Soul Patch

Chapter 17 - A video

Wenjie cooked a pot of porridge.

After seeing the system's message about the task failure, I lost my appetite for the pot of porridge.

He quickly searched for news from the past two days on his phone, and to his surprise, the top story on the M City News Network app was about this suicide by jumping into the lake.

An ordinary woman jumping into a river would never make headlines, let alone the news portal of M City.

It seems this woman has some influence. Wenjie quickly skimmed through the report, pondering to himself.

2019年6月21日19：35在我市运河湿地公园的人工湖发生了一起跳湖自杀事件。

It has been confirmed that the woman who jumped into the river to commit suicide was Ms. Qin Fen, the current Vice Minister of Education of our city. Due to darkness and delayed rescue efforts, Ms. Qin Fen tragically drowned. She was 38 years old. (M City News Network)

In fact, judging from the woman's excellent temperament and demeanor, plus the fact that she dined with Director Wang that day and acted as an equal... Wenjie had already guessed most of it.

The truth still shocked Wenjie: she was actually the deputy director of the M City Education Bureau.

No wonder she exuded a calm demeanor; even in her extremely weak state after drowning, she remained composed and in control of the situation.

That confidence came from her mastery of people-reading skills and her profound understanding of how to conduct herself in the world.

Thinking this, Wenjie slammed the lid of the rice cooker shut. He muttered to himself: Could such a talented and beautiful woman really commit suicide?

Why did he choose to commit suicide by jumping into the lake?

You know, people who drown have their hair plastered to their heads and their faces are deathly pale. If the retrieval of the body is not successful... what kind of horrible sight will they look like?

Does someone as naturally beautiful as her not care at all about her appearance?

What Wenjie couldn't understand was why this deputy director insisted on jumping into the artificial lake in the canal wetland park.

Wenjie saved her once in the afternoon, but she sent him away and then ran to the artificial lake to commit suicide.

If you absolutely must commit suicide, there are plenty of ways to do so. Taking sleeping pills is far more aesthetically pleasing than jumping into a lake.

Wenjie opened Baidu Maps and searched for the distance between the hospital and the artificial lake: eight kilometers.

This isn't exactly close. There are two or three parks closer to the hospital, two of which have artificial lakes.

Wouldn't it be easier to choose the closer option?

Wenjie started searching online for news reports about Qin Fen and quickly gained a general understanding of her basic situation and career advancement.

Her husband is Liang Bin, a professor at M University. They have been married for 15 years and have two children, a 14-year-old daughter and a 10-year-old son.

There are also reports online of the two participating in overseas training programs together. They seem to be a good match in appearance and equally talented. Their two children are also intelligent and well-behaved, so their family should be very happy.

Professor Liang Bin from M University? Wenjie recalled that he had never attended Professor Liang's classes, but he seemed to have attended one of Professor Liang's sharing sessions.

At that time, Professor Liang Bin represented M City in attending the National People's Congress in Beijing. After returning to M City from the meeting, the university organized a special sharing session for Professor Liang to share his experiences and insights from attending the National People's Congress.

Wenjie was only a freshman at the time. Three or four years have passed, and he doesn't have much of an impression of Professor Liang anymore. Looking back, he only feels that he was a refined scholar, a bit of an old pedant, rigorous in his studies, and pragmatic in his academic style.

There are also reports that Professor Liang Bin was devastated upon learning of his wife's death and wrote a long article, "My Wife, My Lifelong Friend," to bid her a tearful farewell.

It doesn't seem like a suicide caused by a broken relationship. Could it be a problem with his career?

Wenjie then searched for Qin Fen's achievements in the education system over the years and found that after graduating from teachers' college, Qin Fen was assigned to teach at the Sixth Middle School in M ​​City. A year later, she was promoted to grade leader, and three years later, she was promoted to director of the teaching affairs office.

Five years later, he became a school principal, and was subsequently transferred to the Ministry of Education. His career at the Ministry of Education was also smooth sailing, and in his seventh year there, at the end of last year, he was nominated as Vice Minister of Education.

Wow! How come they're so amazing?

I find it increasingly difficult to understand why such an outstanding and promising woman would choose to commit suicide at the height of her career.

Feeling stressed at work?

Impossible. It's not like he just entered the education system. To rise to the position of vice minister of education, one must be both capable and resourceful, a smooth operator, and adept at navigating social situations.

A phone call interrupted Wenjie's thoughts.

The call was from Officer Cao of the East District Police Station. He informed Wenjie that his lost laptop had been found at a used computer repair shop near his residential area.

Tell him to bring his ID card to the police station to pick it up when he has time.

……

Half an hour later, at the Eastern District Police Station.

Wenjie met Officer Cao as soon as he arrived at the police station.

Officer Cao was also surprised that Wenjie arrived so soon after hanging up the phone.

"Mr. Wen, you're really quick. Actually, you didn't need to come all the way here so late at night. You can come anytime you have time."

"Officer Cao, can you tell me how you found the computer?" Wenjie ignored Officer Cao's polite words and went straight to the point.

"Oh, another group of our colleagues was working on a case, and coincidentally, they came across this computer while searching for the murderer's computer."

We compared it with the one you described as the missing laptop, and it was exactly the same. So we turned it on to verify, and it really is your computer.

"Huh? How did you determine that? Aren't all the used computers we collect supposed to be reassembled, have their appearance refurbished, and then sold through channels?" Wenjie asked, a little puzzled.

"That's the normal procedure, but the shop owner said the machine wasn't worth modifying and that we were just waiting to disassemble it for parts. As a result, no similar machines were reported for repair after two days, so we just left it there untouched."

After Officer Cao finished speaking, he smiled at Wenjie, making Wenjie a little embarrassed.

It's no wonder, given how quickly electronic products are updated; people nowadays mostly use the latest models from brands like Apple and Huawei.

Older laptops are still used by some people, but if they break down, they might not be worth the money to repair; they might just be phased out.

My laptop is useless even if I leave it for a couple of days, and I doubt it would be useful even if I left it for a month.

Wenjie went through the collection procedures with Officer Cao and received the notebook smoothly.

He held the laptop in one hand and touched the adhesive residue on the lower right corner of the laptop with the other.

Yes, that was the computer he lost.

That sticker was a prank by my college roommate. There were four of us in the dorm, and the other three all had girlfriends.

Seeing that he was always glued to his computer, the dorm leader casually stuck a sticker of a celebrity in a swimsuit on it.

Several others joined in the jeering: "Is your laptop your girlfriend?"

"Yes, there are lots of videos in there! High-definition and uncensored."

"Ha ha"

Years have passed, and the stickers have long since fallen off, leaving only yellowed adhesive residue.

Wenjie stared at the sticker imprint, momentarily lost in thought. He glanced at Officer Cao in front of him and quickly said:

"Thank you, Officer Cao. You've worked so hard to find my notebook so quickly."

After a slight pause, he pressed on, "So now do you know who stole the laptop? Was it that middle-aged man who caused the crash?"

"It's not certain yet. I asked the shop owner who bought the computer from his shop, and he said he didn't know."

"do not know?"

"Yes, that's how it happened. The laptop was in the shop early yesterday morning, June 21st."

He and his son took turns looking after the shop. On the evening of June 20th, his son was watching the shop, and he assumed that his son had taken possession of it.

When his son switched shifts with him at noon, he asked and found out that his son hadn't confiscated the computer the day before.

"It's like saying, who put this computer in his shop? What about surveillance footage or anything like that? Are there any valuable clues?"

"No, it's the Lianhua Department Store on the basement level. That market is about to be demolished, and the surveillance cameras have been broken for a long time and no one has fixed them." Officer Cao shrugged after saying that, with a helpless expression.

Wenjie nodded repeatedly upon hearing this, but in his heart he thought: If it were a murder case, the criminal investigation team wouldn't be so casual!

No wonder, the police had no reason to use their resources on a worthless laptop. It's likely that if they hadn't stumbled upon it while investigating another case, it would have been a long time before they recovered it.

"Okay, thank you anyway, Officer Cao!" Wenjie thanked him politely and then turned to leave the East District Police Station.

By the time Wenjie returned home with his laptop, it was past 8:30. On his way back, he bought two dishes at the convenience store downstairs: a spicy hot pot and sweet and sour pork.

After a trip to the police station that took an hour, he arrived home feeling incredibly hungry, his stomach practically touching his back.

When I got home, the porridge that had been kept warm in the rice cooker had become soft, sticky, and smelled delicious.

He filled a large bowl to the brim and wolfed down the spicy hot pot and sweet and sour pork.

He finished both dishes in no time, and staring at the empty lunchbox, he felt a sense of unfinished business.

After finishing his meal, he remembered the computer he had just retrieved, plugged it in, and turned it on.

Seeing the familiar computer desktop reappear in front of me brought back a long-lost sense of warmth.

After going to M University, I can only go home to visit my mother during winter and summer vacations.

I used to spend the most time with my mother, but since starting university, this computer has been my biggest companion.

This computer is more like an old friend; it's been my companion through countless lonely nights of reading.

He opened the files on his D, E, and F drives and found that all the adult films were there, which made him feel at ease.

He closed the disk and glanced at the desktop again, and suddenly noticed that there was a new file on the desktop.

Judging from the format, it's a video.

(End of this chapter)