893: Chapter 886 Perceiving the Truth 893: Chapter 886 Perceiving the Truth Early in the morning, at over six o’clock, inside Zhu Maode’s office at the Tianhai Police Station.
Ye Chenfeng, Sun Hengfei, Fang Nanxiang, and Zhu Maode all sat despondently in their chairs.
After receiving a call from Xue Ying at midnight, Ye Chenfeng immediately contacted Zhu Maode and then left the hotel with Sun Hengfei and Fang Nanxiang, while Sun Xiaoli stayed behind to take care of Zhang Xinran in the hotel.
After leaving the hotel, they went straight to Nanning Road in Tianhai.
When they arrived at the alley on Nanning Road, it was already cordoned off by the police.
Zhu Maode had rushed to the scene as soon as he had received a call from Ye Chenfeng.
The three men in their forties who lay dead in the alley were all killed with a single stab wound to the throat, and showed no signs of struggle.
Ye Chenfeng donned gloves and carefully examined the three middle-aged men, but found nothing on their bodies.
The police on the scene quickly confirmed the identities of the three men.
One of them, a middle-aged man with a small mustache, was named Jiang Chunmao, a pork vendor; another, a middle-aged man with sparse hair, was named Hua Deshui, a clothing vendor; the last, a middle-aged man with a scar on his chin, was named Zhu Rentian, a fruit vendor.
There was nothing suspicious about the identities of the three middle-aged men.
After finding nothing at the scene, under the guidance of the police, Ye Chenfeng and the others visited the homes of the three men.
After a thorough search, they still found nothing unusual and had to return to the police station.
By then, it was past six in the morning, and the atmosphere in Zhu Maode’s office was exceedingly heavy.
Ye Chenfeng wrote down the names of the three victims on a sheet of white paper: Jiang Chunmao, Hua Deshui, Zhu Rentian.
He had no leads in his mind and didn’t know how to find the hidden Xue Ying in Tianhai from these ordinary vendors.
“Bang!
Bang!
Bang!”
Just then, there was a knock on the door of Zhu Maode’s office.
Zhu Maode promptly said, “Come in.”
Two police officers, holding thick folders, walked in and placed the folders on Zhu Maode’s desk, saying, “Chief, these folders contain all the information about the three victims.
We’ve brought over all the materials we could gather, even tracing back to the victims’ ancestors.”
Zhu Maode nodded to indicate that the officers could leave, then respectfully said to Ye Chenfeng, “Mr.
Ye, why don’t we take a look at these materials now?
Maybe we can find some clues.”
Ye Chenfeng opened the folders and began to seriously review the various materials on the three victims, accompanied by Sun Hengfei, Fang Nanxiang, and Zhu Maode.
Three hours later.
Ye Chenfeng and the others had carefully gone through all the material related to the three victims, finding no useful leads.
This caused Ye Chenfeng’s brow to furrow even tighter.
“Mr.
Ye, I’m going to the restroom.
Don’t rush, we still have two days, don’t we?
I believe we will find some traces,” said Zhu Maode as he walked out of the office.
But just a minute or two after Zhu Maode left, Ye Chenfeng’s cell phone in his pocket rang again.
He hurriedly took out the phone Xue Ying had given him and answered the call.
This time, before Ye Chenfeng could speak, the gloomy voice of Xue Ying came through, “Ye Chenfeng, how’s it going?
Have you found any leads?
People usually only unleash their hidden potential in the most critical moments.
It seems I need to put some pressure on you.
Let’s make things more exciting, I’m changing the rules of the game, reducing the three days to one.
If you don’t find me by midnight tonight, then you should prepare to collect your brother-in-law’s body!”
“Of course, I, Xue Ying, am a very fair person.
I will tell you the second clue right now.
It is a sentence, listen carefully, ‘Far in the horizon, close in front of your eyes.’
“Ye Chenfeng, I hope you can find me before midnight!”
“Dudu dudu—”
Without giving Ye Chenfeng any chance to speak, Xue Ying hung up the phone.
After Xue Ying ended the call, Ye Chenfeng immediately received a text message, which contained an image.
The picture showed Wu Jie unconscious with a timed bomb strapped to his body, indicating roughly fifteen hours left on the timer.
With about fifteen hours remaining until midnight, it was apparent that the photo had been taken just minutes before.
Upon seeing Ye Chenfeng furrowing his brows tightly, Sun Hengfei hurriedly asked, “Chenfeng, what’s wrong?
Was it that person called Xue Ying who called you?”
Ye Chenfeng nodded without concealment and said, “The other party has reduced the deadline to one day.
If we can’t find him in Tianhai today, I’m afraid Wu Jie will be blown to pieces by the bomb.”
“However, Xue Ying gave me a second clue.
It’s a phrase: ‘Far in the sky, close in front of your eyes.'” Ye Chenfeng wrote this down on a piece of paper and placed it alongside the names of the three victims.
“Far in the sky, close in front of your eyes?
What kind of crappy clue is that?
Chenfeng, could the other party be playing with us?
With just these, are we supposed to find someone in Tianhai?
Besides, we have only about fifteen hours left,” Sun Hengfei said angrily.
“Mr.
Ye, what are you all doing?
Is there a new discovery?” Zhu Maode, who had just returned from the restroom, pushed open the door and walked into the office.
He had overheard Sun Hengfei’s voice, so he couldn’t help but ask.
“No damn discovery, the other party reduced the time from three days to one.
I think they’re just making fun of us,” Sun Hengfei replied, extremely frustrated.
“Let’s all calm down.
We can’t lose our composure now.
Let’s look over the information on the three victims again,” Ye Chenfeng said, trying hard to control his rage so he could keep his mind as cool as possible while he started to go through the data of the three victims again.
Time raced by.
In the blink of an eye, it was already past eight in the evening, leaving just over three hours until midnight.
Ye Chenfeng and the others had not left Zhu Maode’s office at all, poring over the victims’ details again and again.
Unfortunately, despite practically wearing out the pages, they still hadn’t found anything.
“Chenfeng, we’re running out of time, with just over three hours left.
If we can’t find Xue Ying in Tianhai in these next few hours, I’m afraid your nephew really will be turned to mincemeat,” Sun Hengfei said, slamming the worthless materials onto the table.
“Brother Sun, calm down.
We still have over three hours!
There might be a turnaround within this time,” Zhu Maode’s face jiggled as he spoke.
“What can be done in just over three hours?
What does ‘Far in the sky, close in front of your eyes’ even mean?
Could it be saying that Xue Ying is right in front of us?”
Just when Ye Chenfeng also wanted to urge Sun Hengfei to stay calm, he suddenly heard Sun Hengfei’s last remark, which sent a spark of inspiration through his mind—as if he had grasped a vital clue, yet his thoughts were still somewhat chaotic.
Thus, Ye Chenfeng looked down at the piece of paper in front of him, on which he had previously written the names of the three victims and the phrase ‘Far in the sky, close in front of your eyes’.
As Ye Chenfeng sorted through the clues in his mind—the coincidental encounter with Zhu Maode at the airport, the intense murderous aura emanating from Zhu Maode outside of the Skull Gang’s headquarters, which at the time he had thought was merely his own misperception, and right after Zhu Maode had left the office, Ye Chenfeng’s phone had rung again.
Many fragmented images flashed through Ye Chenfeng’s mind, and when he looked at the names of the three victims again, he suddenly had an epiphany.
Zhu Rentian, Jiang Chunmao, and Hua Deshui—taking the first character “Zhu” from the first victim, the third character “Maode” from the second and the second character “De” from the third victim, didn’t it spell out Zhu Maode?
Realizing this unexpected truth, Ye Chenfeng’s pupils suddenly constricted.
He had never imagined that the real Xue Ying had been hidden by his side all along?
This Zhu Maode wasn’t the real Zhu Maode at all.
(To be continued.
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