The delay meant Lu Qingqing's morning actions were postponed. By the time she followed the clues to the group of drinkers, it was too late. All she learned was that Yue Bo had left at dawn.
Suddenly, Lu Qingqing was completely lost on the case.
Tong Meng was absent from the case briefing that evening. Instead, Tong Hua delivered a message stating that Tong Meng would not be attending meetings for the next few days because she had discovered an important clue and was out of town, needing to investigate it personally.
When asked what the clue was and where she had gone, Tong Hua claimed to know nothing.
Leaving the office, Guan Jinsong sidled up to Lu Qingqing. "What do you think that Tong Meng actually found?"
Lu Qingqing was also puzzled. Logically, Tong Meng shouldn't have found any important information that she hadn't already uncovered. Could she have just gotten incredibly lucky and stumbled upon something extraordinary?
As they both pondered this, Guan Jinsong nudged Lu Qingqing's arm. They looked up and saw Hu Jia and Ouyang Wen standing in front of them.
At this point, Hu Jia was still a bit unfamiliar with Lu Qingqing. He offered a perfunctory greeting, which left Lu Qingqing speechless.
"Your hand!" Lu Qingqing said.
"Huh?" Hu Jia looked a bit embarrassed, but still extended his hand.
"Do you feel anything?" Lu Qingqing looked at Hu Jia with hopeful anticipation.
Hu Jia shook his head again.
Lu Qingqing then changed her posture, gripping Hu Jia's hand anew. "How about now?"
Hu Jia still shook his head.
"What are they doing?" Guan Jinsong asked Ouyang Wen.
"Helping him get a feeling," Ouyang Wen replied calmly.
Get a feeling? Guan Jinsong thought for a moment and remembered that Hu Jia was said to experience romantic impulses whenever Lu Qingqing touched him. Was that what this was about?
Guan Jinsong looked at his own hands, examining them back and forth, his mind full of questions.
"Uh..." Lu Qingqing sounded a bit awkward. "It's okay, it doesn't always work."
Hu Jia nodded. "Are you discussing the case?"
"Yes!" Lu Qingqing replied. The group then specifically analyzed Tong Meng's whereabouts, but still came up with no answers.
"Where are you two going?" Lu Qingqing asked Ouyang Wen.
"He's going home. I'm going to investigate a theft case," Ouyang Wen replied.
A theft case?
Did a theft case require the head of the criminal investigation department to personally intervene?
Sensing Lu Qingqing's bewilderment, Ouyang Wen lowered his voice and said, "It happened at the Rehabilitation Hospital."
The Rehabilitation Hospital? Wasn't that the place where Yue Bo worked?
In an instant, Lu Qingqing seemed to understand why Ouyang Wen was personally handling this. First, a hospital employee went missing, and now hospital property was being stolen. Could these two incidents be a coincidence?
With Ouyang Wen personally investigating, he might be able to obtain more comprehensive information. In other words, it would be more helpful to Lu Qingqing.
"I'm going too!" Lu Qingqing immediately demanded.
"Why would you? You still have your own case to handle," Ouyang Wen disagreed.
"If these two cases are indeed related, then my solving the incineration case later will have more credibility. Otherwise, if Tong Meng says this information came from you, how will I explain it?" Lu Qingqing smiled.
Even though she knew Lu Qingqing was stretching the connection, Ouyang Wen had no reason to refuse.
After Hu Jia and Guan Jinsong left, Lu Qingqing followed Ouyang Wen to the Rehabilitation Hospital. The person who met them was precisely the head of the asset department, Yue Bo's direct superior.
Wu Chuang explained that their department was mainly responsible for managing the hospital's assets, which included medication. However, last night, two masked individuals had entered the asset department and knocked out the on-duty staff.
When the staff member woke up, he was terrified. The hospital contained a lot of valuable Chinese and Western medicines, and even a small loss would be enough for him to pay for.
But to his surprise, the two masked men not only left the medication untouched but also did not take any cash from the asset department's drawers.
"Then what did they steal?" Lu Qingqing asked.
"They didn't steal anything, they started a fire," Wu Chuang said.
A fire?
Lu Qingqing's heart skipped a beat. Fire, again?
"They burned the invoice cabinet in the asset department," Wu Chuang pointed to a table nearby. "This cabinet contained all our invoices for drug storage. They're all gone now."
Not stealing anything, only setting a fire?
There was more to this than met the eye.
This morning, the hospital organized a count of the medication. Unexpectedly, it was discovered that at least ten boxes of insulin had gone missing over the past two years.
Insulin, Ouyang Wen had heard of it. It was a Western medicine used to treat the 'deadly diseases' of excessive urination and sweet urine. He heard this type of drug was invented by a company across the ocean in the early 1920s. After nearly a decade of development, it had become a boon for many patients.
However, it was also expensive.
A single injection cost over a hundred yuan. And ten boxes amounted to over a thousand yuan.
Wu Chuang said that at the beginning of the New Year, the hospital was preparing for an asset audit. The reason the perpetrators burned the invoices was to conceal the disappearance of the insulin.
"Who was responsible for the invoices? Who usually kept track of those medications?"
"Cheng Qian, the head of the warehouse management team."
...
The subsequent procedure was quite straightforward, essentially questioning Cheng Qian about all aspects of his work in warehouse management. Of course, Cheng Qian explained everything clearly and vehemently denied any involvement in the drug theft.
Everyone had already prepared themselves for the possibility that the initial questioning would yield no results, so they didn't press Cheng Qian. Instead, they adopted a strategy of covert surveillance, hoping to catch someone red-handed.
After all, it wouldn't be easy to sell such a large quantity of medication, especially high-value drugs. The number of people who could afford them was limited.
For the next two days, everyone in the criminal investigation team, except for Hu Jia, was busy. They were investigating the masked robbers, covertly surveilling Cheng Qian, and exploring the black market for insulin sources and destinations...
Only Lu Qingqing and Guan Jinsong were still looking for Yue Bo.
And their search had yielded no progress.
...
Meanwhile, on Tong Meng's end, she finally arrived in Chengdu. The journey was so long that she almost lost her temper.
But the thought of finding Yue Bo soon, and thus identifying the killer and solving the case, made her stop complaining.
This was not only about her own career advancement, but more importantly, it was a chance to defeat Lu Qingqing and put her in her place.
However, dreams were full, but reality was bleak.
Tong Meng found Yue Bo's first love, but the woman claimed she had lost contact with Yue Bo long ago.
As for the wine friend's talk of intimate relations, the woman directly rebuked it as lies. She remembered the last time she saw Yue Bo was a year ago, when they coincidentally met on the street and chatted briefly.
"Do you know if he has any other acquaintances in Chengdu?" Tong Meng asked.
"I'm not sure about that. We just chatted briefly and didn't get into anything deep," the woman replied.
Thinking about the boat trip, the transfers, and the long mountain paths she had taken, Tong Meng was so angry she wanted to curse. Had all her suffering resulted in a blank?
Wouldn't she be laughed to death if she returned like this?
As she thought, her gaze became vacant, and tears seemed to well up.
Li Han watched from the side with a touch of sympathy. He kindly reminded her, "Why don't you try to find out why Yue Bo came to Chengdu? After all, he wasn't really here on a business trip."
His words surprised Tong Meng.
Tong Meng looked at Li Han and suddenly felt that this young man seemed quite good. He was growing up well, had a good heart, and a sharp mind.
She wiped away her tears, deliberately puffed out her chest, and sat down close to Li Han. "But I'm so tired, and I'm so stupid. I've come all the way to Chengdu and still found nothing."
Tong Meng placed her hand on Li Han's. "Help me..."