The G Province First Agricultural University that Su Zhisheng attended was massive in size—after all, the faculty and students needed space for farming and raising animals. The campus also had dedicated ponds for growing aquatic plants and raising fish.
This river was located on one side of the school and wasn’t part of the university’s teaching grounds. It was simply that the campus was so large that it inevitably covered the river.
The river flowed down from the mountaintop upstream, passed by the school in a remote area of G Province, and continued into the heart of the city.
As a result, the river’s main role on campus was ornamental. The school administration hadn’t made further use of the river to avoid drawing too much water and affecting the downstream areas, which could cause unnecessary problems.
Big fish live in long rivers. This large carp usually liked to stay in the waters near the school because the students here weren’t big on fishing—but they loved feeding the fish.
The carp ate its fill every day, growing plump and strong.
“I saw that kid carrying a big bag. He didn’t have a fishing rod, so I thought he was coming to feed the fish.”
The carp’s voice suddenly turned extremely sorrowful and indignant!
“We were all scrambling to swim toward the shore, but I was far away and couldn’t get a spot in the front row. Then that kid just tossed the bag into the reeds and walked away!”
“He’s worse than the fishermen. At least the fishermen just want to trick us into getting hooked—they still throw out plenty of bait. But that bastard chucked a heavy, sinking object at us. If I hadn’t dodged fast enough, my fish head would’ve been smashed open!”
The carp ranted and raved.
Upon hearing this, Su Zhisheng couldn’t help but show a sympathetic expression.
How tragic!
College students were generally of high quality, but G Province First Agricultural University had beautiful scenery and many animals, attracting numerous tourists. With so many people, it was inevitable that some morally questionable individuals would show up.
The carp had seen humans throw garbage into the river before. But those people were usually too lazy to find a trash can and just tossed whatever they had—small items. This time, that damn male college student had specifically brought garbage all the way here to dump it.
And it was a heavy, bulky piece of trash—practically fish murder!
“I thought that kid was some kind of psycho who just liked to torment fish. Now I see you students running around searching for something—turns out the bastard is also a thief.”
Su Zhisheng had asked many animals for leads before, but this was the first time he had encountered an animal like this carp that spilled everything without even discussing any exchange of food.
Clearly, this poor fish had been truly terrified.
“Thank you for the tip. He doesn’t feed the fish, but I do. I have some corn in my bag.”
Corn had always been very popular with fish—so much so that people online often asked how fish living in water could possibly know that corn, introduced from abroad, was edible and tasty.
Hearing this, the carp immediately stuck its head out of the water and opened its mouth.
Living on campus, its favorite activity was begging for food.
Free handouts without any effort—what a joyful fish life!
As Su Zhisheng fed the fish, other fish nearby sensed the food and swam over.
“Slurp, slurp…”
The large carp ate the corn while swatting its tail to drive away the other fish.
But there were simply too many of them. Even though Su Zhisheng intentionally tried to feed the carp, the smaller fish still got plenty.
“Are you full?” Su Zhisheng fed out the last of the small bag of corn. “I’ll buy some more corn later and come feed you again.”
“Good, good, good. Deal.”
The large carp was very cooperative. After finishing the corn, it swam directly to the surface above where the “trash” was located.
“This area of reeds in the river is quite large. I’ll mark the spot for you, and you’ll be able to find it easily.”
“By the way, what exactly are you looking for? I’ll swim down and take a look. Even though it’s inside a bag, I can still see its shape and outline.”
“My classmate lost a computer.”
The carp suddenly understood. “So that’s why it’s square and rectangular, like a textbook—except textbooks aren’t that heavy.”
“Actually, it’s easy to catch the thief. A while back, school administrators came by with some people and told their subordinates to buy cameras and point them at this river. In case someone fell in, they could rescue them in time.”
Nearby, Su Zhisheng had already raised his phone and was reporting the information to the police.
The river was very long. When Su Zhisheng had been asking fish for information, he hadn’t been wandering aimlessly.
His gaze had immediately locked onto this patch of reeds. After all, a computer was fairly large. If someone wanted to secretly dump something in a public area, they’d naturally look for cover.
The reeds not only concealed his act of throwing the bag but also helped muffle the splash of a heavy object hitting the water.
So he had come to the reed-filled waters to ask the animals for information—and sure enough, he quickly found a lead.
The police on the other end of the phone, upon receiving Su Zhisheng’s message, hurried to the lake. Following the coordinates provided by the carp, they fished the computer out of the water.
With Su Zhisheng as a consultant, cases were solved much faster, an experienced officer remarked silently.
Of course, to avoid arousing suspicion among the other students,
Su Zhisheng lied to his classmates, claiming that while asking around among the tourists, he had gotten a tip that someone had thrown something into the reeds in the river.
By the riverside, a large crowd of onlooker students had gathered.
The four roommates from the victim Li Mengxi’s dormitory were also all present.
As soon as the police untied the plastic bag they had fished out, they saw the computer inside. Although the plastic was waterproof, the thief had clearly only used it to cover the computer’s casing and hadn’t done any particularly thorough waterproof packaging.
As a result, the computer had still gotten wet and was covered in some mud and sand.
Li Mengxi came from a poor family. This computer was something he had bought with money earned from a summer job after high school graduation, and he had always treasured it. He hadn’t bought it for entertainment, but for studying and completing assignments, which was why he had only purchased a relatively inexpensive model.
But even the cheapest computer was something he couldn’t afford to replace.
“My computer looks like it’s taken on a lot of water damage. Can it still be repaired?” Li Mengxi looked at the police officer with pleading eyes, desperately clinging to a faint hope amid his despair.
Unlike phones, computers have cooling needs. Those ventilation holes were the perfect entry points for the dirty river water.
The seasoned police officer frowned deeply. “Our colleagues in forensics will do their best to repair it, but the success rate isn’t high.”
“However, once we catch the thief, we can have them compensate you.”
From within the crowd, Su Zhisheng secretly observed Luo Guangsheng’s expression.
At that moment, the guy’s face didn’t seem particularly problematic. After all, the police had been searching for so long—he had probably had time to compose himself.
Su Zhisheng guessed that Luo Guangsheng had likely worn gloves while committing the crime and hadn’t left any fingerprints. That was why he could remain so calm.
However, the guy had probably miscalculated.
From his conversations with the small animals earlier, Su Zhisheng had learned that the school had been monitoring the riverside all along. The surveillance cameras were mounted on the streetlights. To prevent criminals from deliberately destroying the cameras before committing crimes, they weren’t the typical obvious camera shapes—which was why many people hadn’t noticed them.
The problem was that Li Mengxi had been to several places today, so it wasn’t clear whether he had lost the computer himself or it had been stolen in the dorm. That meant the police had to search a wide area and couldn’t pinpoint the location quickly.
Su Zhisheng had noticed Luo Guangsheng’s strange behavior earlier and guessed that he had seized an opportunity to steal the computer deliberately and throw it away. That was why Su Zhisheng had conducted a targeted search.
Now that the computer had been found, the police only needed to check the riverside surveillance footage to find the evidence.
The seasoned officer looked at the students from Li Mengxi’s dorm. “Now that the computer has been found, the few of you who share a dorm with Li Mengxi will come back to the station with me to give statements
Although Su Zhisheng wasn’t in the same dorm as Li Mengxi, he had provided the crucial lead that led to the computer’s discovery, so he naturally accompanied them to the police station.
His gaze swept over Luo Guangsheng, who was putting on a brave face, and he couldn’t help but look forward to what was coming.
Now that the location where the computer had been dumped and an approximate timeline had been locked down, it would probably take less than an hour of skimming through the surveillance footage at double speed to find the evidence.
This was going to be interesting.
At night, the police station was still bustling with activity.
The Zhang family hotel’s organized prostitution case had implicated many people. Numerous victims and their family members had come to the station to negotiate compensation with the Zhang and Su families.
Some refused to issue letters of understanding, hoping the criminals would receive harsher sentences. Others chose to take the money and write letters of understanding to ease their families’ financial burdens.
The young men and women who had been sold as sexual resources had different personalities, but they all shared one common trait: their families were not well-off. Only poor children who couldn’t repay cosmetic surgery loans or afford the exorbitant penalty clauses of entertainment contracts… only they would be driven into prostitution by the debts created through various traps by the criminals.
Whichever choice the family members made, it was understandable.
Most of the recent commotion at the police station had been caused by this case.
“The father and son from the Su family are here again today, like clocking in for work.” Zhang Zhengyang couldn’t help but complain.
“During our last interrogation, those two were very unhappy that Hu Xiuchun had been secretly using company resources to line her own pockets. But these past few days, have they been possessed? Why are they so eager to show up here every single day?”
The fact was, the Su family was wealthy and could afford professional lawyers. Most of the negotiation-related matters were handled by those lawyers talking.
And the victims’ families’ resentment was directed at Hu Xiuchun and Wang Hao.
Whether these two Su family members showed up or not didn’t really affect the big picture.
Their presence there served only one purpose: to send a signal to the wealthy circles of G Province that although Hu Xiuchun had gone to prison for her crimes, the Su family had not abandoned her.
Earlier, when those two had given their statements, they had looked like they wanted to beat that family traitor, Hu Xiuchun, to death.
Zhang Zhengyang had thought at the time that he would soon be enjoying another piece of Su family drama—another severed relationship announcement.
Who would have thought that they would actually endure the online backlash and voluntarily show support for Hu Xiuchun? It was utterly bizarre!
Su Jingye sat down on a bench, enduring the police officers’ looks as if they were staring at a lunatic.
Hu Xiuchun had entered the game late, so the number of victims she was involved with was limited. Today was their mediation with the final victim. Once this was over, it would be done.
If it weren’t for that handwritten letter from Hu Xiuchun, why would he help clean up this mess? He would have kicked her out of the family long ago!
[Husband, I will reform myself well in prison. I will never do anything foolish. I won’t die on you just when you need a dead wife the most.]
Now his only question was: how much did Hu Xiuchun actually know, and did she have any evidence?