Chapter 928: Urgent Mission

Back in the bureau, Chen Shi asked the colleagues of the Information Department to expand the search range and find all the deceased targets. Afterwards, a few thick stacks of documents were handed over to Chen Shi.

Chen Shi had already sent a group message telling everyone to stop checking the interpersonal relationships of the deceased and concentrate all their efforts on finding suspects among the deceased.

Everyone was busying themselves with work and Chen Shi sat in a daze. After a while, he picked up the files and looked for the people he had thought of. He went several times to the Information Department, but these people weren’t within the targeted range, including Zhou Tiannan, Old Man Lu's two sons, and some other criminals who have already been executed.

Lin Dongxue said, "Even if the person behind the scenes firmly believes that this kind of ritual can resurrect the dead, they can only be resurrected for one day, so what's the point?"

"One day of resurrection is also meaningful…" Chen Shi thought of Li Mu, Han Luoxi, and Gu You in a flash. "But from a practical point of view, the most important thing a deceased person could do when they return to the world of the living for a day is to provide information."

"For example, a secret that they took to their graves? It must be a great secret if they don’t hesitate to kill five people in order to bring the dead back to life for one day."

"Captain, there’s a deceased person surnamed Zhang who was a corrupt official who took bribes. He jumped off a building before he was arrested. The whereabouts of the tens of millions of bribes he accepted are unknown." A policeman said.

"The person behind the scenes should be a non-atheist, with considerable financial strength, and possibly single. Those who believe in this kind of thing should be engaged in creative work." Chen Shi speculated. "Is there someone with such characteristics around Zhang?"

"Let me see…"

Everyone was at a loss over the names on the pieces of paper. It was completely impossible to determine the suspects just by looking at simple household registration information. They could only do the simplest of exclusions and eliminate the ones who had no relatives left behind after death. Even so, the scope was still too large, which gave them headaches.

Chen Shi said, "Those who died of natural causes should also be excluded. Focus on those who died unnatural deaths."

Old Zhang asked, "Would it be a man or a woman? If this can be ascertained, we would be able to eliminate half of them."

A policeman said, "It’s more likely to be a woman. Usually, the people behind the scenes are men, and the person they want to resurrect is probably their partner."

"No, not necessarily!" Chen Shi argued. "There is insufficient evidence to show that the person behind the scenes is a man. They had just hired people to do things for themselves. It can be seen from this that they don’t have the ability and experience to commit murder. It could even be an old lady. "

Chen Shi continued, "You should use your imagination and not be too confined to a rigid range. I know this is really difficult. Don't be discouraged!"

"This is the most absurd investigation ever." A young policeman complained.

"Okay, stop complaining. Investigate it quickly." The policeman's partner said.

Chen Shi suddenly discovered that Xu Xiaodong wasn’t there, and asked Lin Dongxue about it. Lin Dongxue said, "Why do you have such a bad memory? You sent him to Nanheng City to investigate the instructor's ex-girlfriend."

"Damn it. Wasted manpower. I’ll phone him to come back."

Deploying forces was indeed not Chen Shi’s forte. He had actually forgotten that Xu Xiaodong and his partner were out-of-town investigating the interpersonal relationships of the first victim.

After his call got through, Chen Shi told Xu Xiaodong to head back quickly. Xu Xiaodong said, "We’ve already met Sun Lei’s ex-girlfriend. We’re returning by tonight’s train. We’ll be back at about 9:00PM… Captain, should I bring some local specialties back for you?"

"Local specialties… What f-"

Lin Dongxue coughed beside him as a reminder.

"Hurry back. There’s a lot of stuff to do." Chen Shi heard some voices from the other side. "Where are you?"

"The hospital. We’re checking the files of Sun Lei's hospitalization during the period while he was working."

"He’s been hospitalized in Nanheng before?"

"He was sick at that time and was hospitalized for about half a month."

Chen Shi suddenly thought that when he was in Nanheng, Sun Lei's family hadn't applied for him to enlist in the army yet, which meant that what the hospital had recorded was Sun Lei's original birth date.

He said, "By the way, check for a woman named XX (Crazy Lady’s name) at the hospital.”

Twenty minutes after hanging up, Xu Xiaodong called back again. "Captain, there really was such a person here."

To confirm, Chen Shi asked, "When’s the birthday?"

"Mine or hers?"

"Nonsense!"

Lin Dongxue coughed next to him again, and Chen Shi handed over his mug. He continued listening on the phone.

"February 19th, 1973." Xu Xiaodong answered over the phone.

Chen Shi put his phone on his chest and said to Lin Dongxue, "It was accidentally discovered that a hospital in Nanheng actually holds information on Crazy Lady."

"But Crazy Lady shouldn’t have gone there, right?"

"I'll ask again." Chen Shi said to the phone. "What illness did she have when she was at this hospital?"

"She wasn’t sick. She came here to give birth… Wait, she didn’t give birth at this hospital, but at the Jinlong Hospital in Long'an… Oh, that's it. The nurse told me that these two hospitals were built by the same organization, so the records are mutually accessible on the same network."

Chen Shi was very excited. His arduous search had finally paid off. He said, "Check all the people who were born on the exact same day, and live in Long'an."

Later, Xu Xiaodong sent a long text message with a total of ten people. Chen Shi called out to everyone, "Each pair is in charge of finding one person. They may all be victims. Those who are alive, bring them back for protection; those who are dead or missing, report them to me."

Chen Shi and Lin Dongxue got into the car, and Lin Dongxue said, "There are more people who were born on the same day, month, and year besides this group. If you protect them, the murderers would think of other ways to find the other people."

"But at least it would delay their plan. What I worry about is that the murderers may have already committed the murders!"

Chen Shi and Lin Dongxue rushed over to look for a warehouse manager surnamed Zhang. He lived fairly far away. Lin Dongxue kept receiving messages from colleagues on the way there. Four people were safe and had been persuaded by the police to be brought back.

There were three they couldn’t get in touch with, and two were out-of-town.

Chen Shi asked the police officers to focus on investigating the people who could not be contacted. They were to look for their relatives and friends, and go to their homes to confirm whether they were missing.

At about 4:00PM, Chen Shi and Lin Dongxue arrived at an automotive parts factory in the suburbs. The person in charge of the factory district had called the warehouse manager Zhang, but failed to get through. He took the two to the warehouse and they walked inside. The person in charge complained, "Why aren’t the lights turned on?"

He reached out for the switch, but found that there was no electricity. It turned out that someone had switched off the main switch.

There was no one in the break room, the door was open, and a cup of tea had been spilled onto the floor.

Chen Shi had a bad premonition. He asked the person in charge to leave quickly and seal all the exits of the factory district. He and Lin Dongxue took out their guns. When the person in charge saw this scene, he asked in fear, "What happened to Zhang X? Did something happen? Should I call the police?"

"Get out quickly. Don't get in the way here." Chen Shi wasn’t in the mood to explain.

There were many boxes piled up high in the warehouse. The two of them walked cautiously. Chen Shi kept putting his fingers on the handle of the gun, clenching and releasing them repeatedly. This was the first time he had held a gun in actual combat after four years, and it would be impossible for him not to be nervous.

Although he had gone to the shooting range to practice in order to regain his prowess a while ago, target shooting and actual combat are two different things, and he wasn’t a sharpshooter in the first place.

Walking into a dark passageway formed by boxes, the two automatically moved with their backs to each other and held their guns as they surveyed the surroundings. When they saw something on the ground, Lin Dongxue's hair couldn’t help but stand on end. There was a pair of feet, and they were being quickly dragged behind the boxes…