Unexpectedly, Qi Youxuan arrogantly said, “Mumu, remember to respect Sergeant Jiang even more next time. Remember to call him Uncle Jiang when you meet him again!”

Every single person fell into common silence.

It seemed they had underestimated the extent of how truly shameless Qi Youxuan could be.

As the meal was served, Qi Youxuan immediately served Wei Muran some food and had even picked out the tiny fish bones for her. As long as Wei Muran could eat comfortably, it never bothered him much. There was no need for Wei Muran to do anything on her own other than using her chopsticks and drinking water.

Wei Muran felt guilty and whispered, “It’s fine, go ahead and eat, alright?”

“It’s my sole responsibility to take care of my girlfriend,” Qi Youxuan said as he picked out the tiny fish bones for Wei Muran while shamelessly tilting his head to the side. “I know Mumu cares about me the most,” he added.

“…” Wei Muran could no longer contain herself, pinching him with all her might and rebuked him, “You… Behave yourself now!”

Everyone else witnessing this scene cringed extremely hard. Zhang Ming felt like puking but knew nothing he said would even go through Qi Youxuan’s head, so he had no choice but to continue resisting the urge to do so. Of course, he kept staring at Qi Youxuan with an unrelenting judgemental gaze.

Qi Youxuan never noticed his stares and instead glanced over at Wei Muran with an extremely depressing look. “It’s an arduous journey for me to gain this official acknowledgment from you,” whined Qi Youxuan, “can’t you allow me to show off a little?”

“You…you had your fun now!” Wei Muran glared at him. She then said, “If you keep this up, I’ll ignore you!”

“Alright, alright, alright.” Qi Youxuan frantically placed some food on her plate. He then coaxed, “Don’t get mad alright, Mumu?”

…

After that meal, everyone proceeded to head back home.

Since Wei Muran knew Qi Youxuan was still suffering from jetlag and that he was extremely tired, she vehemently told him to rest, adamant on not going on a date with him at this moment.

On the other hand, Qi Youxuan was aware of how hard Wei Muran had worked on this case, all the all-nighters she had pulled, and the hectic schedule which forced her to wake up extremely early. He never objected too much so he drove her back home.

Wei Ziqi was still working in his office at this moment so she was not worried about Wei Ziqi running into them.

As the car was parked by the entrance of her home, and the instant Wei Muran unbuckled her seatbelt, Qi Youxuan suddenly hugged her tightly.

It was as if Qi Youxuan was hugging a body pillow, literally cuddling up to her and nuzzling against her entirely. He then said, “Mumu, why don’t you sleep with me in the car for a bit? It feels too good hugging you, I really wanna sleep now.”

The tone of Qi Youxuan’s voice sounded really exhausted and tired. He did not move an inch the instant he hugged her, collapsing into Wei Muran’s body.

Wei Muran actually assumed he was asleep at this moment thus she did not dare move an inch, allowing him to cuddle with her. Nonetheless, she was uncomfortable in this state.

As she tried to move to a slightly more comfortable position, Qi Youxuan would crawl up to her, making her even more uncomfortable.

Qi Youxuan had only intended to act coquettishly to her, but he noticed Wei Muran had not moved an inch. It was incredibly quiet and after smelling the amazing scent that was emanating from Wei Muran’s body, he genuinely fell asleep.

This nap alone was two hours long; Wei Muran too had napped for a little while.

Qi Youxuan was the first to wake up. He noticed Wei Muran’s eyes were shut tight and was sleeping peacefully. He noticed her soft, tender white skin had a slight subtle hint of blush. It was as if her skin was completely transparent.

Qi Youxuan chuckled before sneakily kissing her lips.

As she felt a slight itch on the edge of her lips, she gave it a gentle scratch before slowly opening her eyes. The instant she opened up her eyes, she was greeted with Qi Youxuan’s incredibly close-up face.

Startled, her face blushed almost immediately as she shoved his face to the side. “What the hell are you leaning so close to me for? You scared the life outta me.”

Qi Youxuan shamelessly leaned back at her while puckering his lips, begging for a kiss. However, after doing so, his expression morphed into a strange look.

Wei Muran felt odd as she noticed Qi Youxuan’s line of sight was a little weird, so she turned around to find Wei Ran standing beside the car with arms crossed, seemingly teasing them as she stared.

Wei Muran immediately shoved him aside and got out of the car. The instant she got down, she rushed to grab onto her mother’s arm and said, “Heheh, mom, what are you doing out here?”

“I was about to do some work in organizing my garden when I saw a car that resembled Qi Youxuan’s parked right out the door when I did, so I decided to head outside to investigate.” As Wei Ran explained, Youxuan had also got out of his car.

Qi Youxuan proceeded to walk toward her. He said with an extremely sweet voice along with a clean and wide smile, “Mom!”

Wei Ran smirked but there was not exactly a huge reaction from her. After all, she was used to Qi Youxuan calling her mother-in-law. She was unsure if he had done it on purpose, but it was no-brainer she was brainwashed by the way he addressed her ever since he was little.

Fortunately for them, Wei Ziqi was not present with them. If he had noticed them, this shameless brat would end up beaten and bruised all over before sending him back home.

“Now that you’ve already sent her home, you’ll need to head on back for some rest too, you know?” Wei Ran said. She added, “Your father returns quite early from work recently, and he’ll run into you both the longer you two stand out here.”

Wei Muran stuck out her tongue at Qi Youxuan. Qi Youxuan was also aware that he should not rush things with Wei Ziqi so he walked over to Wei Ran’s side and proceeded to grab onto her shoulders and whined in a sad, depressing tone, “Mom, when Dad comes home later, you’ll have to put in some good word for me, okay? You’ll have to hurry up and help me officiate our relationship okay. Otherwise, I’ll be left without any official status within our family, and I’d feel so conflicted!”

Staring at Qi Youxuan’s sad look, Wei Ran could not help but grace him with some motherly love.

She patted Qi Youxuan’s hand and said, “Don’t you worry. No matter what happens, it’s best for me to give him some prep time and some heads up first. This will allow him to be fully prepared, so when the time comes, he wouldn’t react too drastically.”

As he thought about his father-in-law, Qi Youxuan felt slightly anxious. He said, “You’re the best, Mom. Don’t you worry, I’ll make sure I’ll treat you extremely well in the future.”

Wei Ran chuckled as she was completely charmed by Qi Youxuan.

After sending Qi Youxuan, Wei Ran brought Wei Muran home as they walked side by side. She proceeded to gently poke Wei Muran’s nose and said, “I knew it! I’ve always known he’d win your heart.”

“Oh my god, Mom. Was I truly… that easy to be won over? I’ve made him wait for over 20 years now, you know!” Wei Muran replied with a pride-filled tone.

Wei Ran nodded in content. She said, “That’s great that he’s decided on you since he was a child. Otherwise, judging from your dad’s attitude and temper, I believe he’d actually want you to not marry anyone.”

“…” Wei Muran was speechless.

That possibility was not too far-fetched.

…

Qi Youxuan returned home in order to retune his body’s natural circadian rhythm. Of course, it was never a one-day recovery as he had taken a long nap at noon, coupled with his flight back home from Europe. It was morning over in Europe, and he had also taken a nap in flight since he was bored. He thus became wide awake in the middle of the night. He only felt tired when it was three in the morning.

He was plagued by severe insomnia yet was too afraid of disturbing Wei Muran. Eventually, he fell asleep after a long and painful struggle. He was too tired to wake up in the day.

The blaring of his ringtone woke him from his slumber, and he initially intended to ignore the call and wanted to just hang up. His hands had already reached his phone but as he seemingly recalled something, he immediately struggled to open his eyes. Before his vision focused, he could see the name ‘Mumu’ displayed on his screen. Hence, he immediately picked up the call.

“Mumu, do you need to head to work? Just wait for me, I’ll drive you there.” Qi Youxuan got out of bed to collect himself as he spoke.

“No, Sergeant Jiang called me earlier, told me a male victim had died in University A.” Judging from Wei Muran’s tone, she too sounded groggy, a proof she had also been awakened by a phone call.

He knew for fact that she had also been told about this incident and had called him immediately. Qi Youxuan’s smile was wide enough to touch the very edge of his ears.

“We’re leaving now, and we’ll be gathering in University A,” said Wei Muran.

“Just wait for me, I’ll pick you up from your house,” Qi Youxuan replied as he jumped off his bed and started to get ready.

“You don’t have to. Jiang Yuecheng told me that he’s going to University A with me since he’s going the same route,” Wei Muran replied.

“Colleague, Wei Muran!” Wei Muran was startled by the serious tone Qi Youxuan used on her. Although Qi Youxuan could not see it, Wei Muran sat up from her bed the instant she heard that tone through the phone call.

“What…what’s wrong?” Wei Muran was shocked; he had never used that tone with her, even from when they were children.

“You have a boyfriend now, how could you allow another man to drive you?” Especially when that man had clear feelings for you.

However, he had only kept the last bit of the sentence to himself, since he dared not to tell Wei Muran. If Wei Muran knew about how Jiang Yuecheng felt about her, he would have done him a favor.

“Sergeant Jiang told me he’d also be picking up Xing Jiadong. It’s on the same route anyway,” Wei Muran replied in a soft tone. However, she had never doubted anything Qi Youxuan had told her ever since she was little. Most of the time, whatever he said turned out to be true, which resulted in her current lack of resistance.

“Heheh,” Qi Youxuan chuckled. He knew Jiang Yuecheng would be alone in that car when he would arrive.

When that happened, he would have said that something turned up for Xing Jiadong, so he took off to University A first.

Such a pathetic, shameless man to push someone into a corner.

“I’ll call him and tell him you’ll be picking me up then,” Wei Muran said.

Feeling extremely satisfied with her reply, Qi Youxuan swiftly got ready then proceeded to drive over to Wei Ziqi’s house. However, upon his arrival, he was shocked to see Jiang Yuecheng had still shown up at the door.

Wei Muran was awkwardly waiting with him, thus, Qi Youxuan immediately got out of the car with a huge smile on his face.

“What a coincidence, Sergeant Jiang,” Qi Youxuan said with a huge smile.

“Oh, it’s on the same route anyway, so I decided to drive Muran to University A with me,” Jiang Yuecheng replied with a cold expression.

“Yes indeed, Mumu told me earlier, and I’ve also told her that I’ll be driving her instead, I didn’t expect Sergeant Jiang to be someone so stubborn.” Qi Youxuan said with a chuckle. Ignoring him completely, he said, “Let’s go, Mumu.”

Wei Muran looked at Jiang Yuecheng with regret as she felt Jiang Yuecheng had wasted his time coming over, however, she ended up following Qi Youxuan.

However, a voice could heard that had indirectly chilled Qi Youxuan’s heart to the core. The voice said, “Wait just a second!”

As he turned around, he saw Wei Ziqi coming out of the house. Following behind him was Wei Muche who was ready to carpool to school. Upon noticing Qi Youxuan, he winked at him with a smile, then sneakily gestured behind Wei Ziqi’s back as a signal to face his father head on.

“The both you can stop fighting now, she’s my daughter and I’ll be sending to school.” Wei Ziqi stared at Qi Youxuan as if he was stopping a thief. He added, “Since Muche will be heading over to University A anyway.”

Qi Youxuan dared not to call Wei Ziqi ‘father’ yet, since Wei Ziqi had traumatized him as a child, hence he had been emotionally scared.

However, Qi Youxuan was unbending, he shamelessly said, “If that’s the case, I can send both Muche and Mumu to school, since we’ll be going to University A anyway.”

Qi Youxuan’s mouth was slightly twitching as he held back the urge to call Wei Ziqi ‘Dad’, he then said, “You can head over to your office directly, how awesome is that.”

“Heheh.” Wei Ziqi chuckled with a smug look on his face. All while unwilling to allow Qi Youxuan to have his way. He told Wei Muran and Wei Muche, “What are you two still standing there for? Get in the car.”

Wei Muche smirked teasingly at Qi Youxuan, Wei Muran on the other hand gave him a sympathetic look as she followed Wei Ziqi into his car.

Qi Youxuan stared at Wei Muran with an extremely sad look as he watched Wei Ziqi drive her away from him.

Wei Ran walked toward Qi Youxuan and patted his shoulders. She said, “Don’t worry, I’ll talk to him when he gets back.”

Last night, she had only hinted at the idea of them dating to Wei Ziqi, she never even mentioned Qi Youxuan’s name and Wei Ziqi replied, “Qi Youxuan, that brat must be dreaming to think he’ll be able to date my daughter!”

“Mom, you’ll need to help out!” Qi Youxuan pleaded with a sad tone.

Wei Ran’s heart was instantly melted as she stared at Qi Youxuan’s sad look. Hence, without even hesitating, she agreed to help him.

…

Qi Youxuan, Jiang Yuecheng and Wei Ziqi had all arrived at the main entrance of University A. Since Wei Ziqi was an outsider, he was unable to drive his car through the gates. However, all Jiang Yuecheng had to do was show his ID and he was able to drive through without a hitch.

Hence Wei Ziqi looked frustrated, he grunted and reluctantly allowed Wei Muran get onto Qi Youxuan’s car

Qi Youxuan stood in front of him with an awkward smile as he looked at how furious Wei Ziqi looked, it was as if Qi Youxuan was trying to suck up to him after he had benefited from him!

“How could you not even tell me that you’re coming over to University A, brother? You could’ve offered me a ride since it’s on the same route anyway, you’re so awful!” A high-pitched lady-like voice could be heard coming from behind him. Judging from the tone of the voice, that lady seemed furious.

The instant Qi Youxuan turned around to look, he noticed an SUV was parked next to his car and Qi Youning had just got down the car and was staring at him furiously.

As Qi Youning grew older, her body was no longer as chubby as she once was, since she had slimmed down significantly. She was now truly an elegant and stunning young lady as she seemed to be an active and cheerful person.

He then noticed a young man also was getting out of the car at a painfully slow pace. He was wearing a suit, making his body stand out even more. As it would be a rare sight for any common-folk to see an elegant looking young man paired along with an exceptionally handsome look.

Qi Youxuan proceeded to take a quick glance at the young man. He then said, “Isn’t that your ride?”

If he was to rob Wen Xu of his girl, Wen Xu would stop at nothing to stop him.

The sheer mention of that emotionless, cold young man, Qi Youning’s mood instantly improved as she held her head high and said, “Of course! Only Ah Xu treats me the best!”

Wen Xu who was standing behind her cracked a gentle smile while his eyes were solely focused on Qi Youning, as if everyone else was never present in the first place.

However Qi Youning was quick to go back on her words.She proceeded to reply, “But, you can’t just go on your day without even mentioning! Even if Ah Xu was sending me to school, you should also care about your sister you know?”

“Alright, alright, alright. I’ll care for you better next time.” Qi Youxuan replied in attempts to comfort her while shooting a look to Wen Xu who was standing behind Qi Youning at that moment, assuring him that he would never even think about stealing his girl from him.

Wen Xu who had a frustrated look on his face just mere moments ago, grew into a much delightful look the moment he noticed Qi Youxuan’s subtle hint.

Thus, Wei Ziqi could finally drive back to his office with his own car as both Wei Muran and Wei Muche got onto Qi Youxuan’s car. Since Wen Xu too was unable to drive past the gate and into the campus, Qi Youning proceeded to catch a ride in Qi Youxuan’s car as well.

Before he got in his car, Wen Xu silently stared at Qi Youxuan without saying a word, causing Qi Youxuan to feel extremely nervous.

“Well then…you…just drive safe now!” Qi Youxuan said.

Wen Xu never moved an inch, however, Qi Youning proceeded to turn around, tiptoed and gave him a kiss on the cheeks. She said, “I, I’ll miss you!”

After receiving a kiss from Qi Youning, Wen Xu grinned with pure satisfaction, as he nodded and glanced down at Qi Youxuan; as it would take half a step forward to hug her into his arms.

He streched out his hands and proceeded to gently squeeze her hands, after doing so, he lowered his head and swiftly gave her a kiss on the lips before getting into his car.

Qi Youning was blushing heavily as she frantically covered her mouth while both her eyes were wide-opened like a bunny as she immediately squinted her eyes nervously. After waving at Wen Xu and watching him leave, she got onto Qi Youxuan’s car.

Qi Youxuan was able to look at the delightful, guilty smirk on his sister’s face from the back mirrors. He pouted as he thought about how inappropriate his sister was behaving after being kissed by another man.

As the group finally entered University A, they noticed the entire dormitory was being completely locked down and it was completely surrounded by a large group of students that were gathered outside the dormitory.

There were also students from another dormitory block, that had heard rumors about the incident, however, since these students had not experienced that incident personally, they were completely fine at this moment.

The students who were residents of this particular block on the other hand were scarred and traumatized, however, there were also a few students who looked fine. The students who shared the same floor as the incident occurred were shocked beyond recognition as all their faces were inhumanly pale. The students who shared the same room as the victim though, these people were indescribably shaken to their very core.

If it were not for the support that was given by each other, these students would have ended up hospitalized.

Even the students from a room directly above where the incident occurred, were traumatized as they feared whenever they had to walk past that floor, a ghastly apparition of a haunted spirit would appeared, since there was a suicide on that floor, hence these people dared not to even look in that direction.

The officers on duty who were in uniform proceeded to scatter the crowd, in order to allow Sergeant Jiang’s vehicle to park by the main lobby of the dormitory.

As everyone got out of the car and entered the dormitory, the officer in charge informed them of the situation. The officer said, “The deceased is Feng Haoli. It was the third year students who had discovered the deceased by the door of their room. As they woke up this morning, the instant they opened the door, they were shocked to discover the deceased was hanging on full display directly in front of their room. These people were completely traumatized. The forensics teams are conducting their search as we speak.”

The body of the deceased victim was discovered on the fourth floor in this six floor old dormitory. Since this entire building was old and it had stood for thirty years, the rooms in this building were not equipped with an attached washroom. The washrooms were on each ends of every floor.

“We’ve questioned the students already, they were too afraid of using the washrooms in the middle of the night, since they claimed it was scary. Everyone has a ‘piss bucket’, it’s for them to use in the middle of the night in case they were unable to hold it in. They’ll take care of it the very next day in the washrooms. Another notable thing would be, this dormitory was not equipped with any sort of surveillance system internally.” The officer explained.

“The interior of the dormitory was not equipped with any surveillance system, hence it’s uncertain who the perpetrator was and when this entire incident had occurred.” The officer explained.

The officer in charge was only a low rank district officer and was in no position to intervene with any major cases, after bringing the main person who had reported this incident over, he proceeded to contact the special operations team. Since it was better to leave it to these professionals to question the person themselves.

Sergeant Jiang nodded as his team went up to the fourth floor immediately. The moment they arrived on the fourth floor, they noticed the body was already placed on the stretcher while Bai Mo was doing a final sweep, while the rest of the forensics team were gathering samples of blood and fingerprints from the surrounding area.

As she proceeded to examine the body for a brief moment, she stood up while tucking her hair at the back of her ear as she gently sighed. She seemed exhausted.

“The cause of death for the deceased was suffocation. The time of death is between one to two A.M. There were two lines around the deceased’s neck that were both caused by the rope.” Bai Mo pointed at the bruised marks at the bottom of Feng Haoli’s nape with her gloved up hands. She said, “This one though, this was caused by someone strangling him from behind.”

She then pointed at the mark slightly above the victim’s mandibles. “This one was caused when the deceased was being suspended on the door frame, since this mark has an upward angle and was rubbing against the back of the deceased’s ear. Another notable thing would be the joints of his fingers showed clear signs of friction burn caused by the rope, possibly it was caused by a struggle. However, it’s hard to determine in detail at the moment, however, it’s uncertain if the victim was strangled to death by someone then suspended on the doorframe, or was simply unconscious after being strangled before being suspended and were left for dead.”

“The marks on the victim’s fingers were caused during his first struggle from being suffocated, and he was dead the first time he had been strangled. It was after he was dead did the assailant suspend him on the doorframe.” Qi Youxuan said as he approached the side of the body then proceeded to examine the body while squatting next to the deceased.

Everyone present stared at him confused, as Bai Mo looked at Qi Youxuan with a surprised look on her face. She said, “How do you know? Even if were to examine this entire incident in great detail when we get back, the conclusion would still be uncertain.”

“A person would struggle if they’re being suffocated to death, both legs will be kicking about,” Qi Youxuan explained. “Even if that person was unconscious before, that person would undoubtedly regain consciousness if the oxygen supply gets cut off, just like when a person passes out after being hit on the head. After throwing the person into any body of water, that person would be completely aware and conscious under these circumstances. If that person wasn’t dead before, being suspended like this, as he struggled by kicking both his legs, he’d be able to kick on that door. After all, he was almost attached to that door as he was being suspended mid-air. It’d be impossible for the students to not hear that loud banging sound in the dorm.”

Bai Mo was stunned for a second. After collecting herself, she nodded.

“You may continue.” Qi Youxuan stood up as he examined the corpse.

“Nothing too special about it, no clues were left behind with the corpse. It was exceptionally clean. We’ll be carrying out further detailed analysis in order to look for any clues when we return to the station,” said Bai Mo.

The entire floor was on lock-down as the corpse was carried away. Qi Youxuan noticed Wei Muran was not startled or scared by the horrifying state of the corpse. He was sad since he had missed the chance to comfort her.

Wei Muran was just speechless. Their entire department had zero cases before and suddenly they were swamped with a series of complicated cases.

As they made their way out of the dorm, they noticed a cop walking toward them with four other people.

“These were the people who had discovered the corpse in the room. Everyone’s here,” reported the cop.

Qi Youxuan noticed a male student who was standing on the side. He had an excruciatingly nauseous expression on his face. He could not even bring himself to stand up straight as he was completely hunched over, supported by his roommate. He looked sick and was as if he would be able to throw up at any given moment.

“Feng Haoli wasn’t your roommate, right?” Qi Youxuan questioned.

“How do you know?” a man answered with a surprised tone.

Qi Youxuan pouted and said, “Your rooms contained four bunks, one for each student, and if all four of you are here, the only logical explanation would mean Feng Haoli wasn’t your roommate.”

“…” The man was speechless as he felt that his question was incredibly stupid.

After some questions were asked, they knew the first person to have found the corpse was the student who had been extremely terrified by the discovery. He was the same nauseous student from before. His name was Chen Yuke, a local from B City.

The student that was helping him was Sun Lixue from R City. He was wearing shades. The shortest person among the group was Zhou Yubo from Nanshan. Standing beside him was the tallest person of the group; Zheng Jiaxu, also from B City.

“Which room belongs to Feng Haoli?” Qi Youxuan asked.

“The room opposite ours,” Sun Lixue answered.

“Was he close to anyone in your room?” Qi Youxuan asked.

“We’re in the same class, our friendship is pretty close I’d say. Since our rooms were awfully close, we’d see each other a lot. We hang out together, drink together and play cards together,” Zhou Yubo replied.

Zheng Jiaxu shook his head and said, “Nope, we had occasional squabbles and it’s all within our basketball game. Since when we play basketball, we don’t exactly like what the other person does sometimes, so occasional squabbles tend to occur. But to the extent of murder though, I don’t think it’s that serious.”

“Was he behaving strangely for the past couple of days?” Xing Jiadong questioned.

Qi Youxuan glanced over at him as he seemed like he was hiding a laugh. Since when was Xing Jiadong capable of learning?

As Zheng Jiaxu began to shake his head, Chen Yuke suddenly interrupted him and said, “Yeah! Two days ago, he seemed extremely on edge, he was behaving in a way as if someone was actually following him when he walked. That night when he was studying in the library, he came back with an inhumanly pale expression. He kept rambling about someone following him. He had even said that someone had been sending him text messages, claiming that they knew what he had done.”

“So he was on edge when he received the texts?” Qi Youxuan questioned.

After giving it some thought, Chen Yuke said, “Yeah, probably.”

“Don’t give me a ‘probably’. Yes is yes, no is no, alright?” reprimanded Xing Jiadong.

Thus, Chen Yuke anxiously recalled. This time, he nodded and said, “Yeah, since he was just suddenly on edge out of nowhere. He was never like this back then. Something felt off to me and I asked him about it. He told me he was fine, but that night after he returned from the library, he slept over in our room since his room was empty and was afraid of being alone. There were only the two of us in that room back then. However, after he had received an unexpected text message, he only took a quick glance before throwing his phone to the ground. It felt off since he had just bought this new phone and he absolutely loved it. He was still in the honeymoon phase of using that new phone and was absolutely in love with it. I noticed just how panicked he looked back then, so I asked him what’s wrong, but he remained silent. Since I wasn’t getting a response out of him, I picked up the phone to look at the text. It was only then, he told me, he’ll receive one every day.”

“Did he ever tell you what’s up with that text?” Xing Jiadong asked.

Chen Yuke shook his head and explained, “Nope, his lips were absolutely sealed. I’ve asked him about it several times already, but he grew agitated and annoyed. The sheer mention of that incident alone would trigger him to lash out like a madman, so I’ve never asked since. Besides, our friendship was never extremely close anyway. He has his secrets and I’ll respect his boundaries.”

“Now that’s strange. Since he wasn’t living in your room, why is he hanging by the door of your room?” Jiang Yuecheng questioned.

Chen Yuke chuckled. “Officer, Sir, when I found him this morning, his tongue was stretched all the way out and even eyes were about to pop out. That look alone scared the living cr*p outta me. Being able to answer your questions was already our limits, how could we possibly think about that in the first place?”

“Do you guys know Feng Haoli before all of this?” Qi Youxuan asked as he glanced at every single student then proceeded to glance back at Chen Yuke.

Every single person shook their head as Zheng Jiaxu said, “We grew close after our rooms were assigned.”

“I’ve no further questions left.” Qi Youxuan said.

Jiang Yuecheng proceeded to release them then gave them his contact information. If they recalled any information, they had a way to contact him and his team.

After that, they proceeded to meet up with Feng Haoli’s remaining roommates. In a four-man room were three laptops each placed on each respective desks. Only one desk was empty.

Qi Youxuan gently tapped his finger on the desk as he asked, “Is this Feng Haoli’s desk?”

“Yes, it is,” a roommate of his named Huang Chengfeng answered. He said, “We had never taken anything from his desk. Everything there was left untouched, since…we don’t dare to touch anything.”

Qi Youxuan ran his fingertips across the surface of the desk. It felt powdery but it was not dusty. There was not much on his desk, unlike the desks of a girl. A girl’s desk would have makeup, plushies and other decorations.

There was only a simple facial cleanser, a mirror, a model figurine, and a rather messy lunch box. It was greasy on the inside, and a pack of tissue. These items were placed close to the wall, and there was a large empty space on the desk.

The bookshelf next to the desk had a few magazines in it. Among the magazines was an adult magazine.

On the surface of these magazines was a thick layer of dust. It was as if it had been left untouched for quite some time.

“When exactly did Feng Haoli go missing?” Qi Youxuan questioned.

“I saw him yesterday morning,” Li Guozheng said nervously since death had occurred in this room. None of them had recovered, and even as they went out, they did not dare to even glance at the door. A corpse was hung there!

Huang Chengfeng nodded. He said, “I saw him yesterday morning when I went out to the cafeteria to buy some bread and some salted vegetables for him. He had class at around ten in the morning yesterday, and I haven’t seen him since he left for class. I wasn’t in the room back then, so I don’t exactly know. I went out with my girlfriend after class.”

Huang Chengfeng felt a little awkward but after Qi Youxuan nodded, he felt normal.

“I was in the room then,” Liu Xiangliang said. “Still, he never returned, but he did come back to sleep in his bed at night.”

“So that means he was still in his room last night?” Qi Youxuan asked skeptically.

The remaining three students nodded, but Meng Haoran suddenly raised his hand and said, “That…well, I saw him walking out of the room in the middle of the night. I’m not sure if he left the dorm or not.”

“What time in the middle of the night?” Jiang Yuecheng asked instantly, almost as if he was rushing for an answer.

“About eleven-thirty I think, since lights out is at eleven for our dorm. I was lying in bed, reading a WEBNOVEL with my phone. It was then when I heard some movements from my top bunk.” Meng Haoran then added, “Feng Haoli sleeps on the top bunk, I saw him climb down the bunk beds. He noticed me back then but didn’t say anything. I assumed he was going to use the washroom, so it didn’t exactly warden for a cause for any alarm.”

After he finished his statement, Meng Haoran began to violently tremble. He never expected the person he had seen in total darkness was murdered.

As he thought about the dark shadow that stood by his bed, Meng Haoran became extremely terrified as he felt the silhouette from last night was literally works of horror.

When Cheng Yuke found the body of Feng Haoli literally dangling at his door during the day, his screams alerted every single person.

Since everyone felt odd, the most natural response for anyone during that situation was to open the door to investigate what exactly was going on. However, plenty of people were greeted by a hanging corpse first thing in the morning.

Fortunately for him, he had only seen the back of the corpse, but this was terrifying enough since this was unlike anything from any horror movies. Everything depicted in the movies was fake while this, as a matter of fact, was all too real.

Even if they had called the cops, the cops would not be able to make it in time for them. As they waited for the cops to arrive, not a single soul dared to even touch Feng Haoli, as they hid in their dorm rooms feeling inhumanly terrified.

As the cops arrived at the scene and had placed Feng Haoli’s corpse down, Meng Haoran noticed Feng Haoli’s eyes were protruding outward as if they would pop out at any second. Even his tongue was stretched out and that look alone was extremely terrifying.

Meng Haoran felt that he would not be able to sleep at night.

Feng Haoran sleeps on the upper bunk, and when he laid on his bed at night, he would think about the look on Feng Haoli’s horrifying face as he stood by his bed. Actually, the most terrifying thing would be if he had accidentally witnessed a dark apparition manifesting late at night.

Meng Haoran nodded as he replied, “Probably… Since I didn’t exactly pay attention to the time and fell asleep reading my novel. Even when I woke up, my phone was on my chest.”

As Jiang Yuecheng questioned, Qi Youxuan was focused on Feng Haoli’s desk and at this moment, Qi Youxuan calmly asked, “So Feng Haoli never had a computer right?”

Every single person was stunned, as Qi Youxuan pointed at the three remaining desks. He said, “I know every single one of you have a laptop or a computer, and it’s uncommon for a university student to not have one these days. From what I know, Feng Haoli’s family is not doing that badly financially.”

Li Guozheng was seemingly unable to recover as he nodded in confusion. He said, “He had one; it’s a laptop. It was always on his desk before, when exactly did it go missing though?”

He noticed Li Guozheng turned around to look at him, and it was also at the same time, Huang Chengfeng said in a suspicious tone, “I seriously haven’t noticed when did the laptop that was always on his desk went missing, so I have no idea that it was missing.”

“Try to think carefully to this morning. Was the laptop still there?” Qi Youxuan asked.

Li Guozheng thought about it for a long time, then proceeded to shake his head.

However, Huang Chengfeng frantically said, “His laptop was still there this morning. I remembered when I brought him breakfast this morning. It was still on his desk. I remember because the laptop took up way too much space, and I had to slightly move it to the side in order to place his breakfast on the desk.”

“What about yesterday then?” Qi Youxuan probed further.

Huang Chengfeng frowned and replied, “That, I seriously have no clue.”

At that moment, Li Guozheng started to speak in extreme uncertainty, “That… I… I think I saw Feng Haoli return yesterday.”

“What does that mean? Be more specific,” Jiang Yuecheng said in a serious tone.

“I’m not too sure. Since Haoran said Feng Haoli left at around eleven-thirty at night, I was still awake then, and I was downloading some videos to my Ipad, so I was able to see him leave. However, after binging a couple episodes of a drama series, I was feeling slightly tired, and if I recalled correctly it was around one in the morning, so I placed my Ipad down as I got ready to call it a day. Then, it was also at that moment that I saw him return, but the entire dorm was pitch black by then, so I never got a good look at that person’s face, only the shape of that person who resembled him, so I just assumed it was Feng Haoli. But somehow, I’m not so sure now,” Li Guozheng explained uncertainly. He then said, “You guys said the time of his death was between one and two in the morning, then that means the person that I saw last night was…”

As Li Guozheng focused on his thoughts, he began to panic.

“Could be the murderer as well,” Qi Youxuan said calmly.

Every single person present began to panic as well.

He could not help but think that he had actually shared a roof with a murderer as he slept. This thought terrified him. Fortunately for him, he was not murdered as well. The only thing that concerned him was from that day onward, he would not be able to sleep in peace.

Qi Youxuan felt as if he was missing some details but he could not put his finger on what exactly was amiss.

At that moment, Xing Jiadong’s phone rang and had indirectly made Qi Youxuan remember what exactly he missed.

“Cellphone!” Qi Youxuan shouted suddenly, and then proceeded to ask Jiang Yuecheng, “Was Feng Haoli’s cellphone found on his body?”

Jiang Yuecheng frowned as he gave it a deep thought then calmly replied, “No.”

“I don’t remember either,” Zhao Yiyang replied.

One person began searching Feng Haoli’s desk and another was searching through his bed. At the same time, another person was flipping through his closet, and that person had even gone so far to look through every pocket in every single clothing item that were in that closet.

“Nothing,” Zhang Ming said while shaking his head.

“There’s nothing here either,” Zhao Yiyang said.

Xing Jiadong shook his head and said, “Nothing.”

“What brand was Feng Haoli’s phone?” Qi Youxuan asked.

Huang Guofeng replied, “It’s an Apple phone.”

…

After that, they went to look for the dorm’s warden.

Since it was the male’s dorm, the warden was not strict. The only restrictions the warden enforced was not letting any girls in the dorms. However, if a guy wanted to sneak a girl in, there were methods to do so as well.

The warden of the male’s dorm was a forty-year-old skinny looking man.

They proceeded to enter a small room on the warden’s floor. It was a tiny room with only a single bed, a closet, and a desk. There was a tiny sliding panel window, similar to the ones that were used in a normal office. This was made so he could watch the students enter the dorm rooms when he sat on his desk.

At the corner of his tiny desk was a small fifteen-inch television. It was switched off at that time.

The warden sat by the door; Li Niancheng carefully stretched his head out to observe the situation outside the room.

The dorm that was under his supervision and was his sole responsibility had something this horrible and serious happened, so he was worried about his job. Although the pay for this job was not high, it happened to be a relaxing one, since there was nothing specific he had to do from day till night, and ever since he had taken the job, he had worked in the position for four to five years now. In the span of four to five years, he never encountered anything that happened in this particular dorm.

As he noticed Qi Chenglin and his team walking toward his direction, he immediately stood up nervously.

“Take a seat. We’re only here to ask a few questions,” Qi Youxuan said while pointing at his chair. He had also pulled up a tiny bench for Wei Muran to sit. Everyone else had to look for their own spot to sit.

However, Qi Youxuan had no place to sit down, thus, he proceeded to lean against the table.

“So, what time does your work begin and end? Qi Youxuan asked.

“I work twenty-four hours,” Li Niancheng said. “I’ve always stayed here. I lock up at eleven at night, not letting any students in, then I’ll be able to sleep. I wake up at five-thirty in the morning every day to open up the doors.”

Qi Youxuan recalled Dr. Bai Mo determined the time of death for the victim between one to two in the morning. It was way after Li Niancheng had locked the doors.

“What time did you lock up last night?” Qi Youxuan probed further.

“Last night was eleven-ten at night, since I can’t be exactly precise on when exactly I lock up,” Li Niancheng said. He continued, “Since there were two students that were just returning from the library when it was extremely late. They were yelling at me, so I had to wait until they made it back to lock up.”

“So that means those two students watched you lock up the doors right?” Jiang Yuecheng questioned.

“Yes exactly!” Li Niancheng felt slightly better, as he felt as if someone was able to be his witness, hence he would not be entirely responsible for everything that had happened.

“What were the names of those two students and which room do they live in?” Jiang Yuecheng asked.

Since he had years of experience watching over these students, he knew every single student in the building like the back of his hands. Hence, Li Niancheng was able to tell them the names of both students and which room they lived in. Jiang Yuecheng then proceeded to glance over at Xing Jiadong, signaling him to go on ahead to confirm his story.

“Did you hear any peculiar sounds or noises from around one to two in the morning?” Jiang Yuecheng questioned.

“No,” Li Niancheng answered. He continued, “I live so close to the doors and if you’re asking me if I had heard anyone open up the doors to sneak in at night, I can confirm that no one snuck in. Since the locks on these doors aren’t easy to lock up and every time I lock these doors, I have to use some force to do so. I’ve done this every day for four to five years now, and I’d say I have plenty of experience in that. Anyone without experience would never be able to open up these doors. Besides, these doors would make a really loud noise when I open or lock up the doors, so it would be impossible for me to miss it.”

“What about other sounds?” Jiang Yuecheng asked.

Li Niancheng shook his head. However, it was unsure if he was trying to deflect any responsibilities thus leading to him lying.

After a brief moment, Xing Jiadong returned. He told Jiang Yuecheng, “Sergeant Jiang, we had just confirmed those two students saw him lock up.”

…

After they returned to the station, everyone stared at Qi Youxuan right after he sat down.

“What are you guys staring at me for?” Qi Youxuan asked in a shocked tone.

“Waiting for your brilliant analysis dude,” Wei Muran replied while making him some milk tea.

In the process of making milk tea, using factory-made milk tea powder would not be acceptable. Milk and red tea leaves were a necessity, in addition to some honey. Never use sugar.

The red tea had to be extremely thick in order to smell and taste the pure scent of the tea. However, milk should not be too thick either, since it would be too heavy for the tea. He never liked the milk tea from any stalls out there, since he complained about not tasting any hint of the tea, hence making it not taste genuine.

Thus, after Qi Youxuan was employed as their team’s external specialist, without him even mentioning, Wei Muran would have already prepared his milk tea and everything else he needed. It started before they were dating.

On a much deeper thought, Wei Muran had long decided to date Qi Youxuan. The only thing she was worried about was how Qi Youxuan thought of her.

* * *

[Interlude] Youning vs Wenxu

It took Little Youning no time to get used to her first-grade school life since there was not much homework. Hence, Little Youning was able to remain extremely cheerful and contemptuous.

Her father forced her to watch her diet and lose weight at home, but the instant she was at school, Wenxu would replenish all the weight she had lost. Qi Youxuan’s lunch allowance was completely monitored and controlled by his parents while Wen Xu, on the other hand, was not.

Wen Xu was following the diet plans that were given to him by the Wen family in Jixia High School. His diet consisted of a mix of fruits, vegetables, and some meat. There would be no chance for him to be undernourished, and he could also enjoy as much meat as he desired.

However, it was because Wen Xu was unlike Qi Youxuan and his sister who were extremely lazy and hated sports. Every day when he returned home from school, he would be doing some high-intensity training in the gym, thus, as a result, not only was he not fat, he was extremely fit as all his muscles were obviously showing.

As a fourteen-year-old, his shoulders were toned with obvious muscle lines and he looked amazing. His eight packs were lined on his belly like a bar of chocolate.

Science class had just ended and the next class would be P.E. Hence, plenty of students were walking toward the outdoors. After the ten minute break, the next P.E. class was about to begin, hence they were not required to return to their classrooms.

It was extremely lucky that both Little Youning and Little Xicheng were in the same class, as both of them cheerfully walked alongside each other while talking gleefully.

Both of them were quite popular in school lately, and not a single person in Jixia High School was unaware of their names. On top of that, it was never because of their family name.

It was because on the first day of school, Wen Xu hugged Little Youning at the door, and they seemed cheerful as they talked. Since Wen Xu was also popular in school, everyone was aware of everything he did. Coincidentally, there was a crowd of people walking by the door of the school and plenty of students witnessed this scene, hence they were aware of this young girl’s existence in Wen Xu’s life.

The only thing was that Little Youning was still a young kid. If they had been older, perhaps everyone else would not feel that the age gap was obvious. However, since both of them were still children, and it was obvious that Wen Xu was way older than her, not a single person thought that they were dating.

Thus, plenty of students who were having a crush on Wen Xu would shift their focus on Little Youning. From there, they knew who she was and what her family ties were. Thus, they would assume it was all because both their families were close friends with one another and since they have known each other ever since they were little, they assumed Wen Xu was merely talking to his sister.

Thus, ever since school started, plenty of other female students would gather outside her classroom in an attempt to bribe her with any possible way, hoping they would indirectly grow closer to Wen Xu.

Little Youxuan was extremely furious from all of the shameless acts. How could these girls be completely oblivious to the fact that both she and Wen Xu were extremely close to one another? The audacity of these girls to show up so shamelessly in her face just to rob Wen Xu from her.

They would be dreaming if they assumed they could even use her!

It was extremely rare for her to not be swayed by the many temptations of good food and toys. However, she actually accepted those gifts with zero intention of helping them.

Thus, every single person knew that Little Youning would only accept gifts and had no intention of actually helping them.

Little Xicheng was known to follow behind Little Youning, although she usually kept an extremely low profile. However, she could no longer keep on that facade since Little Muche was being quite arrogant in school. He was following her everywhere in school, and if any boys were to bully her, Little Muche would pick up a brick before assaulting these bullies.

Hence, just like that, Little Xicheng was no longer bullied by anyone.

At that very moment, as both of them were walking outside alongside one another, Little Muche pulled Little Youning aside and whispered, “I… I have to tell you. We’re having P.E. class next right? Wen Xu would be having P.E. as well.”

Little Youning’s eyes lit up almost instantly, but she heard Little Xicheng continue, “But he’s not joining us.”

Little Youning looked disappointed. Although she never directly teased her, Little Xicheng found this situation hilarious, thus her heart was incredibly happy. She watched Little Youning’s face shift from agitation to disappointment then back to being agitated again. It was funny since she looked like she was putting on a show of masks—she found it fun.

“You, why can’t you just say everything all at once!” Little Youning pouted and said, “If he’s not joining us, why tell me then?”

“Good lord, oh no, no. That’s not the point.” Little Xicheng grabbed onto Little Youning’s shoulder and said, “Just let me finish what I have to say. But when I do, promise me you won’t get mad.”

Thus, Little Youning remained silent as she stared at Little Xicheng with her black pearly eyes, waiting for her to finish what she had to say.

Little Xicheng winked with her huge eyes since this six-year-old girl had a star-struck dreamy look on her face.

“I’m telling you… Muche you listen closely as well. They’re gonna have an indoor swimming session. The lesson that they will be having later is swimming.” Little Xicheng winked. She continued, “So, you know.”

Before Little Youning and Little Xicheng entered this school, Little Muche was their spy in school. Even though they were both already there, Little Muche still took his role very seriously.

In order to complete the task Little Xicheng had assigned Little Muche, he went so far as to even befriend the teachers in school. It had become a terrifying fact that his connections in school—regardless of friends or teachers—could not be matched by a single teacher.

Wei Ziqi was well aware of the web of connections Little Muche had formed. However, it was odd for him to not even bother to care about what Little Muche had done.

Wei Ran was once plagued by her nagging curiosity and had asked him about it. However, Wei Ziqi simply said, “No matter what the reason is, him having some sort of motivation to make so many friends is a good thing. Just look at him, any news would undoubtedly make its way to him, isn’t this awesome? When he eventually takes over the company in the future, he would be able to support his sister. We’ll encourage him and train him from this young age. It’s such a rare opportunity for him to get hands-on experience now. Such a great opportunity indeed.”

Thus, Little Muche was being ‘trained’ under the full supervision and knowledge of Wei Ziqi.

Without the need for Little Xicheng to explain the full plan, Little Youning nodded excitedly and said, “I know, I know!”

All he would be wearing was his trunks, and he would be shirtless—such a beautiful and hot topless young boy!

Little Youning could still recall when she was in Wen Xu’s house back then. He was topless once and she had even buried herself in his chest, completely rubbing against his smooth skin. He truly looked extremely hot and handsome!

“I… I really wanna watch!” As Little Youning replied, she seemed as if she was about to begin drooling.

Little Xicheng rolled her eyes and said, “Oh good lord, I’ve told you already, we’ll be letting you watch! Don’t forget, there are a whole lot of girls in his class and there are also girls in his class who are absolutely crushing on him. So when class starts later, girls in his class will also be able to watch him swim topless, totally benefiting those female perverts!”

Little Youning nodded violently, “Yeah you’re right!”

“Then, I’ll be going later. Remember to help me out if the teacher asks about me alright,” Little Youning said.

“Don’t you worry.” Little Xicheng patted her shoulders. “You’ll need to remember which girl was watching Wen Xu the most. That girl would totally be bad for Wen Xu!”

Little Youning nodded with an extremely serious look on her face. It was as if she had to shoulder an extremely important responsibility in taking on this task, thus she left while holding onto her tiny belly.

As Little Youning’s class stood in a line, her spot was empty, so it was extremely obvious.

Thus, the P.E. teacher who looked quite dark and was also extremely fit asked, “Where’s Qi Youning?”

Since both Little Youning and Little Xicheng never enjoyed the P.E. class, they were not exactly their teacher’s favorite students. Besides the fact that they never actually liked to exercise.

Her father and uncles were known for their amazing looks, not to mention their other amazing qualities. Even Yan Beicheng and the other uncles looked really good. Thus, these two kids had a great start in life, building up their inhumanly high expectations. It was also partially due to the fact that these kids did not have a huge social circle, and had always interacted within their tiny circle of people. Hence, it made them perceive the world in a false light to assume good and handsome looking people were a common thing, and ugly looking people was an anomaly to society.

The only thing that could make this worse was that these kids were so focused on the illusion of the drama series they were watching since they were extremely young that the only people they saw were the extremely good looking celebrities on TV, further reinforcing their odd perspective.

However, when they entered kindergarten, they noticed some kids who looked quite unfortunate, and even the security guard in the school was average looking.

Thus, as they finally stepped out to interact with the world a little more than before, they realized that handsome men were extremely rare since the majority of the people they met on the streets were average looking as these people did not exactly look too bad or too good. People who actually looked like her father at home were extremely rare.

Thus, both of them had attended school filled to the brim with unexplained skepticism. However, after they laid their eyes on their P.E. teacher, they had finally seen a new low for pure ugliness.

Since he was a P.E. teacher, he had a fit body and was filled with muscles. However, if Little Youning had to compare, she would prefer Wen Xu’s body. Although he had muscles as well, the tone lines on Wen Xu’s muscles were stunningly beautiful. It was not too firm but it was also quite strong—anyone would feel safe around him.

The P.E. teacher, on the other hand, had a dark skin tone, a square face, squinty tiny ASIAN eyes, wide lips ,and a nose shaped like a clove of garlic.

Little Xicheng and Little Youning could not bear to even look at his face.

Since Little Youning was called, Little Xicheng raised her hand and said, “Sir, she had a bad case of diarrhea and she’s currently in the washroom.”

The P.E. teacher frowned as he wanted to say something, Little Xicheng interrupted by saying, “Boy her diarrhea was insane. She got out once earlier, but before she was able to say anything else, she bolted right back into the washroom while clenching her belly tightly.”

“…” The P.E. teacher was speechless.

“Go ahead and report this to your homeroom teacher, hurry up and get her to the infirmary,” the P.E teacher replied.

Thus, Little Xicheng ran toward the office block, while repeatedly turning back to look over her shoulders to make sure the teacher was not looking directly at her. After making sure the coast was clear, she turned around and bolted to the indoor pool.

As she looked around to locate where Wen Xu’s class was, she noticed Little Youning suspiciously standing by the door while periodically sticking her entire head in to look inside. There was a puddle of water underneath her feet.

Little Xicheng gently patted Little Youning’s shoulders and whispered, “So did you see anything?”

However, Little Youning was fueled by her guilty conscience; while she was blown away and got lost in absolute blissful beauty, she was worried about getting caught and this feeling of being on edge was difficult for her to describe as her heart was pounding rapidly.

Little Youning was startled by Little Xicheng’s pat on her shoulder, and she shivered slightly. Since she was unable to tell who was speaking to her, she screamed for a brief moment.

“Hey, hey. It’s me. Don’t have to be afraid,” Little Xicheng frantically explained.

Little Youning patted her chest and said, “You scared the living outta me. What are you doing here?”

“The P.E. teacher was asking about you earlier, I told him you’re having an awfully horrible case of diarrhea,” Little Xicheng replied awkwardly as she looked at Little Youning’s furious face. She frantically explained, trying to cheer her up, “I panicked and didn’t have time to think of a better excuse. But I think this was an awesome excuse since the teacher totally bought it. He told me to look for our homeroom teacher, to get you to the infirmary, hence I’m here.”

After Little Xicheng explained the whole situation, she proceeded to swiftly change the topic. She asked, “Did you see him?”

“You bet I did! He’s, he’s way too charming. He’s so hot!” As Little Youning replied, she proceeded to forcefully slurp her drooling saliva and then said, “Ah, Ah Xu was wearing long swim pants, it stretched all the way to his knees. His legs were so long, so dreamy, so hot!”

“Which class do both of you belong to?” Suddenly a man with extremely hairy legs appeared right in front of both of them.

As they looked up, they were shocked to see Wen Xu’s P.E. teacher. Both his arms were holding onto his waist while he stared down at both of them.

“What are you two doing here when you two should be in class studying?” The P.E. teacher asked with an awfully furious face.

Little Youning glanced at Little Xicheng; they were thinking the same thing and saw it through their eyes. Hence, without saying a word, they started to run for their lives away from the teacher.

However, unfortunately for them, since their legs were short and they were not exactly running very fast, the teacher instantly grabbed onto both their collars stopping them from running away.

“Ah Xu!” Little Youning called out as she noticed a bunch of boys walking out of the room.

Wen Xu had a towel over his shoulders as he walked toward Little Youning who proceeded to grab her over to him from the teacher’s hands. That force alone as he grabbed her back stunned the teacher.

“What are you doing here?” Wen Xu asked with a soft tone.

“We’re also having P.E. and I thought I’d drop by to see you.” As Little Youning answered, her gaze drifted downward staring at Wen Xu’s white glistening skin. He had a hint of pool chlorine scent on his body. However, since it was emanating from Wen Xu’s body, Little Youning thought it smelled good.

Since she was staring at the white smooth, glistening skin of Wen Xu, she began to drool.

“Head on back to class, I’ll treat you to some good food for lunch later,” Wen Xu said. He then proceeded to lower his head to whisper into her ear, “If you really wanna see, I’ll show it to you in private, you don’t have to sneak in you know.”

“Then… can I see it later at lunch?” Little Youning’s eyes lit up instantly.

“Lunch… I’m afraid someone else might see it.” However, as he noticed the disappointed look on Little Youning’s face, he said, “But, just for a little while alright.”

Little Youning nodded excitedly as she grabbed onto his towel with her tiny chubby hands tightly, only allowing him to expose his neck and clavicle.

“Then… You can’t have anyone else look at you alright. Next time when you have swimming class, you’ll need to get a diver’s suit okay, so you’ll be able to cover your entire body!” Little Youning explained as the seeds of jealousy were starting to sprout in her tiny heart, as she looked at him with an extremely jealous face. “I noticed there were a ton of girls staring at you earlier!”

“Alright, I won’t show it to them. I won’t be swimming today then. I’ll change back into my clothes later,” Wen Xu replied while nodding seriously.

“…” The P.E. teacher was speechless.

‘I’m still standing here you know. How could you just decide on your own that you would not be partaking in swimming lessons. That’s not right!’

Finally, the teacher was worried that these two girls would be skipping class again, hence he decided to send them back himself. Then, proceeded to inform their homeroom teacher.

Although the homeroom teacher never called for a meeting with their parents, the teacher spoke to Ruan Danchen directly through a phone call. Even though it was nothing too serious, the teacher wanted her to at least know about the situation that was going on. After that, the teacher did the same thing with Qi Chengyue.

The entire conversation was obviously kept from both Little Youning and Little Xicheng, hence they had no choice but to return to their P.E. class.

Wen Xu’s P.E. teacher on the other hand was, shocked to see that Wen Xu actually changed back into his clothes.

“…” The P.E. teacher was speechless.

“Do you actually not plan to join the rest of the class in swimming?” the P.E. teacher questioned him.

“Yep. Besides, I already know how to swim anyway,” Wen Xu replied. He continued, “My fastest record for a hundred-meter swim was forty-nine point one-eight seconds, fifty meters was twenty-three point seven-two seconds, and a thousand five hundred meters was fifteen minutes thirty-two point one-two seconds.”

“…” The P.E. teacher was once again speechless.

“I’ll join after I get myself something else to wear,” Wen Xu replied with a serious tone.

“…” The P.E. teacher was silenced.

…

Little Youning had finally waited till her lunch hour. The moment she got out, she noticed Wen Xu waiting by the entrance to their building with Qi Youxuan.

She completely ignored her brother’s stupidly dumb behaviors. This scene alone was extremely attractive and charming for anyone since two inhumanly stunning teenage boys were just standing there.

The girls in the sixth grade were already focused on jittery feelings of love. They would have a crush on anyone who looked extremely stunning. As both Little Youning and Little Xicheng got out, they noticed a bunch of girls from the fifth and sixth grade staring at their brothers from a distance.

“Chengcheng!” Little Muche ran over as he got down the third floor.

As Little Xicheng noticed the relentless stares from the girls around them, she grunted and pouted, then proceeded to tell Little Muche, “If this many people wanted to look at you, you’re not allowed to let anyone look at you alright. No mercy! You’re only allowed to let me look at you, not them!”

“Alright!” Little Muche answered without even hesitating. He then said, “There’s a girl in my class who was crushing hard on me. I made her cry by scolding her without hesitation. So don’t you worry, Chengcheng!”

Wen Xu never bothered about them, as he immediately went over to hug Little Youning. However, Little Youning rejected his hugs, and simply extended her tiny chubby hands and held hands with him.

Wen Xu smirked and held onto her hand as the five of them made their way to the school’s cafeteria.

Before Little Youning entered his school, Qi Youxuan could only eat vegetables in pure sorrow-filled sadness.

However, since Little Youning came, Wen Xu would bring Little Youning along for amazing meals and awesome drinks. Qi Youxuan felt that since he would be Wen Xu’s future uncle, he was entitled to join his sister and his sister’s future husband for an equally awesome meal. Since Wen Xu’s future father-in-law did not exactly like him, Qi Youxuan felt entitled to him, as his future uncle to grace him a chance to suck up to him.

Hence, ever since then, Wen Xu had no objections to Qi Youxuan joining them on their awesome meal. Wen Xu had nothing to say whenever Qi Youxuan looted their food since he was able to fully satisfy Qi Youxuan’s lust for food.

While Qi Youxuan ate together with them that afternoon, he repeatedly glanced over to Wen Xu and Little Youning. He knew that Little Youning snuck into the swimming pool just to get a look at When Xu’s body.

This news had already spread throughout the school.

His sister had no self-control!

While he chewed on his fried chicken, he kept glancing around his table, then he noticed Wei Muran walking along with her friend while carrying her lunch plate.

“Mumu!”

He was jealous that everyone around him had found their partners. On the other end of the table was Little Muche and Little Xicheng. Looking at this made Little Youning happy.

“Feed, feed me!” Little Youning looked up with her tiny face while saying nervously.

Wen Xu looked happy, as he fed Little Youning her favorite food.

She tilted her tiny cheeks as she supported them with both her tiny chubby arms. She looked extremely adorable.

After they were done eating, Little Youning excitedly grabbed onto Wen Xu’s arms and said in an awkward, nervous tone, “I wanna see… I… wanna… see…”

Wen Xu nodded then proceeded to hold onto Little Youning’s hands while he stood up, then proceeded to walk away.

Noticing this scene, Qi Youxuan, as a worried brother immediately stopped them and said, “Where are you guys going? There’s a limit to how a man and a woman should behave.”

Little Youning grabbed onto Wen Xu’s shoulder tightly and threatened Qi Youxuan, “If you insist on stopping us, I’ll stop treating you meat, brother.”

“…” Qi Youxuan was stunned as both his eyes were completely wide open. He said, “Oh well, I guess it’s a good thing to start developing a good relationship from a young age. I… I’ll go look for Mumu now.”

After he was done speaking, this kid bolted straight for Wei Muran.

Little Youning was impatiently nudging Wen Xu. She said, “What are you waiting for. Hurry up now!”

* * *

Qi Youxuan gleefully smiled at her as he grabbed the milk tea from her hands while pinching her fingers. Wei Muran simply glared at him since they were at work!

Qi Youxuan then proceeded to wink at her and said, “The people in Chen Yuke’s dorm are hiding something from us. The only thing I’m not sure about is if they were hiding something from us or were they unaware as well. Since the murderer knew Feng Haoli’s phone number and had murdered him, then the murderer will never mistake where Feng Haoli’s dorm was located.”

Qi Youxuan proceeded to take a sip of the milk tea and squinted his eyes in pure bliss. He said, “Mumu, you truly know how to make an amazing milk tea.”

“…’ Wei Muran was speechless.

Could he focus on analyzing the case?

“I believe the murderer hung Feng Haoli’s body outside of room four-zero-three for the sole purpose of showing someone from that room, or perhaps a group of people,” Qi Youxuan said as he held on to the mug since it was not too hot. His right hand was holding onto the handle of the mug while his index finger of his left arm was knocking on the edge of the mug.

“Look into the background and identity of the four residences in room four-zero-three to determine if there were any ties to Feng Haoli. Besides the fact that they usually played basketball and drank together, gather any other information, if there are, as well… Something else that they weren’t telling us.” As Qi Youxuan spoke, he calmly took another sip of his milk tea.

Zhao Yiyang gently rubbed his chin and said, “I just can’t seem to understand. Since the doors to the dorm were locked, and I know for a fact from my investigation that the windows were grilled to prevent burglaries, plus there was no trace of someone attempting to break in; how did the murderer place an entire corpse in the dorm?”

“There’s another possibility; the murderer is one of the students,” Qi Youxuan said.

Every single person in that room was stunned.

“Jiadong, look into the details of the four students that were living in room four-zero-three; Yiyang, you can investigate who was absent in that dorm during the time of the victim’s death,” Jiang Yuecheng said.

Those students had a habit of going to bed extremely late at night. Even if there was a blackout or the lights of the entire dorm went out, it did not mean these students had actually gone to bed yet.

Xing Jiadong and Zhao Yiyang returned to the station at around noon.

“I’ve looked into the relationship between the four students of room four-zero-three and I found out that besides the occasional basketball game and poker match, they never really interacted with each other that much. I’ve also looked into the clubs and society these students were involved in. The victim, Feng Haoli, was only taking part in the school’s track team, and the remaining three people however, other than Zhou Yubo being a member of the mathematics research team, none of the other roommates were part of any clubs. The three people who were sharing a room with Feng Haoli; one was a member of the Wushu society, another was in the drama society, and the remaining one was not a part of any societies,” Xing Jiadong explained.

“Judging from that, there isn’t anything that relates to the victim. What about during the semester breaks? Do they stay in contact with one another?” Jiang Yuecheng asked.

Zhao Yiyang shook his head in sorrow and frustration. “Nope, I’ve asked them, and there isn’t much difference from what their normal lives on campus were.”

He frowned. “I’m not too sure if they were just covering for one another since boys on campus take loyalty very seriously.”

From the looks of things, their leads were running cold.

At this moment, Zhang Ming proceeded to enter the room. He said, “The forensics report had just been released, and it determined that the bottom of the victim’s shoes had a chuck of paint, but it’s not very obvious.”

“I remember that the entire building had just been repainted recently.” Jiang Yuecheng had a surprised and excited look on his face. He then said, “Yiyang, Jiadong. Both of you should follow me back to the campus. We need to find out exactly how the victim got stained with paint.”

As the trio departed to the campus, Qi Youxuan and Wei Muran went directly to Feng Haoli’s house, which looked like a middle-class house A normal middle-class home within a middle-class area. This family seemed financially stable.

Feng Haoli’s parents were notified of their son’s death by the cops. Hence, when both Qi Youxuan and Wei Muran visited them, they noticed Feng Haoli’s father, Feng Qingzhe, looking inhumanly depressed and completely drained of life. His eyes were bloodshot and his body looked extremely shriveled—not a single hint of life could be seen from this husk of a man. His mother, Sun Zhiyuan, was still wiping away her tears as she escorted both Qi Youxuan and Wei Muran in her house. She was completely devastated.

“Feng Haoli is our only son. How could his death be so horrifyingly violent! He’s now dead, what can we do now? We’re already so old, and he’s our only son!” Sun Zhiyuan bawled as she struggled to speak while showing Qi Youxuan and Wei Muran to their son’s room.

“How often does your son return?” Wei Muran asked as she noticed the daily supplies were still placed on the table as if it had not been touched for a long while.

“Since the distance was quite close, he’ll return every weekend. If he had some activities, or if he’s hanging out with his friends, he wouldn’t return that week,” Sun Zhiyuan answered as she continued crying.

Qi Youxuan noticed a picture frame that was placed on top of the desk. It was a picture of a trip Feng Haoli had embarked on. In that picture, he was carrying a huge campers bag—it was huge with a couple of pouches strapped onto the bag, and strapped down with a paracord was a thick and long object—it was a tent.

Besides the camping picture, every other picture that was displayed was a picture of a bicycle, just like the one they saw in the corridor before they went in.

“So he tends to travel with a bike on trips quite frequently right?” Qi Youxuan asked.

“Yeah, he joined some donkey friends in some club thing that I don’t know much of. It’s a cycling club though. He would cycle with a huge backpack and go on frequent trips. We don’t really encourage him to go on trips like that since he had to cycle from home to some secluded area in the middle of nowhere. It’s just too dangerous, since there’s always a risk in encountering who knows what throughout his journey. But he never seems to listen, and is always so enthusiastic and interested in extreme sports. Last summer, he and a couple of friends even cycled from B city all the way to Tibet. He even said something about going to Everest and some place called Medog. It’s totally fine if he had just gone to Lhasa since people actually live and go there. But Everest and Medog… No one in their right mind would even go there, and it’s not even a developed area so there has to be a whole lot of complications. Don’t you think it’s extremely dangerous though? To head out to a place so far and steep. Even the highlands were in the middle of nowhere. Not even a single person lives there. From what I’ve heard, there’s not even cell reception up at the peak. If something were to happen, they had no means to call for help,” Sun Zhiyuan explained as she cried harder.

“But at the very least, his trips were incredibly smooth. No accidents ever happened and he always arrived safely. The only thing is, I could’ve never expected, even in his dangerous trips before, he was able to safely come home. I can’t believe… he…. he was….” Sun Zhiyuan cried hysterically and was unable to compose or collect herself. She held onto her face as she proceeded to bawl.

Feng Qingzhe was wiping his face as well, and he simply hugged his wife in silence without saying a word.

Qi Youxuan simply watched and did not ask any followup questions immediately after. They used this little window of time to look through his room. Thus, Qi Youxuan simply walked wherever the wall led him, as he looked at the furniture that was placed by the wall.

There were photos of Feng Haoli’s cycling trips on the desk—they were of extremely difficult to get to places such as The Great Plains of Ada, and some tourist hotspots areas like the Shennongjia district and the Chang Bai Mountain. Judging from those pictures, the locations were extremely exotic and uncommon—most of them were not open to the general public, and no tour group would be willing to take any tourists to those lands. Only capable hikers and adventurers would be able to trek into those places to challenge their limits.Read more chapter on vipnovel.com

However, not a single photo that was placed on the desk had a picture of Tibet, that was mentioned by his mother earlier.

“So all the pictures of his trip would normally be placed here?” Qi Youxuan casually asked.

Feng Qingzhe shook his head and said, “Only the ones he feels extremely proud of and meaningful would be placed there.”

Qi Youxuan nodded signaling he understood, hence he asked, “Why isn’t the picture of Tibet placed there then? Not many would venture out to the land of Medog. He should feel proud to have been there right?”

“We’re not sure why, but when he returned home from that trip, he seemed devastated and annoyed. Back then, he would talk about these places with us for at least a couple of days, and talk about the things he encountered on his journey. He would even post his pictures on WeChat,” Feng Qingzhe explained. “However, after that trip, he seemed very discouraged and depressed; he didn’t even bother to mention a single word about his trip. The pictures with his friends ended with his trip to Lhasa. He has never posted since.”

Qi Youxuan had seemingly thought about something as his face lit up with life. He said, “Do you still have those pictures from those trips?”

“These… these… were all a year ago…” Feng Qingzhe answered reluctantly. However, he noticed Qi Youxuan would not budge and was simply staring at him, waiting for those pictures.

Hence, Feng Qingzhe reluctantly took out his cellphone and got ready to look for those pictures.

“His WeChat ID is all I need,” Qi Youxuan replied.

Since Feng Qingzhe did not know Feng Haoli’s WeChat ID, he proceeded to give Qi Youxuan his instead.

“Do you happen to know the name of the cycling club he often went to?” Wei Muran asked after taking note of Feng Qingzhe’s WeChat ID.

“There’s a name card.” Sun Zhiyuan who was crying all this while finally spoke. “I found it when I was cleaning up his stuff,” she said while sobbing uncontrollably.

Thus, she proceeded to take out a huge paper bag, and inside the bag was a mix of other stuff. She said, “These were intended to be thrown away.”

As she spoke, she flipped through the contents of the bag to look for the name card and proceeded to hand it over to Wei Muran.

“Besides these activities, does he enjoy any other hobbies? Who was he close to?” Qi Youxuan questioned.

“There are a few students he knew back in high school. He’s extremely close with a few of them, but he never tells us anything about high school, so regarding their names and how they contacted each other, we’re completely oblivious to any of that,” Feng Qingzhe explained. “Our son is all grown up already, there are plenty of things he doesn’t share with us.”

“If… If… If only he had told us, that would be so much better. At the very least, tell us what’s going on right? So when the cops come by to investigate, we’ll be of much better help. Now he’s dead and I can’t even tell you who he usually hung out with!” Sun Zhiyan cried as she grabbed onto Feng Qingzhe’s arm. She said, “You know ma’am, our boy is an honest boy. Besides hanging out with his friends during the semester break, he would also have occasional karaoke sessions with his friends. He never went out besides those times. How deep must the grudge be to push someone to murder? To cause someone to die so violently?”

Wei Muran was focused on comforting her while Qi Youxuan spoke to the more collected Feng Qingzhe. “Has he returned home recently?”

“Last week he did.” Feng Qingzhe nodded.

“How was he? Was he behaving in any way strange?” Qi Youxuan asked.

“Nothing peculiar. Since my boy is all grown up now, he no longer enjoys talking to us. He kept everything to himself and would spend most of his time with the computer in his room alone,” Feng Qingzhe explained. However, as he spoke, his entire expression suddenly changed and proceeded to say, “That’s right, I heard him speaking to someone through his phone. He sounded extremely on edge. He said something about asking if ‘someone’ had already known, and getting a lot of texts recently. I believe it’s related to that event, since judging from the tone of his voice, he sounded really scared. I overheard him when I was calling him down for a meal.”

“I was worried if he had met some sort of trouble since I’ve never heard him this frightened before. It was pure fear, since even from his voice, he sounded shaky. I was worried, so I asked him, but he denied everything. When I probed deeper, he snapped at me so we began to argue and fight. After that, he returned to his campus without even eating his meal. I was furious then, but I didn’t expect…”

The seemingly calm and collected Feng Qingzhe immediately bawled. He said, “I didn’t expect that was the last time I’ll ever see him. If I had known this would happen, I would’ve never snapped at him. I’ll be patient with him. I’ll patiently ask what’s wrong and get him to tell me everything. Maybe then, he’ll never… he’ll never… Our final moments together were so violent and tense, I’ll regret it my entire life.”

“…” Qi Youxuan took a couple of steps back as he was caught off guard and surprised by his reaction. He was never too good at comforting people.

Since whenever he was cheering anyone from his family up, he was able to act like a child and simply play dumb. However, to strangers on the other hand, he would never do something so embarrassing to his reputation.

Finally, it was up to Wei Muran to comfort the grieving parents. At the very least, they seemed a lot more stable.

After that, Qi Youxuan requested for their son’s computer since there were a few social media apps installed in the computer. It should contain some clues if they were to go through the chat logs.

Feng Haoli’s computer at home was a desktop, thus, Qi Youxuan carried a monitor and the CPU, and went back to the station along with Wei Muran.

However, not long after they returned to the station, Jiang Yuecheng and his team had also finished their investigation on the campus.

“So what did you find?” Zhang Ming looked toward Jiang Yuecheng excitedly hoping for any progress from their search.

“We found a couple of paint buckets on the roof of the dorm and it had been confirmed it was the same paint used for the dorm. It was temporarily stored on the roof,” Zhao Yiyang explained. “We brought some paint to the forensics team to confirm if that paint matches the ones found on the bottom of Feng Haoli’s shoes.”

* * *

[Interlude] Youning Vs Wen Xu

Little Youning followed Wen Xu to a small garden at the back of the school. As they entered, Little Youning felt like a modern-day degenerate!

Why? How were there so many people dating!

Some were even kissing!

Wen Xu’s expression was calm as he calmly walked by the side of the garden with Little Youning to a little forest-esque location as they turned a corner.

Little Youning was surprised the moment she saw this area. “There’s no one here. I didn’t know this place even existed!”

“Back then when I was annoyed by how loud it was during lunch break, I would drop by here for some peace.” What Wen Xu actually meant was he found the attention he received from many girls during lunch too overwhelming.

Little Youning chuckled a bit as she noticed there was not a single soul present in that area. She stretched out both her short tiny arms to Wen Xu and said, “Hurry up and cuddle up with me!”

Wen Xu grinned then proceeded to grab her into his arms, hugging her.

Little Youning then proceeded to use her tiny hands to inch and climb her way up to his chest, while her mouth was literally wide open unconsciously, as she could not keep her hands to herself. She started rubbing up against his chest, violating him to her heart’s content. She then said, “Hurry, hurry up and let me see!”

With a huge grin on Wen Xu’s face, he carried her to a nearby tree as he sat himself down on a branch while keeping her in his warm loving embrace. As he supported her with one arm, he proceeded to slowly unbutton his shirt with another, exposing his smooth, white clavicle.

Little Youning was literally drooling from the edge of her mouth as she excitedly slurped her drool back in, she said, “Yes, go on, go on!”

There was an obvious hint of joy reflecting through Wen Xu’s black pearly eyes. He used his long, slender finger to unbutton his shirt while Little Youning stared contentedly, without even stopping to blink once, as his buttons slowly and gradually, one by one came undone, exposing his smooth white skin below the clavicle.

Little Youning could no longer contain herself as she stuck her hands into his shirt, violating him even further from within.

“One, one more button!” Little Youning rushed impatiently.

Thus, Wen Xu proceeded to unbutton the remaining three buttons, slowly exposing his bare chest.

Little Youning pulled apart his shirt from both sides using his tiny chubby hands, as she immediately shoved her tiny face into his chest, rubbing against his smooth, bare chest. She had even taken a huge sniff from his chest, smelling the scent that was emanating from his body.

There was a slight hint of pool chlorine from his body, however it was mild. Smelling it from his body somehow made him seem cleaner than ever.

“When I left earlier that day, did you put your clothes back on?” Little Youning asked.

“I did, immediately after you left, no one had a chance to even look at me,” Wen Xu answered.

“Not bad, not bad!” Little Youning praised gleefully, as her tiny face was blushing incredibly red, her eyes looked exceptionally bright. Suddenly, she proceeded to nibble on his chest.

As she looked up, she noticed Wen Xu’s eyes lit up with life. Still blushing, she said, “I’m rewarding you!”

“Here too.” Wen Xu pointed at his cheeks, as he leaned closer to her lips.

Staring at this naive chubby little six-year-old girl, he felt no shame nor guilt.

Little Youning was naively happy since she would seize any opportunity to do anything for him in broad daylight, hence she kissed the exact spot Wen Xu was pointing at, as she sneakily brushed against his lips.

Wen Xu could not bring himself to sin even further for this six-year-old. However, he noticed after this girl had kissed him, she was smiling extremely widely as if she had successfully taken advantage of him.

Wen Xu too was extremely happy as a sinister grin could be seen reflecting from his eyes. He proceeded to lower his head then kissed her on the cheeks.

Little Youning was blushing heavily after that kiss. It was appalling to see the little girl could actually feel shame. She then said, “Oh good lord, you, you kissed me. You’ll have to be responsible for kissing me now!”

“Alright,” Wen Xu replied with a hidden grin. Although it was not too obvious, judging from the tone of his voice, he was extremely happy.

Little Youning was ecstatic, hence her little chubby hands proceeded to once again rub against his chest. She then said nervously, “Then… Do you know… What sort of responsibility did I mean?”

Wen Xu gave it a good thought as he was now fourteen and she was now six; ince he was eight years older than her, he should know much clearer than her.

“What sort of responsibility do you understand then?” Wen Xu asked with a soft tone.

Since he was going through puberty, his voice had not fully cracked yet. Although his voice had not yet reached the stage of sounding extremely low and dreamy, he had already gone through the awfully ear-piercing cracked voice stage. Hence, at the moment, he sounded like an elegant teenager—although it was not deep, it was still captivating.

“Oh my god, stop teasing me!” Little Youning flailed her arms around slapping his chest, as she tried to hide away her blushing face.

“…” Wen Xu was speechless.

He wondered what sort of TV drama series this young girl had been watching.

“The responsibility that I meant was… after you’ve kissed me, you’ll need to marry me. My brother told me that a girl should never allow any guys to just casually kiss her, so you’ve already taken advantage of me, do you understand?” It was her who had taken more advantage of Wen Xu first, and somehow she was bold enough to subvert all responsibility on him then.

“I know, I’ll be responsible.” Wen Xu nodded.

As he spoke, he proceeded to kiss her on the other cheek. “I hereby stamp thee. When you’re older, I’ll marry you.”

“Oh my god… why… How are you saying this now? I’m still young, and you’ve decided on me so early, you meanie.” As she spoke, she proceeded to dive into his arms.

Wen Xu felt her nibbling on his chest again.

“Oh good lord, Wen Xu, I didn’t expect to run into you here.” At that moment, a girl walked by. She noticed Wen Xu was hugging Little Youning in his lap. She smiled and said, “The both of you sure are close. Do you still remember me Youning?”

“Put your shirt back on! Hurry! Don’t let this pervert look at you.” Little Youning snarled while showing her ferocious teeth.

Although Wen Xu was acting really slow, the speed of him buttoning up his shirt was impeccable.

Little Youning adjusted his shirt to make sure it was straight and tidy. After a thorough inspection and the only exposed part of his body was his neck, she pouted and asked with her soft tiny lips, “Who on Earth are you?”

Wen Xu turned around, and with only a single glance, he frowned then proceeded to turn back to face Little Youning. Slightly relaxing his tense brows, he said, “I don’t know this girl.”

“…” The girl was speechless.

She was his classmate, they had been classmates for several years!

The girl’s smile was stiff. She said, “How could you not know who I am, Youning, I treated you to some chicken wings.”

Little Youning rolled her eyes and said, “There are plenty of girls who have treated me to plenty of food. I don’t remember all of them!”

Wen Xu was intrigued as his eyebrows were slightly raised. He asked, “How did you get so many girls to treat you food?”

Little Youning felt guilty as she dared not look into his eyes. She only buried her face into him. It was her only defense mechanism, because every single time she was guilty of something, she would do the same thing to Ruan Danchen, Qi Chenglin, and him. She had done this countless times before.

It was at that moment, Wen Xu’s confusion faded away, as he used his neatly trimmed nails on his long slender fingers to gently brush against Little Youning’s cheeks. He said, “If you wanna eat any good food next time, just tell me, I’ll buy it for you. You’re not allowed to take anything from them next time alright. There’s no need for you to diminish yourself to their standards.”

Little Youning was ecstatic. She blushingly replied, “Alright!”

That girl who was standing at the sidelines was growing increasingly furious, as she felt the way they interacted with each other was getting increasingly weird. She felt this was not how siblings usually interacted with each other.

A six-year-old chubby girl, really?

Hearing that out loud sounded wrong!

As the girl collected herself, she forced a natural smile and said, “You both sure are close, but I know the both of you are extremely close, just like brothers and sisters, so I don’t mind. I’m telling you this, the way you behave now will cause plenty of misunderstanding to anyone you know. Although Youning is still young, this isn’t exactly a good thing…”

Little Youning could no longer listen to this girl, so she interrupted by saying, “You liking Ah Xu is also wrong since you’re also young!”

As she spoke, Little Youning proceeded to grab onto Wen Xu’s waist with her tiny chubby legs. Since she was still young, doing so would not cause anyone to think it was a gesture of love. Her tiny chubby arms were wrapping around his shoulders.

“Ah Xu is mine! However we choose to love each other, is entirely our business, you have no relationship with Ah Xu, so what right do you have to intervene with our relationship!” Little Youning snapped at the girl furiously as she buried her flustered face into Wen Xu’s chest, completely ignoring the girl, not bothering to even look at her.

“You… You guys… Disgust me! I’m telling the teacher!” The girl stormed off furiously while pointing at them as she stomped her feet on the ground before leaving.

While staring at the girl’s furious departure, Little Youning’s mouth formed an ‘O’ shape.

“She… She…” Little Youning was gobsmacked.

Wen Xu did not put her down since she was wrapping tightly around him. He could save some strength, and only used a single arm to hug her tightly, as if she was not a chubby little girl.

His other hand reached into his pocket to pick up his phone. He proceeded to make a phone call. He said, “Dad, you need to get here quick, I need you to help me face the wrath of my homeroom teacher and my future father-in-law.”

…

As expected, not long after the girl stormed off, both Wen Xu and Little Youning were called into the teacher’s office.

The moment they entered, they noticed that girl sitting next to the teacher’s desk with a flustered look.

* * *

“What information have you gathered in Feng Haoli’s house?” asked Jiang Yuecheng.

Wei Muran briefly summarized the information they had gathered from Feng Haoli’s parents.

“That means we didn’t get anything useful from his parents too. What has been going on recently. Why are the cases so troublesome?” complained Xing Jiadong with a distorted expression.

“That’s not true. At least we have some clues,” Qi Youxuan walked toward the whiteboard and took a whiteboard marker pen. “We can find some connections if we piece the information we obtained today together.”

Qi Youxuan then pointed at Xing Jiadong. “Tell me everything that you’ve learned about Feng Haoli so far.”

Xing Jiadong was not expecting Qi Youxuan to choose him to initiate the discussion since Qi Youxuan would always analyze the case alone without giving them a chance to voice their opinions.

Xing Jiadong snapped out of his thoughts immediately after Qi Youxuan shifted his gaze to him curiously and said, “The victim Feng Haoli, a twenty-one year old male and an electrical engineering student from University A, left his dormitory at half past eleven last night and suspected to have returned to the dormitory at one o’clock in the middle of the night. He was found hanging in front of room number four-zero-three. Time of death between one to two o’clock. He only joined athletics events in the university and a cycling club off-campus.”

After a few moments of silence, Qi Youxuan asked, “That’s all?”

Xing Jiadong replied after making sure that he did not miss anything else, “That’s all.”

Qi Youxuan nodded in response. He had already jotted down every information Xing Jiadong mentioned just now on the whiteboard clearly and systematically.

“Anyone who wishes to add on, please do so,” announced Qi Youxuan without making any attempt to voice his opinions.

Coincidentally, the Forensic Science Division delivered the forensic identification report at that moment. The paint on the soles of the victim, Feng Haoli, is the same as the paint placed at the top floor of the dormitory. One of the tangerine-colored paint containers was stained with mud and its components matched the mud on the victim’s soles too.

“The paint on Feng Haoli’s soles matches the paint placed on the top floor of the dormitory, which means the victim went to the top floor and it was highly likely that the paint got onto his shoes before he died, which also means that he went to the top floor before someone killed him. His roommate also mentioned that he left the dormitory at half past eleven. According to the dorm keeper, he locked the entrance to the dormitory at ten past eleven and window grills were installed at every available window in the dormitory, so it was impossible to climb out of the window. We can safely assume that Feng Haoli had probably gone to the top floor to meet the murderer after leaving his room at half past eleven and was killed afterward. The fact that his roommate saw his return at approximately one o’clock without getting a clear view of him but a vague outline doesn’t really mean that the person who returned was Feng Haoli,” said Wei Muran.

“It’s possible for the murderer to arrange a meeting on the rooftop to kill Feng Haoli on the spot and return to the dormitory by impersonating Feng Haoli amidst the darkness. Feng Haoli’s laptop went missing and no one had any idea since when, but at least the laptop was still there when his roommate brought breakfast for him in the morning. I’m guessing that the person who returned to the dormitory at one o’clock in the middle of the night was the murderer. The laptop probably contained evidence or clues that may lead us to the murderer’s identity and that was the reason why the murderer entered room number four-zero-two when everybody was asleep. Even if someone was still awake at that time, it was impossible for him to take a clear view of the murderer’s face after the power failure. The fact that the victim was hanged in front of room number four-zero-three probably meant that someone inside that room was related to the victim’s death but highly likely that the murderer just wanted to divert the attention.

“Chen Yuke’s scream after noticing the corpse in the morning had attracted the attention of most students in the dormitory. When the students in room four-zero-two rushed out to see what had happened in panic, none of them would notice that the person lying in Feng Haoli’s bed was actually a stranger, and he could even leave the dormitory amidst the chaos without anyone noticing too. Of course, this is just my hypothesis. The murderer must be fearless if he really did whatever I had mentioned just now,” analyzed Wei Muran slowly but systematically.

“He wouldn’t murder if he wasn’t fearless. Your analysis is logical!” praised Zhang Ming.

Wei Muran’s cheeks flushed pink after hearing that compliment. This was her first time summoning up her courage to voice her opinions ever since she joined the police force, and it was the improvement in her analyzing skill after constant observation of Qi Youxuan’s investigation method that fueled her courage.

Wei Muran shifted her gaze to Qi Youxuan, unsure about his thoughts on her hypothesis. She lacked confidence in her own hypothesis since the evidence was not enough to support it, hence making it sound a little naive.

However, Qi Youxuan was smiling warmly with a soft glimmer in his lucid eyes, which radiated the same innocence and honesty that persisted since he was young. His eyes were like limpid lakes which brought calmness to those who gazed upon them, and none would be heartless to speak lies when they were met with such crystal clear eyes.

The comfort and compliment Qi Youxuan’s gaze conveyed gave Wei Muran an indescribable excitement.

Qi Youxuan expressed his compliments by grinning at Wei Muran, revealing a row of perfectly carved out dazzling teeth, as if agreeing to her hypothesis.

Wei Muran merely felt that she was of use to the police department by contributing ideas that may aid in the investigation when Zhang Ming praised her, but exhilaration consumed her when Qi Youxuan’s gaze on her conveyed compliments. Subconsciously, her eyes shone brightly and a wide grin broke across her face, and she could even feel her heart pounding at an incredible speed then.

To be honest, Wei Muran did not mean to grin in jubilation, but she could not resist the temptation when she met with Qi Youxuan’s joyful gaze and wide grin.

Qi Youxuan’s reaction was a sign of acknowledgment to Wei Muran. Her heart almost broke out of her ribcage in triumph as if his compliment was the single most important sign that only mattered to her.

“Mumu, you’re absolutely right! My Mumu is very smart indeed!” Qi Youxuan gave Wei Muran a thumbs up.

“…” Blush seared through the exhilarated Wei Muran’s cheeks instantaneously.

How could she forget Qi Youxuan’s personality?

Wei Muran felt guilty after receiving Qi Youxuan’s praise. Obviously, he was biased! Thus, the compliments that came out of his mouth sounded exaggerated in any case.

The red-faced Wei Muran glared at Qi Youxuan so that he would control his behavior.

Xing Jiadong felt uncomfortable then too. Qi Youxuan appeared disgusted when he finished his report on the victim’s details, and the question ‘That’s all?’ seemed to be mocking his intelligence as well.

However, Qi Youxuan’s grin was so wide right after Wei Muran voiced her opinions, which was in striking contrast with the reaction Xing Jiadong received just now.

“Hey, both of you, can you stop showing your love and affection in front of the bare branches? God will punish you for this!” Zhang Ming hissed through gritted teeth.

Moreover, everyone in this room was a bare branch, and Wei Muran was included initially too, but Qi Youxuan had solved that issue ever since his arrival.

“Ahem!” Wei Muran coughed awkwardly with embarrassment burning deep inside her.

Qi Youxuan glanced at Zhang Ming sadly. “That’s why you must put in more effort and observe how I usually treat my girlfriend. That way, your chances of getting one will increase drastically, am I right?”

“Haha!” Zhang Ming laughed scornfully.

“Continue with your analysis! We’re working on this case right now!” Wei Muran glared at the bickering duo.

There was no need for Wei Muran to treat them kindly ever since they were young.

“Ahem!” Qi Youxuan coughed into his fist and regained his stern feature. “Anyone has anything else to add on?”

Jiang Yuecheng felt that Qi Youxuan was stripping him of his position as the squad leader unconsciously, and he had no idea since when did everybody start to follow Qi Youxuan’s instructions without the slightest hesitation.

Jiang Yuecheng could only perform his duty as a squad leader whenever Qi Youxuan felt too lazy to manage the situation.

Exactly like what happened at that moment. Qi Youxuan was basically leading the investigation!

Jiang Yuecheng was caught in a dilemma. He felt like he was Qi Youxuan’s subordinate who would obey every command Qi Youxuan instructed if he voiced his opinion, but at the same time, his presence would be hardly noticeable if he remained quiet.

Zhao Yiyang did not give Jiang Yuecheng, who was opening and closing his mouth repeatedly as if still caught in the dilemma, a chance to make a decision and asked, “You mentioned about a cycling club just now. Was there anything wrong with the club?”

Qi Youxuan nodded his head without providing an answer. Instead, he turned around to look at the information on the whiteboard and started analyzing by drawing lines to connect and dissect the information.

Then, with the use of a black marker pen, he wrote the name of the cycling club and added a dash behind it. “According to Feng Haoli’s parents, Feng Haoli liked to attend any activities organized by the cycling club and would ride his bicycle to challenge his limit in deserted and impoverished areas before boasting to his friends. He would definitely post his journey on social media or start a live video on Weibo, and share details of his trip to his parents once he returned home. He also liked to develop photographs of the trip and place the most symbolic photograph on a conspicuous location in the house.

“His parents also mentioned that Feng Haoli wasn’t the sort of person who would initiate conversations with his parents. He would hide in his bedroom and play computer games during weekends, and only became slightly talkative whenever he returned from his cycling trips. However, after he returned from Mêdog County last summer, he never mentioned a single word regarding the trip and there weren’t any photographs of that particular trip in his house. His social media was only updated until he reached Lhasa and that was it. This indicates that something went wrong during his trip and it was probably very serious or disgusting that he ceased talking or even thinking about it when he returned home.”

“Feng Haoli’s father mentioned that he once overheard Feng Haoli talking about an issue with someone on the phone and Feng Haoli lost his temper when his father questioned him about it. His reaction was exactly the same as how Chen Yuke described. I suspect that these two issues were actually the same issue.” Qi Youxuan drew two lines to connect both the trip to Mêdog County and the threat message together on the whiteboard before playing the whiteboard marker pen with his slender fingers. “This is the cycling club’s name card. You guys can contact them and ask about the details of the trip to Mêdog County. Get a name list about the involved participants and if possible, get their photographs too.”

“Besides, all of you missed a point just now.” Qi Youxuan placed the whiteboard marker pen down before continuing, “Not only did Feng Haoli’s laptop go missing, but his cellphone had disappeared too. Smartphones nowadays are very convenient to use but they aren’t safe either. Many will turn on Cloud’s automatic backup system, so even when the users delete the content in the cellphone by accident, they can still retrieve the data on Cloud.”

“Yang Shaozhan, decrypt Feng Haoli’s Apple ID password after you’re done decoding his WeChat password,” instructed Qi Youxuan.

“Okay,” Yang Shaozhan acknowledged the instruction while decrypting Feng Haoli’s WeChat password, but deep down he was criticizing Qi Youxuan for mentioning the password decoding process like it was as simple as a thief breaking into a safe.

Yang Shaozhan, who was working behind a computer screen, raised his hand after a while. “I have the WeChat password.”

Then, he jotted down a bunch of numbers and passed it to Jiang Yuecheng before launching his attack on Feng Haoli’s Apple ID password.

Subsequently, they used a cellphone and logged into Feng Haoli’s WeChat account. After scrolling the screen for a while, they finally found the pictures of Feng Haoli’s trip to Tibet which were posted one year ago.

The first photograph was taken when a group of three males and two females were assembled and ready for departure. All of them wore uniform outfits and equipment and were sitting on their bicycles respectively with the tip of their left feet pointing toward the ground. The shooting was done while facing the sun, creating faint halos around their hazy backs which appeared especially stunning, like a poster.

The following photographs mainly consisted of scenery along the journey and overnight stays in local residents’ houses or tents.

The rest of the photographs were mostly of infinitely greened hills and empty roads when they had reached some desolate areas.

These photographs were not posted daily, obviously due to unsatisfactory cell phone reception which disallowed Feng Haoli to get a network connection.

The captions became depressing with the initial excitement disappearing into thin air as the scenery became more magnificent and vast but barren at the same time.

Feng Haoli posted his status on the third of July. “I feel heavy emotionally. I figured that the trip would be tough and exhausting but I didn’t expect it to end up like this.”

On the fifth of July, a photograph of a campfire built on a soiled cemented floor in a courtyard was posted with the following caption attached. “Heart.”

Subsequent posts became more and more dispirited afterward.

Finally, the photograph revealed that they had arrived at Lhasa on the eleventh of July.

Instead of Potala Palace which was the iconic symbol of Lhasa, Feng Haoli shot photographs of believers kneeling with utmost sincerity and a row of prayer wheels at the Jokhang Temple. One of the photographs showed a man’s hand spinning the prayer wheels, and based on the angle the shot was taken, it was fairly obvious that Feng Haoli was the one taking the photograph.

The attached caption stated. “Is it too late to purify my soul?”

This was the last photograph Feng Haoli posted regarding that journey.

Qi Youxuan had a feeling that they must have reached Mêdog County in the end. Two months later, when the semester had begun, Feng Haoli started posting in his WeChat stories again but the updates were lesser in comparison with the past.

“Looks like something definitely went wrong during that trip and it wasn’t a small issue either. Those captions he posted were depressing as hell,” Zhang Ming rubbed his chest and tried to get rid of the goosebumps even though the captions were not as exaggerated as they were.

“Did you notice that there wasn’t any selfie or wefie after the third of July? There were a lot of group photographs or selfies before that,” said Qi Youxuan.

Then, everyone in the department noticed that not only were there group photographs or selfies before the third of July, but each of them had a delighted smile on their faces too.

“I’ve hacked into Feng Haoli’s account,” Yang Shaozhan let out a sigh of relief.

The crowd went to have a look immediately and found out that there were a few additions of group photographs in the Cloud system.

“Weren’t these the photographs of Feng Haoli’s trip to Tibet on the phone just now?” yelled Wei Muran surprisingly as she pointed at the screen.

“Why were these uploaded two weeks ago? Judging by the captions on his WeChat, it was obvious that he didn’t want to see any of these photographs again, so why did he re-upload them into his phone after one year? The analysis just now also mentioned that he didn’t even put any photograph of that trip at home, so why would he put them into his phone to look at?” asked the curious Zhao Yiyang.

“These weren’t taken by him,” answered Qi Youxuan.

Qi Youxuan explained himself after everyone turned toward him in shock. “These shots were taken by a different person. Perhaps it was a little difficult to conclude from group photographs since they could just ask someone else to take the shot, but take a look at these selfies. The one taking the selfie will definitely stand right in the middle at the forefront position, but these photographs showed a different person at this exact location, so obviously Feng Haoli wasn’t the one taking these shots with his phone.”

The group of five had planted a deep impression in the crowd’s minds after glancing through Feng Haoli’s photographs just now. Thus, they had preconceived assumptions that these were taken by Feng Haoli as well, but after listening to Qi Youxuan’s explanation, they found the differences at last.

“Besides, the effective pixels are different, which means the cellphone used to take these shots was different too.” They had no idea when did Yang Shaozhan transferred the photographs from Feng Haoli’s WeChat account and Cloud into the computer and started analyzing and comparing between the photographs from these two sources.

“Pixel and brightness are different too,” said Yang Shaozhan while pointing at the screen.

“Someone sent these photographs to Feng Haoli’s phone two weeks ago. Judging from his behavior, he must’ve deleted them immediately but had forgotten about the fact that the photographs would be uploaded to Cloud automatically,” said Qi Youxuan confidently.

“This lady… seems familiar,” Wei Muran muttered with a frown.

“You’ve seen her before?” asked Jiang Yuecheng immediately.

Wei Muran shook her head in response. “No, I’m very good at recognizing faces, so I won’t forget anyone whom I’ve seen previously. She looks familiar even though I’ve never seen her before, perhaps she looks similar to someone else.”

Wei Muran frowned as she failed to identify the lady despite racking her brain for quite some time.

In the meantime, Yang Shaozhan started messing around with the desktop Qi Youxuan brought back from Feng Haoli’s house, while Zhang Ming called the cycling club based on the contact number on the business card. Then, he realized that it was way past office hours at that time after the phone call went unanswered.

Qi Youxuan received a phone call from Qi Youning when he was stretching himself. “Brother, why haven’t you guys come out yet? We’ve been waiting outside for quite some time.”

Qi Youxuan stood up abruptly. “What are you doing here? Why are you troubling me?”

“How can you say so? You were regarding me as an outsider when you didn’t tell me about your successful relationship with Muran. It was alright if I didn’t know about this, but I saw both of you together this morning, so here I am. Let’s grab dinner tonight, shall we?” Qi Youning’s voice sounded soft but Qi Youxuan knew that she was fighting her urge to laugh by listening to her voice.

“Today is my first official date with Mumu, so why are you following us for? Be a good girl and enjoy your sweet time with Wen Xu,” Qi Youxuan coaxed.

Qi Youning was exasperated after realizing that Qi Youxuan was actually coaxing her like he was coaxing a child when he was young. Was she really that stupid?

“Ah Xu is with me right now. It’s perfectly fine if you’re unwilling to join us, I can just ask Muran out alone too. I’ll always ask Muran out in the future and you’ll learn the truth whether Muran prefers to follow me or you!” replied Qi Youning happily with an innocent and cute tone.

“You… you!” Rage was boiling deep inside Qi Youxuan. He would have lost his cool if it was not for the fact that he had to protect his image in the presence of Jiang Yuecheng and his team. He ran toward a corner after peeking at the crowd and whispered, “Your brother had just courted hi wife successfully, so you can’t possibly put a spoke in my wheel right now. Are you still my little sister?”

Qi Youning rolled her eyes in response. “I’m trying to develop intimacy between my future sister-in-law and I. How can you say that I’m putting a spoke in your wheel? The development of intimacy between your wife and sister is of utmost importance! Why are you so annoyingly talkative anyway? Fine, I’ll just give Muran a phone call. Bye!”

“Wait!” yelled Qi Youxuan immediately, holding his breath and finally letting it out in disappointment. “What do you want for dinner? If you promise that this disturbance will be the first and last time, I’ll pay for your dinner tonight.”

“Humph! Humph!” Qi Youning did not give her word on this.

“You… If you insist on disturbing us and the intimacy between Mumu and I can’t grow further, don’t come looking for me when Wen Xu and you face any trouble in the future!” Qi Youxuan threatened.

“Humph!” Qi Youning expressed her dissatisfaction and exasperation clearly.

Qi Youxuan persuaded again. “Your brother isn’t a stingy person and loves you dearly! You should treat me kindly in return too, right? I know you’ve been eyeing up a set of emerald pendant and earrings. I’ll buy them for you!”

Qi Youning’s eyes shone brightly and her face was flushed pink in an instant. Wen Xu’s gaze on her became gentle at the sight of her attractive rosiness.

Wen Xu could not help but reach out to poke Qi Youning’s pinkish and tender cheek.

Pink tint seared through Qi Youning’s cheeks instantly. She buried her face in her palms and stared at Wen Xu with her big, round eyes, trying to tell him to knock it off.

The corner of Wen Xu’s lips curled up faintly and a smile formed in his initial cold gaze. Instead of withdrawing his hand, he started caressing Qi Youning’s cheek repeatedly with his long and slender fingers.

A pink tint burned through Qi Youning’s cheeks as her mind went into a whirlwind. Left with no choice, she tried to push Wen Xu’s hand away but was grabbed by his hand again in the end.

Qi Youning mumbled, “He wasn’t like that when he was young!”

The young Wen Xu was an energetic, apathetic, and restrained pretty boy!

When… When did he learn to behave with such indecency?

“Pardon?” Qi Youxuan was unable to hear Qi Youning’s mumble through the phone clearly.

“N… Nothing,” the red-faced Qi Youning stuttered in anxiety and embarrassment. Since she was unable to focus on the conversation and was worried that Qi Youxuan might notice that something was off, she immediately replied, “D… Deal!”

Qi Youning’s cellphone was snatched away right after she hung up the phone call hastily.

She turned around in surprise but before she could mutter a protest, Wen Xu pressed his lips against hers.

“…” Qi Youning was dumbfounded.

Where was the minion that was promised to her when she was young?

Where did the obedient Wen Xu go?

Where did this indecent scoundrel come from?

Qi Youxuan had no clue that Wen Xu was treating his beloved sister with eroticism at that moment. Well, he would not even give a damn about it even if he was fully aware of Wen Xu’s behavior. This was bound to happen sooner or later, right?

Qi Youxuan was unconcerned even if a new life popped in Qi Youning’s womb because that was exactly what Wen Xu yearned for.

Thus, Qi Youxuan put his little sister out of his mind heartlessly and nonchalantly before returning to the office. Everyone was preparing to go home after work and Wei Muran was tidying up her belongings.

Jiang Yuecheng wanted to initiate a conversation with Wei Muran but was interrupted by Qi Youxuan. “Mumu!”

“Can we leave now?” The excited Qi Youxuan grinned and walked toward Wei Muran while squeezing Jiang Yuecheng away from her.

Wei Muran turned around and smiled at Qi Youxuan without noticing Jiang Yuecheng’s attempt to speak. Then, Qi Youxuan linked his fingers into her hand.

Since the bare branches had no date after work anyway, they remained in the office to discuss dinner plans without any intention of running back home. Thus, jealousy gleamed in their eyes when they noticed Qi Youxuan and Wei Muran holding hands in the office.

This was a form of mental abuse!

Wei Muran could even hear the pride in Qi Youxuan’s mock. “Suck it up, losers!”

“…” The crowd was dumbfounded.

“That’s it, we can’t let him enjoy himself so happily,” Xing Jiadong hissed through gritted teeth and nudged Zhang Ming with a wry smile. “Aren’t you close to him?”

Zhang Ming understood Xing Jiadong’s hint immediately. To be honest, as a vanguard and a spy in the Criminal Investigation Division who assisted Qi Youxuan in finding his true love, he was very displeased at Qi Youxuan’s deliberate public display of affection.

Qi Youxuan’s ungrateful attitude had induced great dissatisfaction in Zhang Ming.

Thus, Zhang Ming nodded vigorously and stepped forward. “Hey, Youxuan, Muran, are you guys going for a date?”

Red seared through Wei Muran’s cheeks when she heard that. Since she had a close friendship with Zhang Ming and was an open-minded person too, she was not particularly concerned about courtesy at the moment. Thus, she cleared her throat and avoided direct eye contact with Zhang Ming.

“I won’t bring you guys along, so don’t even think about it. We’re going for dinner with another couple, Youning and Wen Xu, so come along if you don’t mind getting your eyes blinded by the lovebirds,” responded Qi Youxuan without giving them a chance to speak.

Qi Youxuan gave up trying to enjoy his sweet moment with Wei Muran for the rest of the day, since bringing two gooseberries or a bunch of gooseberries along made no difference at all.

Zhang Ming became a wimp immediately after hearing the name “Wen Xu”.

He dared to create trouble for Qi Youxuan but did not have the nerve to disturb Wen Xu. “Haha, who wants to follow you when we’re going for dinner later anyway? Petty-minded man.”

“Ha ha,” sneered Qi Youxuan.

After that, he left the office with Wei Muran.

Xing Jiadong glanced at Zhang Ming disdainfully and mocked, “Why’d you give up so quickly? At least you should be persistent for a while!”

“They’re going to have dinner with Wen Ren’s eldest son tonight, so go ahead if you have the guts. There’s no way that I’m going with them.” Zhang Ming rolled his eyes before walking away.

Xing Jiadong recognized Wen Ren even though he had no idea who Wen Xu was, so he swallowed his jokes and remained silent.

Bai Mo overheard this statement when she entered the office and turned around to look at both Qi Youxuan and Wei Muran doubtfully.

After that, Bai Mo averted her gaze instantly and walked into the office with an elegant smile. “What’s all the fuss about?”

“Hey, Doctor Bai got off from work too? We’re going for dinner later, do you want to tag along if you’re free?” asked Xing Jiadong, who was always a few bricks short of a load.

Zhang Ming rolled his eyes in response. Why was Bai Mo everywhere they went?

What the hell was wrong with Xing Jiadong’s brain to invite Bai Mo for whatever event they had? Why did he even want Bai Mo to join a group of men for dinner?

Moreover, how could they speak freely in the presence of Bai Mo who had such a reserved attitude?

Even though Zhang Ming was born in a well-reputed family, he earned himself a reputation as a tough guy by working in the police department all these years. It was inevitable for him to blurt out vulgarity or make dirty jokes whenever he joined Xing Jiadong and the rest in a chat.

However, Bai Mo acted as if she was a white lotus [1] who could not afford to have her ears stained by words of profanity, so there was no way they could enjoy themselves in her presence.

Since Bai Mo was a colleague in the police department, Zhang Ming could not possibly express his disapproval despite his aversion toward her, but at least he could try his very best to avoid occasions which involved her.

After-work entertainment was meant for relaxation instead of torturing oneself, so why would Zhang Ming think of Bai Mo first when he did not owe her anything?

Zhang Ming was unconcerned about any potential criticism for not participating in outdoor entertainment since his family background was kept a secret to the police department except Wei Muran and a few limited personnel.

The fact that Bai Mo wore an elegant smile induced disgust in Zhang Ming, but at least his current maturity prevented him from gagging and embarrass Bai Mo like what he usually did when he was young.

Judging by Bai Mo’s expression, Zhang Ming assumed that she was going to agree with Xing Jiadong’s suggestion.

Sure enough, Bai Mo answered, “I’m free, so count me in if you don’t mind.”

The idiot, Xing Jiadong even replied, “Of course we won’t mind, it’s our pleasure to bring a beauty along for dinner too!”

“Haha,” Zhang Ming could not resist the urge to snicker but regretted as soon as he was done sneering. He was so hot-tempered at times!

It was unwise and inappropriate to express his dissatisfaction openly, so he added, “I received a call from home just now asking me to return home tonight, so I’m not going for dinner later.”

Not only was Xing Jiadong lacking in intelligent quotient, his emotional quotient was evidently lacking too as he asked in shock, “Since when does your family call you? Why didn’t I hear it? Your voice was the loudest too when you urged everyone to eat hotpot just now.”

Zhang Ming clenched his teeth and glared at Xing Jiadong.

“Why are you glaring at me?” asked the innocent Xing Jiadong.

“…” Zhang Ming was at a loss for words.

The smile on Bai Mo’s face froze instantly. Carefully and softly, she asked, “Corporal Zhang doesn’t favor my participation?”

“No, I really have other matters to attend to,” Zhang Ming denied quickly. They would meet with each other rather frequently so there was no way he would admit his loathing for her.

Then, Zhang Ming glared at Xing Jiadong. “Do you have a crush on me? Do you know every move or plan that I have in mind? Did you pay your full attention to me just now?”

Xing Jiadong finally understood the situation and answered, “Not really.”

“I received a phone call from home when you weren’t paying attention to me just now,” replied Zhang Ming annoyingly, but deep down he reprimanded this imbecile for his stupidity.

Bai Mo was aware that Zhang Ming was merely giving an excuse but she preferred not to make the situation a whole lot worse by demanding the truth since it would not benefit her in any way. Thus, she put on her usual elegant smile in the end.

“Sergeant Jiang, let’s go,” Bai Mo stared at Jiang Yuecheng with a smile.

As expected, Jiang Yuecheng received an ambiguous gaze from Xing Jiadong.

No wonder Xing Jiadong wanted to invite Bai Mo every single time. He acted as a matchmaker and tried to initiate a romantic relationship between Jiang Yuecheng and Bai Mo. Zhang Ming started to pity Jiang Yuecheng for having such an idiotic teammate—Xing Jiadong.

Xing Jiadong only noticed that Bai Mo had a crush on Jiang Yuecheng, but he failed to realize that Jiang Yuecheng had actually developed a fondness for Wei Muran.

It was fortunate that Xing Jiadong lacked brainpower. If he was smart enough to make a match between Jiang Yuecheng and Wei Muran, he would surely feel Qi Youxuan’s wrath.

Jiang Yuecheng smiled faintly. “Elderly guests of a friend will visit my house tonight, so excuse me for not joining the dinner later. Enjoy.”

Bai Mo’s smile froze immediately when Jiang Yuecheng announced his absence from the dinner later. She had nothing to chat with the idiotic Xing Jiadong and was not interested in both Zhao Yiyang and Yang Shaozhan either.

However, Bai Mo agreed to join them and it would seem like she participated for a purpose if she reneged upon her words. Left with no choice, she swallowed her reluctance and watched grudgingly as Jiang Yuecheng and Zhang Ming left the department.

…

…

The way Qi Youxuan held Wei Muran’s hand appeared especially frivolous.

Even though Bai Mo was considered the prettiest and most popular girl in the police department, some with discerning eyes actually had a crush on Wei Muran. However, they could not possibly visit the Criminal Investigation Division daily and court Wei Muran openly. Thus, they had no choice but to just develop a ‘closer friendship’ whenever the opportunity arose.

____________________________________________________________________________

Notes:

[1] The lotus flower blooms most beautifully from the deepest and thickest mud. Each flower color also has its own symbolism. For Buddhist practitioners, a white lotus symbolizes purity.