I…
Caught in the room, Ji Xun was momentarily speechless.
Just ten minutes ago, he thought his luck was good, that everything was going so smoothly. A person can’t get too complacent, right? Now, trouble has come.
His gaze swept quickly around the room.
There was no suspended ceiling. The bathroom and the master bedroom were connected, separated only by a transparent glass wall, offering a clear view; even without the transparent glass, anyone pushing the door open would see everything. Not a place to hide.
The only place that could possibly hide a person was—
Ji Xun’s gaze fell on the air conditioning unit outside the window. He focused for a second, then retracted his gaze.
Forget it. It’s not that serious.
It was the 18th floor. He could really die.
The voices outside didn’t stop. Amidst the overly eager greetings of the property manager, Ji Xun heard Tan Mingjiu’s perfunctory “uh-huh” sounds, and another set of footsteps, unhurried, taking one step every half second.
That was Huo Ranyin.
Without much thought, Ji Xun immediately confirmed it.
Only Huo Ranyin walked like a carnivorous animal on the hunt.
In his haste, he had no choice but to slip into the empty wardrobe in the bedroom.
He had just closed the cabinet door properly when the bedroom door was pushed open. Through a crack in the cabinet, he saw Huo Ranyin appear at the bedroom entrance.
Huo Ranyin first squatted down and glanced at the floor.
He’s looking at the footprints.
Ji Xun thought.
When someone enters a dusty floor, of course, they will leave footprints. But when he entered, he had habitually first assessed the layout of the room and walked around, leaving footprints both coming in and going out. Huo Ranyin couldn’t determine anything from that—except that someone had entered, a male, 187 cm tall, weighing 64 kg, wearing sports sneakers, with no flat feet or other foot characteristics.
After a moment, Huo Ranyin stood up and tilted his head.
It was the switch on the wall.
Huo Ranyin had noticed the pressed switch on the wall. Next, he would look at the lamp by the bed, and then he would realize…
Ji Xun ground his teeth slightly. After a brief thought, he took out his phone, his fingers flying, and sent a message to Tan Mingjiu:
“I have something important to tell you, related to the case—”
The slightly ajar cabinet door loosened, and light suddenly shot in. Ji Xun’s hand trembled, and he couldn’t type anymore.
“Is there gold on the floor?” Huo Ranyin’s cool voice sounded.
“…No,” Ji Xun said.
“Then why don’t you look up?” Huo Ranyin asked with a smile, tinged with a sharp, sarcastic tone, and even a lazy post-nasal sound. “Are you playing the ‘if you don’t look at me, I can’t see you’ game?”
After speaking, he reached out to take Ji Xun’s phone.
Suddenly, Ji Xun was reminded of the Huo Ranyin he had first met.
A man like a cocktail, both bewitching and potent.
After a brief silence, Ji Xun looked up nonchalantly, even raising his arm to block Huo Ranyin’s movement, and said with a smile, “Captain Huo, what are you doing? From this posture, are you planning to do a ‘closet-slam’ on me?”
Huo Ranyin’s outstretched hand stopped in mid-air.
Ji Xun was still talking glibly. “In broad daylight, under a clear sky, it’s not the time for this. The key is that Tan Mingjiu is still outside. If he suddenly comes in and sees us having a fierce battle in this small cabinet, with sparks flying, it wouldn’t look good, don’t you think—”
His lips were suddenly pressed by Huo Ranyin’s thumb, the other four fingers gripping his neck, pinning him against the wall of the wardrobe. The light dimmed abruptly as Huo Ranyin leaned in close.
Now, the two were truly face to face, squeezed into a small cabinet.
“So much nonsense,” Huo Ranyin said. “Ji Xun, illegal entry and theft—I don’t need to tell you what the charges are, do I?”
“Illegal entry… and illegal entry with theft… are different charges.” Huo Ranyin’s hand was pressing hard, but Ji Xun still managed to speak in a breathy voice. “At most, I’m guilty of illegal entry… a reprimand and education…”
Huo Ranyin looked at Ji Xun for a moment, then moved a little closer. He controlled Ji Xun’s neck with one hand, and Ji Xun’s head turned involuntarily to the side. He heard a soft laugh right behind his ear.
Along with the laugh came Huo Ranyin’s breath.
A rhythmic and very present airflow brushed against the side of Ji Xun’s neck, making him feel the tension of being targeted by a predator. The goosebumps on that patch of skin all stood up.
And that wasn’t all.
The next second, Ji Xun felt his pants pocket being stretched open, and a hand reached inside.
It was Huo Ranyin’s hand.
The thin fabric couldn’t block the warmth and contour of the palm. Huo Ranyin’s body temperature and breath were two extremes; Ji Xun felt as if a ball of ice had probed into his pocket.
The cold made him shiver.
After the shiver, he felt some extra weight in his pocket; something had been put inside.
“Now there’s something in your pocket.”
Huo Ranyin was right behind Ji Xun’s ear. Ji Xun couldn’t see his expression, only hearing the sharp, cold tone, faint yet discernible, mixed with the airflow.
“As long as this item isn’t yours, it’s evidence of your theft. Tan Mingjiu outside is the witness. Caught red-handed with the stolen goods, the evidence is conclusive. Do you have anything else to say?”
“Yes. I think a good police officer of the people wouldn’t do something so out of line.” Under dual physical and psychological pressure, confined to a tiny space, even Ji Xun’s breathing became slow.
“Then let’s try. Let’s see if I’m a good police officer in the traditional sense. Let’s bet on whether I’ll cross the line.” He emphasized the words ‘cross the line,’ his voice cold, dangerous, and full of playful menace.
“…”
In public, Huo Ranyin was most likely a good cop, but his nighttime persona was really hard to say.
Ji Xun assessed the situation and raised both hands in a gesture of surrender.
Huo Ranyin glanced at Ji Xun, released his hand, and turned to knock on the cabinet door, his tone returning to normal. “Tell me how you got here and what clues you’ve found.”
Ji Xun reached into his pocket and felt the keychain he had been looking for for a long time. He was silent for a few seconds. “Thanks.”
He stepped out of the wardrobe and said to Huo Ranyin, “I have a deduction that Captain Huo will definitely want to know.”
“Continue,” Huo Ranyin raised his eyebrows, his expression nonchalant.
“Tang Jinglong terminated the lease before Xi Lei’s death. Why did he terminate the lease? He knew Xi Lei would never be able to use this place again.”
Ji Xun said it all in one breath. The nonchalant indifference faded from Huo Ranyin’s face.
His expression became profound.
“Captain Huo, an important clue, the property management—”
Tan Mingjiu’s voice suddenly sounded from outside. He walked quickly into the master bedroom and immediately saw Ji Xun standing in the wardrobe. He froze, his pupils dilating.
Ji Xun answered first, “Hi.”
This greeting brought Tan Mingjiu back to his senses. He clutched his chest and took a deep breath, squeezing out a sentence from between his teeth, “…Hi your banana, you’re actually here! How did you get in?”
Huo Ranyin interrupted Tan Mingjiu. “What important clue?”
Tan Mingjiu immediately said, “It’s the landlord calling back. The property management just contacted the landlord, and the landlord said the tenant terminated the lease on the 4th of this month! In addition, when Tang Jinglong signed the rental contract, he didn’t use his own name, and when making the monthly payments, he didn’t use his bank card either!”
Huo Ranyin’s gaze flickered slightly.
Tan Mingjiu looked at the unsurprised Huo Ranyin, then at the even less surprised Ji Xun, and understood.
“Ji Xun already knew about this?”
“No, I didn’t know about the bank card,” Ji Xun said, not very seriously.
“So you knew the apartment belonged to Tang Jinglong?” Tan Mingjiu persisted. “How did you know? Did you infiltrate the property management? No, the property management doesn’t know the specifics of this apartment either; you know the landlord? So the landlord gave you the key, and you used the key to open the door? The landlord isn’t one of your readers, is he?”
“Your imagination is quite rich. If I were Conan Doyle or Agatha Christie, that might be possible. Unfortunately, I’m just an ordinary little author,” Ji Xun said, speechless. “This is common sense—”
“Those two words again!” Tan Mingjiu sighed. “You haven’t learned the noble sentiment of a detective, but you’ve got all the verbal tics down.”
Huo Ranyin closed his eyes for a moment, following Ji Xun’s train of thought. He spoke on Ji Xun’s behalf, “There was a layer of dust on the floor when we came in, and the lights didn’t turn on when the switch was flipped, which shows the apartment hasn’t been entered for a while and the main power has been shut off. Under normal living conditions, who would turn off the main power?”
“Is it that simple?” Tan Mingjiu asked.
“How much more complicated do you want it to be? After seeing this apartment, the matter is as obvious as a louse on a bald head,” Ji Xun mocked.
Tan Mingjiu felt offended.
After the idle talk, Ji Xun continued, “One would only give up a love nest if the relationship broke down or they were caught cheating. Rao Fangjie was still harassing Xi Lei with text messages at her door on January 7th, which means their relationship most likely hadn’t ended, and this place hadn’t been discovered. So how did Tang Jinglong know in advance that this apartment would no longer be needed?”
“Tang Jinglong is indeed a major suspect.”
This direct evidence was more to Huo Ranyin’s liking than the previous metaphysical talk Ji Xun had about tidying hair being a sign of love.
This time, Huo Ranyin acknowledged it directly. “From this, we can deduce that Tang Jinglong knew Xi Lei would die. He hired a killer. The DNA of Rao Fangjie found at the scene was likely unintentionally transferred for some reason during contact between the killer and Tang Jinglong. As for who the killer hired by Tang Jinglong is…”
“That’s for the police to find out,” Ji Xun casually interjected. “For me, the real culprit behind the scenes has emerged. So, in terms of a novel, the narrative focus shifts from who the killer is to the motive—why did Tang Jinglong kill Xi Lei? What did Xi Lei know?”
“What a coincidence. We’ve hit a dead end with the dead.”
