When Jiang Chengyi got up in the morning and dressed by the bed, he saw Lu Yan still sleeping soundly. Not having the heart to wake her, he tidied himself up and left.

Lu Yan spent the whole day at home preparing her presentation materials.

In the evening, she called Jiang Chengyi, but like yesterday, he didn’t answer.

Lying in bed, she recalled Jiang Chengyi’s words about “locking onto the target” from last night, and suddenly had a premonition: he probably wouldn’t return to sleep tonight.

This thought made her even more restless. She pondered silently that if the perpetrator could be caught, Deng Man’s case from years ago might finally be resolved.

Over these years, she had continuously collected evidence and repeatedly sent letters to the police station. Without realizing it, eight years had passed. Now, as other victims surfaced one after another, the entire series of cases finally showed signs of being uprooted completely.

She felt somewhat excited, tossing and turning, unable to fall asleep for a long time.

When she finally did drift off, her mind remained unsettled.

In her dreams, she returned to that stationery store she had visited with Deng Man years ago. The two of them lingered at the counter, with Deng Man offering her advice.

She browsed through everything and finally set her eyes on that Parker fountain pen, but unfortunately, it exceeded her pocket money budget, so she couldn’t bring herself to buy it.

Then somehow, she was suddenly in Deng Man’s room.

After sitting dazed by the bed for a while, she opened Deng Man’s drawer and saw a brand new pen lying quietly inside. She didn’t know when Deng Man had bought it, but she knew that Deng Man never got the chance to give the pen away before she was gone.

The glossy black pen body with its golden cap, combined in a steady yet sharp manner, pierced her eyes.

She picked up the pen, her heart filled with an indescribable mixture of sourness and regret, as tears streamed down her face.

When she woke up in the morning, her pillowcase was wet.

She closed her eyes and instinctively reached to the side. As expected, the sheets didn’t have even a trace of warmth – Jiang Chengyi hadn’t come back at all last night.

When she called him, his phone remained in call status.

After breakfast, she devoted herself to reviewing her presentation materials and casually organized some questions that the professors might ask during the competition, reviewing them one by one. Years of solid effort and hard work showed their effect at this moment; in just one morning, she was already seventy to eighty percent confident.

After lunch, Jiang Chengyi still hadn’t contacted her. She quietly found her toiletry bag and started preparing items for an overnight stay at the suburban hotel.

At one o’clock in the afternoon, Jiang Chengyi sent her a WeChat message saying he had to catch a criminal and couldn’t get away at the moment. Officer Xiao Zhou would take her to the hotel, but he would come find her as soon as he finished his work.

At the Criminal Investigation Division of Anshan District.

The major case team had been up all night.

After going through several street office jurisdictions, it wasn’t until the afternoon that Jiang Chengyi finally found the resident records of Shuilongtan Complex before its demolition, buried in mountains of household registration materials in one office’s archives.

Shuilongtan Complex was located in the old city district, consisting of old-style apartment buildings where neighbors had frequent contact with each other.

The complex was large, with residential buildings connected, housing nearly a thousand households. Due to the mixed resident population, there was high mobility among occupants.

Zhou Zhicheng and Lin Chunmei moved into the Shuilongtan Complex right after their marriage and lived there from 1997 to 2012.

Considering that Lin Chunmei passed away in 2010, the team narrowed down the screening period to 1997-2010.

The trouble lay here – household registration records before 2005 weren’t digitized, existing only as paper documents. Going through them one by one was extremely time-consuming. The team members were eager to solve the case, and without waiting for Jiang Chengyi’s instructions, they all volunteered to work overtime.

After working through the night, by morning, they finally found some leads in the ocean of household registration documents. Since the household registrations weren’t under the suspect’s name, it took considerable effort before they finally found two familiar names in the spider web-like network of relationships under the Shuilongtan Complex household registers.

By the time they finished all this, it was already ten in the morning.

Jiang Chengyi pulled out the two files and immediately called his superiors for a search warrant.

“Wen Peng, born May 21, 1989, 28 years old, resident. Studied in this city from 1995 to 2007, then went to study film at a university in California, USA. His parents divorced when he was three years old, after which his mother went abroad and settled in Canada with her boyfriend. Although his mother regularly paid child support afterward, she never returned to visit Wen Peng. His father, Wen Bin, remarried when Wen Peng was eight years old and is currently the principal of No. 7 Middle School.

“In 1997, the year of his father’s remarriage, due to his father and stepmother’s busy work schedules, Wen Peng was sent to live with his grandparents in Shuilongtan, just one building away from Zhou Zhicheng’s home. To attend a nearby elementary school, his father transferred Wen Peng’s household registration to Shuilongtan. Wen Peng continued living with his grandparents in the Shuilongtan Complex until he went abroad for college in 2007. It was in April 2007 that Zhou Zhicheng’s wife, Lin Chunmei, had an electric bicycle accident.

“Wen Peng himself is 169cm tall, weighs 70kg, and has excellent jumping ability. While studying at No. 7 Middle School, he idolized NBA famous guard Muggsy Bogues (pure height 160cm) and voluntarily served as a guard on the school basketball team. In 2011, Wen Peng successfully obtained his bachelor’s degree and returned to China. Afterward, through a friend’s introduction, he officially entered the film industry and frequently traveled between cities B and S.”

As Jiang Chengyi spoke, Old Qin checked Wen Peng’s entry and exit records against the timeline of victims he was writing on the whiteboard.

Deng Man (questionable): Suicide in June 2009

Li Liwei: Killed November 22, 2014

Wang Wei (City B): Killed July 8, 2017

Wang Qianqian: Killed November 28, 2017

Ding Jing: Killed December 3, 2017

“Wen Peng comes from a relatively wealthy family. During his studies in the United States, except for traveling to Europe in his final year before graduation, he returned home every year during holidays to visit his grandparents and father for the remaining three years. This means the Entry-Exit Administration Center has records of Wen Peng’s movements from 2007 to 2011.”

Dr. Yu pulled out photos of Wen Peng’s birth mother and stepmother from the file, noting that both women were attractive and slender.

Jiang Chengyi continued introducing the second suspect.

“Cheng Zhou, male, 25 years old, born July 3, 1992, resident, lived in Shuilongtan Complex since birth. Currently, a well-known makeup artist with a certain influence in the industry, an Englishman named David, is reportedly now the exclusive makeup artist for celebrity Zheng Xiaowen.

“When Cheng Zhou was three years old, his father was imprisoned for assault, cutting off the family’s economic source. To maintain their livelihood, Cheng Zhou’s mother, Li Xiaolan, was forced to work outside. She worked various jobs including supermarket cashier, salesperson, and restaurant server. While working as a foot massage therapist at a foot bath house, Li Xiaolan met Cheng Zhou’s stepfather and remarried that same year. Cheng Zhou was seven at the time. His stepfather worked as a long-distance truck driver and was rarely home. After remarrying, Li Xiaolan stopped working outside and often played mahjong in the complex’s mahjong parlor. Four years after the marriage, Li Xiaolan gave birth to a daughter named Zhang Yuan, who is now 14 years old.”

“After graduating high school, Cheng Zhou was admitted to an art academy. Whether because his stepfather refused to pay for tuition or not, records show Cheng Zhou applied for student loans. In his sophomore year, 2012, Cheng Zhou’s father was released from prison and subsequently worked at construction sites. After graduating from university, when Cheng Zhou couldn’t find suitable employment, he switched to studying makeup artistry. With his art foundation, Cheng Zhou quickly mastered the craft and started taking jobs, finding work at a studio that same year.”

Yu Zheng pulled out a photo of Cheng Zhou’s mother, Li Xiaolan.

“She’s quite good-looking too,” Old Qin leaned in.

Yu Zheng pursed his lips: “The most beautiful was still Wen Peng’s birth mother who immigrated abroad, the former Mrs. Principal Wen.”

After finishing the background briefing on the two major suspects, approval came down from above.

Jiang Chengyi adjusted his gun while putting on his jacket and laid out the action plan.

“Wen Peng currently lives in Jingwan Complex, Building B, Unit 1, Room 3302. Cheng Zhou (David) lives in Fulong Lake Gardens, Building 7, Room 501. Old Qin, you and Old Liu’s team handle Wen Peng’s location. I’ll take a team to Cheng Zhou’s place. Old Jin, you stay at headquarters – besides backup, you’re responsible for contacting relevant units to make necessary preparations. From this moment on, these two suspects are prohibited from leaving S City. Additionally, both suspects are freelancers without fixed workplaces. Within thirty minutes, you’re responsible for determining and sending me their current locations. Everyone remembers these criminals are very cunning. Whatever situation we encounter later, stay alert – we can’t make any more mistakes!”

With the case about to break, everyone was unprecedentedly excited and responded in unison.

Fulong Lake Gardens wasn’t in the city center, and traffic was congested. After racing through the streets for over an hour, they finally arrived.

After securing the complex entrances and exits, the team made their way to Room 501 of Building 7. Liao Qi held up the search warrant with its large red seal, and at Jiang Chengyi’s signal, knocked on the door.

No response.

They opened the door and filed in, putting on gloves and shoe covers before searching the premises.

The apartment wasn’t large – two bedrooms and two living rooms – but it was well-decorated and neat.

After searching for about fifteen minutes, Old Qin’s call came in: “Captain Jiang, we found a small piece of plastic in the bathtub drain at Wen Peng’s place. It’s white and shiny, and looks like the kind of waterproof material used on the floating corpse.”

Jiang Chengyi paused: “Good, apply for an arrest warrant directly.”

After hanging up, Jiang Chengyi received another call from Old Liu at headquarters, informing him that Wen Peng and Cheng Zhou were currently on the same film crew – Cheng Zhou doing makeup for Zheng Xiaowen, while Wen Peng was the director of the show. They were both filming at the XX Store Film Base.

Lu Yan sat in Officer Xiao Zhou’s police car, occasionally chatting with him.

Perhaps because he couldn’t participate in the frontline action, Xiao Zhou seemed somewhat downcast, only gradually cheering up after Lu Yan talked with him for quite a while.

The Hanlin Mountain Resort Hotel was quite far, taking nearly two hours to reach. Between going there and coming back, half a day would be gone – no wonder the competition organizers proactively offered accommodation.

Before coming, Xiao Zhou had been instructed by Jiang Chengyi: don’t let Lu Yan out of sight.

He kept this order firmly in mind, and as soon as he parked the car, he got out with Lu Yan.

Lu Yan shouldered her small bag and walked out of the parking lot with Xiao Zhou, observing the hotel’s surroundings as they went.

It was a typical manor style, expansive grounds with sculptures and fountains complementing each other, and lush green lawns visible everywhere.

Several people stood scattered around the hotel entrance, either smoking or looking around. Out of professional habit, Xiao Zhou vigilantly scanned these people and quickly recognized them as reporters by their gear.

“Why are there so many entertainment reporters?” he wondered aloud. “Dr. Lu, isn’t your competition national in scope? Will tonight’s competition process… be broadcast via satellite?”

Lu Yan had also noticed the group of reporters early on and smiled: “I don’t know if it will be broadcast via satellite, but to expand influence, the competition organizers must have contacted the media in advance. However, I think… they probably wouldn’t be entertainment reporters.”

“Oh,” Xiao Zhou nodded. “This place is quite close to the film base. I guess some celebrity must be staying at the hotel, and these people are waiting to get a scoop.”