Sweeping Mouse Ridge – Chapter Four : 5

“Ma Xiaozhong, what the hell do you think you’re doing?!” Huyan Yun roared angrily.

The policeman, who was searching him from shirt to ankle, stopped and burst into laughter upon hearing this. “You, surnamed Hu, actually recognized my surname.”

“No, it’s Huyan, a compound surname.” Huyan Yun straightened up, correcting him as he turned around, surprised to find Guo Xiaofen standing not far behind the short, fat man.

“Little Guo, long time no see.” He greeted her awkwardly.

Guo Xiaofen gave a cold laugh.

“Hey, surnamed Hu, behave yourself during police questioning, and don’t you dare flirt with girls!” Ma Xiaozhong glared.

“Strange, weren’t you suspended?”

“My position may be suspended, but my heart for serving the people cannot be!” Ma Xiaozhong stubbornly retorted. “Tell me honestly, you and Li Ziyong spent an afternoon and half the night together. What shady things did you two do?”

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“With that mouth of yours, if you were tied to an airplane and spewed nonsense, no farmland in the country would need fertilizer!” Huyan Yun said. “Besides, why should I tell you?”

“Why? Because you obstructed us from performing our duties!”

“Little Guo’s a former reporter, and you’re a suspended police officer. What duties could you possibly perform?”

“I will tell you in a way that will scare you to death. It was official business arranged privately by your wife, Liu Simiao.”

Logically, there was a clear contradiction between “private arrangements” and “official business,” but the name “Liu Simiao” carried immense weight, startling Huyan Yun. After a moment’s thought, he realized, “I heard Simiao left the Special Task Force group. Does that mean she still wants to continue investigating the Sweeping Mouse Ridge Case?”

“Never mind that. Anyway, this is a huge game, and I will not tell you how big it is.”

“Fine!” Huyan Yun turned and walked away. “Everyone goes their own way.”

Ma Xiaozhong was not about to let him off the hook. He dragged him outside the residential area and shoved him into the back of his new energy vehicle. Guo Xiaofen also got in and sat in the passenger seat. Huyan Yun inevitably got a beating, kicking and punching. Ma Xiaozhong grinned and said, “Quickly tell the police officer, why did you look for Li Ziyong?”

They were already close friends and always treated playful banter as a form of greeting. So Huyan Yun recounted in detail what had happened that afternoon with Li Ziyong and then said, “Looks like you two have been following me. Now let’s exchange information. What official business did Simiao ask you for?”

“Don’t think too highly of yourself. We were not following you; we wanted to find Li Ziyong to get some information, but we found out you beat us to it,” Guo Xiaofen said coldly. Then she recounted how Liu Simiao had summoned her and Ma Xiaozhong that morning, without hiding anything. After listening, Huyan Yun pondered for a moment and said, “It seems that Simiao’s request for your assistance in the investigation is not because there’s more to this case than meets the eye, but rather because there’s more to the case from ten years ago.”

This was truly a wake-up call; Guo Xiaofen felt as if she’d been struck by lightning! Although Liu Simiao had mainly discussed the Sweeping Mouse Ridge Case that morning, without mentioning the Western Suburbs Serial Murders from ten years ago, after much back and forth, she had led them to focus their investigation on how Zhou Liping became a criminal, and the investigation plan was tracing back to Fang Mei. In short, was it not because there was another possibility regarding the “starting point” of Zhou Liping’s crime?

Ma Xiaozhong could not help but slap his thigh: “I knew it! We should have just removed the blurring, but Simiao made us go into nostalgia mode. Turns out, ‘I searched for her in my dreams, but she lives in Dashilan.'”

This statement was truly a mishmash of words, neither fish nor fowl. Huyan Yun and Guo Xiaofen understood it, but they could not help but look at each other, speechless.

Ma Xiaozhong, completely unashamed, asked, “Huyan, in your opinion, does this mean that Zhou Liping is the real culprit in the Sweeping Mouse Ridge case, and there’s no possibility of a reversal?”

This was also Guo Xiaofen’s biggest concern. She stared at Huyan Yun, who frowned for a long time before slowly saying, “It’s difficult… but not entirely impossible.”

“You mean, Zhou Liping might be completely innocent, and the real culprit’s someone else?” Ma Xiaozhong asked in surprise.

“Based on what the police have so far, besides the video footage from the traffic light at Qingshikou East Lane, there’s no other evidence to indict Zhou Liping. His excuse about not having a crime window sounds like he’s lying, but precisely because it sounds so much like lying, it might actually be true. To confirm that Zhou Liping is the real culprit, we need to find out how he got from Sweeping Mouse Ridge to Xingyu Road in less than half an hour.”

“Have you found it?” Guo Xiaofen asked.

Huyan Yun glanced at the building where Li Ziyong lived: “I found a way, but it’s only a possibility…”

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“Huyan Yun, don’t blame me for not warning you; leaving things unsaid can get you killed quickly in a detective novel,” Ma Xiaozhong said.

Guo Xiaofen knew that Huyan Yun would not finish his words at this point: “So what are your plans next?”

“How about this: we split up. You continue with the plan you discussed with Liu Simiao, tracing back the people and events Zhou Liping experienced over the past ten years, all the way to the starting point and root of his crimes; I will investigate the Sweeping Mouse Ridge Case and communicate with you immediately if any new developments are discovered.”

“But…” Guo Xiaofen hesitated for a moment and said, “You need to understand, what Simiao entrusted us with is essentially a normal journalistic investigation, but what you’re going to do is different. The law clearly stipulates that no one without criminal case investigative powers can intervene in judicial investigations. And… you don’t even have Simiao’s private authorization; if anything goes wrong, she cannot protect you.”

“Oh dear, after all these years, Little Guo, how come you still don’t understand!” Ma Xiaozhong said impatiently. “Huyan just cannot stand seeing Simiao being bullied; he’d charge in even through gunfire. Don’t worry about him.”

Huyan Yun looked at Guo Xiaofen and said heavily, “What I said to Li Ziyong came from the bottom of my heart. This case involves two of my best friends and ten years of my life. Ten years—so much has changed. Things that were already settled have suddenly resurfaced in a different guise, proving that our youth was nothing but a meaningless misjudgment… How can I remain indifferent to this?”

Guo Xiaofen slowly turned around, sat up straight, and turned her gaze back to the vast night outside the car window.

Huyan Yun got out of the car, and Ma Xiaozhong got into the driver’s seat and started the car. He rolled down the car window and said to Huyan Yun, “Do not say I’m being disloyal. Sweeping Mouse Ridge—this case is huge. I did not care how you indulged your detective fantasies before, but now you have to abide by the law. Without police permission, you cannot start an investigation on your own. I have a suggestion: either find the officer in charge of this case to temporarily carry their bag, or find a former policeman as a partner. That way, at least they can protect you from trouble. After all, even close friends are better off than strangers. As long as it’s not illegal, the police will give an old buddy some leeway.”

Huyan Yun’s eyes lit up, a smile spread across his face, and he gave a salute: “Understood! Thanks for the guidance, Police Chief Ma.”

Watching Ma Xiaozhong drive away, Huyan Yun stood on the dark street for a while, then slowly took out his phone from his pocket.