Trembling At A High Altitude

Director Huang's matter was resolved.

However, it was of no help to Yang Li's case.

"What are your thoughts now?" Gao Feng consulted with Li Teng.

"We still need to find a breakthrough with the girl who shared a dormitory with Yang Li and her counselor."

Li Teng responded to Gao Feng.

Gao Feng sighed; the response was essentially no response.

Later in the afternoon, the head of the criminal investigation squad made a call.

He seemed to be in a very bad mood, scolding Gao Feng as soon as he got on the phone.

"If you can't resolve this case quickly, don't bother coming to the station anymore!" At the end of the call, the squad leader threw down some harsh words.

"Definitely, Director Dong must have scolded him, so he took it out on us," Gao Feng glanced at Li Teng.

Clearly, it was Li Teng who had caused the trouble.

"Regardless of whether this case is resolved or not, we won't be needing to go to the station anymore," Li Teng said with an indifferent expression.

Before and after dinner, the technical team passed along some information.

After Yang Li's death, they obtained her mobile phone immediately.

However, the WeChat messages on the phone had all been deleted.

The technical team had now recovered most of the data and passed it on to Gao Feng.

While eating, Gao Feng and his team analyzed the chat information.

Unfortunately,

Yang Li's chats with her classmates were about daily life trivialities and entertainment gossip.

She rarely talked with her family, mainly receiving a modest allowance from her parents.

She also did part-time jobs on weekends, such as distributing flyers and promoting products.

It was not apparent that she had any conflicts with anyone, nor did it seem she had thoughts of suicide.

Could it really have been sleepwalking and jumping off a building?

Within three days, the team could enter their conclusions into their wristbands at any time; if correct, they could successfully return to prison.

If wrong, they would return to prison but would be immediately executed.

Since the deadline had not been reached, the four of them were naturally not quick to conclude.

"This afternoon, Officer Li's method of handling Director Huang was quite effective; I think we could use it again," Yang Peishan seemed to have an idea.

"How would we use it?" Gao Feng was not very supportive of Li Teng's approach, but still asked Yang Peishan.

"Isn't Classmate Sun from Yang Li's dorm not speaking, pretending to be mentally distressed? We could incite Yang Li's family to press her for the truth. When the time comes, we cooperate with Yang Li's family to isolate people around Classmate Sun, and surely she is hiding crucial clues," Yang Peishan suggested to Gao Feng.

Gao Feng frowned without responding.

"I support her idea; after all, this is just a virtual task world. Officer Gao, you don't need to bring your past work style here, there's no need for so many concerns," Liu Yanni also spoke up.

"What do you think I'm concerned about? Yes, we can let Yang Li's family pressure Classmate Sun, but, Officer Li's actions have already deeply offended Director Dong. If Yang Li's family betrays us or Classmate Sun's family complains about us, any slight flaw in our investigation would give the station grounds to halt our work.

"Once our work is stopped, the mission is declared a failure immediately."

"Do you still think my concerns are unnecessary?"

Gao Feng looked at the two women.

The two women fell silent.

"However, this is a train of thought; we could try to coordinate between the Yang Family and the Sun Family. Have Sun Family's parents help us with the inquiries, or have both families sit down together in a calm and collected manner. If the Sun Family are reasonable and empathetic, they should understand the Yang Family's grief over losing their daughter and help us find out the truth," Gao Feng added a few more sentences.

"That's great, let's coordinate after dinner," the two women were quite pleased.

...

Of course, coordinating a meeting between the two families had to begin with obtaining the Sun Family's consent.

This time, Yang Peishan and Liu Yanni took the lead, calling out Father Sun to discuss the matter.

"You also have a daughter; you must be able to understand the grief the Yang Family is going through from losing their daughter. They just want the truth..."

After a reasoned and emotional persuasion, Father Sun said he'd first ask his daughter and wife's opinion before getting back to them.

Ten minutes later, Father Sun came out.

"My daughter is in a very bad mental state. She just said she had nothing to do with Yang Li's death, she was just frightened, she does not want to see anyone right now," Father Sun came out and his attitude became resolute.

The two women wanted to say something else, but Father Sun expressed his displeasure, indicating it had nothing to do with them, and then turned and went back into the room, closing the door behind him.

This path was blocked again.

The four gathered together, dejected.

"Officer Gao, is handling cases always this difficult?" Yang Peishan asked Gao Feng.

"Yes, after some wrongful cases, the disciplinary requirements on us have become very strict. Sometimes you clearly know your next step of investigation could yield sufficient evidence, but because of some flaws in the investigative actions, you are unable to continue the investigation, and without continuing, you definitely won't get the evidence, eventually creating a vicious circle.

"Even when criminals know you know they committed a crime, even when they provocatively mock you verbally, but because you lack evidence, you can only stare blankly. Even if you are a hundred percent certain they are criminals, without evidence, you can't take any action against them."

Gao Feng nodded.

The others fell into silence again.

"There's still one clue we can follow."

A while later, Li Teng spoke up.

"What clue?"

The other three turned to look at Li Teng.

"The surveillance video from the school. Although not comprehensive, we can still analyze the whereabouts of Yang Li, Classmate Sun, and their adviser Wang Wen before the incident to deduce the roles they played in the case of Yang Li's defenestration," Li Teng proposed his idea.

"It's indeed a method, but the workload is quite substantial. I need to request the bureau to assign us some more hands; otherwise, we might not find the information we want within three days," Gao Feng nodded and then took out his phone to make a call.

After the call, Gao Feng appeared quite angry and helpless.

"It looks like we've offended the bureau badly, they won't send anyone to assist us anymore, they even asked the tech team to deal with other cases. It looks like this time we're on our own," Gao Feng told the others about the current situation.

Although he didn't say it outright, it was pretty obvious he still blamed Li Teng for offending Director Dong in the pursuit of what he called 'justice'. He worried that while public opinion might not dare to touch you openly for a while, behind the scenes, they are particularly skilled at making things difficult.

With no options left, the four had to review the day's surveillance footage themselves, searching for clues in a needle-in-a-haystack fashion.

As they were busy, Li Teng's cellphone rang.

It was Nana who made the call.

"Dad, were you handling a case at our school today? I saw your photo and video on the school forum, Dad, you are fighting crime for the people! You looked so cool! All my classmates are praising you!" Nana had been planning to call Li Teng for a while, worried about disturbing his work, so she decided to wait until he might have finished work.

"You also be careful at school these days," Li Teng said with a smile.

"Dad, are you still at school?"

"Yes."

"Did you drive? Can you take me back with you later? I don't really like staying at the dormitory," Nana requested.

"About that... Dad will be busy with work tonight, I might not be able to come back."

"Ah? So busy tonight? Until when?"

"Might have to pull an all-nighter." Li Teng only had three days, and it seemed he would have to squeeze time out of his sleeping schedule.

"What is so urgent? Is it dangerous?" Nana's tone was one of concern.

"It's not dangerous, just reviewing surveillance video. We're short on staff, but the videos are voluminous," Li Teng explained.

"Ah? Is it Yang Li's video?"

"Yes, and her classmates, too. We have to check all their movements, covering the whole school. It might take several days or even one or two weeks," Li Teng carefully explained to Nana.

"Dad, you're working too hard! Take care of your health!"

"With these caring words from Nana, Dad doesn't feel tired at all."

A wave of warmth surged in Li Teng's heart.

Talking to eighteen-year-old Nana, whose voice already sounded much like Anna's, gave Li Teng a strange feeling.

After hanging up Nana's call, Li Teng plunged back into his busy work.

Li Teng knew Gao Feng was right, his impulsive act, though just, had offended Director Dong, bringing endless trouble to their three days of work.

From the perspective of the mission, his actions back then were indeed somewhat impulsive.

So, now he had to take on as much work as possible.

...

A quarter of an hour later.

Li Teng's phone rang again.

It was Nana again.

"Dad, am I disturbing your work?"

"It's okay, just taking a breather."

"Dad, I talked about the surveillance review with my classmates, and they said they could help look through the videos for clues. You just need to put out the requirements, and I'll have each person on their phones handle a section for analysis. We might not be very professional, but we can help narrow down the investigation area," Nana suggested.

"Ah..."

"There are only a little over twenty people in our class, but if you need it, just let me know, and I can mobilize students from our whole department to help," Nana added.

"Let me discuss it with the other colleagues first."

Li Teng hung up the phone and then relayed Nana's proposal to Gao Feng and the others, mainly, to hear Gao Feng's opinion, as among the four of them, he was the most professional.

"This method... has its flaws. Ordinary people are not allowed to access these surveillance videos. If it gets out, if Director Dong finds out... Ah... But we have no choice at the moment..." Gao Feng said, rubbing his head.

In the end, he agreed to Li Teng's proposal.

"We'll find a large classroom, they must analyse the videos under our supervision, the videos cannot be shared outside, this matter also can't be spread, we'll try to get it done before work hours tomorrow, hopefully, nothing goes wrong," Gao Feng added further.

Li Teng relayed Gao Feng's requirements to Nana.

"Don't worry, Dad, the classmates I've called upon are all very just and kind-hearted, eager to help, and won't let any villains disrupt things!" Nana promised Li Teng.

...

Yang Peishan borrowed a large classroom from the school, and after all the students had arrived, she and Liu Yanni distributed the surveillance videos among them. The students were enthusiastic, each burying their heads in their phones to start the analysis.

They were mainly reviewing the movements of Yang Li, Classmate Sun, and Wang Wen before the incident, as per the four's request.

Li Teng went out to buy a large number of beverages and snacks for the students.

He also bought makeup, game consoles, and the like as prizes, prepared to reward those who found crucial evidence.

"I found the key evidence!"

After a night of hard work, at five o'clock in the morning, a student shouted excitedly.

Li Teng rushed over, and after seeing the video, was extremely surprised.

"You've done a great job! This game console is your reward."

"Thank you, Uncle Li!" The student who received the prize was very pleased.

...

This video was crucial.

Because, the video recorded a key piece of information.

It was a video from ten-thirty at night.

In the video, Wang Wen and Classmate Sun appeared at the same time.

At that time, there was no one else on that road.

The two of them walked to a secluded area and talked about something, then they kissed each other.

With this video, everything became simple.

Because, according to the information they had previously obtained, Wang Wen was a married man.

No matter whether he was married or not, having a romantic relationship with his own student was absolutely forbidden.

In his case being married, having a romantic relationship with his student was akin to breaking the law.

With this video, the four had legitimate grounds to arrest him and then interrogate him.

After thanking the very tired students and re-distributing beverages and snacks, Li Teng sent them back to their dormitories.

Then the four immediately rushed to the dormitory where Wang Wen resided, broke in, and apprehended him.

Initially, Wang Wen threatened to complain about the four's actions, but after seeing the video, he completely deflated and could no longer act so arrogantly.

"Speak up. What really happened with Yang Li's death? Did she know about your secret, so you all decided to murder to silence her?" Gao Feng interrogated Wang Wen sternly.

This was not a very formal interrogation; they did not take him back to the station or record the scene on video.

They seized the moment while Wang Wen was panicked to try to get him to confess some useful clues.

"How could it be? Yang Li's death is really not related to me! You should have seen it too, I went back to my dorm after work that day and never left again. Although my relationship with a student was wrong, I really did nothing to Yang Li. Her death, it truly has nothing to do with me..." Wang Wen defended himself.