My neighbor next door, Victoria, who suffers from gout, loves stealing my food delivery. She even gossips about me in the community group chat: “Only losers order takeout every single day!” I smiled coldly and started doing my research, customizing a meal plan just for her. “Foods gout patients must absolutely avoid.” “Which foods raise uric acid levels the most.” Since she wants to eat my food so badly, I’ll let her eat her fill! On my way home from work, I ordered a spicy pizza. The delivery guy arrived before me, so I told him to leave it at my door. A minute later, I stepped out of the elevator to find my doorstep completely empty. Looking around, I spotted sauce drippings on the floor, forming a trail that led straight to the door across from mine — Vincent Parker’s place. I walked over and knocked, wanting to get to the bottom of this. A chubby woman with smeared makeup and tacky pajamas appeared at the door, her face showing clear impatience. From her appearance, this must be Victoria, the granddaughter that old Mr. Parker had mentioned just moved in. I politely asked, “Hello, did you happen to see my food delivery?” She rolled her eyes rudely. “I’ve been home this whole time and haven’t stepped outside. Where would I have seen your takeout?” If it weren’t for the sauce stains on the floor and the food remnants at the corner of her mouth, I might have actually believed her. Before I could say anything more, she slammed the door hard in my face. I shook my head with a bitter smile. Must be hunger making me delirious. You need solid evidence to catch a thief, after all. This wasn’t the first time my delivery had gone missing. The thief wasn’t picky — from ten-dollar coffee to thirty-dollar desserts, even fifty-dollar pizzas — she took it all. I hadn’t had a specific suspect before, but today was just too suspicious. When I got on the elevator, the delivery guy had just reached my door. From the time he set it down to when I got back, it couldn’t have been more than a minute. That was way too fast. Thinking back carefully, my deliveries only started disappearing after Victoria moved in. Just days after moving in, she posted this weird statement in the community group chat: “Men these days don’t know how to manage money — total wastrels!” “Normal people cook their own food. Only losers order takeout!” At the time, I just figured she had weird opinions and ignored her. But then she escalated and even had the nerve to @ me directly. Of course I wasn’t going to let that slide! I replied directly: “I know you’re blunt, but you can’t just run your mouth without thinking!” “If you love sticking your nose in other people’s business so much, maybe focus on yourself first.” After that, Victoria looked at me like she wanted to murder me with her eyes every time we crossed paths. Starving and frustrated, I complained to my buddy Jackson. He said helplessly, “Are you an idiot? Don’t you have a security camera at your door? Just check the playback.” I slapped my forehead. I was so hungry I’d forgotten about the camera I’d just installed because of the repeated thefts. I quickly pulled up the footage on my phone. My instincts were right on the money. The takeout thief was Victoria. In the surveillance video, she sneaked out of her place like a ghost, grabbed the delivery, and bolted. In her haste, some sauce spilled out and dripped all over the floor. As she ran, she muttered under her breath: “Pizza? This guy throws money around like crazy!” “What a wastrel!” I was fuming mad. Vincent seemed like such a gentle old man — how could he have such a bizarre granddaughter? After hearing my complaint, Jackson looked at me like I was an idiot: “Haven’t you heard that family influence matters?” “If you don’t believe me, keep watching the playback.” I didn’t believe it at first, but the surveillance footage slapped me hard in the face.
Victoria opened the door and smoothly picked up my delivery while Vincent stood nearby, keeping watch. The usually kind-looking old man seemed like a different person — brow furrowed, eyes narrowed, he spat viciously: “Takeout again. This kid really is wasteful! Anyone ending up with a partner like this would be furious.” He bent down and examined the potted plant by my door carefully. “Victoria, does this thing need a battery change? If it runs out of power, it won’t capture anything.” I zoomed in on a screenshot, and a chill ran from my feet up my spine. On the pattern painted on the flowerpot, there was a tiny hole poked in one spot, with a hidden camera positioned to aim directly at my doorway. The flowerpot was a housewarming gift Vincent had given me. I’d said I was worried about not taking good care of it, and he’d thoughtfully told me to put it by my door, saying he’d help look after it when he had time. Turns out there was a pinhole camera hidden inside it. At that moment, Victoria spoke up angrily: “That damn guy is so difficult to deal with. I already took the advance payment, and a whole batch of clients are waiting to see.” “He covers himself up completely every time he goes out. Who does he think he’s fooling?” “Didn’t you say you’d already gained his trust? How is there still no progress?” “Hurry up and get smarter about this. Build a good relationship with him and get equipment inside his place as soon as possible.” “The people in the group love his hot looks. If we can capture some private footage and sell it, I’ll really strike it rich.” The two of them whispered by my door for quite a while. I understood now — Victoria was the admin of an illegal voyeurism group, making money by posting secretly filmed photos and videos of handsome guys. Good thing I always dressed pretty conservatively when going out, or they really would have succeeded. Their scheme was perfectly designed: use an elderly person to lower a young single man’s guard, build trust through calculated concern, and gain entry to the home. Install equipment, film secretly, and profit. If it weren’t for the repeated missing deliveries, I never would have discovered that the kind-looking Vincent was actually a wolf in human clothing. Judging by how well they worked together, I definitely wasn’t their first target. Who knows how many people had already fallen victim to them. After muttering for ages, looking all sneaky, they clearly weren’t cooking up anything good. Sure enough, they carefully cut a small opening in my doormat and installed another pinhole camera, apparently hoping to capture my private moments. Mission accomplished, Vincent lovingly patted Victoria’s head: “My smart granddaughter.” “This kid puts on airs all the time, but I saw through his true colors ages ago. Spending dozens, even hundreds on a single meal — that money definitely didn’t come from honest work!” “By filming him, we’re exposing him! He’ll probably end up begging us for mercy!” There were only two households on this floor, and my door camera was positioned pretty discreetly, so they didn’t notice it. The two of them treated me like prey already in the bag, making crude comments about me right there in the hallway. The video ended, and my heart turned cold. Human hearts could be so wicked. The kind-looking Vincent was actually a wolf in human skin. At least it wasn’t too late. Let’s see who’s better at this game!
The next morning, Vincent knocked on my door bright and early. His face was full of benevolent smiles, and he held a bouquet of trendy preserved flowers. “Connor, I’m so sorry. I failed you — didn’t help you keep an eye on things properly.” “Didn’t you say real flowers were too much trouble to care for? I heard these preserved flowers are really popular, and they smell wonderful in the home. I’m giving them to you as an apology.” If I hadn’t watched that surveillance footage, I really would have been fooled by his sincere expression. So he wants to play pretend? I can do that too. I put on a delighted expression and accepted the preserved flowers. “Oh my God! I’m so happy! I’ve wanted these for ages but couldn’t get them! You’re amazing for finding them!” “I won’t be polite then. Thank you so much!” The preserved flowers in my arms bloomed wildly and passionately, giving off an alluring fragrance. But what I was thinking was: “So where exactly did they hide the camera?” Back home, to avoid tipping them off, I placed the preserved flowers on the dining table. Ha, you want to spy on me? Fine, I’ll just live normally and see what you can do. I reviewed everything while thinking about how to get revenge. Never letting evildoers off the hook was my principle for dealing with the world. Such a vicious woman and bad old man had to be punished, had to be sent to the police station to be done with it. But before that, I wanted to play with them a bit. Let them know what it means to kick a steel plate. While going about my normal activities in front of the preserved flowers, I heard commotion outside the door. I tiptoed to the door and looked out. The pudgy Victoria was pointing at Vincent’s nose and cursing: “You useless old bastard, you can’t even cook a decent meal. What good are you?” “If it weren’t for you, how would my parents have died? How would I have ended up like this? If you keep being useless, get out of this house. I don’t support deadweight!” Victoria cursed while slamming her door hard as she went back inside. Vincent sobbed pitifully, looking quite miserable. If I didn’t know the truth, I’d definitely sympathize with an elderly man being verbally abused by his granddaughter like this, and might even invite him into my home to comfort him. That way he’d push for more, establish deeper contact with me, and everything would become even more convenient for him. Vincent cried sorrowfully while stealing glances toward my door. Not a bad performance with this sob story. Through the pinhole camera in the preserved flowers, they knew I was home, so they put on this act. He sat on the floor wailing while heavily slapping his own thighs: “Why am I not dead yet? Why am I still alive?” “God, just take me away.” “I’m only doing this for your own good. The doctor said your uric acid is high and you can’t eat those things.” To make his performance more convincing, Vincent’s words revealed his daily dissatisfaction with Victoria. I sneered and walked away from the door. “What’s the rush? Karma always comes around.”
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