Criminal Investigation Notes

On an August night in Huadu, the night in the city square, located in the suburbs of Huadu, was much quieter than in the urban area.

Due to heavy rain in the morning, the asphalt pavement was still slightly wet. The coolness after the rain has dissipated, replaced by a steaming and humid air, making people somewhat restless.

This was a famous office area in Huadu, where a large modern high-rise building was built by developers in the midst of barrenness.The tall office buildings were luxuriously decorated, but the rent was famously cheap, less than half of that in the city center, plus various municipal subsidies.

Many bosses chose to locate their offices here, but this made it difficult for ordinary employees who commuted back and forth.

The transportation to the City Garden was very inconvenient. The subway station was still under construction, and it took more than twenty minutes by car to reach the nearest residential area. The nearby living facilities had not kept up, so the few convenience stores had become the must-visit places for office workers to survive.

The bus service was scarce and the shuttle bus was limited. When it was time to get off work every day, many taxis gathered illegally on the nearby streets.

As time passed, the nearby office buildings became empty and the taxis all disappeared. The lights in several buildings gradually went out, sinking into the tranquility of the night.

The road was very empty at this time, and the 24-hour convenience store on the roadside became prominent, with white light shining from inside, and several simple tables and chairs for people to rest could be seen from outside.

As night fell, fewer and fewer people came here, only some programmers who needed to work overnight occasionally came to buy some late-night snacks and cigarettes to refresh themselves for the upcoming all-night battle.

At this moment, Qu Ming, Qiao Ze, and Zheng Bai are in a dark glass van parked on the opposite side of the road, like a missed black taxi.

"We're quite conspicuous here, aren't we?" Qu Ming used to do tracking, and the environment had to be more concealed.

Qiao Ze was debugging the equipment: "But if we move a little further, we won't be able to see what's inside the convenience store."

"This is already the most open and inconspicuous place nearby. It's okay, there are hardly any people at night anyway." Zheng Bai was the driver just now. He drove around nearby before settling on this observation spot.

Qu Ming looked serious: "We still can't let our guard down. We don't even know who the other party is, and how many people will come."

"Will we see a group of armed thugs?" Qiao Ze manipulated the surveillance, and the picture on the computer gradually became clear. Through the camera inside the convenience store, they could see Su Hui sitting at the table and Lu Junchi posing as a clerk.

A middle-aged man entered the convenience store, and Qiao Ze asked hurriedly: "Someone just entered, is it him..."

The man bought a pack of cigarettes and left the convenience store without lingering.

Qiao Ze let out a sigh and checked his watch. It was already 10 o'clock. "Fewer and fewer people are coming to the convenience store now. I wonder if the next one will be..."

The other person was late.

From a camera outside on the road, they could see what was happening inside from far away.

Su Hui sat alone in the farthest corner of the convenience store. He wore a slightly oversized shirt that made him look even more slender, and he appeared cold and distant.

Zheng Bai, "Don't worry, Captain Lu personally came today."

He had previously volunteered to pose as a store clerk, but Lu Junchi chose to come himself and guard the store.

Although Lu Junchi's whereabouts could not be seen in the camera, he must be close to Su Hui.

Summer weather was unpredictable. It had been stuffy just now, but now it suddenly started to rain. At first, only small raindrops floated in the air, but then they grew larger and larger.

Qu Ming suddenly pointed to the other side of the street. "There's a man who's been looking in the direction of the convenience store for a long time."

Qiao Ze followed his gaze. The man was standing under a tree in the open space more than 20 meters away from them. He wasn't using an umbrella in the rain and just stood there motionless like a statue. He was shrouded in darkness, so his features couldn't be clearly seen, but a sinister aura could be felt from him.

"It's raining, so it's hard to see clearly. I don't think he can see what's happening inside the convenience store either," Qiao Ze asked. "Do you think he's involved?"

Qu Ming remained calm and pulled out his camera. After focusing, he took two shots of the man and then enlarged the images. "The rain does have an effect, and it's a bit far and the angle is off, so it's not very clear."

"That man seems to have moved... maybe he's not an accomplice?" Qiao Ze said. As he spoke, he saw the young man turn around and disappear into the rain. Perhaps he had just coincidentally appeared.

Then he looked at the middle-aged man who had bought cigarettes in the convenience store. "That middle-aged man hasn't left yet and keeps looking in our direction. I think he's even more suspicious."

Zheng Bai, who had been staring at the convenience store, suddenly said, "Ah, don't look over there, someone's coming over here."

As he spoke, a girl with a ponytail entered the convenience store, bought a drink, and sat opposite Su Hui.

In the convenience store, Su Hui also saw someone walking over. He squinted his eyes and looked up and down before he could see clearly. It was a young woman who looked only in her twenties. She had a beautiful figure, fair skin, and was wearing a white dress like a Barbie doll in the display case.

On this hot day, the girl had a lace glove on her right hand.

She asked Su Hui, "Hello, are you the one?" Then the girl opened her own drink, "I am a Sleeper."

Lu Junchi hid behind the shelf, adjusted his wireless earphone, and made sure that the conversation between the two could be transmitted clearly. Only one person entered the convenience store, and it was a woman, which made him relax a lot.

As time went by, there were no other customers in the convenience store except for Lu Junchi and a male store clerk. The current environment was very favorable for them.

"What can you do to help me?" It had to be said that the person in front of him was somewhat different from what Su Hui had imagined.

"You must have encountered difficulties in life, and we will provide you with help." The woman spoke, her voice very gentle, and the whole person looked like a puppet cat. She looked at Su Hui with beautiful eyes, "Everything you are experiencing now is what I have experienced. Therefore, we can empathize with you."

Su Hui looked at her, and his indifferent expression was the best cover for emotions. Those people easily took him as one of their own kind. "What does Sleeper mean? And who are you?"

The girl looked at Su Hui and continued, "Life is often painful. The meaning of Sleeper is that if you want, you can also enter a beautiful dreamlike world. My name is Liu Mengying, and I am your guide."

The conversation went smoothly, without any doubts.

Su Hui noticed that the girl had a beautiful left hand, with fair and slender fingers that, as an old person would say, were suitable for playing the piano.

Lu Junchi's voice came from the earphone, "Ask her who the people behind the forum are, and try to get information out of her."

Su Hui received Lu Junchi's message and blinked his eyes to ask, "The people behind the forum are not just you, right?"

"Um." The girl replied softly, "In the past, I also lived in pain. I used to be a patient with depression. There are many people like me in the Sleeper organization. We are a group of people who have been cured and want to help more people."

Su Hui continued to ask, "What does your help include?"

Liu Mengying spoke very conservatively and carefully, "We can chat with you, recommend doctors, solve problems in your life, and prevent you from facing pain alone. We can provide the help that a psychologist can provide, and we can also try our best to provide help that they cannot provide." She stopped here and blinked her eyes, "But the premise is that I hope you can tell me how you got depression."

Su Hui lifted his gaze and asked her back, "How did you get sick in the first place?"

The girl hesitated for a moment, took off her right-hand glove, and revealed her beautiful hand. However, the little finger of her right hand was missing a joint. Though the wound had already healed, it still made people feel a bit heartbroken.

"I was born into a wealthy family, and I am the only daughter. You can probably tell by my name, Meng(dream) Ying(luster of gems), that I was expected to achieve all my dreams and win. My father was a pianist in a band, and my mother was a violinist in an orchestra. After my father passed away, my mother became extremely strict with me from when I was a child, to the point of being abnormal. She wanted me to inherit my father's legacy and become a pianist."

"I had to practice playing the piano for several hours every day since I was young. On weekends, I had to play for an entire day. My mother would stand behind me with a whip, and if I hesitated for even a moment, she would hit me hard on my back. I played until my fingers bled and hurt every time I touched something. I had no time for games like ordinary girls, and even my studies were delayed. If I played a wrong note, my mother would scold and beat me."

"Moreover, she had a strong desire to control me, and attributed her failure to remarry to me. She would control me tightly through crying, making a scene, and even threatening to hang herself, and scold me for being unfilial... She took away my life."

"When I was sixteen, she broke my leg because I didn't practice playing the piano on time. Even with a cast on my leg, she still forced me to practice. I tried every possible way to resist her. I went on a hunger strike and lost weight until I was only sixty kilograms. Eventually, whenever I heard the sound of the piano, I would almost go crazy."

"I didn't go to study music at a foreign university or go on arranged dates as my mother planned. My life until I was twenty-two years old was like fighting with my mother. I wanted to prove to her that I was my own person, and I would live better without the piano. To break free from her control, after she arranged a performance for me, I stood up and cut off my little finger myself in front of all the audience. At that time, the bright red blood dripped onto my white dress, but I felt an unprecedented sense of relief in my heart."

A smile bloomed on Liu Mengying's face, and she took a deep breath. "It wasn't until then that I realized I was sick, I was depressed. Afterwards, my friends sent me to the hospital, and by destroying my own hand, I regained my life. However, my behavior was met with my mother's hysteria and curses. She said that I messed everything up and called me useless garbage."

"I started seeing a therapist to save myself, and now, I've finally made it through."

Liu Mengying recalled these experiences, and her face turned pale. Her breathing became increasingly rapid.

In those years, in those days, she was like a person forced to run non-stop, running until exhausted.

It wasn't until the moment when her fingers broke that she truly owned her own life.

That was her mother's dream, and she never expected to step onto that stage herself.

"And now? Have your problems been solved? Are you healed?" Su Hui continued to ask.

"My depression is gone, my mother passed away a long time ago, and I can finally be myself again. Now let's talk about your story..." Liu Mengying put on her gloves and smiled, redirecting the topic. "You can tell me if you have encountered any difficulties."

Su Hui pondered for a moment and then lifted his head to say, "I once had a serious accident, and I was in a coma for two months afterward. The accident left me with severe aftereffects: blurred vision, deafness in one ear, and I lost my job. The whole world was completely different for me... and when I woke up, I learned that my family had died in a car accident on their way to see me. This is why I developed depression."

Lu Junchi was tidying up the shelves and watching the two people in front of him from the gap. He knew that Su Hui was telling half-truths mixed with lies, and he listened as Su Hui continued, "As for why I came to you for help..."

Su Hui watched silently as Liu Mengying’s face turned pale, obviously not yet fully recovered from her intense emotions when talking about her own painful experience. He could vividly recall the tremble in her body when she recounted her own suffering.

In fact, he had never been so emotionally exposed since he fell ill.

Was the pain he suffered not enough?

But he was obviously in pain: the scorching air, the tremendous impact of the explosion, the damaged vision and hearing, the deaths of his family...

It was like all of that pain was being separated by a layer of frosted glass, unclear and untouchable, but always with him, unable to be liberated.

Perhaps this was caused by his personality disintegration.

Now, he needed to break through this layer of glass, find something that would touch Liu Mengying's emotions, and bring her to his side. What would that be?

The unexpected deaths, the vested interests, the mother who was forced...

He guessed that this forum wanted him to kill the person behind the hatred. There must be someone he had to deal with.

He took a deep breath and continued, "Later on, I discovered that the accident was not a coincidence, but caused by someone behind the scenes, someone who wanted to ruin my life..."

Su Hui paused here.

Liu Mengying's expression finally changed, "Who is that person? Are you the only one fighting against him? You must feel lonely and powerless..."

Lu Junchi stood behind the shelf, his hands still on the merchandise, frozen.

From his perspective, under the illumination of the light and shadows in the convenience store, Su Hui's skin appeared cold and white, and his eyelashes drooped, making it difficult for him to distinguish whether what he said was true or false.

Finally, the girl's expression subtly changed, her gaze flickering with what seemed like tears in her eyes as she reached out her damaged hand to hold Su Hui's hand. "We will help you."

Two strangers communicated with each other in the convenience store on a rainy night, like wounded beasts licking each other's wounds.

The conversation seemed to have just gotten to the point when the girl's phone suddenly rang. She lowered her head to look...

At the same time, through the miniature earphones that Lu Junchi and Su Hui were wearing, Qiao Ze's voice could be heard: "Captain Lu! Captain Lu! There is a man here who seems to be tailing us, and he seems to have discovered our car..."

The man was a middle-aged man whom they had seen entering the convenience store to buy cigarettes. He had originally been standing far away smoking, but after receiving a call, he walked towards the car and his expression changed.

Qiao Ze and Qu Ming were discussing whether to move to another location when the man quickly left, texting while looking down, apparently informing his accomplices.

Sure enough, as soon as Liu Mengying received the text message, she immediately stood up and hurried out without even saying goodbye to Su Hui.

Lu Junchi knew that this meeting could only end here. He said into the earpiece, "Implement the arrest."