Damn it.
Two days ago, she’d felt bad for Wang Meng over a thirty-yuan braised pork dish. If that girl saw this place, she’d probably call the price bureau the moment she got the chance.
Qi Qi stared at the cheapest dish on the menu—the “Gathering of Heroes” vegetable platter—for a moment, then had to let it go. She couldn’t exactly make the young master of the Jian family eat a plate of radishes, could she?
Before she could even decide what to order, the man across from her had already started.
With every dish he named, Qi Qi could hear the sound of hundred-yuan bills flying out of her wallet.
Jian Yubai glanced at her with a half-smile and finally stopped.
At least the money wasn’t wasted—the waitstaff was quick, and before long, half the table was covered in dishes.
“Not afraid of eating yourself to death,” Qi Qi muttered under her breath.
The two of them had barely interacted during their school years, and Jian Yubai had gone to England in his third year of high school. Qi Qi genuinely had nothing to say to this Young Master Jian.
The atmosphere was quiet.
“How did you end up in the Criminal Investigation Division?”
The man across from her suddenly spoke. Qi Qi glanced at him. “I chose forensic medicine in university.”
“I thought you would have studied music.”
His voice was extremely soft, as if he were talking to himself.
Qi Qi didn’t catch it and instinctively asked, “What?”
“Nothing.”
Seemingly uninterested in anything else about her, Jian Yubai stopped asking.
The atmosphere grew awkward again.
Qi Qi finally couldn’t take it anymore and started making conversation herself. “Why did you suddenly go abroad in your third year? You didn’t even take the college entrance exam.”
Jian Yubai set down his chopsticks and lifted his eyelids to look at her. “Interested in me? What, planning to give up on Gu Cheng?”
Qi Qi’s body stiffened, her chopsticks freezing mid-air.
She’d always thought her feelings for Gu Cheng were a secret known only to the Gu family. She never expected him to say it so bluntly.
A wave of humiliation rose in Qi Qi’s heart.
She glanced quickly at the man and happened to catch the unfathomable mockery curling at the corner of his mouth.
Well, of course. A girl who calls him “brother” falling for her own brother—anyone would think she was shameless.
Even though she and Gu Cheng shared no blood relation, that was only how she saw it.
But somehow, being ridiculed by him like that stirred up a surge of anger in Qi Qi.
She swept her gaze over the braised pork ribs in front of Jian Yubai and said flatly, “I took on a case a few days ago.”
He hadn’t expected her to share something about her work. Jian Yubai propped his elbow on the table, rested his chin on his hand, curled his lips, and looked at her with an expression of rapt attention.
“Oh?”
“It’s a dismemberment case. Ever seen what it looks like when a living person is chopped into pieces of meat?”
Her expression was rather mysterious. Jian Yubai narrowed his eyes and was about to stop her when he heard—
“Just like the braised pork ribs you’re eating.”
With that, she gestured with her chin toward the plate of braised ribs he’d specially ordered.
Supposedly pretty expensive, too.
She wasn’t done. This one kept going: “The piece you just picked up especially looks like the victim’s severed finger.”
“…………..”
Jian Yubai glanced at the rib near his mouth, his throat involuntarily bobbing as he silently dropped it back onto his plate.
She’d genuinely killed his appetite.
“What’s in it for you if you disgust me to death? You think you’d inherit my estate?”
Qi Qi gave a sardonic smile. “If I could inherit your estate, you wouldn’t have lived this long.”
Remembering her profession, Jian Yubai fell silent.
“Mr. Selective Hearing, enjoy your meal. I’ll be going now.”
Seeing him at a loss for words, Qi Qi was absolutely delighted. She stood up, tossed out a casual remark, and headed to the counter to pay.
Unexpectedly, the waiter informed her that this restaurant belonged to him—
Not just this one, but the entire street was the Jian family’s!
Ha~ rich man, you’re asking for trouble.
Watching the woman turn back, Jian Yubai raised an eyebrow: “Why are you back? Can’t bear to leave me?”
Qi Qi glanced at his smug smile, ignored him,
and directly packed up the barely-touched dishes one by one right in front of him.
Finally, under Jian Yubai’s stunned gaze, she left him a table of empty plates, grabbed her takeout containers, and swiftly departed.
“Tsk~”
A low chuckle slowly faded away.
Jian Yubai watched her retreating figure, and the moment he looked away, a fleeting, unreadable expression was just barely concealed.
Criminal Investigation Bureau
“Sister Qi, you’re the best! You never forget about us in critical moments. This is Imperial Cuisine House’s food—before, even just passing by the entrance made me feel like my wallet was thinning. I never thought I’d live to taste it.”
Wang Meng and a few interns ate with pure bliss on their faces.
Qi Qi smiled, then turned her gaze to Yang Ruiming, who was watching a video.
“Found anything?”
Yang Ruiming shook his head: “Too normal. Every day she clocked in and out on time, stayed in the work area during work hours, and the places she visited most were just the print room and the boss’s office.”
While Qi Qi was reviewing the surveillance footage, Yang Ruiming had already inspected the victim’s work environment—the print room had no issues.
The victim was non-confrontational at the company, spending her time in the planning department, and everyone there had alibis proving their innocence.
Then,
there was only one possibility left.
Qi Qi asked: “How are the victim’s family members doing? Can we question them?”
Yang Ruiming: “She’s woken up. Let’s go after we eat—give them some time.”
Wang Meng had been running back and forth with them without much rest, so Qi Qi told her to go home while she and Yang Ruiming headed to the hospital.
After being unconscious for nearly a day, the victim’s family member finally woke up, weak and frail.
The victim’s mother sat there quietly, not saying a word.
Qi Qi walked over, worried she might do something rash, and deliberately chatted with her for a good while.
Only then did she tentatively ask: “Before the incident, did Li Ying show any signs of anything unusual?”
Though her emotions had been somewhat soothed, the victim’s mother’s eyes remained utterly lifeless.
She shook her head blankly.
Qi Qi exchanged a helpless glance with Yang Ruiming.
They could only give them more time to process things and got up to leave.
“Computer—”
Who would’ve thought!
Just as the two were about to step out, the victim’s mother suddenly uttered two words.
Yang Ruiming quickly pressed: “What computer?”
But the victim’s mother fell silent again, so the two had no choice but to turn their attention to the father.
However, the father had always been out working, and by the time he came home, mother and daughter were already asleep—he knew even less than the mother.
Qi Qi approached again, her voice soft, carrying a hint of reassurance.
The victim’s mother’s eyes finally flickered with a trace of emotion.
She looked at Qi Qi: “I don’t know when it started, but every time Xiao Ying came home from work, she’d lock herself in her bedroom. I thought she was busy with work, so I never dared to disturb her.
Until—
that night a week ago. I went to bring Xiao Ying some fruit and happened to catch a glimpse of her computer screen. She seemed to be chatting with someone. From the look on Xiao Ying’s face, I knew—this girl must be secretly dating someone. So I didn’t ask any more questions.”
Qi Qi listened, then looked at Yang Ruiming.
Yang Ruiming shrugged: “The phone was already destroyed by the killer. That guy’s definitely a repeat offender—extremely cautious, didn’t even leave a fingerprint.”
Even the skin on the corpse’s surface was completely covered with gruesome wounds—each slash and cut enough to make one’s scalp crawl.
If there had been fingerprints, they would have already followed that lead, instead of running around like headless flies.
Just then, the victim’s mother spoke up again: “That day I saw they were chatting over email. I don’t know if they had any contact on WeChat.”
Yang Ruiming’s eyes lit up. “That makes it simple! Could you take us to see her computer?”
Originally, they hadn’t wanted the victim’s mother to follow them, afraid that the sight would stir up painful memories.
But she was too stubborn to dissuade, and so Qi Qi had no choice but to support her by the arm and walk her out of the hospital once the doctor gave the go-ahead.