Qiming Chapter 4

Chapter 4

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The clock's hands pointed to ten, and the sound of keyboard typing mixed with the rustling of papers. The air was filled with the scent of coffee, Pu'er tea, and instant noodles, but there was no smell of smoke.

"Which family's young master is Professor Xu? How come he has a personal doctor?"

Gu Yunfeng sat in his chair, flipping through a case file, with a cup of tea in front of him. In his understanding, personal doctors were a privilege of the evil capitalist class. In his twenty-something years of life, this was the first time he had encountered one.

"Wen Xin, I asked you to organise Xu Chengyue's information before, has he ever had any major illnesses?" Gu Yunfeng couldn't forget what the personal doctor had said: no drinking, no smoking, and must go to bed before ten o'clock. A precise biological clock and a healthy, boring lifestyle, exactly like a middle-aged Buddhist.

He had been given good looks by heaven, so why did he have such a dull soul?

"Not exactly a major illness..." She thought for a few seconds and said, "Professor Xu was seriously injured in an accident a year ago."

"What kind of accident?" He was eating the overtime meal that had just been delivered: one meat dish, two vegetables, and a soup. The rice was a bit hard. If he had time to cook, he would definitely have brought his own meal.

"At that time, Professor Xu had just joined the university as a lecturer. On the evening of March 16th last year, after a departmental dinner, he returned to the lab. He wanted to look at the stars, so he went to the rooftop of the lab. The wind was too strong, and he accidentally fell off."

"Looking at the stars? The wind was too strong?" Gu Yunfeng couldn't help but laugh. "Is this a rumour or the truth? It sounds too silly."

"It's true," Wen Xin said firmly. "Professor Xu said it himself, and there's an interview video to prove it."

"Is he a hipster?" Gu Yunfeng shook his head. "This is the punishment for a single dog pursuing romanticism. Even heaven couldn't stand it anymore and sent a typhoon to blow him down."

Wen Xin nodded vigorously, then widened her bright, shining eyes. "Captain Gu, how do you know Professor Xu is single?"

"Because I'm single, so I hope others are as miserable," he joked. In reality, he thought that having such a young girl as his personal doctor would surely cause trouble if he had a girlfriend.

"Was he seriously injured after the fall?" Gu Yunfeng asked.

"Quite serious. He fell from the rooftop of the lab. The building isn't very tall, just three stories."

"The rooftop of a three-story building is equivalent to the fourth floor."

"Right, and he wasn't very lucky. He had a cerebral haemorrhage, fell into a coma, and soon after being taken to the hospital, he basically stopped breathing and was declared brain dead by the doctors."

Hearing words like "stopped breathing" and "brain dead" shocked Gu Yunfeng. This was far beyond the extent of injuries he had imagined. He put down his chopsticks in disbelief.

"Brain death is basically true death, right? Heartbeat but no breathing." He felt embarrassed about his earlier joke. "Is it a miracle that Professor Xu is now alive and well with us?"

"Yes, the attending physician didn't give up on resuscitation. After more than twenty hours of surgery, he regained respiratory function. He woke up a week later." In the past, many who were resuscitated from brain death within the golden twenty-four hours fell into a long coma and became vegetative. Xu Chengyue, who woke up shortly after being resuscitated, was indeed a miracle among miracles.

"But there's something strange." Wen Xin leaned over and whispered in his ear, "This is what my senior sister in the appraisal department told me. After Professor Xu woke up, he described the accident to the police, saying he got drunk at the dinner, wandered to the rooftop in a daze to look at the stars, and accidentally fell."

"But, after testing the blood alcohol concentration, my senior sister found that Professor Xu hadn't drunk at all."

"So, he must have concealed something. However, due to the testimony of the person involved, my senior sister didn't include her findings in the report. No one else knows." As she spoke, Wen Xin opened WeChat and showed him the message from her senior sister.

"It is a bit strange." Gu Yunfeng flipped through the chat records, accidentally glimpsing some strange gossip, even about himself. Pretending he hadn't seen anything, he nodded, agreeing with her conjecture, internally noting that others might not know, but she certainly did, so who knows how many others her senior sister had told?

"And then everyone knows what happened next. Professor Xu was promoted to associate professor and has now come to our frontline for training. He said he would stay for a year, but in reality...a few months might be his limit, right?"

"Ahhh–" Wen Xin stretched her arms and yawned. "Being sick has its perks. Look, now we get to go home and sleep."

This girl... Gu Yunfeng casually rolled up a few sheets of blank paper and tapped her head. "Alright, alright, once the DNA results of the deceased come out, you all can go back. You can come in later tomorrow."

"Oh, long live Captain Gu~" She twirled happily on the spot.

From the side, Shu Pan hurried over, waving at Captain Gu. He had a freshly lit cigarette in his mouth. Seeing Gu Yunfeng frown, he quickly took the cigarette out and stuffed it into his pocket.

"Aiya, I was careless!" He broke out in a cold sweat and blurted out. The next second, his captain grabbed him by the collar and dragged him into the corridor outside the office, where the thirty-six-degree heat awaited.

The still-lit cigarette quickly burned a hole in Shu Pan's pants. Enduring the intense pain from the burn, he extinguished the cigarette in his pocket, his face contorting with pain while he pretended nothing was wrong. "Boss, I just ran into Teacher Xu from the forensic department. He said the DNA identification results of the deceased are out and have been emailed to you."

"Got it, I'll check it right away." Gu Yunfeng stared at the hole in Shu Pan's trousers, his face darkening as he noticed a corner of red underwear peeking through.

"Is it your zodiac year?" Gu Yunfeng glanced at him, pointing at the hole. "Hurry up and sew that up yourself."

Shu Pan nodded quickly, his face flushed. He then stretched out his burned fingers and started to ramble, saying that standing outside in this heat was torture and could burn the skin.

Gu Yunfeng shook his head and didn't pursue the matter further. He opened the email, listening to Shu Pan explain, "Just as you said, this guy has a long criminal record. He's been in prison six times for theft, kidnapping, assault, and robbery, almost every crime you can think of."

According to the DNA comparison, the deceased was named Guan Jianhua, from another province, aged forty-two. He came to Nanpu City over twenty years ago for work and was fired in his first year for slacking off. Since then, he had turned to petty crimes that disrupted social stability.

"Guan Jianhua's most recent imprisonment was four years ago on charges of telecommunication fraud. He was just released forty-five days ago." Gu Yunfeng carefully reviewed all of his criminal records. His first imprisonment was twenty years ago for causing severe injury during a fight, which got him two years. Later, he was involved in a robbery and kidnapping case, with the kidnapping resulting in a twelve-year sentence, and the most recent fraud charge was four years.

Kidnapping... He clicked to read the details of the case and found it was indeed the one from eighteen years ago.

It could be said that Guan Jianhua spent the past twenty years in prison, getting re-arrested within three months of each release. He truly treated prison as his home, with no need to work, just eating and waiting for death.

"Can we retrieve Guan Jianhua's phone records?" he asked.

"This guy has been in and out of prison for twenty years, completely out of touch with society... We can't get them."

"He never used a phone?"

"Ai, exactly." He lived as if it was twenty years ago, everything stopped after that time, leaving only traces of sin.

"Then I'll need to talk to Director Zhao about requesting all surveillance footage of Guan Jianhua after his release." They needed to check where he had been, whom he had met, and what he had done.

After Nanpu City integrated its surveillance system, their work became much easier. A clear facial photo could retrieve all images of that person captured by surveillance cameras within a month. Through these images, they could quickly determine the subject's recent social connections and behaviour patterns, greatly reducing the time needed for field visits.

However, access to this historical image database was currently restricted to the Ministry of Public Security's Third Institute.

Gu Yunfeng dialed Director Zhao's number. It was late, and after five minutes, no one answered.

Obtaining authorisation required a series of complex procedures. The first step was reporting to Director Zhao Chuan of the Jinping Public Security Bureau, then reporting to the Municipal Bureau, followed by approval from Municipal Bureau leaders before submitting to the Provincial Department, and finally, after five or six layers, reaching the leadership of the Third Institute. 

The process could take anywhere from three to five days, or even over a month. This wasn't a particularly complicated case, and spending so much time on possibly unnecessary requests was too cumbersome. He stood up, threw his dinner packaging into the trash, poured out the remaining coffee, and prepared to go home and sleep.

As he walked out of the team office, it suddenly occurred to him that as the incubation centre for the Ministry of Public Security's information technology projects, most of the Third Institute's projects were developed in collaboration with university laboratories. The Artificial Intelligence Laboratory at Nanpu University was its closest partner. Perhaps, Xu Chengyue might have this access as well?

‿︵‿︵ʚ˚̣̣̣͙ɞ・❉・ ʚ˚̣̣̣͙ɞ‿︵‿︵

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Translator Notes

Please feel free to comment any mistakes I made so I can improve and do better as I go through the book.

Translated: June 22, 2024 by Angel

Edited: June 24, 2024 by Angel