Chapter 52.1: As If She’d Killed Someone Before
After giving his warning, Zhao Weiguo waited for a while longer, giving the two people inside plenty of time to compose themselves before finally pushing the door open.
The two young people had already separated. One stood in front, the other behind, with more than two meters between them. Neither looked at the other. Their backs were straight and their expressions solemn, as though nothing had happened just now.
Tsk, tsk, tsk. Young people these days~
Zhao Weiguo chuckled inwardly, but kept a perfectly serious expression as he asked, “Ahem, Comrade Lu, how is Comrade Jiang doing now?”
At that, Lu Yixing instinctively turned his head toward her, but the instant he saw Jiang Xia, he quickly looked away, as though he had been burned by something.
“She’s doing a little better than before.”
Lu Yixing answered calmly. “Did you need something, Chief Conductor?”
“I heard Comrade Jiang gets pretty severe motion sickness.”
Zhao Weiguo’s expression turned serious. “After what happened, the passengers in the carriage are bound to be… rather enthusiastic. You two probably won’t get much rest if you go back there. How about moving to our crew sleeping car instead? It’s all railway staff in there. There aren’t many people, so it’s quiet and safe.”
The railway staff aboard a train would travel the entire length of the train’s route with it. Other than when the train stopped at stations, it ran continuously twenty-four hours a day. But obviously, the staff couldn’t work for twenty-four hours straight, so they were generally divided into two shifts, changing every eight hours. The staff who finished their shifts would rest in a dedicated carriage, which was known as the crew sleeping car.
According to regulations, passengers weren’t allowed into the crew sleeping car. But this clearly wasn’t an ordinary situation. These two had just helped them deal with seven train robbers. Considering the enormous favor they had done them, making room for two lower berths so they could get some proper rest was entirely reasonable.
Lu Yixing hadn’t expected Zhao Weiguo to come over to suggest this.
He didn’t really want to trouble the train staff any further, but when he thought about Jiang Xia’s condition, he hesitated.
Going to the crew sleeping car to rest did sound like a pretty good option.
Jiang Xia was genuinely tempted.
The passengers really were being a little too familiar for her liking. She honestly didn’t have much energy left for socializing. It would be better to move somewhere quiet and get some proper rest.
She said politely, “Wouldn’t that be too much trouble for you?”
“What trouble? There are so many berths in the crew sleeping car that we don’t even have enough people to fill them.”
Zhao Weiguo immediately waved his hand. “How about this? We’ll go straight to Compartment Three. There happen to be two empty berths there.”
With things put that way, Jiang Xia naturally had no reason to refuse.
The crew sleeping car was much like the hard-sleeper car, except that all the curtains over the windows had been drawn, and there were also curtains hanging over the compartment entrances. As a result, the corridor was rather dim. In the middle of the day, it looked almost like evening, and it was exceptionally quiet.
Zhao Weiguo lifted the curtain.
There wasn’t a single person in Compartment Three. The upper and lower berths on both sides had all been neatly folded up, making it look as though no one had ever stayed there.
He lowered his voice. “All right. You two can rest here from now on. No one will bother you before you get off the train.”
“Huh?”
Jiang Xia was a little surprised. “With so many of the robbers injured or dead, don’t we need to get off at the next station and cooperate with the investigation?”
“That won’t be necessary.”
Zhao Weiguo said, “We can handle the handover on our end. And the circumstances of this case are pretty clear. We have both witnesses and physical evidence, so there’s no need for you to get off and be questioned again. Of course, they’ll have your contact information. If they need to clarify anything, they’ll just give you a call.”
Jiang Xia relaxed.
That saved her quite a bit of trouble. At least she wouldn’t have to worry about how to face the local police officers.
Since they wouldn’t be getting off at the next station, there would be no chance for anyone to call them, so Lu Yixing thought for a moment before saying, “Chief, there’s one small favor I’d like to ask. When you hand the robbers over to the local police, could you ask them not to notify our families about what happened just yet? Maybe wait until we’ve returned home and tell them then. Would that be possible?”
“Oh, I understand.”
The moment he heard that, Zhao Weiguo immediately understood what Lu Yixing was thinking.
He was worried his family would be concerned, huh.
To outsiders, it might look like an honor. But to parents, no achievement, no matter how great, could ever be more important than their child’s safety. If they found out what had happened, they would probably be terrified with worry.
For a moment, Zhao Weiguo thought of his own wife and children back home. He gave a slight nod.
“Don’t worry. I’ll tell the local police.”
He looked at the two of them and continued, “Do you two need anything else? If not, I’ll go conduct a preliminary interrogation of those two conscious robbers.”
“No, that’s all.”
Jiang Xia said, “Go ahead and get to work, Chief Zhao. I’ll bring you the portrait of the robber who escaped in a little while.”
“All right. I’ll be waiting.”
Zhao Weiguo agreed verbally, but he didn’t take it seriously at all.
Drawing was a skill that took practice. Just like doctors, artists tended to get better with age and experience.
His nephew, who studied art, had been practicing for more than two years before he finally managed to draw human faces that no longer looked like monkeys and actually resembled people. Jiang Xia was young, and she wasn’t even an artist—she was a forensic technician. After only getting a few glimpses of the robber, how accurate could her portrait possibly be?
She’d be better off letting him spend more time interrogating the two conscious robbers. There was all sorts of information he could get out of them.
With that thought, Zhao Weiguo left.
Jiang Xia reached out and opened her suitcase.
She had brought the largest size available, and it was quite heavy. But there weren’t many personal belongings inside—just two changes of clothes, toiletries, and the like. The real heavy items were her portrait kit and a small mimeograph machine.
After all, she was traveling to Quzhou City to draw a criminal’s portrait. Of course, she had to bring all the tools she might need. She just hadn’t expected to put them to use so soon.
Earlier, Jiang Xia had been rather surprised that the robbers had chosen to jump out of the window. But thinking about it now, that was probably their planned escape route from the very beginning.
After all, they couldn’t exactly wait until the train pulled into a station, stopped, and opened its doors before making their escape. That would practically be handing themselves over to the railway police.
Jumping off the train was their best option.
The green trains of the time weren’t traveling particularly fast, and the ground alongside the tracks was mostly dirt. If they were lucky, they might be able to roll a few times, suffer nothing more than a few scrapes, then get back on their feet and run.
The robber had jumped off the train in the outskirts, in a completely deserted area. He could flee in any direction, and there was no telling which way he’d choose. Under normal circumstances, he might actually have managed to get away.
But now…
Jiang Xia decided to make a modest hundred copies of his face first. A saturation-style portrait manhunt. She refused to believe they couldn’t catch him!
Before Jiang Xia could reach for them, Lu Yixing had already bent down and taken the two pieces of equipment, placing them on the berth for her.
Jiang Xia opened her portrait kit, took out the metal plate and wax paper, and immediately began engraving.
Just thinking about how she’d soon be sending another criminal straight into prison put Jiang Xia in an excellent mood.
If she weren’t worried about disturbing the railway staff resting in the compartment, she would have sung a few lines of Today Is a Good Day.
Lu Yixing sat beside her and waited.
He instinctively avoided looking directly at Jiang Xia’s face. Instead, he lowered his eyes and watched her hands as they worked.
Her hands weren’t large. Her fingers were fair and slender, yet they didn’t look delicate. Her nails were neatly trimmed and rounded, while thin calluses covered her fingertips. It seemed as though she only needed to casually make a few strokes, and the face of the robber would already spring vividly to life on the paper.
He had seen it more than once, yet Lu Yixing still found it unbelievable.
It was practically miraculous.
And when he thought about how those same hands that held a drawing pen could also wield a knife against an enemy, Lu Yixing felt as though a feather had lightly brushed across his heart.
He suddenly realized that if he slightly spread his hand, he could completely enclose hers within his palm.
If only he could hold it for a moment.
The thought had barely surfaced when Lu Yixing froze.
What on earth had he just been thinking?!
Jiang Xia finished engraving the portrait.
She picked up the wax paper.
Lu Yixing immediately snapped back to reality. He hurriedly suppressed those random thoughts, pulled the metal plate toward himself, and brought over the mimeograph, placing it on the metal table.
Working together like this was surprisingly satisfying.
“Take the paper.”
Jiang Xia spoke naturally. “I need to mix the ink first.”
“Okay.”
Lu Yixing laid out the wax paper. Jiang Xia added the auxiliary agent entirely by feel, then poured the prepared ink onto the screen. After a few passes with the roller to spread it evenly, they were ready to start printing.
Jiang Xia ran the roller over the plate once, lifted it, and Lu Yixing immediately pulled the sheet away, placing it to the side before swiftly laying down another.
Before long, the two of them had printed more than a hundred copies of the portrait.
When Jiang Xia noticed the lines were beginning to bleed around the edges, she stopped.
“I remember you said earlier that this quick-drying ink needs to be cleaned off promptly.”
Lu Yixing volunteered, “Give me the cleaning solution. I’ll wash it. You should rest for a bit.”
“Okay.”
Jiang Xia took the glass bottle containing the cleaning solution out of the compartment. “You only need to pour a little. The screen and roller both need to be cleaned thoroughly.”
“Mm.”
Taking the cleaning solution, Lu Yixing easily lifted the mimeograph and carried it to the washbasin.
He carefully washed all the ink away. After making sure there was no residue left on the screen, he turned it over to let the water drain, then carried it back, left the opening exposed, and set it on the floor beneath the lower berth to air-dry.
After drying his hands, he rubbed his fingertip over the corner of one of the last few printed portraits.
The ink hadn’t smeared. It was clearly completely dry.
He stacked together the portraits that had been drying beneath his own lower and middle berths, rolled them up, and carried them to the crew compartment to find Zhao Weiguo.
The amount of money that had been stolen was substantial, so the railway staff were being extremely cautious about returning it to the passengers. They repeatedly verified their identities and the amounts they had lost before handing the money back, which took quite a while. The process still hadn’t been completed.
The passengers who hadn’t been robbed, such as Gu Qingshan and the others, had it much easier. As soon as they saw Lu Yixing, they grabbed him and thanked him profusely. They also asked whether Jiang Xia’s motion sickness had gotten any better and tried to give the two of them some gifts as thanks.
Lu Yixing refused them. After finally managing to escape their persistent gratitude, he made his way to the crew compartment.
Zhao Weiguo was still conducting the interrogation.
At this point, the two robbers were actually being fairly cooperative. They told him everything they knew, though naturally they also did plenty to absolve themselves of responsibility.
In short, according to their version of events, the entire robbery had been planned by the Bearded Man and Scarface. The two of them were merely underlings who wanted to make some money and had only handled the grunt work.
As for the one who had escaped, he went by the nickname Mengzi. Bearded Man had recruited him, but they knew neither his real name nor his home address.
But the Bearded Man was still unconscious.
That made tracking him down a little troublesome. For now, Zhao Weiguo could only ask about the escaped robber’s physical appearance and clothing. He was just wondering how he should notify the stations along the route to keep an eye out for him when he heard a knock at the door.
After glancing at the two robbers, Zhao Weiguo stood up and walked out himself.
“Ah, Comrade Lu. What brings you here?”
“This is the portrait Jiang Xia drew of the escaped robber.”
Lu Yixing handed over the rolled-up sheets. “There are a total of one hundred and thirty-two copies. Chief, please take them.”
???
Several question marks instantly floated across Zhao Weiguo’s face.
What was this guy talking about? It hadn’t even been that long. There was no way she’d even finished drawing one portrait yet, so how had she managed to produce this many?
But a drawing couldn’t exactly be faked. Half skeptical, Zhao Weiguo took the rolled-up sheets and spread them open.
Whoa.
A clear portrait immediately appeared before his eyes.
The man’s face was diamond-shaped, with a narrow forehead and a pointed, gaunt chin. His eyebrows were broad and unruly, and his lips were slightly thin. It was practically an exact match for the description the two robbers had just given him!
Zhao Weiguo was stunned.
Good grief. She’d only gotten a few glimpses of him, yet she’d managed to draw him this accurately?
Her drawing skills were a little too good, weren’t they? Compared with Jiang Xia, his nephew who studied art might as well throw his brushes away!
And there were so many copies…
Zhao Weiguo flipped through the portraits with both hands. Seeing that they were identical from beginning to end, he found it even more unbelievable.
“This… this hasn’t even been an hour, has it? How did Comrade Jiang manage to draw so many portraits?”
“She brought a small mimeograph.”
Lu Yixing explained, “These were all printed.”
Zhao Weiguo immediately understood.
So that’s what had happened.
Still, what kind of forensic technician brought something like that along on an assignment?
Suddenly, Zhao Weiguo remembered the wanted posters he’d seen at the station a few days ago. If he recalled correctly, those had also been issued by Changning City.
“Um…”
Unable to resist, Zhao Weiguo asked, “Has Comrade Jiang drawn other portraits before?”
Lu Yixing fell silent for a moment.
He remembered how, before they left, Section Chief Liao and Director Du had instructed him not to reveal anything about Jiang Xia’s abilities. He had a feeling that meant this particular task was probably impossible to complete.
“She has.”
Lu Yixing said, “All the wanted notices our city has issued recently were drawn by her.”
Zhao Weiguo’s eyes lit up, and he immediately pressed further. “Hey, what about that wanted criminal called Heitou? All you had was a nickname, so how did you manage to draw him? Did you have witnesses describe him and then work from their accounts?”
Since Zhao Weiguo had already figured it out, there was no point in hiding it anymore. Lu Yixing nodded.
“Yes.”
“Whew—!”
Zhao Weiguo immediately sucked in a breath.
So it really was just as he’d guessed. Comrade Jiang’s drawing skills were genuinely incredible.
And she was still so young. She was practically like Wenquxing himself… Uh, no, more like some legendary Drawing Immortal who had descended into the mortal world and been reincarnated. Surely she’d had to start drawing while she was still in the womb to have this kind of skill, right?
No, he had to find an opportunity to go take another look.
If he could get his hands on a few of her sketches, even better. He could take them back for his nephew, so the kid could absorb a little of that artistic aura. Maybe then he’d finally be able to draw an actual human being sooner.
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