“Anything else?” Huo Ranyin asked after a moment of thought.
“Nothing,” Ji Xun said.
“Really?” Huo Ranyin was skeptical.
“Really, not a single drop left,” Ji Xun nearly rolled his eyes.
Huo Ranyin’s expression turned dangerous. Ji Xun put on a ‘dead pig isn’t afraid of boiling water’ facade—anyway, Tan Mingjiu was right there. At worst, he could hide behind Tan Mingjiu.
He looked at Tan Mingjiu, assessing how to use his not-so-imposing frame as a shield.
Huo Ranyin followed his gaze.
Tan Mingjiu, under the baptism of four gazes from two people, couldn’t take it. His hair stood on end. “Why are you two looking at me like that?”
Huo Ranyin felt bored and was the first to look away. “Since there’s nothing more, just wait on the side. Tan Mingjiu, you go search the room.”
“?” Tan Mingjiu thought.
Are you always this natural when ordering me around? I… forget it, you’re the captain, you’re always right.
Tan Mingjiu, resigned to his fate, began to work.
Ji Xun took two steps back and leaned against the wall. He watched Tan Mingjiu search from the drawer to the wardrobe. His lips moved mid-way, but before he could make a sound, he saw Huo Ranyin’s gaze sweep over.
The sensation of a thumb pressing on his lips returned, and Ji Xun immediately clamped his mouth shut.
That gaze still lingered on his lips, only reluctantly retracting when Tan Mingjiu, searching the room, let out a “ha.”
Ji Xun’s lips felt numb. He thought with lingering fear: This guy, he’s so oppressive, anytime, anywhere.
“What is it?” Huo Ranyin asked.
“I found something,” Tan Mingjiu said, pulling his hand out from under the bed. In his palm was a glittering golden button.
Ji Xun’s fingers moved towards his phone, but before he could do anything, his eyes met Huo Ranyin’s meaningful gaze again.
“…”
He gave the other man a polite and charming smile, stuffed his phone into his pocket, and said, “I have things to do at home, I’ll be leaving first. No need to see me out, see you two sirs later!”
“Hey—”
Tan Mingjiu only had time to call out once before Ji Xun disappeared. He was bewildered. “Why is he running so fast for no reason? As if someone’s chasing him.”
“Who knows,” Huo Ranyin said nonchalantly, walking over to take the button and examine it.
The round button was slightly larger than a one-yuan coin, plated with gold. Under the sunlight, a distinct blue peacock feather pattern was visible. Both sides were engraved with patterns: a wine glass on one side, and a human head on the other.
“Looks like something Tang Jinglong dropped. Do you recognize this?”
Tan Mingjiu thought for a long time. “It seems a bit familiar, I’ll have to check back at the station.”
After returning home from Lizhu Community, Ji Xun immediately opened his phone and sent a group message to his “friends”: “Anyone know where Blue Peacock has moved to now?”
Anyone in criminal investigation has their own set of skills. Ji Xun’s skills, besides his great art of wild guessing, included a memory that was worth bragging about. It was hard for him to forget something he had seen. The moment he saw Tan Mingjiu pull that button out from under the bed, he immediately recognized what it was—a chip worth ten thousand yuan from an underground casino called “Blue Peacock.”
After a short while, replies trickled in.
“Don’t know.”
“Haven’t heard of it.”
“Didn’t ‘Cop Bro’ stop being a cop a long time ago? Still concerned about this stuff? No use anyway. Blue Peacock was hit hard by you guys three times in a row. They went out of business long ago.”
Most of these friends were “sources” Ji Xun had made when he was a police officer. Without these people, his work would certainly not have been as smooth. But this was all many years ago, so being treated perfunctorily now was to be expected.
Ji Xun chose to chat with the person who called him “Cop Bro.”
This was Pockface. There are only wrongly given names, never wrongly given nicknames. As the nickname suggested, this was a guy with a face full of pockmarks. And because of this conspicuous face, whenever a place he was at was raided by Ji Xun’s team, Ji Xun could always catch him among the scattering crowd.
After being caught many times, he became scared and silently became Ji Xun’s informant, a nail driven into the enemy’s interior.
“Tell me about Blue Peacock’s recent situation,” Ji Xun asked directly.
“I told you, Blue Peacock was shut down by you guys long ago…” Pockface said evasively.
Ji Xun sent a red envelope directly.
The red envelope was accepted in a second.
Pockface’s tone did a one-eighty. “Brother Ji, you know me, I get around. The faces are familiar. Blue Peacock can change its shell, but it can’t just replace all the people it has cultivated, right? So you see, you came to the right person—”
Ji Xun sent another red envelope, saying impatiently, “Give me something solid.”
Money talks. With the money in place, Pockface cut the nonsense and delivered the goods. “As far as I know, the city is cracking down hard. Blue Peacock doesn’t really dare to run an underground casino business anymore, but they’ve opened a KTV called Liang Jing Jing KTV.”
Liang Jing Jing KTV was a KTV that had opened in the old city district in the last two years, right next to Chentang Lane.
Chentang Lane was an old alley within the old city district, long and deep with many exits. Unfamiliar people would get lost in it as if in a maze. Over time, it became a gathering place for some illegal activities.
Of course, it was usually small-time stuff, otherwise, the police would have wiped it out long ago—in his first two years as a cop, Ji Xun had “wrapped dumplings” here, busting fifteen dens in one go and rounding up seventy or eighty people.
It was already dark when Ji Xun arrived in the vicinity. After many years, he was revisiting an old haunt, strolling through the alley.
There weren’t many lights in the alley. Walking alone, one could hear rustling sounds. Don’t think it’s a ghost; it’s people like you, on the other side of the alley wall, sneaking off to engage in vice.
But something was strange.
This time, the rustling sound didn’t seem to be coming from next door, but rather from behind. He glanced back. The alley was still an alley, long and empty, not even illuminated by the moon.
As he passed another corner, Ji Xun stopped, one hand in his pocket, his fingertips lightly tapping his thigh.
One…
Two…
Three…
A rat scurried out from the shadows and stopped near Ji Xun’s feet. It held a vegetable root-like food in its two front paws, its two large incisors nibbling with a rustle.
He was being paranoid.
Just out for a walk, who would be following him?
Ji Xun stopped his tapping fingers, took his hand out of his pocket, and strode forward.
“Liang Jing Jing KTV” wasn’t hard to find. After walking for about twenty minutes through the crisscrossing alleys, and taking the third exit on the east side, a three-story commercial building was on the left. This building faced the main road and backed onto the alley, with a considerable flow of people. The first floor was a licensed mahjong parlor called “Lao San Mahjong,” and the second and third floors were Liang Jing Jing KTV’s territory.
But at this moment, neither the second nor the third floor was lit up.
Were they not open today?
Ji Xun pondered, looked up a few more times, and saw a light through a gap in the curtains.
There were people upstairs, and he could vaguely hear the sound of a KTV. It wasn’t that they weren’t open, but that they weren’t open to the public.
Ji Xun thought to himself and entered the commercial building. He was met by the reception-cum-convenience-store of Lao San Mahjong. To the left, at the elevator, was the direct access to Liang Jing Jing KTV.
He didn’t rush upstairs. He first turned into Lao San Mahjong. The parlor was quite large, with more than ten tables for both mahjong and cards. But at this moment, it wasn’t crowded, only half-full.
Ji Xun randomly picked a seat by the window and was pondering how to get upstairs, and more importantly—what to look for once he got there. The chip in Tang Jinglong’s possession only proved that he was once a customer of Blue Peacock. As for whether he now had any connection to Liang Jing Jing KTV, or whether there were any useful clues about Tang Jinglong in Liang Jing Jing KTV, only heaven knew.
There was no other way. With limited resources, he could only pick up scraps.
Ji Xun’s mind wandered. He didn’t come up with a plan, but he did hear a “ding-dong” welcome sound. Someone else had come in.
Ji Xun raised his eyes and casually scanned the room. Halfway through, his gaze froze.
The person who came in was wearing a woolen overcoat, pure black, which made his skin look even fairer.
His hair, usually slicked back with gel for work, was now loose. Stray strands fell across his forehead, covering his eyebrows and eyes, immediately neutralizing most of that sharp aura of someone who looks at everyone like a criminal. Instead, the inherent pure aura of his delicate features was revealed.
He first went to the counter, got two bottles of beer and a deck of cards, and then came to Ji Xun’s table, sitting opposite him.
He put down the beer, shuffled the cards, and with a flick of his fingertips, the cards formed an arch between his hands.
The seated man raised the corner of his eyes and smiled. “Care for a couple of rounds?”
Purity turned into seduction.
They say bad boys get the girls, but that’s only half the story, Ji Xun thought.
Bad boys get the boys, too.
“Captain Huo, before we talk business, let me ask a question first.”
“Go ahead.”
“You don’t have a twin, do you? Or a multiple personality?”
“Heh.”
“That’s what’s puzzling,” Ji Xun continued. “You see, your before and after appearance has changed quite a bit, and your before and after attitude has also changed quite a bit. Just a few days ago, you still suspected that I had meddled in the incident where Zeng Peng attacked Tang Jinglong, and you also showed your displeasure at me privately looking into this case. Even this morning, you had a cold, unapproachable demeanor. How is it that tonight, you’ve specially come for a chance encounter…”
“Deliberately,” Huo Ranyin corrected. “I actively followed you to this place.”
“That’s not necessary.”
“You don’t even know my purpose for finding you, and you’re already saying it’s not necessary?” Huo Ranyin said.
“The purpose isn’t hard to guess. Captain Huo is looking for me for nothing other than Tang Jinglong’s case. But I think, what I can’t find, the police can. What I can find, the police can find even more easily. So Captain Huo following me is tantamount to climbing a tree to find a fish, it’s meaningless…”
“You’re being too modest. I’ve looked up your records from when you were on the force.”
“Oh—” Ji Xun’s drawn-out voice showed a hint of displeasure.
“Three years ago, the average time to solve a murder case in Ning City was 3.24 days. The average time for murder cases you handled was 1.46 days. Also three years ago, the murder case clearance rate in Ning City was 93.1%. The clearance rate for murder cases you handled was… 100%. Very impressive data.”
“A hero doesn’t brag about his past glories,” Ji Xun said without much interest. “To use Old Tan’s words, it was all just guessing.”
“You hit the mark every time you guess?”
“If I don’t hit it, I just guess again,” Ji Xun said casually.
“I’m interested in your case-solving thought process, and I believe your methods can greatly save time in solving cases. I am also certain that you are serious, at least about this case,” Huo Ranyin stated directly. “Why don’t we cooperate?”
“Is Captain Huo falling for me? From what you’re saying, it sounds like you want to start an all-encompassing, multi-angled, in-depth contact with me,” Ji Xun said with a smile.
“Using myself as an example, a person doesn’t have just one side. I still don’t like your casual attitude towards the case, but that doesn’t prevent our cooperation. Also—”
Huo Ranyin gathered the cards in his hand. Without any visible movement, the chip found in Tang Jinglong’s rented apartment appeared at his fingertips.
“You’re here to find Blue Peacock. Blue Peacock is dead, and has now shed its skin to become Liang Jing Jing KTV. This is a members-only KTV. Even if you get up there, do you know what to look for? Grab a waiter and ask if they know Tang Jinglong? But for the police, it’s very easy to find things that you would have to go to great lengths to get. For example, whose ID and bank card did Tang Jinglong use, and what accounts has this bank card had financial dealings with. And—what the police found in Tang Jinglong’s home.”
If Huo Ranyin wasn’t a police officer, Ji Xun would have been persuaded by him.
But if Huo Ranyin wasn’t a police officer, he wouldn’t have been able to offer such terms of cooperation.
It seems you can’t have your cake and eat it too. Life is just one difficult choice after another.
Ji Xun pondered a reason to refuse. Since taking off his police uniform, he didn’t want to have any prolonged contact with the police. Just then, a small commotion occurred outside the window. At the back staircase of the commercial building, a man in a security uniform was stopping a young punk, and the sound of their argument could be faintly heard.
“They can go up, why can’t I? They can, but I can’t?”
From arguing to fighting was just a matter of an instant.
An instant later, the young punk was pushed to the ground by the security guard.
The push seemed quite hard. It took the young punk a while to get up, and even then he staggered as if he were drunk—perhaps he was drunk in the first place, arguing with a security guard here about who could go up and who couldn’t.
Ji Xun’s thoughts drifted. Suddenly, he noticed Huo Ranyin, sitting in front of him, had moved.
“Stepping out for a moment, I’ll be right back.”
Huo Ranyin said simply, went out, made a loop, and took only two minutes in total.
The window offered a vantage point. Ji Xun clearly saw that after leaving, Huo Ranyin walked straight up to the drunken youth and bumped into him—just that.
After that, Huo Ranyin did nothing else. He returned to the mahjong parlor and sat in front of Ji Xun.
The two of them sat by the window and saw the same scene.
He hadn’t noticed anything wrong with the drunken youth. Had Huo Ranyin?
The last remaining bit of Ji Xun’s unwillingness to admit defeat was rekindled. He asked directly:
“Is there something wrong with that guy?”
