Qiming Chapter 73

Chapter 73

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Shu Pan arrived unusually early that day. He didn't know why, but he had woken up at five in the morning and couldn't fall back asleep, so he decided to get up and head to the office. He had quite a few unresolved tasks, and getting an early start didn't seem like a bad idea.

When he reached the entrance of the Public Security Bureau, it was only seven o'clock. He yawned and rubbed his eyes, suddenly noticing a young man in a dark blue baseball cap lurking suspiciously near the gate.

Where did this suspicious character come from? He seemed vaguely familiar. Shu Pan, still groggy, kicked a small stone at his feet and then, sweeping away the drowsiness from a moment ago, dashed forward energetically. With a swift motion, he extended his left leg in a sweeping kick, knocking the man with the hat to the ground.

In the next second, he swiftly restrained the man's hands, pulling out his handcuffs and securing them.

Pleased with himself, Shu Pan clapped his hands, not even bothering to look at the man's face.

"What are you sneaking around for so early in the morning?"

"I... I came to report a case," the young man said, shaking his head and knocking his cap to the ground. He stretched his neck to get a better look at Shu Pan. "Hey, aren't you Shu Pan? Don't you recognise me? I'm Fang Yuejia."

"Fang Yuejia?" Shu Pan ran through the names of all his classmates from childhood. When he got to his high school years, it finally clicked, Fang Yuejia was his junior back then, and he used to bully him a lot.

But times had changed. Fang Yuejia was now a hotshot in town. He had a handsome face, though he was a bit short, but he made up for it with his looks. His father, Fang Xing, was the CEO of Zhiyin Biotech, which had recently been a hot topic in the news due to its listing on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

And now, here Shu Pan was, pinning him to the ground with handcuffs. What a sin.

"I'm really sorry, I saw you standing there with a cap, looking around suspiciously, and thought you were some evil outsider spying on us." Shu Pan apologised repeatedly, pouring him a glass of water. Fortunately, his kick had been controlled, causing no serious harm, just some mild soft tissue injuries that would heal in a few days.

"Do you even have any secrets worth spying on?" Fang Yuejia rubbed his wrist. His whole body felt off after the kick, but since there were no visible injuries, he didn't press the issue.

"We do, actually, all our unsolved cases are confidential," Shu Pan explained earnestly. "Lately, some unscrupulous gossip reporters have been hanging around, so I thought you were one of them..."

"By the way, what are you here to report?"

"My dad is missing," Fang Yuejia said, lowering his head with a helpless sigh.

"Your dad?" Shu Pan was shocked. "How long has it been?"

"Forty-eight hours."

—————

After receiving the report, Shu Pan immediately notified Gu Yunfeng and Director Zhao. Due to the special status of the missing person, by the time Gu Yunfeng arrived, the 10.20 special task force had already been approved for formation.

Gu Yunfeng was wearing a leather jacket and holding a teacup in his hand as he sat in the meeting room, flipping through the notes Shu Pan had brought. He hadn't been sleeping well lately, and the first thing he did every morning was brew himself a cup of tea. The tea leaves were Pu'er, a gift from Doctor Ying during his visit to Ying Xizi's house, but despite drinking it several times, it hadn't really helped him feel more awake. He drank it more for psychological comfort than anything else.

"This is the situation regarding Fang Xing's disappearance," Shu Pan explained. "The last time he had contact with anyone was two days ago when he attended a senior management meeting at Zhiyin Technology's headquarters. After the meeting ended, Fang Xing, one of the main speakers, was almost the last person to leave. Before leaving, he went to the restroom, and after that, no one saw him again."

Shu Pan marked the location of the restroom on the floor plan. "Others assumed that Mr Fang had left on his own and didn't think much of it. It wasn't until the next day, during an internal meeting at Zhiyin Biotech, when he didn't show up, that people realised he was missing."

"What about Fang Xing's driver?" Gu Yunfeng asked.

"Also missing."

"How are you sure it's a kidnapping?" Gu Yunfeng inquired. He had been informed that he was responsible for the 10.20 kidnapping case. Based on the various details of the case, no ransom demand had been made since Fang Xing's disappearance. Given that Fang Xing wasn't exactly a particularly influential middle-aged man, the kidnappers didn't seem to have many ways to profit besides demanding ransom.

"Because two hours ago, the 110 emergency hotline received a report."

As Shu Pan spoke, he played the recording of the emergency call. The voice on the recording had been verified through technical analysis to belong to Fang Xing.

In the recording, the victim's voice was urgent but remained as calm as possible: "I've been kidnapped, please save me."

"Do you know your current location?"

"I don't know, but I'm near a window, and there's a modern red building outside..."

The call then abruptly ended. Before it cut off, there was a burst of noise, suggesting the call was forcibly interrupted, likely because Fang Xing hadn't noticed someone behind him while he was making the call.

There were only three sentences in the entire recording, and only two of them were spoken by Fang Xing.

But if this was indeed a kidnapping, why hadn't the kidnappers contacted them yet? Fang Yuejia was still at the station, with several officers keeping an eye on him, just waiting for the kidnappers to call.

However, Gu Yunfeng was not optimistic about the situation. If the kidnappers were after money, it would make more sense to kidnap Fang Yuejia instead of Fang Xing. After all, it was rare for parents not to save their child, but it wasn't uncommon for a son not to save his father.

He replayed the emergency call dozens of times. Apart from the phrase "there's a modern red building outside," there was no other useful information.

Wen Xin leaned forward in her chair, her fingers interlaced under her chin. "Mr Fang only mentioned that one building, is there nothing else around?"

"It's likely that the place where he's being held is so close to this building that it's the only thing visible through a small window," Gu Yunfeng responded to her. "Fang Xing emphasised that it's a modern building, which almost certainly rules out residential areas or rural outskirts."

He explained that for someone to blurt out the term "modern" under extreme stress, the red building must have a particularly distinctive design. It was likely near a central business district or at least an industrial park. Unfortunately, the knowledgeable CEO only vaguely described it as red without specifying the exact shade. This likely meant it was an ordinary red, possibly brick red.

"For now, we'll have to start by searching the entire city for modern buildings with a red exterior and a design flair, and the presence of at least one building within thirty meters."

He pulled out a city promotional brochure from somewhere, pointing to a few landmarks within it. "For example, this Art Palace, it's a bright red structure shaped like an inverted cone. You guys go conduct door-to-door visits around buildings that meet the criteria and retrieve the surrounding surveillance footage for review."

"The victim called for help only two hours ago, so we still have a chance to rescue him. Let's not waste time, stay vigilant."

However, Gu Yunfeng's primary concern was that Fang Xing might no longer be within the city. If he had been moved to another city or province, the search would become much more complicated.

Ideally, he wanted to quickly access all of Fang Xing's movements before his disappearance. This wasn't too difficult to arrange, with Fang Xing's facial photograph, they could pull up surveillance footage from across the city, just as they had done in Yuan Man's case.

As long as the family consents, they could spend some time retrieving all of Fang Xing's movements over the past seventy-two hours, at least to find out whom he had met. However, he doubted Fang Xing would have been walking around on the streets, so they would also need to trace the vehicles he used and piece everything together.

To resolve this quickly... he would need to contact Xu Chengyue.

He counted, from the time Xu Chengyue had called to say he wasn't coming back to the team, it had been almost a week.

During this week, Xu Chengyue hadn't answered any calls, and his responses on WeChat were limited to brief acknowledgements like "mhmm" and "oh." If not for those minimal responses, Gu Yunfeng might have thought Xu Chengyue had been kidnapped too.

He understood that something significant might have happened, something so complex that neither of them could solve it immediately. But problems needed to be faced, and two people were better than one. What could Xu Chengyue accomplish by hiding and bearing the burden alone?

"If anything comes up, call me immediately, I'll answer right away." He strode out, taking off his jacket and carrying it in his hand, walking in a short-sleeved shirt through the early autumn breeze.

"Where are you going?"

"I'm going to find Xu Chengyue."

"Didn't Professor Xu say he was leaving the team?" Shu Pan, who had eavesdropped on part of the conversation in the corner that day, knew little else except that Professor Xu had mentioned resigning and returning to teaching at the university instead of continuing with the team.

"Leaving? I haven't received any official notification from my superiors, who authorised him to leave?" Gu Yunfeng paused, his steps slowing. Just the mention of this made him angry. He was, after all, Xu Chengyue's superior. How could Xu Chengyue simply decide not to show up? Where was the respect for their positions? Did Xu Chengyue think being on the front line was a game where he could come and go as he pleased?

Without official paperwork, not showing up was called absenteeism! That warranted a formal reprimand! A verbal warning!

"Then Captain Gu, where are you planning to find him..."

"Where else could he hide? He hasn't vanished into thin air. He's either at the university or at home. You all know what to do, follow the search plan, conduct interviews, and wait for the call. I'll check his home and the university, I'll catch up with him at one of those places." With that, he sighed, time was running out, and he couldn't go into too much detail. Without further explanation, he waved and drove away.

Gu Yunfeng decided to head to the university first, reasoning that since it was during working hours, Xu Chengyue was more likely to be there teaching. However, when he reached the administrative building of the school, he was informed that Professor Xu had taken a week off and hadn't attended classes for the past two or three days.

The female teacher in charge of administration looked worried as she mentioned that Professor Xu didn't seem to be in a good state lately, unsure whether it was due to health issues or a broken heart. Then, the group of teachers began speculating about his love life, insisting that he must be in a relationship. After all, how else could someone so aloof and indifferent experience such emotional upheaval?

Fortunately, Xu Chengyue's home was close to the university, so it only took Gu Yunfeng ten minutes to drive there. After spending another ten minutes anxiously searching for a parking spot within the complex, he eventually gave up on following the rules and parked haphazardly by the roadside.

He was willing to accept the penalty points and fines, after all, in a situation like this, time was more precious than anything else.

—————

Standing outside Xu Chengyue's door on the nineteenth floor, Gu Yunfeng knocked repeatedly, but there was no response.

Left with no other choice, he called Xu Chengyue's phone. Though the sound was faint, he could vaguely hear a ringtone coming from inside the apartment.

It was clear that Xu Chengyue simply didn't want to open the door or see him. Knocking was useless, so he would have to force his way in. He had a spare key to Xu Chengyue's apartment, but as it turned out, it was only useful during a power outage. He inserted the key into the lock, but nothing happened, and the electronic display above the lock automatically prompted for fingerprint verification.

He tried all ten of his fingers, but unsurprisingly, none of them worked.

Why hadn't he thought to register his fingerprints in the system back then? A complete oversight.

Feeling embarrassed, Gu Yunfeng stood outside the door, occasionally drawing suspicious glances from people entering and exiting the elevator, as if they were staring at a criminal.

He knew Xu Chengyue was inside, they were only separated by this door. Xu Chengyue could hear him, knew he was looking for him, yet still refused to communicate with him.

Damn it, when did this guy become so stubborn? Gu Yunfeng clenched his fist and resumed knocking on the door.

In this situation, time was of the essence, and forcefulness was the only approach.

He knocked loudly, pounding on the door while shouting, "Xu Chengyue, stop being so stubborn. There's an urgent matter, hurry up and open the door."

There was no response. He kept knocking.

"Hurry up and open up! There's a life-and-death case on the line. If you don't open the door, someone might suffer because of you. Hurry up, after we handle the case, you can be as stubborn as you want, for as long as you want."

"But not now! You're still a police officer, and I'm still your superior. Get out here, now."

After yelling for what felt like ages, the door remained firmly shut. Pressing his ear against it, he heard nothing from inside.

Gu Yunfeng couldn't help but think that Xu Chengyue's sense of duty was severely lacking. What about serving the people? What about the relentless pursuit to rescue the public? Once this case was resolved, he'd need to give him some serious lessons on these matters.

Just as he was about to start knocking again, while neighbours began peeking out of their doors, ready to call the police on him, the door finally opened.

Xu Chengyue stood before him, looking noticeably more haggard than before. He wore a simple cotton shirt and, after rubbing his eyes, glanced at Gu Yunfeng silently before turning away.

‿︵‿︵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: August 28, 2024 by Angel

Edited: November 26, 2024 by Angel