Chapter 4: No Such Person Found
(Cuties, given Professor Ji’s characterization, the sex scenes need some build-up first. They’ll appear around Chapter 10.)
There were three people named Fu Zhaoyu online: an obscure blogger, a university lecturer, and the protagonist of a video game.
Ji Lan didn’t think any of them was the person she was looking for.
According to her mother, this Fu Zhaoyu was the reason Yan Rui had been forcibly demoted and transferred elsewhere. It had happened in 1997.
There weren’t many case files from that year. Ji Lan had previously served as a police consultant and also knew someone at the municipal police bureau, so she made a special trip there that afternoon and received permission to spend half an hour in the archives.
The archive room was slightly dusty, but everything was reasonably well organized. She found three or four document folders marked “1997.”
Compared with other years, there hadn’t been many major or unresolved cases that year. Most involved crimes of passion, murder for money, or killings motivated by romantic disputes.
Two cases stood out. The first was the Black Rose Case, which involved the renowned pianist Snow An, who had been visiting for an exchange at the time. The second was the December 15 Home-Invasion Robbery, Murder, and Dismemberment Case. The killer had been apprehended and brought to justice very quickly, demonstrating remarkably high investigative efficiency.
After investigation, the two victims in the Black Rose Case had been determined to have committed suicide. It had nothing to do with what Ji Lan wanted to investigate.
As for the second case, the home invasion, there didn’t appear to be anything suspicious. Both the victim and the killer had been clearly identified. The records merely seemed overly brief, and the killer had… died before he could even be sentenced?
Zhang Haimin, suspect, male, forty-four years old. After committing home-invasion robbery, murder, and dismemberment, he was arrested at four in the morning on December 15 before he could escape. At ten thirty on the evening of December 18, he died in the interrogation room of the Dongcheng District Police Station from a ruptured carotid artery. His death was ruled a suicide.
He had been arrested quickly and died just as quickly. Ji Lan rapidly scanned the next entry. Lu Chaoyun, victim, female, twenty-three years old. She died in a rented third-floor apartment in Huatian Residential Community on Dongzhou Road. Her body had already been dismembered when it was discovered.
She had sustained a stab wound to the upper left side of her chest that punctured her lung. Her heart and one-third of her stomach were missing, and those organs were later discovered inside a pressure cooker in the rented apartment. The flesh from both breasts and the insides of her thighs had been cleanly sliced away with a fruit knife…
Ji Lan’s stomach suddenly cramped. Even as a mere forensic report, it was horrifying enough to behold. Her brows drew tighter. Her lung had been punctured, yet the report listed no single fatal wound. She had died from organ failure and excessive blood loss caused by multiple injuries—she had died while being dismembered.
She had died a brutal, agonizing death. A criminal capable of such an act had to possess antisocial personality traits, yet the interrogation transcript was incomplete, and the suspect could clearly be seen rambling and evading the questions.
The interrogation probably hadn’t proceeded smoothly, and the suspect had died soon afterward. Ji Lan flipped through case files from the following years and found that Yan Rui’s name had indeed stopped appearing among the signatures on the final pages of the interrogation transcripts.
Her mother had said that Yan Rui was disciplined and demoted.
…
Half an hour later, Ji Lan left the police bureau as agreed.
On the way home, she kept thinking about the deeply suspicious case. Something about it seemed wrong, yet she couldn’t identify the crucial detail.
Would someone with an antisocial personality commit suicide in police custody after only three days? Why had he been held at a local police station? Had Yan Rui truly been demoted because of this incident alone? And where did Fu Zhaoyu fit into it?
She then remembered how Ji Wanyan had repeatedly emphasized that she must not disclose the matter. After deliberating for a long time, she called her teacher, Ren Jingxi.
“Ji Lan?”
“Teacher, there’s something I’d like to ask you about.”
Her hand gently stroked the steering wheel. She didn’t want to disregard her mother’s warning, but she had worried about that missing child’s fate for many years.
“Do you know someone named Fu Zhaoyu?”
Ren Jingxi’s network and connections far surpassed her own. Ji Lan believed that she would know something. More importantly, she trusted her teacher completely.
She held her breath as she waited for an answer. The other end remained silent for a long time before Ren Jingxi finally replied, “Ji Lan, don’t ask about this person. Don’t question anyone else about her either. She has nothing to do with the child you’re searching for.”
“But in 1997, a suspect with antisocial personality traits was arrested here in Licheng. I thought…”
“You won’t find any answers.”
Ren Jingxi was uncharacteristically guarded, refusing to reveal the slightest detail. “That case has no conclusion.”
“…”
Fine. Her teacher was unwilling to elaborate, and her mother refused to help her ask Yan Rui any more questions. Every one of them treated the subject as taboo and avoided it at all costs.
But the more they tried to conceal it, the more curious she became.
If both her teacher and mother refused to reveal anything, the other people involved in the case were unlikely to speak either. Who else could she approach for information?
Yan Rui… Ji Lan vaguely remembered that Aunt Yan had a daughter.
…
“This man still has the nerve to appeal?”
Yan Jingyao flipped through the case file. Even in his photograph, the man radiated sleaziness. “How did you end up hiring him?”
“I wasn’t the one who hired him.” Jiang Ying handed her a cup of hot cocoa. “I only handle the recruitment of lawyers. He applied for a cleaning position, so Director Zheng was probably the one who interviewed and approved him.”
“Right. Men always find other men more agreeable, don’t they?”
Yan Jingyao was furious. Pointing at the photograph, she complained, “What was he thinking when he hired someone who looks like this? There’s obviously something wrong with that look in his eyes. Even if he wanted to hire a man, he didn’t have to choose someone like this.”
“Maybe he thought a male cleaner would be stronger and more convenient.”
“Is being male or female the point? The previous auntie cleaned perfectly well too. I’m saying the hiring process was far too careless.”
“Within six months of joining the firm, he tampered with the women’s restroom to secretly photograph intimate images of the female employees, then sexually harassed Zou Yu while she was working overtime alone. If Jiang Xinyao hadn’t arrived so quickly that night, who knows what might have happened!”
Yan Jingyao refused to believe that such a man had no criminal record. “This was entirely Director Zheng’s negligence. He didn’t properly investigate the applicant’s background!”
Jiang Ying nodded, knowing she was angry. Only after a moment did she explain, “To be fair, it isn’t entirely Director Zheng’s fault. No one expected an ordinary cleaner to be a sexual deviant.”
“Hmph. Let’s see how Zheng explains himself to Jiang Xinyao this time.”
Their law firm wasn’t particularly large. Jiang Ying and Yan Jingyao had founded it together, and only seven or eight lawyers worked under them. Most were newcomers to the industry who gradually gained experience by handling small cases.
Zou Yu was one of the more experienced lawyers. By coincidence, she had met Jiang Xinyao, and their relationship was far from ordinary. Jiang Xinyao was the quintessential fair-skinned, rich beauty, and she had even invested in the law firm before the New Year.
“Miss Jiang didn’t say much.” Jiang Ying lowered her voice slightly and leaned closer. “If he really gets released, she intends to deal with him herself and have him committed to a psychiatric hospital.”
“That works. Throw in the castration package too.”
Yan Jingyao gritted her teeth. Because of this incident, three of the firm’s business-generating lawyers had left! Their Eight Great Guardians had instantly become five!
“We only have five lawyers left. We’re understaffed and can’t keep up with the workload, so we need to recruit people immediately. Do you know any promising graduates from Guozheng University, whether undergraduate or master’s students?”
“We’ll have to wait.” Jiang Ying felt as though she was going bald from stress. “The main problem is that this incident was exposed online too. We suppressed its popularity as much as possible, but you understand. Those young people were frightened and no longer dare to apply here.”
Their law firm wasn’t the only option. It was small, so ambitious graduates naturally preferred to join larger firms.
They could only continue relying on their existing connections. Yan Jingyao had just returned and hadn’t yet fully reestablished her network, yet they had already offended Miss Jiang, one of their investors.
Yan Jingyao raised her head toward the ceiling. Remembering the ridiculously expensive imported fruit basket she had given Zou Yu, she wanted to cry. She decided that tonight she would cling tightly to Pei Jinxi and Chen Jin’s powerful thighs and beg for help.
She would dance naked for them and plead, “Daddies, please spare me something to eat!”
“Jiang Ying, our most urgent task is to contain the fallout. Judging by the comments under our Weibo posts, many people still have doubts. The discussion is already shifting toward the firm’s gender culture. We can’t simply do nothing.”
“We issued a PR statement, the police released an official notice, and we disciplined Director Zheng for his mistake. What else do you want to do?”
Their response had already been reasonably swift. Yan Jingyao thought for a moment, then looked at Jiang Ying and said, “How about this? Let’s find an authoritative psychology expert to conduct psychological assessments on everyone at the firm. We’ll publish the results and promise that all future applicants will be required to undergo the same assessment.”
“All right. That’s a major show of sincerity. Who do you want to approach?”
“For convenience, I’ll try to find someone at Licheng University.”
“Then I’ll spend the next couple of days placating Jiang Xinyao and see what position the court takes on the appeal.”
“Okay.”
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