Qiming Chapter 24

Chapter 24

---

Gu Yunfeng's home was two kilometres away from the Public Security Bureau, a thirty-minute walk. Given the short distance, he refused to take Xu Chengyue's car, instead finding a bicycle by the roadside and leisurely pedalling home. The road to his house was very quiet, with few cars and people, lined with hibiscus trees that bloomed with white flowers in the summer.

As he cycled along, white petals drifted by, and he saw Xu Chengyue driving past him, waving through the car window before disappearing from sight.

He gripped the handlebars tightly and pedalled faster to catch up.

The house was one Gu Yunfeng had bought with a loan when he first started working. It was a two-bedroom apartment, and his father, Gu Tao, had gritted his teeth to help with the down payment, leaving him to handle the loan. His father had said he had done his utmost and that finding a wife would be up to Gu Yunfeng; he could do no more.

At the entrance to the neighbourhood, he saw Xu Chengyue had already parked his car and was standing at the door waiting.

He took out his keys from his pocket, unlocked the door, and turned on the lights. Outside, it was already pitch dark, the night had fallen, and lights were coming on. A southern wind was blowing, and the next moment, there was a tremendous clap of thunder.

"I live alone, so it's a bit quiet," he said, opening the door to the master bedroom. There was a desk, a closet, and a bed, surprisingly not cluttered. Xu Chengyue opened the closet, finding only a dozen or so clothes hanging inside.

"Most of them are kept at the office," he said as he stuffed a pile of socks into the washing machine, trying to maintain a relatively clean environment. Gu Yunfeng considered himself to be quite tidy, washing clothes promptly, cleaning the floor when he remembered, and taking out the garbage when the bin was full.

Yes, his standards for cleanliness were that low.

"Where do I sleep?" Xu Chengyue asked, pulling out a chair and connecting to the Wi-Fi with ease.

"The sofa or the bed, you can choose one," he replied, finding a blanket from the closet and handing it to Xu Chengyue. As a single young man living alone, the furnishings were quite simple, with not much furniture, so they had to make do.

"Oh... then you sleep on the sofa," Xu Chengyue naturally decided for him, without any pretence of polite refusal.

At that moment, Gu Yunfeng suddenly felt quite pitiful. Ever since he signed that ridiculous guarantee, he had become the weaker party, his dignity and pride disappearing completely, having to comply with Xu Chengyue in everything.

Thinking of this, every cell in his body cried out in sorrow for himself.

"Can I go into this room?" Xu Chengyue asked, pointing to the door beside them.

Before answering, Gu Yunfeng pushed the door open. The floor of the small room was covered with a world map rug, the left wall adorned with a map of Nanpu City, filled with red circles, and the right wall pinned with various photos of people, intricately connected with thin hemp ropes, layer upon layer.

Photos of all the people involved in the 6.19 case were hung in the centre: Guan Jianhua, Cao Yan, Liu Yan, Yuan Man... and even Gu Yunfeng himself.

"Why is my photo up there?" Xu Chengyue asked, pointing to his ID photo, buried among the myriad of other photos and texts. How he had spotted his small picture in that dense mess was anyone's guess.

"......" He was at a loss for words. He couldn't say that he found Xu Chengyue's fall suspicious and wanted to keep the photo up for further study. After three seconds of intense survival-driven thought, he said, "Because you're handsome. I use it as decoration. After a tiring day, looking up and seeing your handsome face makes all the day's fatigue vanish."

"Really?"

"And it helps to ward off the surrounding evil spirits," he added, gritting his teeth and patting his own photo.

Outside, the southern wind finally ceased, and a sharp bolt of lightning pierced the sky, followed by thunderous roars and a sudden downpour. Gu Yunfeng sat cross-legged on the carpet, turned on his computer, and pulled out the materials he had taken that afternoon from the file folder.

They were currently facing a major problem. Without finding the real crime scene, it was challenging to gather evidence to convict the murderer.

This was the case with Guan Jianhua, and similarly with Cao Yan. The murderer had deliberately covered up the primary crime scene, and even if they found a suspect, the lack of evidence meant they could only detain them for twenty-four hours.

However, Cao Yan's death provided a breakthrough.

Two years ago, while at the Municipal Bureau, Gu Yunfeng had encountered a similar case where the victim had drowned and drifted along the river for over ten kilometres. The technical investigation team at the Municipal Bureau used technological means to estimate the approximate speed and deduce the initial crime scene.

This method could also be applied to Cao Yan.

Gu Yunfeng found his small projector in a drawer and forcefully dragged Xu Chengyue back into the small dark room.

"This morning, I went to the criminal investigation team in Shangnan District. You also saw the cause of Cao Yan's death and the scene during the meeting this afternoon," he said, replaying the footage on the projector and turning on a dim light in the room.

"Here is where Cao Yan's body was found, in the section of the Pudian River located in the outskirts of Shangnan District." He slightly turned, pausing for a moment, and pointed to the river on the projected map. "We now know the time of Cao Yan's death. By simulating the river's flow rate on that day, we can determine how many kilometres she drifted in the river and predict the point where she was pushed into the river."

"That's the initial crime scene we're looking for."

Sitting on the carpet, Xu Chengyue took the information about the Pudian River from Gu Yunfeng and looked up at the projected image. In the dim light, his profile appeared softer and more gentle.

"Last year, the Municipal Bureau measured the cross-sectional flow rate of the Pudian River and they provided me with the daily data for the past three months." Gu Yunfeng connected to the local network of the local bureau and downloaded the data packet.

"After returning to the criminal investigation team, I asked colleagues at the information technology centre, and they provided me with some data but ruthlessly refused further help. They said they needed time to research and could not guarantee results in the short term, to put it bluntly, they were not capable enough."

"I thought about it and realised that you're an expert in this area." Finally getting to the point, he looked at Xu Chengyue expectantly, stood up, turned on the light, and turned off the projector.

The rain suddenly lessened significantly, and the streetlights flickered intermittently, with a few pedestrians hurriedly passing by with umbrellas.

"That's not a problem," Xu Chengyue readily agreed, checking the time. "It's only eight o'clock now. I'll tell you within two hours." He opened the data packet he had just downloaded and found a topographic map of the Pudian River within Nanpu City, recording all the river's cross-sectional lengths and widths.

Seeing Professor Xu agree so quickly and offer a solution far faster than expected, Gu Yunfeng stood there in a daze for almost a minute before remembering that neither of them had eaten dinner yet.

"Alright! You get busy, and I'll cook."

He happily rummaged through the fridge for a long time, finding only a few vegetables. He had been so busy lately that he had forgotten to buy groceries.

All he could make were two bowls of noodles.

Since he had been on his own since his teens, Gu Yunfeng had become quite a good cook. If it weren't for the late hour and such lacking ingredients, he could have spent a few hours preparing a traditional eight-course meal.

This was a mix of natural talent and necessity. However, he had a peculiar habit of never using a kitchen knife to chop vegetables, preferring to use a fruit knife for all preparation.

He boiled water, cooked the noodles, and turned off the heat. Two bowls of plain noodles, garnished with green onions in clear broth, with a poached egg neatly placed in the centre.

Just as he brought the noodles to the table, he heard Xu Chengyue from the room say, "I found it."

"Where?" He walked quickly into the room to see Professor Xu holding a red marker, circling a section of the Pudian River on the Nanpu City map. "This place."

The area circled in red was between the inner and middle rings, an area with no high-rise buildings or central business district office towers, just a few old residential complexes over twenty years old.

"This neighbourhood is closest to the Pudian River. Due to traffic planning issues, there are few vehicles, making it the least likely to be seen." He pointed to a residential area on the map.

Gu Yunfeng walked to the map, his gaze following the spot Xu Chengyue pointed to. His heart skipped a beat. This neighbourhood... was where his father had always lived.

Could the initial crime scene for Cao Yan be right next to his father's neighbourhood?

If Xu Chengyue found out, even jumping into the river wouldn't clear his name.

Suddenly, lightning flashed and thunder roared as a torrential downpour ensued. He turned to look at the pouring rain outside, realising he probably wouldn't be able to eat dinner tonight.

—————

The author has something to say:

It's over, it's over, even jumping into the river won't wash it away.

‿︵‿︵ʚ˚̣̣̣͙ɞ・❉・ ʚ˚̣̣̣͙ɞ‿︵‿︵

Previous Chapter | TOC | Next Chapter

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: July 3, 2024 by Angel

Edited: July 18, 2024 by Angel