Chapter 1: He Killed Someone 5,582 Days Ago

Name: Gao Tong
Gender: Male
Age: 57
Criminal Record: Murdered Wu Hao in Kang’an City 5,582 days ago
Incarceration History: None

Cen Lian sat in the garden of Tianlai Residential Complex, his eyes curiously fixed on a middle-aged man whose head was surrounded by a thought bubble of text. Realizing the man might actually be a murderer, he quickly shifted his gaze upward, pretending to examine a precariously hanging air conditioning unit outside a nearby apartment.

Gao Tong sensed the gaze lingering on him and instinctively looked around, immediately spotting Cen Lian sitting in the garden in his police uniform. Following Cen Lian’s line of sight, Gao Tong glanced at the unstable air conditioning unit behind him and quietly exhaled in relief.

Feigning ignorance of Gao Tong’s stare, Cen Lian pulled out his phone and called the community director. “Hello, Director Zhang? The air conditioning unit outside Apartment 16 in the Tianlai Complex is about to fall. Could you send someone to take a look?” As he spoke, he rose from the garden, passing by Gao Tong without a glance and headed toward Building 16.

Gao Tong, no longer suspicious, continued walking forward. Cen Lian watched quietly from around the corner until Gao Tong entered Building 13.

This was the third day Cen Lian had been able to see people’s criminal records hovering above their heads.

On the first day, when he saw a petty thief with a criminal record, he thought he must have finally lost his mind from overwork as a community policeman. After tailing the thief and catching him stealing an electric bike, a detective colleague confirmed that the thief was indeed involved in other cases, matching the dates Cen Lian had seen. Only then did he cancel his appointment with a psychiatrist.

It seemed he wasn’t crazy after all—this was some kind of supernatural ability. But as a community policeman, such a gift felt somewhat wasted.

While Cen Lian pondered, Community Director Zhang Guixia arrived with a young woman. Zhang was the oldest and most well-connected community director in Cen Lian’s district. Tianlai Complex was a resettlement area for a demolished urban village, poorly managed and densely populated with a mixed crowd. Only Director Zhang knew the background of every household.

“Xiao Cen, patrolling our district today?” Zhang, nearly fifty with burgundy curls and a plump figure, greeted him warmly.

“Director Zhang, I wanted to ask you something,” Cen Lian said politely, then pulled her aside into the shade. “Is there a man named Gao Tong living in Building 13?”

Zhang frowned, thinking hard before remembering the man. “You mean Old Gao? He’s a mysterious character. No matter what community matters arise, he never answers the door. Neighbors say he’s always home. An almost sixty-year-old bachelor—I worry he might just die alone in that apartment.”

Hearing this, Cen Lian’s suspicions deepened.

“I thought he was just a loner, maybe neglected by his family,” Cen Lian nodded and then mentioned the air conditioner issue before hopping on his bike and heading back to the station.

5,582 days—that was fifteen years ago. He wasn’t sure if the case could still be investigated.

Back at the station, he logged into the internal network to search for unsolved cases from fifteen years prior. The old computer hummed for a while and finally displayed an unsolved homicide case.

The crime had occurred in Taishan District of Kang’an City, outside their jurisdiction; the district criminal investigation team handled it, making it difficult to obtain detailed information.

Cen Lian scratched his head. While other systems usually started with simple tasks to build experience, his first assignment was this nightmare.

But he had a way to at least get a rough idea of the case.

The Xinhe Police Station had been busy lately; only Cen Lian and a few logistics staff remained in the office. He felt safe opening WeChat on the outdated computer and messaged a contact.

“Is this a good time? I need to ask you something.”

After a short wait, the reply came.

“Spit it out if you’ve got something.”

Ah, this contact had work on hand.

Cen Lian looked at the chat labeled “Wu Qiushan” and briefly outlined his request, then left the chat open as he began searching Gao Tong’s personal information.

Before the data loaded, Wu Qiushan sent several lines of text:

“The 205 robbery-murder case: The victim was a cashier at Xinyuan Agricultural Machinery Factory. The perpetrator stole 235,600 yuan withdrawn for payroll. The body was dumped in a field and found by a scavenger the next day. On the day of the murder, the city experienced heavy rain, leaving almost no recoverable evidence.”

Cen Lian was unfazed. His childhood friend was famous for his exceptional memory. Such well-known cold cases in the district were familiar to him from his time with the Taishan criminal squad before being seconded to the city bureau. He hadn’t doubted Wu Qiushan’s ability to provide the information.

At that moment, Gao Tong’s file finished loading—he had been a technician at Xinyuan Agricultural Machinery Factory before retiring two years ago at age fifty-five due to illness.

“So he’s definitely the murderer,” Cen Lian thought excitedly, then immediately calmed down as he studied the file.

“Knowing he’s the killer won’t help,” he sighed. “If I just tell the chief, they’ll probably send me to a psychiatrist.”

After some thought, Cen Lian decided to start with Gao Tong.

Such a brutal crime involving the factory’s cashier and a large sum of stolen money must have prompted an initial investigation into abnormal financial activity at the factory. Gao Tong’s ability to retire from the factory without suspicion suggested no evidence was found in the financial trail.

They must have also checked his alibi, which apparently yielded nothing.

To dig deeper now, Cen Lian would have to examine Gao Tong’s social connections.

Since the case hadn’t been reopened, he had no official reason to investigate Gao Tong. After pondering, Cen Lian resolved to leverage the community ties he’d built over five years as a neighborhood policeman—he would ask the elderly residents for gossip about Gao Tong.

A divorced, peculiar bachelor like Gao Tong, according to Director Zhang, surely had many stories circulating among the neighborhood’s avid gossipers.

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