Crazy Detective

“I don’t know where my dad got it from!” Cui Lizhu said. “We were still staying in Golden City back then. One day, my dad brought some goods back with him.

“One of which was a particularly beautiful Russian nesting doll.”

“I liked it so much back then, and often played with it!” Cui Lizhu said. She then proceeded to say with less certainty, “I think… the masked person must have been asking about the nesting doll!”

“Well, that’s possible…” Li Jing said as she nudged Zhao Yu. “Look, the mouth shapes when pronouncing ‘tama’ and ‘taowa’ are similar, just that one requires rolling of the tongue, and the other doesn’t. Besides, the visibility wasn’t great, so it’s possible that you misinterpreted it as ‘tama’. It’s impossible to read lips perfectly!”

“No wonder you’re a crazy detective! The first thing that came to your mind was an expletive!” quipped Xiao Hang, directing his remark toward Zhao Yu.

“Go to h*ll!” Zhao Yu responded ungraciously.

“I was certain…” Cui Lizhu frowned. “Because when you mentioned nesting doll, I seemed to remember someone mentioning it to me when I was in a coma! I… I remember some stuff…”

“It’s ok, take your time” Zhao Yu reassured her. “Calm down and try to remember what the nesting doll looks like and whether it had any special traits.”

“It was quite exquisite! It’s a nesting doll after all, so of course it looked like a little Russian girl dressed in red, traditional attire. So lovely…” Cui Lizhu said, remembering the doll. “There were five layers altogether, with each layer smaller than the previous layer… but they looked pretty much the same. I think that’s about it?”

“And then? What next?” Zhao Yu asked.

“And then…” Cui Lizhu thought for a moment. “Actually… I only played with it for a couple of days, not even for a week…

“You guys know that those were stolen goods. The valuable ones got sold and the worthless ones got destroyed, there’s no way that we would have kept it for ourselves!” she said.

“That is why the doll was eventually destroyed by my dad, even though I liked it so much!” Cui Lizhu said, sounding resigned. “I got angry at him but to no avail, because I knew that it was his policy. He already made an exception by allowing me to play with it for a week!”

“Oh? Destroyed?” Xiao Hang furrowed his brows. “Then why should we still bother looking for it? Besides, what could the nesting doll possibly contain?”

“You witnessed Tao Xiang destroy the doll with your own eyes?” Li Jing asked.

Cui Lizhu shook her head and said “I’m not sure… he knew I was going to get mad, so he didn’t do it right in front of me.”

“Can you remember where the nesting doll is? Do you have any idea what we should do if the nesting doll can’t be found?” Zhao Yu repeated what the masked person had said. At least it now made more sense than before.

“Oh! The photo!” Cui Lizhu clapped her hands in excitement. “Although my dad destroyed the doll, he left a set of photos!”

“Oh…” Zhao Yu’s eyes widened. “That’s what the masked person was referring to when he mentioned photos?” he asked.

“That person must be searching for the photos then! Quick, try and recall where the photos are!” Xiao Hang urged Cui Lizhu.

“Erm… the photos are at Jinping Police Station! They should be in the Evidence Room!” Cui Lizhu clapped again, obviously excited. “I hadn’t known at first, but after my dad got muddle-headed, I went through his bag. Turns out that he had kept photos of all the stolen goods that got destroyed.

“I brought everything to Jinping and placed them in a cabinet at the nursing home!”

“But after I got into trouble,” she continued, “everything was confiscated by the Jinping police! I figured there wasn’t anything important anyway, so I didn’t bother retrieving them!”

“How many photos were there?” Zhao Yu asked.

“Only one, but there were front and back shots of all five dolls!” Cui Lizhu said. “Come to think of it, I opened the nesting doll so many times, but never discovered anything special about it.”

“Regardless…” Zhao Yu said as he whipped out his phone, “Our enemy’s next target is probably these photos. I need to quickly inform Li Luoyun, so that he may take necessary precautions!

“In addition to taking extra precautions, we may as well set a trap for the Japanese!”

While Zhao Yu was making the call, Li Jing and Xiao Hang stared at him blankly, not saying anything. They believed that Zhao Yu was not in the right state of mind and wasn’t thinking clearly.

Prior to this, they had already made numerous attempts with their cell phones, but there was no reception at all.

However, Zhao Yu did not seem to care and simply continued keying numbers on his cell phone.

Dang!

When Zhao Yu utilized the Signal Amplification Device, he was surprised that it only took 354 points to boost the device.

What the heck!

Perspiration formed on Zhao Yu’s forehead. It was a good thing that he hadn’t used 5000 points to boost this item previously, it sure didn’t take long for the number of points required to drop drastically.

Oh…

Zhao Yu figured that fewer points were needed for an upgrade because the signal jammer had been turned off and that the weather outside had gotten better.

He knew that if he had just waited a while longer, he might not even need to use a single point. However, he knew that this wasn’t the time to be petty over such a trivial sum.

And so, after using 354 points to boost the device, his cell phone reception was now at full bars.

Beep, beep, beep…

The cell phone rang a few times and soon Li Luoyun’s voice came out from the speaker.

“Hello Captain Li! It’s me, Zhao Yu!” said Zhao Yu while glancing at both of them. Turning away from them, he told Captain Li “Go over to Jinping Police Station quickly and help me find the items Tao Xiang & Cui Lizhu left behind at the nursing home. Help me find a photo of a Russian nesting doll while you’re at it…”

Li Jing and Xiao Hang couldn’t believe what they were seeing, Zhao Yu sauntering about with his cell phone. They thought he was joking about using his phone.

But they had no issues hearing Li Luoyun’s responses in the quiet tunnel…

“This…” Xiao Hang took out his phone and looked. Despite the fact that there was still no signal, he persisted in trying to make calls and only gave up when it was certain that they wouldn’t go through.

“Sigh!” Li Jing also appeared to be in a state of disarray. “We need to learn from the Criminal Division! Just look at the quality of their cell phones!”

“Alright, I’m done…” Zhao Yu had just ended the call, saying to the both of them “I’ve gotten Jinping Police Station to set a trap for them, we just need to wait for them to walk right into it! Let’s see if they’ll be able to escape from this, but…

“No matter what, we better figure out what the secret of the nesting doll is…” Zhao Yu gestured at his cell phone. “Don’t worry, I’ll get him to send me a copy of the photo as soon as he finds it… eh? You…”

Xiao Hang snatched Zhao Yu’s cell phone before Zhao Yu could finish speaking, hastily calling for back-up…