After Wang Shi's death, Jian Jing led a tranquil life.
At ten in the morning, she lazily opened her eyes, took out her phone, opened the five-star hotel's mini program, and ordered lunch for the day. Then she dozed off for another moment before crawling out of bed to wash up.
While brushing her teeth and washing her face, she opened the app and tuned in to an online course from her school to help with writing her thesis.
She boiled a pot of coffee and got down to clearing her emails, paying bills and buying discounted items.
Soon the delivery arrived, still steaming hot, wisps of vapor rising from it.
After eating lunch, feeling warm and unwilling to move, she curled up on the sofa and played on her phone.
The homeowners' group chat was lively.
The owner of Unit 01 on the 11th floor of Building 11 said: [Something strange happened in my home!]
Everyone else was bored and kept asking him to tell them about it.
11-1101: [My deliveries have been stolen three days in a row. Who dared to take my food? Come out if you dare!]
11-1802: [Who would steal food? Don't you think we have nothing better to do?]
11-1101: [No one stole it. Could the delivery have disappeared by itself? Everyone knows deliverymen can't enter our building. It must have been a resident.]
Residents of other buildings added fuel to the fire with suggestions like: [Just install a camera.]
11-1101: [Here's the creepy part - I installed a camera but the delivery still disappeared!]
This sparked an uproar among the homeowners.
[Didn't the camera capture the thief?]
[Wait, it didn't capture a person, but did it capture something else?]
[Post the video for us to see!]
...
11-1101: [video.mkv]
The sped-up video showed: The security guard brought up the delivery and left it at 11-1101's door, taking a photo and posting it to the group chat to confirm delivery.
Then he left.
Half an hour later, the homeowner returned to find the space in front of his door completely empty with no sign of the delivery.
Other homeowners: [The camera angle is too narrow. Just tie a stick to reach out.]
They also said: [Ask the property management to check the elevator cameras.]
The homeowner of 11-1101 went to do so.
Half an hour later, he surfaced in the group chat again: [Finished checking the cameras.]
Everyone: [Well?][Find anything?][Who's the despicable thief?]
11-1101: [I checked the footage for that half hour. Only residents from Units 702 and 1301 used the elevator.]
The accused residents immediately objected.
11-702: [What are you implying? That we stole your delivery? How dare you.]
11-1301: [Are you trying to extort money from us?]
11-1101: [I just want to know who stole my delivery!]
He seemed to have brooded over this for some time and unleashed a barrage of furious messages.
11-1101: [Our building has door access control for each block. Outsiders can't enter. I make it a habit to order delivery when I get off work around the same time every day, just a window of 40 minutes. For this to happen so precisely each time - do you really believe it's just coincidence?]
11-702: [My wife cooks every day. Why would I steal your delivery?]
11-1301: [How many times has this happened? Did you check the cameras each time? Were my unit or 702's on there?]
11-1101: [Fine, I'm going to check the last few days right now. Don't try to deny it later.]
Everyone eagerly awaited his next message, even Jian Jing couldn't focus on her writing anymore and kept glancing at her phone.
Over half an hour later, the victim resurfaced.
11-1101: [I've lost deliveries three times - the first time 10 days ago, the second time 7 days ago, and yesterday the third time. The property management keeps the footage for 15 days.]
Everyone: [So? Who was it?]
11-1101: [The first time it was units 5 and 19, the second time 13 and 6.]
1301 jumped in: [I get home from work around the same time everyday. Is it so shocking I happened to use the elevator?]
An outsider chimed in: [I think it must be residents from floors above 11. Only they would know 11th floor orders delivery frequently. Lower floors don't pass by the elevator and may not know.]
11-1301: [That's nonsense. Who said only upstairs would know? The security guards know too, don't they?]
11-502: [Right, the staff can enter any building.]
The owner of 11-1101 fell silent.
If the suspect pool expanded, there were indeed more possibilities. It may not have been a resident after all. The property management staff were even more familiar with building layouts, and could easily make off with a delivery without a trace.
Some even opened their imagination further: [If it were them, the cameras could be tampered with too. Just like in movies.]
Jian Jing thought to herself: "...If they had those skills, why steal deliveries?"
But now, the direction of the chat had completely turned. At first it was just an issue in Building 11, most people were just watching for entertainment. But if the suspect was property management, then no building was safe.
Who knew if they'd target their home next?
Who didn't order delivery or receive packages?
They had to demand an explanation from the property management.
And so the homeowners took their battle to the property management group, demanding they thoroughly investigate the matter.
Manager Bu: [Esteemed homeowners, please rest assured we will certainly provide you an explanation.]
Jian Jing frowned. Who was this? The previous property manager seemed to be Manager Bao. She distinctly remembered his steamed bun avatar, with wrinkles folded ever so exquisitely.
Scrolling up through the chat history, she realized Bao had retired while she was hospitalized. He was replaced by the new supervisor sent from corporate headquarters, Manager Bu.
The new broom sweeps clean. He had indeed accomplished much, including but not limited to changing the garbage pickup schedule, adding cameras to the parking garage, banning vegetable gardening in the first floor garden, and so on.
He seemed like an efficient go-getter.
But when Jian Jing returned from a one hour workout at the gym that afternoon, they still hadn't found anything.
She thought to herself: "...after all, stealing deliveries is serious business."
And so she wandered to the property management office.
The owner of 11-1101 was still there, looking forlorn. "I just don't understand, even if you wanted to steal deliveries, why specifically target me? I order fresh ingredients to make food myself, what's there to gain?"
Jian Jing had just walked in and overheard this. She immediately asked, "All fresh ingredients? No cooked food?"
"Basically, delivery food has too much oil and salt. I buy ingredients from the supermarket and cook them myself," the resident said. "Oh right, you look familiar...are you an actress?"
"I'm an author, a famous author," the staff said. "Jian Jing."
The resident solemnly paid his respects: "Oh I see, an author. I feel like I've heard your name before. Was there a show, 'Demon Doctor'? Did you write that?"
Jian Jing modestly replied: "Yes, that was my work."
The resident perked up and quickly said: "That's a mystery novel right! Hey, could you please help analyze who might be stealing my deliveries? I'm so stressed out."
Jian Jing gladly said: "Sure, I happen to have time. Why don't you take me to Building 11 to have a look?"
The property management had searched half a day fruitlessly. The resident didn't feel like wasting more time and readily agreed.
The two headed to Building 11 together.
Same as Jian Jing's building, there was a glass door at the entrance as access control. You needed a key card or facial recognition to enter.
Two units per floor, elevator cameras operating normally without obstructions.
On the 11th floor, upon exiting the elevator, the first thing they saw was a decorated wall. The entry doors were on either side. But without stepping out of the elevator, you couldn't see the door areas.
She studied the situation for a while standing at the resident's door, borrowing his phone to check the camera coverage.
The view was quite narrow, only able to capture half of the hallway straight ahead. But to the side was a half-meter wide corridor leading to the stairwell behind the elevator shaft.
"I'm so high up," the troubled resident said. "Who would climb 11 floors just to steal a delivery?"
Jian Jing nodded: "It is rather bizarre."
She paced into the stairwell, observing as she asked: "Were the stolen deliveries ever found?"
"No. There are so many identical X Fresh boxes in the trash, who could pick out which one?" The resident shook his head.
Jian Jing considered: "On average, how often do you order, and what foods were stolen?"
The resident took out his phone to check past orders: "About once every two or three days. Stuff like mushrooms, vegetables, chicken legs, eggs. The most expensive item was a steak."
"Everything was taken each time?" she asked.
The resident nodded.
"What else did you order?"
The resident said, "I ordered a whole box of hairy crabs from Yangcheng Lake a week ago, but they didn't get stolen. I was wondering about that too."
Things that got stolen were all daily groceries, but the expensive stuff was left untouched?
Jian Jing found it more and more bizarre, so she asked again, "Have you had any conflicts with anyone recently?"
"No," the resident denied strongly, "I park properly, sort my trash, never play loud music at night to disturb others, I didn't do anything!"
Jian Jing: "..." So why was it him?
The resident on the 11th floor of Building 11 didn't have anything special about him other than being quite single, you can't just randomly pluck a sheep.
She was at a loss, so she simply went floor by floor downstairs.
The resident rubbed his belly and said drily, "I'll go wait for you downstairs."
The stairwell was neither big nor small, meeting fire safety standards. The cleaning staff would mop it every few days, and there was only a thin layer of dust on the handrails.
Jian Jing turned on her phone's flashlight and shone it around on the ground.
Unfortunately she didn't have a multi-spectrum light source, otherwise checking for footprints would've been easier. But even so, she soon discovered a clear footprint.
And it betrayed the real suspect.
Jian Jing slowly wandered out of the building and told the impatient resident, "Let's go, I already know who stole your delivery."
The resident: "Huh?" Was this for real, she found out already?
Bewildered, he followed her to the property management office.
Jian Jing called over a handsome young man she recognized: "Haven't seen Knight around recently?"
Knight, male, aged three, was a German Shepherd raised by the property management.
The young man immediately tensed up and looked around, then said softly, "It's in the storage room. Manager Bao said don't let it wander around anymore."
She was surprised. "Why?"
The security guard gave a wry smile. "Last time when we were patrolling, it scared a child. The homeowner complained to us, said it posed a serious threat to the community's safety, and wanted us to get rid of the dog. Manager Bao also felt that keeping a dog was too expensive, the funds would be better spent on a few more cameras..."
Jian Jing understood. "Bring it over, I need it for something."
The young man had no choice but to go downstairs and fetch Knight.
It was listless, lying down despondently and half-heartedly wagging its tail.
Jian Jing said to the resident of 1101, "There, the one who stole your delivery was it."
The resident: "Huh?"
"The last two deliveries you ordered were brought up by him, right?" Jian Jing pointed at the security guard.
The security guard nodded.
"He's in charge of taking care of Knight, goes in and out frequently, so Knight's face must be recorded in the access control system," she said. "I'm guessing Knight's meals have decreased drastically recently. When the delivery arrived, it would be handed over in the security room, and it smelled the scent of meat. It followed the smell and found your home, then 'stole' your delivery."
She further explained, "It didn't know the delivery was on the 11th floor, so it climbed up the stairs floor by floor. Because of its small stature, it grabbed the bag in its mouth and ran, which is why your camera didn't catch it. But there are footprints left on the stairwell, with differing depths, likely from the last two times.
The security guard was dumbfounded, but after thinking carefully, couldn't refute her words. "It did switch to cheaper dog food these past few days, and barely touched it."
As he spoke, he took out dog food from the cabinet and grabbed a handful to give Knight.
Knight smelled it and turned its head away.
Jian Jing found it very strange. The dog was so hungry it resorted to stealing food deliveries, yet now it wouldn't eat dog food? She couldn't help but take a closer look at the dog food, immediately frowning. "There's bugs all over this, where did you buy it?"
The security guard said embarrassedly, "The food budget got reduced, so I bought a cheap one online..." He stroked Knight's head and apologized to the homeowner, "I'm sorry, however much your delivery cost, I'll pay you back."
The residents who lived in this complex weren't short on money. The total was only a few dozen yuan, and the homeowner didn't ask for compensation. "Forget it, it wasn't anything valuable, just wanted to get to the bottom of this."
But he also said, "You should get rid of the dog, what if it steals again next time?"
Knight was not cool with this. "Woof QAQ~"
