Chapter 13: Traces Must Be Found

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About why people eat unhealthy junk food while cats require refined cat food, Xu Qing found it difficult to explain, only being able to dismiss it with "you'll know when you're older."

Happiness is something that can be understood but not conveyed through words.

As the sky grew darker, Xu Qing hung a small penguin doll on the computer, opened the chat window, and reminded himself not to hide behind the screen but to communicate with someone far away through voice. Then he headed out alone, taking the bus to the meeting place he and Qin Hao had arranged.

"Mouse, where are you?"

"Here! Here!"

Qin Hao, who had arrived earlier, was already sitting in the corner of the street-side eatery, waving with a mouthful of edamame.

"Hey, you've got quite a tan; I almost couldn't see you in the dark."

Xu Qing turned his head, saw Qin Hao, walked over to him, and laughed before sitting down, "Officer Qin, you must be exhausted."

"You bet, I'm completely spent. Sit down, I'll fill your glass."

"Can police officers drink alcohol?"

"Nonsense, I'm not on duty; why can't I drink?" Qin Hao tugged at his clothes, "I'm undercover, see?"

"Alright, let's order."

Twenty lamb skewers, twenty beef skewers, ten chive skewers, four kidney skewers, plus two roasted eggplants, and a case of beer was the complete order.

Neither of them liked those fancy dishes; when it came to barbecue, these were the main items. If it wasn't enough, they would order more until they were full.

"How's work? What does it feel like to be a glorious police officer?"

"What feelings? It's nothing like what I imagined."

As soon as this topic came up, Qin Hao had a belly full of complaints, "I thought it would be fighting with criminals, getting heroically wounded, saving damsels in distress... None of that! Every day it's just trivial nonsense; you can't imagine how ridiculous it is...

Breaking up fights between boyfriends and girlfriends, mediating neighborhood disputes, standing between two old ladies cursing at each other from their doorways... Damn! I can't even catch a thief; it's all mediation, mediation, mediation. I don't know where all these trivial matters come from."

"That means the people are living peacefully and contentedly; that's not bad at all." Xu Qing chuckled, "Does every beat cop have this... hero dream?"

This best friend had dreamt of being a police officer since childhood but stopped growing after barely passing five feet three inches. When he found out that the physical examination required a minimum height of five feet seven, he clung to Xu Qing crying his heart out.

Back then, they were both in high school, and Xu Qing, who was already over five feet seven, comforted him by suggesting that building muscle might lead to an exception in the recruitment process. Thus began his journey into muscle building——

Fortunately, later, the recruitment standard scrapped the height requirement and switched to a standing jump, indirectly setting a limit. This change got Qin Hao excitedly practicing the high jump every day, until he eventually got his wish.

"You know, it's driving me crazy. Just before you arrived, I was eyeing this spot over here——"

Qin Hao took a swig of beer, lowered his voice, and gestured toward the road, "I was fantasizing that if a criminal suddenly ran out with a knife, I'd slam the table, jump out, and have an epic showdown... I had it all played out in my head."

"...What are you even talking about, stop dreaming."

Xu Qing felt oddly guilty; wasn't Jiang He just like that when she first arrived, running around with a knife? No, it was a sword... Thankfully, it was a downpour that day, and there weren't many people on the streets.

After chatting and joking for a while, forty skewers were served, and they clinked their bottles together and started eating with gusto.

"Oh, there's something I've been wanting to ask you about, not sure if you know anything about it." After gobbling down seven or eight skewers in one go, Xu Qing sat upright and casually began, "So... let's say, hypothetically, a homeless person, who has amnesia and wants to get an ID card to work, but has no identification at all. What would they do?"

"Hmm...."

Dun dun dun dun...

Qin Hao threw back half a bottle of beer, exhaled, and said, "Can't be done, there's no way."

"How can there be no way?"

"That's an undocumented person; what can you do?"

"It's because they're undocumented that they need to get it sorted, those who are documented don't have to." Xu Qing retorted.

"Who needs to get it sorted? Your friend? An undocumented person?" Qin Hao suddenly became interested.

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"My third aunt's neighbor's nephew asked me to inquire something for him, he has a friend with a quite complicated situation..."

"Buzz off."

Qin Hao chuckled and swore, "For black households, unless you can provide identification, like finding your parents or doing some bloodline verification or something, or... anyway, it's complicated. Without any proof and suddenly a person pops up out of nowhere, don't even think about it."

Xu Qing ate silently for a bit, his gaze then drifted to the road. After a while, he asked again, "What about those black households you encounter without any identity, like homeless people? How do you deal with them?"

"Why deal with them?... Only if they act suspiciously, we'd detain and check them, see if we can find a fugitive."

"What do you ask, and what three checks?"

"Just...no, wait, you're up to something." Qin Hao frowned, feeling that the matter was not simple.

Although this guy was usually curious, it still didn't feel quite right.

"I'm not up to anything. You've just started the job recently and you're already paranoid... Could it be that I'm harboring a fugitive and then come to you, a police officer, trying to find a way to cover up their identity?"

Xu Qing looked on with disdain, glancing at him sideways.

"...True."

Qin Hao thought about it and it seemed indeed so.

He raised his bottle to clink with Xu Qing's, took a few sips, then picked up another skewer, chewing as he spoke, "You start with asking, asking for basic information, seeing if he can explain his identity through his own words. If he pretends to have amnesia or acts dumb, then we have to investigate."

"What are the three checks? What do you look for?"

"Missing persons, DNA information to check for kidnapped individuals, or if they're fugitives."

"What if the three checks come back clean?"

"If they're all clean...hey, why are you asking all this?" Qin Hao wondered. He felt it was a bit off.

"I'm just making conversation. What else are two grown men supposed to talk about? Romance?" Xu Qing continued with disdain, "Forget it, if I keep asking you might cuffs on me..."

He stretched out his hands and placed them on the table, cheerfully saying, "Why not check me? I've never experienced it. Who knows, upon checking—wow! A missing person, maybe I was picked up by my old man and the others."

"Get lost, stop talking nonsense. I think you came from Nanshan Second Hospital..." Qin Hao was disdainful, "If the three checks all fail, then we check foreign immigrants and registered mentally ill people—I think you're like a mental patient."

"What if that's not the case either?"

"If that's not the case then we let them go. What else can we do? The person hasn't committed a crime."

"..."

Xu Qing thought for a while and it didn't seem right, "What about their ID? Shouldn't they be helped to get one?"

"Provide the documents to get it processed."

"Without documents."

"Can't process it."

"..."

Xu Qing was annoyed, "They haven't committed a crime, why can't they be helped?"

"Because they don't have the documents."

Qin Hao burped, toying with a skewer on the table as he gestured, "Look, suppose, I pull out a knife right now and stab you dead..."

"Don't stab me, go stab someone else." Xu Qing detested the idea.

"Fine, then I go out on the street...ptooey, suppose you, take a knife out on the street and stab someone dead, go to the Koreans to get a makeover, then come back to Jiangcheng or go somewhere else, claiming you have amnesia, a complete blank slate, and then you acquire a new identity and start over—would that be right?"

Seeing Xu Qing remained silent, Qin Hao was amused and brandished the skewer like a pointer, "As long as a person has existed, there will definitely be traces. There's no person who appears out of thin air. If there is—then this person definitely has a problem."

He shook his head, threw away the skewer, and picked up another one to his mouth, "Everywhere one goes, one leaves traces... This is the golden rule, said by the father of forensic science, Edmond Locard."

"Snap out of it. You're just a beat cop handling quarrels between old ladies right now."

"...Damn."