Zhu Hong spent the day watching the others work, talking with Wang Zheng and watching her while she worked; she made a few errands for them when they needed something, and when the evening arrived she already felt more comfortable around these people.

That night she did her part again, the walk, the coffee, the cigarettes, and back. Again, nothing happened.

Next morning, they received a call.

Another girl had been killed.

Zhao Yunlan cursed loudly, and immediately called for Da Qing, Lin Jin and Guo to go with him.

Zhu Hong wanted to go with him too, but he was adamant on that point. "He may be around watching us, he can’t see us together. We might be lucky and find another way to catch him, but we can’t risk it yet."

Once again, she stayed in with the only other girl while the men went out. She had to agree that this was a wise decision, but she also vowed to herself that it won’t be always like that.

Zhao Yunlan was fuming, another girl had died, it was his duty to protect the people of Dragon City and he had failed, another young life had been cut. He couldn’t wait to have him in his hands...

They arrived at the crime scene, the street area had already been secured by the police. Someone tried to stop them but as soon as they showed their credentials they were let in immediately. Zhao was still rather annoyed by that, they should have known who he was without any need for papers.

He ordered Guo to stay back and wait for his orders, he told him to keep his ears open and then he went forward with the others.

It was just like the other murders, the girl’s body had been cut several times, her pale green shirt was all torn and stained with her blood. Yunlan and his deputy examined it while Lin Jin took pictures and collected samples to analyse later at his lab.

Yunlan looked at her arms, then noticed a bit of blood under the nails of her left hand; she had tried to fight him off, Yunlan thought with a mix of pain and anger. She looked so thin, did this guy think it was an accomplishment to overpower her? “Can’t wait for you to try it with me,” he murmured, and only Da Qing heard him but said nothing.

Neither of them pointed it out to Lin Jin, it wasn’t necessary, he knew his job and wasn’t going to miss it anyway.
All their evidence would be useful only after they caught him though, to confirm his guilt, but didn’t really help them to track him down.

When they came back, the two girls saw their faces and didn’t ask questions. There was no need.

Guo sat down to write everything he had heard, his face full of tears, murmuring between sobs. “She missed the last bus, she only missed the bus and...” but he couldn’t continue. He opened his copybook and took his pen, but before he could write anything the page was covered in wet dots where his tears had fallen.

There was something heartbreaking in seeing Guo crying like that. He was always positive and cheerful, and those sobs went straight to the soul.

If Guo was a girl, Zhu Hong would be hugging 'her' now, but he wasn't.
Still, although indeed a male, he was 'little Guo', so she patted his back a couple of times hoping to be comforting.

Zhu Hong felt a new determination now that she hadn’t felt before. She had seen a couple of pictures, yes, but they had been just the cold images of figures she didn't know. They had affected her, but everything had become much more real now, hearing those sobs, seeing him in such a state, and knowing that a girl like her had just been killed made her think “I want to stop this, I want to help them”.

Her world was cruel to women and poor people, a world where you had to follow in your parents’ footsteps so nobody had the chance to improve their social status, but at least she had known the rules and things like this were very rare.

Dixing’s justice was swift, and a guy like this would be hunt down and killed on the spot.

She liked the freedom she was enjoying here, but she was disgusted at how some people took advantage of it for their evil acts. The Royal guards of Dixing wouldn’t care about evidence and procedures, that was for sure; for a crime of this importance the Crown would send the Envoy who had licence to judge and execute the criminals.

'That is, if he killed young men' she thought then bitterly, reasoning that the death of a woman wasn't a real crime in the king's eyes, and she wondered how the envoy would judge a man like this.

Finally it came the time to try their desperate plan again.

She changed into her defenceless persona and went out again, she walked, stopped for a coffee, walked some more, she sat on a bench and looked into her bag pretending she was looking for something, then she walked to get Yunlan’s cigarettes and turned back.

The next night, she did the same thing, and the night after that, and the night after that... and still nothing happened.