Chapter 36 36 Have you seen her?
Guan Xia tried hard to control her expression and appear calm. She reached out and shook his hand. "Hello, my name is Guan Xia."
After greeting each other, the three of them sat down around a small round table. Pang Le sat in the middle, Guan Xia and Lu Tingfeng sat on either side. But because the table was not big, even though there was a person between them, Guan Xia and Lu Tingfeng were facing each other.
Fortunately, Pang Le was a chatterbox. As soon as he sat down, he couldn't wait to order food and talk to Lu Tingfeng, giving Guan Xia enough time to adapt to Lu Tingfeng's beauty.
Pang Le picked out a few meat dishes without even looking at them, then turned to Lu Tingfeng and asked, "You haven't finished telling me about what happened last night. Please continue. What happened next?"
Lu Tingfeng first poured a cup of hot water for each of the three people before slowly speaking, "Where were we talking about last night?"
Pang Le spoke directly without recalling anything, "It was about you getting separated from a friend, and you falling into a pit and breaking your leg."
Lu Tingfeng finally realized what was happening and said, "That pit is called a pit, but it's actually not very big inside. It's very narrow, like a mountain crack. Fortunately, it's not too high and is very hidden. If I hadn't stepped on a rock in my hurry to escape and accidentally fell into it, most people would never have found it."
Pang Le hissed, "Your luck... is truly amazing. Good luck? Hiking with friends and encountering a murderer burying a body. Bad luck? Finding a place to hide while being chased. What happened next?"
Guan Xia was completely confused at first, but after Pang Le's simple explanation, she immediately understood the cause and effect. She held the cup and looked at Lu Tingfeng, listening attentively.
Lu Tingfeng said: "Later, we hid in that pit for a day and a night. In fact, we originally planned to hide there for only one night, and then climb up and go down the mountain to call the police at dawn. But because I had a broken bone, even though there were places on the cliff where I could step on and climb, I obviously couldn't make it up."
Although Lu Tingfeng's tone was light, his narration was very vivid, and Guan Xia felt her heart lift as she listened to it.
Lu Tingfeng continued, "I wanted my friend to go alone, but she refused to do so. We even had two arguments about it."
As if lost in memories, Lu Tingfeng unconsciously turned the cup in his hand. "My leg is broken, and we're in this deep forest. It's a real hassle for her to take care of me. And most importantly, we've lost a friend. We don't even know when we got separated, where he is, or if he's safe. Those two killers have guns. If we run into them, we'll surely die. The only thing we can do is get down the mountain as quickly as possible and find a signal to call the police."
"Gun?" Guan Xia heard about another gun case and the person involved had also been chased. She was shocked and felt that Lu Tingfeng was too much like the male protagonist.
Lu Tingfeng's attention was drawn back. He looked at Guan Xia and explained, "Yes, there is a gun. It's a homemade hunting rifle."
It was homemade. This murderer was much more brutal than the ones Guan Xia had encountered.
"So what happened next?" Guan Xia couldn't help but ask, "Did you break up?"
Lu Tingfeng shook his head and laughed. "My friend is just as stubborn as I am. No matter how much I argued with her, she refused to leave alone. She even scolded me, saying I had lost my mind. We were lost and fell into such a hidden crevice. Even if she called the police and brought rescuers up the mountain, they might not be able to find the way back. What if I couldn't hold on until then? So she stubbornly spent most of the day to get me up and carried me down the mountain together."
Pang Le and Guan Xia both showed expressions of admiration when they heard this. This was a friendship of life and death. Not everyone would grit their teeth and refuse to give up their friends at such a critical moment.
Lu Tingfeng sighed and recounted the final outcome with a smile. "Although the whole process was extremely dangerous, fortunately the three of us were lucky. My friend found a new way up the mountain after getting separated and successfully escaped the murderer's pursuit. The two of us fell into a crevice and hid for a day and a night. Although we were hungry, tired, and injured, we finally made it out safely. My friend also spent some time with the police to find the place where the murderer buried the body. Because we were chased all the way, the murderer left a lot of traces, which led to the case being solved quickly and the murderer was arrested."
Lu Tingfeng said with emotion, "At the time, this experience only felt like bad luck, but now that I think about it, it's just thrilling and a sense of accomplishment. After all, if we hadn't stumbled upon the murderer burying the body, there might have been a few more victims."
Guan Xia didn't say anything, but nodded in agreement. She had faced the murderer in both cases and was so scared that she was completely limp at the time. But later, apart from the lingering fear, she did have an indescribable sense of pride.
Lu Tingfeng and Pang Le discussed this experience for a few sentences, then suddenly turned to Guan Xia and asked casually, "I heard from Pang Le that you studied fine arts. Which art academy did you graduate from?"
Guan Xia thought Lu Tingfeng was being polite and didn't want her to feel left out, so she smiled and replied, "I graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in this province."
"This province? Dingyuan Province? That's a coincidence." Lu Tingfeng looked a little surprised. After a moment's hesitation, he said, "Do you mind if I ask you about someone? She's a childhood friend of a friend of mine. Although she didn't go to your school, she worked very close to your school. Maybe you've met her before."
Guan Xia nodded indifferently, not thinking that she would give Lu Tingfeng any useful information.
Unexpectedly, Lu Tingfeng took out a photo and handed it to her, asking, "Have you seen her?" The system interface suddenly popped up.
You are questioned by the police, and you suddenly remember that at 20:57 on the evening of November 14, 2019, when you were shopping at the food court with your friends, you saw a middle-aged man with a nervous expression and suspicious behavior. You noticed that all his attention was on a girl not far away. You keenly realized that he seemed to be following the girl, so you decided to tell the police.
After the handwriting disappeared, there was also a video. On the bustling food street, Guan Xia was chatting with a friend who was once very close but has disappeared for a long time while eating stinky tofu. They passed by one pedestrian after another. Among them, the face of a young girl was framed by a red frame. She had long and thin eyebrows, big and bright almond eyes, a nose that was not very straight but still delicate, and a small mouth. It was the person in the photo given by Lu Tingfeng. Walking beside her was a young boy with an equally outstanding appearance. The two looked very close and were obviously a couple.
After a couple passed by, a middle-aged man with his head framed by a red frame appeared only a dozen meters away. He was very tall, estimated to be over 1.8 meters tall, thin, and wearing a black hooded sweatshirt. Because he was walking with his head down, half of his face was covered by the hood, so his appearance could not be seen completely. But he was soon bumped by a young boy who was chatting with his friends and not looking at the road. The middle-aged man staggered after being bumped. The young boy apologized in panic, but the middle-aged man completely ignored him, pushed the man away roughly, and trotted forward two steps, his eyes fixed on the crowd, as if he was looking for something, but obviously he didn't find it. The middle-aged man turned back and glared at the young boy angrily, then strode forward.
Because of this turn, Guan Xia clearly saw the middle-aged man's appearance this time.
He is a middle-aged man with thick eyebrows, long eyes, and an angular face. He is unexpectedly handsome, but his angry expression destroys his handsome features, making him look very violent and aggressive.
This video was longer than the previous ones, so much so that Guan Xia stared at the photo in silence for a long time.
It was not until Lu Tingfeng asked another question that Guan Xia came back to her senses.
Lu Tingfeng asked, "Did you remember something?"
Guan Xia pinched the photo with her fingers a little too hard, trying to control her expression. After a moment, she replied, "This person... does look familiar to me. I must have seen him somewhere, but I can't remember exactly where or when."
Guan Xia calmly returned the photo, watched Lu Tingfeng lower his eyes in disappointment, took the photo, put it away carefully, and continued talking to Pang Le.
Seeing that Lu Tingfeng's attention was no longer on her, Guan Xia breathed a sigh of relief and leaned back in her chair, playing with the cup in her hand, seemingly listening, but her mind was actually a mess.
The system came out unexpectedly this time and brought a lot of information.
What Guan Xia couldn't understand the most was the first sentence, which was both normal and abnormal: you were questioned by the police.
Lu Tingfeng is a police officer, so what does it mean when he suddenly takes out a photo and asks her without revealing his identity? Is it a normal inquiry? Or is it a test?
Guan Xia carefully recalled Lu Tingfeng's reaction and the few words he said before. She thought it was normal just now, but now that she thought about it carefully, everything became deliberate. First, he pretended to bring up the topic of her alma mater unintentionally, and then pretended to be surprised and asked her about people.
Guan Xia didn't want to suspect anyone, but the words on the system interface and Lu Tingfeng's series of actions made Guan Xia doubt Lu Tingfeng's purpose. She even wondered if Lu Tingfeng knew her before. Then the question was, how did he know her?
This question only turned around Guan Xia's mind for a moment, and she quickly figured it out. Only a few people knew about the special features of her system after it was activated. Pang Le would definitely not tell anyone, so the only ones left were the police officers to whom she had provided clues and who were very interested in her.
Guan Xia recalled the faces of Xu Nian, Qi Bai, and Wang Yu, and felt a little complicated. She was not angry, but she couldn't help but wonder why they did this. Since they were police officers, they could just ask her directly why she used such a strange method.
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