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Alley had already arranged some specific details for the investigation, and he took me and Mary to Yan Junde's home. After being a police officer for several years, I found that Yan Junde still lived in the same place that had been assigned to his father by the department, a modest fifty square meters. The furnishings inside were old, seemingly untouched by new furniture for many years.
Yan Junde once said he wanted to be a police officer like his father. I absolutely did not believe that the Criminal who disguised himself under the name of justice could be Yan Junde. The apartment consisted of two rooms and a living room, with the kitchen and bathroom on the first floor shared by other residents. However, according to Alley, there were very few residents left in the building; most had already moved out.
I nodded as Alley said, "Everyone should be quiet when we go in; don't disturb the scene, and pay attention to your observations." They had already been here once but found nothing useful at the scene, which was why they were back for a second time.
As we entered the living room, I noticed it was neatly arranged. The sofa was placed on the west side of the room, facing a small Tea Table, with an old television opposite it and a water dispenser beside it. The refrigerator stood next to the sofa in the corner of the living room. A few stools were pushed against the wall, and aside from that, there was no other furniture.
Alley remarked, "There are no signs of a struggle in the living room; even the floor is dust-free. This indicates that Yan Junde left with premeditation or preparation."
I ignored Alley's comment; although there was no flooring on the cement ground, it was still spotless. Looking at how the furniture was arranged—though old, each piece was clean—the entire living room gave off a very tidy impression. The Magazine on the Tea Table and cups were neatly placed, but the remote control lay on the sofa.
This was a point of suspicion. I asked, "Did you touch anything when you came last time?"
Alley replied, "We did touch things, but I can assure you we put everything back in its original place. The house looked exactly as it did before Yan Junde went missing."
I nodded and opened the refrigerator. Inside were some green vegetables and frozen pork. I noticed half a can of unfinished beer and a lump of dough. I frowned; why would they bring dough home when the kitchen was downstairs?
This suggested they intended to continue processing that lump of dough. Considering the green vegetables—cabbage and scallions—and a piece of frozen pork in the fridge, we could conclude that Yan Junde and his mother planned to make dumplings. They must have prepared Dumpling Wrappers at home while sitting on the sofa watching television.
They set aside the Magazine and cups to make space for the dumplings, which is why the remote control ended up on the sofa.
Seeing me lost in thought over the dough in the refrigerator, Alley remained silent. I closed the fridge door and walked into the bedroom. As I pushed open the door, I could tell this room belonged to his mother. It contained a Father's Portrait, just one bed, and beside it on a nightstand sat a Semiconductor Radio along with some Magazine. A wardrobe stood against one wall; aside from that, there was nothing else.
I opened the wardrobe; it held only a few pieces of clothing and more bedding items. The area under the bed was spotless as well, revealing no useful clues.
The second bedroom belonged to Yan Junde. His room also had a bed, but instead of a wardrobe, there was a bookshelf filled with Military Books about firearms and tanks. Several medals hung on top of the bookshelf, glinting in the sunlight with metallic hues of silver and gold.
These were honors from Yan Junde's years as a paramilitary officer.
Beside it sat an old computer that could be considered an antique by now. However, it appeared to have been unused for quite some time. Next to it was a makeshift rack holding some dumbbells that seemed to be used by Yan Junde for workouts. One dumbbell lay quietly on the floor.
Looking over at Yan Junde's bed, a deck of playing cards was scattered across the sheets.
This was the biggest clue at the scene of his disappearance. The entire house was spotless, everything arranged neatly. Yet in Yan Junde's bedroom, an incongruous scene unfolded: a dumbbell and a deck of cards. Was Yan Junde playing poker or working out?
I knew Yan Junde's workout habits well; when he exercised, he seemed like a different person, completely absorbed in his routine. He would never lift weights while playing cards. They discovered Yan Junde was missing that night, and he had a habit of working out in the evenings. This indicated that the cards were either left by the Killer or by Yan Junde himself.
I glanced at the bed again; it was just an ordinary deck of cards, some facing down, others facing up, appearing unremarkable. Alley said, "We've looked at this deck before and didn't find anything unusual."
"You didn't touch it, did you?" I asked.
"Not at all," Alley replied.
"Then my deduction is correct: Yan Junde isn't missing." I stated firmly. "He was kidnapped. That night, while Yan Junde was working out, his mother was outside making dumplings. Suddenly, there was a commotion outside the door. Through the crack, Yan Junde saw someone abducting his mother."
I closed my eyes, imagining the scene in my mind as if directing a movie: "There were hardly any people in this building, and Yan Junde had no neighbors to speak of. Most importantly, there were no security cameras here. The Killer had no fear of leaving behind any clues. However, based on Yan Junde's skills, there are two possibilities."
"First, the Killer had many accomplices, and Yan Junde didn’t dare to act for fear of harming his mother. Second, there were only one or two people involved, but they had a gun, which also made Yan Junde hesitate to act rashly. So he gently placed the dumbbell on the floor and scattered the cards on the bed; it looked chaotic but was actually carefully arranged."
I pointed at the cards on the bed.
"The Nine of Diamonds, Five of Clubs, and Queen of Clubs?" Alley read aloud as he looked at my finger pointing to those specific cards. He asked curiously, "What's special about these cards? Aren't they like the others? For example, look at these: Three of Diamonds, Ace of Hearts, Six of Clubs, Seven of Diamonds..."
I shook my head and said, "If you look closely enough, you’ll see how these three cards differ from the rest."
Alley still shook his head in confusion. I continued, "You see, these three cards are stacked on top of each other: the Nine of Diamonds is on top of the Five of Clubs, which is on top of the Queen of Clubs; and the Queen is again on top of the Nine. In other words, someone deliberately arranged these cards this way. This is a new deck; it naturally wouldn't form such a stack unless someone manipulated it."
"Out of all these cards, only these three are like this," I added.
After observing carefully, Alley exclaimed, "It really is! But what information can we glean from this? Was your earlier deduction based on this deck?"
He looked at me with disbelief and said, "That's incredible!"
"It's not me being incredible," I replied slowly. "I simply connected what I saw in this room. From the moment we entered, we could tell that Yan Junde and his mother were very tidy people; you can see that from how there isn’t even a speck of dust under the bed."
Alley nodded thoughtfully as I continued: "Everything is arranged neatly except for the remote control left on the sofa; that doesn’t make sense logically. If they were preparing to disappear, they would have tidied up first and placed the remote next to the television. Secondly, I deduced they must have been planning to eat dumplings because there was no meat filling visible. This indicates that someone took away both the prepared dumplings and the meat filling when they left."
"What is this all about?" Alley asked.
I replied firmly, "This is to make us think that Yan Junde left on his own. If someone is ready to leave, how could they just walk out in the middle of cooking? Even Killer would know that doesn't make sense. That's why they put the dough in the fridge and took away the wrapped dumplings along with the unfinished filling."
"Next, we have everything presented in Yan Junde's room. These playing cards have already told us why Yan Junde left with those people without putting up a fight," I continued, still pointing at the cards.
"I still don't see what these playing cards are telling us," Alley said.
"It's a homophone; it's a homophone," I explained. "We don't need to care about the suits of the cards, just look at the numbers. The first one is nine, and the second one is five. Phonetically, it means 'save me'!"
Alley nodded and then said, "But there's also a Q here. Q represents twelve, but what homophone does twelve have? That doesn't quite add up, does it?"
"Q isn't about homophones," I clarified. "Q directs us to look at the image on the card. Twelve corresponds to a Queen. From this, Yan Junde is telling us to save his mother. He has been indicating from the start that he isn't missing; he's being coerced!"
Alley and the others listened to my deduction and couldn't help but give me a thumbs up, saying, "No wonder you're the leader of the Special Investigation Team. We looked for a long time without figuring anything out, yet you managed to deduce this information on your first visit. If that's the case, Killer isn't Yan Junde; there's someone else involved."
I said, "But why would Killer want to coerce Yan Junde? There must be something more to this. If we can't find Yan Junde soon, I fear he might be in danger!"
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