UNEDITED: PLEASE WAIT FOR SOMETIME

“Should we break it?” 

“Let me try opening it.” 

“You know how to pick a lock.” 

“Since he is not so close with others, the chances that we might be able to collect different fingerprint samples will be very less. Let’s try our best.” 

“It seems like he only took his clothes.” 

“The rest of things are here only.” 

“What’s it, captain?” 

“It’s a hair strand…a long one.” 

“A woman?” 

“Totally. Otherwise, it should be some man who got long hair.” 

The view is pretty nice from here.” 

“It seems like he used to burn plastics in it. No matter how ignorant you are, how can someone burn plastics on a stove inside the house.” 

“Damn….is he running a shop or what?” 

“You are done?” 

“Captain, officer Han wants to talk to you.”

“Ya, how many cigarettes do you smoke in a day?” 

“What?”

“You are the only chain smoker, I know.”

“This is no time to joke.”

“We have found nearly ten packets of cigarettes from Shu Lili’s secret chamber. It’s called Morbius,”

“Morbius? That’s a Daisunese brand. I don’t think they sell it in this country. How come it’s with her?”

“Woahhh, you can even tell the country just by listening to the brand.”

“Captain,”

“Damn!!!”

“What happened there?”

“Nothing. We will wrap it as soon as possible and join you.”

“Shen Junru, I don’t know what you do or how you do… collect every single fingerprint you can gather from here. Even those on the packages.”

“Were you aware of the fact that your daughter used to smoke?”

“No. She said that someone else might have put the cigarettes in her backpack.”

“Apparently your daughter happened to be a smoker. It doesn’t seem like she is an addict. She just wants to play around.”

“Mr Shu, this is your chance to speak. If you remain silent, we will be missing a clue that might point towards the daughter’s murderer.”

“So tell us the truth, what was the real reason to kill Hu Geng Xin.”

“Kill, I didn’t kill anyone.”

“Really, you want me to believe that?”

“I would have killed him if Ran Xianqi, didn’t meddle between me and that wretched bastard,”

“Wretched bastard, that’s some serious allegations you are putting on someone.”

“You don’t know what he did to my daughter and our family.”

“He took advantage of my little girl and wanted to marry her? How dare he?”

“Before going to imperial were there any changes on him? Did he looked scared or worried or anything?” 

“No. I don’t think so. He looked the same.” 

“Did he fight with anyone or anything like that?” 

“No..no.. absolutely not. Why would someone fight with him? He was someone who often worked with police. Even before going to imperial, he dug that skeleton for officer Pei.” 

“What Ran Xianqi? Did he came back here?” 

“No. He actually found a job in imperial.” 

“Hmmm. Is there anyway we could get Ran Xianqi’s contact details?” 

“He used to do business with village head, so maybe he can help you.” 

“Does anyone have other questions?” 

“You said that 

“So another character?” Wan Yi  Jun’s eyes darted towards his team members and signalled them to take note. 

The number of witnesses and suspects on their list was growing more and more as their investigation advanced further. 

Before they could lose another important piece of evidence, Bing Wen quickly opened his laptop and searched for the name Ran Xianqi on their suspect list. 

Unfortunately, there weren’t any.

“Do you know his contact number or address or anything?” Wan Yi Jun asked the men who sat before him with a docile look on their faces.

“No. We know nothing about Ran Xianqi apart from the fact that he was also an immigrant from Zhi Ruo.” Mao Bai answered every single query of Wan Yi Jun so obediently that everyone forgot the earlier incident when he treated two police officers like nobody.

After listening to both Mao Bai and Zhu Yuhai’s experience of encounter with a random delivery man, Wan Yi Jun put an end to their topic with an atom bomb. 

“How far is Zhi Ruo?” 

“Good lord, why?” Han Ze Min shrieked and tightly shut his eyes as if he encountered something he utterly disliked.

“Please don’t tell me we have to go to Zhi Ruo now and track this Ran guy.”

To be very honest, his heart and mind were involved in a continuous conflict since last night.

His heart wanted to return to imperial and meet Ming Yue to persuade her to sign the deal whereas his mind argued to stay back and solve the crime. 

He was hoping to wrap everything in Gui Xiang within two days and return to imperial, but Wan Yi Jun and his simple question just poured dirty water over his plans with Ming Yue. 

“I told you before,” Wan Yi Jun tried to remind Han Ze Min of his earlier words about going to any extent to find the truth and overlooked the sulky faces of his team members before continuing with the interrogation.

“It is really far if you go by road. But only take two hours if you take the sea route.” Mao Bai informed them and watched how Wan Yi Jun sought his teammate’s opinion through simple gestures and glances. 

For some reason, the way Wan Yi Jun behaved with others surprised him. He was really the heart and soul of the team, yet he didn’t act like a highly controlling and narcissistic superior. 

“Are we planning to go there, captain? Should I adjust our schedule?” Lao Yating asked without any hesitations. As someone who was hellbound on getting to the end of this maze, Lao Yating was even ready to swim across the east sea and go to Zhi Ruo to find any leads.

“No. I was just curious to know why migrant workers from Zhi Ruo comes to Gui Xiang. As far as I know, east dragon city got more opportunities than an ordinary fishing village.” Wan Yi Jun cleared their doubts in a flash of a moment and affirmed that he got no intention to extend their investigation to Zhi Ruo. 

“There are several reasons for it, but the major one is that the route to Gui Xiang is easier than going to East dragon city.”

“That doesn’t sound so logical to me. If there is a path that connects an island to the city, I swear people would use it more frequently. Even government would try to develop infrastructure to facilitate trade and other things between these two places.” Han Ze Min doubtfully added,

“We are talking about Zhi Ruo here, not only a place involved in borderland dispute, but also the breeding ground for pirates and mafia. If our country or Daisun tries to do something to improve the path to Zhi Ruo, it’s often considered as an act of asking for a war.” Mao Bai explained the weird political scam happening on the far east side of the mainland.

“I don’t understand. Are we living under some kind of rock or what? How come we never heard about this?” Han Ze Min whined in protest when he heard something unexpected. He was a government officer, a policeman who was supposed to protect and maintain peace in his country and citizens. But what’s this weird contradiction that almost felt like he was hearing about some third world country. 

“It’s definitely a different world, and people like you might not understand it.” Mao Bai, who finally got a chance to get back to Han Ze Min, didn’t hesitate to retort,

“Also east Dragon city is collapsing after the law amendments. People either move to other places or get into crimes to make a living.”

“And still Zhi Ruo people go there?” Wan Yi Jun doubtedly asked when he recalled Ming Yue’s words about her hometown.

“Yes, especially people who live in the south and west Zhi Ruo. There are some ships and boats that sail from there to dragon city once in a while. But you need to give a hell lot of money. That’s why nowadays people prefer to come here.”

“What about Ran Xianqi? Did he come back here after taking Hu Geng Xin to imperial?” 

“No. I don’t think I have seen him in the harbour after that. Do you remember seeing him, Yuhai?” Mao Bai averted his eyes to the burly man who sat next to him and inquired, 

“No. I haven’t seen him, either.”

“Should ask him to come here?” Zhu Yuhai asked when he suddenly noticed the doubtful look on the chief investigator’s face. 

“No. We already have an appointment with Mr Shu.” Wan Yi Jun refused and looked at his team members for a second,

“Does anyone have other questions? Or we can leave.”

Officer, please be honest with us….because there is no way these three get to associate with each other.”

“Are you sure about that?”

“Yes. There were no instances in my memory where I saw these three together.”

Mao Bai, who got impressed by the polite Shen Junru, gave a radiant smile before answering his question. 

“