Muchuan and Xiang Wan

Xu Siqi used to stay in her rented apartment.

Like most young people who went to the Capital to find work, she rented a tiny apartment of less than 30 square meters. Xu Siqi kept the place clean and tidy. Her cosmetic and skincare products, her clothes… everything was organized. It was evident that this girl was meticulous.

When Xiang Wan and Bai Muchuan arrived, Quan Shaoteng was already there, waiting with the search warrant.

The few of them then went to Xu Siqi’s house to look for clues.

After looking for a while, they didn’t find anything useful.

This was a place where a young woman lived. According to the surveillance cameras, for the past two days prior to her death, she never came back at all…

“Found anything?”

Xiang Wan walked to Bai Muchuan and asked him out of habit.

Bai Muchuan shook his head and suddenly asked a question. “How do you girls express yourselves if you feel troubled over something?”

Troubled over something? Xiang Wan furrowed her eyebrows in thought. “It varies between people. In the past, girls wrote diaries, nowadays… They tend to post in WeChat Moments or make a post about it. They would also talk to their close friends or family members about it. There are also some who would write about their feelings somewhere that only they could see.”

Bai Muchuan looked at her deeply. “Do you have such a place?”

Xiang Wan was baffled by his question. “What place?”

Bai Muchuan: “A place that only you could see.”

Pffft! Xiang Wan couldn’t hold her laughter.

That made several police officers turn their heads to look at them. She felt awkward and scrunched up her nose at Bai Muchuan. “Do you think that I’m this type of woman?”

Hur! Bai Muchuan laughed and ruffled her head. “No.”

“…”

They didn’t find anything useful in Xu Siqi’s house.

Bai Muchuan didn’t show much expression although nothing was found. When they returned to the office, Bai Muchuan looked for the evidence bag that contained Xu Siqi’s mobile phone and passed it to Salimu. “Crack the phone.”

“Wah,” exclaimed Salimu excitedly, “Boss, what are we looking for exactly?”

This fellow seemed to be fussing over every little thing.

Bai Muchuan swept a glance at him. “I want to know if there are any secrets about the deceased?”

Salimu scratched his head. “Isn’t the case solved?”

“It’s indeed solved.”

But there was a doubt and he felt uneasy.

When it was ten o’clock, all relevant stakeholders showed up for the case analysis meeting.

It was quiet in the meeting room.

After Bai Muchuan finished addressing the purpose of the meeting, it was time for everyone to voice their opinion. It was no surprise that the majority of them were inclined towards ‘there was only one murderer’. They felt that it was purely a crime of passion and that was the truth. As for the wound behind the ear, it should be what Feng Yingjun had said, the wound could be there due to the struggle.

They also thought about the reason why Cheng Zheng had found the wound to be made after Xu Siqi’s death… as this was inconsistent with the fact that they wanted to believe that the wound was caused during the struggle.

“Isn’t there a possibility that there would be a discrepancy about the time difference?”

Someone directly asked Cheng Zheng.

This question was rather sharp.

Cheng Zheng replied with everyone looking at him. “There is.”

“Then that solves it. Maybe it was simply a discrepancy. Don’t forget that the swimming pool is a warm pool. In such an environment, it could affect the determination of the time the wound was made, right?”

“What you’ve said is indeed a possibility.” Cheng Zheng was totally unbothered that they were doubting his professionalism. He indicated for Mei Xin to show the slide that talked about the cause of death of Xu Siqi. “We have a set of rigorous and elaborate procedures to follow for identifying wounds, whether it is before or after death. I won’t go into details about the procedures here. But, I have to tell everyone that from the start of the autopsy to deriving a conclusion, there was nothing wrong with our process. Furthermore, it was not up to me if the team decided to believe in our findings.”

“So is there a discrepancy or no discrepancy?” Some of them were confused.

Cheng Zheng looked at everyone. “Nothing is absolute in this world. Any of the tests and methods could only provide a high probability. There is nothing that could guarantee a 100 percent result, even when I did the autopsy myself.”

“Oh!”

Everyone got even more puzzled.

Everyone was now looking at Bai Muchuan…

If he didn’t want to believe in the findings, the case could be closed as it was.

If he believed in them, then the case would become complicated.

There was a moment of silence before Bai Muchuan announced slowly. “I believe Captain Cheng’s findings.”

Cheng Zheng seemed slightly surprised and looked towards Bai Muchuan.

However, Bai Muchuan had already looked away to Tang Yuanchu. “Go and check if Salimu has completed what I’ve told him to do.”

“I found it, I found it!” The door of the meeting room was opened.

A head showed up and looked at everyone for a moment before he came in, greeted everyone warmly and walked towards Bai Muchuan with a grin.

“Boss, my mission is accomplished.”

Salimu had managed to unlock the mobile phone.

Inside the phone, Xu Siqi also had protected her Cloud with a password. Salimu had also managed to crack it.

Bai Muchuan tapped on it and found that it contained a lot of things about Xu Siqi.

There were the scripts of dramas, work-related matters, as well as a note that contained her thoughts and feelings like personal diary entries—

Sure enough, girls liked to use this method to vent their feelings.

Bai Muchuan took a glance at Xiang Wan out of reflex.

Xiang Wan was perplexed and shrugged at him.

“What happened? Why are you looking at me?”

Someone was simmering with laughter in the meeting room.

Bai Muchuan didn’t answer her. He took a look at the mobile phone and exchanged glances with Salimu. “Connect this to the big screen.”

Salimu immediately gave a salute in excitement. “Yes, Sir!”

In no time, he connected the phone to the huge display screen in the meeting room. Xu Siqi’s secrets were being shown on the screen.

There were even a few shocking sentences that she wrote.

“Someone gave me a script today. He said that he’ll give me a makeover and make me into the first female lead. I’ve heard this a lot of times over the past few years and I’ve never believed in that. When that man said this, he was only thinking about how he could spend the night with me…

“When I flipped through the script, I had a shock… The contents of the script were amazing and I’m actually the first female lead of the script. This is because in that script, I was actually the one who was the first to get killed. After I die, I’d receive all the attention that I didn’t manage to get while I was alive – I’d become a popular figure that the internet was frenzied with. After that, he wanted to kill a lot more people, a lot… I was horrified. Why is there such a person? How can he use other people’s real names to make it into a story and scare others?

“That person looked me up again. He even wanted me to pass that script to Xie Wanwan… He wanted me to ask if she has any interest in being a part of the cast… He’s crazy, totally crazy…”

There were only a few sentences and the note was not dated.

They had no idea when these had taken place.

Salimu checked Xu Siqi’s Cloud but there was no softcopy of that strange script that she had talked about in the note.

“Boss, that’s all we have.”

Bai Muchuan nodded his head and asked in a casual tone. “Tell me about your views.”

Everyone started to softly discuss amongst themselves.

Bai Muchuan: “Talk louder, tell everyone what your views are. Just tell us what you have in your mind.”

“Alright!” Someone got up from his seat. “Boss, originally, I felt that this was just a simple crime of passion. Now, I feel that this is not simple! Maybe Xu Siqi’s case is just the tip of the iceberg…”

Quan Shaoteng showed a thumbs up at him. “Well said.”

“Captain Quan, thank you.”

“Anyone can tell that.”

“…”

Eh, why did he have to elaborate?

The one who said his thanks earlier showed an awkward smile and sat back down.

Bai Muchuan looked at Quan Shaoteng. “Laowu, tell us your opinion on this.”

Eh? Quan Shaoteng rubbed his forehead. “Anything can do?”

“Anything.” Bai Muchuan nodded his head. “It’s a problem that anyone can tell, so just say what you think.”

Quan Shaoteng cleared his throat twice and seemed serious. “I feel that there’s something about Zhang Houfa.”

“What do you mean?”

“A man like me who’s simple minded and handsome, tends to focus on simple and direct things – Who’s the one who ultimately gave Xu Siqi a makeover? It’s Zhang Houfa!”

…