Inside the police station.
Ji Mingrui was halfway through reviewing the surveillance footage when Wu Zhibin, inside the office, suddenly picked up a phone call. Almost immediately after, he changed their assignment parameters.
“Attention, everyone on surveillance duty. Focus primarily on the footage between 2:00 PM and 3:00 PM. You can skip the other time slots.”
Ji Mingrui questioned, “Why the sudden narrowing of the window?”
Wu Zhibin froze for a moment. He looked up at Ji Mingrui, noticing the exceptionally intense and serious look in the younger officer’s eyes.
Ji Mingrui repeated his question, “Bin-ge, why narrow the scope?”
“We received a tip-off from an informant,” Wu Zhibin replied. “I don’t know the exact details either. Just follow the instructions and check.”
Once the time frame was locked down, the surveillance search became significantly easier. Ji Mingrui quickly found a vehicle matching the description.
“Bus 714, the 2:24 PM route. In the very last row, there’s a man wearing a hood—”
Before he could finish, he noticed Wu Zhibin’s entirely nonchalant expression. The older officer simply nodded, gesturing for him to set the report down.
“Go handle something else,” Wu Zhibin said. “Someone came in this morning reporting their son missing. I assigned Jiang Yu to follow up on it. Go team up with him.”
Though Ji Mingrui was usually easygoing, he never blinked when it came to things that required absolute attention. He was a stubborn, single-minded person. Revealing nothing on the surface, he stepped out of Wu Zhibin’s office, turned his back to the door, pulled a separate USB flash drive from his pocket, and tightly clenched his fist, hiding it in his palm.
_
On the other side of town.
“Found it.”
Xie Lin held his phone with one hand while lightly pinching Chi Qing’s slender fingertips with the other. Hanging up the call, he repeated the information: “Surveillance shows he took Bus 714. It’s highly likely he currently lives near that bus stop.”
Chi Qing asked, “Bus 714?”
Xie Lin opened the city transit map. He discovered that after Bus 714 departed from the terminal station, it passed through the Tianxin Community before heading all the way south, cutting across the entire old town district. A total of four different bus routes passed through this specific station, one of which was an elementary school bus.
Moreover, the most critical point was that this neighborhood was incredibly close to where they were currently staying.
“Should we go take a look?” Chi Qing asked.
Xie Lin remained cautious. “Given our current identities, it’s not ideal for us to show our faces.”
“We don’t have to show our faces,” Chi Qing said, pulling his fingertips back from Xie Lin’s grasp. “As long as you keep me hidden, I can just listen.”
_
In the early morning, sunlight pierced through the layers of clouds, illuminating the old town district. The sharp ring of bicycle bells echoed through the streets and alleys.
Ji Mingrui sat quietly in his car, smoking a cigarette. His phone was mounted on a dashboard bracket, its screen displaying a frozen screenshot from the surveillance footage—the exact spot where the hooded man had initially boarded the bus. In the dim station, the bus was practically empty. The man had his head lowered, one hand shoved in his pocket, while the other was slightly raised to press down on his hood. The oversized hood was pulled so low it nearly covered his chin.
The blurry background of the image showed the street-side bus stop sign.
That very sign matched the one Ji Mingrui was looking at through his car window right now. The top line clearly read: 714.
Not far from his car, the four characters for “Tianxin Community” gleamed with a weathered, metallic luster under the morning sun.
His phone rang.
Jiang Yu had been waiting for him at the rendezvous point for ages to investigate the new case together, but Ji Mingrui was nowhere to be found. “Where on earth are you?”
Ji Mingrui replied, “I have some business to attend to.”
Jiang Yu doubted his own ears. “What kind of business?”
“Forced blind date,” Ji Mingrui fabricated a random excuse on the spot, pushing his car door open as he spoke. “I’m not getting any younger. Is it that weird for me to meet a blind date?”
“Meeting a blind date isn’t exactly weird…” Jiang Yu hadn’t even finished his sentence before the line went dead. He could only stand there in a daze, muttering to himself, “…but a blind date first thing in the morning is pretty bizarre, isn’t it? Did they agree to get breakfast together or something?”
_
Ji Mingrui hadn’t noticed that not far from his own vehicle, a ordinary black private car was parked. The model was so common it could be seen anywhere on the streets, and its windows were lined with privacy film, completely blocking any view of the interior.
No one could have guessed that inside sat two individuals who looked far more suspicious than any actual suspect.
Chi Qing had both hands exposed. One hand held a freshly opened bottle of mineral water, while the other rested naturally on his knee. It looked like a completely normal posture.
Yet, no one knew that at this very moment, he was acting like an indiscriminate audio receiver. He was taking in all kinds of voices within a specific radius, expanding outward with the bus stop as the epicenter.
[I’ve been driving this route for nearly ten years. I could do it with my eyes closed. So incredibly boring.]
— This was likely a bus driver.
[I’m going to be late, they’re going to deduct my wages again…]
— This belonged to one of the hurried pedestrians on the street.
There was also a mother rushing out to buy groceries to cook. She coughed as she spoke, seemingly in poor health.
[Cough, cough… my son is coming back today.]
[Son is coming back.]
[Son is coming back…]
Amidst the bustling crowd, someone was quietly walking beside the person they fancied, keeping their innermost thoughts hidden.
[Actually… I really like you.]
The voices were chaotic, a tangled mess of everything. In just two or three minutes, Chi Qing had already intercepted several arguments, ranging from mother-in-law disputes to elementary school bickering.
[As soon as I get to school, I’m telling the teacher that you didn’t do your homework at all, you just copied it! That’ll teach you to bully me! That’ll teach you to pull the little braids my mom made for me!]
Yet, the inner voice of the young boy next to her thought sheepishly:
[…Her braids are just so cute. I want to touch them again.]
Chi Qing closed his eyes and listened for nearly ten minutes until his ears felt like they were about to explode. He strained to differentiate the noise, trying to locate that specific raspy voice he had heard before. Unconsciously, his brow furrowed deeper.
Xie Lin’s hand rested right beside his, almost touching, separated only by a microscopic gap. The man, wearing a ring, repeatedly resisted the urge to move his hand to clasp Chi Qing’s. He wanted to tell him to stop listening.
Right before Xie Lin’s hand could make contact, Chi Qing abruptly snapped his eyes open. His unnaturally dark eyes stared heavily toward a specific direction in the Tianxin Community.
“I heard a very familiar voice… Why is Ji Mingrui here?”
“Officer Ji?” Xie Lin found it equally incomprehensible. “What is he saying?”
Chi Qing uttered four words: “He’s calling for help.”
The distorted voice he had just picked up sounded as if it were being choked by the throat, forced out syllable by agonizing syllable.
[F… Fu… Fuck!]
[He… Help!]
Xie Lin and Chi Qing exchanged a rapid glance. Simultaneously, they pulled up their hoods and adjusted their face masks. Once fully concealed, they both shoved their car doors open and sprinted out.
_
Inside the emergency fire exit of Building 13.
The glass display case that originally housed the fire extinguisher had been smashed, leaving shards of glass scattered all over the floor.
Bang!
Ji Mingrui’s forehead was slammed brutally against the tightly shut fire door. His neck was violently pinned down from behind by a man whose grip kept tightening, pinning him ruthlessly. “I’ll ask you one last time. How did you find this place…?”
Ji Mingrui’s face turned bright red; he couldn’t squeeze out a single word. He desperately wanted to turn around to see what the man looked like, but he couldn’t move an inch. Due to the violent impact, fresh blood began to trickle down his forehead after a few seconds.
“You shouldn’t have found me.”
The man tilted his head, his voice creeping closer and closer. “Forget it, it doesn’t matter. Since you managed to find your way here, I’ll just kill you first.”
[Kill you.]
Just as the man pulled a folding knife from his oversized coat pocket, the fire door was suddenly kicked open with a resounding crash. Ji Mingrui suffered a secondary jolt from the impact, but the sudden chaos caused the man’s grip to loosen for a brief two seconds.
Summoning his remaining breath, Ji Mingrui drove his elbow sharply into the assailant’s lower abdomen. Finally gaining a moment to breathe, he spun around with clean precision.
To his surprise, the opponent had no intention of staying to fight. Realizing backup had arrived and fearing his identity might be exposed, the man kept his hood low, spun around, and bolted down the stairs.
“…Don’t you fucking run!”
Ji Mingrui wanted to give chase, but after shouting the threat, he broke into a violent coughing fit. Before he could sprint down, he leaned one hand against the stair railing and turned his body slightly to look back at the doorway.
After the fire door had been kicked open, the person outside hadn’t actually stepped in.
Chi Qing pulled his hood lower and ducked to the side, pressing his back against the white wall to ensure Ji Mingrui couldn’t see him through the open door. The distance between them was incredibly short.
Ji Mingrui knew full well that he hadn’t called for any backup for this rogue operation. Who could it be?
Suddenly, Ji Mingrui remembered a time back in their sophomore year of high school. He had been targeted by the class bully from next door for sticking his nose into other people’s business. He had been cornered in the restroom after school, completely helpless. Then, Chi Qing had suddenly appeared out of nowhere.
At the time, a battered Ji Mingrui had asked, “Why are you here? Weren’t you supposed to leave a long time ago?”
Chi Qing had merely kept a cold face, said nothing, and walked out with his backpack slung over one shoulder.
His “deceased” friend always seemed capable of hearing his inner voice—especially when he was in danger, stranded and completely without help.
Before chasing the suspect down, Ji Mingrui cast a deep, lingering look at the space behind the door. His eyes caught a glimpse of a black fabric hem. He locked the realization deep in his heart, averted his gaze, and chose not to seek out the person behind the door. Instead, he bolted down the stairs after the fleeing man.
Only then did Chi Qing slowly step out from behind the wall.
Xie Lin stood by his side. The two fully masked and hooded figures looked exceptionally suspicious. “He probably guessed it’s you.”
Chi Qing replied, “Not just him. ‘He’ has probably figured it out too.”
Ji Mingrui had fixated on the number ’13’ and walked right into Building 13, running straight into him at Tianxin Community. With his high intelligence, it wouldn’t take him long to piece together exactly what was happening.
Since things had escalated to this point, there was no longer any need to keep hiding in the shadows. Chi Qing pulled down his hood, exposing half of his face without reservation. “Right now, ‘he’ must be having a massive headache trying to figure out how to escape.”
“The foot traffic in this community is very high. If he really lives here, he’s bound to leave daily life traces, making a clean getaway highly unlikely. In other words, he might not be able to retreat unscathed,” Xie Lin analyzed, pausing briefly before adding, “So, what will he do next?”
What method would he choose to break out?
For a moment, Chi Qing couldn’t deduce the answer either. Countless voices were still buzzing relentlessly in his ears.
[I actually screwed up yesterday’s order… I made Xiao Liu take the fall for me…]
[Am I really going to get engaged to him? I don’t actually like him…]
Mixed into the chaos were mundane thoughts about what to eat for breakfast.
[Should I get a savory pancake or steamed buns?]
But an overwhelming majority of the voices belonged to a crowd of young children.
[Don’t want to go to school!]
[The homeroom teacher is so mean, I don’t like her…]
[XXX is my absolute best friend in class! I like her so much!]
“What kind of demographic is naturally easy to take hostage? On top of that, it needs to facilitate a quick escape, ideally involving an easily accessible vehicle…”
Xie Lin’s voice drifted to Chi Qing’s ears in a blur; he could only catch a few keywords.
Meanwhile, the voices of the children around him chirped away in innocent, youthful tones.
The final sentence Chi Qing caught was:
[Wow, look, it’s the school bus! The school bus is here!]
