茶杯狐 -CUPFOX

Xiang Kun walked into the eighth store, a western restaurant. As he looked at the approaching waiter, he took out his phone, preparing to say he was looking for someone. But he paused, catching a faint but unique scent amidst the heavy and chaotic mixture of smells.

He first noticed a similar scent from the “giant owl” amid a dead rat.

At that time, he only found the scent peculiar, unable to match it with any in his “scent database”. Unable to identify a corresponding creature, he grew extremely curious.

But now, he realized that mutants have a completely distinct scent compared to their normal counterparts, a scent he could never have detected on himself previously.

Therefore, he knew that if there truly was another vampire, he should be able to detect that unique scent.

And now, he caught that scent.

Although it was almost too faint to notice.

He even doubted that if he wasn’t particularly sensitive to this type of scent, any other scent dissipated to this extent would have been barely noticeable, even with his current sharp sense of smell.

Fortunately, this occured in a semi-closed space.

Looking at the approaching waiter, Xiang Kun still held up his phone, but changed his words, “My friend was here for lunch, and he left something behind. He asked me to come over and find it.”

“Oh, where did your friend sit?”, the waiter politely asked.

Xiang Kun tried to determine the direction of the scent, but because it was so faint, there was no clear direction. He had to estimate the possible location based on his own conjecture and pointed to a table in the right corner, saying, “It should be there.”

The waiter escorted him to the corner table, where a couple was dining. When the waiter explained the situation, they cordially stood up, and Xiang Kun bent down directly under the table…

Although he seemed to be looking for something, he was actually closely sniffing the scent.

A few seconds later, Xiang Kun stood up, expressed gratitude to the couple, and told the waiter, “I couldn’t find it. Could I check your restaurant’s surveillance? Maybe he lost his belongings before coming here, and didn’t bring them into the restaurant at all.”

Even though his facial expressions hadn’t changed, he was excited within. He had confirmed the scent and was almost certain that a mutant had sat there previously. Looking at the probability, it almost had to be the vampire behind “Kasumi of August”.

The waiter took Xiang Kun to see the manager, who quickly allowed him to check the surveillance without showing any impatience.

“Was your friend a handsome man and a woman with a very unique hairstyle?” As she was leading Xiang Kun to the surveillance screens, the waiter casually asked.

The question took Xiang Kun by surprise. Were there more than one person, a handsome man and a woman with a unique hairstyle?

“You have a good memory. With so many customers, you still managed to remember them?” Xiang Kun responded along the lines of the waiter’s question. He knew that the waiter wouldn’t have said so without a certain degree of confidence.

“Oh, because they stayed until nearly three o’clock and seemed to have something on their minds. They didn’t eat much. Especially the man, he barely ate anything. The lady also didn’t eat much and was playing with a computer. By the way, sir, what did your friend lose? Was it the man or the woman who lost something?”

“Oh, it was the man, he said he couldn’t find his keys.” While Xiang Kun was processing the waiter’s words, he casually responded.

“Hey? What’s going on?” After the waiter adjusted the surveillance video, he suddenly found that all of today’s automatically recorded videos were gone.

“I’m sorry, it seems that there’s an issue with the surveillance system. All the videos recorded today are gone…” The waiter apologized.

“Oh, that’s alright, I’ll look elsewhere.” Xiang Kun didn’t find this surprising. It was normal for the other party to delete the restaurant’s surveillance videos given their abilities.

But this didn’t dampen Xiang Kun’s spirits. At least he had found clues to the main character and validated his subsequent guesses.

“How did the two of them seem to be getting along, did they argue?” He couldn’t ask directly what the two looked like, after all, he was supposed to be their “friend”, so he had to ask this question about their state in the hope of gaining information that could help with inference.

“They both looked a bit upset.” The waiter shook his head.

After leaving the restaurant, Xiang Kun hung around outside the entrance for a while, and then went over to a clothing store diagonally opposite.

He went straight to the store manager and said with some urgency, “Hello, I have a lost elderly family member. I’ve heard that someone saw him around here at noon. Could I please have a look at your surveillance videos to see if he passed by here?”

The store manager didn’t hesitate and let someone show Xiang Kun the store’s surveillance videos. All the videos here were intact, but after looking at it, he knew it was pointless. Even the farthest camera could only reach halfway across the street, far from the entrance of the restaurant on the opposite side.

After thanking the store manager, Xiang Kun observed the street for a while and moved to a 24-hour convenience store on the same side as the Western restaurant.

Using the same reason, he managed to let the convenience store clerk allow him to view the surveillance videos. The camera situated in the innermost part of this convenience store could capture the entrance and the opposite street.

Of course, since this convenience store was on the same side as the western restaurant, there was no way it could capture the entrance of the restaurant.

However, if someone was coming from the left side of the western restaurant, they would definitely pass the entrance of the convenience store.

Xiang Kun was quite familiar with this pedestrian street. If “Kasumi of August” came from the right side of the western restaurant, they would have to pass “Long Time No See Cafe”, and definitely pass through one of his “controlled” locations during the day.

Since the other party wasn’t detected, it could only mean that they came from the left side of the western restaurant. That side led to another entrance of the pedestrian street, which was one of the few entrances that Xiang Kun couldn’t “cover” during the day. Because if the “Long Time No See Cafe” was their destination, they had no reason to detour from that entrance. Unexpectedly, the other party must have already determined their plan before arriving at the pedestrian street and went directly to that western restaurant.

Xiang Kun adjusted the convenience store surveillance and quickly backtracked to around 2 pm. He only slowed down when he reached around 12 pm.

He assumed that the other party should have arrived around this time at the latest, to have substantial preparation time.

At 11:37, Xiang Kun saw a man and a woman walking past on the screen.

Even though he hadn’t asked the restaurant server about the two people’s appearances, Xiang Kun was 90% sure it was them. The man was wearing a suit and a shirt when the outdoor temperature was around 32 degrees Celsius at noon. His hair was slicked back, and he seemed calm. The woman, on the other hand, had dreadlocks and a backpack that obviously contained a laptop.

Because the convenience store staff was standing beside him watching the video, he didn’t pause the playback. However, with his dynamic visual ability, he didn’t need to pause to see the details he wanted to see clearly.

After watching a few minutes later, Xiang Kun told the store clerk that he didn’t find the person, and after expressing his gratitude, left the convenience store.

Coming out of the convenience store, Xiang Kun looked up at the moon in the sky. His mind, which had been tense all day, finally relaxed, and his mood finally lightened.

Although he was far from being able to confirm the vampire’s identity and he practically knew nothing about them, Xiang Kun at least knew that this trip to the neighboring city was not in vain. Despite being busy to no avail during the day, he had, at least, found the correct path in the evening..