The cramped mahjong parlor was thick with smoke.

"Five Bamboo!"

A gaunt, pale woman with wavy hair and a bloodless complexion played a tile.

"Are you Hua Juan?"

Shen Xin appeared and asked with a frown.

The woman tilted her head, looking at Shen Xin and Ding Yuwei.

The man sitting next to her, a middle-aged man with his legs crossed and a thick gold chain around his neck, flashed a set of yellow teeth. He shook his head and said, "Hey, kid. You don’t just call her Hua Juan. You call her Sister Juan."

"Me? I’m the one who gets to call her darling."

As he spoke, he lecherously grabbed Hua Juan’s hand and began to stroke it.

Hua Juan snatched her hand back in disgust. "Who are you?" she asked.

"We’re the police. We need to talk to you about something."

Ding Yuwei took out her badge.

"Police!"

Before Hua Juan could react, the man with the gold chain gasped, shot to his feet, and turned to run.

With a quick eye and a faster hand, Shen Xin grabbed him by the shoulder.

"We’re not here for you. What are you running for?" Shen Xin tightened his grip on the man’s shoulder.

When it came to gunfights, Shen Xin might not be the best.

But he was more than capable when it came to grappling and combat. His hand was like a vise, and his grip made the man with the gold chain cry out in pain. "I... I have diarrhea, I need the bathroom," he pleaded.

Shen Xin twitched his nose, leaned in for a sniff, and snorted. "What’s your name? Got your ID? When was the last time you used?"

’As expected. Birds of a feather,’ Shen Xin thought.

The man’s face changed drastically. He waved his hands frantically. "No, Officer! I really didn’t use anything!"

"Who are you calling uncle?"

Shen Xin turned and pointed at the people at the other tables in the parlor. "Nobody move! Everyone, get your IDs out."

Then, he took out his phone and called Li Dongsheng, who was outside.

Li Dongsheng immediately came in with Old Zhou.

"Master, we’ve got a user," Shen Xin said, shoving the middle-aged man toward him.

Li Dongsheng caught him and pointed at the mahjong parlor’s owner behind the front desk.

"Officer Li, I really didn’t know!" The owner, who clearly recognized Li Dongsheng, hurriedly denied everything.

Hua Juan’s face was already pale, but now it was even whiter. She shifted nervously in her seat, not daring to look Shen Xin in the eye.

"Hua Juan, come outside for a minute."

Shen Xin said in a low voice. ’With that complexion and reeking of heavy perfume, if she passes a blood test, I’ll change my last name to hers.’

「Outside.」

"Officer, I... I don’t know him. I didn’t use anything," Hua Juan said, lowering her head with a guilty conscience.

Shen Xin shook his head to himself and asked, "Hua Juan, your daughter is Guan Hong. Do you know anything about her situation?"

"Who?"

Hua Juan froze.

Her blank expression couldn’t have looked more genuine.

Ding Yuwei frowned. "Your daughter, Guan Hong!"

"Oh, her!"

It finally clicked for Hua Juan. "If you need something, go find her. What are you looking for me for?"

Her words almost made Shen Xin laugh in exasperation.

’You’re her mother. Who else would we look for?’ he thought.

After she spoke, Hua Juan perhaps realized how that sounded and quickly corrected herself. "Officer, that damn girl cut ties with me a long time ago. Where she went, what she’s been doing, I really don’t know."

"Besides, I haven’t seen her in over two years. If you don’t believe me, look at my phone. I don’t even have her number."

She took out her phone to show Shen Xin, proving that her daughter’s number wasn’t even saved in her contacts.

Shen Xin felt an impulse to just haul her away.

’The daughter she carried for ten months... could she really be so heartless as to not care at all?’

"When was the last time you saw your daughter?"

"I don’t know. Can’t remember."

Her indifferent tone angered Shen Xin again. He continued to ask if she knew who her daughter was close to or if she had a boyfriend.

"I don’t know. I don’t get involved in her life."

Hua Juan said it as if she were perfectly justified.

Shen Xin couldn’t be bothered to ask any more questions. He told her to come back with them for a blood test.

A DNA comparison would tell them if the female victim was Guan Hong.

"A blood test? No way! On what grounds? I... I haven’t committed a crime. Why should you draw my blood?" Hua Juan instantly panicked.

Shen Xin didn’t want to waste his breath on her. It was the same thought as before: with a reaction like that, if she hadn’t used recently, he’d change his last name to hers.

He had Ding Yuwei take her away, then went back inside to tell Li Dongsheng they were leaving.

"Shen Xin, that Guan Hong... is she dead?" Li Dongsheng followed him out and asked hesitantly.

Shen Xin nodded, explaining that they had just found skeletal remains.

Li Dongsheng let out a long sigh, murmured what a pity it was, and turned back to the mahjong parlor.

By the time they brought Hua Juan back to the branch station, Chen Chao had also just returned with Yang Huixia. Zhu Zhenyuan was with them.

"This is Hua Juan?" Chen Chao glanced at her, his brow furrowing with a discerning eye. "She have a record?"

Shen Xin nodded.

Chen Chao grunted and said they should have them identify the clothing first.

「The Forensics Department.」

Director Cui Yan took the items of clothing out of the evidence box one by one.

The moment he took out the slippers, Yang Huixia’s body swayed as if struck by lightning. The emotions she had been holding in on the way there could no longer be contained, and she broke down like a bursting dam.

"Why!"

She stepped forward, then whipped her head around to question Shen Xin and the others.

She wasn’t sobbing aloud, but tears were already streaming rapidly down her cheeks.

Earlier, at Lotus Peak, Shen Xin had seen a light in her eyes.

In this moment, there was light in her eyes again, but it was the glimmer of welling tears.

"How could he be dead? Why?" she kept asking, murmuring, "Why couldn’t he have just left? Just gotten tired of me, decided he didn’t want me anymore, and left, never to come back?"

Her hand trembling, she reached out and grabbed the gray short-sleeved shirt, her voice dazed. "That way, at least... he’d still be alive."

Only then could she no longer hold it in, letting out a heart-wrenching sob.

Ding Yuwei quickly turned her head away, secretly wiping her eyes.

Shen Xin’s heart felt heavy, as if it were stuffed with straw.

Her beloved husband was dead, and she had been misunderstood for two years, enduring scornful looks for two years, to the point that even her son wouldn’t acknowledge her.

She hadn’t left; she was still looking after the farm she and her husband had worked so hard to build together.

Every night, all alone, through the long, dark hours—Shen Xin couldn’t begin to imagine the grief and sorrow she must have endured.

Zhu Zhenyuan stepped forward to help Yang Huixia up. His eyes were also red as he sniffled and said, "At least there’s some closure now."

He then turned to Shen Xin. "Young man, thank you."

He made a motion as if to bow.

He had previously asked Shen Xin, saying he felt his son was dead but begged them to at least find the body.

Now, Shen Xin had done it.

Shen Xin quickly steadied him and offered his condolences.

As he turned his head, Shen Xin noticed Hua Juan.

She was just staring blankly at the set of clothes before her, a lost and helpless look on her face.

"Hua Juan, please identify these. Are these clothes your daughter, Guan Hong, used to wear?" Chen Chao asked.

Hua Juan flinched, coughed, and cleared her throat. She opened her mouth to speak, but no words came out.

She closed her mouth again and, after a moment of silence, simply gave a slight nod.

Chen Chao stepped forward. "To avoid any mistakes, we need to take a blood sample from you for a DNA comparison."

"Oh, okay."

Hua Juan agreed and asked where she should go for the draw.

As she was leaving with a colleague from the forensics department, she stopped, turned her head for one last look at the clothes on the table, a dazed expression on her face, then followed them out.

Shen Xin took in her reaction.

’I suppose, deep down in her heart, she might still have a soft spot for her daughter,’ he thought.

Chen Chao asked Ding Yuwei to comfort Yang Huixia, then led Shen Xin out. "The person Jia Xiaojun mentioned was named Li Xiaofei, right? Do you know the exact characters for his name?"

Shen Xin shook his head, indicating he didn’t know.

Chen Chao thought for a moment. "Come with me," he said.

With that, he led Shen Xin toward the records room.

After greeting Lao Lin, he took Shen Xin to the section for the year 2016.

He rummaged through the shelves for a bit before pulling out a file and handing it over.

Shen Xin took it, confused, and opened it.

On April 16, 2016, at a barbecue restaurant on the ground floor of Gengshang Home, an intentional assault occurred.

The suspect, Li Xiaofei, had a verbal altercation with the victim. In the ensuing struggle, Li Xiaofei used the restaurant’s lamb boning knife to stab the victim, causing a ruptured kidney.

After being apprehended, Li Xiaofei was sentenced to five years in prison.

At the bottom, Shen Xin saw that the handling officer was Chen Chao.

"Captain Chen!"

Shen Xin looked up abruptly. ’This Li Xiaofei... he couldn’t be the murderer we’re looking for, could he?’

But the case file had a photo.

He had short black hair. As for his appearance, it didn’t quite match Wang Linhong’s description.