And, our heroes are back and straight into action! Is the mysterious lady Fu Ziyu saw really Han Yumeng? I think Ding Mo is likely to keep us guessing on this one . . . Meanwhile, second story arc coming right up!
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Chapter 26
Someone urgently knocked on the door.
"Who is it?" Jian Yao opened the door to see Fu Ziyu"s pale face and red eyes. It was clear that he had cried and this caused a fright in Jian Yao. Who would cause the ever-gentle and soft Fu Ziyu to cry?
Fu Ziyu gave Jian Yao a nod and tilted his head to try to avoid Jian Yao seeing his face. He directly walked in and asked, "Where"s Bo Jinyan?"
"In the study," Jian Yao said hurriedly.
Fu Ziyu pushed the door open to enter the study. Inside, Bo Jinyan had his head bent over, reading a book. Fu Ziyu grabbed the book out of his hands and tossed it aside.
Bo Jinyan looked up at him with a questioning look.
"I . . . I saw her . . ." Fu Ziyu"s voice was rough and trembling.
"Who?"
"Joe….Yumeng, Han Yumeng."
Bo Jinyan"s complexion slightly changed and he gave Jian Yao a glance.
"You"re sure you saw clearly?" Bo Jinyan asked.
"It was her!" Fu Ziyu nodded rapidly, "I very clearly saw her. The same forehead, eyes, nose . . . even the small birthmark on her neck was the exact same - unless, in this world, there are two people who look almost identical."
Fu Ziyu"s voice sounded as if he was in pain. Bo Jinyan patted his hand, leading him to sit down. He got a bottle of water and handed it to Fu Ziyu, who opened the bottle and took a large gulp. Then, he stared at the ground with his red eyes. Under Jian Yao"s obvious "directions", Bo Jinyan did a good job at comforting his friend.
Not to mention Jian Yao though, even Bo Jinyan had never seen Fu Ziyu like this.
Jian Yao quietly sat down next to them.
"Where did you see her? Where is she now?" Bo Jinyan softly asked.
Fu Ziyu nodded his head and said, "I saw her at the business street but at that time, I was so shocked I thought I was hallucinating. Once I decided to go after her, she had already disappeared." He stuck his finger in his hair. "I"ve asked the staff, though, and there most definitely was a woman who looked like her and had bought stuff."
Bo Jinyan thought for a moment and looked at Jian Yao, "Notify An Yan immediately, collect all the surveillance from that street, and search for all the traces of that woman."
Jian Yao promptly got up. Bo Jinyan looked at his friend and said, "I will immediately request all relevant departments to do all that they can to find her. Once they find her traces, I will let you know. But Fu Ziyu, to be honest, I"m uncertain on the chances of her survival based on the circ.u.mstances back then. The woman you saw perhaps could have only resembled her in appearance, so prepare yourself."
For a long time, Fu Ziyu did not say anything. Afterwards he said a soft, "Okay."
Fu Ziyu stayed at Bo Jinyan"s house for a little and had finally calmed down. He didn"t need Jinyan to drive him home. He could do it himself. However, both Jian Yao and Bo Jinyan knew that he would have trouble sleeping tonight.
Not only tonight though. Based on Fu Ziyu"s temperament, it was very likely that he would start to have trouble sleeping for a long period of time.
The stars shone brightly in the night sky.
Bo Jinyan hugged Jian Yao and leaned on the bench, watching the night sky.
"Do you think that person was Han Yumeng?" Jian Yao asked.
"I don"t know," Bo Jinyan said with a deep gaze.
He thought, if he said that it was all a mistake, that would be the end of the matter.
But what if it really was Han Yumeng, who had been missing for so long?
How did she manage to come out alive back then?
How did she manage to escape from the clutches of that homicidal maniac?
Where had she been all these years?
Why did she never look for Ziyu?
Why did she suddenly appear again now?
A faint breath of chilliness spilled into his heart. Nevertheless, when Jian Yao had reached her hand out to hug him, there was a warmth in the pit of his stomach.
Bo Jinyan lowered his head to look at her.
"We are lucky," she whispered, "We haven"t been separated."
There was a small feeling of pain in his stomach. It was the type of soft pain that was felt when innocent and sweet people got involved. He kissed her forehead, smiled, and said, "What are you saying? We definitely won"t be separated - how could I let something like that happen? How could the sun leave his sky?" Jian Yao could not help but smile.
The two hugged for a moment and Jian Yao fell asleep in his embrace. "Oh!" Bo Jinyan said and stood up, carefully lifting her and carrying her to bed. It was like carrying a soft cat. This simple action caused Bo Jinyan"s heart to be filled with an irresistible longing. He discovered a ridiculous thought, one that had never occurred to him before: he was actually somewhat looking forward to these kinds of situations, where time slowed down and stretched longer, where he felt that he never wanted it to end.
Early the next morning, Bo Jinyan had found people from each of the departments to a.s.sist him in searching the locations that woman had been sighted at.
However, the result was not satisfactory .
An Yan had acquired all the surveillance but, unexpectedly, none of the recordings had captured that woman"s face. All that was recorded were the indistinct shadows in the city.
The clothing store had already been thoroughly examined by the forensic investigators. Surprisingly, they were not able to find any fingerprints that had matched Han Yumeng"s.
"Was she wearing gloves at that time?"
"I don"t think so," the employee recalled. "In this type of weather, wouldn"t wearing gloves seem weird?" Fu Ziyu was in luck. That day, after his interrogation, the employees remembered that woman clearly and could identify her. The woman in their photo looked exactly like Han Yumeng.
Although the woman in the picture looked the same, there were no fingerprints.
To any detective, these were all facts that deserved to be considered.
The past two days had been very busy ,so, Bo Jinyan had not updated Fu Ziyu on the investigation"s progress, and had also not brought him to all the different places where the woman had been sighted. Bo Jinyan wanted to avoid causing his mood to fluctuate too much. He planned to explain it to him once they had obvious progress.
And so, Fu Ziyu became calm. He was probably waiting for news on the investigation.
There was an animation convention on Sunday afternoon. Since there was not a jot of progress on that woman"s tracks, there was no point wasting time over it. So, Bo Jinyan and Jian Yao had decided to go to the convention to relax.
While Jian Yao was walking out of the front door, Luo Lang, whom she had met some days ago, called her.
"Jian Yao, the responses to the three legal issues you consulted me about last time are in your inbox." Even though she could only hear his voice, Jian Yao could feel his simple, kind, and gentle smile.
"Okay, thank you, Mr. Luo. Sorry for troubling you. I will look over it when I get home tonight."
"No problem. You"re leaving your house?" Luo Lang asked, smiling.
"Yep, I"m going out with my husband for a stroll."
"Okay, have a nice weekend. If you have any questions regarding the law, feel free to ask me."
Jian Yao"s heart was warm when she hung up the phone. The police had their own legal advisors, but correspondence between departments sometimes took a few days to complete. So recently, whenever Jian Yao was reading through the information or organising files and came across any problems, she would send her questions to Luo Lang, as long as there was no confidential information involved. He was always patient in his responses and contributed much help towards the work. Gradually, Jian Yao and he had begun to become more familiar with each other.
Of course, to thank Luo Lang, Jian Yao had bought some books to gift to him. They were the criminal investigation books he had previously mentioned having an interest in.
Bo Jinyan was not concerned that he was helping them. Unexpectedly, Jian Yao had said, "It"s so great that my old friend can give us legal advice. This is what a real complete system looks like: our special team, with four official team members, half a forensic pathologist who is currently emotionally unstable, and half a lawyer."
"Honey, can we go on our date now?" Bo Jinyan asked, smiling.
Jian Yao looked up and saw that he had changed into a shirt and pants. He wore a polo shirt and casual pants and ended up looking a little less grim and gentler.
He did not seem like a criminal psychology teacher now. He looked very young, scholarly, refined, and handsome.
This had to be a result of Jian Yao giving fashion advice to Bo Jinyan these past few years. Otherwise, an otaku, who would wear a suit to go hiking, would consider wearing a shirt and leather shoes to be an excellent idea.
Jian Yao could not help but smile, tossing her phone into her bag and hooking her arm into his.
"Let"s go, Mr. Bo," she said.
The two of them drove to the famous animation park in the suburbs of Beijing.
The wind was softly blowing through the open car windows, music was playing inside, and the couple spoke from time to time. Even when Jian Yao"s phone vibrated due to a text message, she did not hear it.
Her silver phone was lying in her purse, its screen brightened then darkened.
It was a message from an unknown number:
You absolutely cannot go to the animation convention.
Translator: Ting
Editors/ Proofreaders: Artemis, Anks