Chapter 63. The Police Always Arrive on Time
After staring at the letters GMT for a while, I finally realized that Beijing was one hour behind Korea.
That meant we'd arrive at 1:10 p.m., not 2:10.
I had more time than I thought.
I calmly resumed my investigation.
Why had this image been sent to me?
And why the hell was that guy doing something like that over there?
[Dae-hun. How far are you with Turb Entertainment's schedules? If it'll take a while, check Kim Min-jun's schedule first.]
I'd already asked Dae-hun to investigate Turb Entertainment's schedules.
Thanks to the in-flight Wi-Fi, I could access the messenger app.
I pressured him to find Kim Min-jun's schedule first.
I needed to know why he was in Beijing, why he was so angry, and whether the people getting threatened with a mop were hotel employees, production staff, or his own managers.
Meanwhile, I continued going through photos from hotels around Beijing, narrowing down the most likely location.
[Kim Min-jun? I heard his latest movie did really well, so the whole team got a reward vacation to Bohol in the Philippines. Kim Min-jun and all the staff attached to his team.]
[Really? Are you sure that's today? I think he's in Beijing right now.]
[Yeah. There are even articles about it. They're supposed to come back at the end of this month. I'll still check, though.]
The company CEO might be under investigation and the entire Fourth Division might have been blown to pieces, but one side of the company was still happily going on a group vacation to Bohol.
The more I thought about it, the more jealous I became.
[But if you're in Beijing, wouldn't it be faster for you to check? How do you even know Kim Min-jun is there? Are you on the same plane?]
[No. Anyway, I'm busy. The moment I get off this plane, I need to go straight to the hotel where Kim Min-jun is staying. I don't have much time, so make some calls before then if you can. My phone's in airplane mode right now. I can send messages, but I can't make calls.]
[I'll check now. Wait.]
There was no way he'd abandoned Bohol and flown all the way to Beijing just to abuse some staff.
It was reasonable to assume a sudden Beijing schedule had come up.
A schedule had changed, some strange article had appeared...
The way everything was tangled together made me think this GIF probably wasn't going to end as some simple little incident either.
If the future was going to show me something anyway, couldn't it at least be generous enough to show the whole thing?
About ten minutes before landing, Dae-hun messaged me again.
[I called around. He's staying at a place called City Hotel in Tongzhou, straight south from here. I'll send you photos from the hotel's website. Apparently, a last-minute advertisement shoot came up.]
"Tongzhou? No way. I can see the Forbidden City from the end of this hallway."
Unfortunately, there was no way the Forbidden City could be visible from Tongzhou.
If it could be seen from the fifth floor, the hotel had to be much closer to it.
I explained to Dae-hun what the Forbidden City looked like from the hotel in the GIF.
But seeing was believing, and he didn't immediately understand what I meant.
It didn't matter.
I'd already narrowed the hotel in the spam down to a place called the 21st Century Korea-China Hotel.
At least now I knew Kim Min-jun had come to Beijing for an advertisement shoot.
Then was he abusing the employees of the advertising company?
Was the hotel in the GIF actually the filming location?
But the hotel Dae-hun had found and the hotel in the GIF were completely different places.
If the shoot was near the Forbidden City, then why would they book a hotel all the way out in Tongzhou?
And if filming wasn't until the evening, there was no reason for him to show up early just to start swinging a mop around.
From what I could see, he didn't even seem to be wearing makeup.
There was still a chance I could reach the scene at the exact time shown in the GIF.
The moment we landed, I'd rush out, grab a taxi, drop Serin off, and head straight to the Korea-China Hotel.
Hopefully my deduction was right...
As the plane began descending, my chest tightened.
I wasn't sure whether it was because of the plane or because I was nervous.
The moment we got off the plane, we collected our luggage and headed straight toward immigration.
Or rather, we tried to.
The moment I saw the crowd beyond the glass doors, I stopped dead.
Several people were holding signs written in simplified Chinese with the names of Theory of Unrequited Love cast members like Bae Jeong-hwan and Han Seo-hyeong.
It looked like they'd gathered after hearing that the cast was coming for a fan-signing event.
There were still a lot of people waiting, which probably meant Serin and I were the first ones to arrive.
If we tried to push through that crowd, we might not even make it out of the airport before 2:22.
"Wow! That's my name in Chinese!"
Serin pointed beyond immigration with a bright smile.
Several blue signs reading [金世璘] were bobbing up and down.
These days, plenty of people recognized Serin even in Korea.
But this was China.
Judging from the airport alone, she looked like a Hollywood star.
This was only my second time at Beijing Capital Airport.
I'd been here once while working at Pantheon.
There had been even more people back then, yet we'd managed to escape safely.
If I remembered correctly, there was a VIP passage near the baggage claim that connected to the airport rail line.
Without wasting time, I turned around and headed back the way we'd come.
"Where are we going?"
"I'm really busy right now. We can't get through that crowd. You're going to meet all your fans at the signing event anyway, so let's take another route for now."
"There's another route?"
I couldn't remember the exact location, so I stopped an airport employee and asked.
I explained that the pretty girl beside me was a fairly famous celebrity in China right now, and that her fans had crowded the arrivals gate, so we needed another exit.
Fortunately, the employee understood the pronunciation from my phone's translation app and kindly guided us.
A translator I'd been introduced to was waiting at the hotel we'd booked, so we only had to endure this until then.
We successfully managed to get a taxi.
Even outside the terminal, there were still people holding signs, which startled me for a moment.
I pulled Serin's hood over her head and managed to hide her.
"Whew. Traveling like this really makes me feel like a top star."
Serin, who basically already was one, finally relaxed.
While the taxi drove, I continued comparing the GIF with hotels around the Forbidden City, checking again and again whether the 21st Century Korea-China Hotel was really the correct place.
Before long, the taxi reached the hotel where we were staying.
A woman stood outside, staring blankly into space.
She was the translator we'd been introduced to.
I hurried over, called her, and entrusted Serin to her.
The clock continued ticking relentlessly the entire time.
"Serin, I need to go somewhere urgently. Can you go inside first? The translator will take good care of you."
"What? Where are you going?"
"It's really urgent. I'll explain later."
What could Serin do when I said it was urgent?
I warned her not to wander around or get lost and told her to stay in her room.
Serin was about as far removed from causing trouble as a person could get, so I wasn't too worried.
I paid the driver again and gave him my second destination.
"Dao le."
I had no idea what that meant, but it was probably something like, We've arrived.
The sign right in front of me read:
[21C韓中酒店]
I quickly paid, got out, and checked the time.
2:15 p.m.
I'd arrived with seven whole minutes to spare.
Still, I couldn't relax yet.
I quietly walked into the parking area behind the hotel.
A pedestrian path continued around the back of the building.
Seeing it in person, the place looked even more run-down than I'd expected.
Not ten years old.
Apparently, a Korean couple had built this hotel more than twenty years ago.
I had no idea who owned it now.
