Ji Mingrui even lamented for a moment.
–Huanan City has really been restless lately…
It was indeed restless.
So many things had happened within a single week.
Ji Mingrui and the others were still primarily responsible for the Honghai case. After arriving at the scene, the case was defined as “murder,” which meant it couldn’t follow the usual procedures and had to be transferred to other departments. Those other departments would then verify the victim’s identity, examine the scene, retrieve surveillance footage, and conduct a rigorous, thorough investigation.
Ji Mingrui sent over a final message.
–But it’s pretty strange. The scene was cleaned up very thoroughly without leaving any clues, almost making one suspect that the locked door was just an accident. Moreover, after an investigation, the source of the fire was confirmed to be ‘spontaneous combustion’ of the electrical wires. It really looks like spontaneous combustion, but whether someone deliberately caused the wires to self-combust is still hard to say.
Ji Mingrui clicked off his phone screen, got into his car, and drove back.
When Ji Mingrui drove up to an intersection and was waiting for the traffic light, the afternoon movie screening at the cinema two streets away had just let out. A stream of people surged out from the theater, gradually making their way to the curbside, and the road conditions instantly became somewhat congested.
“Breaking news broadcast: At 2:36 PM today, a fire broke out inside a building on Nanyang Street. The death toll stands at one, and no other casualties have been found so far…”
Chi Qing’s home was as dim as always, with only the television screen and the phone beside his hand casting a bit of light.
He and Xie Lin were having a “date” at home. They originally talked about finding a movie to watch, but in the end, both of them watched until they felt straight-up drowsy.
“Then what should we watch?” Chi Qing asked.
“A homicide case?” Xie Lin proposed. “There’s a foreign cold case program recently, saying it’s the first time they’ve disclosed many unresolved major cases.”
“…”
This proposal was actually fine. It barely managed to fall right within both of their interest points.
It was just that if anyone were to push open the door to Chi Qing’s home and see the bloody scenes flashing across the TV screen one after another, they would never think the two of them were on a date.
Furthermore, it was accompanied by the following dialogue:
Xie Lin: “This saw isn’t bad; it’s quite sharp.”
Chi Qing nodded: “The knife is good too.”
…
After finishing one episode like this, Chi Qing casually flipped the channel, happening to land on the news channel. The report about the fire lasted for only two minutes before the broadcast quickly cut away from the reporter live at the scene.
For some reason, Chi Qing cared about it particularly much. His right eyelid was twitching involuntarily.
He raised his hand to press down on his eye, sitting on the sofa to look at his phone. The screen still displayed the crime scene photo Ji Mingrui had sent him just a moment ago.
He always felt like there was something wrong with the scene…
However, before he could look at it for more than a couple of seconds, his phone was snatched away by Xie Lin.
“It’s a rare day off, and I’m right beside you,” Xie Lin said. “Instead of looking at me, you’ve been staring at your phone the whole time.”
Chi Qing lifted his eyes, his gaze landing on Xie Lin’s face for a second before shifting away again. “I’ve already looked.”
Xie Lin: “…”
Propping his hand on the sofa, Xie Lin leaned over slightly, pressing in close right in front of Chi Qing. “Tsk, you can’t be this perfunctory.”
Xie Lin forcefully occupied the entire field of vision in front of him, so Chi Qing was now forced to stare at him.
Xie Lin’s clothing style at home was quite different from when he was out. Although this kind of casual loungewear couldn’t cover up this face that was practically born to cause trouble, the collar of his gray sweater opened below his collarbones. The man reined in the casual, careless smile in his eyes, his light brown pupils staring straight over.
Facts proved that one cannot look into the eyes of the person they like for more than three seconds.
Exceeding three seconds would cause some rather uncontrollable things to happen.
The throw pillow originally propped on the sofa was swept to the floor by a hand. That throw pillow happened to be tucked under Chi Qing’s waist earlier; without it, there was no obstacle when Chi Qing lay down.
Xie Lin first tentatively pressed his lips against the corner of Chi Qing’s mouth for a moment. After confirming that he showed no resistance or any other adverse reaction, he shifted over a bit, their burning lips pressing together.
Chi Qing’s lips, which were already excessively red to begin with, became even more magnificent and vivid now.
Xie Lin’s gaze darkened bit by bit.
In the intervals of their tangling lips and teeth, Xie Lin murmured softly, “…They seem even redder.”
This was a kiss laced with danger.
Chi Qing didn’t know how to catch his breath. Only after Xie Lin let go of him and reminded him to breathe did he recover from that suffocating intimacy. Then, Xie Lin’s hand parted the hem of his clothes and reached back inside. Upon sensing that Chi Qing was still somewhat stiff, Xie Lin withdrew his hand.
Then, Chi Qing felt Xie Lin rest a hand over his own, guiding his hand all the way downward.
A sentence rang clearly by his ear: 【How about this, you touch me. I don’t have as many problems as you do. You can touch me however you want, anywhere you want.】
Chi Qing: “…”
Xie Lin was very good at adapting. Since Chi Qing wouldn’t let him touch, then it was better to do the reverse.
[Move your hand a bit further down.]
[Can you feel it? Your partner’s abs.]
Chi Qing’s ears turned red from these words, and his originally somewhat chilly fingers caught the body heat from Xie Lin’s body.
Xie Lin tested his bottom line step by step. After moving down another section, Chi Qing was first stunned, and then he almost kicked him.
Chi Qing: “You…”
He stammered on “you” for a long time, and finally said, “Move aside.”
Xie Lin let go of him, his collar twisted completely out of shape, leaning against the back of the sofa to look at him. “Going to wash your hands? I suddenly feel like this illness of yours really needs to be cured. If you have to wash your hands just for this, then in the future when we do other things, it could…”
Xie Lin’s words ground to a sudden halt here.
Chi Qing picked up the throw pillow that had fallen to the ground just now and slammed it into his chest.
The day off passed quickly. When the two of them went to the police station the next morning, Ji Mingrui said to them with a grave expression, “I was just looking for you guys. The lead regarding Jiang Yiyun has made new progress.”
Xie Lin gave an “mm” as he walked, gesturing for him to continue.
“Didn’t we send people to keep an eye on Bai Zhixing and Yu Yang?” Ji Mingrui said. “That kid Bai Zhixing has quite a personality. He quickly realized we were tailing him. When he went to an internet cafe to surf the web, he pretended he was going to the restroom and slipped out the side door. Our guys searched two blocks before they found him.”
At that time, Bai Zhixing was hiding in an alley, cornered against the wall by plainclothes police officers.
With his eyebrows drooping, Bai Zhixing said, “Officer, there’s no need for this, is there? Why keep following me all the time? I’m just skipping classes and surfing the web. Stop following me, I don’t like being followed.”
“Originally, we all thought Bai Zhixing was just an ordinary rebellious teenager, but who knew he was actually quite a recluse. He just stays rebellious all by himself and doesn’t run around with anyone. During the interaction with my colleague, he mentioned Jiang Yiyun’s name.”
Carrying an attitude of not wanting to get involved in these matters, Bai Zhixing was rebellious in a very detached, carefree manner: “I didn’t want to say anything at first. This matter has nothing to do with me, and saying it will only bring me trouble. It’s useless for you guys to follow me. If you really want to find leads, go look for Jiang Yiyun.”
The civilian police officer took the opportunity to press further: “What involvement does Jiang Yiyun have with them?”
Clutching a cigarette in his mouth, Bai Zhixing countered, “If I tell you, will you guys stop following me?”
The civilian police officer nodded as if coaxing a child, while simultaneously supplementing in his heart: We’ll just follow you even more discreetly, so you won’t notice.
After a long pause, Bai Zhixing leaned against the wall and said, “Jiang Yiyun has always been threatened by Wang Yuan and his crowd. It seems to be related to money. Because our seats were close together, when I was sleeping during class, I heard them mention some kind of ‘video.’ Anything beyond that, I’m not clear about.”
The civilian officer: “You really didn’t run around with them?”
Bai Zhixing: “Is there something wrong with my head? They swagger around all day like firecrackers, exploding at the slightest spark, causing trouble constantly. Why would I want to look for trouble myself?”
All in all, hearing this, this Bai Zhixing truly maintained a delicate distance from Wang Yuan’s group.
Money. A video.
A student and a teacher.
Combining these key terms together…
After pondering for a moment, Xie Lin asked, “Among the three victims, was there anyone whose family background was relatively affluent?”
“Yes,” Ji Mingrui said. “Ma Hui. His parents are in business and aren’t home much normally, so they didn’t give the child much attention.”
Xie Lin analyzed, “In business, no time to care for the child… and Jiang Yiyun has this style of strict discipline, so it’s impossible for her not to have contacted the student’s parents. In this kind of situation, spending money to smooth things over with the teacher so that the teacher takes more care of their child—doesn’t that sound quite logical? Except, when the money was handed over, it just so happened to be seen by Ma Hui. He secretly recorded a video and used it to blackmail Jiang Yiyun. This would also explain why Jiang Yiyun’s attitude toward them in the early stage was so passive.”
Ji Mingrui said, “…But we currently have no evidence.”
Xie Lin asked, “Has the person been brought in?”
Ji Mingrui: “She has.”
Xie Lin said, “If there’s no evidence, then we manufacture evidence. Isn’t the ready-made evidence right here? Bluff her, and let her speak for herself.”
Sitting in the interrogation room this time, Jiang Yiyun was much more composed than the last.
She wore a beige knit dress with a pink down jacket over it, still keeping herself meticulously put-together. Even her hair had been carefully straightened with a flat iron.
However, this composure of hers did not last very long.
A casual sentence from the smiling man sitting across from her—”We cracked the phone password and found some things in the victim’s phone”—made the color drain from her face in an instant.
If Chi Qing could touch her hand right now, he would probably hear her entire mind thinking: Impossible, impossible, they’re already dead, no one will find out—
The more Xie Lin smiled sitting opposite her, the more panicked she became.
She wanted to reach out to grab the cup of water on the table, but found her hand was shaking, so she lowered her hand again in the end, tightly gripping the edge of her sweater.
Xie Lin tapped his fingers lightly on the tabletop a few times. “No need to be nervous. Let’s just casually chat about you and Ma Hui’s parent…”
To Jiang Yiyun, unless they had seen the video and knew she had taken money from Ma Hui’s father, the police wouldn’t have asked such a highly targeted question.
Her mind was a complete mess.
She suddenly blurted out, “I didn’t move a single cent of that money!”
Perhaps her remaining sanity told her: if she confessed proactively now, considering a good attitude of admitting her mistake, she might still plead for leniency.
After a moment of silence, Jiang Yiyun said, “They had been working against me constantly. After they got a hold over me, they demanded that I do some very excessive things, forbidding me from stepping in to discipline them anymore. After class, in private…”
She stopped there and didn’t continue.
Xie Lin used a more tactful way of putting it: “They asked you out?”
Biting her lip, Jiang Yiyun squeezed out a single word, her voice incredibly low: “…Yes.”
Given such an opportunity to make a teacher—who was usually high and mighty, bossing students around—completely submissive, the deepest evil inherent in human nature would gradually surface. Wang Yuan and his crowd perhaps did things that even they themselves hadn’t anticipated, lowering their moral boundaries step by step and taking pleasure in it.
Jiang Yiyun explained, “At that time, I had a very important evaluation in the city, and the school leadership held very high expectations for me. I couldn’t afford any mistakes, so I…”
The evidence had been bluffed out.
However, there was still a most critical point in this case that could not be explained.
“Thank you for your cooperation,” Xie Lin said. “But we checked the phones of the three victims, and there is no video at all. No, rather, it should be said—the phones were tampered with, and the video was deleted.”
Jiang Yiyun’s eyes widened.
Xie Lin stared straight at her, not relaxing his vigilance against her just because she admitted to the video matter. “If there is such a person who killed Wang Yuan and the others, and even specifically deleted the video concerning you entirely from the phone… if this person isn’t you, who else do you think it could be?”
