Do you really know what you're doing?
Officer Li sat in his office, repeatedly playing the school's surveillance footage, watching every frame of the video, and constantly slowing it down to look for every unreasonable detail.
This has become quite common.
Every time I take on a case, I can't escape reviewing the surveillance footage.
In the days leading up to Fei Li's disappearance, school surveillance footage did not show him going to any other places. Just as his teachers said, he was sleeping in class, which seemed to be due to staying up late playing games, and he appeared to be in poor spirits.
Fei Li's disappearance coincided with the school's college entrance examination. The school, which was the examination venue, would give students an early holiday to prepare for the exam, and the surveillance cameras would be filming every corner without any blind spots. Fei Li or any other suspicious persons were not seen.
It seems Fei Li won't be coming to school during the college entrance exams.
Where will they go?
Fei Li's classmates said that he often frequented places like bars and internet cafes, which were considered mixed environments, and that's probably where the problem arose.
However, it turned out that Fei Li didn't have many friends, and even fewer people knew his whereabouts. The few people who had been drinking with him knew nothing about him, and some had even almost forgotten about Fei Li.
We couldn't get any useful clues.
Officer Li carefully recalled what his homeroom teacher had said, and suddenly remembered a classmate that his homeroom teacher had mentioned.
“Xu Li…”
Li Rong read the name aloud.
Why couldn't we contact her after the college entrance exam? Did she also disappear? What was the reason? Was it because she got too close to Fei Li and was targeted by the murderer? Or was it because she felt guilty?
This information wasn't mentioned in the handover documents, so it's likely that we overlooked it. Perhaps by starting from this point, we can find out something.
Although he couldn't explain why, Li Rong had a premonition that the two of them were connected in some way.
In the eyes of the police, there are not so many coincidences. Everything happens for a reason. Even things that seem impossible sometimes "share" a cause and effect because of certain reasons.
In the afternoon, Fei Li's parents came to the police station again.
A new intern, Xiaoxue, calmed them down, saying, "Don't worry, our superiors have sent people to assist us in the case. Please give us some time, and we will definitely find out."
At this moment, Li Rong heard the noise and came out of the office. Xiao Xue pointed at Li Rong and said, "This is Officer Li, whom our superior sent over. We have started investigating the clues again."
As if seeing a lifeline, Song Mei grabbed Li Rong's sleeve: "Officer Li, you must catch the murderer! There's been no news of my son for so long, you must find him!"
As Li Rong helped Song Mei up, he agreed, "Okay, this is our responsibility as police officers. We will definitely do our best to find clues and get justice for you."
"My heart aches whenever I think of Xiaoli. I even dreamt about him yesterday. He told me he was going to university... All of Xiaoli's classmates have gone to university. I even ran into one of his classmates a while ago—"
Duan Ruiming, who was standing to the side, suddenly interrupted Song Mei: "We will definitely investigate this thoroughly. Our superiors also attach great importance to this and have sent people to handle it. We will give you an answer soon."
Li Rong looked at Duan Ruiming and then reassured him, "Yes, yes, please rest assured, we will definitely find out the whole story."
Song Mei finally got up from the ground, and Fei Li's father helped her sit down.
Seeing that everything seemed to be alright and the people around had dispersed, Li Rong told Duan Ruiming to go back and continue organizing the data, while he stayed behind.
Li Rong poured them both a glass of water, then sat down and asked, "You said you'd seen Fei Li's former classmates before? Were they close to Fei Li? How do you remember them?"
“We met that classmate at the parent-teacher conference before. She was a girl named Xu Li. She was fair-skinned and clean-cut. Although I only met her once, I remembered her. Last time I saw her, she didn't even want to talk to us and kept avoiding us…”
Is she in school?
"It must be, who else but Xiao Li is so unlucky? Everyone else has already been admitted to university, and only then did Xiao Li say he wanted to go to university too..."
When the painful memories were brought up, Song Mei leaned against the man beside her and started crying again.
After calming him down, Li Rong explained that the police needed to know some of Fei Li's past life information because of the case.
I asked some questions about Fei Li. Because his family wasn't well-off, and the two of them worked long hours at their stall, they didn't really know much about Fei Li's life. Plus, Fei Li was going through a rebellious phase and didn't want to talk to them, so they didn't know anything about Fei Li's life outside of school.
"Okay, understanding this will help us solve the case. We will definitely let you know when we have any news."
After the two left, Li Rong went to find Jiang Li.
"Xu Li, have you investigated this person?"
Jiang Li was even more puzzled when he heard this name. Wasn't the investigation supposed to be about Fei Li's disappearance? How did it turn into an investigation into Officer Xu's daughter?
Why investigate her?
“I see that the information you compiled before did not include any information about Xu Li. You must not have been able to find this person.”
"She's Officer Xu's daughter, why are you investigating her?"
If Li Rong hadn't been a policeman for so long and had a lot of experience, he really wouldn't have been able to adapt so quickly.
"Officer Xu's daughter? You all know about her?"
Seeing Li Rong's reaction, Jiang Li was also a little confused: "Right, wait a minute, you said you were investigating Xu Li, could it be related to Fei Li's case?"
Everyone knows this, so why didn't Duan Ruiming mention it to him immediately? What was Duan Ruiming doing when he asked Officer Xu and Xu Li?
"Do you know what Xu Li is doing right now?"
"Do you know about Officer Xu's situation?"
Seeing Li Rong nod, Jiang Licai continued, "There will be subsidies in this situation, but Xu Li is already an adult and capable of living independently. We will do our best to help with other matters..."
Before he could finish speaking, Li Rong had already stormed off.
He said this case was so strange; it seemed the key to the incident lay with Duan Ruiming. Why wouldn't he speak? What was he hiding? Why did he suddenly interrupt Song Mei? Why was he so afraid of mentioning Xu Li...?
Li Rong sat down in front of Duan Ruiming and looked directly at him: "You know Xu Li?"
"Yes, the people at the police station all know."
"But you've never mentioned it."
“I thought Officer Li knew too, so…”
"Are you kidding me? You've never told me how I knew that?"
Duan Ruiming clenched his teeth, feeling his temples throbbing.
It seems that Li Rong knows quite a bit. In fact, Duan Ruiming had a premonition when Li Rong asked him to leave and stay to deal with Fei Li's parents.
Even he himself could feel how abruptly and awkwardly he interrupted Song Mei, and a seasoned policeman would certainly have noticed it.
However, at that time, it was out of control; it seemed that as soon as the name Xu Li was mentioned, an alarm would go off in my mind.
"You know what? I have a really scary idea right now. Why can't you find anything? Or why is there no clue about Xu Li in the information you've compiled?"
"..."
“Someone concealed the clues after they learned about them, someone concealed the fact that the matter was related to Xu Li, and someone went to the school and clearly obtained clues, but the travel record was not written down.”
"..."
Li Rong suddenly stood up, the metal chair legs scraping against the floor with a screeching sound: "You should know that as a police officer, failing to report something you know is a legal offense!"
The sound wasn't loud, but it struck Duan Ruiming's heart with great force.
"If that's really the case, at best they'll face administrative penalties such as warnings, demerits, demotions, or even dismissal. If the failure to report is serious, they could go to jail—it's a crime!"
Duan Ruiming knew this all too well, but it was all too late to change anything.
Do you really know what you're doing?
Duan Ruiming probably knew at first that he just wanted Xu Li to come back and give her some time, thinking everything would be fine. But the more time went on, the less he knew what he was supposed to do. Xu Li didn't want to see him, didn't want to come back, and then things dragged on for longer and longer until the higher-ups started to take it seriously...
One lie requires a thousand lies to cover it up.
When I thought about it carefully, I realized that it was beyond redemption.
Li Rong left, telling Duan Ruiming to think it over carefully.
Should he think about it again? He had thought about it many times, but that was just how it was. He couldn't come up with any good solutions, and now that Xu Li had agreed to come back, he was just thinking of waiting a little longer. Perhaps she would be back tomorrow.
When Duan Ruiming visited the school that time, he heard Xu Li's name. Even though he didn't have such a strong intuition at the time that this matter was related to Xu Li, Duan Ruiming didn't write anything related to Xu Li in order to be on the safe side.
Actually, Duan Ruiming's guess about Xu Li's situation was largely based on speculation. Even if he had written it down, there was probably no problem. But looking at Li Rong's expression, did he find out something? Could it really be related to Xu Li?
Duan Ruiming didn't know why he had become like this. Everything he had longed for in his heart had become so illusory and unattainable.
What awaits him next? In fact, Duan Ruiming knew everything Li Rong said and had thought about it carefully. These are the bottom lines of professional ethics that a police officer must know.
However, he still chose to keep it a secret. What initially convinced him was Xu Zhengbei, a senior who was of great significance to him. He didn't want to put all the blame on someone who was no longer able to speak. This was the fundamental reason why Duan Ruiming initially made his decision.
He couldn't ignore Xu Li; when he looked at her, he would always think of Xu Zhengbei, standing straight in his police uniform.
Xu Li may never know why Duan Ruiming did this. After leaving, Xu Li didn't want to see him, perhaps because she blamed him for what happened to Xu Zhengbei.
Looking at the camphor tree leaves outside the window, Duan Ruiming sighed deeply.
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