Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
After lunch, Zhao Yu, Cui Lizhu, and Vice Captain Jin left the restaurant and got into the police car. Vice Captain Jin sat in the driver’s seat and was getting ready to drive away, when Zhao Yu suddenly asked him to go buy him a drink. Vice Captain Jin dared not refuse, so he got out and went to the supermarket nearby to search for the requested drink.
After Vice Captain Jin left, Zhao Yu stretched out his right hand and waved it in front of Cui Lizhu’s face. Cui Lizhu was stunned and asked Zhao Yu unhappily, “Didn’t you ask me to sort those people out for you? Now that I’ve finished my task, do you want to share the glory? You are shameless. Besides, you’re so rich. How could you…”
“Stop, give it to me!” Zhao Yu yelled at her with a gloomy look.
“You…” Cui Lizhu gave him a hard look, and although she was very reluctant, she could only open her backpack and throw several wallets at Zhao Yu.
“I asked you to teach them a lesson, not steal their wallets,” Zhao Yu criticized her.
“Hey, what’s wrong with you?” Cui Lizhu retorted in an argumentative tone. “I’m a lady, and yet you made me pick a fight with drunkards!”
Zhao Yu said, “You have been with me for such a long time, and I would think that you would understand how things work by now! All you needed to just was to go over and say anything you like. Then, they would definitely tease you because you are a woman. At this time, it would give me the open door to go over and fight them under the guise of a right and proper reason… For your honor! Besides, you were with me and Vice Captain Jin, so you shouldn’t have anything to fear!”
Cui Lizhu dared not swear at Zhao Yu like she wanted to, but instead murmured, “You’re an idiot! If you want to fight people, you should just be a man and go straight up to them a do it yourself! Why are you always having to resort to using so many foul tricks? Also, why drag me into it?”
Zhao Yu took all of the money from the wallets as he shouted at her angrily, “It’s because I am an honest and decent man now, so I need a proper reason to beat people up now! You should know that!”
Then, with a big wave of his hand, he threw the money out of the window.
“What are you doing? You are a madman! Even if you don’t want that money, I certainly do!” Cui Lizhu was so upset that she jumped to her feet instantly and screamed at him, “Do you hate money? Zhao Yu, you are a bas*ard! You idiot! You jerk…”
Cui Lizhu grabbed the empty wallets and threw them out of the window, while she continued to yell at Zhao Yu, “You are a mental case! That’s why you like that violent woman.”
At that moment, Vice Captain Jin returned with the drink. He closed the car door and wanted to say something, but suddenly saw that Zhao Yu and Cui Lizhu had strange looks on their faces. So, he quickly put down the drink, started the car silently, and drove away.
As soon as the police car left, all of the passersby on the street rushed to grab the money that had just been tossed out of the car window. Meanwhile, back inside the small restaurant, the drunk owners of these stolen wallets were still making noise. Some of them even saw the disturbance outside out of the corners of their eyes, but didn’t know that it was their money that the people were squabbling over!
That afternoon, Vice Captain Jin drove Zhao Yu and Cui Lizhu to the Yaoming Police Station in the western part of the city. The technical school was under the jurisdiction of this police station, and Zhao Yu wanted to look for the school’s information in the station’s records. He specifically wanted to checked to see if there were any special case reports or lawsuits that were connected to the school.
When it was three o’clock, a piece of good news finally came from another team. Apparently, they had found a person named Liu Xia, who, had been Han Kuan’s classmate in the past.
However, Liu Xia was currently in Beijing, and since that was quite far away, she could only talk to them over the phone. Also, because Liu Xia was a woman, Zhao Yu asked Cui Lizhu to be the one to talk to her.
Liu Xia was very cooperative after she understood their objectives. She confirmed that their information was correct. She and Han Kuan had indeed been classmates.
In 1998, they had been in the 11th grade, and they had been in the same class for about a year. Liu Xia said that Han Kuan, who always sat in the last row of the class, was a quiet fellow and hardly ever spoke to her.
She had just heard others say that Han Kuan was a very talented person, who liked to write and draw. That was pretty much all that she knew about Han Kuan.
But, Liu Xia was able to give them several other people’s names, saying that they might have been closer to Han Kuan. She suggested that they ask these people, as they might be able to provide more accurate information. So, Zhao Yu and the others searched all of the names that Liu Xia had provided, then made phone calls to each of them, one by one.
The results of the following investigation provided with several new pieces of information. They now knew that Han Kuan and several of his male classmates had lived in dormitory 505. But, he had later moved to another dormitory, but no one knew which one.
All of these informants, like Liu Xia, said that Han Kuan was a pretty boring person. His grades and looks were average average, so he was easily neglected by everyone. In fact, most of his classmates had even forgotten that he ever went to their school!
After being questioned over the phone, one of the classmates sent Zhao Yu a picture of their class in an email. Han Kuan was in the far corner of the picture, with a stiff expression on his face, one that would make people feel like that he was not a part of this group at all.
Although there was no specific information to corroborate this, both Zhao Yu and Cui Lizhu felt that Han Kuan had a very complicated backstory. He was clearly not as simple as he had first seemed to be when their investigation had just started.
Now, the focus of their investigation shifted to Han Kuan’s old roommates. If they could find someone who lived in the same dormitory as him, they would definitely be able to get more specific information regarding that time period in his life. However, when they tried to contact two of Han Kuan’s old roommates, they had either changed their numbers or the call could not get through.
At this time, while Vice Captain Jin was still actively investigating possible clues, Zhao Yu looked at his watch and became impatient. This was because the set time for today’s side adventure was quickly approaching, and as they were still quite a distance away from where its location, Zhao Yu knew that he had to leave soon.
At first, Zhao Yu wanted to make up an excuse in order to be able to leave by himself. But suddenly, as he was still trying to think of a proper excuse to do so, Vice Captain Jin ran up to Zhao Yu with a list in his hand and said, “Leader Zhao, I found a car repair shop owner named Cui Xiaolong…”
As he spoke, he was pointing to a name on the list, “This man was also Han Kuan’s roommate! Although we can’t get him on the phone, his shop is near Guanting. So, we should go there and find him ourselves!”
“Guanting?” Zhao Yu asked, clearly annoyed. After all, he had important things to do, and he didn’t want to waste his time on such things at the moment!
“Yes. It’s not very far! In fact, it’s just in the northwestern part of Yaoming, along the national highway!” Vice Captain Jin explained as he opened his map and began pointing at it.
Zhao Yu’s eyes lit up as soon as he saw the map. Luckily, Cui Xiaolong’s shop was very close to today’s side adventure! It was in that exact same direction!
So, Zhao Yu snapped his finger and nodded to show his agreement to the plan. Vice Captain Jin then jumped into the police car and drove away with Zhao Yu and Cui Lizhu to carry out this new mission.
Yaoming’s roads were very modern and developed. Although there were many vehicles on the road, they did not run into any congestion or traffic jams. As such, their car soon left the downtown area and headed straight for Cui Xiaolong’s shop.
“Hopefully, this man knows something,” Cui Lizhu said. “After all, they were roommates!”
Zhao Yu was distracted and barely heard her, as he was still thinking about the side adventure. He looked down at his mobile phone, and according to the map on it, his side adventure was set to take place in a very remote and wild area, where there were very few big buildings. This made him very curious as to what would happen to him today.
Meanwhile, Vice Captain Jin concentrated on driving the police car. However, a voice suddenly came from his walkie talkie, which said, “Attention! No. 344 Xinzhuangzi Road, Provincial Avenue… There’s been an armed robbery! Again, No. 344 Xinzhuangzi Road, Provincial Avenue… An armed robbery! Police nearby, please respond immediately!”
