and swallowed them directly into his stomach—while mumbling in response:

"Oh! That makes sense—I was so happy before that I didn't even notice. But it seems like I don't need to hide things like my great strength. Don't you all know it?"

Richard's meal finally came to an end. He didn't seem to care much about the mathematician's aggressiveness:

"There are only three of us, are we still forming a clique? The 'we' you mentioned should have included me. I don't harbor any ill will towards Dou Dou. Not to mention that I simply don't dare to harbor any; even if I did, there's nothing I can do to him."

"But you, Doctor, you got him into this mess, didn't you? Why are you still so sanctimonious?"

Without Doudou's support, the mathematicians also lack the confidence to respond:

"No, no. Why are you suddenly yelling 'we we' and are you in cahoots with us? You—I don't even know who you are. How could a normal person hold a medical examiner hostage in a police morgue?"

Doudou bent down and took out the strange-looking surveillance camera from the mathematician's cardboard box. Before leaving the police station, he didn't forget to take away this expensive-looking device.

"Hey, Doctor! Let's not worry about this mess for now. Lao Li is an agent. It would be strange if he didn't do strange things in strange places."

"So, Lao Li—you were the one who set up the surveillance cameras in the ventilation ducts in the police station, right?"

Richard took the monitor, checked the batteries and videotape, and put it back into the mathematician's box.

"Yes. It's an all-in-one monitor that doesn't require external power or storage. It's mine. Leave it over there for now."

"Like you, I sneaked in through the ventilation duct first. There was a body of one of my colleagues in the morgue, and I wanted to find some clues on him."

"But I have no autopsy skills or training, so I had to seek help from professionals. The surveillance camera is used to record the autopsy process so as not to miss any key clues."

"If I were to arbitrarily open and cut the body myself, I would only damage it; I wouldn't be able to obtain any useful information. It's just that the timing is bad; the autopsy report hasn't come out yet."

(End of this chapter)