Guan Xia had been staring too intently and for too long, so Pang Le quickly noticed and followed her line of sight. However, he didn’t spot anything unusual, so he leaned in and asked in a low voice, "Did you find something again? A suspect?"
Guan Xia gave a subtle nod, and Pang Le immediately brightened, giving her a thumbs-up. "As expected of you."
At the moment, the two detectives from Daqu County and Xu Nian were still inside the sewer and hadn’t emerged yet. Guan Xia had already observed everything she could, so she took a few steps to the side and tilted her ear to listen to the conversation between Wang Yu and the person who had reported the incident.
An ambulance had already arrived, and the reporter was sitting by the roadside while the paramedics examined his injuries. The young man winced occasionally as he continued speaking.
"I live in the Meilin Community nearby, Building 11, closest to this side gate. Ever since someone removed a section of the railing to make a shortcut, I stopped using the main entrance. I always take a cab from this road. I’ve stepped on that manhole cover before, but nothing ever happened. Who knows which jerk did this?"
The young man hissed in pain again and cursed angrily.
Wang Yu asked, "Do many people usually take this road?"
While Wang Yu was asking, Guan Xia noticed Jiang Yingyao repeatedly looking up and observing something. Following his gaze, she realized he was checking the streetlights and higher points near the residential gate—clearly searching for surveillance cameras.
The young man cursed a few more times before answering, "Not many. Our community is big, and except for the two buildings closest to here, most people prefer the south or west gates. The only reason I’ve been using this path a lot recently is because my car’s in the shop, and I didn’t want to walk all the way to the other gates. Since I book cabs on my phone anyway, it doesn’t matter which road I wait on."
Wang Yu pressed further, "When was the last time you took a cab from this road? Did you notice the manhole cover then? Was it loose or tight?"
The young man thought for a long time before hesitantly replying, "The last time was this morning. I was in a hurry to get to work, so I didn’t pay attention. But yesterday morning, I overslept and had to run to the other side of the street. I think I stepped on it then, and nothing happened."
Guan Xia’s spirits lifted. If the cover had been fine yesterday morning but the man had fallen into the sewer tonight, it meant the suspect had most likely dumped the body last night.
Pang Le caught on quickly too. He relaxed, crossing his arms with a serious expression, though his tone was somewhat lazy. "Well, looks like this case is close to being solved. Honestly, how stupid can this suspect be? Who dumps a body in a sewer right near their own home?"
Guan Xia mused, "Maybe they were just temporarily storing it, planning to move it farther away later. But yeah, it’s pretty dumb. Probably their first crime—poor psychological resilience. They didn’t even secure the manhole cover properly, so the body was found so quickly."
She thought back to the suspect she’d briefly observed earlier—nervously fleeing, even stumbling over his own feet. He really didn’t seem like the sharpest tool in the shed.
Another five or six minutes passed before Captain Tan finally arrived with his team. Among them was a tall middle-aged woman carrying a toolbox, her face weary with dark circles under her eyes. Guan Xia glanced at her and easily guessed her identity—she must be the forensic examiner from the Daqu County police station.
Sure enough, after Captain Tan called out by the manhole, the two Daqu County detectives and Xu Nian climbed out, and the middle-aged woman carefully descended with her toolbox, followed by two other officers.
Captain Tan asked, "What’s the situation at the scene?"
Xu Nian dusted himself off and said, "The victim is a child, estimated to be around five years old based on height. There are clear ligature marks on the neck. I did a preliminary check—no other obvious external injuries. No murder weapon or signs of struggle at the scene either. It’s highly likely this isn’t the primary crime scene. The victim was probably dumped here."
Captain Tan seemed to share Guan Xia and Pang Le’s thoughts, frowning with a slightly odd expression. "Dumping a body in a sewer… The killer probably lives nearby and doesn’t have a vehicle."
As he spoke, he turned to survey the surroundings, and within minutes, his attention settled on the nearby residential area.
Xu Nian glanced at Guan Xia, who had been standing quietly to the side, and approached her to ask in a low voice, "Did you find anything?"
Just as Guan Xia had expected, the moment Xu Nian finished speaking, the system interface popped up.
You’ve been questioned by the police. Suddenly, you remember—at 00:37 on June 28th, you and your friend arrived at the crime scene after receiving a report. While observing the surroundings, you noticed a nervous young man. His expression was panicked, and when he met your gaze, he reacted with guilt and fear before instinctively fleeing. Your intuition tells you something is off about him. You decide to inform the police.
Reading the words as they appeared one by one, Guan Xia took her time this time, carefully going over them multiple times. She finally sensed the difference—compared to previous system prompts, this one maintained the same style but had a distinct change: it didn’t provide specific, detailed evidence or clues. Instead, it emphasized intuition.
Her guess had been right. Without her even realizing it, the system had quietly upgraded itself.
Guan Xia felt a surge of excitement but kept her expression perfectly controlled, maintaining a calm and even serious demeanor as she leaned closer to Xu Nian and whispered, "I saw someone in the crowd earlier. My gut tells me he’s probably connected to this case."
She phrased it cautiously, but Xu Nian knew her well. To him, those words were as good as saying she’d spotted the suspect.
Xu Nian’s expression remained stern, but a hint of amusement flickered in his eyes. He gave her a look and nodded seriously. "There’s paper and a pen in my car." With that, he took his car keys from his pocket and placed them in Guan Xia’s palm.
Understanding immediately, Guan Xia exchanged a glance with him before grabbing Pang Le and heading back to the car.
After rolling up all the windows and turning on the AC, Pang Le relaxed into the seat, rubbing his face. "Did you hear what Captain Tan and Xu Nian said? The victim’s a child, just five years old. I can’t imagine why anyone would kill a kid—strangling them, no less. This can’t be a crime of passion, right? The suspect couldn’t be the parents, could it?"
After analyzing for a moment, he finally remembered to ask Guan Xia, "Oh, right—you still haven’t told me what the suspect you saw looks like."
Guan Xia first closed her eyes, skillfully recalling the system interface to replay the earlier footage, automatically pausing at the clearest frontal shot of the suspect. Then she opened her eyes and began sketching while describing, "It's a young man, very tall—estimated at least 1.8 meters—and extremely thin, almost skeletal, with sunken cheeks. His eyes are large but bulging, somewhat frog-like, with a flat nose bridge and slightly thicker lips than average."
Pang Le listened intently before suddenly remembering something. "I think I recall—his head was quite large, and he seemed a bit hunched."
Guan Xia paused her sketching, rewound the footage, and nodded in confirmation. "Yes, there was a slight hunch."
Pang Le pondered for a moment before saying, "If the suspect were a relative of the victim, he wouldn’t likely behave that way. Maybe he had a grudge against the victim’s parents? Or is this another mentally unstable case…" His face twisted as if struck by a grim thought.
Guan Xia halted her movements again, thinking for a few seconds before responding, "I briefly locked eyes with him. His gaze and reactions didn’t seem erratic. Logically speaking, it’s probably personal."
For the next ten minutes, Pang Le alternated between deep thought and intently watching Guan Xia sketch. Only when she finished did he speak again. "Even though we don’t know the motive yet, it feels like we’re close to cracking this. I wonder what case Captain Tan is handling—didn’t Xu Nian mention earlier that it involved a female corpse?"
Guan Xia suddenly remembered Captain Tan’s separate homicide case. On top of that, Captain Yu would be returning tomorrow evening with Zhou Yiyang, the suspect in the 11-year-old Case 814. The sheer workload ahead was unimaginable—even now, it felt like chaos.
After locking the car, Guan Xia left the sketch behind but had already snapped a photo and sent it to the group chat. The rest of the second team were still at the scene and hadn’t responded, but Qi Bai immediately popped up, spamming question marks before asking: Weren’t you in Daqu County investigating a case? Did you stumble onto another one mid-investigation?
Guan Xia replied with a simple "Yeah" before turning off her phone to find Xu Nian.
Captain Tan was nowhere in sight, likely having descended into the sewer to examine the scene. Meanwhile, Wang Yu and Jiang Yingyao had finished their interviews and observations and were now standing beside Xu Nian, discussing in low voices.
As Guan Xia and Pang Le approached, they overheard Jiang Yingyao saying, "I checked with the Meilin Community property management. This side gate was only open for a few months after the neighborhood was built. Since hardly anyone used it, they locked it and, to cut costs, installed just one surveillance camera. But it’s been broken for years—never fixed since no one comes this way."
"What about inside the community?" Xu Nian asked.
Jiang Yingyao replied, "I asked about that too. The community does have cameras on main roads and building entrances, as required by the local precinct, but most are barely functional. Only the parking lot and bike sheds have decent footage—the rest are low-resolution."
No one was surprised. After all, this was a small county—resources couldn’t compare to the city.
"Copy the footage anyway," Xu Nian said. "Captain Tan and I both suspect the killer likely lives nearby. Guan Xia also mentioned spotting a suspicious person in the crowd earlier. The footage might give us something."
He glanced at the community just meters away. "We need to hurry and locate the primary crime scene."
Once Jiang Yingyao and Xu Nian finished, Guan Xia quietly added, "I’ve finished the suspect’s sketch and sent it to the group."
The team perked up, pulling out their phones to examine the image. Standing beside Xu Nian, Guan Xia caught a flurry of messages from Qi Bai in the corner of her screen—his frantic typing speed practically screamed his desperation to teleport through the internet.
Everyone studied the sketch closely. Remembering Captain Tan’s rushed arrival earlier, Guan Xia asked Xu Nian, "What’s the situation with the scene Captain Tan was called to?"
Xu Nian forwarded the sketch to Captain Tan before answering, "A female victim. The coroner’s initial assessment is death by blood loss, with defensive wounds. Her belongings were missing—Captain Tan thinks it’s a robbery-turned-murder."
The group fell silent. After a moment, Wang Yu muttered, "What timing. At least Captain Yu is bringing back Zhou Yiyang tomorrow—solid evidence, just waiting on the confession."
The others nodded reflexively before shooting Wang Yu disapproving looks.
Pang Le was blunt. "You jinxed it."
Wang Yu mimed zipping his lips. "Fine, fine. From now on, unless it’s case-related, I won’t say a word."
