"Up to this point in time, there are already four children reported missing for this month." An Yining put the children's photographs in one row. There were of both boys and girls, and they all looked quite pretty. "All the missing children were more or less eight or nine years old. They were also very obedient in school. Their family situations are all uncomplicated. Their parents' relations.h.i.+ps to the society are simple— they're not part of a high or dangerous group. You can basically eliminate the possibility of revenge killing. Moreover, their families are all middle-income families, with pa.s.sable incomes. But we can't say that they have money either. The perpetrator didn't even make a single call to the families, and didn't seem like the type to demand for ransom either."

"To do something specifically to children of the same age and type and not demand ransom… Hearing it like this, it sounds like a pedophile or a human trafficker."

The one who spoke was a youth sitting beside Su Junzi. His pair of peach blossom eyes were bright and glowing with vigor. When he looked at someone, a layer of light seemed to be drifting in his eyes, and it made him seem especially attentive. It practically made people get the misconception that he held deep feelings—Of course, this was only a misconception. This is the Number One Flirt of the entire office, Sheng Yao. Because of his wide-spread "name", he was seen as venom by the female officers. While they wanted to respect him from afar, they also couldn't help but want to be enticed.

He slumped open-legged on the chair, his slender long fingers holding his jaw. Just looking at him was enough to please the eye.

"Human traffickers normally won't touch human lives. Even if they really wanted to silence someone, they'll only just kill someone and that's it." An Yining spoke, taking out another batch of photographs: the dark and revolting underground drainage tunnel, all kinds and sorts of rubbish, and even a girl's head mixed in with the garbage. "The victim's head was chopped off by a very sharp instrument. The other body parts haven't been found yet. Just think, how much effort do you need to kill a child of this size? An adult male with slightly more strength can strangle her to death with just one hand, so was there a need to particularly chop off the child's head?"

"I have a question. If there was only one corpse like this," Su Junzi interrupted with a sentence. His voice was particularly low and gentle. When he spoke to someone else, he would stare at the other's face very earnestly. "Can we believe that the other children are still alive?"

An Yining was silent for a moment. "We won't exclude this kind of possibility, but it's best if we don't hold any hope—Zhang Jing, the victim, was the last one of the four children to go missing."

At this time, a short-haired woman around thirty years of age pushed open the door and entered. Her heel tapped on the floor in a hurry, her hands holding a dozen doc.u.ments. "I've found all the information of the few missing children… Oh, Yexi, why are you back?"

Shen Yexi who has been sitting at the side wordlessly gave her a smile. "What's wrong, Yang-jie, you won't welcome me either?"

"Not welcome. You're not likable." Yang Man joked and knocked the doc.u.ments in her hand against his head. After thinking a little, she knocked them at Jiang Hu who was at the side too. "It took only a blink of my eye before you ran off to G.o.d knows where."

Jiang Hu held the place that he was. .h.i.t at. He blinked wide-eyed, aggrieved and yet embarra.s.sed as he looked at her.

After two seconds, Yang Man was defeated by the attack. She held her chest, sighing deeply. "Little cutie, for you to be a psychologist is truly so talented of you. Each one of your cells is showcasing those little healing hearts."

Unnoticeably, Shen Yexi rolled his eyes. A dry cough diverted the topic from the increasingly unprofessional one that Yang Man was leading to. "Are there any links between the children?"

"There is, let me take a breather first." Yang Man sat at the side of the table, casually taking Sheng Yao's cup to take a sip.

Sheng Yao widened his peach blossom eyes. "My G.o.d, I have to preserve and treasure this cup." That beautiful head of his was given a slap.

"These few children stayed in different areas of the city, and their parents don't have any relation in work either. They studied in different schools, but they're all members of the same choir group." Yang Man took out a piece of paper, a painted fingernail tapping it. "This one, a children's choir group called 'Family of Angels'."

"I think I've heard of it before…" Su Junzi held his jaw as he contemplated. "Did they appear on TV before?"

"They appeared in a children's TV program a couple of times, they're pretty famous." Sheng Yao gave Su Junzi a flirtatious wink. "You probably watched it with your daughter, Perfect[1] Model Dad."

Su Junzi grinned good-naturedly.

"Are there information about the background of this Family of Angels and the schedule of its activities in the vicinity near the time of the incidents?" Shen Yexi asked.

"Yes. All of the previous, current, and future ones too." Yang Man fished out a few timetables before handing it over. "Head Shen, I feel that we should contact the person-in-charge of this choir. Because not long before each time a child went missing, all of them happened to have partic.i.p.ated in a choir performance."

"You're suspecting the people in charge of the choir?"

"No, I've just investigated them. They don't have any history of having pedophillic tendencies or of having other mental problems. Moreover, when the cases happened, they all have rather perfect alibis." Yang Man said. An Yining made an admiring expression at her efficiency.

Sheng Yao held his face. "Pretty girl, you have to at least leave some work for us useless, detestable men."

The people laughed. Sheng Yao continued to be suppressed by Yang Man's violence.

Junzi, Yining, you have to work a little harder. Go visit the families of the victims. Sheng Yao, Yang-jie, go and inspect the crime scene where Zhang Jing's corpse was found, and contact the forensic investigator responsible for this case while you're at it. I'll go…" Shen Yexi paused, gaze sweeping to Jiang Hu whose head was raised to look at him. His brows unnoticeably twitched for a moment. "Dr. Jiang, I'll trouble you to go with me to visit the Family of Angels' choir group."

He picked up his jacket, walking out. Jiang Hu hurriedly caught up to him with small jogs, and he didn't even forget to look back and wave beamingly at the remaining few people.

Yang Man touched her chin. "Look how polite this child is."

An Yining looked up to the sky. "The head always leaves the most difficult job to himself."

Su Junzi coughed dryly. "Actually, with how Dr. Jiang is, he's also quite suitable to scout a children's choir group. My daughter, Xiao Ran, also likes him quite a bit. Last Friday, she came over to play and stayed with Dr. Jiang for a while. In the end, these past two days, she kept making a ruckus about wanting to come and play with Uncle Jiang."

Sheng Yao broke into laughter, leisurely standing up, throwing a flirtatious glance at Yang Man. "Let's go, great beauty. Let's have a date at the underground drainage tunnel."

Today's work started peacefully like this.

Shen Yexi would occasionally size up Mr. Nuisance at his side from the rear-view mirror. They said that this one here was a psychologist, but you really can't tell from his appearance. In the period of time he had to be hospitalized for his injuries, he was also evaluated a lot by psychologists. Each one of them was of different ages, of different genders. But they all had pairs of eyes that made one uncomfortable, as though they were able to see through everyone. Each sentence they said carried a deep, probing pierce. Even when they were chatting about their day casually, they had to put a name to it, called "non-structural diagnosis".

But Jiang Hu was just sitting at his side like this, not making any conversation as he silently looked at the doc.u.ments in his hands. The slightly curly fringe were pressed down across the neat eyebrows. The black-rimmed gla.s.ses below covered a small half of his face, accentuating the sharp jaw. He did not speak, did not ask any questions, neither did he make any comments.

Shen Yexi thought, the look of this little partner sitting there, wordless and unmoving, really did give people the misconception that such a person was solemn and dependable.

"Did Dr. Jiang just graduate? From which university?"

"Er… Ah?" Jiang Hu raised his head sharply, as though he hadn't reacted to it yet. His expression was quite blank, and he was stunned for a moment before he nodded. "Oh, right, I just got my degree, and came back from America."

"You have a history of studying overseas?" Shen Yexi couldn't help giving him a look. This would be the highest education qualification out of everyone in the office.

"My family are all there. My grandfather was a Britishman who migrated in his early years." Jiang Hu lowered his head, taking out the few photographs in the file and putting them together. Shen Yexi noticed that all of those few photographs were group photos of the little friends donned in white in their choir performances.

"Why did you think about going back to the country to work? The benefits here are probably not as good as the ones there, right?"

"When travelling on the roads in Chicago, I made a friend. We hit off quite well. He recommended me to come." Jiang Hu smiled. His Mandarin sounded rather on-point, tone soft and gentle. His speaking pace was very slow, but his p.r.o.nunciation was especially clear, as though he learned from TV programs. "I like Chinese cuisine, so I came back."

"Oh." A glutton, likely. In truth, Shen Yexi wasn't too proficient in talking to people. They had chatted this much and he still couldn't remember if there were anything else good to talk about, so he could only politely smile. "Let's not talk about the food in other parts of our country. The food here is just much more comforting than those half-cooked things from abroad. There are also a few restaurants here that are quite good. On another day, I'll give you some recommendations. That, uh, it hasn't been too long since you came back, right? If you have any difficulties or something you're unused to while staying here, don't be polite and let us know. Don't regard yourself as an outsider."

Jiang Hu turned his face to look at him. Perhaps it was because it was blocked by the gla.s.ses, but Shen Yexi couldn't quite make clear sense of the gaze of this child-like psychologist. He only saw Jiang Hu slightly smile. "Thank you."

Shen Yexi, Leader Shen, Head Shen—This was the leader of the special investigation team for big cases, the legendary secret weapon of Bureau Chief Mo Cong… This man clearly didn't think anything of him internally, but still had to act amicable and friendly. He clearly felt annoyed with him internally, but he didn't forget about the false, fake politeness in his behaviour. He was really a rather unique person.

Jiang Hu turned his head around to look outside. The icy-cold buildings and the broad, vast roads moved backwards and vanished. The city was waking up, vice slowly climbing to the surface.

Reaching the Family of Angels choir group, Shen Yexi left Jiang Hu outside, letting him chat with the spa.r.s.e number of children who came to practice while he went in to find the person in charge of the choir.

The person in charge was a middle-aged man with the surname Mou. He wore a pair of gla.s.ses, with very long hair, with some signs of being someone of the arts. His speaking volume was not loud. His quiet whispering also carried a rather cautionary tremor, and his emotions were particularly intense. Once he talked about the missing children, he would become emotional. And once he became emotional, he'd take out a handkerchief from his pocket, lowering his head to wipe his snot and his tears.

"Teacher Mou, we have a few questions that require your cooperation in answering…"

This person was like a running tap. He was originally fine, but once he heard that Shen Yexi was police and especially came to investigate the incident with the children, it was like he saw his relative—talking as he cried. He called that one wronged and called that one saddening. He headed straight into Shen Yexi's wide embrace, wanting to throw himself over to beg for comfort, but he was avoided by the extraordinarily skilled policeman. So, he could only hold onto the door frame, looking like a built person weakly relying for help. "Those pitiful children. Inspector, what kind of logic of the world do you say this is? What kind of person would be so sick and crazy to harm such adorable children?"

Shen Yexi coughed dryly. "Teacher Mou, calm down first. Our job requires your cooperation."

"I'll cooperate, I'll cooperate wholeheartedly…" This Teacher Mou sobbed until he was hiccuping. For a coa.r.s.e and rough adult man like this to have his shoulders shake and shudder, Shen Yexi felt that even that heart of his was twitching bit by bit too. "Tell me then, how should I cooperate? It's fine as long as you catch this b.a.s.t.a.r.d. Look outside, the children don't even dare to come now. There's no way to get through these days anymore."

"We noticed that a few times, there was a choir performance one or two days before a child went missing. Should we ask you to put the activities on hold first?"

Teacher Mou blew his nose hard. "Of course we have to halt it first. Look at how few people still insisted on coming to practice. It was all caused by this b.a.s.t.a.r.d. Catch him! I have to skin him!"

Shen Yexi didn't react. "Do you have a list of the people who came to watch the choir performances?"

Teacher Mou paused. "Aiyo, who can be sure of that. We have all kinds of performances here. For the ones recorded in the broadcasting studio, who would know who could watch those?"

"Among the missing children, do they have any particular links to each other?" Shen Yexi asked.

Teacher Mou's gaze swiftly flashed for a moment. Then, he shook his head hard. "No… No, I don't think there are any particular links.

Shen Yexi observed his expression, brows furrowing. "Think about it again carefully? This incident concerns a number of human lives."

"There really isn't any, hey. Don't listen to those nonsensical rumours going around outside. They're all guesses the children made themselves. Can I even joke about a thing like this?" Teacher Mou had a pained brooding expression.

"Then, why don't we do this. First, you can write down all the names of the people who could contact the choir members that you can think of. Any insignificant contact can be considered. I'll leave a phone number. If you remember anything, give me a call."

"Aw, no problem at all." Teacher Mou answered at once. "Mr. Police, Inspector buddy, you have to do it for us and catch this b.a.s.t.a.r.d for sure!"

"That is within our job scope…"

"Really. Aiyo, you don't know that child—I mean, Zhang Jing. She just walked away from this place of mine. I said that it wasn't safe and to wait for her dad to come, but she just won't listen. Just won't listen at all, and just had to walk back herself. So, I called her dad, yeah. In the end, he said that he was just waiting at the intersection. There was a traffic jam and he couldn't come over, so he asked his child to walk over herself. It only took this much effort, and this short distance from here to there and this child was gone. Gone!"

"Teacher Mou, calm down a little."

"Say, what if I walked that little bit of the way to send her there? But I still have a group of children who were waiting to be picked up, you know. I couldn't walk away! I…" Teacher Mou blew his nose hard again. "I regret it! I truly regret it!"

"Rest a.s.sured. We will definitely catch the suspect as soon as possible and find the children."

"Inspector buddy…" Teacher Mou grabbed Shen Yexi's sleeve—You just blew your nose didn't you—blinking his small, watery eyes. It caused Shen Yexi who had an overly strong mentality to have gooseb.u.mps all over his body.

This person was good in every way. His cooperative att.i.tude wasn't bad either. He just had a tad too many words, and when he dragged Shen Yexi along the conversation, he had a whole rant about injustice. First, starting from the fact that the murderer was an a.s.shole and a b.a.s.t.a.r.d, to how in this current year, the people who truly understand art was becoming increasingly fewer, to how the children were too focused on exams and not education, before returning back to how the murderer was an a.s.shole and a b.a.s.t.a.r.d.

The great Leader Shen worked hard for a long time before successfully wrestling his sleeve back from Teacher Mou's demonic claws. He did his best to maintain the elegant and warm expression, steadily acting stupid as he interrupted the other party's long-winded speech. "Oh, right, look, we're still in the midst of work. You'd also like for us to catch the murderer sooner, right? Then, here, if you remember something, contact us as soon as possible. I'll trouble you for this. I'll take my leave first."

Swiftly withdrawing from the scene of crime…

With great difficulty, he was finally free of this Teacher Mou that was like a running tap of water, and once he came out, he happened to see Jiang Hu sitting on the ground with a group of children surrounding him—Likely, this group's mental ages were pretty close. As they chattered on together, they even looked like they shared a common language, and who even knew what they were talking about. At the side, Shen Yexi knocked on the door entrance, nodding at Jiang Hu. "Dr. Jiang, time to go."

Jiang Hu acknowledged it, telling his goodbyes to the children surrounding him. Don't think about how it had been just a short while. This group of children already couldn't quite bear for him to leave, tugging at his sleeves and pulling at his hands and hugging his waist, sticky and close. A small girl at the side had her lips pouted so hard that you could almost hang a bottle of oil there. She insisted on having him promise that he'll come back to play next time.

Shen Yexi leaned against the entrance for a few minutes, yawning. The other parties seemed to have the intention to go back home together joyfully[2], making happy memories on the way back. On the first day he resumed his post, he already wanted to sigh deeply with a hand to his chest.

After getting free from this group of little rascals, Jiang Hu sat on the car, tidying his coat and s.h.i.+rt that was tugged into an untidy mess. One-eighth of his blood was British, so when he moved around, he certainly did have the slightest image of a Victorian gentleman. His s.h.i.+rt was b.u.t.toned-up with none missing, and his clothes well tailored to fit, his speech not heated but warm.

He took out the photographs that he especially put together earlier. He hesitated for a moment before lowering his voice to tell Shen Yexi, "Leader Shen, the children earlier told me a little about the situation…"

Shen Yexi startled, and turned serious. "What is it?"

The children of the choir on the photograph stood in rows. Each one of them really did look like little angels, with hands holding the music scores and smiles on their faces, gazes clear. Jiang Hu pointed at that child in the middle of the second row. "The two children who first went missing stood in this position. Just now, the children from the choir told me that the first child who went missing was the choirmaster. Afterwards, the teacher found someone else to take her place. Then, not much later, this child was gone too. Maybe, even the choir teacher noticed something was not quite right. So they adjusted the the choirmaster to another position. In the end, although the child who stood here was no longer the choirmaster, they still went missing."

He paused, lifting his head. The back of his hand was facing him as he used a finger to support his gla.s.ses. "All of them said that this position is cursed."

Translator Notes:

[1]:  五好 actually means something more like "with five good traits" but it sounded awkward and the general idea is that he was a perfect dad too.

[2]:  有十八里相送 (literally, sending (you) back in eighteen miles). Came from a drama series where the way back from school to home spanned eighteen miles. It refers to the happy moments on the way back.