The results from the forensic department were reported to Huo Ranyin at seven in the morning.
Both bodies had died before being burned. Among them, Zhuo Cangying had died from heavy object trauma to the face, leading to intracranial fractures and fatal bleeding. As for Gao Shuang, she had died from inhaling the highly toxic substance cyanide.
“A bit surprising.”
As Ji Xun spoke, Huo Ranyin was washing up in the bathroom.
He had ordered breakfast takeout—soy milk, fried dough sticks, and the like—all already placed on the table.
Huo Ranyin came out of the bathroom, his face still moist with water vapor, his hair not quite neat—which was also quite surprising. Ji Xun stared at Huo Ranyin. It was just the cause of death from the forensic department; it couldn’t possibly be enough to make Huo Ranyin forget the hair gel that was an essential part of his pre-work routine, right?
As Huo Ranyin sat down, he covered his mouth and yawned, and even shot him a dissatisfied glance.
“If you want to say that Gao Shuang’s death by cyanide poisoning is surprising, just say it. Don’t say half and leave half.”
Ji Xun understood.
It wasn’t because of the cause of death, but because he hadn’t slept well last night—hmm, speaking of which, why hadn’t Huo Ranyin slept well?
“Anyway, you always manage to say the other half,” Ji Xun said dismissively.
“That’s because I’m smart,” Huo Ranyin snorted. “But my intelligence isn’t meant to save you the saliva.”
“…”
He’s quite fiery today, Ji Xun couldn’t help but glance at Huo Ranyin.
“Back to the topic,” Ji Xun said. “Killing someone is easy, but cyanide is hard to come by. Where did Mo Nai, who just escaped from prison, get cyanide? And what about that gun he had? Wouldn’t it be much easier to kill with a gun than to go through the trouble of finding cyanide?”
“Firing a gun would easily alert others,” Huo Ranyin refuted Ji Xun’s statement. “But Mo Nai shouldn’t have used poison only on Gao Shuang and not on Zhuo Cangying. Zhuo was lying on the sofa, and he was a man, so there was a risk of a struggle. Since he had cyanide, why not just cover his mouth and nose with it directly?”
“You’re right,” Ji Xun took a bite of the fried dough stick. “But it still feels strange somewhere… When he covered Gao Shuang’s mouth and nose with a handkerchief, did he have to take some precautions for himself? Otherwise, it would be quite dangerous.”
Ultimately, there were still too few available clues.
Huo Ranyin suggested going to Liucheng Prison to take a look today, which echoed Ji Xun’s speculation from last night about “the information being passed to Mo Nai by someone in the prison.” Besides it being another long car ride, Ji Xun had no objections.
The two of them quickly finished breakfast and rinsed their mouths.
Before heading out, Ji Xun stuck his hand out the window to feel the wind and said to Huo Ranyin, “The wind is so strong today. Let me borrow a scarf. By the way, not only is the case a bit strange, but you’re also a bit strange this morning. Didn’t you sleep well last night?”
A scarf was handed over from behind. Just as Ji Xun was about to reach for it, the scarf lightly bypassed his hand and wrapped around his neck. Then Ji Xun was pushed against the windowsill.
He absolutely did not have a fear of heights.
But when Huo Ranyin pulled on the scarf and leaned in, when the other’s upturned eyes and pale lips were right in front of him, Ji Xun suddenly felt a hint of dizziness, as if gravity had suddenly doubled its force on him.
“I didn’t sleep well last night,” Huo Ranyin said. “Do you want to know why I didn’t sleep well?”
“Without the escort of love, you finally caught my insomnia?”
Ji Xun was absent-minded, only noticing the other’s lips opening and closing. Those lips made of water, Ji Xun was familiar with them. In fact, with just a little force, a gentle kneading, the color of rouge would bloom on the lips, like a fruit instantly completing the process from unripe to mature.
Huo Ranyin’s brows knitted slightly. A beauty’s frown, who could bear it?
“Just kidding,” Ji Xun said immediately. He wasn’t always passive. He held the scarf, and the scarf held Huo Ranyin’s hand. It was this kind of faint touch, as if entwined, as if coyly resisting yet inviting. He asked sincerely, “Why?”
The furrow in Huo Ranyin’s brow smoothed out. The man with the tear mole under his eye gave him a slight smile.
“Because I was waiting for you, and you didn’t come.”
Their distance grew even closer, so close that Ji Xun’s heart pounded before he had time to be stunned. He was already prepared to receive Huo Ranyin’s kiss.
However, the tear mole stopped in front of his eyes. This last inch of distance was like a high mountain, lying between them.
“Thought I was going to kiss you?”
Huo Ranyin said, the smile at the corner of his mouth turning wicked.
“Unfortunately, no. For now, there’s only this.”
He gently blew a puff of air at Ji Xun’s lips, which were only a line away, then let go of the scarf, and like the hazy morning mist, he drifted away.
Ji Xun leaned against the windowsill, dazed for a long while. He raised his hand and touched the corner of his mouth, which seemed to still be wrapped in a warm vapor, and fell silent.
After both of them got into the car and the car was on the highway, Ji Xun sat in the passenger seat. The more he recalled, the more it didn’t feel right. “You said you didn’t sleep well last night because I wasn’t proactive… But I wasn’t the only one being reserved last night, was I? How come I remember that when I was chatting with you last night, your gaze didn’t dare to land on me either?”
“Separating work and private life, isn’t that a matter of course?” Huo Ranyin’s expression was faint. The fleeting charm from the morning had disappeared again into his sleek, combed-back hairstyle, held in place with hair gel.
Ji Xun believed him… as if.
He turned his head to the side, raised his hand, and propped his elbow on the car door armrest, watching the green trees fly by on the road.
Not crossing the line yesterday had been a carefully considered decision.
But this morning’s flutter of his heart didn’t seem to be fake either.
Had he fallen for Huo Ranyin’s beauty trap and become muddle-headed?
“I really should have asked you for a goodnight kiss last night,” Ji Xun said, half-annoyed, half-probing. “Can we make up for it tonight?”
“You can try,” Huo Ranyin was adept at handling this kind of probing. “Lust is part of human nature. It’s understandable.”
Ji Xun observed the other’s teasing expression and suddenly asked Huo Ranyin, “How do you plan to spend Valentine’s Day?”
“…Without a lover, what Valentine’s Day is there to spend?” Huo Ranyin was taken aback for a moment before retorting.
“Is that so? But I think that for stimulating lovers like us, who are professional on the surface but ambiguous in private, stealing moments of affection whenever we can, it’s only fitting to celebrate ‘Valentine’s’ Day, right?” Ji Xun turned his face, and this time, a wicked smile appeared at the corner of his mouth.
After a long drive, they arrived at Liucheng Prison. A prison guard came up to greet them.
Regarding the investigation plan, Huo Ranyin had already communicated with the prison guards here on the way. The prison guards had also completed their investigation within the prison during this time.
“Mo Nai’s performance in prison has always been good. Plus, he was a group leader among the inmates, so he had a lot of contact with them. But there is one inmate worth noting. Zhang Xinyou.”
Zhang Xinyou, currently 61 years old. At 32, he was sentenced to life imprisonment for intentional homicide, which was later reduced to 20 years. He was released at 52. Since then, he had been in and out of prison six times for reasons such as robbery and theft.
Zhang Xinyou had just committed a crime and returned two months ago, which was around the same time Mo Nai was preparing to escape.
“We’ve asked him. He just said he doesn’t know. I’m afraid you won’t get any results from him either,” the guard who led them in shook his head, not optimistic about the outcome of Huo Ranyin’s questioning, but still arranged a meeting place.
Zhang Xinyou sat on a chair behind the glass. He was a bit sleepy, his eyes wandering without much focus. He didn’t look like a troublemaker. On the contrary, he was rather plump, looking more like a friendly small business owner.
The prison guard next to him routinely gave some instructions, such as how cooperation would be recorded as a merit and could lead to a sentence reduction, and then left.
“What did you tell Mo Nai?”
Zhang Xinyou chuckled and just remained silent.
“You’re friends, right? I heard from the prison guard that when Mo Nai was your group leader, he would share some of your labor.” Huo Ranyin flipped through the materials he had gotten from the prison guard. “He’s a good person. He would occasionally share the snacks he bought with you. Once, you had a sudden heart attack, and it was Mo Nai who discovered it in time and performed first aid for you.”
“You were very grateful to him, so he asked you to investigate something, and you didn’t let him down. you did a beautiful job for him. He listened to your information and escaped from this door. He only had 11 months left to walk in the sun with his head held high, but now, he has to worry about being shot by the armed police at any moment. Maybe as we speak, he’s already dead.”
“Don’t you think it’s a pity, Zhang Xinyou? He’s only 28.”
Zhang Xinyou’s wandering gaze focused on one spot. He retorted, “Walk in the sun with his head held high? Are you performing a comedy routine, officer?”
A reaction meant a breakthrough. Huo Ranyin’s face turned cold, pretending to be mocked by Zhang Xinyou. “Did I say something wrong?”
“Once you’ve committed a crime, you’ve committed a crime for life. There’s no such thing as ‘head held high’,” Zhang Xinyou said and then closed his mouth, remaining silent.
Ji Xun quickly flipped back to look at the reasons for his subsequent five imprisonments. Most were for robbery and theft, with clear criminal facts, and most had a tendency to surrender.
A guess flashed through his mind. He asked, “So this is the reason you deliberately committed a crime to return to prison, and also the reason you were completely unmoved when the prison guard told you you could get a sentence reduction? You think you are prejudiced against and discriminated against in society, so it’s better to just stay in prison?”
Zhang Xinyou did not spare a glance for Ji Xun, who was questioning him repeatedly. He just sat there, as if the light above his head was a sun, and he was sitting on a chair after a full meal, basking in the sun. He was a bit lazy and thus spoke little, talking intermittently.
But Ji Xun’s words still piqued his interest enough to answer.
Zhang Xinyou: “You’re overestimating me. I’m not capable. I can’t find a job outside. I’m homeless and exposed to the elements outside. Inside, I can still get a meal with meat and vegetables. Rather than being prejudiced against, it’s more like I don’t like that lifestyle. I’m used to being ordered around inside. Someone wakes you up and tells you to sleep every day. It’s pretty good. Ha, saying this will probably get me put in solitary confinement later. You’ve really gotten me into trouble, officer.”
“But that’s not what your file says,” Ji Xun fired off without a pause. “After your first release from prison, you were once mistaken for a thief. But in your county, it’s a small place, and everyone knows everyone. The person you helped knew about your criminal record, so they immediately identified you as the thief and gathered their friends and family to beat you up—later, the police cleared your name, and the other party even apologized to you and paid your medical expenses, right? Of course, after this incident, you soon committed another crime and returned to prison.”
Zhang Xinyou looked up at the light for a long time. Finally, a sarcastic smile appeared on his lips.
“Officers, do you all think you have fiery eyes and can see through everything? Well, at this point, I’m not afraid to tell you the truth. Actually, the first time, we were partners in theft. But the police need evidence to handle a case, right? I didn’t have anything on me, and they didn’t catch me in the act. After beating me up, of course, they had to apologize. As for my friend, he was light and fit, and ran fast. Although he was caught later, all the stolen goods had been sold off. That was still an era when everyone used cash, and computers were very valuable… As for me, I could have run away too, but I was startled by the cars coming and going when I was crossing the road. When I went to prison, only the upper class had cars. When I got out of prison, my goodness, the whole road was stuffed with these iron lumps…”
“Those cars,” he squinted, as if blinded by the light, “they run so fast. A person’s two legs can’t catch up at all.”
Zhang Xinyou was determined not to talk about Mo Nai.
No matter how Huo Ranyin and Ji Xun repeatedly targeted him, he kept his mouth shut about the key points. In the end, he even pretended to doze off to avoid conversation.
The two of them couldn’t waste endless time on Zhang Xinyou.
Taking a moment, Ji Xun made a hand gesture to Huo Ranyin, and the two of them came out of the interrogation room.
“We won’t get anything out of this guy. He’s been abandoned by society, and he’s completely abandoned himself. He doesn’t care what we say. He’s given up on himself—but I’ve found a clue.”
Huo Ranyin raised an eyebrow, looking at Ji Xun with a half-smile. “Detective Ji, you know again?”
“I wouldn’t dare to call myself a detective,” Ji Xun said modestly. “I just have an active mind and am good at wild speculation. Just as he said, he couldn’t find a job outside, and life was not as good as inside, so he didn’t have much money outside, and his range of activities wouldn’t be very large. If Mo Nai asked someone like him for help, it must have been something within his capabilities and range of activities. He’s always been in Liucheng Prison, so Liucheng is his indispensable place of activity. Besides that, there’s his hometown.”
“A city, a small town, the range of activities is already large enough…” Huo Ranyin said halfway, then suddenly stopped. He had also figured it out. “J!”
Ji Xun gave an appreciative snap of his fingers. “Your brain works fast enough. You’re really a good assistant for a detective. Connecting the previous clues, I think the ‘J’ that Mo Nai entered into the first truck’s navigation system probably refers to Zhang Xinyou’s hometown, Jinshui Town.”
