Ye Zhuxi really wanted to curse. Who wanted to have anything to do with such an annoying person like you! Especially seeing Xu Jiu’s smile, the more she looked at it, the more irritating it became, making her fists itch to punch her. However, overnight, the positions had changed, and now it was her turn to take the initiative to find her. A small act of impatience could ruin a big plan.
She told herself she had to hold back, but when facing Xu Jiu, she still didn’t know how to start the conversation, standing there with a hesitant expression.
Seeing her like this, Xu Jiu felt pleased. Thinking of how rude Ye Zhuxi had been when she rejected her yesterday, Xu Jiu even felt a little smug.
She rested her chin on her hands, looking at the person in front of her with a half-smile, and said, “How come our busy Ye has time to visit me?”
This time, she was definitely being sarcastic!
Yesterday, Ye Zhuxi had used being busy as an excuse to reject her, and today she finally got the chance to use that excuse. This girl was definitely doing it on purpose, deliberately trying to be sarcastic.
Ye Zhuxi was so angry with her that she turned to leave, almost forgetting her purpose entirely.
“Ye Zhuxi, if you step out of this door today, some things, some truths, will be further away from you… Are you sure you don’t want to find the answers yourself?” Ye Zhuxi’s hand, which was already gripping the doorknob, suddenly stopped. The rationality that had driven her to run away from home by Xu Jiu’s sarcastic remarks gradually returned. She understood exactly what Xu Jiu meant, and the veins on her clenched fists bulged.
*Thud*—The brown paper bag landed on the desk. Xu Jiu said, “I know what you care about. Three years ago, the world-renowned magician Yan Zui died in a fire, and you still insist that the fire wasn’t an accident. These are all the files I requested to be transferred back from abroad regarding the accidental death of Teacher Yan Zui. If you cooperate with me now, you’ll have a chance to get to the truth.”
Ye Zhuxi released her hand, turned to look at Xu Jiu sitting behind the desk, her gaze slowly falling on the file bag on the table.
Neither of them spoke again. Ye Zhuxi needed to completely calm down, and Xu Jiu gave her ample time.
“I can cooperate with you on Wei Lian’s case.”
Xu Jiu shook a finger. “It’s not just this one case. Now that we’re here, I don’t intend to hide it from you anymore—Ye Zhuxi, your former senior, Qu Yuezhou, may be involved in a major case involving organized crime and gambling, and we’ll probably need to establish a long-term cooperation.” Her hand rested on the file folder on the table as she spoke slowly and deliberately. “While I can’t guarantee that the two cases are necessarily related, Qu Yuezhou’s presence in both cases is why I was able to persuade the leadership to release the case files…”
Ye Zhuxi frowned, instinctively wanting to retort, but she held back. She paused, then said, “I only have seven months of leave. Xu Jiu, if you can’t guarantee that we can complete the cooperation within seven months and find the answers I want, then I will refuse you now.”
Xu Jiu’s expression relaxed, and she nodded. “That’s enough. I’m handling this major case, and the department has issued an order to solve it within a limited time. I don’t have much time.”
Hearing this, Ye Zhuxi’s expression relaxed, but then she felt awkward and nodded silently.
Xu Jiu continued looking at her, then asked again, “What are your conditions? The conditions for cooperation?”
Knowing she was asking a rhetorical question, Ye Zhuxi still pointed to the file folder on the table and answered seriously, “Share all the information from that case three years ago, and don’t hide anything from me.”
Xu Jiu chuckled and nodded, “Of course, that’s only fair.” Saying this, she stood up and walked to Ye Zhuxi, extending her hand, “Then I wish us a pleasant cooperation from now on.”
Ye Zhuxi looked down at the hand extended in front of her, hesitated for a moment, thinking that shaking hands like this probably didn’t count as reconciling with her rival, right? She was only cooperating with this annoying person because of her teacher.
Thinking of her teacher, she convinced herself and extended her hand to shake Xu Jiu’s.
Xu Jiu’s hand was warm, even in the cold winter months, warmth still emanated from her palm. Their hands only shook briefly, and that warmth quickly dissipated. Ye Zhuxi wasn’t in the mood to dwell on how incredibly frustrating it was to shake hands with that annoying guy. She just glanced at her phone and said, “It’s past lunchtime, I’m going to grab something to eat…”
“Come with me,” Xu Jiu invited her directly. “I haven’t eaten either. If you don’t mind, our department has a cafeteria, and the cooks there cook really good food.”
Ye Zhuxi wanted to refuse. Working with that annoying guy was already a huge emotional hurdle for her; having to eat with him now was just too much of a shock.
Xu Jiu shut her down with a single sentence: “I’d also like to discuss the cases with you, besides Wei Lian’s case, there are also details about Teacher Yan Zui’s case.”
Ye Zhuxi stared at Xu Jiu for a while, seeing only seriousness in her expression, without a trace of other emotion. In the end, she could only silently nod in agreement, but asked one question: “Can we buy some to eat in the office? The cafeteria is crowded.”
Xu Jiu said, “Sure, what do you want to eat? I’ll go buy it.”
For some reason, Ye Zhuxi felt that she was too enthusiastic, making her unconsciously wary of whether she was trying to set her up.
“Let’s go together, I’ll go take a look too.”
Since she was willing to go with her, Xu Jiu naturally agreed, so the two went to the cafeteria together to get food, and then came back together.
During this time, they naturally encountered many people. Some people saw a strange woman wearing sunglasses with Xu Jiu and looked over curiously, guessing the identity of the stranger in their hearts.
Ye Zhuxi’s expression was hidden behind the large sunglasses that covered half of her face, while Xu Jiu showed no abnormality from beginning to end, blocking all those curious gazes.
Back in the office, the two moved to the coffee table for a meal, chatting as they ate, mostly Xu Jiu doing the talking.
Knowing what Ye Zhuxi cared about most, she started with what she wanted to hear: “I’ve looked into the incident from three years ago carefully these past few days. It was classified as an accident abroad, but as the deceased’s student, you’ve consistently argued that the fire wasn’t an accident, but rather deliberately caused…”
Three years ago, Ye Zhuxi’s teacher, Yan Zui, died in a private residence on the outskirts of a city in France. The cause of death was a fire. This incident garnered immense attention and discussion worldwide at the time. After all, he was a legendary magician, and it was said that the accident occurred while repeatedly experimenting with explosion and fire magic tricks—a highly valuable topic of conversation for everyone inside and outside the magic world.
Because of the deceased’s special status, the French police naturally didn’t neglect the matter, quickly conducting a series of investigations and ultimately concluding that the fire was an accident, not deliberately caused.
Xu Jiu asked, “I’ve already reviewed the case file. The police investigation at the time was flawless. The scene was a locked room, there were no signs of anyone else present when the fire started, and the location of the fire fits the characteristics of an accidental fire. Furthermore, since Professor Yan was conducting research on magic tricks for escaping explosions and fires, it clearly also fits the criteria for an accident.”
Ye Zhuxi subconsciously frowned, her lips moving as if she was about to refute.
But Xu Jiu continued, “However, you strongly insist that it wasn’t an accident, but arson. Because of the special nature of your and Professor Yan’s professions, I suspect you’re evaluating this fire scene from the perspective of a magic professional. So why? Why are you so certain it was arson? From your perspective, what special details in this case are there that we laymen can’t perceive?”
Ye Zhuxi was clearly stunned. To be honest, this was only the second person in three years who had willingly considered her perspective on her teacher’s case; the first was her cousin, Ye Lanchuan. Everyone else, including Fu Songyao, believed the French police’s conclusion, thinking it was an accident caused by a mistake during a magic experiment.
At this moment, Ye Zhuxi couldn’t describe how complicated her feelings were. Before today, she would never have believed that the person who had been most patient in asking her questions and wanting to hear her opinions in the past three years was actually Xu Jiu, that annoying person.
“The police concluded that no one set the fire. You should have seen the investigation records and conclusions of the fire point in the case file.” Ye Zhuxi stuffed the last bite of rice into her mouth, then tidied up the takeout box in front of her, and said, “The scene was a locked room, there was no one else present, and only my teacher was there at the time of the incident. All the conclusions seem to point to this as an undeniable accident, but that doesn’t rule out another possibility—if someone had tampered with the props that my teacher was using for the experiment beforehand, it would have ‘artificially’ caused this ‘accident,’ wouldn’t it?”
Xu Jiu’s face showed an expression of certainty. Although she was an amateur in magic, she was a master at solving cases. After reading the case file from beginning to end, she found possible loopholes.
The crime scene was a locked room, there was no one else present, and the fire point was the explosion fire escape magic device that Yan Zui was repeatedly testing. The initial on-site investigation revealed that the deceased was very close to the fire and was almost immediately engulfed in flames. A subsequent autopsy revealed a large amount of smoke in the deceased’s respiratory tract, confirming that the death was caused by burns before death, not post-mortem cremation.
Based on the comprehensive assessment of the on-site investigation, trace evidence, and autopsy, the case was classified as an accident.
Ye Zhuxi firmly believed that her teacher could not have died in an accident; her experimental equipment must have been tampered with.
The French police initially took her opinion seriously and even conducted a follow-up investigation, but the fire had already burned so badly that it was impossible to check for tampering. Ye Zhuxi’s speculation was completely unsupported by any evidence.
Xu Jiu pulled out a surveillance report from the file folder: “You and the French police also investigated the surveillance footage near the crime scene. They only saw your senior, Qu Yuezhou, walk across an intersection one kilometer away from the crime scene an hour before the incident, and then Qu Yuezhou disappeared. According to the exit records, the French police found that he had already returned to China. There was no evidence to classify the case as a murder, so naturally there was no reason to apply for a cross-border joint investigation. Since then, the French police have become complacent about the case, essentially ruling it an accident. And Qu Yuezhou has since disappeared from public view.”
Ye Zhuxi looked at the blurry figure on the surveillance report, her chest heaving. She looked up at Xu Jiu and asked, “So what now? Do you have any way to change this outcome? The case happened three years ago, and it was in France. Neither the crime scene nor my teacher’s body exists anymore. Can you reopen the investigation? We still have no evidence to prove it was a homicide.”
“Yes, you’re right,” Xu Jiu said frankly.
Ye Zhuxi’s eyes darkened, and she lowered her gaze, remaining silent.
Xu Jiu continued, “But a new path lies before us.” She took out the file folder for Wei Lian’s case and said, “Qu Yuezhou, who disappeared from public view for three years, has reappeared and is involved in a new case. This case will be a brick in our path to uncovering the truth of the past.”