By the time the three returned to the police station from Wei Zhenzhu’s home, a new clue had fallen from the sky.
A pair of guests had arrived at the police station.
The guests were Gao Shuang’s parents. The elderly couple had brought a large death insurance policy that had been taken out two years ago. The insured person on the policy was their daughter, Gao Shuang, and the beneficiary was Gao Shuang’s husband, Zhuo Cangying.
“Officer,” the elderly couple looked terrible, “we only found this while sorting through their belongings. Do you think it could be, could it be that bastard—”
“It’s too early to say anything now. Regardless, the police will uncover the truth and inform you,” Huo Ranyin said concisely.
If the appearance of this insurance policy caused the possibility of Zhuo Cangying harboring sinister motives and plotting to kill his wife to skyrocket, then another matter related to the policy made the case even more confusing.
After obtaining the policy, the police contacted an employee from the insurance company.
Gao Shuang was well-off and had her own dedicated insurance agent. Combined with her striking appearance, the agent had a very deep impression of one particular incident.
“Just a short while ago… it was before the new year. Sister Shuang brought a man over. They were acting quite intimately.”
“A man?”
“I know Sister Shuang’s husband, Dr. Zhuo. That man wasn’t him. I think his surname was Duan. Sister Shuang called him Xiao Duan.”
“Duan Hongwen?!”
Wen Yangyang blurted it out, then immediately found a photo of Duan Hongwen to show the insurance agent.
The agent glanced at it and nodded repeatedly. “Yes, that’s him! Sister Shuang brought him here. They first asked about the insurance Dr. Zhuo bought for Sister Shuang, then they inquired about buying a large policy for Dr. Zhuo. This Mr. Duan advised Sister Shuang to buy it, but she didn’t in the end. Later, this Mr. Duan came back twice more, wanting to buy insurance for his wife. He considered it but didn’t buy it, going back and forth, making a fuss, so I have a very strong impression of him.”
From Wei Zhenzhu’s family situation to Zhuo Cangying’s insurance policy, and then to Duan Hongwen and Gao Shuang’s private meetings, honestly, the plot was moving so fast that even the police were a bit bewildered.
Tan Mingjiu’s pupils were vacant. “From the current situation, we can deduce…”
“Duan Hongwen and Gao Shuang were having an affair,” Ji Xun finished.
“We can also deduce…”
“Zhuo Cangying is suspected of killing his wife for the insurance money.”
“We can still deduce…”
“At Duan Hongwen’s instigation, Gao Shuang might have considered killing her husband for the insurance money but ultimately didn’t do it.”
“We can continue to deduce…”
“Are you a question-asking machine?” Ji Xun rolled his eyes. “Please use your head and think for yourself.”
“I’m also just cooperating and dividing the labor, letting the experts do what they do best.” Tan Mingjiu humbly poured Ji Xun a cup of tea. “Your esteemed self analyzes things so well. Your esteemed self must be thirsty. Your esteemed self, please have some tea.”
Then he sat back down, scratched his head with his pen, and said with great distress:
“According to the analysis, Zhuo Cangying wanted to kill his wife, Gao Shuang was having an affair, Duan Hongwen was having an affair while also abusing and wanting to kill his own wife, and was also inciting his lover to commit a crime… Wei Zhenzhu knew her husband wanted to kill her, and Gao Shuang might have also known her husband wanted to kill her. My god, what kind of strange and complicated relationship do these four people have? Could it be that they’re all villains, killing each other?”
“How can you say that?” Wen Yangyang shot Tan Mingjiu a harsh glare. Her feminist consciousness was particularly high today. “Can you lump Duan Hongwen and Zhuo Cangying in with Gao Shuang and Wei Zhenzhu? The wives were only passive observers; there’s no evidence they did anything. In fact, it’s the husbands who have concrete suspicious points.”
“…” Tan Mingjiu was left speechless by her outburst. He tried to be tactful. “It’s just one possibility, a headcanon of the four of them trying to kill each other. After all, if someone is trying to kill you, you might use excessive self-defense, right?”
“Don’t forget Mo Nai,” Ji Xun reminded them.
“Oh, so it’s five people instead of four… Aaaah!” Tan Mingjiu let out a dying, suffocated scream. “How many damn possibilities are there? After working for over a decade, have I returned all my math to my math teacher?!”
Huo Ranyin interrupted their unreliable conversation. “Alright, Duan Hongwen’s interrogation record from this morning is here. He claims he and his wife were at home all day on the 11th. Close relatives cannot serve as alibis for each other. His alibi is very weak, and the possibility that he went to the Zhuo family home to commit murder exists.”
Ji Xun added, “The most puzzling person among these four is Duan Hongwen. He gave up on buying a huge insurance policy for his wife, yet shortly after, he hastily wanted to hire a hitman. Why? Was it just because of what he said in the recording, that Wei Zhenzhu was following him? He doesn’t care about his wife; she’s just a housekeeper to him. Even if she followed him, what could she do? Why didn’t he just beat his wife like before, using violence to stop her from following him? He clearly abused her frequently in the past; he was the one in control. Unless…”
Huo Ranyin continued, “Unless their marital relationship recently changed due to some accident, causing Duan Hongwen to start feeling that his usually meek, submissive, and invisible wife had become dangerous and unbearable.”
Huo Ranyin stopped there.
Ji Xun waited and waited, but he didn’t say the final guess. A fluffy cat’s paw scratched at his heart. He couldn’t help but say, “Why did you stop? We were connecting our thoughts so well just now. Is it because you think it’s unreliable without evidence again? Huo Ranyin, you’re being hypocritical. In an internal discussion, we should of course explore all possibilities—”
Huo Ranyin directly took out a piece of candy and stuffed it into Ji Xun’s mouth.
Ji Xun was shocked.
Wasn’t Huo Ranyin’s progress a bit too fast? At Wei Zhenzhu’s house, he had to take candy from Huo Ranyin’s pocket, but back at the police station, it had become Huo Ranyin feeding him candy.
Ji Xun suddenly started to worry about the future. Would he have an overdose of sugar? However, the future was for the future to decide. The current dose of sugar made him yield. He suppressed the cat’s paw in his heart and helped Huo Ranyin voice the guess: “My guess is, Duan Hongwen was seen committing the murder by his stalker wife, and he panicked so much he wanted to kill her to silence her.”
The suspicion on Duan Hongwen and Wei Zhenzhu was now too great to ignore. After all, it was always very reasonable for a man to want to kill his lover’s husband. Huo Ranyin’s subordinates had already gone to check the surveillance footage from Duan Hongwen’s residential complex, but that would take time.
On another front, based on Wei Zhenzhu’s testimony, the police obtained the surveillance footage from the ATM that Zhu Huan had visited.
The footage was a bit strange. Zhu Huan’s clothes were different from when he was brought to the station, and his face had been altered, like Mo Nai’s, so at first glance, he didn’t look quite like himself. Also, he didn’t withdraw any money. Instead, he leaned close to the camera, turning his face back and forth, and once he confirmed he had been filmed from all angles, he left.
“How strange. He’s about to go back to a dead person and pretend to be drunk, yet he’s in the mood to pose here. Why?”
Tan Mingjiu’s question had no Ji Xun to answer it, so he could only stare at Wen Yangyang. At this moment, Ji Xun and Huo Ranyin were already in a car, heading to Xiao Man’s rental apartment, following the most basic investigation method: canvassing.
Her death was suspicious, so it naturally required a deeper investigation.
Xiao Man was a resident singer at a bar. Her salary wasn’t high, but the clothes, bags, and jewelry next to her body were all famous brands. She lived in a studio apartment in a high-end commercial district, where the rent was equally high, not something her salary could afford.
Her family background was ordinary, so where this money came from was worth investigating.
“It’s not from Zhu Huan, anyway. He’s just a bottom-feeder living under an overpass, with a record of multiple imprisonments.” As they spoke, they knocked on Xiao Man’s door.
Although only one person’s name was registered on the household file, the landlord said that Xiao Man’s friend also lived in the apartment. There was no need for a key; someone was inside.
They knocked directly on the door, and the person who opened it was—
“You fags?!”
Sisi, the one who opened the door, stared at the two of them in a daze. It was deep winter, but the heating in the apartment was on full blast. She was only wearing a slip dress and a matching light robe. The door had a peephole, but living with a friend, she never had the habit of looking through it. Hearing the knock, she just assumed it was a delivery or property management. But it turned out to be the two gay men who set her up in a honey trap last time and got her sent to a detention center!
She was scared out of her wits.
“How did you find my place? What do you want? I haven’t even settled the score with you for last time, and you dare to show your faces to me again?”
“…”
To be honest, Ji Xun felt a faint sense of guilt.
Last time, he knew perfectly well that nothing had happened between him and Huo Ranyin, so he treated whatever Sisi said as trash talk. But now… things were indeed a bit different. By analogy, it felt like the embarrassment of being caught in an affair.
It was Huo Ranyin who remained unmovable. He took out his police ID, his face cold and business-like. “Police. We’re here to ask you some questions.”
Sisi couldn’t believe it at first. After looking carefully twice and seeing there was no problem, her inflated bravado instantly collapsed. She no longer dared to stick out her chest and hold her head high. She crossed her arms, shrank her neck, and carefully made way. “O-okay, please come in.”
A sense of envy suddenly arose in Ji Xun’s heart. So a police ID had this wondrous effect of allowing one to put on such pompous airs.
He and Huo Ranyin were very politely and properly seated on the sofa. Tea, fruit, and snacks were all provided. Sisi even ran back to her bedroom to change into a very basic large down jacket, with a plain shirt and pants thrown on underneath, trying hard to create the illusion that she was a good girl who didn’t live a debauched life of red lights and green wine.
For this, Ji Xun even suspected she had wiped off the lip balm from her lips.
Because Xiao Man’s roommate was so unexpected, Ji Xun and Huo Ranyin both tacitly maintained their silence, using the invisible pressure of quiet to bear down on this person who was clearly feeling very guilty.
This strategy worked quickly. As expected, Sisi began to fidget within a few minutes and took the initiative to speak. “So you’re police officers… then… was last time a sting operation?”
Huo Ranyin didn’t speak. Ji Xun gave her a smile.
Still silence.
“I’m… I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have thought you were gay.” Seeing that trying to get friendly was useless, Sisi became even more timid and started to turn the topic to herself. “I’ve just been staying at home recently, haven’t gone anywhere. I’ve really reflected on my actions, truly. I’ll never hang around those places again.”
She doesn’t know about Xiao Man’s death, Ji Xun gave Huo Ranyin a look.
Huo Ranyin received it. He then spoke, saying his first words since sitting down. “Your roommate, Xiao Man, is now involved in a murder investigation. When was the last time you saw her?”
“Murder?!”
Sisi covered her mouth, a look of terror on her face. But this was just her strategy. In a flash, her mind raced with thoughts about what this murder was, who it was related to, whether it had anything to do with her, what she could say, and what she couldn’t.
Her eyes focused on the faces of the two police officers in front of her, trying to find some clue from their two handsome faces, but there was none. Both men were very silent.
She bit her lip and said, “The last time I saw her was yesterday around 1 PM. We had just ordered and eaten takeout. She left right after eating. I didn’t ask where she was going specifically. I ordered the takeout, so I remember the delivery time quite clearly.”
Huo Ranyin: “She didn’t come home last night. Did you not contact her?”
“We both have our own social circles. She often spends the night out, so I didn’t ask.”
“Spend the night with whom? A boyfriend, or was it like you before, accompanying a client and doing drugs together?”
Sisi gave a dry cough. “How could we do drugs? Officers, you must be mistaken.”
“Her drug test was positive.” Huo Ranyin looked up, his gaze sweeping towards the bedroom Sisi hadn’t entered. “If I go in now and find drugs, you’ll also be suspected of possession. A lipstick tube, a powder compact… where do you think she would put them?”
Without needing makeup, Sisi’s face turned extremely pale at this moment.
“Ac-actually… ah, I remember now!”
“Remember what?” Huo Ranyin asked calmly. He wasn’t paying attention to Sisi; his faint gaze was still scanning the room, like a hunter examining his prey, being picky about where to start for the most appropriate attack.
“Xiao Man doesn’t have a boyfriend. She went to see an old client yesterday. She said she’d treat me to hotpot tomorrow. I thought it was a common thing, so I didn’t pay any attention.”
“Oh? She treats you to a meal after seeing a client, so this client is very rich and generous, right? Was it one person or several? Is Dream KTV a frequent transaction spot for you two?”
Dream KTV was where Xiao Man’s body was discovered.
“Officer, please don’t use ‘you two’. I haven’t been out in a long time. It was all Xiao Man. Rich, yes, definitely rich. He pays tens of thousands for one session,” Sisi said, unable to resist rolling her eyes.
Ji Xun smiled. “That’s you being envious, jealous, and hateful because you can’t go yourself. It seems you know this sponsor, and quite well at that.”
“…” Sisi tried to argue awkwardly, “No, I just heard her talk about it…”
“You haven’t been out earning money recently, yet she’s flaunting this kind of price to you. Xiao Man’s emotional intelligence is a bit low, isn’t it?”
“I heard about it before, in the past.”
“That also means you know which specific customer it is, to have been able to quickly retrieve the corresponding price from your memory.” Ji Xun paused, his gaze turning sharp, and suddenly said, “It was the yellow-haired guy who ran away last time, right?”
After that, no matter how Ji Xun and Huo Ranyin tried, using both soft and hard tactics, Sisi refused to say another word.
But this was already enough.
Back on their home turf at the police station, Ji Xun slumped into his office chair, tapping the tips of his ten fingers together. “Let’s start with the conclusion. There shouldn’t be too many suspicious points about Xiao Man’s death. Her death was not a homicide. I agree with the forensics department on this point.”
Hu Yuan, who had appeared from somewhere, raised an eyebrow. “I’m honored.”
“Next, about Zhu Huan. It’s obvious that Zhu Huan arrived at Xiao Man’s side only after she was already dead.”
“I don’t agree with that,” Hu Yuan said. “The semen found in Xiao Man’s body is a definite match for Zhu Huan’s. They did indeed have s*xual intercourse.”
“Having s*xual intercourse and whether the person is dead or not aren’t necessarily related, are they?”
Besides Huo Ranyin, the other police officers present showed looks of confusion, and within the confusion, a faint sense of foreboding.
“Necrophilia. It’s as simple as that,” Ji Xun revealed the secret.
