Chapter 6
"Are the results of the footprint comparison out?" Lin Jiafan, who was sitting in the passenger seat, was not affected by the people around him at all. He kept his head down and fiddling with his phone the whole time, and asked back calmly.
Pang Guang immediately felt a little deflated and muttered, "Tsk, how boring! Aren't you curious about how I discovered that something was wrong with that person?"
He then straightened his expression and continued in a moderately loud voice, "Didn't you ask me to conduct a survey near the crime scene? Honestly, there aren't many residents left in that complex. I only knocked on about ten doors after going through two buildings."
"I wouldn't have been able to find that person in the first place. It was just bad luck for him. When I went to check the first floor, the lady heard I was a police officer and insisted on asking me for a favor."
"The old lady said the upstairs apartment had been vacant for several years, and recently there had been noises at night that were disturbing their sleep and nearly giving them a heart attack. Since I hadn't been able to contact the landlord, she wanted me to try to communicate with him as a police officer and find out what was going on."
At first, Pang Guang didn’t care much about it. After all, this old-style floor-slab building has poor sound insulation, and the noise the old couple heard might not be coming from upstairs.
However, he still promised the aunt that he would report the situation to the local police station, which would be responsible for coordinating with the community.
But when he went up to the second floor, he still reached out and knocked on the security door even though he knew the house was empty.
He never expected that this knock would actually cause some unexpected results. The faint sound of footsteps came into Pang Guang's ears through the rusty iron door. He knocked twice more tentatively and revealed his identity.
What responded to him was a clearer and more chaotic collision sound.
The situation was urgent at the time. Although it was a bit against the rules, Pang Guang hesitated for a moment, gritted his teeth, and let the accompanying police officer break down the door.
As soon as they rushed in, a shadow flashed into the southernmost bedroom, leaving the police with only chaos in the living room.
Without taking a closer look, Pang Guang immediately chased after him. By then, the man was halfway out of the window. He only had time to roar angrily, and almost at the same time, the man disappeared.
As one of the parties involved, Luo Jingyao should be the one who knows best what happens next.
But the focus was obviously not on the chase and fight between her and the man, but on the subsequent police search of the so-called "empty house", during which a set of footprints that did not belong to the police officers were retrieved.
The technicians compared this set of footprints with the footprints extracted from the crime scene in the next building on the spot, and the results were surprisingly consistent.
At this point, Pang Guang shook his head proudly. "Not only that, the two colleagues who just took this suspected suspect to the hospital also found human blood on the soles of his shoes. The relevant samples have been sent back to the bureau. If they match the victim's DNA, wouldn't that be a sure kill?!"
Unfortunately, there was no one in the car to share this joy with him.
Luo Jingyao, who was sitting in the back, looked very concerned. Strictly speaking, she was just a contract coach, and some of the things said to her were indeed beyond her scope.
As for Lin Jiafan in front, he didn't seem to be excited about the major progress made in the case, and his face remained calm.
"Boss, what are you looking at?" Pang Guang stopped the car while the light was red and stretched his neck to the side.
"Nothing, just watching the video Director Zhang sent in the group this morning." Lin Jiafan said, raising his head slightly, and the pair of eyes behind his glasses looked through the rearview mirror at the people in the second row who seemed to be daydreaming.
Although his words did not indicate anything specifically, they succeeded in making Luo Jingyao's eyelids jump.
Facing Pang Guang's curious gaze, Lin Jiafan very understandingly clicked on the video again. Suddenly, the crying voice that belonged only to Huang Guojun's mother, Wang Guifen, rang in everyone's ears, inexplicably making the fairly spacious space become much more cramped.
As the crowd in the video exclaimed in surprise, Pang Guang suddenly turned around and said in a tone of admiration, "Seizing a knife with bare hands? Awesome, Coach Luo! The Tianjin Public Security Bureau owes you two favors just for today."
"...We are family and should keep separate conversations." Luo Jingyao racked her brains to reply.
Listening to the horn of the car behind him, Pang Guang stepped on the accelerator and asked the question that hadn't been answered a while ago: "By the way, Coach Luo, did you come to Hexi District because Huang Guojun's mother piqued your curiosity? Let me tell you...she's a little mentally unstable. There was no problem with Huang Guojun's case from beginning to end two years ago. Even if she makes a fuss, it won't change anything."
Faced with the young man's endless chatter, Luo Jingyao could only force an awkward smile.
“Eh?…”
Pang Guang seemed to be about to say something, but was interrupted by Lin Jiafan: "Drive your car properly. The police said that if you commit another unexplained violation this month, you will be punished."
"No way! No way!!" Pang Guang's face immediately fell: "I'm just doing this for work!"
Fortunately, he finally stopped asking questions. Luo Jingyao breathed a sigh of relief. Unexpectedly, when she raised her eyes, she bumped into Lin Jiafan who was looking at her in the rearview mirror.
The corners of the man's mouth slowly curled up, and he nodded to her in a very friendly manner.
Luo Jingyao was stunned for a moment, then nodded slightly in response.
Thinking carefully, this seemed to be the second time the other party had come to her rescue. Was he afraid that she would feel embarrassed?
Captain Lin is such a gentle and kind person, Luo Jingyao said silently in her heart.
The van quickly returned to its original silence. About a quarter of an hour later, the car stopped steadily by the roadside.
"Thank you, Officer Lin and Officer Pang." Luo Jingyao got out of the car, stood stiffly on the curb, and waved stiffly at the two with her right hand.
Finally, to show her courtesy, she added, "See you tomorrow."
Upon hearing this, Pang Guang's bared teeth instantly retracted, and with the roar of the engine, the police van disappeared in the blink of an eye.
The only words left to maintain politeness were "Goodbye, Coach Luo" and fell to the ground mixed with the dust kicked up by the wheels.
After standing there for another two minutes, Luo Jingyao finally withdrew her gaze from watching the police car go away. Behind her was the gate of her community. After hesitating for a while, she chose to turn around and walk towards the subway station opposite.
That night, the neon lights of the shops open in a residential area were shining, and the lights fell on the puddles on the ground, reflecting colorful and bright lights.
The sound of footsteps rang out in an alley, and the next second Luo Jingyao's unclear face appeared in a small puddle. She simply turned on the flashlight on her mobile phone, carefully comparing the house numbers of several households in the alley, and finally stopped in front of one of the gates.
Knock knock knock!
The sudden noise broke the silence that should have prevailed at night. Someone's dog started barking, and the noise coming from the shops in the distance was difficult to hear clearly.
"Who is it?" A rude female voice came out.
"Excuse me, is this Wang Guifen's home?" Luo Jingyao curled up the fingers holding the plastic bag and asked obediently.
Creak——
As the door was opened from the inside, Wang Guifen's round face appeared before her: "What do you want from me?"
Before Luo Jingyao could respond, the woman recognized her. She subconsciously took a big step back and shouted warily, "It's you? How do you know where I live?"
"I came here specifically to apologize to you. The situation was urgent during the day, and I did act a little too harshly. The police later gave me serious criticism and education for my behavior." Luo Jingyao spoke, first stating her purpose, then raised her hand and showed off the several large plastic bags of fruit she had brought with her.
"As for your home address, I begged the police for a long time before I got it."
No way, she was able to get here thanks to the clothes Wang Guifen was wearing when she went to cause trouble outside the Public Security Bureau in the morning.
While she was pressing the person to the ground, she accidentally caught a glimpse of the four words "Dahan Songgu" embroidered on the front of the woman's shirt.
So Luo Jingyao followed the name to find the other party's workplace, and asked for the address from the workplace.
"I'm so sorry about what happened today. I was just worried you might have hurt yourself." Seeing Wang Guifen still a little skeptical, she spoke more earnestly: "Why don't you think about yourself? If he had been accidentally injured, who would have sought justice for your son?"
Maybe it was because her face was too deceptive, but the middle-aged woman's expression gradually relaxed under her attack, and her eyes never left the bags of fruit.
Seeing this, Luo Jingyao very sensibly handed the fruit forward.
"Okay, I won't bother with you..." Wang Guifen quickly took the bags of fruit, without hiding the pride in her eyes and eyebrows, and was about to close the gate again while speaking.
How could Luo Jingyao let her have her way? She just turned sideways and swiftly slipped into the courtyard. As if she didn't notice the disbelief in the others' faces, she immediately started to flatter them: "This courtyard looks clean and comfortable. Auntie is such a capable person!"
As the saying goes, don't hit a smiling person, and since you're taking advantage of someone, Wang Guifen moved her lips, but in the end she couldn't say anything to ask them to leave.
"Come in and sit for a while." Seeing Luo Jingyao circling at the door, she struggled to hold the plastic bag in her hand and invited her.
Luo Jingyao naturally would not refuse, and followed Wang Guifen into the house.
Although there were lights on in the house, it was not very bright. The area was not large, roughly estimated to be around 30 square meters.
On the right side were a bed, a simple cloth zipper wardrobe, a square wooden table and two bamboo chairs. There was so much miscellaneous stuff piled up under the bed that it was almost overflowing.
The left side was separated by two moldy wooden boards. A lot of garbage was stored in a corner behind the boards. There was a gas stove on the windowsill, and a sewage bucket filled with turbid liquid underneath.
Wang Guifen walked into the wooden compartment with the fruit in hand, and casually offered, "Please sit down."
"Thank you, Auntie." Luo Jingyao replied, walked to the table, and quickly scanned every corner of the room with her eyes.
Suddenly, her gaze paused at the head of the bed.
Holding her breath to identify the sound behind the wooden board, Luo Jingyao lowered her footsteps and slowly approached the bed.
This is……
"What are you looking at?" Without any warning, Wang Guifen's puzzled voice sounded behind him.
Hearing this, Luo Jingyao tightened her right hand that was holding the phone out of habit.
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