Acquaintance

"Chen Chun, formerly known as Chen Xiaodie, 28 years old, divorced. Born on March 13, 1994, with her registered residence in Xingcheng, H Province. Her current address is Sheng'an City, Jinxi District, Xingze Street, Zhongfang Yayuan, Building 2, Unit 1, Room 802. She works as a beautician at a chain beauty salon called 'Ophelia'."

"Her ex-husband is Tang Jun, a civil servant at the Xingcheng City Finance Bureau in H Province. They registered their marriage in 2015 and have a 6-year-old daughter. The daughter's former name was Tang Sihao. After their divorce in 2017, Chen Chun was granted custody of the child, who was renamed Chen Peifeng. She is in the first grade of elementary school this year."

Dai Lin skimmed through Chen Chun's biographical information, ten lines at a glance, and found nothing special. He asked, "Does she have an alibi for after 10 p.m. on the 25th?"

Yuan Hang hadn't been busy all night for nothing; his work was very thorough, and he answered with ease: "Chen Chun got on the bus at 8:51 p.m., got off and arrived home at 9:17 p.m. At 10:30 p.m., she placed an order for fever medicine. At 10:49 p.m., she received a scam text message. The first medicine delivery arrived around 11:00 p.m., and the second arrived around 11:20 p.m. The period when she was being scammed largely coincides with the time of Ye Tongsheng's death. The community's surveillance also shows she never left home, so she can be ruled out as a suspect."

"Then she's a key witness." Dai Lin turned his head to look at the screen again. "What about Ye Tongsheng's movements after he walked Chen Chun and her daughter to the bus stop? Is there any surveillance footage?"

"Yes." Yuan Hang opened another video. "He walked east along Park North Road. There are two intersections with surveillance cameras on this road. He reached the first intersection around 9:00 p.m. and the intersection of Gaoxin Avenue East Road Bridge and North Road at 9:15 p.m. The surveillance at this intersection captured him taking a call on his phone. It was the 9:14 p.m. WeChat call record that Gao Qihui deleted."

"At 9:17 p.m., Ye Tongsheng disappeared from the surveillance footage, walking into an undeveloped section of road. After that, he was never captured by any camera again."

Dai Lin changed his posture from leaning on the desk to standing upright. He folded his arms and pondered for a moment, then glanced sideways at Yuan Hang. "Not bad, kid. You quietly dug up a huge landmine. How did you find Ye Tongsheng?"

Yuan Hang blinked his red, sore eyes from staying up all night and avoided his gaze, a little awkwardly. "Actually, it was my oversight before. The umbrella Ye Tongsheng was holding was a Capsule Umbrella custom-made by Juquan Technology Company. It has orange stripes on the canopy. Find the umbrella, and you can find the person."

Hearing this, Dai Lin gave him a meaningful glance. He didn't press him on why he suddenly thought to check the umbrella's origin, just gave a noncommittal "hmm" and asked, "Any other findings?"

"Gao Qihui's umbrella is the same model." Yuan Hang showed him a few high-definition frames from the surveillance footage. "After Ye Tongsheng left the park, and when Gao Qihui walked into the underground garage, the straps on their umbrellas were fastened. But when Gao Qihui got out of the car at the intersection, his umbrella strap was clearly still hanging down naturally."

"I believe the umbrella Gao Qihui was holding when he entered the garage was Ye Tongsheng's umbrella. The two of them met within the ten-minute window between 10:03 p.m. and 10:13 p.m., and something happened. This incident is related to Ye Tongsheng's cause of death and would absolutely be a detrimental testimony for Gao Qihui." Yuan Hang pushed up his invisible glasses and delivered his final conclusion with force: "Therefore, although Gao Qihui is not the one who murdered Ye Tongsheng, he chose to cover for the real killer to avoid exposing his own crimes!"

The office fell silent. Outside the window, a crow flew past with flapping wings, letting out a loud "Caw—".

"...Yuan Hang."

"Huh?" he answered subconsciously.

Dai Lin's gaze fell heavily on his face. His expression wasn't particularly severe, but his tone was practically an interrogation: "Do you know what you're saying?"

Yuan Hang said with wide-eyed earnestness, "I mean, Gao Qihui must be hiding something. He's not the killer, but he's covering for the real killer..."

Seeing his naive expression, Dai Lin couldn't help but get angry. The familiar feeling of tutoring his child with homework last night came rushing back, and he couldn't help but raise his voice. "Didn't you insist at the beginning that Gao Qihui was the one who murdered Ye Tongsheng? Why are you suddenly saying now that Gao Qihui isn't the real killer and someone else committed the crime?"

Yuan Hang was still wracking his brain to answer the question. "Because Gao Qihui doesn't have the time to commit the crime? If it wasn't him, then it must be someone else..."

"How many times have I told you not to make subjective assumptions? You need to present evidence! Where's the evidence?"

Yuan Hang shrank back. "I don't have any yet."

"I can't even be bothered to call you out for copying the answer, but you can't just copy the result without the steps!" Dai Lin slammed his hand on the desk. "Without evidence, what are you doing talking about other killers? You haven't even figured out Gao Qihui's part, and you're already thinking about other killers? You think you're Wu Bai, who gets to have three more cups after this one?!"

"...Captain Dai, calm down! Calm down," Yuan Hang dodged aside as if slapped by the sole of an invisible slipper in Dai Lin's hand and quickly made a solemn promise. "I get it, I really get it this time. When I question the witness today, I'll follow the steps. I'll definitely sort out the Gao Qihui lead first."

Dai Lin shot him a fierce glare. Turning to see the mess on the desk, he could only take a deep breath to calm himself. "Ye Tongsheng's case basically fits the characteristics of a suicide. Plus, the time of the incident was unusual, and the family didn't insist on pursuing it, so we never seriously investigated it as a difficult case." As he spoke, his tone gradually softened. "To be honest, for you to have traced it to Gao Qihui without any resources, both Captain Qin and I find it quite remarkable. We've seen your growth.

"We're now at a critical point in the case. Since you've already grasped an important clue, you need to calm down and do your work meticulously and thoroughly. The result you're looking for will naturally appear before you. You can't rush things. Got it?"

Yuan Hang stood at attention with a solemn expression. "Yes, sir!"

"Ms. Chen, thank you for cooperating with our investigation. Please verify your basic information first."

She glanced over it quickly. "The information is correct."

"Alright." Yuan Hang, sitting opposite her, pushed a photograph across the table. "Do you know this person?"

The woman, wrapped in a white down jacket with her hair in a low ponytail, kept a straight face. Her expression was cold but couldn't hide a faint unease. It was clear she wasn't comfortable in this kind of setting. She shook her head and denied it, "I don't know him."

Yuan Hang's eyebrow twitched in surprise, but he did his best to maintain a calm tone. "No need to be nervous, this is just a routine inquiry. Are you sure?"

Chen Chun looked at the photo for a few more seconds before slowly averting her gaze. "I'm sure."

A lie.

Yuan Hang: "What were you doing on the evening of September 25th?"

Chen Chun's delicate brows furrowed. That day wasn't a pleasant memory for her, but she still recounted it as calmly as possible, "That evening, I took my daughter to Xinliu Park to see the Mid-Autumn Lantern Festival. It suddenly started raining heavily halfway through, so we hurried home. After we got home, my daughter got a fever from being caught in the rain, so I ordered some fever medicine on Juquan. But then I received a scam text message. I was busy taking care of my daughter and didn't look closely, so the scammers fraudulently charged my bank card..."

"Do you remember what happened when it was raining in the park?"

Chen Chun, whose eyes were habitually downcast, blinked lightly, a hint of realization in her voice. "Oh, so that's what you want to ask about... This is the person who held an umbrella for my daughter and me and walked us to the bus station, right?"

Yuan Hang: "So you do remember? Why did you say you didn't know him?"

Chen Chun said with some difficulty, "Sorry, I still didn't really recognize him. I'm a bit face-blind. The lighting was very dim that night, so I didn't remember what he looked like. Besides, it's been so long. I only remembered after you mentioned it."

A lie.

Yuan Hang: "Can you describe the process of how you met in detail?"

"On the night of the Mid-Autumn Festival, I took my daughter to Xinliu Park to see the lanterns. It started raining around eight-thirty. My child and I were taking shelter under an awning, but it was too crowded, and my daughter started crying from being pushed around. That's when he—that person—asked if we needed to walk together, since we were going the same way anyway. Then he held the umbrella for us all the way to the Park North Gate bus stop."

Yuan Hang: "What did you talk about? Did you exchange names or add each other on WeChat?"

The question was quite intrusive, but as the interrogator, Yuan Hang had to consider this possibility. As expected, Chen Chun frowned deeply and turned her face away slightly. Her answer, however, was unexpectedly firm: "No."

"You didn't say anything at all?"

"My daughter was there," she retorted sharply. "What could I possibly talk about with a strange man?"

Chen Chun had a delicate, pale face and looked slender and harmless. The first time Yuan Hang met her, he inexplicably felt she was like a fragile glass vase on the verge of shattering. But after their conversation today, he sensed a certain hardness in her. This fortitude became particularly powerful when she faced stressful questions or matters concerning her daughter.

Yuan Hang: "Alright. After you parted ways at the North Gate bus stop, where did this person go?"

Chen Chun: "I don't know."

Yuan Hang: "Can you try to recall which direction he went?"

It was clear Chen Chun was trying hard to remember. After a moment, she gestured, "Towards... um, to the right after leaving the park."

"Can you recall anything special that happened while walking to the park gate?"

Chen Chun finally couldn't help asking, "Why are you asking all this? Did something happen to this person?"

Yuan Hang was unmovable. "Please answer my question first."

She sat back, a bit deflated. "Something special..."

"Anything, no matter how small."

Chen Chun frowned in deep thought. Three months had passed since the Mid-Autumn Festival, and it was very difficult to accurately recall the minute details of a specific period on a certain day. But suddenly, she lightly clapped her hands together. "My daughter gave him a few pieces of candy... Does that count?"

"What brand of candy? How many pieces?"

"Wangzai Milk Candy, it's the only one she likes," Chen Chun said. "I don't know how many... because she just grabbed a handful from her pocket."

Yuan Hang remembered the partial fingerprint on the candy wrapper. 'No wonder it didn't match,' he thought. 'It was a child's fingerprint—'

Wait!

In a flash, a guess began to take shape in his mind. His thoughts raced ahead, leaving his consciousness far behind. He could feel his heart pounding against his ribs and had to exert extreme control to keep his voice from suddenly rising, to maintain a naturally calm frequency. "Did you, or your daughter, ever touch his umbrella?"

In an instant, everyone—inside and outside the room, at the scene, and those watching the surveillance outside—fell completely silent.

A sliver of light, as fine as a hanging needle's thread, flickered faintly at the end of the confusion and chaos. After three seconds of agonizing silence, Chen Chun gave a slight nod. "I was holding my child and didn't have a free hand. My daughter kept fidgeting and trying to grab the dangling umbrella strap, and she almost fell. So that person fastened the strap and let my daughter try holding the umbrella for a little while... But it was windy that day, so she didn't hold it for long before giving it back to him."

The tip of Yuan Hang's pen came to an abrupt halt. His hand trembled, leaving an unseemly scratch in his notebook.

In other words, as long as they could find the little girl's fingerprints on the umbrella Gao Qihui was holding, it would prove that the umbrella he carried into the underground garage belonged to Ye Tongsheng after he left the park on the night of September 25th—the two of them must have met that night!

"Ms. Chen, could I trouble you to bring your child to the bureau to have her fingerprints taken?" Despite his repeated efforts to control himself, a slight tremor still crept into Yuan Hang's voice. "Her fingerprints might be the key clue..."

Chen Chun looked up sharply, sensing something unusual beneath his calm words. The subtle, out-of-sync feeling that had been present throughout their conversation was finally magnified to its fullest at this moment. "What do you mean?"

"What happened to that person? Did something happen to him?"

Yuan Hang suddenly met her gaze. The cover-ups and suspicious points riddling this conversation flashed through his mind: her direct denial without asking for context; her act of pretending to remember only after being prompted; her deep wariness as a mother with a child, yet accepting a strange man's offer to walk with them; her claim of being face-blind, yet her refusal to look at the photo again to aid her memory; the surveillance footage showing Ye Tongsheng only leaving after the bus had driven some distance away, and her inability to remember his face, yet she could state the direction he left in, indicating that she had deliberately looked for and watched him from the bus...

And now, sitting in the police station being questioned by a criminal detective, she was still asking, "Did something happen to him?" not "What's wrong with him?" or "What crime did he commit?"

It was as if the scales in her heart had already weighed Ye Tongsheng clearly, determining that he was a good person who would never harm her.

And yet, she flatly denied knowing him. That resolute attitude wasn't one of "who cares if he's dead or alive, it has nothing to do with me," but rather "even if Ye Tongsheng himself were here, he wouldn't contradict my story"—did her confidence stem from some unknown understanding between them, or from the knowledge that Ye Tongsheng himself would never appear before her again?

"This person," Yuan Hang said slowly, "was named Ye Tongsheng. He drowned in the Xinliu River on the night of September 25th."

"Ms. Chen, are you sure you don't know him?"

Crack.

It was as if something transparent in the air had shattered.

Chen Chun's eyes widened in disbelief.

Her nostrils flared as if she had suddenly forgotten how to breathe. If she weren't sitting in a chair, she might not have been able to control her trembling, swaying body.

"Is..."

She only managed a short, breathy sound, as if wanting to ask more, but the intense emotional shock seemed to activate some internal self-preservation mechanism, which, like a bulldozer leveling everything in its path, swiftly and forcefully suppressed her chaotic emotions.

"...I'm sorry to hear that."

Her gaze rested quietly on Ye Tongsheng's photograph on the desk for a moment, a silent, mournful tribute to the passerby with whom she had once shared an umbrella.

"I'm sorry to hear that. I don't know him."