Silent Testimony - Chapter 7

Grandma Qiu’s Provisions is located in an old residential house on the street behind the Public Security Bureau. The front room on the first floor is the storefront, with a kitchen and toilet behind it. There is also a small bedroom that was originally used for storage. Qiu Wan, concerned about her grandmother’s difficulty going up and down the stairs, tidied it up and furnished it as an elderly-friendly room. She herself lived on the second floor, which included a bedroom and a study, a living room with an open flow from north to south, and a wide, bright balcony full of various flowers and plants.

Qiu Wan was wearing a white tank top and black shorts, with her long hair draped over her shoulders. Her face, still somewhat flushed from sleep, was expressionless. She walked around the counter and sat down on a bamboo chair behind the cash register.

“Can I pay by scanning a code?” Cheng Yingqiu held a bottle of iced soda water, her expression matching the indifference of her so-called nemesis.

“Cash only.” When the WeChat Pay function was officially launched two years ago, most merchants didn’t adopt it immediately, concerned about fund security. Qiu Wan’s grandmother was no exception.

Cheng Yingqiu fumbled in her shoulder bag and took out a five-yuan banknote, handing it to her foe.

Qiu Wan took the paper money, pulled open the drawer to put it in, and grabbed two coins. Just as she was about to look up, Cheng Yingqiu’s clear, precise voice drifted into her ear: “I don’t need coins; they’re easy to lose.” Qiu Wan, showing no impatience, good-naturedly exchanged them for a one-yuan note and two fifty-cent notes. As she reached out, the change was snatched away. Before Qiu Wan could react, the door curtain swayed gently, and the person with the pigtails was already long gone.

Strange, who upset her?

Cheng Yingqiu slipped out of the provision store, calmed down, and drank half a bottle of water to quench her thirst. It was nearing noon, and the scorching sun was baking the ground. She shielded her forehead with one hand, quickened her pace, passed through the North Gate of the residential complex to Building Two on the left side of the South Gate, and squeezed sideways into the elevator just before the sliding doors closed.

The other elevator was under maintenance, so missing this one meant a wait of at least three minutes. As the elevator ascended, Cheng Yingqiu habitually scanned WeChat for unread messages. Being a news professional, she had to maintain a constant sense of urgency and keep her phone close.

[Xiao Cheng, the colleague in our department who was liaising with the Serious Crimes Team completed her resignation formalities yesterday. Her work will now be taken over by you.]

Cheng Yingqiu replied indifferently: [Oh, okay.]

[I’ll forward you the WeChat contact for their team leader.]

The team leader? Why does a small task like this require the team leader? While still in astonishment, Qiu Wan’s personal contact card appeared in the chat box.

[Sister Dong, can you change the person who liaises with her? I’m quite busy lately, too.] She typed out the line but deleted the whole thing, rubbed her throbbing temples, and re-edited the message to: [Okay (smiling face)].

Yeah, ‘okay’ my foot. Cheng Yingqiu looked miserable as she tapped on the contact card. The other person’s WeChat name was simply “Qiu Wan.” Her profile picture was a late autumn scene with a woman standing sideways, hands in her pockets, looking up at the golden-yellow sky, appearing confident and unconstrained.

Her figure is quite good. That was the only positive appraisal Cheng Yingqiu had for her.

[The 7.13 Homicide Case has been closed and formally transferred to the procuratorate the day before yesterday. Remember to coordinate an interview time with Team Leader Qiu and aim to complete the editing by the end of the month for broadcast next month.] Puchen TV launched a weekly legal program last year, adopting a novel case-recording mode for “legal popularization” publicity.

[Understood. I’ll add her on WeChat right away.] Cheng Yingqiu clicked “Add to Contacts,” introducing herself: [Team Leader Qiu, hello. I am Cheng Yingqiu, the legal affairs reporter from the TV station.] She gritted her teeth, sent the application, stuffed her phone into her pocket, and walked out of the elevator.

In the Technical Team office, it was 2:00 PM. The others had finished all their work on hand, and Li Hewei instructed them to go home and await further orders. She, however, sat at her workstation, keeping Tao Ling and An Yu company while they worked overtime.

Everyone had their own duties. Perhaps the two forensic scientists could relax a bit while the trace evidence team was busy.

Li Hewei completed two rounds of the match-three game, finally passing level 200. Satisfied, she put her phone aside and stared at the computer, lost in thought.

The deceased was around thirty years old, 178 cm tall, and had been dead for about seven days. Logically, the family should have reported him missing, and after screening by the Serious Crimes Team, his identity should have been quickly confirmed. However, five hours had passed with no news. Li Hewei clicked the WeChat icon in the bottom right corner and couldn’t help but ask: [Team Leader Qiu, what were the results of your screening?]

[None in Puchen. We are applying for coordination assistance from the upstream cities.]

[A tricky situation. I’ll try to come up with some other ideas.]

The corpse was in the state of giganitis (bloating), the face swollen and unrecognizable. Tao Ling used the “fingerprint blasting” method to obtain the deceased’s fingerprints, but a comparison found no information about the deceased in the database.

So, how could his face be reconstructed?

Li Hewei thought long and hard, pulling out the front-view and skull photos of the deceased, attempting to imagine his normal appearance. The distance between the eyes, the distance between the eyes and the nose, the distance between the eyes and the mouth, and the distance between the eyebrows and the hairline—she measured and recorded the key points, then began to draw.

High cheekbones, deep eye sockets, thick hair, and a low hairline.

Time ticked by minute by minute. She drew three consecutive sketches, each with distinctly different features, yet the faces still appeared swollen to varying degrees.

Forensic facial reconstruction relies on a deep understanding of facial features, logical reasoning skills, and extensive experience. Li Hewei’s brow furrowed. She had only been exposed to composite sketching for half a month; where was the experience going to come from? Hard work can compensate for lack of talent, and she locked herself in the workshop for two to three hours every night. Still, it was merely a drop in the bucket. Simple missing person cases or sketching suspects in theft cases based on witness testimony might be possible, but a case like this, which lacked any clues and required analysis based on experience, was genuinely difficult.

The sense of intense frustration was overwhelming.

Li Hewei had always been a fast learner since childhood; as long as she was willing to learn, she could quickly master things. This was the first time she had deeply felt powerless.

“Sister Wei?” Tao Ling had changed clothes and came in five minutes earlier. Seeing Li Hewei resting her head in her left hand and deep in thought with her eyes closed, she sat back at her desk to wait. Now, seeing that time was pressing, she called out softly.

Li Hewei opened her eyes. “Hmm? What time is it?”

“Four-thirty.”

“Let’s go.” She pinched the bridge of her nose, pushed her chair back, and stood up. “Where is An Yu?”

“Changing clothes.”

They saw An Yu off. Tao Ling looked down, checking her contacts for the ride-sharing driver’s contact information, and said gently, “Sister Wei, let’s share a ride home. It only costs 25 yuan per person from Puchen to Muqing.”

“I’ll drive.”

“Huh?” Tao Ling thought she was hearing things. She remembered the other woman had rear-ended a car on the highway last year, resulting in a fractured left arm, which took half a year to recover. She hadn’t seen her drive since.

Li Hewei turned into the parking lot and found her car. “What’s wrong?”

Tao Ling was worried. “Is that okay?”

“Five years of driving experience. Why wouldn’t it be okay?” In fact, she had ten years of driving experience. She used to drive her own Tank 500 across grasslands and deserts. The original owner’s Volkswagen Beetle was truly an underutilization of her skill.

“Oh.” Tao Ling felt uneasy. She followed Li Hewei into the car and quickly turned her head to fasten her seatbelt.

“The address of your hometown.” Li Hewei fastened her own seatbelt.

“I sent it on WeChat.”

Li Hewei connected the navigation, shifted into gear, and stepped on the gas. The small car drove out of the parking lot.

The Beetle was a 2.0T high-spec model with plenty of power. Li Hewei followed the navigation, drove around the ring road, and quickly entered the highway. Li Hewei glanced over unintentionally and saw the girl next to her clutching the grab handle diagonally above her with her right hand, her lips tightly pressed together, fully alert.

Why so nervous?

Li Hewei suddenly felt mischievous. She pressed down on the accelerator. The Beetle sped up: 100 km/h, 108 km/h, 114 km/h. She controlled the speed, signaled left, accelerated, overtook the car in front, and changed back to the right lane. In a short five minutes, she overtook four vehicles within the 120 km/h speed limit. Li Hewei glimpsed Tao Ling from the corner of her eye and saw a thin layer of sweat on her nose, her left hand now also gripping the grab handle.

It seems the other person hasn’t taken the four words “just say what you need” to heart. She’s waiting—waiting for me to prompt her.

Li Hewei continued to overtake. Three minutes later, Tao Ling on her right coughed lightly, her voice hoarse: “Sister Wei, a little slower.”

Li Hewei had achieved her goal, and the corners of her lips slightly lifted. “Alright.” She slowed down, following the car in front at a safe distance.