The identity of a “paparazzo” wasn’t hard to guess. Besides, Chi Qing was someone who had halfway stepped into the entertainment industry. His understanding of paparazzi was deeper than the average person’s, and he knew their working models—though his knowledge was naturally limited to just that.
An eighteenth-tier actor who specialized in playing villains wouldn’t get a second glance from a paparazzo even if he swaggered down the street.
Even if he wasn’t on the street, sitting in a police station holding hands with another man yielded the exact same result.
This paparazzo—who had numerous enemies, seemed to have decent performance, and was universally despised in the industry—didn’t recognize him at all. He continued, “Originally, I wanted to call the police last night, but after thinking about it, I decided against it. I figured he might just want to warn me, and blowing things out of proportion wouldn’t be good for anyone. But when I went out this morning and walked past the shops in my residential complex, a flower pot fell from upstairs.”
“Luckily, I have a tough life. I didn’t see it, but my shoelace happened to come undone at that exact moment, so I took a half-step back and squatted down to tie it.”
As a result, when he looked up, the flower pot had smashed right by his feet. If his shoelace hadn’t come undone, and he hadn’t suddenly squatted down to tie it, that flower pot would have smashed onto his head.
Ji Mingrui: “…This is like a real-life version of Final Destination.”
Chi Qing, having gone unrecognized by the paparazzo, felt inexplicably uncomfortable under the man’s gaze just now. He shrank his hand into his sleeve a bit, exposing only his fingertips. This way, at first glance, others wouldn’t notice that the two of them were clasping hands.
He and Xie Lin were secretly holding hands in a hidden manner, the knuckle of his index finger pressing against the man’s warm palm.
Then, without warning, something was pressed into the palm of his hand hidden inside the sleeve.
It felt like plastic wrapping, a bit prickly, and very small.
Chi Qing looked down and found that it was transparent cellophane wrapping a piece of candy. “Why are you stuffing this into my hand?”
Xie Lin: “A reward.”
Chi Qing: “…?”
Xie Lin: “A reward for getting the question right, little classmate.”
Chi Qing had another question: “Where did this candy come from?”
Xie Lin didn’t have the habit of carrying candy with him at all times, making the origins of this suddenly appearing candy unknown.
Xie Lin wore a long coat today. Sitting in the sofa chair in the waiting area, his military boots resting on the ground made his legs look exceptionally long. Since he was only here today to talk business with Wu Zhibin and wasn’t attending any formal meetings, he had just casually run his hands through his hair, making him look much more relaxed.
He used his other hand to lightly point toward the office entrance. “When I came in after parking the car just now, I ran into a girl who came to handle some business. She couldn’t find the right window, so I chatted with her for a bit. She gave it to me before she left.”
Chi Qing hadn’t expected this man with the face of a preening peacock to successfully flaunt his feathers just by parking a car. “Buying one ring probably isn’t very useful for you. I suggest you buy a few more.”
Xie Lin: “…”
Xie Lin rubbed his nose, having no idea how he had stepped on a landmine just by giving him a piece of candy.
Sitting there, Xie Lin changed his posture, leaning back slightly. He looked at Paparazzo Number Two for a while, and finally narrowed his eyes, steering the topic back to ‘paparazzi’: “Not only are they in the same profession, but he and the guy from yesterday should know each other.”
Near the waiting area, Ji Mingrui was still interrogating him for details. “Did you notice where the flower pot was originally supposed to be placed?”
Paparazzo: “By the edge of the rooftop terrace? I didn’t really pay attention to that, but there are a few apartments above the shops that have flower pots on their balconies.”
Ji Mingrui: “Today’s weather is cloudy and quite windy, and it rained all day yesterday… Is there any chance it was an accidental fall?”
After saying the words “accidental fall,” Ji Mingrui frowned at himself.
The frequency of “accidental falls” had been a bit high lately.
Yesterday it was a person; today it was a flower pot.
Ji Mingrui casually complained, “Being a paparazzo really is a high-risk profession for you guys. Yesterday one just fell off a building to his death, and today there’s another getting retaliated against by his enemies…”
The short man sitting across from Ji Mingrui froze: “Fell off a building?”
“Ah,” Ji Mingrui said, “you might even know him. His surname is Zhang, named Zhang Feng.”
The short man abruptly stood up from his seat: “—What did you say?! Zhang Feng?!”
Ji Mingrui: “‘Zhang’ with the bow and long character, ‘Feng’ as in mountain peak. What’s wrong, do you know each other?”
It was perfectly normal for people in the same profession to know each other.
Moreover, the incident of falling off the building at noon yesterday happened too suddenly. The news reports hadn’t mentioned the deceased’s real name. Compared to the previous tenant case where the killer could come and go freely, an accidental fall obviously lacked discussion value, so there weren’t many people who knew of his death at the moment.
Sure enough, the short man’s pupils dilated as he said in disbelief, “He was my mentor. We’re in the same company. When I first joined the industry, he showed me the ropes. We even talked on the phone yesterday… How could he be dead?”
The relationship between the two had been correctly guessed by Xie Lin.
Chi Qing glanced at Xie Lin.
Resting the elbow of his other arm on the sofa’s armrest, with his palm propping up his chin, Xie Lin explained absentmindedly: “First, the circle is small. Second, it’s the jacket again. At first, I thought the windbreaker they were both wearing was the same brand, but I just searched it and there is no such brand. So the logo on the chest is probably a company emblem or something. Third, intuition… This one’s hard to explain, but basically, the probability of them knowing each other is over 80%.”
Chi Qing looked down at Xie Lin’s hand, thinking to himself that his intuition was terrifyingly accurate in every aspect.
Based on the short man’s statement, Ji Mingrui was put in a difficult position. Because there was no concrete evidence, it was hard for the police to dispatch personnel to protect him purely based on this testimony.
The short man was clearly extremely anxious, his voice rising: “Then what if something happens to me? What if I die? Are you guys just responsible for collecting my corpse?”
Ji Mingrui: “The police will rush over the moment you encounter danger, just calm down a bit…”
“Saying anything more here won’t do you any good,” Xie Lin suddenly spoke up. “You took a taxi here, right? I’ll drive you back. If you have anything else to say, we can talk on the way.”
The short man felt incredibly unsafe about leaving the police station, but he also knew he couldn’t stay here forever. Hearing someone offer to drive him back gave him some peace of mind: “Who are they?”
Ji Mingrui formally introduced them to him: “Police consultants. With them around, you can rest easy.”
“Are they good at fighting?”
“You could say that.”
Ji Mingrui silently added a sentence in his heart: Ordinary murderers aren’t as much of a psycho as they are.
Ten minutes later, inside the car.
The short man sat in the backseat. He first looked around the interior of the car, then stared for a long time at the person in the passenger seat—the man had slightly long hair, very red lips, and a cold, aloof demeanor. He had been too nervous earlier, but now he felt the man looked a tiny bit familiar.
Logically speaking, with a face like that, if he were in the industry, he shouldn’t be nameless.
While waiting at a red light, Xie Lin asked, “I forgot to ask, how should I address you?”
The short man, still staring at Chi Qing, said, “My surname is Wang.”
“Mr. Wang,” as the red light flashed over, Xie Lin said while stepping on the gas pedal, “my assistant here is quite shy, don’t keep staring at him.”
The short man: “Sorry, I just feel like he looks… a bit familiar.”
The short man couldn’t help asking, “Pardon me for asking, but have you acted before?”
Chi Qing: “I have.”
There were two people in the car, and the short man breathed a half-sigh of relief. “I knew I wouldn’t remember wrong, I definitely saw you somewhere. But Officer Ji just said you’re a consultant too?”
Chi Qing said with a flat tone, “I changed careers.”
“…”
That career leap was truly a bit massive.
Chi Qing: “If you don’t have any important questions to ask, please shut up.”
Just during their “friendly” conversation, the road conditions suddenly changed. Xie Lin originally intended to follow the flow of traffic into the next street. One side of the street was a commercial district, and the other side was a lake. However, just as he turned in, he caught a glimpse in the rearview mirror of a black van suddenly rushing out from the intersection. The van accelerated violently from the start, charging straight toward their car as if to ram them!
“Are your seatbelts buckled?”
Under normal circumstances, people would panic when encountering this sort of thing, but the voice the short man heard was unhurried. He realized Xie Lin had merely sped up the speed at which he turned the steering wheel.
The short man: “Buckled—”
To the right was the lake, and in this situation, they couldn’t back up. The black van had clearly come prepared; the position it took completely blocked off all avenues of retreat, making getting knocked into the lake the only option. However, right after Xie Lin spoke, he violently drifted the car, changing the body angle and leaving two distinct tire marks on the asphalt. After the drift, the positions of the two cars shifted, their front ends angled toward each other, on the verge of collision.
Immediately after, Xie Lin accelerated so sharply it caught everyone off guard: “Hold on tight.”
Before the short man could finish shouting “Buckled,” his voice started shaking. Finally, under a speed so fast it produced an unreal sense of weightlessness, all the words he wanted to say turned into an “Ahhhhhhh—!”
Amidst his screaming, he realized he was the only one in the car yelling.
The career-changing former actor in the passenger seat hadn’t even blinked. Chi Qing only said, “Can you stop screaming? It’s hurting my ears.”
The short man: “…”
[How am I supposed to stay calm? He’s about to ram us straight into it head-on!]
Xie Lin was indeed about to ram into it.
The short man was screaming far too loudly. Under the current circumstances, Chi Qing couldn’t touch Xie Lin’s hand either. One organic scream and one distorted inner scream battered his eardrums together. He had no choice but to explain, “When a normal person sees a car recklessly charging toward them, they’ll subconsciously hit the brakes. It’s human instinct. The other party definitely doesn’t want to get stuck after a collision either.”
Put plainly, this was a psychological battle—gambling on whether the opponent dared to crash into them.
[You know normal people brake too! So why did you choose to crash into it?!]
Although the short man often played car-chase games behind celebrity vehicles, he had never experienced this kind of life-or-death speed. His whole body had been slammed hard against the car door by the drift just now: “You also said it’s a ‘maybe’! What if?! Ahhhh!”
Chi Qing gripped the grab handle on the side, trying to steady himself as much as possible, and said, “Accurately speaking, there is a fifty percent probability.”
“Ahhhhh—”
[Why am I the only one screaming in this car? Aren’t they afraid?]
[Right, neither of them is normal QAQ Ahhhhh!]
[If I had known, I wouldn’t have gone to the police station. Who could have thought it’d be even more dangerous after leaving? The other guy won’t even have to do anything, I’m just going to die directly right here.]
Chi Qing, who truly had never experienced what fear felt like: “…”
There was only one person in the van. The driver wore a hood to hide his identity. Through the car window, he could clearly see the situation inside the black sedan. The person in the driver’s seat had a hand resting on the steering wheel, and when the man looked at him, his eyebrows arched slightly, as if asking him, “Do you dare to crash?”
The van driver had never expected him to charge straight back at him. This made him subconsciously slow down, momentarily forgetting who was supposed to be the one ramming the car. So not only did he slow down, he sharply turned the steering wheel to try to avoid the front of the black sedan.
The two cars were practically pressed against each other. As they narrowly missed head-on, the front of the van scraped a long gash down the side of the black sedan.
Chi Qing heard a distorted voice completely different from the short man’s pitch. Through the car window, he locked eyes with the hooded man right next to him. A hoarse voice echoed: [Fuck, I ran into a lunatic!]
However, forcing the other side to stop wasn’t Xie Lin’s ultimate goal. He wanted to intercept the other car to prevent the driver from escaping the scene.
The other driver clearly knew this block very well and had done his homework in advance. His reactions were also quite fast; the moment Xie Lin pulled the handbrake, the van reversed at high speed, did a U-turn, and turned into the lane ahead. Before long, it was swallowed up by the traffic on the road ahead.
“Memorize the license plate.” Xie Lin raised a hand to unbutton his collar. Neither his behavior nor his tone of voice gave any indication that he had just single-handedly orchestrated such a perilous situation. Looking at the traffic ahead, he said, “Never mind, the license plate is useless. He probably wouldn’t use a plate the police could trace to commit a crime… You’re not hurt, are you?”
This last sentence was directed at Chi Qing. The drift just now had been too urgent, and there was no guarantee they hadn’t bumped into something.
Chi Qing: “No.” Except for my ears.
Xie Lin then turned to the still-terrified short man: “Mr. Wang, when you report this to the police later, you can remove the words ‘I suspect’. Someone truly does want to kill you. Furthermore, I suspect your colleague Zhang Feng’s death might not be so simple either.”
However, the short man couldn’t process a single word at that moment. He had already been scared out of his wits by Xie Lin’s maneuver just now.
