“Murder!”
A sharp female voice, like a small knife, tore through the tender night woven by lights and mellow wine. The surrounding crowd froze, then, as if controlled by the same remote, they all turned their necks towards the direction of the sound.
The two police officers who had just finished questioning the bar manager reacted the fastest. They rushed to the location where the female voice had sounded and saw a female waitress standing against the wall, trembling. Her mouth was open, her face blank, and her vacant eyes stared straight ahead into the small alley. She probably didn’t even know what she was shouting.
In front of her, in the depths of the small alley, a winding stream of dark red liquid was slowly flowing out. At the end of the liquid, there were two dark figures. One was lying face down on the ground, and the other was leaning over him.
“Stop!”
“Drop your weapon!”
The two police officers shouted sharply, drew their weapons, and pointed them forward, while also turning on their bright flashlights. The light dispelled the darkness, and the situation at the scene became clear. It turned out that neither of the two people had any obvious wounds. There was a weapon nearby, a fruit knife, lying about five steps away from the two. The blade was shiny and had no bloodstains.
As for the dark red liquid on the ground, it came from a broken convenience store bag on the ground. It looked like…
“Dragon fruit juice.”
Ji Xun let go of Zeng Peng, raised his hands, and slowly stood up, facing the police. “You came just in time. I want to report a crime. In such a dark alley, this person pulled out a knife. It was really terrifying.”
The police did not relax. They quickly scanned the scene and asked sharply, “Did you tackle him to the ground from behind?!”
Ji Xun paused.
What happened in that instant was simple. He saw the glint of the knife and struck first, tackling the person to the ground and controlling him. If responsibility were to be strictly assigned, he was the one who started the fight.
“A misunderstanding.”
But at that moment, Zeng Peng, who was facing the ground, suddenly spoke. He propped himself up, one arm hanging limp, and slowly patted his clothes. He looked injured. But despite this, he kept repeating meekly.
“It’s all a misunderstanding. I didn’t notice I had brought the kitchen knife out… Don’t trouble the police. We’ll settle this p-privately.”
The two police officers exchanged glances. Zeng Peng kept his head down, but it was no use. When he got up, the bright flashlight had already clearly illuminated his face.
He was the suspect they were looking for.
“…Both of you, come back to the station.”
In the end, both men were taken back to the police station. Ji Xun was placed in the second criminal Investigation Unit, but it was too late, and no one paid him any attention. Only the glasses-wearing detective he had seen at the crime scene during the day was there, typing rapidly on his computer.
Ji Xun took out his phone, sent a message to Xia Youqing explaining the situation, then opened a game and played half-heartedly.
Suddenly, the sound of a chair being dragged reached his ears.
Ji Xun’s arm was grabbed, and fingers smeared with a cool ointment were directly applied to the wound on the side of his wrist.
He hadn’t even noticed this small wound himself. With such sharp eyes and such familiarity, there was only one person he could think of.
“Hiss—” Ji Xun raised his arm to avoid it. “Gently.”
“So much to say even when I’m helping you with your wound.” The person applying the ointment let go, his elbows resting on the desk, his upper body leaning forward slightly. When his sharp eyes looked over, his gaze naturally softened. “You get a scrape just disarming an ordinary person in a small alley. Too weak.”
Ji Xun’s gaze swept over the person sitting in front of him from top to bottom.
The other was dressed in a windbreaker and Martin boots, casual attire ready to rush to the front line at any moment. He had sharp eyebrows and bright eyes, his thin lips slightly pursed, and a neat crew cut. As a result, a ferocious scar where a piece of flesh was missing below his ear and on the side of his neck was completely exposed, ruining his rather handsome profile. When he wasn’t speaking, he appeared masculine, solemn, and unapproachable.
But those who knew him well knew that all the hardness he exuded was a shield born to protect others.
Ji Xun met Yuan Yue’s eyes.
The concern in those eyes easily pierced through the brief time they had been apart, shattering the barrier created by their different jobs.
It was as if he had just taken a long vacation and was back to being Yuan Yue’s partner.
Ji Xun thought.
Huo Ranyin stood behind the one-way mirror of the interrogation room. Tan Mingjiu and his partner were inside, urgently questioning Zeng Peng, who had just been brought back. But the progress inside was not smooth. At first, Zeng Peng didn’t even seem to know why he had been brought in. He had an anxious, peace-making attitude from the beginning, and in the end, he didn’t even want compensation.
“Can I go back early? If I leave without asking for leave, the shop will deduct my salary. Once they deduct money, I won’t get the three-hundred-yuan bonus at the end of a month.”
“Do you know Xi Lei?” Tan Mingjiu asked.
This name made Zeng Peng look up, just for a moment. He quickly lowered his head again, his head hunched between his shoulders, as if his spine couldn’t support him to sit up straight.
“Yes, I know her. Don’t mention her. We argued and broke up a long time ago. My business has nothing to do with her.”
“Does her death have nothing to do with you either?!” Tan Mingjiu shouted.
Zeng Peng was stunned. The cowardice on his face transformed into a blankness, and the blankness into disbelief. His just-opened mouth closed again, tightly shut like a clam. At this moment, his face actually showed a hint of resistant stubbornness.
He thought the police were tricking him.
Until Tan Mingjiu took out the photos from Xi Lei’s death scene.
This photo crushed Zeng Peng. The man who had been as quiet as a mouse just now actually fell into a full minute of meaningless roaring and struggling in his chair. Then his strength disappeared. He was like a pile of ashes after a rapid burn, collapsing into the chair.
The interrogation could proceed normally.
“On the night of January 11th, did you go to Xi Lei’s house?”
“I did.”
“What for?”
“To get money…”
…
The voices from the interrogation room reached Huo Ranyin’s ears, and more clues began to appear.
The medical examiner estimated that Xi Lei’s time of death was between 9 and 11 PM on the 11th.
On the night of the 11th, Xi Lei appeared on the community surveillance at 7:52 PM, returning to the community.
On the night of the 11th, the camera at the main entrance of the Qing’an community showed that the suspect arrived at the community at 7:03 PM and left at 7:21 PM. He claimed to have taken the bank card that was at home, then returned to his rental apartment, went downstairs to eat noodles at 8 PM, and after 8:30 PM, he withdrew money from an ATM near his residence, using four different banks, totaling thirty thousand yuan.
Huo Ranyin’s gaze lowered slightly, entering the suspect’s perspective.
The moonlight shone coldly on the sparsely populated alley. He was ready to return to the back gate of the community. Xi Lei’s residence was in the first building inside the back gate. The wall was only two and a half meters high, easily scalable. He climbed over the wall, or slipped into the back gate where the surveillance had been broken for a long time…
He knocked on his girlfriend’s door… went in… tore off his mask, revealing his ferocious true form… He pushed her onto the sofa… viciously smothered her face with a pillow… smothered, pressed to death, choked! choked!… until her convulsing body stopped moving… she went limp, lying limply…
No, that’s not right.
Huo Ranyin’s brows furrowed slightly as he switched back from the suspect’s perspective.
Where’s the rope?
Why did he have to tie her up with a rope before smothering her? Was it because he was afraid the deceased would struggle?
…No.
Zeng Peng was over 1.8 meters tall and well-built. When facing the petite Xi Lei, he didn’t need a rope at all.
In the interrogation room, Tan Mingjiu was pressing aggressively, “What did you get the money for? That money was Xi Lei’s savings, right? You asked her for money, and she refused to give it to you. She even scolded you and mocked you, saying you were useless, right?”
“I was short one tax payment.”
“What tax?”
“Deed tax.” Zeng Peng, who had been staring at the ground, slowly raised his eyes. “I bought her a house. I only prepared the money for the house, not the tax. I wanted to give her a surprise…”
But none of it mattered anymore.
Ten minutes later, Tan Mingjiu walked out of the interrogation room, holding a crumpled piece of paper in his hand. It was a receipt that Zeng Peng had taken out of his pocket, a receipt for an abortion Xi Lei had at Sunshine Hospital three months ago.
“Zeng Peng said the child wasn’t his,” Tan Mingjiu said, sucking in a breath from the pain in his teeth. “The child wasn’t his, and he still bought a house and wanted to reconcile with the deceased? No matter how honest and good-tempered he is, he wouldn’t be so submissive and devoted even after being cuckolded and made a father to another’s child, right?”
“If you want to live a good life, you have to wear a little green on your head,” the recorder, who was partnered with Tan Mingjiu, joked. “I think Zeng Peng was sincere, at least the name on the house was indeed Xi Lei’s.”
Huo Ranyin did not participate in their conversation. He was flipping through the records from tonight. When his gaze swept over one part, it stopped. “Ji Xun appeared at the scene of the investigation and had a conflict with Zeng Peng?”
“Ha,” Tan Mingjiu leaned over. “How come he’s everywhere in this case? Did he finally get enough sleep after hibernating for three years?”
“Nothing to worry about. In the past annual fitness tests, I was the reigning champion. Not to mention an untrained ordinary person, even three or five of them, if I can’t beat them, I can at least run away.”
In the office of the second detachment, Ji Xun responded to Yuan Yue’s concern with a few words.
Yuan Yue was not good at small talk. After his initial concern, he cut straight to the chase. “Was the deceased your friend?”
“…Sort of.”
“Was the person you brought back today the killer?”
“How would I know? I’m not a great detective who can tell who the real killer is with just one look,” Ji Xun first laughed, then, in the tone of someone discussing whether a fruit was sweet or not, casually elaborated, “Probably not. Wouldn’t it be too boring if he was?”
“Then, should I discuss it with the second detachment and take over the case?”
Ji Xun saw Yuan Yue’s slightly lowered brow. This man had a quiet gentleness about him. This gentleness might not be apparent in normal times due to his lack of eloquence, but at critical moments, it would become a vast and boundless ocean.
Sometimes Ji Xun felt that Yuan Yue was like an old-fashioned winter coat.
Basic, a bit rustic.
But you could never do without it.
Xia Youqing should have come to Yuan Yue, Ji Xun thought. Yuan Yue would never have let her down. Yuan Yue would never let anyone down.
“What, haven’t seen you in half a year, and you’ve also learned to use public office for private gain and open back doors?” Ji Xun deflected the other’s concern with a joke. This joke made Yuan Yue slightly embarrassed, and even the corners of his mouth pursed a little deeper, revealing a faint dimple on his cheek.
Yuan Yue’s appearance was actually very sunny. He had an upright character, but he was not rigid. The reason he seemed a little serious, besides the scar on his neck, was because when he smiled, his natural dimples would appear, making him look young no matter how you looked at it.
For a criminal police captain to look like this, it was really not mature and stable enough. Whether it was in arresting criminals or leading his subordinates, he seemed to be at a disadvantage. So Yuan Yue smiled less and less.
A bit of a pity.
Ji Xun thought.
When he first joined the police force, Yuan Yue was serious when it came to work, but there were also many times when they talked and laughed.
But perhaps from now on, Yuan Yue wouldn’t have to bear this grievance alone. Huo Ranyin from the second detachment was also a man whose appearance alone was not enough to convince people…
“What are you thinking about?” Ji Xun’s shoulder was patted. He came back to his senses and heard Yuan Yue say, “I wasn’t joking with you. It’s not strange for the two criminal Investigation Units to swap cases.”
“Come on, others might not know, but I do. One word from above, and the people below will run their legs off. Who dares not to put in all their effort to solve cases now?” Ji Xun laughed.
In recent years, Ning City had become increasingly strict in this regard, and had long since put forward the slogan “No case unsolved, no scene uncleared.” Although this had stretched the police force of the criminal Investigation Unit to its limit, and almost every criminal police officer worked overtime, burning the midnight oil, the results were indeed there. Excluding cases from previous years, the major criminal case clearance rate had been maintained at over 92%.
This data made Ji Xun repeatedly suspect that Yuan Yue would die of overwork at his post at any moment. He advised him a couple of times.
“If you have time, go home and rest early, lest you die young in the office and can’t even be rated as a martyr. What a loss?”
“If you’re so worried about me, why don’t you come back and be my partner.”
“No,” Ji Xun refused decisively.
“Ji Xun—”
“I said three years ago that I’m no longer suitable for this line of work.”
“No, you are suitable,” Yuan Yue retorted. “You are the most suitable person I’ve ever seen for this line of work.”
Ji Xun remained silent.
He was unwilling to answer, and the atmosphere became stagnant. Yuan Yue was silent for a while, then reached into his pocket, took out a candy, and stuffed it into Ji Xun’s hand.
Ji Xun was stunned for a moment. He squeezed the candy and remembered something from when he had just started his job.
After all, not many people were naturally immune to death and corpses. When he first joined the criminal police team, he had a delicate little habit of eating a candy before looking at a corpse to calm his nerves. Later, once when he was at a scene, he forgot to bring any. That day was also unlucky. It was a hot summer day, and the body had only been discovered after two months. The smell at the scene and the appearance of the body were both indescribable, and so was his state.
After that time, Yuan Yue discovered his little habit. And then, Yuan Yue’s pocket always had two or three candies. He would give him one before going to a scene, give him one when he was in a bad mood, and after they had a disagreement, he would also give him one… It was like a panacea, a “Yuan Yue-style” thoughtfulness.
Ji Xun played with the candy but didn’t eat it.
Yuan Yue simply took out another one. This time, he unwrapped it directly and stuffed the candy into Ji Xun’s mouth. He said, “Forget it. If you don’t want to talk about this, we won’t. But you were the one who said you wanted to be a cop with me for a lifetime.”
Ji Xun held the candy in his mouth and licked his lips. It was sweet, so sweet it was bitter.
I was the one who said that, he replied in his heart. Back then, I was young and arrogant, not knowing that no one can be with anyone for a lifetime.
“You should understand,” he said, slightly dazed, the words in his heart slipping from his lips, “I can’t get over that hurdle…”
Yuan Yue wanted to say something more, but his gaze suddenly shifted and stopped behind Ji Xun. “Captain Huo?”
Ji Xun turned around. Only then did he realize that Huo Ranyin was standing at the main entrance of the office. He didn’t know how long he had been watching or what he had heard.
