Uncle, You're the Brightest Kid on This Street

A small, unassuming eatery near Yangfan Middle School. Jiang Yue and Officer Han, dressed in plainclothes, picked a secluded corner. They ordered a plate of peanuts, three or four small dishes, and a bottle of beer each, settling in for a quiet drink.

"Officer Han, this meal is on me," Jiang Yue said. He didn't feel awkward about treating someone at a place like this. He was just a student, not yet at the stage where he needed to put on airs.

"Little Jiang, it feels too formal calling me Officer Han all the time. How about you call me Brother Han, or just my name, Han Yiming. You can also call me Old Han. I'm probably twice your age, so calling me Old Han wouldn't be wrong."

"Alright, Old Han it is, then. It sounds more familiar," Jiang Yue said, raising his glass. "Cheers."

"This place, Da Bing Cai Guan, was already here when I was studying at Yangfan Middle School. Almost twenty years have passed, and it's still standing," Han Yiming reminisced, having only just finished his first bottle of beer. He found himself recalling his youthful days.

"Nostalgic, huh? Come on, let's have another. Don't just get lost in reminiscing about your youth; we still have important business after this," Jiang Yue urged.

"We still have business?"

"We're going to the riverbank to take a walk. When handling a case, shouldn't we listen to all sides to be well-informed?"

Han Yiming held up his glass, a wry smile on his face. "Looks like this drink wasn't for nothing."

"A drink for nothing wouldn't taste as good, would it?" Jiang Yue smiled, picked up a peanut, and crunched it loudly, savoring its sweetness.

"Old Han, the drink is just a prelude. Honestly, this isn't entirely for my own benefit. Let me put it this way: even though your side has what you call ironclad evidence, I'm still firmly sticking to my gut feeling."

"Oh? And what is your gut feeling?" Han Yiming put down his chopsticks and looked at Jiang Yue intently. He had come to deeply respect this young man.

"When you handcuffed Teacher Sun on the podium, his immediate reaction told me he absolutely didn't do it."

"That absolute?" Han Yiming frowned, pinching the rim of his glass between his fingers and slowly turning it.

"Absolutely."

"Do you have any proof?"

"No!" Jiang Yue shook his head. "That's why we need to find some."

"The female car owner who returned home late last night in your residential complex today could be explained as a mysterious death, perhaps a ghost's doing. But the original owner of this ghost, the death of that girl named Su, can't really be explained as a mysterious incident, can it?" Han Yiming's voice dropped noticeably, as if afraid of startling anyone at the next table.

"Before the Year Eater appeared, could you have imagined such an evil spirit existing?" Jiang Yue countered.

Mentioning the Year Eater, Han Yiming was speechless.

Suddenly stealing over twenty years of someone's life – such a thing, let alone witnessing it, he'd never even seen depicted on television.

"When I was tracking the Year Eater, I said something, and I stand by it now. If we use conventional thinking, these cases will never progress; we'll just be led around by the nose. I believe more and more bizarre incidents will occur, and more and more victims will appear."

After speaking, Jiang Yue raised his glass to Old Han and downed it in one go.

Han Yiming fell into deep thought.

The case of Sun Bin, the incident at the late-night eatery where Old Zhao broke into the morgue, and another similar rape-murder case this morning – they had indeed been sticking to conventional approaches.

As for the second bizarre death case in New Moon Bay, which even the surveillance cameras couldn't capture and was clearly strange, it had been handed over to Director Luo and his Special Department.

After finishing their drinks, Han Yiming, in a burst of youthful exuberance, actually ate three bowls of rice.

The two of them cleared their plates, finishing all four stir-fried dishes with great gusto.

When they paid the bill, two bottles of beer, a plate of peanuts, a plate of pickled radish, four stir-fried dishes, and rice came to just over a hundred yuan. This was considered a high-end meal for this establishment.

"Haha, Little Jiang, this meal was fantastic! It felt like twenty years ago. Come on, let's go for a walk by the river to digest."

Star City had good ecological conditions; whether day or night, fishing by the river was always a scenic sight.

"Sun Bin said he watched people fishing by the river for nearly an hour. He even chatted with one of them for a while."

"Did he mention any characteristics of that person?"

"He said the person was short, with thinning hair, quite old, and wore a pair of reading glasses. One of the arms of the glasses was broken and had been repaired with tape."

"Those are quite distinctive features," Jiang Yue frowned. "Because of what you call ironclad evidence, you didn't even bother to investigate such a simple lead?"

Of course, he was just venting his frustration.

Putting himself in their shoes, for a murder case, with on-site surveillance and various pieces of physical evidence for comparison, it truly was a solid case. There was every reason to overlook details mentioned by the suspect, which could be fabricated.

Furthermore, even if the details Sun Bin mentioned were all true, as long as the timeline was even slightly off, they would be completely inadmissible.

"Little Jiang, it seems you have a good relationship with your teacher."

"Six years," Jiang Yue sighed. "Some people you might know for ten or twenty years and still not understand, while others you might grasp in three to five days. Old Sun is the kind of person you might not fully understand at first glance, but the more you look, the clearer he becomes. Committing a crime is impossible for him."

"Heh, some criminals appear honest and upright in their daily lives, hiding very deeply until the crime occurs."

"That just proves you don't understand Old Sun, or his love for his daughter. A father who loves his daughter so much, and is deeply loved by her in return, could never go and rape and murder someone else's daughter."

Jiang Yue wasn't one to argue normally.

But this time, he seemed particularly stubborn, just as Xia Xia had fought to her death for her father. Jiang Yue desperately wanted to restore Old Sun's innocence.

"Hey, Little Jiang, look at that person over there. Doesn't he look like the person Sun Bin described?"

Following the direction Han Yiming pointed, Jiang Yue quickly walked over.

Thinning hair, not young, short stature – these physical descriptions matched.

Especially the pair of reading glasses with one broken arm taped up. The probability of encountering another person with such a specific characteristic was slim.

Han Yiming stepped forward and smoothly offered a cigarette. "Uncle, could I ask you something?"

Jiang Yue stood to the side, recording with his phone.

The old man was clearly talkative, otherwise, he wouldn't have been chatting with Old Sun.

"What do you want to ask? Anything I know, feel free to ask," the old man said casually.

"Yesterday morning, around 10:15 AM, was there a person wearing black-rimmed glasses, who looked refined and like an intellectual, watching you fish here?"

The old man scratched his nearly bald head, thought for a moment, and then said, "There was someone like that yesterday. He squatted by the side and watched for quite a while. We even chatted for a bit. Was he a teacher, perhaps?"

Jiang Yue's eyes lit up. "Old man, are you sure it was yesterday morning?"

"Yesterday morning, it was definitely yesterday morning. I'll have to think about the exact time..."

"Oh, right! I left yesterday morning around 9:30 AM, and it only took me fifteen minutes to get here. I fished for not too long, maybe about the time it takes to smoke two cigarettes. Then he slowly strolled over. He stayed for about an hour, on and off. He chatted with me from time to time, making small talk. I even remember he wanted to buy my fish when he left, hehe. I hadn't caught many, so I didn't sell them to him."

Han Yiming took out his phone and flipped through a photo. "Old man, take a look, is it this person?"

"Whoa! It's him. He spoke softly and seemed like a decent, honest person. He... he didn't commit some crime, did he?"

The old man saw the photo on the phone showed a man with a shaved head and handcuffs.

"Old man, look again, is it this person? Do the times you mentioned match up?"

"It was just yesterday, so I shouldn't be mistaken."

"That's the person, but his hairstyle wasn't like that yesterday. The time is roughly correct. I went home for lunch not long after he left."

"So, you're saying around 10:15 AM yesterday morning, he was definitely here watching you fish."

"Yes, it was probably not yet 10 AM when he arrived, and definitely past 11 AM when he left." The old man was clearly an upright person. Although he felt this might lead to trouble, he still told the truth.

Jiang Yue gave him a thumbs-up. "Old man, you're the most dazzling guy on this riverside road."

"What do you mean?" the old man was confused.

Han Yiming said, "Old man, if it's convenient, could we have your contact information? This matter might involve an innocent person, and it concerns several lives. If we asked you to go to the police station to give a statement, would you tell the truth?"

"Such a big deal?" the old man was surprised.

"Yes, the person in the photo was arrested as a murderer. The time of the crime was around 10:15 AM yesterday. His six-year-old daughter almost jumped off a building today because she was called the daughter of a murderer by other children."

Jiang Yue could see that the old man was a person with a sense of justice, so he used this to further ignite the old man's sense of righteousness.

"That can't be! If the time of the crime was 10:15, then there's definitely a problem. At that time yesterday morning, he was definitely here watching you fish, that's for sure!"

"I'd say the same thing at the police station," the old man added very seriously.

"Oh, right, speaking of daughters, I just remembered. When we were chatting, he also mentioned his daughter and even showed me a photo of her. The little girl looked very cute. What was her name again?"

"Think harder!" Jiang Yue said excitedly.

"Right, he said her name was Xia Xia, Xia from summer. His daughter was born in the summer, and her birthday is in over two months."

"Old man, you're amazing!" Jiang Yue gave him another thumbs-up.

Although Jiang Yue's words were not entirely clear to the old man, he could guess they were words of praise. His old face beamed with a smile.

"I've lived over sixty years, I have to be true to my conscience," the old man patted his chest, quite resolutely.