Chapter 150 - Setting the Pace
Chapter 150: Setting the Pace
Xiang Wan was startled for a moment and looked up at his eyes. She moved her lips but said nothing.
“Let’s get along more naturally, okay? I’m not a monster that eats humans—” Bai Muchuan reached out and held her in his arms. He felt amused when the woman in his arms struggled a little awkwardly. “Be good.” He patted her back. “Calm down… Don’t overthink too much. Your mind’s been wandering the whole night.”
“!” Xiang Wan dared not look at him, her cheeks flushed red once more.
It really did seem that he had neither said anything or did anything.
She was the one whose imagination was running wild the whole time…
Xiang Wan gradually calmed down from her nervousness and pushed him a little when she thought his chest felt a little too warm for comfort.
“… It’s too late. Rest earlier, we need to go to work tomorrow.”
“Hur!” Bai Muchuan’s arms that hugged her, tightened slightly, his chin rested on her shoulders as though he was hugging a child. “Why are you such an idiot?” He sighed helplessly.
“…”
Maybe he did thought of it but did not want to force her.
Feeling his grip gradually loosened, Xiang Wan heaved a sigh of relief inside her heart.
“Goodnight.”
…
Xiang Wan did not have a good night’s sleep.
The thought of Bai Muchuan living under the same roof with her from then on made her toss and turn about at night…
What a refreshing life experience? Is this counted as a “new concept of cohabitation”?
Bai Muchuan, please take care of me going ahead.
…
On the first morning of their cohabitation, Xiang Wan woke up at five o’clock.
Although she did not sleep enough, she was particularly spirited.
After lazing and rolling around in the bed till half past six in the morning, she could not sleep anymore and got up to make breakfast instead.
She used to cook occasionally, but this particular meal seemed to hold a special meaning.
It was not deliberate but she put her heart into preparing the meal.
The kitchen was filled with the aroma of food, making the house suddenly filled with the atmosphere of the ordinary peaceful life.
The early bird catches the worm! Cheng Zheng appeared at the door after his morning jog, bringing breakfast as usual. He was the first to experience the heartwarming atmosphere of the house.
Next, when a bleary-eyed Bai Muchuan appeared in the house and that Cheng Zheng got to know that Fang Yuanyuan had stayed out overnight, his usual apathetic face instantly turned gloomy.
“Went jogging again? You’re doing a good job in keeping this habit!” Bai Muchuan glanced at Cheng Zheng lazily as though he did not notice his dreary expression. He brushed his hair with his fingers, sat down and looked at him from head to toe. “You’ve been working out so hard that sometimes I feel ashamed for being so fit when I don’t even need to work out at all.” He puffed a sigh.
“…”
Cheng Zheng’s face was so dark. “You ought to be ashamed…” He said.
Bai Muchuan raised an eyebrow when he looked at the stuff placed on the coffee table.
“Don’t buy anymore in future! That’s wasting food!”
“No problem,” Cheng Zheng turned to him and answered directly, “I’ll come over and eat with you in future.”
“!” Bai Muchuan squinted his eyes and examined him for a while. “You ought to be ashamed…”
Xiang Wan did not know what the two men were muttering amongst themselves.
She laid the breakfast on the table and saw the strange smiles that were on their faces. Somehow, she had a feeling as though she was the third party.
“Breakfast’s ready! Captain Cheng, have you eaten? Come join us.”
Bai Muchuan said, “He has eaten!”
“Okay!” Cheng Zheng got up and quickly went over to the dining table before Bai Muchuan. He sat down and took a look at the food. “Teacher Xiang has good culinary skills!”
“Nah, just average.” Xiang Wan felt that the atmosphere seemed weird and smiled awkwardly. “I hope it’s to your taste.”
Bai Muchuan put on a cold face and grunted a laugh. “Don’t make breakfast tomorrow. It’s tiring enough to get up so early to make it and that there’s someone who want to eat and drink for free…”
“Cough, cough!” Xiang Wan almost choked and took a glance at him. “Captain Cheng always bought breakfast in the past.”
“Is that so?” Bai Muchuan wore a half-smile. “From tomorrow onward, it’s better to let him buy breakfast instead. He’s on the way anyway, right?”
Cheng Zheng received his cold, chilly gaze with an indifferent face. “Right.”
Bai Muchuan retorted, “Tch! You ought to be ashamed…”
…
Xiang Wan had no idea what was with the sentence “you ought to be ashamed” was about.
She only knew that whenever the two of them were together, the rivalry was particularly intense. It was quite unbearable.
Hence, she chose to finish her breakfast fast and to prepare to go to work.
When she was ready and wanted to clean up the dining table and kitchen, she noticed that Cheng Zheng had already washed up all the dishes.
Xiang Wan was shocked.
When she saw Bai Muchuan sitting on the sofa, playing with his mobile phone, she suddenly got reminded of that sentence.
“You ought to be ashamed…”
She had blurted out that sentence without much thought which caused Bai Muchuan to be fuming in anger for the entire morning.
Xiang Wan did not know of this at all. She happily took his car to the office together and as usual, she was like a warm and hardworking bee, helping out her colleagues on those little things that she could do for them.
The colleagues in office, besides Cheng Zheng, no one else knew that she was living together with Bai Muchuan as well as the fact that Cheng Zheng was their neighbor.
She would not raise up such an awkward topic. It was the same for the two of them as well.
In the morning, it was the routine case analysis meeting.
The utmost priority for them was still Mao Guigui’s case. The Municipal Bureau had ordered that the team had to crack the case within a week which made everyone on their toes. The other thing on the agenda was the Mid-Autumn Festival Gala which would be held tomorrow night. In order to maintain public order and security, the Municipal Bureau had deployed many police officers to help out. Hongjiang Division was one of the main divisions involved as well. Hence, besides those on duty, all other officers had to help out in the event.
It was the first time for Xiang Wan to take part in such an activity. She was a little excited.
This was because not only she could see a few famous hosts during the Mid-Autumn Festival Gala, many celebrities would attend the event as well.
She was not a fan nor obsessed over celebrities. She was just curious about things that she had never experienced before.
As usual, Bai Muchuan presided over the meeting and assigned tasks respectively.
When the meeting was over, he went up to Xiang Wan and knocked on the table.
“Come along with me! We’re going out for a while.”
“Eh?” Xiang Wan was still immersed in the contents of the case analysis meeting. She took a look at him and did not notice anything wrong with Bai Muchuan. She closed her laptop and followed him.
“Captain Bai!”
At work, she would keep an appropriate distance from him.
“There’s something I need to report!”
“Hm?” Bai Muchuan looked at her. “Say it.”
“I would like to look for Captain Cheng to understand the details of the autopsy for the case…”
“The corpse is not even found. What’s there for him to perform autopsy on?” Bai Muchuan immediately pulled a long face.
“Fine, then we shall call it… Head autopsy?” Xiang Wan asked weakly as she saw his cold, chilly expression. Finally, she noticed that he was not in a friendly mood.
She blinked, feeling puzzled. “Is there a need to be so serious?”
Bai Muchuan said coldly, “I’m going to the filming set later. Take your pick.”
“…”
The autopsy result was readily available.
But going to the filming set was as though on the job training…
Xiang Wan blurted without hesitation, “I’ll go with you!”
After hearing her words, Bai Muchuan looked much better. “Let’s go!” He tilted his head at her.
When they came out of the meeting room, they heard a noise coming from the main hall outside.
Xiang Wan furrowed her brows. “What happened?”
Little Liu pouted. “Mao Guigui’s family members are here…”
Xiang Wan was startled. “They haven’t left?”
Little Liu: “Why would they leave? The whole family is still in Jin City. They will only leave after the police found the body and solved the case… They come here every day to create a scene, it’s so frustrating.”
In the main hall, their new hot online celebrity, Tang Yuanchu, was trying his best to pacify the aggravated family.
Nonetheless, his charm had no effect on a family who had just lost a dear family member.
No matter how Tang Yuanchu explained to them, they were unable to understand.
“Ye Lun is suspected of murder. Why didn’t the police arrest him? Why is he allowed to continue with his daily routine…”
“My sister is dead. You can’t even find her corpse and let the suspect get away scot-free. You’re clearly on his side!…”
“Let me get this clear to you. If the police can’t solve this case in a week, I’ll set fire to this horrible place!”
The few of them hurled sentence after sentence of verbal abuse, their voices louder and louder than before.
In contrast, Tang Yuanchu’s voice was being covered by theirs.
“Please calm down! Do believe in us! Do trust the police! We’ll definitely bring justice to the dead…”
“So are you going to arrest Ye Lun?”
“We have no reason to arrest him!”
“No reason to arrest a criminal? How did you f*cking become a detective? ”
A tall and well-built man suddenly came up and grabbed Tang Yuanchu by the collar.
That man was Mao Guigui’s second uncle (maternal side). He was in the construction industry and made a fortune for himself over the years. As he was the wealthiest in their family, he had a lot of say in the Mao Family. He usually handled disagreements by using violence…
“What’s going on! What are you trying to do?”
The hall was suddenly quiet because of a cold, stern bellow.
Bai Muchuan walked over and took a look at this group of people. He pointed toward the ceiling with a cold expression.
“This whole area is monitored in 360 degrees! Do you want to go to jail by assaulting a police officer when the case has not been solved yet?”
Silence ensued.
Nobody spoke.
Bai Muchuan stood in the center of the hall with his cold aura and a cold face. It was a sharp contrast against Tang Yuanchu who persuaded them nicely, totally with the “service with a smile” attitude that they expect. The human nature was like this—they tend to bully the weak and fear the strong. With Bai Muchuan looking like that, they daren’t create a scene anymore.
“Hmph!” Bai Muchuan grunted coldly.
In his eyes, there seemed to be a hint of rage.
“If you believe in the police, then you wait for our news. If you don’t—then all the more you shouldn’t stay here to wrangle with us. You can always depend on that mouth of yours to solve the case!”
The Mao Family members looked at each other and softened their stance.
“Detective comrade, I know we’re loud. But you have to understand our anguish for losing a family member…”
Bai Muchuan turned to the one who was talking—Mao Guigui’s paternal cousin.
“You’re the one who made a thread to spread rumors?”
He said in a casual tone and his gaze felt piercing.
That young man was shocked; he lowered his head out of reflex and did not dare to look into Bai Muchuan’s eyes.
“We are just letting our opinion be known and hoped the police could quickly solve the case for my sister…”
“Hur!” Bai Muchuan put on a half-smile. “Thanks to your nonsense, your sister received a lot of injustice.”
The Mao Family members looked at each other once again.
Bai Muchuan said coldly, “The internet is a double-edged sword, go back and think about it carefully!”
After that, he ignored them. He called Tang Yuanchu and Xiang Wan, then they walked straight across the hall and went out of the office.
Throughout the incident, the hall had remained unusually quiet.
Even Xiang Wan who knew his personality, did not dare to say a word, totally daunted by his cold aura.
Until Tang Yuanchu drove the car over and the three of them drove towards the direction of the Avenue of Stars, Xiang Wan finally opened her mouth.
“Why did you say Mao Guigui received a lot of injustice?”
Bai Muchuan turned his head. “Teacher Xiang, aren’t you always been up-to-date with hot trending news in the internet?”
Urgh! Do you have to sound so bitter?
Xiang Wan smiled. “I didn’t see anything new today!”
Bai Muchuan stretched his legs and leaned on the back passenger seat comfortably. “Mao Guigui’s reputation has been smeared.”
…
Bai Muchuan had learnt of this and could understand why things turned out this way.
Although the internet could help people, it could also murder someone without seeing blood.
There were a group of people who helped the Mao Family by criticizing Ye Lun, the police as well as the unfairness in society. At the same time, Ye Lun’s fans as well as those netizens who held different views from the Mao Family would also do the same thing by counter-attacking them.
Hence, Mao Guigui, the deceased who was unable to defend herself, became the target of attack.
She was already dead, yet those not-so-pleasant deeds she had done when alive were being exposed.
Playing truant, smoking, brawling, visiting pubs, compensated dating, staying out overnight without going back to her dorm… All these bad behaviors were being flung at her at the internet.
Xiang Wan looked at the overwhelming amount of comments that were targeting the deceased and felt confounded.
“This is too horrifying!”
How can the human heart be so ruthless?
Maybe it was lucky that she was dead. Otherwise, she might be forced to death or die of anger.
No matter those behaviors were true or false, it was her private life after all. Even if she did all those stuff, did she deserve death?
However, those “attackers” were obviously in an advantageous situation.
That also meant that the atmosphere at the internet were different from the past two days.
Mao Guigui, who was originally the victim, had now become a bad, wicked young woman…
“Could someone be setting the pace and leading the mass to achieve this effect?”
Generally speaking, without deliberate human intervention, it was a difficult task for the mass public to change their opinion in such a short time.
“Can this be counted as the behavior you’ve analyzed–a criminal will try to conceal himself?” Bai Muchuan asked casually.
“Eh?… Should be?” Xiang Wan furrowed her eyebrows. “All men for themselves. Subconsciously, that person would think he is doing the right thing and refused to face the fact that he is actually committing a crime. If Mao Guigui proved to be an innocent girl, that would mean he is in the wrong, that he killed an innocent party. And the justice he wanted to represent would be gone in a puff… To the extent that he would question his criminal motives in the first place.”
Bai Muchuan turned to look at her deeply.
“Do you think this has something to do that person?”