Qiming Chapter 15

Chapter 15

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Gu Yunfeng continued, "After Guan Jianhua was murdered, we assigned two officers to monitor Cao Yan around the clock. Her personal safety has been under control."

He sighed, noting that Professor Xu was the first person he had met in years who had almost no experience in criminal investigation yet remained unflustered in unfamiliar situations. Unlike ordinary people, he didn't show signs of fear, anxiety, or excessive excitement. His calm words during work were always focused on the debate between right and wrong.

"After the murder, we pursued two lines of investigation. One was to explore Guan Jianhua's social connections, which we just discussed. The other was an investigation after expanding the surveillance range at the crime scene."

"We expanded the scope to include all surveillance footage within three kilometres. There are six routes leading to the private residential area on Huanan Road." Gu Yunfeng pulled up a three-dimensional map, marking six intersections in red.

"These six intersections are the only access points to the crime scene. The area is relatively secluded. After visiting the area, we found no abandoned vehicles or suspicious individuals within three kilometres. We focused on vehicles that appeared at these six intersections more than twice."

"Yesterday morning, colleagues in the evidence department brought a file. They investigated the suspicious vehicles captured in the surveillance footage and eventually focused on a red Passat. The murderer used this car to transport Guan Jianhua's body from the primary crime scene to Huanan Road."

"Xiao Zhang, please introduce the details." Zhang Ze, an officer on the technical investigation team, wearing glasses, had been following the collection and analysis of physical evidence in the Guan Jianhua case.

"The red Passat mentioned by Captain Gu is this one." He pulled up a frame from the footage. "The licence plate was deliberately covered, and the exterior looks ordinary. There are probably... over ten thousand similar vehicles in the city."

"On the night of the crime, the murderer drove it from the southwest along Dushi Road, passing Wanda Plaza and Hushan Garden community, then entered Huanan Road. Upon leaving, they mostly retraced their route but headed further to the suburbs, towards Caowan Town, where surveillance lost track."

"Later, we searched the entire city for the Passat that transported Guan Jianhua's body and found it registered with a car-sharing company under the licence plate PU C97682. This company operates by setting up parking spaces for users to access vehicles at any time. They don't mark cars with unified signs or colours, and users must log in with personal information to start a vehicle. So, we retrieved the driving information of all users from June 18th to June 21st."

"We found that from June 18th to June 19th, only one person used it, and it was used for two whole days."

"Who was it?"

"The registered name is Cao Yan, female, forty-seven years old."

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The registered user of the red Passat was Cao Yan, but the murderer in the surveillance footage, based on their walking posture and build, looked more like a man. If the murderer was indeed a man and not Cao Yan, then he must have known Cao Yan.

Gu Yunfeng went to the locker room, changed out of the black shirt he wore for his sister's memorial, and rummaged through his closet, finally choosing a grey V-neck T-shirt and putting on a baseball cap. The last time he gave Chen Yu and Yuan Man a ride, he was photographed by paparazzi who claimed he had a late-night rendezvous, which scared him enough to never wear that outfit again.

He put the shirt he had taken off into the washing machine, revealing his well-defined abs. The shirt carried the scent of incense and the decaying air from the cemetery. Just as he was about to put on the T-shirt, the locker room door was forcefully pushed open.

Xu Chengyue stood at the door with an expression of 'I've finally found you'.

"Professor Xu... next time, could you please knock before you barge in?" He picked up the fallen shirt, shaking it thrice with a helpless smile. He was relieved that he was only changing his top; it would have been embarrassing if he had been changing his pants.

But since Professor Xu was a man, there wasn't much to be embarrassed about.

"Is there something you need?" He put on the T-shirt and opened the locker room window. It hadn't been too hot lately, and after a rain shower the night before, the daytime temperature was quite pleasant.

"Captain Gu, why did you erase that name during the meeting just now?" Their eyes met without hostility, yet the air was thick with tension.

"What name?" He was puzzled, but he quickly realised that it was his sister's name, which Xu Chengyue had written on the whiteboard.

"The last victim in the kidnapping case eighteen years ago." Xu Chengyue gently closed the door. "In past news reports, she was referred to by the pseudonym Chunqiu."

Gu Yunfeng was taken aback, instinctively taking a step back and almost tripping over a chair. In those brief seconds, it felt as if all the blood in his body had frozen, but his years of mental and physical training quickly brought him back to calmness.

"Are you suggesting that the victim's family has a motive for the crime? There were many victims in that case, and it doesn't matter which one." He spoke nonchalantly, "They all have many relatives who hated Guan Jianhua to the core and would love to see Cao Yan pulverised. You might as well write down the names of all the victims, that's only fair."

"There's not enough space to write them all." Xu Chengyue furrowed his brows and rubbed his shoulders. "Of course, that's not what I meant."

"I found the real name of the last victim through the death records." He walked candidly behind Gu Yunfeng, leaning close to his ear. "You have a sister named Gu Chunqiu, don't you?"

It was a name so familiar that it was ingrained in him. Yet hearing it from someone else's mouth felt like witnessing a storm and seeing a giant ship sink.

The long-hidden secret was casually revealed.

All the gentle façades were torn apart, exposing the fangs of self-protection.

Instinctively, he grabbed Xu Chengyue's arm, his adrenaline spiking, capillaries bulging. His left hand gripping Xu Chengyue's wrist and his right hand clutching his bicep, he threw Xu Chengyue over his shoulder onto the nearby sofa.

With a crisp sound of joints popping, Gu Yunfeng suddenly came to his senses. He released Xu Chengyue's wrist, the deep red marks almost making his blood flow backwards to his heart.

What had he just done?

"Damn! Gu Yunfeng, you... you just assaulted a police officer!" Xu Chengyue struggled but found himself not lying on the ground, which explained why he wasn't in much pain. He sat up with a stern expression, looking at Gu Yunfeng who was slowly crouching down, holding onto the sofa.

"Was that necessary?" he asked, frowning.

Was it necessary?

Gu Yunfeng buried his face in his arms and murmured an apology.

This was a secret he had kept for years. No one at the Jinping Public Security Bureau, or among his classmates and friends, knew about it.

He always thought this part of his past would remain within the world of him and his father, eventually buried and becoming an untold story.

Gu Chunqiu was just one of dozens of victims. She would be slowly forgotten by the world, becoming an insignificant pseudonym in the case files, a piece of emotionless text.

But for him and his father, his sister's case brought about a devastating blow, causing them to lose trust, family, and at one point, all hope in life.

"I'm sorry." He pulled Xu Chengyue up, his emotions a bit more stable, awkwardly trying to lighten the mood. "It's a good thing I still had some rationality left and didn't throw you to the ground."

His hand was warm but had a scar on the palm, making it feel quite rough.

"Don't stand behind me in the future." Gu Yunfeng forced a smile.

Xu Chengyue, sitting on the sofa with one arm draped over the armrest, reluctantly nodded as an acceptance of his apology. The sudden lift had nearly made his heart race out of control. He rubbed his wrist in confusion and continued to ask Gu Yunfeng bluntly, "You don't allow others to smoke in front of you because of this incident, right?"

Gu Yunfeng nodded helplessly. He realised that Professor Xu truly didn't care about other people's feelings in the slightest; even after being attacked, he continued to poke at people's sore spots. Back then, his sister had been left alone and murdered because his father, Gu Tao, went to buy a pack of cigarettes. Gu Tao had poor self-control and was a heavy smoker. Even after his daughter's incident, he couldn't quit despite various threats and intimidations.

Since then, he had developed a physiological aversion to smoking.

"You've been through quite a trauma..." Xu Chengyue mused. "Have you seen a doctor?"

A doctor? Gu Yunfeng took off his hat and shook his head. He found a chair to sit down, looking directly at Xu Chengyue. "I understand your concerns, but she has nothing to do with the current case. That was a closed chapter from the past."

The past had already been judged, and the villains had been punished. He didn't need to dwell on it any longer.

"Gu Chunqiu doesn't, but you do," Xu Chengyue said. "We cannot rule out the possibility of retaliatory murder by the victims or their families from back then, that's the consensus we've reached."

"You and your family have motives for the crime. Now that Cao Yan is out of prison, I could even suspect..." he paused, "you might be using your position to settle a personal vendetta and intentionally interfere with the case."

"No, how could I interfere?"

"What if the murderer's next target is Cao Yan? You might neglect your duty and let someone else cause irreparable harm."

"If the murderer is a family member, would you destroy evidence to help complete the crime?"

In that instant, Gu Yunfeng felt a surge of anger, but he couldn't utter a word in defence. In this suddenly complex case, he had no direct connection with anyone involved, yet their lives were unavoidably intertwined, forming a nightmare he had never been able to escape.

When he dreamt of his sister or learned about Yuan Man's background, he had an overwhelming desire to personally put an end to this nightmare.

‿︵‿︵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 30, 2024 by Angel

Edited: July 4, 2024 by Angel