Chi Qing could be absolutely certain of one thing.
And that was—an hour ago, he had truly been out of his mind to touch Xie Lin’s hand under the dining table.
“I’m joking,” seeing his expression that screamed ‘I want to leave the police station this very instant,’ Xie Lin pulled his hand back, and spread the case file from his other hand open in front of him. “I’ll stop teasing you. Want to look at the file?”
Chi Qing hadn’t actually seen the complete crime scene files. The number of crime scene photos Ji Mingrui had left at his house was limited; he had only seen a few scattered photos, showing several stray cats with almost identical causes of death.
Su Xiaolan was in charge of the document recording work. With the interrogation between Ji Mingrui and Li Guangfu at a standstill, she had nothing to do.
Consequently, her attention was quickly drawn to the two people opposite her who were “huddled together” flipping through the file.
Saying they were huddled together wasn’t quite accurate, because even though they were reading the same document, there was a rather safe distance between them. The creator of this distance, Mr. Chi Qing, had his hands stuffed in his jacket pockets. A mild cold made him look somewhat listless, his eyelids drooping. Yet despite this, he still tried his utmost to use the air to draw an invisible dividing line between himself and the person beside him.
Xie Lin: “Can you see clearly, sitting so far away?”
Chi Qing: “I have good eyesight.”
“…”
Only when the two of them discussed the case did they display a rare harmony.
Their topics gradually converged, and they sounded like they were having a highly agreeable conversation… it was just that the content of the conversation wasn’t quite right.
Xie Lin: “A serrated knife is actually very suitable for dismembering a corpse.”
Chi Qing expressed his agreement, stating mildly: “If one wanted to dispose of a body and wash away traces of the crime, dismemberment is indeed a better method than throwing it in the grass.”
Xie Lin rested his finger on the page: “It just takes a bit of effort.”
Chi Qing: “And it easily dirties the hands.”
Xie Lin: “If it were you, where would you choose to dump them?”
“A nearby raw meat market,” Chi Qing said without hesitation. “In a raw meat market, the probability of an animal carcass attracting attention is much lower.”
Su Xiaolan: “…”
…What on earth was she listening to?
Su Xiaolan’s mood at this moment was indescribable. Li Guangfu was clearly the suspect they had tracked down following the clues, but why did she feel that compared to Xie Lin and Chi Qing, the suspect Li Guangfu seemed much more like an innocent bystander?
Xie Lin: “Exactly. Therefore, the fact that the killer chose to dump them in the grass actually means he harbored a desire to be discovered. He wants to kill but doesn’t have the guts, so he has to find some satisfaction elsewhere—such as the panic of the masses and the gossip of the people around him.”
Chi Qing didn’t pass judgment on what the killer was thinking, because it was very difficult for him to perceive what others were thinking or what psychological feelings they had.
But Xie Lin seemed to be very adept at this.
The file was quickly flipped to the last page. On the last page were a few newly added photos of shoeprints. These bloodstained shoeprints were discovered by technicians investigating the primary crime scene a few days ago. Furthermore, using measurement techniques, they had determined the approximate shoe size: it was a size 42 shoe, matching the shoe size found at the body disposal site.
Su Xiaolan felt that their conversation had finally been dragged back from the path of “committing crimes,” only to see Xie Lin suddenly fall silent. His gaze lingered on that patch of shoeprints for a moment, and he suddenly frowned.
And Chi Qing, in a rare move, took his hand out of his jacket pocket. His pale, slender fingers pulled a crime scene photo out from the file.
The photo showed the silver-white Highland cat from Granny Wang’s house. When the photographer documented it, they had intentionally zoomed in on the cat’s features, the lens clearly focusing on a distinctive black spot on the cat’s ear.
Xie Lin: “What are you looking at?”
Chi Qing: “The cat’s ear.”
Ji Mingrui was repeatedly confirming key information, asking Li Guangfu, “Are you sure you didn’t steal the knife?” Before Li Guangfu could even answer, he heard Xie Lin, who had walked up beside him at some point, say: “He probably isn’t the suspect.”
“?”
Xie Lin: “There’s a problem with the shoeprints.”
It had been too dark at the scene that night, and he hadn’t noticed the shoeprints on the ground. He only realized something was wrong after seeing the file.
“The crime scene was washed by rain, so there was no way to identify anything. However, the shoeprint accidentally left at the primary crime scene shows a phenomenon of double-striking at the heel strike point. The killer was clearly not wearing their own shoes. If this is truly the case, then there is a basis for the conclusion that their ‘physical constitution is poor.’ ‘He’ is very likely not a male; the possibility of being a female is much higher… it might even just be an underage child.”
The deduction of a female was one thing, but…
“…A child?”
“If it is a child, his age should be between 12 and 15 years old.” As Xie Lin spoke, he rested his hands on the table, leaning in toward Li Guangfu—who was sitting opposite him being interrogated—in an extremely natural posture. Despite having a pair of smiling eyes, his words carried an innate sense of oppression. “Mr. Li, you said an appliance broke at home. Did you come out to buy the screwdriver alone?”
Li Guangfu didn’t speak.
Guided by Xie Lin’s question, his memory flashed back to that rainy night.
He left the house at 11:18 PM. The rain outside was pouring heavily, and the roads were piled with mud, making it incredibly difficult to walk. He got mud all over his feet.
He rubbed his arms, braving the wet and cold weather with an umbrella in his hand, quickening his pace, wanting to finish buying things quickly so he could hurry home.
11:30 PM.
The Bianmin Convenience Store was just about to close for the night.
Li Guangfu’s nearly frozen hand pushed open the convenience store door.
“Ding-a-ling—” the door chime rang.
The little boy was packing up his pencil case. He looked up and called out crisply, “Uncle Li.”
Li Guangfu smiled at him. He didn’t close his umbrella, but instead urged his son behind him to come in quickly: “Xiaokang, hurry up, don’t get rained on.”
Only after he spoke did the person outside the door slowly walk in.
The boy was much taller than his peers, his entire body wrapped inside a thick, heavy school uniform jacket.
“Did you come out to buy the screwdriver alone?” Xie Lin asked again.
“I…” Li Guangfu actually didn’t entirely understand what was happening, but under Xie Lin’s gaze, he mumbled, “I… I was alone…”
“You should know that a single phone call to Bianmin to ask will quickly clarify whether it was one person or two.”
“…”
“Do I need to ask one last time?”
“…My son was there too,” Li Guangfu said. “My son went with me.”
“I don’t know what you guys are investigating, but it definitely has nothing to do with my son.”
Ji Mingrui also really wanted to say: What does this have to do with his son?
They couldn’t just lock his son in as the suspect based solely on the trait that the killer wore large shoes that didn’t fit, right? Moreover, a child—and earlier it was deduced that there was a possibility of killing cats for practice—who did he want to kill?
Even though his son was suspected of stealing the knife, and had sneaked into Granny Wang’s house… Wait!
Ji Mingrui felt as if he had caught onto a thread.
This thread started from the night of the continuous torrential rain, from a small, inconspicuous wood carving. He had grabbed one end of this thread, but for a moment, he couldn’t grasp the other end. That was until Xie Lin proactively brought up the wood carving case: “You guys found an old phone in Granny Wang’s house back then. Do you still have that phone?”
“The two parties reached a smooth mediation, so it was returned a long time ago.”
Ji Mingrui asked, “Is there a problem with the phone?”
Xie Lin said only one word: “The photo album.”
Ji Mingrui was someone who had flipped through that phone’s photo album. Back then, he had followed Chi Qing’s browsing history, looking at everything Chi Qing had opened. Because it was an old phone, there weren’t many photos saved in the album. There were some travel photos Li Guangfu had taken in the past, but not many newly added photos… However, he recalled one of the newest photos.
The photo was taken on the exact day of the wood carving case. It was very blurry, showing black and white, as if something black and white had flashed past the lens at high speed. Furthermore, the photo didn’t look like a standard shot; it looked more like it was taken by accidentally pressing the wrong button.
Thinking back carefully, it also seemed a bit furry.
…
Xie Lin asked, “Doesn’t the first photo in the album look like the ear of that silver-white Highland cat?”
“It does.” Ji Mingrui almost immediately figured out the logic behind this. As the two spoke, they had already stepped away from the people involved and moved into the hallway. “So you’re saying that Li Guangfu’s son might not have gone to steal the wood carving that day; catching the cat was his real goal. This also explains why the phone dropped on the floor, and why such a photo was snapped. When Granny Wang came back, he didn’t have time to pick up the phone at all, so he thought he was being clever and just grabbed something at random… But how did you know?”
Through the glass door, Xie Lin pointed inside.
The direction his fingertip pointed in was aimed exactly at Chi Qing, who was sitting there looking extremely reluctant.
Chi Qing was waiting very impatiently. Sitting on the sofa, he looked somewhat drowsy, occasionally lifting his eyes to look at the wall clock, calculating how much unnecessary time he had already wasted sitting here.
Ten minutes ago.
After answering with the words “Cat ear,” Chi Qing looked at the photo in his hand for a long time: “…This black spot, I think I’ve seen it somewhere.”
After experiencing the incident where his buddy and Xie Lin sent each other to the police station, Ji Mingrui was surprised that the two of them actually possessed the ability to sit together calmly and deduce a case.
Ji Mingrui muttered to himself, “Is this the legendary ‘two negatives can make a positive’?”
Ji Mingrui thought of the most important point, which was also everyone’s biggest concern right now: “If this Xiaokang really is the suspect, what motive could he have for murder?”
Or rather, who was the intended victim?
“I have to go, Xiaokang and Mingming are still waiting for me at home…” Li Guangfu suddenly stood up, ignoring Jiang Yu’s attempts to stop him, and moved to walk out. “What are you doing?! This matter has nothing to do with me or Xiaokang. I don’t know what you’re trying to investigate, but you have no evidence and no authority. On what grounds are you detaining me here?!”
After Ji Mingrui went into the hallway, Jiang Yu took his place. Because he was sitting down, it was awkward to exert force, and he actually failed to grab him in time.
Li Guangfu was walking fast. Seeing the two people standing at the door, he knew leaving wouldn’t be that easy. So before charging out, he looked around to find something for self-defense, something to block whoever came over to catch him—
He set his sights on the chair Xie Lin had just been sitting on. And when he grabbed the chair, he accidentally involved the man sitting next to it, whose mood was already not very good to begin with.
Chi Qing’s eyelids, which had been drooping with sleepiness, lifted slightly: “…”
Li Guangfu suddenly drew near. Because the corners of the chair could easily poke someone, Chi Qing raised his hand to block the chair leg. With this block, the back of his hand happened to brush against the back of Li Guangfu’s wildly flailing right hand.
[I have to hurry back, I don’t know if Xiaokang is still angry with me. This temper of mine, I shouldn’t have scolded him.]
[Ever since his mother died, he hasn’t been able to accept my remarrying, and he doesn’t want another half-brother. But I really didn’t expect that he would actually say…]
All sounds faded away in that instant.
Jiang Yu’s voice trying to stop Li Guangfu, the noise in the office, Ji Mingrui’s shouts—they all suddenly felt very far away.
Only the distorted voice beside his ear kept expanding, as if someone was leaning close to his ear and speaking in a low voice.
[He actually said… it would be better if his brother didn’t exist.]
This voice leaned close to his ear, repeatedly emphasizing: […it would be better if his brother didn’t exist.]
…
However, these chaotic voices suddenly came to a screeching halt.
Chi Qing blinked slowly, realizing a half-beat late that it was Xie Lin who had pulled Li Guangfu’s hand away in the chaos.
But the reason the voice abruptly stopped was clearly not just because Li Guangfu was pulled away, because while the man had one hand pressing on Li Guangfu’s hand, his other hand was also holding his hand.
Chi Qing lowered his eyes and saw that his finger knuckles were currently resting lightly in Xie Lin’s palm.
“Mr. Li,” Xie Lin looked at Li Guangfu and said, “If you have something to say, say it nicely. Don’t touch things indiscriminately if you don’t need to.”
