Chen Shi smiled. “Miss Lin, you really like to split hairs[1], huh?”

Lin Dongxue pouted. “Why are you saying that I like to split hairs? It’s a discussion, all possibilities must be considered.”

“I said this because it is a high probability event. Of course, if you want to verify it, there is a gentle slope at the place going to where the corpse is thrown from the road. If it is a strong man, one person walking down with a box… You’ve learned physics, right? The weight of two people applied on the slope, he must use a lot of strength to stand still to not fall, so there will be a very heavy footprint on the gentle slope, but this was not found at the scene.”

Lin Dongxue was finally convinced. She said, “I’m not splitting hairs! I just want to understand and confirm everything. You always say that there is a high probability of this and that. I think that just because there’s a high probability that something is the case doesn’t mean it’s absolute!”

“The kid can be taught!” Chen Shi smiled. “Hurry up and eat!”

At this time, Chen Shi’s phone rang, which was a call from Peng Sijue. On the phone, he said, “Regarding the ashes on the deceased, through tar and carbon monoxide content comparisons, we have reason to believe that it’s from hard Zhong Hua[2]. The tablets in the stomach of the deceased are paracetamol, a common kind of painkiller.”

“I remember this medicine has a certain side effect on lung function. Is the pulmonary edema related to this?”

“Yes, it seems to be correct at the moment.”

“Thank you, has Old Peng eaten yet?”

Peng Sijue didn't want to be close to him, so he hung up the phone immediately. Chen Shi shook his head, pointed to the phone and said, “Why is this person like this? Is he a robot?”

Xu Xiaodong said, “You should be content. Captain Peng personally called you to report the results. There are not many people who have such privileges.”

Lin Dongxue said, “Captain Peng, that stone-faced and cold-hearted man is not planning to get married, right?”

“He’s over thirty but still has no girlfriend yet.”

“Hey. Rather than gossip, let’s quickly eat and get back to work.” Chen Shi urged.

After the meal, the three continued to search. Chen Shi planned to use a new method of dividing the area to be searched into several pieces, and each of them was responsible for one piece.

Lin Dongxue visited each restaurant and her mouth was dry from all of it. Around 4 pm, Chen Shi called and asked, “What did you hear?”

“Nothing!” Lin Dongxue heard his happy tone. “Don't act all mysterious! Have you found anything?”

“Haha, I am waiting for you at the DiJiang Hotel.”

Lin Dongxue and Xu Xiaodong came to the hotel one after the other. Chen Shi was chatting and smoking with the deputy manager at the counter. When the two arrived, he said, “This manager Wang just told me that someone had booked a table around two days ago, and the dishes on the list are basically the same.”

The deputy manager said, “It was ordered by the Kang Xing Electronics Company nearby. It seems to be the celebration feast at the end of the quarter. We sent the dishes to their company directly... Hey, are you all really police officers? What case is it?”

Chen Shi directly ignored his last sentence and said, “Ah yes, the thing you said just now. Can I trouble you to repeat it again?” Chen Shi gave him a cigarette as he asked.

“I listened to the staff who said that when they delivered the meal, they saw two male employees slapping each other in the face. They slapped so intensely that their mouths were bleeding.”

Lin Dongxue took a surprised glance at Chen Shi. Chen Shi smiled. “Thank you! Let's go to that company and see.”

“What exactly are you investigating? Is it a dead person?” The deputy manager was still questioning in the back.

When they got to Kang Xing Electronics Company, Lin Dongxue took out the police officer's badge and told the front desk that they wanted to see the manager. While waiting, Chen Shi looked at the corporate bulletin board on the wall next to him and said, “It turned out to be selling these things.”

This company was a healthcare electronic product. That is, the kind of massage machine. Such products were cheap to manufacture and high in profit. To put it clearly, the main component was talking, mainly relying on sales.

Sure enough, when the front desk assistant came back and took them to the manager’s office, the three people saw the wall covered with quotes about sales, such as “The goal is not used to achieve, it is used to transcend”, “There are no products that can’t be sold, there are only those who can't sell the product.”

In addition, there is a quarterly sales star list.

Xu Xiaodong whispered, “Very strong scent of chicken blood.”[3]

Lin Dongxue said, “I had a classmate. After graduation, they also worked in a similar industry. The whole person was also like they were covered in chicken blood. We saw each other at a class reunion, and I could not find a common topic at all.”

Chen Shi smiled, “The people have to try to love the line of work they’re in. You should learn from them.”

“Does that mean I should let others know that I’m a police officer wherever I go?”

When they came to the manager's office, a fat manager with a red face and a suit came over and shook hands with the three people. He was very strong and Xu Xiaodong’s hand was secretly numb for a long time. After warm and enthusiastic greetings, the manager asked, “Hehehe, I hear you guys are looking for me? To what do I owe the pleasure?”

“Is your company missing someone recently?” Chen Shi asked.

“Oh, haha, no. Why do you ask this?”

“Let me see your employee roster here.”

“Oh, hahaha okay, please wait a moment.”

The manager made a call and then a staff member came in nervously. He looked at the three people and dropped off the document.

Chen Shi took it in his hand. He couldn’t find anything just by looking at the names. The manager kept politely offering things at the side, “Would you guys like to drink tea?”, “Do you want to smoke?” He asked as he pulled out one pack of hard ZhongHua.

Chen Shi’s eyes fell on the pack and asked, “Have you always been smoking this brand of cigarettes?”

“Oh, haha, yeah I’m used to it. You want one?”

“No, thank you... Can we look around?”

“Hehehe, I am afraid this is not possible, the employees are working. Although our company is small, the workload is not easy at all. I hope that our police comrades here will understand our difficulties.”

“We are criminal police!” Lin Dongxue reminded.

The manager pretended to be a stunned man. “It turned out to be a criminal police comrade? Excuse my disrespect earlier, hehehe!”

“Then we won’t bother you.”

“Okay, please have a safe journey, I will not see you out then, hehehe!”

When leaving the office, Xu Xiaodong let out a long breath and said, “This manager is really too enthusiastic.”

“I feel that he is a little fake, laughing like he is wearing a mask.” Lin Dongxue said.

“Yes, a very sleek person, pretending to be too good. Even I can't see through anything.”

Nothing was found so Lin Dongxue was a bit discouraged and said, “Shall we retract our troops then?”

“Who said that we are leaving?” Chen Shi smiled.

When he reached the stairs, Chen Shi suddenly stood still and said, “Let me do a sudden circle-back, you guys wait for me here.”

He went straight back to the manager's office, put his ear on it, and did not forget to turn on the recording function of his mobile phone. A man's voice came from the room. “There were some stripes that came in to investigate... You tell them all to shut their traps. I’ll kill whoever leaks anything!”

Chen Shi suddenly pushed the door open into the room, and the manager who was on the phone widened his eyes with a menacing look all of a sudden.

But in the next second, he switched back to the look of the sleek old man and said with a smile, “What happened, officer?”

“Sorry, I left my lighter here.” Chen Shi picked up the lighter and shook it. “It was just this. I won’t bother you any longer.”

“Okay, I won’t see you off then!”

After Chen Shi left, the manager sat back in his chair and frantically pulled out tissues from the box to wipe the oil and sweat off his face...

1. The actual expression used is “to twist into an ox’s horn”. This link is useful to understanding this phrase a bit more in a Chinese context: https://speakupchinese.tumblr.com/post/110733036261/chinese-idioms-%E9%92%BB%E7%89%9B%E8%A7%92%E5%B0%96-zu%C4%81n-ni%C3%BA-ji%C7%8Eo-ji%C4%81n-to.

2. “Hard” means that the boxes come in the boxed packaging, whereas “soft” means that the packaging is just a strip of paper. People say that this makes the taste different. Zhong Hua is a brand.

3. Motivation, ambition or drive. There’s a story where the blood of a type of wild chicken is almost like a magical essence, able to give you lots of energy, as well as serve as medicine that has many purposes.