Late night in the suburbs was exceptionally cold. Inside the drafty studio, criminal investigators held their devices and notebooks, questioning the sequence of events.
Some pampered actors grew increasingly impatient in the freezing weather. Their sympathy for the deceased hit an all-time low, with some even inwardly cursing the stunt double for dying at such an inconvenient time. Under these circumstances, they naturally gave the police no pleasant looks.
Among them, Su Xingtong was an outlier.
The trending topic about him “acting like a big shot” had been on Weibo just the day before yesterday, but today, that rumor had been thoroughly debunked.
The investigator questioning him was the young officer named Liu Ye—a semi-newbie who was originally from the Donglin County police station. Mo Junyi had discovered his extraordinary abilities while asking for materials there once and had convinced the station chief to let him head over to the city.
Liu Ye was questioning Su Xingtong meticulously yet with a hint of trepidation—meticulous because it was his job, and trepidatious because Mo Junyi was standing right behind him, listening intently.
“…I was originally supposed to be on the wire,” Su Xingtong replied in an orderly fashion. “But because my performance in the previous scene was poor due to my shoulder injury, this scene was temporarily delayed.”
Liu Ye, unaware of the history between them, couldn’t help but ask, “How did you get that shoulder injury?”
Su Xingtong gave Mo Junyi a look that was both awkward and slightly embarrassed. Liu Ye, a straight man through and through, frowned at the sight: “Speak when you’re spoken to. Why are you looking at our Chief?”
Su Xingtong withdrew his gaze and answered vaguely, “Smashed by a showerhead.”
To Liu Ye, this sounded like a made-up excuse. He frowned, wanting to press further, but Mo Junyi suddenly spoke: “Whose stunt double was the deceased originally?”
Su Xingtong’s expression turned serious: “Bai Yuan’s.”
That’s a coincidence. Mo Junyi nodded with a frown. “I’ll go ask. Liu Ye, stay here.”
Liu Ye acknowledged, but after Mo Junyi left, he finally sensed something was off. He rubbed his chin and said, “This Mr. Su…”
Seeing that the officer couldn’t remember his name, Su Xingtong reminded him, “Su Xingtong. You can just call me Xingtong.”
Liu Ye quickly waved his hands: “No, no, no. I should call you Teacher Su.”
Su Xingtong didn’t know why the young officer, who had been strictly business moments ago, suddenly became polite, but he nodded regardless.
“Then please describe anything you felt was unusual during these past few days…”
While the questioning was proceeding systematically on one side, things were not so peaceful on the other.
Bai Yuan insisted on staying with the director, under the pretext of being “afraid.” Liu Minghua and another officer were responsible for questioning them. When Mo Junyi walked over, Bai Yuan was in a standoff with Liu Minghua.
“What do you mean? Are you suggesting I’m the killer?” Although Bai Yuan had a baby face, the words coming out of his mouth didn’t match his looks at all.
“You’ve misunderstood; I didn’t mean that.” Liu Minghua was clearly suppressed her temper. “Please cooperate; it won’t take much of your time.”
“Won’t take much time? At this hour, I should be in the hotel getting my beauty sleep. You’ve dragged me out here without a care for anything, and now you’re using this attitude to question me—who do you think…”
“The deceased was not Su Xingtong’s stunt double,” Mo Junyi interrupted their argument, walking over with large strides. “Find anything?”
Bai Yuan seemed somewhat afraid of Mo Junyi. As soon as he arrived, Bai Yuan shut his mouth and hid behind the director.
Liu Minghua let out a cold snort and pointed at a person beside Bai Yuan: “The deceased was this ‘Big Star’ Bai’s stunt double. His assistant had two pieces of chalk in his pocket.”
Before the assistant could say anything, Bai Yuan immediately shouted, “What’s wrong with chalk? Who says you can’t have chalk on you?”
“Nothing’s ‘wrong,'” Mo Junyi had no interest in explaining the case to him. “However, you may have to come with us.”
The courtyard of the Criminal Investigation Detachment had never been so lively. Actors and their assistants were everywhere, each acting like a high-ranking concubine from the palace. Complaints echoed one after another. Night-shift officers passing by couldn’t help but come in to see what was happening.
In the crowd, Su Xingtong stood solitary and independent. A female officer saw him as soon as she reached the door and couldn’t help but sigh to her colleague: “Damn, that is what you call a male star.” The person beside her nodded in agreement.
Due to limited space in the interrogation rooms, the questioning was conducted one by one. The first group taken in was the director and the suspicious assistant.
Bai Yuan was left outside, and his already pampered nature made him increasingly impatient. Su Xingtong stood to the side, brow furrowed as he recalled the day’s events. He caught Bai Yuan out of the corner of his eye, poking at his phone as if venting his anger. Initially, he didn’t care, assuming Bai Yuan was complaining to his circle of friends. But he soon discovered that complaining to friends wasn’t enough to satisfy Bai Yuan’s “desire for expression.”
The young girl assistant who came with Su Xingtong was still panicked and lingering with fear, but she didn’t dare say these things to Su Xingtong. Instead, she aimlessly scrolled through Weibo to distract herself.
However, the distraction backfired. After scrolling for a bit, she discovered that “#DayAndNightSoulHunt Wire#” had appeared on the trending list, and it was climbing extremely fast, reaching the top ten in no time.
It was 11:00 PM. For a topic to climb this fast, there had to be a push behind it.
The girl frowned and clicked in, only to find that the top post under the tag wasn’t an explanation of the accident or a conspiracy theory from a marketing account. Instead, it was a post Bai Yuan had just made. The content was very simple:
“Are the police in our country all this impressive now? Taking people away without any evidence. Truly impressive [Grin][Grin]”
The attached photo was none other than the first-floor lobby of the Criminal Investigation building where they were currently standing.
The girl gasped and immediately turned to Su Xingtong: “Teacher Su, something happened!”
Su Xingtong, lost in his thoughts, looked at her with a frown: “What is it?”
The girl handed the phone directly to him. Su Xingtong took it and glanced at it, and his face instantly darkened. He exited the tag and checked the trending list—it had already jumped from ninth to third. When he clicked back in, numerous marketing accounts had caught the scent and were posting to ride the heat.
As for Bai Yuan’s comment section, it was unbearable.
His fans were famous in the entertainment industry for their “mad dog” style—attacking anyone they saw. Seeing Bai Yuan complain like this, they naturally wouldn’t stand by while their idol “suffered.” They rolled up their sleeves and joined the fray. The comment section was immediately filled with unverifiable stories: some said their calls to the police at night wouldn’t go through; some said they were looked down upon when going to the station; and most ridiculously, one person claimed their uncle was sent to prison by police without any evidence.
Aside from these fabrications, the rest were people sincerely liking these posts. One couldn’t find a single normal comment in the entire mess; it was an unfathomable cesspool.
As Su Xingtong watched, his beautiful willow-leaf brows knit together. His two assistants watched him with hearts in their throats, fearing Teacher Su might get upset and drag Bai Yuan over for a beating—then tomorrow morning’s trending topic would be something else entirely.
Mo Junyi was currently in the interrogation room investigating the origin of the two pieces of chalk, unaware of the situation outside.
Bai Yuan’s assistant initially refused to admit the chalk had anything to do with the case, claiming he used it for “teaching.”
Liu Minghua tapped the table: “Teaching? What does a star’s assistant teach?”
The assistant remained stubborn: “That is my privacy, I have nothing to say.”
Liu Minghua’s gaze turned cold. Mo Junyi suddenly asked, “Does your boss know about this?”
“Boss” naturally referred to Bai Yuan. Hearing this, the assistant looked at Mo Junyi warily: “Which matter do you mean?”
The moment the words left his mouth, he knew he had misspoken. He immediately lowered his head in frustration, seemingly unable to accept that he had been baited so easily.
Liu Minghua almost laughed: “Naturally, I meant the matter of you giving private lessons. Could there be something else?”
The assistant went silent, but both officers present had excellent hearing and weren’t about to miss the opportunity provided by the suspect’s slip of the tongue.
Soon, they learned from the assistant things he had been hiding:
The chalk was indeed not for teaching; for an entertainment star’s assistant to make up such a lie was full of loopholes. He was the one who put the chalk dust on the wire, but he wasn’t the one who handled the water. Furthermore, all of this was ordered by Bai Yuan via WeChat. He claimed he had no idea that mixing chalk dust with water would cause iron to rust.
This was only his side of the story. Mo Junyi wouldn’t believe it immediately; the next step was to interrogate Bai Yuan.
As he walked out of the interrogation room to call him in, he heard Bai Yuan’s high-pitched voice: “What do you mean by that?!”
Mo Junyi walked over with a frown. He saw Su Xingtong standing to the side with his arms crossed, his expression entirely indifferent, as if the person glaring at him was merely a dog.
“Are you done barking?” Su Xingtong didn’t see Mo Junyi coming and maintained his cold demeanor. “If you’re done, delete that Weibo post. I suggest you don’t make me say it a second time.”
Seeing Su Xingtong speak so decisively, and with his usual reliance—the director—not there, a flash of panic crossed Bai Yuan’s eyes. But ultimately, his competitiveness won out. He gritted his teeth and said, “I won’t delete it. What can you do to me? Oh, right, our ‘Big Star’ was originally a street thug; maybe he’ll hit people. I’m so scared… What are you doing!”
Before he could finish, Su Xingtong stepped forward and grabbed him by the collar. The force was so great that Bai Yuan stumbled. The “unfazed” act he had put up instantly vanished, replaced by a look of terror.
“Stop.” Mo Junyi spoke, interrupting Su Xingtong’s next move.
Su Xingtong froze at the sound. Turning to see it was him, he quickly let go. His expression changed from cold to one of being at a loss.
The heating in the lobby wasn’t very strong. Su Xingtong was only wearing that thin knit sweater. Mo Junyi saw his exposed collarbones at a glance.
Bai Yuan was still standing there, gloating that Su Xingtong couldn’t make a move, but in the next second, he couldn’t laugh anymore.
In front of everyone’s disbelieving eyes, Mo Junyi took off his winter police jacket and draped it over Su Xingtong’s shoulders. Even Su Xingtong himself was stunned. Then, Mo Junyi’s cold voice directed at Bai Yuan: “Your assistant mentioned during interrogation that you may be involved in this murder case. Please come with me.”