The devil doctor, for whom today was supposedly the last day on this planet, was busy tapping his fingers on his laptop’s keyboard.
Mingshen was looking through his hospital garage’s CCTV footage to find the trace of any suspicious man hanging around the ambulance vans. But he found nothing of substance. It was just the staff and some repairmen to fix one of the broken vans. None of the vans were ever taken out of the parking garage or withheld anywhere for an inexplicable amount of time.
Then how could they paint a different van like a mirror image?
Somebody must have clicked pictures or recorded videos, he tilted his head.
But Mingshen didn’t see anybody taking out their phones or clicking any suspicious pictures. He leaned back on his chair, smiling.
The thrill of a challenge is always so tantalizing~
He heard a knock on the door.
"B-Boss, di-did you call me?" Bojing peeked his head from outside.
"You can bring the rest of your body inside too. Don’t make me repeat every time."
Bojing jolted and went inside followed by Shilin. He wore a pleasant smile on his face. "Good morning, Boss."
"We don’t do pleasantries here. Anyway, Bojing praised you for yesterday’s case you two handled. Guess you weren’t a useless rookie after all."
Shilin smiled. "I believe Boss wouldn’t hire a useless rookie in the first place."
"A useful rookie with a working brain," Mingshen lazily stretched his arms. "Good for you."
Bojing shone. "Shilin was v-very good! He was focused, keen a-and very observant! He was so calm too!"
Mingshen grimaced. "You already built that bridge of compliments yesterday. That too non stop talking. Once is enough."
"D-Doesn’t hurt to hear again..." he tearfully mumbled.
"Senior Lu is giving me too much credit. I was calm only because he gave me such good guidance. He is a great teacher," he sincerely expressed.
"I-I-I wasn’t m-much of a teacher really...!"
Bojing felt embarrassed being praised like this for the first time.
Mingshen smiled sarcastically. "So glad to see you junior-senior pair hitting it off so well. Can we get to work if I have permission, Assistant Lu?"
"You d-don’t need my permission, Boss!" He cried.
"Oh my so emotional~ Now that I have your attention, do one thing for me. Go and ask complaint box about the tattoo."
Bojing blinked. "Tattoo?"
"She tattoo, my dear assistant. Do you need to increase almonds intake in your diet?"
Shilin didn’t understand the conversation at all, but he kept a neutral expression.
Bojing’s mind was inwardly churning thinking about this order.
"Ah! He has a lot of tattoos on his body. He knows about ta-tattoos too. Maybe he will know something!" Bojing gleamed with excitement.
"Slow but you got there," Mingshen smiled. "I am busy here. Get going and come back if you learn something useful."
"Y-Yes Boss!"
After they left, Mingshen was back to watching the recording. He was bored but he wanted to know the means of securing the pictures at any cost. He went back and forth countless times until he noticed that the repairman was the only person to take several full rounds of the ambulance van for servicing purposes.
He blinked as something seemed to click him but it was all fuzzy. He rewound the tape and now could clearly feel that the service man was constantly taking precautions to cover his face with his hat. He wore a buffed up jacket and ragged jeans.
He is short, Mingshen said to himself. Around 5’5"?
He thought about that fake nurse with a cocky smile. That man was fairly built and heighted. He didn’t match the physical description of this repairman. His instincts said that the man in disguise was doing something suspicious, but he couldn’t pinpoint exactly where.
At the end, the repairman simply nodded to the one in charge and left when his work was done. But during the whole time, he didn’t take out his phone at all.
Then how did he convey the van’s appearance? What am I missing? He frowned. There is something in there but what?
Mingshen rewound the recording in hopes to catch the missing element.
He finally saw it.
He pulled his chair closer and squinted his eyes at his movements. He realized what he was missing.
Then he burst into a peal of loud laughter. He collapsed back on his chair, laughing some more.
"He didn’t need to take any pictures," he continued to crack up as if he heard the biggest joke.
"He memorized it. He fucking memorized the ambulance van’s design. All of it. That guy has an eidetic memory."
—
Bojing jolted and almost fell upon hearing Mingshen’s sudden burst of laughter from inside his office.
"That was out of nowhere," Shilin commented.
Bojing coughed. "Boss is s-sometimes like that. He is serious at one second a-and then can suddenly laugh out loud. O-or he may be laughing but could turn deadly g-grim at a m-moment’s notice. Boss is very u-unpredictable..."
"Well I guess that’s what makes him Yang Mingshen."
He then cleared his throat. "If I may ask, where are we going?"
"O-Oh! We are g-going to meet complaint box."
"Huh?
"He is a-also somebody who works here," Bojing felt as if lightning zapped him at that moment, remembering a very important point.
A flood of tears escaped his eyes. Shilin looked stunned. "What happened, Senior Lu? Why are you suddenly crying?"
"I-I am so useless..." he broke down into tears. "Y-you have newly joined here, b-but I didn’t even introduce you to the staff here! I failed as a senior...How could I?" he covered his face with his palms.
Shilin sighed in relief. "Thank God. I got so worried. It’s no big deal, Senior Lu. It’s been only a few days. Seriously, only two days to be exact. So it’s not late or anything."
"Y-You don’t have to be so kind to me!"
"I am not. You can still introduce me," he smiled. "So who is this complaint box?"
Bojing sniffled and wiped his eyes. "Ren Xuanjie. H-He is a specialist in wilderness medicine."
"Who knows about medical care in extreme environments?"
He nodded hard. "He is seen very r-rarely here though. He is often outdoors, ex-exploring places. But I heard h-he is back now."
"I see," Shilin then couldn’t help but ask out of curiosity, "Um, so...why is he called a complaint box?"
As if fate wanted to answer him through the horse’s mouth himself, a loud voice roared in the lab’s corridors.
"Who the fuck touched my beauties!? Why was the door closed? Who will let the fresh air in?
This pot of lily plant clearly was half a inch to the right before I left so how did it get to the left? Who will take responsibility for the sunlight she is missing out on?
And who poured this much manure into the hibiscus!? Has this lab been hijacked by ghosts? Clearly, no human would be that stupid to make so many mistakes!
For example that other door. It has been squeaking so noisily and constantly, but it hasn’t been fixed yet.
Then I had specifically asked for my clean laundry to be properly pressed and folded, but that’s also a mess.
And somebody has played with the temperature settings here because it’s damn hot!
Seriously, I go away for a few days and this place collapses?
Also where is the damn green tea that I ordered? Are you planning to hand me the cup in my next life?
Helloooooo? Is anybody listening to me or did everybody unanimously decide to go deaf?"
Shilin stared at Bojing, and Bojing looked back at him as if the point was made. "N-Now you understand? Complaint box."