Hong Kong Young Writers Anthologies Fiction 2020complete | Page 652

“Sir, this is not a joking matter, there has been a murder and any valuable information you could give us
could help us track down the person who committed it.” He said somewhat irritably, the tone of his voice
creating a crackly noise over the line, “So please cooperate with us.”
“But you said you were from - wait, what date is it today?” he asked.
“Today is the 7th of May 2019, what other date would it be?” He said somewhat confused, as if the answer
did not bring up even more questions to the table.
“But today is the - wait one second,” Yun turned to the tacky digital calendar plastered onto the wall.
“Today is the 6th - no wait, the 7th of May 2100.”
The person at the other end suddenly went quiet, the silence was deafening as he waited for a reply. He
tapped his fingers nervously on the table, pondering if he should hang up. He was just about to place the
phone down when the voice returned. “If what you're saying is true, then that means I’m calling eighty
something years into the future.”
“And I’m calling into the past.” Yun replied.
“This doesn't make any - how is this even - You know what?” he said, slightly exasperated, “I’m not even
going to question this. If the movies can do it, why can’t I?”
“This is quite shocking to me too.”
“After all these years, life still finds a way to surprise me.” Detective Lu said with a chuckle. “Tell me then,
did they ever solve the case of Bai Ling-Ling? Did they find eventually find enough evidence to convict Hu
Ding Quan? You must have records or articles of some sort right?”
“I can help you check if you want, just give me a second.” Yun said, gingerly placing the phone onto the
table. “Keyword search. Bai Ling-ling.” the projector popped up from his desk and proceeded to project
the screen above his desk. Skimming through the various results, he picked up the phone again “I’ve tried
searching it up but I think it happened too long ago.”
“I guess I was expecting too much, it would be too easy to have this case solved in seconds.” he said with a
disappointed sigh.
“How long has this case been going on for?” Yun asked
“2 years, 6 months and 5 days.” Detective Lu replied, “we should have caught him years ago but we didn’t
have enough evidence to convict him, probably fled the city by now, it's what I would do.” he said with a
sigh “I thought I could finally put this case to rest when I found a letter at my desk, saying that I should
come back to the scene of the crime. When I got there, I found a bright pink sticky note with a phone
number attached to the landline telephone.
“So the sticky note wasn’t there before?” Yun asked, quickly searching up a photo of a landline telephone.
It was a large chunky thing with two wires sprouting out of it, so different from the sleek and compact
phones they had today.
“Of course not, I may be old but I’m not blind.” he scoffed, sounding annoyed. “Records showed no sign
of the note at the scene, therefore, I decided to use the landline to call the number and here we are now.”
“Maybe you could tell me about the case, going over it may give you a new perspective.” Yun said.
“I don’t think this will work, but it can’t hurt to try. Grab a piece of paper or something, you can note
down some important parts when I talk.” he said in an almost patronizing way.