茶杯狐 -CUPFOX

Chapter 125 Fisherman

“Long Time No See” is a not-so-big coffee shop located on a pedestrian street.

The decoration is unique and well-designed. Most importantly, one whole side of it is a bright floor-to-ceiling window which provides a direct view of the cashier counter and most of the interior from outside.

When Xiang Kun arrived in the neighboring city, it was already midnight. The coffee shop had just closed, and foot traffic on the street had become sparse.

After being caught by various surveillance cameras during his midnight “patrol”, and then being made an “auxiliary officer” by Officer Chen, he had become rather “sensitive” to surveillance cameras. He paid attention to avoid being captured, passing through the blind spots of the cameras, or at least, not being caught by the cameras face-on.

Of course, in a relatively prosperous city, it would be difficult to completely avoid all surveillance cameras and not to be “pictured”.

Apart from traffic and public safety cameras, there are also cameras installed by various shops, residential areas, office buildings, parking lots and so on. Sometimes, when an official investigation requires, they could even check the footage from dashboard cameras of passing cars, or of people taking selfies or shooting TikTok videos close by, all of which could inadvertently capture him.

So Xiang Kun also did a little disguise. He wore a wig and a baseball cap, at least covering up his most distinctive feature of being bald. Taking off his glasses, his whole demeanor changed somewhat compared to his usual self.

Xiang Kun sat down on a bench in a park across the pedestrian street where it was dimly lit and inconspicuous. Dressed in dark clothes, one would hardly notice someone sitting there unless one looks closely.

His gaze was locked on the entrance of the pedestrian street. Of course, this street has more than one entrance, but three of them were on the side where he was sitting. And whether a person knew the location of the coffee shop or was using a GPS application to find it, they would inevitably enter from the entrance he was observing.

Judging from his own perspective, if the vampire behind “Kasumi of August” was planning to meet him, they would surely rush over and take a look at the situation here first, possibly preparing an ambush with a helper.

If it were him, he would also suspect whether the reason they chose to meet here was that they were temporarily residing in nearby infrastructure like the staff of a certain shop.

So he stayed here and kept a watch, making quick observations of individuals entering the pedestrian street, hoping to identify potential suspicious targets, possibly even catching the vampire coming over to verify the situation.

At this distance, his sense of smell was not that productive. He couldn’t discern any special smells like the ones he picked from the “Giant Owl”. However, this was also a form of self-protection, because he couldn’t be sure if the vampire had enhanced sensory abilities and if they could smell his odor.

Of course, if their sensory abilities were way stronger than his, to the extent that they could sense him from such a distance, then he would simply have to flee. After all, he had made several escape plans.

Xiang Kun sat until 9 am. The pedestrian traffic started to increase and most shops began to open.

He didn’t spot any particularly suspicious targets. There were a few potential ones, but he didn’t resort to tracking them. He simply flagged them in his mind.

The other party might not have arrived in the city yet, or even after arriving, didn’t rush to scout the location, or they might have used other methods to assess the surroundings.

They could even have felt threatened and simply decided to stand him up.

Of course, Xiang Kun had considered the possibility that the “vampire” really wanted to befriend him, but based on the available information, that possibility seemed extremely slim, about the same chance as him getting struck by lightning.

Xiang Kun stood up and headed straight into the pedestrian street.

Once the crowd started increasing, there was no point holding guard at the entrance. Limited information and superficial observations would hardly result in effective judgement.

At 10:20 am, he entered a beverage shop and ordered a drink and sat near the entrance.

The shop was quite a distance away from “Long Time No See” coffee shop, with a corner to turn before you could see it. However, if someone was planning to go straight to the coffee shop from outside the pedestrian street, they had to pass through here. Unless they wanted to take a detour to check out other parts of the street, they would have to take this route.

Xiang Kun was gradually narrowing down his observation area to ensure the efficiency of his observation while discreetly gathering information.

He assumed in his mind that the “vampire” would also possess sensory abilities similar to his.

Whoever could detect the other first would have the upper hand, and hence would be safer.

Xiang Kun wanted to ensure that even if both parties simultaneously detected each other’s smell, he would be the first to pinpoint the other party’s exact location.

He closely watched everyone wearing a blue top, be it a man or a woman. Of course, if positions were switched, he certainly wouldn’t meet the other party head-on; instead, he would arrange for someone in blue to act as bait while he himself conducted the observation from a distance.

At 1:35 pm, Xiang Kun arrived at a claw machine shop not far from “Long Time No See” coffee shop. He sat in front of the machine at one of the outer seats, facing in the opposite direction of the coffee shop. However, he was able to observe what was happening near the coffee shop through the reflections in a piece of metal decoration on an advertisement board near the door of the claw machine shop.

Even with Xiang Kun’s sharp eyesight, he could only vaguely make out the scene in front of the window of the coffee shop from the reflection in the metal decoration.

However, he wasn’t relying solely on his sight to observe, but was also using it to assist his sense of smell and hearing in locating the other.

At 1:46 pm, a young lady dressed in a blue T-shirt with her hair tied in a bun and tight jeans passed by the claw machine shop. Using the reflection in the metal decoration, Xiang Kun quickly figured out that she had entered “Long Time No See” coffee shop and ordered a couple of beverages before sitting down at a spot next to the window.

Recalling her smell when she had passed by, her perfume was quite strong but not pungent, making it likely a high-end one. There was a faint smell of lady’s cigarettes, and a slight fresh T-shirt odor on her clothes, indicating that her T-shirt was newly purchased and had not been washed.

Based on her smell, she wasn’t a mutant, nor a vampire.

Moreover, her lifestyle seemed irregular, her physical condition was average, her stomach seemed to be in a bad shape, there was a slight anterior pelvic tilt, and her left ankle or Achilles tendon seemed to be injured which resulted in her walk being slightly weighted towards the right. She had her phone in her hand with a diamond-studded case. Her long nails were intricately manicured, and the sounds of keys and other miscellaneous items rubbing against each other could be heard from her bag.

Xiang Kun immediately judged that she wasn’t a vampire and was unlikely the person talking to him over the screen using the ID “Kasumi of August”. Tech-savvy folks, even if they get their nails done, wouldn’t usually keep them long as it’s inconvenient for typing.

However, her appearance in “Long Time No See” coffee shop at this hour wearing a newly-purchased blue T-shirt and buying two beverages proved almost certainly that she was the one assigned to meet Xiang Kun.

Xiang Kun didn’t directly look back at the woman in blue sitting by the window; instead, he averted his attention from her and focused on the people around.

If the bait had appeared, could the fisherman be far behind?