Chapter 38
Lin Anyu came back to his senses and was about to put the photo back in his pocket. When he raised his foot, he seemed to step on something soft.
She placed the sticker box on the wooden bed, then slowly squatted down with a flashlight. After the light was focused, she was able to see the whole pattern clearly.
It was a pair of solid-colored trousers, and judging by the material, they were made of pure cotton, very soft. I guess they were the autumn trousers that Su Cheng wore when he was alive.
Lin Anyu took out a mask and gloves from her pocket and put them on. She lifted up her pants and looked at them carefully for a moment.
The trousers were in tatters, with severe tearing leaving two rows of shocking cotton threads on the surface.
It was obviously torn apart with great force.
Lin Anyu took out the evidence bag without thinking and planned to pack it up.
Su Pannan, who was answering Jiang Aichen's question, noticed her action and was immediately startled for a second before stopping her: "Comrade police officer, it's just a rag."
Lin Anyu continued to move: "As you said, it's just a rag. I'll collect some evidence, it shouldn't be a problem."
Su Pannan quickly suppressed his panic and said hesitantly, "No... no problem, it's just a rag that I forgot to pick up."
Jiang Aichen paid attention to all this.
After collecting the evidence, Lin Anyu stood up, stood next to Jiang Aichen, and said, "I've checked it, Captain Jiang."
Jiang Aichen's gaze lingered on Su Pannan's face for a long time. He pulled out a hand-drawn portrait from his phone and asked, "Do you know this person?"
Ever since Lin Anyu put away the rag, Su Pannan's reaction has always been slow.
She turned around and looked at the phone Jiang Aichen handed over, then shook her head: "I don't know him."
"Okay, if we have any problems in the future, we will come to you again. I'm leaving first." Jiang Aichen said.
"Well, okay." Su Panan replied.
Jiang Aichen and Lin Anyu had just walked to the door when a little boy suddenly rushed out from another room, shooting everywhere with a water gun.
As if he saw someone coming out of the small room in his house that had not been opened for a long time, he immediately rushed over and shot a stream of bullets at Lin Anyu and Jiang Aichen.
Lin Anyu was shot by him and had to hide here and there, and finally had to hide behind Jiang Aichen.
On the other hand, Jiang Aichen was much calmer. He let the water stains soak his clothes without moving a single step.
The little boy was waving his water gun and saying, "Bad guy, bad guy, bad guy."
When he said this in a childish voice, not only did it not make people feel that he was on guard against something, but it made people feel that he was playing a prank.
"Li Ziang, what are you doing!" Su Panan, who came out of the house, stopped him.
"Bad guy, bad guy." The little boy named Li Ziang did not stop his actions when he heard his mother's voice. Instead, he sped up his actions even more.
Seeing that Jiang Aichen's clothes were soaked, Lin Anyu didn't care about anything else.
She stepped forward, held down Li Ziang's hand, and then snatched the water gun from the little boy.
After all, there is a huge difference in strength between children and adults, and Lin Anyu snatched it away without much effort.
Li Ziang raised his head and asked, "Who are you? How did you get out of that room? What did you do to my mother?"
"Your mother's friend." Lin Anyu lied, "He won't do anything to your mother."
"You're lying. My mother doesn't have any friends."
"Then I am your father's friend." Lin Anyu said again.
"My father doesn't have a friend like you either."
Lin Anyu smiled and said, "I am a classmate of your cousin Su Cheng."
This time, Li Ziang was silent. He lowered his head and remained silent for a while: "Did you take Sister Su Cheng away?"
Noticing his choice of words, Lin Anyu asked, "Why pick him up? Not send him away?"
Li Ziang said solemnly: "Because she is not having a good time here, not at all!"
Su Pannan behind him stopped him loudly: "Li Ziang."
In an instant, Li Ziang was like a child who was caught doing something wrong. He lowered his head and said nothing.
Jiang Aichen and Lin Anyu looked at each other, and they divided the work tacitly.
Jiang Aichen took a step back and stood next to Su Pannan, signaling her with his eyes not to talk nonsense.
Lin Anyu slowly squatted down and asked kindly, "Chen Ziang, why is Sister Su Cheng not having a good time here?"
Li Ziang seemed to be extremely afraid of Su Pannan. He raised his head and glanced at her secretly. As if he had received some signal, the moment he raised his head, he lowered his head again.
Lin Anyu: "Don't be afraid, I'm a police officer. It doesn't matter if I say something wrong. I won't let your mother scold you."
"Really?" Li Ziang raised his head, staring at Lin Anyu with his big, childish eyes fluttering. "Auntie."
Lin Anyu corrected with a smile: "It's my sister."
"You must keep your word, Auntie." Li Ziang said sincerely.
Lin Anyu gave up.
Just call her aunt.
Lin Anyu: "Okay, you go ahead."
"When Sister Su Cheng still lived in this house, she would always scream whenever Mom was not at home," said Li Ziang.
Lin Anyu: "Do you know why she screamed?"
Li Ziang shook his head: "My parents won't let me get close to Sister Su Cheng's house, saying that she might hurt me if she goes crazy."
After saying that, fearing that they would not believe him, Li Ziang added: "Sister Su Cheng would never hurt me. She is very kind to me. Once, I had a fight with a kid in the village, and she protected me."
"Has Su Cheng been out?" Lin Anyu asked.
"Yes, my father often takes her to visit other families in the village. They are very nice to Sister Su Cheng. They are not afraid of her and are willing to hug her," Li Ziang said, "Only our family is afraid of her."
"Oh, sometimes, they would come to that little room to play with her. Every time they came, they would bring a lot of delicious food to Su Cheng. I wanted to ask them for some, but my dad said I couldn't accept any because I was a child," Li Ziang smiled, "but after they left, Sister Su Cheng would secretly take out a lot of snacks for me to eat."
Is this what the security guard mentioned before about going out to buy candy?
Lin Anyu stood up and stared at Su Pannan: "Do you know about this?"
Su Pannan immediately denied it: "I don't know. Ziang also said that my husband took him out when I was not at home."
"Captain Jiang."
Jiang Aichen was silent for a while: "Let's go."
After saying that, without waiting for others to react, Jiang Aichen walked out first.
As soon as he walked out the door, Jiang Aichen received a call from Gu Beizhi.
Jiang Aichen opened the car door and sat in the driver's seat: "What's wrong?"
"Ai Chen, we have identified the specific identity of that 'mother-in-law'." Gu Beizhi said.
Jiang Aichen: "Give me the address, Lin Anyu and I will be there right now."
"Okay, I'll send you the address on WeChat."
Jiang Aichen hung up the phone and was about to fasten his seat belt when he noticed Lin Anyu who was resisting the back door.
He lowered the window in front of Lin Anyu through the main panel: "Co-pilot."
Lin Anyu: “Hmm?”
What does he mean? He let her sit in the passenger seat?
A test or some conspiracy?
"Captain Jiang, I'm used to sitting in the back seat," said Lin Anyu.
"Co-pilot." Jiang Aichen repeated.
"Okay."
Lin Anyu quickly opened the car door and sat in the passenger seat.
-
The address Gu Beizhi gave was not Beihai, but Zecheng, which is adjacent to Beihai.
Seeing the car gradually heading towards the suburbs, Lin Anyu, who was sitting in the passenger seat, asked, "Where are we going?"
"Zecheng," Jiang Aichen said without turning his head, "If there is someone at home, remember to let them know. We may have to stay up all night today."
"No one at home wants to tell anyone," said Lin Anyu.
While waiting for the traffic light to turn green, Jiang Aichen glanced at Lin Anyu and said, "Okay."
It took us four hours of driving to reach our destination.
This is a relatively remote village.
Lin Anyu was about to open the door and walk out when Jiang Aichen suddenly stopped her.
"Hmm?" Lin Anyu said.
"Let's wait until dawn." Jiang Aichen said.
Lin Anyu: “Why?”
"This is a village, and it's night time. Even if you're a police officer, you're not safe." Jiang Aichen said, "We'll discuss the case tomorrow."
Lin Anyu: “Okay.”
Jiang Aichen handed Lin Anyu a piece of clothing from the back seat: "Use it as a blanket. It's cold at night."
Jiang Aichen's sudden concern made Lin Anyu feel a little uncomfortable. She took it and said, "Thank you."
Jiang Aichen: “Yeah.”
Inside the car, Jiang Aichen turned up the temperature of the air conditioner and turned on the dim lights in the front seats.
It felt like the two men were here to camp, not to investigate a case.
Lin Anyu took out a white bottle from the bag she was carrying, poured out a pill, put it in her mouth, and swallowed it with water.
Jiang Aichen, who was comparing files, asked without even looking up, "What did you eat?"
Maybe it was a psychological effect, but Lin Anyu felt a little tired right after taking the medicine. She said truthfully, "Melatonin."
Jiang Aichen's eyes instantly moved away from the file and he asked, "Why do you eat?"
Lin Anyu tilted his head, his mind a little confused: "Because I didn't eat and couldn't sleep well, I had nightmares."
"What nightmare?" Jiang Aichen asked.
Lin Anyu tried to wake himself up a bit and answered, "I don't know. I always dream about a person, and he was killed over and over again in my dreams."
Jiang Aichen didn't care much: "Oh."
Lin Anyu's eyes gradually began to fight, and she asked with difficulty: "Captain Jiang, do you like your master?"
Jiang Aichen turned his head to look at her gradually falling asleep face: "Why do you say that?"
Lin Anyu answered in a daze: "Because, I feel that you are just like them. You came to the Beihai Criminal Police Team because you saw that Song Luo and I look alike."
Jiang Aichen said nothing.
Of course he knew who they were referring to.
They are none other than Pei Jingji, Gu Beizhi and Shen Shuhui.
Seeing that he didn't answer, Lin Anyu continued, "They came to Beihai because of an interview I did. What about you? And it took them three years to find me. How did you find me three years ago?"
How was it discovered?
Jiang Aichen couldn't remember either.
Lin Anyu: "Jiang Aichen...Aichen...Achen..."
Achen...
It is indeed a familiar and long-standing name.
Jiang Aichen was stunned for a moment.
Song Luo had called him that before.
Jiang Aichen couldn't help but be drawn back to the day when he and Song Luo first met.
At that time, he had just graduated and was sent to the Imperial Capital Headquarters for internship as an outstanding graduate of the police academy.
That was also the first time he met Song Luo, his only master.
It was a sunny day, and she was taking a nap on her desk, having just solved a murder case.
The sunlight shone brightly on her through the half-drawn curtains, and she buried her head in her folded arms.
With her head tilted to the side, her smooth and tall nose bridge was slightly revealed, and her delicate and fair skin seemed to glow in the sunlight.
She didn't look like an experienced criminal policeman at all, but rather like a pampered little princess who had just graduated from high school.
Jiang Aichen, who graduated from the police academy with the second highest score, was naturally a little arrogant. When he saw such a "little girl" leading the internship, he always had the illusion that they were playing house.
The director in charge of new employee arrangements led him into the office and gently tapped the table where she was sleeping: "Xiao Song, Xiao Song."
After the director called her a few times, she gradually opened her eyes, which were still a little sleepy due to fatigue.
She blinked confusedly.
It was as if he had seen the director and Jiang Aichen clearly before he spoke: "What's wrong, Director Xiao?"
Director Xiao smiled and replied jokingly, "Captain Song, I'm here to send you an assistant."
She put her head down again, yawned, and said, "I don't need an assistant."
The director flattered him, "Hey, you've only been in the job for three months, and you've solved ten major cases in a row, including one in a neighboring province. How could you not need an assistant?"
She looked up and said, "What are you talking about? When I solved those big cases, did I have an assistant?"
The director shook his head: "No."
"That's it," she said bluntly, "I didn't need it before, and I won't need it in the future."
"Take your child back home."
"I'm the same age as you."
Not a child.
Just now, she reluctantly showed some interest and looked at him for a few times: "Since we are the same age, would it be appropriate for you to let him be my apprentice?"
Although honorifics were used in every sentence, no one could sense the respect meant.
Instead, it gives people a playful feeling, like the younger generation joking with the elders.
"Suitable, why not." The director pushed Jiang Aichen earlier: "He is the second in the Imperial Capital Police Academy and has great potential for development."
"Oh, second place." She said regretfully, "Why is it only second place? Who is the first place?"
Hearing the reluctance in her tone, he replied without saying anything: "Song Luo."
He always ranked second in the police academy, so he had investigated who the top student was.
But no matter how hard he searched, he could only find one name - Song Luo.
There are no photos, no academic information, and few people have even seen her.
They all said that she was selected to join Interpol when she first entered university, so all kinds of information were kept confidential.
When Interpol came to the academy to select people, they promised that the selected people did not have to come to school regularly while learning practical criminal police skills, but they needed to get a certain score in the final exam of the academy to get enough credits to graduate successfully.
Originally, they all thought that this so-called "genius policeman" Song Luo, who had never attended a single day of class, would only be able to barely get enough credits to graduate.
But who would have thought that she was a monster.
Although he didn't attend a single formal professional course, he was able to complete every exam with close to full marks.
At the same time, Jiang Aichen, a top student who never missed a class, was pushed to second place.
How could he not be impressed?
After he said the word "Song Luo", the woman who seemed to be asleep at the table perked up and said nonchalantly, "Oh, it's her."
The director was angry when he saw that she didn't care about anything. He knocked on the table and said, "What do you mean, oh, it's her? You don't even know that you got first place in the exam?"
"I really don't know," Song Luo said truthfully, "I only come back for two days every year when there are exams. Once I come back, I rush around the various examination halls. Those who pass the course don't have to retake the exam, and those who fail will be put back on the waiting list anyway."
"Why should I worry about where I ranked in the exam? All I need is to graduate successfully."
The director: “…”
There seems to be some truth in this.
but!
There's no need to ignore the fact that you're the best in the police academy.
That is the premier police academy in the country.
How many people would not even dare to think about graduating first in this college?
How come she doesn't take anything to heart?
Before the director could react, seeing this legendary figure for the first time, he asked, "Are you Song Luo?"
Song Luo raised his head confidently, his neat black short hair sparkling in the sun.
The corners of her mouth and eyebrows were filled with smiles: "Yeah, I'm Song Luo."
This was their first real conversation.
Jiang Aichen didn't remember what his mood was at that time. He only remembered that she just raised the corner of her lips slightly, and he surrendered instantly.
Later, she still kept him.
And said he was her only little apprentice.
She also said that she was very lazy and didn't want to accept apprentices, and if any leader wanted to give her apprentices in the future.
She always transferred it to him.
After all, it's a lot of hard work to teach apprentices, so how can it be as comfortable as having a grandson for free?
One day, she suddenly had the urge to give herself a nickname.
"Little disciple, what do your friends call you?"
"Jiang Aichen?"
"They are so boring."
"How about I call you Aichen? Forget it, let's just call you Xiaochen."
"Forget it, Xiaochen, it sounds like calling a dog."
"How about...I call you Achen?"
So many years.
Achen.
Except for her, no one else has ever called him like this.
As if he remembered something sad, Jiang Aichen pulled his mind back from the memories, opened the car door and walked out.
After the car door was gently closed, he leaned against the outer wall of the door and smoked quietly.
The weather was good that night, with stars twinkling in the sky and a silver moon hanging above the treetops. The occasional night breeze brought a slight chill.
There was not a single street lamp on the empty main street outside the village. The only thing that could illuminate the night was the cigarette butt in Jiang Aichen's hand.
The scarlet light gradually burned backwards along the cigarette body. After burning, the cigarette body turned into smoke and slowly rose through the air.
Jiang Aichen thought seriously about the question Lin Anyu asked before going to bed -
How did he find her?
In fact, he didn't know how he found her.
But three years ago, when Song Luo asked the police team for annual leave to travel, he felt something was wrong, and he tried to ask her and his superiors.
But they were all blocked by the words "no comment".
He knew that it was the code for a secret mission.
It was not until later, when he could no longer contact Song Luo, that he realized something was wrong.
At that time, he spent half a year retrieving all the surveillance footage along the route Song Luo took when leaving the imperial capital.
Until they found Zecheng, Song Luo seemed to have disappeared.
He searched in Zecheng for seven days and seven nights.
Finally, when passing by a dam in Zecheng, he saw a group of criminal police fishing a car out of the dam.
At that time, a group of people gathered around the dam. Jiang Aichen, relying on his height advantage, quickly recognized that the car that was flooded was the one that Song Luo drove out of the imperial capital.
At that moment his mind went blank and his legs and feet were so numb that he felt like he could collapse at any time.
He struggled to pull his feet up from the ground, and just as he was about to rush in to save his master, he heard a voice in the crowd -
"Oh my god, isn't he completely drowned? How much alcohol must he have drunk to jump over the guardrail and rush into the river? He must be pretty drunk."
As if possessed by a ghost, he tilted his head.
Then, he saw a face that he was extremely familiar with in this life.
But apart from that face, there was no trace of anything familiar about her.
Later, he found out that she was not Song Luo.
The one who has exactly the same face as Song Lue is Lin Anyu.
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