Qiming Chapter 12

Chapter 12

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Lu Yong liked to drink, and everyone in their department knew it. He would usually have a small drink, but during gatherings, he would drink to his heart’s content. Last year, he had drunk one of his students into the intensive care unit and often joked that the next one might be himself.

“How are things at the criminal investigation team? Are you adapting to the environment? What’s the name of your captain again?” Professor Lu, along with Xu Chengyue, set the dining table, placing a stack of peanuts, a plate of wine-soaked edamame, a plate of seasonal vegetables, and a bowl of steamed dishes, just waiting for the corn and pork ribs stew from the professor’s wife to be ready.

“I’m adapting quite well. Our captain... are you referring to Captain Gu? Gu Yunfeng?”

“Yes, yes, that young fellow.”

“I heard from Old Zhao, your Director Zhao, that this young man’s mother died of cancer when he was a child. It wasn't easy for his father, who was originally an engineer at a security company. He spent all his money on treatment but couldn’t save her. A few years later, he changed careers, and no one knows what he did afterwards. However, his son turned out quite well. After graduating, he first worked at the Municipal Bureau, and in his second year, he was transferred to a team on the front line. He has strong analytical skills and good physical abilities. Although he is young, he was promoted to deputy captain last year.”

“In criminal investigation, you can learn a lot from him. What cases are you currently working on?”

Seeing his hesitant expression, Lu Yong quickly waved his hand, “Haha, I get it, it’s confidential, can’t be disclosed.”

“It’s not convenient to divulge. But I do have a question I’d like to consult you about.”

“Go ahead.”

“In a recent case that involves an old case from 2005, I need information on the victims, particularly a deceased woman who might be the key to another case. But with the new regulations over the years, this information is considered personal privacy. Apart from looking at the case files, there’s no way to directly access this information.”

Lu Yong frowned in thought, “You guys in the criminal investigation team should know more about this than I do, I don’t really follow these things closely. You could try searching, although information from 2005 isn’t as good as now, and many records might not have been kept. But there’s always a way to find it, like...”

“You could try checking the death records? Or the hospital-issued death certificates? By narrowing down the time, place, age, and cause of death, you should be able to narrow down the range and make further judgments. This is your speciality, right?”

After leaving Professor Lu’s home, Xu Chengyue went directly to the Third Institute’s laboratory. He had two objectives. The first was to use the institute’s access to search through historical surveillance footage for images of Guan Jianhua, the deceased from the 6.19 case. He needed to find all suspicious social connections and movements of Guan Jianhua in the month prior by reviewing the surveillance footage.

The second was to attempt to find Chunqiu’s real name and her possible relatives. In fact, so far, there was no concrete evidence proving Guan Jianhua’s death was directly related to the human trafficking case eighteen years ago. Finding her name was more driven by his curiosity.

He input thirty different facial photos of Guan Jianhua before his death into the image search system, setting the time from May 19th to June 19th, covering all twenty-four hours of the day, and the location being the entire Nanpu City.

About an hour later, the system had retrieved a total of eleven thousand six hundred images from surveillance cameras containing Guan Jianhua.

Eleven thousand six hundred images. Xu Chengyue could remember twelve images per second, which meant nine hundred seconds for eleven thousand six hundred images. Fifteen minutes, not a large workload.

After being released from prison, Guan Jianhua rented a small motel room. He often went out and usually had lunch at the Chinese restaurant next to the motel. He rarely went out for dinner, likely cooking for himself since he didn’t use a cell phone.

Within a month, he frequently met with two people, an unidentified middle-aged man and a middle-aged woman whom Xu Chengyue recognised as Cao Yan, the main culprit of the 6.24 case eighteen years ago.

Besides these two, there was another person who appeared more than ten times with Guan Jianhua at different locations.

This person was Yuan Man.

However, from the surveillance footage, it was evident that every time Guan Jianhua and Yuan Man appeared together, they were always more than three metres apart, with Yuan Man in front and Guan Jianhua behind, without exception.

Guan Jianhua was following Yuan Man.

It now seemed that, no matter what, Guan Jianhua’s case was inextricably linked to the old case. He rubbed his eyes, feeling a bit thirsty, and went to get a cup of water, only to realise he had forgotten his thermos cup, probably leaving it at Professor Lu’s house. Reluctantly, he found a disposable paper cup in the lab and filled it with hot water, enduring the cheap smell of the paper cup.

He replayed the footage of the two appearing together several times in his mind. Suddenly, Xu Chengyue realised that Yuan Man was obviously looking back. She often glanced around, sometimes quickly turning her head back, and occasionally walked fast or even jogged.

Clearly, she realised she was being followed. However, when she reported the case that day, she did not mention it at all and acted as if nothing was wrong.

Chen Yu didn’t mention it, probably because she was unaware, but Yuan Man’s concealment... What was she trying to do?

He called Gu Yunfeng, but there was no answer. Shu Pan and Wen Xin mentioned that Captain Gu had taken the afternoon off, his face didn't look too good, so perhaps he was not feeling well. He could only summarise the surveillance footage findings in a written report and send it to Gu Yunfeng’s email.

Next, he had to uncover the story behind the girl Chunqiu. After going through more than ten thousand surveillance images, Xu Chengyue realised that both Yuan Man and Chunqiu were at the centre of the case, the eye of the storm.

The girl who died in June 2005 was between seventeen and nineteen years old. The cause of death was abuse leading to excessive blood loss and signs of sexual assault.

He filtered through the death records that met these criteria, finding less than ten in total.

Among these ten...

By the time he returned from the Third Institute, it was already evening. The sky turned red as the sun set, and he almost rear-ended another car while driving, getting scolded by the other driver. The artificial lake in his neighbourhood was full of frogs, and the trees were noisy with cicadas, which were more penetrating than honking cars.

He lay on the living room sofa with his eyes closed, resting for a while until the TV program became noisy.

Opening his eyes, he saw a gossip variety show playing on the TV. An entertainment news segment flashed by: Late last night, a mysterious man escorted the lead singer of the girl group AIR home. While failing the college entrance exam, her love life seems successful.

He paused and looked at the photo shown in the news. The casual shirt on the mysterious man looked like the one Gu Yunfeng wore yesterday... So, the mysterious man referred to Gu Yunfeng.

Comments from netizens scrolled across the TV screen:

–  What the hell are with these entertainment reporters? Xiao Man is not even eighteen yet!

– Escorted home late at night? It was only seven in the evening and the sky wasn't even dark, how could it be called late at night?!

He turned off the TV and closed his eyes again. Right, it was just an escort, why make it gossip news? Yet, the name he found through the death records and forensic reports kept lingering in his mind.

In June 2005, a kind-hearted girl escorted a demon home, only to vanish in the overgrown weeds on a rainy summer night. He didn’t dare look up the family background of that name; he already had a vague answer in his heart.

The girl’s name was Gu Chunqiu.

Tomorrow was her death anniversary.

‿︵‿︵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 28, 2024 by Angel

Edited: July 2, 2024 by Angel