The homeroom teacher wrapped an arm around Jiang Pingxin's shoulder, addressing the on-duty police officer with a smile, “We're here to provide testimony... I mean, cooperate with the investigation?”
Xu Yu received the message and quickly put down her work, coming out to escort them upstairs.
The homeroom teacher, who had never been to a place like this, curiously looked at the nameplates on the doors and the passersby along the way. Once inside the elevator, she suddenly remembered her pre-prepared speech and hastily added, “Don’t take her to one of those dark, tiny rooms. She'll be scared. Just find a normal place to chat. Also, she’s a minor, so I need to be present with her.”
Xu Yu pressed the button for the floor and turned around with a reassuring smile. “Don’t worry, we’re all very friendly here.”
The homeroom teacher nodded, then glanced at the slogans posted on the walls while waiting for the elevator doors to open. She made small talk, “You criminal police officers must be very busy, right? When do you usually get off work?”
Xu Yu replied, “If there are no special cases, we work regular hours. Sometimes we have night shifts based on the schedule. When there’s a case, though, it's unpredictable—we might not even get time to sleep, let alone get off work.”
Before she could finish, the elevator doors opened.
Xu Yu stepped out first, waiting by the door with a smile, and led them to a well-lit room.
The two of them sat side by side on a long bench against the wall, feeling a bit uneasy, until another officer brought over two cups of water, placing them on the wooden table in the center.
“Is this room okay for you?” Xu Yu asked.
The homeroom teacher nodded. “Yes, this is fine. Thank you for your help.”
After setting up the equipment, Xu Yu leaned forward slightly, speaking gently to Jiang Pingxin, “Did you see the killer?”
Jiang Pingxin hesitated, her gaze flickering as she nodded slightly, then shook her head.
Xu Yu opened her notebook and said, “It’s okay, take your time.”
Jiang Pingxin’s account was quite logical, and she managed to highlight key points without much prompting. “Actually, that night, after finishing my homework, I went to the riverbank to look for clues, like I usually do. It started drizzling as soon as I stepped out of the alley. I was about to go back for an umbrella when I heard someone calling me from across the river.”
She paused to gather her thoughts, then continued, “He was also wandering along the riverbank but from a different direction. He saw the light from my flashlight and ran over, asking if he could borrow it.”
“He had a nice voice, didn’t seem like a bad person, so I asked why he didn’t just go home. He said he was waiting for someone there.”
Xu Yu’s temple twitched, thinking how kids nowadays judged people by their voices. Before she could comment, the homeroom teacher scolded, “That was very dangerous. You mustn’t do that again!”
Jiang Pingxin rubbed her palms on her school pants and looked down, feeling guilty. “Actually, I was a bit scared then. It was a deserted area and not many people passed by at night. Sometimes you’d see people on electric bikes stealing vegetables, but I’d never seen this guy before.”
“I didn’t want to engage with him at first. He probably sensed my fear and stopped chasing after a couple of steps. He waved his phone’s night light and offered me money, asking if there was a place to shelter from the rain nearby. He didn’t seem like a bad person, so I didn’t run away immediately. I told him to stay put, shined my flashlight on him a couple of times, then left one on the ground for him.”
Xu Yu asked, “Was the person waiting Han Songshan?”
“Yes, it was him. That’s why I remember his appearance so well,” Jiang Pingxin said. “I didn’t take the money and just went home to get an umbrella.”
Xu Yu exchanged a confused look with her colleague.
Her colleague fired off four questions in a row: “Why did Han Songshan have to wait by the riverbank? Didn’t the person he was meeting give him a specific time? Why was he standing there all night? Who could be that important?”
Jiang Pingxin muttered quietly, “How would I know what he was thinking?”
Xu Yu jotted down a few key points in her notebook, asking, “And then?”
Jiang Pingxin continued, “I was too scared to go back right away. I stayed home for a while, thinking he might have left. Then I grabbed the umbrella and went back.”
Even Xu Yu had to admire her bravery. “You dared to go back? You’ve got some serious guts.”
Jiang Pingxin opened her mouth but didn’t argue, dryly recounting, “It was still raining, and I was uneasy, not paying attention to the path. Just as I was about to leave the alley, I noticed a light moving closer.”
Recalling the scene made her shiver.
“I didn’t dare move forward. I took out my phone and dialed 110, keeping it behind my back, ready to call the police. Soon, a man entered the alley. I could tell from his silhouette that he wasn’t Han Songshan. I was surprised.”
Xu Yu and her colleague listened intently, breath held.
In the narrow, muddy alley, the rain pattered softly, accompanied by steady footsteps. The man's steps were strong and confident, splashing through puddles with a rhythmic sound.
Jiang Pingxin stared at the alley’s entrance. The moment she saw a shadow, her heart skipped a beat.
The man also held a flashlight, but the light was too dim to reveal his face. Noticing her presence, he shined the light towards the wall, and Jiang Pingxin reflexively lifted her wrist to illuminate him back.
The blinding light made her release the umbrella handle, preparing to shield her eyes. The man quickly moved his light away, and she got a glimpse of his face.
A clear, defined face.
Jiang Pingxin’s lips moved as she struggled with the memory, cupping her hands around the glass of water, taking a deep breath. “He wore a black hat, and his blue shirt had a red stain, though it wasn’t very vivid, diluted by the rain. I’m not sure if it was blood…”
She swallowed hard, pausing for a few seconds, then said, “His face was pale, and he glanced at me with half-closed eyes, even smiled a bit.”
The homeroom teacher gently patted her back to comfort her. Jiang Pingxin straightened up slightly, took a sip of water, and steadied her voice.
“I was terrified. I didn’t look closely, just threw down the umbrella and ran. Thankfully, he didn’t chase me.”
“When you showed me the photos later, I realized that the man, Han...whatever his name, was dead. I think the killer is the man I saw that night.”
Her colleague immediately said, “I’ll get the photos.”
He hurried out and soon returned with a folder, spreading the photos on the table for Jiang Pingxin to identify.
These were Han Songshan’s associates in A City, former colleagues, and people who had past grievances with him, provided by Zhou Tuoxing.
Jiang Pingxin leaned forward, bending over to reach the photos on the table, then feeling tired, squatted on the ground, and carefully compared each photo.
She scrutinized them closely, repeatedly checking a few, but eventually, the images blurred together, and she felt that the middle-aged men with big faces all looked the same.
After a thorough examination, she told the police, “None of them.”
Xu Yu casually sifted through the photos on the table, asking, “Are you sure?”
“It doesn’t feel right,” Jiang Pingxin replied. “I’m not good at recognizing faces, but the shapes don’t match. The man I saw didn’t have a beard and had some bangs.”
Xu Yu sighed with a smile, “You can’t rely on hairstyles and beards for identification. These photos are from different times, and a quick glance at night can distort features due to angles and lighting. Just pick the ones you think resemble him the most, and we’ll investigate further.”
Jiang Pingxin thought for a moment and shook her head. “His face was smaller, and he was pretty thin. I can't be sure, but he didn’t look very old. Plus, none of these guys are as handsome as him.”
Xu Yu nodded. “Got it.”
She could trust a girl’s judgment when it came to a guy's looks.
Her colleague let out a long sigh and muttered, “None of them? So, where did this guy pop out from? He seemed pretty close to Han Songshan. Could he be an illegitimate child or something?”
Xu Yu disagreed. “Do you really think Han Songshan, with his personality, would care about some illegitimate child? If he did, he’d make a big deal about bringing him home.”
The homeroom teacher, having listened to their discussion, fell into thoughtful silence before tentatively asking, “Can we go home now?”
Xu Yu tidied up the table. “First, we need to create a sketch. Our artist is here today. Are you hungry, Jiang? I can get you something to eat.”
The sketching process took quite a while.
Although Jiang Pingxin had a vivid memory of that fleeting glimpse, she had looked at too many photos, and faces were starting to blur together. She tried to clear her mind but still struggled to capture the image. After a lengthy session of adjusting the sketch, she finally said it looked about seventy or eighty percent accurate.
No one wanted to push her too hard, so they decided to let her go home and come back to refine the details once her thoughts were clearer.
Xu Yu took the printed sketch and went downstairs to find her colleagues, hoping they could help identify any leads from the face.
As a group of them huddled around the computer, quietly discussing, another colleague happened to pass by. He glanced at the paper on the table, made a sound of recognition, picked it up for a closer look, then stepped back and tilted his head to scrutinize it, his expression turning a bit strange. He tugged on Xu Yu’s sleeve and asked, “Does this guy look scholarly, with a scar on the back of his left hand?”
“Yes, exactly!” Xu Yu turned around excitedly. “How do you know that?”
Everyone else perked up and stared at him.
The colleague traced a couple of lines on the sketch and remarked, “The outer corners of his eyes should droop a bit more to make him look friendlier. Also, there are two moles on the right side of his neck, one big and one small.”
Xu Yu didn’t recall Jiang Pingxin mentioning any moles, but seeing how confidently he spoke, she got excited. “Have you seen him? Do you know who he is?”
The colleague handed back the sketch and said loudly, “Isn’t this the guy Captain He asked me to find yesterday? She said he’s a good friend of hers—Wang Yifei! Just search for ‘Wang Yifei’—Yifei as in ‘brilliant’ and ‘flying’.”
Xu Yu was stunned for a moment. The colleague had already walked back to his desk and pulled out a picture from a pile of papers, holding it up for them to see. “Is this the guy?”
It did look a bit like him. Xu Yu was still processing everything when someone nudged her, reminding her, “Is Jiang Pingxin still here? Hurry up and show her the picture!”
Xu Yu responded and ran down the hallway with the paper.
Jiang Pingxin hadn’t left yet. She was chatting with Captain Zhang and Brother Huang when she stopped to say a few words.
Seeing Xu Yu rushing over, Brother Huang’s smile faded. He scolded quietly, “How many times have I told you not to run? What if you bump into someone? What’s so urgent?”
Xu Yu nodded to him, too busy to speak, and handed the paper to Jiang Pingxin. “Jiang Pingxin, is this the guy?”
Jiang Pingxin took the paper, and with just a glance, her expression changed. She looked up at the two leaders, her mouth slightly open in shock.
Everyone present instantly understood her reaction.
Brother Huang quickly snatched the paper from her hand, scrutinizing it carefully.
Captain Zhang was also surprised, his usually steady eyebrows rising. He remarked to Brother Huang, “Your division’s efficiency is... impressive.”
But Brother Huang didn’t seem pleased. He asked, “You found him so quickly? How did you manage that?”
Under their intense gaze, Xu Yu murmured, “Captain He reported him missing yesterday. They thought he looked similar to the sketch, so I brought it over.”