HL CH74
by Aria“Ji Xun, don’t change the subject.”
“How is this changing the subject? It’s six in the morning before dawn, and a pair of hands suddenly reaches out from the back seat of a car outside a cemetery—that looks exactly like the standard opening of a ghost story, doesn’t it? I’m just lucky I ran into a charming ghost.”
As he spoke, Ji Xun raised his hand and subtly slipped his fingertips into the gap between his neck and Huo Ranyin’s palm.
Huo Ranyin didn’t seem to genuinely want to choke him, as his grip was very loose. Ji Xun easily achieved his goal. He curled his fingers, discreetly scratching Huo Ranyin’s palm with his nail.
Huo Ranyin closed his palm, avoiding the provocation, and withdrew his hand.
“Who was that person?”
“Hmm—”
Ji Xun was pondering a lie when Huo Ranyin seemed to read his mind and spoke.
“Ji Xun, don’t lie a second time.”
His voice was soft, but the warning in his words was self-evident.
Was he warning him not to lie to him, like he did in the alley? Ji Xun initially thought so, but quickly, his heart stirred, and he realized a new possibility.
“Huo Ranyin, before I answer you, you tell me why you’re here.”
Huo Ranyin simply told Ji Xun: “Because I have business with you. A case has come into the bureau.”
What kind of case? What criminal doesn’t want to enjoy the second day of the New Year?
Ji Xun wanted to ask just that.
But Huo Ranyin didn’t give him a chance to change the subject. After that statement, he quickly followed up:
“These matters can wait. You answer the question first.”
“Is this an interrogation?”
“You should consider this a friendly and candid exchange,” Huo Ranyin said sarcastically.
“Common sense tells me that while you might guess I’d come to sweep the grave today, you shouldn’t have come at this time,” Ji Xun said. “You should have gone to my place first, then called me, and then staked out here. What made you abandon the telephone, mankind’s greatest invention? There is only one reason.”
“…”
From Huo Ranyin’s expression, the other party already anticipated what he was about to say, looking like he didn’t want to hear it, but Huo Ranyin didn’t voice a refusal. He must know that refusal would be useless, Ji Xun thought, and then spoke in a serious tone:
“You were bothered by the text message I sent last night at ten. You probably happened to come to my place to find me, then realized I lied. You waited a long time, but I didn’t go home, so you came straight to the cemetery.”
“Interesting,” Ji Xun added. “Did the case come in last night? For you, who tackles cases like a fire, you didn’t call immediately to order me to appear at once.”
Huo Ranyin’s eyebrow raised slightly, then slowly leveled out.
“My common sense also told me a few things,” Huo Ranyin said flatly.
The tables had turned. The expression of “guessed it but doesn’t want to hear it” that had been on Huo Ranyin’s face now transferred to Ji Xun’s.
And Ji Xun turned his silent protest into a vocal one: “I think we should hurry up and get to work—”
“The person at the cemetery is male, smokes, is skilled, has likely received relevant training or engaged in related work. You came here last night. The laptop was used to connect to a camera. The pepper spray on you was a weapon you prepared in advance, and there are even several freshly opened tubes of super glue in the passenger-seat drawer. You are very cautious, but someone with your skill level wouldn’t need this much preparation against an ordinary person. This indicates you clearly know how difficult he is to deal with.
“You are very familiar but perhaps don’t contact each other often, leading you to use such an aggressive method to capture him. You have something you want to say to him, likely prompted by my analysis of your sister’s cause of death that night. You determined this person would show up today but didn’t know when, so you had to keep vigil from dawn until now and monitor him with a camera…”
“Huo Ranyin—”
“Am I right or wrong?”
“You want to analyze this person from me?” A mocking smile appeared on Ji Xun’s face. “My social circle is very complicated.”
“But your sister’s was quite simple,” Huo Ranyin said. “There probably aren’t many people who would come to see your sister at this hour, avoiding people’s attention. Your super glue should be able to fix some of his footprints, which can rule out some height and build possibilities. Plus, he has a connection with that drug user… I imagine it won’t be difficult to find someone with such clear characteristics.”
In the rearview mirror, Ji Xun saw the person in the back seat relax his back and lean back against the seat. He crossed his legs, rested an elbow on the armrest, and wasn’t even looking at Ji Xun, but out the window, looking completely nonchalant.
But this was only superficial.
Huo Ranyin was watching him.
He looked at Huo Ranyin in the car’s rearview mirror, and Huo Ranyin looked at him through the car’s side mirror.
They were in the same space, facing each other, yet both preferred to search for the clues of truth in a mirror.
Ji Xun suddenly found this greatly entertaining.
“Then go find him,” Ji Xun suddenly said.
“?” A crease formed between Huo Ranyin’s brows.
“You’re a police officer. You feel this matter has triggered your crime-solving radar, so you go investigate. How straightforward,” Ji Xun said concisely. “I have no standing to stop you, and I fundamentally can’t stop you, can I? But Huo Ranyin, you won’t get the answers to this from me… Everyone has secrets.”
The gaze, resting on his face through the mirror, began to feel scorching.
Huo Ranyin’s stare from behind became sharp.
“However, we have another agreement,” Ji Xun added. This time, he didn’t use the mirror but turned directly to face Huo Ranyin. “Your exercise book.”
Huo Ranyin’s gaze also moved away from the car window, and the mockery in his eyes intensified.
“You keep your secret, yet you want to explore mine?”
“It should be phrased this way: I keep what I want to keep, and you tell what you want to tell.”
“… That matter can wait. Now,” Huo Ranyin glanced at the time, “let’s go back to the bureau and handle the new case.”
“What case?” Ji Xun finally asked the question.
“Prison escape.”
The news from the prison was as follows:
Mo Nai, male, currently 28 years old, imprisoned nine years ago for r*pe. Since the victim committed suicide afterward, the court issued a harsh sentence of ten years. He was only 19 when he entered prison, and with only 11 months left until his release, he chose to escape.
The time was 9 p.m. on February 8th. The truck that transports vegetables to the prison arrived as usual. Besides patrol guards, the prison also had some well-behaved inmates acting as small heads to manage other prisoners. Because Mo Nai had always been obedient, worked actively, and had excellent behavior, he was one of the inmates on duty at the time and had a certain degree of autonomy.
He seized an opportunity, changed into a self-made police uniform, and relying on his nine years of familiarity with the prison’s rules and regulations, quietly blended in with the guards, who had increased due to the holiday. He then knocked out a solitary on-duty guard at the back door, stole his sidearm and access card, and brazenly drove away in the vegetable truck.
These details sound simple, but the practical feasibility is extremely low. The most unbelievable part was the police uniform Mo Nai wore.
The prison usually makes inmates perform labor. Mo Nai’s police uniform was sewn together using scraps, but while the style could be replicated, the metal components on the uniform were absolutely inaccessible to inmates.
And his solution turned out to be—
“Holy crap, this drawing is too realistic! It’s one thing that the badge and rank are well-drawn, but why does the reflection on the metal buttons look so real?”
Inside the Ning City Criminal Investigation Team office, Ji Xun followed Huo Ranyin, and before they even walked into the office, Tan Mingjiu’s unmistakable loud voice drilled into Ji Xun’s head.
When he entered the office, Ji Xun saw the object Tan Mingjiu was holding—a police uniform, the one the suspect had drawn himself for the escape.
Good heavens. Even though he had been psychologically prepared for it to be fake, Ji Xun couldn’t spot anything wrong with it at first glance.
The prison break story, which had sounded utterly absurd, finally gained some realism in the face of the evidence—besides, novels require logic; reality is often filled with “miracles.”
“Be cautious with the evidence,” Huo Ranyin said.
“Yes, Captain Huo. Sorry, Captain Huo.” Tan Mingjiu immediately and smoothly put down the evidence and apologized, then saw Ji Xun following behind Huo Ranyin, and his eyes instantly lit up.
“You’re here again.”
“Yeah, I’m here again,” Ji Xun thought. It only took two cases to go from staunch refusal to grudging compliance and then to willing participation. By analogy, this is probably the classic process from r*pe to consensual se-x, he mused. “Someone specifically rushed to the cemetery at six in the morning to invite me over. What could I do? Of course, I had to satisfy him…”
Huo Ranyin shot him a warning glare.
Ji Xun spoke the truth without fear, returning Huo Ranyin a dashing, unrestrained look.
“??” Tan Mingjiu looked confused. He felt like he had heard something, but he didn’t dare show any gossip in front of Huo Ranyin. He could only stack this frustrating feeling onto the anger of a case happening during his holiday shift, staring at Ji Xun. “Before you came, we didn’t have so many cases.”
“Oh really?”
“Your Death Detective Buff is too strong! Trouble follows wherever you go!” Tan Mingjiu stated clearly.
“The time I started frequently interacting with you coincided with the time your Captain Huo was transferred here. Why don’t you say your Captain Huo is a harbinger of bad luck, with dark clouds clinging to him, bringing crime wherever he goes?” Ji Xun retorted.
“…”
Tan Mingjiu was momentarily speechless. Even with Huo Ranyin in the office and out of sight, he didn’t have the guts to criticize him. After all, the previous lessons were clearly in sight. After much thought, he decided to vent his frustration. Since he couldn’t win an argument with Ji Xun, he turned his focus, picking on the softer target: Yuan Yue, who was recovering in the hospital, and lamented sorrowfully:
“Everyone left at the bureau has to work overtime this time, except for Captain Yuan, who’s hiding in the hospital being lazy! After ten years as a model worker, Captain Yuan has finally gone bad! How did Director Zhou, who usually has eyes of fire, believe Captain Yuan’s nonsense this time? Everyone at the scene knew how dangerous that wound on Captain Yuan’s hand was—so dangerous that if he was sent to the hospital any later, the wound would have healed on its own!”
One Tan Mingjiu is enough for any gathering.
One Tan Mingjiu can liven up any gathering.
Wen Yangyang, who was organizing documents nearby, rolled her eyes and complained to him: “When Captain Yuan first entered the hospital, you said he had high EQ and was smart. Get a grip. Even if Captain Yuan comes back from the hospital, you still won’t get a day off to go home.”
Just as Tan Mingjiu was about to let out a long sigh, Huo Ranyin, who had just finished a short video meeting in his office, emerged.
He was holding a composite sketch of Mo Nai, which he distributed to everyone:
“The car he drove out of the prison was abandoned on the Liukun section of National Highway K367 near Ning City. That section of the highway is under renovation. The closest surveillance camera caught him at 9:32 p.m. The next camera missed him. He took some edible fresh food from the car, meaning he can ensure a certain period of survival in the wild without contact with people. Therefore, the preliminary assessment is that he is hiding in the deserted mountains along the route. The armed police have already started searching along the national highway, and our duty is to assist them in finding the suspect.”
“Furthermore, considering that the highway tolls are waived during the Spring Festival holiday, there are many vehicles passing through. We cannot rule out the possibility of the suspect using his gun to hijack and switch cars. We must focus on gathering relevant leads from the public.”
Ji Xun also took a photo to look at.
The person in the photo was young and pale, his hair like a heavy pot pressing down on his head, causing his back to hunch. The expression on his face, looking into the camera, was timid. Judging by his appearance alone, this was a frail, even effeminate young man. It was hard to imagine that he would commit the crime of r*ping a woman, leading to her suicide.
But it’s hard to know the heart beneath the skin. People with the face of a human and the heart of a beast are everywhere.
On National Highway K367.
On the Liukun section of National Highway K367, an Alfa Romeo 4C convertible sports car was speeding along the highway.
The owner was a middle-aged woman whose forehead and neck were already lined. She was dressed expensively and loved jewelry, wearing a total of three rings, five bracelets, and two necklaces. Even though stacking jewelry is currently a trend, she wore far too much, looking like a mobile jewelry display stand.
Of course, these jewels weren’t the most noticeable parts of the woman.
She was stout but wore a tight leopard print dress that squeezed wrinkles into her stomach. Over the leopard print dress, she draped a large fur coat, her long chestnut hair flying carelessly in the air.
She was wearing a striking watermelon-red lipstick.
She seemed to love watermelon-red. Her pointy fingernails, pressing on the steering wheel, were painted with the same color of nail polish.
She also had a pair of enormous sunglasses that covered half her cheeks, and even the frame of the sunglasses was watermelon-red.
She seemed to have an appointment, driving and talking on the phone, using a sweet, babyish voice: “Oh my, we agreed to travel together… how can you stand me up?… I know it’s the New Year… but so what? It’s New Year every year. You’re only sneaking out for two days of fun this year. This is our first year together… good brother—”
But after that plea, the call was disconnected. The man on the other end rejected her with a firm attitude.
The woman was so angry that she slammed on the brakes, pulling the car over to the side of the road.
The car had good performance, and she braked hard, causing it to stop instantly. The inertia made her lurch forward despite her seatbelt. Simultaneously, she heard a muffled thud from the trunk.
She turned back in surprise.
She couldn’t see the trunk from the car’s interior. The woman quickly pressed the trunk release, got out of the car, and looked into the trunk as its lid slowly opened.
There was a person hidden in the trunk.
A young man.
The young man was wearing thin thermal underwear in the dead of winter, huddled and shivering among her luggage. Besides that, her carpeted trunk also had a lot of rolling fresh fruits and vegetables.
Her eyes widened in surprise behind her sunglasses.
But the young man looked even more panicked and confused than she did. One of his hands, like a scampering lab mouse, fumbled around in the trunk for a long time, finally grasping a round object.
He immediately held the object up. It was a red apple:
“Um… can I offer you an apple?”
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