The Brain Science Case 119

Chapter 119: Hibernating in the Dim Sunlight – 13 (End)

After eating his bento box, Nguyen Thi Xuan handed over the lookout duty to his companion and took a short nap in the steel frame where he could avoid the wind.

He had a dream.

In the dream, he saw his precious daughter lying on a hospital bed, and he heard a nurse say that the surgery was very successful. She was smiling, and her healthy appearance was so cute. He picked up his daughter and looked at his wife. The long-lost feeling of happiness made his eyes well up with tears…

If he could, he wished he would never wake up.

“…Phone, the phone is ringing.” His companion shook him awake. Nguyen Thi Xuan woke up, and in the dim environment, the screen light stimulated his pupils.

It was the boss calling.

“Hello?”

‘The police have found you.’ Her voice sounded tense. ‘You guys get out of there.’

The police? He stood up, subconsciously reaching for the gun in his jacket. ‘Remember to take the person with you. Run as far as you can. I’ll find a way to send someone to support you.’

“Where are we going… hello? Boss? Hello.” The call was disconnected.

“What did the boss say?” his companion asked. He looked up, and it was almost six in the evening, and the sky was dark.

“She just told us to take the person and leave quickly.” Before, there had always been a driver to pick them up, but now, it was clear that he had to improvise. “It’s fine. You guys take the person, and we’ll get out of here quickly.”

Two of them pulled up Wei Shenghui, and after only a few steps, the partner who was on lookout hurried back. “Not good. Someone’s coming… a lot of people.”

Nguyen Thi Xuan frowned, went to the side of the floor, and looked down. Six or seven police cars with their red and blue lights flashing were entering the empty space, and their car was surrounded.

“Go up.” He took out his gun. “Follow me.”

**

The detectives from the Criminal Investigation Division and the Xinyi precinct were gradually searching and communicating through the radio.

“Councilor Wei is still in their hands. They will surely use the hostage to escape.”

“The chief is right, but I don’t think they will take the initiative to harm the hostage,” Yingli said, following the police officers’ steps in her high heels, as if she were walking on level ground.

“Oh?”

“They’re just following orders, and Li Yuejiao’s real purpose is to get something by kidnapping Wei Shenghui, which is the same method she used to get the list by kidnapping the director’s wife. If she harms or even kills the hostage, then she won’t achieve her goal, so I guess she won’t act rashly.”

“It’s really reassuring to hear you say that, Teacher.”

“But…” Yingli’s tone suddenly became drawn-out, “after all, the person who kidnapped him is Nguyen Thi Xuan. Whether he will really do as Li Yuejiao expects, that’s hard to say.”

“In any case, we still have to find the councilor’s whereabouts as soon as possible.”

With the police’s carpet search, even a place as big as the dome stadium would eventually be found after a long time.

‘We found a few just-discarded bento boxes on the second floor.’

A short while later, the precinct police found the traces of several foreign workers escaping on a higher floor.

Fang Zijun and the others quickly met up with them, but just as they were about to reach the spot where the culprits had appeared, a gunshot was heard.

“Who fired?”

‘Not us…’ the precinct captain quickly retorted, ‘the culprit has a gun.’

“It must have been provided by Wu Jianxiong.” Yingli was lying between the stairs and said to Fang Zijun, “Chief, if we push them too hard, we might harm Councilor Wei.”

Of course he knew.

Fang Zijun gritted his teeth and switched to a surrounding tactic to first trap the culprits. He would not open fire unless it was a last resort.

Through observation, they gradually grasped the positions of the several foreign workers and the hostage.

“Do you know where Nguyen Thi Xuan is?”

“He’s with Councilor Wei,” Chen Huomu responded.

In the blink of an eye, they had been in a standoff for almost half an hour. In terms of a protracted battle, the police would definitely have the upper hand, but no one knew if the culprits would do anything to harm the hostage after their mental and physical strength declined.

“Can anyone cover me?” Yingli slowly circled out of the police officers’ encirclement. “Let me try to negotiate. Maybe I can create some opportunities.”

Fang Zijun cautiously contacted Zhou Zengxiang and got his permission.

“Attention, everyone. We have a scholar here who is going to have a close-range negotiation with the culprits. Everyone be on your guard.”

After sending the message through the radio, Yingli put on a bulletproof vest and, under Chen Huomu’s lead, approached Nguyen Thi Xuan, who was holding the hostage.

“Nguyen Thi Xuan.” She held a megaphone and spoke to the culprit who was hiding behind the steel frame. “Can you hear me?”

The police lights only slightly illuminated the hostage’s feet. “We have investigated for several days and have learned that you were instructed by the intermediary to first cause an accident at the construction site, and then to kidnap the hostage according to a plan. Even the firearms were provided by them.” She carefully observed their movements and looked at Chen Huomu, signaling him to get a little closer.

“You were actually forced, right? You came here to work so hard, and nothing is more important than your family’s life. If you had a choice, why would you risk committing a crime?” He tried to appeal to their emotions, but the other party remained unmoved.

“Think of your daughter.” Yingli finally said the name of the relative he was so concerned about. “You, who can endure anything for a living, if you really commit a serious crime like murder at this time, you will never be able to see her again. Aren’t you most concerned about your daughter?”

After a long silence, the other party responded.

“Who are you?”

“My identity is not important to you. What’s important is that you no longer have to fight the police. Harming the hostage will not do you any good. Did those people promise to give your family a sum of money for living expenses? In any case, this is your last chance to turn back.”

After a while, Nguyen Thi Xuan finally appeared in the police lights.

But he did not appear alone. He was also holding Wei Shenghui, and the two people next to him were holding guns to the hostage’s chest. They were on high alert.

“Nguyen Thi Xuan.” Yingli shouted at him, and the police officers who were lying in ambush all silently raised their guns and aimed at them.

Nguyen Thi Xuan was in a position where the light was reflecting, so he couldn’t see Yingli’s appearance clearly and could only rely on her voice to answer.

“How do you know about me?”

Even under great pressure, his eyes were still calm. Yingli took a few steps forward and signaled Chen Huomu not to follow. “A Vietnamese worker who worked with you mentioned you. He said that on the night before the accident at the construction site, you had told him you were about to see your daughter.” She took off the megaphone. “I’m sure you were very happy. What’s wrong with her?”

The smile on his lips was fleeting. “She’s sick. She has a heart problem… she needs surgery, and it costs a lot of money, but she can’t wait any longer. So, so…”

I see. Only by getting a large sum of medical expenses could he see his daughter again. “So you followed the instructions and risked committing such a crime, right? They promised to pay for your daughter’s medical expenses?”

He nodded vigorously and looked around at his partners. “The others all have the same reason as me… as long as we’re willing to do it, our families will be better off.”

“But even if your daughter gets better, what’s the point if you can’t be with her as she grows up? Put down the gun. And tell your partners to drop their guns and release the hostage. It’s not too late.”

Nguyen Thi Xuan hesitated, and Yingli could see from his eyes that he was thinking. All the police officers present held their breath until he had said a few words in his native language to his fellow Vietnamese workers. Although they were a little hesitant, they all dropped their guns.

In the end, only he was left. She watched, and Nguyen Thi Xuan first put away his gun, but his left hand was still tightly holding Wei Shenghui.

At that moment, the phone rang. It was his phone.

Nguyen Thi Xuan answered without hesitation. “Hello…” while everyone was holding their breath, his face suddenly changed.

The phone suddenly fell from his hand, and his expression was as if he had lost everything, followed by an incomprehensible cry to the sky.

“Nguyen Thi Xuan?”

He and Wei Shenghui were very close to the outermost edge of the floor, and the sudden emotional instability almost shocked everyone. Just as Wei Shenghui took the opportunity to break free, a gunshot was heard from behind Yingli—

The bullet accurately hit Nguyen Thi Xuan’s abdomen, and the person fired again. As if an invisible hand had pushed him, it pushed Nguyen Thi Xuan into the air…

Into an abyss that could not be saved.

“Nguyen Thi Xuan.” Yingli couldn’t even reach out before he had disappeared from the outermost edge of the floor. Chen Huomu and the others immediately protected the scrambling Wei Shenghui, and others went to check on the fallen Nguyen Thi Xuan.

There was no need to guess. After falling from a height of nearly five floors, especially after being hit by two bullets, Nguyen Thi Xuan was already beyond saving.

“Why did you shoot?”

She turned, and Fang Zijun, who had pulled the trigger, slowly lowered his gun.

“You saw it too, Teacher. He was very unstable after he heard the call. I was just trying to protect the councilor and you…”

“He was so sad he could barely hold himself together. Couldn’t you see that, Chief Fang?” Yingli stared at the phone Nguyen Thi Xuan had dropped on the ground. “That was definitely not Li Yuejiao who called… definitely not.”

“In any case, at least the crisis is over.” This was the only thing he cared about. Fang Zijun immediately reported to Zhou Zengxiang, and Chen Huomu directed the police to take the other five Vietnamese workers who had committed the crime back to the police station.

“Teacher…”

Yingli waved her hand to show that she had heard, but she seemed to be in a daze as she picked up Nguyen Thi Xuan’s phone and looked down at him from above. He was lying in a pool of blood, and the police officers who were guarding below looked at her, at a loss.

She opened the screen, and from the cracked corner, she clearly saw the smile of a young woman and the little girl she was holding in her arms.

Such a smile… could only be seen in a photo.

**

Although the remaining five foreign workers were involved, all contact with the mastermind had been through Nguyen Thi Xuan, so it was difficult to get any further information from them. The five of them were all charged with kidnapping for ransom.

As for Wei Shenghui, after a series of industrial accidents and his kidnapping, he had recently withdrawn from the city council election, but his confession video had been leaked through unknown channels and had become a topic of media and public opinion for a short time. The media had explained the kidnapping as an incident where foreign migrant workers had kidnapped their employer out of dissatisfaction with their treatment, and the rights of foreign migrant workers and their demand for the freedom to change bad employers had once again come to the fore.

But the real reason, only the police knew the whole story.

Nguyen Thi Xuan’s wife had arrived in Taiwan shortly after the incident. Yingli had personally returned Nguyen Thi Xuan’s phone to her.

She was in tears. Through a translator, Yingli learned that the emergency call had been made by her.

Their precious daughter had unfortunately passed away two hours before the incident. Li Yuejiao had indeed transferred the funds to Nguyen Thi Xuan’s wife through a shell account, but her heart surgery had unfortunately failed.

His daughter, in the end, had not survived.

“His heart must have been very conflicted, but for his own child, he still did it.” It was just that the result was not what they had expected.

And the labor rights of foreign migrant workers, which had been so widely reported in the news media, would probably be like a ship passing in the night, leaving no trace, just like before. They had traveled far and wide to this land to fight for their survival, but few people had ever cared about their rights.

Looking up at the gray sky, Yingli sincerely hoped that Nguyen Thi Xuan could really see his daughter… in another world.

But would that be another extravagant hope?

She didn’t know.

**

Early in the morning, in the interrogation room of the Criminal Investigation Division, Huang Yunjia was being interrogated.

In a calm voice, she explained the details of the poisoning and murder of Lin Pinyi, including how she had given the ricin to the drug dealer, and how he had mixed the toxin with the drugs he had sold to Lin Pinyi.

And under Yingli’s interrogation, the motive for the crime was further clarified. Huang Yunjia explained that Lin Pinyi was not usually bad to her, but the drug use had indeed become a time bomb in their relationship.

“If it weren’t for meeting him… I might have really accepted Pinyi’s proposal despite my family’s objections.”

“The person who gave you the wedding ring?” Huang Yunjia nodded, and Yingli continued to ask, “Have you met him? Do you know his real identity?”

She shook her head, stating that the two of them had met through a dating app. The man had claimed to work in the tech industry, and after they had matched, he had begun to pursue her ardently. Although they had never met, they had had several phone calls, and he had also sent her many gifts.

Unable to find security in her relationship with Lin Pinyi, Huang Yunjia had gradually shifted her emotional focus to him—the man nicknamed “Angus.” She had then confided in him about her current unhappy relationship, and he had been very sympathetic and had said he would “find a way” to deal with it for her.

And then he had sent her the ricin, and had said that it would teach Lin Pinyi a lesson, but Huang Yunjia had had no idea beforehand that this thing could kill a person.

“When was the last time you contacted him?”

“The night Pinyi died. I haven’t been able to contact him since.” She covered her face and sobbed. “I only found out later that it could kill someone.”

“And then you stuck a needle in the unconscious Lin Pinyi’s tongue?”

She nodded. “I called him. He said that would get me off the hook…”

“No one will find out,” he had said to her, and had taught her how to stage the scene to make it look like Lin Pinyi had been electrocuted.

But even though Huang Yunjia had said so, she was very skeptical of her entire testimony and was convinced that Huang Yunjia had long had the idea of killing Lin Pinyi.

But as for the true identity of the man she had mentioned, Yingli still could not make a final conclusion. And cases of using a fake identity to deceive people in online dating were rampant, and it was very difficult to investigate.

Only one thing was certain—someone had taken advantage of the situation and had seized this opportunity to kill with a borrowed knife.

After the interrogation, Yingli ran her hands through her hair and returned to her seat. She had not even rested for thirty seconds when a can of black coffee suddenly appeared on her desk.

“What’s wrong? It’s only ten in the morning and you’re already sighing.”

Zhou Jinglin’s hands were on her shoulders, and she pushed up her glasses. “A lot of heartbreaking things have happened recently.”

Nguyen Thi Xuan’s experience was discouraging, and Fang Zijun’s rash shooting also made her tired, but it was something she had to face every day at work.

“Is it about the special project?”

She pursed her lips and nodded. “Yes.”

“You’re unhappy because you’ve handled too many cases, and I’m unhappy because I haven’t made a breakthrough.” Jinglin took back her hands. “You still have to write a report, right? I won’t bother you. Remember to drink your coffee.”

“Yes… Officer Zhou.”

“Huh?”

Looking at her profile, Yingli’s words were a little hesitant. “Um… tonight, shall we go out to eat?”

“Oh, okay. Where do you want to go?”

“Let’s find a… slightly more high-end restaurant.” She instinctively thought of the French restaurant Tang Zhichao had mentioned. “I have something I want to discuss with you… something very important.”

Jinglin’s heart suddenly beat a little faster. “Very important?”

“Yes.” Yingli’s gaze was focused. “I’ll find the restaurant. In any case… remember not to work too late.”

“Oh, okay.”

Knowing she had a date tonight, Jinglin smiled, and her steps back to her seat were unconsciously lighter.

But the report calls at the station always rang at all hours.

**

In a certain part of the Da’an district, two culprits with knives broke into a single woman’s home. Jinglin, who had received the report, drove alone and rushed out with the other detectives.

The owner was a young woman in her thirties. It was reported that two culprits had followed her home from work and had broken into her house with knives when she was opening the door. A neighbor had witnessed the men using violence against the owner through a window and had quickly reported it.

“She’s only just getting off work at this time?” she asked through the radio.

‘Maybe she works the night shift. Don’t think so much. Saving people is the most important thing.’

The apartment was on the fourth floor. Although it was a community, the security was lax. Because the door was locked from the inside, the detectives entered the room through the balcony of the next-door neighbor.

Although the two culprits with knives resisted, they were quickly subdued by the police.

“Wait… these two, aren’t they the two who were injured and sent to the hospital before?” Xiangrong shouted, pointing at the two handcuffed culprits.

“Injured and sent to the hospital?” Jinglin’s tone rose, and she went around to see their faces.

“Yes, it was the first time Pan Yuhuan had a conflict with someone at Givenchy…”

Pan Yuhuan. Jinglin’s pupils contracted, and she remembered their indignant conversation when she had been following them.

“I’ll go and see the owner.” She followed the bloodstains into the bathroom and was startled to find Dingdang, who was bleeding profusely.

“Quick… save me…”

She was tied up and was pressed in the bathtub, unable to move. Jinglin casually grabbed a bath towel to apply pressure to her wound, and only then did she find that both her hands were covered in cuts of all sizes. It looked terrifying, but none of them were deep. Jinglin immediately saw through this as a trick of torture and threat, the purpose of which was not to kill immediately, but to make people afraid.

Those two young men were probably trying to get revenge for Pan Yuhuan, but they couldn’t touch Wu Jianxiong, so they had angrily shifted their target to Dingdang.

“Are you okay? The ambulance is on its way. You’ll be sent to the hospital right away.”

Dingdang’s face was pale, and her dress, which had not yet been taken off, was now covered in blood. She was helped out of the bathtub by Jinglin and took a breather outside before the ambulance arrived.

“Do you have a first-aid kit here?”

“In the TV cabinet…”

Jinglin first cleaned and disinfected her wounds and then applied ointment, and used gauze for emergency treatment. After Dingdang had recovered a little, she also immediately recognized her.

“Besides your hands and feet, did they do anything else to you?”

Dingdang blushed and shook her head. Jinglin looked around the messy room. “You, this madam, you seem to be able to call the shots in the shop, but as soon as you’re out of that range, you can only fend for yourself.”

“I’m not as skilled as Sister Lisa… and I’m far from you.” Dingdang laughed at herself.

“I came as soon as I heard the report… I didn’t expect the victim to be you. It gave me a shock.”

“Although I don’t want to admit it… you really saved my life this time.”

“In that case, can I ask you for a favor?”

Looking at Jinglin’s clear, black and white eyes, Dingdang sighed. “Although I want to ask you not to make things difficult for me… I know what you want to ask.”

Jinglin bit her lip. “I just want to know what you meant by that sentence before.”

Don’t just believe what you see.

“That refers to the scene you saw at the ‘crime scene’.” Closing her eyes, Dingdang said in a helpless and heavy tone, “do you really think what you saw was the truth?”

“You mean…”

The paramedics came, and they took the towel-wrapped Dingdang out the door.

“Wait.” Jinglin chased after them. “You mean it wasn’t Wu Jianxiong who took my mom, or…”

“Let me put it this way.” She stopped and turned to Jinglin, saying word by word, “Sister handed the shop over to me. Do you think I would be with a murderer? Not to mention someone who is directly related to Sister’s death.”

“But you did, didn’t you?” Jinglin chased after her urgently. “Then let me ask you, where on earth is my mom?”

Dingdang smiled, a smile that was both abrupt and startling.

“Haven’t you already seen her?”

The woman whose eyes felt so familiar.

She was frozen in place, and she didn’t even notice that Dingdang had already gotten into the ambulance with the paramedics.

Her mind was in a turmoil, including the image of the woman in white, her strange smile, that gaze… including all the doubts she had had since the special task force was formed.

In the end, what she remembered was the gentle promise Yingli had given her after the incident.

‘I will tell you. But now is not the time…’

That neuroscientist must have known much, much more than she had thought, but she had broken that promise.

Jinglin silently tightened her fingers, gritted her teeth, and a name came from between her teeth.

“Tang. Ying. Li.”

The woman she both respected, loved… and hated.