Gao Shi’s positioning system had undoubtedly bought more time in the search for Zhou You, eliminating the step of screening and locating her, allowing the criminal investigation team to go straight to the key point.
Within twenty minutes, the information and files had been uploaded.
Among the files was a video, the garden’s surveillance footage.
The footage showed Zhou You entering the garden at ten in the morning.
Perhaps fearing detection by paparazzi, Zhou You had bundled herself up tightly. Anyone who was not extremely familiar with her would have been unable to recognise her.
Surveillance coverage within the garden was sparse, and Zhou You had deliberately taken routes avoiding the cameras. As a result only a handful of feeds had captured so much as a fleeting glimpse of her, let alone any footage that might reveal who she had gone there to meet.
However, in a rubbish bin at one corner of the garden, Zhou You’s phone was found.
Or more precisely, the components of a phone.
The handset had been completely disassembled. What was in the rubbish bin was only the part responsible for sending and receiving signals.
The components were clean. There were no fingerprints of any kind on them.
It could be concluded with reasonable certainty that Zhou You had been harmed.
Whoever had taken Zhou You had a strong instinct for counter-surveillance and was highly professional when it came to eliminating traces.
According to police estimates, the person had disassembled Zhou You’s phone and personal items and distributed the pieces across different rubbish bins. These bins were each assigned to specific collectors who cleared and emptied them daily, meaning Zhou You’s belongings had long since been carried away with the rubbish truck to the refuse site.
However, in a stroke of fortune amid misfortune, the two sanitation workers assigned to this particular out-of-the-way rubbish bin had, in their habitual laziness, a fondness for taking small advantages.
Because the rubbish bin was located in such an out-of-the-way spot, very few people came there to throw anything away. The two sanitation workers were as lazy as usual. They shook the bin, found it less than one-fifth full, and left it without emptying it.
And so the location chip remained in the garden.
But it was only the chip that remained.
As one of City B’s largest gardens, foot traffic was enormous, especially the day before, when the weather had been fine and the spring breeze gentle, drawing many young couples for outings. This added considerable difficulty to the search.
The garden had only one entrance and one exit, meant to symbolise walking hand in hand to old age. Yet a review of the exit surveillance footage turned up no sign of Zhou You.
The outfit Zhou You had worn upon entering had been changed.
And whoever had taken Zhou You clearly had considerable expertise in disguise as well.
The camera footage was somewhat blurry, and with the crowds, even using AI comparison functions it was only possible to confirm that some visitors entering and exiting were the same person. The remainder required manual comparison.
The first to be flagged for investigation were visitors who had entered alone but left in pairs.
Particular attention was paid to those exiting where one party appeared unsteady on their feet and needed to be supported, carried on someone’s back, or held in someone’s arms.
The complicating factor was that the garden had held a couples’ compatibility challenge event that day. One of the activities required one participant to drink, meaning that the number of people being carried out was not small.
Gao Shi was watching the footage when he suddenly hit pause. He frowned at a pair of visitors on the exit camera feed, then closed his eyes.
The entrance footage he had just watched rewound rapidly through his mind. His exceptional memory came into full force. He tracked the movement of the sun, reversed the flow of the crowd, felt a light sweat break out at his temples, and identified the time at which this couple had appeared.
He dragged the progress bar back. The frame froze.
A couple appeared at the entrance.
The man was wearing a thin black down jacket. He was tall and lean, and the jacket hung somewhat loosely on him. He appeared to be in modest financial circumstances. The down jacket was clearly a counterfeit of a major brand, poorly made, probably costing around a hundred yuan.
Yet the person beside him was dressed in a vivid red cashmere coat, with something glinting at the neck, likely jewellery. Spring had not yet warmed fully, yet beneath the woman’s white cashmere dress she wore only a pair of black silk stockings, and black heels, her walk full of graceful sway.
The woman’s makeup was heavy. She leaned against the man like a vine growing around a great tree.
The man appeared to be around thirty. The woman’s makeup was too thick, and with the blurry footage, her age was impossible to determine.
At the exit, the man was carrying the woman out on his back. She was holding a bag of beer in one hand, her face buried in the crook of his neck, looking as though she had drunk too much.
Gao Shi enlarged the image, and finally identified the source of his unease.
In the exit footage, the black stockings on the woman’s legs were a slightly lighter shade than in the entrance footage.
The stockings the woman was wearing were, barring the unexpected, from a high-end luxury brand. They would not have run or thinned after a single day.
Which left only one explanation: the woman’s legs had become thicker.
Walking in high heels does cause the legs to swell somewhat. But Gao Shi’s instincts still told him something was wrong.
He checked the other cameras, and spent the entire morning tracing this couple’s complete route through the garden.
He could see that they had started out like any ordinary couple, visiting the different areas of the park. Multiple cameras had captured the two of them.
The woman suggested they take part in the compatibility challenge. But the man’s compatibility with her was evidently in need of work. The penalty for wrong answers was to drink, one cup per wrong answer. The woman snatched up the cup and poured it down with visible anger.
The man grew increasingly uncomfortable, and somewhat worried. He tried to discourage her. The woman slammed the table in fury, stood up, grabbed a bag of draught beer from the table and stormed off. The man quickly rose and went after her.
They next appeared over half an hour later, the man carrying the woman on his back. They seemed to have made up, and were heading toward the exit.
On the surface, nothing seemed wrong.
But the route from the compatibility challenge venue to the exit passed directly by the rubbish bin where Zhou You’s phone components had been found.
What if the stockings were lighter not because of swelling, but because the person wearing them had been replaced?
Gao Shi shifted his attention back to the man.
At the garden entrance, there was a large mirror. The man appeared to set great store by this outing. He straightened his clothes in front of the mirror. The camera was positioned just above it and captured his face straight on.
He seemed to notice the camera as well. He tilted his head up and gave a slightly bashful smile.
By estimation the man stood at least one hundred and ninety-five centimetres tall. In the cold weather he was wearing a mask, his eyes not particularly large.
Gao Shi narrowed his eyes slightly and played the segment again.
There was nothing off at all. This was entirely the picture of a middle-aged man looking forward to a date.
And yet the alarm bells in Gao Shi’s mind were ringing loudly. Instinct was directing his attention to this person.
This alertness came from years spent in a battle of wits against scoundrels.
An experienced senior officer can crack a case through a look or a micro-expression, can pick out a suspect from a crowd at a glance.
Gao Shi was still young, his experience no match for those senior officers. But his battle with scoundrels had begun the moment he found Gao Gusheng, and it was no exaggeration to say that when it came to recognising scum, he could tell at a single look.
This man was absolutely suspicious.
In Gao Shi’s eyes, the smile the man gave toward the camera was less a bashful, expectant expression than a direct provocation to the police.
Look. I am right here in front of you, and no one can recognise me.
“Star, I am requesting access to headquarters’ facial recognition database.”
“Star received! (*^▽^*)”
Gao Shi thought for a moment, then sent facial screenshots of both the man and the woman to Cheng Zeqi.
[Seven, can you restore them?]
Cheng Zeqi replied instantly. [Where did you pull these from? The makeup technique is impressive. Especially the man’s.]
[It is actually easy for a man to dress as a woman. But for a man to disguise himself as a completely different man, now that is difficult.]
Gao Shi was momentarily taken aback, and experienced the rare sensation of his brain coming to a complete halt.
[?]
[Dress as a woman? What do you mean?]
[The person in the red coat. That one is a man in disguise. I assumed you had already figured that out, which is why you were asking me to restore their appearance.]
[…]
Gao Shi sent Cheng Zeqi the exit screenshot.
[Can you tell whether the person in the red coat was replaced?]
This time Cheng Zeqi took a moment to reply. [Hard to say. The red coat person only has half a face showing, and it is covered by hair. Neither the face shape nor the ears are visible.]
Yet this was already the frame with the most exposed detail that Gao Shi had been able to capture.
In the footage, the only thing visible was the woman’s rose-red eyeshadow, identical to what she had worn at the entrance.
[That said, I do think something is off. There may be distortion due to the angle, but look at the stockings on the red coat person. The colour is lighter.]
[Hey, Old Gao, let me try restoring the faces for you first. These images are incredibly blurry. I’ll do my best.]
Gao Shi did not rule out the possibility that the man in red might have particular predilections, but he made a mental note of both individuals.
Star’s processing speed was faster than Cheng Zeqi, but was unable to remove the disguise.
About half an hour later, Cheng Zeqi got back to him. [The part covered by his mask, I have simulated a few possible versions based on the structure and direction of his face.]
[This person’s makeup skills are genuinely impressive. Around eighty percent of my own level. And his acting is exceptional too. He fits his made-up appearance seamlessly. Where did you find a gem like this?]
Gao Shi’s gaze fell on the portrait Cheng Zeqi had produced, and stopped.
One of the portraits bore a striking resemblance to Xiao Yusheng.
***
“Junzi, I am taking you to meet a veteran figure in the industry this time.”
The only ones Qi Wu would call a veteran were likely the few towering figures at the very top.
Sun Jun felt a nervousness come over him for no particular reason.
“Don’t be nervous. This person is warm and easy to get along with. They won’t make things difficult for you.”
“If there is anything you don’t understand, you can ask him directly. He enjoys guiding younger people and likes answering their questions.”
Sun Jun followed behind Wu Qin with his drawing board on his back, taking in the surroundings, forming a few guesses about who they were going to see.
This was a villa district. The properties here were extraordinarily expensive, but correspondingly the environment was excellent, residential density was very low, and security conditions were outstanding. Many top-tier celebrities chose to buy homes here precisely for the security environment and the social circles it offered.
Everyone who lived here was either wealthy or of high standing.
Wu Qin’s expression was as cold and hard as ever, but the words he spoke to his beloved young apprentice carried warmth in their tone. “Junzi, don’t you young people like chasing after celebrities? There are quite a few living around here. You might even run into one you like.”
Sun Jun touched the tips of his hair. He was not particularly into celebrity culture himself. But the mention of it brought something to mind.
“Master, do you know Xiao Yusheng?”
Wu Qin said, “I do.”
“What do you think of him?”
Wu Qin frowned slightly. “His acting is good. But I don’t like the person.”
Sun Jun thought of the painting he had seen, and felt much the same. “His paintings feel very oppressive to me.”
Wu Qin said evenly, “Paintings reflect the inner world and emotions. That is not something that can be concealed.”
“If the heart is at peace, even the most sorrowful scene in a painting will not make the viewer feel uncomfortable.”
Sun Jun agreed. “I feel like his paintings have a very aggressive quality.”
Wu Qin looked at him with a degree of approval. “Exactly. Like that rose painting he uploaded recently. Hmph.”
“Junzi, tell me, what did you feel when you saw that painting?”
Sun Jun thought back to the photo of Xiao Yusheng’s painting he had posted on Weibo. “I felt… like he seemed almost excited? Rather than treating Zhou You as a rose, it felt more like he was treating Zhou You as fertiliser for a rose…”
Sun Jun trailed off, feeling that what he had said perhaps sounded a little absurd. But Wu Qin nodded. “Exactly. That painting of his looks more like he intends to feed off Zhou You’s situation to promote his film.”
Wu Qin suddenly stopped walking, pointing ahead. “Do you see that garden of roses? That house belongs to Xiao Yusheng.”
Now Sun Jun was genuinely surprised. Paparazzi had spent so much effort trying to track down where Xiao Yusheng lived, and here it was, delivered right to his doorstep.
While he was still taking this in, he spotted two figures running toward them one after the other. The small thing at the front was too small to make out, some kind of animal, possibly a squirrel. The one behind was a young man.
“Xiaohong, don’t run into someone’s house!”
The red blur shot into the rose garden. The young man was left standing outside, staring helplessly.
Sun Jun was startled. “Xiaosheng?”
It was indeed Gao Gusheng.
Gao Gusheng was having a thoroughly unlucky day. He had brought his little red squirrel out with him, and the usually well-behaved creature had suddenly gone berserk and bolted in this direction. It had probably eaten some spirit-nurturing fruit and developed a degree of spiritual awareness, because the squirrel was running at an extraordinary speed, and Gao Gusheng had simply been unable to catch up.
Watching helplessly as the squirrel dived into someone’s rose garden, Gao Gusheng stood outside the high wall in a state of acute anxiety, worrying that his little red-furred squirrel was already gnawing on the roses inside.
Not to mention, he could hear a dog barking.
“Oh, Junzi! My squirrel ran into someone’s garden.”
Gao Gusheng spoke while pressing the doorbell, silently praying that the garden’s owner was a reasonable person who would at least give him the chance to compensate for any damage, and definitely not just grab the squirrel and throw it in a pot.
Sun Jun remembered all the trouble that had been stirred up between Xiao Yusheng and Gao Gusheng, and quickly stepped forward. “Xiaosheng, wait. The person who lives here is Xiao Yusheng. I’ll come with you.”
He looked anxiously at Wu Qin. Wu Qin was not the rigid type of master. There was still some time before the appointment, and so he nodded.
He was very fond of both these young people, and having no particular goodwill toward Xiao Yusheng, he naturally intended to keep an eye on things.
Gao Gusheng was taken aback. “Xiao Yusheng’s house?”
An uneasy feeling rose in him. He instinctively reached for his phone and began composing a message to Gao Shi.
The instant he pressed send, the garden gate opened, and Xiao Yusheng’s face appeared.
When his gaze landed on Gao Gusheng, there was a brief flash of pleasure in his eyes that was difficult to miss.
“Student Gao, what brings you here?”
Gao Gusheng said, “I am sorry to intrude. My pet got into your garden. Would it be alright if I went in to look for it? If there is any damage I will compensate you.”
Xiao Yusheng nodded. “Of course.”
He opened the gate generously, and only then noticed Wu Qin and Sun Jun standing behind Gao Gusheng, and greeted them accordingly.
Sun Jun, noticing a small spot of black paint on Xiao Yusheng’s gloves, asked with some surprise, “Mr. Xiao, are you making your own paint?”
Sun Jun also made his own paints on occasion, always feeling that commercially bought ones lacked a certain intention.
Xiao Yusheng nodded with a smile. “Yes.”
He seemed genuinely enthusiastic about the subject, and briefly discussed several methods with Sun Jun that Sun Jun found illuminating.
Wu Qin, however, interjected suddenly. “Mr. Xiao, it would be best to use less blood in making paint. Blood is not a good medium and has long since fallen out of use.”
Xiao Yusheng paused, then smiled and rolled up his sleeve. On his forearm was a scar roughly ten centimetres long. “I did not draw blood intentionally for painting. One of my animals was startled and scratched my arm.”
They looked closer. On examination the scar did look somewhat like claw marks, though considerably deeper than ordinary scratches.
“I thought, since blood was already drawn, I might as well collect some and try it as a paint medium. Though it has proven that there is a reason blood fell out of use.”
“The garden entrance is just ahead. It may be rather difficult to search, Student Gao. Is there some way you can call it out?”
The tone Xiao Yusheng used when speaking to Gao Gusheng was noticeably more gentle than with others, subtle enough that it was easy to miss if one was not listening carefully.
Gao Gusheng looked at the rose garden and also felt somewhat at a loss. The garden was enormous, even larger than the photographs Xiao Yusheng had posted on Weibo suggested. There were a few small paths threading through it, but not many, leaving large expanses of roses completely out of sight.
And because roses have thorns, walking through the rose bushes was not an option.
Gao Gusheng felt an immediate headache coming on. Xiao Yusheng suggested, “Let me bring out some machines to help with the search. In the meantime, why don’t we all go inside for a cup of tea?”
That was all they could do.
***
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