Chapter 44 Hesitation

Chapter 44

"Actually, the case of Tang Ze's suicide by jumping into the river was handled very ambiguously. The river was in flood season at the time, making salvaging extremely difficult. The police searched the river for three days without success, so they closed the case as suicide." Qiao Yue frowned, her voice rising slightly. "And Master surprisingly didn't pursue the matter any further."

Lin Yu raised his eyelids slightly, revealing a glint in his eyes, and pondered the case. "So, the basis for Tang Ze's death is just the police's unilateral judgment, right?"

Qiao Yue nodded slightly. "Actually, it was Master himself who proposed this, requesting that we stop searching for Tang Ze's whereabouts."

Both of them fell into silent confusion. The details of Zhou Zongqi's undercover work in the Tang family were top secret and few people knew about it.

But now that Tang Ze has reappeared, people can't help but wonder whether there is any secret hidden behind the serious case of the Tang family back then.

Once the investigation reached Zetian Logistics, the case in Linbei was completely connected, and this interlocking chain of interests has surfaced.

The order from the superiors was to arrest Zhang Jinzhi as soon as possible and interrogate him to get information about Tang Ze.

At the same time, we contacted the public security department of Linbei across provinces, and the two special projects were investigated together and worked together.

After the meeting, Qu Zheng glanced at the police officers at the table. Seeing that they all had dark circles under their eyes, he mercifully asked everyone to go back and rest for half a day.

Qiao Yue and Lin Yu were exhausted from the case during the past two days. Even when they heard they would have a half-day break, their minds were still confused.

Song Xianzhe was a spirited young man, and it was only after he howled "Long live the Buddha" that he brought them back to their senses.

After dragging himself weakly back to the department, Qiao Yue took out a coat from under the desk and spread it behind the chair, then took out the eye mask.

She lay back on the chair, mumbling, "I'm so sleepy. I guess I have to go on another police call in a few hours. I'm too lazy to go home."

Hearing this, Lin Yu chuckled, gathered up the documents on the table, and put them in his briefcase. "Then you have a good rest. I need to go home."

Qiao Yue lifted her eye mask slightly and glanced at the gray-blue sky outside the blinds. "You won't have much time to rest if you rush back now."

There was an old round clock hanging on the wall, and the hour hand pointed to five in the morning.

The police station is located in a newly developed area. You can faintly hear the long car horns and occasionally a neon light flashes in.

The cries of breakfast vendors could be heard from the street across the street.

"I'm worried about Chen Wan being home alone, especially since Zhang Jinzhi hasn't been apprehended yet." He walked to the window, adjusted the long rope, and closed the gaps between the fan blades, blocking out the gradually brightening daylight. "You should get some rest."

Qiao Yue glanced at him with a half-smile, then gave him a thumbs-up and praised him, "Not bad, your awareness is very high. Now go."

Lin Yu was already used to her teasing. He raised his eyebrows slightly, suppressed his smile, picked up his bag, pushed the door open and left.

After a while, Qiao Yue heard footsteps gradually fading away in the corridor.

She closed her eyes leisurely, curled the corners of her lips, and said with emotion, "It's not easy for wood to sprout, but now it's blooming. Not bad, not bad."

Her desire for gossip could not overcome her mental exhaustion, and soon she fell asleep in the dark room.

It was already past six o'clock when Lin Yu returned to the alley. He parked his car and walked to the breakfast stall to buy breakfast.

The aunt at the breakfast stall greeted him warmly, "Officer Xiaolin, you're back!"

Lin Yu smiled back, and after choosing his breakfast, he chatted with her casually while waiting.

He looked casually at the white dough on the chopping board, watched the aunt tear off a strip, then skillfully stretch it and slowly put it into the oil pan.

The dough expands rapidly and the golden fried dough sticks come out of the pan in an instant.

The aunt wrapped it in a bag and handed it to him, then casually asked, "Officer Xiaolin, I heard your police station is catching a murderer recently?"

Ordinary people have various channels for obtaining information, and there are many different opinions about Zhang Jinzhi's case.

Lin Yu didn't want to explain any further and nodded, "Auntie, you all need to take precautions recently, especially since you set up your stall early, you must pay more attention to safety."

The aunt nodded repeatedly, "I understand. I will definitely not add burden to you police officers."

Lin Yu took the potato buns and siu mai, half lowered his eyes, and smiled gently. "It's not about adding to the burden. Protecting the citizens is our duty."

As he was speaking, he heard a voice from behind him: "Good morning, Lin Yu."

The sound is soft, like a trickle of water.

He turned his head and happened to meet Chen Wan's eyes.

The clear morning light flows through the gradually awakening alleys, and the blue-gray lanes are coated with a layer of light golden glow.

Chen Wan stood calmly in front of him, waved to him and said good morning.

There was light in his eyes and his pupils were clear, like a lake in the mountains.

Lin Yu looked at her, his heart gradually filled up, and he smiled, "Good morning, Wanzai."

Seeing the obvious dark circles under his eyes and the fatigue in his expression, she leaned closer and asked, "Did you work overtime all night last night?"

Upon hearing this, Lin Yu nodded, picked up his breakfast, and walked side by side with her, slowly heading home.

Looking down and seeing Chen Wan's worried gaze, he subconsciously touched his chin and felt the slightly hard stubble.

When passing by a bougainvillea tree, a small piece of light pink light fell on the tip of Chen Wan's nose, making his skin look even more pure.

Lin Yu raised his hand and scratched his messy hair. Thinking about himself now, he probably had an untidy beard, dark circles under his eyes, and looked depressed and sad.

Thinking of this, I suddenly felt a little frustrated, and replied in a muffled voice, "Well, it's very busy during this special period."

Chen Wan noticed his change in mood and thought he was just worried about the case, so he reassured him, "We will definitely find out the truth."

"Of course I will." Lin Yu raised his eyebrows and regained some of his spirits.

Before they knew it, they were almost in the corridor. They paused for a moment as they walked through the lush pomegranate tree.

Looking up, the pale yellow sunlight dotted the red pomegranates. When the breeze blew, the branches and leaves swayed slightly, casting flickering light and shadows.

"Let's just eat here." Lin Yu suggested, looking at the stone table under the tree.

Chen Wan nodded, "Okay."

While eating breakfast, Lin Yu had a fried dough stick in his mouth, but his eyelids drooped.

He blinked hard while dazed, and after a moment, his eyelids drooped again.

Chen Wan sat opposite him, holding his chin, and leisurely observed him dozing off.

The bright light from the sky fell on his thin eyelids and well-defined face, outlining clean lines.

Lin Yu's eyelashes are black and dense, and when he closes his eyes, they cast a light shadow on the bridge of his nose.

Chen Wan saw his slightly puffed cheeks and laughed.

Lin Yu opened his eyes from his daze and saw her soft smile. He was stunned for a moment, "What's wrong?"

Chen Wan shook his head and handed him a napkin. "Seeing you sleeping while eating reminded me of the kids in kindergarten."

Lin Yu was a little slow in thinking, was she saying that he was childish?

After chewing two bites of the fried dough sticks, he half-closed his eyes and thought for a few seconds from a different perspective.

Doesn't childishness mean that he is very young?

He looked at Chen Wan opposite him, his gaze lingering between her youthful eyebrows and bright face.

Suddenly I feel that being a little childish is good, it makes you look younger.

"What are you laughing at?" Chen Wan saw Lin Yu squinting his eyes, slightly showing his fangs, and there was a childishness in his smile that was rare among adults.

Lin Yu came back to his senses, rubbed his chin, and asked doubtfully, "Did I laugh?"

"I laughed." Chen Wan nodded, then bared his little rabbit teeth and half-closed his eyes to imitate him. "Just a silly smile like that."

Lin Yu has prominent eyebrows. It’s okay to say that he is childish, but it’s a bit embarrassing to say that he is stupid.

"I'm just cooperating with you. I'm actually a very mature person." Mature Lin Yu picked up the soy milk, took a sip, and glanced at her calmly. "I'm not stupid, you are."

In every move, he strives to appear calm and composed.

But this sounds like what elementary school students say, "rebound rebound", which is purely self-defense.

Although Chen Wan thought so in his heart, he still cooperated and said "Okay."

Lin Yu nodded in satisfaction and pushed the potato bun in front of her. "Children need to eat more to grow. You are too thin."

He crossed his legs, rested his elbows on the table, and looked absentmindedly at the alley which was gradually becoming more and more lively. His sleepiness dissipated a lot.

Looking across at Chen Wan who was eating seriously, Lin Yu unconsciously curled the corners of his lips and said, "Eat more. It will look better if you get fatter."

Hearing this, Chen Wan paused chewing, drank some soy milk, and slowly raised his eyes, "Do you like chubby girls?"

She has double eyelids, with thin corners of her eyes, which look like a cat when they are slightly tilted upwards.

Now there is a hint of anger.

Lin Yu avoided her sight, laughed twice, and began to flatter her. "No, I just like you..."

The moment he blurted out the words, he realized that it was inappropriate to discuss this topic now.

In order to hide the embarrassment, he lowered his head and drank some soy milk, but ended up choking and coughing.

Chen Wan saw that his face was red, and he didn't know whether it was because he was choked or due to other reasons.

She had no intention of asking further questions.

"I have to go to my part-time job." Chen Wan glanced at his watch, put away the things on the table, stood up and said goodbye to him.

Lin Yu stroked his throat, looked up at her, and said in a hoarse voice, "Okay, be careful on the road."

"Yeah." Chen Wan nodded, "Then I'll be leaving first."

"By the way, you should take a detour these days." Lin Yu reminded her, "When you get home, if I'm not at home, send me a message."

Hearing about taking a detour, Chen Wan frowned, "Hasn't Zhang Jinzhi been caught yet?"

"Yeah." Lin Yu recovered and said solemnly, "But we have increased the intensity of the search, so you don't have to worry too much."

Chen Wan hummed, and the previous uneasiness once again enveloped his heart.

Zhang Jinzhi is still on the run and Chen Shan is nowhere to be found.

She hoped she was just overthinking it, but it was always better to be prepared than to be completely unprepared.

Chen Wan glanced at Lin Yu, thinking about how to make the request.

"What's wrong?" Lin Yu saw that she was in deep thought and comforted her, "Don't worry about Zhang Jinzhi's matter, it's okay."

Chen Wan looked at him for a long moment, then said, "Can you do me a favor? My father knows Zhang Jinzhi, but I can't contact him right now, so I'm a little worried. Lin Yu, can you help me find him?"

After she finished speaking, she lowered her eyelashes and bit her lower lip silently, waiting for Lin Yu's answer.

Lin Yu was caught off guard when she mentioned Chen Shan. He recalled the quiet and cold ward and the dim eyes behind the lenses, and felt a lump in his throat.

Chen Wan's intelligence was somewhat beyond his expectations, and the situation he speculated was almost identical to the truth.

He sat under the mottled shadows of the trees, his dark pupils in a state of semi-darkness.

Chen Wan noticed his subtle hesitation, and felt a little guilty thinking that he was already very tired after working all night to investigate the case, and now he was adding to his burden.

"Don't take what I just said to heart." Chen Wan said, acting as if nothing had happened. "I'm almost late for work, so I have to leave now."

Hearing this, Lin Yu raised his eyes and carefully observed her subtle expression.

"I'll pay more attention." He also restrained his emotions and looked at Chen Wan, his eyes drooping and a warm smile on his face. "Don't worry too much."

Chen Wan nodded seriously and rode his bike out of the alley.

Lin Yu placed his hands on the stone table, watching the light and shadow spread across his slender finger bones, recalling Chen Wan's appearance just now.

There was a light flickering in her eyes, but because of his brief silence, it dimmed silently.

He raised his hand and pressed his eyebrows, then sighed, feeling both conflicted and helpless.

After returning home, he took a shower and changed into clean clothes.

Then he walked to the mirror, raised the razor, and shaved off the light blue stubble on his jaw.

Looking at himself in the mirror, Lin Yu was dazed for a moment and silently looked away.

The successive cases and the secrets he had to keep left him exhausted. After wiping his chin with a wet wipe, he didn't proceed to the next step.

Lin Yu closed his eyes, and in the brief darkness, Chen Wan's expression just now emerged in his mind.

Her drooping eyelashes and tightly pursed lips silently outlined her longing and worry for her father that she had suppressed for so long.

Usually Chen Wan is very indifferent to people and things. Sometimes Lin Yu feels that she is like a cloud.

It gave him the illusion that he could see it, but in fact it was very far away.

Now that this cloud has fallen on his heart, he doesn't want it to disappear. He wants it to stay in the sunlight forever.

Lin Yu scooped up some water and splashed it on his face. The cool feeling made him feel much clearer.

He grabbed a towel and casually smoothed his wet hair, sorting out his complicated thoughts during this time.

......

Over the next two days, the members of the serious crime squad devoted all their efforts to investigating the case.

The police in Linbei are also searching intensively for Tang Ze's whereabouts.

This major cross-provincial case is taken very seriously, and the police officers involved in the investigation are on high alert.

When Lin Yu received Zhou Zongqi's call, he shook his neck and heard the sound of bones connecting.

After the discomfort eased a lot, he regained his spirits and said, "Master, I haven't contacted you for a long time. How have you been recently?

"You are also involved in this serious crime squad, right?" Zhou Zongqi skipped the greetings and went straight to the point. His tone was serious, which matched his serious personality.

"Yes, I was the first person to come into contact with this case." Lin Yu's eyes fell on the information again, and he outlined the key information with a red pen.

Zhou Zongqi hummed, "I want to transfer you to Linbei. This case is very meaningful and will be a good training for you. What do you think?"

Although it was a question, there was an unquestionable sense of authority in his tone.

The tip of the pen sketching on the paper suddenly stopped, leaving a bright red dot.

Lin Yu said nothing, put the pen cap back on, and replied after a long while, "I still need to think about the transfer."

Zhou Zongqi was not an aggressive person, so he did not continue the topic and asked about the situation in Nancheng.

Lin Yu avoided the important points and told him some information, and also asked him about the whereabouts of the goods in Linbei.

When he was about to hang up the phone, he suddenly remembered Tang Ze. After hesitating for a moment, he asked.

"Master, the legal representative of the logistics and trading company we investigated this time is called Tang Ze." Lin Yu pressed the pen cap up and down to ease his slightly uneasy mood. "Is your involvement in the case investigation again because of him?"

After waiting for a long time without receiving a reply, Lin Yu felt a stagnation of air in his throat, unable to move up or down.

He felt annoyed because he didn't know the specific situation. He didn't know how much to reveal about Tang Ze.

I didn't know at what point I would touch upon the scars in Zhou Zongqi's heart, so I was speechless for a moment.

In this not-so-long silence, Lin Yu raised his hand and pressed the back of his neck, feeling the undulating lines of his bones.

"right."

Zhou Zongqi finally gave a definitive answer. His voice was low, concealing a complex emotion. "I shouldn't have been soft-hearted and let the tiger go back to the mountains."

Hearing this, Lin Yu breathed a sigh of relief, and his tense back relaxed a little.

Since Zhou Zongqi knows the situation, he should have a corresponding countermeasure.

"Please consider the transfer and give me an answer as soon as possible." After Zhou Zongqi finished speaking, he gave a few instructions and hung up the phone in a hurry.

The bright sunlight from the window shone onto the paper, making the red dot appear even more dazzling.

Lin Yu pondered for a while, changed a piece of paper and wrote down the four words "transfer application". However, his mind was blank and he had no idea about the content of the main text.

There is actually no need to think too much about the transfer to Linbei. As Zhou Zongqi said, participating in this case investigation is a good experience.

Moreover, Nancheng is just a foreign land to me, but why do I feel a little lost when I think about leaving here?

Maybe it’s because there is a white and soft cloud floating in my heart.

While he was lost in thought, Song Xianzhe rushed into the office in a hurry. The moment the door was pushed open, the noisy voices in the corridor poured into the small space like a tide.

After scanning the area, he walked over to Lin Yu's workstation, took a breath, and quickly explained the situation, "Brother Yu, the informant you met the day before yesterday passed away in the ward around seven o'clock last night."

Hearing this news suddenly, Lin Yu looked up in disbelief. After calming down, he asked him, "Is he really dead?"

Song Xianzhe nodded and added, "The news from the hospital is that the body is missing."

Just as he finished speaking, he suddenly heard a bang, followed by a crisp crackling sound.

The chair that Lin Yu pushed hit the wall, and the vibration caused the round clock on the wall to fall down.

The glass mirror was shattered all over the floor, and the sharp edges reflected complex light.

He bent his back slightly, lowered his head, and calmed his breathing rhythm.

He supported himself on the table with both hands, using them to maintain his balance. The veins on the back of his hands were visible, and the knuckles of his fingers gradually turned white.

Because he had been investigating the case all night, his eyes were faintly bloodshot. He looked directly at Song Xianzhe, his dark pupils showing a sharp gleam, "The body is missing?"