CH 2

Hong Jing was an old city.

It had seen many storms no matter what happened, it wouldn’t cause a ripple. The sun would rise in the morning, students would go to school, and the morning lecture would resound throughout the campus.

This scenery did not change.

After checking the dormitory roster, as usual, Lin Chen checked the last column and turned to the front page. He looked at the only name that hadn’t been ticked.

As the dorm manager, this was a situation he didn’t like to see.

Five minutes ago, he received a call from the school teacher, informing him that Zheng Xiao Ming a First Year in Class Three didn’t attend that morning’s reading. The teacher asked him to go wake up the kid who might still be in bed.

What was surprising is that after checking all the rooms, there were no students playing hooky.

The curtain in a blue and white flowers pattern swayed gently because of the wind. Lin Chen sighed. He had worked here for 3 years, and this was his first time encountering a missing student.

He played casually with the pen in his hand. Zheng Xiao Ming was a quiet, chubby kid who didn’t have a rebellious bone in his body. Moreover, the guards at the school entrance wouldn’t let a child leave so easily. So, what possibility was higher? The child being kidnapped or being fetched by his own parents?

As if to confirm his thoughts, his phone rang.

He took the device out of his pocket and looked at the screen. On display was an unknown number within Hong Jing City’s area code.

He answered the call and pressed the recording button right after. A lazy voice said, “This is Mr. Lin, right? Do you know a student named Zheng Xiao Ming?”

“Yes.”

“Oh, Xiao Ming is in my hands now. Please bring your wallet and come to Chang Shui Bridge in Yan Jia Xiang to fetch him, thank you very much.”

Then, the other party simply hung up.

Lin Chen looked at the phone and couldn’t react for a while.

Aside from this being his first time encountering a kidnapped student case, this was also his first time dealing with such a carefree “kidnapper.”

He hesitated for a moment. Should he call the police on not? Then he took his wallet and took a bus.

The day the kidnapper chose was excellent. The trees were lush, and the river under the bridge was clear like just-cleaned glass.

As if monitored, his phone rang again as soon as he stepped on the bridge.

Mr. Kidnapper’s voice was husky and calm, “Mr. Lin, please turn left. I’m waiting for you at the sixth door.”

All kidnappers probably love ordering people around. Before Lin Chen could ponder an old joke about “Six Gates,” the aforementioned door was already in front of him.

Dusty walls, an old door, and a window.

The wooden door opened with a creak. Lin Chen looked up and saw a bearded man standing on the other side.

The man held a cigarette in his left hand, while his right leaned on the door frame. The sun fell on him and illuminated a pair of sleepy looking eyes deep set in his sockets. His eyes were faintly green, and his gaze bright and unbridled. He appeared unrestrained as if on this day, all spring and all the lakes in the city were things that could be quickly abandoned.

A man who looked at everything indifferently probably wouldn’t kidnap an 80kg fat child.

Lin Chen calmly said, “I’ll pick up the rascal, thank you for taking him in.”

He slowly moved forward but didn’t hear any response as expected. He looked up. The other man had the cigarette between his lips and rubbed his fingers that were now empty.

Obviously, the phrase “Bring your wallet with you” was not a joke.

Lin Chen was speechless, but he still took out a purple banknote with a missing corner and said, “Just five yuan.”

The man took the money and tucked it into his pocket, not the least bit ashamed. He raised his hand and continued smoking. He moved aside a bit, but his right hand still rested on the door frame.

Lin Chen thanked the man, squeezed under the man’s arm, and walked into the house.

On a wooden bed against the wall, he saw a small buttocks.

“It’s not good to play hooky.”

He sat down at the edge of the bed, reached out to Zheng Xiao Ming, this ostrich and lift him up so that he sat up on the bed. He then picked up the shoes on the floor and put it on the child, continuing, “Of course, because we’re humans, it’s inevitable that we will make mistakes.” He patiently tied the shoelaces and said, “But the problem is: first of all, I don’t like to go out. Secondly, I’m poor so sneaking in is better than calling me here.”

Lin Chen’s voice was soft. The little fatty turned to look at the man standing by the door, smoking, and sobbed.

Lin Chen looked at the little boy then the man who smiled faintly. His gaze fell on a navy blue uniform in the corner of the room.

When finding a lost child, the typical good citizen’s first reaction would be to send them to the police station. For someone there to interrogate the child to get the number of the person in charge of the dorm, then have him come over personally. Obviously they didn’t have good intentions.

Lin Chen removed his gaze, held the child’s hand, and turned to leave.

Just as he crossed the door, he felt something cold close on his wrist. When he looked down, he saw a set of silver handcuffs there.

Lin Chen looked at the child who hugged his legs and said helplessly, “Of course, if you provoke a police officer, don’t slip away and run. It’s better to act bashfully and hug their thighs.”

“Mr. Lin is such a refreshing person. How about a cup of tea with me?” 一 Mr. Officer at the side said in an orderly manner.

“It’s not appropriate for me to go to the station.” Lin Chen said after thinking it over.

“You will get used to it after a few times.” That person laughed.

Many people won’t enter a police station in their lifetime, and more wouldn’t even have the chance to visit an interrogation room.

Therefore, if one can act bashfully to avoid things from becoming too big, they will do so. After all, an interrogation room was always dark and gloomy.

There were iron bars on the windows, and on the wall, there were the characters “Honesty begets leniency, resistance begets severity” plastered on it. The serious police officer would tell you to explain things clearly, and at the same time, you might be watched and observed by many people.

Zhang Xiao Long was an ordinary policewoman of the Hong Jing Crime Police Force.

At the moment, she looked through the one-way mirror observing the suspect.

From time to time, she looked down as she wrote in her notebook. Perhaps because she was too focused, she didn’t realize two people were already in the room until a low, hoarse voice rang out.

“How is it?”

Zheng Xiao Long turned around and saw the new captain’s handsome side profile. She blushes without prompting. However, she was also trained by the strict police academy, so it took her barely an instant to adjust her state and reported, “Captain, the person you brought in has sat in there for an hour and thirteen minutes. He also took a look at those photos!” Zheng Xiao Long looked at the table nearby, turned two pages of her notebook and continued, “By your order, no one spoke to him. Someone went in half an hour ago to deliver water, but he didn’t drink it. Oh, he had a strange reaction when he saw the third picture, Captain. There must be something wrong with him!”

The young woman tapped twice with her pen and looked at the man in the interrogation room, excited.

To be honest, Zheng Xiao Long didn’t have an aversion to the man. After all, the other person was her type.

The young man had dark hair and dark eyes with impossible depths. He was thinly built and wasn’t very tall. But, maybe it was his calm face or his serious eyes, he gave off a steady vibe. Like the pine in the mountains or the bamboo near the lake, when the wind blows, it had a clean fragrance.

There was nothing suspicious about him. But he stayed in the interrogation room for so long, looking at those three pictures without saying anything. He didn’t even lift his head. How could a normal person have such patience?

There must be something wrong with him!

Zhang Xiao Long thought and looked at the three pictures on the table.

The first one was a picture of an old man with a calm expression. He laid on a bed wearing blue burial clothes as if he had just fallen asleep.

The second was of the man lying in the morgue, covered with a white sheet as proof.

If the first two pictures were somewhat cold, the third one was downright weird.

The same old man in the first two laid flat in a shop, eyes closed and wearing a dark blue uniform. A little pool of blood spilled by his side. If one looked carefully, they would find the old man’s pocket was filled with white sand.

. . .

If the pictures were arranged chronologically, this old man was moved from the morgue to the shop for some reason.

Ordinary people wouldn’t do such a thing. This was a case of the mentally disturbed and was especially troublesome.

But no matter how troublesome, it was the police’s business. It should have nothing to do with a small dormitory caretaker like him?

As Lin Chen contemplated this, the door creaked open.

He looked up. A young policewoman sat across from him.

“Lin Chen, where were you between 1 and 3 p.m on September 7th?”

Her voice was clear, and she didn’t need to look at the documents before speaking.

“The city’s junior dormitory management station.” Lin Chen looked down at the photos again, turned to the policewoman, and answered calmly.

The police officer was beautiful, with long black hair and fair ears. In her ear was a compact wireless headset.

“Can anyone testify for this?” The woman interrupted him abruptly, “You said you were in the dormitory, who can testify for you?”

“During the time you specified, I was alone. The students were in class. No one can testify.”

The woman’s expression darkened. She looked down at her notebook, pressed her pen against it, then continued asking according to what was written in the notebook, “Then, have you been to the Third Hospital recently?”

Obviously, someone had told her to ask this beforehand. They had sent her, this subordinate, to get a confession or something. So her superior must be behind that one-way mirror observing my movements.

If it’s just a case of a corpse being moved, they won’t make such a fuss.

“Tell me, why are you arresting me?” Lin Chen interrupted the officer’s interrogation.

The police officer’s gaze darted unconsciously to the mirror at the side of the room.

Lin Chen leaned forward, probably having already gotten a rough idea of the situation. “I heard recently that there were well-dressed male corpses with handfuls of white sand appearing at the Third Hospital.” He stared into the policewoman’s eyes as he leaned back in the chair, “It’s weird. If the city bureau finds this case difficult, they will most likely turn to one of two groups: the Taoist monks or psychologists. . . So, you’re cooperating with unit H, right?”

Zheng Xiao Long stared at Lin Chen as if he was a pervert. Suddenly, she pressed her ear. It looked like she was given new instructions as she stood up and left directly.

Lin Chen pointed at the one-way mirror and said lightly, “Come out, don’t hide.”

A moment later, the interrogation room’s door opened again.

A slightly fat man pushed in. He held a thermos in his left hand and a newly cleaned porcelain cup in his right. He set it on the table, took out a bag of tea from his pocket, and placed it in the cup, then poured in the water. His actions were smooth. Afterward, he handed it over in a respectful manner and said in a trembling voice, “Sen. . . Senior. . .”

“So it was Professor Fu.” Lin Chen didn’t take the cup, and his voice was cold.

“Senior. . . It wasn’t me!” As the only criminal psychology external consultant of the municipal bureau, Fu Hao rarely had difficult times when he was at the police station.

“Why did you arrest me?” Lin Chen asked simply.

“It’s the sand.”

“What kind of evidence is that?”

“Senior, I would never dare lie to you.” Fu Hao immediately geared up his lackey points, “There has been panic in the city hospital recently. Every time they found a well-dressed corpse in the morgue, that corpse was accompanied by white sand. You also know this.”

Lin Chen nodded.

“This morning, the crime department’s captain met a lost child on the roadside. The child knocked on the window of his car, took sand out of his pocket and said: ‘Uncle, I want to eat KFC. Can I exchange this with you?’”

“Genius.” Lin Chen could hardly believe his own ears.

“Eh-heh.” Fu Hao fake-coughed and continued, “Afterward, they compared it to the evidence in the office and concluded that the sand was the same as on the corpses.”

“Wow, what a coincidence.” Lin Chen frowned.

“It’s more than a coincidence, Senior. You know, just yesterday in the riot at Chun Shui Street, an old man fell to the ground in public. When the ambulance arrived, they said the old man had died for several hours already.” Fu Hao lowered his voice and said with care, “And a handful of white sand fell from the man’s pocket.”

“What kind of sand?”

“It’s a special kind, very white, but the specific type hasn’t been found yet.”

Lin Chen’s eyebrows furrowed, and he said, “Bring it to me, I will see it.”

Before Fu Hao could reply, the door opened again. The shaggy-looking man from before came in with an evidence bag, walking as if he owned the place.

“Mr. Lin, my name is Xing, Xing Cong Lian.” The man had changed into a police uniform, his behavior decent, and his attitude straightened out. Nowhere near the hooligan rubbing his fingers together with that money-grubbing gesture earlier. “I hope you can recognize this sand, have you seen it?”

Lin Chen was too lazy to even look at the man. He directly took the evidence bag from the table.

The whole bag weighed around 50 grams. He opened it and carefully examined the granules.

The sand was white, and the grains were clean. This was obviously not the sand used for construction work, nor was it beach sand.

Lin Chen put the sand back into the bag and coldly asked Fu Hao, “You’ve never seen this type of sand before?”

“I don’t think so.” Fu Hao answered honestly.

“If you don’t even know this, how did you graduate?” Lin Chen demanded bluntly.