Breaking Through The Clouds - [Author: Huai Shang (淮上)]

Volume 1: Chapter 29

Volume 1: Case 502 - The Intoxicated Frozen Corpse

Chapter 29

Life and its fickle fortunes. The superior commanding officer and subordinate patrol cop who had been of such distinctly different worlds all those years ago - no one would have thought that they could now be standing here together, facing each other like this.

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TLC: AlexPT

Editor: Beth

"The suspect vehicle is a red Camry in used-condition with a covered license plate. It left out of the south gate of the chemical engineering plant at three o-six in the morning and drove down Third Ring Boulevard towards the southeast direction. It was last seen fifteen minutes later heading onto Provincial Highway 635."

"The kidnappers are suspected to be an underground drug-manufacturing ring; they have at least one hostage in their hands and have yet to make any demands. The missing person Chu Ci: twenty-one years old, a chemistry graduate student from Beijing. He came to intern at a Jianning chemical-engineering plant, and might know some secrets regarding the 502 Frozen Corpse Case. He also possesses a very high level of technical expertise; the kidnappers may have taken an interest in his drug-manufacturing abilities."

"The Traffic Administration Bureau, Traffic Police Brigade, every jurisdiction's patrol squadrons, relevant base-level police stations - get all units on the move, go door to door, pull all CCTV records along the routes! We must do everything we can to ensure the hostage's safety, before the kidnappers make any further moves!"

Yan Xie speed-walked through the Criminal Investigation Unit's buzzing, hectic main hall and darted into his own office, shutting the door fast behind him with a thud.

Greeting him from within his office was a mess of slurping noises, the aroma of Master Kang's Beef Noodles rising to embrace him.

"Yan-ge, here." Ma Xiang pointed in front of him with his chopsticks, his mouth stuffed full, cheeks bulging. "The last two Uni-President 'Imperial Feast' Beef-Delicacy Noodles, eighteen yuan a bowl, cooked and ready to eat. We saved it just for the two of you. This time you can't say we're mistreating the consultant, can you?"

Yan Xie glanced over.

There, with a few case files acting as lids, stood two bowls of instant noodles, quietly releasing wafts of white steam.

Jiang Ting sat behind the office desk, keeping to himself as he perused the injury assessment photos, not showing any sign of even lifting his head.

"..." Yan Xie let out a silent sigh, and walked over to pick one of the bowls up. After nearly wolfing down half the bowl of noodles in one go, he jutted his chin in Jiang Ting's direction and told him, "The unadon ordered for you is on its way; it'll get here in a few."

"What?!" Ma Xiang just about leaped up, and got shoved back down into his seat by Gao Panqing and Han Xiaomei's fumbling hands. He could nearly cry at the unjustness of it all. "How come he gets grilled eel over rice, while we eat Master Kang? I can't accept this, I really can't accept this! Yan-ge's no longer the Yan-gewho integrated himself into grassroots-level communities and educated us that all men are born equal..."

"Diao Yong, male, forty-one years old, one hundred and eighty-four centimeters in height. His wound is located between the second- and third-to-last ribs on his right. The weapon of assault was a fruit knife, depth of wound around four centimeters, with no severe damage caused to the internal organs." Jiang Ting flipped over to the next page in the injury assessment. He mimed the knife's angle of penetration into muscle as illustrated in the corresponding diagram.