Chapter 920: On the Road Home

In the conference room, Sun Lei’s mother cried, “Our Sun Lei has always been an obedient child. He cried for a long time even when the pigeons we were raising at home died. He joined the army after graduating from high school. He has basically always been in the army. He didn't have any social contacts, so I really don't know who would be so cruel as to attack him viciously like this." Sun Lei's father consoled her while looking sad himself.

Chen Shi said, "We want to know more about the situation, it would be helpful for solving the case. Has Sun Lei been to the hospital recently?"

Chen Shi felt that if the liver had been removed for transplantation, then the murderer must know his medical information.

Sun Lei's mother recalled, "Their army has a hospital, and they usually see the doctors there."

"What about previously? Has he ever been hospitalized prior to becoming a soldier?"

"I remember now. He didn't eat well when he was a child, and he loved to drink Coke. He had stomach problems. When he was in high school, he went to the hospital for a small stomach operation and stayed in the hospital for about three or four days."

"Are there medical records?"

"They’re at home. If you want to have a look, I can get them for you."

"I will send someone back with you to bring it back later." Chen Shi asked, "There’s another thing I need to know. What Sun Lei’s true age?"

The father replied, "His nominal age1 is thirty-three…"

The mother said, "The nominal age should actually be thirty-four."

Chen Shi said, "It should be thirty-five, right? Just tell the truth. Any clue is meaningful to us."

The father and mother discussed briefly in low voices, and then the father said to Chen Shi, "Officer, actually, Sun Lei didn’t join the army as soon as he graduated from high school. At that time, he failed the college entrance examination and had a little friction with the family. He stole a few hundred yuan from the family, and ran away to work outside. It seems that he met a girl outside. The two of them were together for about two and a half years and never came back even during Chinese New Year. He really couldn’t make much money working and couldn’t even support himself. He suffered a great deal. I was so worried that I secretly went to the city where he was working, gave his girlfriend money, and secretly financially subsidized him. Later, he broke up with the girl and said that he really couldn’t survive outside. However, he didn’t want to go back to high school again, so we used our connections to reduce his age by three years and sent him to the army. Although life in the army was very harsh, Sun Lei actually liked that kind of orderly life. He felt that he had found the place where he belonged, so he remained there, and was promoted to second lieutenant after the first two years…" The memories of their son have stopped here forever, and the father let out a bitter sigh.

Chen Shi recorded all this information and asked for information about the girl who was dating Sun Lei at the time. After the questioning, he sent a policeman to send the two elderly people back and to bring back Sun Lei's medical records on the way.

Working into the evening, Chen Shi was in a daze gazing at the whiteboard full of information in the conference room. Lin Dongxue came over to look for him. "Captain, are you still not leaving?"

Chen Shi pointed to the white board. "This stuff is just like a fruit basket in the fruit shop, with a dazzling array of things, but nothing you really want to eat is inside. The case this time is very troublesome, and I feel like there’s going to be more things happening."

"When you can't find a breakthrough point, you’d be very uncomfortable, right?"

"It's quite uncomfortable. When Zhou Xiao was committing serial murders, I felt uncomfortable for a whole year. As long as my eyes were open, I would ponder this matter… It would be nice if I have superpowers."

"In everyone's eyes, you seem to have superpowers."

Chen Shi smiled bitterly. "Have you eaten yet?"

"I’ve been waiting for you!"

Chen Shi changed his clothes and was going to go home with Lin Dongxue. When he passed the forensic department, he saw that Peng Sijue was still working. Chen Shi quietly walked over and explained to Lin Dongxue, "I don't want him to see me getting off work so early. It’ll seem as though I’m not serious about my job. "

"Isn’t it already 8:00PM?"

"In the past, when we were both single, I would always work through the night with him." Chen Shi took out his mobile phone. "This guy has definitely not eaten dinner. I'll order him a takeaway… What's cheap?"

Then Chen Shi ordered a steak over rice set meal for around 80 yuan.

When they got into the car, Chen Shi suggested, "Wife, let’s go out for dinner, and then go to the movies."

"In the past, I might readily agree, but I’m now your wife. I think it's better to be a bit more thrifty and go home to eat instant noodles."

"Why are you saving money? There’s nothing we need to buy."

"We can't be lavish every day. Married people still have to have some financial plans."

𝘧𝓇ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝘣𝓃ℴ𝓋𝑒𝑙.𝑐𝘰𝑚

"Haha, women enter the married stage really fast. A few days ago, you were an innocent girl and now you’ve suddenly became a good wife and mother."

"That's because women always think a lot. You men will never grow up. Let’s go home and eat instant noodles. We can boil two eggs, and then we can watch that Korean drama."

Chen Shi stared ahead and didn’t say anything. Lin Dongxue asked, "What are you thinking?"

"Should I resign? I find that being a captain and being a consultant feel completely different. I don’t have any freedom at all."

"Oh, please. You’ve only been a captain for a few days, and it’s not like you haven’t been a captain before."

"But for the past four years, I’ve gotten used to the freedom outside. Suddenly, I have to work from 9 to 5 and I just can’t get used to it… Once, I had a drunk passenger in the middle of the night. We chatted away and talked about oysters until we were both salivating. He suddenly decided not to go home and asked me to go to another place. He then treated me to raw oysters. After we both ate raw oysters, we went to take a bath and spent the night at the bathhouse. The next morning, he woke up and asked me who I was. Haha, I miss that kind of freedom. There was a foreign news article saying that several criminal police officers had opened a fruit shop as a cover in order to squash drug dealers. After the mission was completed, they all resigned together, because they discovered that running a fruit shop was both profitable and easy. Do you think I should simply join a grilled fish shop franchise and become a happy little boss?"

"Come on. The entire second team relies on you for spiritual support. What will we do if you leave? The greater the ability, the greater the responsibility. You should accept your fate!"

"Haii…" Chen Shi sighed. "When will you get promoted? I’ll let you be the captain."

"Wouldn’t we be suspected of nepotism?"

"You’re already very capable. You only suffer from being too good-looking. It’s easy for people to pay too much attention to your beauty and overlook your abilities."

Lin Dongxue smiled. "Haha, I'm feeling really happy from your flattery. In order to reward you, you can watch whatever you want to tonight!"

"Thank you, my wife… Shall we go and eat raw oysters?"

"Get lost. We’re going back to eat instant noodles. Instant noodles that cost four yuan a pack. Where's your dissatisfaction coming from?"

Chen Shi smiled bitterly. He took advantage of the red light to stop and glance at his phone. "Old Peng has repaid me the money for the takeout, and he also paid a hundred yuan extra. I’ve made a profit. Shall we eat raw oysters?"

Lin Dongxue poked Chen Shi's head. "You really need someone to restrain you. Go to the supermarket to buy a bag of oysters and bake them at home."

"Buy some beer as well."

"It’ll cause gout."

"That's a rumor. A rumor!"

"Why do you want to eat oysters all of a sudden? Because we talked about oysters?"

"Haha, yes."

"Then if I talk to you about sh*t, would you want to eat sh*t?"

Chen Shi pondered for a moment. "Do you want to drink civet coffee?2 I heard there’s a shop in Wuyi Road."

"Get lost!" Lin Dongxue smiled.

1. In some cultures, a person is considered one year old at birth with a year added each year.

2. Kopi Luwak coffee. The Indonesian palm civet eats only the ripest coffee berries and excretes the “stone.” Coffee produced with these partially digested berries tastes less bitter, due to the enzymes in the animal's stomach. Also known as “wild cat feces coffee”, which was why he brought it up at this moment.