Hegel's Confession

Based on the information from the a.s.sistant, there was nothing suspicious from when Little Hui disappeared. He saw only old clients, and there were no major changes at work. The company was doing well and everything looked good.

I felt a little dizzy as I sat in the chair, feeling as if I missed something. Just then, someone knocked on the door and came into the conference room. He told the a.s.sistant a new group of models had arrived and she was needed to see them, to which the a.s.sistant answered yes and told him to leave.

Models... I looked at the a.s.sistant, “does your company need models for any events?”

The a.s.sistant answered nonchalantly that they had just signed a contract with a clothing company and was planning a fashion show. She paused as she talked, looking at me with uncertainty, “my boss did seem really happy in the days before he disappeared, maybe because he met a model. He told me she had a lot of potential. I almost forgot about it without us talking about the show.”

Teng and I both focused and asked her to remember what Little Hui said. Who was the model and could we contact her?

The a.s.sistant shook her head, “he just mentioned it casually, I didn’t think anything of it. My boss likes pretty girls, and I was used to it.”

As we left the TV and movie company, I thought our investigation wasn’t clear and we had pitifully few clues. Other than Zhu Na mentioning Little Hui’s good mood before he went missing, and the random model mentioned by the a.s.sistant.

 “What a headache, we don’t even have something to zero in on.” Teng mumbled. He sounded like he was in a bad mood.

We left for the precinct with our files, planning to organize everything when we get back, and to focus our energy around the missing men’s workplaces and homes. I remembered Haoran saying their phone records also had something weird, hopefully that would turn up something.

On the way back, I kept thinking of ways to tackle this. The investigation had no focus right now, but we definitely overlooked something. The suspect should have had contact with all four missing men, and it was probably something off-hand.

At the office, Teng briefed everyone on the interviews we had with Zhu Na and the a.s.sistant. Haoran had nothing yet.

After a while, Haoran had Teng check on the unknown calls among all four missing men’s phone records, to try to locate their phones, and to see if there were any shared contacts.

I looked over our files. Four young men with good lives. They didn’t know each other. They were all unfaithful. They all had wives and kids but also a lover.

With our current information, it seemed they all went missing after leaving work. The last person they saw were all coworkers or subordinates. It was as if they left work as usual, and went missing on their way home.

At dusk, we sat and discussed the case, talking about our theories. Teng said the unknown caller’s number was revealed but calls to the number showed no account and there was no information. There were no shared contacts in the men’s call logs, nothing weird on their computers, and tracking their phones didn’t find anything.

Haoran said it would be good to interview the last person the missing men saw or maybe their close friends. And to see who the missing may have contacted. This was crucial.

I thought quickly as I rotated my pen, then an idea came to me. “I got it. If Little Hui’s a.s.sistant said he only met the model a few days before he went missing, we could try finding any people the other missing men may have met, maybe we would find the same pretty model.”

Haoran and Teng nodded at my idea. I was happy too. Whether or not this guess would prove anything it was a direction, and better than having nothing to go on.

As the skies darkened, we split up into three groups to check the workplaces of the other three missing men. Haoran went to the hospital to look for Wu Jun’s patients, Teng went to Zhou Liang’s restaurant, and I went to the skincare clinic for their clients, to find anyone who had connections with Zhao Yu.

Night came, but the city was as bright as day. In some places without light, however, they may be darker than h.e.l.l...

Since I’ve visited the skincare clinic once before, the employee recognized me right away and called for the manager. They agreed to my request right away. Right now, Zhao Yu’s wife oversaw the place, and has told the manager to fully cooperate with police.

Once we were in her office, I had the manager think carefully if any models came here for treatment before Zhao Yu went missing. There were client records but only names and not professions, which was why I had to ask directly.

The manager thought carefully before saying, “I think so.” She spoke softly as she mused.

I perked up at her answer; knowing she was trying to remember, I didn’t interrupt her thoughts. A few minutes later, she said, “if I’m not mistaken, it was about a week before my boss went missing. An elegant, tall, and beautiful woman came in. One employee said, with her figure and looks she could be a model, and she smiled subtly, saying she was a model.”

 “Did she come here often?” I was a little excited. This was a breakthrough.

She shook her head, “not really, I think just once.”

When I asked if Zhao Yu was familiar with the model, the manager shook her head. After a slight hesitation, she added, “when an employee talked to her, my boss pa.s.sed by. He looked at her, but they didn’t talk, and she left.”

Looked at her? I nodded, “which employee was that? Can you ask her to come here?”

In a moment, the manager came in with the employee, who said the same thing her manager said. With both women’s recollections, they found the model’s information in their records.

I stared at the information on the computer screen: Ji Fengjun, female, twenty-six-years-old.

Even though I knew this kind of record could be fake, at least we had taken a small step forward. Seeing my silence, the manager thought I was disappointed. She hesitated, then sighed in resignation, “she only did eye and hand treatment, so she didn’t get a membership, and just left some basic information.”

I nodded, saying if this woman ever showed up again to let me know right away. When I left the clinic, I got a call from Teng. He sounded despondent at having no discovery and asked if I had any.

The call to Haoran didn’t go through; I messaged saying I would meet him at the hospital if I made any progress. Once in the cab, I started speculating about this woman named Ji Fengjun. If this was her real name, it’d be easy to find her, if not, it’d be a mess, we’d have to go through all the models in the city.