Gaoxin District, Qin Gulf project manager’s office.
Recordings from all four of the cameras at the construction site were displayed simultaneously on the screen. Yu Baiqing and Zhang Yu stood side by side behind Chen Anyang as they watched him carefully drag the progress bar on the computer screen.
Behind them, the project manager asked anxiously, “Officers, didn’t the police take all the recordings with them the previous time? Or is there some other problem?”
He had quickly rushed from his house to the construction site upon hearing that officers from the municipal bureau’s criminal investigation unit were going to drop by personally. The Qin Gulf project was currently in semi-shutdown. Most of the construction workers had already annulled their contracts and left in search of their next gig. The remaining workers were still paid their salaries as per usual, but he dared not unilaterally make the decision to resume work until the Group had given permission.
Seeing that Yu Baiqing kept instructing Chen Anyang to move the progress bar backwards, Zhang Yu asked in confusion, “Old Yu, what are you going around in circles for?”
Yu Baiqing’s eyes were glued to the computer screen. He remained silent, brows knitted. When it was a few days before the first incident, he suddenly spoke up, “Stop.”
Out of the four images on the screen, three of the cameras were functioning normally. Only the image on the upper right had turned dark.
The camera on the upper right just so happened to be the one facing the construction site. It was the camera that had recorded the first incident.
Yu Baiqing asked the project manager, “This camera wasn’t switched on in the past?”
“…Yes,” The manager took some time to recall. “The other cameras were already installed when we first won the tender. They were mainly used to monitor this plot of land as well as the surrounding area. As for this camera, it was only switched on when we started work on 23th July. It wasn’t in use before that.”
Yu Baiqing nodded. “Anyang, go back to the day they started work. Randomly choose a time in the day. Play it at 16 times the speed.”
Chen Anyang dragged the progress bar to July 23th, day time. The recording started playing. There was a heavy look in Yu Baiqing’s eyes as he fixed his gaze on the screen.
On the day work started, virtually nobody appeared in the vicinity of the site. The majority of the construction workers were reflected in the recording of another camera, gathered at the empty plot of land behind the back door. They took part in the groundbreaking ceremony while waiting to move materials and load up trucks.
Nearing noon time, two workers wearing safety helmets appeared at the fringes of the surveillance recording, chatting as they passed by.
“Pause here,” Yu Baiqing instructed. “Play it at 0.5 speed.”
The rate at which time elapsed gradually slowed down. Just as the two people were about to leave the site, there was a slight abrupt shake in the image.
This shake didn’t last for even a second. Without meticulous scrutiny, one would just chalk it up to a bug in the video or simply a misperception by the viewer.
“I found this camera’s serial model from the procurement lists He Guanyu handed to the police,” Yu Baiqing stooped over and pressed the pause button for the screen. “Dayan NX863 – this is a three-photo surveillance camera equipped with humanoid tracking capabilities.”
Guan Xingwen had once complained to him that the murder scene was full of surveillance dead angles. If the cameras had recorded the people nearby the site on the night of Sang Xingwen and Cui Shengde’s death, the police would have a far easier time cracking the case.
Zhang Yu: “..You mean to say that the camera shook just now because it was following the figures of those two passersby?”
“NX863 is considered an older model of those in the same series, so it doesn’t capture the angles as cleanly. The fact that there was a reaction when recording people shows that its tracking function had been activated. But because those people only appeared on half of the screen and also very quickly disappeared, the adjustments in angle were not significant,” Yu Baiqing answered.
The technical reconnaissance team had heavily analyzed and processed the recordings up to two nights before the day of the incident. During their previous investigations of the recording, he had once taken note of this abnormal shake, but had not linked the reason for the shake to the two passersby in the recording.
An epiphany had suddenly come to him this morning when he saw the camera on the fridge slowly moving in accordance with the kitten’s movements.
This was a detail that could be overlooked extremely easily.
Zhang Yu furrowed his brows as well. A thoughtful look appeared on his face. “If we go by your logic, the camera should also have moved when Sang Xingwen and the other three people walked by.”
But in the recordings the police obtained, the camera was immobile, maintaining a fixed angle just like the other three ordinary cameras in the construction site.
Yu Baiqing already had a hypothesis. He stood up in front of the computer.
“The camera’s tracking function was operating normally during the day, yet suddenly failed at night when recording the crime scene,” He said. “There can only be one explanation – someone reset this camera.”
Only by returning the camera to its default settings would smart components like the tracking function have to be re-installed. At some point, whether before or after the crime occurred, the murderer or someone else had tampered with the camera, causing the automatic tracking function to fail.
There was a blank look on the face of the project manager. “…Impossible. I lock the doors every day after work, nobody can come in as and when they want.”
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
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A phone on the table vibrated twice. Chen Anyang swiped the screen and found that Yu Baiqing had sent a new message to the technical reconnaissance team’s chat group.
[Qing: @Nicholas.Guan Are you sure the surveillance recordings of the construction site have not been edited?]
Nicholas.Guan replied to this message instantly. He called the captain by his full name, even adding a succession of furious emojis at the end: [Yu Baiqing! Are you doubting our professional capabilities? (enraged) (enraged) (enraged)]
In the technical reconnaissance team’s office, Guan Xingwen pushed his half-eaten instant noodles to the side. He sat in front of his computer in agitation, ordering his subordinates, “Re-screen all the recordings of the crime scene, report back immediately if you discover anything unusual!”
Lord Guan was in a bad mood now, an exceedingly bad mood.
This was their technical reconnaissance team’s bread and butter. If they really couldn’t identify any issues, it would be utter humiliation for him as the leader.
Who could escape their discerning eyes and dare to play underhanded tricks right under their noses?
Yu Baiqing dimmed his phone. He took out a stick from his cigarette box and continued questioning the confused project manager beside him. “The witness on the night Cui Shengde was killed, where is he?”
“You mean Kang Liu?”
“En.”
“He’s around, he’s around,” The manager hurriedly replied. “Speaking of this, it’s weird. So many creepy things have happened here and most of the other workers left after settling their wages. Only Kang Liu remained without any intention of leaving.”
Yu Baiqing bit his cigarette. “Get him to make a trip here, we would like to speak to him.”
–
The manager dispatched someone to call Kang Liu over. In the meantime, the group from the municipal bureau ate lunch at the construction site.
Chen Anyang ordered two dishes and a soup from a nearby family restaurant. When he returned, there was an additional bag of piping hot steamed dumplings in his hands.
The strong smell of dumplings overflowed from the bag. Yu Baiqing, who was resting on an office chair, opened his eyes a smidgen. Chen Anyang handed him a plastic bowl containing vinegar. There was a momentary blank look on Yu Baiqing’s face before he extended his hands to accept it, thanking Chen Anyang.
Looking at the way Yu Baiqing swallowed one dumpling after another in front of the computer, Zhang Yu stroked Chen Anyang’s crew-cut head. “I couldn’t tell, but you’re actually quite discerning?”
Touching the back of his own head – the spot where Zhang Yu had stroked – Chen Anyang smiled mischievously. “How can that be? I also–”
He was midway through his sentence when he saw Yu-ge’s line of sight move towards them. As if suddenly recalling something, he immediately shut his mouth and quietly lowered his head, drinking his soup.
He’d originally wanted to say that Yu-ge’s di had told him so at the snack street. In the end, he almost sold Ying Wan out after he’d specially asked him to keep it a secret.
“But Anyang, do you know why Old Yu likes steamed dumplings so much?”
Zhang Yu didn’t seem to have sensed anything off about Chen Anyang. Glancing at Yu Baiqing not too far away, he posed this question to the little police officer in front of him.
Chen Anyang shook his head obediently.
“You’d better not say that I told you this,” Zhang Yu stirred his soup with his chopsticks, lowering his volume. “This matter is actually somewhat linked to me.”
“Old Yu and I were university classmates in the past. Back then, we were both the main forces of our school’s basketball team and couldn’t stand each other. If not for the school rules, we would probably fight every time we met.”
“Old Yu’s expenses were very tight when he was schooling, but he wanted to preserve his reputation and wouldn’t tell anyone. There was once he had low blood sugar when in a 1v1 against me. He blacked out and nearly didn’t get back up. That was when I found out he didn’t eat breakfast for many consecutive days so he could save money.”
Picking up a mouthful of vegetables with his chopsticks, Zhang Yu continued recounting, “Quite a few girls from the neighboring university had a crush on Old Yu and often came to the court at the school’s back entrance to deliver chocolates, mineral water, and whatnot. His di was still young at that time. After hearing that Yu Baiqing had fainted on the court from hunger, he bought a hundred dumpling skins from who-knows-where and spent every day at home learning how to make dumplings. After he finished making them, he would ask the female university student living near his house to place the dumplings at the side of the court. He would write a note with Yu Baiqing’s name on it to make it seem like it was a gift from an admirer.”
“Yu-ge didn’t find out?” Chen Anyang whispered.
“Of course he did,” Zhang Yu laughed. “His di can’t see and nicked his hand many times when cooking. The dumpling stuffing he used was also a third-rate product bought from some shady workshop. Yu Baiqing had diarrhea for quite a few days because of that and didn’t have the energy to bicker with me on the court.”
“After that, Old Yu’s tastes changed.”
Chen Anyang lamented, “Yu-ge has such a great relationship with his didi. It would be good if I also had a gege.”
“Are Old Ruan and I still not fit to be your ge at this age? If we get any older, we can even be your uncles,” Zhang Yu tapped his chopsticks against Chen Anyang’s bowl. “Hurry up, it’ll get cold if you still don’t eat.”
Yu Baiqing had a great relationship with his di?
If not for Ying Wan, Yu Baiqing wouldn’t have braved such immense danger and chosen to take on that mission.
Almost nobody who took part in that operation returned alive. The moment Old Yu signed his name on that dispatch order, he had bet on his own life.
Zhang Yu gave a faint laugh, shaking his head helplessly.
This child Chen Anyang was still too innocent.
–
After their meal in the office, the three of them met Kang Liu, who was led in by the manager.
Standing in front of them was a middle-aged man around the age of forty. He was not taller than 1.7 meters, his back slightly hunched over in illness. His complexion gave him a malnourished look.
From the moment he entered the office, his gaze constantly flittered back and forth evasively. His expression was stretched taut with anxiety.
“Don’t be scared, these police officers are just here to ask you questions, not put you in jail,” The manager’s attitude towards Kang Liu couldn’t be considered kind. In fact, he appeared quite impatient. “If you have anything to say, just be honest. Got it?”
“Yes, yes–”
Kang Liu nodded repeatedly. His hands gripped the edges of his uniform tightly and his gaze remained downcast as he stood at a corner.
After the manager left, Chen Anyang dragged a chair over for Kang Liu. “Don’t stand, sit down.”
Kang Liu sat down cautiously. He swallowed, asking uneasily, “Officers, I really don’t know anything…”
Ever since he walked in with the project manager, Yu Baiqing had been silently observing him.
Kang Liu had already undergone a round of questioning at the municipal bureau. The night Cui Shengde was murdered, he had secretly flipped over the wall back into the construction site after drinking outside. He had then coincidentally witnessed the ‘revived’ Sang Xingwen knocking Cui Shengde out. Kang Liu had been in a drunken stupor at that time and had directly fainted from shock, lying splayed out at a corner of the wall.
When he woke up from his stupor, he believed that he had hallucinated from the alcohol. That is, until he walked to the site and saw Cui Shengde’s deformed body with his own eyes.
Of the four construction workers who had appeared at the scene, he was the most cowardly and unremarkable of them all. For the time being, it was unclear why he had still chosen to remain at the site after two consecutive murders instead of hastily packing up and leave such a sketchy area.
“Tell us your impression of Sang Xingwen.”
Yu Baiqing asked directly.
“I…I told the officer previously that the four of us had just gotten to know each other at the construction site on the 21st. Sang Xingwen died just a few days after. He and I merely drank together a few times, we can’t be considered familiar–”
Yu Baiqing interrupted him, “How many times did you drink together?”
He had seized a detail from Kang Liu’s words. Kang Liu had said ‘a few times’, meaning they had not only drunk on the night of the incident.
Kang Liu rubbed his nose with the back of his hand. “We had not started work those days and were just getting to know each other, so we would go out to drink and play cards every night.”
Halfway through, he paused. “…Officer, I thought of something.”
“Every time we went drinking, it was always Sang Xingwen who treated us. He was very generous, so we all liked going out with him.”
Zhang Yu flipped to the testimony Kang Liu had given previously. He looked up. “The incident happened in the wee hours of the morning. The three of you left first, leaving Sang Xingwen alone at the site. Was this because he said he wanted to stay behind and take photos of the moon?”
“Yes, that’s what happened,” Kang Liu nodded. His eyes turned in all directions. “He’s a very strange guy. Every night after drinking, he’ll always say he wants to stay behind to take photos of the moon. What’s so nice about the moon?”
“Let’s talk more about Cui Shengde,” Yu Shengde said. “He operated the loader and seemed to have a pretty good relationship with Sang Xingwen. Do you think he could be linked to this case?”
“Sang Xingwen already had his eyes on Old Cui when he first came to the construction site. The two of them were very close. The rest of us only joined up with them later,” Kang Liu seemed a bit more relaxed than when he first came. He relaxed his perpetual grip on his clothes and accepted the paper cup Chen Anyang offered to him. “Old Cui, how should I say… he’s not what he appears to be.”
The police officers sitting opposite him looked up simultaneously, as if waiting for him to continue.
“He had a certain habit. Every night around 3am, he would go outside the dormitory to relieve himself. I slept on the mattress beside him and happened to still be awake those few nights. I heard him swearing outside the dormitory in a very foul manner. If he wasn’t cursing the supervisor, he was cursing his wife. His words were very vulgar.”
There was a rustling sound in the air from a pen scribbling across paper.
Chen Anyang saw that his two seniors were silent and quietly lifted his hand. “Uh… one question, there’s someone amongst the four of you called Peng something. Right, Peng Zhengchu. Where is he now?”
Kang Liu shook his head. “I don’t know. But the manager and supervisor should know. He came from the same place as another group of people. They probably all went to work at another construction site.”
Zhang Yu passed Kang Liu’s testimony to Yu Baiqing, and saw that he had written three phrases side by side on his work notebook: [Camera, moon, Cui Shengde]
‘Moon’ and ‘camera’ had been circled individually. An arrow connected them.
“Something strange?”
Zhang Yu pointed at Yu Baiqing’s book while Chen Anyang was asking Kang Liu about the other details.
Yu Baiqing answered him with another question, “Why do you think Cui Shengde was killed?”
“First place wants to test me again?”
Raising a brow, Zhang Yu’s expression turned solemn once more. “Very simple. The fake Sang Xingwen, or rather the murderer, had returned to the crime scene that morning for some reason. Cui Shengde bumped into them when he went out.”
“Cui Shengde left the dormitory at 1.50am. This is inconsistent with what Kang Liu shared, namely Cui Shengde’s routine of leaving at 3am. There is a good chance the murderer had assumed Cui Shengde would only appear at 3am and hence rushed back to the scene at that time to deal with evidence. But Cui Shengde came out earlier than expected, so they had no choice but to silence him in a moment of desperation.”
“Did you forget? The person who discovered the corpse after the first murder was Cui Shengde, who came out at approximately 3am.” Yu Baiqing elaborated, “During this incident, the murderer had already calculated the timings with utmost care.”
“The time everyone was invited out to drink, the time when photos of the moon were taken, the time both murders were committed, the time when the witness found the corpse. Out of all these timings, only Cui Shengde disrupted their original plan because he came out earlier than expected.”
The regular drinking sessions, the daily photos of the moon in the phone album. The fake Sang Xingwen had appeared at the Qin Gulf construction site and approached three of the workers. what was his motive? Did the real Sang Xingwen’s death have anything to do with him?
Most importantly, where was the fake Sang Xingwen now?
They spent the entire afternoon comparing the surveillance recordings and testimonies. Outside the window, the horizon was dyed a dusky yellow. The day was almost over and nighttime was fast approaching.
After sending Kang Liu off, Yu Baiqing sent Guan Xingwen a message asking him to forward all the photos of the moon that were saved in the deceased’s photo album.
Not long after, a notification that Ruan Tianjie was calling popped up on his screen.
Yu Baiqing’s left eyelid twitched abruptly.
Intuition told him that for Old Ruan to be calling him after work hours, there couldn’t be anything good.
When the call connected, he heard Ruan Tianjie ask in a fluster, “Old Yu, are you still at the construction site?”
“What happened?”
Yu Baiqing asked.
“Come to the snack street as soon as possible when you’re back.”
A burst of noise erupted in the background. Ruan Tianjie paused before saying hesitantly, “Your di…is being chased by the local enforcement officers.”
Mischievous didi at it again haha
Thanks for the chapter!
Poor yu ge just can’t seem to catch a break 😂 how is he not fainting from high blood pressure yet lmaoo