Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Ah…
An unexpected quiver ran its way along Zhao Yu’s spine as he suddenly lost balance. His body tilted, and he fell.
As he fell, he instinctively grabbed the edge of the desk. However, the desk was turned upside down and Zhao Yu ended up hitting the ground.
Bang!
“Leader, are you alright?” Zeng Ke rushed over to help him.
“Oh… Oh…” Zhao Yu laid on the cold floor, dazed.
Last night, after he had worked for too long, he had fallen asleep on his desk. In his sleep, he had dreamed of Team leader Qu Ping!
In this dream, Qu Ping was still in her clean uniform, while she stood in front of Zhao Yu and said something to him. She appeared to be telling him something earnestly. Zhao Yu couldn’t remember what she had said, but he remembered her appearance very clearly.
However, Zhao Yu was stubborn, so he did not listen to her at all. Instead, he had deliberately put his hands over his ears, which made Qu Ping angry.
When the dream came to its end, Zhao Yu saw a golden light emanating from Qu Ping, then she disappeared. Zhao Yu was about to scream, but when he opened his mouth, he could not utter a sound at all. In was at that moment, in a state of shock, he had awoken suddenly.
Zeng Ke lifted Zhao Yu from the ground, pulled him to a chair, and said, “You were too tired yesterday. Let me pour you a glass of water.”
“Oh…” Zhao Yu wiped the sweat from his forehead, while a deep feeling of nostalgia sprang up in his heart.
After such a long time, he had almost forgotten what Qu Ping looked like, but he did not expect that, in his dream, the group leader’s face would still possess the same sense of righteousness and magnificence.
He calmed down and carefully tried to recall that particular scene from his dream. However, he still couldn’t remember what Qu Ping had said to him within it.
“Team Leader Qu…” Zhao Yu muttered her name, wondering why he had dreamed of her at such a time.
Last night, Zhao Yu had read almost all of the information of the case, from the beginning to the very end. He had even watched all of the clips that were shot by the film crew.
Such a complicated case had a lot of files for him to check. After he spent a long time focusing on the case, his eyes couldn’t even see clearly anymore. Moreover, even after such an effort, he had failed to get any inspiration.
“Come on, have a drink!” Zeng Ke brought a cup of water over to him and said, “Leader, you have to rest. You can’t let yourself become too anxious!”
After Zhao Yu took a few sips, he suddenly asked Zeng Ke, “Zeng Ke, what do you think of this case?”
Zeng Ke laughed bitterly, then said, “Basically, what you think is exactly what I think. However, I can sum it up for you. Would you like to hear it?”
“Yes!” Zhao Yu confirmed.
“I think that the key to this case lies in Guo Yihang! If the murderer is Guo Yihang, then the case is already clear, and as long as Guo Yihang is caught, the truth can be revealed!” Zeng Ke said. “But if the murderer is not Guo Yihang, it must be that the murderer wants to frame Guo Yihang!”
Zeng Ke then quickly added, “I know that we guessed that before, but leader, I think that if it is the second thought, then our case is really a difficult one!”
“Why?” Zhao Yu asked.
“We have the evidence and a witness. Basically, no matter where Guo Yihang is, he will be the first suspect in this case! So, as long as Guo Yihang does not show up, the case cannot be solved! Let’s think about it. If the murderer has killed Guo Yihang and hidden his body, then… As long as the body can’t be found, the real murderer will go unpunished!”
“Oh… That does make sense!” Zhao Yu nodded and said. “So, the murderer is very smart, and he knows the police’s means of investigation, as well as the judicial process.”
Suddenly, Zhao Yu recalled the speculation of the forensic pathologist Gao Facai, which was that the murderer had killed before or had at least had professional training. This made Zhao Yu wonder…
Was the murder case on Yongjin Island committed by a professional killer? Or… Not one, but a gang of them, like in the Hasty Murder Case?
But… A murderer always had a motive. Who could be offended by such an ordinary film crew?
Zeng Ke pointed to the red circles on the white board, then asked, “Do you think that all of these clues are important pieces of information?”
As Zeng Ke took a closer look, he read out a few of the items from the board, “Guo Yihang has myocarditis… Kang Leming said that their speedboat was running out of oil and could only carely make it back to land.. And what’s this? A map?”
“That’s the windbreak where Kang Leming was stabbed!” Zhao Yu said. “Out of all of the victims, Kang Leming ran the farthest. The murderer could have killed him anywhere, but he ran so far…. I want to know why…”
“Oh… What about this one?” Zeng Ke then pointed to the white board and asked, “What does a little girl selling fish mean to the case?”
“Well… I haven’t figured that out yet…” Zhao Yu explained, “Maybe… I think… She sells fish near the place where the murderer abandoned the speedboat. So, I went there and asked her some questions.”
“Well… But… Captain Dou’s people have already checked that angle. The fishing boats that went to sea that morning and the merchants on the shore have all been investigated already,” Zeng Ke said.
He then added, “I think it would be hard to find the speedboat driver, as Quliang has a large area of surveillance blindspots along the seashore. Also, it was late at night…”
Before they finished their conversation, Bureau Chief Wang Chenggang arrived outside the office. They heard his arrival and went out to Wang Chenggang, who was delivering breakfast again.
“Leader Zhao,” Wang said with a big smile. “Soybean milk and fried dough sticks… And some of our local seafood. Come and have a taste.”
Just as Bureau Chief Wang Chenggang entered the command vessel with the breakfast warmer, another group of policemen were lifting things up from the deck, which was packed with many large cardboard boxes.
Unexpectedly, when they passed by each other, a policeman failed to hold his box and many items crashed out of the box that he had been holding. Everything that fell out of the box was packed in transparent evidence bags and flew all over the floor.
“Oh, sorry!” the policeman said, while he and several other policemen quickly bowed their heads to collect the items.
“Be careful!” Wang Chenggang kindly warned them, while he carried the warmer to Zhao Yu’s office.
Zhao Yu looked at the things that had fallen to the ground, then asked curiously, “What are these?”
“Oh…” The policeman who was picking up the items on the ground quickly got up and saluted him, then answered, “Leader Zhao, all of these things are invalid pieces of evidence that we found near the crime scenes. Captain Dou asked us to carry them back to the Quliang Police Station.”
“Invalid evidence?” Zhao Yu bowed his head and looked at the items carefully.
Then, he understood. All of the evidence bags were filled with garbage-like items, such as bottle caps, cigarette packages, food bags and so on. These things obviously were not important pieces of evidence, so they had been classified as invalid evidence.
However, although they were invalid, these things still had to be sent back to the police station and checked by the Forensics Department. The Forensics Department would examine each of them carefully to see if there was any blood or fingerprints on them.
“Huh…” Zhao Yu exhaled as he squatted down to pick up one of the bags.
“Please don’t. It’s too dirty. How can we let you do that?” The policemen next to him urgently dissuaded him from doing this, but Zhao Yu had already lifted up the bag.
The bag was filled with cigarette butts. Some of them were very dirty. As he was looking at the cigarette butts in the bag, Zhao Yu seemed to have just thought of something.
At this time, the policemen had already picked up the other evidence bags, all except for the one in Zhao Yu’s hands. When they saw Zhao Yu’s eyes concentrating on the bag, they dared not disturb him, so they simply had to stand there and wait patiently.
“Leader…” Zeng Ke waited for a while, then went up and asked in a low voice, “What’s wrong? What did you find?”
Zhao Yu shook his head and said, “Nothing…”
After that, Zhao Yu threw the cigarette butts into the evidence box, then turned to head back to the office. However, along the way, he obviously had something on his mind.
At this time, Wang Chenggang put the breakfast warmer in the office and said, “Leader Zhao, have some breakfast. I have to go back to handle some matters regarding the dispute at the wharf yesterday! Only Captain Dou was there, and I’m afraid he can’t cope with it all alone!”
After that, Bureau Chief Wang rushed off the vessel with his people.
“Come on, it’s soybean milk and fried dough sticks! They’re my favorites!” When Zeng Ke got back to the office, he could not wait to open the warmer and enjoy his breakfast.
Suddenly, Zhao Yu reached out and grabbed him, then said in a doubtful tone, “Zeng Ke, if I told you that the crime of this case was committed by some internal people… What would you think?”
“Internal people? What internal people?” Zeng Ke was confused.
Zhao Yu patted Zeng Ke heavily on the shoulder and said, “You check that Captain Dou out for me right away!”
