Guo Xing lived in Wangcheng, a suburban villa district of Xiangcheng. The area was a large collection of villas with low occupancy rates since it had been built recently. Guo Xing occupied one of these villas. The neighborhood entrance had just a few shops—a convenience store, pharmacy, fruit shop, and two or three restaurants, including a wild fish restaurant and a home-style eatery. As noon approached, they already had some customers, doing decent business.

According to property management records, the villa was rented under a different name. Police quickly verified it was a fake ID.

Jing Ping and You Mingxu brought Xu Mengshan and two forensics personnel to the villa. Including Xu Mengshan, they only knew they were pursuing a criminal suspect. Following orders from above, You Mingxu naturally wouldn’t tell her partner more. When the time came that it couldn’t be hidden, those who needed to know would know.

Surprisingly, this fierce criminal’s rented villa had quite an atmosphere. The yard was spacious with a fish pond, and the flowers and plants were well-maintained. You Mingxu peered into the pond—interesting, instead of goldfish, several grass carp and silver carp were swimming around, with bright white fins, all uniformly forearm-length.

The door lock was intact, showing no signs of damage. Xu Mengshan took out the key from property management and opened it. Inside was spacious and quiet.

They entered—the house was simply decorated with basic furnishings in the living room: a sofa, coffee table, and television. Otherwise, it was empty. The stairs were at the back. You Mingxu and Xu Mengshan had their usual rapport—Xu Mengshan headed for the indoor trash bin, putting on gloves to examine its contents, while You Mingxu went to the coffee table to inspect items one by one. The two forensics officers began searching for and collecting traces and fingerprints.

Jing Ping stood behind them, becoming the idlest one. His habit was to first observe the layout—the living room had windows on three sides, checking if they were suitable for escape. The stairs going up were narrow, with no hidden compartments. He lifted the sofa cushions, felt around, and knew there were no drugs hidden there. An old hand like Guo Xing wouldn’t hide drugs in such obvious places. At this thought, he smiled enigmatically.

Xu Mengshan lifted takeout boxes from the garbage, opened and sniffed them, frowning: “The house is cold, but these are already spoiled—at least three days old.”

You Mingxu met his eyes, holding several sets of takeout utensils, all from the same restaurant as Xu Mengshan’s findings.

They both understood what they saw in each other’s eyes. Guo Xing favored this restaurant’s takeout, and with no other containers present, previous ones had been disposed of. Judging by the house’s cleanliness, Guo Xing wasn’t a messy person. This meant the takeout from three days ago was likely his last ordered meal.

You Mingxu gave Xu Mengshan a look, and he immediately looked up the restaurant’s number online and called. Sure enough, since Guo Xing regularly ordered from them, the restaurant remembered: “Yes, this address ordered lunch three days ago, but nothing since then.”

You Mingxu turned to Jing Ping and said: “The disappearance likely happened during the afternoon three days ago.”

Jing Ping nodded. This matched the timeframe estimated by colleagues monitoring from afar. But because they were playing the long game to catch bigger fish, they hadn’t watched too closely, and then he vanished.

Jing Ping went up the stairs, and at the turn, looked down to see the others scattered around the living room, continuing their quiet, focused work. Criminal investigation work, compared to narcotics work, was probably much more tedious, though not without its excitement and dangers. But it was different from his previous life of gunfire and bullets. For some reason, watching these new colleagues, Jing Ping felt a gentle sense of stability rise in his heart. He shook his head with a smile and continued upstairs.

There were three bedrooms upstairs. Only the largest master bedroom had a bed and a wardrobe; everything else was still empty. All the furniture was new. Jing Ping looked around, finally approaching the bed, crouching against the wall for a while, then pushed the bed aside. He felt along the wooden frame behind the headboard inch by inch until he found a spot. His expression changed as he took out a screwdriver from his pocket, gently pried, and a wooden block fell away, revealing a bag of white powder behind it.

By the time You Mingxu and Xu Mengshan entered the bedroom, Jing Ping had already found four such bags from various hidden corners on the second floor, laid out on the floor. Together they weighed at least 300 grams.

Jing Ping put his screwdriver and miniature tools back in his pocket, holding up a test paper that had turned blue, saying: “It’s heroin.”

You Mingxu and Xu Mengshan, who hadn’t dealt much with this kind of work before, were shocked as they picked up the small bags to look at. Xu Mengshan said: “Damn. Is this enough to get Guo Xing the death penalty?”

Jing Ping stood up, putting the drugs in evidence bags, his tone casual: “Yes.” He showed no particular excitement, maintaining his lazy expression. You Mingxu and Xu Mengshan exchanged glances, thinking: He must have seen bigger cases if 300 grams of heroin barely fazed him.

However, watching Jing Ping’s silent, standing figure, You Mingxu felt this man had a special quality about him. Was this how all decorated police officers who’d faced death became—unmoved even if Mount Tai collapsed before them, unfathomable?

Leaving the master bedroom, the three entered the adjacent secondary bedroom. It was empty. They walked around briefly before letting the forensics team collect evidence.

The third room had several storage cabinets, also new. You Mingxu opened one cabinet containing several quilts—thick ones, spring/autumn ones, and summer ones, all new and unopened. You Mingxu smiled slightly, saying: “Looks like Guo Xing was quite meticulous about living and planned to stay here long-term. All the furniture is new, and he bought quilts for all four seasons at once.”

Xu Mengshan added: “‘Disappearing’ wasn’t part of his plan, at least.”

They both looked at Jing Ping, who stared at the quilts and nodded.

The second cabinet contained miscellaneous items: a household toolbox that Xu Mengshan opened to find complete with a hammer, wrench, screwdriver, and electric drill. Several packages of screws and hardware—Xu Mengshan glanced and said: “Probably leftover from furniture assembly.” You Mingxu added: “Guo Xing was indeed thorough.”

The cabinet was half a square meter wide, with these items taking up half the space, and the other half empty. Xu Mengshan asked: “What’s missing?”

You Mingxu paused. This scene felt familiar—once in Fen Jin Bao Company, in Zhang Wei’s office, she and that person had noticed moved tea sets, leading them step by step to evidence Fan Jia had exchanged her life for.

—

A flash of memory—that person standing beside her, smiling foolishly, seeking praise. You Mingxu immediately steadied herself, gaze returning to the half-empty cabinet. Such obvious traces meant either the person who took things had no time to conceal it or hadn’t planned to conceal it at all. Given there were no signs of intrusion, struggle, or another person’s presence—and if someone else had come, they wouldn’t have left such obvious traces if they were capable of cleaning the scene so thoroughly—she leaned toward the latter: no need for concealment. And the person who took the items was Guo Xing himself.

Looking closer, she found traces of mud on the cabinet’s inner panel. She rubbed some, and sniffed it—there was a fishy smell. Then she stuck her head into the cabinet and sniffed hard.

While she did this, Xu Mengshan shone his phone light for her while also leaning in to smell. Jing Ping stood behind them, not interrupting. When You Mingxu rubbed the mud trace to smell it, Jing Ping’s gaze followed her fingers and nose tip.

You Mingxu turned to smile at him: “I think I know where Guo Xing went three days ago. Give me a few minutes to confirm.” Xu Mengshan whistled, vaguely sensing something off about the whole house but missing the crucial connection. No wonder he willingly called her “Sister You.”

Jing Ping’s attention had habitually focused on drug searches and arrests, not noticing many trace details. He raised his single-lidded eyes to look at You Mingxu with an ambiguous smile.

You Mingxu said: “Didn’t you want to see our investigation methods? Just wait.”

Jing Ping smiled, watching this sharp-edged young woman go downstairs, out the door, toward the neighborhood entrance.

Jing Ping turned to ask Xu Mengshan: “Is she always this aggressive?”

Xu Mengshan replied: “Yeah, Sister You is the boss around here. But don’t worry, she bullies the weak and fears the strong—she wouldn’t dare mess with you.”

Jing Ping laughed again, asking: “So is her boyfriend completely under her thumb?”

Thinking of Yin Feng, Xu Mengshan said irritably: “What boyfriend? She’s single now, completely unattached.”

Jing Ping seemed uninterested, turning to examine other areas.

Soon, You Mingxu returned, pressed her hand against the door, and smiled: “Minions, I’ve got the address. Follow me.”