Insights Chapter 32: Persistence

Chapter 32: Persistence

Translated by Addis of Exiled Rebels Scanlations

Editor: Karai

 

Penang City Bureau, Special Criminal Division Office. Gu Yanchen opened Zhong Xiaoke’s Weibo, where the background images were all silhouettes of two people holding hands. She should have loved Liao Yinghan very much. Then he received a video sent by Bai Meng.

The woman in the video had a smiling face as bright as a flower, holding a selfie stick and taking selfies. “Everyone, sorry for the long wait. Today we arrived at the seaside hotel in Penang. Tomorrow we will go diving! For this diving trip, we have prepared a lot of equipment!”

The camera showed various equipment and diving suits in the suitcase, the pink one obviously belonging to Zhong Xiaoke, while the other blue one belonged to Liao Yinghan. Then the camera turned to Liao Yinghan packing things behind, “Honey, come, say hello to everyone!”

Liao Yinghan behind seemed a bit shy as he waved his hand.

Zhong Xiaoke’s camera then turned outside, “Let me show you the view outside the seaside room.”

Outside the window, there was a vast sea in the sunset, with seabirds flying overhead, everything looked so beautiful.

“We’ll go eat seafood tonight! Shrimp and abalone! But what I’m most looking forward to is diving. I can’t wait to go diving now. Tomorrow, I’ll share with you the underwater world I filmed!”

The whole vlog lasted for over two minutes.

After the police announcement was released, someone found this account, now it was being shared all over of her final moments. This woman forever slept by the blue sea she loved.

After Gu Yanchen finished watching, he closed the computer and prepared to go home to check the remaining information. He went to the medical examiner’s office to pick up Shen Junci.

Shen Junci had completed today’s autopsy and was ready to leave work, so they went downstairs together.

Gu Yanchen asked him, “Doctor Shen, do you have any new discoveries here?”

Shen Junci told Gu Yanchen about the wound inside the corpse’s mouth, then asked, “Any progress on your side?”

Walking side by side, Gu Yanchen said, “We interviewed Liao Yinghan’s ex-wife. According to her description, this Liao Yinghan seems to be a habitual criminal who kills his wives for insurance money. It’s just that his methods are more covert.”

The current problem still lies in the evidence.

Shen Junci sighed, “If only there were surveillance underwater.”

As soon as he said that, Gu Yanchen suddenly stopped in his tracks, “I remembered something…” He organized his thoughts and said, “Zhong Xiaoke recorded a vlog before, saying she wanted to record the underwater world. She must have brought a waterproof camera, but we haven’t found the camera on her or Liao Yinghan.”

Shen Junci followed the reasoning, “So, that camera might have been lost underwater!”

Thinking of this, Gu Yanchen said, “If the camera can capture something, it would be the strongest evidence!”

Shen Junci asked, “But… is it easy to salvage?”

Gu Yanchen said, “It hasn’t been long since it fell into the water, and it’s in a nearby sea area, so there is still a good chance.”

With no storms these past few days, maybe they could try. They hurried back home, had dinner, Gu Yanchen didn’t rush to act or ask about Liao Yinghan’s camera, to avoid alerting him. He had the technicians check Zhong Xiaoke’s phone first and found several selfies of Zhong Xiaoke before she left, with a waterproof camera hanging on the woman’s neck. Then he double-checked with the lifeguards, and everyone confirmed they hadn’t seen Zhong Xiaoke bringing a camera ashore.

After confirming these, Gu Yanchen checked the time; it was already past eight in the evening. Salvaging a camera from underwater wasn’t a simple matter. Not only did they need personnel from the City Bureau, but they also had to coordinate with the maritime police. The first thing was to get approval from the leaders.

Gu Yanchen called Deputy Director Dong’s phone. After a few rings, no one answered. Gu Yanchen called Deputy Director Dong’s home phone again.

After waiting for a while, someone finally answered the phone. Mrs. Dong’s voice came from the other end, “Hello…”

Gu Yanchen said, “Hello, I’m looking for Deputy Director Dong.” Just as he finished saying this, he vaguely heard Deputy Director Dong’s voice from the other end, which sounded like he was quarreling, shouting.

Gu Yanchen felt a bit embarrassed, “Maybe I’ll call back later…”

Mrs. Dong didn’t mind, “It’s okay, he’s tutoring our grandson on his homework. Let me call him for you.”

After a few seconds, Deputy Director Dong answered the phone, “Ah, it’s Captain Gu. Sorry, I was teaching Jun Jun just now, but I didn’t hear the phone ringing.”

Jun Jun was Deputy Director Dong’s grandson’s nickname.

Gu Yanchen said, “I heard a bit just now.”

“Ahem!” Deputy Director Dong coughed, “Tutoring homework is always like this. You’ll know when you get married.”

Gu Yanchen felt something was off, “I remember Jun Jun is still in kindergarten, right?”

“Yes, he’s in the middle class.” Deputy Director Dong said, “He hasn’t learned more than five hundred Chinese characters yet, can only do addition within one hundred, and still has a long way to go.”

Gu Yanchen hadn’t expected that, “Kindergarten is this intense now?”

“Yeah,” Deputy Director Dong said, “without any tutoring classes. It’s all due to parents’ howling. Oh, by the way, what did you call me for?”

Gu Yanchen explained the salvage operation he wanted to carry out. Deputy Director Dong said, “This case has garnered a lot of public attention, and the camera is an important piece of physical evidence. I’ll approve the salvage operation here. But you need to give me a budget and a plan of action. I’ll email you back later, then I’ll communicate with Old Ding. Also, let’s make it clear in advance, this salvage operation is costly and laborious. No matter what progress we make, we’ll only spend three days at most.” Deputy Director Dong added, “Furthermore, contact the diving instructors at their seaside resort and have them search together with the lifeguards. If this turns out to be a murder case, we shouldn’t tarnish their reputation.”

Gu Yanchen hung up the phone and arranged the operation plan overnight. The maritime police cooperated very well, scheduling the dive for the next morning. 

Early the next morning, dozens of people gathered on the beach. The diving range couldn’t be very far, so the entire area was soon marked out. Due to the recent murder, this area was still under blockade. Gu Yanchen had already informed the maritime police, and they brought several small boats. He boarded one of them.

It was a joint operation, and the diving club in Penang Bay was willing to help. Several instructors from the diving training institution where Zhong Xiaoke had visited also came over. These diving instructors were experienced. Starting from seven in the morning, they began searching in the nearby waters. Although the search work was organized, it wasn’t progressing quickly. Finding a lost camera in such a vast sea was like finding a needle in a haystack. Divers went up and down, switching in and out.

By afternoon, visibility underwater decreased, and Captain Liu from the maritime police came over to discuss with Gu Yanchen, “Captain Gu, should we call it a day?”

Gu Yanchen said, “Let’s call it a day for today. When those divers come up, we’ll head back.”

The detectives were a bit disheartened to see a whole day of salvaging with no results, but Gu Yanchen comforted them.

Just as he finished speaking, the water splashed, and a diver surfaced, waving something in his hand. Then he spat out the breathing apparatus in his mouth, “Found it, found a camera!”

Captain Liu got excited at once, didn’t even bother pulling the diver up, but used a hook to bring the camera over and handed it to Gu Yanchen, “Captain Gu, take a look, is this it?”

Gu Yanchen took a look at the camera, compared the photos of him and Zhong Xiaoke, and confirmed, “This is it, the same brand and model.”

The camera might have been in recording mode before and had run out of battery, so it couldn’t be turned on.

“It’s good that we found it. You guys work on cracking the case as soon as possible,” Captain Liu chuckled.

After a busy day, there was finally some progress, and everyone wrapped up smoothly. Gu Yanchen took the detectives back to the City Bureau, holding the hard-earned camera. He immediately found a matching cable. When Shen Junci heard that they had recovered Zhong Xiaoke’s camera, he rushed over from the medical examiner’s department.

Even Director Ding came down from upstairs, curious about what was in the camera. For a while, everyone gathered in the office of the Special Criminal Division, quiet and waiting to see the contents of the video card. Bai Meng’s hands were trembling with excitement. With just one memory card, she saw a few files inside, directly skipped to the end, and played the last segment.

The video started with footage of the underwater scenery, then shifted to the divers beside them. From the color of the diving suit, it was Liao Yinghan, and holding the camera was Zhong Xiaoke. Liao Yinghan made a thumbs-up gesture towards the camera. Zhong Xiaoke then removed the strap on her helmet, turned the camera around, and took a selfie.

Then the camera captured marine life underwater, a lobster crawling along the seabed, various colorful fish swimming past them. Seaweed and seagrass swayed gently with the sea waves, and occasionally, small crabs emerged from the sand on the seabed. A few minutes later, the video suddenly shook, the camera plummeted, and for a moment, the lens captured Zhong Xiaoke’s face. Her breathing apparatus had left her mouth, then a figure attacked…

The underwater scene was silent, but the footage reached a critical moment, and everyone’s hearts seemed to be in their throats.

But at that moment, the camera fell to the riverbed. A cloud of sand was kicked up. The lens became blurred. The distance increased, focus was lost. In the increasingly blurry footage, one could see a figure embracing Zhong Xiaoke from behind, arms encircling her. Zhong Xiaoke seemed to be struggling, then they surfaced.

In the footage, the woman’s feet kicked once. 

Just as they reached a crucial moment, Lu Ying on the side clenched his fists in excitement. He wished he could adjust the camera, focus it properly, and capture the entire process. The entire process lasted only a dozen seconds, then the lens captured only the quiet seabed.

Everyone fell silent, and Bai Meng finally pressed the pause button. “That’s probably all there is…”

The video captured some content, but it wasn’t conclusive evidence. From initially thinking about the camera’s existence to actually salvaging it, everyone hoped to uncover the truth of this accident from the camera. In the end, there were only a few blurry shots that were hard to interpret.

Hope was as big as the disappointment.

In the end, it was Gu Yanchen who calmed down first. He cleared his throat and said, “This is important evidence. Let’s look for other clues.”

Bai Meng sighed, feeling a bit discouraged. “What other clues can we even find…”

At this moment, Director Ding, who was standing behind, spoke up. “Everyone has worked hard. It’s already commendable to find so many clues in this case so far.” Then he said to Gu Yanchen, “Captain Gu, come with me to the meeting room.”

Gu Yanchen stood up and followed Director Ding to the nearby small meeting room.

Director Ding took a seat and gestured for Gu Yanchen to sit opposite him.

“Feeling a bit disappointed, aren’t you?” Director Ding asked.

Gu Yanchen remained calm. “It’s okay. Although the footage is blurry, it can still serve as a reference. Let’s look for other evidence.”

Director Ding said, “I’ve reviewed all your records, questioned everyone we could, even got the testimony from the ex-wife. We’ve salvaged the camera from underwater. You’ve done your best. This case is unique; it happened at the bottom of the sea. Surveillance, fingerprints, bloodstains, all the usual forensic methods are not applicable. I’ve been in this job for years, I know that some cases, even if pursued, may not yield results. I think you should hand over all the existing evidence to the prosecutor’s office. Whether this man is guilty or not, that’s for the court to decide.”

Having been a bureau chief for so many years, he knew that some cases couldn’t be solved as desired, otherwise there wouldn’t be any unsolved cases in the world. Environmental constraints could prevent many cases from being investigated further, and this was something that had to be accepted. Moreover, the Penang police had uncovered so many leads in this case that they could be proud of their investigation efforts.

Gu Yanchen spoke up, “Director Ding, it’s easy to give up on this case, but for me, it’s not that simple.” He paused for a moment, raised his gaze, and continued firmly, “In this world, there are so many husbands who want to kill their wives. What worries me is that once we give up here, those killers will think this path is safe, that this method works perfectly for killing their wives. Then there will be more women dying in the deep sea.”

Director Ding frowned, “But this case is destined to have shortcomings in physical evidence. What’s your plan for the next steps?”

Gu Yanchen said, “I want to make up for it in terms of testimony, to make Liao Yinghan admit it with his own mouth.”

Director Ding asked, “Can you do that?”

If Liao Yinghan didn’t confess, he could very well get away with it, along with millions in insurance compensation. If he did confess, he might face the death penalty. Director Ding couldn’t think of a way to get a confession out of him.

Gu Yanchen replied, “I want to try.”

Director Ding said, “Alright, I’ll go communicate with the prosecutor’s office and apply for a 24-hour detention warrant.”