At 5:45 in the morning, it was just dawn, and the morning fog on Wutong Street in the old city had not yet cleared. The breakfast shop on the corner had just set up a steamer, and the white steam mixed with the greasy aroma of meat buns moved forward little by little along the damp bluestone road.
At the end of the street, the "Silent" flower shop, which even had a patch of paint peeled off its signboard, had its rolling shutter door halfway up.
Fan Dong was wearing a gray old man's sweatshirt that had been washed white, his lower body was a pair of loose military green overalls, and he was wearing a pair of hard-soled tactical boots. He was half-crouching in front of the store. His two arms, as thick as hydraulic pliers, were crisscrossed with several pale pink old scars. As his arms turned slightly, those scars twitched slightly like living centipedes.
"Click."
A very light crisp sound. Fan Dong's rough fingers accurately pinched a thin black hair caught at the bottom of the door crack. This was the secret note he left behind when he closed the door last night. The hair was intact and its position had not changed, which proved that no living creature had tried to pry open the broken door in the six hours between twelve o'clock last night and now.
He stood up, and his huge body of 1.9 Meters instantly blocked the light at the entrance of the store. Taking a deep breath of the air that smelled of car exhaust and earth, Fan Dong's eyes quickly scanned the three commanding heights on both sides of the street, the two surveillance blind spots, and the wrist movements of the lady owner of the breakfast stall opposite while slicing green onions like a hawk.
Confirm safety. Threat level: zero.
