Si Zhening

The meeting inside the Police Bureau had been going on for half an hour and they had gone through the pros and cons, debating until their saliva turned dry. In the end, Jin Renguang, with a displeased face, concluded. "We will keep on monitoring the development in Weib8. First, Wang Chengbing, go and find some popular topics to press this video down. Humans are social creatures who will lose interest in something old when something more interesting pops up."

Wang Chengbing saluted with a face which was on the verge of crying. He was a hacker for God's sake, now he had turned into an entertainment analyst!

"Xu Binchen, take some people and increase the security in the perimeter of the hospital. Be careful, we don't want to use the stick to alarm the snake, we want to kill it on first strike." Jin Renguang's eyes were sharp and dark as he said, "If possible, cooperate with Butterfly."

The thing which Xu Binchen didn't want to happen the most had finally concurred. Under the table, his fists clenched and unclenched but his face remained sour and cold as he spat out, "…fine."

"Tang Wei, follow Xu Binchen to the hospital. You said that Jiang Jinyan is hospitalized on the same floor as Butterfly? Perfect. Sound out his intention first and we will follow up with the plan." Jin Renguang tapped his fingers on the table and sighed. "Jiang Jinyan is the son of CEO Jiang, the owner of Jiang Park Mall?"

"Yes, Captain." Tang Wei pushed his glasses up and enunciated like a walking Wikipedia. "We have contacted Jiang Huocheng, but his assistant was the one who picked up, saying that CEO Jiang is currently on a business trip abroad and can't be reached in the meantime."

"A body part is found in the parking lot of his mall and he still has the gall to go on a business trip?"

Tang Wei shrugged. "Don't forget. Jiang Park Mall is just one of his properties. He still has some wealth in real estates, casinos, hotels and amusement parks. If he lost one, it wouldn't amount to much."

Another detective muttered, "Rich bastard."

Jin Renguang: "When will he return?"

Tang Wei flipped his notebook to read the information he had noted of his conversation with CEO Jiang's assistant. "5th May. There is a possibility of it being longer."

"5th May?" Jin Renguang repeated, incredulous and enraged. "It's still more than two weeks' time!"

"I know, Captain." Tang Wei rolled his eyes and huffed in irritation. "I have asked his assistant to pass the message. If he knows what is better for him and his son, then he will return."

Jin Renguang massaged his aching temple and commanded. "After this, go and call his assistant again, press him for answers! If CEO Jiang still doesn't respond, then say that we will send an arrest warrant to his doorstep!"

Tang Wei furiously wrote in his notebook. "Aye, aye Captain. Poor Mr. Si Zhening, CEO Jiang isn't here and he is the one who has to deal with all of the aftermath."

Jin Renguang snorted. "Do you think we're not pitiful enough?! Director Fen has been threatening me every day that if we don't make any progress by the end of this month, he will cut all of our salaries by half!"

Simultaneous groans of pain and despair rang out in the meeting room.

"How can he do that?!"

"Evil capitalist!"

"I haven't even paid the loan for my house yet!"

"Now, do you have time to pity other people?!" Jin Renguang said darkly but inside, he was feeling satisfied for pulling his comrades into the same pool of muddy water. "Go! Go and work! Rest of you, keep on investigating from Miss Ru's profiling! Meeting adjourned!"

The crowd of tired detectives ran out of the meeting room, each of them had a bitter expression on their face. Jin Renguang was the last to go out and in the hallway, he had just locked the door when a detective approached him. "Ke Shao? What's wrong?"

Ke Shao had a heavy frown on his face. "Captain, just now, when you said Senior Ru's profiling, I was reminded of something and went back to check on it." He handed Jin Renguang a report and flipped to the specific page. "We have screened half of the population in City S and so far, there are 18 people who match. Please look at this name."

In the list of 18 people, Jin Renguang looked at the name that Ke Shao pointed to. His heart abruptly sank.

In that white paper, the black ink was conspicuous, showing the three characters in a bold font.

Si Zhening.

***

"Don't worry. Everything will be fine." Nurse Zhang smiled. "Just focus on your recuperation and leave everything to the police, okay?"

Shi Nian wrung her fingers and bit her lips, her face anxious. [Is Mr. Jiang okay?]

Nurse Zhang sighed. "He still hasn't known about it yet. We are trying to stall time as much as possible lest he will get too agitated. It's our hospital's negligence this time that everything becomes such a mess."

Shi Nian pursed her lips and slowly, gingerly stretched out her arm and patted Nurse Zhang's hands.

Nurse Zhang was stunned and burst into a bout of hearty laughter. "Are you trying to comfort me? Don't worry too much, our hospital has its own regulation when it comes to protecting a patient's personal information." The female nurse looked at her watch and exclaimed. "Aiyoh, look at the time. I will get going first and visit you later in the afternoon, okay?"

Shi Nian nodded, smiled and saw Nurse Zhang off.

Back in the room, she took out the brand new phone which was almost unused. There was nothing inside except some default apps, even the wallpaper was a plain blue screen. Her contact was empty except for three people's number; Xu Binchen, Doctor Chun and her mother.

Originally, Shi Nian had no intention of using this phone at all, searching for time when she would finally be able to return it back to its rightful owner. But today, her fingers pressed on the Application Store, searched for Weib8 and downloaded it.

In the span of time that it took for the app to appear in the front window of her phone, Shi Nian's palms had gotten sweaty.

This should be counted as her debut to social media?

With an awkward movement, she tried to register a new account and when the interface popped up, asking for her to read the Terms and Conditions before agreeing, she read each word carefully until her eyes stung, until the end, she managed to enter her email and was asked for a username.

Her fingers hovered above the screen and slowly typed.

Missing You for a Century[1].

Then the app started loading and the trending topics appeared in front of her eyes.

[1] In Mandarin, this will sound like; Si Nian Shi Wan Nian, it just sounds poetic and fit her name so much haha