Catching Someone in an Internet Café

That bag was in the evidence room next door. Lin Xiaosu went in, but he did not open it. He did not even pick it up. He merely glanced at it, smelled the lingering scent, and completed the opening stage of his investigation.

Next, they would take a look around the place where the bag had been found.

Miao Ruolan stayed behind to organize the materials needed for their detective agency's opening.

Lin Xiaosu, Zhou Mei, and Officer Sun Yang headed for the place where the bag had been found.

The place was Yishui Bund.

The Yishui River ran through the city. Shops lined both banks, while household wastewater and garbage were casually dumped into it, turning the river into a stinking ditch. After Secretary Luo Gong took office, he launched a major cleanup campaign, demolishing many houses along both banks, dredging the riverbed, building embankments, planting trees, and constructing a dam downstream. Once the water was stored, the Yishui River shimmered with rippling light, green willows trailing along its banks, and somehow became a park with water and a beach.

Everyone called it Yishui Bund.

When attacks on Secretary Luo Gong were at their fiercest, Yishui Bund also became one of the targets.

People said Secretary Luo liked women and often brought female officials to Yishui Bund to "discuss work."

That claim was swiftly dismissed. As the county's top official, if he wanted to "discuss work," where could he not do it? Why insist on doing it somewhere everyone could see?

Although the joke about Secretary Luo "discussing work" lost its credibility due to the missing links in its logic chain, the fact that Yishui Bund was suited for young couples in love was beyond dispute.

It was in the heart of the city, yet tranquil amid the bustle.

With weeping willows swaying, clear waves to admire by day and cicadas to hear by night, it truly carried a hint of romance.

A place designed from the start for leisure naturally had no surveillance cameras, so the Red Pavilion where the handbag had been found was a blind spot.

It was already early May.

The moment they went down onto the river embankment, the sun, which had only just begun to show some bite, became gentle.

Lin Xiaosu drew in a breath of fresh air, brushed aside two willow branches hanging across the entrance to the Red Pavilion, and stepped inside.

Outside the Red Pavilion, Officer Sun Yang leaned close to Zhou Mei's ear and lowered his voice. "Sister Zhou, we've checked this place several times already. Could we really have missed something?"

He had only recently started work. Zhou Mei was practically his training instructor. He did not dare question her decision, but that did not mean he was completely convinced.

After all, he had been an outstanding student at the police academy.

He had excelled in both criminal investigation and forensic examination.

Someone with no formal training wanting to open a detective agency in a county town was already a strange tale.

For such a person to find flaws among several top professionals and solve this kind of case would be even more fantastical than a tale from the heavens.

Zhou Mei turned her lovely eyes toward him. "You did check it twice, and your eyes were opened as wide as bronze bells. But do you know how to smell scents?"

"Smell scents? We don't, but police dogs were deployed too. The things in that bag were sealed too tightly, so the dogs couldn't smell anything before it was opened. And it wasn't opened until after it was brought back to the station..."

His voice abruptly cut off...

Because Lin Xiaosu lightly swept aside the drooping willow branches at the entrance of the Red Pavilion and walked out.

He did not look at them. He walked straight to the flowerbed outside, stepped into it, stopped, and wore a distinctly surprised expression...

Zhou Mei took several quick steps to his side. "Did you find something?"

"Look." Lin Xiaosu lightly pointed at the ground. "There's a footprint here."

There was a footprint!

That statement itself meant nothing, because footprints were everywhere here.

This was a public leisure area. Footprints were the one thing it lacked least.

Yet Zhou Mei immediately became alert. "Is it related to the scent in the Red Pavilion?"

"Yes." Lin Xiaosu said, "From yesterday evening until now, two people's scents were left inside this Red Pavilion. After those two scents left the pavilion, they took two different routes. One went up those steps and onto the pedestrian path. The other took this route, walking along the inside of the flowerbed... Officer Zhou, suppose one of these people lost the bag and the other found it. Who do you think walked along the inside of the flowerbed?"

Zhou Mei's heart gave a violent leap. "The person who lost the bag!"

"Yes! The person who found the bag brought it to the police station with the attitude of returning lost property. He had nothing to hide, so he took the main road!" Lin Xiaosu said. "Then think about it. Why would the person who lost the bag walk along the inside of the flowerbed in the dead of night? You should know that snakes and insects come out here!"

Zhou Mei and Sun Yang were both startled...

At Yishui Bund, along the inside of a flowerbed, in this season when snakes and insects were about—what normal person would walk there at night? Wasn't there a Lovers' Avenue right outside for them to walk on?

Sun Yang stepped forward. "Unless the loss of the bag was never accidental in the first place."

"Exactly!" Lin Xiaosu nodded. "This was a very typical drug transaction!"

Drugs had always been subjected to relentless high-pressure crackdowns in Great Xia.

Therefore, drug deals were conducted with extreme caution.

Many dealers used a method where the "upstream" and "downstream" parties never met. They agreed on a location, the upstream party placed the "goods" in the designated spot, and the downstream party came to retrieve them.

The greatest advantage was that it severed contact between the two. Even if one party was caught, the other would not be implicated.

The fundamental reason this transaction had failed was an unexpected accident.

The upstream party placed the bag in the designated spot, but before the downstream party could retrieve it, a passerby found it first.

Under normal circumstances, when a passerby found something, the owner could simply step forward and take it back. But the problem was that the contents could not see the light of day. Who would dare claim it?

What if they met someone stubborn? You said the item was yours, then tell us what was inside. We'll open it and check each item one by one. If you got them all right, the bag would be returned to you!

Wouldn't that be walking straight into death?

So even if that downstream party had been watching nearby, he probably would not have dared to come forward.

If the person who found the bag had taken it home, those people would still have had ways to get it back. But the problem was that this person had been a good child since he was little and firmly believed in "I picked up a penny on the road and handed it to Uncle Policeman." With that handover, both the upstream and downstream lines were utterly screwed...

One pavilion, two scents.

Two routes of travel.

One took the main road, while the other went through the flowerbed.

With information so simple, the three of them simultaneously pieced together a serious case.

"The question now is whether we can find that upstream party amid the vast sea of people..." Zhou Mei said.

Lin Xiaosu smiled faintly. "Let's try."

With that attempt, they went from the flowerbed to the pedestrian path, crossed the bridge, and arrived at an internet café.

It was only a little past eight in the morning. Life moved at a slower pace in the small county town, and many people were still eating breakfast. The air carried the fragrance of spring flowers, the aroma of fried dough sticks and steamed buns, and the scent of everyday life.

But inside the internet café, it was another world entirely.

A long row of computers stood there. Sixty or seventy teenage boys filled the place. Some were still gaming after pulling all-nighters, while others lay sleeping in their chairs with their clothes worn backward. The air stank of cigarettes, instant noodles, and some other filthy, murky odor no one could identify.

The tables were a mess, and the floor was a mess.

The cleaning aunties wore expressions of deep disapproval mixed with helplessness. If these boys had been their sons, they would have truly given them a beating. But they were not!

On the contrary, it was precisely because these boys existed that the women had jobs...

They kept themselves in check because the boys were right in front of them, and they did not dare say anything.

But when they saw Zhou Mei and the other two walk side by side down the aisle toward the private rooms, they still sighed to themselves...

Private rooms were the internet café's VIP section.

Every VIP area in the world represented something high-end, yet the VIP rooms in an internet café were beyond words.

They knew perfectly well that these private rooms were both money-devouring beasts and mud pits in deep pools.

Some people came in wearing short sleeves and emerged to find snow filling the sky.

Worse still, some had homes, wives, and children, yet stayed inside for years. Their wives ran away with someone else, their sons became orphans, and they sold their homes, pouring everything they got into these private rooms...

What was the point?

People their age truly could not understand it.

When it had nothing to do with them, they could hang it high and leave it alone. But seeing three smartly dressed young people enter the private rooms, they still found it a terrible waste...

Yes, Zhou Mei and Sun Yang were not in uniform. They were dressed in plain clothes.

When they reached the door of one private room, Lin Xiaosu stopped.

Light flickered in Zhou Mei's eyes. "Are you sure?"

Lin Xiaosu nodded lightly.

He was absolutely certain. That yellow-haired punk had entered this private room and had not come out.

Zhou Mei raised her hand and knocked softly.

An impatient voice came from inside. "Who is it?"

"Cleaning staff," Zhou Mei said.

The private room door opened...

The person who opened it was that yellow-haired punk.

The moment he saw Zhou Mei, he was somewhat startled. Such a young and beautiful woman was cleaning? Though the economy was declining and anything was possible, this was still too world-shattering, wasn't it?

But Zhou Mei did not look at him. Her gaze locked onto the footprints he had left as he walked over.

Ordinary floors would not retain such clear footprints, except for one kind: the floors of public places where soup and drinks were spilled everywhere, because someone else was responsible for cleaning up anyway...

The footprints on the floor were crystal clear.

It was him!

Zhou Mei raised her hand, a police ID in her palm...

The yellow-haired punk gave a violent shudder, and his face changed completely...

He suddenly twisted sideways and rushed out past Zhou Mei.

Just as he was about to break through, Zhou Mei lifted her knee. The yellow-haired punk's face twisted, and he doubled over like a shrimp.

There were two other people in the private room, and they sprang up at the same time. Sun Yang kicked the man on the left to the ground, while the man on the right received a beautiful chokehold and was slammed face-first onto the floor.

The internet café was thrown into an uproar. The owner was alarmed as well...

Outside, a police siren sounded briefly, then stopped. Three male officers entered side by side, with Captain Zhang personally leading them, and took the three men to the police car.