The fish pond was roughly half an acre, surrounded by wild grass and several old trees whose dense foliage created a secluded atmosphere.

The mountains and forest weren’t far behind.

You Ming Xu stood at the pond’s edge, observed for a moment, and then put on shoe covers before beginning her examination along the muddy path around the pond. Jing Ping followed her example, donning shoe covers and staying close behind.

The mud was soft, clearly showing footprints when stepped on. Whether they could find useful traces remained uncertain.

After walking a quarter of the way around, You Ming Xu crouched down. The path was narrow, so Jing Ping crouched behind her. They spotted a set of footprints coming down from the nearby slope onto the muddy path by the pond. Rough estimation put them at size 42, athletic shoes, with medium depth and normal stride length, suggesting a man of average build and weight.

Noting how the prints came straight down the slope, You Ming Xu paused, shifted forward, and pushed aside the grass near the water. The prints were incomplete here but still showed the person had rushed to the water’s edge.

Had they run into the water?

You Ming Xu opened her phone to check photos—thanks to Guo Xing’s meticulous nature, they had photographed all his shoes and shoeboxes earlier at his home, including the soles.

She scrolled through them as Jing Ping leaned in to look. His ear accidentally brushed her face; You Ming Xu didn’t even raise an eyebrow, just shifted her face slightly away. Jing Ping kept his eyes fixed on her phone as if nothing had happened.

After a quick comparison—

“These aren’t Guo Xing’s prints,” You Ming Xu said, standing up.

Jing Ping stood too, pointing ahead: “There are more over there.”

You Ming Xu looked where he indicated and indeed saw another set of prints two meters away. Her heart skipped unexpectedly. Though three days had passed and they couldn’t confirm if these prints were related to Guo Xing’s disappearance, something about them seemed suspicious.

They moved to examine the second set of prints. Having just reviewed all of Guo Xing’s shoes and soles, You Ming Xu’s eyebrows rose: “Guo Xing has shoes like these!” She found the photo on her phone and compared it to the prints—the patterns matched perfectly, even down to a worn spot on the sole. This virtually confirmed they were Guo Xing’s prints.

You Ming Xu immediately called Ding Xiong Wei, requesting support from footprint analysis experts.

After hanging up, she noticed Jing Ping still kneeling on one knee, looking deep in thought.

“What is it?” she asked.

He gave that lazy smile again: “Nothing, just learning.”

You Ming Xu would bet that despite his approachable demeanor, this man hadn’t truly been part of the crowd in his previous work. If he had ten things on his mind, he’d share maybe one or two. The rest stayed locked in that clever heart of his.

But You Ming Xu didn’t mind, continuing to examine Guo Xing’s footprints. She immediately noticed abnormalities: stride length greater than normal, deeper impressions, and mud splatter around the prints—thanks to the cold weather and lack of foot traffic, these prints were remarkably well-preserved—indicating Guo Xing had been running.

She started out crouching, examining each print carefully, then stood to follow them in the opposite direction along the pond. Lost in concentration, she was suddenly grabbed by the wrist, feeling the distinct calluses from long-term gun handling on the man’s thumb web and fingertips against her skin.

She glanced at Jing Ping.

He raised his eyebrows, gesturing toward some crumbling mud at her feet, then released her hand.

“Thanks.”

He replied unhurriedly: “Don’t mention it.”

For some reason, You Ming Xu smiled slightly. Jing Ping’s eyes showed some amusement too, though he maintained his usual unruffled demeanor.

Guo Xing’s prints led to a large tree. You Ming Xu’s eyes brightened.

Here, they found more evidence.

Two of Guo Xing’s footprints were deep, with signs of on-spot movement. Behind them were four deep small holes and a soccer ball-sized circular impression, also quite deep.

You Ming Xu quickly pieced together the scene:

Guo Xing had sat under the tree on a folding fishing stool. A bucket of water held his caught fish. He’d been there for some time.

Why had he suddenly gotten up and run in that direction?

The other person’s prints came straight down the slope and into the water.

What kind of bizarre scene was this?

“Detective, what are you thinking?” Jing Ping’s voice came from beside her.

“Thinking…” You Ming Xu answered slowly, “that this Guo Xing seems quite unexpected.”

A tidy room, meticulous organization. Love fishing, particularly food. Keeping his caught fish, sold them to the restaurant owner. Both the restaurant owner and the pond owner thought he was a kind, friendly person.

Different from You Ming Xu’s image of a drug dealer, a heinous criminal. A living, breathing person seemed to materialize before her eyes.

However, appearances could be deceiving. Whether someone loved life or was friendly had no bearing on whether they dealt drugs or committed murder behind closed doors.

Looking up, she met those deep eyes, seemingly warm yet perhaps just playful. You Ming Xu found such men quite annoying, looking at her that way. Yet behind those eyes was an upright, resolute veteran detective. After their gazes met, both looked away.

You Ming Xu continued searching around the pond for other clues. Jing Ping followed silently as ever.

After another quarter circle, they found a chaotic collection of footprints. You Ming Xu crouched again. Though some prints overlapped and blurred, four distinct sets were easily identifiable.

One set belonged to Guo Xing, another to the person who had run down from across the pond.

The other two sets were also around size 42-43, both athletic shoes—one person short, one tall, both of medium build.

You Ming Xu frowned, carefully examining each set of prints’ trajectories.

First, she discovered that Guo Xing and the initial person’s prints came out of the water. Guo Xing’s prints were deep, while the other person’s were shallow and erratic, unsteady with varying depths. This gave her a good idea of what had happened in the first half of the incident by the pond.

Then, both sets of prints stopped on the muddy path, with Guo Xing’s prints facing the pond, back to the bushes. These two prints were deeper and clearer, showing he had stopped here. The other person’s prints disappeared, but large impressions in the ground suggested they had lain down.

The two later arrivals left light prints with short strides, having jogged over from the bushes directly behind Guo Xing.