Just as Jiayi looked up, the leader of the group stepped forward with a smile, “Oh, madam, investigating here again? How’s your murder detective doing? When’s the trial? I’ve got to be a witness, you know.”
It was Zhao Zhicheng, who had falsely accused Uncle Jiu of pushing someone.
“If you plan to commit perjury in court, I might just have to charge you with obstructing public duties. You won’t be attending court just once; I’ll make sure you get your fill,” Jiayi stopped and coldly confronted Zhao Zhicheng with her chin up.
“Haha, what? Trying to scare me? Madam, do you think I scare easily?” Zhao Zhicheng retorted, turning his head to share a baffling laugh with the other Little Ah Fei, before turning back to continue his taunting:
“Don’t threaten me, madam. Be careful, or I might just file a complaint against you. How can a witness be threatened by a police officer?”
As he spoke, he stepped closer to Jiayi, shouting loudly while pointing at her head from a distance:
“But madam, if you beg me, maybe I’ll consider perjuring myself for you.”
Gary, carrying a thick crash pad, was following behind. Seeing this, he dropped the pad and rushed to stand in front of Jiayi.
But someone was faster than him; like a whirlwind from across the street, someone sprinted past Jiayi, bursting from behind her to grab Zhao Zhicheng by the collar, accompanied by a menacing roar:
“Looking for a fight, huh?”
Gary froze, squinting to see who it was—could it really be the Hercules, Qin Xiaolei?!
Zhao Zhicheng was quick to react too. As Qin Xiaolei approached, he puffed out his chest and clenched his fists, ready to fight.
Being a street tough, he was never slow to start a brawl.
By this time, Jiayi had also recognized Qin Xiaolei. While she was still in shock, the two men had already clashed.
Without hesitation, Zhao Zhicheng threw a punch straight at Qin Xiaolei’s face, causing Jiayi to scream, “Stop!”
Zhao Zhicheng scoffed internally—stop just because a cop said so? That would be a loss of face.
Little did he know, Jiayi’s next words would be:
“Qin Xiaolei, stop! Don’t kill Zhao Zhicheng!”
Confused, Zhao Zhicheng frowned, but in an instant, his full-force punch was caught by a large palm, easily twisted and pinned down.
Before he could even cry out in pain, a fist, like the pounding drum hammers of Li Yuanba, smashed hard into his cheekbone.
“Aah—” Zhao Zhicheng was sent crashing to the ground on the other side, his body aching all over.
As he rolled over, clutching his cheekbone, it felt like he was nearly punched out of this world.
He choked and coughed painfully, finally understanding Officer Yi’s meaning.
Damn!
In the next instant, Jiayi, Chen Guangyao, and Gary all stepped in to break up the fight, fortunately preventing Qin Xiaolei from throwing a second punch.
Seeing Qin Xiaolei’s bravery, the other thugs took a step back, not daring to act rashly. Even more so, some recognized him as the fearsome fighter from the counter-kill case reported in the newspapers, and they turned and ran away immediately.
“Hey, do you want me to call the police for you?” Gary asked with a laugh as Zhao Zhicheng clumsily stood up, covering his face.
The cheekbone of the young thug who was hit by the heavy punch quickly swelled up, turning a fast-spreading purple, making his already unattractive face look even more sinister.
“Ptui!” Zhao Zhicheng glared at Gary and spat fiercely in a threatening manner before turning and running away quickly.
Qin Xiaolei watched Zhao Zhicheng’s retreating figure and snorted angrily, thinking how spineless he was. That’s it, he’s running away? He hadn’t had enough of fighting, the bastard!
After watching intently for a while to make sure Zhao Zhicheng wouldn’t come back, he finally turned to look at Yi Jiayi and the others.
“Why are you here?” Jiayi raised an eyebrow and smiled in thanks: “Thanks for helping out.”
Qin Xiaolei’s expression instantly softened, he donned a goofy smile, and rubbed his head before explaining: “My boss is having a meeting nearby, and I had nothing to do, so I was just walking around. I saw that guy provoking you, so I came over.”
“You really shouldn’t hit people randomly in the future,” Jiayi couldn’t help but admonish again.
“Oh, got it, madam.” Qin Xiaolei still smiled goofily.
“Why don’t you come to Yi’s sometime? I’ll treat you to milk tea,” Jiayi offered.
“Sure.” Qin Xiaolei caught a glimpse of Gary dragging a thick crash pad, smiled goofily at Jiayi again, then without another word, picked up the crash pad and walked over to Chen Guangyao’s car, stuffing it into the trunk.
“Thanks.” Gary approached, looking at Qin Xiaolei with some envy, wishing he had such strength and stature.
“Officer, you guys go ahead, I’ll continue to wait for my boss.” After saying this, Qin Xiaolei hesitated, then turned to look at Yi Jiayi again.
After Yi Jiayi smiled and invited him again to come to Yi’s for some good food, bidding him goodbye as she got into the car, he stretched his arms and then turned to leave.
Chen Guangyao started the car, driving out of the parking spot onto the road, while Jiayi, sitting near Qin Xiaolei who was walking on the sidewalk, rolled down the window and waved goodbye to him.
Qin Xiaolei, seeing Yi Jiayi, paused again and waved back in the same manner.
His smile was broad with thick eyebrows curved, and his eyes squinted into a slit, looking amiable and approachable, nothing like a fierce warrior.
Qin Xiaolei continued walking after the car blurred into the distance at the intersection, thinking of the police woman’s sincere thanks and admonition, he couldn’t help feeling happy and content.
The sense of achievement from helping others is indeed a source of happiness.
….
….
After Jiayi and her colleagues returned to the police station, they received an afternoon tea that Auntie Jiu had bought for them.
It included ginger tea suitable for sipping in the cold wind, crispy chicken egg bread, various snacks and drinks, and even chicken feet marinated by Auntie Jiu herself.
Jiayi took a hot drink, warming her hands with it, and leaned forward to ask Auntie Jiu:
“How’s Uncle Jiu doing?”
“Lying at home pretending to be a melancholic pretty boy, he was too embarrassed to come and bring food to thank everyone, so he begged me to come instead. Men are such a hassle.” Aunt Jiu unloaded everything onto the table, then tidied up her bags and said to Fang Zhenyue:
“It’s been tough on Team B, we really don’t know how to thank you.”
“No need, it’s all part of our job.” Fang Zhenyue was originally sitting at the table drinking ginger tea. Upon hearing this, though his expression remained faint, he unconsciously jumped down from the table and stood up straight to reply.
“I won’t disturb your work then.” Aunt Jiu smiled and bid farewell to everyone.
Everyone then put down their food and went together to see Aunt Jiu off to her car.
Jiayi, holding her ginger tea, followed everyone and was especially sweet and smiling as they saw Aunt Jiu into her car.
Only after Aunt Jiu’s car had driven far away and was out of sight did everyone’s smiles finally relax.
This group was all too familiar with dealing with suspects and witnesses but appeared stiff and uneasy when facing colleagues’ families and elders.
Of course, Liu Jiaming was the exception.
…
Back in Team B’s office, Fang Zhenyue looked around at everyone and asked:
“How’s it going? What’s the progress?”
“We’ve got some more statements; they all mention seeing Liu Fuqiang, the security guard, sitting in the guardhouse taking his medication.” Liu Jiaming waved the statements he was holding.
“Although we didn’t find decades-old detailed medical records at the old clinic, today’s forensic lab technician compared Liu Fuqiang’s footprints with those left many years ago in Xi Ming’s case. The similarity rate is as high as 87%.” Sanfu also waved the newly received forensic report.
“Here are the medical records of Liu Fuqiang’s coronary heart disease and his medication purchase history from yesterday. Records of him battling coronary heart disease for years are enough to prove everything.” Jiayi pushed forward a file of evidence on the table, then another:
“This is the statement of the old doctor who treated Liu Fuqiang. Liu’s condition has worsened recently; the old doctor advised him to get more sunlight, smoke less, and avoid staying up late…”
“We’ve conducted dozens of tests with Da Guangming earlier, and he will diligently write a comparison report of the traces from falls and his own trials of jumping and falling over barriers.”
Gary, though he had fallen dozens of times and his legs and back were still hurting, had a smile on his face.
“Madam has already obtained the search warrant. Let’s call our colleagues from the forensic department and make a trip to Liu Fuqiang’s house, shall we?” Fang Zhenyue waved the search warrant in his hand, gulped down the remaining ginger tea in his cup, and casually threw the cup into the trash bin.
“That house has been lived in for so long, even if Mrs. Liu hires a housekeeper to clean the house thoroughly, the forensic chemists will still be able to find enough footprints inside. If Xi Ming started to slowly erase his own fingerprints after moving in, we might even find some antique fingerprints!” Gary said excitedly.
“Brother Gary, why don’t you rest in the office while we search the house?” Jiayi approached Gary, glancing down at the rust and mud stains on his pants.
Although Gary had not complained, she knew it must be painful.
“Ah, is that so?” Gary scratched his head.
“You stay home and rest, and hurry along the lab reports. Don’t worry, we’ll bring back good news,” Liu Jiaming said, patting Gary’s shoulder and smiling as he walked out of the office.
While everyone else was out, Gary stayed behind.
Team B’s detectives and two forensic chemists arrived at Liu Fuqiang’s house and conducted a direct investigation for four hours.
The two chemists were determined to thoroughly scour the Liu household, moving furniture and beds, not sparing even the fingerprints in the corners.
In the end, they swept up over a hundred fingerprints from the house, adding Mrs. Liu’s fingerprints provided by herself, and the search team returned fully loaded.
Then followed two days of overtime work by the head of the forensic department, excluding all of Mrs. Liu’s fingerprints and comparing the remaining prints one by one with those left in the records of Xi Ming’s previous cases.
Everyone anxiously waited until the next evening, by which time all the fingerprints had finally been screened.
Brother Da Guangming personally came to Team B’s office to report the victory—they matched, five sets of partial fingerprints!
One set was the right middle and ring fingerprints behind the side of the bedside table, one set was the left middle and ring fingerprints left on a bed leg, one set was the right ring and little fingerprints on the inside of an old chair, one set was half of a left middle fingerprint on the root of a chandelier, one set was the left middle and ring fingerprints hidden under the screw cap of a doorknob, and the last set was just half a little fingerprint found at the bottom of a metal box filled with a marriage certificate, old photos, and other items stacked above an old storage cabinet.
Fang Zhenyue looked at the matching report, each set of fingerprints unearthed belonging to Xi Ming, all showing the dedication and craftsmanship of their forensic colleagues.
Everyone really went all out and used all their skills.
Jiayi took the file, looked through it one by one, and then held it to her chest. The spot where the file pressed pulsed rapidly, growing warmer with each beat.
“Thanks to Brother Da Guangming and all the great folks in the forensic department,” Jiayi took a deep breath, struggling to calm her moved emotions.
Chen Guangyao let out a hearty laugh and asked cheerfully, “With so much evidence already, we can’t possibly lose, right?”
“We’ll definitely win!” Fang Zhenyue nodded vigorously. Whether it’s the evidence proving that Xi Ming is Liu Fuqiang or the evidence proving that Uncle Jiu didn’t push the deceased, it’s all sufficient!
Holding the fingerprint comparison report in one hand and pressing down on other records and documents on her desk with the other, Jiayi smiled with the simple joy of a farmer seeing a bountiful harvest in an endless wheat field at the end of autumn.
It’s enough!
….
Translator’s Note:
This novel is set in Hong Kong during a time when many Filipino women worked as domestic helpers abroad, particularly in places like Hong Kong. While many had fair employers, others unfortunately faced poor treatment, a reality that is part of the historical context. The mention in this story is reflective of that setting. However, I want to acknowledge that using a real nationality in this way can unintentionally reinforce stereotypes.