Wandering aimlessly through the streets and alleys at night is actually quite a dull affair.
Yi Jiayi had never been a patrol officer in uniform and had no experience with it. Liu Jiaming, who had been a uniformed officer for two years, knew how to relieve his boredom during such times.
He pulled Yi Jiayi along, pointing out a shop they passed, recounting interesting incidents from his childhood in the area. Then he would shift to talking about his own glorious past, eventually boasting as the conversation continued.
Eventually, the talk turned to police station gossip:
“Everyone has their own style when it comes to solving cases.”
“Is that so?” Yi Jiayi, constantly looking around hoping to catch certain elements in the flow of her thoughts, only smiled in response to Liu Jiaming’s topics.
“You Zhaohua relies more on evidence from forensic officers and the forensic science department, using existing evidence to interrogate suspects and dig for clues, followed by further testing and verification.”
“It’s steady, but also slow, and it’s easy to get stuck at some point, like hitting a wall repeatedly. But he is very determined, keeps digging deep, and that’s how he made it to his position.”
“Don’t be fooled by the fact that he hasn’t solved this recent case in three months; the previous King’s Park case was also classified as unresolved, but his success rate isn’t actually that low. After all, not all cases are this difficult; cases in other teams might not even take three months. If they aren’t solved within two to three weeks, they’re usually set aside after the critical first 48 hours. It’s just that You Zhaohua is too stubborn.”
“You should know, in our line of work, although we can’t solve it now, some day a new informant might appear, or the perpetrator might be caught while committing another crime, and just like that, matching fingerprints, the case is solved.”
“So in this job, you definitely need to have patience.”
“And what about Sir Fang?” Yi Jiayi asked, looking at Fang Zhenyue walking ahead.
“Brother Yue is actually quite balanced; based on forensic science and the medical department, he can make bold associations and deductions. So even though technology dominates case solving nowadays, Brother Yue can completely keep the forensic department in check.”
“In Brother Yue’s cases, the direction of solving the case mainly relies on his logical abilities. So, he can guide people like Brother Da Guangming and Sir Xu to conduct tests and examinations.”
“That’s really impressive, you know?”
“In our West Kowloon Major Crime Unit, probably only such an investigator possesses this style!”
Liu Jiaming pointed to his head:
“It’s not just about experience, it also depends on talent.”
“That’s amazing!” Yi Jiayi nodded vigorously.
Walking ahead, Fang Zhenyue’s ears gradually turned red, and his pace unconsciously slowed, his figure seeming to draw closer to Liu Jiaming and Jiayi.
“Only when you came did someone match up to Sir Fang. However, sometimes you’re too fanciful, lacking the logical clarity and interconnectedness of Sir Fang. But your intuition seems quite powerful. Still, I need to observe more to see if you’re just lucky or really that capable,” Liu Jiaming pouted at Yi Jiayi, indicating he was not yet convinced and wanted her to keep trying.
“Luck is definitely a part of it, I still have a lot to learn from you, Jiaming.”
“Hahaha…” Liu Jiaming laughed heartily at her modest and naive demeanor. He knew she was just being polite, but he couldn’t help feeling happy.
As the two of them chatted, they followed Fang Zhenyue into a narrow alley off Maple Street.
In the alley, an old grandmother bent over to pick up a discarded plastic bottle, unscrewed the cap, shook out the remaining drink, then straightened up with difficulty and stuffed the bottle into the bin on her tricycle.
The cart also had many large, plump oranges for sale that looked very sweet.
Yi Jiayi’s eyes suddenly sharpened!
“Brother Yue, I want to buy some oranges,” Yi Jiayi quickly walked to Fang Zhenyue’s right side, her breathing unconsciously quickening.
Fang Zhenyue, sensing her urgency, turned to look at her and then at the old woman pushing the tricycle. He pulled out a Hong Kong dollar from his pocket and handed it to Yi Jiayi, “Go ahead and buy.”
“No need—” Yi Jiayi had her own money.
But Fang Zhenyue had already pressed the bill into her hand.
The two walked side by side to the old woman selling oranges. Her cloudy eyes swept over the three of them, then lazily lowered her gaze, still hunched over, slowly pushing the cart forward.
At the other end of the alley, someone was burning paper, with occasional bursts of crackling flames and soft sobs.
Yi Jiayi stopped by the tricycle, and the old grandmother also paused, quietly waiting for the customer to inspect the oranges.
Fang Zhenyue stood beside the young policewoman, watching her examine an orange. His gaze shifted from the orange in her hand to the others on the cart, his eyebrows furrowing, pupils narrowing.
Yi Jiayi turned to meet his gaze, knowing from his expression that Sir Fang had also noticed something unusual.
“Lime,” he said in a subdued voice, audible only to her.
Yi Jiayi nodded.
Liu Jiaming, who had followed, watched the two exchanging glances and nods, unable to comprehend the situation.
What’s going on? Why doesn’t he understand???
Yi Jiayi discreetly bought six oranges, then brushed past the old grandmother and headed straight out the other side.
Liu Jiaming reached out to grab an orange to eat, but Yi Jiayi slapped his hand away.
After turning out of the alley, she immediately pulled out an evidence bag and carefully stuffed the oranges into it.
“?” Liu Jiaming’s eyes widened, realizing something was amiss. He turned to look back, only to see the old woman selling the oranges still slowly crossing the street, neither panicking nor looking back at them.
He uncertainly pointed at the old woman’s retreating figure: “Really?”
“Follow quietly,” Fang Zhenyue said, then walked to a house at the corner of the alley to borrow a phone and left a three-word message on You Zhaohua’s BB-call: [Call back, urgent]
It only took three minutes for You Zhaohua to return the call.
“I’ve found a clue; I have some suspicions. Go check it out for me,” Fang Zhenyue spoke directly, his eyes fixed on the alley Liu Jiaming had chased into.
“Okay, Sir Fang,” You Zhaohua responded solemnly.
“Head over to the Poetry and Dance Amusement Park, check the park that stretches from Maple Street through the alley, and see if there are any body parts recently discarded.”
“Alright, we’re on it,” You Zhaohua said before hanging up.
Fang Zhenyue immediately led the anxiously waiting Yi Jiayi at a quick pace in the direction Liu Jiaming had turned. Fortunately, the old grandmother selling oranges on the street walked very slowly. As soon as they turned out of the alley, they saw Liu Jiaming, pretending to admire the clothes in a shop window to avoid suspicion from the tracked individual.
The old grandmother was walking about four or five meters ahead of Liu Jiaming, completely unaware.
Yi Jiayi and Fang Zhenyue followed and glanced at the window Liu Jiaming was ‘admiring,’ which displayed a variety of wedding dresses.
“Eleven, take a look, which one do you like?” Liu Jiaming casually asked with a smile.
“I like them all,” Yi Jiayi responded casually.
“Wow, such greed is rare,” he remarked.
“Let’s go,” Fang Zhenyue nudged Liu Jiaming with his elbow, and the latter immediately crossed to the opposite alley, pretending to be a ruffian roaming the street.
Fang Zhenyue then extended his elbow towards Yi Jiayi and gestured with his chin.
The old grandmother walked a bit further ahead and seemed tired, suddenly stopping to rummage in the vehicle’s storage compartment, slightly leaning her body as she did so.
This position allowed her peripheral vision to scan the people behind her.
Yi Jiayi immediately realized they couldn’t let the old grandmother notice they were following her. She lowered her gaze, understanding what Fang Zhenyue’s extended elbow meant, and took his arm, leaning into him. She then pulled him towards the wall, whispering with a laugh:
“The oranges have a layer of lime on them. When I was picking them earlier, I got lime on my hands. If the victim had bought oranges from the old lady, it would make sense to find lime under their nails. But why do these oranges have lime? Is it common for all oranges?”
“During the growth of oranges, to prevent the fruit from getting sunburnt, they are sprayed with lime water for shade,” Fang Zhenyue whispered back, his gaze always on the old grandmother.
The old lady moved very slowly, doing everything at a leisurely pace, still within an angle where she could see them.
“When you eat an orange, the peel is removed, so this lime doesn’t get ingested. It’s unlikely to be food-grade lime due to its high purity,” Fang Zhenyue further explained, stretching his arms on either side of Yi Jiayi against the wall, trapping her between himself and the wall so that the old grandmother couldn’t see Yi Jiayi’s face.
As he whispered to her with his head bowed, it really looked like lovers whispering sweet nothings against a wall during a night out.
“Lime with a lot of impurities is likely similar to the lime we found,” Yi Jiayi thought quickly, continuously integrating their current clues with what she had seen in the flowing images triggered by the fully intact body found by Team A.
This old grandma, Yi Jiayi recognized her at first glance as the one in the flowing images from Team A, where she saw the murderer dragging away a trash bag and picking up an orange that had rolled to the ground in the murderer’s room doorway.
Now, analyzing the clues with the old woman, everything seemed to match.
“Old grandma roams the streets, which makes her suitable for dumping bodies and finding victims,” Fang Zhenyue nodded.
“Right? Brother Yue is so impressive, how do you know everything?” She looked up at him, her eyes sparkling under the moonlight, filled with admiration and respect.
How could a man resist such a gaze? Fang Zhenyue, who had never been distracted while working a case, suddenly found himself momentarily disoriented and forgetting why he was there.
“Common sense.” A man’s instinct to show off to a woman got the better of him, and he blurted out, almost showing off foolishly.
Realizing what he had said, he felt slightly embarrassed, and added:
“I went to the countryside during college to experience life; I planted oranges.”
“I see.” Yi Jiayi’s eyes twinkled as she observed him trying to show off one moment and be honest the next, and the small action of pursing his lips when he felt uncomfortable.
Sir Fang is really cute, sincere, and smart.
A breeze blew across the street, lifting some unburned scraps of paper. She patted off those sticking to her clothes, then continued:
“The actual perpetrator of the assaults and killings definitely isn’t this old lady. Our profile of the murderer is a male, especially since the forensic officer found semen…”
“So we need to quietly follow, guarding against the real murderer lurking nearby.”
“Or the murderer might be at home, or hiding somewhere waiting for grandma to approach, or maybe the murderer is pretending not to know grandma just like us, following her from behind.” Yi Jiayi thought of this, and felt her hair stand on end.