Silent Reading 默读 [BL Novel by Priest]

Chapter 51 to 58

It sounded like a young person who lacked focus and hadn't decided yet what he wanted to pursue.

But Assistant Miao thought that Fei Du's mind was very deep; he wouldn't have this type of "blowing hot and cold," "starting fine and ending poorly" style. Thinking it over without being able to reach an answer, she looked towards the City Bureau, feeling that the public security bureau's gates were bustling. Then, weighed down, she drove away.

The gates of Yan City's City Bureau truly were exceedingly bustling. Every place, whether legal or illegal, was parked full of cars. A little traffic cop held up a parking ticket, not knowing whether it would or wouldn't be proper to stick it on, looking blankly all around.

Several officers on duty had been sent to the reception room to take responsibility for signing people in. There were so many callers it would soon surpass the utter confusion of a lowly local police station.

Fei Du followed a crowd of people just heading in. Without saying a word, he somehow mixed in with them.

Looking on, he found that the span of ages and positions among the people who had come was great. They came from all walks of life, wearing all kinds of clothing. There were grave-faced middle-aged people, as well as old people with their faces rimed by hardship.

Some people carried photographs with them; some seemed to be husband and wife—they seemed to stick closer together than ordinary husbands and wives, frequently holding hands or walking right next to each other, as if neither could easily walk alone, and they had to support each other in order to keep staggering on ahead.

A sudden uncontrollable sob would explode from time to time among the crowd; at these times, the dispirited expressions of the surrounding people would alter. But while they altered, aside from Fei Du, who was a curious outsider, most of the others wouldn't turn their heads to search for the source of the crying, as if they all had a tacit mutual understanding.

Fei Du frowned, faintly sensing something.

He had reported time and again to the City Bureau and was already very familiar with it. While no one was watching him, he simply strolled into the corridors. He was considering whether to call when he bumped into Luo Wenzhou at the door of a corner restroom.

Luo Wenzhou's already distinct eyelids had acquired another crease from staying up all night. He smelled chokingly of cigarette smoke. He had just washed his face with cold water, and the water droplets covering his head and face were rolling down his neck; there was a wet patch on the front of his t-shirt, leaving an unobstructed view. Fei Du's gaze unobtrusively travelled up and down between his chest and waistline; if his naked eyes could have acted as cameras, presumably he'd have taken a dozen close-ups in that moment.

When he'd seen enough, Fei Du pushed up his sunglasses, and, like a proper gentleman, made his opening remarks. "What, do the ones you dug up yesterday for the West Ridge case have a record?"

In matters of major crimes, no one's reactions were faster than Fei's. Luo Wenzhou didn't have any strength to be surprised. He nodded very wearily.

"What a large scale." Hands behind his back, Fei Du looked out the window and said, "On such occasions, the ones that come are usually the father and mother. I see there's quite a range of ages among these parents. How many years back are you digging?"

"Twenty-two years." When he spoke, Luo Wenzhou felt his voice was rather hoarse; he cleared his throat. "Guo Fei was taken from Lotus Mountain twenty years ago, but the same kind of victim in the same kind of case appears two years before. From Wu Guangchuan's death to the present, it hasn't stopped."