52
“Please pick up, Xue Tong.” Lu Shimiao sprinted toward the third floor.
The whole way, she dialed again and again, but the phone rang for a while before automatically hanging up.
Doesn’t she always pick up right away? Why, of all days, wouldn’t she answer today?
Lu Shimiao had no time to complain. She took the stairs three at a time. By the time she ran into the office, she was soaked in sweat. She burst through the door.
She turned on the computer to look at the day’s scene survey. Unfortunately, the “Witness” 3D scene reconstruction hadn’t been processed yet. She opened the camera files and flipped through them one by one, finding a photo of a corner wall.
“Lin Shu, look at this…. There should have been many barrels here originally, roughly the size of trash cans.” Lu Shimiao tried hard to recall every scene she had observed.
The floor of the rental house had been covered in fine dust. To prevent friction from causing an incident, they had walked very slowly. The traces left on the ground had been checked; they were solid drag marks.
“The barrels here were moved away. When your team did the survey, do you remember what substance was detected here? You must have used instruments.” Lu Shimiao shoved the camera right in front of Lin Shu’s eyes.
Lin Shu glanced at her colleague’s expression. She could see the panic on Lu Shimiao’s face, so she quickly looked down at the photo.
“Similiar to plastic components. Do you suspect the perpetrator moved them in barrels?” Lin Shu also began to feel somewhat flustered.
Lu Shimiao directly picked up the office landline, pulling it with so much force she nearly yanked the cord out of the wall. She punched in a number.
“Little Lou, have your surveillance cameras caught Chen Guoping yet?? He absolutely went back to the rental house in the last two days. Why haven’t you found him?” Lu Shimiao tried her best to keep her tone calm, but her words carried an edge of accusation, even a hint of Li Siting’s lecturing tone.
Lou Xiaoguang was sitting in front of his computer, surrounded by a row of colleagues fully engaged in the search.
“Minjian Village only has surveillance at a few intersections. There are no cameras inside the village. We’ve expanded the search area, but we don’t know his mode of transportation, so we haven’t found him yet…. Sorry, Team Lead Lu.”
Mode of transportation.
Lu Shimiao grabbed the camera and searched through the survey photos for suspected vehicle tracks found outside the rental house.
She didn’t have time for detailed analysis; she could only do a rough scan.
In the photo, two distinct tire tread marks were pressed into the muddy ground.
Two tire meridians…. Lu Shimiao pulled a pen from her pocket and started applying formulas in her notebook. (D+d)/2, 1.54. That meant the wheel track was around 1.5 meters.
Tire tread pattern: serrated, horn-shaped… the mud subsidence depth—damn, she couldn’t calculate it rationally right now.
She looked again. The tread edges showed bilateral micro-wear. Either the tire pressure was low and it was flat, or it was carrying a heavy load.
“It’s a van!! The tires are a bit flat, probably something wrong with the suspension too. It should be bumpy when driving.”
“Got it, Team Lead Lu.” Lou Xiaoguang turned and immediately relayed the orders to his colleagues. “Focus on vans, small to medium-sized vans, moving at slower speeds.”
“Little Lou, can you search the main roads around Shanghai Criminal Police College to see… if you can find the same vehicle?” Lu Shimiao was truly terrified.
“Will do.” Lou Xiaoguang hung up and immediately acted.
Lu Shimiao shoved both hands into her hair, smoothing it backward. She steadied her emotions for a moment, then checked her phone. Xue Tong hadn’t called back. Her emotions spiraled out of control again.
“Captain Lin, you’d better notify the EOD to be on standby all day today.”
“Are you okay?” Lin Shu saw that Lu Shimiao’s face was somewhat pale.
It was the kind of pallor caused by emotional instability triggering a massive adrenaline rush and vasoconstriction. Lin Shu stood up uneasily and pulled out her phone.
Lu Shimiao crouched in front of the computer, typing rapidly. After searching for a while, she stared at the screen for a few seconds, then started running back downstairs.
Lin Shu, frightened, followed her while making a call.
The two of them went downstairs. Li Siting was in the hallway on the phone, coordinating a request for a hospital investigation warrant.
“Captain Li, we’re going directly to the school.” Lu Shimiao stood to the side, interrupting Li Siting’s call. She couldn’t even be polite about it. She just felt an urgency so extreme it was like ants crawling all over her body.
Yes, she was anxious.
If she didn’t immediately fly to the school and see Xue Tong right now, she would die of anxiety.
“School?” Li Siting covered the phone, frowning. “Wait a moment.”
“Please, check this quickly on your end.” Li Siting hung up the phone and turned to look at Lu Shimiao’s face. “You think Chen Guoping will go to the school?”
“I just deployed EOD to be on standby with the Criminal Police. If we go to the school now, we’re making a huge scene. I’m worried we won’t be able to contain it.” Li Siting was also anxious.
Criminal police officers aren’t that superhuman. It’s not like you lock onto a target and immediately catch them. They never know exactly what a criminal is thinking. They need to set up surveillance, ensure team safety… An arrest can take ten days to half a month easily, even three months chasing a single suspect.
If it weren’t for this arson case escalating to a suspected bombing, their paperwork wouldn’t have been processed this fast. Some requests were expedited directly from the provincial department level. Li Siting was genuinely afraid: if they caused a huge stir today but didn’t make an arrest, they’d all face an internal investigation.
Him facing an investigation was fine.
But these guys hadn’t rested in six days. He couldn’t stand the thought of them facing an investigation.
“Cyber Security said they’ve monitored Cheng Guang all day. He hasn’t turned on his phone since last night, can’t get a location. I think Chen Guoping probably took him.”
“Captain Li, we must go to the school. Cheng Guang’s son is Chen Guoping’s real target. He didn’t set off bombs for five days not because he lost his nerve.”
Lu Shimiao laughed bitterly.
“Today is Shanghai Criminal Police College’s last day. Summer break starts tomorrow…. He moved the explosives from that rental house.”
Li Siting’s face turned grim, finally realizing the emergency.
“Let’s go.” Li Siting shoved the door open and slammed it hard. “All units move out!”
After speaking, he turned his head to look at Lu Shimiao. “You wait here for updates.”
“No, I have to go.” Lu Shimiao practically grabbed Li Siting’s arm, her tone brooking no argument. “You have to let me go.”
“It’s too dangerous.” Li Siting squeezed her shoulder.
“Captain Lin gets to, so why can’t I?” Lu Shimiao pointed at Lin Shu nearby. Her voice trembled as she spoke. “Let me go.”
Li Siting looked into Lu Shimiao’s eyes.
What he saw in them wasn’t work enthusiasm, wasn’t upholding an original aspiration, wasn’t for the sake of catching criminals. He couldn’t quite tell what it was, but he knew it was a silent, absolute resolve—a resolve that seemed more important than anything.
He pointed toward the standby room. “Go change into civilian clothes.”
“Okay.” Lu Shimiao let go and turned to leave.
Li Siting watched her retreating figure. “Lin Shu, have your squadron’s Fire & EOD park five kilometers from the school on standby. Don’t approach the school. If no situation is found, pretend it’s a routine exercise patrol.”
“Okay.” Lin Shu nodded.
Li Siting turned and called his superior to request a Command Center operation. This wasn’t a small matter; he couldn’t decide alone.
–
The unmarked police vehicle “Conqueror” shot out of the police station. Concealed police lights flashed wildly in the front grille, and sirens echoed through the central streets of Shanghai. Citizens turned their heads, drawn by the sight of this special police vehicle.
The speed was fast, the path unobstructed. The Conqueror took less than twenty minutes to enter the five-kilometer perimeter of the police academy. A colleague alertly cut the siren, and the police lights were turned off, hidden back inside the headlight casing.
The Conqueror transformed back into an ordinary off-roader and drove into the university gate.
The local police station in the school’s jurisdiction, upon receiving orders from the Command Center, immediately dispatched a large number of plainclothes officers to begin searching the campus.
The leadership’s order was: don’t alert the snake, don’t cause panic.
Large-scale bombing incidents were incredibly rare. The entire country hadn’t seen one in over a decade, much less Shanghai, which has the highest security screening standards. Although the local station regularly drilled anti-terror emergency plans, facing a real situation was entirely different, leaving them fumbling blind.
“How is it?”
The Director of the local station was personally on the scene, standing at the entrance and talking with Li Siting. “We’re checking the surveillance, haven’t found any van. And we don’t have bomb detection equipment, so the search is a bit slow.”
“We notified Cheng Si’s academic advisor; the advisor can’t reach Cheng Si. We’ve already sent people to look for him.”
“Director Wang, pull your people out first and let ours go in.” Li Siting pointed at Lin Shu. “Your Fire & EOD team, take portable detection gear inside for the search. Be extremely careful.”
“Lou Xiaoguang, your team come over and take over surveillance. Use the AI detection equipment.” Li Siting pointed at the Video Surveillance Unit members.
“Plainclothes, go inside and search for the person. Remember, do not alert the enemy.”
Li Siting stood in the guardhouse, looking out the window at the currently tranquil university campus.
He had graduated from this school, too. Stepping through these gates meant you were halfway into the Public Security system. He had studied here, fallen in love here. Done morning drills on the training grounds, messed around in the cafeteria. He had once stood on these grounds on a day like this, looking forward to summer vacation.
