Author: 长洱 / Chang’er
Translator: Kinky || https://kinkytranslations.com/
Chapter 6
Trust was a strange word.
They had just recently met and had no deep friendship, so mentioning trust seemed quite ridiculous.
Yet Lin Chen asked, “Can you trust me?”
Xing Conglian thought, ‘Of course I do.’
The source of this trust was also strange. At that time, Xing Conglian thought the only reason he trusted Lin Chen was because he had a good feeling about the dorm manager.
Thus, he arranged for his men to scour the entire city to search for Yu Yanqing.
However, Yu Yanqing hadn’t committed any crime, and there was no missing report. The so-called search was just to monitor her ID, various citizen cards, and banking information, and to notify the police near where she lived for them to be on alert and to report to their superiors if anything occurred. Other than that, there was no better option. This was the limit of what Xing Conglian could do.
Xing Conglian put down the phone and looked back at Lin Chen.
Lin Chen lowered his head slightly while holding the ginger tea with both hands and took a small sip. As if noticing Xing Conglian’s gaze, he raised his head and said, “Take me to the hospital.”
Hong Jing’s Third People’s Hospital was where it all started.
If they wanted the full story, they had to come back here.
Because of the typhoon, there were few people inside. The wind slammed against the door, blowing away one stretcher after another.
Surrounded by icy white walls and smoky gray floors. Patients who were injured by the typhoon were placed both in and out of the emergency hall, which was filled with low wails that echoed through the corridors. The volume kept increasing due to the extreme pain, and the biting cold only added to their irritation.
Lin Chen put down his umbrella and patted off the rain on his shoulder.
The medical staff was busy with the patients, so they were received by the head of security of the hospital.
The chief of security was huge. He led the way. When they approached the corner of the stairs, Lin Chen suddenly felt a chill for no reason.
The elevator door behind him opened, and a doctor wearing a white coat was the first to rush out, followed by two nurses pushing equipment.
The doctor rushed into the ward. After a short while, a high pitched sound from a pacemaker rang out and was so shrill it pierced their eardrums like it was calling death.
Outside the ward, some people began to cry, while others silently sat down.
Only one person left the chaos of the crowd looking at ease. He looked around as if nothing had happened, found a row of blue benches, laid down on them, and went to sleep.
Just before he went up the stairs, Lin Chen’s gaze rested on that row of benches.
“That’s a hospital nurse.” As if he could see his doubt, Xian Conglian explained.
“Strange.”
“What’s strange?”
“Someone had passed away, yet he didn’t feel any sadness,” Lin Chen replied.
“After seeing too much, of course they’ll become numb to it.” The security chief who was accompanying them looked back at the nurse and said nonchalantly.
“Seen too much?”
“Indeed. Our hospital has a contract with a labor company. Cleaners and nurses who work here have long-term contracts. Some have been in this hospital longer than some of the doctors…”
Lin Chen suddenly stopped. He and Xing Conglian exchanged a meaningful glance before the police captain keenly asked, “Which labor company did the hospital sign their contract with?”
“’Good Home’, the largest labor service company in the city.”
Lin Chen retracted his gaze while Xing Conglian decisively called his subordinates and instructed, “Compare Yu Yanqing’s photo with the suspect who has been in and out of the morgue at Third Hospital.”
The call was short. After hanging up, he chatted with the security chief to inquire about the girl. However, as the head of such a large hospital, he wouldn’t have much impression of the girl, so Xian Conglian didn’t get much information from him.
Xian Conglian subconsciously searched for Lin Chen and found that he was walking very slowly behind him. He was only walking calmly, not even looking around to take a peek at their surroundings.
“What are you thinking about?” Xing Conglian inquired. “Are you thinking Yu Yanqing was the one who messed with the corpse in the hospital?”
“No.” Lin Chen shook his head. “I was thinking, why here?”
“This place must have been chosen because it’s special,” Xing Conglian replied.
Lin Chen nodded. He raised his head and asked, “So what is so special about it?”
“I don’t know. It could be someone here, something that happened before, or maybe even they took a liking to the place. The answers are too broad…”
“Not that broad.”
While speaking, they stopped.
In front of them was an ordinary white wooden door with the word “morgue” written on the sign.
The incandescent light above their heads flickered slightly and sounds of weeping floated from unseen spaces in the darkness.
The security chief took out a key and carefully opened the door.
Cooled air rushed out.
The entire room where the corpses were stored was only about two hundred square feet. The beds were close to each other, with white sheets hanging down to the ground, as if it were a boundless snowfield. While clearly not wide, it felt as if the distance between life and death was more insurmountable than heaven and earth.
The bed where the weird male corpse had appeared was empty. Lin Chen quickly walked to the empty bed and circled around it.
Because of the narrow space, he accidently touched the hand of a deceased person next to him. He glanced at the stiff and pale back of the hand, then suddenly remembered that Fu Hao had said the culprit had slept under the bed.
Why lie under a corpse?
What does it feel like to lie under a corpse?
If he couldn’t analyze it rationally, then he should close his eyes to feel it.
Lin Chen suddenly lifted the hanging sheet, bent down, and got under the bed, lying flat on the ground.
The ground was cold. He was surrounded by darkness. His eyes couldn’t see. His ears couldn’t hear. It seemed that all his senses were closed off and only his mind was lucid.
He imagined the corpses around him, imagined their lives of sorrows and joys, and imagined how they were born and how they died.
At this time, his heartbeat would speed up involuntarily because of fear yet also calmed his mind.
In such a cold, quiet, and closed space, he would find that he was close to death…
What did this feel like?
Lin Chen suddenly snapped his eyes open.
The sound of a ringtone rang in the room.
Xing Conglian took out his cellphone and hurriedly pressed the answer button.
When he finished answering his phone, Lin Chen had already crawled out from under the bed. Xing Conglian cupped his phone and said to Lin Chen, “There’s a clue.”
The person who found the clue was a technician under him.
The technician’s name was Wang Chao. He had all the qualities of a technical geek, quick handed, loved to chatter, and would constantly sell meng*.
*(卖萌) Internet buzzword describing someone who deliberate acts cute to impress others.
When Wang Chao saw Lin Chen for the first time, the young man, who was wearing a cap, took out all the candy in his pocket and arranged it on the table, then quickly picked out all the ones with chocolate inside as he sent them out while he kept talking. “Atsuko, Minami, Mayu,1 who do you prefer? Warcraft, Dota, LoL,2 which do you prefer? How about we play together when you have time?”
1These are members of the idol girl group AKB48. Note, when he refers to Minami, he’s calling her cabbage (I guess it’s her nickname), because of this.
2These are online games. World of Warcraft is an MMORPG, while Dota and LoL are MOBAs.
This was the first time Lin Chen felt dumbfounded. He looked at the innocent eyes of Wang Chao and had to ask Xing Conglian for help.
Xing Conglian took a puff from his cigarette and said lightly, “Do you still want to get reimbursed for your taxi fare?”
The young man who was blowing bubble gum had a shameless expression, but he still sat down at the table obediently and spread out his laptop.
Because of the rain, Unit 6 on Yanjia Lane had a slight musty smell.
The young man sneezed, turned on the laptop, and said, “Look, I’m just asking, but why do you want to live here? My grandma lives in this kind of house, and it gets pretty easy for your legs to get cold when you’re that old…”
“Your grandma has quite good taste,” Xing Conglian responded as he knocked on Wang Chao’s head. “Stop talking. What about the clue?”
“Didn’t you ask to find a woman this morning? I just saw her. Guess where she is?” Wang Chao spoke rapidly. His face had heavy dark circles. “Ta-da! Based on what you said, when the hospital found the dressed-up corpse, she was seen pushing a cleaning cart into the morgue.”
A petite woman appeared on the screen. Wang Chao pressed pause and zoomed in.
The woman’s face was thin and sunken, and her facial features were so small that they seemed squished together. Her expression was morbid, seemingly devoid of joy, as if she had been tortured by life and had lost all her edges.
Lin Chen looked at the dry and thin woman and nodded, confirming that it was the gardener who had sent him the love letters.
“This chick is Yu Yanqing, right?” Wang Chao said. He quickly pulled up the folder containing a video file, selected one, and double-clicked to open it. “I used simple facial recognition software and searched for her picture in any video related to today’s case, and guess what?!” He spoke rapidly as he pressed pause, stilling the screen on an image of the evening riot on the vendor’s street. “She’s here!”
Wang Chao reached out and pointed to a long-haired woman standing on the side of the street watching coldly.
“Finally, guess what, my God.” Wang Chao clicked his tongue and sighed. He had a proud glow in his eyes as he quickly opened the last video in the folder and said, “The location of the camera is at the intersection in front of Central Park. This is about 35 minutes before the crime.”
In the surveillance video, Yu Yanqing seemed to have undergone radical change. She was wearing a red dress and had on lipstick, looking quite radiant. She was walking towards the park in a glowing manner.
This couldn’t be chalked up to coincidence, as it couldn’t explain why the same person would appear in three seemingly unrelated crimes. Xian Conglian rubbed his chin and looked at Lin Chen. “Why don’t we invite this pretty lady for a cup of tea?”
“I’m afraid it’s too late. Let’s go back to Chunshui Street.” Lin Chen shook his head and spoke in a hoarse voice.
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