The Novelist Forced to Become Famous

Chapter 390

Zhu Yanan didn't get off work until 6 PM, so Jian Jing took a detour to a certain place first.

Amidst the overgrown weeds and crumbling bricks, Ji Feng's old school stood in the winter wind, as eerie as a ghost school.

She arrived at the small alley she once climbed over, scaled the wall and jumped in, made her way through waist-high grass, and reached the teaching building. On the ground floor, some classrooms still retained their class signs, reading "Class 13."

That wasn't it.

Jian Jing carefully stepped on the stairs, daring only to place her feet on the steel reinforcements, avoiding the concrete bricks for fear they might give way and cost her life.

Before climbing, she hesitated slightly, wondering if she had guessed wrong. But upon seeing the broken desk left on the stairs and the footprints beside it, she knew she was right.

The desk wasn't very dusty and was perfectly wedged in a broken section, clearly placed there intentionally.

Strangely, there were only handprints from moving the desk, no footprints, as if it had been brought over specifically for her to step on.

Jian Jing suspected this was a challenge: the item is up there, can you get to it?

If you can, why can't I? Her competitive spirit surged. She tied up her hair, lifted her coat skirt, and nimbly jumped onto the desk.

She had to admit, the desk was necessary.

Carefully avoiding the debris, she slowly made her way upstairs, finally finding Class 3-1 on the fourth floor.

All the desks inside had been removed, leaving only an old podium. She shone her flashlight, scanning the dusty floor, and quickly found several faint footprints.

Following them to the edge of the podium, she crouched down.

The beam of light swept back and forth inside the podium, falling on a hole.

Jian Jing kicked twice, scaring away the bugs hiding inside, before reaching in.

Sure enough, there was a box inside with a small rusty lock.

She inserted the key and turned it.

Inside was a dark blue plastic folder with a label stuck on it.

The gaudy gradient color was just like the stack she had left at the police station.

There was a smiley face drawn on the paper: :)

The winter sky darkened early, but Jian Jing wasn't in a hurry to look. With the item in hand, she headed downstairs.

Going down was even steeper, the bricks beneath her feet wobbling precariously, tiny pebbles falling with a pitter-patter, oddly thrilling.

Jian Jing deliberately bounced down, and by the time she reached the bottom, even more of the stairs had collapsed.

She felt exhilarated.

On a cold winter day, the meeting place with Zhu Yanan was, of course, a hot pot restaurant.

Liang Yi was there too, saying bluntly, "Don't worry, I'm not freeloading. I'll tell you everything I know about Ji Feng."

"In that case, you'd better eat a lot." Jian Jing ordered without even looking at the menu, going all out.

Beef, lamb, shrimp balls, fish slices, egg dumplings, vermicelli, vegetable platters... until the table could hold no more.

None of the three women were dieters, so they ate with abandon.

Liang Yi was starving and wolfed down her food, while Zhu Yanan ate more gracefully, asking between bites, "Ms. Jian, what exactly did you want to ask me? Just to be clear, Ji Feng and I weren't particularly close in high school, but our families lived near each other, and our moms used to work together. We did go to the same kindergarten."

Jian Jing thought for a moment, then asked, "Was he always like this?"

"Of course not," Zhu Yanan rolled her eyes dramatically. "He's much better now. Back in school, I can't tell you how much I disliked him."

Liang Yi, curious: "What did he do?"

Zhu Yanan explained, "He'd show off because he was smart. I remember it clearly, in kindergarten, we were doing puzzles, and the teacher said we could take them home for our parents to help if we couldn't finish. He insisted on finishing before school ended and then asked us, 'Why can't you all do something so simple?'"

Liang Yi: "Makes me want to punch him."

"My mom said I burst into tears and went home asking if I was stupid because I couldn't do such simple puzzles," Zhu Yanan recalled the childhood trauma vividly. "As if he was so brilliant. People who didn't know better might have thought he was Einstein or something."

Liang Yi & Zhu Yanan: "..."

"Let's be serious," Jian Jing got back on topic. "I want to know, if he needed someone's help, who might he turn to?"

Liang Yi pointed at her with her chopsticks.

Jian Jing: "Me? No." She shook her head, "He always tells me half and hides half. If I knew, why would I be asking you?"

"Half the story is good enough," Liang Yi mumbled through a mouthful of dumpling. "We're still in the dark here. Has he gotten into trouble?"

Jian Jing thought for a moment and said, "At this point, we can only say he's out of contact."

"How so?"

"His phone is unreachable."

Liang Yi rolled her eyes. "It's not unusual for his phone to be unreachable... Oh, wait, actually it is unusual." She made a face at Zhu Yanan and said with a grin, "Usually we have to turn off our phones when we're on a mission."

Jian Jing shook her head, her expression turning serious. "It's not work-related."

"Are you sure? It could be a secret mission." Liang Yi, having great trust in Ji Feng, didn't think too much of it.

Jian Jing frowned. "Something doesn't feel right. Why don't you try calling him and see if he answers?"

Liang Yi readily agreed and called immediately. As expected, she got the "The number you have dialed is switched off" message.

She scratched her head. "So what now? Are you going to look for him?"

"First, we need to clarify the situation," Jian Jing said. "Have you heard him mention any old cases?"

Zhu Yanan made a helpless gesture. "We're not in the same department."

Liang Yi, however, thought for a moment and said, "Speaking of old cases, I remember something. At our graduation dinner, when everyone was drunk, he suddenly asked Brother Yang - um, he's sort of Ji Feng's buddy, they were roommates - if he'd heard of the November 2nd Incineration Case."

Jian Jing made a mental note of this.

The three of them ordered some ramen and ate tomato beef noodles with the hotpot broth and beef slices before heading home.

Before leaving, Liang Yi said, "We've done our best to answer your questions about Ji Feng's personal matters. If there's anything else, we'll help as much as we can. Don't hesitate to ask."

Jian Jing thanked them. "You've already been a great help."

"When you catch that guy, give us a call," Liang Yi said. "Yanan, we'll treat him to another hotpot then."

Zhu Yanan smiled and added, "I just remembered something you might want to know - Ji Feng's father is called Ji Liming, and he used to be a police officer too."

*

Back home, Jian Jing immediately went online to search for the case.

The November 2nd Incineration Case, also known as the "Peace City Serial Killer Incineration Case," was a major case that had lasted for many years.

It all began on November 2, 2002.

That day, a sanitation worker named Chen Dagang went to the police station to report that he had found a burned corpse.

Following his directions, the local police found a charred female body in an abandoned chemical factory. The victim's face, fingerprints, and clothes were completely destroyed by fire, making identification impossible. The skeleton was relatively intact, and after forensic examination, it was determined that the victim was a young woman between 20 and 28 years old who had never given birth.

The crime scene didn't yield many clues. Only half a shoe print was found, size 40, which after comparison, was identified as a very common type of rubber shoe available in the market.

The tread pattern on the sole was heavily worn, suggesting it wasn't a new shoe. Considering the shoe's low price, the killer's economic situation was likely not very good.

Besides this, there were no more leads.

The police were at a loss when on the evening of November 8, a truck driver called 119, reporting that he had seen flames by the riverside construction site and requested firefighters to check the situation, fearing a fire.

Fully equipped firefighters arrived at the site but found no large fire. Instead, they discovered another incinerated corpse.

Like the charred body in the abandoned factory, this corpse's exterior was destroyed, leaving no useful information. Only the skeleton could be used to determine that it was a young woman in her 20s.

Additionally, because it was discovered earlier, some unburned fuel remained at the scene. After testing, it was identified as No. 0 diesel fuel.

The two cases were highly similar, both extremely cruel in method. This quickly drew the attention of higher-ups, and under the leadership of the city's Public Security Bureau, a large number of personnel were assigned to investigate.

However, this was only the beginning.