Proofreader: Sandra

Chapter 151

Outside the window was the endless blue sea, the sea breeze blowing through the air, and the ship’s constant rise and fall could be felt. It was clear that the ship was moving at high speed.

Song Wen folded his hands and rested them on his knees, a common posture for him during interrogations. “From the estimated time you left home, I checked everything I could. I have to admit, you hid very well. At first, I didn’t find many clues. I checked your identity information and found nothing.”

“Then I thought, if you went out, you would need a new identity. I also recalled the friend you mentioned on the first night who could find your phone. I retrieved your phone call records and contacted Boss Cao through that phone number.”

After finishing the investigation of the nursing home case, Lu Siyu had asked Boss Cao to prepare a set of documents for him, originally intended for use in emergencies. When Xu Changying had an accident, Lu Siyu’s first reaction was to use those documents.

Hearing Song Wen’s explanation, Lu Siyu sighed. Despite all his calculations, he had underestimated Song Wen’s ability to gather clues. He was still somewhat incredulous. “Boss Cao just gave you the stuff?”

“I’m not as rich as you, so it took some effort.” Song Wen spoke lightly. Initially, Boss Cao had refused to acknowledge anything, and Song Wen had nearly torn apart the bar.

Lu Siyu bowed his head in contemplation and then asked, “How did you get out?”

Song Wen replied, “I took a leave…”

Having just been promoted to team leader, he couldn’t just run off like Lu Siyu. He looked at the person in front of him and helplessly said, “Including your situation, I also took leave for you. I explained what I could to the leaders. I assured Commissioner Gu that you and Xu Changying’s case weren’t connected, that you only witnessed the accident scene and were feeling down, so you went out for a while and would be back soon. The rest, we’ll discuss later on how to explain to the higher-ups and how to deal with those people.”

After finishing his explanation, Song Wen looked up and asked Lu Siyu, “Now, tell me, what information did Xu Changying leave you? And how did you end up here?”

This time, Lu Siyu didn’t hold back and began to explain directly, “This matter starts with the 519 case. You know this case is an unresolved cold case, right? How much do you know about it?”

“My initial understanding comes from having been to the 519 scene. After graduating from the police academy and joining the Nancheng Police Department, I also learned some details.” Song Wen paused and looked at Lu Siyu. It was a childhood nightmare for him, a long-time haunt. The dark basement and the corpses all over the place were etched in his memory.

“There were a total of six victims, five bodies in the basement, including three robbers and a married couple. The couple’s eldest son was later pronounced dead, leaving their youngest son as the sole survivor of the case. When the police arrived, the bodies in the basement were already partially decomposed. At that time… at the scene, I think I once opened a cabinet…” Song Wen said softly.

If his memory served him right, he should have found Lu Siyu, barely alive, in that cabinet.

“At that time, I was in the cabinet.” Lu Siyu raised his head, his gaze drifting into the distance. Outside was the vast sea and the blue sky, stretching endlessly. The sunlight shining through the window illuminated his eyes, but it made him appear even more desolate.

He had thought that after all these years and after pursuing the truth for so long, he would be able to talk about these things calmly. However, just mentioning it caused his heart to ache to the point of suffocation.

His gaze shifted to Song Wen, and he said softly, “I heard your father call you Song Xiaolang.”

So Lu Siyu had known all along!

Song Wen’s mouth twitched slightly, unsure what expression to use in the face of this revealed truth. “So you named your dog after me?”

This had been a question that had puzzled him for a long time, and the originally sad and serious atmosphere was suddenly broken.

Lu Siyu turned his head, his beautiful eyes looking at Song Wen, his eyes glistening with tears. “You don’t know what that name means to me. At that time, I doubted whether I was still alive, and that name was a response to my existence. I remember it was that person who pulled me back to the living world. It was that embrace that gradually made me realize I was still alive.”

That day was supposed to be his death day, but it was also the day he was reborn.

After being kidnapped, the robbers initially gave them some food and drink, but later, there was only water.

After his parents were tortured to death, there seemed to be some internal strife among the robbers. One of the robbers, who had been relatively kind to them, untied their ropes and let him and his brother go…

In his memory, the leader of the robbers had already turned into a madman. He killed his accomplice and was searching the house with a gun, looking for them.

The cabinet Lu Siyu was hiding in was quite large. At that time, his brother had pushed him in there. In a moment of desperation, his brother hid him in the cabinet and then went to distract the leader of the robbers.

He hid in the cabinet, listening to the endless gunfire outside. Not long after, everything fell silent.

That was his last memory of his brother.

He was trapped in the cabinet for several days, in complete darkness, unaware of the passage of time.

At first, he was still conscious, trying every possible way to get out of the cabinet. He kept kicking the cabinet door and shouting for help, breaking down in tears. But the old villa was so quiet, and there was no response. He suddenly realized that everyone else was dead.

He could sit, lie down, and recline, but he couldn’t break free from inside.

Initially, he was calm and strong, thinking someone would come to rescue him. But later, the overwhelming emotions nearly drove him to collapse.

He was very thirsty, but thirst was somewhat bearable. The real agony was hunger.

Without food, his stomach began to ache intensely. No amount of finger pressing or body curling could alleviate it. The pain in his stomach felt like being cut by a knife, as if the organ was about to dissolve itself.

All his thoughts were dominated by this feeling, driving him to the brink of madness. He kept biting his fingers until they bled, continuously licking his cracked lips, trying to alleviate the hunger, but to no avail.

Due to hunger, low blood sugar, and dehydration, his consciousness grew increasingly blurred.

Then he thought he might starve to death in this cabinet.

It felt like he was falling into the realm of evil spirits, about to turn into a puddle of decayed blood.

He didn’t know exactly how long he had been locked in there—one day, two days, or three days…

Until one day, he saw a beam of orange-yellow light shining through the gap in the cabinet door, like the warm sun in winter or a ray of light from heaven.

At that moment, he was on the verge of starvation, unable to make a sound from his throat. He could only use his remaining strength to gently push the cabinet door.

The cabinet door began to creak rhythmically…

Just as he was about to pass out, the cabinet was suddenly opened, and someone pulled him out, holding him in their arms.

In the twilight between life and death, he felt a somewhat warm embrace. Then he heard someone speaking, and another voice calling, “Xiao Lang, where did you find him?”

It was then he realized he was still alive. Before losing consciousness, he remembered the name of the person who found him.

Recalling this, Lu Siyu gently lowered his chin. “When I named my dog, I didn’t expect to meet you again.”

After so many years, Lu Siyu no longer remembered what that child looked like, what clothes he wore, or how old he was. He only remembered those two words.

Others wouldn’t know what those two words, that person, meant to him.

He had thought of him countless times, in moments of loneliness, helplessness, and confusion.

That name had once been a ray of light in his life, dispelling the darkness.

It was the greatest comfort in his twenty-odd years of life, the name he unconsciously called out to in his dreams at midnight, the light of hope in despair.

Just thinking of those two words would bring warmth to his cold heart.

He had also wondered why a little boy was at the scene of the incident.

Perhaps it was fate. Because of these events, he fell in love with Song Wen again, step by step.

Song Wen gazed at his handsome face, suddenly feeling emotional. He reached out and grasped Lu Siyu’s slightly cold fingers, intertwining them.

Song Wen said softly, “I understand. No matter which Xiao Lang it is, we will be with you. Now, you are not alone.”

These words made Lu Siyu’s eyes a bit wet again.

Now he not only had a dog but also a person, someone who loved him wholeheartedly.

Lu Siyu tried to steady his emotions, licked his lips, and continued, “You should be somewhat familiar with the case at the time. Three robbers kidnapped the four members of the richest family in Nancheng. That was my father, mother, brother, and me. My parents were tortured to death by the robbers, and a few of the robbers also died in that villa. My brother went missing, but based on the blood evidence at the scene and the blood-stained bullet casings, it appeared the robbers killed him before they died.”

Song Wen nodded; this matched the case details he knew.

“The police were always investigating the truth behind it and searching for the mastermind who took all the money. They discovered during the autopsies that the robbers had a slow-acting poison in their systems, indicating they might have died from poisoning. They searched all over Nancheng, and a year later, the case linked to another one.”

Song Wen understood, “Wushan Nursing Home, Xia Weizhi.”

Lu Siyu nodded, “That’s why the 519 task force investigated the Wushan Nursing Home case. They believed the poison source might have come from Xia Weizhi, meaning the mastermind behind it was connected to Xia Weizhi, or Xia Weizhi had been providing them with the drug.”

But later, Xia Weizhi’s disappearance and death added another layer of mystery to the case.

Song Wen frowned as he listened. Lu Siyu continued in a low voice, “Regarding the 519 case, the task force conducted other investigations, and there was another clue about the fourth robber in the case.”

This fourth robber existed only in police files and was unknown to the public.

Lu Siyu said softly, “The police discovered that during the kidnapping, someone was delivering food and messages to the three robbers. This fourth robber might have been a lover of one of the robbers, a woman named Wu Hongyou.”

It makes sense that after the kidnapping, the robbers couldn’t show themselves, and they needed a trustworthy person who wouldn’t arouse suspicion to help them with certain tasks.

As the mistress of the robber leader, Long Jinrong, Wu Hongyou was undoubtedly the best candidate.

She was twenty-nine years old at the time, a bold and meticulous woman, making her a flexible part of the plan, able to move in and out.

She was also Long Jinrong’s contingency plan in case the robbery went awry.

Lu Siyu continued, “The strange thing about the 519 case was that not only were the kidnapped victims killed, but the robbers also died, and the money disappeared without a trace, leaving many questions. The police once suspected that the fourth robber, Wu Hongyou, got the stolen money, but she borrowed money from relatives and quickly fled after the 519 case. None of her relatives or friends knew her whereabouts.”

If Wu Hongyou had obtained the stolen money, she wouldn’t have needed to borrow money from relatives, indicating the money wasn’t in her possession.

“Since then, she disappeared without a trace. Nineteen years ago, many technologies were not advanced, and communication was relatively backward. Despite extensive searches, the police couldn’t find any trace of this woman.”

“This time, after Xu Changying reopened the 519 case, he followed our initial approach by starting with the Wushan Nursing Home case. He quickly traced it to Gu Zhibai, but unfortunately, found nothing. He then adjusted his investigation direction, focusing on finding the missing fourth robber.”

“After many visits and inquiries, a clue caught Xu Changying’s attention. He went to the place where Wu Hongyou’s family once lived.”

“According to police records, Wu Hongyou’s family had long moved away, and new residents had moved in. Xu Changying insisted on seeing the place for himself. As they were about to leave, they discovered an abandoned mailbox at the entrance.”

In many residential buildings, such mailboxes were once common, each household having one for newspapers and letters, which later became a place for businesses to stuff advertisements. Nowadays, with the advent of courier services, many mailboxes are no longer used.

Lu Siyu said, “Those mailboxes had long been decorative. Xu Changying, unwilling to overlook any clue, pried open the mailbox and found, besides some trash and advertisements, some other things…”

In the tea room, Lu Siyu’s voice was very soft as he recounted this. He paused briefly.

Song Wen couldn’t help but ask, “What was it?”

Lu Siyu answered him in a low voice, “Three postcards.”

These were critical pieces of evidence, and it was these three postcards that guided him here.

Then Lu Siyu explained in detail, “The three postcards had no sender information, only the recipient’s address. They were postmarked, showing they were sent on the first day of the lunar new year in the seventh, eighth, and ninth years ago. On the postcard from nine years ago, he found Wu Hongyou’s fingerprint.”

Some post offices are open year-round, and some people would go to the post office specifically to get a New Year’s Day postmark. In more remote post offices, they are only open for half a day on New Year’s Day, and fewer people visit.

It was this inconspicuous fingerprint that allowed Xu Changying to conclude that these postcards were sent by a homesick Wu Hongyou.

She had been hiding outside for many years and wanted to let her family know she was safe, so she came up with this method. However, what she didn’t anticipate was that her family had long since moved away from their old home.

Song Wen pondered for a moment and said, “Sending postcards for three consecutive years is a deliberate act. Wu Hongyou probably didn’t dare to contact her family directly but wanted to let them know she was safe, so she came up with this method. When her family didn’t respond, she stopped.”

Lu Siyu nodded, “Due to the special timing, those postcards were New Year editions, limited editions, with specific serial numbers. Xu Changying started to trace the locations from where these postcards were mailed. Based on the serial numbers, postmarks, and other information, he confirmed that the postcards were sent from a post office near Xinchuan Harbor, the port we just departed from.”

“Through inquiries at the post office, Xu Changying confirmed that the person who bought and mailed the postcards was a middle-aged woman. The post office in Xinchuan is very close to the port. Based on the time the woman arrived at the post office, he calculated which ship she might have taken to get there, concluding that the person who sent the postcards probably lived on Nansha Island.”

“Subsequently, Xu Changying checked the nearby surveillance footage. Fortunately, seven years ago, a bank nearby installed surveillance cameras. At that time, the surveillance footage had to be copied onto discs. He found footage of a woman coming out of the post office and going to an ATM to withdraw money. Comparing her bank withdrawal information, he identified her as a woman named Zhang Hongqiao from Nansha Island.”

Lu Siyu licked his lips again, “Thus, Xu Changying suspected that this woman was Wu Hongyou. Just as he was about to verify Zhang Hongqiao’s identity on Nansha Island, he unfortunately met with an accident…”

The phone call time was limited, and Xu Changying had only briefly explained the process to Lu Siyu. Much of it Lu Siyu pieced together later by following the clues Xu Changying provided.

A case from over ten years ago meant that many of the people involved had either died or grown old, and time had faded memories, erasing most of the clues. The evidence in hand was incomplete, and the entire search process was extremely arduous. This fourth robber was the closest link to the mastermind behind the incident.

Finding this person was like finding a key to unlock the past.

It was likely that someone had been alerted during the investigation, or perhaps due to a mole within the police department, Xu Changying didn’t get the chance to uncover more information. He appeared to have died in a car accident, but in reality, he was killed by the mastermind to silence him.

These were the reasons Lu Siyu embarked on this journey, to continue the path Xu Changying had not completed.

Finishing the entire story, Lu Siyu lowered his eyelashes, which fluttered lightly.

Song Wen sighed and said, “Xu Changying was a good policeman.”

From Lu Siyu’s description, it was clear how much effort Xu Changying had put in, requiring patience and persistence to uncover these clues.

Investigating an old unsolved case is like encountering an extremely difficult puzzle with no apparent answer.

There might be a hundred different leads presented, but ninety-nine of them could be false or misleading, leading to dead ends.

The clue that could ultimately help them and identify the real culprit might be something extremely minute and easily overlooked, such as a drop of blood, a hair, a leaf, or a grain of sand…

Being able to sift through so many clues and find the correct path, then follow it through, is something Song Wen, as a team leader, deeply understands to be an exceptionally rare and valuable ability.

This time, Xu Changying found three postcards, and it was these small cards with limited information from years ago that gave them hope of finding a suspect who had been hiding for over a decade.

Xu Changying might have been somewhat stubborn and had conflicts with them before, but he was determined and dedicated, a responsible policeman who pursued justice throughout his life.

Lu Siyu looked at Song Wen, his eyes flowing with emotion, “Xu Changying told me on the phone that someone in the police station was leaking information to the other side, and he verified my identity as a survivor of the 519 case. In the end, with no other choice, he decided to pass the information to me.”

At the final stage of his investigation, Xu Changying was caught in a maze, surrounded by people with various motives—temptations of money, threats to life—many of whom couldn’t withstand the tests.

Even due to the disbandment of the task force back then, he didn’t tell Song Cheng specific information.

This information led to Xu Changying’s tragic fate, and the person he called, Lu Siyu, would undoubtedly also draw the attention of the other side.

This is the real reason Lu Siyu left the city bureau and chose to investigate alone. Although Song Wen had roughly understood this from the letter Lu Siyu left, hearing him say it in person still filled his heart with sorrow and left him momentarily speechless.