Silent Witness - Chapter 2

The Puchen City Public Security Bureau’s Criminal Investigation Brigade was organized into eight units: General Affairs, Major Crimes, Technical Support, Intelligence, and four others. Li Hewei and Tao Ling both served in the Technical Support Unit, frequently assisting other departments.

As the unit leader, Li Hewei maintained daily contact with all the other units.

With a nervous flutter in her chest, Li Hewei pressed the answer button. After a brief greeting, Hou Jiang immediately said, “I apologize for disturbing you while you’re recovering.” His voice was slurred and incoherent, clearly under the influence of alcohol, hovering between drunkenness and lucidity.

“I… I love you. I’ve secretly loved you for five years. Two years ago, I was about to confess when news suddenly broke that you were getting married.”

Alcohol emboldens cowards, Li Hewei thought, clicking her tongue. Confessing under the influence? What kind of melodramatic plot is this? Yet Tao Ling remained remarkably composed, her expression as serene as ever.

Hou Jiang continued to lament his regrets, then abruptly shifted his tone. “I know you’ve already filed a petition with the court to declare Tao Yang missing. So… could you give me a chance?”

Li Hewei deduced from the context that Tao Yang must be Tao Ling’s elder brother. Missing? She froze, her gaze darting between the two figures beside the bed in astonishment.

Cheng Yingqiu understood her unspoken question and whispered, “I’ll explain later.”

Li Hewei took a deep breath, resolving to end this quickly. Her expression turned icy, her voice as cold as frost: “Team Leader Hou, what do you mean by declaring your feelings while my colleague’s marriage is still valid?”

“I…” Hou Jiang stammered.

“Are you looking down on me?” Li Hewei scoffed softly. “Or do you think your charm is so irresistible that I’d willingly cross boundaries for you?”

Hou Jiang stuttered, “N-no, that’s not it.”

“Get lost. Go cool off somewhere else.”

Li Hewei’s decisive rejection, delivered with razor-sharp words, carried an invisible weight of authority. Without waiting for Hou Jiang’s reaction, she ended the call, tossed her phone aside, and couldn’t resist muttering, “Typical arrogant man.”

As she turned, she caught a subtle shift in Tao Ling’s usually impassive demeanor. A ripple disturbed the calm waters of her eyes, hinting at shock.

Li Hewei pondered the reason. Cheng Yingqiu’s reaction provided the answer: “Wow, sis! You never used to be like this.”

“What do you mean?” Li Hewei asked. “Wasn’t my reaction perfectly normal?”

Cheng Yingqiu smiled knowingly. “You wouldn’t scold him. At most, you’d politely decline, saying you’re not a good match.”

Was the original Li Hewei really this soft? Li Hewei wondered inwardly. I can’t indulge these arrogant men. If you’re not clear or harsh enough, they’ll inevitably think there’s still a chance and keep pestering you. In her seven years of work, her leaders, friends, and even her stepmother had occasionally tried to set her up on blind dates. After a few firm rejections, they at least stopped nagging her.

Li Hewei spoke with conviction: “Some men will always misinterpret a soft ‘no’ as something else—’wrong timing,’ or even think you’re playing hard to get.”

Cheng Yingqiu nodded in agreement. “Exactly! You have to be ruthless.”

Outside the window, the thunder had subsided, but the rain still poured down. With the Hou Jiang incident resolved, the hospital room briefly returned to its quietude. Tao Ling, clutching her canvas bag by her side, said softly, “Sister Wei, Team Leader Qiu called. He needs me to handle some urgent matters.”

The “Team Leader Qiu” she referred to was Qiu Wan, the deputy captain of the Criminal Investigation Brigade and head of the Major Crimes Unit. She had been transferred to Puchen from a rural police station just five days prior.

Li Hewei instinctively asked, “Huh? Why didn’t you say something earlier? It’s been over thirty minutes.”

Tao Ling pressed her lips together. “It’s not urgent. I can just give it to Team Leader Qiu tomorrow morning.”

“Going back to work overtime?” Li Hewei asked, watching her nod. “It’s 9:47 now. By the time you get home, it’ll be half an hour just for a quick wash-up. Are you planning to pull an all-nighter?”

“It should only take about two hours to finish.”

Li Hewei realized she might be meddling, but she still spoke her mind. “Don’t let this happen again. If there’s something you need, just say so.”

“Okay,” Tao Ling replied, her eyes softening with warmth at Li Hewei’s concern. But as if recalling something, her expression instantly faded. She stood up, a polite smile curving her lips. “Yingqiu, thank you for taking care of Sister Wei.”

As the Tao Family’s representative, Tao Ling should have stayed to help, but Cheng Yingqiu understood her consideration and waved it off casually. “Aiya, we’re family. No need for formalities.”

Tao Ling returned a faint smile from beside the bed before turning to leave.

Li Hewei watched her slender figure disappear around the corner of the hospital room.

As the door closed and the footsteps faded, Cheng Yingqiu’s talkative nature resurfaced unrestrained. “Sister, let’s talk about Tao Yang.”

Li Hewei leaned closer, listening intently. “Go on.”

“Hey, you really don’t remember anything?”

Li Hewei hummed in affirmation.

“Speaking of Tao Yang, I never understood what you liked about him. Maybe his looks were decent?” The takeout claypot rice had already gone cold. Cheng Yingqiu, with her sensitive stomach, had to order another late-night snack. She swiped through her phone screen, saying casually, “Oh, remember how Aunt Qiong and your uncle were pressuring you to get married a couple of years ago? It was Valentine’s Day, and Tao Yang confessed his feelings over WeChat. You just said yes. I figured you two were high school classmates, so you must know each other well. But then you told me he was working abroad, you barely saw each other, and it avoided a lot of hassle.”

“Huh?” Li Hewei was baffled. What kind of bizarre reason was that?

“It was the classic ‘top student and slacker’ pairing. You were always in the top three of your class, while he was at the bottom.”

“You graduated with a master’s from Shujiang University and became a captain in the Major Crimes Unit at 28, a high-ranking deputy section chief. He only had a high school diploma, worked manual labor, and was laying railway tracks overseas.”

Li Hewei admired the author’s twisted logic. Still, in this vast world, anything was possible. After years working as a forensic pathologist, she had witnessed the full spectrum of human behavior and seen far stranger things.

Cheng Yingqiu answered without hesitation, “You got your marriage certificate the afternoon he returned to China. As for how he disappeared, it’s a strange story…”

Tao Yang lost contact with his family and friends the day after obtaining the marriage certificate, never even having the chance to hold a wedding ceremony with Li Hewei. On July 10th, two years and three days after his disappearance, Li Hewei, under repeated pressure from her parents, took the initiative to inform the Tao Family of her intention to file a declaration of absence with the court. It was a reasonable course of action, and despite the Tao Family’s reluctance and grief, they could only nod in agreement.

The public notice period for declaring someone missing is three months. After this period, Li Hewei could file for divorce.

Li Hewei asked anxiously, “How many days left?”

Cheng Yingqiu grinned like a sly fox. “Eager, huh?”

“I just want to escape this sea of suffering as soon as possible.” In truth, she wanted to sever all ties with men, even though she already knew Tao Yang’s fate.

“About eighty days, I think.” The late-night snack arrived, and Cheng Yingqiu went to fetch it from outside. When she returned, she carried two bags and casually handed the one in her left hand to Li Hewei. “Braised pork rice.”

“Thank you,” Li Hewei said, straightening up to take the bag. Cheng Yingqiu helped her adjust the bed table.

“Sis, I have a small favor to ask,” Cheng Yingqiu said abruptly while they were eating, her hand still holding a skewer of grilled meat.

“Hmm, go ahead,” Li Hewei replied. She had a very favorable impression of Cheng Yingqiu, who was perhaps her most important connection in this unfamiliar world. Cheng Yingqiu was straightforward and always willing to help.

“Remember how I finished my internship and got a job? The company is right across from your apartment complex,” Cheng Yingqiu said, her eyes crinkling into a smile. “You live alone in a three-bedroom, two-living-room apartment. Doesn’t it get lonely?” The apartment was Li Hewei’s pre-marital property. Originally, the Tao Family had promised to cover the renovation costs, but after Tao Yang’s disappearance, the Li Family refused their betrothal gifts, and Li Yuqiong paid for the renovation herself.

Nowadays, most young people aren’t willingly relying on their parents; their meager salaries make buying a home impossible without parental assistance, and even with a mortgage, they struggle to afford it independently.

Li Hewei understood the unspoken request. She nodded. “Just pack your things and move in.” After all, the apartment belonged to the original owner, and she was only staying temporarily.

Cheng Yingqiu’s face lit up. After finishing a chicken wing, she threw her arms around Li Hewei. “Ah, Sis, you’re the best!”

Li Hewei pried Cheng Yingqiu’s hands off her and made a demand: “But there’s a condition.”

“As long as it’s within my power!”

“Convince them not to transfer me to another hospital.”

“This…” Cheng Yingqiu hesitated. “We’re doing this for your own good. What if you’ve injured your brain?”

“The CT scan showed no serious damage,” Li Hewei reasoned. “I’ve simply forgotten some people and events, but I can still take care of myself and won’t be hindered at work.”

“Really?” Cheng Yingqiu remained skeptical. In her understanding, amnesia could have severe consequences.

Li Hewei insisted firmly, “Yes.”

“Then recite the periodic table of elements.”

“Are you trying to be funny?” Li Hewei asked, torn between laughter and tears. Yet she recited the entire periodic table flawlessly.

Cheng Yingqiu relented. “Alright, fine.”

“By the way, how did I get injured?” Since the original owner worked in a technical role, she wouldn’t typically confront criminals directly. But Hou Jiang had said she was recovering from an injury, not an illness.

Cheng Yingqiu’s anger flared instantly. “You were communicating with witnesses at the residential building where the crime occurred when the suspect’s father threw a flowerpot from above. It nearly hit your head—you were so lucky!”

After their late-night snack, the two lay chatting idly. Cheng Yingqiu, plagued by drowsiness, was sound asleep within half an hour, her phone clutched in her arms. Li Hewei, however, remained unusually alert in the adjacent hospital bed, organizing the information she had gathered that evening and planning her next move. She ultimately decided to focus on adapting to her work first. After all, as a key figure in the Technical Squad, the original owner of this body needed not only to handle her own tasks but also to demonstrate management and coordination skills.

Speaking of work, personal details inevitably surfaced. During their conversation, Li Hewei learned that they shared the same birthday: August 8th. The phone’s six-digit passcode prompted her to try 850808, which successfully unlocked it.

Li Hewei carefully avoided the most private sections, focusing instead on work-related people and matters.

She opened WeChat and scrolled through the interface. The pinned chats were all work groups or family/friend groups, with no other personal contacts. This spartan, work-centric life perfectly matched Cheng Yingqiu’s assessment of the original owner.

The Technical Squad consisted of eight members, all women. Li Hewei was pleasantly surprised, for once praising the author’s progressive thinking. She mentally noted their names and roles:

Three Assistant Forensic Trace Evidence Engineers One Full-Time Technician One Assistant Forensic Imaging Engineer One Forensic Pathologist One Forensic Laboratory Technician And the original owner, a Forensic Composite Artist, also known as a “Forensic Sketch Artist.”

A smile played on Li Hewei’s lips as she exited the group chat, ready to rest. Suddenly, her phone vibrated. The message was from Tao Ling:

File: Puchen City Public Security Bureau Autopsy Pathology Report (Supplemental Report)

Sister Wei, here are the report and supplemental report.

Okay, get some rest. Li Hewei guessed the Major Crimes Unit had asked Tao Ling for the reports, and she’d sent Li Hewei a copy as well.

You too.

It belatedly occurred to Li Hewei that she’d only skimmed through her phone’s settings earlier. The original owner of this body had set all personal chats to “Do Not Disturb,” including Li Yuqiong’s.

What about Tao Yang? Li Hewei scrolled through her contacts, found Tao Yang’s account, and saw the “Do Not Disturb” icon glaring beside his name. So why was Tao Ling the only exception?

Li Hewei couldn’t fathom the original owner’s reasons for this special treatment, but a daring hypothesis flashed through her mind: Did she… like Tao Ling?

Impossible.

After their brief half-hour together, Li Hewei had assumed their relationship was ordinary—nothing beyond their roles as aunt-in-law and colleague. Besides, with Tao Yang’s disappearance, their familial bond might as well be nonexistent.

Li Hewei pondered the matter, still utterly clueless. Unwilling to delve into their chat history for now, she buried the mystery in her heart, resolving to unravel it gradually in the future.