"Since you won't let me in!" As he said this, the uncle fell to his knees with a plop and kowtowed loudly. "Please, please, please empathize with the feelings of a father!"

Seeing an uncle in his 50s or 60s kneeling for him, Chen Shi subconsciously wanted to help him up, but suddenly realized that he might have a weapon on him. Since he was there alone, he should be careful.

Hence, he said, "Uncle, get up first. Are you trying to reduce my lifespan?"[1]

"If you don't agree, I won't get up."

At this time, Lin Dongxue ran over and was stunned by the scene before her. The uncle thought that Lin Dongxue might be a little more softhearted, and begged her instead, "Officer Lin, please let me go in!"

"Uh..." Lin Dongxue looked to be in a dilemma.

If this continued, it would never end, so Chen Shi said, "Who told you he was here?"

"No one told me."

"Someone must have told you this information!" Chen Shi was quite convinced that Zhang Xiao had indeed said in the group chat that he was hospitalized, but he didn’t mention which hospital he was in. He thought of the mysterious disconnection of the hospital's WIFI just then. Could someone have hacked in and found the address?

"Uncle, get up first! Get up and talk later." Lin Dongxue stepped forward to help him up.

Chen Shi stopped her, shook his head slightly, and signalled her not to approach him. Since there were only three people guarding the hospital right then, they couldn’t afford any mistakes. He whispered, "Go and find Captain Lin."

Soon after, Lin Qiupu rushed over, and after some patient persuasion, the uncle made a slight concession. "I will just see him for a brief moment. You can watch from the side. I swear I won’t do anything."

Lin Qiupu said, "I can let you see him, but the meeting must be arranged by us in the Public Security Bureau and not here. What about tomorrow or the day after tomorrow. Is that okay? You should go back today and calm down."

"What right do you have?!" The uncle raised his voice. "I rushed over here late at night, without a car. I rode for hours on a motorcycle-taxi. Can't I even see him for a moment? I understand now. His parents are both public prosecutors. He’s a second-generation official. That’s why you’re protecting him like this. My daughter's life was cheap and she died for nothing, right?!"

"Aiya, aiya, if you have something to say, please go outside to say it instead of making a commotion in the hospital." A nurse came over to remind him. The uncle glared ferociously at her, and the nurse was too scared to say anything else.

Lin Qiupu sighed. They could no longer reason with him. He said to the nurse, "Please call some security guards over."

The nurse agreed and went. Realizing that force was going to be used against him, the uncle suddenly took a knife out from under his clothes, pointed it at his neck and yelled, "You’re going to drive me away? Who dares to touch me, I will die here! I have to see him today no matter what!"

"You’re carrying a weapon. With this attitude, it’s even more impossible for us to agree to your request!" Lin Qiupu said firmly.

The uncle’s nostrils flared, and blood slowly oozed onto the tip of the knife on his neck. Many nurses rushed over to watch. Even some patients and their families had been awakened. They came out of the wards complaining. Seeing people watching, the uncle's volume increased even more, "The police officers are shielding other officials. They’re protecting the son of a public prosecutor. He killed my daughter, and the police are still protecting him. Is there any conscience in the world?"

Chen Shi said, "Can you put the knife down and talk? We’re listening to what you say. Must you hold a knife and threaten us using your own life?"

The uncle became more and more agitated, "Anyway, my daughter’s and my lives aren’t as valuable as an official’s son. Let me see him! Otherwise, I will never put down the knife!"

"I promise!" Lin Qiupu said.

The uncle's eyes widened as if he couldn't believe it. He said, "You’re lying to me!"

"I won’t lie to you. Put the knife down. You think you’re hurting yourself? You’re breaking the law right now, you know?"

"You’ll really let me see him?"

"Of course!"

The uncle put down the knife suspiciously. When he walked over, Lin Qiupu suddenly pinned him onto the bench and handcuffed both his hands from behind. The uncle struggled very hard but couldn't get free from Lin Qiupu's hands.

"Don't yell. You’ll disturb the other patients. I’ll let you see him now." Lin Qiupu said, "Dongxue, open the door!"

Lin Dongxue opened the door and suddenly found that the bed was empty. The window was wide open and the night wind blew in, blowing the curtains up and down. She ran over to check. The window originally had rails, and Zhang Xiao had actually magically broken one of the rails, creating a gap that he could squeeze out from.

Seeing this situation, Chen Shi ran out of the inpatient department without saying a word and asked the security guards at the entrance of the hospital. They said that a fat man in a hospital gown had just gone out. The security guard had asked him where he was going and he said he was going out to buy something, so he didn’t bother about him. After all, this was a hospital and not a mental institution, and patients often go out.

Looking at the surveillance footage, Zhang Xiao had gotten into a taxi after leaving the hospital, and Chen Shi could only write down the license plate number.

The uncle was turned over to a nearby police station by the security guards. The commotion in the hospital finally ceased. Chen Shi explained the situation and Lin Qiupu was very troubled. "This kid is so troublesome."

"Zhang Xiao was scared away, right? He heard Duan Lin's father coming to settle scores with him." Lin Dongxue guessed.

"I think this incident is the result of the murderer making use of Duan Lin's father. The murderer knew that he couldn’t get close to Zhang Xiao, so he told Duan Lin's father the address and he himself went to fish in troubled waters,"[2] Chen Shi said.

"But Zhang Xiao ran out by himself."

"He may have received a message from someone. For Zhang Xiao, the murderer still stands as his friend."

"It would be terrible if that's the case!"

Lin Qiupu said, "Hurry up and call everyone to confirm where they are right now, and call them all over to the bureau. Even if we can't catch the murderer, we’ll at least render him unable to make a move."

Lin Dongxue thought of a more convenient trick. She called these people one by one. Receiving calls in the middle of the night, they had all been sleeping. Lin Dongxue asked them to take a selfie and send it over, making a special gesture in the photo to ensure that it was taken at that very moment.

The perverts took the opportunity to tease, "Officer Lin should send a selfie first!", "Without Officer Lin's WeChat, how can we send the photos?!"

Lin Dongxue swallowed her pride and added everyone's WeChat accounts. The photos were sent over one by one. Four of them were sleeping in their own homes, one was sleeping in an Internet cafe, and two were sleeping with their girlfriends in their arms.

There were only two people who they couldn’t get in touch with. One was Zhang Xiao himself, and the other was Big Ox.

Chen Shi had a vague impression of Big Ox. He was a big and burly Northern man. It was said that he liked to drug girls and pick up ‘corpses’[3] in bars. He was the lowest of PUAs.

Was he the murderer?!

In the middle of the night, the police were all sleeping, so they couldn’t call for reinforcements. The three rushed over to Big Ox’s residence. When they walked towards the door, they suddenly smelled a pungent bloody stench floating out from the crack of the door.

"Impossible!" Lin Dongxue was shocked. She thought of two kinds of situations. One was that Big Ox had been killed, and the other was that Zhang Xiao had been killed here.

Lin Qiupu immediately pried the door open. There was blood everywhere which had yet to solidify in the living room, and a bunch of maple leaf-like bloody handprints had been left on the walls. A man was lying in a pool of blood. His abdomen had already been cut open. The entire abdominal cavity was open and the internal organs were already missing.

1. What happens when people older than you pay you their respects by kneeling, addressing you in a manner that’s more than you deserve, etc.

2. This idiom means to take advantage of a crisis for personal gain.

3. Not literally. It refers to girls who are completely wasted and can barely move.