Although Guan Xia had a premonition when she saw the middle-aged man, her face still fell the moment the system interface popped up.
Ji An immediately understood and looked at Guan Xia with a strange expression. "You saw someone suspicious again?"
Guan Xia nodded helplessly.
Pang Le had been staring at the two of them since Ji An spoke up. Seeing this, he let out an exaggerated sigh and said with a grin, "I knew this trip wouldn’t go smoothly. But hey, it’s still a new experience. We just need to hurry—there’s going to be a heavy rainstorm tonight, and who knows what complications that’ll add to the case."
At the mention of the rainstorm, even though neither of them were experts, they instantly thought of many possibilities—cameras failing, evidence being washed away by the rain.
Guan Xia could only pray that the system had triggered another cold case. If it was an active crime scene, she didn’t even want to imagine the consequences.
The red light ended, and the green light lit up. Ji An restarted the car, and Guan Xia quickly summarized the text prompt from the system interface.
Pang Le’s expression darkened instantly. "A black plastic bag, pretty heavy, thrown into a trash bin near a bus stop… Could it be a bomb?"
He turned to survey the large intersection. Since it wasn’t far from the airport, the two intersecting roads were eight-lane city thoroughfares. It was rush hour, and though traffic had resumed smoothly under the direction of traffic police, the flow of vehicles was still heavy, including many buses packed with passengers. There were also plenty of pedestrians walking along the sidewalks.
Guan Xia was worried about the same thing. She carefully recalled the shape of the object weighing down the black plastic bag and shook her head after a moment. "Probably not. Bombs aren’t that heavy, and from what I’ve seen in crime shows, they’re usually rectangular. The bottom of this bag was curved."
"Curved?" Pang Le frowned in thought. "That does make it unlikely to be a bomb. Then… body parts? Like dismembered arms or legs?"
While the two discussed, Ji An drove through the intersection, took a moment to pull over, and unbuckled his seatbelt. "As long as it’s not a bomb, whether it’s body parts or not, we’ll know once we check."
Guan Xia fumbled with her seatbelt before getting out. Before heading to the bus stop, she glanced toward the courtyard where the middle-aged man had disappeared. The words atop the building inside revealed it was a small passenger terminal.
Ji An walked up beside her and followed her gaze. "The suspect went into the terminal?"
Guan Xia nodded.
"Then we need to hurry," Ji An said. "If he really is the perpetrator, he’s trying to flee. We’ll need to find some clues first so we can alert the police to block off the area and start a manhunt."
Before he even finished speaking, Guan Xia broke into a jog. The two quickly caught up, reaching the trash bin in minutes. As Guan Xia rummaged through her bag for tissues, Ji An pulled out a pair of thin rubber gloves from his pocket and put them on. "Which bin did the suspect throw the bag into?"
Guan Xia pointed to the right. Ji An pressed one hand against the edge of the bin to pull it open while reaching inside with the other. Soon, he retrieved the black plastic bag the middle-aged man had discarded.
Carefully placing it on the ground, Ji An opened the bag. Guan Xia and Pang Le leaned in to look and saw it was filled with discarded watermelon rinds.
It wasn’t the dismembered body parts they’d guessed. So why had the system triggered? Just as Guan Xia was puzzling over this, Ji An pushed aside the top layer of rinds, revealing a fruit knife underneath.
The knife was buried in the pile of rinds, resting on a half-cut watermelon shell that resembled a small bowl. The blade, likely soaked in residual juice, was stained with a faint reddish tint. At first glance, it seemed unremarkable, but the system’s prompt clearly hinted at something unusual about the bag.
Guan Xia focused intently, but Ji An was quicker. A few seconds later, his voice turned grim. "There’s blood."
"Blood? Where?" Pang Le clearly hadn’t spotted it, his face full of confusion.
Ji An lifted the knife with his gloved hand and pointed to where the blade met the handle. "Here. This knife was cleaned, but spots like this are hard to scrub thoroughly. There’s residue."
With his guidance, the other two finally saw it—traces of dried blood encircling the base of the blade. The pattern wasn’t random but formed a complete ring. The sight instantly made all three of them think of one thing.
Pang Le gasped. "If the blood reached this far, did the entire blade go in?"
Though the knife wasn’t particularly long, unless the victim was exceptionally large, the only way for the blade to be fully submerged would be if it had been driven into the torso. Unless the attacker had deliberately avoided vital organs, this knife could have inflicted a life-threatening wound.
Neither Guan Xia nor Pang Le bothered asking if it might not be human blood—any suspect who triggered Guan Xia’s attention was inevitably linked to a homicide.
"Call the police," Ji An said, carefully placing the knife back and standing up. He glanced toward the terminal. "Pang Le, stay here with Guan Xia and wait for the authorities. I’ll head to the terminal and look around. He might not have gotten far yet."
He turned to Guan Xia. "Do you remember what he looked like?"
Guan Xia nodded firmly. "Middle-aged man, around 175 cm tall, slightly overweight, balding. He was wearing a blue-and-white striped round-neck T-shirt, black pants, black sneakers, and a brown belt with a silver square buckle engraved with a dragon design."
As she spoke, the system interface quickly pulled up a video, freezing on the clearest image of the man to help her describe him more accurately.
Satisfied, Ji An gave a few more instructions before hurrying off. Pang Le looked tempted to follow but glanced at Guan Xia and the black plastic bag, ultimately suppressing his curiosity.
Guan Xia watched Ji An sprint away, then immediately pulled out her phone and dialed Xu Nian. Even though this was a case in Fuan City, she was unfamiliar with the area—better to rely on a trusted contact.
Xu Nian sounded surprised to receive Guan Xia’s call at this hour. After a puzzled "Guan Xia?" his tone quickly turned serious. "You found another suspect?"
Guan Xia gave an affirmative hum and quickly recounted the sequence of events. After finishing, she glanced at the bus stop sign and relayed their current location.
Xu Nian, as decisive as ever, responded, "I’ll contact the Dingyang District Criminal Police Team right away. Brother Jiang and the others will head over too. Stay where you are, don’t move, and protect the evidence."
After hanging up, Guan Xia wasn’t about to just wait around. She thought for a moment and told Pang Le she was going back to the car to fetch a notebook and pen.
Pang Le grabbed her arm. "You stay here. I’ll go—I’m faster."
Before Guan Xia could reply, Pang Le had already sprinted off. To Guan Xia’s surprise, it took Pang Le over ten minutes to return, and she came back with a traffic officer in tow.
Guan Xia looked puzzled. "What’s this about?"
Pang Le sighed. "We parked illegally and blocked traffic, so we got a ticket. When I went back, the officer caught me red-handed and insisted I move the car. I had no choice but to explain the situation. He’s here to verify."
It was unexpected yet somehow predictable. Guan Xia quickly made space, letting the officer take a closer look. She then used a tissue to carefully adjust the plastic bag, revealing the dagger inside.
After confirming the presence of bloodstains on the dagger, the young officer’s stern expression softened slightly, even showing a hint of excitement. He asked Guan Xia, "Which bus did the suspect get off from?"
Guan Xia thought for a moment before answering firmly, "Bus 528. It arrived at this stop around 8 p.m."
The officer nodded, asked a few more questions about the suspect’s appearance, then stepped aside to relay the information over his walkie-talkie.
Guan Xia didn’t dwell on what he was reporting. She took the notebook and pen from Pang Le and began sketching rapidly. By the time she finished the sketch and was about to send it to Xu Nian, a series of screeching brakes echoed nearby.
Turning her head, Guan Xia saw three cars pull up by the roadside. Almost as soon as they stopped, a group of people spilled out. Their familiar demeanor and presence made it clear—this was the Dingyang District Criminal Police Team Xu Nian had alerted.
Leading them was a woman in her thirties, not tall but with a strikingly athletic build. Her square-jawed face and sharp features gave her an imposing air. The moment she looked up, her eyes locked onto Guan Xia. She strode over and extended a hand. "I’m Xia Chenghui, captain of the First Unit of the Dingyang District Criminal Police Brigade. You must be Guan Xia?"
"That’s right," Guan Xia replied, shaking her hand before gesturing to the black plastic bag. "The suspected murder weapon—a fruit knife—is inside here. We only took it out briefly to confirm the bloodstains before putting it back. We haven’t touched it since."
Xia Chenghui’s attention immediately shifted to the bag. She crouched down, and with a quick motion, a young officer beside her handed her a pair of gloves.
After putting them on, Xia Chenghui examined the knife just as Ji An had earlier, scrutinizing the bloodstains before placing it into an evidence bag held open by the young officer. Just as she was about to speak, her gaze landed on the sketch in Guan Xia’s hand.
"Is this the suspect?" Xia Chenghui asked.
Guan Xia handed it over. "Yes. We have another teammate who went to the bus terminal—we suspect the suspect might be trying to flee by long-distance bus..."
Before Guan Xia could finish, Ji An returned, visibly out of breath and drenched in sweat from what must have been a frantic search. Catching his breath beside her, he said, "I did a quick sweep and found a few witnesses. The suspect didn’t take a bus—he hired an unlicensed cab. According to other drivers there, they overheard him telling the driver he was heading to Dongyi City."
Ji An checked the time. "He left about twenty-five minutes ago. The license plate is a local one: N3T673."
With such clear leads, Xia Chenghui, though visibly curious, had no time for small talk. She immediately began delegating tasks.
As the police team sprang into action, Guan Xia and the others found themselves temporarily sidelined—but faced with a dilemma: should they still try to catch their flight?
Squinting at the worsening weather, Guan Xia hesitated. "Of course we want to go back, but won’t we need to give statements at the Dingyang District station? If we do that, will we even make the flight?"
Pang Le glanced around and remarked offhandedly, "Since the Dingyang team is already here, maybe they can take our statements on-site? But I’ve got a feeling we might not be leaving either way."
Almost as if on cue, Ji An, who had been checking his phone, frowned and said with resignation, "Pang Le’s intuition is right. We’re not going anywhere—the flight’s been canceled."
Guan Xia sighed, her indecision vanishing. "Well, that settles it. At least we won’t get hit with cancellation fees."
Pang Le threw an arm around Guan Xia’s shoulders, careful to avoid her injured arm, and said cheerfully, "And we get to help solve a case! Let’s hope Xu Nian pulls some strings so we can stay involved. Otherwise, being stuck in a hotel will be boring."
Speak of the devil—before Guan Xia could respond, two more cars pulled up. Through the half-open windows, she recognized the Second Unit’s team.
"Stuck on this part today—gotta sort it out. See you tomorrow, angels~"
