Chapter 249: Clumsy and Chuunibyou

The elementary school teacher from over a decade ago had long lost contact, so naturally he couldn't remember the name.

"Just because contact was lost means you definitely can't remember the name?" Yu Dazhang felt that nothing should be taken as absolute.

"Then let's do an experiment." Ye Zhiyu asked with a smile:

"You know your father's name, right?"

Yu Dazhang shot him a glance:

"Isn't that a stupid question."

"What about your grandfather's name?" Ye Zhiyu asked again.

Yu Dazhang answered without hesitation:

"I know that too."

He suddenly had a bad premonition, instinctively sensing he was walking into a trap.

Sure enough, Ye Zhiyu's next question turned his premonition into reality.

"Please state the name of your great-grandfather."

Yu Dazhang:...

It wasn't that he refused to say—he simply didn't know.

In his memory, he had absolutely no impression of his great-grandfather.

"Go on." Ye Zhiyu urged.

Seeing Yu Dazhang's face flush red, he mocked:

"Just two generations back and you can't say the name—and that's your blood relative."

"Now you see, any normal human can't escape this Rule of 150."

This was a chain trap... Yu Dazhang knew where the problem lay.

Even if he said his great-grandfather's name, it wouldn't matter—Ye Zhiyu would just ask for his great-great-grandfather's name.

At that point, basically no one could answer.

But this also proved that even with blood relations, once contact is lost and enough time passes, names are forgotten.

"Our team can't just sit idle either."

Yu Dazhang changed the subject, took out the remaining three files, pulled one out and handed it to Ma Jian:

"You and Xia Bin form a pair, go find this person and learn the situation."

Ma Jian took the file and nodded:

"Okay."

He had seen the person on the file before—previously he had always accompanied Yu Dazhang on cases, so he had impressions of all these wronged people.

That was enough... Yu Dazhang still had two files left in his hand, one of which was Liu Jinsong's.

He had never planned to investigate all nine wronged people.

Nine people in total—getting information from eight was already sufficient.

If they really came up empty-handed, investigating the last one wouldn't be too late.

He had deliberately set aside Liu Jinsong's file because during their last meeting at the prison, Liu Jinsong had recalled an incident from his school days...

Li Yong had once joined a small group!

But because too much time had passed, he could only recall a vague bit of information.

He had no impression whatsoever of the details of that small group.

And during the last meeting, only Yu Dazhang and Ma Jian were present—Ye Zhiyu hadn't come to Province S yet.

The next day.

Xicheng Prison.

More than half a month later, meeting again this time, Liu Jinsong's mental state was clearly much better than before.

The gloom on his face had been swept away, and his eyes had taken on a special brightness.

Upon seeing Yu Dazhang, he kept saying "thank you," his gratitude plain for all to see.

"We're here this time because we want to ask you about Li Yong."

Yu Dazhang's tone was very gentle, as if chatting with an old friend:

"Don't feel pressured. If you really can't remember, this psychological counselor here can help you recall."

He deliberately avoided Liu Jinsong's thanks.

A person who had served sixteen years for a wrongful conviction thanking the police made Yu Dazhang feel very awkward.

At the same time, as a police officer, facing such thanks, he felt he didn't deserve it.

Restoring justice was what he ought to do—he could never bear to accept a single "thank you."

"Sure, whatever you say."

Liu Jinsong was very eager, as if being able to help Yu Dazhang was some great honor:

"Ask away—whatever I can remember, I'll tell the truth, and even if it takes hypnosis, I promise to cooperate."

While speaking, Ye Zhiyu came up to him, took cigarettes from his pocket, handed him one, and promptly lit it for him.

Yu Dazhang noticed that what Ye Zhiyu had given Liu Jinsong was Huazi.

Normally he didn't even treat himself to those—on the way here he had been smoking his own Long March. Someone like this is reliable in getting things done... Yu Dazhang looked at Ye Zhiyu with satisfaction.

His frugality was only toward himself; toward anyone other than himself, he had never been stingy.

"Last time you said Li Yong joined a small group."

Yu Dazhang thought for a moment, then asked:

"Did that small group have a name?"

The question he asked was not only directed at Liu Jinsong, but also meant for Ye Zhiyu to hear.

If Liu Jinsong couldn't give a clear answer, then when Ye Zhiyu extracted the memories later, she would also know which direction to get the information from.

Hearing this, Liu Jinsong stared at the ground ahead and fell into deep thought, taking an occasional drag from his cigarette during this time.

Only after finishing the cigarette did he raise his head to look at Yu Dazhang and say apologetically:

"I'm sorry, I really can't remember."

Seeing the disappointed expression on Yu Dazhang's face, he hurriedly added:

"But I can be sure that Li Yong's little group did have a name."

"Because back then a lot of students were forming cliques, and they would all come up with a name to use as a code name."

!

"For example, War Hall, Nightfall, Cold Moon, Soaring Clouds, Blood Kill, Proud Heaven…"

Liu Jinsong's reminiscing hadn't been in vain — he had actually rattled off over a dozen family names popular in the late nineties in one go.

Cringeworthy and utterly chuunibyou.

It made Yu Dazhang and Ye Zhiyu scratch their heads in bewilderment.

These two could be considered mentally tough, yet they were still embarrassed enough to dig their toes into the ground.

"There are too many names like that."

Liu Jinsong sighed and said helplessly:

"It's precisely because almost everyone used code names that it was such a mess — there was no way to match them up at all."

"On top of that, a lot of people were imitating characters from Hong Kong movies, which made it even more chaotic. I simply can't recall those code names anymore."

Not bad — at least the Four Divine Beasts and the Twelve Zodiacs didn't show up… Back when Yu Dazhang was in school reading novels, he would often come across titles like these.

Early romance novels had practically run those divine beasts and zodiacs into the ground.

The F4 in "Meteor Garden" were set up according to the Four Divine Beasts — too bad Shancai left first.

"Did you see the other members of that little group?" Yu Dazhang switched to a different question.

"I think I did," Liu Jinsong replied after a moment's thought.

"Li Yong was bullied at school back then, so he called those people over to help. The two sides even faced off on the school playground, but in the end I don't think they actually fought."

Being able to recall something like this was already pretty good, after all it was sixteen years ago.

So it was perfectly normal for things to be a bit fuzzy.

The speaker meant nothing by it, but the listener took it to heart… The moment Yu Dazhang heard that Liu Jinsong had actually seen them gather, his eyes immediately lit up.

"How many people were in their group?"

He asked, somewhat excitedly:

"If you can't remember the exact number, an approximate count will do."

From the very beginning, Yu Dazhang had believed that the nine victims of the Severed Finger Case should have known each other.

But in reality, these nine people had no connection whatsoever.

Ding Feng had already done an investigation in this area, and very thoroughly at that.

But as Yu Dazhang's investigation deepened, the commonalities among these nine people kept growing.

First point.

Their family backgrounds were all extraordinary — not a single one came from an ordinary household.

Second.

All nine of them had homicide cases attached to them, and every single one had occurred over a decade ago.

The most recent homicide case was thirteen years ago.

What struck Yu Dazhang as most incredible was that they had all successfully evaded conviction and found scapegoats.

Although on the surface, each case was different.

The methods were identical.

This suggested that the person cleaning up after them was very likely the same individual.

It was like…

In any group, there must be one who does the thinking.

In ancient times, they were called a military strategist.

Nowadays, they're called a planner.

In the underworld, they're called the White Paper Fan.

In short, all the signs indicated that the nine victims of the Severed Finger Case had known each other over a decade ago, and their relationship had been far from ordinary.

(End of chapter)