TTS Chapter 53

A group of them hurried to Guangtai Residential Community. On the way, Han Huaixiao called Ling Yue. “Keep a close eye on Bao Qinglong and Xin Rong’s secretary, Mo Xuan.”

It was after dinner when they arrived at Guangtai Residential Community. Xia Hang saw the area below packed with people, all of them discussing what had happened.

“What’s wrong with this family? First the wife and her two lovers died in the house, and now the husband has died there too?!”

“Poor things. There’s only an old woman and a daughter who can’t take care of herself left. How are they supposed to live?”

“Fuck, it’s such bad luck having the same building as them! I was planning to sell my apartment, but now I definitely won’t be able to sell it.”

“No, but what exactly is going on? People keep dying one after another. This is way too creepy.”

Amid the neighbors’ discussion, Han Huaixiao and Xia Hang once again entered the Liao family’s apartment. The two police officers who had been keeping watch were waiting for them at the door, and Han Huaixiao asked them, “What happened?”

One of the officers, Lu Xingwen said, “After Liao Yongqing paid the fine and was released, he went back to his mother’s house. He stayed there for more than two hours before leaving. We didn’t know where he was going, so we followed behind him. Later, we found out he was coming back here. Before he went upstairs, he ran into a neighbor. The neighbor told him that the house couldn’t be lived in anymore and asked why he had come back. He said he was here to get some documents.

“There wasn’t anywhere upstairs for us to hide, and we figured that since he was only coming up to get some documents, he should be back down soon, so we didn’t follow him and waited downstairs. After more than ten minutes without seeing him come down, we discussed pretending to be deliverymen and going up to check on him. But no one answered when we knocked. We realized something was wrong, so we broke down the door, and that’s when we found him dead.”

Xia Hang walked over. He Zhengye was already conducting a preliminary examination of the body. When Xia Hang saw the wound on Liao Yongqing’s chest, it looked vaguely familiar. Then Han Huaixiao said beside him, “This wound looks a lot like the one on Lin Fei.”

He Zhengye said, “One fatal stab wound. The murder weapon was most likely a dagger.”

“Could Ah Tai have done this too?” Xia Hang said to Han Huaixiao.

“Possible. After Lin Fei died, the police in Zhou City have been investigating him. We’ve been looking into him here as well, but we never found any trace of him. We thought he had already left the country. Now it seems he’s been in China all along.”

At that, Zhang Tianhua asked, “But Liao Yongqing came here on a spur-of-the-moment decision. How could the murderer have known he would be here?”

“Either the murderer was already here, and Liao Yongqing happened to run into him when he came back. Or, besides our people, the murderer had also been keeping an eye on Liao Yongqing and followed him here.”

“Why would the murderer want to kill Liao Yongqing?” Xia Hang asked. “If the murderer was already here, then he should have come to search for something. He encountered Liao Yongqing, the two of them got into a confrontation, and the murderer had no choice but to silence him. If he followed Liao Yongqing here, then he was deliberately tailing him and waiting for an opportunity to silence him.”

“If the murderer came here first to search for something,” Zhang Tianhua said, “that means Liao Yongqing had secretly hidden something here that could be damaging to the murderer. We don’t know whether the murderer managed to take it.”

Next, Han Huaixiao asked Officer Lu Xingwen, “When you knocked on the door, did you hear anything inside?”

Lu Xingwen thought back to the situation at the time. “I think there were some faint sounds, but after we broke in, we immediately searched every part of the house. We didn’t see anyone.”

From the bedroom, Sister Liu Yan from Forensics shouted: “There’s half of a blurry footprint on the windowsill!”

Han Huaixiao glanced at the disordered room. “The murderer probably escaped before you broke down the door. After killing Liao Yongqing, he didn’t leave immediately. He continued searching for something. That means Liao Yongqing really may have hidden something here.”

Xia Hang asked, “Then why didn’t the murderer force him to reveal where the evidence was before killing him?”

“If Liao Yongqing saw the murderer here, he should have realized that once he told him where the evidence was, the murderer would definitely silence him after obtaining it. By refusing to reveal where the evidence was, he might still have given the murderer some reason to hesitate.”

He Zhengye interrupted, pointing at the wound on Liao Yongqing’s body. “The external injuries on the victim should be just as you analyzed. The murderer questioned him until the end but couldn’t get the answer, and then Lu Xingwen and the others came upstairs. In a moment of panic, he chose to silence him.”

Zhang Tianhua said, “So, if Liao Yongqing really did secretly hide evidence that could be damaging to the murderer, then the evidence is still here?”

“Everyone, search carefully and see if you can find it.”

He Zhengye had finished his preliminary examination. He and the Forensic team took Liao Yongqing’s body back to the Municipal Bureau, while everyone else threw themselves into searching for evidence. However, under Liu Yan’s guidance, they turned the entire apartment upside down and still couldn’t find anything that looked like evidence.

“Captain Han, we’ve searched every place carefully, but we haven’t found anything. Could it be that there actually isn’t any evidence here? Or maybe the victim put it somewhere else?”

“There isn’t much here that would have been urgently needed, but Liao Yongqing came here not long after being released. That means there was something here that he desperately wanted to retrieve. If there was evidence, it must be here.”

“But we’ve searched through everything twice and still haven’t found anything suspicious.”

“Search through it one more time.”

Han Huaixiao entered the room and slowly surveyed the apartment again. Behind the electrical outlets, underneath the bed and behind the headboard, the air conditioner, the lampshade, the table, the glasses case, the wardrobe, the floor tiles… he really checked everything. He even smashed open each walnut in the bag on the table to look inside, and still…

Xia Hang came out of the room and saw Officer Lu Xingwen examining a luggage bag. It contained the work clothes of a crewman, presumably what Liao Yongqing had brought home when he got off the ship. Lu Xingwen was inspecting every inch of the bag.

Xia Hang glanced around before walking toward the bathroom, where another Officer was checking the sink.

Xia Hang asked, “Is there anywhere else that needs to be checked?”

“No, there’s…”

There was no need for him to help here. Xia Hang was about to go over to Zhang Tianhua’s side when, out of the corner of his eye, he noticed the three toothbrush cups sitting on the sink.

One was pale yellow, one was powder blue, and the other was brown. Each toothbrush cup had toothpaste and a toothbrush in it, but there were two tubes of toothpaste in the brown cup. One was completely unused, while the other was already half gone.

The brown toothbrush cup should belong to Liao Yongqing. Xia Hang picked up the two tubes of toothpaste, noticing they were both lemon-tea-fresh flavored.

Xia Hang looked at the other two toothbrush cups. Their toothpaste was also lemon-tea-fresh flavored. One had about one-fifth left, while the other had only a tiny amount remaining.

Liao Yongqing spent most of his time on the ship, so Ju Jiezhen should have purchased the household necessities at home. Her own toothpaste and Liao Wenwen’s were almost used up, yet she hadn’t bought new ones. Given Ju Jiezhen’s feelings toward Liao Yongqing, she certainly wouldn’t have bought him a new tube while he still had more than half of his toothpaste left.

So… Had Liao Yongqing bought it himself?

Xia Hang checked the production dates of the two tubes of toothpaste, finding them printed on the end. The unused tube had an earlier production date.

If that was the case, why wasn’t he using the one bought first, and instead using the one bought later?

The Officer saw him examining the two tubes of toothpaste and asked, “Is there something wrong with the toothpaste?”

Xia Hang asked him, “Do you have scissors?”

“Sister Yan has some.”

Xia Hang took the unused tube of toothpaste into the living room, found Liu Yan, and borrowed her scissors. He cut a large opening into the tube and squeezed out the toothpaste. When he was halfway through, he felt something inside.

He picked up the scissors again and cut open the edge of the tube. After peeling the toothpaste tube apart, he saw a rolled-up piece of paper wrapped inside the remaining toothpaste.

“Found it,” he announced loudly. “This should be it.”

Hearing that, Zhang Tianhua came over. “Let me see. It was hidden so well. How did you find it?”

“I picked up these two tubes of toothpaste three times!” The other Officer also came out of the bathroom. “When I saw that they were the same flavor, I thought they were just bought in advance, so I didn’t pay much attention. Brother Hang, impressive!”

Han Huaixiao pulled out two tissues and wiped Xia Hang’s hands, then took another two tissues to wipe the note. Once it was clean, he unfolded it and found several strings of numbers written on it, along with some letters.

Xia Hang: “What does this mean?”

Han Huaixiao put the note into an evidence bag, answering, “I don’t know. We’ll look into it when we get back. Let’s wrap things up here.”

………………..

Halfway back, Han Huaixiao’s phone rang. Seeing that it was Ling Yue, he frowned, thinking that if Ling Yue was calling at this hour, it definitely couldn’t be anything good.

Sure enough, Bao Qinglong and Mo Xuan had also gotten into trouble.

Late at night, the Major Crimes Unit office at the municipal bureau was still brightly lit.

Zhang Tianhua: “I went to ask Liao Yongqing’s mother. She said that after her son came back and learned what had happened to Liao Wenwen, he was extremely angry. After a while, he asked her for her phone, went into the room alone, and made a call. She doesn’t know exactly what he said. She only vaguely heard that his tone was unpleasant, as if he had gotten into an argument with the person on the phone.”

“Brother Hua gave me the phone number Liao Yongqing called and I checked it.” Wen Yu said. “The number is registered to Mo Xuan’s cousin, but Mo Xuan was the one using it.”

Zhang Tianhua: “That means Liao Yongqing called Mo Xuan.”

“What time did he make the call?” Han Huaixiao asked.

“A little after eight in the evening.”

“And what time did Mo Xuan go to Maosheng Swimming Pool?” Han Huaixiao asked Ling Yue.

“Around nine-thirty at night.”

“In other words,” Zhang Tianhua concluded, “Mo Xuan went to the swimming pool not long after finishing the call with Liao Yongqing, and shortly after arriving at the swimming pool, she just… drowned?”

“And both she and Bao Qinglong were VIP members of the same swimming pool?” Xia Hang continued. “Presumably, they were good swimmers, so why would they drown? Especially Bao Qinglong, a boatswain. ”

“What exactly happened?” Han Huaixiao looked at Ling Yue, who quickly answered: “Following your instructions, I took people to keep an eye on them. I watched Bao Qinglong, while two others watched Mo Xuan. I followed Bao Qinglong to Maosheng Swimming Pool at nine-twenty in the evening. About ten minutes later, I saw Mo Xuan arrive at Maosheng Swimming Pool too, and they went into the VIP area one after another. The two of them getting together definitely meant something bad was going on, so I hurried after them, but the staff stopped me. Even after I showed them my ID, they wouldn’t let me in, saying only VIP members could enter.”

“I immediately asked the staff to help me get a VIP membership, but they said I needed a referral from someone they knew before they could issue one. Fuck, by the time I got Wen Yu to give me the information for a referral and got the VIP membership sorted out, I hadn’t even made it inside yet when I heard a staff member shouting in panic that two customers had drowned.”

“What did they look like when you went in?”

“When I rushed inside, they had already been dragged onto the shore by the staff, who were performing CPR on them.”

“And how long did it take you to get the VIP membership?”

“About fifteen minutes.”

“So they drowned less than fifteen minutes after getting into the water. When you went in, were there any suspicious people at the scene?”

“No. I immediately had people search the place, and we also checked the surveillance footage. We didn’t find anyone suspicious.”

“…”

“Then we’ll probably have to wait for the forensic examination to find out exactly how they died.” Zhang Tianhua said with a sigh.

“Liao Yongqing is dead, Bao Qinglong is dead, Mo Xuan is dead…” Xia Ling continued. “Three people were silenced within roughly the same period of time. Is Taiyi Shipping afraid we haven’t realized there’s something wrong with them? Or are they relying on their powerful position and deliberately provoking us?”

“It’s not necessarily Taiyi who did it.” Han Huaixiao disagreed. Xia Hang looked at him, as did everyone else, but Han Huaixiao didn’t elaborate. Instead, he asked Kong Qinmao, “How is Shen Bing?”

Kong Qinmao: “We brought him back, but we haven’t interrogated him yet.”

“He’s a tough one. Keep a close eye on him. Let him sit overnight, and interrogate him tomorrow. Wen Yu, what’s the situation with his lover and his two sons in Thailand?”

“Everything looks normal,” Wen Yu reported. “They don’t seem to know that Shen Bing has been arrested yet. His wife and daughter, on the other hand, have been running around since his arrest, trying to find out what happened to him.”

“Keep a close watch.”

“Understood.”

It wasn’t long before dawn, but none of them had gone home. At this hour, there wasn’t enough time to make the trip back and forth. Xia Ling and Wen Yu went to the Forensic Examination Department’s restroom, while Zhang Tianhua went to the Technical Investigation Department’s restroom. There was a folding bed in Han Huaixiao’s office, leaving only Xia Hang, Ling Yue, and Kong Qinmao.

Xia Hang had planned to simply sleep with his head on the desk, but Ling Yue forcibly dragged him away, saying, “Brother Hang, come on. We’ll push the two beds in the rest room together. Three people can sleep on them.”

Kong Qinmao also called out to him, “Yeah. It’s better to squeeze together than sleep on the desk. Sleeping on your stomach is nowhere near as comfortable as lying down.”

When they reached the rest room, Ling Yue and Kong Qinmao quickly pushed the beds together. But then they faced the question of how to sleep.

Kong Qinmao: “Ling Yue, you sleep on the side. Last time you slept in the middle, Brother Hua and I nearly got kicked to death! You’re a terrible sleeper.”

“You have some nerve saying that!” Ling Yue objected. “Last time you slept in the middle, you kicked me right off the bed too! Brother Hang, why don’t you sleep in the middle?”

Xia Hang covered his forehead with one hand. He really wanted to tell the two of them that he was gay, but he was afraid that coming out so abruptly would make things awkward for them… Just as he was trying to think of an excuse to go back to the office and sleep, Ling Yue pressed a hand down on his shoulder and pushed him onto the bed.

“Alright, we’ll sleep like this! Hurry up and sleep! There are only a few hours left.”

As for Han Huaixiao, he went to the training grounds to take a shower. When he returned, he found the office empty, and Xia Hang was nowhere to be seen either. After thinking about it, he headed toward the rest room. When he opened the door, he saw Kong Qinmao and Ling Yue sleeping on either side, with Xia Hang sandwiched between them. Kong Qinmao and Ling Yue were already asleep, but Xia Hang had both hands beneath his head, his eyes still open. When he heard the door open, he looked over, and their eyes met.

Just then, Ling Yue stretched out a leg, landing straight across Xia Hang’s thigh. Seeing that, the corner of Han Huaixiao’s eye twitched, and he motioned with his eyes for Xia Hang to come out.

Xia Hang had already planned to leave after Kong Qinmao and Ling Yue fell sound asleep, so he carefully tried to move Ling Yue’s leg out of the way so he could get off the bed. Han Huaixiao walked over, grabbed Ling Yue by the ankle, and tossed his leg aside. The weight on Xia Hang’s leg disappeared, and the next second, Han Huaixiao grabbed his wrist with his other hand and pulled him straight up from the bed.

His pull was a little too forceful, and when Xia Hang stood up, he bumped into his chest. The muscles he’d developed through combat training and exercise felt firm and solid, full of strength, and there was still the clean, fresh scent of water from his recent shower clinging to him.

When Xia Hang straightened up and moved away from his chest, he felt a little reluctant to leave. Then he thought of that Zhong Boxuan.

Would this embrace belong to Zhong Boxuan in the future?

Once they left the rest room, Han Huaixiao noticed that Xia Hang seemed downcast and asked, “What’s wrong?”

Xia Hang stopped walking. Before the sour ache in his chest could eat him alive, he asked, “That day, when your grandmother asked you to go to the hospital, was she arranging a blind date for you?”

Hearing that, Han Huaixiao’s first instinct was to deny it. But the moment he met Xia Hang’s gaze, he swallowed the denial that had already reached his lips. Xia Hang’s clear eyes were filled with unease, anxiety, and sadness. Han Huaixiao’s tongue shifted, and he replied, “How did you know?”

He hadn’t denied it. Then it really was a blind date.

Xia Hang gave a bitter smile. It felt as though someone had stabbed him hard in the heart. But without even having time to feel the pain, he personally drove the knife deeper, saying, “I heard your families have been family friends for generations, and that you already knew each other. If you agreed to the blind date, does that mean you’re planning to start dating?”

Han Huaixiao could clearly sense Xia Hang’s sadness. But caught between wanting to comfort him and wanting to explain, he ruthlessly chose to take this opportunity to add another dose of medicine.

Ever since he had guessed what Xia Hang might have been doing during those years he had disappeared, Han Huaixiao had become even more convinced that there had been some hidden reason behind Xia Hang breaking up with him back then. He wanted to know whether Xia Hang truly no longer had any feelings for him.

But although he intended to give him another dose of medicine, when the words actually came out, he still couldn’t bear it and left himself some room, only saying, “We’re not dating yet, but we’ve decided to spend more time getting to know each other. If we’re compatible, we’ll officially start dating.”

Everything about them was a good match, and their families approved. There shouldn’t be anything unsuitable, but Xia Hang suddenly felt physically and emotionally exhausted.

“Oh,” he forced a smile. “I’m tired. I’m going to sleep.”

Han Huai Xiao had gone to the rest room specifically to ask him to sleep on the folding bed in his office. But after this interruption, he knew Xia Hang definitely wouldn’t be willing to go to sleep in his office. So when he saw Xia Hang lying face-down on the desk, he didn’t unfold the folding bed either. Silently thinking, I don’t know whether I’m tormenting you or tormenting myself, he also lay down on the desk.

………………….

The next morning, after getting up and having breakfast, Xia Ling received a call from Liao Wenwen, a jumble of words that sounded a bit like: “Grand… ma, Grandma… fainted!”

After calling an ambulance, Xia Ling wanted to go over and see what was happening, but unfortunately, she wasn’t feeling well that morning, dealing with severe abdominal pain, her forehead covered in cold sweat.

Seeing her like that, Xia Hang said, “You go see a doctor. I’ll go arrange things for Liao Wenwen.”

So Xia Hang drove Xia Ling’s car to Liao Wenwen’s grandmother’s home. By the time he arrived, the ambulance had already taken Grandma Liao away, and an elderly neighbor was looking after Liao Wenwen.

The girl seemed to have sensed something bad was happening. She wasn’t making a fuss or crying, merely sitting there in a daze. Seeing her so despondent, Xia Hang called Su Cheng, asking, “Do you know anywhere suitable for rehabilitation treatment for a girl with a mental disability?”

“…I might.” Su Cheng answered. “I interviewed a youth autism care center before, but I’m not sure that would help.”

“Is it reliable?” Xia Hang asked. “How’s the service?”

“As far as I know, it’s pretty good. The owner is the mother of a child with autism. When she was taking her child around to different places for rehabilitation, she discovered that many parents of mentally disabled children couldn’t work while taking care of their kids, so she decided to open a residential care center.”

Xia Hang: “Would they take a girl who’s almost twenty?”

Su Cheng: “I’ll ask.”

Su Cheng quickly got back to him and said that they would, so Xia Hang asked the elderly neighbor to continue looking after Liao Wenwen for a while. He went to the hospital to check on Grandma Liao and, while there, asked for her opinion and whether she agreed to temporarily send her granddaughter to the care center.

Fortunately, when he arrived at the hospital, he found that Grandma Liao’s condition wasn’t serious, and she had only fainted from excessive grief. So after settling Grandma Liao, Xia Hang left the hospital. Not long afterward, he noticed that a car following behind him seemed suspicious.

He kept his speed unchanged. Since he was driving Xia Ling’s car, he wondered whether their target was Xia Ling or him.

If it was him, there was a good chance they were people sent by Sheng Jun. But regardless of who their target was, they were following him now, and he had no idea what their intentions were.

Therefore, Xia Hang decided to test them.

There was an intersection ahead, and the green light was just changing to yellow. He stepped on the accelerator and accelerated as he turned right, and sure enough, the suspicious car behind him accelerated and followed.

While keeping the car steady, Xia Hang searched his memory for a map of the area, thinking about which road would make it easier to shake them off. Then he saw a road sign ahead indicating that a left turn would lead to Lang River Bridge.

Xia Hang turned the steering wheel and headed toward the bridge. At the same time, he called Han Huaixiao and calmly said, “Han Huaixiao, I’m being followed. I’m leading them toward Lang River Bridge now. Notify the nearby police officers and have them come provide support.”

Han Huaixiao had gone upstairs to see Chief Yan Zheng. When he came back down and found Xia Hang gone, he was just about to ask where he’d gone when he received the call. The moment he heard Xia Hang say that he was being followed, he had already turned around and sprinted toward the parking lot.

Then, when he heard Xia Hang say he was leading them toward Lang River Bridge, Han Huaixiao immediately realized what Xia Hang was trying to do.

“Xia Hang, change your route! You are not allowed to go to Lang River Bridge! Change your route immediately! Support is on the way.”

But there wasn’t the slightest trace of panic in Xia Hang’s voice. He remained calm as he said, “It’s the weekend. There are either shopping malls or parks around here, and there are people everywhere on the streets. If I don’t lead them toward the Lang River, innocent pedestrians could get hurt when they make their move. Don’t worry. I know what I’m doing.”

Before Han Huaixiao could say anything, he hung up.

“…”

Han Huaixiao ran to the car and yanked open the door. As he sped toward Lang River Bridge, he made calls to arrange for roadblocks, pursuit and interception, emergency rescue in case of a collision, and water rescue in case someone fell into the river.

His voice sounded perfectly normal, but the string inside his heart had already been pulled taut.

This time, he was determined to teach Xia Hang a very hard lesson about his bad habit of refusing to follow orders.

……………………………..