Netherworld Investigator

NEW NOVEL: First and foremost, I'm delighted to announce that our long-time veteran translator littleshanks has finally launched his new novel, Rise!  Rise is a novel about the esports scene in Shanghai, the competitive gaming capital of China. It follows the story of Lin Feng, a boy who has just moved to the city for his last year of high school. He's a passionate gamer and dreams of being the best professional League of Legends player in the world. The twist? He almost achieved his dream, but failed at the...

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Xiaotao jumped and kicked the door down with both her feet. It opened straight away, but all we saw was an open window and a woman sitting on the bed. She was completely naked, and when she saw so many people rushing in, she quickly covered herself with the blanket.

We looked out the window. It was the third floor. The roof of a car below was smashed, and right next to it a fat man in a flowing white bathrobe and hotel slippers sprinted.

Wang Yuanchao climbed onto the window and shouted, “This is a police case!  Stay away!”

He then jumped straight down and rolled his body as he landed. He quickly got back on his feet and began to chase the man with a speed as fast as a leopard.

“Do we have to follow them, Xiaotao-jiejie?” Dali asked.

“No. Wang Yuanchao will handle it.”

Xiaotao looked around the room. The man’s clothes were strewn all over the floor. In the rush of getting away, that man wore nothing underneath the bathrobe. Xiaotao found a wallet from the pocket of a pair of pants on the floor, and the ID card inside showed that he was the guy we were looking for.

Then she asked the woman on the bed, “What is your relation with Ren Facai?”

“C-Cousin!”

“Do cousins get into bed naked together?” sneered Xiaotao. She threw the woman’s clothes on to the bed and added, “Wear your clothes and go wait outside.”

After a while, Ren Facai was brought back by Wang Yuanchao. Ren Facai was soaked in sweat. You could clearly see that he was exhausted. When he saw the woman kneeling in the hallway, he quickly explained, “Officers, she’s my relative! She’s my niece! We don’t have that kind of relationship!”

“She said you’re cousins, yet you said she’s your niece,” Xiaotao sneered. “You guys really should’ve agreed on the same lie beforehand like pros!”

The shame on Ren Facai’s face was clear. “Alright, alright. I’ll stay in prison for five days and pay a fine of five hundred yuan, right?”

That’s impressive, I thought. He must’ve gotten caught for this offence a lot.

He looked down and realized that he was naked save for the bathrobe, so he said, “Officer, do you mind bringing me my pants?”

Xiaotao showed him her badge and yelled, “We’re from the criminal division. We’re not after your ass for a prostitution case! Come with us to the police station!”

Ren Facai looked confused as he stared at Xiaotao’s badge. “You must be mistaken, Officer! I haven’t done anything wrong recently.”

Xiaotao waved her hand, “We’ll talk when we get to the station.”

Once they apprehended the suspect, Xiaotao intended to go back to the station and interrogate him straight away. When we got into her car, Dali asked, “Xiaotao-jiejie, don’t you want to get off work on time? My stomach is rumbling with hunger!”

“I’ll drive you guys back to campus first then,” she replied.

I declined immediately. I told her that we’ll just get off the car at the intersection and find a way to go back ourselves. It didn’t feel right to take up her precious time when she was still working on a case.

Seeing how the investigation had been going on so well, Xiaotao boldly asked, “Do you think Ren Facai is the murderer, Song Yang?”

“Well, he does look like a criminal…”

“Come on, out with it! Just say what you think!” urged Xiaotao impatiently.

“Okay, I’ll be honest then. I don’t think Ren Facai is the murderer we’re looking for!”

Xiaotao laughed. “Your inexperience is showing! That man looks like he would do anything for money. I would bet that he’s the murderer!”

“And what if you’re wrong?” I raised my eyebrows.

“Then I’ll buy you dinner!”

“Okay, deal!”

Dali stared at us with a blank expression. “Jeez. So I’m the third wheel again, huh?”

“We’re just making a bet! What are you so sensitive about?” asked Xiaotao.

“Oh, look! Sparks are flying in the air. This car is filled with the fragrance of love!” Dali mocked us.

“You idiot! I’ll kick you out of the car if you don’t shut up!” Xiaotao’s face had turned red, but not as red as mine.

Soon after that, Dali and I were back in our dorm. At about nine o’clock in the morning the next day, I received a call from Xiaotao.

“Song Yang, he’s as slippery as an eel! Come and help us!”

“Okay! I’ll be right there!”

I gave Dali a look. At that moment, we were both in class. We found the perfect timing when the professor turned away from us to write on the blackboard, then we quickly snuck away through the back door of the lecture hall. Our classmates merely smirked. We had become somewhat known for skipping classes lately.

When we arrived at the police station, I saw Ren Facai sitting in the interrogation room. His eyes were red. Empty lunch boxes and cups were scattered on the table in front of him.

“Did he confess?” I asked.

Xiaotao sighed.

“He did,” she said. “He confessed to stealing chickens and beating up dogs and a ton of other petty crimes. He’s been at it since last night! He’s got stamina, I’ve got to give him that.”

I noticed that Xiaotao was wearing the same clothes as yesterday and was surprised. “You mean you haven’t had a rest since yesterday?”

“I took short naps in the conference room once in a while,” she replied. “The police officers doing the questioning changed three times.” 

Xiaotao then went silent for a while.

“Let’s go question him ourselves!” I suggested.

Xiaotao sent a short text message to a police officer who was in the interrogation room. They quickly came out, and we went in immediately. I asked Ren Facai, “Did you recently buy a mansion at a price of half a million yuan recently?”

Ren Facai nodded repeatedly, “That’s right, Officer! You even found out the price! Well done! Well done!”

Xiaotao slammed the table. “Stop leading us in a circle, bastard. Dead bodies were found inside the mansion you just bought! Don’t tell me you know nothing about that!”

“But I really don’t know anything about that,” Ren Facai shrugged. “You’ve asked me about that three times, and I’ll give you the same answer again—I don’t know how the bodies got there! If I knew, I wouldn’t have bought the old place.”

“Don’t tell me you don’t know it’s a haunted house either,” I sneered.

“Oh, I know about that, Officer.”

“Then why did you still buy it?”

Ren Facai smiled, “I didn’t buy the house to live there. I just wanted an isolated place where nobody dared to go. I thought of turning it into a leather workshop. I’ve got a brother who’s good at making fake Louis Vuitton bags. He’s fooled many people with his skills…”

Xiaotao snapped and slammed on the table again. “Get to the point!” she shouted.

Ren Facai narrowed his small eyes and murmured, “Won’t your pretty hand hurt if you do that, beautiful?”

Xiaotao almost opted for torture to force a confession out of him, but I managed to persuade her against it. When she calmed down, she whispered to me, “You should be careful about this guy. He can lead you a mile away from the key point before you realize it.”

The whole interrogation process was long and tortuous. I fully understood the boring side of a police officer’s work. But no matter how we interrogated him, he’d always lead us away from the case and blindside us with all the petty crimes he’d committed, like selling porn, online scams, money laundering and a whole host of other things.

I realized that the man belonged to a group of criminals who strictly stuck to the ‘lighter’ crimes. In the end, I was convinced that the guy did not know anything about the victims and would never confess to the murders. Even under my Cave Vision, he seemed not to be lying. It was pretty clear that he didn’t even know if the victims were male or female.

It was already four o'clock in the afternoon when we got out of the interrogation room. I was exhausted, and so was Xiaotao. Dali asked how it went. I shook my head and said, “He’s not the murderer.”

“I’ll tell them to release him,” muttered Xiaotao. “Ugh, I don’t ever want to see that greasy face of his ever again!”

Now that we hit a dead end again, Xiaotao was utterly deflated. I comforted her by saying it was fine. The case was a complicated one, so it was impossible that we’d be able to solve it so easily. We would go on with our original plan and stay the night at the haunted mansion.

At that moment, Xiaotao received a call. She answered it, and after she hung up she told me, “Song Yang, one of my officers caught a suspicious individual near the haunted mansion!”

“Awesome!” exclaimed Dali. “It must be the murderer, trying to destroy some evidence! That means we won’t have to spend the night at the haunted mansion tonight!”

We immediately got into the car and headed to the haunted mansion. We saw two police officers questioning a young man. As we got closer, we realized it was Ye Shiwen. He almost leapt with joy when he saw me.

“Song Yang! Thank God you’re here! These officers think I’m a suspect and kept asking me questions. I was only here to find something I lost.”

Xiaotao asked, “So you are Song Yang’s friend? This is a murder scene. What did you lose here?”

Ye Shiwen clammed up and refused to give a clear answer. No wonder the officers thought he was suspicious! It was only after Xiaotao intimidated him that he finally revealed that he was looking for a small handcrafted knife. He probably lost it in the bathroom upstairs.

Xiaotao asked one of the officers to go look for it, and sure enough, they found a handcrafted knife. The scabbard was very beautifully carved. Ye Shiwen was about to take it when Xiaotao stopped him and roared, “You do know that a knife can be used as a weapon, right? We’ll have to confiscate this!”

“But, Officer!” Ye Shiwen implored. “There’s no sharp blade at all to this knife. You can’t hurt anyone with it! It’s just a gift my ex-girlfriend gave to me. That’s the only reason why I find it so precious.”

Xiaotao tried the blade and found that it really wasn’t sharp at all. She told Ye Shiwen that because he was my friend, she’d trust him and allow him to have the knife. Ye Shiwen was very grateful to me and promised to treat me to a nice meal later. I would never have guessed it at the time, but I would see the knife again soon—and it would be connected to a murder case!

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