Memory Lost

At dawn.

Su Mian’s hair is in a mess and her jacket is also wrinkled from her tossing and turning on the table. But her eyes are gleaming like the stars. She pulls the conference room door open and just as she is about to speak, she sees Han Chen behind his desk lifting his head looking at her. His eyes are bright and clear. Cold Face isn’t beside him; he must have gone out to lead the other officers. Xiao Zhuan and Chatterbox, on the other hand, are sprawled across their desks and are sleeping.

Su Mian walks to Han Chen’s desk quickly before he pulls her to stand between his legs.

“I’ve been waiting for you,” he holds her hand, “Let’s go eat breakfast.”

Now that he mentions it, Su Mian feels hungry. But she can’t wait to share her thoughts with him. She sways his arms with her eyes shining even brighter, “Holy s.hit! I’ve found something important!”

Han Chen is a little stunned. Just before he speaks, they hear a growl; they both look down and stare at……Su Mian’s stomach.

Su Mian rubs her stomach. She’s a bit out of it after pulling an all-nighter, “It looks like I am really hungry.”

Han Chen chuckles, gets up, grabs his jacket and wraps his arm around her waist, “I’ve also found something important. Let’s talk as we go.”

It’s too early so the cafeteria at the station is not open yet. Han Chen decides to drive to her favorite place to eat beef noodles in chili oil soup that’s a couple of streets down.

The restaurant has just opened. Its orangey lights shine in the dark morning. They’re the only customers. Su Mian picks a table in the farthest corner. She orders a bowl with the spiciest broth while Han Chen orders a clear broth. Not long after sitting down, she starts eating and talking at the same time.

She starts with what she believes is the biggest paradox of the case and then explains:

“The easiest to find the answer from is L.

If we analyze it using the usual criminal psychology method, how would he find his victim? He has a respectable job and is a serious person with great self-control. He will come into contact with a lot of people. It would be a piece of cake for him to pick a victim among them who matches

his criteria. But this would expose him, so he wouldn’t do that.

Just like what you said, he has already thought about it one step further. Therefore, we must think two steps ahead. If this route is a dead end, what would he do then?

The answer is——school.

That’s right. He wants to murder a ‘good father.’ He has always taken himself as the underaged child who is being disciplined. A child has only two main living spaces: home, and school. Since he couldn’t enter homes, he went to the school. He just needed to stand at a distance in front of the school entrances and observe for a few days. Which father always come to pick up his kid and is always affectionate to his kid would be his target.”

After finishing her sentence, she seems to be filled with exultation; her lips are turning red from the spicy noodle soup. Han Chen smiles, picks up some noodles with his chopsticks and starts eating slowly, “Mm. That makes sense.”

Su Mian decides to put down her chopsticks to continue, “By knowing this, we can focus our search on the main areas. We can review the surveillance videos around the victim’s son’s school to look for the suspect! We can look around other elementary schools in focus as well——it must be ones of focus that are top elementary schools. We need to look for a man who matches the profile. Who knows? We might be able to identify L’s next victim!”

_____

The morning fog slowly dissipates and the sun penetrates the layers of clouds. Han Chen is done eating as he puts his chopsticks down and listens to Su Mian attentively. She scoops a few mouthfuls and then continues:

“A’s personality is completely different from L. He’s more laid back and self-centered. He doesn’t have a standard method of doing things, very mischievous, enjoys teasing his victims and he’s someone who grew up in the lower class. If we don’t need to consider about us, I would definitely like to interact closely with the victims. For example, go ask for a job at the victim’s store, and make friends with the victim. This way, I would be able to enjoy the thrill of killing the victim.

But now that he can’t interact with the victim, how did he find his target?

The answer is——through conversations.

Based on his personality, he might have passed by somewhere and heard about whose husband had a mistress and whose

whose son was unfilial. He just needed to follow the person for a few days and once he felt that it matched his criteria, he might have just abducted the person and exploded him into pieces.

His way of hunting might seem hard to grasp at first. But thinking about it carefully, if I pretend that I’m A, where would I go hunting for my next victim?”

She pauses. Her beautiful eyes flash as they look at Han Chen, “Just like L, he’s a child and one who is even more carefree and naughty. Therefore, his choice is much simpler——he would go to a place he likes to hunt.”

Han Chen picks up the cup of water and sips it slowly. His finger taps on the table.

“What kind of place does he like?” 𝗳𝒓𝙚e𝓌e𝚋𝙣𝚘𝐯𝙚𝙡.𝑐૦ｍ

Su Mian lets out a laugh, “Hehheh,” and says, “Not sure. But there are a few places we can search through: how many stores are there in the city of the baseball cap brand that he likes wearing? The clothes that he wears and the hardware stores in the city. He’s an expert of explosives, so he must like these places. And similarly, by searching through areas based on his criminal profile, it’s possible that we might be able to capture him!”

Han Chen nods and doesn’t comment. He stares at her clear and bright eyes and her fair white face with a glow of pink.

Is it because she understands them so well that they want to steal her?

He presses the paper cup to flatten it and then throws it into the garbage can accurately. He doesn’t say anything.

Su Mian sighs and says, “As for R, we know too little about him, so I haven’t made any new discoveries.”

Han Chen nods, “You’ve already made quite a bit of progress.”

Although he is her man, it’s rare to receive such a compliment. Su Mian smiles immediately as she watches him fetch his phone and calls the investigation team to have them start investigating based on her conclusions.

As if Su Mian still hasn’t had enough, she continues to show her achievement after he hangs up, “You see? I’ve already come up with two clear methods. Just give it a bit more time and if they commit another crime, we’ll definitely be able to find something.”

Han Chen smiles, pulls out his wallet and says casually, “Mm. I’ve said it before that your analyses are better than mine.”

Su

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Su Mian gets up and wraps her hands around his arm, “You sound so insincere. Oh right, you said that you also discovered something, what is it?”

Han Chen takes a look at her, fetches the phone from his pants’ pocket, flips through the audio files and then puts the phone against her ear with his expression turning solemn.

Su Mian is stunned listening to it.

“This is not good……there’s a……a bomb on his body! But we don’t know how to dismantle a bomb……”

“……k……y……b……the sky……is white……” In the noisy background, a faint humming of a melody can be heard.

“Take your clothes off immediately. Let us see if we can take it apart!” Han Chen’s cold voice says.

……

It’s an audio recording of the scene of the explosion that happened that day.

Su Mian lifts her eyes and looks at him, “What’s wrong with this recording?”

Han Chen leads her to start walking with his arm wrapped around her and then answers, “Did you hear the song that the victim was singing?”

Su Mian nods, “I heard it, but it was blurry and hard to make out.”

“I listened to this audio recording repeatedly yesterday and found out that he was singing the same phrase over and over again. The lyrics were confusing and I couldn’t find any matches on the internet,” he looks at her from the side, “Why do you think this is the case?”

Su Mian is stunned.

“This means……these lyrics were specifically from A!” she blurts out and then frowns, “But why did he ask the victim to sing. Do the contents of the song have a special meaning to him?”

Han Chen says looking at her, “This is where we’ll need your criminal psychology. Didn’t you say that A likes to tease his victims and the police the most? The forensic department sent a report today pointing out that in the scattered pieces, they found some mechanical pieces that were likely from a password-type lock. This means that the bomb on the victim had a lock on it. If his intention was to kill the victim, a password lock was completely unnecessary, unless……”

It suddenly becomes clear to Su Mian, “I know! The song that the victim was singing had clues to unlock the bomb!”

Han Chen looks at her and then nods smiling. Su Mian tells him her reasoning in one breath, “This matches his profile perfectly! It satisfies his mischievous personality. You see, I’m You see, I’m letting him sing out the combination to unlock, but too bad none of you were able to realize that. This must be it. Otherwise, just like what you said, it was unnecessary for him to put a lock on.”

Cars and pedestrians in the area are increasing. Restaurants serving breakfast also have customers going in and out of it. They head towards their car. Just as Han Chen is about to speak, his eyes freezes.

It’s because across from them, the owner of a street stall has his neck stretched out looking at the other end of the street.

Han Chen looks toward the direction.

Su Mian notices and also follows his gaze.

The moment they see what’s happening, they both pause in their footsteps.

The sky is fully lit; cars are honking and it’s noisy everywhere. At the intersection about a hundred meters away, there’s suddenly more than ten people running toward their direction all looking scared. They’re shouting something; it’s too far to hear them clearly.

They haven’t reached the morning rush hour traffic yet but the intersection is completely jammed.

“What’s going on?” “What’s happening over there?” a passerby stops to look and mumbles.

Han Chen and Su Mian look at each other. They see the alertness in each other’s eyes as they quickly make their way toward the area.

More people are rushing over to see.

And more people are running back with a frightened look on their face.

They can hear what they’re shouting clearly now.

“Clown! Clown!”

“Holy f–k! There’s a clown crying and singing and dancing at the same time!”

A passerby doesn’t quite understand what’s going on, so he stops someone and asks, “What’s wrong with the clown?”

The person being stopped breaks free from him and shouts, “Run! It’s a bomb!”

Su Mian feels her heart shake. She looks down at her watch: 6:55!

Han Chen takes a look at her as well. Without another word, they dash over running in the opposite direction of everybody else and toward where the bomb and clown is!

Amid the noisy crowd and their unsteady footsteps.

Su Mian rushes over with all her might and says while panting, “Han Chen, we must save this person!”

Han Chen grabs her hand and pulls her out of the crowd to be beside him. His deep voice says with a hint of determination just like hers, “We must save him.”