Inside the Lu mansion, hearing the commotion, a crowd of people came rushing out, led by Old Master Lu, demanding one after another to know what had happened. With his father backing him, Lu Jingheng’s protests grew even louder, but they couldn’t overcome what Commissioner Bai called “ironclad evidence,” and in the end he was still taken away.

He Yunqin drove the car and followed along to the police headquarters as well. To spare Yu Chongyi any trouble, he specially parked the car in a secluded spot around the corner of the neighboring street.

Having worked with He Yunqin and Wang Bide several times now, an understanding had formed between them. About an hour later, Yu Chongyi came out from inside the police station. He first looked around, and upon spotting He Yunqin’s car, walked straight over.

“We found a bloodstained qipao earlier at the vacant Lu family villa at Mingquan Mountain — it’s exactly what Chen Baidie was wearing the night she disappeared. We asked Chen Baidie’s family maid, and she confirmed that Lu Jingheng had been courting Chen Baidie earlier. Everyone now suspects Lu Jingheng confined Chen Baidie at the villa for a period of time before moving her elsewhere, but Lu Jingheng’s mouth is completely sealed — he refuses to admit to committing any of these kidnappings.”

He paused, then continued: “We searched the villa at Mingquan Mountain thoroughly and found nothing else. Nanbao Trading Company has a total of forty-nine residences in the city — we’ve already searched most of them, but haven’t found any trace of Chen Baidie or my cousin.”

He Yunqin’s face darkened slightly: “So — we’ve found the suspect but not the victims. What about Nanbao Trading Company’s warehouse at the docks? Given Nanbao’s current storage layout, it’s more than capable of hiding people. Have you checked the docks?”

Yu Chongyi shook his head: “Old Master Lu says their warehouse goods are too valuable to allow outsiders to search, and he’s questioning whether Commissioner Bai has solid evidence of his son’s guilt — if it later turns out to have nothing to do with his son, could Commissioner Bai bear the responsibility? Though Commissioner Bai holds great sway in the Public Concession, he’s also wary of causing major trouble. He’s already called the mayor late at night to get a search warrant approved — we’re just waiting for the paperwork to arrive, then we’ll go search the docks.”

He Yunqin pondered for a moment: “Mr. Yu, though the Lu family villa at Mingquan Mountain has sat vacant for years, it’s not easy to come and go freely there — you should thoroughly investigate the Lu family’s servants as well.”

Yu Chongyi said: “We’re planning to do exactly that. We just called the Lu mansion — worried there might be an accomplice hiding among the servants, we plan to question them carefully once they arrive.”

Wang Bide thought it over and spoke up: “The murderer has been so careful all along — why would he leave Chen Baidie’s clothes behind at the Mingquan Mountain villa? That’s an enormous slip-up. He Yunqin, have you thought about why?”

He Yunqin was silent for a moment, then said flatly: “Don’t forget, this afternoon I went to ask Chen Baidie’s benefactor about her whereabouts before she disappeared.”

Wang Bide froze, then slapped his thigh: “This big benefactor — reminded by you, realized he’d been so focused on quietly searching for Chen Baidie himself that he’d forgotten about the important lead of Flowing Cloud Temple. So the moment you left, he immediately sent people to search Flowing Cloud Temple — and I’d guess he sent quite a few. The murderer happened to be at the Lu family villa near Flowing Cloud Temple, and upon learning people were searching the temple, feared they might search the villa too, and hastily moved Chen Baidie away in secret. But because he left in such a panic, he accidentally left behind one of Chen Baidie’s garments.”

He Yunqin knit his brows and said nothing for a long while. Hongdou watched this, growing ever more curious about who Chen Baidie’s benefactor was.

She lowered her head to think it over, then continued along Wang Bide’s line of reasoning: “And then when the murderer realized he’d left something important behind at the villa and wanted to go back for it, the police force descended on Mingquan Mountain in a massive search, giving him no chance to go back inside. So the murderer didn’t deliberately leave that qipao behind — it was the result of a chain of unexpected events.”

Wang Bide glanced at Hongdou — what a shame this clever girl was a policeman’s relative rather than someone he could recruit as an assistant; it would have saved him so much trouble.

Yu Chongyi, unable to keep up with everyone’s train of thought for a moment, slowly reorganized things in his mind, then suddenly understood: “So that’s how it is.”

He Yunqin looked at Yu Chongyi: “I’d wondered earlier whether someone deliberately used Chen Baidie’s clothing to frame Lu Jingheng, but from what we see now, the murderer didn’t anticipate this slip-up either. This person is clever and careful enough, just short on luck. Tonight’s discovery of Chen Baidie’s bloodstained clothes is an unexpected major breakthrough for us — otherwise we still wouldn’t have had sufficient grounds to suspect the Lu family.”

Hongdou said, puzzled: “But if the murderer is Lu Jingheng, knowing full well he’d left one of Chen Baidie’s qipaos behind at Mingquan Mountain, how could he calmly take girl students to watch a show tonight as if nothing happened? Wouldn’t that require an unusually strong mind?”

Wang Bide’s face was full of mockery: “That’s exactly why I still think Lu Jingheng isn’t the murderer. A useless playboy like him, his head full of nothing but romance and flowers — he’s more likely to be the one kidnapped than to kidnap someone else. Where would he find the time to abduct people?”

He Yunqin said: “Mr. Yu, tonight Lu Jingheng had a date with several St. John’s girl students. If there was anything unusual about him, it wouldn’t have gone completely unnoticed. I urgently need to determine how likely it is that Lu Jingheng is the murderer. Mr. Yu, could you ask your colleagues to go inquire at these girls’ homes about Lu Jingheng’s state tonight?”

Hongdou chimed in: “Those girl students are all from the Foreign Languages Department. The one Lu Jingheng is currently pursuing is named Li Lulu, she lives on Huaihua Lane. The other two are named Wu Xiaochun and Tang Yali.”

Yu Chongyi nodded: “I’ll send someone to inquire right away. Should be back within the hour at most.”

After Yu Chongyi left, the remaining people in the car fell silent at the same time.

In the midst of the quiet, Wang Bide broke the silence first: “There are too many things about this series of cases that don’t add up. For instance, Wang Meiping clearly disappeared second, so why was she the first one whose body was dumped? Is the murderer who killed Wang Meiping the same group as the one who kidnapped Chen Baidie and Pan Yuqi? And then there’s the meaning of those wooden nails on Wang Meiping’s corpse — we still haven’t figured that out.”

Hongdou thought it over, then pulled out the copy of Records of the Mysterious Arts she’d brought along: “I don’t know if the explanation in here is complete. Since it’s related to occult arts, could it be that the murderer suddenly decided to practice some kind of technique or supernatural skill? I’ve heard classmates from my fellowship say that whether in the West or here at home, once a person falls into a heretical cult and becomes obsessed, they’ll do anything at all.”

He Yunqin took the book and flipped through it casually, looking rather uninterested: “This book is recorded too carelessly. It doesn’t say a single word about what these wooden nails mean. It’s also extremely vague about how exactly the ritual is carried out.”

Hongdou pouted: “But this is already the closest thing we’ve found so far to explaining Wang Meiping’s cause of death through the occult.”

There was a note of dissatisfaction in her voice, unconsciously carrying a touch of petulant charm. For some reason He Yunqin’s heart stirred faintly. He steadied himself, handed the book back to Hongdou, and pushed open the car door: “I’m going to stand outside for a bit.”

The cold moon hung high, not a single pedestrian in sight on the road. Occasionally an autumn wind blew past, rustling the parasol tree leaves overhead. In the places the neon lights couldn’t reach, the darkness seemed to hide countless shadowy phantoms.

He stood outside for a long while, and only went back in once people emerged from the police station across the way.

In the car, Wang Bide had already fallen asleep, his head tilted, snoring like thunder.

In the back seat, Hongdou was also nodding off, dozing.

He Yunqin closed his eyes and dozed for a while, then opened them and looked at the rearview mirror.

Hongdou was clearly very sleepy, her head bobbing forward again and again like a fishing line — at this rate she was bound to hurt her neck.

He glanced at Wang Bide, saw no sign of him waking, and hesitated for a moment, then turned to the side, intending to gently support Hongdou’s head and adjust her sleeping position.

But before his hand could reach Hongdou’s soft, lovely chin, Wang Bide suddenly gave a loud snore and abruptly opened his sleepy eyes.

He fell asleep quickly and woke up just as quickly. Out of the corner of his eye, he caught He Yunqin’s arm halfway extended behind him, and looked puzzled: “What are you doing?”

He Yunqin hastily withdrew his arm as if nothing had happened, rubbing the back of his neck: “Nothing.”

His face clearly showed a trace of embarrassment. Wang Bide found this even stranger, and turning to glance at the back seat, saw Hongdou dozing with her head tilted to the side. Realization suddenly dawned on him, and he said in a low, incredulous voice: “Were you just about to touch the young lady?”

He Yunqin’s face reddened, but fortunately the light was dim, and he figured Wang Bide couldn’t see it. Unable to explain himself clearly in the moment, he said in an extremely calm, righteous tone: “Are you still half-asleep and confused?”

His tone was extremely firm, but Wang Bide only grew more suspicious. He narrowed his eyes, seeing how uncomfortable He Yunqin looked, and though he still wanted to press the matter, knowing this man’s way with words, he figured he wouldn’t get anything out of him, and let it go.

Fortunately, just then someone knocked on the window outside. The two of them looked over, and Yu Chongyi appeared as if descending from the heavens. He Yunqin’s heart eased at once — he had never found Yu Chongyi’s timing so welcome. Hearing the noise, Hongdou drowsily opened her eyes.

Yu Chongyi said: “All the girl students say Lu Jingheng was cheerful and talkative all night, nothing unusual at all. It’s just that when Tang Yali got out of the car, she accidentally dropped a fountain pen near the back tire. When she crouched down to pick it up, she smelled something fishy, as if it were coming from the trunk.”

“A fishy smell?”

Yu Chongyi hummed in confirmation: “It wasn’t just Tang Yali who smelled it — the other girl, Wu Xiaochun, smelled it too on the way, though she wasn’t as certain about it as Tang Yali. Both girls said that by the time they came out of the Grand Theatre after the movie, the smell was gone.”

Hongdou said in surprise: “Why would the Lu family car have something foul-smelling loaded in it? Besides, Lu Jingheng was going on a date with girl students tonight — wouldn’t the driver clean the car beforehand? Wasn’t he afraid Lu Jingheng would give him trouble over it afterward?”

The four of them fell silent for a moment.

Wang Bide sat up straight: “Chen Baidie’s benefactor went to search Flowing Cloud Temple this afternoon, forcing the murderer to move Chen Baidie and the others, accidentally leaving behind Chen Baidie’s qipao. Not long after, you police went to search the mountain, and the murderer couldn’t go back to the villa. The Lu family driver forgot to clean out the trunk. Lu Jingheng went to the Grand Theatre—”

Listening to him lay out the clues, Hongdou’s own thoughts grew clearer too, and she suddenly thought of a possibility, her face turning pale: “You mean—?”

He Yunqin stared at the steering wheel, also finding it hard to believe, and said thoughtfully: “Could it be that Chen Baidie and the others were hidden in the back of Lu Jingheng’s car at the time?”

Yu Chongyi was utterly shocked: “How could that be?”

Wang Bide cut him off flatly: “Why couldn’t it be? To evade the search, the murderer hastily used a car to move Chen Baidie or Pan Yuqi away from the Lu family villa. Before he could transfer her somewhere safe, he happened to run into Lu Jingheng needing the car. Afraid of being exposed, he had no choice but to first drive Lu Jingheng and the others to the Grand Theatre. Only once Lu Jingheng went inside to watch the movie did he get the chance to deal with Chen Baidie and the others — that’s why the trunk smelled fishy at first, and later didn’t.”

Hongdou never imagined the murderer could act so far outside the norm — with Chen Baidie hidden in the trunk, he could still calmly drive Li Lulu, Lu Jingheng, and the others around as if nothing were wrong.

A wave of nausea rose in her stomach, an urge to vomit she couldn’t suppress no matter what.

Yu Chongyi opened his mouth soundlessly, then said: “Does the detective mean to say the Lu family’s driver is a suspect?”

He Yunqin raised his eyebrows: “Not just a suspect — a very strong one. Mr. Yu, didn’t you just say you wanted to bring in the Lu family servants for questioning? Are they all here now? Where is Lu Jingheng’s driver?”

Yu Chongyi soon went and came back, saying urgently: “All the Lu family servants are here — except for Lu Jingheng’s driver!”

He Yunqin’s face turned extremely grim. He pushed open the car door and got out, slamming it shut hard behind him: “After searching for so long, right when we were about to catch this fox, we were still a step too late.”

This was the first time Hongdou had seen He Yunqin lose his temper this badly, and she froze in the car.

Wang Bide, remembering what had just happened between He Yunqin and Hongdou, also got out of the car, remarking with a double meaning: “Young people really do have a fiery temper. What else can we do but keep chasing? Shanghai’s only so big — now that we suspect this man, there’s no way we’ll let him get away.”

Author’s Note: This Hong Dou Sheng Min Guo – Chapter has a red envelope, Happy New Year