Zhu Yanan didn't get off work until 6 PM, so Jian Jing took a detour to a certain place first.
Amidst the overgrown weeds and crumbling bricks, Ji Feng's old school stood in the winter wind, as eerie as a ghost school.
She arrived at the small alley she once climbed over, scaled the wall and jumped in, made her way through waist-high grass, and reached the teaching building. On the ground floor, some classrooms still retained their class signs, reading "Class 13."
That wasn't it.
Jian Jing carefully stepped on the stairs, daring only to place her feet on the steel reinforcements, avoiding the concrete bricks for fear they might give way and cost her life.
Before climbing, she hesitated slightly, wondering if she had guessed wrong. But upon seeing the broken desk left on the stairs and the footprints beside it, she knew she was right.
The desk wasn't very dusty and was perfectly wedged in a broken section, clearly placed there intentionally.
Strangely, there were only handprints from moving the desk, no footprints, as if it had been brought over specifically for her to step on.
Jian Jing suspected this was a challenge: the item is up there, can you get to it?
If you can, why can't I? Her competitive spirit surged. She tied up her hair, lifted her coat skirt, and nimbly jumped onto the desk.
She had to admit, the desk was necessary.
Carefully avoiding the debris, she slowly made her way upstairs, finally finding Class 3-1 on the fourth floor.
All the desks inside had been removed, leaving only an old podium. She shone her flashlight, scanning the dusty floor, and quickly found several faint footprints.
Following them to the edge of the podium, she crouched down.
The beam of light swept back and forth inside the podium, falling on a hole.
Jian Jing kicked twice, scaring away the bugs hiding inside, before reaching in.
Sure enough, there was a box inside with a small rusty lock.
She inserted the key and turned it.
Inside was a dark blue plastic folder with a label stuck on it.
The gaudy gradient color was just like the stack she had left at the police station.
There was a smiley face drawn on the paper: :)
The winter sky darkened early, but Jian Jing wasn't in a hurry to look. With the item in hand, she headed downstairs.
Going down was even steeper, the bricks beneath her feet wobbling precariously, tiny pebbles falling with a pitter-patter, oddly thrilling.
Jian Jing deliberately bounced down, and by the time she reached the bottom, even more of the stairs had collapsed.
She felt exhilarated.
On a cold winter day, the meeting place with Zhu Yanan was, of course, a hot pot restaurant.
Liang Yi was there too, saying bluntly, "Don't worry, I'm not freeloading. I'll tell you everything I know about Ji Feng."
"In that case, you'd better eat a lot." Jian Jing ordered without even looking at the menu, going all out.
Beef, lamb, shrimp balls, fish slices, egg dumplings, vermicelli, vegetable platters... until the table could hold no more.
None of the three women were dieters, so they ate with abandon.
Liang Yi was starving and wolfed down her food, while Zhu Yanan ate more gracefully, asking between bites, "Ms. Jian, what exactly did you want to ask me? Just to be clear, Ji Feng and I weren't particularly close in high school, but our families lived near each other, and our moms used to work together. We did go to the same kindergarten."
Jian Jing thought for a moment, then asked, "Was he always like this?"
"Of course not," Zhu Yanan rolled her eyes dramatically. "He's much better now. Back in school, I can't tell you how much I disliked him."
Liang Yi, curious: "What did he do?"
Zhu Yanan explained, "He'd show off because he was smart. I remember it clearly, in kindergarten, we were doing puzzles, and the teacher said we could take them home for our parents to help if we couldn't finish. He insisted on finishing before school ended and then asked us, 'Why can't you all do something so simple?'"
Liang Yi: "Makes me want to punch him."
"My mom said I burst into tears and went home asking if I was stupid because I couldn't do such simple puzzles," Zhu Yanan recalled the childhood trauma vividly. "As if he was so brilliant. People who didn't know better might have thought he was Einstein or something."
Jian Jing chuckled and asked, "What about high school?"
"High school was better," Zhu Yanan thought for a moment before continuing, "Actually, when we first got into the same class, I didn't even recognize him, but he remembered me. He said I'd gotten smarter since we were kids."
Liang Yi commented, "After being beaten down by society, he learned to speak like a normal person."
"He was still annoying though, always skipping homework because his grades were good," Zhu Yanan said. "He'd read books during class, chat during self-study periods, constantly disrupting class order. No one could control him."
Jian Jing: "That's hard to imagine. I've never even seen him speed while driving."
"Come to think of it, he suddenly changed in our senior year," Zhu Yanan reminisced, tilting her head. "Let me think... yes, it was the first semester of senior year. He suddenly became different."
Jian Jing perked up: "Tell me more."
"He stopped attending evening self-study sessions," Zhu Yanan explained. "In our senior year, the rules were very strict. Day students could leave early, but they had to attend at least two evening sessions. He would leave right after afternoon classes ended. I remember this clearly because not only did he skip evening sessions, he also missed morning ones, arriving just in time for the first class bell every day."
She was certain: "He was the only one who stood out like that. I'm sure I'm not mistaken, it was our senior year after all."
"Did something happen?" Liang Yi interjected.
Zhu Yanan frowned, saying uncertainly, "I heard from my mom that something happened at home, but by then, his mother had passed away years ago, and we didn't keep in touch much, so it was just hearsay."
Jian Jing asked, "When did his mother pass away?"
"During middle school, I think," Zhu Yanan said. "It was cancer, I believe. My mom's workplace even went to visit her."
Jian Jing nodded: "Around what month did this happen in senior year?"
"September or October... it's been a while, but I remember it wasn't cold yet," Zhu Yanan said, then asked, "Are you trying to find out what happened to him back then?"
Liang Yi: "Why not ask him directly? Won't he tell you?"
Jian Jing didn't know how to explain, so she just smiled and said, "It's complicated. Anything else?"
Zhu Yanan racked her brain and finally said, "I was so busy with revision in senior year, I didn't pay much attention to other things, but there's one thing I remember clearly: he only filled in one choice on his college application."
Jian Jing: "Police University?"
She nodded: "I collected the application forms, and everyone else filled in all five choices, but he only wrote one. I remember reminding him that it wasn't safe to only choose one, asking what he'd do if he wasn't accepted, and suggesting he write a few more."
"And then?"
"I thought he'd say something like 'I'll definitely get in,' but instead he said..." Zhu Yanan paused, "If I don't get in this year, I'll study for another year. No matter what, I have to get in."
Liang Yi: "That's odd."
Having eaten her fill, she had the energy to dig deeper: "Ji Feng was quite famous in our school, partly because our school beauty once pursued him - hey, Ms. Jian, has he told you this gossip?"
"No," Jian Jing said, incredulous. "Someone actually pursued him?"
"Listen to me," Liang Yi said eagerly. "You can't blame our school beauty for being blind. He looked quite deceiving back then - excellent grades in all subjects, presentable, and single. We were all naive then, not caring about family background or conditions. If we liked someone, we just went for it."
Jian Jing asked, "Then what happened?"
"He rejected her," Liang Yi said. "Then he got beaten up, or well, maybe he beat someone up. Anyway, they all ended up in the school infirmary."
She shrugged: "It was big news. Everyone in our grade knew about it."
Jian Jing asked curiously, "Why did he reject her? What reason did he give?"
"I'm not sure about that, but it probably wasn't anything nice," Liang Yi said. "The school beauty cried her eyes out back in the dorm."
Jian Jing: "..."
She picked up a shrimp ball and dropped it into the soy sauce, asking slowly, "Did he have any close friends in college?"
Liang Yi thought for a moment, then suddenly realized: "Come to think of it, he had quite a few friends, but as for anyone particularly close..." She swallowed two slices of beef, then shook her head, "I don't think so - maybe you count as one?"
"Who's particularly close to him?" Jian Jing rolled her eyes. "We're just acquaintances."
Liang Yi disagreed: "I think Ji Feng treats you quite well, don't you think so, Yanan?"
Zhu Yanan nodded.
Jian Jing was shocked: "You ship this kind of pairing?"
Liang Yi & Zhu Yanan: "..."
"Let's be serious," Jian Jing got back on topic. "I want to know, if he needed someone's help, who might he turn to?"
Liang Yi pointed at her with her chopsticks.
Jian Jing: "Me? No." She shook her head, "He always tells me half and hides half. If I knew, why would I be asking you?"
"Half the story is good enough," Liang Yi mumbled through a mouthful of dumpling. "We're still in the dark here. Has he gotten into trouble?"
Jian Jing thought for a moment and said, "At this point, we can only say he's out of contact."
"How so?"
"His phone is unreachable."
Liang Yi rolled her eyes. "It's not unusual for his phone to be unreachable... Oh, wait, actually it is unusual." She made a face at Zhu Yanan and said with a grin, "Usually we have to turn off our phones when we're on a mission."
Jian Jing shook her head, her expression turning serious. "It's not work-related."
"Are you sure? It could be a secret mission." Liang Yi, having great trust in Ji Feng, didn't think too much of it.
Jian Jing frowned. "Something doesn't feel right. Why don't you try calling him and see if he answers?"
Liang Yi readily agreed and called immediately. As expected, she got the "The number you have dialed is switched off" message.
She scratched her head. "So what now? Are you going to look for him?"
"First, we need to clarify the situation," Jian Jing said. "Have you heard him mention any old cases?"
Zhu Yanan made a helpless gesture. "We're not in the same department."
Liang Yi, however, thought for a moment and said, "Speaking of old cases, I remember something. At our graduation dinner, when everyone was drunk, he suddenly asked Brother Yang - um, he's sort of Ji Feng's buddy, they were roommates - if he'd heard of the November 2nd Incineration Case."
Jian Jing made a mental note of this.
The three of them ordered some ramen and ate tomato beef noodles with the hotpot broth and beef slices before heading home.
Before leaving, Liang Yi said, "We've done our best to answer your questions about Ji Feng's personal matters. If there's anything else, we'll help as much as we can. Don't hesitate to ask."
Jian Jing thanked them. "You've already been a great help."
"When you catch that guy, give us a call," Liang Yi said. "Yanan, we'll treat him to another hotpot then."
Zhu Yanan smiled and added, "I just remembered something you might want to know - Ji Feng's father is called Ji Liming, and he used to be a police officer too."
*
Back home, Jian Jing immediately went online to search for the case.
The November 2nd Incineration Case, also known as the "Peace City Serial Killer Incineration Case," was a major case that had lasted for many years.
It all began on November 2, 2002.
That day, a sanitation worker named Chen Dagang went to the police station to report that he had found a burned corpse.
Following his directions, the local police found a charred female body in an abandoned chemical factory. The victim's face, fingerprints, and clothes were completely destroyed by fire, making identification impossible. The skeleton was relatively intact, and after forensic examination, it was determined that the victim was a young woman between 20 and 28 years old who had never given birth.
The crime scene didn't yield many clues. Only half a shoe print was found, size 40, which after comparison, was identified as a very common type of rubber shoe available in the market.
The tread pattern on the sole was heavily worn, suggesting it wasn't a new shoe. Considering the shoe's low price, the killer's economic situation was likely not very good.
Besides this, there were no more leads.
The police were at a loss when on the evening of November 8, a truck driver called 119, reporting that he had seen flames by the riverside construction site and requested firefighters to check the situation, fearing a fire.
Fully equipped firefighters arrived at the site but found no large fire. Instead, they discovered another incinerated corpse.
Like the charred body in the abandoned factory, this corpse's exterior was destroyed, leaving no useful information. Only the skeleton could be used to determine that it was a young woman in her 20s.
Additionally, because it was discovered earlier, some unburned fuel remained at the scene. After testing, it was identified as No. 0 diesel fuel.
The two cases were highly similar, both extremely cruel in method. This quickly drew the attention of higher-ups, and under the leadership of the city's Public Security Bureau, a large number of personnel were assigned to investigate.
However, this was only the beginning.