Cherish You as My Life - Chapter 14

Chapter 14

Zhao Jingjing and other officers went to find Qiao Jiang according to the address they got from the company, but they found no one there. 

It was not his house, and the landlord claimed that Qiao Jiang had moved out yesterday. He hadn’t even asked the landlord for the key money, and he hadn’t taken anything except his clothes. 

After getting that information, Ji Yao felt a little uneasy. He walked back and forth in the office several times. “Zhang Xiang, what about that anchor? Did you contact that person?”

Upon hearing his captain’s question, Zhang Xiang reported, “No, we still can’t contact him, but we found his phone. By the way, his family members are here to file a missing person complaint, and they are now at the west building.”

Ji Yao stopped pacing around and sat on the table next to Zhang Xiang. “Where did you find the mobile phone?”

Zhang Xiang: “It was thrown into the trash can. But no one was there.”

Ji Yao turned to Zhao Jing and asked, “Has Qiao Jiang’s home address been found?”

Zhao Jingjing replied, “The technical team is checking, and the results will be available soon.”

Ji Yao glanced at Zhou Li, picked up a pen from his table, and threw it towards Zhou Li. “Zhou Li, have you done your work? Or are you just playing with your phone and eating potato chips?”

Zhou Li rubbed her shoulder and picked up the pen on the floor. Then she walked to Ji Yao, raised her phone and showed it to Ji Yao. “Boss, look, this live broadcast is very interesting.”

Upon closer inspection, Ji Yao discovered that it was the Wu Live Broadcast interface. However, there was no one in the live broadcast at that time.

Zhou Li: “Today’s young people are really good at playing around. Guess what this anchor is doing? He is live broadcasting his own suicide. It is obviously a lie.”

Live broadcasting of suicide was indeed rare. Even if it was fake, it was still very strange. So everyone present in the Criminal Investigation Team 1 office quickly gathered around the phone. 

While the young people were watching the fun, the older ones kept scolding, “Even if it’s just a joke, you can’t play with your life.”

When people in Team 1 were keeping their eyes glued to the phone screen, Director Cai passed the door of the office of Team 1. Seeing the scene inside the office, he became angry. “In the entire City Bureau building, your criminal investigation team is the most chaotic. You still have to solve a case, but you are all having fun. Just look at the anti-narcotics team next door. If there is a case, they will probably have finished solving it. You learn from others!”

At once, the entire office became silent. They thought the director had unexpectedly stopped by to do an inspection and had caught them in the act.

Director Cai gave the “Captain” Ji Yao a fierce look and said, “Get off the table. Do you want to go to heaven sitting on the table?”

Ji Yao got down from the table as Director Cai strode away. 

The live broadcast was still going on, but the anchor had not yet shown up. 

Just a few seconds had passed as Director Cai reprimanded them, and the number of viewers  had risen from over 10,000 to 50,000.

Ji Yao sat on the chair and said, “Jingjing, I feel like something is off. Examine the background of this live broadcast.”

Zhao Jingjing came to Ji Yao with a “don’t call me Jingjing” expression on his face. “It looks like a truck. Hmm… The inside of the truck seems to be covered with black cloth.”

Ji Yao: “Zhang Xiang, contact the live broadcast platform immediately and tell them to stop this live broadcast.”

As soon as he finished his words, a person who claimed to be the anchor appeared. 

It was none other than the person who live broadcasted Xiao Yu’s suicide. The man who had disappeared for three days finally showed his face. 

Seeing the face of the man Ji Yao hurriedly ordered. “Xiao Yao, go and call the captain of the missing persons team next door.”

Zhang Xiang had already called the broadcasting platform, and they were working to stop it. 

Suddenly a message displayed on the screen saying, “If you dare to cut off the live broadcast, I will commit suicide in advance.” 

So the broadcasting platform didn’t want to take a risk and hurriedly handed over it to the police.

Zhou Li connected the live broadcast to the big screen. The members of the criminal investigation team, who were laughing and joking just now, were all on standby and instantly entered a fighting state.

They realised that this suicide live broadcast was not a joke at all.

The other side was utilising a foreign proxy server, so the technical team was still unable to locate it.

Luckily, real-name authentication was required by all major domestic live broadcast platforms. Qiao Jiang was the authenticator, meaning that Qiao Jiang was the one who opened this live broadcast room.

It seemed the missing anchor was captured by Qiao Jiang.

Ji Yao took a quick look at the personal details of the 28-year-old male anchor, Wu Ting, who worked as a group performer and anchor. His family claimed he was not realistic and often daydreamed about being a star and an Internet celebrity.

Over 100,000 people were watching the live stream as of right now, and many people were donating money by buying gifts.

“Is this real…or fake?”

“Live broadcast suicide. How does the anchor plan to commit suicide?”

“Jump off a building, cut his wrists, or take poison? Give me an accurate answer.”

Various types of messages were showing on the screen.

Wu Ting was groping forward while having his wrists bound behind his back.

“Help, I’m being captured; call the police!” He wanted to knock the phone off to stop this live broadcasting, but he was helpless. 

However, the viewers didn’t believe it, as they thought it was just a broadcasting session for fun, or, to be precise, no one cared about him. 

The screen’s messages scrolled by ever faster.

“Your acting is so good; you’re the best actor.”

“Why are you still not starting? There will soon be a gathering. Move quickly.”

“We are going to prepare lunch. Move quickly.”

This scene seemed so familiar, and it was like deja vu.

At last, Wu Ting ran out of energy. He sat weakly on the ground, with only boundless coldness and despair in his eyes.

He remembered the woman who had leaped from the building’s roof. Her clothing was a vibrant yellow colour. She was falling too fast to see properly, but when she did, she looked like a late-autumn maple leaf.

Right now, he really wanted to apologise to her.

Suddenly, he felt that he didn’t want to live anymore.

He had a bad relationship with his family. They never understood his dreams and career. They always said that his desire to be a star or internet celebrity was unrealistic. Relatives and neighbours saw that he didn’t go out to work, played live broadcasts on his mobile phone all day long, and was idle, and said that he was a waste. 

He felt that his dream was out of his reach and he was a failure with no meaning to his life. 

His last hope of surviving was totally dashed by the messages that were flashing across the screen, which felt like ice picks.

Ji Yao ordered everyone to take out their mobile phones. “Go live and change the comments.” He then said to Zhao Jingjing, “Ask the traffic team to check all the green train routes passing through Nanquan City at ten o’clock in the morning. You personally lead people to search along the routes. Target a large truck with a closed carriage.”

The sound of a green train passing by in the live stream just now caught his attention.

[TL: Green Train Era: Prior to the 1990s, China’s passenger trains were always painted an olive green colour. They are the primary means of long-distance transportation, despite their peculiarly slow speed, lack of air conditioning, and billowing black smoke. Still, there are green trains running across the country.]

After receiving the instruction, Zhao Jing started working on it right away.

Ji Yao asked the live broadcast party to modify the background data and change the number of viewers from 150,000 to 1 million.

“Congratulations! The number of live broadcast viewers has exceeded one million, and you have successfully become a millionaire Internet celebrity,” he typed on his phone after that. ‘Isn’t your dream to become a big star? This is it.’

Ji Yao used the account given by the live broadcast party, which could represent an official announcement.

Zhou Li sat casually on her chair and typed furiously. “Congratulations! You’re awesome!” She gave some generous gifts to the streamer.

Additionally, other criminal police officers dominated the comment section, and the entire criminal investigation office suddenly became the “Wu Ting Global Support Club.”

Ji Yao was fully aware that no one in the world was completely good or evil, and everybody had both good and evil concealed in their hearts.

He believed that the atmosphere and surroundings have the power to poison people’s emotions. As an example, if someone dropped a bag of money and if the first person approached it would help to pick it up, then the other people would come out to help. But if the first person would flee taking the money bag, then what about others?

Troll comments and Ji Yao’s announcement had an immediate negative impact on the audience.

Messages encouraging suicide in the comment section ultimately stopped when people realised there would be no suicide via online, and the opposite type of comments started to display.

“Why are you considering suicide when you are so young? It feels wonderful to be alive.”

“Let’s not get involved. The anchor won’t take his own life despite becoming well-known on the Internet.”

“It’s gone; let’s cook.”

 “Yes, we should love ourselves.”

Things had just gotten better when all of a sudden the screen went blank and the live broadcast ended.

While Ji Yao was taking people out, he made a call to the medical examiner’s office to ask them to be ready for the mission at any time.

The economy of Nanquan City was expanding rapidly. There were a lot of green train lines a few years ago, but trains and high-speed rail have increasingly supplanted them in recent years. At 10:00 in the morning, there were just two green rail lines that were in operation.

However, they must race against time; otherwise, Wu Ting would be dead. 

Ji Yao moved the weed patches away from the railway and guided the other members of his team as they searched inch by inch.

The sun was shining in the middle of the sky, and Ji Yao’s shirt was wet with his sweat. 

“Team Leader, there is a suspected target fifty metres ahead,” a policeman who was in front of the group yelled.

As Ji Yao guided people around from both directions, he noticed a truck parked next to the train.

Nobody was in the driver’s seat or outside the door, but blood spurted out of the closed vehicle, spilling down the dirt floor.

Ji Yao led the other officers to break open the door. “Call a forensic doctor and an ambulance.”

Han Xi showed up there thirty minutes later.

After exchanging glances, she and Ji Yao entered the vehicle together.

Han Xi reported a few minutes later. “The deceased’s brain nerves and soft tissue in his head were both wounded. It can happen because of an impact.

“Three hours or less was the time of death. The body did not appear to have been moved, so this is the murder site.”

Ji Yao asked, “Can it be determined whether it was suicide or homicide?”

Han Xi responded, “We can’t draw a conclusion before the autopsy.”

On the way back, Ji Yao didn’t take the police car. He got into the forensic car. 

If the person was not rescued, he would probably be scolded by Director Cai later, but he didn’t want to think about it now.

He was tense and had no time to relax for the most of the day, and he only wanted to remain silent by Han Xi’s side right now.

No need to speak; just stay silent.

Lying on the back of the car seat, he appeared exhausted and had red marks on his arms from weeds.

Seeing that, Han Xi took out a glass of lemonade she made from the tool box, opened it, and handed it over to the man. 

Ji Yao didn’t have a sip of water from the morning until now, and he was exhausted walking in the scorching sun, so he accepted the glass and finished it with one gulp. 

Because of the heat, he had unfastened the first two buttons of his shirt, and the movement of his strong chest muscles was on display. His Adam’s apple rolled up and down as he swallowed, and the smell of male hormones spread in the small car.

Han Xi’s face heated up, and she turned to look out the window.

After he was refreshed from the glass of lemonade, he lay on the back of the car seat as if he were boneless. “Thank you for the lemonade. I can’t repay you now. I’ll give you my blessings later.” 

“No need.”

Ji Yao pressed the lemon slice on his lips and rubbed it on his teeth. The sour taste of the lemon pulp soaked into his teeth, making his saliva sour.

Han Xi spent much of the afternoon in the medical room back at the City Bureau.

The final identification result was that Wu Ting committed suicide.

The police issued a pursuit warrant for Qiao Jiang.

Han Xi emerged from the anatomy room at about eight in the evening.

When she entered her office, she saw Ji Yao sitting on her desk, holding a small kettle, watering the small pot of cactus on the table. 

Seeing her coming out, he stood up and said, “You haven’t had dinner yet, and I haven’t eaten either. How about we go grab a bite?”

After taking off her blue surgical mask and giving her hands a thorough wash, Han Xi replied, “Okay.”

Ji Yao picked up pasta, while  Han Xi picked up a plate of dumplings, and asked the waiter to warm them up a bit.

The two of them sat face to face on the red plastic dining chairs in the convenience store. Suddenly Ji Yao stood up and said, “Wait for me.”

He returned two minutes later carrying a crimson rose, which he placed in the little decorative vase on the table.

The man’s gentlemanly, amorous thoughts astonished Han Xi, so Han Xi asked, “Why don’t you ask the waiter to turn off the lights and light a few more candles?”

Ji Yao held up his hand earnestly and gestured for the waiter to come over.

Quickly, Han Xi glanced at the man and said, “Okay, stop making trouble.”

“Okay, I’ll make it for you another day,” Ji Yao said as he met her eyes.

Han Xi: “Ahem.”

She thought she had dug  a hole for herself and jumped in.

 End of chapter 14