Chapter 264 - The Sun Rises In The West

The sketch was taped to the whiteboard along with the map labeled 'Mike'. 

"We don't have a name," Qing Lok rested against the backrest of the couch, letting the pressure off his neck. His head felt like it weighed a ton. "There are just two words in this thing. Alias 'The Fox'. He's on the list of the people that are wanted by a secret spy service. Apparently, he had set up bombs that killed a presidential candidate before. He's an assassin."

He handed the paper to Feng Xuan and she immediately nodded. The hair of the man on the picture was dark, not like the blond she had seen but it was clear that it was the same person. "Yeah, that's him."

"Ha!" Qing Lok proudly said and pointed at Wuming. "You owe me something, man. I found the dude."

Wuming smiled defeatedly. "Fine, name the person you want dead and it's done."

Qing Lok rubbed a finger on his chin. "Qing Wei."

It was as if all the sound in the room got sucked out. It lasted a short moment before Wuming said something. "Un-name me, you sick bastard."

Qing Lok only gave a smirk to his oldest brother and found a crumpled paper to throw his way. "I'm just kidding. I'll send you a name when it comes handy." He stood up and stretched his back and his bones made a satisfying sound. "Now, let's solve this riddle and I have a girl to visit."

**

While Qing Lok was busy finding the person on the drawing, Qing Chen had been standing in front of the whiteboard, thinking.

According to the reports, The Fox had never finished any formal schooling. He was a person of the street. No one knew how he got in touch with The Zookeeper. But remembering The Koala—the one that had driven the truck that got Feng Xuan in a terrible car accident—according to him, he had never met The Zookeeper and that he was a homeless person before he was part of The Zoo.

Maybe The Zookeeper had a hobby of picking-up strays off the whole world.

Qing Chen shrugged. So they were not dealing with someone with a mind like Shakespeare or an Edgar Allan Poe in poetry. Besides, there was also the disclaimer to not look at the clues too hard. Qing Chen was trying not to but he guessed his mind was not for this.

There was something about "meet you every four-thirty". It could have been May 30th. There was no way that it was the direction of south-east because there was nothing south-east of them in the map. There was a small country there but they never received a ping in that area. Then it was just water.

"I am where the sun rises from the west."

Qing Chen pulled the tape from the board and turned it upside down.

"Chen, what are you doing?" asked Wuming from his seat.

"It says sun rises from the west. I don't know where I am leading with this but… the sun rises in the east, so if we turn the world upside down, the sun would rise literally from the west part of the world." He took a marker and circled the north-east part which was where the hands 4:30 in the clock would be.

Qing Chen righted the map and flipped it this time that it was facing backward. "Now, if we flip it this way together with the clock's hands… the West becomes the East and the sun would rise from the literal West also. Then 4:30 of that would be here." He marked the north-west parts of Africa.

"Wouldn't it make sense that he's in a country where the biggest zoo is?" he asked, tapping the capped pen on his palm. "The safari?"

Qing Lok stood up and flipped the map a few times. "Yeah, I guess that make sense."

"How are we sure that we got the right answer?" Feng Xuan asked.

"That poem is so stupid," commented Wuming.

"Hey, team," called Qing Chen and the people that were on the tables looked. He handed them the map. "Check if we had pings around these areas when we sent the letters. He's bound to be in one of those."

It was not even thirty seconds when they started putting red dots on the spots that they had pings. They also immediately printed a close-up scale of the map and what could possibly surround those areas.

"Somebody get me Clown," Qing Chen said and one of the people moved out the area. There were seven pings on the areas that he had highlighted, immediately eliminating the almost hundred pings that they had.

"So we finally actually have a lead!" Qing Lok said triumphantly and raised his hands in the air. "I need to get some sleep first. I'm going to visit Liu Meilien later," he said and scratched his head as he yawned.

"Hey, Lok, tell me," Wuming said. "Are you ever going to tell her the truth about you? It seems like you're getting in deep in this."

Feng Xuan's ears piqued with interest.

"Man, you really have a way of ruining a mood," Qing Lok said like he was joking but they all knew he meant what he said.

Wuming shrugged. "I'm just warning you, kid. I've been down that road and it ended badly."

Qing Lok shivered. "I'll think about that the next time."

"Yeah, but you also have to think about her. She has feelings too. If you keep up with this, it was not impossible that she would fall for you. It's like you're robbing her of a decision to make. You have to let her know while she's not so buried in all her feelings for you. So she can still decide if she wants you or not. That way it would not hurt as much to separate."

Qing Lok bit his lip. "I swear. I'll think about it."