Guo Xing lived in Wangcheng, a suburb of Xiang City. It was a large villa complex, and since it had only recently been completed, the occupancy rate was low. Guo Xing lived in one of these villas. Only a few shops had opened at the entrance of the residential complex: a small convenience store, a pharmacy, a fruit stand, and two or three restaurants. One was a "Wild Live Fish Manor," and another served home-style cooking. As noon approached, some customers had already arrived, and business seemed to be good.
According to the property management's registration records, someone else had rented the villa. A quick check by the police revealed it was a fake ID.
Jing Ping and You Mingxu, along with Xu Mengshan and two other forensics personnel, arrived outside the villa. Everyone, including Xu Mengshan, only knew that they were there to apprehend a criminal suspect. There were orders from above, so You Mingxu naturally wouldn't take it upon herself to tell her partner. When the time came that it could no longer be concealed, those who needed to know would naturally find out.
Unexpectedly, the villa rented by this dangerous criminal was quite charming. It had a rather large yard with a fish pond, and the flowers and plants were well-tended. You Mingxu leaned closer to the fish pond for a look. Interesting. The man didn't raise goldfish; instead, a few grass carp and silver carp swam in the pond. Their fins were pale and their colors vibrant. They were all about the length of a forearm and uniform in size.
The door lock was intact, with no signs of being broken. Xu Mengshan took out the key he had gotten from property management and opened the door. A single glance revealed a spacious and quiet interior.
The group walked in. The house was only simply furnished. The living room décor was also simple, consisting of a sofa, a coffee table, and a television. Other than that, it was empty. The staircase was on the inner side. You Mingxu and Xu Mengshan had a long-standing rapport; Xu Mengshan walked over to the trash can, put on gloves, and began rummaging through its contents, while You Mingxu went to the coffee table and picked up the items on it to examine them one by one. The two forensics personnel began to search for and collect traces and fingerprints in the house.
Jing Ping stood behind them, turning out to be the most idle one. His habit was to first observe the layout. The living room had three windows; were they suitable for escape? The stairs leading up were rather narrow, with no hidden compartments. He lifted the sofa cushions and felt underneath, knowing instantly that no drugs were hidden there. An old hand like Guo Xing wouldn't hide drugs in such an obvious place. At this thought, he smiled enigmatically.
Xu Mengshan lifted a takeout container from the trash bag, opened it, and sniffed. He frowned and said, "The temperature in the house is low, but this is already starting to stink. It's been here for at least three days."
You Mingxu met his gaze. In her hand were several sets of takeout utensils, all from the same restaurant as the one in Xu Mengshan's hand.
They both understood the meaning in each other's eyes. Guo Xing favored takeout from this particular restaurant. There were no other food containers in the house, which meant the previous ones had all been thrown away. Observing the cleanliness of the house, one could also determine that Guo Xing was not a slob. In other words, this takeout meal from three days ago was likely the last one he ordered.
You Mingxu gave Xu Mengshan a look, and he immediately looked up the restaurant's number online and made a call. Sure enough, because Guo Xing always ordered from this place, the owner remembered him. "Yes, an order was placed for this address at noon three days ago, but he hasn't ordered these past few days."
You Mingxu turned to Jing Ping and said, "The time of disappearance was very likely in the afternoon three days ago."
Jing Ping nodded. This was also consistent with the time estimated by their colleagues who had been staking out the place from a distance. But precisely because they were planning to cast a long line to catch a big fish, they hadn't been watching so closely, and as a result, the person had vanished.
Jing Ping walked up the stairs. When he reached the landing, he looked down and saw You Mingxu and her group scattered throughout the living room, continuing their work in quiet concentration. The work of a criminal police officer was probably much more tedious and cumbersome than that of a narcotics officer, though it certainly wasn't without its own passion and danger. But it was different from the frequent hails of bullets he had faced before. For some reason, looking at these new colleagues, a sense of gentle stability rose in Jing Ping's heart. He shook his head with a smile and went upstairs.
There were three bedrooms upstairs. Only the largest master bedroom had a bed and a wardrobe; the others were completely empty. The furniture was all brand new. Jing Ping looked around, finally walking to the bedside. He pressed against the wall, crouched down, and looked for a good while. He then pushed the bed aside and ran his fingers inch by inch along the wood behind the headboard. When he touched a certain spot, his expression shifted. He took a screwdriver from his pocket, pried gently, and a block of wood fell away, revealing a bag of white powder inside.
By the time You Mingxu and Xu Mengshan walked into the bedroom, Jing Ping had already found four such bags from various hidden corners on the second floor and placed them on the floor. It was at least 300 grams in total.
Jing Ping put the screwdriver and a miniature Phillips-head back in his pocket and waved a test strip in his hand. The strip had already turned blue. He said, "It's heroin."
You Mingxu and Xu Mengshan hadn't been deeply involved in this kind of work before. They were both shaken and picked up the small bags to look. Xu Mengshan said, "Awesome. With this, is it enough to sentence Guo Xing to death?"
Jing Ping stood up and put all the drugs into evidence bags. His tone was nonchalant. "Yeah." He showed no excitement, his expression as languid as ever. You Mingxu and Xu Mengshan exchanged a glance, thinking: This guy must have seen it all, not even batting an eye at 300 grams of heroin.
However, as You Mingxu looked at Jing Ping's silent, standing figure, she felt he had a special kind of aura. Was every decorated police officer who had survived countless brushes with death like this—unflappable even if Mount Tai were to collapse before them, utterly unfathomable?
Leaving the master bedroom, the three of them entered the adjacent secondary bedroom. This room was completely empty, with nothing in it. They walked in, did a lap, and came out, leaving it for the forensics team to process.
The third room contained several storage cabinets, also new. You Mingxu opened one. Inside were several quilts—thick ones, spring and autumn ones, and air-conditioning quilts, all new and still in their packaging. You Mingxu smiled and said, "It seems Guo Xing is quite meticulous about his life and was planning to live here long-term. The furniture is all newly bought, and he bought quilts for all four seasons at once."
Xu Mengshan added, "So his 'disappearance' was, at the very least, not part of his plan."
They both looked at Jing Ping. He stared at the quilts and nodded.
In the second cabinet were some miscellaneous items: a home toolbox, which Xu Mengshan opened to find hammers, wrenches, screwdrivers, and an electric drill—nothing was missing. There were also a few bags of screws and hardware. Xu Mengshan glanced at them and said, "These are probably leftovers from assembling the furniture." You Mingxu chimed in, "Guo Xing really is a meticulous person."
The cabinet was half a square meter wide. One half held these items, while the other half was empty. Xu Mengshan said, "What's missing?"
You Mingxu, however, froze for a moment. The scene was familiar. Once, in Zhang Wei's office at the Gold Splitting Treasure Company, she and that person had discovered a moved tea set, which led them step by step to deduce the whereabouts of the evidence Fan Jia had exchanged her life for.
The silly image of that person standing beside her, smiling and seeking credit, flashed through her mind. You Mingxu immediately composed herself, her gaze returning to the obviously half-empty cabinet. The traces were so clear. Either the person who took the item was in too much of a hurry to cover their tracks, or they never intended to. Given that there were no signs of forced entry or a struggle in the house, nor any trace of a second person, if someone else had truly been here and managed to clean the scene so perfectly, the issue of not having time to cover tracks wouldn't exist. Therefore, she leaned toward the latter: there was no need to cover tracks. And the person who took the item was Guo Xing himself.
Leaning closer to look, she found a speck of mud on the inner wooden panel of the cabinet. She dabbed a little on her finger and brought it to her nose to smell. It had a faint, fishy, watery scent. Then she stuck her head into the cabinet and sniffed hard.
While she was doing this, Xu Mengshan stood beside her, lighting the area with his phone, and also stuck his head in to smell. Jing Ping stood behind them, not interrupting. When You Mingxu dabbed the mud to smell it, Jing Ping's gaze followed, landing on her finger and the tip of her nose.
You Mingxu turned to him with a smile. "I think I know where Guo Xing went three days ago. Give me a few minutes, I'll go confirm it." Xu Mengshan whistled. He also had a vague feeling that something was off about the whole house, but his mind was still missing that spark of insight to connect the dots. Otherwise, why would he willingly call her "Sister You"?
Jing Ping's attention was habitually focused on drug busts and arrests, so he hadn't paid much attention to the finer details of the traces. Hearing her words, he raised his monolid eyes and gave You Mingxu a half-smiling look.
You Mingxu said, "Didn't you want to see our criminal investigation methods? Just wait."
Jing Ping actually laughed, watching this girl full of sharp edges walk downstairs, out the door, and toward the complex entrance.
Jing Ping turned to Xu Mengshan and asked, "Is she always this aggressive?"
Xu Mengshan said, "Yeah, Sister You is the bureau's top dog. But don't worry, Brother Jing, she's always been one to bully the weak and fear the strong. She would never dare to challenge you."
Jing Ping laughed again. "Then is her boyfriend completely henpecked?"
Thinking of Yin Feng, Xu Mengshan said irritably, "What boyfriend? She doesn't have one. She's single."
Jing Ping didn't seem to mind and turned to inspect another area.
Before long, You Mingxu returned. She slapped her hand on the main door and said with a grin, "Alright, kids, I've got the address. Follow me."
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