Chapter 120

After the thunder, Lu Suyu stared at the recording software. Instead of silence, there were now some fluctuations, like the sound of breathing…

Song Wen frowned, urging, “Replay the last part of the previous call!”

Zhang Ziqi hurriedly played back the recording, turning up the volume to the maximum. This time, everyone heard it clearly. After the words “You’re wrong,” there was indeed that strange sound coming from the phone, just as Lu Suyu had described, the eerie laughter of the killer.

Lu Suyu, biting her nails on the side, had calmed down by now, coldly commenting, “He’s not trying to confess; he’s showing off.”

It was a blatant provocation; he might have just finished committing a crime…

Zhuang Yi furrowed his brows, looking at the young policeman who had been silent before. He still seemed unwilling to accept the reality. “This… doesn’t fit with my profiling…”

Ignoring him, Song Wen turned to Lu Suyu and asked, “Where did he go wrong with ‘You’re wrong’?”

Lu Suyu pursed his lips. “Perhaps it was our profiling earlier, or perhaps our arrangements…” He shook his head. “Perhaps everything was wrong. Regardless, the killer definitely isn’t seeking repentance and feels no guilt whatsoever.”

As he spoke, lightning suddenly flashed outside the window, illuminating the sky with a bright light.

Zhang Ziqi looked up and reported to the others, “We’ve traced the number. The owner is a girl named Lou, just turned nineteen this year, and she’s an intern nurse at a hospital.”

The phone belonged to a woman, but it was used by the suspect to make the call. It was highly likely that the owner was in grave danger.

Song Wen said, “Immediately contact her workplace and family to confirm her whereabouts.”

The others busied themselves, and Fu Linjiang made a phone call. “The hospital said she just finished an emergency rescue around 11:30 tonight and went home after work. Her family had called earlier to ask about her, and now the hospital can’t reach her either.”

Now even Zhuang Yi’s expression turned grim.

Suddenly, rain poured down outside, accompanied by thunder and lightning, pounding on the glass like a torrent. Song Wen was jolted awake by the raindrops flying in. He frowned and quickly made a decision, asking, “Can we confirm the location where the call came from?”

Zhang Ziqi looked at the map with the flashing red circle, indicating a circular area. “The location of the base station can only be determined to be near Qiao Mu Road in Shangjiang District.”

This location was within the range they had drawn. Someone was patrolling before midnight, but there weren’t many people on duty nearby at one o’clock.

Near Qiao Mu Road, the terrain was complex, with large areas of demolished land. There were some old urban service facilities, as well as a comprehensive hospital nearby. Recently, there had been municipal construction, reclaiming some old land and facilities, which had been fenced off in preparation for building a modern large-scale supermarket. The city needed constant patchwork on past construction to develop rapidly.

In a sprawling Nancheng, there could be dozens, even hundreds, of construction projects underway simultaneously. They had already informed all the companies and institutions in the area, but this unofficial activity had not drawn much attention.

“Contact the central control room and pull up the surveillance footage in that area,” Song Wen decided decisively. “Dispatch immediately. Who’s coming with me?” Just as he looked towards Lu Suyu, Tian Ming eagerly raised his hand and leaned in, “Me, me, me!”

Song Wen took a step forward but then turned back to Fu Linjiang. “No, it might be too late already. We’ll split up. Linjiang, you contact and arrange for the local police station in that area to send someone over first. They must pay attention to any suspicious individuals and search for the possible whereabouts of the victim. The murderer should still be near the scene. We’ll hurry over. After reporting to the Commissioner, bring the others and meet up with us.”

Fu Linjiang sighed and quickly picked up the phone.

The others hurried downstairs, and Zhuang Yi, waking up as if from a dream, exclaimed, “Wait, take me with you!” He hurriedly caught up with them, finally getting into the van with them. The van now accommodated five people.

Song Wen sat in the driver’s seat, started the car, and drove towards that area at the fastest speed. Now, the fog had cleared, leaving the streets dark in the early morning, with heavy rain pouring down incessantly.

Song Wen didn’t need to check the map; he quickly planned out the nearest route in his mind. His car moved swiftly through the darkness, the wipers wiping away raindrops incessantly hitting the windshield, which momentarily perturbed Song Wen’s mind.

Suddenly, his hand was covered by a cold hand. Song Wen turned his head to see Lu Suyu sitting in the passenger seat, looking at him with calm and watery eyes. Song Wen’s mind suddenly calmed down.

The more critical the situation, the calmer one must be.

In the car, everyone held their breath, silent. No one knew what scene they were about to face, whether they would engage in a struggle with the suspect or face a cold body.

Their hearts hung between life and death, undecided.

The police station received the call, and it was two duty officers, Wang Qi and Zhou Yanmo, who were on duty at the time, who were closest and were temporarily called out.

Wang Qi, 23 years old this year, yawned as he drove, asking his partner, “Lao Zhou, are you familiar with the area near Qiao Mu Road?”

“I was familiar with it more than ten years ago, but now those roads have been messed up. I haven’t been here in a long time.” Zhou Yanmo, 56 years old this year, would retire in a few more years. He had been on sick leave for a while before and had just resumed duty when he received this case. Even someone like him, who was old and weak, had been summoned to work the night shift. Now, he felt so tired that his brain wasn’t functioning properly.

“Supposedly, it’s related to the recent series of cases, and they’re really pushing it from higher up, mobilizing a lot of people for investigation.” Wang Qi drove out of the police station, keeping an eye on the roadside while feeling at a loss. “But this call didn’t make it clear; it just said to watch out for suspects and mentioned that there might have been a case in the area. It’s late at night, and there’s not a soul around…”

The situation had suddenly arisen, with layers of commands reaching them, and they only had a rough idea of what it meant.

Lao Zhou nodded. “Yeah, even if something happened, with this heavy rain and such a large area, it’s like finding a needle in a haystack.”

The two of them were resting peacefully in the station when suddenly a phone call from the duty room called them out. They were a bit confused at this moment. Moreover, they were just grassroots officers. Although tracking down criminals was their job, encountering such situations only happened a few times a year, so they felt somewhat uneasy when faced with them.

Wang Qi was driving, but the road was getting narrower and narrower. He saw a stretch of cars parked ahead, starting from the roadside, with some even parked in the middle of the road, turning the once clear path into a labyrinth, difficult to pass through. He glanced ahead and saw what seemed to be a dead-end road, blocked off. Many nearby people had used this area as a temporary parking lot.

The rain outside was getting heavier and heavier. Lao Zhou complained, “Hey, you’re not driving properly.”

“I didn’t manage this area before. This is my first time here, and there should be a road here.” Wang Qi slowed down helplessly and pointed to the map on his phone. “Once we get through, we’ll be on Qiao Mu Road.”

Lao Zhou sighed, “Hey, how can you use this map? It could even lead their boss into a river. Switch to Amap quickly.”

“No matter how fast the map updates, it can’t keep up with how quickly roads change. We might as well ask someone.” Wang Qi looked outside the car.

“In the dead of night with no lights, who am I supposed to ask?” 

Wang Qi honked the horn. “There should be someone awake nearby, the car owners, the 24-hour convenience store, the gas station. Surely someone’s still awake?!”

As they were speaking, a faint light appeared in the darkness ahead, like a lighthouse on the sea, giving the two of them hope. As they got closer, they saw that it was a guard booth at a roadside parking lot. On the left side of the dead-end road was a wall, and on the right was this parking lot. There were barriers in front, blocking any other passage.

The rain was still pouring. Wang Qi leaned out and shouted to the security guard in the booth, “Hey, buddy, the road is blocked ahead. How do we get to Qiao Mu Road?”

A man in a security uniform leaned out, his hat low, his voice hoarse. He took a sip of water from the cup on the table before answering them in a hoarse voice, “This way is blocked. Go around from the east. There’s a small road at the second intersection.”

“Okay, thanks!” Wang Qi asked for directions and then asked again, “Have you seen any suspicious individuals around here?”

The guard shook his head. “No, everything’s normal.”

Wang Qi then reversed the car out and headed east. “If we’re on the right track, we should be there in two minutes. When we get to Qiao Mu Road, we should be able to see the scene they mentioned, right? Oh, did you watch Professor Zhuang’s program?”

“I did. What do you think we should do if we find the suspects, considering there might be two of them?” Lao Zhou was still comparing the map.

“Let’s see how the situation unfolds when we find them,” Wang Qi said as the car finally found the small road.

Suddenly, Lao Zhou grabbed his arm tightly.

“Hey, Lao Zhou, what’s wrong?! Don’t scare me! I’m driving here.” Wang Qi turned his head and saw Lao Zhou’s pale face.

“I don’t think this is right… all the roads are dead ends, and cars are parked everywhere. What kind of business can that parking lot still do?” Lao Zhou’s voice trembled, and he suddenly understood why he had felt something was off earlier. “…In the middle of the night, where did the security guard on duty come from?”

Just now, he wasn’t sharp enough, too busy looking for directions, completely ignoring the illogicality of the situation.

Wang Qi suddenly realized it too. The face of the guard who answered them suddenly overlapped with the image of the suspect he had seen on TV before…

“F*ck!” Wang Qi cursed and turned the car around to head back.

In just a minute, they returned to the parking lot, the light in the guard booth was still on, but the door was open, with no one inside. The person from earlier had long disappeared without a trace.

“That’s the guy! That person might be the serial killer! We didn’t even consider him just now.” Wang Qi, ignoring the pouring rain, got out of the car. He felt immense regret in his heart. Just moments ago, they had brushed shoulders with the killer without realizing it.

“Should we pursue him?!” Lao Zhou asked Wang Qi.

“Let’s first see if there are any victims…” Wang Qi stopped in his tracks, looking at the pitch-black parking lot ahead.

In the dark night, the abandoned parking lot was already a vast empty space, resembling an uninhabited playground. In the pouring rain, the two of them ran into the deserted parking lot, searching everywhere.

“Hey, don’t panic…” Lao Zhou called out to him from behind, shining his flashlight.

Wang Qi took a few steps and suddenly froze in place. In the swaying light, he saw the pale hand of a woman…

Breathless, Lao Zhou also ran up beside him, and the two stood side by side. The swaying beam of the flashlight illuminated the ground where a girl lay.

Drenched in the pouring rain, the girl lay soaked on the ground, her clothes neat, and a piece of cloth covering her head, like a sleeping beauty waiting to be awakened.

Seeing this scene, Wang Qi’s legs went weak. He nudged Lao Zhou and said, “Quick… Quick… Call the City Bureau…”

TN:

Another instance of the author displaying cops, other than MC/ML as ignorant and incompetent. Every single group of police officers they’ve worked with has been moronic and needing MC/ML to come in and save them. It’s getting tiring. Like what kind of qualified police officer would lack awareness to this extent? The portraits of this dude were circulated on TV. They must have received the descriptions of how he looks like. We can also blame MC’s team for being vague when sending them out and not giving more info on like his voice or some sh*t but my verdict still stands. The author makes illogical scenarios to fill up on the protagonists’ plot armor. They all went through the same schools, how could they not even have a tenth of their skill? Can’t we have some decent cops for once, author?