Xie Wei didn’t say out loud how shocked he was inside—he just knew that Zhou Ran’s tone… had caught him completely off guard.
It was only after hanging up the phone that he truly understood what “being biased” meant here.
Zhou Ran was one of the very best police officers. When he handled cases, he was ruthless and cold, never giving anyone face.
Whether in the past or now, his methods were always sharp and decisive.
Back when Xie Wei was still in school, he had already heard about Zhou Ran’s abilities—everyone praised him, and quite a few people treated him as their idol.
After graduation, Xie Wei was assigned here. At first, it wasn’t Zhou Ran who mentored him—Zhou Ran only transferred back later. Slowly, the two started interacting more.
By now, Xie Wei had a pretty good sense of what kind of man Zhou Ran really was.
He looked cold on the surface, but deep down he was warm-hearted. He seemed like he didn’t pay attention to anything, yet once Xie Wei had casually mentioned—while standing next to him—that his mother’s back hurt. Later, when Zhou Ran went home with Xie Wei for a meal, he brought his mother a massage chair as a gift.
……
Even though both of them knew it was impossible for Le Ning to have done it—she might have just coincidentally been there, or there could be some other reason.
But Zhou Ran still couldn’t bear it.
Whenever he looked at Le Ning, his heart softened. He didn’t want to be biased or let personal feelings interfere, but when it came to certain soft spots, even Zhou Ran couldn’t fully control himself.
He was afraid.
That’s why he had Xie Wei call Captain Xu and the others back.
Thinking this, Xie Wei looked toward the woman inside.
Le Ning was beautiful—that was the first impression she gave Xie Wei the moment they met. Her personality was also very nice, always speaking softly and gently. But Xie Wei couldn’t quite figure out… what exactly about Le Ning had struck Zhou Ran’s weak spot.
In the past… it wasn’t like there hadn’t been pretty girls who pursued Zhou Ran before.
The interrogation in the room continued.
Xu Zheng and the others had obtained the surveillance footage from Le Ning’s residential complex. The footage clearly showed that she had indeed gone out that day.
Le Ning tried hard to recall, but she really couldn’t remember what she had gone out to do that day.
She looked at Xu Zheng, her head still aching a little.
Xu Zheng: “Can’t remember?”
“Yes.”
Le Ning asked: “Can you see where I went after leaving?”
Xu Zheng glanced at the video playing on the side and frowned: “You drove out, but there’s a stretch of road with no surveillance. How did that happen?”
An officer beside him answered: “Sorry, Captain Xu. We checked with the traffic brigade colleagues—they said the camera on that section of road was broken that day.”
Hearing this, Le Ning’s eyes widened.
How could this be…
How could it be such a perfect coincidence?!
Suddenly, there was a knock on the interrogation room door.
Xu Zheng didn’t need to open it to know who it was, but right now he really had a bit of a headache.
Should he open the door or not?
A few minutes later, Xu Zheng stepped outside.
“What’s the situation?”
Xu Zheng looked at him: “What’s the rush? It’s only been ten minutes.”
He turned to Zhou Ran: “One of the cameras on that road section happened to be broken that day.” He asked: “Did you know about this before?”
Zhou Ran: “…No.”
He looked at Xu Zheng: “What about the video?”
Xu Zheng was speechless for a moment: “How about you go in and question her yourself?”
Zhou Ran paused, stared at the tightly closed door in silence for a few seconds, then said: “No need.”
He looked at Xu Zheng: “I’m temporarily leaving her in your hands.”
Xu Zheng raised an eyebrow.
Zhou Ran continued: “I’m going to the traffic brigade myself.”
“…Oh.”
Zhou Ran gave him a glance, then suddenly patted Xu Zheng on the shoulder, his tone serious: “Sorry to trouble you.”
Xu Zheng was stunned for a second, then smiled: “Don’t worry. Le Ning doesn’t look like someone who would do something like this. It’s just that right now all the evidence is pointing toward her…”
He didn’t need to finish the sentence—Zhou Ran understood perfectly.
He nodded and instructed: “Keep an eye on her. I’ll head over there first.”
“Got it. Call if anything comes up.”
Not long after, Xu Zheng returned to the interrogation room.
To be honest, it was already November now. For something that happened at the end of July, Le Ning really couldn’t remember clearly.
After getting approval, she was allowed to take her phone and started scrolling through her chat history.
There was a group chat with Ruan Qiu and the others from that day.
It was Ruan Qiu who had asked her if something was wrong.
Le Ning paused, then looked at Xu Zheng: “I remember now.”
Xu Zheng’s eyes lit up: “Go ahead.”
Le Ning gave an address: “That day I went to a restaurant.”
She looked at Xu Zheng and said calmly: “I had dinner with my dad and the others.”
“Besides your dad, who else?”
“My stepmother and my stepsister.”
While she was speaking, Xu Zheng had already pulled up Le Ning’s profile. He glanced down and naturally saw what was written there.
Father: Tang Guangyuan, President of Tang Group. Biological mother: deceased. Current wife of Tang Guangyuan: originally an accountant at Tang Group, somehow later became the president’s wife.
Rich family matters were always dramatic and complicated. Xu Zheng had no interest in the details, but right now he had to ask.
“Did you drive yourself to that place for dinner?”
“Yes.”
It came back to her now.
The day before the dinner had been Zhu Mingyan’s birthday. Le Ning had zero interest in that woman’s birthday and wouldn’t pretend to keep up appearances—she didn’t even send a gift.
As for why she went to dinner the day after, she couldn’t quite recall the exact reason anymore, but she definitely had gone.
The restaurant was in a very remote location—you had to drive there. It was deep inside a quiet, secluded alley.
It was said that Tang He had found the place; the fish there was especially fresh.
Le Ning looked at Xu Zheng: “I remember now… My little sister said the fish there was super fresh, so my dad told me to come along.”
She loved fish, and whenever Tang Guangyuan came across something fresh and special, he would always think of her first.
Plus, that day she needed to pick up a gift from Tang Guangyuan’s place anyway, so she went and joined them for the meal.
Xu Zheng nodded to show he understood.
He immediately had his colleagues pull the surveillance footage from that road section.
In less than half an hour, they saw Le Ning appear at the restaurant—complete with timestamps.
But this kind of proof still wasn’t enough.
When Le Ning was on that road, there was a stretch of more than ten minutes without any surveillance. Neither her car nor her person could be seen.
That was the real problem.
Xu Zheng mobilized other colleagues to question Tang He and the others.
It didn’t take long for the results to come back.
It was just a coincidence.
Tang He had only wanted to please Tang Guangyuan. Knowing he liked fresh fish, she suggested going to that place for dinner. As for why Le Ning went… it was simply because Tang Guangyuan always thought of his daughter whenever there was something good.
There was no special reason behind it.
In the afternoon, Zhou Ran returned.
“How did it go?”
Zhou Ran frowned. The result was the same as what they had already found—Le Ning had indeed disappeared from surveillance for more than ten minutes on that road section.
Xu Zheng looked at Zhou Ran: “If we don’t get stronger evidence to clear Le Ning’s name, she’ll probably have to spend the night here tonight.”
The video was too obvious.
Zhou Ran’s lips pressed into a thin line. He looked at Xu Zheng: “Can we enlarge the video and let Le Ning watch it with us?”
Xu Zheng was slightly stunned.
“That requires approval.”
Letting a suspect view the evidence video together had to follow proper procedure.
Zhou Ran nodded, his voice low and firm: “I’ll handle it.”
The video was enlarged.
At first, all that appeared was pitch blackness. Then a bit of light filtered in… it was the reflection from street lamps. Further on, the surface of the lake appeared—rippling under the night wind, swaying gently.
It was hard to see clearly. The video continued.
Suddenly, a familiar face appeared in the frame.
Zhou Ran hit pause.
Le Ning stared at that face and instinctively touched her own.
“How… how is it so similar?”
Zhou Ran turned to look at her. Their eyes met for a moment. Then, suddenly, Zhou Ran’s gaze locked intensely on the paused spot in the video.
“No. Something’s wrong.”
He stared at the paused frame, then at Le Ning: “This person isn’t Le Ning.”
“What?”
Xu Zheng, Xie Wei, and the others were shocked. They looked at the face, then back at Le Ning: “…Isn’t it exactly the same?”
Zhou Ran shook his head: “Look carefully at their eyes.”
Everyone crowded around to look again, but still couldn’t spot anything off.
Zhou Ran turned to Le Ning: “…Does it look like you?”
“Yes.”
She pointed at the face and said: “The face is identical to mine, the features are extremely similar, but the eyes have subtle differences.”
Xie Wei was anxious: “Where exactly are the eyes different?”
Le Ning and Zhou Ran spoke in unison: “The pupils.”
“…”
In the video, the captured person’s pupils were deeper than Le Ning’s.
Le Ning’s eyes were light brown, large and very bright. The person in the video had eyes that were also big and bright, but not quite natural—perhaps because they hadn’t seen Le Ning up close… most people wouldn’t notice any difference at all.
But upon close inspection, those big eyes were just a shade deeper than hers.
Xie Wei stared back and forth countless times before reluctantly admitting: “…Yeah, it does seem like that.”
Then, unexpectedly, he asked: “Captain Zhou, how did you notice?”
The moment the words left his mouth, the atmosphere in the office suddenly felt… off.
No one else had noticed, so how had Captain Zhou spotted it?
Le Ning’s face suddenly felt a little hot. Being stared at like this, the earlier tension vanished and turned into a different kind.
Zhou Ran glanced at the gradually reddening ears of the person beside him, then shot Xie Wei a look: “You talk too much.”
Xie Wei touched his nose and muttered: “…I was just curious.”
Xu Zheng chuckled from the side: “That’s enough proof for now.”
He paused, then continued: “But now the question is… how is it that this person looks exactly like Miss Le?”
Everyone was curious too.
Another officer asked: “Is it really possible for two people in this world to look identical?”
“Miss Le, you don’t happen to have a twin sister, do you?”
“No.”
Le Ning stared at that face, feeling vaguely that something was wrong.
Right now, if conditions allowed, she wished she could examine that face in the video up close.
She looked at the bewildered police officers, stayed silent for a moment, then said: “Do you guys watch makeup tutorials?”
“What?”
Le Ning explained: “This face has makeup on. Even through the video, I can tell. I don’t know if you can see it.”
They were all straight guys—how could they possibly notice something like that?
Zhou Ran turned to look at her, a hint of suspicion in his voice: “You mean… this person just did their makeup to look like you?”
“It’s not impossible.”
Le Ning rested her chin on her hand and said: “But—”
“Just say it straight.”
Le Ning wasn’t being arrogant. When she imitated someone, the first thing she did was observe their daily habits. Those imitation videos she had posted online before—she had watched the person’s material over and over again countless times, mastering their mannerisms before she could capture the essence in her makeup. But the person in this video… she wasn’t sure.
If someone was really this skilled, how had she never heard of them?
But on second thought, it made sense. The world was full of hidden masters.
It was normal that she didn’t know.
But why would they make themselves look exactly like her? Was it a coincidence, or was it deliberate?
“I don’t know what to say.”
She looked at Zhou Ran: “When you first watched it, did you think it was me?”
Zhou Ran gave an “mm”: “Very similar.”
Le Ning fell silent.
Fine. Even she had almost mistaken it for herself at first.
Suddenly, Zhou Ran’s eyes lit up as he looked at Xie Wei: “Call Xu Zhi over.”
“Yes.”
He lowered his head and explained to Le Ning: “Remember that deceased girl from last time?”
Le Ning nodded blankly.
Zhou Ran continued: “During the autopsy, we found cosmetic residue on her back.”
Le Ning was stunned. “At first… you all thought it was left by her herself, right?”
“Mm.”
“How could that be.” Le Ning didn’t even need to think: “Even if that girl loved makeup, there’s no way it would leave residue on her back.”
Xie Wei explained: “We initially thought it came from her clothes.”
Le Ning nodded.
Xie Wei looked at her curiously and couldn’t help asking: “Sister Le Ning, is it really possible? Can one person turn themselves into someone else’s exact appearance?”
Le Ning thought for a moment. “Do you have Bilibili?”
“…Yeah.”
Le Ning took his phone, opened her own profile directly, and found the video with the highest views.
“Take a look at this.”
Everyone crowded around to watch.
Zhou Ran only needed one glance to know what it was.
Xie Wei, Xu Zheng, and the other officer watched as Le Ning, in the video, skillfully worked on her own face.
Before long, that familiar face transformed—into another well-known female celebrity.
Xie Wei blinked hard, then whipped his head toward Le Ning: “…This magical?”
Le Ning pointed: “Do you recognize this actress?”
“Yeah, I do.”
Xie Wei said in disbelief: “This is really you?”
“Mm.”
Xie Wei was practically in awe.
The few police officers exchanged looks, unable to hide their amazement: “…How is it this similar?”
If they hadn’t seen it with their own eyes, they wouldn’t have believed Le Ning could turn into someone else so perfectly.
“…If everyone could do this, how would we police ever solve cases?”
“It’s not that easy.”
Le Ning explained: “Imitating someone takes a long time of observation. These people are actresses—I’ve watched them so much that I can imitate them. If it were a random passerby, I couldn’t do it.”
She paused, staring at the face that resembled hers by 99%, and muttered to herself: “So I’m really curious… who is this person who imitated me so perfectly?”