Chapter 231 - 155: I Know! Baihan Clubhouse (3)

"No one’s admitting to it?"

"Forget it. You all know Lin Miao, right?"

Xu Huo couldn’t be bothered to press them and got straight to the point.

Hearing the name Lin Miao, the people in front of him nodded.

"When did she start working here?"

"It must’ve been several years. She’s one of the old-timers at the clubhouse."

Someone said in a low voice.

"Most people don’t last more than two or three years in this line of work. But her... it’s been four or five years."

Another person spoke up.

’Four or five years ago?’

Li Jianye was taken aback.

"Tell me about Lin Miao. Her personality, hobbies, what she did day-to-day. Tell me everything," Xu Huo said slowly.

The people around him paused. Seeing that no one was going to press them about what they’d done, they relaxed a little.

One woman, a scornful look on her face, began to speak:

"Her? She’s just a whore, acting all high and mighty."

"She’s in this line of work but still pretends to be all prim and proper. She even spends money buying clothes for a bunch of filthy, stinking homeless guys. That kind of two-faced hypocrisy is disgusting..."

’This woman...’

Zhao Gang and the others paused and turned to look.

They saw a woman caked in heavy makeup speaking in a snide, passive-aggressive tone.

She wasn’t afraid of the police—or rather, she couldn’t be bothered with them. After all, getting arrested just meant a few days in a cell.

Their boss would even pay the fine to bail them out.

She was very familiar with the whole process and wasn’t scared of the cops at all, which made her words even more brazen.

"Elaborate," Zhang Liang narrowed his eyes.

"There’s nothing to elaborate on. She’s just a ’White Lotus,’ a total phony. But of course, those stinking men just eat it up."

The woman said, disgruntled.

Hearing this, the other women’s hearts skipped a beat. They quickly motioned for her to shut up and then walked over to the police.

"She and Sister Lin didn’t get along very well."

"The reason is that Sister Lin was more popular than her..."

one woman said cautiously, glancing at the heavily made-up woman and lowering her voice.

"Alright, you tell me then." Xu Huo’s expression didn’t change as he continued his questioning.

"Sister Lin liked... she didn’t really like anything."

"She had a lot of clothes, but they were all cheap street-stall stuff. She barely bought any jewelry or bags, and she was always skimping on makeup."

"I think she took on private clients, or maybe brought customers home. But I don’t know if there were any conflicts with her private work."

"I only know that the biggest conflict was when a client didn’t pay, but it just fizzled out. It didn’t become a big deal."

This woman didn’t seem to hold a strong prejudice against Lin Miao, so Xu Huo didn’t rush her.

"What about her personality?" Xu Huo asked again.

The woman hesitated for a long moment before saying, "She was very nice. Pretty optimistic, and very gentle with people."

"What did she do day-to-day? Who did she associate with?"

"Work, go home, entertain clients."

The woman thought for a moment, then added:

"She also had a younger sister. Besides her sister, there were just a few homeless kids."

"Homeless kids?"

Xu Huo paused and narrowed his eyes. "What’s the story with the homeless kids?"

"It’s nothing much. The clubhouse gets a lot of foot traffic, so they gather around. When drunk customers leave, they might impulsively give them some money,"

the woman said truthfully.

"But it’s very rare they actually get any money. The kids are filthy. Usually, one whiff of them is enough to sober you up."

"Sister Lin would give them things to eat and buy them clothes."

’Homeless kids, huh...’

Xu Huo thought for a moment, then asked one last question.

"Okay, last question."

"Lin Miao’s sister—how did you know she existed?"

"Sister Lin said she had a sister, and her sister came to the clubhouse before. Someone who used to work here told me,"

the woman answered honestly:

"It was probably two or three years ago."

"Her sister was pretty young, I think. Sister Lin said she was a good student. When she was little, she couldn’t be left at home, so she’d have someone trustworthy watch her do homework backstage at the clubhouse."

Back then, Lin Miao was four years younger than her sister...

Xu Huo pondered this for a long time, then stood up.

"Alright. Thank you for your trouble."

Xu Huo walked outside.

The crowd of women behind him immediately started stirring, whispering among themselves once the police had left.

As soon as he stepped out, the manager appeared before him. Xu Huo paid him no mind and let him go inside on his own.

Outside, more than ten police cars were parked, their blue and red lights flashing.

CLACK!

Xu Huo pulled open the police car door. A wave of warmth washed over him, driving away the outdoor chill.

He brushed the snow off his clothes and got in.

SLAM!

The door closed.

"Have you gotten the client list for Lin Miao from around the 21st, 22nd, and 23rd?"

Xu Huo looked at Zhao Gang behind him.

Zhao Gang nodded. "She entertained a lot of people, but after filtering them based on our target profile, there are very few left."

"We’ve locked onto three male clients from the night of the 20th."

"On the night of the 20th, the clubhouse received three men. No one wanted to take them because they had a strange smell, so in the end, Lin Miao and two others were assigned to them."

"Based on what we heard, it seems Lin Miao took on a private job. The clients were those men. Well, she only took one of them."

Generally speaking, girls at the clubhouse take on private jobs.

That means leaving the club and taking a taxi to a hotel. That’s considered a private job.

The chance of something going wrong is high, but it has nothing to do with the clubhouse, so they generally let it happen.

"Did you find any information on those three men?"

Xu Huo asked.

"No. The clubhouse has no clear sign-in information for them,"

Zhao Gang said with regret.

As it stands, they are the prime suspects.

Why?

The smell!

In this case, there was a piece of information that was both good news and bad news.

The skin stripped from the deceased, Lin Miao, was perfectly intact!

What did this mean?

It meant absolute proficiency!

For the killer to flay a person alive in such a short time, they must have had practice.

This meant that Lin Miao was not the first victim. Before she died, there must have been others.