Memory Lost

They can eat to their hearts’ content now. Although Su Mian feels sorry for the wallet, once the dishes come, her chopsticks move quicker than everybody else. The other three are eating fiercely as well. Only Han Chen is eating his food slowly; his movements are elegant and captivating as always. He also helps her scrape the meat off of the crab shell and take the shells off of five shrimps; he successfully feeds her full without her knowing.

They finish eating. Su Mian leans back on the couch holding her stomach, and Han Chen accompanies her. Chatterbox and the others get up and walk around to help digest the food.

When there’s no one around, Su Mian’s voice becomes softer and more tender. She looks at him sideways, “Hey, were you always popular with friends back then? Was there always a big group of buddies around you?”

Han Chen has already taken off his jacket and is wearing a white shirt only. His sleeves are rolled up as he sips his tea. Hearing her question, he recalls the photo albums he saw back at home and smiles, “Most probably.”

Su Mian lets out a burp. She leans on his shoulder and lets him rub his hand on her waist. She remembers his car drifting skills and remembers when they were in Beijing last time, he spoke harshly yet Monkey and the others didn’t dare to say anything.

This Young Master from Beijing must have always been an unruly man; even when being lectured and bullied by him, you can’t help but obey him.

“I don’t see you hanging out with them much these days?” Su Mian says without thinking. She regrets it right away.

Han Chen looks down at her.

She blinks her eyes. ƒ𝘳𝗲𝑒𝒘𝐞𝚋𝚗𝐨v𝘦l.𝒄o𝐦

After a moment, his head leans

back and rests against the couch, and then he smiles slowly.

“It’s because I value my love over my friendship,” he says, “In these past few years’ time, I’ve used it all to search for you.”

Su Mian’s heart softens like a block of tofu. She lifts her gaze and stares at him.

He’s also staring at her.

In this very moment, the whistling sounds coming from the river, the sound of water flowing, and the sound of other people chit chatting outside the door all seem to disappear. She looks at his handsome face carrying a hint of tiredness and wants to kiss him, but there are other people in the room nonetheless. Han Chen’s Adam’s apple seems to move up and down slightly as his eyes darken.

“Hhhhh……Hhhhh……”

The sound of snoring gradually becomes louder, pulling their thoughts back to reality. They turn their heads at the same time and smile.

It turns out that there’s another big couch in the room. The window facing the river is open, allowing the cool breeze to blow in. They’ve been working non-stop without sleep for a few days, so now that they’ve had a full meal, Zhou Xiao Zhuan has taken over the biggest couch and is sleeping in it with his arms and legs spread out. The surprisingly loud snoring is coming from his small body. Chatterbox is leaning against a single couch with his head tilted back, eyes closed, and his mouth opened slightly. He’s also deep asleep; half a cigarette is still burning away between his fingers.

Only Cold Face is awake. One of his hands is resting on the couch while the other is holding a cigarette. He’s looking at the scenery outside of the window and smoking slowly. He can sense two pairs of eyes looking at him but he doesn’t look back. Instead, he presses the cigarette

cigarette into the ashtray, tilts his head back and starts sleeping.

“Just kiss if you guys want to,” his voice says, “We can’t see anything.”

Su Mian lets out a giggle and scolds in a low voice, “Stinky Cold Face!” She then turns around and looks out the window. Han Chen rests his hand on her shoulder and admires the scenery quietly with her.

It’s already in the afternoon. The sun shines on the river surface, reflecting a sparkling glow. The river flows slowly and the buildings on each side of the sh.ore seem quiet yet extravagant. The river stretches all the way to where it meets the sky. It’s foggy and only the shadows of boats and the shapes of clouds can be seen. Everything else seems blurry.

“What are you looking at?” Su Mian asks.

“Nothing,” he closes his eyes and rubs between his eyebrows. After a while, he smiles suddenly.

“I seem to be able to see it. The end of time (eternity) that I’ve always wanted.”

Su Mian doesn’t say anything.

He opens his dark brown eyes, lowers his head and kisses her.

_____

The restaurant server is quite shocked when entering the room. She had just gone to refill some water and everyone is asleep.

Nevermind about Chatterbox and Xiao Zhuan, but even Cold Face is snoring loudly. Han Chen is leaning against the couch with his eyes closed lightly. Su Mian is lying on the couch with her head on his lap and is also asleep.

The server looks at her manager with a headache and says softly, “What should we do?”

The manager takes a look at the people who are lying down all over the place in the room; Cold Face and Xiao Zhuan are wearing police uniforms, so it’s very easy to tell who they are.

After a moment of silence,

of silence, the manager closes the door quietly and gestures for the server to leave, “Let them sleep.”

_____

Late night.

Black Shield Team resumes their work with full of energy. Chatterbox dashes to the forensic department promising that he will review all of the evidence collected from the crime scenes and not miss out any details. Xiao Zhuan goes and starts watching every video from the surveillance cameras with his eyes opened wide.

Han Chen asks Cold Face to help him review all of the documents and evidence regarding the case. At the same time, he orders the other police officers to continue searching for evidence on the outside.

Su Mian locks herself in the conference room with determination. She needs to calm her thoughts and search for more clues about these three individuals.

The hands on the clock hanging on the wall tick away. Su Mian takes off her shoes and sits on top of the table with her legs crossed. “Tap, tap, tap,” she taps her fingers on the table non-stop.

The whiteboard in front of her is posted with photos of the three victims. Photos of their daily activities, their dead bodies, identification card, and even an artistic photo of the female victim have all been gathered here by her. She has stuck them all up like she’s showcasing their lives.

There are no paradoxes.

There is no evidence of their actions.

These are the words left behind by those three people as if they’re mocking them.

Su Mian lets out a soft, “Humph!” None? That’s not quite true.

In actual fact, the last time she and Han Chen collaborated with their inferences, she grasped the benefits from it, so now she has been thinking of——incorporating traditional investigation method in her criminal psychology focusing on finding the paradoxes from their actions when committing the crime.

Right crime.

Right now, there is a paradox lying right in front of her——

Since the three victims were chosen based on the tastes of the killers, how were the killers able to not leave behind any evidence and choose them among the crowd?

Thinking back to the Chen Li Jiang case, no matter how spick and span the crime scene was, in order to find out the victims’ paths to satisfy his fantasies, he had to follow them——this was also the evidence found by Han Chen and was able to capture him in the end.

The same goes for T’s case. Regardless of how well T hid among the crowd using his skills as a professional killer, he needed to use the BBS to find his targets.

Shao Lun and Situ Yi’s case was the same. The two of them were highly intelligent killers, but they also needed to come into contact with the victims in order to abduct them successfully. Therefore, their cars were spotted by the surveillance cameras.

……

But what about this time?

Su Mian lifts her gaze and examine the photos in front of her——Liu Yao Hua, who died from the explosion, is leaning against the car with his mistress sweetly in the photo; Chen De Yuan from the wax figure incident is standing with his wife and kid in front of an elementary school looking happy; And Bai An An the mermaid is looking into the camera with her hands raised up holding a “V” sign……

How did they discover them?

Su Mian closes her eyes slowly and lies down on the table.

If she were A; if she were L; and if she were R……How would she find her desired victim without going face to face with the target or have any interactions with him/her? How would she be able to do this without leaving behind any traces?