I Sent You to Take the College Entrance Exam, and You Ended Up Solving a Murder Case?! - Chapter 22

It’s Wu Che.

“Old Captain.” The voice on the other end of the phone was a little hoarse.

“What’s wrong, Xiao Wu? Judging from the noise you’re making, you got into a fight?” Fan Yuan joked.

There was a few seconds of silence on the other end of the phone.

“The team… has reopened Fan Xiaotian’s case.”

Fan Yuan’s hand, holding the chopsticks, froze in mid-air.

“What did you say?”

“Chen Mo, Captain Chen has applied to his superiors to reopen the investigation into the ‘10.23’ case,” Wu Che repeated, word by word.

Yuan’s breathing suddenly became rapid, his chest heaved violently, and his eyes flashed with a burning light.

He had longed for this day countless times in the dead of night!

“Great! Great!” he exclaimed excitedly.

“But…” Wu Che hesitated, “the higher-ups only gave us twenty days.”

“Twenty days?”

Fan Yuan’s excitement froze instantly, then turned into disappointment.

“Twenty days… Ha, they still don’t believe we can catch him.”

“This is just a formality, a way to give the new captain a way out.”

He knew all too well what this meant.

A Class A wanted criminal, on the run for a year, thought he could be caught in just twenty days? That’s a pipe dream!

“No, Captain!” Wu Che hurriedly explained.

“Captain Chen is serious! He told us to memorize all of Fan Xiaotian’s information within three days.”

“We’ll be organized to go to the shooting range this afternoon to resume shooting training!”

He said he wanted to polish all the guns.

Fan Yuan fell silent again.

Resumption of shooting training?

A bright spot from the gun?

This doesn’t seem like a perfunctory attitude.

Is this young man serious?

A long silence fell over both ends of the phone call, broken only by the sound of each other’s heavy breathing.

After a long while, Fan Yuan slowly spoke, his voice hoarse but firm.

“I see.”

After hanging up the phone, he looked at the noodles in the pot that had turned white from overcooking and lost all appetite.

He turned and went into the bedroom, opened the long-sealed wardrobe, and dragged out a locked iron box from the deepest part.

…

Sunday, the sun was shining brightly.

Chen Mo, who rarely didn’t get up early, was woken up by the doorbell.

When the door opened, Wen Fei stood gracefully in the doorway, carrying two large bags of groceries.

“I brought you breakfast and took the opportunity to check out your new home!”

“This is way too plain!”

Wen Fei put her hands on her hips and paced around the empty living room. “No, I have to add some warmth to it today.”

After enjoying the lovingly prepared lunch brought by Wenfei, the two headed straight to the nearby furniture market.

From the color of the curtains to the style of the sofa, and even what paintings to hang on the wall.

Wen Fei was in high spirits, while Chen Mo followed behind her the whole time, nodding and swiping the card.

Seeing the girl carefully comparing the samples, Chen Mo’s nerves, which had been tense for a week, finally relaxed completely.

In the afternoon, I received a call from my friend Liu Chengtao.

“Brother Mo, what are you doing? Ye Meng and I are going to the amusement park, want to come along?”

“Okay, where are you? Wenfei and I will be right there.”

The four of them spent the afternoon having a blast at the amusement park. They rode roller coasters, bumper cars, and even went to a haunted house where they were terrified and screamed.

It wasn’t until nightfall that the four of them, still wanting more, found a street food stall for dinner.

After dinner, Chen Mo drove Wen Fei back to Qingliu University.

The car stopped downstairs at the dormitory building. Wen Fei unbuckled her seatbelt but did not get out of the car immediately.

She turned her head and looked at Chen Mo intently.

“Have you been having something on your mind lately?”

Chen Mo was stunned for a moment.

“No, it’s fine.”

“No.” Wen Fei shook her head.

“When you smiled today, you seemed to drift off several times. Your brows were always unconsciously furrowed.”

Chen Mo felt as if his heart had been gently poked.

He reached out and ruffled the girl’s hair, saying softly, “There’s a case that’s rather tricky.”

“Is it dangerous?”

“It’s alright, just routine work.” He didn’t want her to worry.

Wen Fei was silent for a moment, then leaned over and gently hugged him.

“be safe.”

“Um.”

After seeing Wen Fei off, Chen Mo drove home alone.

Fan Xiaotian’s sinister face once again uncontrollably surfaced in his mind.

…

Monday, 7:30 a.m.

Chen Mo entered the Fifth Team’s office on time.

To his surprise, the office was already full of people.

Wu Che, Jiang Xiaomiao, Su Chun, Lao Wang… all seven team members were present.

On each person’s desk, there is a steaming cup of coffee or strong tea.

His eyes were bloodshot, but he was unusually excited.

On the table, spread out were documents about Fan Xiaotian.

Good morning, Captain!

Upon seeing Chen Mo, everyone stood up simultaneously.

Chen Mo glanced around and nodded.

“The meeting will begin in five minutes.”

“yes!”

Inside the conference room, Chen Mo stood in front of the projection screen, with Fan Xiaotian’s chilling face still behind him.

“After a weekend of research, I believe everyone has gained a basic understanding of Fan Xiaotian.”

“Now, let me share my thoughts.”

He picked up a marker and wrote two words on the whiteboard next to him.

“conceited.”

“Fan Xiaotian is extremely arrogant, even to a pathological degree.”

“He enjoyed the thrill of having the police at his mercy.”

“Looking at his past criminal records, what do they have in common?”

Su Chun adjusted his glasses and spoke first.

“The crime scenes were often not far from the police station.”

“Another time, the convenience store he robbed had a high-definition security camera right across the street.”

“That’s right.” Chen Mo nodded approvingly.

“This is not negligence, this is provocation.”

“He was audacious, had a strong sense of counter-surveillance, and was very familiar with our case-handling procedures.”

“Every time, he managed to precisely avoid our encirclement and escape successfully.”

“This shows that he knows us very well.”

The conference room was completely silent, except for the echo of Chen Mo’s voice.

“So, where would such an arrogant and cunning criminal go after we’ve put a city-wide warrant for his arrest?”

“The most dangerous place is the safest place,” Wu Che said in a deep voice.

“Yes!” Chen Mo snapped his fingers.

“I’m certain that there’s a more than 90% chance that Fan Xiaotian never left Shucheng!”

This conclusion shocked everyone present.

“He may have just changed his face and his identity.”

“Like a chameleon, it disguises itself as the most ordinary thing and lurks among us.”

Chen Mo’s gaze sharpened as he swept across the faces of each team member.

“He could be a food delivery driver, a security guard, or a shoe repairman at the entrance of a residential compound.”

“It could even be a homeless person who passes by you every day.”

“The place where he is hiding must be the place we are most likely to overlook, the place we take for granted, and the place we pass by every day.”

Chen Mo’s words opened a completely new door for solving the entire case.

Everyone felt a chill run down their spines.

If what the captain said is true, then for the past year, haven’t they been brushing shoulders with the devil every single day?

Chen Mo turned around and walked to the huge electronic map of Shu City.

He stretched out his finger and moved it slowly across the map, finally landing heavily on a single point.

“Therefore, these are the places we will focus our investigation on next.”

All eyes followed his finger and focused on that area on the map.

It was a densely packed urban area marked with old buildings.

Wu Che’s pupils suddenly contracted.

“Is this… the old town area next to the Wuhou Temple?”

“That’s right.”

Chen Mo pressed his finger firmly on that area.

“Our first target in the investigation is this place.”

“The most chaotic place in the entire city of Shu, with the largest transient population, and also the most densely populated blind spots in surveillance.”

“The straight-line distance to the Municipal Bureau is less than three kilometers.”

Everyone unconsciously slowed their breathing, their eyes fixed on the old town area under Chen Mo’s finger.