This whole area was full of old houses.

Li Dongsheng stepped forward and knocked on the door, but there was no response. 𝐟𝕣𝕖𝐞𝐰𝕖𝚋𝐧𝗼𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝗰𝐨𝐦

"Her mother’s name is Hua Juan. You know how it is—once you get hooked on that stuff, you can’t get clean. She’s been in and out, so I’m not exactly sure what she’s up to these days."

Shen Xin peered inside through a window. The curtains were drawn, but through a gap, he could see the room was a complete mess.

"So you’re saying that in two and a half years, her mother never once asked about Guan Hong?"

Shen Xin frowned. ’Some mother she is.’

Li Dongsheng nodded. "After her neighbor reported her missing, we investigated back then. We found and questioned some of the people Guan Hong used to hang out with, but they all said they hadn’t seen her."

"One of her close friends did say that Guan Hong wanted to go work in the Southern city of Jiaozhou."

"We figured that was the most likely possibility. We didn’t find anything unusual, Hua Juan didn’t seem to care, and the station was swamped with cases. So, we had to assume the young woman had just left Nanjiang."

Guan Hong was already an adult at the time.

Besides, Li Dongsheng felt that given the environment Guan Hong grew up in, it would be perfectly normal for her to just leave.

Shen Xin nodded and asked which neighbor Li Dongsheng was talking about.

The one right next door.

The kid’s name is Jia Xiaojun. He’s seventeen now, a sophomore in high school.

He boards at school, and since today isn’t a weekend, he’s not home.

His grandmother was home. When she heard they were asking about Guan Hong, she said she didn’t know with a look of disgust, then turned and went back inside, shutting the door behind her.

Her expression was as if they’d brought bad luck to her doorstep.

Li Dongsheng said, "Why don’t I try to find a way to track down Hua Juan?"

Shen Xin considered it for a moment, then nodded.

Based on what they’d heard so far, Guan Hong’s family situation was terrible. It seemed quite reasonable that she would choose to leave Nanjiang after becoming an adult to start a new life in another city.

But given the timing of her disappearance and her complicated social life, the possibility of foul play was actually quite high.

Li Dongsheng left to go find her.

Meanwhile, Shen Xin took Ding Yuwei and headed to Tingyang Second High School to find this Jia Xiaojun.

According to Li Dongsheng,

on May 20th, Jia Xiaojun had run to the police station, claiming Guan Hong was missing.

The reason was that he hadn’t seen Guan Hong for a while, and her phone was turned off when he tried to call.

Coupled with how he repeatedly came back to ask about the investigation’s progress, it seemed he was very concerned about her.

He’s seventeen now, so he was only fifteen two years ago, probably before he started high school.

Tingyang Second High School wasn’t too far away. Classes were in session when Shen Xin arrived.

Shen Xin found Jia Xiaojun’s homeroom teacher, explained the situation, and had the boy called to the office.

He was a tall young man with glasses and a neat buzz cut. He already had a mustache, and with his sharp demeanor, he looked like a model student.

"You’re the police?"

he asked, a little nervous.

Shen Xin nodded, told him to sit down and not to be too nervous, and then began asking about Guan Hong.

At the mention of Guan Hong, Jia Xiaojun had a strong reaction, eagerly asking Shen Xin if they had found her.

Shen Xin didn’t answer, instead asking, "You seem very concerned about Guan Hong. Did you two play together a lot when you were kids?"

They were neighbors.

Jia Xiaojun nodded. "When we were little, her mom used to beat her, so she would hide at my place. Sometimes when she didn’t have anything to eat, I’d lend her money to buy food."

"She was really good to me, too. When kids at school bullied me, she would stand up for me."

He described their relationship in a rambling, roundabout way.

Shen Xin raised an eyebrow slightly.

From Jia Xiaojun’s expression and tone, he could tell that the two of them—especially Jia Xiaojun—might have had something of a childhood sweetheart dynamic.

Li Dongsheng had said Guan Hong was considered pretty.

So for Jia Xiaojun, who was four years younger, Guan Hong was the pretty girl-next-door of his hormonal teenage years.

He described how after Guan Hong started running with a rough crowd and had some money, she would often take him out for good food.

The two of them also chatted together often.

Guan Hong would even ask about his studies, urging him to study hard and get into a good university.

Shen Xin held up a hand to interrupt him.

Shen Xin wasn’t particularly interested in the details of a teenage boy’s crush.

"When you filed the report, you said the last time you saw Guan Hong was on May 7th, the last day of the Labor Day holiday. Did she seem unusual in any way at that time?" Shen Xin asked.

Jia Xiaojun shook his head, saying nothing seemed out of the ordinary.

"Officer, something must have happened to her. She never said anything about leaving Nanjiang. And even if she were going to leave, she definitely would have told me."

Jia Xiaojun said with certainty, his fists clenched.

Shen Xin remained noncommittal and asked for some details about Guan Hong.

For example, her height.

Based on the skeleton, the female victim’s height was estimated to be between 1.60 and 1.65 meters.

Jia Xiaojun immediately replied, "She must have been about 1.63 meters. We compared our heights once, and she said I was already as tall as her."

Shen Xin then asked if Guan Hong dyed her hair.

Jia Xiaojun nodded and described her hair.

"She dyed it red once and asked me if it looked good. I told her it was super ugly, so she ended up dyeing it a normal brown color later."

Jia Xiaojun’s description was a bit rambling.

But Shen Xin perked up. The details Jia Xiaojun described—the hair length, the perm, the brown color—all matched the characteristics of the body.

After a moment’s hesitation, Shen Xin took out his phone.

"Have you ever seen her wear these clothes?"

Shen Xin showed him the photos of the clothing.

Jia Xiaojun leaned in to look, and his face suddenly paled. He nodded eagerly. "I’ve seen them! She wore that T-shirt, and those jeans... look at the buckle on the belt! I’ve seen it before. Those are her pants."

"Officer, did you find her? What’s going on with these clothes?"

Jia Xiaojun asked frantically.

Shen Xin and Ding Yuwei exchanged a look, seeing the shock in each other’s eyes.

’We actually found her!’

If Jia Xiaojun’s description was correct, then this female corpse was Guan Hong.

"Call Captain Chen."

Shen Xin said in a low voice.

Ding Yuwei immediately stepped out.

Seeing the change in Shen Xin’s expression, Jia Xiaojun grew even more frantic, repeatedly asking what had happened to Guan Hong.

"Why are the clothes torn? And there’s mud on them... Officer, what happened to Guan Hong?" Jia Xiaojun’s voice trembled with anxiety.

Shen Xin gestured for him to calm down.

There was no need to reveal the discovery of the skeletal remains to him just yet.

Shen Xin then asked for more details about Guan Hong’s situation around the time he reported her missing.

For instance, who she was hanging out with during that period, and especially whether she had a boyfriend.

Since Jia Xiaojun often chatted with Guan Hong, he would probably know about her situation.

"A boyfriend?"

At the mention of this, Jia Xiaojun’s expression became a little unnatural. Then he nodded and said, "Yeah, she had a few, but they all broke up. One time after a breakup, she got drunk and lost her door key, so she came to my house. I was the one who took care of her."

Shen Xin was speechless.

Just then, Jia Xiaojun added, "Oh, right. I remember after the New Year, she must have broken up with someone. But around April, I think she started dating someone new."

"She didn’t tell me who it was, or even that she was dating someone. But I could just feel it. She was definitely seeing someone, because it seemed like the guy was always buying her things."

"But I don’t know if they broke up later, because I remember at the end of April, right before the May Day holiday, she came home really late one night, completely drunk. She was outside her place, cursing out her boyfriend."

"My mom got annoyed and yelled at her, saying she was disturbing me while I was trying to rest for my middle school entrance exams."

Shen Xin held up a hand, cutting Jia Xiaojun off.

"When she was yelling, did she say a name?"

Jia Xiaojun nodded. "I was listening carefully. I think his name was Li Xiaofei, but I don’t know which characters are used to write it."

Shen Xin’s eyes lit up.

’We have a name.’

If this Li Xiaofei was Guan Hong’s last boyfriend, and she was cursing him out, it was possible a conflict had erupted between them, leading Li Xiaofei to kill her in a crime of passion.