Five Cases – Chapter 25: Midwinter

“Bang!”

Lu Hui fiercely threw open the office door and leapt behind the desk and sat in his chair, his actions full of hustle and bustle. 

Rao Feifei was so startled that she almost dropped her phone: “Chief Lu, you’re here so early.” She lowered her head to look at her phone, “It’s not even seven.”

“Is it strange for me to come to work on time?” Lu Hui questioned. 

Rao Feifei puffed her cheeks out: “Very strange.”

Just as she said this, the door opened again. This time, it was Ji Fanyang. 

Upon seeing Ji Fanyang, Lu Hui shifted in his seat uneasily. 

Ji Fanyang plopped a to-go bag on Lu Hui’s desk: “Have some breakfast.” His tone was cheerless, “We agreed. I cook and you clean.” 

Lu Hui blinked, then said with feigned pitifulness: “I didn’t eat, so I don’t need to wash the dishes.”

“So you ran away in advance, not eating so you don’t need to clean!” Ji Fanyang said angrily, “You still don’t eat well at your age? Are you thirty-two or three?”

“Oh, that’s so heartbreaking.” Lu Hui covered his heart, then reached over to grab the paper bag. He opened it and took a bite, “Mm, not bad.”

“Brother Yang, did you make this?” Rao Feifei lifted her eyes above her phone to look at Lu Hui. 

Lu Hui smiled fakely, ate the rest of the food swiftly, balled up the paper bag, then threw it in the trash: “Finished.”

“Stingy.” Rao Feifei rolled her eyes. 

Ji Fanyang sighed. He placated the young woman: “I’ll bring another portion for you another time.”

“Mm, thank you, Brother Yang.” Rao Feifei smiled. 

Lu Hui knocked on the desk impatiently: “ Do we have a case, do we have a case, do we have a case.”

“Yes, yes, yes.” Rao Feifei took out a dossier and tossed it over to Lu Hui, “An old corpse, Yangliu Village in Gaotao County.”

“That far? Not going.” Lu Hui refused immediately. 

Ji Fanyang picked up the dossier and flipped through it. He said: “It looks good, and it’s two connected cases.”

“Two cases?” Yang Jie opened the office door and walked in, “Sounds interesting.”

“That’s my line.” Lu Hui said discontentedly. 

Ji Fanyang leaned against the desk in front of Lu Hui and read the details of the case aloud in a warm, gentle voice: “Six children went missing. While searching for the missing children, a police dog found the incomplete remains of a corpse.”

“Chief Lu?” Rao Feifei queried. 

Lu Hui turned his head to look at the window, his gaze piercing through the glass to the snow flurries outside. It was December, midwinter, cold enough to freeze one’s skin. He asked with extreme reluctance: “Was the corpse sent to the coroner for analysis?”

“It was sent yesterday. The coroner gave an on-the-spot appraisal, but the report will be sent later in the week.” Ji Fanyang answered, “The time of death was about two years ago. There was some soft tissue remaining, as the body had not completely ossified yet.”

Lu Hui stood up and put on his thick, down coat: “We’ll go to the scene to have a look.”

“Which one, the missing kids’ or the body’s?” Rao Feifei asked. 

“The body’s, of course.” Lu Hui said curiously, “What does looking for kids have to do with the Serious Crimes Squad?”

“…Director Gao said that if we took the case, we had to find the kids first.” Rao Feifei mumbled. 

Lu Hui frowned: “Do I look like a police dog?”

Ji Fanyang said appeasingly: “It shouldn’t take too much time, right?”

“Time is money.” Lu Hui persisted. He reached out to take the dossier from Ji Fanyang, “Give it to me.”

Rao Feifei stole the dossier out of Ji Fanyang’s hands: “Then this case will have to be handed over to team six.”

“You…” Lu Hui withdrew his hand in embarrassment. He glared at the young woman, “Give it to me.”

After working with Lu Hui for half a year, Rao Feifei more-or-less understood Lu Hui’s temperament. Perhaps she did not understand him as well as Ji Fanyang did, but she really had guts: “Chief Lu, I have no alternative.”

Lu Hui exhaled a breath and said calmly: “Bring it here, I’ll take it.”

Rao Feifei took out the dossier: “Even if you bluff me, it doesn’t matter. Director Gao can block the forensics report.”

“…” Lu Hui completely threw away any thought of opportunistic trickery, “Fine, fine, bring it here.”

Rao Feifei passed the dossier over: “Do we need to call over some forensics personnel?”

“No need. It’s snowing heavily, so the police dogs are enough.” Lu Hui took the dossier, “Let’s go.”

The group of them walked downstairs to the parking lot and stood in front of Lu Hui’s car. 

Lu Hui frowned: “Let’s take separate cars, in case we need to act separately.”

“Okay.” Yang Jie nodded, dragging Rao Feifei, who wanted to say something, away to find another car. 

Ji Fanyang got in on the passenger’s side as Lu Hui sat in the driver’s seat, then drove out of the parking lot. 

“We could’ve gone in the same car.” Ji Fanyang said.  

Lu Hui pretended not to hear. 

“…” Ji Fanyang turned his head to look at Lu Hui, “You sad bastard, you just don’t have a sense of security, do you?”

“How do I not have a sense of security?” Lu Hui refuted, “You want me to be like you, who needs everyone to like you?”

“You act like a bastard and make everyone dislike you. Are you happy?” Ji Fanyang waved his arm out of vexation, “Is getting along normally with people so difficult?”

“Very difficult. I don’t have your natural-born talent to be charming.” Lu Hui ridiculed, “We haven’t even been there for four months, and you’ve met all of the young women in the apartment complex. Do you feel a special sense of accomplishment?”

“I’m just socializing!” Ji Fanyang said, “I’m better than you, who doesn’t know anyone. A girl asked me for your name, she was very cute.”

“You say that every girl is cute.” Lu Hui smiled coldly, “Don’t bother introducing me, I don’t want to meet her.”

“What benefit do you get from scaring everyone away?” Ji Fanyang asked. 

Lu Hui snorted: “Silence helps me think, and you’re noisy enough on your own.”

“What have you done in the last four months?!” Ji Fanyang started listing things off, “Played your guitar in the middle of the night, made a mess of the music I like to make me mad, snuck into my room dressed as a ghost, tried to bungee jump off the balcony…”

“It was interesting though, right?” Lu Hui’s eyes curved as he smiled, “Wait, you forgot to say…”

“Shut up. I must be ten years old to put up with you.” Ji Fanyang rudely interrupted Lu Hui’s words. He rubbed his own temples to alleviate his stress. 

Lu Hui tapped on the steering wheel cheerfully, “Then we’re about the same age. They’re practical skills.”

The car was stopped, and an officer from the Gaotao County local police station welcomed them: “Hello, are you Squad Chief Lu?”

“Mm, Lu Hui.” Lu Hui shut the door and wrapped himself in his down jacket, “What leads have you found?”

“The police dogs found a lot of tracks near a well. The kids might have been playing around there, then left.” The officer said. 

“Any footprints in the snow?” Lu Hui asked. 

The officer answered: “Yes, but they are jumbled together and we are unable to discern their direction.”

“We’ll go to the well to look first.” Lu Hui said, “How many groups have you allocated?”

“Four. One is collecting the fragmentary parts of the corpse in the woods, one is searching nearby for the children, one is looking through surveillance footage, and one is looking into recent human trafficking records.”

Lu Hui nodded, then followed the police officer’s steps into the village.

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