The 80s Female Detective's Guide to Self-Preservation [Criminal Investigation] - Chapter 12

Chapter 12

Qin Yu sat on a long bench, a tray of food and a military canteen of warm water—brought to her by Xia Qiuyuan—placed beside her.

Before seeing the food, everyone in the office had been shouting about starving to death. But the moment the scent of Preserved Vegetable with Pork Belly filled the room, their appetites vanished. Especially Liang Guangqi; the memory of the “item” he had picked up in the cellar was enough to guarantee nightmares for weeks.

Xia Qiuyuan remained unmoved. She dug into her rice bowl with mechanical efficiency, terrified that missing even two bites would make her waste away.

“Xiao Qiu, we’ll interrogate Tan He first,” Hou Ming said, nudging the frozen Liang Guangqi with his foot. “If you’re just standing there, go organize the files. You’re doing the recording for the interrogation later. Oh, and don’t forget to call Liang Chunhua and Jin Dacheng tomorrow morning to notify them to identify the bodies.”

Wei Min also had to pull an all-nighter for the autopsies and forensic reports.

Watching Xia Qiuyuan eat with such gusto made Liang Guangqi’s mouth water, but one look at the glistening pork belly made him think of slices of flesh from a corpse stained with old blood. He covered his mouth and scurried away to find a spot far from the smell of food to fill out reports.

Tan He and Tan Liu were kept in separate interrogation rooms. Through the glass, one could see the two suspects—both much calmer now than during the initial arrest. Tan Liu sat with her eyes closed; after her earlier struggle, she looked disheveled. The cloth gag had been removed once she entered the room.

Qin Yu’s carefully harvested sapling sat at her feet. Her rice bowl was packed too full to finish. She had meant to tell Xia Qiuyuan back at the canteen, but Xia Qiuyuan had sprinted ahead like she was being chased by a ghost.

Despite Xia Qiuyuan’s uniform being stained with blood of unknown origin, Qin Yu—covered in mud—somehow felt cleaner. Qin Yu had lost her way in the corridors and waited for her to return.

When Xia Qiuyuan finally reappeared, carrying two bowls of rice and moving like a gust of wind, Qin Yu spoke up: “Are you… shy?”

In the dim corridor light, Qin Yu looked at Xia Qiuyuan’s face and finally matched her with the memory from earlier that morning. It wasn’t every day a female officer grabbed your hand and called you “Auntie” the second she met you.

“…”

Xia Qiuyuan didn’t even need to look up to hear the playful teasing in Qin Yu’s voice. After a day of chaotic investigation, she had almost forgotten the morning’s blunder. Now, with the person standing right there, the embarrassment flashed before her eyes like a revolving lantern.

Xia Qiuyuan gave a stiff reply: “No.”

“Then why do you have an expression like I’m going to eat you? You walk so fast and didn’t even wait for me at the canteen.” Qin Yu took a few quick steps to her side, tilting her head to catch her gaze.

The sudden proximity made Xia Qiuyuan jump back two steps. She stood frozen, her eyelashes trembling.

Qin Yu’s eyes crinkled. “Meeting twice in one day… we really have a bit of fate. But I’m only twenty-two; I don’t think I can handle a ‘Senior Officer’ calling me Auntie. I’m Qin Yu. What’s your name, Officer?”

“Xia… Xia Qiuyuan. ‘Qiu’ as in Autumn, ‘Yuan’ as in Wish.”

“I’m ‘Yu’ as in Tulip,” Qin Yu said, naturally taking the heavy rice bowl from Xia Qiuyuan’s hands. She wasn’t aggressive, but her gentle mannerisms tended to lead people down her train of thought. “Did you just graduate, Officer Xia?”

“Mhm.”

Qin Yu had many questions, but they weren’t intrusive. She didn’t pry into the case. Most people couldn’t resist asking a detective about a crime that happened right next to them, but Qin Yu was different. She seemed more interested in Xia Qiuyuan than the case.

Whenever Qin Yu turned to look at her, the officer in the deep green uniform would jump like a startled rabbit, her bright black eyes wide with protest. It made Qin Yu want to laugh. Anyone else would think Qin Yu was some kind of villain scaring the poor girl.

Qin Yu ate slowly. She had developed a bad habit at the research institute of reading papers while eating. Since she had no papers now, her eyes naturally fell on the person she was most familiar with: Hou Ming. She had seen him often at her professor’s house. But watching Captain Hou eat was… uninspiring.

She shifted her gaze back to Xia Qiuyuan. Xia Qiuyuan ate fast but neatly. She would chew a few times, then turn to whisper with Xia Sui—likely discussing the case. Qin Yu couldn’t read lips, so she just stared at Xia Qiuyuan’s face to pass the time.

By the time the team entered the interrogation room, Qin Yu still wasn’t finished. She sat quietly on the bench, realizing that with an investigation like this, the police would be up all night. Having agreed to let Hou Ming drive her home, she was now “working overtime” with them.

She leaned against the wall and stared at the white fluorescent light until spots danced in her eyes. Suddenly, a notebook blocked her view. It was Xia Sui.

“It might be a long wait tonight. This is a new blank notebook and a pencil. You can draw or write if you’re bored.” Xia Sui felt like she was coaxing a child. But since Qiuyuan had asked her to do it, she didn’t mind.

“Thank you.”

“Don’t worry about it. It wasn’t easy to find a spare one.”

Qin Yu realized the notebook hadn’t come from Xia Sui or Hou Ming. It was from Xia Qiuyuan. The paper was rough, and the pencil left faint shavings as she drew.

Stroke after stroke.

Qin Yu sketched a round-faced little policewoman. The officer was being lifted into the air by an invisible giant hand, her limbs flailing. A little speech bubble read: “Don’t come near me! Stay away!”

The pencil paused. In the drawing, “Officer Xia” had a face like a bun and two long, floppy rabbit ears. Thinking of the “Violence Bunny” who had taken down a grown man that morning, Qin Yu flipped the page over quickly. This must never see the light of day.

Meanwhile, the real “Officer Xia” was in the interrogation room with Tan He.

Tan He confessed quickly. With dismembered bodies found in his cellar, he knew there was no way out. His hands were calloused, and his right index finger was missing a piece of flesh. He rubbed the scar and spoke in a raspy voice.

“I’ll admit to everything. Just… can you let my daughter go? She’s a victim in this too. If someone has to die, let it be me. Don’t drag her into this anymore.”

Zhuo Yuanqing slammed the table. “This is a police station, not a market. You think you can haggle? Tell us everything—what was the conflict? How did you catch and kill them? The sentencing isn’t our job.”

Tan He’s back slumped. He looked years older. Finally, he began the tale of their twisted fate.

Unlike Jin Dacheng, Tan He came from a long line of funeral artisans. His family’s pride was their “Spirit Incense.” They had settled in Xiatang Village generations ago, but he had moved to Shangyao because of Jin Dacheng.

“Jin Dacheng was always arrogant. He made coffins, which sold for more, but the work was inconsistent. He wanted my incense business,” Tan He said numbly. “He wanted his son, Jin Wu, to marry my daughter, Liu’er. He wanted me to teach Jin Wu the secret to our incense so the Jin family would be rich forever.”

“My wife died early. On her deathbed, she begged me to take care of our two girls. But my youngest drowned when she was six… I only have Liu’er left. That brat of Jin’er’s wasn’t fit to touch my daughter! I refused him over and over, so he started spreading lies and had Jin Wu harass her at school.”

Tan He’s voice rose with anger. “I told him to forget his crooked schemes. I’d rather teach my girl the secret and have her take a live-in husband than ever let a Jin into my house.”

He thought that would be the end of it. Instead, Jin Dacheng hired village thugs to knock on his door and terrorize Tan Liu whenever he wasn’t home. Tan He tried to talk to the village leader about moving, but was persuaded to stay.

Things went quiet for a while. He thought it was over.

Then, Tan Liu’s classmate jumped from the Xiatang primary school building. And his own daughter stopped sleeping. The bloodshot veins in her eyes looked like a tightening net, suffocating her until the tragedy became inevitable.