Chapter 116 - Beyond Expectations
Chapter 116: Beyond Expectations
The atmosphere became stagnant.
Tang Yuanchu looked at the two of them and got away by excusing himself to go to the restroom.
Mei Xin lowered her head without saying anything as she worked on the mouse cursor.
Only Bai Muchuan and Cheng Zheng were looking at each other. It was as if they could smell explosives in the air that seemed it might detonate anytime.
Xiang Wan wanted to get out of the situation by using the same excuse as Tang Yuanchu when Bai Muchuan suddenly turned to her.
“What do you think?”
*Uh! *After listening to them for so long, it’s time for her to express her opinion?
Xiang Wan cleared her throat and took out her mobile phone.
Earlier on while they were talking, she was taking notes on her phone, organizing the clues they had gotten. It was for the purpose of post analysis and learning. She did not expect Bai Muchuan would ask her for her views…
She was glad she was prepared.
“Firstly, I believe in Captain Cheng’s professionalism. The judgment of the cause of death for Kong Qingping should be accurate. But here’s the problem, there’s no third person found in the scene. Where did the external force that hit Kong Qingping come from?”
When she said this, she took a glance at Bai Muchuan and quickly retracted her gaze.
“Therefore, I agree with Detective Bai’s views. We can’t dismiss Kong Guangming as a suspect just because he is the deceased’s father. Strictly speaking, Kong Guangming is not a normal father. He is an alcoholic and irascible man who has spent years in prison; he has strayed from a normal life since long ago.
“Furthermore, everyone has seen how he behaved back in Kong Village. He has no sense of shame, don’t pay attention to social rules, and don’t care about what others say or think. He does things his way and dares to break the law. He is not on good terms with his son, and his wife left him many years ago. For a man like him, if he knew that his son had committed a crime again, under the influence of alcohol, it is easy to lose control and develop a murderous intent…”
In the beginning of her speech, she affirmed Cheng Zheng’s autopsy results.
At the latter part of her speech, she agreed totally with Bai Muchuan’s opinion.
With that, Bai Muchuan’s gloomy dark face finally eased up.
“Teacher Xiang and myself see eye to eye on this!”
He had stressed heavily on the last few words which made Xiang Wan’s ears twitch.
Cheng Zheng looked at the two of them expressionlessly for a moment. “I’ve finished what I wanted to say. As for how the case will be solved, it is none of my concern.”
With that, he removed his gloves and walked to a basin to wash his hands.
The room was totally silent except for the sounds of flowing water.
Xiang Wan noticed that this was the third time that Cheng Zheng washed his hands.
When he came back, he had washed his hands once. Halfway while doing the explanation of the autopsy, he washed for a second time. Now, he washed his hands again.
He was wearing his gloves throughout the whole explanation session. How dirty could his hands be?
Did this person has an obsessive compulsive behavior toward cleanliness?
Cheng Zheng did not look at them after he finished washing his hands but went to the balcony directly instead…
Over there, there were a lot of succulent plants that belonged to him.
If he washed his hands because he wanted to take care of his plants, that meant he really liked his plants.
Xiang Wan took a glance, gave a shrug, and went downstairs.
After the forensics team gave their report on the findings, Bai Muchuan assigned the subsequent tasks to Tang Yuanchu and Xie Hui.
Hence, Xiang Wan had nothing to do again.
“So I’ll go write my update now? Let me know if I’m needed.”
Everyone was working overtime. She felt awkward if she was to leave like that, so she decided to write her story at the office.
“Awesome, Teacher Xiang!” Tang Yuanchu gave her a thumbs up from a distance and went inside Bai Muchuan’s office.
Xiang Wan tried to clear her mind as she stared at the empty white document on her laptop screen.
Writing a novel required peace of mind. As she experienced a lot during the day, she was unable to achieve that tranquil state of mind.
Scenes of the Kong Village still stayed inside her brain.
When she wrote a sentence, she would then delete it after a while. That went on for about 10 minutes, and there was not a single word that she decided to keep.
*Geez! *She had originally thought that when she worked here, she could accumulate plots and storylines. However, as writing realistic plots depended on realistic cases, it resulted in her having a disturbed state of mind, and her ability to make up stories degenerated instead.
Xiang Wan put down her mouse and rubbed her temples. She put on her ear piece and closed her eyes to do some thinking.
A while later, she heard the notification from QQ.
Xiang Wan opened her eyes and saw Fang Yuanyuan had requested for a video call session.
“Quick, my dear, let me see how the office of the Criminal Investigation Unit looks like?”
It was Fang Yuanyuan’s message over at the QQ chat window.
Xiang Wan rejected the video call and typed a reply lazily: “This is confidential. I can’t disclose such information.”
“Stop your cr*p.” There was no way for Fang Yuanyuan to believe her lame excuse. “Since when did the Criminal Investigation Unit become a confidential and important department? You’ve failed to convince me with your story.” Fang Yuanyuan refused to believe that. “Hurry up, I wanted to see the place where my Huanghuang used to work at…”
“…”
Xiang Wan was amused by the enthusiasm her cousin displayed.
She accepted the video call and saw Fang Yuanyuan’s smiling face appearing on her laptop screen.
“My dear, so you’re not going back tonight?”
“Yeah.” Xiang Wan smiled and turned to look at the direction of Bai Muchuan’s office. “Everyone’s busy, I feel bad to just leave like this.”
“Nah, what’s there to feel bad about? You’re different from them. You’re not a permanent staff and you’re not paid a lot, either…”
“I’m here to learn, so I should have a learning attitude. You don’t understand.”
“Yes, yes, yes, I don’t understand.” Fang Yuanyuan blinked her eyes. “Well, I really don’t understand. Are you preparing to waste your precious youth with the police, or are you trying to get close to someone in the team who will become my future cousin-in-law?”
“Hey! You think I’m such a shallow person?” Xiang Wan snorted and quickly changed the topic back to her. “Where’s your Huanghuang? Since I’m not around, you can ask him to come accompany you and spend some time together. No one else will interrupt you.”
“I’m thinking the same thing as you. So here I am, sounding you out.”
“…”
“Are you surprised? Are you shocked?” Fang Yuanyuan put on an evil smile, but three seconds later, she pulled a long face and rested a leg on her thigh to play around with her toes. “Aye! Truth is, he can’t come. He’s working in a nightclub, which means his working hours are opposite from mine. It’s so difficult to even meet with each other, let alone some time together…”
“Oh.” Xiang Wan consoled her, “It’s alright, there will be a chance.”
“You’re so full of naughty thoughts!”
“…”
Her brain cells were indeed more active than others.
“Time to stop chatting and get to work,” laughed Xiang Wan, “I’m ending the video call now!”
“Wait, don’t!” Fang Yuanyuan got flustered and changed her tone to a pleading one. “Sis, I’m scared being home alone. Don’t end the video call, alright?”
“What’s there to be afraid of?” Xiang Wan frowned.
Fang Yuanyuan looked around her surroundings. “Well, I’ve always liked a big house. But now that I’m alone at home, I realized that the house is too big. My hair is standing on end as everywhere feels so empty…”
Xiang Wan had enough scare for that day.
When she heard Yuanyuan’s description, her heart started to get tense again.
“Okay fine, I won’t end the video call then.” Xiang Wan laughed teasingly. “I can get to watch a beauty’s sleeping posture… heheheh.”
“You put it as though you’ve never seen it.” Fang Yuanyuan gave a yawn and laid on the bed in her pajamas. “Continue to write your story then, I won’t disturb you any further. I’ll sleep after some reading. So, it’s settled, yeah? Make sure you don’t end the video call, alright? Or I’ll unfriend you for one whole year.”
“…”
Fang Yuanyuan was even more timid than her.
Xiang Wan agreed with a smile. She saw Fang Yuanyuan adjusting her room lights to a dimmer hue and read a story using her mobile phone. Xiang Wan then minimized the video window and started to work on her update.
Her mood tonight was unstable. Although she had been sitting before her laptop for a long while, she still couldn’t get into any mood for writing and decided to take a look at her book reviews and comments page.
That page was the same as always.
There were readers who talked about the story, there were spams as well as many other miscellaneous stuff, too.
In the novel “Murder The Dream Guy”, the previous case had basically been solved. Just like the first case, however, the case of the mutilated corpse also had some unsolved doubts. The readers discussed about the cases with relish as most of them felt that these cases might have some connection with the fate of the protagonist and would lead to the occurence of the third case.
Likewise, there was also a small group of readers who felt that the author was lacking a calm and unhurried narrative ability. Those supposed “doubts” might not be doubts at all. In their opinion, the author was not capable enough to fill in the “loopholes” she had created, and that was why it remained as “doubts”.
With regards to the analysis of the case, the readers had their own views.
Nevertheless, with respect to the love triangle between the characters: Fang Yelan, Rong Xiaonuan, and Gu Yusheng, most readers were also looking forward to further development of the romance plot.
From the start of the book till now, the two murder cases had already reached a closure, but the relationships were still unclear—there was no saying who the protagonist would end up with.
There were readers who ran out of patience and requested for a speed up of the romance plots by demanding the characters to go get a room, have the deed done, and head for a good ending instead.
*Pffft! *Xiang Wan could not help sneaking a laugh at such comments.
“Frankly, I’m more interested in the upcoming criminal case that the author would come up with compared to the romance plots. I’m looking forward to how the story would move forward. I wonder what will be the third case this time? Will it be the incident that happened at the set of ‘The Grey List’? I feel that the case doesn’t seem to be unusual as well?”
The incident of the “The Grey List” was on hot news.
This comment caught the attention of Xiang Wan, as well as the other readers.
Under that comment, there was a huge amount of replies.
Most readers expressed the same opinion as the original poster.
“‘The Grey List’ is my most anticipated television drama. I’ve waited so long for it. I didn’t expect the moment it started filming, there will be such an incident… My mom was just telling me yesterday that Jin City’s fengshui didn’t seem quite right as bad incidents keep popping out of nowhere… Maybe the author should write this case into a supernatural one? It’ll be very interesting for sure.”
“Write it into a supernatural case? Why don’t you go to heaven instead?”
“Heheh! No matter how the author write about the case, I would like it anyway… This is because I really like Xie Wanwan! She’s too beautiful, right?”
“A celebrity with a beautiful face full of hyaluronic acid? Sister, has your judgement of beauty been stolen or something?”
“What business is it of yours as to who I like? People who dislike Xie Wanwan and Ye Lun are the same type of people. Please stay away from me as far as you can!”
After these few argumentative comments, Xiang Wan saw a familiar ID.
“The author is going to write about this case. She definitely will. If she didn’t, then no matter what she write, it will become the truth. By then, one by one, her story will be replicated in reality… Hurhurhurhur, will everyone still like her story?”
“Geez! What do you mean by this? Hey brother, don’t scare me…” someone asked that ID.
“Hurhurhur, this is a secret. I can’t tell you,” that ID replied.
“Secret, what secret? Don’t leave us hanging in mid-air, say it.”
Numerous people were asking about this, but that ID did not reply anymore. Other readers started to leave mocking comments.
“He’s just a silly idiot spewing nonsense! How can all of you believe the words of a chuunibyou 1?”
Xiang Wan gasped.
Is that ID really a reader who liked to sprout nonsense?
Why did he always appear whenever a case appears?
Moreover, not only other readers could not understand what he was trying to say, even Xiang Wan herself could not understand.
What did he mean by no matter what she wrote, it would become reality? What did he mean by her story would be replicated one by one? What if she did not write about this case?
“Yuanyuan, that lunatic appeared again!”
“What the heck? I don’t know who could be so free to come out every now and then to scare others. Did he think he is a deity or something? That he can dictate what I should write… Hmph! If he wants me to write this case, I will bleeping not write about that and see how he’ll take it.”
Xiang Wan cussed in a low voice facing her laptop, but there was no response from Fang Yuanyuan.
“Hello? You fell asleep?” Xiang Wan moved her mouse to check on the video call window to look at what Fang Yuanyuan was doing…
Fang Yuanyuan was sleeping on the bed on her side, facing the laptop. Her mobile phone was beside her pillow and should be very much asleep.
This girl! She did not even pull the curtains, what if someone is snooping around and peeking at her…
Out of reflex, the moment she thought about that, Xiang Wan looked toward the window and got such a fright that she nearly threw away her mouse.
Outside the glass window, there seemed to be an obscure silhouette standing right behind Fang Yuanyuan, but the moment Xiang Wan took a look at it, it instantly disappeared.
“Ah! Yuanyuan!” Xiang Wan shouted and immediately dialed Fang Yuanyuan’s mobile number.
Fang Yuanyuan was awakened by the call and rubbed her head, yawning away. “It’s already so late, why are you making such a fuss?”
“Yuanyuan, listen to me, don’t be afraid, alright? I’ll come back right away!” Xiang Wan spoke to her in a low but anxious tone. “Don’t open the window, immediately head to the bathroom and lock the door. Don’t ever come out until I come back…”
“What happened?” Fang Yuanyuan’s head was now clear due to fright after hearing her words. “Today’s not April Fool’s Day, right?! What actually happened when I fell asleep?”
“There’s someone outside your window! I just saw someone out there.”
The residential building of her current home was nine storeys high. Although it was not a really tall building, there still shouldn’t be a human figure appearing outside the window!
“Oh my goodness, don’t scare me! Could it be haunted or something like that?” Fang Yuanyuan immediately got off from the bed and dashed toward the bathroom. “Sis, don’t hang up the phone, don’t hang up okay? I’m scared.”
“I won’t hang up the phone, I won’t!”
When Xiang Wan was talking to Fang Yuanyuan, she was running toward Bai Muchuan’s office.
She told him what happened and Bai Muchuan immediately stopped his work to send her back home, with Tang Yuanchu following along.
The neighborhood was as if in deep slumber; there wasn’t anyone at all.
Not to talk about outside the window, there were hardly anyone walking around the neighborhood as well.
They went to check on the surveillance cameras and talked to the security guards. The few of them stayed up till 5:00 a.m. in the morning but found nothing suspicious.
“Teacher Xiang, could you have seen wrongly?” Tang Yuanchu yawned and looked at Xiang Wan doubtfully.
“I believe… I didn’t.” In actual fact, as they did not manage to find anything, Xiang Wan was not so sure about it now.
Tang Yuanchu remarked, “Could it be that you’re not used to working late into the night and was hallucinating?”
Xiang Wan pursed her lips and paused for a moment. “Maybe.”
She felt apologetic for making them put down their work and had them worked for nothing for something she saw.
“I’m sorry about all this. Am I… too agitated? This is just a small matter…”
“You seem to suffer from hallucinations lately!” Bai Muchuan took a glance at her. “Ever since Zhao Jiahang’s case, such hallucinations seem to appear every now and then?”
There was a hint of inquiry in his eyes.
As Xiang Wan had not slept for the entire night, her heartbeat was faster than usual and she also seemed to be distracted. She lowered her head so as to avoid looking at Bai Muchuan. “Those with stronger sixth sense have much active thoughts and greater sense of imagination.”
Bai Muchuan raised an eyebrow. “Are you sure there’s no problem with your nervous system?”
Xiang Wan looked irritated. “You’re the one with a problem!”
Tang Yuanchu heaved a sigh of relief when he saw the two of them regaining their usual petty bickering with each other. He felt that everything seemed to become better at that moment.
Hearing them bicker was much better than seeing their charcoal-like faces everyday!
“We need to go back to office now.” Bai Muchuan took a look at Xiang Wan. “You can take the opportunity to have a rest.”
“Mm, okay.” This time, Xiang Wan did not try to push herself anymore.
She had not slept for one whole night and she felt drowsy and distracted. She really did need to rest.
To make her rest assured, Bai Muchuan and Tang Yuanchu sent her to the doorstep.
However, the moment Xiang Wan opened her door, the door opposite her house opened.
… Cheng Zheng.
The few of them met each other and went silent for a few seconds.
As Tang Yuanchu was the youngest, he greeted him, “Bro Zheng, you just came back or…?”
Cheng Zheng acknowledged by nodding his head. “I’ve come back for a while already. I’m now going for a jog.”
“So cool!” Tang Yuanchu chuckled when he suddenly got reminded of the fact that his boss and Cheng Zheng did not get along with each other and wished he could have held his tongue earlier. “Erm… Boss, you talk with Teacher Xiang, I’ll go back to the car!”
He immediately dashed toward the lift.
Bai Muchuan took a glance at Cheng Zheng’s door and narrowed his eyes at Xiang Wan.
“Go in, remember to lock the door!”
“… Mm.”
“Call me if there’s anything.”
“… Mm.”
When Xiang Wan went back to her room, she saw Fang Yuanyuan sleeping on her bed again.
At that moment, she was sleeping soundly.
What a sanguine girl you are, she thought.
Xiang Wan went to wash up and sat on her chair with her hair still wet from bath. She looked at the curtains, unable to fall asleep.
Were her eyes really playing a trick on her? Was there really someone behind the curtains peeping around their house?
…
Xiang Wan was awakened by Fang Yuanyuan in the morning.
When she looked at the time, it was 8:30 a.m. in the morning.
She had slept less than three hours! She wished she could kill someone at that instant.
“Captain Cheng asked you to eat breakfast. Don’t blame it on me!”
Cheng Zheng was sitting at their living room.
Breakfast was provided by him again, and the reason was even more “appropriate” than the previous one.
He heard there was a burglar snooping around their house last night, and was worried that they would be frightened so he made them breakfast.
“Captain Cheng knew about it, too?” Xiang Wan did not stand on ceremony with him and sat down in a worn out manner. Thinking back on last night’s blunder, she felt a little embarrassed. “However, the words ‘a burglar snooping around’ sounds novel to me.”
“When I went for a jog this morning, this was what the security guard told me.” Cheng Zheng furrowed his eyebrows and asked Xiang Wan, “You both better be more careful and make sure your windows are closed. Don’t go out at night unless really necessary.”
Xiang Wan smiled, nodded her head and glanced at him. “Captain Cheng’s not eating?”
“I’ve eaten. Now waiting for you to finish and give you a lift since it’s on the way.”
The two of them were staying and working at the same place, so it was definitely on the way.
Xiang Wan could find no excuse to refuse the offer, but when both of them arrived at the Criminal Investigation Unit, Bai Muchuan, who was still busy in his office, immediately looked like the dark, gloomy sky just before a storm. In addition, as he had not slept for one night, he looked like a living King of Hell, as if everyone had owed him money.
“Come to the Conference room! We’ll have a meeting now!”
He took a look at everyone present and walked away.
Everyone turned their gazes to Xiang Wan, seemingly thinking of something.
Xiang Wan: “…”
What has it got to do with me? I’m innocent! she thought.
…
After working for an entire night, there were finally some developments.
After interrogating Old Kong, he admitted to tying up his son, Kong Qingping, as well as taping up his mouth up. His motive was for him to stay at home obediently and not go out to create trouble.
He had also admitted that during this process, he had used violence on his son. However, he claimed that when he left the bedroom, his son was sitting on the bed. Besides the fact that he could not hurl abuse at him and could not escape, there was absolutely no heavy injury or any bleeding, not to mention being stabbed.
During the interrogation, he denied having seen that dagger that stabbed Kong Qingping to death.
At the same time, he also denied having the doll that Kong Qingping had stolen from Jinyi Hotel…
“I’ve said it, the dagger did not contain Kong Guangming’s fingerprint. He also has no motive to kill his son.” Cheng Zheng once again stood by his previous conjecture. “Kong Qingping’s death is purely accidental. Oh yes, I did a small experiment last night…”
“What experiment?” Tang Yuanchu asked with curiosity.
“A computer simulation of the scene.” Cheng Zheng opened his laptop and connected with the necessary multimedia display to show everyone the scene while he explained his findings. “Everyone please take a look at this simulation. Taking Kong Guangming’s statement as basis, when he left the bedroom, his son was sitting on the bed. Then his son secretly pulled out the dagger, wanting to cut the rope to escape…”
“Everyone should still remember that there was an old-fashioned bed with a wooden footrest inside Kong Qingping’s bedroom. When Kong Qingping got ahold of the dagger, he might have instinctively tried to stand up but might have slipped. As he was tied up, he could not balance himself to reduce the impact, causing the dagger to pierce right through his chest…”
“Hur!” Bai Muchuan laughed, “So from what you’ve gathered, Kong Qingping committed suicide?”
“He died of an accident! I feel that his father, Kong Guangming, should not be held responsible for this case.”
“…”
It was all quiet in the conference room.
Bai Muchuan grunted a laugh as he looked at Cheng Zheng.
“So in other words, we can close the case already?”
Cheng Zheng looked at him. “Commissioner Wang gave us three days. Today is only the second day.”
Bai Muchuan gave a sneer. “Yes, maybe we can even apply for a commendation?”
“…”
Bai Muchuan took a glance at everyone who had not said a word. “If this is really so simple, how are we going to explain the critical point of this case? Why did Kong Qingping steal the doll? And where is the doll now?”
“When a thief steals something he wants and realizes that it has no value,” Cheng Zheng answered without any emotion, “it is normal for them to just throw it away. Doesn’t it make sense?”
“If it has no value,” said Bai Muchuan, “why did he steal it in the first place? Why didn’t he take away those items with value instead?”
“Maybe when he wanted to steal the valuables, something happened that caused him unable to take them? For example, Xie Wanwan could have showed a sign of waking up? Or the security guard made a surprise inspection patrol?”
Bai Muchuan grunted coldly and his tone sounded grim. “That’s only your own assumption!”
“Captain Bai, you can’t make the whole team continue to investigate the case just because the doll belonged to Xie Wanwan, right?”
Bai Muchuan looked at him coldly.
Everyone thought that he would make a retort back at Cheng Zheng.
But he did not.
Instead, he slowly retracted his gaze and looked at everyone.
“Kong Qingping’s death is a homicide case.”
Everyone was quiet.
Bai Muchuan said coldly, “His father, Kong Guangming, is suspected of killing his son.”
Everyone was startled.
Actually, everyone had similar opinions as Cheng Zheng. Old Kong might have gone to jail and was not a good man, but as the saying goes, “even a vicious tiger will not eat its cubs”. He might have done a part that led to Kong Qingping’s death, but he would definitely not have the intention of killing him.
Cheng Zheng asked, “Why are you so sure?”
Bai Muchuan got up slowly and his gaze was getting colder.
“He is not a responsible father, he doesn’t love his son, and he doesn’t care about his son if he is alive or dead.”
This could be called a reason?
Everyone did not move.
“Has Captain Bai forgotten what you’ve always been saying? Dealing with cases is all about evidence, not based on our feelings!”
Bai Muchuan pursed his lips as he swept a glance at him.
“I’ll find evidence. There’s still one more day left, why so agitated?”
…
Footnotes:
Ch 116 Footnote 1
A chuunibyou either acts like a know-it-all adult and look down on real ones, or believe that they have special powers unlike others.