Chapter 51

Lying on the sofa, Lu Shimiao opened the autopsy report. She had only read two pages when her phone rang.

She bolted upright from the sofa, pulled out her phone, and looked. It wasn’t Li Siting; it was Xue Tong.

Lu Shimiao pressed it to her ear. “What’s up?”

“Have you eaten?”

Xue Tong’s voice came through the receiver, exceptionally sweet and clear. Lu Shimiao was momentarily lost in it. Xue Tong’s ability to make her blush and her heart race seemed to have no expiration date. She pursed her lips to hide her reaction. “I have.”

“You’ve started to like lying. That’s not a good habit.” Xue Tong’s voice was soft, yet carried a steady seriousness. “You need to break it.”

“No, I really ate.” Lu Shimiao flustered, grabbing the chopsticks from her desk, picking up a bite of her noon takeout, and shoving it into her mouth.

…She hadn’t turned on the AC that afternoon, so the food had gone slightly sour. Lu Shimiao spat it right back out. “It just wasn’t very good.”

“Are you in your office?” Xue Tong probed.

“Yes.” Lu Shimiao nodded. “I’m in the office.”

“Come downstairs.” She said it lightly, gentler than a command, tinged with affection.

“Downstairs?” Lu Shimiao caught on. She stood up, walked to the window, and looked down at the bottom of the building. Xue Tong was standing at the entrance of the police compound in a sportswear outfit, her tall and slender figure exceptionally striking.

Seeing this, Lu Shimiao’s lips curled up. “Okay, right away.”

After hanging up, she didn’t wait for the elevator. She dashed down the stairs and sprinted out of the compound, stopping in front of Xue Tong.

“Soup dumplings, and your favorite 7up.” Xue Tong held out an insulated bag. “Ice cold.”

…

Lu Shimiao took the bag and glanced inside. Looking up at Xue Tong under the streetlights, the blushing and heart-pounding started again, uncontrollably. All she could manage was a simple, “Thank you.”

Out of the corner of her eye, she glanced at Xue Tong’s attire.

Shorts, tank top, a sweat towel around her neck. She had clearly just finished a run.

“You ran here?”

“Mm.”

“What if I had a mission and wasn’t here? Wouldn’t that be a wasted trip? Can your legs handle such a long run?” Lu Shimiao’s expression filled with worry. “Next time you come, call me in advance.”

“If I get tired, I can take a taxi. If you’re not here, I can eat it myself. You should just enjoy the moment of me bringing you food.”

Xue Tong reached out and rubbed Lu Shimiao’s ear, softly adding, “Complicated thoughts only increase your internal friction. I didn’t bring you food so you could worry about me.”

Lu Shimiao scratched her head bashfully and answered honestly, “I’ll eat it all.”

“Here’s your access card. You forgot it this morning.” Xue Tong pulled the card from her armband pocket and slipped it into Lu Shimiao’s back pocket. “I’m going to school tomorrow for registration. I’ll come back to see you on the weekend.”

“Okay.” Lu Shimiao nodded obediently.

“I’m off.” Xue Tong gently twisted a strand of Lu Shimiao’s hair at her shoulder. “Bye-bye, Officer Little Lu!”

“Be safe on the road!” A sudden wave of reluctance hit Lu Shimiao, and she stood there holding the bag, calling out instructions.

“Going now.” Xue Tong was also a little reluctant. She reached out and lightly poked Lu Shimiao’s cheek, then turned and walked toward the street corner.

Lu Shimiao’s gaze followed Xue Tong’s retreating figure until she disappeared around the corner. Only then did she reluctantly walk back to the office.

Sitting back on the sofa, Lu Shimiao pulled the takeout container from the insulated bag and lifted the lid. The soup dumplings were still hot, while the 7up beside them was perfectly chilled. Looking at the food on the table, she spaced out.

This was the life she liked, wasn’t it?

Even if it was a dinner eaten close to eleven at night.

But work and Xue Tong were in balance. That bottle of ice-cold 7up on the table cooled down the stuffy day. It felt as if neither of them had said anything, yet they were both steadfastly embracing life together. It was touching without any need for embellishment.

Content, Lu Shimiao stuffed the soup dumplings into her mouth. She actually ate all twelve of them.

She was so full she burped. After washing her hands, she continued reading the case file.

But after reading for a little while, her eyes couldn’t stay open. The case file flopped onto her face, and she fell asleep on the sofa.

Until a phone call jolted her awake at four in the morning.

Lu Shimiao practically leaped off the sofa, searching all over for her phone. She pressed it to her ear, voice groggy with sleep. “Here.”

“Little Lu….” Li Siting’s tone was a bit off.

Panic seized Lu Shimiao. “Is Cheng Guang dead???”

“Huh? What do you mean, Cheng Guang is dead?” Li Siting’s reaction was even bigger than hers.

“Oh, oh, oh. The way you sounded, I thought Cheng Guang was dead.” Lu Shimiao quickly rubbed her eyes, got up, and walked out of the office toward the dormitory.

“We didn’t catch Chen Guoping. Your team needs to move out now and search the rental house.” Li Siting’s voice was filled with frustration.

–

At 4:30 a.m., in the suburban Minjian Village, Lu Shimiao set up a perimeter.

Lin Shu was already on the scene. Wearing a bomb disposal suit, she waved at Lu Shimiao. “Team Lead Lu, the explosives have been removed. You can enter now.”

“Hard work, Captain Lin.” Lu Shimiao pointed at herself. “We don’t need to wear bomb suits, right?”

“You do. Recommend you wear chemical-resistant gloves.” Lin Shu’s bomb suit looked incredibly heavy, probably weighing over a dozen pounds. How her slender frame managed it was a mystery.

Fifteen minutes later.

Lu Shimiao put on a lightweight bomb suit. Even taking a step felt incredibly heavy. She first walked a circle inside, mapping out the evidence collection route, then waved to her team members.

The group entered, spreading out to search for evidence.

The rental house was dilapidated. The furniture was almost all broken and shabby, some even obviously second-hand. The washing machine’s base was rusted scrap metal, and the bed was just a pile of wooden crates.

Just as described in the diary.

The room wasn’t large, a few dozen square meters, but signs of corrosion were everywhere. The wall behind the table was blackened with smoke, looking like several minor explosions had occurred here.

“Use the Witness 3D Panoramic Scanner to do a full sweep.” Lu Shimiao pointed to the equipment team outside. “After the sweep, use the Multi-Band Light Source. Then the Raman Spectrometer to check for chemical reagents.”

While her colleagues were scanning with the light, Lu Shimiao started rifling through drawers and cabinets.

Shoes taken, toothbrush taken, hairs collected, the documents on the table reviewed and bagged. Medicine bottles in the drawers were carefully inspected; cancer medication was taken.

She walked to the fridge, opened it, rummaged for a moment, and picked up a canister. “Sevoflurane?”

“Xiao Zou, take a look and see if this is Sevoflurane?” Finding an anesthetic put Lu Shimiao on high alert. She called over the biology analyst who graduated from a medical school.

Xiao Zou came over, glanced at the outer packaging, opened the lid, and sniffed. “Yeah, it’s Sevoflurane.”

“An anesthetic?” Lu Shimiao wanted to confirm.

“Yes, a potent one.” Xiao Zou returned to her workstation and continued her task.

Lu Shimiao placed the canister in an evidence bag and continued searching.

At 6:30 a.m., a crowd of onlookers had gathered outside the police line. The officers had finished their inquiries. Lu Shimiao, having taken off her crime scene suit, got into a car.

“Has Cheng Guang been caught?” Lu Shimiao saw Li Siting sitting in the passenger seat with his eyes narrowed, an expression like he’d just eaten shit. She guessed he hadn’t been caught.

“Ran. Xiao Zhu set up surveillance in several locations but didn’t get him.” Li Siting suddenly turned his head to look at Lu Shimiao. “You don’t think Chen Guoping dragged Cheng Guang off somewhere and killed him, do you?”

“We found footprint patterns at the scene identical to those from the crime scene. I looked at Chen Guoping’s shoes, and he should have an old injury on his left leg.” Lu Shimiao never speculated; she was used to letting the evidence speak.

“We also found two bottles of Sevoflurane at the scene.” Lu Shimiao handed this crucial information to Li Siting.

“I reviewed the case file last night. Plus, finding cancer medication in the rental house suggests Chen Guoping’s wife was probably hospitalized, or died… the likelihood of death is high. We didn’t find anyone else’s handprints or fingerprints at the scene.” Lu Shimiao’s word choices were always meticulous.

“Damn it. Let’s head back first.”

–

At 7:30 a.m., the Serious Crime Unit was full of yawns.

Lu Shimiao was in the Forensic Tech Office on the third floor, organizing the physical evidence. She entered them into the system item by item, signed off, and arranged for lab delivery.

Lin Shu had also joined the team to help organize the day’s findings.

Lu Shimiao opened the case file she had been reading halfway through last night and placed it in front of Lin Shu. “Chen Si was an Olympic Chemistry silver medalist. Look at this chemical formula Chen Si created, compiled from the evidence.”

Lin Shu took the file, glanced at it for a few seconds, then looked up. “Using his competition knowledge to formulate so many reagents? He must have made nitrocellulose, along with PeTN, flex and high explosives… he even had picric acid.”

Lu Shimiao smiled bitterly. “You saw the scene today. That house has definitely experienced an explosion before.”

“And after Chen Si’s incident, the Criminal Police searched it. How could Chen Guoping still get this stuff? He only has a sixth-grade education. These things are incredibly difficult to make; you could die on the spot if you mess up.”

Lu Shimiao continued asking, “From your site assessment, can you estimate how much he made?”

Lin Shu shook her head. “Estimating is impossible. It depends on the equipment and time. But it feels like the production time wasn’t long, probably just in the last couple of days.”

“It’s Monday, right?” Lu Shimiao glanced at her watch, approaching 9 a.m. “This is bad. I need to ask Hong Moli.”

She grabbed the file and ran downstairs. The detention center transport van hadn’t arrived yet. Hong Moli had spent the night sleeping on the bench. Seeing Lu Shimiao, she smiled. “What’s up, officer?”

“No time for full procedure. I’ll just ask you: when Cheng Guang and Chen Si were arguing, were you the only one who saw it?”

“Who’s Chen Si?”

“That kid demanding wages.”

“Oh, oh. I don’t know.”

“Did you ever tell anyone about that fight?”

“I might have. A few of my regulars who often bad-mouthed Cheng Guang behind his back.” Hong Moli scratched her head. “Did I break a law?”

“What did those people say about Cheng Guang?” Lu Shimiao hoped to use memory to help Hong Moli piece together clues.

“Shameless? Damn him?” Hong Moli pursed her lips, shrugging dismissively. “For not paying back money.”

“For not paying back money?” Lu Shimiao raised an eyebrow. “When was this?”

“Haven’t seen them in a few months. I have so many clients, I can’t remember.”

Lu Shimiao said a quick thank you, then turned and ran back to the office. The file in her hand was nearly falling apart from her speed.

She forcefully pushed open the door. Li Siting was analyzing arrest strategies with Brother Zhu. The group of old-timers was startled by Lu Shimiao’s sudden entrance.

“Find out if Chen Guoping’s wife is actually dead!” Lu Shimiao practically shouted. “Captain Li, you need to call the Criminal Police Unit handling Chen Si’s death case.”

“I think Chen Guoping will seek revenge on the officers who decided that case!!!!”

….

Li Siting stared blankly at Little Lu for two seconds. Then, the office began to boil with activity.

“The canvassing team, check on the status of Chen Guoping’s wife right now.”

“Phone surveillance on Cheng Guang, the instant he shows up, lock him down.”

After stabilizing the situation, Li Siting grabbed his phone and pulled Lu Shimiao by the arm, practically dragging her out of the Serious Crime Unit. He closed the door and turned back, asking, “What do you mean?”

“Why did Chen Guoping kill Zhang Lin? You said it yourself, Zhang Lin gave false testimony back then. But look…” Lu Shimiao pulled the suspect interrogation transcript from the case file for Li Siting to see.

The police had suspected Chen Guoping of instigating his son to plant the bomb, so they had brought him in for questioning.

“Chen Guoping said he didn’t know his son was making a bomb, only that his son was participating in a chemistry competition. Chen Si said he was going to demand unpaid wages but was beaten by Chen Guoping. Since it was summer vacation, he locked Chen Si in the house.”

“He didn’t know his son was going to do something so dangerous. If he’d known, he would definitely have stopped it.”

“There’s a video clip in the evidence. Look at this screenshot. Because the footage is from a high-altitude tower crane monitor, there’s no sound, just night-vision stills.”

“In the screenshot, Cheng Guang and Chen Si are at a distance. Then this frame shows the explosion. This video is what Cheng Guang voluntarily provided to the police. The police later authenticated it’s not faked.”

“During the interrogation, they showed this video to Chen Guoping.” Lu Shimiao quickly pointed to a section in the confession record. “Chen Guoping kept saying: ‘It was all my fault.'”

Lu Shimiao spoke rapidly. “Just now I asked Hong Moli. She mentioned this incident a few months ago to a client. That client might very well be one of the workers demanding wages alongside Chen Guoping.”

“So, if his wife is also dead, the criminal drive matches his current state.”

“Bombing the mall was to destroy that place. His son died there. Killing Zhang Lin was because she coincidentally worked there, and she gave false testimony years ago that let his son die for nothing. He hates her! Cheng Guang’s disappearance now might mean he’s been taken. The possibility of revenge on the original investigating officers is also very high. You should definitely call and warn them.”

Lu Shimiao tapped the wall with her finger.

“The son was the love of his life. So, he believes Zhang Lin harmed his son, and the Criminal Police didn’t clear his son’s name….” She finished talking and looked at Li Siting.

Li Siting had already pulled out his phone and made the call. “Hey, Captain Zhang? That comrade in charge of Chen Si’s case back then, has he been transferred? I need to tell you a few things….”

“Captain Li, ask if the officer who handled the case is there. I want to ask him a few questions.” Lu Shimiao murmured urgently from the side.

“Oh, is that comrade still there? I need to ask him a few questions.” Li Siting pointed at the phone and nodded to Lu Shimiao.

A few minutes later, the other person picked up.

Li Siting skipped the pleasantries and handed the phone directly to Lu Shimiao.

“Hello, this is Forensic Tech at the city bureau task force. I wanted to ask, back then, did Cheng Guang come to the police station with a lawyer? Did you investigate his phone records?”

“Let me think.” The Criminal Police officer on the line sounded older. After a moment of recollection, he answered, “He didn’t bring a lawyer; his son came. His son was studying law. When we were investigating Cheng Guang, his son came to ask me about bail procedures.”

“Thank you.” Lu Shimiao handed the phone back to Li Siting. “Did you check the caller’s records back then?”

“I can’t quite remember….” the officer on the other end said apologetically.

Li Siting was nearby coordinating with the EOD unit. Lu Shimiao looked at the case file again. After two seconds, she charged back into the Serious Crime Unit.

“Has Cheng Guang’s son graduated from college? Where does he study? Do you have eyes on him?”

“Cheng Si is currently studying law at Shanghai Criminal Investigation College, in the experimental class for supervision and investigation legal talent…”

“What school?” Lu Shimiao thought she’d misheard.

The canvassing team colleague was startled by Officer Lu’s tone. Leaning over his computer, looking at the data, he widened his eyes and read word for word:

“Shanghai Criminal Investigation College… experimental class.”

Lu Shimiao froze. Her mind echoed with what Xue Tong had told her in the cafeteria the day before yesterday:

“I’m at Shanghai Criminal Investigation College. I teach Trace Analysis…”

“We have to go to the school… protect this person immediately… his name is Cheng Si, right? It’s Monday, right??? Cheng Si will be in class, right?”

Lu Shimiao looked down at her watch. She felt like her electronic screen was flashing wildly.

“Where’s Lin Shu?”

Lu Shimiao violently tossed down the case file in her hands, pushed open the door to the Serious Crime Unit, and ran upstairs.

As she ran, she pulled out her phone to make a call.

Even though she was in the Serious Crime Unit, even though she couldn’t arbitrarily notify people.

But the person on the other end was Xue Tong….