Wasn’t the police investigating the elevator accident?! How did it suddenly become an inquiry about a drunkard’s accidental death?!
The property manager arrived in person, clearly displeased. His tone was sharp, almost fuming: “Captain Han! You still haven’t cleared up the elevator accident, and now you’re digging into 1104 again! The police already investigated back then, and it was ruled an accident! His parents even accepted our compensation plan! If you stir this up again and the family comes to make trouble, our property office won’t be able to handle it!”
However, Han Huaixiao had seen plenty of people like him, so his voice hardened as he answered: “We are investigating the elevator accident. I can’t disclose more than that to you, and your job is to cooperate.”
“It’s been days!” The property manager still pressed. “Can’t you give a timeline for solving the case?! All the residents are asking what’s going on, and everyone’s on edge! We’ve been dealing with their questions and complaints nonstop; it’s exhausting. You should show some understanding for us, property staff!”
The way he said it made it sound as if the police were dragging their feet on purpose, so Xia Hang couldn’t help speaking up: “Solving a case requires evidence. We want this resolved even more than you do. My colleagues are no less exhausted than your property staff.”
The manager shot back, “If you’re no less exhausted, then have you found any clues?!”
Xia Hang replied evenly, “No comment.”
“You see?!” the manager said. “After all these days, that’s all you can say!”
“Are you finished?!” Now, even Han Huaixiao lost his patience. “If you’re finished, hand over the key!”
Faced with Han Huaixiao’s stare, the manager didn’t dare say another useless word and handed over the key to 1104.
Ever since the incident, only the police and Yang Xiaoyu’s parents had been inside the apartment, so most things remained untouched. However, the place was still a mess. Wearing shoe covers, Xia Hang walked in with Han Huaixiao, and almost gagged from the smell.
A carton of eggs sat on the dining table; no one knew when they were bought, as they were already rotten. The trash cans in the kitchen, bedroom, and living room were all full. Han Huaixiao noticed several cigarette butts piled in the ashtray on the coffee table. After examining them closely, he raised an eyebrow.
“What about the cigarettes?” Xia Hang asked.
“Eight butts,” Han Huaixiao said, “Six are from one brand, two from another. What do you think, could one of these belong to our suspect?”
Xia Hang immediately understood. If the suspect had smoked here, they could get his DNA, making it easier to identify him.
When the forensic examiners arrived, the first thing Han Huaixiao had them do was collect the cigarette butts. Then he had one of them rush the evidence back to the lab for expedited testing.
After calling the forensic team out in the middle of the night, Han Huaixiao wasn’t about to keep them working through the night while he rested. So, handing the car key to Xia Hang, he simply said, “Head back first.”
Realizing he couldn’t help much more anyway, Xia Hang took the key and went downstairs. However, he didn’t want the hassle of driving home, so he climbed into the back seat, pulled the thin blanket over himself, and went straight to sleep.
………………
Two hours later, Han Huaixiao and the forensic team came downstairs.
Seeing the car still there, they knew Xia Hang hadn’t left, so Han Huaixiao walked over. But the windows were shut tight, and Xia Hang wasn’t visible.
He called Xia Hang’s phone, and the ringtone sounded faintly from inside the car, but no one picked up. Han Huaixiao froze for a split second, his gaze snapping toward the closed window as a thought struck him, making his heartbeat lurch.
He yanked the door open.
Xia Hang was curled up in the back seat, completely still despite the loud ringtone.
Han Huaixiao lunged forward, hands trembling as he checked under Xia Hang’s nose. Feeling the faint warmth of breath, he closed his eyes briefly and exhaled…
…Then he immediately slammed a hard, stinging slap onto the seat back near Xia Hang’s shoulder.
Xia Hang woke up to Han Huaixiao’s furious expression. Still dazed, he sat up and asked, “What’s wrong?!”
Too angry to care about disturbing anyone at that hour, Han Huaixiao slammed the back door shut with a bang that shattered the quiet of the neighborhood, then yanked open the driver’s door. Next, he pulled the car out of the complex, but even after driving for quite a while, his anger still wouldn’t settle. In the end, he snapped, “Do you have any common sense at all?! Doors shut, windows shut, engine on, and you fell asleep like that?! Are you tired of living?! Did you spend so many years abroad eating hamburgers that you ate your brain clean?! Xia Hang, did I owe you something in a past life? You dumped me eight years ago like flipping a switch, and now, what? I come down an hour late, and I have to collect your corpse?!”
Xia Hang blinked, stunned.
He distinctly remembered leaving a gap in the window before falling asleep, but… did he press the wrong button?
Knowing he was in the wrong, he could only keep quiet and let Han Huaixiao scold him. Only when the passing street scenery became unfamiliar did he finally ask, “Where are we going?”
Blinded by anger, Han Huaixiao had taken a wrong turn at some point, without noticing. But realizing it now only made him angrier. His voice was rigid enough to choke someone, barking back: “The funeral home!”
Thinking of that earlier “collect your corpse” line, Xia Hang was about to offer to switch places and drive so Han Huaixiao could sleep in the back. But seeing Captain Han’s current state… he thought better of it, lay back down, and stayed quiet, not daring to provoke the raging dragon in the front seat.
By the time they returned to the Municipal Bureau, dawn had broken.
The moment he stepped out of the car, Han Huaixiao walked off, and, from the direction he headed, Xia Hang could tell he was going to the training field.
He didn’t sleep all night and still planned to train?! Xia Hang thought. Was he trying to compete for some ‘sudden death’ award?!
“Han Huaixiao, where are you going?” he called after him.
“We’re at work! Watch your address!” Han Huaixiao wore an expression that practically carved out a line between them.
“…Captain Han, where are you going?”
But Han Huaixiao didn’t look back, nor did he answer.
Xia Hang stood there for a moment like a punished student before finally heading toward the cafeteria. After breakfast, he went up to the office where everyone had arrived early and was already working. Seeing him come in, Zhang Tianhua asked, “Xia Hang, did you come back alone?”
“No, I came back with Captain Han.”
“Then where is he?”
“He went toward the training field. Probably to work out.”
Zhang Tianhua snorted a laugh. “His stamina is monstrous,” he started to complain. “Normal people pull an all-nighter and need a full day to recover! But he… he runs a few laps, takes a cold shower, and he’s good as new!”
Ling Yue added, “You think his ex-boyfriend dumped him because he couldn’t handle that freakish stamina?”
The ex-boyfriend in the room: …
However, Zhang Tianhua waved a hand. “Probably not. You’re a man too, you should know that physical stamina doesn’t mean seven times a night.”
“Then what?” Ling Yue leaned in, “Maybe he’s all stamina and… lacking in other areas?”
The ex-boyfriend who remembered the reason he gave when breaking up: …
Ling Yue was about to keep going when the ladies, Xia Ling and Wen Yu, walked in, so he swallowed the rest of his comment. A moment later, Han Huaixiao also entered, wearing freshly changed clothes and his hair still half-dry.
Carrying her water cup, Xia Ling sighed dramatically in front of the closed office door. “What a man,” she complained. “Too bad he’s not interested in women.”
Wen Yu added, “Does Captain Han even know how good he looks every time he works out, showers, and comes back with his hair like that?!”
Xia Ling laughed, “I don’t know if he knows, but every police station under us sure does.”
At that, even Kong Qinmao chuckled. Xia Hang, however, looked completely confused, all the way until Wen Yu explained with a smile, “One time, our Captain Han was playing tennis outside and just happened to run into a jumper incident. The local officers and firefighters talked for ages but couldn’t convince the girl. Captain Han saw the crowd, went up to ask a few questions, then said a few words to her himself. She took one look at him, all fresh from exercise, and gradually calmed down. Firefighters seized the chance and pulled her to safety.”
Xia Ling chimed in, still laughing, “And another time it was a high school boy. Captain Han just happened to be nearby again. Firefighters weren’t there yet, and the outer wall had no footing, so Captain Han meant to go up and physically assist. But the kid saw him, blushed like hell, and climbed down on his own. Somehow, those two incidents spread among the precincts. Now, whenever something like that happens, they all pray Captain Han is nearby to seduce someone out of committing suicide.”
Hearing all of those stories, Xia Hang smiled faintly, thinking: But none of you know that our Captain Han looks his best after some indoor type of exercise…
The light banter broke through the tense atmosphere a bit, and by afternoon, good news finally arrived. The forensics team extracted three DNA profiles from the cigarette butts collected from Yang Xiaoyu’s apartment, and one of them matched a man with a record: Chen Zhengde, who had served two years in prison for a gang fight twenty years ago. Not only that, but his old photo also closely resembled the masked suspect’s facial features.
Tech teams also traced the person who hired the hacker, Peng Xiangye, but when officers moved in, the suspect had already fled. However, the samples collected at his temporary hideout matched Chen Zhengde as well.
Xia Ling uncovered more information: “Yang Xiaoyu’s apartment was never listed for sale. His parents desperately need money right now, and they’ve been trying to borrow everywhere. But they never considered selling the apartment. I checked, and Yang Xiaoyu bought it with cash. His parents transferred him a hundred thousand, but the rest of the money was his own.”
“That apartment must’ve been over four million when he bought it,” Ling Yue said with a frown. “How did he make that kind of money?”
“He started working right after high school,” Xia Ling answered, “bartender, car salesman, club attendant, but never stayed at a job longer than three months. However, starting at age twenty, every year on his birthday, a large sum would be deposited into his account. The sender was the club he used to work at.”
Kong Qinmao blinked. “What kind of club keeps sending birthday money to an ex-employee?!”
“Xia Ling, Ling Yue, go to the club and find out why they transferred money to him every year.” Captain Han ordered.
“Got it.”
After they left, Han Huaixiao turned toward the stack of files on the table, staring at the photos of Yang Xiaoyu, his parents, and Chen Zhengde. Suddenly, he picked up his phone, saying, “Old He, please run a test for me. Check whether there’s a blood relation between Chen Zhengde and Yang Xiaoyu.”
Everyone looked at the photos as Captain Han continued, “Xia Hang, Qinmao, you two go find Yang Xiaoyu’s mother.”
“Ask her if she knows Chen Zhengde.”
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