Trembling At A High Altitude

With his superb driving skills, Li Teng quickly delivered Anna to her university.

Heshan University.

After dropping off Anna, it was time for Li Teng to go to work.

But, where was his workplace?

He only knew that he was a criminal investigation officer...

Fortunately, at this moment, his wristwatch indicated the location of his mission.

That was his workplace.

Li Teng hurriedly drove to his workplace.

It was a certain bureau's Criminal Investigation Squad.

Other three people, Gao Feng, Yang Peishan, and Liu Yanni, also arrived there one after another.

Their role in this mission was to be criminal police, colleagues of Li Teng.

"We just received a case, a somewhat bizarre one, and you need to go investigate and clarify the truth," said the squad leader as he gathered the team and assigned them a mission.

Apparently, this mission was a case-solving task.

"At Heshan University, a female university student jumped off a building last night, and her body was only discovered this morning," explained the squad leader while pushing several photos toward everyone.

She was a female student who looked not very beautiful but quite innocent.

There were also photos of the scene of the jump.

She was dressed in pajamas, lying face down on the ground, with a blanket wrapped around her.

Li Teng couldn't help but frown.

Not for another reason, mainly because this case occurred at Heshan University.

Anna was studying at that university!

"Her name is Yang Li. The school has given a cause of death, but the family does not accept it, so I want you to find the truth within three days and give an explanation that the family, the school, and the bureau leaders all accept!" the squad leader instructed them.

The wristwatch also popped up a prompt.

Deliver a truth within three days, and if it is the real cause of death, the mission is successful.

If it is not the real cause of death, the mission fails.

No illegal means to obtain evidence are allowed during this process; any use of illegal means will immediately lead to mission failure.

With nothing more to say, after taking on the mission, everyone drove the police car to Heshan University.

Li Teng had already come here twice this morning; had he known it was the mission's location... he still had to go to the bureau.

Upon entering the university, the four first spoke with an eyewitness reporter, a janitor.

There was nothing new to be discovered; he had already said what he had to say earlier, and it was recorded in the case file.

Next, the four found the victim Yang Li's counselor.

A 27-year-old young man named Wang Wen.

"I've already spoken to the family, and they just won't accept it. I really have no other way," Wang Wen said emotionally but his gaze seemed somewhat evasive.

"Then, tell us about it again," Li Teng urged Wang Wen.

"Yang Li had severe somnambulism. She often talked in her sleep and sometimes got up and walked around the dormitory wrapped in a blanket, and there were even classmates who reported that she danced in her sleep.

"You can verify these with her classmates. I guess last night, she sleepwalked to the dorm's balcony and then fell off and died."

"The family is too emotional. I told them the truth, and they even started hitting me!" Wang Wen became agitated again.

"Where were you last night? What were you doing?" Gao Feng, who was with Li Teng, suddenly asked Wang Wen.

"Are you suspecting me?" Wang Wen became even more agitated.

"Before the truth is uncovered, everyone close to her is a suspect! You must cooperate with our investigation!" Gao Feng became stern.

Before going to prison, Gao Feng was a criminal policeman with extensive investigative experience.

"I was in the dormitory last night, just looking at my phone, not doing anything else," Wang Wen answered Gao Feng, but his gaze still seemed very evasive.

"Does anyone have evidence?" Gao Feng pressed on.

"I was alone in the dormitory, who can provide evidence? How can it be proven? I can only prove it myself!" Wang Wen became agitated again.

"Alright, first take us to see their dormitory," Li Teng interjected.

Gao Feng glanced at Li Teng but did not raise any objections.

The group entered the female dormitory where Yang Li stayed.

There were four bunk beds in the dormitory, typically occupied by six female students.

But yesterday was Sunday, and four of the six students did not stay in the dormitory, leaving only Yang Li and another girl named He Tiantian.

After witnessing Yang Li jump off the building, He Tiantian developed severe psychological disorders and was currently receiving psychological counseling at the school.

After inspecting the dormitory, the group headed to the dormitory's balcony.

There was a one-meter-high concrete railing below the balcony, topped with a 1.2-meter-high stainless steel railing.

The total height of the railing was 2.2 meters.

"A railing this high, and she climbed over it wrapped in a blanket while sleepwalking?" Gao Feng looked skeptically at the counselor Wang Wen who had followed them.

"You collected her footprints, confirming that she climbed up there by herself, and wrapped in a blanket, if it wasn't sleepwalking, then what was it?" Wang Wen pointed at several footprints on the stainless steel railing.

Li Teng and the others had already seen this evidence in the case file.

"What are you nervous about!?" Gao Feng suddenly shouted at Wang Wen.

"I... I'm not nervous," Wang Wen's voice trembled.

"If you've concealed anything, it's better to tell us the whole truth now. Don't wait for us to find out and come looking for you, because then it will be a different matter!" Gao Feng continued to intimidate Wang Wen.

"I really haven't concealed anything. When I say it was sleepwalking, I'm not making it up. Look at this video, it really shows a man sleepwalking out of the dorm, climbing over the railing, and falling to his death from the sixth floor!" Wang Wen took out his phone and played a video he found online for everyone to see.

"Pretty well prepared to cover yourself, aren't you!" Gao Feng continued to look at Wang Wen with suspicion.

"Officer Gao, if you keep talking like this, I might have to complain about you! You're accusing me without any evidence," Wang Wen deliberately raised his voice, but it still could not hide the tremor in his voice.

After failing to discover anything significant from Wang Wen, the four went to a hotel next to the school, where they found the family members staying.

The family members were all very emotional; some were crying, others cursing non-stop.

In total, there were five family members who had come.

One was Yang Li's mother, one was Yang Li's father, and there was Yang Li's grandfather and grandmother, and her uncle.

"Regarding the death of Yang Li, the police do not have a conclusion yet as the investigation is still ongoing. Regarding the hypothesis posed by the school that she jumped while sleepwalking, we currently reserve our judgment, but we still need to carry out the corresponding investigation work. We hope you can understand that if she was murdered, we will definitely find out who the murderer is. We will need your cooperation for the upcoming investigation."

To avoid aggravating the emotions of the family members, Li Teng decided to have Yang Peishan and Liu Yanni question the family.

Gao Feng looked on with a cold eye.

"Ask away," Yang Li's uncle spoke up.

"Yang Li's tutor mentioned that Yang Li had a habit of sleepwalking. As her family, have you ever heard or witnessed her sleepwalking habit? We hope you can answer this question truthfully. Even if she had a habit of sleepwalking, we would not conclude that she jumped while sleepwalking because of this," Yang Peishan asked, following Li Teng's instructions.

"I have not heard of it; how about you?" Yang Li's uncle nudged Father Yang.

"No! Where did you hear that?" Father Yang roundly denied.

Mother Yang also shook her head.

"A few times at home, while she was sleeping, I suddenly heard her crying in the yard..." Yang Li's grandmother suddenly interjected.

"Hey!" Father Yang tried to stop Yang Li's grandmother.

Yang Li's grandmother quickly closed her mouth.

"Before going to university, with whom did Yang Li live?" Liu Yanni, holding a note from Li Teng, also asked a question.

"With the grandparents," Yang Li's uncle pointed to the grandparents.

The four exchanged glances.

Obviously, the people who knew Yang Li best were not her parents, but her grandparents. Therefore, her sleepwalking was likely true.

Yang Peishan then asked the Yang family some more questions about Yang Li's personality.

But Father and Mother Yang knew virtually nothing. After being blamed by Father Yang, the grandparents kept silent and did not want to say more, and the questioning of the family had to be halted there.

...

"What do you all think about this case?"

After returning to the car, Gao Feng asked the others.

"I think she jumped while sleepwalking," Yang Peishan opened up.

"The possibility of her jumping while sleepwalking seems quite high, doesn't it?" Liu Yanni also spoke up.

"And you?" Gao Feng asked Li Teng.

"That Wang Wen, his emotions didn't seem right, he was lying. Not sure why he was lying, but we will probably find a breakthrough with him.

"Anyway, I don't think it was a sleepwalking jump," Li Teng thoughtfully responded to Gao Feng.

"Indeed, Wang Wen's emotions were really off. On the way here, I noticed that most intersections in the school had surveillance cameras installed. If we retrieve the surveillance videos from last night around the girls' dorm and the school dorm areas, we will definitely find something," Gao Feng was very satisfied with Li Teng's response.

"Why don't you think it was a sleepwalking jump?" the two women asked curiously.

"If it were, this task would be too simple; the prison wouldn't give us such an easy task to execute," Li Teng had a valid reason.

"What if the prison deliberately gave a simple task? Perhaps you're overthinking it and fell into the prison's trap," Yang Peishan was somewhat unconvinced.

"You also make a good point, but since we have three days, let's conduct a thorough investigation before drawing any conclusions," Li Teng smiled.

The four divided the tasks for the upcoming mission, with Li Teng taking the two women to the surveillance room to review the surveillance videos, while Gao Feng said he would go to see Wang Wen alone again, using his extensive criminal investigation experience to force Wang Wen to reveal a flaw.

Besides meeting Wang Wen, Gao Feng also wanted to meet with Yang Li's roommate to see, based on her state, if they could coax out any new clues from her.

Reviewing surveillance footage is a tedious task.

Fortunately, Gao Feng quickly provided some useful information.

Wang Wen had disclosed part of his movements; after having a meal at a certain cafeteria in the school, he went back to the dormitory.

With this timeline, Li Teng and his two colleagues soon located Wang Wen in the corresponding surveillance area.

He hadn't lied about this timeline; he indeed had his meal at that cafeteria and then returned to the dormitory.

After that, it was uncertain.

The task for Li Teng and his group was to track whether Wang Wen had gone out again after returning to the dormitory.

If they could verify that he had gone out, they could confirm he was lying.

And the reason for lying was likely related to Yang Li's cause of death.

...

The surveillance footage was making them drowsy.

Moreover, the more fatal fact was that not every corner of the school was under surveillance.

All the cameras were primarily concentrated near the intersections, monitoring the movements at each.

For instance, the place where Yang Li had jumped off had no cameras, so there was no video record of how she had jumped.

After Wang Wen returned to the dormitory, if he was familiar with the distribution of the cameras at the intersections, he could completely avoid all the cameras and take the back roads to his intended destination.

Which meant that Li Teng and his team might be completely wasting their efforts.

...

At noon, the four met in the school cafeteria, secured a private room, and while eating, they discussed the case.

"Wang Wen definitely has a secret! Yang Li's death cannot be separated from him!" Gao Feng expressed with indignation.

"Did you find out anything?" Li Teng asked.

"My intuition tells me he is lying, and then I also visited Yang Li's roommate, that girl.

"That girl's issue is also significant; her parents have already arrived, and no matter what I ask, she just keeps crying and won't answer my questions. Her parents are angry too and stop me from continuing. The doctor advised that her mental state is very unstable and told me to wait until she is stable before questioning her," Gao Feng said, looking frustrated.

"But we don't have much time; if we can't figure it out in three days, we consider it a failure. How long will it take for her mental state to stabilize?" Li Teng asked.

"That damned doctor said it might take at least three to five days," Gao Feng said with exasperation.

If their mission did not prohibit illegal methods, Li Teng would probably have just captured Wang Wen and that girl and employed various means to quickly force out the secrets they wanted to hide.

But now that path had been blocked, so they needed to think of another way.

Just then, someone suddenly slipped a piece of paper under the door of the private room.

The moment Gao Feng rushed to open the door of the private room, only students walking back and forth were outside, and it was impossible to tell who had slipped the note.

The note contained a string of digits... a phone number.

Gao Feng took out his cell phone and dialed the number.

"Hello, are you the special investigation team for Yang Li?" a timid female voice asked from the other end.

"Yes, what can I do for you?" Gao Feng responded to her.

"I'm Yang Li's classmate. I don't want to expose myself; I just want to provide a crucial clue for you," the voice continued on the phone.

"Yes, go ahead, I'm listening!"

"A few days ago, Yang Li was called to the department head's office, and she kept crying after coming out. I asked her why, and she just wouldn't say. I think she must have encountered something terrible. Please, don't tell anyone that I provided this clue; I'm very scared." The timid voice finished and then hung up the phone.