Song Yang pushed open the door and was greeted by an old office, exuding a “mature” flavor.
Several old-fashioned electric lamps emitting dim yellow light hung from the ceiling. In the corner of the office stood a pot of peace lilies, its large leaves appearing beautiful under the setting sun, faintly glowing red. Leaning against the peace lilies was a newly bought broom and dustpan set.
‘Team Leader Yu’s quality of life is really worrying!’
Looking at the dustpan beside the broom, he couldn’t help shaking his head and complaining.
He put in some effort to move the water dispenser away from the trash can before Song Yang took off his black jacket, placed it on his desk, and picked up his water glass to get a cup of water. Because it was his turn to be on duty tonight, he was dressed casually and simply, in a simple gray shirt paired with faded jeans.
Those who didn’t know would think he was a recent college graduate, with a clean face and clear, yet foolish eyes.
But he was a genuine, newly appointed Investigator of Qiaotingzi Community in Kang County.
In the entire Qiaotingzi Community Investigation Bureau, there were only two homicide investigators, and he was one of them.
They are mainly responsible for homicide cases.
[Note: This block is a warning against scraping. Replacing with placeholder text.] You – me, big – small, more – less, up – down, left – right….
Pulling out a chair, he slightly patted the dust off the desk. After tidying up, the computer also turned off.
He sat down, took a sip of water, and was just about to open a video app to watch the latest variety show and pass the time when a news video suddenly popped up in the lower right corner.
In a sizeable dialogue box.
The set design was unique and harmonious.
The person standing in the center, with long hair fluttering and arms crossed, seemed to possess a strange, captivating power.
This was what attracted Song Yang.
‘Could this be a woman? What woman would have such long hair?’
With this playful thought, he noticed that the person also had an Adam’s apple, proving that he was actually a genuine man.
Song Yang’s gaze fell on the giant text above the figure.
The conspicuous and bright red headline was impossible to ignore: [I can prove the existence of the soul through scientific methods.]
‘Does someone have nothing better to do than study this?’
With this thought, Song Yang was about to click to explore when he suddenly heard a timid female voice from the doorway.
“Excuse me, is anyone here?”
Looking up, Song Yang saw half a head poking out from the office doorway.
Although he couldn’t see her face behind her bangs, he could clearly see that both her cheeks and the slender, fair neck in front were red, a charming crimson that was pleasing to the eye. She seemed very shy.
“Yes, come in,” Song Yang replied softly, frowning slightly.
The fact that someone was reporting a case so late made him feel a little surprised, especially since the person reporting the case was a girl. This made him suspect it was a prank.
However, his professional ethics as an Investigator still required him to uphold his responsibilities and treat everyone fairly and equally.
Even though he was a homicide investigator, specializing in homicide cases, the Qiaotingzi Community Investigation Bureau itself was short-handed, so most of the time, Song Yang and the other homicide investigator would handle ordinary cases as well.
Hearing someone answer, the girl nervously looked around and walked in with a face full of anxiety.
Only then did Song Yang notice the girl’s attire. She was wearing a cute cartoon T-shirt on top and snow-white capri pants on the bottom, the cuffs cut into the most popular corn tassel style of the year; on her feet were a pair of thick-heeled, pointy-toed leather boots.
‘Like a little quail!’ This was Song Yang’s first impression of the girl.
The thought of a prank grew even stronger in his mind.
“Sit,” Seeing the girl standing there, at a loss, Song Yang pointed to the chair in front of him.
The girl obediently sat down, and Song Yang tried his best to give a gentle smile as he asked, “Little sister, may I ask if there’s something you need from the Investigation Bureau? Is there anything I can help you with?”
“Excuse me, excuse me, are… are you an Investigator?” The girl asked with distrust on her face.
“My name is Song Yang, one of the homicide investigators in Qiaotingzi Community, Kang County, number 038. This is my Investigator ID,” Song Yang said with a wry smile as he took out his Investigator ID and showed it to the girl.
After the girl confirmed it, she said, “Officer Song, can you help me find Xiaozhi?”
“Xiaozhi?” Song Yang raised his eyebrows. “Who is Xiaozhi? What’s your relationship with her? What happened between you?”
Seeing the girl hesitant and flustered, seemingly not knowing where to begin, Song Yang knew that the questions he had asked earlier were too much, so he continued, “Don’t worry, take your time. First, organize your thoughts, and then tell me everything you know and want to say, step by step, according to your train of thought.”
“Okay!” The girl breathed out quickly, summoned her courage, and said hesitantly, “My name is Mu Wanqing. I’m a senior high school student at County No. 1 High School. Xiaozhi is my classmate and best friend. Her real name is Feng Zhizhi.”
“She seems to have gone missing!”
“Missing?” Song Yang curved the corners of his mouth, noncommittal. “Continue.”
“Five days ago, which was last Friday afternoon after school, Xiaozhi and I walked out of the school gate together.
We were walking on a street lined with Ginkgo trees. I forgot what that street is called. It seems to be called ‘Ginkgo Street,’ heading towards the bus station.
It’s quite a distance from the school to the East City Bus Station. It takes about twenty minutes to walk.
Although there are private cars and taxis going to and from the bus station in front of the school’s side gate, they are always full of students at this time, so Xiaozhi and I usually choose to walk.
On the way, Xiaozhi mentioned that she had asked me to ‘divine’ for her before.”
At this point, Mu Wanqing paused and timidly glanced at Song Yang. Seeing that the other party didn’t show any disapproval, she continued, “I do remember this. It happened two or three months ago. At that time, Xiaozhi had a sudden impulse and said she wanted me to see her future luck, so she insisted that I divine for her once. I couldn’t refuse, so I did it for her.”
“Everything around was white. When I could ‘see’ Xiaozhi, I also saw a big bird. But Xiaozhi doesn’t keep birds, and neither she nor her family has anything to do with big birds.
I still haven’t figured out what the future image I saw meant.”
“But after Xiaozhi found out, she always felt that the big bird was her lucky star, predicting that as long as she raised birds, she would definitely get rich and have explosive good luck.
So she told me that afternoon that she had been concerned about the big bird and had even specially gone online to look at various bird photos, but she hadn’t decided what to keep.
So, the purpose of her mentioning this topic again was to ask me what kind of bird I saw when I divined.
‘A parrot.’ That was my answer to her. I tried hard to recall, and finally confirmed that the bird I saw when I vaguely ‘saw’ her was a parrot.
Hearing my answer, Xiaozhi seemed very interested and told me that the bird she actually wanted to keep was a parrot, and the only problem now was convincing her mother to let her keep it.
Then, Xiaozhi took out her phone and showed me a photo she had taken a few days ago.
The phone screen showed a parrot with bright lemon-colored feathers. However, the photo was probably taken by Xiaozhi while walking, so the image was a bit blurry.
I complained to Xiaozhi about her poor photography skills, and she just smiled indifferently. Xiaozhi can’t help but shake when she takes pictures, and this has happened countless times.”
Having spoken so much at once, Mu Wanqing’s throat was a little hoarse. Song Yang got up and poured her a glass of water, and she said softly, “Thank you!”
Feeling slightly more comfortable, she continued, “I was surprised where Xiaozhi took the parrot photo. She told me that there was a pet shop near her house, and she saw it there.
She had been going there once every three days recently, but she was just going to take a look, which might be a bother to the shop owner.
Once every three days, Xiaozhi can be considered to come very often. It seemed that she was truly enthusiastic about this, and I thought she really wanted to keep a bird.
Then I asked her how much a parrot would cost.
She told me that the one in the photo cost five thousand yuan.
I felt the price was too high, and the only way was to convince her mother to help.
We chatted happily all the way, so it felt like we arrived at the station in an instant.
Before separating from her, she said that she would also stop by the pet shop to take a look before going home today.
Then, we waved goodbye to each other at the station.
When I finally got home exhausted, the sun had already set.
Just as I was changing my clothes, I inadvertently glanced at my phone and found that Xiaozhi had sent me a WeChat message.
—— [Parrot].
The content was just these two words.
The message also included a strange photo.
When I saw the photo, I subconsciously thought Xiaozhi’s hand was shaking again.
And she shook it so badly that I couldn’t tell where the photo was taken at all.
I struggled to figure out that the photo seemed to show an ordinary road that could be seen everywhere.
And there was a collectible card lying on the road, with a sunset sky as the background, and a long shadow that looked like Xiaozhi’s.
But, I think the first person to see this photo would definitely not notice these details.
Because in the upper right corner of the photo, there was a very large and unnatural thing clearly photographed.
Anyone would notice this strange existence.
It was a mass of white light.
And there was obviously a difference in tone between it and the surrounding scenery.
That was definitely not the kind of light that could be captured in a normal photo.
I had seen similar things on TV shows when I was little.”
—— “It’s a spirit photo…”
Mu Wanqing’s face instantly turned pale, and her whole body seemed to be trembling. Even though the sun was shining brightly now, she only felt a chill invade.
“Alarmed, I quickly replied to Xiaozhi’s WeChat message, asking her ‘What’s up with this photo?’, and also called her.
But, she didn’t reply to my message or answer my phone.
Xiaozhi didn’t come to school on Monday after the weekend. It was as if she had evaporated from the world.”
“I asked the teacher, and the teacher said that she had received a call from her parents saying that she was asking for a few days of leave. But Xiaozhi always tells you everything, and she never told you that she would ask for leave.”
“Out of curiosity, I went to her house alone, and I found… I found that her house was gone.”
“Then, you came to report the case?” Song Yang stared at her and asked, “Besides this, is there anything else you want to add?”
Noticing Song Yang’s gaze on her, Mu Wanqing pursed her lips and replied, “No, nothing else!”
Nodding, Song Yang grabbed a form from the table and threw it over, saying, “Fill out this form first!”
Mu Wanqing glanced at it, and it said a few words.
—— Missing Persons Report Form.
She grabbed the pen on the table without saying a word and began to fill it out.
While Mu Wanqing was filling out the form, Song Yang picked up his phone and glanced at WeChat. In order not to interrupt Mu Wanqing’s conversation, he had kept his phone on silent.
Looking at the dozens of calls and dozens of WeChat messages on his phone now, his expression suddenly changed slightly. He glanced at the WeChat messages, and then he immediately got up and hurriedly left the office, wanting to find the intern Investigator on duty at the door to instruct her to handle Mu Wanqing’s matter.
But he found that the Investigator on duty was nowhere to be found.
‘This is how it is in small counties.’ He muttered inwardly. He returned to the office and told Mu Wanqing to go home after filling out the form and to come back tomorrow.
After saying that, he quickly left the Investigation Bureau, riding his electric scooter and speeding towards the scene.
—— Because the message he had just received was notifying him that a murder had occurred nearby!