After having lunch, Teacher Tong returned to the office while Ye Jian went looking for Principal Chen to retrieve her luggage.
“It’s quite sunny outside, pack your things back at the dorm later. Come, arrange the books with me.” Principal Chen really enjoyed his job in the library. Besides, he was fully aware that his body wasn’t suitable to take on harder jobs.
He still wanted to live a few years longer, to see how far the little lass whom he had personally trained could travel.
A new batch of books had just arrived for the school, from astronomy to geography, from the distant past till the present. A 100-year-old prestigious school had many more resources than all the other schools, and that could clearly be seen from the volume of books they owned.
Two hours later, Ye Jian, who felt that she smelled of books, finally walked towards her dorm with her luggage in tow.
At 4 p.m., the school was much more peaceful as compared to how it was in the morning. After passing through a flagstone path flanked by giant camphor trees and walking about a few dozen meters on the left side of the swan lake, she would reach the girls’ dormitory.
When she reached the Swan Lake, she immediately noticed that there was someone sitting leisurely on the stone bench under the willow tree, his long arm lazily placed on the backrest of the bench, all the while admiring the beautiful scenery of the Swan Lake.
Ye Jian thought about it for a moment and decided to take the initiative to walk there.
She had no choice. He was a familiar friend. If she really avoided him this time, who knew how much he would tease her again the next time they met?
“You didn’t walk around me? Little fox, now I’m surprised again.” As if Xia Jinyuan had eyes on the back of his head, before Ye Jian had gotten close to him, he turned and looked at her.
The many golden shades from rays of the setting sun illuminated his handsome face with the gentle sway of the willows. His face was half-lit while also half-hidden, making the expression on his face difficult to discern.
Noticing Ye Jian still having her luggage in her hands, he stood up, “I need you to come and help me out, it’s business! Do you want to leave your luggage in my car? Or do you want to put it back into your dorm?”
Although he had a faint smile on his face, there was a cold glint hidden in the depths of his gaze. Ye Jian already believed that when he said it was business, it was indeed and definitely … business.
“If it’s urgent, we can leave immediately. If it’s not, I can leave my stuff in the dorm first.” Ye Jian lifted up the luggage quite easily; there wasn’t anything of value inside it, just a few sets of clothes to change into.
Xia Jinyuan, who had waited for about an hour, picked up the luggage that had passed through his hands multiple times today, but still had yet to be placed into the dorm. He laughed with raised eyebrows, “Then bring it with us, maybe you’ll need a change of clothes tonight.”
“It’s possible that you won’t be able to return to school tonight, I’m informing you in advance.”
Spending the night outside, even if he said that they would have to sleep on the streets or under bridges, she wouldn’t have any complaints.
Once again returning to the car, Xia Jinyuan’s phone started buzzing. He glanced at Ye Jian before picking up the call, “I’ll be there in twenty minutes. Book me a hotel. If it’s too late, then we’ll sleep there.”
Ye Jian didn’t ask about what had happened. She was used to other people telling her about it.
He parked his car at the front door of the Bureau of Transportation. Before he had finished parking, two policemen wearing olive green police uniforms ran towards the car. A heavy atmosphere was discernible from their actions and expressions.
“The suspect has strong anti-reconnaissance abilities. His work is savage and cruel, and he destroyed all possible leads at the crime scene. We’ve mobilized the whole district’s surveillance network, and we’ve also tapped into the CCTV at the crime scene. We do not have much time, we need to find the suspect as soon as possible.”
After getting off the car, a police officer reported all the leads they had grasped to Xia Jinyuan at a very fast pace, while the other officer was in charge of leading the way. The party of four emerged inside the monitoring room of the whole district’s surveillance system with hurried footsteps.
“Show us the footage at the crime scene. Also, pull up the footage of all the cameras at the two nearest intersections.” Xia Jinyuan started ordering everything around with a heavy gaze, ordering Ye Jian after that, “You have great memory and are good at recognizing things. We’ve prepared a pen and paper for you, write down everything you find out there.”
