Pang Le rarely felt flustered or uneasy. Guan Xia knew the reason but couldn’t voice it. After some thought, she agreed to Pang Le’s suggestion.
"Alright, let’s go," Guan Xia said. "But I don’t know which temples in Yongquan City are particularly auspicious. You’ll have to do the research yourself—I’ll just tag along."
Pang Le’s tone brightened instantly. "Got it. I’ll look it up now and ask around. Wait for my update."
Pang Le was always a woman of action. Before Guan Xia could even finish saying "Okay," the call was already disconnected.
After a meal and brewing a cup of banlangen tea to ward off a cold, Guan Xia planned to catch up on sleep. But after tossing and turning in bed for half an hour without success, she curled up on the sofa instead, draped in a thin blanket, and started binge-watching a drama.
With her mind preoccupied, it was hard to focus. Guan Xia kept glancing at the time.
By late afternoon, as the clock neared six and the sky outside darkened, the phone on the coffee table finally rang.
Guan Xia practically leaped to grab it. A glance at the screen confirmed it was Pang Le.
The call she’d been waiting for had finally come, yet Guan Xia suddenly hesitated, afraid to hear the answer she suspected.
After a few deep breaths, she answered.
The line was silent for a few seconds, filled only with the sound of their heavy breathing. Then Pang Le spoke. "That child… is gone."
Even though she’d braced herself, the confirmation of her fears made Guan Xia’s chest tighten.
Though the child was a stranger, the memory of that video—the tiny red figure—made her heart ache uncontrollably.
"Time of death," Guan Xia paused before forcing out the question, "was it yesterday at noon?"
Last night, she’d prayed for a miracle for the little boy. Now, she could only hope his passing had been swift, without prolonged suffering.
Pang Le hesitated before replying, "Time of death… roughly 14 to 15 hours ago."
Guan Xia fell silent. Calculating the timeline, that would place it around 3 or 4 AM last night. She wondered if the rain had still been falling then—if it had stopped, maybe the boy could have held on longer.
Her mind involuntarily conjured the scene, but she shook her head sharply, refusing to dwell on it. Only one question mattered now. "That man—the murderer—will he get the death penalty?"
Pang Le’s voice was grim. "I asked Lawyer Shi. He said it’s possible, but there’s also a high chance it’ll be commuted to a suspended death sentence."
Guan Xia scoffed. "A case this horrific, and he might only get a suspended sentence? So he’d serve a decade or so and walk free?"
"Possibly," Pang Le sighed. "Lawyer Shi doesn’t specialize in these cases, but he consulted colleagues. This is the likely outcome."
Guan Xia had nothing left to say.
Pang Le’s mood was equally heavy. After urging Guan Xia to stay home and call her if she needed to go out, she hung up.
It took Guan Xia a few seconds to catch the subtext. Clearly, Pang Le had heard something—another major case in Yongquan City, still unsolved, hence the warning.
Her thoughts immediately turned to Qi Bai and Xu Nian. They’d originally planned to hike together yesterday, but Qi Bai had canceled last minute. Recalling Qi Bai’s earlier mention of their unit handling high-profile cases, Guan Xia wondered if this was their doing.
Though the four of them had dined together and exchanged contacts, Guan Xia considered them barely more than acquaintances—not even friends. So while curiosity gnawed at her, she kept it to herself, not even sending a message.
Which was why, when Xu Nian’s call came the next afternoon, Guan Xia was both startled and filled with dread.
As she scrambled to recall recent events, she answered.
Before she could even greet him with "Captain Xu," Xu Nian cut straight to the point. "Qi Bai mentioned your camping spot last Saturday was an unnamed hill opposite Niujiao Peak on Cuiping Mountain?"
Guan Xia’s heart sank. Uneasy, she confirmed, "Yes, we climbed a small, unnamed hill across from Niujiao Peak."
Xu Nian’s voice sharpened. "I just sent you a photo. Have you been to this location?"
Switching to speakerphone, Guan Xia quickly opened the image. One glance was all it took to recognize the flat clearing used as a parking area by campers at the foot of the hill—the same spot where a few abandoned-looking cars had been parked when she’d scanned the area on Saturday.
Her sense of foreboding deepened. "We’ve been there. Our car was parked here on Saturday."
Xu Nian pressed, "Did you notice anyone suspicious that day?"
The moment the question left his lips, Guan Xia’s hovering anxiety crystallized into certainty.
She didn’t even bother trying to remember. Just as she’d expected, seconds after Xu Nian spoke, the system interface abruptly flashed before her, lines of text rapidly appearing.
You’ve been questioned by the police. Suddenly, you recall: At 08:37 on May 4th, before ascending the hill, you encountered a visibly tense fisherman in the parking lot. As you passed his vehicle, you caught a faint whiff of blood and noticed what appeared to be bloodstains near the trunk’s edge. You decide to inform the authorities.
After speed-reading the text, Guan Xia’s expression went blank, her mind flooding with disbelief.
Was this system for real? That "fisherman" had been wearing a hat, sunglasses, and a zipped-up windbreaker—she’d barely seen a third of his face, let alone discerned whether his jaw was sharp or round. How could she possibly have gauged his tension?
And she definitely hadn’t smelled blood or spotted any suspicious stains during her walk to the meeting point.
Questions piled up in her mind. After waiting a few seconds, as expected, the system screen flickered, replaying the encounter with the fisherman. It paused and zoomed in as Guan Xia passed his car, highlighting three areas with red frames: above the license plate, near the trunk hinge, and by the taillight. The streaks were faint but elongated, like accidental smears. On the grime-covered gray vehicle, they’d have been impossible to spot without the system’s help.
Guan Xia suppressed a sigh. This was even more absurd than the "bloodstain on the repairman’s sleeve" incident. If she repeated this, Xu Nian and his team would probably think her eyes were superhuman.
Rubbing her temples, she responded to Xu Nian’s repeated call of her name with a resigned, "Actually, there was one person."
Guan Xia said, "But that person was completely covered up—wearing a fisherman’s hat, sunglasses, and a zipped-up jacket pulled so high that only a third of his facial outline was visible. If he changed clothes and showed his face in front of me, I definitely wouldn’t recognize him. But I saw his license plate number, and when I passed his car, I caught a faint whiff of blood. There were also a few suspicious stains near the trunk that looked like blood droplets. I’ll send you his sketch later. The license plate was 9Q337. Oh, and he wasn’t very tall—hard to say exactly since there was nothing nearby for reference, but I’d guess between 1.7 to 1.75 meters. Medium build. His clothes and shoes had no distinctive logos, so I couldn’t tell what brands they were."
After Guan Xia finished speaking, the phone line was silent for a few seconds before Xu Nian’s voice came through. His tone was unexpectedly tinged with excitement. "Thank you, Guan Xia. If you remember anything else, contact me anytime."
This time, Xu Nian was even more impatient than Pang Le. Before Guan Xia could even utter a "got it," the call ended.
Staring at her phone for a couple of seconds, Guan Xia tossed it aside, then reconsidered and picked it back up to call Pang Le.
As soon as the call connected, Guan Xia blurted out, "Pang Le, guess who just called me?"
Pang Le’s curiosity was piqued. "Who? Dong Yuncheng? Qi Bai? Or Xu Nian?"
Guan Xia rolled her eyes. That wasn’t a guess—it was just listing everyone she knew at this point.
"It was Xu Nian," she said, not bothering to drag it out. "He asked if I’d seen anyone suspicious while hiking."
Pang Le immediately caught on, sounding shocked. "Wait, what? Besides that little boy, there was another case that day?"
Guan Xia sighed. "Suddenly, I feel like our luck is worse than Conan’s—go somewhere, and more than one person dies. You’re better with the grapevine. Do you know what case Xu Nian’s working on now?"
"I’ve heard a little," Pang Le said, footsteps indicating she was moving to a quieter spot before lowering her voice. "It’s a dismemberment case. In our Pingjiang District. Last Friday night, body parts were found in a residential trash bin. No idea how many victims, but this killer’s way more brutal than the last one."
Guan Xia shuddered, her hair standing on end. Her mind instantly flashed to that fisherman they’d seen that day—he’d been carrying a large bucket. Could he have been using it to transport body parts into the wilderness?
But if he dared to dump them in a residential trash bin, why suddenly go all the way to the mountains?
Were the remains he’d disposed of that day from the same victim as last Friday’s, or someone else?
Her thoughts spun so fast she felt dizzy, and she slowly sank onto the couch.
Pang Le, having unloaded all she knew, turned the question back on Guan Xia. "So what did you tell Xu Nian? Did you actually see someone suspicious?"
Her tone turned skeptical. "But that doesn’t make sense. We were together the whole time that day—didn’t even split up to use the bathroom. I didn’t see anyone shady."
Guan Xia hesitated before replying, "You did see him. It was... that fisherman."
Pang Le’s shock escalated, her voice rising to a near-shriek. "What?! That fisherman was the killer?"
