Insights Chapter 43: Dinner

Chapter 43: Dinner

Translated by Addis of Exiled Rebels Scanlations

Editor: Karai

Since the establishment of the Special Criminal Division, several cases have been quickly solved, ending cleanly with clear and precise details. Director Ding gave commendations, and each person received a bonus of three thousand yuan.

After hosting the Friday afternoon meeting, Gu Yanchen made a decision, “Do any of you have plans for tonight? To foster departmental camaraderie, let’s have dinner together. My treat.” After asking, Gu Yanchen turned to the others and asked, “What do you want to eat?”

Bai Meng said, “Anything is fine!”

Shen Junci said, “Nothing too spicy.”

After thinking for a moment, Gu Yanchen decided, “Then let’s go to that Jiangsu-Zhejiang cuisine restaurant near the City Bureau.”

The place was even closer to their residential area, just one intersection away. On Friday afternoon, the restaurant was particularly busy. After work, Gu Yanchen drove over, dropping off a few people at the restaurant entrance. He parked his car in the residential area and joined them. Luckily, there was a table available, and the five of them entered a private room.

They ordered several dishes, and Gu Yanchen asked, “Would you like some alcohol?”

Since tomorrow was a weekend, and they could sleep in, Lu Ying immediately responded, “This restaurant is good, and it’s the weekend. It would be a shame not to drink.”

Qi Yi’an agreed in approval, and even Bai Meng said she could handle a bit. Gu Yanchen ordered a bottle of white wine. Shen Junci, going along with the flow, asked the waiter for a glass.

Gu Yanchen, fearing he might not handle the alcohol well, raised his glass and smiled, “Doctor Shen, let’s have a toast. Drink as you like.”

But Shen Junci wasn’t hesitant. He also lifted his glass and took a sip. After finishing, he drank the rest in one go, then licked the rim of the glass with relish, “This wine doesn’t seem to be very strong.”

Qi Yi’an exclaimed, “Wow, Teacher, you didn’t notice, your alcohol tolerance is quite good.”

Gu Yanchen refilled Shen Junci’s glass and whispered, “Drink slowly. This wine is smooth at first but has a strong aftertaste.”

The food at this restaurant was quite good. The crab casserole was delicious, and the celestial chicken was also tasty. As Shen Junci drank, his skin, originally fair, flushed slightly red starting from his eyes, giving him the appearance of having cried. Gu Yanchen watched him from the side, thinking that Shen Junci would look quite attractive when crying.

After drinking, everyone became more talkative, shifting from work discussions to gossip. After three rounds of drinks, Bai Meng suggested playing a game. She asked the staff for some tissue papers and numbered them. Whoever drew a number had to tell a story about a case. The case could be one they had worked on themselves or one they had heard of, but it had to be true. If the story wasn’t exciting enough, the storyteller had to drink three cups as a penalty.

In the first round, Bai Meng drew the first number. Bai Meng laughed, “I’ve never had such good luck since I was little. I’ve never even won the last prize. I didn’t expect to be the first one drawn.”

Lu Ying urged her, “Stop dilly-dallying, tell your story quickly, or drink. Let’s save time.”

Bai Meng thought for a moment, put on a serious expression, and said, “When I was a child, I heard about a case from my dad. He was an old policeman from the Third Police Precinct, and he just retired last year.”

Lu Ying interrupted, “Alright, we all know your Bai family is a police family, full of loyal officers. No need to introduce the background.”

“Don’t rush, the exciting part is coming.” Bai Meng continued, “This happened about a dozen years ago. One time, my dad was on a business trip and stayed at a small hotel. In the middle of the night, the hotel phone rang, and when he groggily picked it up, he heard someone singing in the receiver.”

“Singing? What kind of singing in the middle of the night?” Qi Yi’an shivered, his body trembling, “It’s giving me goosebumps.”

Bai Meng continued, “It was already early morning, and the voice on the phone was sharp and female, singing an old opera, not very pleasant. My dad, half asleep, thought someone was playing a prank, muttered something about being crazy, and hung up. But barely twenty minutes later, another call came in. When he picked it up, it was still the sound of someone singing, but this time it was a different opera, ‘Mulan Joins the Army.’ The night was quiet, and he could hear it very clearly. My dad broke out in a cold sweat. After hanging up, he unplugged the phone, and it finally went quiet.”

The lighting in the private room was dim, and combined with Bai Meng’s storytelling, everyone was captivated…

“My dad tried to go back to sleep, but the sound of the opera seemed to be engraved in his mind, always echoing. He had nightmares all night, accompanied by the crying of a woman. The next day, my dad called my grandma, and she said it might be some unclean thing they had encountered. My dad, being a policeman, naturally wouldn’t entertain feudal superstitions. But he was still wary. When he checked out of the hotel, he asked the owner if there had been any incidents involving opera singers nearby. The owner’s face turned pale as soon as he heard, and he started stammering.

“My dad found it strange, so he asked around the village and heard an old story. People in the village said that the owner’s wife had eloped with an opera singer. Later, my dad became more suspicious and had someone investigate. Those two had no records of any activities elsewhere, and the owner didn’t report anything. So the local police searched the hotel and found… Apparently, the hotel owner had discovered his wife’s affair with the opera singer and killed them, claiming they had eloped. He buried their corpses beneath the hotel, and for over a decade, nobody found out.”

This story, coupled with the restaurant’s air conditioning, had a chilling effect. Lu Ying, munching on cold dishes, said, “The case is interesting, but ghosts don’t make phone calls.”

“Of course, the story isn’t over yet,” Bai Meng said. “Later, when the local police asked my dad where he got the lead from, he couldn’t explain why such a thing happened, only that he received a tip-off over the phone. Then they traced the call records and found it came from a public telephone booth. After checking the fingerprints and eyewitnesses, they discovered that the caller was the opera singer’s mother. She missed her son so much that she became mentally unstable. She vaguely suspected that something had happened to her son a long time ago and felt that there was something wrong with the hotel owner. So, whenever she couldn’t sleep at night, she would make harassing phone calls to the hotel, disrupting their business. It just so happened that she called my dad that day.”

After the story was finished, everyone felt relieved. Qi Yi’an said, “Solving a case is always a good thing.”

Bai Meng nodded, “My dad received commendation for this, and he was even named an advanced model that year.”

The story had twists and turns, meeting the standard, so Bai Meng was exempt from drinking. After another round of rolling the dice, this time it landed on Lu Ying. Lu Ying thought for a moment before starting, “I have a case that left a deep impression on me. I had just graduated from university and was assigned to the City Bureau. It was on July 22nd, a rainy night, and there was a couple who were journalists. They suddenly received a phone call, claiming it was a tip-off about a big news story.

“The couple hurriedly packed up and left. Their child was pulling on them, not wanting them to go, but they still left. Before leaving, the mother squatted down to hug the child and said, ‘Mommy and Daddy will be back soon. You stay at home, finish your homework, and don’t be afraid of thunder. You have Kunbu with you.’ Kunbu was their dog. From that night onwards, his parents disappeared, never to return. Relatives and friends searched the area but found no trace of them. There were no clues about the phone call either. I had just become a detective at the time, and our entire detective team was searching for them. Initially, we thought it might be a car accident, so we searched all the rivers within a dozen miles, and later suspected a traffic accident, reviewing various surveillance videos. We searched high and low for three months…”

Bai Meng waited for the continuation of the story and asked, “And then? Did they find those two?”

Lu Ying shrugged, “There’s no ‘and then.’ That’s the end of the story. They vanished without a trace.”

Bai Meng was a bit disappointed, “You didn’t finish the story. Why did you tell such an incomplete story to us? Are you just trying to get free drinks?”

Lu Ying admitted defeat, “Alright, alright, I’ll penalize myself with three drinks.” Lu Ying finished his drink and poured another one, “This was the first case I encountered after graduation, a missing persons case, with no leads. It’s not easy to solve such a case.”

For the third time, the number drawn was Qi Yi’an’s. Qi Yi’an searched his mind for a moment before speaking up, “I’ll also share a case I heard about when I was in school,” Qi Yi’an said. “Our anatomy teacher, surnamed Qin, told us a story during class. In a village, a family was digging a well and found bones. They immediately called the police, suspecting foul play, as there had been disappearances in the village before. So, a nearby medical examiner went to investigate. After examining the bones, the medical examiner concluded that they weren’t human bones but a mix of cow and pig bones. They advised them to dig elsewhere.

“Later, the case was reported to the county, and my teacher, after looking at the case files, felt something was off. Why would someone bury a large amount of pig and cow bones in cement? He began to suspect that the village’s medical examiner had made a mistake and took a few medical examiners to the scene.”

Bai Meng asked, “So what was it actually then?”

Qi Yi’an revealed the answer, “It turned out my teacher and others had buried the bones in cement to conceal them. They were afraid of being discovered, so they bought pig and cow bones and piled them on top to camouflage. Initially, the village’s medical examiner lacked experience and only discovered the top layer, almost missing the case entirely. It wasn’t until my teacher noticed the discrepancy that the case was solved.”

Lu Ying commented, “The culprit was really cunning.”

Gu Yanchen nodded, “The story had a twist. I’ll let you off this time.”

As they continued sharing stories, Shen Junci remained silent, his head bowed, completely silent on the sidelines. In the next round, Shen Junci’s turn came up. Gu Yanchen glanced over and saw him arranging the crab shells he had just eaten with the tip of his chopsticks. Looking at his plate, chicken bones and fish bones were also neatly arranged, categorized and placed in an orderly manner. They could almost piece together a complete skeleton. With his slender and dexterous fingers, usually wielding a scalpel, Shen Junci symmetrically arranged those bones and crab shells on the table, forming a rudimentary model.

Gu Yanchen addressed Shen Junci, “Doctor Shen, it’s your turn now. Don’t get too engrossed in your model-building.”