TTS Chapter 49

When they arrived at the parking lot, Xia Hang asked Han Huaixiao, “Are we heading to Lang City University of Technology?”

 

Han Huaixiao thought for a moment before answering, “Let’s go to District Seven first. It’s Sunday today, so Xin You’s former homeroom teacher might not be at school. We’ll go to her house instead.”

 

Xin You’s homeroom teacher was a woman named Du Yu, who was close to retirement. She had taught Xin You for three years, so she naturally still remembered her.

 

“Xin You was a bit withdrawn,” she said, “but she was a good kid. Did she get into some kind of trouble?”

 

“Don’t worry, Ms. Du,” Han Huaixiao reassured her. “We’re just conducting a routine inquiry.”

 

“Oh… What would you like to know?”

 

“You mentioned Xin You was withdrawn. How withdrawn?”

 

“She hardly spoke to her classmates. Even with her deskmate, she barely exchanged a few words. Whatever she did, she always did it alone.”

 

“Did you ever interact with her parents? What were they like?”

 

“They didn’t seem to pay much attention to her. During her first year of high school, her mother attended two parent-teacher meetings. She dressed fashionably, but her relationship with Xin You seemed… distant. There wasn’t that natural closeness between a mother and daughter.”

 

“What about her father?”

 

“After her mother passed away, he always said he was too busy to attend the meetings, so he never came to the school. But he did seem to care about Xin You.”

 

“How so?”

 

“Every so often he’d call me to ask how she was doing at school. Most parents ask about grades first, but every time he called, the first thing he’d ask was how she was getting along with her classmates. Only after that would he ask about her academic performance.”

 

“So he knew she didn’t socialize much?”

 

“Yes. I told him many times. Maybe that’s exactly why he cared so much about how she interacted with her classmates.”

 

Han Huaixiao recalled his previous encounter with Xin You. Judging from the way she spoke, calm, composed, and articulate, she didn’t seem like someone who was socially withdrawn. She simply wasn’t very talkative.

Why, then, had Xin Rong cared so much about her relationships with classmates?

 

“Ms. Du,” Han Huaixiao asked, “Xin Rong was so concerned about Xin You’s social life at school. Do you think he wanted her to get along well with her classmates… or did he actually prefer her not to have much contact with them?”

 

“Uh…” Du Yu hesitated. “I suppose he wanted her to get along with them. Every parent hopes their child studies well and has good relationships with classmates.”

 

“Think about it again.”

 

“Now that you mention it…” she frowned, trying to remember, “maybe he really didn’t want that. Every time I told him Xin You still kept to herself, he never seemed particularly anxious. He never asked me what could be done, nor did he ask me to pay extra attention to helping her socialize.”

 

Just then, the doorbell rang. When Du Yu opened the door, several of her former students were standing outside. Since universities had started their summer break early, they had returned from out of town and arranged to visit their old teacher together.

 

Seeing this, Han Huaixiao and Xia Hang took their leave, but the apartment wasn’t particularly well soundproofed. Just after the front door closed behind them, they heard one of the young men say, “Ms. Du, do you still remember Xin You? I went to a bar last week and ran into her there. She’s working as a waitress now. She’s amazing at selling drinks, and she’s become so much livelier and more outgoing than she was in high school!”

 

The timing couldn’t have been more perfect. These visitors were all Xin You’s former high school classmates, so Han Huaixiao immediately knocked on the door again.

 

“Excuse me,” he said. “Which bar did you just say she works at?”

 

After leaving Du Yu’s apartment for the second time, Han Huaixiao checked the time and said to Xia Hang, “We’re not going to Lang City University anymore. We’re going to the bar.”

 

Xia Hang knew he meant the bar where Xin You worked, so he asked, “You suspect Xin You?”

 

“Something about Xin Rong’s relationship with her feels off,” Han Huaixiao nodded. “According to the information Wen Yu gathered, Xin Rong transferred her living expenses on time every month, so she shouldn’t have been short of money. Why would she suddenly start working part-time at a bar? And it looks like she only started recently and hasn’t been there long. She’d never had another part-time job before; otherwise it would’ve shown up in her records.”

 

“Then let’s go take a look.”

 

However, on the drive there, Xia Hang glanced down at their police uniforms, asking, “We’re going into a bar dressed like this?”

 

“I’ve got spare clothes in the trunk.”

 

By the time they arrived, it was already past eight in the evening. They changed in the car before walking inside.

 

The bar was already filling up. Instead of taking a booth, they sat directly at the counter, each ordering a drink. As they chatted casually, they discreetly scanned the room, pretending to be looking for someone.

After watching them for a while, the bartender asked, “First time here, handsome?”

 

Han Huaixiao was about to answer, but Xia Hang shot him a subtle look. His expression shifted almost imperceptibly as he leaned closer and lowered his voice, saying, “Yeah. A friend sent us here. He said this place has…” He made a small, discreet hand gesture toward the bartender, who immediately grew wary and replied with a short coded phrase.

 

Without hesitation, Xia Hang answered with one of his own, and the bartender visibly relaxed.

 

“Wait here a moment,” he said. “I’ll get someone to take you upstairs.”

 

Soon, someone arrived and led them to the second floor. They were brought into a private room, where a man in his forties was waiting.

 

“…”

 

Xia Hang successfully completed the purchase. As they came back downstairs, someone suddenly rounded a corner and nearly collided with Han Huaixiao.

 

Han Huaixiao dodged the impact, but the man’s drink still splashed all over his clothes. Since the restroom was just a short distance away, Han Huaixiao gestured for Xia Hang to head outside first while he quickly cleaned himself up before leaving.

 

But when he stepped out of the bar, Xia Hang was already waiting outside… along with another man.

 

Xia Hang was currently wearing Han Huaixiao’s shirt. On Han Huaixiao, it fit perfectly, but on Xia Hang it hung noticeably loose. The open collar drooped slightly, revealing part of his collarbone. The man standing nearby let his eyes wander from Xia Hang’s face to his exposed collarbone, then to his waist. After saying something to him, he slowly raised his hand.

 

Just as the man’s hand was about to touch him, Xia Hang was preparing to teach him a lesson when he heard a cry of agony that was abruptly cut short.

 

Turning his head, he saw the man’s face had gone deathly pale, looking like he was in so much pain that he couldn’t even scream. One arm hung limply at his side, obviously dislocated.

 

Han Huaixiao withdrew his hand and said to Xia Hang, “Let’s go.”

 

……………..

 

On the way back, Han Huaixiao drove. But from the moment they got into the car, he hadn’t said a single word, and his face remained extremely dark. Seeing his still-damp clothes, Xia Hang assumed he was simply uncomfortable, so when they passed a shopping mall, he asked, “Do you want to stop and buy a change of clothes?”

 

A red light brought the car to a stop, and Han Huaixiao turned to him, his gaze sharp.

 

“How did you know their code words so well?”

 

Back at the bar, whether it was the bartender or the man upstairs, Han Huaixiao had recognized that they were speaking in coded language, but he hadn’t known the exact responses. Xia Hang, on the other hand, had answered every password calmly and flawlessly.

 

What did that mean?

 

After a moment of silence, Xia Hang replied, “It was related to my previous work. I learned some of it.”

 

“What kind of work requires you to know those kinds of codes?”

 

“…Don’t ask.”

 

Han Huaixiao stared at him, slowly saying, “Xia Hang… after we broke up back then, where exactly did you go?”

 

Unable to withstand his piercing gaze, Xia Hang looked away.

 

“The person who left those notes in your room…” Han Huaixiao continued. “Were they connected to the people at that bar?”

 

“…I can’t tell you yet.” Xia Hang clenched his fists.

 

The traffic light turned green. Horns blared impatiently from the cars behind them, but Han Huaixiao didn’t react. Vehicles began going around them in the next lane, one driver even rolling down his window to curse at them.

 

Xia Hang finally lifted his head and met Han Huaixiao’s eyes, begging, “Just give me a little more time. I’ll tell you everything.”

 

Han Huaixiao held his gaze for a long moment. Only then did he put the car into gear and drive away.

 

Back at the Municipal Bureau, Xia Hang immediately delivered what they’d purchased at the bar to He Zhengye for analysis. When he returned to the office, he heard Zhang Tianhua reporting to Han Huaixiao: “While investigating Bao Qinglong, I discovered he’d met with Xin Rong’s secretary. Both of them claimed they were discussing work.”

 

“Yeah, right,” Ling Yue scoffed. “One’s a boatswain, the other’s an executive secretary. What work could they possibly have to discuss together?”

 

“While looking into Xin Rong,” Zhang Tianhua continued, “I found that a lot of employees had a poor opinion of him. He had a terrible temper and often took it out on the people around him. His secretary and assistant suffered the most.”

 

“What if Xin Rong did something to his secretary that she simply couldn’t tolerate anymore? She secretly switched his medication, then, to divert suspicion, quietly contacted Bao Qinglong and worked with him to frame Liao Yongqing. As Xin Rong’s secretary, she definitely knew about his affair with Ju Jiezhen.”

 

“Then why would Bao Qinglong provide Liao Yongqing with an alibi?” Ling Yue frowned.

 

“Making it look like Liao Yongqing was the culprit from the very beginning would’ve been too obvious. Maybe that was exactly the smokescreen. Later on, didn’t we discover that Bao Qinglong and Liao Yongqing had disappeared together for more than two hours?”

 

Just then, Han Huaixiao’s phone rang. It was the Criminal Investigation Division from Harbor City, reporting, “Captain Han, we’ve identified the body you recovered from the sea that day. His name was Huo Jiayou, twenty-two years old. He disappeared from Yungang City three months ago, and the Yungang police have been searching for him ever since.”

 

“When we contacted them, they mentioned that you’d previously reached out regarding this person. Is he connected to the case you’re working on? If so, should we continue investigating, or transfer everything over to your department?”

 

Han Huaixiao had an excellent memory, so the moment he heard the name Huo Jiayou, his heart skipped a beat. He remembered it because it had appeared on the list Manager Liu had provided.

 

Among the young men Qu Mingzhe and Chen Zhengde trafficked into the clubs, almost no one knew their real names or backgrounds. Manager Liu knew Huo Jiayou’s name, and the names of a few others, because they had secretly begged him for help, asking him to contact their families.

 

According to Manager Liu, after Huo Jiayou spent some time at Shuntai Club, he was quietly taken away, most likely trafficked overseas. Han Huaixiao had always assumed they had simply sold him to another entertainment venue abroad.

 

But now…

 

The Harbor City detectives were telling him that the unidentified body they’d recovered from the sea that day was Huo Jiayou. And Han Huaixiao knew all too well what condition that corpse had been in when they’d found it.

 

Therefore, his grip on the phone tightened so hard it nearly cracked.

 

“Yes,” he replied, his voice cold.

 

“He’s connected to the case we’re investigating. Please send us everything you’ve uncovered.”

………………………….