As Jie Lin spoke, his eyes were still fixed on Chi Qing’s hand, not looking away for a long time.
After Chi Qing finished wiping his hand, he could still feel the man’s gaze inching along, moving from his wrist bone all the way to between his fingers, not missing a single spot, and finally resting on the wound on his finger pad with a look that left much to the imagination.
Chi Qing said coldly, “Have you looked enough?”
Jie Lin thought for a moment and asked in return, “If I say no, will you let me look a little longer?”
Chi Qing: “…”
Chi Qing: “Has Dr. Wu ever said a certain sentence to you?”
Jie Lin: “What sentence?”
Chi Qing: “You really are quite seriously ill.”
The receptionist, completely unaware of the situation in the waiting area, announced from not far away: “—Mr. Chi, you may go in now.”
Chi Qing stood up, carrying his wet glove, not wanting to say another word to this person.
Jie Lin still had that smiling appearance. Today, he was draped in a very long black trench coat, the legs of his suit pants crisp and straight. Sitting on the sofa in a leisurely posture, he withdrew his gaze, his fingers pinching that thin ring and turning it twice. As if feeling his previous words weren’t annoying enough, he added, “Be careful the next time you hold a knife. Your hands are so pretty; don’t scratch them again.”
“…”
From the moment Chi Qing walked in, Dr. Wu sensed that his client seemed quite emotional today: “Did something happen today? You don’t seem very happy.”
Chi Qing set the half-wet glove aside, terminating this topic related to a certain psychopath: “It’s nothing, just my germaphobia acting up.”
The two quickly entered the normal consultation process.
Dr. Wu flipped through the information Chi Qing had filled out last time, and said as if making small talk, “You used to… study acting?”
“I also like watching TV dramas in my spare time.”
Dr. Wu very tactfully swallowed the words ‘but I haven’t seen you on TV,’ and added, “The acting industry is very interesting.”
Throughout the hour-long consultation, the Mr. Chi sitting opposite Dr. Wu still showed little reaction, remaining entirely indifferent to these small-talk attempts meant to close the distance between them. His attitude quickly made Dr. Wu feel as though he was just spouting nonsense.
Compared to his behavior during this one-hour consultation, this Mr. Chi only seemed a bit more vivid and alive when he first walked in with some emotion—even though it seemed to be merely because his glove got wet.
Having taken on this client for less than a week, Dr. Wu was already beginning to feel at his wit’s end.
When the consultation ended, out of sheer habit, as soon as Dr. Wu closed the file and stood up from his chair, he subconsciously reached out to shake hands in farewell, as fast as a conditioned reflex. Chi Qing didn’t have time to stop him.
And so, for the second time, Chi Qing heard that distorted voice slowly complaining in Dr. Wu’s uniquely peaceful tone: [This is the second time in my career that I’ve encountered such a bottleneck. Maybe I should advise him to change clinics…]
“…”
He was just about to pull his hand back when he heard that slow voice say again:
[…The last one was Jie Lin.]
Chi Qing’s hand paused.
[That kid Jie Lin, after coming to counseling for so many years, has practically learned psychology better than a professional. He comes in for regular sessions all the time, yet to this day I still don’t know what exactly is wrong with him.]
Chi Qing thought to himself.
He’s already sick to this extent.
Is it that hard to tell?
The weather outside today was damp and cold. The occasional breeze felt a bit stifling, and the air pressure had dropped. The south was often like this; once it started raining, it would go on continuously for days. This spell of sunny weather probably wouldn’t last much longer, and soon the people of the south would be plunged back into the distress of “long johns never drying.”
Having been forced to take off his gloves twice, Chi Qing still felt very uncomfortable after leaving the psychological clinic.
The slightly cool wind, and even the light shining brazenly on the back of his hand—these sensations were all very unfamiliar.
He was just getting ready to hail a car when a black Maybach parked by the side of the road, as if knowing early on what he was about to do, made a U-turn from the other side of the road and stopped squarely in front of him. The car window slowly rolled down, revealing the owner’s face, which was even more eye-catching than the luxury car.
Jie Lin rested one arm on the car window, leaning forward to greet him: “Where are you going? Need a ride?”
Chi Qing pointed to an old man leaning on a cane across the street: “See that person?”
Jie Lin looked over following his finger.
The street was bustling with people, and that old man was walking exceptionally slowly in the crowd.
Chi Qing: “If you have nothing to do, you can drive him.”
“…”
“Do you really think I’m that idle?” Jie Lin said. “I don’t have the time to drive other people home.”
Chi Qing reminded him: “I’m not familiar with you.”
Jie Lin was quite skilled at finding excuses: “You’re different from others. I didn’t splash a handful of water onto someone else, making me feel guilty. Just take it as an apology; let me take you back.”
“If you really care that much about this matter,” Chi Qing glanced at the time, “the car I called will be here in three minutes. You have three minutes to go to the convenience store next door and buy a bottle of water.”
“?”
Chi Qing: “I don’t mind splashing it back.”
Jie Lin didn’t insist further and pulled back the arm resting on the window.
It was exactly because of this movement that Chi Qing, looking through the wide-open car window, saw the plastic bag resting on Jie Lin’s passenger seat.
The plastic bag contained a newly bought serrated knife.
Exactly the same as the one at his house.
At the same time, he also recalled what Ji Mingrui had muttered like an idiot while holding the knife yesterday.
—”The killer used this exact kind of knife.”
Chi Qing suddenly resumed the topic he had just interrupted: “We probably aren’t going the same way.”
Hearing this, Jie Lin tapped his finger on the steering wheel and probed seemingly unintentionally: “I live near Haimao. Would you say it’s on the way?”
Chi Qing didn’t answer.
Jie Lin didn’t know that his probing remark took on a completely different meaning in the other’s ears.
Has the knife. And lives near Haimao.
Both keywords matched perfectly.
The two of them—one standing cold-faced at the clinic door, the other sitting in the car with a smile—looked at each other, each harboring his own thoughts.
The sunlight was obscured by patches of cumulus clouds, and dense, dark rain clouds surged from the horizon. It seemed it was going to rain again.
“The weather forecast says it’ll rain tonight.” In the Yongan Police Station, Ji Mingrui glanced out the window, saw the rolling dark clouds, and said, “Guess there’s no escaping this rain. I might not have brought an umbrella. Jiang Yu, do you have two umbrellas?”
No one answered him: “…”
“Jiang Yu?”
Still no answer.
Ji Mingrui turned his head back and saw his colleague’s thoroughly red earlobes, as well as his unnatural and darting gaze.
Ji Mingrui: “Did you take the wrong medicine?”
Maintaining his “wrong medicine” state, Jiang Yu typed out a very fluent string of gibberish on the keyboard, saying at the same time: “My idol is here. Keep your voice down.”
Ji Mingrui looked up and met the black trench coat on Jie Lin. Worn on him, the over-the-knee long trench coat looked like a supermodel walking the streets. He stood at the door of Brother Bin’s office, handing over a bag of exquisitely packaged restaurant takeout boxes.
Wu Zhibin took the takeout bag: “Why are you here, kid?”
“Delivering warmth,” Jie Lin said. “Guessed you definitely hadn’t eaten, so I just bought something casually while passing by.”
Wu Zhibin stepped aside to let him in: “…It doesn’t matter if I miss a meal occasionally.”
Jie Lin moved the unbrewed bucket of instant noodles off the desk: “Is yours ‘occasionally’? You’ll know if it matters when your stomach disease acts up.”
Wu Zhibin wasn’t that particular. In the past, when going out on missions, it wasn’t even certain if one would come back alive, let alone caring about a meal or two. No matter how much his stomach hurt, he just treated it as a minor ailment.
While he was eating, Jie Lin sat across from him, casually flipping through photos.
Just as Wu Zhibin pulled apart his disposable chopsticks and saw Jie Lin looking at the crime scene photos of the cat corpses from that day, he shoveled a mouthful of rice into his mouth without changing his expression: “You seem to be particularly interested in this case.”
Others might not know, but Wu Zhibin knew clearly. Jie Lin was formally invited by the Criminal Investigation Unit to be a case consultant at the age of fifteen, but even earlier than that—he had flipped through all the professional books and various well-known domestic and foreign case records filling the bookshelves of the Unit Captain, Jie Feng.
It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that this already exceptionally gifted child grew up looking at these criminal records.
What kind of case hadn’t he seen? Why care so much about an ordinary cat killing case?
Jie Lin didn’t deny it. He took another look at the cat corpses and simply said: “There’s a person… who makes me a bit curious.”
“A suspect?” Wu Zhibin asked.
“Can’t be sure,” Jie Lin said. “Actually, there are a few inconsistencies with him, but he is indeed very suspicious.”
After Jie Lin finished flipping through that pile of documents, he found that it was basically the same as what he had seen at the crime scene originally: “Still just these? No progress at all?”
It would have been fine if he hadn’t brought this up, but as soon as he did, Wu Zhibin became infuriated. He put down his chopsticks, picked up the cane next to him, and walked to the door. Pointing from afar with his cane, he commanded with earth-shattering momentum at the few rookies who were peeking into the office: “You, you, and you. The three of you, get in here right now.”
Ten seconds later, Ji Mingrui, Su Xiaolan, and Jiang Yu stood perfectly straight in a row.
Wu Zhibin settled the scores: “How exactly did you guys manage this? It’s been exactly five days since the incident, and there’s no progress at all? Sometimes I really admire your abilities.”
No one dared to speak, but it was Jie Lin who bailed them out: “Why are you being so fierce? Can’t you be gentler to the newcomers?”
Wu Zhibin tapped his cane on the ground: “I’m getting older year by year, I can’t take shocks. I actually hope they can show me some mercy and stop provoking me all day long.”
Ji Mingrui: “…”
Su Xiaolan: “…”
Jiang Yu, his face flushed red from being looked at by his idol: “…”
In the end, it was Ji Mingrui who bravely stepped forward at the risk of his life: “Uh, it’s really because it rained…”
Everyone tacitly agreed that “rain” was an extremely unfavorable factor.
Jie Lin, however, looked at the photos for a while and said, “Rain might be an important clue.”
Everyone looked at him in unison.
Jie Lin added another sentence: “Why a rainy day of all days?”
“Judging from the footprints, there are no traces of a long stay for committing the crime at the body disposal site, so that isn’t the primary crime scene. A person who clearly doesn’t have much strength still went out of their way to transport the bodies out, which means the primary crime scene must have some characteristic that forced him to move the bodies—for whatever reason, he could no longer hide the bodies there.”
“No more clues can be found at the body disposal site, but they can definitely be found at the primary crime scene.”
“Domestic cats are relatively docile and don’t take much effort to catch.” Jie Lin’s gaze swept past the only silver-white Highland cat with an owner in the photos, resting on the corpses of the other six stray cats. “But stray cats are different, and it’s winter right now. Where could one effortlessly catch so many stray cats?”
At this moment, a muffled thunder sounded outside the window with a rumble, followed immediately by raindrops pattering against the glass pane.
Approaching nightfall, it indeed started raining.
The sky had already grown dark. Even though it was raining, it rained very quietly. Meanwhile, Chi Qing was at home, holding a water cup. He saw a stack of case photos left behind by Ji Mingrui on the coffee table. Because the lights in the room weren’t turned on, the photos looked pitch black at first glance, like a stack of silent black-and-white films.
While slowly sipping hot water, Chi Qing picked up the stack of photos and examined them by the faint light coming from the television.
Only when the TV’s light changed color did it illuminate the photos a little more.
Chi Qing looked at them for a long time before putting the photos down. He continued to hold the water cup and gaze at the TV screen. Even until the program ended and commercials started playing on TV, he showed no reaction.
After a while, when the commercials ended, he finally moved. He felt for his phone nearby and clicked on the contact labeled “Ji Mingrui.”
However, Ji Mingrui on the other end of the network was still in a state of doubting his life and doubting himself: “…”
Jie Lin had already left, but his mind kept looping: I’m dumbfounded.
How could he analyze so many things?
……
Finally, he dealt a soul-crushing blow to himself:
Am I really a retard?!
Ji Mingrui couldn’t recover his senses for a while, missing the messages Chi Qing sent.
– Besides the body disposal site, have you surveyed the primary scene?
Chi Qing continued typing.
– The location where the killer committed the crimes is likely a place where stray cats gather in winter. A characteristic of that place is that the entrance/exit is narrow, or rather, it is unfavorable for escape.
After Chi Qing sent this paragraph, he didn’t wait for a reply from the other side.
He glanced at the rain outside the window.
Generally speaking, he was always in a pretty good mood on rainy days, and today was no exception.
Harboring a rare good mood, he thought of Ji Mingrui, who had been wailing for days over these seven cat corpses. He thought to himself that if this guy continued to wail like this, he didn’t know whether the case would be solved, but he did know that the speed at which he would be annoyed to death would definitely be faster than the speed at which Ji Mingrui solved the case.
So, Chi Qing put on his gloves, grabbed an umbrella, and went out.
Haimao Residential Compound was only three intersections away from his compound. There were very few pedestrians on the road late at night, and Chi Qing hardly ran into anyone on his walk over.
The bloodstained lawn at the entrance of Haimao Compound had already been cleaned up. Chi Qing tried hard to recall the street layout of this area and found that there weren’t many places that satisfied all the necessary conditions at the same time. He walked past several places where stray cats were likely to gather but found no traces.
Chi Qing squatted there holding his umbrella and looked for a while. The ground was completely clean, with only a few worn-out cat bowls containing leftover food.
Then there was only one place left—not far from Haimao, there was a small abandoned factory building. That factory building had been vacant for a long time, though there were recently vague rumors that it would soon be reclaimed and rebuilt.
Splash—
The rain was getting heavier.
Chi Qing held his umbrella, his fingers resting on the handle, and walked toward the factory building.
This factory building didn’t cover a large area. Most of the space was used to pile up abandoned machinery and pipes. The door had long since rusted, and the weeds by the door had grown very tall, but the entrance/exit area was still flat.
Someone frequented this place.
And more importantly, there was someone inside the factory.
In the pitch darkness, Chi Qing saw a human figure. That person was squatting, holding a bloodstained serrated knife in his hand. The color of the ground at his feet was much darker than the surrounding blackness; it was likely bloodstains that had accumulated for a long time.
Hearing the sound, the person slightly tilted his head. Thus, Chi Qing met a face he had just seen earlier in the day—a face that could instantly shatter his good mood.
__
Author’s Note:
Jie Lin: You are very dangerous.
Chi Qing: You aren’t bad either.
