The atmosphere in the conference room was solemn. After a long while, someone finally spoke first: “A few nights ago, a murder occurred in the city…”
There was currently no other public information regarding the two serial home invasion cases of Yang Zhenzhen and Xue Mei. After hearing Xie Lin’s description of the killer’s work nature last time, they were still in the stage of screening suspicious personnel, focusing on those living in the Yangyuan and Tianrui complexes who engaged in highly mobile jobs.
Besides the home invasion cases, the General Bureau handled countless cases, so the consultant would participate in more than just one case.
A consultant was like a brick—wherever they were needed, they were moved there.
The circumstances of the newly occurred murder case were not complex. Late at night, a man stabbed his boss with a knife. However, the strange part was that after the police arrested him, they could not find the knife.
Because the murder weapon hadn’t been found, the suspect refused to admit to anything.
[Currently interrogating him next door… refuses to confess no matter what.]
Chi Qing didn’t need to flip through the materials being distributed. Through the inner thoughts of the people around him, he easily learned the whole story. In just a few short minutes, he even heard the details of the suspect’s arrest crystal clear.
But he still had to put on a show.
After the General Bureau rookie responsible for distributing materials handed them to him, he secretly glanced at him.
Then he saw the fingers wrapped in black fabric casually flip open the title page, sweep over it with two glances in an attitude of completely not reading seriously, and finish scanning the materials in just a few glances.
[…Is he really reading it seriously?]
“Premeditated murder, the two had previous financial disputes, murder weapon not found,” just as the rookie was muttering in his heart, he saw the man open his bright red lips, bring up the key points of the case, and say coldly: “I am reading it.”
When Chi Qing said these words, the eyes hidden under his cold black broken hair looked at him. It was clearly a look without any temperature, yet it inexplicably gave him a feeling of being seen completely through from the inside out.
In that instant, he felt he had nowhere to hide, secretly thinking in his mind: [I only glanced at him, how did he know what I was thinking.]
Chi Qing shifted his eyes, no longer responding, and only said “Thank you.” This “Thank you” was to thank him for helping distribute the materials just now.
Xie Lin read very quickly too, scanning through it in two or three glances, and asked: “The person is still being interrogated right now?”
The person opposite said: “Next door.”
Xie Lin closed the materials, tilting his head slightly while speaking, and said to Chi Qing: “Go over and take a look?”
Chi Qing had no objections. After getting up, someone wanted to lead the way for them. That person enthusiastically stood by the door in advance, extending his hand in a “please” gesture. The door was only open halfway, and standing at the doorway blocked half the path. Although the remaining gap for people to pass through didn’t feel narrow to a normal person, Chi Qing’s definition of normal social distance was always different from others.
Just as Chi Qing was about to say “Move aside,” Xie Lin stepped in front of him and spoke first: “No need to be so polite, I can lead my own person.”
Xie Lin added: “I forgot to mention just now, this assistant of mine doesn’t like people getting too close to him. Remember to pay attention next time, and don’t touch him.”
“?”
Where did this weirdo come from.
After hearing this, the person at the door stepped back to the side. After stepping back, he waited and waited, and seeing Chi Qing still not moving, he sincerely asked: “…I wonder what the definition of ‘too close’ is… uh, how far of a distance?”
Chi Qing raised two fingers, the black glove waving in front of him.
“Twenty centimeters?”
Chi Qing said: “Two meters.”
“…………”
In the room next door sat a scruffy man wearing handcuffs. He sat silently in the small room, letting the police opposite him ask whatever they wanted without answering.
“Why did you kill him?”
“Just because he fired you from the company, you took a knife and stabbed him. Don’t you think you were too impulsive?”
“You killed the person, where is the murder weapon? Where did you throw it? You can choose not to speak now, but I advise you it’s best to confess for leniency. Otherwise, when we find the murder weapon, the sentencing standard will be different then.”
The man looked to be in his thirties and wore glasses. Having not shaved or bathed for several days made him look very wretched, but it wasn’t hard to tell that his original appearance was actually quite refined.
The man still remained silent.
The detective responsible for questioning had been asking for days. With the suspect opposite him still maintaining this silent attitude, it was inevitable to grow impatient: “You—”
As the detective’s voice rose slightly, someone patted his shoulder from behind.
The questioning paused for a few seconds before continuing. It also started with the word “you,” but the speaker’s voice and tone were completely different from the previous one: “Your mother came by once today.”
The man raised his eyes.
Only then did he realize that the person sitting opposite him had changed twice in those few short seconds. He had never seen these two people, and they weren’t even wearing police uniforms.
Xie Lin continued: “She said she believed you wouldn’t do such a thing.”
There was another long period of silence, only this time the silence contained a bit of hesitation to speak.
[…I let her down.]
[But for Juanjuan, I can’t say anything.]
Sitting on the side, Chi Qing searched through the materials from earlier and found that Juanjuan was the deceased’s wife, Liu Meijuan.
Thus, the man suddenly heard the strange man opposite him, who had been silent the whole time, suddenly ask: “Are you very familiar with Liu Meijuan?”
“…!”
No matter who it was, if they had just thought of someone’s name in their mind and that person’s name came out of someone else’s mouth the next second, they would be shocked.
Before Chi Qing suddenly brought up ‘Liu Meijuan’, the police hadn’t paid much attention to this character. She seemed completely unrelated to the case. The detective who had retreated to the observation room said: “He had a reaction, watch carefully. Also, go investigate the relationship between Liu Meijuan and him right now.”
But the man only revealed a flaw for one second, quickly returning to his original expression: “I’m… not very familiar with her.”
Chi Qing: “I asked you so much just now and you didn’t explain, yet the moment she was mentioned, you spoke.”
“…”
Chi Qing: “How is her relationship with her husband?”
The man: “I’m not clear.”
“Not clear, which means not very good,” Xie Lin said. “A businessman like him, even if his family relationship isn’t harmonious, he would pretend everything is fine on the surface and wouldn’t reveal it to subordinates. If you really didn’t know, you would say the relationship should be pretty good, but instead you said you weren’t clear.”
“…………”
The two sat opposite him, exchanging sentences like playing mixed doubles. The man’s forehead quickly began to sweat.
Chi Qing glanced at the man’s cuffs resting on the table. The cuffs had traces of being mended, and the stitching connecting the top and bottom was very unique: “When did your clothes tear?”
The man: “Last week…”
Xie Lin immediately followed up: “The person who sewed your clothes has good craftsmanship.”
The man glanced at his sleeve cuffs: “Just randomly found a shop by the roadside to mend it.”
According to the files, a button on the suit the deceased wore also had the same mending traces.
Among the countless distorted voices, there was one sentence: […Juanjuan mended that for me.]
[He’s just an animal. When he gets drunk, he loves hitting Juanjuan. She asked me if I wanted to be with her, she asked me to help her, saying she had a way…]
Chi Qing lowered his eyes: “Quite a coincidence, you and your boss went to the same shop.”
If the killer and the deceased’s wife were entangled, then the nature of this case would completely change. Liu Meijuan’s personal profile was quickly pulled up. In the observation room, someone said: “Found it. There’s a very strange point in Liu Meijuan’s personal profile. She bought a massive life insurance policy for her husband last year.”
“This case… Liu Meijuan very likely participated.”
“Even the missing murder weapon is very likely in Liu Meijuan’s hands, in order to prevent us from convicting him.”
After discussing the case, a few people looked through the transparent glass at the two consultants sitting shoulder-to-shoulder in the interrogation room, especially the new one—if they had doubts when Xie Lin brought the person over in the morning, after these short few minutes, they now had only one new thought: The General Bureau got another monster.
They originally thought having Xie Lin, who became a consultant as a teenager, was outrageous enough, and now there was Mr. Glove surnamed Chi, who hoped to maintain a two-meter distance from people.
Someone muttered to himself: “Where on earth did Consultant Xie dig up such a person…”
After interrogating one person, Chi Qing got annoyed. It wasn’t convenient for him to be too specific either; after all, some content had no factual basis. After hinting at the read content in a subtle way, the follow-up investigation was left to the professionals.
He sat there, took out his phone to check the time, and saw a pile of unread messages.
Sender: Ji Mingrui.
– I ate a piece of gossip today.
– Didn’t expect the main character to actually be my good brother.
– When did you run off to the General Bureau.
– …
Chi Qing took off one glove to reply to Ji Mingrui’s messages. When his finger touched the screen, he found he didn’t know how to explain, eventually summarizing it in two words: Accident.
– ?
Ji Mingrui didn’t dwell on it much, because linking these two terms wasn’t incongruous.
Even Su Xiaolan beside him only calmly gave an “Oh” when she heard the news: “Quite fitting. The first time I saw him, I felt like he was a colleague. I was even surprised when you said he wasn’t.”
So Ji Mingrui sent again:
– Pretty good too, changing professions is a wise choice.
– I said from the beginning, you absolutely chose the wrong major. No matter what you did, you shouldn’t have gone to study acting.
After reading these two messages, Chi Qing didn’t reply again.
After taking off his glove, he habitually looked at Xie Lin’s hand. Xie Lin was still paying attention to the progress of the case. There were two documents on the table. Chi Qing caught a glimpse of them; the top one was the testimony of Xue Mei’s neighbor. Every word and sentence the buzz-cut guy said that day was recorded in the document.
[I’ve been constantly peeping at her.]
[Her boyfriend came often…]
From the corner of his eye, Xie Lin caught sight of Chi Qing’s hand. With tacit understanding, he habitually opened his palm, palm facing him, to make it convenient for him to touch.
Chi Qing asked: “Is there a problem with the testimony?”
Xie Lin scanned over it repeatedly and said: “Can’t say for sure, just feel something isn’t right.”
“How many times was Xue Mei’s boyfriend interrogated before?” Xie Lin asked the others again.
“Interrogated once. He was indeed traveling out of town at the time.”
“Never questioned again later?”
“No,” that person replied. “Because he had no motive and had an alibi.”
“Have him find time to come in again,” Xie Lin closed the buzz-cut guy’s testimony document, slowly pushing it towards them, “…combine it with this testimony, and ask for more details.”
Chi Qing acted as an assistant for a day. When he got annoyed, he secretly poked Xie Lin’s hand under the table. Although there were too many people coming and going around, it wasn’t unbearable. He calculated the time in his mind. It had been nearly a month since the bar incident. According to past experience, his out-of-control situation might be close to recovering.
But as for exactly when, and whether it would take longer than the last time he lost control… he couldn’t be certain.
The two returned to the residential complex. Chi Qing only let go when they took the elevator up. He carefully waited for a while and confirmed there were no voices in the building tonight.
Just as he finished showering, packed up his things, and lay in bed about to fall asleep, he suddenly heard a very faint distorted voice. The voice was saying: [I really like you.]
The voice was as light as a breath, afraid of disturbing anyone.
So after the first sentence appeared, Chi Qing couldn’t be sure if there had really been a voice just now.
The minute hand slowly moved one notch.
The distorted voice sounded again, still the same person speaking:
[…I really, really like you.]
Chi Qing: “…”
Where did this couple come from, exchanging affections in the middle of the night.
He hadn’t heard this voice in all the time he had lived here. Besides an old married couple, everyone in the building was single and lived alone. Of course, this didn’t rule out someone suddenly getting a partner, or rarely bringing a boyfriend home for the night.
In the middle of the night, Chi Qing lay in bed, all his sleepiness driven away by these sickeningly sweet words of love.
He listened intermittently for a while, until the last sentence allowed him to distinguish the source of the voice, because the name the distorted voice called out was: […Qinqin.]
