Chapter 775: The Mysterious Bowl

Song Lang brought Lin Qiupu to meet the girl. She was crying at the door of the autopsy room, having insisted on seeing her father one last time. Peng Siqiao had made an exception, allowing her a brief glance from the doorway.

“My condolences,” Song Lang said, trying to comfort her.

The girl nodded, covering her mouth. “As long as you can find the killer, I will fully cooperate.”

“Let’s talk somewhere more private.”

They moved to a conference room. Song Lang asked Lin Qiupu to get a glass of water. The girl held the cup for a long time without speaking. Song noticed her gloves and asked, “You don’t take your gloves off indoors?”

“Oh, I’m used to it.” She put the cup down. “My name is He Jingjing. He Taiyang was my father. How did he die?”

Song Lang gestured for Lin Qiupu to explain how the body was found. It was a simple task, but Lin Qiupu rambled on. Song reminded him, “You don’t need to include the speculative parts.”

“That’s the situation,” Song Lang said to He Jingjing. “How long had he been running the pawnshop?”

“Since I can remember.”

“That long? Pawnshops and private loans have only been legal for a couple of years.”

“He used to do it before, just not with a storefront. My dad’s shop handled both pawn and loan businesses. The three-story building is ours. The shop is on the ground floor, and we live upstairs.”

“How many people are in your family?” Song Lang was gathering basic information. Lin Qiupu wrote down, “Understand the victim first.”

“My dad, my mom, a clerk named He Jun, and me. My mom passed away half a month ago, and now my dad is gone too.”

“That’s very unfortunate.”

“Actually… I have a clue. It may sound absurd, but I swear it’s true.”

“Please tell us.”

“Officer, do you know how many pawnshops are in the city?”

Song Lang shook his head.

“There are over two hundred pawnshops in Long’an. There’s a strange rumor among them. A few years ago, a mysterious man pawned a small bowl made of human bone at a pawnshop called Yuxiang. The owner of Yuxiang died mysteriously, and the bowl disappeared. This bowl kept appearing in other pawnshops. Anyone who received it had to pay a ransom, or they would die within a month. Fortunately, it never showed up in the same pawnshop twice. A month ago, this bowl appeared in our shop!”

Song Lang’s eyebrows raised slightly. “Who do you pay the ransom to? The bowl doesn’t appear out of nowhere. Someone must deliver it, and pawnshops typically have surveillance cameras.”

“A note is placed inside the bowl with an address for the ransom. The amount of money is up to the pawnshop owner. The more you pay, the safer you are. If you pay less, someone in your family will die within a month. It’s eerie, but everyone says so… As for who delivered the bowl, I don’t know. My father handled the shop.”

“So, after your father received this cursed bowl, your mother died. He feared for the rest of the family and decided to pay the ransom?”

“Yes, tonight he left with a suitcase full of cash. According to the story, he might have died because he didn’t deliver the money in time. The bowl appeared exactly a month ago.”

Lin Qiupu said, “This sounds like nonsense. How could such a thing happen?”

“Don’t be quick to judge.” Song Lang took Lin Qiupu’s notebook and saw that it was filled with trivial notes like “Don’t ask too many questions of senior officers, it’s annoying,” “Gas allowance 200 yuan,” “Deduction is big data,” and “Investigation must be meticulous, no geniuses in this field.”

Song Lang glanced at Lin Qiupu, who hung his head in shame. Using the notebook, Song Lang recorded the information about the mysterious bowl.

“Is it still in the shop?”

“Probably locked in my father’s safe.”

“Please take us there to see it.”

“Now?”

“You said it might disappear, so the sooner, the better.”

He Jingjing agreed. Lin Qiupu was thrilled to ride in his senior officer’s car. He asked, “Where’s your partner, Da Chang?”

“He went home after returning the car.”

“It’s late. Aren’t you going home?”

“I want to learn more about this case and gain some experience.”

“You’re new, don’t be embarrassed to go home. There’s not much work during the early stages of a case. Rest while you can because once it gets busy, you won’t get any sleep.”

“It’s fine. I feel like I’ve learned a lot tonight.”

“You’re promising,” Song Lang praised.

He Jingjing drove ahead, and Song Lang followed, smoking as he drove. He didn’t smoke in front of the victim’s family but felt no qualms in his car, though Lin Qiupu found it suffocating.

“If you can’t stand it, open the window. Don’t be so reserved. No boss likes a reserved subordinate,” Song Lang said casually.

“Okay…” Lin Qiupu rolled down the window. “Captain, smoking too much is bad for your health.”

“Smoking is bad, and I’ll pay for it when I’m older. But in our line of work, who knows if we’ll even live that long? Haha, I won’t make excuses. I do have a smoking problem. Don’t you smoke too?”

“I do, but only half a pack a day. My sister nags me whenever she sees me smoking, so I have to do it secretly.”

“You respect her a lot. You must have a good relationship.”

“We’re orphans. Our parents died early… She’s in the police academy now, though I don’t want her to become a cop.”

“Think this job is bad?”

“I think it’s too tough and dangerous for a girl.”

“A job’s difficulty doesn’t depend on the job itself but whether you like it. If we swapped jobs with Jack Ma, neither of us would be happy.”

Lin Qiupu heard another wise saying and nodded, wanting to jot it down in his notebook.

“How long has your sister been in the police academy?” Song Lang asked.

“First year.”

“You work hard and get promoted in three years. When she transfers here, you can take care of her, making her job less tough and dangerous, right?”

Lin Qiupu realized he needed to lay a good foundation to care for his sister in the future. This motivated him even more.