Ji Xun returned with a full tray of food. The night market was lively, with a string of dim yellow light bulbs creating a hazy canopy. Underneath, a few low tables were scattered about, where groups of friends gathered. Some were shouting during drinking games, others were whispering and laughing. The mix of high and low voices converged into a decent background noise for a meal.
But they weren’t drinking alcohol.
Besides the skewers, the drinks on Ji Xun’s tray were two bottles of soda and one bottle of mineral water.
Ji Xun took the phone, interrupting the boring and silent staring contest between Yuan Yue and Huo Ranyin.
He didn’t rush to talk to Huo Ranyin. Instead, he fiddled with the phone, using the chopstick holder on the table as a stand. He placed the phone and holder on one corner of the table, then abandoned the seat opposite Yuan Yue and sat at the adjacent corner—right where the phone’s camera was pointing.
This way, the three of them formed a triangle, and Huo Ranyin could see both of them at the same time.
Ji Xun took the two bottles of soda, giving one to Yuan Yue and keeping one for himself. As for the last bottle of mineral water, he picked it up, gave it a little shake, and held it up to Huo Ranyin’s face on the screen.
“I know you’re particular about your figure and don’t drink carbonated drinks easily. Here, I got this especially for you.”
Huo Ranyin: “…”
Ji Xun then picked up some of the skewers from the tray and waved them in front of the phone screen as well. “Skewers are okay to eat, right? Even though you can’t eat them now, smelling them isn’t bad either.”
Huo Ranyin: “…”
Yuan Yue couldn’t help but smile. He took the tray from Ji Xun, stopping his antics. “Why are you bullying Captain Huo?”
Huo Ranyin had remained impassive through all of Ji Xun’s previous words and actions, but as soon as Yuan Yue said this, his unshakable expression cracked, and he couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow.
Ji Xun: “Is this called bullying? I think I’m being very considerate.”
“Yes, yes, you’re very considerate.” Yuan Yue generally didn’t argue with Ji Xun. He sorted the food on the tray and asked strangely, “Don’t you not eat spicy food? Why did you get so much chili powder sprinkled on everything?”
“I’m not eating it,” Ji Xun said leisurely. “Captain Huo is.”
Yuan Yue shook his head helplessly, picking out the skewers without chili powder one by one and placing them on Ji Xun’s plate. But the owner had clearly been very generous with the chili powder, and there were very few non-spicy skewers. So, he got a clean small brush from the owner, picked up some lightly-dusted skewers, brushed them off, and handed them over.
Ji Xun praised, “Thanks, you’re still the considerate one.”
Huo Ranyin: “…”
Yuan Yue was indeed very considerate.
Huo Ranyin had to admit this. When such consideration was applied in the right place, it was hard not to be moved.
He didn’t notice that his own expression was revealing a look of satisfaction, yet also something subtly strange.
Ji Xun noticed.
He didn’t even have to think to know what Huo Ranyin was thinking about again.
“Don’t be so polite,” Yuan Yue replied to Ji Xun. While brushing off the chili powder, he glanced at the big “Old Wang’s” logo on the barbecue stall and suddenly smiled. “This is the same barbecue stall we used to come to, isn’t it?”
He tilted his head slightly, turning half of his face towards Ji Xun.
The dim yellow light cast a soft shadow on his face.
“I originally thought this place had the best barbecue, but later I came alone a few times and surprisingly didn’t find the taste that great. Maybe the important thing isn’t what you eat, but who you eat with.”
Hmm—
Huo Ranyin looked at Yuan Yue, Yuan Yue looked at Ji Xun, and Ji Xun looked at Huo Ranyin.
He could see even more obvious satisfaction on Huo Ranyin’s face, as well as a more distinct strangeness.
If he had to describe it, it was as if Huo Ranyin was holding sugar in one hand and vinegar in the other, taking a bite of sugar and then a sip of vinegar, resulting in an expression that was neither sweet nor sour.
Ji Xun had originally felt that he and Yuan Yue were being completely normal.
But tonight, Huo Ranyin’s performance was so captivating that it made it hard to look away, even making him unable to stand in Huo Ranyin’s shoes for a moment… and then he turned to Yuan Yue, looking at him with a peculiar gaze, and admitted:
From another angle, Yuan Yue’s words did sound quite like a “white lotus” act.
Huo Ranyin held the phone, the camera clearly recording every move of the two people opposite him. Rationally, he knew he should hang up the video call to give them some space, but after a complex internal struggle, he didn’t hang up, just watching the two of them being affectionate with each other.
Although Yuan Yue was brushing the skewers, he hadn’t forgotten about Huo Ranyin.
His thoughtfulness was, most of the time, impartial.
“Captain Huo, what kind of flavors do you like? I’m going back to the station later, I can bring a portion for you.”
“Thank you, Captain Yuan,” Huo Ranyin politely declined. “But I’m not at the station, so I won’t trouble you. Ji Xun knows where I am—let him bring it over on his way.”
“?” Ji Xun didn’t turn his head. “Captain Huo, you’re such a busy man, how would I know where you are?”
“I believe our hearts are connected,” Huo Ranyin’s tone carried an intimate sarcasm. “If you can contact me by phone when you need a witness statement, I’m sure you can contact me by location when you want to bring me a late-night snack.”
Oh.
Ji Xun finally stopped looking at Yuan Yue, his gaze turning back to Huo Ranyin.
Yuan Yue, who had been peeling a crab leg with his head down, looked up again and continued, “By the way, Ji Xun, did you drive here today?”
“No. What’s up?” Ji Xun asked.
“Then I’ll give you a ride to Captain Huo’s place later,” Yuan Yue suggested. “That would be more convenient.”
“Okay,” Ji Xun didn’t answer, but Huo Ranyin answered for him, adding, “Usually I’m the one who picks him up, so I’ll have to trouble Captain Yuan this time.”
“It’s no trouble. These are things I should have been doing all along. I’ve been troubling you,” Yuan Yue replied very seriously.
Huo Ranyin’s lips pursed slightly again, revealing that satisfied, half-smiling expression.
Ji Xun, who had heard the entire exchange, was deeply impressed by Yuan Yue, even wanting to applaud and give him a tip.
What amazing lines; an ordinary person couldn’t say them. Ignorance truly is the ultimate weapon.
But Huo Ranyin was even more amusing.
Ji Xun raised his hand, slung it over Yuan Yue’s shoulder, and secretly mouthed to Huo Ranyin:
Are you satisfied with what you’re seeing now?
Before Huo Ranyin could react, he grabbed a packet of vinegar, shook it in front of the screen, and said in an equally intimate tone, “Sure, I’ll take Yuan Yue’s car later and bring you the snack. Do you want a vinegar packet? Is one packet enough? Do you want to dip your food in it or drink it directly?”
“Huh, Captain Huo likes to dip his skewers in vinegar?” This was a unique way of eating, so Yuan Yue joined the conversation again.
“…” Huo Ranyin reviewed the entire conversation and finally felt a moment of embarrassment.
The next second, he raised his hand and ended the video call.
“Hey, Captain Huo?” Huo Ranyin’s sudden hang-up left Yuan Yue confused for a moment.
Ji Xun was truly about to collapse with laughter.
He kept his arm around Yuan Yue’s shoulder, slammed the table twice, then stood up, let go of Yuan Yue, took back his phone, and said with a straight face, “I guess his signal is bad.”
With that, he started another video call, giving Huo Ranyin a way out.
The call was answered, but it was audio, not video.
Huo Ranyin’s voice was a bit cold. “Hello.”
Yuan Yue still asked, “Why no video?”
Huo Ranyin: “…The signal is bad. Let’s just use audio.”
“Yeah, let’s use audio,” Ji Xun said as he leisurely ate his barbecue. “We don’t need video to talk about serious business anyway.”
“I have a clue here,” Huo Ranyin ignored Ji Xun, which was the only way he could speak seriously. “In the nursing home case, the son who is a major suspect shared a public account article on his WeChat Moments titled ‘Beware of “Poison Milk Candy,” Don’t Regret for a Lifetime Due to a Moment of Carelessness.’ The wife from tonight’s case also shared the same article.”
“Sounds like the kind of stuff people love to share on their Moments,” Ji Xun commented.
Huo Ranyin grunted in agreement. “Yes, it’s sensationalist. Although the title says to be vigilant, it actually spells out how to obtain it clearly and combines it with chicken-soup-for-the-soul content about life stress. Reading it only makes the audience more anxious.”
Hearing this, Ji Xun felt it sounded familiar. He searched his memory and asked, “This couldn’t be the kind of Moments content we saw on Xu Shuoguo’s phone when we were tailing Lian Panpan and her mother, could it? The writing style is very similar.”
“Unfortunately, you guessed right,” Huo Ranyin said. “This custom article was spread this way. The original source was a group from Fuxing Education. Parents were frequently sharing it under the teacher’s instructions. The reasons for sharing were, of course, noble-sounding—to understand the situation, raise vigilance, pay attention to safety, and prevent accidents. And the person who commissioned the article and assigned the task of sharing it, after investigation…”
“Is named Qian Shumao.”
Huo Ranyin on the other end of the phone was stunned for a moment, then asked, “How did you know?”
Ji Xun sighed. “Because he’s dead. Just died. In what looks like a very normal traffic accident.”
Yuan Yue, who had been listening silently, spoke up at this point. “His surname is also Qian? The other killer I found in Yi’an County, besides Zhao Yuanliang, is named Qian Xingfa.”
With the conversation at this point, the path to the truth was almost completely cleared.
Huo Ranyin couldn’t hold back and started another video call.
Ji Xun casually answered it while opening his soda.
The soda fizzed up, splashing onto the screen and his hand.
He held the phone, licked the base of his thumb in front of the camera, not particularly surprised, but asked Yuan Yue pointedly, “Qian Xingfa should have been around 25 at the time of the incident, right?”
“…” Huo Ranyin.
Even though he knew he couldn’t affect the other side from where he was, he subconsciously moved back a little, as if that would put more distance between him and the other’s lips and tongue.
“Yes, he was born in ’66. If he were still alive today, he would have just turned 50,” Yuan Yue continued.
“He’s dead? When did he die?” Huo Ranyin pressed.
“Well, Qian Xingfa might have died 20 years ago from late-stage liver cancer.”
“‘Might have’?” Ji Xun smiled. “You and the people around you don’t really believe Qian Xingfa is dead?”
“It’s too much of a coincidence,” Yuan Yue said matter-of-factly. “Plus, after he ‘died,’ people went to his hometown a few times and didn’t see his family looking particularly sad. It didn’t feel right.”
“I think your feeling is correct.”
Ji Xun made a gun with his finger, aimed at Huo Ranyin’s heart, and fired.
“Bang—bullseye. He died twice. This time he’s really dead. Check the DNA. Qian Shumao is Qian Xingfa.”
“…” Huo Ranyin. “Speak properly!”
Don’t be so handsy!
Ji Xun blew on his finger, throwing a provocative glance.
I am being handsy. Come get me out of the screen if you can.
