After sending Jiang Hongye away, Xiao Tang collapsed onto the sofa, fiddling with the still-warm case notes and sighing. “Captain Zou, I don’t get it. Why didn’t you press Jiang Hongye more when you knew he was hiding something?”
Zou Shuyang sat in his chair, spinning it left and right. “He’s not a suspect, so why go after him aggressively?”
“But…” Xiao Tang thought for a moment, his mind still unable to grasp it. “But he was hiding something.”
Zou Shuyang clicked his tongue, frustrated that Xiao Tang wasn’t getting it. “We still don’t know how this case will be classified. It could just be an accident, you know?”
Xiao Tang fell silent, but his gaze toward Zou Shuyang was full of disapproval.
Zou Shuyang didn’t feel offended by Xiao Tang’s look—in fact, it felt familiar.
Xiao Tang’s expression reminded him of himself when he had just graduated from the police academy, stubbornly believing that anyone brought to the station, regardless of whether they were a suspect or a witness, should confess everything, down to the last detail, regardless of whether it was related to the case.
But neither suspects nor witnesses were obligated to make statements that could incriminate themselves.
Facing Xiao Tang’s increasingly intense stare, Zou Shuyang changed the subject. “Alright, enough about that. It’s almost lunchtime. Go grab something to eat, then stay on standby at the station this afternoon. After lunch, I’ll head to the bank to check Shen Jun’s account records and see if we can trace the source of that hundred thousand yuan.”
Xiao Tang nodded dejectedly, clearly unsatisfied with his unfulfilled sense of justice.
Zou Shuyang, seeing that it was about time, stood up and ruffled Xiao Tang’s short buzz cut. “It’s almost time. Go eat now; I’m heading to pick up my partner from work.”
Xiao Tang tilted his head to avoid the “pat” grumbling, “You’re only a few years older than me, but you act so old!”
Zou Shuyang had left a bit late, and the traffic was terrible. By the time his car reached the gate of Jiangzhou No.4 High School, his partner had already been waiting there for a while, with two students in the school’s tomato-and-egg-colored uniforms standing nearby.
Zou Shuyang parked the car not far from them and rolled down the window, allowing the wind to carry their conversation to his ears.
“So, Miss Jian, do universities really have biology majors? What kinds of courses do they teach?”
The quiet and beautiful teacher smiled, her bright eyes curving like crescent moons. “It depends on your focus. For example, Jiangzhou University’s biology department offers both biological sciences and applied biology. Biological sciences are geared toward teaching, so if you graduate, you’d likely become a teacher. Applied biology is more interesting, with courses on various biological theories, practicals in anatomy, and microbiology cultivation. Oh, and I once grew mushrooms during college. Somehow, something went wrong, and my classmates who ate them ended up in the hospital.”
“Hahaha, really, Miss Jian?”
“If we study applied biology, would we also grow mushrooms? Hahaha!”
Watching her two students laughing heartily, Jian Mengyan’s face showed a trace of helplessness. “Alright, enough laughing. The college entrance exams are almost here. How’s your review going? Are you confident about genetics? If you lose points on genetics in tomorrow’s final mock exam, don’t be surprised if you see me hanging outside your door at midnight.”
The two students, who had been all smiles, immediately sobered up upon hearing the word “genetics”. They quickly stood in a line, bowed to Jian Mengyan in perfect synchronization, and then ran off gleefully.
Watching the two girls leave, Jian Mengyan pressed her lips together in a smile. Once they were out of sight, she turned and got into Zou Shuyang’s car.
“Miss Jian, I have a lot of questions I’d like to ask you too.” Zou Shuyang teased as he buckled her seatbelt, his voice tinged with jealousy. “Do you have the patience to answer them for me?”
Jian Mengyan stared at the small mole on the right side of Zou Shuyang’s face for a moment before pushing him away with a playful slap. “Alright, stop fooling around. I heard your team has another case? Is our trip going to get canceled?”
Zou Shuyang started the car. “It shouldn’t. But how did you hear about the case?”
Jian Mengyan pulled down the passenger mirror and stared at a tiny, barely visible scar near her nose. She kept talking as she touched up her makeup. “Did you forget? Captain He’s wife is our grade coordinator. She was just bragging about it to me.”
“Bragging about what?”
“What else?” Jian Mengyan touched up her scar with powder. “Bragging about how capable her husband is, making you jump through hoops.”
Zou Shuyang didn’t bother to argue or explain. He just let out a long sigh.
“But,” Jian Mengyan continued as she put away her compact, “their situation is kind of strange.”
“Strange how?”
Zou Shuyang asked, but no response came right away. Curious, he glanced over while waiting at a red light, only to see Jian Mengyan frowning, deep in thought.
“I remember back in high school, the newspaper reported that Captain He was a rising star in the police force, solving high-profile cases left and right. So how come now, all these years later, he’s still just a deputy team leader?” She emphasized the word “deputy.”
Zou Shuyang didn’t reply immediately. Once the light turned green, and they drove into a narrow alley lined with old apartment buildings, he finally spoke. “He’s got unresolved issues.”
“Issues?”
Zou Shuyang didn’t know much about it either. “There was a case he couldn’t solve properly. You know how geniuses are—they’re always extra hard on themselves.”
“Genius?” Jian Mengyan laughed and teased, “But you made the Jiangzhou Evening News the other day. My colleagues were praising you as the Sherlock Holmes of Jiangzhou.”
Zou Shuyang rolled his eyes. “Please, don’t say that. I’m afraid I’ll end up like Captain He.”
Whatever he said must have struck Jian Mengyan’s funny bone because she started laughing so hard she almost ran out of breath in the passenger seat.
“Come on, laugh if you want, but is it really that funny?”
Getting no response for a while, Zou Shuyang glanced over slightly, only to see Jian Mengyan still laughing.
Zou Shuyang shook his head in exasperation. When he first met Jian Mengyan, he had thought she was the gentle goddess type. But the more he got to know her, the more he realized that she had the face of a goddess but the personality of someone who was carefree, loved video games, loved eating, and was a bit scatterbrained in life.
This contrast between her appearance and personality had struck a chord with Zou Shuyang. From that day on, he realized he was in love with Jian Mengyan.
The kind of love where he wanted to get married and spend the rest of his life with her.
“Where exactly are we going?” Zou Shuyang was lost in thought when suddenly Jian Mengyan’s voice pulled him back. He turned to see her, having stopped laughing, touching her flat stomach. “You said this morning you’d take me somewhere good to eat. I didn’t even eat breakfast—I’ve been saving my appetite.”
In other words, she was hungry. Very hungry.
If Zou Shuyang knew what was good for him, he’d better take her to eat something delicious right away.
Seeing that they had entered a narrow alley where the car couldn’t go any further, Zou Shuyang found a spot to park. “Let’s get out. We’re almost there.”
“Still not there?” Jian Mengyan complained as she quickly got out of the car. “Getting a meal with you is harder than a pilgrimage to the West!”
Zou Shuyang laughed, took her hand, and walked through the cool shade of the old alley. The bustling sounds around them filled the air. “So, after your students graduate, where do you want to go? If I combine my vacation with the weekends, I can take about half a month off.”
Jian Mengyan thought for a moment. “How about we go to Changbai Mountain and see Tianchi Lake?”
Just as she said that, they turned a corner and saw a crowd of people gathered in the open space ahead.
“What’s going on?”
Maybe it was the psychological shadow left by the high-altitude fall incident from that morning, but when Zou Shuyang saw so many people gathered, a sense of foreboding rose in his chest.
When he looked up, that bad feeling was confirmed.
On the balcony of the seventh floor, a man was sitting on the edge of the window frame, his legs dangling. Sunlight shone on his face, and there was a strange smile on his lips.
At that moment, a scream came from the crowd, and Zou Shuyang watched helplessly as the man jumped from the building.
Before the scream even ended, the man had already hit the ground, his body splattering, brain matter spilling everywhere.
Zou Shuyang glanced at the body on the ground, then looked back at where the man had jumped. To his surprise, he saw a shadow quickly pass by inside the apartment.
Ignoring everything else, Zou Shuyang told Jian Mengyan to call the police and then rushed into the building.
The stairwell was dimly lit, the air heavy with the smell of dampness, and the landing between the two flights of stairs was piled high with junk.
Zou Shuyang didn’t see any suspicious figures along the way.
The stairwell felt like a world apart from outside, the darkness enveloping him, and the only sound was his own breathing.
Holding his breath, Zou Shuyang ran up to the seventh floor. The door to the left apartment was wide open, the inside clean and tidy, with not a single footprint.
Zou Shuyang reached for his back holster, only to realize he had come up empty. He remembered it was lunchtime, not a work assignment, so he hadn’t brought his gun.
He raised his level of caution, carefully entering the apartment.
The living room was empty.
The master bedroom was empty.
The second bedroom was empty.
The kitchen and balcony were both empty.
Zou Shuyang finally confirmed that the shadow he had seen earlier had already left.
Standing at the spot where the man had jumped, he looked down and saw Jian Mengyan on the phone, a crowd of onlookers discussing the body, and… a woman wearing a faded blue short-sleeved shirt, holding a plastic bag.
The woman was wearing glasses, and her face showed a sense of satisfaction.
Something was off about that woman!
—
“Captain Zou, the body’s been taken away by the forensic team, and here’s the phone that was found at the scene.” Xiao Tang handed over the phone, which was now in an evidence bag.
Zou Shuyang looked away from the scene below and took the phone. He pressed a button, and despite the screen being cracked in several places, it still lit up, and all the functions were operational.
When he opened the call log, Zou Shuyang’s eyes widened in shock.
Displayed clearly on the screen was a call at 11:35 AM between the deceased and Jiang Hongye.
In other words, Jiang Hongye had called the deceased right after leaving the police station!
“Immediately investigate the victim’s identity, and check the connection between the victim and Shen Jun… also, bring Jiang Hongye back to the station.” After saying this, Zou Shuyang rubbed his nose, feeling a wave of exhaustion. “That case from this morning… it might actually have been a murder.”
“Huh?”
Xiao Tang was full of questions, but before he could ask any of them, Zou Shuyang patted the shoulder of a colleague who was investigating the scene and quickly ran downstairs.
Most of the crowd hadn’t left yet, enthusiastically offering tips to the young officers gathering evidence. Of course, whether these tips were actual facts or just rumors was hard to say.
“Captain Zou.” A young officer paused his note-taking and nodded at Zou Shuyang as he approached.
Zou Shuyang nodded back, then scanned the crowd, unable to find the person he was looking for. He asked, “Where’s the woman who was standing here earlier, wearing a faded blue short-sleeved shirt, with glasses and carrying groceries?”
“Carrying groceries?”
The elderly bystanders looked at each other, but in the end, they all shook their heads. None of them knew who she was or where she had gone.
Zou Shuyang didn’t feel too disappointed. If a case went too smoothly, that would be odd.
Just now, he had been thinking about the old man’s testimony from this morning. The old man said he saw a woman at the scene of Shen Jun’s fall, a woman whose eyes glowed.
Human eyes don’t glow under normal circumstances, so that left one explanation…
The glow might have been reflected off her glasses.
It was very likely that the woman just now was the same person at Shen Jun’s death scene.
At that moment, Zou Shuyang spotted Jian Mengyan sitting in a police car through the crowd. He smacked his forehead in realization. Here we go again—every time he got busy, he forgot everything else.
Opening the door to the police car, the buzz of the crowd flooded in, causing Jian Mengyan to flinch instinctively.
Seeing this, Zou Shuyang immediately pulled her into a hug, resting her head against his abs, gently stroking the back of her head as he soothed her in a low voice, “Don’t be scared, don’t be scared. I’m sorry I was late.”
After a while, Zou Shuyang heard Jian Mengyan mumble something.
Listening carefully, he froze.
She said, “I know that person who died.”
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