Tang Hua was highly efficient. He tracked down the flight attendant from Guzman’s flight and, learning she was about to board another plane, rushed to the airport. Along the way, he and Yang Bo cross-referenced the seating chart to locate the passengers who had been sitting near Guzman. The two spent a busy day taking statements.
Xu Sichen finally tracked down the taxi driver who had taken Guzman to his hotel. A young man in his twenties sat in the interrogation room, visibly uneasy. His hands and feet seemed to have no place to rest; he shifted constantly, causing his chair to creak incessantly.
When Xu Sichen entered, the man’s eyes brightened for a moment, but then he remembered her identity and quickly wilted, scratching his neck and slumping like a withered weed.
“Zhou Wei, right? Don’t be nervous. we just brought you in to get some information,” Xu Sichen said, offering a formulaic reassurance. She was about to show him the photo of Guzman, but Zhou Wei jumped up before she could.
“Officer, I really didn’t mean to refuse that fare yesterday! I was rushing back for the shift change. If I’m late, it affects the next guy, right?”
Xu Sichen tapped the table. “What are you getting excited for? I’m not asking about you refusing fares. Do you remember this man?”
Zhou Wei breathed a sigh of relief and looked at the photo. He let out a small cry. “I… don’t think I remember him.”
Xu Sichen clicked her tongue. “What do you mean you ‘don’t think’ you remember? He took your car on the afternoon of the 20th to the Blue Sky Hotel near the airport.” Seeing Zhou Wei’s fake thinking face, she felt a surge of irritation. “What, do you pick up foreigners that often?”
Zhou Wei gave a sheepish laugh. “I’m face-blind.” He looked at Xu Sichen with curiosity. “Officer, what happened to this guy? Illegal entry?”
This kind of low-life—bad acting and a loose tongue—was the type Xu Sichen hated most. Suppressing her temper, she said slowly and clearly, “This man is dead.”
Zhou Wei’s face turned deathly pale. He swallowed hard, his eyes darting around involuntarily. Xu Sichen watched him suspiciously. “I’m warning you, the hotel surveillance clearly shows this man, Guzman, getting out of your car. It’s impossible to deny. If you don’t tell the truth, I’ll have to suspect his death has something to do with you!”
“No, no, no, no!” Zhou Wei said urgently. “I remember now! I remember! I picked him up! I got him at the train station and drove him straight there!”
“Then why didn’t you say so earlier!” Xu Sichen raised her voice slightly, scolding him with a stern expression. “Speak! What are you hiding!”
“Nothing, really nothing!” Zhou Wei explained desperately. Meeting Xu Sichen’s eyes, he looked away guiltily. “I just… I just overcharged him a little!”
“What? Make yourself clear!”
“I just… didn’t turn on the meter… It was close to the shift change, and there weren’t many cars at the station, so I hiked the price… Anyway, he was a foreigner, he had money, he wouldn’t care about an extra few dozen…” Zhou Wei hunched his shoulders and turned his body away, glancing at Xu Sichen out of the corner of his eye. “Really, I only added fifty…”
Xu Sichen slammed the table. “The truth!”
“A hundred!” Zhou Wei jumped, holding up a finger. “Really, just a hundred! He showed me the card for the Blue Sky Hotel. The meter would have been over sixty. I just held up two fingers at random, and I didn’t expect him to just hand me two hundred. That shouldn’t count as an unauthorized price hike, right? I just treated the extra as a tip! That’s not too much, is it?”
Xu Sichen was fuming. After all that questioning, it was all nonsense. This trembling coward had led her in a circle and said nothing useful.
“We’ll deal with your illegal operation later. First, tell me everything that happened from the moment he got in the car until he got out!”
“If I tell you everything, can I get a lighter punishment?”
He still dared to bargain! Xu Sichen had large eyes, and when she glared, the whites were particularly prominent, making her look quite fierce. Zhou Wei slowly wilted again. “That day, I was looking for fares at the train station, thinking I’d finish up and go home for dinner. Then this guy showed up. I saw he was a foreigner and wondered what I’d do since I don’t know English. Turns out he was pretty smart; he just gave me a card for the Blue Sky Hotel. So I… I set a price… then I drove him to the hotel, and he got out.”
“Was he alone?”
“Don’t you guys have surveillance…?” Zhou Wei shrank back. “Just one.”
“Did he contact anyone while in the car?”
“No… From what I saw, his mental state didn’t seem great. He started dozing off as soon as he got in. There was a traffic jam on the way, and I drove for nearly an hour and a half; he was snoring in the back seat the whole time.”
“Anything else?”
“Really, nothing else!” A hint of sincerity finally appeared on Zhou Wei’s face. “I had to drive. At most, I’d take a glance in the rearview mirror. He fell asleep as soon as he got in. He wasn’t a woman, why would I keep looking at him?”
***
“The train station…” Lu Linjiang looked at the statement. “Have we checked what he was doing at the train station?”
“We did. Guzman took a train to Tuocheng. We don’t know why he went there yet.” The four of them had been busy all day and finally had time to gather for a summary meeting. Xu Sichen felt a headache coming on just thinking about Zhou Wei. “I keep feeling like he’s hiding something. The way he talks, it feels like he’s holding back.”
Lu Linjiang looked at the ticket records Xu Sichen had printed and nodded noncommittally. “Contact the authorities in Tuocheng and see if we can find out what he was doing there.”
“Airport surveillance shows he entered the country alone, no companions,” Tang Hua continued. “Of the seventeen people we contacted, one happened to be sitting right next to him. They said he slept the whole way and didn’t interact with anyone.”
“What about his physical condition?”
“Everyone said he looked fine.” Tang Hua frowned at his notes. “But there’s one thing. The flight attendant said he didn’t eat much.”
Lu Linjiang looked up sharply. “What’s the story?”
“Probably thought the plane food was bad. The flight attendant said she remembered him because, on a long-haul flight, passengers usually eat something. He only took a few bites and stopped. But he drank a lot of beverages, constantly asking the attendant for water, and he went to the bathroom quite often. Luckily, he had an aisle seat.”
“What about you? Any news?” Yang Bo was Lu Linjiang’s last hope.
Facing a hopeful Lu Linjiang, Yang Bo shook his head helplessly. “I went to the Traffic Control Center to pull the records. After leaving the airport, he checked directly into the Blue Sky Hotel. Whenever he went out, he took a taxi. He visited Linjiang Road and the bar street—basically did a tour of all the popular spots. It looks like he was here on vacation. From the surveillance, he seemed to be a loner; I didn’t see him contact anyone.”
Lu Linjiang gave a soft hum of acknowledgment. “Surveillance has blind spots. Tomorrow, get some people to do a door-to-door check and see if anything turns up.”
Lu Linjiang checked the time. “Alright, it’s late. You all should head back.”
The three of them yawned as they packed up their materials. Xu Sichen flipped through her papers. “The forensics report isn’t out yet?”
Only then did Lu Linjiang realize that Guo Junyi hadn’t even sent over a preliminary examination. “I’ll go check. You guys don’t need to go; head home.”
He was the last to close the door. Recalling the data from the busy day, he paced toward the forensics department. He didn’t know who was on duty tonight, but the large office was empty. Lu Linjiang scanned the room suspiciously, then turned toward the autopsy room.
The door to the autopsy room was closed. Lu Linjiang looked down at the gap under the door; no light was coming through. His instinct was to leave, but an inexplicable sense of discord made him feel something was wrong. Having already turned away, Lu Linjiang reached for the handle of the autopsy room door and gave it a light twist. The door opened.
Lu Linjiang immediately and alertly flipped on the light.
“Don’t!” Guo Junyi shielded his eyes with one hand.
Seeing a living person, Lu Linjiang breathed a sigh of relief. “What are you doing?” He glanced at Guzman, who lay on the table with his chest cavity opened. “You have a hobby for this?”
“Don’t come in!” Contrary to his usual self, Guo Junyi barked at Lu Linjiang in what was almost a fit of rage. “Get out! Close the door!”
Lu Linjiang halted his steps. In all the time he had known Guo Junyi, the man had never spoken with such an attitude to anyone.
“What is wrong with you?”
“Back up to the door first. There are masks there. Put one on.”
Lu Linjiang saw the row of internal organs laid out on the dissection table. The abnormal appearance of the organs sent a chill rising from the soles of his feet. “What exactly happened to Guzman?”
“The mask!” Guo Junyi’s posture hadn’t changed once. If he weren’t still speaking, he would have looked like a statue at first glance.
Lu Linjiang did as he was told and put on a mask. Guo Junyi wiped his face, his body shifting almost imperceptibly. “The toxicology results came back. He wasn’t poisoned.”
“If he wasn’t poisoned, how did he end up like this?” Lu Linjiang looked at Guzman’s corpse in confusion, but he immediately realized the problem might be even more serious. “Is it an infectious disease?”
“Very likely.” Guo Junyi’s voice suddenly carried a slight tremor. “I’ve already taken samples and had Huang Yidong take them to Jinghai Medical College for testing.”
“Is it contagious?” Lu Linjiang looked at the abnormal Guo Junyi. “No, Xu Sichen just had contact today with the taxi driver who drove him three days ago. He seemed perfectly fine.”
“The results will be out soon. I hope it’s not airborne. Otherwise…”
Guo Junyi didn’t finish the sentence. He didn’t need to; Lu Linjiang understood. If a virus that could rot a person’s internal organs to this extent was also airborne, it would be nothing short of a catastrophe.
Lu Linjiang clenched his fists, forcing himself not to think about unconfirmed news. Since the results weren’t out, nothing was certain. Based on his knowledge of Guo Junyi, the man might be a bit of a joker normally, but he was always meticulous in his work—he wouldn’t exaggerate, nor would he be overly conservative.
The results from the medical college weren’t back yet. Even if Guo Junyi had been in close contact with the corpse, it shouldn’t have made him this despondent.
“What happened to you?” Lu Linjiang suspected that Guo Junyi might have cut his hand during the autopsy, but given Guo Junyi’s professional level, that seemed like a fairy tale.
Guo Junyi seemed dazed. He appeared not to have heard Lu Linjiang’s question, remaining frozen in his seat in his original posture. Lu Linjiang grew increasingly worried; he wanted to go in and shake Guo Junyi awake to ask what was going on. But as soon as he moved, the catatonic Guo Junyi barked, “Don’t come in!”
*Did I really guess right?* Lu Linjiang thought.
“The internal thoracic pressure was too high. When I made the incision, the blood sprayed out.” Guo Junyi’s voice was dry, sounding like a beginner scraping a violin in his throat. “This morning, I nicked my face while shaving. Whether it’s airborne or not, I…”
Lu Linjiang: “…”
How could there be such a coincidence? He stood at the door, looking at Guo Junyi sitting in his chair, feeling his mind go blank.
For a moment, the autopsy room was so quiet a needle drop could be heard, so much so that when Guo Junyi’s phone rang, Lu Linjiang felt as if his heart had been struck by a heavy hammer.
Guo Junyi answered the phone instantly. “How is it?” He didn’t know what the person on the other end said, but his expression froze completely. “Filamentous? …Does it require quarantine? Okay, I understand.”
Lu Linjiang didn’t need to understand the technical terms to know from Guo Junyi’s face that the situation was very bad.
“Good news: it’s not airborne. You’re safe.” Guo Junyi hung up the phone, seemingly relieved.
“And the bad news?”
“The bad news…” Guo Junyi murmured, giving Lu Linjiang a wretched smile. “It’s a filovirus. There is no vaccine.”
---
### Glossary
Chinese | English | Notes/Explanation
--- | --- | ---
蓝天酒店 | Blue Sky Hotel | The hotel where Guzman stayed.
驼城 | Tuocheng | Literally "Camel City"; a location Guzman visited by train.
静海医学院 | Jinghai Medical College | The institution where the samples were sent for testing.
丝状病毒 | Filovirus | A family of viruses (like Ebola or Marburg) characterized by their thread-like or filamentous shape.
临江路 | Linjiang Road | A street in the city, likely near a river.
酒吧街 | Bar Street | A common term for an entertainment district with many bars.
