SFTD -Chapter 313 Missing Memories (Part 5)

Teacher Cheng naturally had no objections. Xiao Hu switched back to the original video. At that moment, the footage showed Zhou Hai going upstairs to call Wang Xuchao down. Wang Xuchao said he wanted to talk with a friend for a while, and Zhou Hai turned and left.

Yu Xiuhong slightly lowered her head, gathered the loose strands of hair by her temple with her hand, appearing somewhat shy. She turned her head to look at Wang Xuchao. Following Zhou Hai’s instructions, Teacher Cheng continued translating according to lip movements.

“Female says: Brother Wang, wait for me a moment. I’ll go greet my friend first, then we’ll go out to talk. It’s too noisy here.”

“Male says: No rush~ go greet them~ I’ll turn around and won’t see it anyway.”

After a short while—about ten minutes—Yu Xiuhong and Wang Xuchao walked out of the private room.

Several people inside leaned out to look at them and waved goodbye as they headed toward the stairs. Yu Xiuhong carried a backpack and took out a piece of paper from it, handing it to Wang Xuchao.

It seemed Yu Xiuhong wanted to say something, but a bald man passed by and bumped into them. Wang Xuchao, already drunk, was staggered by the impact and nearly fell forward. He stumbled several steps before finally steadying himself against the wall. By the time he turned around, the group had already walked far away.

“Female says: Let’s go outside and look at it together.”

Wang Xuchao quickly scanned it, his eyes widening instantly as if he had seen something extremely important, and he nodded vigorously.

“Male says: Okay, these things are you looking for—”

After that, the recording ended; they had left the surveillance camera’s field of view.

Xiao Hu checked several other cameras but could not reconnect the missing conversation. They only saw the two of them coming down from upstairs, stumbling and bumping into two groups of partying people, until they exited the building and walked toward the east, disappearing from the surveillance.

Zhou Hai pointed at the screenshot of Wang Xuchao holding the paper. “Can you zoom in on this? I want to see what he’s holding.”

Xiao Hu enlarged the image, but due to the angle, the paper in Wang Xuchao’s hand was always vertical and its contents could not be seen. The four of them grew anxious but still couldn’t make out anything.

After shutting down the surveillance, Xiao Hu had already copied the video. He looked at Zhou Hai and Xiao Liu behind him.

“That’s all I can do for you. Teacher Cheng still has to go to Nanjing for a meeting. I need to head to the airport to see her off now.”

Zhou Hai slightly bowed toward Teacher Cheng. “Thank you for your help, Teacher Cheng.”

Teacher Cheng was not the petty type and waved it off, urging Xiao Hu to leave quickly. Xiao Liu beside Zhou Hai was already completely shaken—none of the evidence they had was favorable, and the more they investigated, the more it seemed to point against Wang Xuchao.

“Dr. Zhou, what do we do now?”

Zhou Hai glanced at the time. “Back to the center!”

Just as they went downstairs, two police cars pulled up. Several people jumped out and rushed toward them. Zhou Hai recognized them—it was Chu Menghan bringing Xu Biao and the others.

Zhou Hai’s eyelid twitched.

He hadn’t informed them of his whereabouts because he didn’t want them involved in this case. Today was Chu Menghan’s official first day in office. If one of her subordinates was implicated in a murder case as a suspect, and another was trying every possible way to defend him, she would be held responsible for poor supervision.

The Chu family’s training for her had just begun—starting with a stain like this would be hard to justify.

Xiao Liu, seeing them approach, trembled and instinctively hid behind Zhou Hai. Chu Menghan’s gaze was too intimidating—cold, without the slightest warmth.

The group walked up to Zhou Hai. Chu Menghan waved to Xu Biao behind her.

“Xu Biao, search him for his phone!”

Xu Biao walked up to Zhou Hai with a helpless expression, swallowed hard, and pointed behind him.

“She’s the boss, I have to listen to her. Hai, don’t take it personally.”

He reached out and checked Zhou Hai’s pockets. Since it was summer and clothing was thin, it was obvious there was no phone. Xu Biao sighed in relief and turned around, spreading his hands.

“Boss, Dr. Zhou doesn’t have a phone on him.”

Chu Menghan stared at Zhou Hai and pointed toward the old soldier KTV behind them.

“This case is no longer your concern. I will have Team Three’s Zhao Xinli cooperate with Huang Zhongsheng on the investigation. If you continue to act on your own, I will suspend you. You are defending Wang Xuchao while also investigating his case yourself—no matter how you look at it, it is a conflict of interest.”

“If the victim’s family pursues this, it will become police negligence. So you should step aside.”

Zhou Hai frowned deeply. “I want to talk to you alone.”

“There’s nothing to talk about,” Chu Menghan said sharply. “The evidence is already basically conclusive. What else are you trying to find?”

Zhou Hai took a deep breath. “Forget the evidence for a moment. I just want to ask you—based on your understanding of Wang Xuchao, do you think he would kill someone?

Even if he was driven into complete emotional collapse, would he do that?

Think about the case he investigated involving Zeng Da’s death. He was already furious and on the verge of breakdown then. Did he lose control? Did he attack suspects or act recklessly because there was no evidence?”

Chu Menghan raised a hand to stop him.

“In this case, we rely on evidence. All existing evidence can be submitted to the procuratorate—you know exactly what that means. If found guilty, it’s an aggravated offense, at least life imprisonment.

You, or anyone in the bureau—no matter how well you know him, we were not there at the time of the crime. Nothing we say can prove what happened last night.

So stop all actions. Your investigation proves nothing.”

Zhou Hai grabbed her as she turned to leave. “Wang Xuchao doesn’t remember anything he did. I suspect he was drugged—maybe narcotics or a hallucinogen, which caused memory loss.”

Xu Biao stepped forward and stood beside Zhou Hai, lowering his voice: “The blood test results are out. Wang Xuchao only had an elevated alcohol level. No drugs, no narcotics, nothing you mentioned was found.”

He handed over his phone—it was a report sent by Sister Zeng just now.

Seeing the report, Zhou Hai slowly closed his eyes, his eyelids trembling slightly.

Xu Biao knew he was searching for every possible explanation. Watching him struggle so hard to find evidence of Wang Xuchao’s innocence, Xu Biao felt a sting in his eyes and quickly looked away.

After a moment, Zhou Hai opened his eyes again. There was no confusion or hesitation anymore. He shook his head firmly and looked at Chu Menghan, who was already preparing to get into the car.

“This blood sample was taken this morning when we found Wang Xuchao. The test results may be misleading because it had already been eight hours since the victim’s death. Many fast-metabolizing substances could have already been broken down.”

Before Chu Menghan could respond, a male officer stepped forward and whispered something in her ear. Her eyes widened instantly. She took the phone from him and quickly looked through it, then tossed it back.

She waved her hand, signaling everyone to get into the car, and walked back to Zhou Hai.

Her expression was completely emotionless as she looked up at him.

“Even if what you say is true, how will you prove it?

How do you prove he was drugged?

Who drugged him?

What substance was used?

Do you have evidence?

Even if you can prove he was under the influence of drugs, how do you prove Wang Xuchao didn’t kill anyone?”