CH 9

At nine o'clock in the evening, the street lamps were gradually turned on, and a bright moon hun

g mid-air in the city sky.

After a busy day, Lu Junchi returned to his rented apartment. After he got his job, he hadn’t bought a house and had instead been renting. His parents had already moved abroad, and only he and his brother were left in the country.

Ever since this case started, Lu Junchi often had to work overtime and could only go home very late. Today could be considered relatively early.

Before going upstairs, Lu Junchi glanced sideways. The billboard advertisement downstairs had been contracted by a public welfare organization. It was not a star or a movie poster, but an enlarged picture of a girl. The girl's eyebrows and eyes were slightly curved and she smiled happily. A few words were written beside it - "Looking for Pei Weiwei".

At this point, the girl had been missing for nearly a hundred days. Although many people had searched for her, they never found her.

Lu Junchi still remembered, because he handled the case.

Three months ago, his Major Crimes Unit received three related cases, including Pei Weiwei's information. The police suspected that Pei Weiwei had also been killed by Song Rongjiang.

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At that time, Lu Junchi led the team and soon caught the murderer, who admitted the criminal facts of the other two cases, but flatly denied Pei Weiwei’s case.

After the arrest of the suspect, the case was quickly transferred to other criminal investigation teams for investigation. It no longer belonged to the category of serious crimes, and Lu Junchi could no longer intervene. As there was no evidence to *implicate him, the police finally could not confirm whether Pei Weiwei's disappearance was committed by the same murderer.

Show/Hide Note*Lit – to point out mistakes or weaknesses for correction

Now, the criminal had already been tried and was about to be executed through the death penalty, but Pei Weiwei had still not been found…

Lu Junchi walked upstairs, opened the door to his apartment,one-room and turned on the lights. This was a small one room household, with only one room and one living room. The kitchen was small and exquisite. But the whole place was very clean and neat. *Everything was clear and in good order. On one of the walls, he stuck a white paperboard, which he used as a whiteboard.

Show/Hide Note*Everything clear and in good order (idiom) – neat and tidy

It was divided into different areas and posted with different materials for each case. The lower right corner was the latest amputation case, while the upper left corner was about Pei Weiwei.

That case had been handed over long ago, but Lu Junchi had continued to investigate. In the past, he had no spare time for the case, and he was also looking around to collect all kinds of relevant information, hoping to find *spider’s thread and horse track.

Show/Hide Note*spider’s thread and horse track – tiny hints/clues

Lu Junchi remembered the last meeting with Tan Ju.

More than half a month ago, he sorted out a document about the results of the case investigation, in addition, he systematically listed the data on the doubtful points, went to the General Administration and handed it to Tan Ju.

At that time, he explained to Tan Ju: "Tan Ju, although I'm not in charge of this case, I still summarized the information. I hope I can help those who are still pursuing..."

Tan Ju received the thick stack of materials: "You have the heart for a Marine." Then he sighed, and said in one breath, "After Song Rongjiang was arrested, the task force that searched for Pei Weiwei did a lot of fieldwork and invested a lot of manpower and material resources, but it was always at a *bottleneck,. As for this case, he had also been trying to find a way recently, hoping to make a breakthrough in this matter."

Show/Hide Note

Tan Ju said tactfully. In reality, the team that had continued to search could not find a trace of the girl. They applied twice for it to be classified as a missing person case, but Tan Ju did not approve.

However, that team had already been in a state of half-giving up. They had tried their best to find more clues to no avail and could now only wait for time to pass and for people to forget everything.

Lu Junchi said: "I hope I can do my part. For me, the search for the missing girl is not over."

Maybe this case would become an unsolved case, which would take years to be solved. As long as the girl was not found one day, he would not take it out of his file.

Tan Ju looked at Lu Junchi's firm eyes. He understood that without clues over time, everyone's morale would be diminished, but there are always people who persisted.

Tan Ju looked at the thick stack of materials. In the end, Lu Junchi did not rule out Song Rongjiang as a suspect. He even marked the fuel consumption of Song Rongjiang's car every day from the time before Pei Weiwei's disappearance to the time of his arrest, as well as the location that the surveillance cameras along the road where he could appear.

Tan Ju could see that this data was very detailed, and a lot of analysis was in place. He was somewhat moved: "Captain Lu, I think this data will be very helpful for the follow-up search. As for the rest, I will think of a means.”

If the conventional method was completely useless, he would make some unconventional attempts.

Lu Junchi nodded and stood up: "Tan Ju, if there is nothing else, I will go first."

Tan Ju suddenly raised his head: "By the way, Captain Lu, I remember you live in a rented apartment?"

Lu Jun hesitated for a moment: "Yes, it's near the General Administration, but my lease is about to expire."

"How much longer?"

"Less than a month."

Tan Ju nodded: "Then you should go back and pack up. Don't rent a new apartment. I’ll make some arrangements here. I will inform you when they are ready."

Lu Junchi did not know what Tan Ju’s so-called arrangements would be. Now that the check-out date was approaching, he would start to clean up.

In the middle of the case, there was a little deadlock these days, so he should tidy up a little more. If he became busier in the coming days, he may have to stay up *all night, and there will be no time to pack up his things.

Show/Hide Note*Lit: Overnight until daybreak (idiom) – all night long/ day and night

Since he took over as a member of the Major Crimes Unit two years ago, Lu Junchi has sealed his private life. He has no leisure, entertainment, movies, games, so much so that apart from formal dinners with his colleagues, he’s pushed aside all other unnecessary social interactions.

Several leaders once wanted to introduce their daughters and relatives to him, but Lu Junchi tactfully declined.

In addition to eating, sleeping, and exercising every day, he was only involved in those cases. Others said that the Major Crimes Unit was solving more cases, but it really depended on time, perseverance, courage and hard work.

Lu Junchi reached out and began to take down the files of those files from the wall. When he reached the middle, Lu Junchi stopped for a moment. A large piece of the wall was all about *fine sand cases. However, he found out the least relevant information about this case.

Show/Hide Note(细沙)fine sand – I’m thinking this is probably a censored word for drugs? I’m not sure. Or it could just be about sand. Maybe there’s some sort of scam going on about sand. Anyone who has an idea please comment down below.

That was the case he wanted to understand most, but it was so like a mythical beast…

Lu Junchi took down the stack of materials and packed them in boxes.

Tired of tidying up, he sat on the bay window and picked up the glass bottle on the bedside.

Lu Junchi turned off the light, and the bottle in his hand lit up. It was a whole bottle of luminous stars. He counted them repeatedly, ninety-nine in total.

The curtains were not drawn, and the moonlight shone through the gaps in the gauze curtains. Outside was the splendid light of the city nightscape.

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Under the moonlight, he held the glass bottle in his palm. It gave off a bright light as if it was filled with fireflies.

Pei Weiwei's case, as well as the case of the severed limbs... A lot of things were pressing down on his chest.

During the day, he was busy and had many things to face and solve. But on this deserted night, he thought that if *that person was around him, these cases would have *easily been solved.

Show/Hide Note*Lit: That person – Fig: The person you’ve been looking for; Mr. Right *wink wink*

Show/Hide Note*Lit: Bamboo splits when it meets the knife’s edge (idiom) – Fig: Easily solved

The ringing of his mobile phone suddenly interrupted Lu Junchi's thoughts, and he answered the phone.

"Brother... I had an appointment to play basketball with my classmates in the evening. I just came back from taking a bath and saw your message. What’s the matter ah?" Lu Haochu's youthful voice came from the phone.

Lu Haochu studied in the Information Technology and Network Security department of Huadu Police Academy, specifically video detection technology and was currently in his 3rd year. With the gradual popularization of video surveillance technology, surveillance videos monitoring had become one of the most important pieces of evidence and an important direction of police reconnaissance. This major had only been established for a few years, and the first batch of graduates were snatched away by local police stations as soon as they left the university… supply did not meet demand.

Lu Junchi said, "I want to ask you about someone. I went to your school the other day and met a strange teacher." Recently, he was considering the candidate for the consultant position of the Major Crimes Unit and thought that this teacher was very suitable.

Lu Junchi found it a little difficult to explain. Since that meeting, the emaciated figure had been lingering in his mind.

After Lu Junchi came back from the Huadu Police Academy that day, he had already checked the information on Su Hui. The information was simple, ordinary, and standard, conforming to the norms of society. He could hardly see anything he wanted to know.

Lu Junchi considered again and again, but decided to ask his younger brother who was studying in the Chinese Police Academy. Maybe he would know more. So, in the afternoon, he sent a message to Lu Haochu. Unexpectedly, he was able to call back.

"Who is it?"

"A teacher named Su Hui seems to be teaching the sociology of crime (criminology)."

"Teacher Su? Did you see Teacher Su in our school?" Lu Haochu's voice was excited. "Teacher Su is the most popular teacher in our school. If you want to apply for his public class, you must grab it by the pinch, which is more difficult than grabbing Taobao's flash sale!"

Lu Junchi did not expect Su Hui's evaluation from his younger brother would be completely different from that of Director Liao, moreover, it was at two extremes: "Is this Teacher Su very famous in your school?"

Lu Haochu continued to get excited: "Not only is he famous, but also female students who want to pursue Teacher Su can line up from the east gate to the west gate of the school!"

Lu Junchi asked, "Why? Because he is handsome?"

"Our Chinese police girls don't judge people by their looks, mainly because Teacher Su speaks well in class." Speaking of this, Lu Haochu explained, "Teacher Su's class is not only interesting but also different from other teachers. The cases he talks about are very stimulating and well-analyzed..."

Lu Junchi hesitated for a moment, and then asked what he had heard from Director Liao: "But I heard someone say that he did not take his teaching seriously, and his academic work was average."

"Alas, where did you hear the rumor?! Was it said by the old scholars of the criminology academy? I knew they were not pleased with Teacher Su because his students’ grades dumped theirs several streets behind! Really, when Teacher Su is lecturing, he is always deadly earnest and serious. The more you listened to his analysis, the more fascinated you become. Hearing his lectures, people would change their inner understanding of human evil."

"This Teacher Su seems to be in poor health?" Lu Junchi asked again.

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"Yes... Teacher Su has poor eyesight, is deaf in one ear, his voice is hoarse and husky, he, therefore, needs a microphone to teach, and often coughs, so he can’t be tired... So, our student union has set up a special help group to help Teacher Su with picking up express delivery and cleaning, etc..." Lu Haochu unexpectedly got angry when he mentioned this, "but I've only been in line twice!”

“.…”

Lu Junchi was a little speechless. He was too familiar with Lu Haochu. His younger brother was spoiled by his parents. He is the only one who didn't help when the oil was being poured into the bottle. He never lifted a finger at home.

How can such a person rush to clean up after others?

"Are you rushing to wait in line to wait on people?"

"No, no, no! Brother, you don't understand. Anyway, he is very popular with our students…” Lu Haochu said coquettishly, "Aiya, brother, If you are able to get Teacher. Su’s WeChat in the future, can you pass on a message for me? Just say, I’m a third-year student in the Chinese Police Academy. I’ve attended his public class. If I have any questions, I want to ask him, can he add me? Or you can ask him to make a list of books for me..."

Lu Junchi now fully understands that his younger brother was a fan of Teacher Su and a hardcore fan at that.

Just as they were talking about this, Lu Junchi's mobile phone suddenly rang again. He said to Lu Haochu, "Wait, I have something to do here. I'll hang up first and talk to you later."

He cut the phone, and Xing Jing's voice came from the other side: "Captain Lu, the results of the micro evidence test you applied for came out, and we found a small amount of black substance in the nails of the three hands..."

"What is it?" Lu Jun hurriedly asks.

"It's a trace of coffee powder."

Coffee powder? Lu Junchi frowned slightly. It seemed that there was a connection between the victims.

Xing Jing said: "In addition, we also found some strange things. Captain Lu should also know that we followed Wu Jian here to check, and we found traces left by the suspected murderer on three vehicles near the body where the remnant was found. These traces include fingerprints and some other samples, but... according to our current results, these traces belong to different people."

“……”

Lu Junchi frowned slightly.

Different people?

Is there more than one suspect in this case? Are these limbs related to a crime syndicate?

Or did they swipe the car owner's information by mistake?

But it shouldn't be. The information left on these three cars had certain particularity…

Lu Junchi's expression became serious: "I will come up with a plan immediately."

The author has something to say:

Later, Lu Junchi remembered that  Tan Ju was the leader of the Municipal Bureau who like to play matchmaker for young people, and was known as the "Old Moon" of the Municipal Bureau.

Tan Ju: No, it's really an accident

TN:

I wish I had a Teacher Su in my life. Coz all my teachers were boring asf and made learning a chore rather than something to enjoy. Esp. the Maths and Chemistry. I failed that sh*t