Case Files Chapter 3: Debut (1)

Translated by Vivian of Exiled Rebels Scanlations

Editor: Addis

 

Guan Jin sat at a spot near the door, lazily basking in the sun. This feeling of insipid days without bloodbath or danger was a little unfamiliar to him.

“You two drank three cups of my milk tea, remember to pay the bill,” a man with naturally charming eyes and rimless glasses said coldly from behind the counter.

Lin Bai waved him off, “Okay, we won’t scam you.” 

The man was named Le Fan, and he was a forensic scientist in the Forensic Department, which was a key support to the Special Cases Unit. It was a pity that although he had a naturally charming face, he was very cold and rude, and he was a miser.

This book cafe was a heritage left behind by Le Fan’s distant uncle, who had given it to him directly. Le Fan hadn’t sold it and had continued to keep its former employees to keep it running, and he would come by on weekends to take a look.

Lin Bai liked to come on weekends, and recently, he had been able to drag along Guan Jin. According to him, before, Guan Jin never came, no matter how Lin Bai invited him.

Guan Jin asked suddenly, “Say, policemen can run a business?” 

Le Fan didn’t even look up. “This is a heritage, I just accepted it.”

Guan Jin shrugged and stopped talking.

Screech! A car abruptly braked outside, and a flashy Ferrari sports car stopped on the side of the road opposite to the book cafe. A man wearing sunglasses with even flashier clothes got out of the car. Guan Jin’s muscles tightened out of habit, but he continued sitting impassively as if nothing had happened.

The man with sunglasses walked into the book cafe as he took off his sunglasses. When he saw Le Fan was there, his eyes lit up.

“Le Fan, if you have time today, why don’t I invite you out for some tea?” asked the sunglasses man as he walked to the counter.

“I’m not thirsty.”

“Then let’s go to a seafood buffet?”

“I’m not hungry.”

“Then let’s——”

“Mr. Jin MaiLong, this is a book cafe, so if you aren’t going to be a customer, then please don’t disturb my business.” Le Fan narrowed his eyes.

“I’ll be a customer, I’ll be a customer! Um, I want a copy of The Lover by Günter Grass. Wait, no, is it by Godzilla?” He scratched his head. “Marguerite Duras? Right! It’s by Durex ¹!”

Guan Jin nearly spit out his milk tea. Did this guy come just to joke around?

Le Fan smiled disdainfully. “Mr. Jin, condoms are out the door and around the left corner. Basic middle school literature knowledge is in the second bookshelf to the right. Help yourself.”

After Jin MaiLong left, crestfallen, Lin Bai tutted, “This Mr. Jin really is persevering. Even when Le Fan shows his police badge, he doesn’t give up on pursuing him at all.”

“He’s just an upstart,” said Le Fan disdainfully.

“By the look of his expression, if there was a bed here, he’d be able to do you immediately,” said Guan Jin as he propped up his leg.

Le Fan and Lin Bai looked at him in shock. Lin Bai’s finger trembled as he pointed it at him, “Guan Jin, why did your amnesia make you so blunt?!”

Guan Jin frowned. That Guan Jin’s personality was very cowardly and withdrawn, and although he had already asked around and found out about this, he didn’t want to imitate it, nor could he imitate it. From birth, he had lived in a world full of violence, money, and bloodshed; money and beautiful people were his lifestyle, and since he might die at any moment, he did his best to enjoy it while he could, so he never drew the line. Now, no matter how he restrained himself, he would probably still reveal some of his true nature.

Guan Jin was silent for a while, “Perhaps I’ve been suppressing it for too long before.”

“How are you planning to release it?” Lin Bai winked.

“Orally. Using vulgar language isn’t illegal, right?”

“…No. But remember not to do it in front of the Anti-Pornography Unit.”

“…” 

Today was the first day Guan Jin went to work ever since his accident. Lin Bai had been worried that he wouldn’t know the way, so he had woken up very early, for the first time in a while, and gone to Guan Jin’s apartment to pick him up. In fact, Lin Bai had very happily gotten free breakfast.

“Guan Jin, I really didn’t know your cooking skills were this good before,” said Lin Bai in satisfaction.

I don’t know if his cooking skills were good or not, but my cooking skills aren’t for feeding you, thought Guan Jin.

The first time he walked into the General Bureau building, Guan Jin felt a little uncomfortable because of the bright, glossy floor of the lobby. So this was the General Bureau of S City? It looked quite good; policemen were really treated well nowadays.

Lin Bai dragged him to the second floor, and he saw that there were quite a few police officers leaning on the railing of the courtyard. They greeted each other as they glanced towards the front door; 99% of them were female.

Guan Jin wondered, “There’s more women than men in the police force?”

“Ah, Guan Jin, you came to work~” A cute woman with short hair and a round face drifted towards them like a gust of wind. The woman was DingDing, and she had just graduated this year and had been assigned to the Special Cases Unit. She was very smart, and liked to join in on the fun, just like Ling Bai. 

“Good morning.” Guan Jin tried very hard to put on a friendly expression and force out this greeting.

“Good morning!” Chen JiaoYu also showed up on the second floor.

After greeting everyone, the two women leaned against the railing in a posture of looking at the landscape and stopped moving.

“You…” Guan Jin was a little confused.

“Little Jinjin ², you should also get re-educated today. Come look at the bureau’s beautiful landscape with us.” QiaoYu winked.

The veins in Guan Jin’s forehead bulged a little. Little Jinjin? What is this?!

“He’s here!” chirped DingDing.

All of the policewomen looked in the direction of her gaze. At the entrance of the first floor, Wen JingHan was carrying a folder of documents in one hand and a Starbucks cup in the other as he slowly walked in. His beige trench coat, casual brown trousers, and simple classical style added to his figure that was comparable to that of a male’s model, as well as his elegant steps, indeed made him look very, very handsome.

There were soft gasps everywhere, and DingDing exclaimed, “Oh my god.”

Guan Jin rubbed his temples. “Don’t you all see him everyday?”

“What do you know?! This is called enjoying from different angles,” said DingDing as she rolled her eyes at him.

“Haven’t you all seen enough? You see him everyday!” a tall man wearing a black leather jacket shouted down at them as he leaned over the railing of the third floor.

Naturally, he was criticized by all of the policewomen.

“These women are hopeless.”

“That’s enough, do you want to become a public enemy to the police force?” QiaoYu grinned.

“Public enemy? The boss is our public enemy number one, okay? He’s too exaggerated in his appearance and conduct.” Zheng Fei sighed.

“Then I’m really sorry, I’ll go back and discuss this with my parents and see if they can reshape me.” Wen JingHan had quietly arrived at the entrance to the Special Cases Unit room.

Zheng Fei laughed weakly and retreated into the room.

In the room, Gu Xiang was already working at a computer, and when he saw everyone come in, he smiled and nodded.

Zheng Fei had a background in the SWAT team, and he was cheerful and passionate about his job. Gu Xiang had been transferred here from the Serious Crimes Unit, and he was also an instructor at the police academy. He was very calm, steady, and kind.

Guan Jin sat at the desk with his name tag, and when he saw the piles of files on it, he asked, “What are my main duties  again?”

Everyone suddenly became quiet.

“Organizing files and gathering archives and data,” replied Wen JingHan.

Guan Jin raised an eyebrow. “So I’m just in charge of managing the files?”

The Special Cases Unit really was valued; they even had a person responsible solely for file management? Tsk, after all, this Guan Jin was probably just a loser that no one wanted. In the end, the police department probably saw that his father was a heroic policeman who had sacrificed himself or something like that, so they had made sure he could get an idle job here.

Everyone felt a little awkward at this, but Wen JingHan seemed not to notice anything. “You’re a member of the Special Cases Unit, and in the future, we’ll help you slowly get familiar with things again, don’t worry.”

“Okay, we have a case. Clean up and come here, let’s start our analysis meeting.” Wen JingHan ordered curtly as he walked to his office.

Guan Jin sighed. It seemed that this Guan Jin hadn’t only brought him the burden of lack of physical strength, he also had to deal with the aftermath of his poor performance. Guan Jin slowly found some paper and a pen and shuffled towards the meeting area with everyone else.

Meeting? He had never done anything like this in his previous life, so at least he could experience it in this one.

“This is the data each branch has given us, and when our coworkers in the Data Branch did their analyses, they discovered a problem,” said DingDing as she passed out the material.

“Over the past year, cases of missing people in our city have increased, but with comparative analyses, we’ve discovered that the missing people have something in common.” Wen JingHan pointed the remote control at the large LCD screen in front of them and pressed a button.

A series of pictures appeared on it, and they seemed to be pictures of people in their everyday lives. Guan Jin’s vision was very good, so he had kept those keen observation skills Hei Xiao had had as an assassin.

“They’re all boys?” suggested Guan Jin.

Everyone looked at him and seemed to be very shocked.

Guan Jin asked dully, “Didn’t you all see this too?”

“Ha, Guan Jin, it looks like your amnesia is a blessing in disguise.” Chen QiaoYu rubbed her chin. “You never took the initiative to speak before.”

“Then what else have you spotted?” Wen JingHan asked expectantly.

Guan Jin shifted uneasily. “They’re quite young, probably concentrated around fourteen years old to early twenties. They’re quite… quite fair.” He hesitated a little as he chose which words to use.

Wen JingHan continued, “According to our previous investigations, these boys’ grades aren’t that good, and they often go to internet cafes, bars, or other entertaining places. They often skip class and don’t go home at night; another thing is that they haven’t finished their studies, but they came here to work part-time jobs and got involved with some of the gangs here.”

“They’re all male delinquents?” Zheng Fei flipped through the material.

“So to speak. Actually, they’re all either impulsive because they’re in their rebellious phase, or are bewildered by the intoxicatingly luxurious urban life. None of them are really directly associated with gangs,” said Wen JingHan.

“Then we can eliminate the possibility of anything to do with gangs.” Gu Xiang said, “Could it be an organ smuggling operation?”

“Perhaps, but it’s a little unusual that it only includes this age range of boys. Before we have more evidence, we can’t draw any conclusions. Gu Xiang, DingDing, you two go to the families of the missing persons and find out as much as you can about their situations. QiaoYu, Zheng Fei, you two are responsible for checking on the situation and information about the places they often go to. Little Bai, see if you can find any clues online, and Guan Jin, find any similar cases from the past and see if they’re related.” Wen JingHan quickly and clearly distributed the work and clapped once, “Off you go!”

No one objected, and everyone stood up and left quickly, seeming like they’d done this countless times before. Guan Jin remained standing where he was, and he felt a little lost.

Wen JingHan walked over to him and said gently, “You’ve just healed, and you can’t remember anything from before, so don’t push yourself and take your time. I’ve already told Little Bai to help you get familiarized with the procedure and methods for looking at files, and if you have any questions, you can ask me at any time.”

Guan Jin wanted to say something, but he stopped himself. Wen JingHan didn’t say anything else, and he nodded before going back to his office. Guan Jin took a deep breath and calmed himself down. Someone cared about him, and it was such a handsome, delightful person, too. If it was in the past… 

 

Guan Jin raised his soft, pale hands. Damn it! There was no past anymore!