The curtains in the break room hadn’t been drawn, so when daylight crept in, Xia Hang woke up. He’d only slept three hours, but his strength had mostly returned.
The room had two beds, meant for officers to take turns resting during overtime. Last night, Xia Hang had wanted to leave the beds for Xia Ling and Wen Yu, but they’d gone over to the Forensics Department, where the ladies’ rest area was much larger.
After they left, Zhang Tianhua had told him to get some sleep. His exact words were, “You look pale. Rest up, you’ll work better after. We’re used to it. Just tilt the chair back, and we’re out.”
When Xia Hang slowly sat up, he noticed that at some point in the night, Kong Qinmao had joined him, deeply sleeping on the other bed. Moving quietly, he slipped out to wash up.
The restroom was at the end of the hall. After Xia Hang finished, a cool draft brushed past. He looked down from the corridor window and saw a familiar figure running laps around the training ground behind the precinct.
Han Huaixiao.
When Xia Hang had gone to sleep, Han Huaixiao still hadn’t returned to his office. Whether he’d slept at all was a mystery, but there he was, already out running at dawn.
Xia Hang watched him for a moment before heading back. Most of the team was already up, but only Wen Yu was in the office.
She was typing away at her keyboard, her long hair tied into a messy bun at the back of her head. If one didn’t see it with their own eyes, it’d be hard to believe that a cheerful and bright twenty-two-year-old girl who looked like the friendly next-door neighbor was actually a computer prodigy with unfathomable skill.
After working for a while, she turned around and struck up a conversation. “Brother Hang, rough first day? Not being able to go home right away, it’s a pretty scary pace, right?”
But Xia Hang only smiled faintly, thinking it wasn’t that bad. At least last night, he’d slept in a real bed. In the past, he’d once spent nearly a month in the jungle, sweltering heat, humidity, venomous insects, wild animals, and bullets that could end his life any second. Back then, getting two hours of sleep in a tree was pure bliss. But still, he asked, “Is it usually like this?”
Wen Yu nodded. “Whenever there’s a case, yeah, we work a lot of overtime. But when things are calm, we clock in and out like normal. Don’t worry, Lang City’s public safety is pretty solid, so big cases aren’t that common. Just don’t get scared off and transfer to another unit.”
Xia Hang chuckled. “You need help with anything?”
“Not for now. Go grab breakfast,” she said, still typing.
“You’re not eating?”
“I asked Sister Ling to bring something back for me.”
With that, Xia Hang nodded, stood up, and headed toward the cafeteria.
As he went down the stairs, Han Huaixiao was coming up from below. He must’ve just showered at the training ground since his workout clothes were changed and his hair was still damp. He carried a cup of soy milk in his left hand and his phone in the right, and with his long legs, he was taking two steps at a time.
Seeing him stride so quickly, Xia Hang instinctively stepped aside to give way. And yet, Han Huaixiao didn’t look at him. Eyes forward and pace steady, he vanished around the stairwell corner.
Xia Hang stood there for a second, then continued downstairs.
After breakfast, he returned to the office. Wen Yu seemed to have made progress, as Han Huaixiao and two Tech investigators were gathered behind her.
Her cheerful voice floated over. “Got him! The IP address that hacked into Yuan’an Maintenance Department’s network traces back to Dongcheng Biejun, Building 5.”
Han Huaixiao’s voice was brisk. “Call Qinmao, tell him to contact the nearest local officers to keep an eye on the place. Don’t let him slip.”
……………….
When they went to knock on the door, a man wearing black-rimmed glasses and pajamas opened it, his expression annoyed. “What’s with all the knocking this early?” he mumbled. “Some of us are trying to sleep…”
But he froze when he saw the police.
“Uh… who are you looking for?”
At Han Huaixiao’s signal, Wen Yu brushed past him and entered.
“Hey, you can’t just barge into someone’s house! Even if you’re the police…”
Ling Yue blocked him with one arm. “Peng Xiangye, you’re suspected of involvement in a murder case. You’ll need to come with us.”
Peng Xiangye’s face drained of color, asking, “Murder?! No, no, Officer, you’ve got the wrong guy! I wouldn’t hurt anyone, I don’t even kill fish!”
Behind him, Wen Yu was already tapping on his keyboard for a few moments, then spoke quietly to Han Huaixiao. “Captain Han, he’s the one who hacked into Yuan’an’s system.”
Han Huaixiao gave her a thumbs-up. “Bring him in.”
The unidentified fingerprint’s owner had been found. The hacker who breached Yuan’an’s network has been found as well. By all logic, it was major progress, yet the case hit another wall.
Ou Wei still refused to talk. Peng Xiangye admitted he’d hacked Yuan’an’s system, but claimed he’d just taken a paid job and had no idea who’d hired him. The contact had reached out online.
“According to Peng Xiangye, we found fifty thousand yuan in cash in his bedroom closet,” Kong Qinmao reported. “It came in a parcel, delivered by a local courier. We tracked down the courier who said a little kid gave him the package.”
“What about the phone number used to place the order?” Han Huaixiao asked.
“It belonged to the kid,” Kong Qinmao answered. “The kid remembered that some man told him his phone was dead and asked to borrow his to call the courier. After the delivery was arranged, he said he had a stomachache and asked the kid to send it off for him, then left.”
“Did you show the kid a photo of Ou Wei?”
“We did, but the kid said it wasn’t him. The man who gave him the package had a broad forehead. Ou Wei’s is narrow.”
Han Huaixiao nodded. “Wen Yu, keep tracing the contact who reached out to Peng Xiangye, and follow the kid’s lead too. Brother Hua, let’s question Ou Wei again. We need him to talk.”
Though Ou Wei was unlikely to be the one who caused the elevator accident, his refusal to explain why he’d been at Building 1 still suggested some kind of link.
Then Xia Hang, who had been silent so far, suddenly said, “Brother Hua, mind if I come with you?”
“Sure. Let’s go,” Zhang Tianhua grinned. He’d seen Xia Hang studying Ou Wei’s file that morning, and clearly, the newcomer had a theory.
Inside the interrogation room, Ou Wei sat motionless in his chair. Ten years behind bars had worn away most of the vitality he once had, and now, though only in his early thirties, streaks of gray already marked his hair, his back was hunched, and his eyes were dull. All of him reeked of decay and defeat.
Zhang Tianhua poured him a glass of water and set it down. “Ou Wei, have you remembered yet?” he asked. “When did you go to Mingcheng Complex? What were you doing at Building 1?”
Ou Wei licked his cracked lips but said nothing.
“You think staying silent will save you?” Zhang Tianhua continued while leaning forward. “Heaven’s net is vast, so you can’t escape it. If you don’t talk, it’s not like we’ll stop. We’ll just spend more time digging. But if we uncover it ourselves instead of hearing it from you, it’s not the same thing. You just got out of prison, what, planning to go right back in?”
When Zhang Tianhua mentioned prison, Ou Wei finally moved. He rubbed his fingertips together, and for a moment, Zhang Tianhua thought he was about to speak, but then he froze again, motionless.
Click.
Xia Hang had somehow gotten hold of a pack of cigarettes and a lighter. He lit one and placed it beside Ou Wei, saying, “Have a few puffs and clear your head.”
Ou Wei stared at the burning cigarette in silence. When the ember was about to die out, he finally picked it up and took a long, deep drag.
Just as he took the second, Xia Hang said evenly, “You went to Mingcheng Complex to see Yang Xiaoyu, didn’t you?”
Ou Wei’s head snapped up. At that, even Zhang Tianhua turned toward Xia Hang in surprise, but the rookie continued, calm as ever.
“You and Yang Xiaoyu went to the same high school. He was a freshman, you were a senior. You had a crush on him, didn’t you?” His tone was framed as a question, but it carried absolute certainty.
Ou Wei’s hand trembled, and ash fell onto the top of his foot. However, he didn’t even notice, just staring at Xia Hang, completely stunned.
And Xia Hang went on, his voice steady. “After you got out of prison, you stayed at your sister’s place. But your brother-in-law hated it and argued with your sister every day, taking shots at you between words. You later found out where Yang Xiaoyu’s grave was. When you went to pay respects, you ran into his mother and learned that ever since his death, the apartment he owned had been left empty. That’s when you got the idea to sneak in and live there, didn’t you?”
Ou Wei didn’t reply, but his posture shifted and became uneasy now, his earlier dead stillness gone.
Xia Hang’s tone didn’t waver. “When you got there, you started to pick the lock. But then, Yang Xiaoyu’s neighbor from across the hall came back, so you panicked and hid your tools. That apartment hadn’t been lived in for so long, and the neighbor nearly jumped out of his skin when he saw you standing there like a ghost. He cursed you out, but you just kept your head down, waiting for the elevator.”
“That same neighbor’s son was planning to buy a car. He’d just withdrawn sixty thousand yuan from the bank and kept it in a cloth bag covered with a jacket. You saw the cash underneath. After yelling at you, the neighbor turned around to change his shoes. His shoe cabinet was outside the door, and while he bent down to get his shoes, you reached over and stole a stack of bills from the bag.”
Ou Wei stared at Xia Hang, disbelief written all over his face. Zhang Tianhua was equally shocked, though he managed to keep it to himself.
The astonishment wasn’t limited to the interrogation room. Outside, Xia Ling leaned toward the monitor and whispered, “Captain Han, how does Xia Hang know all those details?! Judging from Ou Wei’s reaction, everything he said is spot on!”
Han Huaixiao’s gaze stayed fixed on Xia Hang through the glass. Eight years ago, that man had complained endlessly about how hard interrogation training was, and now he could dissect a suspect’s psyche with surgical precision. In the end, he couldn’t help wondering what, exactly, those eight years had done to him.
Inside, Ou Wei’s mental defenses finally cracked, and his voice shook, confessing: “I didn’t mean to take that money… it was a moment of madness, I swear! Afterward, I kept waiting for the police to come. When no one did, I thought I was safe… So I spent it all. I didn’t mean to be uncooperative, I just… I can’t go back to prison…” His voice broke into sobs.
Zhang Tianhua pressed, “You didn’t know there’d been a murder at Mingcheng Complex? You say nothing, and what if the killer pins it on you?”
Ou Wei froze mid-sob, terror replacing the tears. “Murder?!” he exclaimed, “What murder?! I didn’t know! You’re not here because of the money I stole from that neighbor?! Officer, I didn’t kill anyone! I only took ten thousand, that’s all, I swear!”
Through the earpiece, Han Huaixiao’s voice came low and controlled. “Ask him about Yang Xiaoyu’s apartment, why his parents never sold it.”
Zhang Tianhua rapped on the table. “Quiet. When you met Yang Xiaoyu’s mother at the cemetery, did she say why they left his apartment empty?”
“No.” Ou Wei shook his head. “I heard from an old classmate that Yang Xiaoyu bought a place at Mingcheng Complex. When I saw his mother at the cemetery, I mentioned I might visit someday, and she just said that the place used to be his, but since his death, it’s been left untouched. She never lived there.”
Outside, Han Huaixiao turned to Xia Ling, ordering, “Check whether Yang Xiaoyu’s apartment has ever been listed for sale.”
She nodded and left immediately.
A short while later, Xia Hang and Zhang Tianhua exited the interrogation room.
Zhang Tianhua threw an arm over Xia Hang’s shoulder as they walked toward Han Huaixiao, saying, “That was brilliant back there. But tell me, how did you know Ou Wei had a crush on Yang Xiaoyu?!”
“I looked through both of their files,” Xia Hang replied evenly. “They attended the same high school, and Ou Wei’s prison report listed his sexual orientation. I asked Wen Yu to dig up some old classmates’ numbers. One of them said they’d seen a bunch of photos of Yang Xiaoyu on Ou Wei’s phone back then, all taken secretly.”
“And the stolen money?” Zhang Tianhua asked.
“When Captain Han and I searched Mingcheng Complex,” Xia Hang said, “one of the neighbors mentioned that the police never caught the thief who took his cash. Since Ou Wei admitted being there but wouldn’t explain why, I figured that might be it. I reviewed that neighbor’s report, and it had all the details of his trip to the bank and back home. I showed Ou Wei’s photo to the local officer handling that area. The officer let the neighbor take a look, and sure enough, he recognized Ou Wei. Said he’d scared him half to death outside Yang Xiaoyu’s door.”
“Impressive,” Zhang Tianhua whistled softly. “You pieced all that together from scraps. All right, we can cross Ou Wei off the suspect list. That leaves the person who hired Peng Xiangye to hack into Yuan’an’s system. Captain Han, any progress from Wen Yu’s side?”
Han Huaixiao shook his head. “Not yet.”
Zhang Tianhua nudged Xia Hang’s arm, asking, “Got another cigarette? Watching you light one for Ou Wei made me crave one.”
Xia Hang glanced at Han Huaixiao, then pulled out the cigarettes and lighter from his pocket, handing them over.
Zhang Tianhua opened the pack and chuckled. “Well, would you look at that… same brand as Captain Han’s.”
At that, Han Huaixiao lowered his gaze. His eyes flicked to the cigarette pack and lighter in Zhang Tianhua’s hand, and then his brow furrowed.
“When did you steal my pack?”
“Before we came to the interrogation room,” Xia Hang coughed lightly.
Han Huaixiao recalled the moment. Xia Hang had passed behind him as he’d been focused on Wen Yu’s screen. Just one quick pass. And in that moment, the kid had managed to lift his cigarettes and lighter. Captain Han’s lips twitched into a wry grin, asking, “When’d you pick up that skill?”
“A few years ago,” Xia Hang replied.
Truthfully, his trick of the hand was nothing special. He’d only gotten away with it because Han Huaixiao had let his guard down on home turf, too absorbed in the case details to notice. Otherwise, with Captain Han’s reputation, Xia Hang wouldn’t have stood a chance.
Zhang Tianhua burst out laughing, shoving the pack and lighter back into Han Huaixiao’s hand.
“Didn’t think I’d live to see the day you got outfoxed, Captain!”
As for Xia Hang, he rubbed his nose sheepishly and slipped away before Han Huaixiao could say anything.
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