It was noon, the weather was nice, the curtains were drawn open, and sunlight shone in from the balcony, illuminating some floating dust particles in the air. The room seemed somewhat empty. In the middle of the living room, a man and a woman were eating at a long table.
Shi Hua’s phone rang. He answered a call from the Criminal Investigation Unit, saying they needed his cooperation on a case and hoped he could come over if it was convenient.
“Okay, I’ll go after I finish eating.” Shi Hua hung up, put his phone aside, and continued to shovel rice into his mouth. “They’re coming, are you ready?” After a few seconds, he turned to look at the beautiful woman beside him.
“I didn’t kill anyone, what do I need to prepare?” Mo Wenli pouted her lips after hearing Shi Hua’s indifferent words, then put down her chopsticks. She stared at Shi Hua and said with righteous indignation.
“But, why didn’t they call me?” Mo Wenli said, looking at Shi Hua.
“Maybe they’ll just come to arrest you directly.”
“My mom definitely doesn’t know where I am.”
“Completely broken up?”
“It’s okay, it was like that anyway, doesn’t matter.” Mo Wenli shrugged her shoulders, her gaze toward the outside somewhat empty. After being released from prison, she quickly and successfully broke up with her mother, otherwise she wouldn’t be lodging at Shi Hua’s house.
Seeing Mo Wenli silent, the atmosphere became slightly warmer. Shi Hua said, “Why, are you still a little sad to see me? Didn’t I love her? Why now…”
“I don’t know, I can’t even say I hate her.” After seemingly pondering who “she” referred to, Mo Wenli said.
“Yeah, after all, we were roommates back then. If it weren’t for me, you wouldn’t have met her. Thinking about it, we had such a good relationship in the end.”
Hearing Shi Hua’s words, Mo Wenli’s expression fluctuated, and she felt a little dazed. She and Meng Yue used to be the best of friends. Why did things come to this? What went wrong? She didn’t understand. Or maybe she was pretending not to understand.
“Come out for a while, I’ll handle it myself.” Shi Hua interrupted her thoughts again. He picked up his shoulder bag from under the sofa and slung it over his shoulder.
“Shut up, I get annoyed just seeing you.” Mo Wenli glanced at him.
After leaving the door, Shi Hua took out a cigarette from his pocket and took a hard puff. He turned back and stood for a few seconds before striding away from the apartment and going downstairs.
Jianghe Daily, this was where he worked. He drove to the newspaper office, and as soon as he entered the office, a slightly plump man in a suit with a beer belly walked over to him with a grin.
“Aiyo, Da Shi, hurry, hurry, sit down.” The person greeting him was the editor-in-chief, Yang Lin.
Yang Lin smilingly pulled him to his seat, patted him on the shoulder, and said, “The article you published on our new media yesterday blew up. A lot of people saw it. The higher-ups told me we can follow up on this matter. After all, this matter seems to have a lot of story to it, don’t you think?”
“Look at my photos, shot very professionally, and timely too. What, was I at the scene at the time? Such a small matter, kind of scary.” Yang Lin pointed to the news, pictures, and click-through rates on the computer, the corners of his mouth almost reaching his eyes.
Yang Lin was the editor-in-chief and also responsible for reviewing, so he was Shi Hua’s immediate superior.
Nowadays, the newspaper office’s benefits were poor, and with the impact of self-media, the newspaper office’s days could be said to be difficult. Shi Hua was a news reporter for Jianghe Daily, and he usually just wrote news casually to get by. He didn’t have much ambition for his career. After all, he was working in a county town, what was there to strive for? If he had ambition, he would have gone to Beijing or Guangzhou to work hard long ago!
Hearing Yang Lin’s compliments, he echoed with a smile. This Yang Lin didn’t understand anything, and he was very casual in his work. He could sit in this position purely because he had a father who was the president of the company.
“Just happened to be at the scene.” Shi Hua said modestly.
“Yesterday’s newspaper article was well-written, and the sales of the temporarily reprinted newspapers have also increased. This is the most printed edition in recent months. The article published on the new media has more traffic than in the past. I think this matter is not simple, and a lot of people are paying attention to it. Write it well, I’ll give you this report, how about it.”
“Sure, there just hasn’t been any news to write about these past few days. I was worried. I also think this matter is unusual, so I’ll continue to follow up.”
Hearing Shi Hua take on the task, Yang Lin nodded with satisfaction. He never managed much here. As long as his subordinates didn’t touch the red line, they could do whatever they wanted. If there was a problem, it was a personal matter. If there was performance, it was good management. Yang Lin understood.
“Continue to play your strengths. Although we are a local newspaper office, it’s okay to add some gossip to spice things up occasionally.” Yang Lin finished speaking and was about to leave. When he reached the door, he paused, as if he had thought of something, turned his head, and added, “The article you published yesterday was very good, but for some things, we still have to wait for the official announcement, understand? I don’t want to be called in for tea.” Yang Lin spoke earnestly, his meaning very clear. He could follow up on this matter and speculate a little, but he couldn’t talk nonsense.
“Don’t worry, I’m a serious reporter.” Shi Hua smiled and said to Yang Lin.
Since he had a task, then investigating this matter was justified, and he didn’t need to bother with reporting and asking for permission. Shi Hua stood up, took his computer, and left the newspaper office.
When he returned to his home, he happened to see a police car parked downstairs. A woman wearing a white cartoon T-shirt was being taken into the police car. It was Mo Wenli. When she was being escorted into the car, she looked up and happened to see Shi Hua.
The police were fast. After Mo Wenli was taken away, Shi Hua watched the vehicle disappear at the end of the street. As soon as he went downstairs, he saw a neighbor in the same building.
“Shi Hua, your friend seems to have gotten into trouble. She was just arrested by the police.” The neighbor walked up to him with a look of suspicion.
The police’s formation was quite large, and the surrounding people were all gossiping.
“Don’t get into any trouble. When the police come to you, tell the truth, don’t get dragged into it!” In their eyes, Shi Hua had always been an honest and law-abiding person.
“Aiyo, do you think I look like someone who would commit a crime?” Shi Hua joked.
The neighbor sized him up, thought for a moment, and said, “We understand you.”
“What’s my relationship with her? You see, we’ve been living together recently, right? Don’t tell me… she’s quite good-looking.” The neighbor’s words were quite interesting, and he leaned closer to him with a curious expression.
“What are you thinking? Just a friend.”
“Friend?”
“Real friend!”
“Fake girlfriend?”
“No, you’re thinking too much. Just an old classmate.”
Seeing that he was saying less and less, Shi Hua directly found an excuse to escape the scene. He heard that Mo Wenli had come downstairs herself and was caught by the police. Of course, this residence wasn’t rented by Mo Wenli, but was Shi Hua’s residence. Saying it was Shi Hua’s residence, the house wasn’t even in his name. The house belonged to Shi Hua’s parents, but because his parents were both at retirement age, they had already returned to their hometown to retire. Before they left, they said, “The house is left to you, you work hard for a car, quickly find a woman and get married, understand?” Thinking of his parents’ words, Shi Hua couldn’t help but feel a little headache.
“You’re running around all day, interviewing so many people. You must know a lot of people, right? Did you add any of those beautiful women’s contact information? Can you send them a few words privately?”
“I have professional ethics. Work is work, life is life. Do you think I’m you?”
Hearing Shi Hua’s serious reply, his father glared at him in frustration, speechless.
Now, Shi Hua’s parents rarely went there. When they went to the city, it was mostly to purchase supplies. At first, they often asked Shi Hua about his life, but later they found that the answer was always the same, so they gave up.
Opening the door, Shi Hua found that the things on the table had been cleaned up. Walking over to the table, he looked down at the empty trash can. She was quite nice, remembering to take out the trash before leaving.
He put the computer on the table and opened the prepared draft. He had almost thought of what to name the second article.
Criminal Investigation Unit, interrogation room.
Mo Wenli sat in the chair, her head lowered, her hands crossed on the table. The handcuffs occasionally made a clanging sound. Standing in front of her were Li Zhong and another police officer, while Yang Xiaomin was responsible for taking notes on the side.
“Is this person you?” Li Zhong pushed the computer in front of her, the screen showing a video.
“At the scene of the crime, we discovered through questioning passersby and investigating surveillance that the victim seemed to have had an argument with you before her death, is that correct?” Li Zhong asked.
Through the address book, after comparing Mo Wenli’s photo with the blurry figure on the surveillance, they roughly guessed that the other person was her.
“Yes.” Mo Wenli nodded.
“Did you have a conflict, and then killed her after the argument!” Before Li Zhong could speak, another police officer pointed at her and said in a harsh tone.
Mo Wenli raised her head and sneered disdainfully, “What, officer, do I like to kill people after arguing?”
“I never said that she was killed by me.” Mo Wenli emphasized heavily.
The police officer was also momentarily speechless, “Still quibbling!” Perhaps he couldn’t think of the right words, the police officer snorted and glared fiercely at Mo Wenli.
“To be honest, you should also know that there’s some relationship between me and her. We were university classmates, and even roommates. As for that day, because she stood me up before, I was very angry. I ran into her on the street, so I questioned her, and my voice was a little loud, that’s all.”
“What do you mean by stood you up?”
“We agreed to have dinner together a few days ago, but she didn’t come that day and didn’t give me an explanation.”
Li Zhong looked at the man’s calm answer, which didn’t seem like a fabrication.
“Did you follow her into that alley afterwards?”
“Let me make it clear, she brought me in, because there was no one around. She saw few people, and was probably embarrassed, so she pulled me in.”
“From the time you argued, until she came out injured from the stabbing, she shouldn’t have met anyone else, right? Or rather, during this time, did you see anyone else?” Li Zhong continued to ask.
“How would I know? After you guys talked for a few words after going outside, and she explained to you, you left. As for whether there were any other people, do you need me to investigate?” Mo Wenli retorted.
Hearing this, Li Zhong’s brow furrowed slightly.
“As soon as she came in with me, she was stabbed not long after. I said I’m not the murderer.” The other police officer continued to say to her.
“You say it’s me, then show me the evidence.” Mo Wenli looked at the person speaking, a helpless smile on her face.
“This…” This sentence left him speechless again. Damn it, there was no direct evidence to prove that she was the murderer, because there were no fingerprints on the bloody knife!
This was also what Li Zhong felt was wrong.
“Then, then, the message she left before her death, Chen Xuelin. After our investigation, you had a relationship with him, and the person I killed was him, right? The message left before her death is saying that the person who killed her is the same person who killed Chen Xuelin.” The man was full of confidence, looking down at Mo Wenli, believing that she definitely couldn’t refute it.
“Wonderful reasoning… Then why didn’t she just write my name? Is it because my name has too many strokes? If I were killed, I could write the murderer’s name directly before I died. Why would I beat around the bush?” Mo Wenli couldn’t help but clap her hands, the handcuffs making clanging sounds. Thinking of her own experience back then, she sneered inwardly.
“Then otherwise, was she killed by a ghost?”
“Damn it, can a dead person kill someone?” Li Zhong said speechlessly, glaring at the police officer next to him, telling him to go out and calm down.
“Officer! Who says, a living person can’t kill someone.” Just then, Mo Wenli suddenly said, causing Li Zhong’s smile to freeze. He looked at Mo Wenli, who didn’t seem to be joking. He approached Mo Wenli, “What do you mean?”.
“You mean, Chen Xuelin, who was killed by you, killed Meng Yue four years after his death?” Li Zhong asked, looking at Mo Wenli curiously.
Mo Wenli didn’t refute it, only saying, “Anyway, it wasn’t me who killed her, and you didn’t kill Chen Xuelin either. Chen Xuelin, wasn’t killed by you!” Mo Wenli raised an eyebrow, her gaze facing Li Zhong, looking straight at Li Zhong.
This made Li Zhong feel even more confused. His gaze tightened slightly, and he backed away. He didn’t continue to ask questions and walked out with Yang Xiaomin.