start with a pet store

Chapter 1002 Mysterious Basement

Ji Ling and Ding Mimi looked at him, then nodded vigorously together: "Hmm..."

Lu Jingxing held his forehead with his hand: "But this matter is obviously not easy to handle. Is this house his own?"

Ding Mimi thought about it and shook her head: "Probably not. I remember he seemed to say that he rented it, but he has rented it for a long time. He has been here since I arrived here."

"Sister Ding, can you tell us what kind of person he is as you know him..." Ji Ling said.

Ding Mimi smiled slightly: "I'm not very familiar with him, but because we are of similar age, we have indeed had some dealings. However, at most he would come over occasionally for a cup of coffee, and he would occasionally bring some cat food or something. When he came, we usually just talked about cats and so on."

"Then do you know where he is from and what kind of experiences he has had?" Lu Jingxing asked.

"I heard, I heard that he had excellent grades when he was studying and was admitted to a prestigious university, but he did not graduate from college. It seemed that he was persuaded to drop out by the school, but I don't know why. He is a local, but not from this street. I hardly see any friends of his. At least I haven't seen him go out with anyone. Another thing is that I am actually a little afraid to stay with him for too long. Usually, after chatting with him for a while, I will find something else to do and ignore him." Ding Mimi said.

"Why?" Ji Ling asked curiously.

"I can't explain it. I just feel depressed after being with him for a long time, and his smile makes me uncomfortable." Ding Mimi didn't know why she had this feeling. Maybe it was just an intuition.

Lu Jingxing nodded and didn't ask any more questions: "Then let's think about it and see if there is any other way."

"Do you think that basement is where he usually operates? If we just go in there, will we know the general truth?" Ji Ling suddenly said.

"But we can't just break in for no reason, there must be a reason..." Ding Mimi said.

"Do you have a property management company here? Is his house rented or does he have a landlord? Can we ask the landlord?" Lu Jingxing said after taking a sip of coffee.

"The property management does have one, but the landlord is not sure. If you're talking about the property management, we do have such a rule here. Every storefront will have a spare key placed with the property management. His store must have one as well. But if it's just a suspicion, the property management will definitely not open the door. Besides, what if it's not the case? If we say so, the property management will not be able to explain themselves then..." Ding Mimi thought for a while and said.

Lu Jingxing nodded, that was indeed the case.

"Then Sister Ding, do those shops opposite have basements?" Ji Ling looked at the row of shops opposite. To the left of the bookstore was an advertising graphic store, and to the right was a small hair salon. The hair salon was doing pretty good business right now, with people coming and going.

"Then they should have everything, it's the same apartment type. But I've never been to their basement, so I don't know what it looks like specifically." Ding Mimi said.

Lu Jingxing and Ji Ling looked at each other, and there was a smile in their eyes.

Ji Ling then said, "How is your relationship with the owner of the advertising store or hair salon over there? Can you tell them that there is a water leak in the basement of the bookstore and ask the property management to go and take a look? Then, they should agree, right?"

Ding Mimi's eyes lit up: "This seems to work..."

Lu Jingxing smiled and nodded, looking at Ji Ling with admiration. This girl is really smart.

"I'll call them now. I have a good relationship with the two boss ladies. They often come to my store to see the cats, have a cup of coffee or something." Ding Mimi quickly went to the bar, picked up her phone, and made two voice calls.

Then he raised his phone and turned to look at the two people: "They will be here soon..."

Soon, the proprietresses of the two shops came out of their shops, and they walked towards the coffee shop together.

"Hey, did Mimi look for you too?" The proprietress of the advertising shop, who was in her thirties, greeted her with a smile when she saw the proprietress of the hair salon.

"Yeah... I sent you a message too?" The owner of the hair salon looked younger, but Ding Mimi said that she was actually the oldest among the three of them, but she paid more attention to maintenance, so she looked younger.

"Mi Mi..." The two talked and laughed as they walked in. As soon as they opened the door, the voice of the advertising shop owner came over.

"I'm here..." Ding Mimi waved to the two of them with a smile.

"What's the matter? Why are you in such a hurry? I was halfway through washing someone's hair when you ran over here. Who are these two?" The hair salon owner said in a crisp voice and sat down with a smile.

"Friend, is there a pet shop owner and the owner...mother?" Ding Mimi smiled narrowly.

Ji Ling blushed and looked at the two proprietresses: "Hello..."

"Oh, the little girl is still embarrassed...haha..." The proprietress of the advertising store also laughed.

"Everyone calls me Sister May, you can call me Sister May too. Her last name is Huang, so you can call me Sister Huang..." The lady boss of the hair salon said with a smile, "Hey, Mimi, you haven't said anything yet..."

Lu Jingxing smiled and greeted the two of them, then looked at Ding Mimi: "Do you want me to say it or should I?"

"Let me tell you..." Ding Mimi waved her hand.

"What's going on? Why is it so mysterious? Has he thought of some way to make a fortune? Or does this young boss want to open a pet shop on our street? But, speaking of it, it should be a good idea to open a pet shop here. The nearest pet shop is three streets away..." May answered quickly.

"What are you thinking about? It's like this, you have a basement in front of your store, right?" Ding Mimi asked.

May and Sister Huang looked at each other and nodded: "Yes, we have everything. What's the problem? They want to rent the basement?" May always thinks ahead of time.

"I say, could you please stop thinking so much..." Ding Mimi said speechlessly.

"Okay, okay, I won't say anything more, you speak..." May raised her hands and gave the right to speak to Ding Mimi.

Then, Ding Mimi told them the whole story, from the time she saw the bookstore owner burying the cat to when Lu Jingxing and his men came to his door.

Ji Ling and Lu Jingxing both listened quietly. After Ding Mimi finished speaking, they added, "Our clerk felt a little strange at the time, because when he brought the cat over that night, our colleagues saw many scratches on his hands. Some of those scratches were new, and some were old, and obviously not recent. Also, we asked Boss Ding, and she said that the bookstore owner did not have a cat, so we all had suspicions in this regard..." Lu Jingxing said.

May and Sister Huang looked at each other in disbelief.

"Although, he is a little bit...how should I put it, a little bit abnormal, but cat abuse?" This was the first time Sister Huang spoke since entering the store. She found it unbelievable.

"Don't mention it. Now that you mention it, I also find it a little strange. One time, a close friend came to get her hair done. Because it was done very late, I didn't go back that night and rested in the basement. In the middle of the night, I did hear a cat meowing, and it was a very miserable sound. I was scared awake at the time. When he came to get a haircut the next day, I told him about it. He said that it might be a cat in heat and would meow randomly. Although I didn't think that it didn't sound like the sound of a cat in heat, and it was not actually the heat season for cats at that time, I didn't think about it in other ways, and we don't usually live in the store, so I didn't pay attention to this matter later. So, in other words, the cat's meowing that time I heard might be him abusing the cat?" May said with a frown.

Several people looked at her. "So, what do you want to do?" May looked at them.

"It's like this, Sister May..." Ji Ling, who had been silent the whole time, said, "Because we don't have any evidence right now, we've considered calling the police and they probably won't file a case. And even if they do, they'll just lock him up for a few days at most, and they won't be able to sentence him or anything. So, let's discuss whether we can go to his basement and look for evidence."

"Go to his basement?" May and Sister Huang looked at each other, still confused: "What should we do after we get there? Call the police? Will the police arrest him?"

Lu Jingxing shook his head gently: "Maybe he will be caught, maybe not, but now the Internet is well developed, maybe we can think of other ways to make him unable to hide, at least it will be a deterrent to him."

May and Sister Huang finally understood, and they nodded without hesitation: "Then let's go to his basement. How do we get there? Should we call a locksmith company?"

"How could you think of that? That's trespassing into a famous house. How can that be allowed..." Ding Mimi sneered.

"What should we do then?" May didn't understand. This wouldn't work, and that wouldn't work either.

"It's like this, Sister May. We just thought of an idea. We all know that the property management company has the key. You can say that you think there's a leak in the basement of his store, but you can't contact him. Even if the property management can contact him, it doesn't matter. We may be able to ask the property management to open the door." Ji Ling told the plan that the few of them had discussed.

"That's a good idea... No problem, I'll call the property management right now..." May agreed immediately.

They smiled at each other. It seemed that this problem could be solved soon.

May is a person who gets things done as soon as she says. She immediately called the property management and explained the situation to them. They asked her to wait for a moment while they contacted the bookstore owner first.

After hanging up the phone, Sister Huang also called the property management a few minutes later.

Sister Huang's tone was even more anxious than May's: "You guys need to contact us quickly. The water has come into my store. I have printing equipment underneath. If it gets flooded, a machine costs hundreds of thousands."

After hearing this, several people secretly gave her a thumbs up. This was a really smart move, and the property management had to resolve the problem quickly.

Sure enough, the property management called back soon: "Hello, we haven't been able to contact the bookstore owner either. In this case, we will arrange for our staff to come over immediately. Are you in the store?"

Sister Huang winked at them and said, "Yes, yes, I'll be waiting for you at the door of the bookstore."

After saying that, several people stood up together.

Then he looked at Ding Mimi who was sitting in a wheelchair.

Ding Mimi smiled and shook her head: "I'll wait for you in his store later. You can go down to the basement. Anyway, you can take videos and photos. I don't have to be there in person. Besides, if it's really him, I don't want to see that scene."

So, Ji Ling helped Ding Mimi push the wheelchair, and they went out together.

The property management quickly sent a young security guard over.

Seeing five or six people standing in front of the bookstore, he was confused for a moment: "How many stores have been flooded?"

"Let's go in and take a look first, quickly..." May didn't give the security guard time to react and urged him to open the door.

The security guard came to open the door anyway, so when she urged him, he stopped hesitating and opened the door quickly.

When they entered the bookstore, they found that the storefront was not very big and the books were piled up in a mess. It seemed that he left in a hurry. However, Lu Jingxing thought that was a good thing, because leaving in a hurry meant that he definitely didn't have time to clean up the basement.

"The basement is usually at the back..." Several people walked to the back.

"This door is an anti-theft door. We don't have the key..." The security guard led everyone to the basement door.

"Why did he install a door? We don't have a door, and the stairs are narrow..." May said.

"Then there must be a problem, but what should we do?" Ji Ling said.

"We have a special locksmith. Let me ask our leader if we can ask him to come over?" The security guard took out his phone.

"Okay, okay, thank you for your help, young master. Hurry up, it will be troublesome if the water floods into my shop." Sister Huang looked anxious.

"Right away, right away..." The security guard immediately called his leader, who agreed immediately.

We waited for about ten minutes and the locksmith came over.

The master's skills were top-notch. After just a few tinkerings, in less than a quarter of an hour, the sturdy security door was opened by the locksmith. A foul smell hit the face, and even though there was a floor between them, everyone frowned and fanned their noses.

"Why does it stink so bad? Is there something dead in there?" the security guard said as he walked downstairs.

He walked first, and the others followed him down.

The stairs were very narrow. The entire basement was made of cement panels. The underground floor was not decorated and there were no handrails on the stairs. May, wearing high heels, walked down carefully.

"Ah..." The security guard who went downstairs first shouted, scaring everyone behind him.

Everyone quickened their pace and went downstairs quickly. It was pitch black downstairs. The security guard was standing at the door in amazement, lighting up the room with his cell phone.

Although they had already prepared for it, they were still shocked when they saw it firsthand.

Lu Jingxing found the switch and turned on the light. There was only a very dim light, which was enough to barely see what was going on inside. But even with the weakest light, he could see the bloodstains on the ground and the horrific scene.

There was cat hair and even cat body parts everywhere. In the cages lined up against the wall there were even corpses of cats that had been dead for a long time. They had all turned into mummies and were hanging by the sides of the cages.

Several ladies were stunned.

(End of this chapter)