Chapter 3: The Mysterious Inheritance

Exhausted after a long day of work, Cen Lian spent another twenty minutes on the phone with his doting mother, explaining that he would be going away on a business trip. By the time he finally boarded the high-speed train, he was on the verge of falling asleep.

He had only just drifted off in his seat when a strange, unpleasant odor wafted over. Instinctively, Cen Lian opened his eyes and looked toward the source of the smell. A text bubble flickered into view:

[Name: Ren Guang]
[Gender: Male]
[Age: 27]
[Criminal Record: Stole a mobile phone from Wang Xiaoya 1 minute ago; used narcotics 15 hours ago.]
[Prison Record: Released 68 days ago; charge: theft.]

Good grief, there weren't many thieves left who dared to steal on a high-speed train covered in surveillance cameras. This junkie was likely desperate for cash to fund his habit, leading him to pull such a foolish stunt.

Cen Lian calmly summoned a flight attendant. "I just saw the man in seat 3C steal a phone from a young woman. Could you please call the train police over?"

The attendant grew visibly excited, eyes locked on the man in the third row, as if terrified that a ready-made commendation might slip away. Fortunately, the man named Ren Guang hadn't noticed anything unusual and was leaning back in his seat, looking drowsy.

Cen Lian watched as the attendant spoke into a walkie-talkie between the train cars. Within three minutes, a young, eager-looking officer rushed over. Following the attendant's instructions, he sat in the empty seat next to Cen Lian.

"Passenger, are you certain you saw him steal the phone?" the officer whispered, trying to suppress his excitement.

Cen Lian showed him his police badge. "I didn't catch exactly which row the victim was in, but I clearly saw him tuck a phone into his pocket as he walked back from the rear." He truly didn't know which row Wang Xiaoya was sitting in.

As the officer stood up to act, Cen Lian pressed him back down. "He smells like drugs. Test him for that, too," Cen Lian said with absolute certainty.

The officer looked even more thrilled.

By now, the initial female attendant had summoned three or four more officers and male staff members, who waited in the distance.

"Thanks, brother!" The officer made sure to memorize Cen Lian’s badge number before leaving with a look of gratitude.

Five minutes later, five officers and attendants led Ren Guang away with broad smiles on their faces. Twenty minutes after that, the owner of the phone, Wang Xiaoya, recovered her stolen property. Forty minutes later, just before Cen Lian got off the train, the officer named He found him once more to express his thanks before seeing him off at Gaoping Station.

"That brother is a real stand-up guy!" Officer He thought, feeling quite touched.

The next morning, before Cen Lian had even located where Yao Shuwen lived, a call of appreciation had already reached the Xinhe Police Station. Cen Lian received the call from Chief Chen while staking out a location.

"You did well this time, kid." Such praise, delivered in Chief Chen’s flat tone, felt remarkably foreign to Cen Lian. As a community police officer who excelled at slacking off and coasting, he had long been a transparent figure in the Chief's eyes—someone only remembered when extra hands were needed for a perimeter setup.

Cen Lian was pleasantly surprised and explained to the Chief that he was in Gaoping City for a class reunion. However, the busy Chief had little interest in what he was doing on his time off and hung up after thirty seconds.

Cen Lian put his phone away and watched Yao Shuwen's son, Gao Xing, head out for school. As expected of a province obsessed with the college entrance exam, even a first-year high school student had to attend classes on a Saturday.

His thoughts wandered for a moment before he quietly followed Gao Xing to his school. It was an ordinary public high school, unremarkable in every way. It seemed there was no leverage to be found here.

After asking the security guard about the lunch dismissal time, Cen Lian returned to the building where Yao Shuwen lived. To reopen this cold case, he needed sufficient evidence to convince the district bureau. The most suitable lead was that large sum of money from fifteen years ago that had never been traced. If he could prove that Yao Shuwen had suddenly come into a massive, unexplained fortune back then, he could make a strong case to include Gao Tong as a suspect based on their relationship.

Cen Lian squatted on the curb, his head aching. Working backward from a known answer was incredibly difficult.

After much deliberation, he bit the bullet and tracked down Yao Shuwen's former boss from fifteen years ago. Since the company had folded, the boss had opened a small supermarket and was now in his early fifties, looking quite content.

"Yao Shuwen? Yes, she did suddenly come into money fifteen years ago," the boss said, slowly waving a cattail leaf fan to ward off the lingering heat of late summer. "I remember her well. She was pregnant at the time. I knew it was out of wedlock, but she was honest and hardworking, so I turned a blind eye and kept her on."

The boss fell into a pensive mood, his weary, disillusioned demeanor momentarily replaced by a flicker of his former authoritative self.

"Back then, I worried that someone as poor as her would struggle to afford the birth, and I didn't know if her family would help," the boss continued, sitting up a little straighter. "My wife knew too, and she even told me the girl was pitiable and that if things got desperate, we should advance her some wages to help her out."

"And then?" Cen Lian scribbled rapidly in his notebook, his pen flying across the paper.

"Then, around the time she was seven or eight months along—I can't be sure, but her belly was huge, bigger than this potbelly of mine," the boss gestured to his own round stomach. "She suddenly quit. I thought it was strange, so I asked some friends at the bank and hospital. They said she had suddenly deposited a lot of money in the bank and had plenty to pay for the hospital."

"Do you know roughly how much that money was?" Cen Lian felt the dawn of victory.

The boss thought carefully and replied with some uncertainty, "My friend at the bank said she deposited over a hundred thousand, and a hospital delivery would cost at least several tens of thousands. I don't know the exact amount."

Having reached this point, Cen Lian felt he had enough.

"Thank you, sir. I may need you to provide a formal statement later, but I won't take up too much of your time." Under the boss's curious gaze, he waved goodbye. Only after returning to his hotel did he pull out his phone, unsure of who to call next.

Theoretically, the case belonged to the district, so he should report it there. But in reality, he was an officer from the Xinhe station, and Chief Chen had to be kept in the loop.

After considering the social nuances, Cen Lian composed his thoughts and dialed Chief Chen's number.