I See Murders Before They Happen

Chapter 109: Chapter 107: Reencountering an Old Case

Zhuang Yanzheng also asked about the place where Yao Ying was taken captive.

”I don’t know where it was. I only know that the second time I was sold, when the man took me away, the place was all mountains. Beyond the mountains were more mountains—endless mountains as far as the eye could see. I have no idea how long we walked before we finally got out,” Yao Ying said. ”They spoke in a dialect that I could barely understand, so I couldn’t tell where we were.”

”The place I was sold to the second time probably wasn’t in the country,” she said.

Zhuang Yanzheng rubbed his fingers together, saying nothing.

Yao Ying asked, ”Can I use the name Yao Ying?”

Zhuang Yanzheng looked up at her.

”Can I be called Yao Ying?” she asked again.

”You can,” Zhuang Yanzheng said.

Yao Ying smiled, then looked at Chu Xingrou. ”A stranger is crying over what happened to me, yet everything I went through was caused by my own parents.”

Chu Xingrou’s pupils trembled.

Yao Ying said, ”I’ve come to terms with it. Maybe I did something terrible in a past life and am paying the price for it in this one.”

”I’m also very content. No matter what, I still had five years of a peaceful life.” Yao Ying’s eyes seemed to drift back to the past. ”Some people never make it out of places like that alive. When they die... they’re just wrapped in a white cloth and thrown out.”

Chu Xingrou looked at her.

”To be able to return to the place I was born, to see the sun outside, to smell the fragrance of flowers, to sleep soundly until dawn, and to have a place just for me after I die... that’s enough,” Yao Ying said. ”So don’t be sad for me.”

...

After leaving the interrogation room, Zhuang Yanzheng looked at Chu Xingrou.

Chu Xingrou met his gaze for a moment, then quickly lowered her head, waiting for a scolding.

Zhuang Yanzheng was silent for a moment before saying, ”This is what it’s like to be a police officer. You might face despicable criminals, or you might face pitiful murderers. You have to be mentally prepared.”

With her head still lowered, Chu Xingrou said softly, ”All she wanted was a peaceful life. Why was that so hard to get?”

Zhuang Yanzheng didn’t say anything.

Chu Xingrou sniffled and said, ”I won’t let my emotions affect my work in the future. I’ll remain rational when I’m on the job.”

Zhuang Yanzheng looked at her again. ”Mhm, go on and get back to work.”

Chu Xingrou left.

Su Miaoyi and Lu Zhishen walked over.

Watching Chu Xingrou’s retreating back, Su Miaoyi asked, ”Did you give her a talking-to?”

”Is that really the image I project?” Zhuang Yanzheng asked.

Su Miaoyi nodded.

Zhuang Yanzheng: ”...”

The three of them went to his office.

Su Miaoyi asked, ”That license plate number—you know it?”

Zhuang Yanzheng poured himself a glass of water. After taking a drink, he simply said, ”Mhm.”

Su Miaoyi and Lu Zhishen looked at him.

”Five years ago, the narcotics division was arresting a drug dealer in Qingyou District,” Zhuang Yanzheng said. ”One got away; someone picked him up. We checked the surveillance footage and found a Mercedes E300. The license plate was the one Yao Ying mentioned. The footage showed a woman in the driver’s seat wearing a hat and a mask.”

”The car later disappeared from surveillance range.”

”Were the plates fake?” Su Miaoyi asked.

Zhuang Yanzheng nodded. ”By the time we found that car again, it had been torched. Inside was the charred body of the drug dealer who’d been picked up.”

Su Miaoyi’s brow twitched slightly.

’Looks like the dealer who escaped knew too much.’

’That’s why they killed him.’

”Later, we found surveillance footage of the car before it reached the place where it was burned. It captured the woman without her hat on,” Zhuang Yanzheng said. ”The upper half of her face was visible.”

”Who was it?” Su Miaoyi asked.

”The man and woman who attacked you on Xiangyao Street,” Zhuang Yanzheng said. ”It was the woman. Our intel says... everyone calls her Sister Ying. We don’t know her real name.”

”Sister Ying,” Su Miaoyi repeated.

Zhuang Yanzheng nodded. ”When Yao Ying mentioned the person who helped her, I immediately thought of her.”

”So they’ve been to Jinghai before,” Su Miaoyi said.

”Mhm. That was our first run-in with them.”

Su Miaoyi pressed her lips together.

’Every time a case involves those people...’

’I can’t help but sigh. They’re just so hard to deal with.’

...

The weather was growing warmer.

Although Su Miaoyi didn’t have to keep regular office hours, she had insisted on coming to work every day for the past two months.

Zhuang Yanzheng had asked if she was addicted to work.

Su Miaoyi had replied that she wanted to work hard so she could become his superior and order him around.

Zhuang Yanzheng threatened to take away her desk.

Su Miaoyi retorted that she would just go cry outside the chief’s office.

In that round, Su Miaoyi had claimed a narrow victory.

For the past two-plus months, she hadn’t seen any visions.

However, she had helped out on two cases.

She even had to write reports.

When she got her paycheck, she felt that signing the contract had been a brilliant move.

When she was writing reports, she wondered what on earth she had been thinking when she signed the contract.

Su Miaoyi was sitting at her desk writing a report when Chu Xingrou walked by. She glanced at Su Miaoyi and thought she looked as if all the life had been drained out of her.

”Su Miaoyi, Chu Xingrou, Qi Feng, grab your gear and come with me,” Zhuang Yanzheng called out as he came out of his office.

Su Miaoyi immediately sat up straight, her drained energy instantly restored. She stood up and followed after Zhuang Yanzheng.

”What’s the case?” she asked him.

”A burial case.” Zhuang Yanzheng glanced at her, paused for a beat, then continued walking.

”What’s wrong?”

”It’s somewhat related to the Ji Family,” Zhuang Yanzheng said.

”Hm?”

”The Ji Family had a villa in the suburbs that they sold a while back. The buyer was planning to tear it down and rebuild. While demolishing it today, they dug up two bodies in the backyard.”

”Two?” Su Miaoyi was surprised.

”Let’s go take a look first.”

...

After driving for nearly an hour, they arrived at the villa in the suburbs.

The villa itself was already mostly demolished, and the concreted area in the backyard had been dug up.

The bodies had been found right under the concrete.

When Su Miaoyi and the others approached, they could see half a skull mixed in with the dirt outside the excavated pit, along with some bone fragments and scraps of cloth.

The cloth must have been from the victims’ clothing.

When they first arrived, a worker had explained the situation.

They had first used a jackhammer to break up the concrete surface.

Then they started digging with an excavator.

But with the very first scoop, they dug up bones.

So they stopped immediately.

Su Miaoyi and Yan Cheng peered into the pit.

Most of the skeletal remains were still buried and would have to be carefully excavated.

Zhuang Yanzheng took Qi Feng and Chu Xingrou to question the workers for more details.

Su Miaoyi, Yan Cheng, and his assistant carefully cleaned the dirt off the excavated bones and placed them in body bags.

Only then did they discuss how to proceed with the excavation.

There was still broken concrete on top.

The excavator first cleared away the concrete, after which they dug a little with shovels.

Once they reached clothing, they began to carefully dig by hand.

Both bodies were in a nearly supine position, showing no signs of a struggle.

The victims’ clothes were already slightly decomposed.

”The marrow cavity has a honeycomb-like structure,” Su Miaoyi said, examining a piece closely in her hand. ”Time of death must be around four or five years ago, right?”

Yan Cheng also observed it and nodded. ”Yes.”

Su Miaoyi dug carefully, thinking to herself, ’Another cold case.’

...