Chapter 65
After being discharged from the hospital, Tang Ruxin rested at home for two days before she remembered the packet of powder she had scraped from the bottom of the drawer. She went to the police station to find Yu Lei to find out what the ingredients were, only to learn that he had also been suspended for unknown reasons.
As expected of an iron fist, he didn't need a reason to attack his own people. She handed the packet of powder to Chen Jingzhou, asking him to help her identify the ingredients as soon as possible, and then drove straight to Yu Lei's house.
No wonder he didn't answer her call. It turned out he was too embarrassed to face people. Then she had to meet him properly.
"What do you mean by 'too embarrassed to face people'? Weren't you also suspended? I don't see you feeling ashamed, so why should I be too embarrassed to face people?" Yu Lei, a towel hanging around his neck and a toothbrush still stuffed in his mouth, protested with foaming mouth, "I'm taking a shower after my morning exercise, my dear."
Tang Ruxin curled her lips, thinking that she still had something to ask of her, so she endured his taking advantage of her and calling her "my dear".
"I don't need to worry about you. Since I'm suspended anyway, please help me find a place. If you can find it, maybe we can find out Tong Jiayu's true identity."
Yu Lei spat out the mouthwash, wiped his face with a towel and walked out of the bathroom, then saw Tang Ruxin lying on the dining table drawing.
He was silent for a moment, watching her paint with great enthusiasm, but he had no idea what she was painting.
"Is this some new kind of 'You Draw, I Guess' game? Isn't it a bit too abstract?" Yu Lei couldn't help but complain.
"Can't you see it?" Tang Ruxin looked up in surprise, holding up the drawing paper and explaining, "This is a mountain. This is the stream flowing in the middle of the mountain. These are the spires of several pagodas in the mountain. This is an iron bridge, and there's a person standing on the bridge. This person is Tong Jiayu."
Yu Lei was stunned for five seconds, then picked up the painting and looked at it closely in shock.
"Did Luo Yi teach you this painting skill? No wonder you two are like enemies."
"Get lost." Tang Ruxin snatched back the drawing paper and continued drawing. "There's a football at her feet."
Yu Lei frowned, "Not many girls like football."
"Yes, so this football may not be hers, maybe it belongs to the person who took the photo of her. Doesn't it make sense to think so?" Tang Ruxin drew a few more strokes and handed it to Yu Lei after finishing.
Is it reasonable? - Yu Lei doesn't think so. Who would put their own things next to the person being photographed when taking a photo?
"Who can tell where this painting of yours is from? Take it away." Yu Lei pushed her painting away in annoyance and grabbed the pancake on the table and started to eat it.
"If you can't see it, can't AI see it either? Ask you professionals to help screen out the matching places. Even if you screen out hundreds or thousands of them, I can slowly select from them."
Yu Lei chuckled and said, "AI can tell, but only if the general outline of the object is correct. Just based on your drawing? You said these triangles are the spires of a pagoda, but there's no way AI can recognize them."
Tang Ruxin supported her chin with worry. As she tried hard to recall the photo, almost all the details were imprinted in her mind, but how could she get it out of her mind?
"Don't you have one that specializes in drawing portraits of criminals? Drawing a landscape shouldn't be a problem."
"There's a slight difference between portraits and landscapes." Yu Lei's tone was almost sarcastic. Then, after seeing Tang Ruxin's stabbing look, he nodded and said, "It's not impossible to give it a try."
The police department's portrait artists were part-timers; their full-time positions were forensic pathologists. Yu Lei felt it was unnecessary to ask whether forensic pathologists could paint landscapes. What relevance did all the learning about the musculoskeletal and neurological systems have to landscape painting?
But Tang Ruxin wouldn't give up unless he asked her, so he dialed the number with the hands-free mode on. When the other party answered, the sarcasm in his tone was exactly the same as before.
"Oh, it's just a suspension, are you crazy?"
Yu Lei pointed at his phone and glanced at Tang Ruxin, then replied without losing face: "Just say you don't know, it's not shameful."
The other party paused for a moment, "I can't do it, but I know someone who can."
Yu Lei immediately straightened his posture and said softly, "Section Chief Hu, this is very important. It's the key to solving the case. I'm sorry to bother you. Could you please make an introduction for me when it's convenient for you?"
"Oh, now you know to call me Section Chief. You were just mocking me."
"No, I must have misheard! How could I be so rude?" Yu Lei said with a smile.
"West Lake Longjing tea, from the Qingming Festival."
Yu Lei glanced at Tang Ruxin and replied without hesitation, "Two pounds."
After these two words came out, Section Chief Hu paused for a long time before speaking:
"Were you suspended because of bribery?"
Yu Lei hung up the phone.
"You just said you were polite." Tang Ruxin teased him.
"It's all settled with money, so why bother being polite?" Yu Lei pointed at Tang Ruxin and said, "You pay."
Section Chief Hu's WeChat notification arrived quickly, explaining that he had already briefly explained the situation to the artist and that a meeting could be arranged directly. As expected of two kilograms of Mingqian Longjing tea, the service was efficient and thorough.
The artist was a high school classmate of Section Chief Hu's and ran an art studio. Although in his early thirties, he possessed excellent comprehension and communication skills.
In just a few words, Tang Ruxin sketched the outlines of the distant mountain pagoda. As her description became more detailed, she nearly recreated the scenery from the photograph. Aside from a slight difference in angle, it was remarkably close to the image in her memory.
"The colors of the whole photo are very rich, not the kind with high saturation, similar to the effect of the LOMO camera filter."
The artist put down his drawing tablet and used the computer to draw the color curve.
"is that so?"
"Almost there." Tang Ruxin looked at the drawing software on the computer screen. "A person's height should be about this, a little shorter."
Two hours later, except for the human part, everything else was almost a replica.
"That's amazing!" Tang Ruxin praised sincerely.
"As long as it meets your expectations," the artist said politely, "then I'll send it to you?"
"Thank you, you've worked hard." Yu Lei stood up and saw the painter off.
Tang Ruxin used this reproduced picture to search for locations, and sure enough, the results were much fewer than when she searched using keywords, but even so, there were still several hundred.
"There are so many?" Yu Lei said in surprise.
Tang Ruxin looked intently at the photos on the computer screen, zooming in and out one by one, not wanting to miss any details.
Seeing this, Yu Lei stopped bothering her.
Tang Ruxin spent hours looking at this, finally narrowing down the thirty or so closest matches from the five hundred or so photos. Still not good enough, she had to narrow it down further. She rubbed her sore eyes and heard a rustling sound behind her.
She turned around and saw Yu Lei sitting cross-legged on the sofa eating fried noodles.
"It's immoral to eat alone." Tang Ruxin condemned him not very sincerely, mainly because she didn't like what he ate, but she was a little hungry.
Yu Lei held the chopsticks and pointed at her hand, which contained a plate of steamed sea bass, a bowl of radish cake, and a dish of preserved eggs with green peppers.
Tang Ruxin looked at these things and made a "tsk tsk" sound, supporting her chin and said in a teasing tone:
"Captain Yu is so considerate. These are all edible."
It’s about being able to eat, not liking to eat—Yu Lei understood that she was blaming him for not asking her what she wanted to eat in advance.
"Eat it or not." Yu Lei got angry and took the fried noodles to the kitchen to wash the dishes.
He'd made it himself. Tang Ruxin was startled. She'd thought he'd ordered takeout, but then she realized her words had been a bit rude. Now she was being blamed, so she had no choice but to clean up the three plates, burping from the fullness.
After Yu Lei finished cleaning the kitchen, he came out and saw Tang Ruxin pacing around the house with her hands stretched on her waist, and then he saw three empty plates piled on the table.
He was stunned for a moment, then he lowered his head and laughed out loud.
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