Chapter 12: When I Say Something Is Off, It Is Off

Cen Lian had already accumulated some experience in working backward from effects to causes.

He understood clearly that since he possessed more clues regarding the suspect than anyone else, he had to consider the man's circumstances. As a retired teacher in his sixties, regardless of how he eventually left the industrial park, the buses were certainly still running at the time he arrived.

Cen Lian put himself in the criminal’s mindset. If he wanted to arrive at the industrial park unnoticed and find a suitable minor to target, two things were paramount. First, identifying a target; second, finding a way to follow that target into a secluded area without being detected.

There were no schools within the industrial park. Since the suspect was a stranger to the area, he must have followed Chu Yulin from a school where the boy had just finished his classes. Under this premise, the most likely scenario, as far as Cen Lian could deduce, was that the suspect had randomly boarded a bus heading toward the suburbs to scout for a target.

"You think he came by bus?" Wang Yuanteng set down his chopsticks. "That’s a valid lead. The passenger flow on a bus provides a certain amount of cover; otherwise, it would be too easy for surveillance cameras to capture him arriving at the industrial park alone."

"There are several bus lines here," Tang Hua said, searching for nearby stops. "Are we going to check them one by one?"

"I recall only the Number 16 bus passes by two middle schools here," Cen Lian said, drawing on his local knowledge of Taishan District. "And it happens to pass by the victim's school. Has no one checked the bus surveillance footage from that time?"

"Chu Yulin's home is near the school. We checked the surveillance footage at the school gate and saw him walking toward his house. He shouldn't have boarded a bus," Wang Yuanteng replied, shaking his head.

"According to his mother, Chu Yulin never returned home after school. Why on earth would he go to the industrial park?" Tang Hua was completely bewildered.

Cen Lian also found it strange. Judging by the mother's account, the boy must have snuck out without his family knowing. But if even his own mother didn't know, it was impossible for Yang Xu, a retired teacher from out of town, to have known that Chu Yulin would be at the industrial park that night. According to his previous theory, the suspect could only have arrived there by tracking the boy.

"Brother Wang, you and Brother Qian stay here to keep checking the IDs. Tang Hua and I will head to the bus company. I have a feeling something is off," Cen Lian said to Wang Yuanteng.

"Go ahead. Everything is fine here," Wang Yuanteng said, sensing what Cen Lian was suspecting, and didn't stop him. "I'll call for a few auxiliary officers. You two be careful."

Tang Hua, also full of questions, left Yuanxin Industrial with Cen Lian and skillfully started his beat-up Santana.

"Do you think Chu Yulin also took the bus to the park?" Tang Hua asked while driving.

"It’s just a gut feeling. He couldn't have just vanished into thin air," Cen Lian said, calculating the time. "Even if we didn't go now, Team Leader Tan would likely start investigating the buses soon. At the very least, we need to know when Chu Yulin arrived."

Tang Hua nodded. Anything they could think of, Team Leader Tan would certainly think of as well; it was just a matter of priority.

At the moment, Team Leader Tan was more focused on finding the man in black who appeared frequently near the crime scene.

From the Number 16 bus stop at the industrial park to the bus company, Cen Lian calculated the travel time. He found that, assuming no traffic, it took about forty minutes to get from the industrial park to the Kangan City No. 3 Middle School, where Chu Yulin attended.

"The crime happened after two in the morning. What time did this kid even get to the park?" Tang Hua was even more confused after hearing the timing. The gap was simply too long.

After Tang Hua parked, Cen Lian took a quick look at the doors of the Number 16 buses parked near the company. They were all modern electric models, so there was no need to worry about camera issues.

The two found the company manager and requested the surveillance footage for all buses departing after 6:30 PM—the time Chu Yulin was seen leaving the school gate.

"The last bus is at 10:00 PM. All the footage for those routes is here," said the manager, an easygoing middle-aged man. He quickly instructed a young staff member to retrieve the recordings.

Cen Lian thought for a moment and started by checking the footage from around 8:00 PM. After scanning several, he finally spotted Chu Yulin in the video from 8:53 PM. He was carrying his school bag, looking no different than he had when he left school. No one else boarded at that stop, and Cen Lian did not see Yang Xu on the bus. After all, he didn't need to identify the man manually; the text bubble above Yang Xu's head would have hit his eyes like a physical blow.

"Why would he take a bus to the park at that hour?" Tang Hua was completely at a loss regarding Chu Yulin's movements.

Cen Lian shook his head. He didn't know what the boy had been doing during the two-plus hours between leaving school and 8:53 PM. Team Leader Tan had already arranged for people to check all the shops and internet cafes near the school, but Chu Yulin never appeared on any cameras; he seemed to have vanished into thin air after school.

"Let's keep watching," they both said, having no other leads.

On the bus Chu Yulin was on, Yang Xu never appeared.

"I don't see any suspicious characters, either." Tang Hua slowed down the playback and watched again. He noticed that only three other people had ridden the bus to the park with Chu Yulin, and they were all women.

Cen Lian suddenly felt the agony of someone who already knew the answer. Every possibility he had hypothesized failed to align with the known killer's actions.

"Let's keep checking the later footage," Cen Lian insisted, still convinced that Yang Xu must have taken a bus to the park.

Tang Hua didn't argue and opened the surveillance video for the next bus.

At 9:08 PM, the familiar text bubble finally appeared before Cen Lian's eyes. It was Yang Xu!

He was wearing unremarkable clothing and dropping paper currency into the fare box. Cen Lian sat up straight, his energy surging.

"You think this guy is suspicious?" Tang Hua saw him stiffen and focused his gaze on the old man who had just boarded.

"My intuition tells me he's very suspicious," Cen Lian said, relying on his "intuition."

Tang Hua trusted his intuition implicitly by now. He didn't look any further and immediately found the middle-aged manager.

"We need to perform fingerprint analysis on the bills in the fare box of this bus. Is the money still there?" He was filled with anticipation.

The manager was happy to oblige and immediately had his young assistant help search.

"The bills collected on October 22nd are still here," the young man said, running back with the news. "I've brought them all."

A small bag containing a mix of one-jiao, five-jiao, one-yuan, and five-yuan notes was placed in front of Cen Lian.

"Let's go. We're going back to lift some fingerprints," Cen Lian said. He was certain that Yang Xu had dropped two one-yuan notes into the box, and there were only about twenty one-yuan notes in the entire bag.