Shen Zhicheng stood with his hands in his pockets, glancing at the water’s surface.
After hearing her out, Fang Zhishan handed over the statement: “Auntie, if everything’s correct, sign here.”
The cleaner auntie rubbed her hands together, looking embarrassed: “Officer, I don’t know how to write.”
“What’s your name?”
“Wong Sai Mui.”
Fang Zhishan had to write the name for her. She picked up her tool kit and said to Shen Zhicheng: “In cases like this, we usually have her leave a fingerprint.”
He didn’t say a word, but took out the ink pad from the kit and handed it over.
After finishing up and putting away the statement, Fang Zhishan noticed Shen Zhicheng’s face was still pale.
She asked: “Are you okay?”
Shen Zhicheng glanced at her, feigning nonchalance: “What’s there to be worried about?”
…
The scene was still buzzing with preliminary investigation work.
The overcast weather dragged on — the rain wouldn’t fall, leaving a heavy, suffocating feeling in the air. By the time darkness had fully set in, an officer came running over.
“Madam, we found a woman’s handbag in the bushes by the shore. It looks like it belongs to the victim.”
“There’s an Octopus card inside, along with lipstick, keys, a pack of tissues, and some cash.”
“The Octopus card has a name on it — Ng Mei Yan.”
Li Heng walked over, put her gloves back on, and carefully opened the handbag to examine it.
Everything inside was soaked through. The tissues and banknotes were limp and nearly stuck together. A murky pool of water had collected at the bottom of the bag, carrying a faint smell of sea brine.
She shone a torch into the inner seams of the bag — something glinted faintly in the light.
Li Heng gently picked at it with her fingertip and pulled out a small piece of paper.
“It’s a fragment of a talisman.”
Gao Zijie leaned in for a look and couldn’t help murmuring: “That’s creepy.”
A few of the younger officers chimed in.
“Why would she have a talisman in her bag?”
“Maybe she’d been having bad luck lately and came here to pray — but ended up running into something nasty instead?”
“This place is already so secluded — no one comes here normally. What gods or Buddhas would be here? More likely she was worshipping ghosts and got herself tangled up with something.”
Old You couldn’t take it anymore. He let out a “tsk”: “Alright, alright — stop speculating at the scene. You’re interfering with the investigation.”
“But this is really strange.”
“When I was a kid, my mom used to tell me never to go out on the fourteenth of the seventh month. She said the gates of hell open and they come out to collect souls.”
Li Heng cut them off: “When we get back, try to piece together the talisman fragments and send them for testing.”
Only then did they realize this wasn’t the time for idle chatter. They exchanged glances, shut up, and continued with their work.
Li Heng continued searching the handbag. She felt around the inner compartment and pulled out a small, tightly folded piece of paper. Though soaked, the writing was blurred — but still legible enough.
It was a receipt from a Chinese medicine pharmacy, with a pickup date three days away. In the remarks column, it read: “Pediatric conditioning.”
An officer took the receipt from Li Heng and carefully placed it into an evidence bag.
“So the victim had a child? And the child must be quite young.”
“If she had to pick up medicine for her child in three days, it doesn’t seem like someone who was planning to kill herself.”
“Her dress looks new, and her hair appears well-groomed — probably not a suicide, right…”
The case couldn’t be ruled a suicide yet, nor could they proceed straight as a homicide. Everything would have to wait for the evidence to speak.
Li Heng quickly assigned the follow-up tasks.
“The body is to be sent to the public mortuary immediately for autopsy.”
“Zhishan, based on the ID information, contact the victim’s family as soon as possible and notify them to come identify the body.”
“Zijie, Jiacong — verify the victim’s recent whereabouts, relationships, financial status, and emotional state. Also, get a sense of whether she’d shown any signs of depression or suicidal tendencies recently.”
“Old You — check if the victim had attended any temple rituals or ceremonies recently. Expand the search area — see if there are any remnants of burnt paper, incense, candles, or signs of a struggle nearby.”
Everyone acknowledged in unison and dispersed.
After a few seconds of silence, only Shen Zhicheng remained.
A beat late, he spoke up: “What do I do?”
“You come with me.”
This was the first time Shen Zhicheng had ridden in a police car. Being a cop didn’t quite feel natural yet.
He sat in the passenger seat, taking in the novelty, fiddling idly with the control panel switches, and casually remarked: “Air conditioning’s not even on?”
Outside, the night scenery rushed past. Li Heng reached over and turned the A/C dial.
“The A/C’s not cold enough — police equipment is really basic,” Shen Zhicheng said, then remembered the main thing. “Senior Counsel Yim has done most of the inventory. We need to go to the law firm.”
Dividing assets like this — many things needed to be counted slowly. Verifying, re-evaluating market values — just organizing the documents alone would take a lot of time.
It wasn’t something that could be done in a few minutes. Shen Zhicheng had been pushing for it, and now at last they could schedule the transfer.
Li Heng kept her hands on the steering wheel: “How do I have time for that now? Some other day.”
“When’s ‘some other day’?”
“After we crack this ‘gates of hell’ case.”
Shen Zhicheng’s expression shifted slightly: “You think it’s the gates of hell too?”
Li Heng turned to glance at him: “If you’re so afraid of ghosts, why become a cop?”
Shen Zhicheng said nothing, turning his head to look out the window.
After a long moment, he finally forced out: “Who says I’m afraid of ghosts?”
“And besides,” Shen Zhicheng turned back, adding, “I’m a cop, not a messenger of the underworld.”
…
The team first drove back to the station.
The public mortuary had already been notified and arrangements made — they just didn’t know when the family would arrive. Once they got there, they’d go together to arrange the identification.
Li Heng stepped into the CID room and first had someone take Shen Zhicheng to the administrative office to complete the onboarding process.
He stayed in the admin office, filling out all the necessary forms and entering the required information, finishing the registration and filing. Only after the entire process was complete did the new recruit officially join Team A.
Back in the work area, Old You pointed out an empty desk to Shen Zhicheng: “Mr. Shen, this will be your station from now on.”
The spot was modest — right next to Lin Jiacong.
Shen Zhicheng glanced at the slightly cluttered desk.
Lin Jiacong quickly pushed his things aside to make room: “These notebooks, pens — use them for now. Let us know if you need anything else, and we’ll get it from the supply room.”
Shen Zhicheng gave a casual grunt of acknowledgment.
The CID room fell into a peculiar quiet.
Several pairs of eyes drifted over to him, then immediately looked away, pretending to bury themselves in their files — though they couldn’t help sneaking glances from the corners of their eyes.
Everyone knew he was a rich kid who’d gotten in through connections. Even as just an auxiliary officer, no one dared to boss him around or casually strike up a conversation.
The awkward atmosphere held for a moment — until a voice came from the Inspector’s office.
“Shen Zhicheng, come in.”
The moment he turned and stepped inside, the tension outside instantly relaxed.
A few younger officers huddled in a small circle, lowering their voices to gossip.
Shen Zhicheng could vaguely hear the chatter behind him, but didn’t listen closely. He stood at the Inspector’s office door and pushed it open without knocking.
Gao Zijie kept his voice low: “He didn’t even knock before going into Madam’s office?”
“He’s a young master, after all — works whenever he feels like it. Probably just a three-minute passion. Today he’s in the mood, so he decided to play auxiliary cop for fun.”
“Even the Superintendent has to give the Shen family some face. You think he’s actually going to listen to Madam?”
“I bet Madam will just pretend he doesn’t exist. We’ll have an extra body but the same amount of work. We can only hope for the best…”
Bang — the Inspector’s office door closed.
Shen Zhicheng sat down across from Li Heng.
“Sir Pan just called me,” Li Heng said, pointing at the desk phone.
On the call, Pan Liqin had made his position clear.
Shen Zhicheng had completed all three hundred and seventy hours of auxiliary officer training and passed the assessment. The Shen family had always been generous donors to the police force, and Mr. Shen Senior had specifically put in a word — plus Team A was short-staffed anyway — so it made sense to place him here. She was to keep an eye on him, guide him, but also cut him some slack.
“How could Grandfather have specifically put in a word?” Li Heng raised an eyebrow.
She still wasn’t very close with her grandfather, but she could read between the lines. The old man had always hated seeing his grandson idle and wasting away — but if joining the police was the alternative, he’d rather Shen Zhicheng keep wandering around doing nothing, at least staying safe.
As for her — grandfather and granddaughter hadn’t spent time together in over twenty years, and couldn’t just become close overnight. No matter how reluctant the old man was about her being a cop, it wasn’t easy for him to forcefully stop her.
Shen Zhicheng looked completely unbothered: “I just flagged down an old man on the street, slipped him some cash, and had him make the call.”
He’d actually hired someone to impersonate Shen Chongnian — and looked rather proud of it.
“So that means he still doesn’t know?”
“Long as you don’t tell him.”
Li Heng gave him a look: “Since you’re here, do your job properly. Don’t stir up trouble — or else, even if we’re siblings, there’ll be no special treatment.”
Shen Zhicheng leaned back in his chair.
His ears seemed to have an automatic filter — he didn’t take any of her sharp words to heart, only catching the phrase “even if we’re siblings.” The corner of his mouth twitched upward.
“You wouldn’t actually kick me out, would you?”
“I absolutely would.” Li Heng waved her hand. “Get out and work.”
Shen Zhicheng stood up. The moment his hand touched the doorknob, the murmurs from outside drifted in again.
“They must be fighting.”
“Madam couldn’t stand him before anyway.”
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