Pretty face, withered bones
The next morning, sunlight poured into the bedroom through a crack in the window.
The phone rang suddenly, and Yan Xie shuddered like he was electrocuted, then sat up: “Qin Chuan?!”
The next moment, Qin Chuan’s gloomy voice sounded in his ear, like the voice of the ghost who crawled out of the TV at midnight: “Look now~ what time is it~”
Yan Xie rubbed his sleepy eyes and looked at the bedside alarm clock showing 8:30 in horror.
“What did we talk about last night, eh?” Qin Chuan was like a complaining woman who was left out in the dark all night, and the resentment almost turned into an entity crawling along the communication signal: “Who agreed to take over at seven in the morning? Who said to call you immediately if something happened? Last night, Ms. Yui Hatano knocked on your door again, right? Going to bed with a little beauty and having a good time, forgetting Qin Baochuan, who has been guarding the cold kiln for 18 years?! “
Jiang Ting turned over groggily.
Yan Xie immediately covered his mouth and lowered his voice: “Oh, look at what you said. How can I be that kind of person…”
“Aren’t you?!”
The two stared wide-eyed at each other through the phone, and after a few seconds of stalemate, Yan Xie, who knew that he had lost, admitted defeat: “…I really am.”
If Qin Chuan was here at this time, he would’ve definitely rushed to beat him.
“Okay, okay. How about I treat you to a meal for a week? It’s my fault, it’s my fault… But you didn’t call me at 6:30, and I made the mistake of abandoning my revolutionary comrade. Don’t you have to take half of the responsibility yourself? How can you blame me?”
“There was a drug dealer who had been hidden for half a year that suddenly went online at seven o’clock this morning. I’ve been busy in the Anti-drug detachment until now!” Qin Chuan said angrily: “My heart hurts! I’m going to have a sudden death! What will happen to the happiness of the majority of single young women in Jianning City?! You’re still not coming back to take over?!”
Yan Xie rolled over and got out of bed while agreeing in a loud voice: “I got up, really got up… Where’s your Captain? Shouldn’t he be on duty this morning?”
“Who knows where Captain Fang is. His old injury is recurring almost every day, and once he has a recurrence, you won’t be able to find him anywhere — so hurry up! If you don’t get to the city bureau within half an hour, you’ll lose your Qin Baochuan forever!
Afterwards, Qin Chuan hung up the phone ruthlessly.
Yan Xie put down the phone and didn’t even call back. As if the call had never happened, he turned over on the bed and hugged Jiang Ting, buried his face in his neck and muttered something.
Jiang Ting lacked vital energy and blood and was not in good spirit. It was difficult for him to immediately recover from sleep. After being rubbed for a long time in a daze, he finally spat out two words weakly: “Yan Xie…”
Although it was just a name, it made Yan Xie’s heart, which was already in a state of excitement, beat more quickly, and he answered vaguely, “Yeah.”
“If you rub against me again, I’ll…”
Yan Xie’s movements stopped abruptly.
However, Jiang Ting didn’t say anything for a long time after “I’ll”. Yan Xie waited for a long time, and finally couldn’t help asking: “What will you do?”
“…If you think about it carefully, there’s nothing that can threaten or beat you. “Jiang Ting turned over, half-opened his eyes in a daze, and said helplessly, “I can only move back to Yang Mei’s place.”
Suddenly Yan Xie’s body shook, his chrysanthemum[1] tightened, and he immediately jumped with his tail between his legs and rushed into the bathroom.
Fifteen minutes later, two pieces of toast popped out from the toaster at the table. Jiang Ting slowly took one piece, carefully smeared it with dried meat floss and salad dressing, then put it together and handed it to the man who had finished washing and changing clothes and was putting a watch on his hand.
“Why didn’t you pay with my money when you bought snacks?” Yan Xie asked suspiciously.
This was one of the important reasons why Yan Xie had failed blind dates in the past — he was suspicious of details that ordinary people don’t notice and often asked questions, which was particularly annoying. Jiang Ting raised his eyelids and glanced at him, and said, “Yang Mei.”
“No, what do you mean when you say that you, who has a family, and Yang Mei are entangled financially? What’s the relationship between the two of you?”
“A former police officer and a frontline informant. Besides, we’re not a so-called family…”
“Then you can’t be financially entangled with the informant, can you?”
Jiang Ting’s dried meat floss toast was raised to his lips, but he didn’t take a bite. He finally sighed: “Theoretically, Evernight Palace KTV has 25% of my shares, which is an investment I made in advance in the early years. Of course, it’s mainly thanks to Yang Mei that KTV can make so much, so I only symbolically receive a basic dividend….”
“Don’t take that dividend, what’s there to get. Next time you buy snacks, clothes and bags, take money from the drawer. Do you understand?”
“Understood,” Jiang Ting said perfunctorily, “Go to work now, and remember to contact me if you get any information about the case.”
Yan Xie tried to threaten him a little and hurriedly went out to rescue Qin Baochuan, who had been guarding the cold kiln for 18 years.
Morning rush hour on the road.
Outside the car window, the road was bustling with cars, and the Bluetooth ringtone was ringing one after another in the car.
“Vice-Captain Yan, the technical screening results from Jianning Railway Station security monitoring have been sent to the technical team last night. Director Huang asked me to call and remind you…”
“Brother Yan, hey, we finally got through Brother Yan. The results of the inquiries from the major bus stations and private car rental companies have come out. After you arrive at the City Bureau…”
“Hey, Vice-Captain Yan! The Economic Crime Investigation Unit has transferred all the information about Wang Xingye’s capital flow from various banks for the past half a year and all the equity holdings under his name! Vice-Captain Yan, please come and take a look!”
……….
As the case progressed, Yan Xie’s cell phone became particularly lively. Just like when the people from the imperial harem were being presented to the emperor to choose from, and all kinds of beauties were rushing up one after another to greet him, wishing they could pull his arm and drag His Majesty into their boudoir.
However, although Emperor Yan had the heart to favour the harem, he was blocked in the middle of the road by the morning rush hour. He missed several opportunities to overtake because he kept answering the phone, watching the time climb past 9:30. However, the city bureau, where it was usually very convenient to go to work, was still looking far away, across the mountains and seas.
Suddenly another phone call came. Yan Xie looked at the caller ID, and it turned out to be Zhang Guanyao.
This boy surnamed Zhang was injured by the gunshot and had experienced a moment of life and death when the police car fell into the water in Jiangyang County. After returning to Jianning, he became a little popular and was greeted warmly by everyone. Now he was determined to harvest his first third-class merit in his career. Therefore, in the past few days, his whole body was full of energy, like Red Bull was running through his veins. He took over Ma Xiang’s night shift this morning and ran out to check Wang Xingye’s assets. He was so happy that no one could stop him.
“Hey, Vice-Captain Yan!” Xiao Zhang’s loud voice came amidst the sound of car horns: “We searched Wang Xingye’s residence and the ‘Yunhe Gallery’ under his name early in the morning, and found no suspicious clues. The computer, tablet, and other written papers have been sealed up and sent to the technical team! Are you at the City Bureau right now?”
The tail lights of the car in front lit up, and Yan Xie reluctantly stepped on the brakes and lit a cigarette: “No, I’ll take a look when I get there.”
“Then don’t go to the City Bureau, come to us!”
“What’s wrong?”
On the other end of the phone, Zhang Guanyao was squatting at the entrance of the neighbourhood committee passageway. He tilted his head and held the mobile phone between his shoulder while holding an old business card in his other hand:
“We found half a box of old business cards in the corner of Wang Xingye’s drawer. It was probably printed a few years ago. The address of Yunhe Gallery does not match the current address which is ‘Room 346, Building 2, District 9, Amber Mountain Villa, Jianning City’. The gallery should have been relocated. I immediately contacted the police station of Amber Mountain Villa to verify the situation, and found that the head of the household in Room 346, Building 2, District 9, was Yin Honglan, a ninety-nine-year-old lonely and widowed old woman, who is now living in a nursing home.”
The green light came on, and the car in front slowly moved forward, but Yan Xie was immersed in the case and didn’t step on the accelerator for a while: “It’s possible for the lonely and widowed old woman to rent out the house herself. Are Yin Honglan and Wang Xingye related?”
Beep beep! An angry horn rang out from behind the car.
“Yes!” Xiao Zhang very excitedly said, “I asked the neighbourhood committee to dig through the old papers for a long time. It can basically be confirmed that Yin Honglan is Wang Xingye’s maternal aunt!”
Yan Xie suddenly turned on the light and changed lanes. Under the rain of countless curses, he rushed in the direction of Amber Mountain Villa.
“Contact the property management to check the water and electricity bill in Room 346, Building 2, District 9 immediately. If Wang Xingye still uses this place as a hiding spot, then the water and electricity should be in use, but the consumption should be very small. At the same time, because he can’t open the fire for cooking, the amount of gas consumed should be close to nothing. Don’t go back to the city bureau, wait for me at Amber Mountain Villa, I’ll be there in 20 minutes!”
Amber Mountain Villa belonged to the first batch of high-end residential areas in Jianning City, which showed that Yin Honglan’s economic situation was very good back then. However, in the past two decades, Jianning’s economy has sprung up like mushrooms after rain, and many high-end luxury real estate has been built in the city. Yan Xie’s own father had invested in several projects. The enviable Amber Mountain Villa in the past, under the competition of many real estate developers, had gradually been forgotten and eliminated by the market economy. It has now become the yellow flower of yesterday.
There was a problem with the parking layout in the old community. Yan Xie gritted his teeth and forcibly inserted the Phaeton between a Chery QQ and a Jinbei[2] van. Even the car door could not be fully opened. He gritted his teeth, held his breath and got out of the car, only to hear Xiao Zhang’s voice from the top of his head: “Brother Yan! This way!”
“Coming!”
At this moment, his WeChat dinged, and a new message came from Qin Chuan: [Where are you? ? ?]
Forgot about him, Yan Xie thought in his mind. Just as he was about to reply, Qin Chuan sent another message:
[Don’t come back. I think the old Huang next door isn’t bad. I already sorted out everything to remarry into his family. Have a good time with your princess!]
“……” Yan Xie pressed the voice button, and said sincerely: “Chuan! Husband has let you down. Chuan! I wish you happiness!” Then he threw the phone into his trouser pocket and walked into the corridor.
“This is it.” Several criminal policemen were gathered in the corridor on the third floor. Zhang Guanyao raised his arms and pointed at a rusted iron door: “There is no rental record, no gas consumption, but the water and electricity bills are regularly transferred from the personal account of the elderly Yin Honglan. I just asked the neighbourhood committee to call the door for a long time, but no one answered. We were just planning to kick the door in and enter.”
The aunt of the neighbourhood committee nodded frequently on the side to testify.
Yan Xie looked at the door lock for a moment and said, “Hey, kicking the door is too violent, what if someone complained about it later.”
“Then what do you say—”
Xiao Zhang’s questioning came to an abrupt halt. He saw Yan Xie had already taken out a few hairpins from his trouser pocket and began to squat down and fiddle with the lock, his movements were very skilful.
Everyone: “……”
Aunt: “Your captain is really capable, hey, the boy looks good too. How old are you? Do you have a partner? How many rooms do you have at your house? What kind of girl are you looking for? There are eighteen unmarried girls in our community, and all of them are neat and beautiful. Little comrade, quickly leave me a phone number…”
Yan Xie was concentrating on the lock, and just as he was about to say “I have a partner”, Xiao Zhang smiled and said, ” No. Our captain is single!”
I should educate you after unlocking the lock later, Yan Xie said in his heart.
“His family has money! I don’t know! He just can’t find one!” Xiao Zhang was very enthusiastic and said, “If Vice-Captain Yan’s ability to pry open a woman’s heart can be the same as prying open a criminal’s house, his harem would’ve already been opened by now!”
Click.
The iron door opened, and Yan Xie turned around and patted Xiao Zhang on the shoulder:
“Your third-class merit is gone.”
Xiao Zhang: “?!”
As soon as the door opened, an old and musty smell, wrapped in dust wafted out.
“Cough, cough…” Yan Xie put on the shoe cover, walked carefully into the room, and motioned his men with his hand to pull down the cordon. Then, he pressed down the gun that the policeman had just pulled out: “Notify the technical investigator.”
Inside the cramped living room of the old-fashioned house was a square wooden dining table covered with a plastic tablecloth. There were glasses placed on the tablecloth. A stand containing glass bottles, a filter device, and a tin foil straw was placed on the table, and the filter bottle still had dirty water remaining.
The walls were peeling off, the floor tiles were cracked, the wooden window frames had long since been deformed and rusted, and the air was filled with a faint smell of ammonia.
—A typical paradise for drug addicts.
Yan Xie asked everyone to surround the cordon and waited for the technical investigator in the narrow corridor. He put on the gloves and fumbled from the living room into the bedroom.
Speaking of the bedroom, it was obvious that Wang Xingye would not spend the night here. There were no sheets on the old rattan bed. Old-fashioned chests with drawers, sewing machines covered with green cloth, and wooden boxes were piled up in every corner. Yan Xie stood in the middle of the room and looked around, raised his trouser legs and knelt on the dusty ground, not caring about his hand-made stylish trousers. He felt around on the back of the bedboard for a while, and sure enough, he found a hard object stuck with tape on the edge of the bed.
Square, the size of a banknote, the texture has lumps and bumps. Yan Xie felt it through the gloves for a while, and he understood something.
It was a packet of pills.
He didn’t touch the packet of drugs. He just opened the site survey box and put a red triangle on the ground, then stood up and opened each wooden box and drawer of the chest one by one.
The wooden box was basically empty. There were only some old lady’s old and yellowed clothes. Yan Xie dug out a few bags of Ecstasy(MDMA) from under the sundries but did not take them out. He only closed the wooden box to mark it, trying to keep the scene unchanged as much as possible. The drawers of the chests were also filled with bottles and jars older than Yan Xie, and rusty biscuit boxes and malted milk barrels that exuded a rotten smell were neatly placed in them.
Yan Xie had never drunk malted milk essence in his life, so he picked up the tin can and shook it, and suddenly made a “huh” sound.
The jar was rustling and there seemed to be a movement of paper rubbing against paper.
The iron cover was already rusted, and he couldn’t open it with his fingernails. Fortunately, Yan Xie still had a ballpoint pen in his pocket, “Humph!” He gritted his teeth and pried open the iron can. Sure enough, there was a small notebook inside. It looked quite new, and definitely didn’t look like something from an old lady — Yan Xie took it out and opened a page, and suddenly the whole person was stunned.
It was a two-inch headshot.
Li Yuxin stared at him indifferently and lifelessly against the red background.
The photo was pasted on the inside page of the notebook, and below it was written a row of words with a pen that began with — Li, Sixteen. Followed by Li Yuxin’s home address and the contact information of her mother, the date of payment was signed in January last year, and nothing else.
Yan Xie’s heart beat faster. He quickly turned to the first page, and it was Bu Wei who jumped into view.
The same two-inch headshot with a bright red background, but the younger Bu Wei was not as expressionless as Li Yuxin. Even different from the first time Yan Xie saw her photo at the Tianzong Mountain crime scene, completely rigid and dull. This time, there was still a shy smile at the corners of her mouth, and the whole person seemed to be very vivid, like a soft and fresh camellia.
Bu, thirteen. The home address is followed by the payment made two and a half years ago, in December.
Yan Xie suddenly had a premonition and flipped to the next one, as expected.
An unfamiliar girl looked at him in the photo, her cheeks were tense, showing a restrained and nervous look. This stiff posture somewhat affected the others’ evaluation of her appearance, but if you observe carefully, her facial features and face shape have some signs of becoming a beauty in the future — if only she had a chance to grow up, instead of already being buried in a wilderness somewhere, hand in hand with an unknown boy, gradually turning into two dead bones.
Teng, sixteen.
There was no home address, and the date of payment was February of the previous year.
Yan Xie stared at the few words closely, but couldn’t figure out any clues other than the surname and age from the lines.
In the entire notebook, only these three sheets of paper with photos were pasted. Yan Xie carefully turned from the first page to the last page and did not find any traces of writing or torn out pages. But for some reason, a strange feeling lingered in his heart, as if he had missed something, and the unease and fear implied by his sixth sense became clearer and deeper.
He stared at the seemingly unremarkable notebook and suddenly started to remove the PVC cover.
The next moment, a photo sandwiched between the cover and the title page floated out and gently landed on the ground.
Yan Xie half-knelt down—
The young Jiang Ting was walking out of the gate of Gongzhou Municipal Bureau, looking down at his feet slightly. His hair was black, his eyes were bright, his facial features, lips and nose were beautiful and clear. Yan Xie couldn’t even pick up the slightest flaw in the angle of the secret shot. The dark blue police uniform jacket was draped over his shoulders and raised backwards in the wind, so clear that even the four-pointed star flower on the epaulette could be seen.
Yan Xie’s fingers trembled, and he picked up the photo from the ground.
Pretty face, withered bones
The next morning, sunlight poured into the bedroom through a crack in the window.
The phone rang suddenly, and Yan Xie shuddered like he was electrocuted, then sat up: “Qin Chuan?!”
The next moment, Qin Chuan’s gloomy voice sounded in his ear, like the voice of the ghost who crawled out of the TV at midnight: “Look now~ what time is it~”
Yan Xie rubbed his sleepy eyes and looked at the bedside alarm clock showing 8:30 in horror.
“What did we talk about last night, eh?” Qin Chuan was like a complaining woman who was left out in the dark all night, and the resentment almost turned into an entity crawling along the communication signal: “Who agreed to take over at seven in the morning? Who said to call you immediately if something happened? Last night, Ms. Yui Hatano knocked on your door again, right? Going to bed with a little beauty and having a good time, forgetting Qin Baochuan, who has been guarding the cold kiln for 18 years?! “
Jiang Ting turned over groggily.
Yan Xie immediately covered his mouth and lowered his voice: “Oh, look at what you said. How can I be that kind of person…”
“Aren’t you?!”
The two stared wide-eyed at each other through the phone, and after a few seconds of stalemate, Yan Xie, who knew that he had lost, admitted defeat: “…I really am.”
If Qin Chuan was here at this time, he would’ve definitely rushed to beat him.
“Okay, okay. How about I treat you to a meal for a week? It’s my fault, it’s my fault… But you didn’t call me at 6:30, and I made the mistake of abandoning my revolutionary comrade. Don’t you have to take half of the responsibility yourself? How can you blame me?”
“There was a drug dealer who had been hidden for half a year that suddenly went online at seven o’clock this morning. I’ve been busy in the Anti-drug detachment until now!” Qin Chuan said angrily: “My heart hurts! I’m going to have a sudden death! What will happen to the happiness of the majority of single young women in Jianning City?! You’re still not coming back to take over?!”
Yan Xie rolled over and got out of bed while agreeing in a loud voice: “I got up, really got up… Where’s your Captain? Shouldn’t he be on duty this morning?”
“Who knows where Captain Fang is. His old injury is recurring almost every day, and once he has a recurrence, you won’t be able to find him anywhere — so hurry up! If you don’t get to the city bureau within half an hour, you’ll lose your Qin Baochuan forever!
Afterwards, Qin Chuan hung up the phone ruthlessly.
Yan Xie put down the phone and didn’t even call back. As if the call had never happened, he turned over on the bed and hugged Jiang Ting, buried his face in his neck and muttered something.
Jiang Ting lacked vital energy and blood and was not in good spirit. It was difficult for him to immediately recover from sleep. After being rubbed for a long time in a daze, he finally spat out two words weakly: “Yan Xie…”
Although it was just a name, it made Yan Xie’s heart, which was already in a state of excitement, beat more quickly, and he answered vaguely, “Yeah.”
“If you rub against me again, I’ll…”
Yan Xie’s movements stopped abruptly.
However, Jiang Ting didn’t say anything for a long time after “I’ll”. Yan Xie waited for a long time, and finally couldn’t help asking: “What will you do?”
“…If you think about it carefully, there’s nothing that can threaten or beat you. “Jiang Ting turned over, half-opened his eyes in a daze, and said helplessly, “I can only move back to Yang Mei’s place.”
Suddenly Yan Xie’s body shook, his chrysanthemum[1] tightened, and he immediately jumped with his tail between his legs and rushed into the bathroom.
Fifteen minutes later, two pieces of toast popped out from the toaster at the table. Jiang Ting slowly took one piece, carefully smeared it with dried meat floss and salad dressing, then put it together and handed it to the man who had finished washing and changing clothes and was putting a watch on his hand.
“Why didn’t you pay with my money when you bought snacks?” Yan Xie asked suspiciously.
This was one of the important reasons why Yan Xie had failed blind dates in the past — he was suspicious of details that ordinary people don’t notice and often asked questions, which was particularly annoying. Jiang Ting raised his eyelids and glanced at him, and said, “Yang Mei.”
“No, what do you mean when you say that you, who has a family, and Yang Mei are entangled financially? What’s the relationship between the two of you?”
“A former police officer and a frontline informant. Besides, we’re not a so-called family…”
“Then you can’t be financially entangled with the informant, can you?”
Jiang Ting’s dried meat floss toast was raised to his lips, but he didn’t take a bite. He finally sighed: “Theoretically, Evernight Palace KTV has 25% of my shares, which is an investment I made in advance in the early years. Of course, it’s mainly thanks to Yang Mei that KTV can make so much, so I only symbolically receive a basic dividend….”
“Don’t take that dividend, what’s there to get. Next time you buy snacks, clothes and bags, take money from the drawer. Do you understand?”
“Understood,” Jiang Ting said perfunctorily, “Go to work now, and remember to contact me if you get any information about the case.”
Yan Xie tried to threaten him a little and hurriedly went out to rescue Qin Baochuan, who had been guarding the cold kiln for 18 years.
Morning rush hour on the road.
Outside the car window, the road was bustling with cars, and the Bluetooth ringtone was ringing one after another in the car.
“Vice-Captain Yan, the technical screening results from Jianning Railway Station security monitoring have been sent to the technical team last night. Director Huang asked me to call and remind you…”
“Brother Yan, hey, we finally got through Brother Yan. The results of the inquiries from the major bus stations and private car rental companies have come out. After you arrive at the City Bureau…”
“Hey, Vice-Captain Yan! The Economic Crime Investigation Unit has transferred all the information about Wang Xingye’s capital flow from various banks for the past half a year and all the equity holdings under his name! Vice-Captain Yan, please come and take a look!”
……….
As the case progressed, Yan Xie’s cell phone became particularly lively. Just like when the people from the imperial harem were being presented to the emperor to choose from, and all kinds of beauties were rushing up one after another to greet him, wishing they could pull his arm and drag His Majesty into their boudoir.
However, although Emperor Yan had the heart to favour the harem, he was blocked in the middle of the road by the morning rush hour. He missed several opportunities to overtake because he kept answering the phone, watching the time climb past 9:30. However, the city bureau, where it was usually very convenient to go to work, was still looking far away, across the mountains and seas.
Suddenly another phone call came. Yan Xie looked at the caller ID, and it turned out to be Zhang Guanyao.
This boy surnamed Zhang was injured by the gunshot and had experienced a moment of life and death when the police car fell into the water in Jiangyang County. After returning to Jianning, he became a little popular and was greeted warmly by everyone. Now he was determined to harvest his first third-class merit in his career. Therefore, in the past few days, his whole body was full of energy, like Red Bull was running through his veins. He took over Ma Xiang’s night shift this morning and ran out to check Wang Xingye’s assets. He was so happy that no one could stop him.
“Hey, Vice-Captain Yan!” Xiao Zhang’s loud voice came amidst the sound of car horns: “We searched Wang Xingye’s residence and the ‘Yunhe Gallery’ under his name early in the morning, and found no suspicious clues. The computer, tablet, and other written papers have been sealed up and sent to the technical team! Are you at the City Bureau right now?”
The tail lights of the car in front lit up, and Yan Xie reluctantly stepped on the brakes and lit a cigarette: “No, I’ll take a look when I get there.”
“Then don’t go to the City Bureau, come to us!”
“What’s wrong?”
On the other end of the phone, Zhang Guanyao was squatting at the entrance of the neighbourhood committee passageway. He tilted his head and held the mobile phone between his shoulder while holding an old business card in his other hand:
“We found half a box of old business cards in the corner of Wang Xingye’s drawer. It was probably printed a few years ago. The address of Yunhe Gallery does not match the current address which is ‘Room 346, Building 2, District 9, Amber Mountain Villa, Jianning City’. The gallery should have been relocated. I immediately contacted the police station of Amber Mountain Villa to verify the situation, and found that the head of the household in Room 346, Building 2, District 9, was Yin Honglan, a ninety-nine-year-old lonely and widowed old woman, who is now living in a nursing home.”
The green light came on, and the car in front slowly moved forward, but Yan Xie was immersed in the case and didn’t step on the accelerator for a while: “It’s possible for the lonely and widowed old woman to rent out the house herself. Are Yin Honglan and Wang Xingye related?”
Beep beep! An angry horn rang out from behind the car.
“Yes!” Xiao Zhang very excitedly said, “I asked the neighbourhood committee to dig through the old papers for a long time. It can basically be confirmed that Yin Honglan is Wang Xingye’s maternal aunt!”
Yan Xie suddenly turned on the light and changed lanes. Under the rain of countless curses, he rushed in the direction of Amber Mountain Villa.
“Contact the property management to check the water and electricity bill in Room 346, Building 2, District 9 immediately. If Wang Xingye still uses this place as a hiding spot, then the water and electricity should be in use, but the consumption should be very small. At the same time, because he can’t open the fire for cooking, the amount of gas consumed should be close to nothing. Don’t go back to the city bureau, wait for me at Amber Mountain Villa, I’ll be there in 20 minutes!”
Amber Mountain Villa belonged to the first batch of high-end residential areas in Jianning City, which showed that Yin Honglan’s economic situation was very good back then. However, in the past two decades, Jianning’s economy has sprung up like mushrooms after rain, and many high-end luxury real estate has been built in the city. Yan Xie’s own father had invested in several projects. The enviable Amber Mountain Villa in the past, under the competition of many real estate developers, had gradually been forgotten and eliminated by the market economy. It has now become the yellow flower of yesterday.
There was a problem with the parking layout in the old community. Yan Xie gritted his teeth and forcibly inserted the Phaeton between a Chery QQ and a Jinbei[2] van. Even the car door could not be fully opened. He gritted his teeth, held his breath and got out of the car, only to hear Xiao Zhang’s voice from the top of his head: “Brother Yan! This way!”
“Coming!”
At this moment, his WeChat dinged, and a new message came from Qin Chuan: [Where are you? ? ?]
Forgot about him, Yan Xie thought in his mind. Just as he was about to reply, Qin Chuan sent another message:
[Don’t come back. I think the old Huang next door isn’t bad. I already sorted out everything to remarry into his family. Have a good time with your princess!]
“……” Yan Xie pressed the voice button, and said sincerely: “Chuan! Husband has let you down. Chuan! I wish you happiness!” Then he threw the phone into his trouser pocket and walked into the corridor.
“This is it.” Several criminal policemen were gathered in the corridor on the third floor. Zhang Guanyao raised his arms and pointed at a rusted iron door: “There is no rental record, no gas consumption, but the water and electricity bills are regularly transferred from the personal account of the elderly Yin Honglan. I just asked the neighbourhood committee to call the door for a long time, but no one answered. We were just planning to kick the door in and enter.”
The aunt of the neighbourhood committee nodded frequently on the side to testify.
Yan Xie looked at the door lock for a moment and said, “Hey, kicking the door is too violent, what if someone complained about it later.”
“Then what do you say—”
Xiao Zhang’s questioning came to an abrupt halt. He saw Yan Xie had already taken out a few hairpins from his trouser pocket and began to squat down and fiddle with the lock, his movements were very skilful.
Everyone: “……”
Aunt: “Your captain is really capable, hey, the boy looks good too. How old are you? Do you have a partner? How many rooms do you have at your house? What kind of girl are you looking for? There are eighteen unmarried girls in our community, and all of them are neat and beautiful. Little comrade, quickly leave me a phone number…”
Yan Xie was concentrating on the lock, and just as he was about to say “I have a partner”, Xiao Zhang smiled and said, ” No. Our captain is single!”
I should educate you after unlocking the lock later, Yan Xie said in his heart.
“His family has money! I don’t know! He just can’t find one!” Xiao Zhang was very enthusiastic and said, “If Vice-Captain Yan’s ability to pry open a woman’s heart can be the same as prying open a criminal’s house, his harem would’ve already been opened by now!”
Click.
The iron door opened, and Yan Xie turned around and patted Xiao Zhang on the shoulder:
“Your third-class merit is gone.”
Xiao Zhang: “?!”
As soon as the door opened, an old and musty smell, wrapped in dust wafted out.
“Cough, cough…” Yan Xie put on the shoe cover, walked carefully into the room, and motioned his men with his hand to pull down the cordon. Then, he pressed down the gun that the policeman had just pulled out: “Notify the technical investigator.”
Inside the cramped living room of the old-fashioned house was a square wooden dining table covered with a plastic tablecloth. There were glasses placed on the tablecloth. A stand containing glass bottles, a filter device, and a tin foil straw was placed on the table, and the filter bottle still had dirty water remaining.
The walls were peeling off, the floor tiles were cracked, the wooden window frames had long since been deformed and rusted, and the air was filled with a faint smell of ammonia.
—A typical paradise for drug addicts.
Yan Xie asked everyone to surround the cordon and waited for the technical investigator in the narrow corridor. He put on the gloves and fumbled from the living room into the bedroom.
Speaking of the bedroom, it was obvious that Wang Xingye would not spend the night here. There were no sheets on the old rattan bed. Old-fashioned chests with drawers, sewing machines covered with green cloth, and wooden boxes were piled up in every corner. Yan Xie stood in the middle of the room and looked around, raised his trouser legs and knelt on the dusty ground, not caring about his hand-made stylish trousers. He felt around on the back of the bedboard for a while, and sure enough, he found a hard object stuck with tape on the edge of the bed.
Square, the size of a banknote, the texture has lumps and bumps. Yan Xie felt it through the gloves for a while, and he understood something.
It was a packet of pills.
He didn’t touch the packet of drugs. He just opened the site survey box and put a red triangle on the ground, then stood up and opened each wooden box and drawer of the chest one by one.
The wooden box was basically empty. There were only some old lady’s old and yellowed clothes. Yan Xie dug out a few bags of Ecstasy(MDMA) from under the sundries but did not take them out. He only closed the wooden box to mark it, trying to keep the scene unchanged as much as possible. The drawers of the chests were also filled with bottles and jars older than Yan Xie, and rusty biscuit boxes and malted milk barrels that exuded a rotten smell were neatly placed in them.
Yan Xie had never drunk malted milk essence in his life, so he picked up the tin can and shook it, and suddenly made a “huh” sound.
The jar was rustling and there seemed to be a movement of paper rubbing against paper.
The iron cover was already rusted, and he couldn’t open it with his fingernails. Fortunately, Yan Xie still had a ballpoint pen in his pocket, “Humph!” He gritted his teeth and pried open the iron can. Sure enough, there was a small notebook inside. It looked quite new, and definitely didn’t look like something from an old lady — Yan Xie took it out and opened a page, and suddenly the whole person was stunned.
It was a two-inch headshot.
Li Yuxin stared at him indifferently and lifelessly against the red background.
The photo was pasted on the inside page of the notebook, and below it was written a row of words with a pen that began with — Li, Sixteen. Followed by Li Yuxin’s home address and the contact information of her mother, the date of payment was signed in January last year, and nothing else.
Yan Xie’s heart beat faster. He quickly turned to the first page, and it was Bu Wei who jumped into view.
The same two-inch headshot with a bright red background, but the younger Bu Wei was not as expressionless as Li Yuxin. Even different from the first time Yan Xie saw her photo at the Tianzong Mountain crime scene, completely rigid and dull. This time, there was still a shy smile at the corners of her mouth, and the whole person seemed to be very vivid, like a soft and fresh camellia.
Bu, thirteen. The home address is followed by the payment made two and a half years ago, in December.
Yan Xie suddenly had a premonition and flipped to the next one, as expected.
An unfamiliar girl looked at him in the photo, her cheeks were tense, showing a restrained and nervous look. This stiff posture somewhat affected the others’ evaluation of her appearance, but if you observe carefully, her facial features and face shape have some signs of becoming a beauty in the future — if only she had a chance to grow up, instead of already being buried in a wilderness somewhere, hand in hand with an unknown boy, gradually turning into two dead bones.
Teng, sixteen.
There was no home address, and the date of payment was February of the previous year.
Yan Xie stared at the few words closely, but couldn’t figure out any clues other than the surname and age from the lines.
In the entire notebook, only these three sheets of paper with photos were pasted. Yan Xie carefully turned from the first page to the last page and did not find any traces of writing or torn out pages. But for some reason, a strange feeling lingered in his heart, as if he had missed something, and the unease and fear implied by his sixth sense became clearer and deeper.
He stared at the seemingly unremarkable notebook and suddenly started to remove the PVC cover.
The next moment, a photo sandwiched between the cover and the title page floated out and gently landed on the ground.
Yan Xie half-knelt down—
The young Jiang Ting was walking out of the gate of Gongzhou Municipal Bureau, looking down at his feet slightly. His hair was black, his eyes were bright, his facial features, lips and nose were beautiful and clear. Yan Xie couldn’t even pick up the slightest flaw in the angle of the secret shot. The dark blue police uniform jacket was draped over his shoulders and raised backwards in the wind, so clear that even the four-pointed star flower on the epaulette could be seen.
Yan Xie’s fingers trembled, and he picked up the photo from the ground.
