After the silence, Zhen Wuyu looked at Liu Duan’s dark expression beside him. His eyes lowered slightly, and he tapped the tabletop with a finger, saying lightly, “You mean Bai Mian Chang is Su Li?”
“How old was she back then?”
Something a teen could do, sure, but not something a little kid could do.
So it couldn’t be Su Li.
Qi Xuan glanced at him. “That’s not what I mean, and I’m not targeting her. I mean the perfume she uses is the same as that woman’s.”
“And how can you be sure the Bai Mian Chang now is the same person as the Bai Mian Chang back then?”
“Didn’t you say I copied the crime? Then could it be someone else is also copying Bai Mian Chang? They even dressed up as her to control me and drive me to kill.”
He had his own pride. Even though Zhen Wuyu had broken him down, he still had his own thoughts and judgment.
Liu Duan felt Qi Xuan made sense. “Tell us her height and build and that kind of data. Can you draw the clothes? What exactly did she look like, and what accessories…”
Qi Xuan told them everything, down to the smallest detail. The more he said, the heavier Liu Duan and Zhen Wuyu’s expressions became.
Because this Bai Mian Chang’s external conditions basically matched back then.
It was the Bai Mian Chang the bait had seen in Director Zhan Qing’s murder case.
But it was strange. Why would she use the same perfume as Su Li?
Was it a coincidence?
“Perfume. What kind of scent was it? Did it smell good?” Zhen Wuyu suddenly asked.
Qi Xuan’s expression turned complicated. He spat out two words: “High-end.”
“High-end.” That kind of description wasn’t something a high schooler would normally have. It sounded more like a man judging a scent. Or rather, Qi Xuan had been dragged into the adult world too early by Qi Meijuan, including the perfumes she used year-round: cheap, harsh, heavy, or simply not suited to her.
They all gave him a low-class, uncomfortable feeling.
But this red-dressed Bai Mian Chang was different.
He had smelled a cold, clean fragrance that went straight into the chest, even slightly bewitching, like a bright, blazing red inside a vast white wasteland of snow and ice.
She made it clear her existence was separate from ordinary people.
“I feel like she is Xue Ling.”
“She seemed to know everything. She even knew Qi Meijuan had chronic bronchitis from years of heavy drinking and smoking… She told me that if I wanted to kill her, I had to use her weakness. The drug could also be made from the conditions of her illness.”
Zhen Wuyu: “Extract anesthetic substances from the medicine she got after seeing a doctor?”
He paused, then reacted sharply. “She stays up late playing mahjong a lot. She runs around in winter. Her immunity drops and she gets colds often, so she was prescribed lots of cold medicine and related drugs, or she directly bought them at the clinic. Hydrochloride ___ in cold medicine affects the nervous system. In tiny amounts, combined with other elements, it can be made into something that numbs nerves… You definitely didn’t have that level or the lab conditions. The other party made it for you?”
If you thought about it like that, then the anesthetic used on that female doctor at the hospital was very likely homemade.
Because anesthetics are strictly controlled and recorded. They’re easy to trace, and not easy to carry through checkpoints. If it was made locally from available materials, especially since Baimu Town had sources for medicinal materials, then it explained why they couldn’t find the other party’s traces in the hospital.
The other party had a decent level of medical skill, and even a related experimental setup… and strong financial power.
Who was it?
“Su Li… does she have a medical background?” Liu Duan asked Zhen Wuyu in a low voice.
Su Li couldn’t be the Bai Mian Chang from Xue Ling Dao back then, but she could be the “second-generation” Bai Mian Chang who copied her now.
Qi Xuan was also a “Bai Mian Chang,” but at most he was a low-level imitator.
The one who approached him and guided him was the second-generation Bai Mian Chang…
Female, high-end, financially powerful, smart, highly educated, able to control hearts… also deeply involved in the cases and able to contact all sides. Most importantly: this person understood the judicial system.
Right now, the person who fit these factors best was Su Li.
And when Zhen Wuyu first analyzed the 315 case and the six-person kidnapping case, he had also mentioned the link between them. 315 happened, the kidnapping case had a masked person, and the masked person deliberately used a soy sauce bottle to connect to 315. The point was to link Qi Meijuan and Lin Zong and the others, aiming straight at Bai Mian Chang and Xue Ling Dao… This person had to be a relative of a victim from the tragedy back then, or an involved party. They knew the inside story, knew Bai Mian Chang, so they could imitate her in such detailed ways.
Su Li’s suspicion was simply too big.
Zhen Wuyu ignored Liu Duan and the others and suddenly asked Qi Xuan, “What’s the meaning of the soy sauce bottle?”
Qi Xuan froze, lowered his head. “Every time she called those messy men over, or after she beat me, she made me go buy soy sauce.”
Zhen Wuyu asked Liu Duan again, “Was the soy sauce bottle detail only in the investigation report? Did it ever show up in social news?”
Liu Duan: “No. Only in the report.”
Then it was an internal leak.
That lined up with what Zhan Qing had suspected back then and what they had recently confirmed: there was a mole.
Could it be that Su Li really was working with Bai Mian Chang?
But Su Li’s position was opposite to Bai Mian Chang’s. Wasn’t that contradictory?
Liu Duan temporarily pulled Zhen Wuyu outside.
“Some cases happen just to imitate the true culprit of another case, using the police to retaliate against someone. There are examples like that in the provincial archive. When I went to study, I saw a seminar… so… actually, she’s really good at disguising herself. She looks innocent, but in fact…”
He trailed off. Zhen Wuyu glanced at him. “I know you’re wondering why I used to be so biased against Su Li, and now that everything points to her, I’m the one speaking for her.”
Liu Duan did find it strange.
“Bias is my subjective like or dislike. But to convict someone, you need every objective legal condition to match. You can’t be sloppy. It’s like going to court: ninety-nine pieces of evidence fit, but if one key piece doesn’t, then you can’t convict. That’s the spirit of the law.”
“So I’m not changing my view of her or protecting her.”
“I’m protecting my own judicial principles.”
Zhen Wuyu was open and upright. No favoritism. Liu Duan could see it and felt awkward. “Then let’s go back.”
“But you.”
Zhen Wuyu stopped him. Liu Duan turned back.
Zhen Wuyu frowned. “Don’t make the same mistake as back then.”
“When investigating a case, you can’t rush it.”
He had sensed Liu Duan’s urgency. Back then, Liu Duan had even raised his clearance to protect Su Li and her father. Now that the suspicion pointed at her, with no solid evidence at all, Liu Duan was emotionally treating her as guilty.
It made Zhen Wuyu feel that “people’s hearts change, and they didn’t really cherish Zhan Qing’s daughter enough to be biased in her favor.”
So the earlier stance from the chief and Liu Duan, that Director Zhan Qing was innocent and they wanted to solve her case, sounded too fake.
Zhen Wuyu was good at reading people. Right now he was disappointed, and suspicious too.
Liu Duan fell silent.
Zhen Wuyu went back into the interrogation room.
Inside, Qi Xuan had finished a cup of water. He heard Zhen Wuyu ask his last question.
“That day at the school, did your mother see Chen Qing?”
“This is him.”
Zhen Wuyu showed Qi Xuan Chen Qing’s photo.
“She did. She was surprised and muttered a few things. She wouldn’t drive for a long time. Later it was like she finally figured something out. She got especially happy, like she’d picked up money.”
Zhen Wuyu: “The person Chen Qing met. Did you see them?”
Qi Xuan seemed to think. “I saw.”
“A… very stiff old man.”
“Old like you.”
That last line was aimed at Liu Duan, who had just come in.
Liu Duan: ???
What’s going on. First his junior looked down on him, then a criminal insulted him.
Was he cursed?
He quickly reacted and asked, “Did you see his face?”
“No. I was in the car. I’ve seen Chen Qing, so I recognized his build and clothes, but Chen Qing was blocking that person. I only know the man wore a black leather jacket, not tall. It was a bit far, so I couldn’t see his face… But when that person left, Chen Qing was very respectful, bowing and scraping. I think that person’s status was much higher than Chen Qing’s. At minimum, Chen Qing was clinging to him.”
Liu Duan got it and met Zhen Wuyu’s eyes.
Chen Qing’s contact was very likely the mole Director Zhan Qing had noticed back then and deeply feared. And by age, he belonged to Liu Duan’s old investigation group. He probably had kids and grandkids already, a local. So he happened to run into Chen Qing at the school. Chen Qing knew who he was, so he made contact… And Qi Meijuan had long noticed Chen Qing’s suspicious behavior at the casino. With the frequent local cases back then, she linked it to certain cases, connected it to his official identity, realized this group was colluding with criminals, and got greedy enough to blackmail.
So she was killed.
Then if they check the students at that school… whose family background links back to someone who participated in the investigation back then, the identity of that person would almost be revealed.
Liu Duan was excited and immediately went out to investigate.
Zhen Wuyu also felt hope. The mole’s level was definitely far higher than Lin Zong and the others. What he knew would go straight into the core of the Xue Ling Dao case.
But just then, there was sudden noise outside.
Zhen Wuyu came out and saw the commotion.
The families of the three thugs.
A lot of relatives and connections. They packed the gate and lobby, all cursing Su Li.
Saying she hurt people, knocked them unconscious, demanding compensation, demanding prison time…
“What kind of person is this arrogant? Don’t you know this is Baimu Town? You think we’ll let you, an outsider woman, bully us?”
“Hurry up and apologize, pay up, kneel and thank us!”
“Damn it, you dare touch my family, you don’t want to live…”
The police saw there were too many people. No matter how they persuaded or blocked, it didn’t work.
Even the chief came out and put on an official tone, ordering them to leave. Zhen Wuyu was about to handle it when the door to Interrogation Room 01 opened.
“Oh, so that’s why it’s so noisy.”
“So it’s you guys?”
Su Li had taken off the suit jacket Su Ye gave her inside the interrogation room. Coming out, she felt cold and put it back on. As she walked over, she lifted her phone, snapped a photo, and sent it out.
“Dad, tonight you and that old Liu talked about cooperation for Baimu Town’s project development, right? Those factory bosses are basically settled.”
“No, I’m not planning to manage it. I’m still young. You’re not dead. Why would I take over.”
“But, look at the photo. If I walk out of the police station crying today… none of the people in that picture are allowed to be hired in the future.”
“Why? Because they don’t respect money.”
“They don’t know their place.”
After hanging up, she strolled to the three thugs’ family members, whose faces had turned green as if they recognized her, then turned back to look at Zhen Wuyu.
“Zhen xuesheng, you probably remember what happened back then too, right. Those three idiots’ relatives also came to the school back then. Do you remember them?”
“All these years, they really have gotten old, but they’re still poor and down-and-out.”
Zhen Wuyu: “I remember, but you can’t…”
Su Li: “Then do you remember how they bullied me back then?”
Zhen Wuyu’s expression turned a bit speechless. He seemed to recall that “coincidence” when he paid attention and saw a scene. He was about to speak when—
Pa pa pa!
In front of everyone, Su Li suddenly raised her hand.
Each slap landed hard, one after another, on the fathers or older brothers of the three thugs.
So loud their faces were knocked sideways.
But those grown men didn’t dare speak. They covered their cheeks…
“That’s right. Back then I paid them back the same way.”
That’s right. Back then, the teachers and students at school were also stunned into silence the same way.
Fierce. Absolutely fierce.
The young miss never takes a loss.
Zhen Wuyu’s head hurt. He pressed his brow and lowered his voice. “What you’re doing is illegal, and you’re doing it at the police station. You can be sued…”
Su Li smiled. The smile was meaningful, and it made people’s scalps go numb.
“Wasn’t I already being targeted?”
“Huang Xiuling could get killed and you still haven’t found the murderer. That’s really scary. If I’m out there, I might get killed too.”
“What place is safer than your police station? And I don’t even have to pay bodyguard fees.”
“Honestly, trash like them only has this much value for me to use…”
She pulled out a wet wipe from her bag, wiping her reddened palm and slender fingers, smiling like a little demon.
“Good if they die. The more deaths, the better.”
“The more dead people, the more cases, the more flaws.”
“Maybe someone’s already planning to frame the killer on me, using my conflict with someone, my motive, to kill them… Look, aren’t there several right here? If they got killed, and I just happened to be locked up inside the police station, wouldn’t that be a natural alibi?”
“As long as I don’t die, the rest depends on your police.”
“Trouble, huh.”
The thugs’ family members: “!”
The police: “…”
Zhen Wuyu suddenly understood. Back in high school, Su Li had been first place in track at the sports meet, unbelievably fast. In that alley, she might have had a chance to run, but she didn’t. Had she already planned to use those three idiots back then, laying groundwork for this moment?
“You…”
Su Li walked past him, extending her cleaned, slender, pretty wrist, looking like she was willingly offering to be cuffed and arrested.
Then she said, “Earlier, didn’t you tell me I can do things that are reasonable, as long as I don’t break the law.”
“Then what about being a bit immoral? Is that okay?”
“Zhen xuesheng.”
Liu Duan felt that what he’d said before, that this girl could disguise herself and make people think she was innocent, was completely wrong.
Right now she was a straight-up rich-family villain young miss from a Hong Kong drama. Where was the innocence? This was shameless.
Contrast: 50%.