Striving for Science C48

When Shen Chang'an arrived at the place Director Du had mentioned, the surrounding area was already crowded with elderly men and women who had come to watch the commotion. As he stepped over the police line, he heard the uncles and aunties discussing the deceased inside the house.

"That old Li fellow is truly pitiful. His only child passed away over a decade ago, and with no one around to care for him, he died without anyone noticing."

"Alas, it was the community workers doing a door-to-door check who noticed something was wrong and reported it to the police."

"Luckily it's winter. If it were summer, and no one was home for several days, wouldn't it have stunk?"

"Say less, will you? What if you make him unhappy? Be careful he doesn't come looking for you in the middle of the night."

"Pah, pah, pah, what nonsense are you spouting? I haven't harmed him."

Shen Chang'an looked back at the onlookers. Their emotions were complex, a mix of fear of death, indifference to life, and a sense of superiority from seeing someone else's misery, making them feel like they were doing okay.

The deceased's house was on the first floor. Shen Chang'an walked to the door and, seeing police and a forensic doctor inside, didn't go in to disturb their work.

"The time of death is estimated to be around nine o'clock the night before last." The forensic doctor put away his tools and turned to Yao Huailin, who was standing guard inside, "Captain Yao, based on the deceased's body, he appears to have died from a sudden heart attack. There are no signs of foul play."

"Thank you for your hard work." Yao Huailin sighed and waved for his colleagues to put the deceased's body into a body bag. Although Wuming City wasn't large, it wasn't uncommon for elderly people living alone to die silently without anyone noticing.

There was a family photo of three in the house, but only signs of one person living there, showing that the deceased had been living alone for a long time. Fortunately, the temperature had been low recently, so even though the deceased's body had been discovered thirty or forty hours later, it hadn't decomposed too much.

There were also many carving tools and some exquisitely carved root sculptures in the house. He could roughly guess what the old man did for a living, but his silent death still made him feel a bit melancholic.

Taking a deep drag of his cigarette, Yao Huailin suppressed the sympathy in his heart. As a police officer, the most important thing was to not be too emotional. As his colleagues carried the body out, he quietly reminded them, "Be gentle, everyone. Let the old man leave with some dignity."

Exhaling the smoke, he saw Shen Chang'an standing outside the door. He took a mask from his coat pocket and tossed it to Shen Chang'an, "Put this on."

Shen Chang'an put on the mask and asked, "Can I come in?"

"Come in, it's not a crime scene." Yao Huailin knew that when something like this happened, the Civil Service Department also had to create a file in their work system, so he gave him a general overview of the situation: "The deceased was sixty-seven years old, male, and a root carving artist. He had no wife or children. The community worker discovered the body. The time of death was around nine o'clock the night before last. It was not a homicide."

"A root carving artist?"

Shen Chang'an paused his foot at the door, a bad feeling rising in his heart. When he saw the photo on the wall, that feeling became a reality.

Standing in the somewhat desolate house, Shen Chang'an was silent for a moment, "You said his time of death was around nine o'clock the night before last?"

"Yes, for normal deaths like this, where there are no external factors interfering with the scene, determining the time of death is usually quite accurate." Yao Huailin noticed that Shen Chang'an's expression was strange, "What's wrong? Do you suspect the cause of his death?"

"No." Shen Chang'an slowly shook his head, looking at the family photo of three on the wall, suddenly feeling a little sad. The night before last, when he saw the shop owner, it was already past ten o'clock at night. He said that he had already gone to bed, but he remembered that he still owed him a root carving, so he had made a special trip.

Thinking of his customer's order even as he was dying, and wanting to deliver it even as a ghost, was this persistence the shop owner's sincerity or his pursuit of root carving?

The shop owner had told him that if he couldn't find a disciple, then so be it. Had he truly let it go, or was it death that forced him to let go?

Shen Chang'an felt a pang of sadness, sad for the shop owner's lonely death and the fact that his craft hadn't been passed on, and also sad for himself.

He felt like he was just like this old man, with no family and no attachments. If he were to suddenly die in the middle of the night, no one would even notice.

"Shen Chang'an, what's wrong?" Seeing Shen Chang'an staring blankly at the photo, Yao Huailin patted him on the back, "Don't look at it, let's go."

"Captain Yao." Just as the two of them reached the door, a police officer walked up to Yao Huailin, "We interviewed people near the shop the deceased owned. A staff member at a fast food restaurant told me that the night before last, after ten o'clock, a young man came out of the deceased's shop and bought a cup of milk there."

Yao Huailin saw that the evidence bag the police officer was holding contained a cup of milk with a straw in it.

"We checked the deceased's shop. There were no signs of a struggle, but we found that at 10:22 PM that night, a sum of money was transferred via WeChat into the deceased's bank account."

Yao Huailin vaguely felt that something was wrong. He quickly asked, "Have you found out who transferred the money?"

"It's someone named Shen…"

"It's me." Shen Chang'an sighed, taking off his mask, and said, "Two days ago, I bought a root carving at that shop. Because the root carving had a slight flaw, the owner asked me to wait a day before picking it up. The night before last, around ten o'clock, I received a call from the owner saying that the root carving was completely finished. If I was in a hurry to pick it up, I could go that night, so I went."

"In this cold weather, you ran out at ten o'clock at night to pick up a root carving?" Yao Huailin didn't want to doubt Shen Chang'an, but this was really hard to explain. "I thought the only things that could make a man so proactive were women, or preparing a gift for a woman."

Saying this, he raised an eyebrow at Shen Chang'an: "Looking at you, you don't seem like a man with a girlfriend either."

Shen Chang'an: "Discussing the case is fine, but personal attacks aren't necessary, are they?"

"Hey, who's attacking you personally?" Yao Huailin glanced at the time. "Let's go, brother. According to the rules, you have to come to the station with me. Also, this matter involves the deceased, so after things are cleared up, you'll probably need to sign some paperwork. Have your family help you with that."

Shen Chang'an, who was about to follow Yao Huailin into the police car, paused. "Can someone else do it?"

"Of course, someone else can, but in today's society, who's willing to come to the police station for someone they're not related to? Wuming City is such a small place, things get twisted after just a few words. The smaller the place, the more people care about their reputation. You should find someone you trust."

Shen Chang'an fell silent. He got into the car without saying a word, not forgetting to fasten his seatbelt.

"Don't be nervous. We won't let a bad person go, but we definitely won't wrong a good person. It's just a routine matter, just explain things clearly." Yao Huailin saw that he had suddenly stopped talking and thought he was worried about going to the police station. "The cause of death has been clearly determined by the forensic doctor, so don't worry."

"I'm not worried about that." Shen Chang'an rubbed his nose and sighed. "I'm worried that I'm all alone, and I can't bring myself to trouble others with this kind of thing."

"All alone?"

Yao Huailin suddenly remembered that Shen Chang'an was a key talent introduced by the city's top universities. The section about relatives in his file was completely blank. He instantly thought of a possibility. For a moment, he regretted his loose tongue, saying things that were like stabbing someone in the heart.

Just as Yao Huailin wished he could slap himself, Shen Chang'an's phone rang.

"Dao Nian?" Shen Chang'an answered the phone.

"When are you coming back?" Dao Nian looked out the window. "The rain has stopped."

Shen Chang'an suddenly remembered that he had said this morning that he would take Dao Nian out for a walk after the rain stopped. "I've run into a bit of trouble here, I might not be able to make it back for lunch."

"What trouble?" Dao Nian, who had been lazily curled up in his wheelchair, stood up and reached out to summon a mirror to see what had happened to Shen Chang'an.

"I... I'm at the station."

The hand summoning the mirror paused. Dao Nian tried his best to make his tone gentler. "Don't panic, I'll be right there."

"I'm not panicking." Shen Chang'an, who had felt a bit empty inside, felt like someone had stuffed a large pomelo into his chest after hearing Dao Nian say "I'll be right there." It was sweet and not greasy, with a hint of sourness.

"Okay." Shen Chang'an rubbed his nose. "I'm not panicking."

Yao Huailin saw that after Shen Chang'an hung up the phone, all traces of sadness and loneliness were gone, replaced by his signature bright smile. He couldn't help but feel a bit of a toothache. "What happened? Did you win the lottery?"

"No, someone's coming to pick me up." Shen Chang'an raised an eyebrow. "If you have any questions, you can start asking them in the car. It'll save some time later."

"That won't do. We also have strict rules and regulations when questioning people." Yao Huailin wanted to say, what's so great about someone coming to pick you up, but when he thought of Shen Chang'an's words "all alone," he couldn't bring himself to make fun of him.

***

The evidence had been further transferred to the relevant departments. Not long after Shen Chang'an arrived at the police station, the test results came out. The fingerprints on the milk cup belonged only to Shen Chang'an and the fast-food restaurant employee; there were no fingerprints of the deceased.

In addition, the surveillance camera by the road captured a scene that puzzled the police. They saw that around 9:40 PM, an elderly man, suspected to be the deceased, opened the door of the shop. About half an hour later, Shen Chang'an entered the shop. A few minutes later, Shen Chang'an quickly went to the fast-food restaurant across the street to buy a cup of milk.

It was that cup that was left in the root carving shop, untouched.

A few minutes later, Shen Chang'an came out of the shop. The lights in the root carving shop went out shortly after he left, but the elderly man who opened the door never came out of the shop.

"This... is too strange." The police officer who was reviewing the surveillance footage muttered softly, "It's like the deceased was waiting specifically for him to pick up the goods, and once he picked them up, his wish was fulfilled."

Although the time Shen Chang'an appeared that night was suspicious, apart from that, he had no motive or suspicious points. More importantly, the shop owner died at home, and the cause of death was not homicide, so he did not become a suspect.

After Yao Huailin and Captain Li heard Shen Chang'an's explanation of the cause and effect, they suddenly recalled the incident not long ago when Shen Chang'an had unknowingly stumbled into a ghost den in the Mountain Spring Valley. Their gazes towards Shen Chang'an carried a hint of sympathy.

This is a case of seeing ghosts without realizing it?

Yao Huailin had Shen Chang'an sign the written record, then reached out and patted his shoulder. "Dude, you've had it rough." Not only had he seen ghosts, but he'd also bought hot milk for a ghost and transferred the remaining balance. Such an experience was truly not something an average person would encounter.

"Captain Li, Captain Yao." A police officer knocked and entered, giving Shen Chang'an a complicated look. "Mr. Shen's friend has come to pick him up."

"Alright." Yao Huailin raised his chin towards Shen Chang'an. "Go on, in the future you…"

It's better to encounter fewer ghosts.

Everything was understood without words; Yao Huailin patted Shen Chang'an's shoulder again.

When Shen Chang'an heard that Dao Nian had arrived, he didn't have the mind to guess what Yao Huailin meant. He walked out of the interrogation room and found that many people in the police station were looking at him. He touched his face in confusion. Were there so few suspects caught by the police recently? Why were they all staring at him?

"What's going on with all of you?" Yao Huailin, walking behind Shen Chang'an, was also a bit baffled by the scene.

"Captain Li," a police officer whispered, "you'll understand once you go out and see."

Yao Huailin went out to take a look and saw more than a dozen men in suits crowding the service hall, making it completely packed. He couldn't help but make a wisecrack, "This whole room full of people, are they planning a jailbreak?"

"Police officer, you've misunderstood. We are Mr. Shen's legal team, and we will wholeheartedly provide Mr. Shen with all legal assistance." A man closest to him pushed up his glasses, smiling with a refined demeanor.

"Dao Nian." Shen Chang'an's gaze cut through the crowd of men in suits and landed on Dao Nian, who was reaching out his hand. Then, with a *whoosh*, he slipped to his side.

Dao Nian gently grasped his hand, his gaze turning to Yao Huailin. "What happened?"