Wang Shen parked the car, but didn't let Liang Zichen get out. Instead, he ran back to his office alone to retrieve the keys. Soon, Wang Shen's car was parked in front of "Spicy Restaurant" again.
"Captain Wang, do you think Han Lin is in the store right now?" Liang Zichen glanced at the store entrance.
“It’s better if he’s not in the shop.” After saying that, Wang Shen and Liang Zichen walked into the shop together. The door was open, but the “Closed” sign was still hanging on the wall. The greeter was nowhere to be seen, and the whole “Spicy Restaurant” seemed empty and desolate.
Not long after, a waiter came out from the back room and greeted Wang Shen and Liang Zichen, "Officer, is there anything I can help you with?"
"I'd like to see your locker room," Wang Shen stated his opinion directly.
The waiter hesitated for a moment, but after glancing at Wang Shen a few times, he nodded. Wang Shen and Liang Zichen followed the waiter into the men's changing room.
"By the way, is Manager Han in the store today?" Wang Shen suddenly turned around and asked the waiter.
"No, he hasn't been to the store all day," the waiter said, shaking his head.
Wang Shen nodded. "If he comes back, have him come here. Okay, I'll take a look myself. You can go ahead and get back to work."
The waiter nodded after hearing Wang Shen's words and left. Wang Shen walked to Acheng's locker number 16 and took the key out of his pocket. He tried inserting the key into the lock, and it went in easily. He gently turned the key and heard a soft click; the lock opened.
"Captain Wang, this key really is for this cabinet." Liang Zichen said with a smile as he looked at the open cabinet door.
Wang Shen didn't answer. He took out prepared rubber gloves from his pocket, put them on, and then fully opened the cabinet door. There wasn't much else in the cabinet, except for a wallet lying quietly in the corner. Wang Shen took the wallet out. He opened it and looked through it. In a transparent compartment, there was a photo of A-Cheng and Qi Huan. The two in the photo looked very close and affectionate. Besides that, there was some loose change and two bank cards in the wallet's compartment. Wang Shen examined the wallet for a while, then handed it to Liang Zichen.
"Put on gloves before you take it," Wang Shen instructed Liang Zichen as he put the wallet back in the cabinet.
Liang Zichen nodded, put on gloves, and began to look through his wallet. For Liang Zichen, the group photo seemed more appealing. He took the photo out of the wallet's transparent compartment and examined it closely.
"Huh? What's this?" Liang Zichen was about to put the photo back when he noticed a string of numbers printed on the back. "Captain Wang, we've found something. Look what this is!"
Liang Zichen handed the photo to Wang Shen, pointing to the string of numbers on the back. Wang Shen picked up the photo and glanced at it, seeing ********@***. written on the back. "This is an email address," Wang Shen said, taking out his notebook and copying the email address into it.
"Why did Acheng write an email address on the back of the photo?" Liang Zichen asked, looking at the address with a puzzled expression.
“I don’t know either, but he wrote the email address on the back of the photo, so it must have some special meaning.” After saying that, Wang Shen took out his phone, took a picture of the address, and sent it back to the bureau. “I asked the bureau’s technical department to help crack the password for this email address. I think there might be clues we need in this email.”
Liang Zichen nodded, then turned to look at the empty cabinet, and slammed the door shut. He didn't realize he'd used so much force, causing the door to slam shut with a loud bang.
"Be gentle," Wang Shen said to Liang Zichen. Unexpectedly, not long after, the number 16 on the cabinet door fell to the ground.
"What a piece of junk! This cabinet is so flimsy. The sign fell off with just a light touch." Liang Zichen sighed, bending down to pick up the number 16 sign from the floor. He looked at the sign in his hand, then examined how it was installed on the cabinet, before firmly tapping it against the latch. The number 16 sign snapped back into place.
Looking at the gap between the number plate and the latch, Liang Zichen complained, "Why is this latch so loose? It will fall off with the slightest touch."
After listening to Liang Zichen's words, Wang Shen gently nudged Liang Zichen and walked to cabinet number 16. He placed his hand on the number 16 and gently pulled it outwards; the number 16 came off easily. "Very loose indeed," Wang Shen muttered, slightly frowning. He held the number 16 in his hand, examining it several times. Then, he checked the latches on the cabinet door. The latches seemed… an idea flashed through Wang Shen's mind, but he wasn't sure if it was correct.
Wang Shen closed cabinet number 16, took two steps back, and observed the cabinets surrounding it. The arrangement was the same as before: cabinet number 17 was to the left of cabinet number 16, cabinet number 5 to the right, cabinet number 25 above it, and cabinet number 36 below it. Except for cabinet number 17, which was closed, all the other cabinets were open.
Wang Shen touched his chin a few times, then put down the number 16 tag in his hand. Suddenly, Wang Shen's gaze fell directly on the cabinets. "One, two, three, four, five, six... one, two, three, four, five, six," Wang Shen silently repeated the numbers one through six twice.
"Captain Wang, are you alright?" Liang Zichen looked at Wang Shen with a face full of doubt, having no idea what Wang Shen was up to.
Wang Shen waved his hand, gesturing for silence. Then he took out his phone, opened the photo album, and swiped a few times. "Got it, this is it." Wang Shen remembered taking a picture of this entire locker when he first came to the changing room. He zoomed in on the photo and started counting silently again. "One, two, three, four, five... one, two, three, four, five... one, two, three, four, five..." Wang Shen counted three times, but the combination of numbers changed to 1 to 5. "One, two, three, four, five, six..." Wang Shen looked up from his phone screen, at the locker in front of him, and counted the numbers 1 to 6 again.
"Captain Wang, what are you doing? Don't scare me!" Liang Zichen's expression had changed from confusion to surprise.
Wang Shen didn't answer Liang Zichen's question. Instead, he walked back to the cabinet and closed all the doors around cabinet number 16. Wang Shen placed his hand on the number plate of cabinet number 17 and gently pulled it outwards; the number plate easily fell down. Then came number plate number 25, followed by number 5, number 36… Holding a pile of number plates, Wang Shen walked to a cabinet farther from cabinet number 16. He reached out and pulled on the number plate number 8 in front of him, but it wouldn't budge.
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