TPODN Chapter 68

As the elevator ascended, A Zhang replayed the detailed steps of the entire plan in his mind.

After exiting the elevator on the eleventh floor, he took the stairs to the rooftop.

Using the original master key, he unlocked the iron door, and a gust of wind ruffled his hair.

Checking his watch, it was now 12:57 AM.

First, as always, was the pre-operation check. However, to save time, he drastically reduced the procedure.

Whether there was damage to the power supply equipment and the outer casing of the Kupu tire rubber cables, whether there were cracks or damage to the plugs and sockets, whether the connections were correct, and whether the leakage circuit breaker was functioning properly—all these could be omitted. He visually inspected the runway, crane, and steel cables. The crane, the work platform’s switches, and the intercom check could also be skipped.

He found nothing unusual, taking less than three minutes. So far, everything was going according to plan.

Next was the main event: no rehearsals, absolutely no mistakes, only one chance.

He looked out from the rooftop, confirming that the surrounding buildings were empty. No problem, he wouldn’t be seen by anyone. The only visible things were the vehicles traveling on the Capital Expressway, but no one would notice him.

He moved the crane to the northeast corner, positioned the gondola slightly below the target window, and, carrying a sports backpack filled with essential equipment, climbed into the gondola.

As the gondola slowly descended, his heart pounded as if it were about to explode.

He felt like he was stepping onto a path of no return.

The window of the Chairman’s office gradually came into view.

The lace curtains were drawn, as expected. The Chairman should be napping. Although he wanted to peek through the curtains, the room was dark and he couldn’t see clearly.

He took a deep breath, and when his emotions calmed, he took out the learning remote.

Before drawing the curtains, perhaps Chairman Zhou Runmin was sitting behind his desk, or perhaps he didn’t drink coffee today for some reason.

Don’t be silly, if that were the case, why would the room be so dark?

If he wasn’t napping, he’d have to improvise.

He pressed the switch on the learning remote, and the infrared light reflected off the glass window and lace curtains onto the wall, then passed through the lace curtains again, reaching the photosensitive area.

The curtains quickly drew to the left and right.

Chairman Zhou Runmin was lying on a chaise lounge.

The sunlight from the window shone on his face, but he seemed oblivious, probably fast asleep. It seemed that he had indeed put sugar cubes laced with phenobarbital into his coffee.

He could see his chest rising and falling with his breath.

Suddenly, he felt a surge of fear. Only now did he truly realize what he was about to do next, desperately suppressing the fear in his heart.

There was no turning back now.

There was no other choice.

Dele 3, holding the chairman, went around the desk to the back window. He rotated the lower half of Dele 3, making Zhou Runmin’s forehead face him.

Zhou Runmin’s head gradually approached the window. Those big ears were particularly noticeable.

The sensor seemed to detect the existence of glass, and the robot’s movement speed gradually slowed down. Finally, the head covered in black hair began to gently touch the glass window.

A Zhang put down the transmitter and took out the object that took up most of the weight in his sports backpack.

It was a sixteen-pound bowling ball in a burlap shopping bag, secured with wire to prevent loosening, looking like a terrifying voodoo doll.

He looped his left hand through the handles of the bag, gripping it firmly. His right hand supported the bowling ball from below.

He looked around again.

No one was watching.

Now was the time.

He twisted his body, holding the bowling ball in a hammer-swinging pose.

The scene he had repeatedly rehearsed flashed through his mind. To prevent instability and swaying, he had to exert the greatest force possible with a short and precise trajectory.

But his body just wouldn’t move.

Do it!

A Zhang’s breathing became rapid.

He had to do it!

End it all!

He clenched his teeth.

Just treat this guy like Oike or Aoki.

That bastard…

His whole body twisted as if it were an arrow being shot.

The sixteen-pound urethane bowling ball, wrapped in burlap, crashed through the two-layer glass, hitting President Inohara’s forehead.

Bang! With the impact, the glass window caved inward.

Inside the glass window, Zhou Runmin’s head quickly bounced back.

The recoil caused the gondola to shake violently.

A Zhang struggled to maintain his balance, finally regaining his footing with difficulty.

Even as the swaying gondola gradually subsided, A Zhang was unable to move for a while.

Ordinarily, laminated glass with an interlayer of resin film should make a louder sound than ordinary glass, but the sound just now was even more intense than expected. If there were pedestrians passing by upstairs, they would definitely look around, trying to find the source of the sound.

The problem was the ears of the three secretaries in the opposite room, across a corridor. If they went out to lunch, that would be fine, but if they stayed in the office, even through two thick doors, they might have heard the sound.

People who hear unusual sounds usually instinctively stop what they’re doing and listen intently. If they heard another sound at this time, they would probably connect the two, realize that something was wrong, and rush over to see what was going on.

A Zhang held still, remaining motionless.

After thirty seconds, he decided it was safe. Then he put down the bowling ball and looked at President Inohara.

He was still being held by Dele 3, but looked lifeless. It seemed he had stopped breathing. From the heavy blow, he was bounced away from the window about ten centimeters. His skin seemed to have broken, and blood was seeping from his white hair.

Although there was a lot of bleeding, for someone who had undergone brain surgery, such a light blow would certainly be fatal.

A Zhang suppressed the excitement in his heart and quickly checked the condition of the glass.

Because the entire piece of glass had caved in a few millimeters, a small part of the filler material had peeled off, but there wasn’t even a small crack on the surface of the glass. However, upon closer inspection, he found clear marks on the dirt of the glass.

A Zhang immediately took out a cloth and brush, wiping the dirt off the window. Afterwards, he saw faint dirt on the inside of the glass, probably oil from President Inohara’s hair. Although it wasn’t visible to the naked eye, there might be trace amounts of blood.

He picked up the transmitter again and controlled Dele 3. He pressed Zhou Runmin’s immovable left shoulder against the dirty glass, wiping it in a rubbing motion.

Due to excessive nervousness and disgust at what he was doing, he felt nauseous, but after repeating the same action several times, the dirt became less obvious.

But it wasn’t over yet.

Next, he placed Zhou Runmin’s head downwards, touching the table. After four or five seconds, he moved it upwards. It was almost impossible to detect from a distance, but it seemed that faint traces of blood had been left behind.

He left the body lying face up next to the coffee table. Then he returned Dele 3 to its original position, plugged in the charger, and turned off the power.

Looking at his watch, about ten minutes had passed since he got on the gondola.

It took a bit longer than planned. The plan also required injecting epoxy resin inside the filler material to completely fix the glass. However, this operation would take another five or six minutes.

In fact, even without the reinforcement, no one would find out the truth. But he still thought he should complete this final, finishing step.

Just then, his cell phone rang in his sports backpack. Looking at the caller ID, it was a colleague.

“…Hello.”

“A Zhang, sorry, I should be there in about ten minutes.”

“Where? At the company?”

“No, at the Maoyuan Building.”

He didn’t expect him to arrive so early.

“Is the motorcycle fixed?”

“No, the motorcycle can’t be fixed. It seems like someone played a prank and poured something into the fuel tank. I happened to meet a friend at the motorcycle shop, so I asked him to give me a ride.”

“I see, then you wait for me to come down.”

“Where are you now?”

“On the roof.”

“Okay, I understand.”

A Zhang hung up the phone.

Things were not good! Arriving in ten minutes meant he must be nearby. As long as he could see the Liu Zhong Building, the gondola would be discovered.

In any case, he used the glass suction cups to pull the window that had been pushed inward back to its original position. Otherwise, if no one pushed the glass from the inside, it would be discovered that the glass was loose.

Then, he re-glued the peeled-off part of the filler material with primer and used the learning remote to restore the lace curtains to their original position. After that, he raised the gondola and returned to the roof, pushing the crane back to its original position along the track.

Just as he was disposing of the bowling ball, the murder weapon, he heard a knock on the iron door of the roof. It was a close call.

He wiped the sweat from his forehead and walked to the door to unlock it.

“Sorry, I’m so late.”

“It’s okay, but you’re really in bad shape.”

“That’s right, I think the culprit is probably the guy who lives upstairs from you. He complained that your motorcycle was too loud… Yeah, it must be him. Damn! That stinky guy, I’m definitely going to teach him a lesson.”

The colleague pushed the crane, complaining non-stop. His untied ponytail swung from side to side due to his rage.

“By the way, A Zhang, why did you lock the door to the roof?”

His right wrist throbbed faintly. It seemed he had sprained it the moment of the impact. He had underestimated the impact of the recoil from the sixteen-pound bowling ball on his wrist.

However, continuing to stay on the roof to pass the time was almost like psychological torture.

Because he was late, the colleague said that all the window cleaning work for today would be left to him. Normally, he would be overjoyed. Moreover, considering the current state of his wrist, he might even have difficulty using a brush.

However, as time passed, an indescribable unease became more and more apparent.

Perhaps he had made a fatal mistake in some step.

Although he hoped for the best, he couldn’t help but wonder which step he had overlooked.

When he finished cleaning the last row of windows on the east side, the colleague’s gondola rose to the roof.

“Next, switch to the north side windows.”

The colleague said, operating the instrument panel of the gondola, moving the crane towards the north side.

Watching the colleague’s movements, A Zhang suddenly came to his senses.

The north side windows.

Although it was a bit dark in the Chairman’s office just now, there seemed to be some faint light coming from the back and right side. Therefore, the curtains on the north side windows might not have been completely drawn.

If so, the colleague would probably discover President Inohara’s body. Of course, no matter who was the first to discover it, even if it was a colleague, there was nothing particularly wrong with that.

But, what if the colleague discovered something else…

From different angles, he might see something he hadn’t noticed.

The more he thought about it, the more uneasy he became. In a moment of impulse, A Zhang volunteered, saying:

“You’ve worked hard, let me take over next.”

“No, let me do it. I caused you trouble by being late.”

A Zhang forcibly pulled the colleague out of the gondola and climbed in himself.

He faced the north-facing outer wall of the Maoyuan Building, starting to clean the windows from the westernmost row.

A Zhang immediately regretted it. He had never particularly noticed that cleaning windows required continuous wrist movements, and this normally natural movement was now excruciatingly painful. Because the pain was unbearable, he tried using his left hand, but it just wouldn’t obey.

But, he couldn’t let his colleague know that he had sprained his wrist, so he had to endure the pain and continue this monotonous task.

When he finished wiping the row of windows next to the Chairman’s office, which was the General Manager’s office, his tolerance for pain had reached its limit.

“Don’t push yourself, look at me, I’m covered in sweat.”

When the gondola rose to the roof, the colleague asked A Zhang.

“Want me to take over?”

“No, there are only two rows left.”

A Zhang pressed the movement button on the gondola’s instrument panel.

“You don’t feel well, do you?”

The colleague happily asked from the roof.

“It’s nothing… I’m okay. I just drank a little too much yesterday.”

“You should know when to stop.”

“Don’t risk your life… But, you really look terrible.”

“My head has been hurting a little since just now.”

“No wonder. But, we’re too far behind schedule, please hurry up.”

The colleague wasn’t giving any leeway.

“You, that doesn’t seem fair, considering who was late.”

A Zhang murmured in complaint.

As the gondola slowly moved to the right, he arrived at the second row of windows from the west on the north side.

The lace curtains were drawn, but there was a small gap in the middle. The room was dark.

The north side of the building faced the Capital Expressway, and the dust on the windows was truly shocking. He dipped the mop and brush into the bucket of water with detergent and applied foam to the glass.

While enduring the pain, he quickly brushed the foam on the window. Suddenly, the brush in his left hand unexpectedly slipped.

An incredible sight entered his eyes through the gap in the curtains.

Shocked, he brought his face closer to the window and saw a person lying face down on the floor, near the door of the room.

He couldn’t see the face clearly. He was motionless and didn’t seem to be breathing.

Was he dead or alive?

He couldn’t tell from outside the window. After some hesitation, he knocked on the glass window with his fist. Although it made a heavy sound, there was no reaction.

After a brief moment of hesitation, he picked up the intercom.

“Hello, are you there?”

In this relaxed situation, for some reason, his breathing sounded like a comedic storyteller, seemingly relaxed.

“Hello?”

Soon, the colleague’s reply came.

“There’s an emergency, contact the security room as soon as possible.”

“What happened?”

“Someone fainted. In the northwest room on the top floor.”

“Someone fainted?”

“Don’t repeat my words, hurry up and go!”

A Zhang roared, and the colleague immediately shouted, “Got it!” All he could hear was the sound of footsteps, he must have run off without even turning off the intercom.

A Zhang looked again at the motionless body, and goosebumps rose all over him.

No matter how he looked at it, it seemed to be a corpse.

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