My Dearest General: It Has Always Been You

Morning, 3 am, City A's public hospital.

The investigation came out pretty quick, mainly because Xu Binchen was going to be Xu Yanluo[1] if things dragged on any longer. Sitting on the bench outside of Shi Nian's room, he was like a mafia boss with a row of incompetence subordinates in front of him.

The first sacrifice to be sent to death was the related underling who had suffered from mild diarrhea, Hu Kai. He was only nineteen years old and this was his probation period. With a pale face due to the spicy burn on his butt and the guilt from not doing his job well, he bowed deeply.

"Senior Xu, this is all my fault! I—I thought that there would be nothing wrong so I slipped out of my post and went to the toilet. There…There I was so consumed with stomachache that I didn't notice—"

Xu Binchen's face was dark. "Do you think I want to hear about your emotional journey in the toilet?"

Hu Kai broke out in cold sweat. "Sorry, sorry Senior Xu! Please punish me!"

"Why didn't you ask the other to come up and replaced you for a while?" Xu Binchen's voice was even, cold and there wasn't much fluctuation in his tone, but everything became more terrifying because of that, just like a devil who was ready to throw out a death sentence."Do you think that, after weeks of no accident, then there would be no problem in slipping away for a while?"

Hu Kai closed his eyes in regret. That was indeed what he was thinking, he had nothing to say for this mistake.

Xu Binchen pinched his brows and said tiredly. "Forget it. You can go back first and wait for further notice."

The young man's eyes turned red. He pursed his lips and bowed once again, his glassy eyes determined. Without saying anything else, he turned around and obeyed his superior's command, without any question nor excuse, just like how a proper soldier should behave.

Next, was the nurse in the night shift that night. The nurse's surname was Ling, and she was a middle aged woman who always frowned all day. Her tight nurse uniform wrapped around her fat body, and facing Xu Binchen, her face was pale even though her voice stayed firm. "No one passed through the front station. I can swear at my job."

The nurse station was a strategic place. It directly faced the elevator so every person who came in and out could be noticed and the emergency exit stairs was just on the other side of the station. So if Nurse Ling said that she saw no one, then there was surely no one that entered the fifth floor.

A horde of footsteps approached them. There police officers in civilian clothes saluted toward Xu Binchen and reported. "We have searched around the fifth floor, everything is normal. There is nothing suspicious, Detective."

Followed behind them was Wang Chengbing whose eye bags were so thick that he almost resembled a panda. His usual carefree look was nowhere to be seen, his face solemn as he showed his laptop to Xu Binchen. "There's something strange."

He pressed on the spacebar and the surveillance record in the laptop played. The time shown in the lower left was 1:55 am. The hallway in front of Shi Nian's room was as desolate as a haunted hospital, no one was seen. Then, as the video fast forwarded, at 2:12 am, Shi Nian's hospital door banged open and she dashed out, her hair messy and her whole body exuded panic and fear.

Xu Binchen frowned and paused.

"Do you see it?" Wang Chengbing asked as he dragged the video backward. "Here, the time in the video from 2:11 to 2:13 was only 100 seconds. I have counted it, Binchen." Wang Chengbing's slit eyes widened and the light from the laptop was reflected on his pupils, casting an eerie shadow that caused goosebumps. "Whoever it is, they had meddled with the CCTV, 20 seconds was cut out nicely, no more and no less."

"Moreover," he added. "I have looked through the surveillance record today. Based on Mr. Jiang's description of the man; turtleneck, cotton pants, shoulder length hair, mask and black rimmed glasses…there was none."

Xu Binchen: "What do you mean?"

"It's exactly what I mean." Wang Chengbing shuddered. "All day today, there is no one with that description who entered and exited the hospital."

Xu Binchen stood up and walked to the end of the hallway, he turned into the corner which Jiang Jinyan said the man walked to and faced another similar hallway with rooms on either side of it. He looked up to the CCTV which was emitting faint red light and pointed at it. "This one. What about it?"

Wang Chengbing shook his head. "I have looked through all of the surveillance records on this floor. There is no trace of the man."

Xu Binchen frowned and walked back. "Show me. Is there any trace of the record being tampered?"

Wang Chengbing shook his head, dousing Xu Binchen's hope. "He managed to avoid all of the surveillance cameras. Damn, such a strong anti-reconnaissance ability!"

Xu Binchen pursed his lips and pondered for a while. He turned to Nurse Ling who was fidgeting nervously. "I have told Doctor Chun that I want to implement a new system for log visitors. Has he informed you?"

"Yes, yes, he has. Doctor Chun said to start it as soon as possible so we plan to do it tomorrow. Who knows..." She shook her head in pity.

"Okay," Xu Binchen sighed. "Start it tomorrow. You can go back first."

Nurse Ling nodded and scurried away. Xu Binchen turned to the rest of his subordinates and Wang Chengbing. "There are a few deductions we can draw until now. First, the culprit has always been in this hospital. Maybe he has been laying low for days, and maybe now, he is hiding in one of the rooms right now."

Imagining a man that they were chasing after, hiding inside an unused room or storage rooms, listening to them as they searched for him frantically and showed a crazy, crooked smile, they all shuddered in distress.

"Second, he changed out of his clothes. But for this, there should be evidence somewhere which we haven't found yet. Third, the mark on the side of his neck that Mr. Jiang said. This is one of the suspicious points. Such an eyecatching mark, he would be stupid to show us just like that. It doesn't correspond with his IQ, so there should be another meaning to the mark that we haven't found out yet."

"But of course, another possibility is, he has already left the hospital without us knowing. But the possibility of it was small. Since I first arrived which was less than 10 minutes from the scene, I have ordered some men to monitor the hospital's exit. First, seal the hospital. No one is allowed to go in and out. You can do it now, after that search for the man in the description on every floor. I give you six hours' time until 9 am, can you do it?"

"The permission…" One of Xu Binchen's subordinates interjected.

Xu Binchen nodded. "Don't worry. I will talk to the hospital's director in a while. We can do it as long as we create an appropriate excuse and not cause panic among masses. You can form two groups, one to seal the hospital and search for clues, and the other…look for the surveillance cameras on the street, in the shops opposite the hospital, anywhere that shot the possible entrance of the hospital. Even if the culprit has strong anti-reconnaissance ability, I don't believe that he can evade all of the CCTV in the street!"

"Yes, sir!" They saluted and went off in a hurry.

There were only him and Wang Chengbing left. The only sound that accompanied the cold, upcoming dawn was the continuous clacking of Wang Chengbing's keyboard. "I have sent all of the records to you and Captain. You may check it yourself."

Xu Binchen hummed. "You have worked hard, Chengbing."

Wang Chengbing rubbed his face roughly. "Binchen, is it him? The man we are chasing after all these times? Has he reappeared again?" Even though he was a police officer, faced with a cold blooded serial killer who treated human lives as trash, Wang Chengbing couldn't resist the fear climbing up his body.

The light rain had subsided and in a while, the sun would start to rise, signaling a new day full of hope and vitality, but Xu Binchen only felt fatigue and dread in his heart.

"…yes." It took him a long time to squeeze out an answer. "It is him."

[1] Yanluo = Yama/King of Hell