Author: 长洱 / Chang’er

Translator: Kinky || https://kinkytranslations.com/

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Chapter 140

Lin Chen felt he was about to lose control. This didn’t mean he would do something violent or strange. He just felt like he was going crazy.

His eardrums hurt, as if someone had whacked him in the head with a shovel, giving him tinnitus that was so painful it was impossible for him to think. Although he could see Xing Conglian’s face, Wang Chao’s pale face, and everything in the recording studio, when he lost control, these things seemed to lose any meaning; even if it was Xing Conglian, whom he liked so much. Nothing was making sense.

It was like something had drained all the happiness and joy from the world, so that even the air that people breathed freely had turned into thick malice like ink, and there was a fishy smell in the air…

No. There was no air. Where was he smelling these smells?

So, the luckiest thing about this was that he knew he was losing control, just like if he were sober and knew that he was mentally ill.

Lin Chen recovered quickly. He used all his strength to restrain these emotions. Although no psychologist would agree with the view of suppressing emotions, he didn’t have the time to think about such things now.

The original faded picture was gradually stained with some colors. What caught his eyes were the straight bridge of Xing Conglian’s nose and his handsome face because he had shaved. Xing Conglian’s hand covered his cheek, and his thumb was pressed tightly behind Lin Chen’s ear. He was so close to him that Lin Chen suspected Xing Conglian had been calling his name for a while, and when that didn’t work, he took a slightly ambiguous posture to try and wake him up.

Lin Chen stepped back a little, wiped away his tears, and said, “Sorry.”

Xing Conglian frowned, but he didn’t let go.

“What’s wrong?” Lin Chen felt the rough calluses on Xing Conglian’s finger and the heat of his palm, but he couldn’t understand Xing Conglian. Frankly, if there were people in this world who sometimes couldn’t understand, one of them would be Xing Conglian.

Sure enough, as soon as he opened his mouth, Xing Conglian’s face became as gloomy as dripping water. Xing Conglian let go and returned to the stereo to turn off the music. He then turned around to the other two people in the recording studio and said, “Get out.”

Wang Chao was exceptionally resourceful this time. The teenager didn’t say a word as he dragged Lu Xu out without looking back, and also remembered to close the door on his way out.

The noise of a door slamming sounded.

Xing Conglian pointed to the sofa next to the stereo and said to Lin Chen, “Come here. Sit down.”

Lin Chen looked at the dusty sofa and hesitated. “I’m not that fragile.”

Xing Conglian stood there, ignoring him. He gave Lin Chen a gloomy look as if he were saying, “Come here and don’t make me repeat it a second time.”

Lin Chen thought about the possibility of Xing Conglian saying this next, so he walked over obediently. He moved to the side and took just half a seat. However, Xing Conglian didn’t intend to let him just sit. He looked down at him and asked, “What’s wrong with you just now?”

Xing Conglian also asked him this in front of the ICU after he witnessed Xu Ran’s accident, but his tone this time was much worse than before.

After asking, Xing Conglian added, “I don’t want to hear you say you need to take it easy or use any scientific name to prevaricate me. You’re in a very bad state right now.”

Lin Chen bowed his head slightly, feeling ashamed. Xing Conglian was sharp and more like a psychologist than himself at this time.

Lin Chen replied calmly, “It may be a panic attack. It should be the sequelae from witnessing Xu Ran’s accident. It was triggered after suffering moderate emotional trauma.”

But Xing Conglian’s gaze didn’t soften because of his answer, as if he were judging Lin Chen’s situation and whether he was concealing anything from him. After a while, Xing Conglian squatted down and was at eye level with Lin Chen. He stared at him with a cold face and a worried expression.

“Captain Xing,” Lin Chen leaned forward and whispered.

“Consultant Lin.” Xing Conglian showed no signs of softening. “You have suffered too many traumas recently. No matter how healthy a person is, it’s easy to develop problems in your situation. So now, please use your absolute professional ability to do the most objective self-evaluation and tell me, are you still able to continue and persist?”

Lin Chen was grateful for such a tough and merciless tone, which made him understand that Xing Conglian regarded him as a comrade-in-arms rather than a pitiful object that needed protection because of his psychological fragility. If Xing Conglian comforted him with soft words at this time, it would only embarrass him.

Lin Chen asked, “What if I can’t?”

“Then I’ll handle it.”

When Xing Conglian said, “I’ll handle it”, his eyes were cold, as if there was no emotion involved. Lin Chen didn’t even have any doubt that if he had said “No”, Xing Conglian wouldn’t hesitate to take out his phone and send out some kind of death star and directly eliminate Li Jingtian. Of course, this would be a plot that Wang Chao would make up, but Xing Conglian’s expression made it clear to Lin Chen that he would really do something similar.

“The situation may be worse than I estimated. Psychological trauma is indeed different from the trauma of a stab wound, but as long as the police reimburse me for the cost of counseling after closing this case, there shouldn’t be a big problem,” Lin Chen said.

Xing Conglian still stared at him, trying to see if he was lying from his expression. Lin Chen didn’t dare look away. In fact, he certainly didn’t dare tell Xing Conglian that one-third of patients with panic disorder* often suffered from severe depression. Although it wasn’t that serious, human understanding of mental diseases was far less than that of obvious physical diseases. Even he couldn’t judge how his own problem would develop.

*Mental and behavioral disorder, specifically an anxiety disorder characterized by reoccurring panic attacks. Panic attacks are sudden periods of intense fear that may include palpitations, sweating, shaking, shortness of breath, numbness, or a feeling that something terrible is going to happen.

Xing Conglian nodded, as if he approved of his explanation, and finally stood up and sat down next to him on the sofa.

Lin Chen felt the depression of the sofa.

If this were normal, Xing Conglian would light a cigarette now, but since this was a crime scene, he obviously couldn’t. “Now tell me, why did you make that inference, and what do you need me to do.”

Lin Chen leaned on the sofa. Every trace of the air here made him uncomfortable. He stabilized his breath, pointed to the musical instruments that Wang Chao had knocked down, and said, “First of all, I have seen the guitar in Song Shengsheng’s room. It’s in a completely different state from the pile of garbage in the recording studio. With Song Shengsheng’s serious attitude towards musical instruments, it doesn’t look like those were used by him.”

“So you suspected it was used by Li Jingtian. He came and used Song Shengsheng’s recording studio?”

“It’s just a suspicion, but even if we find Li Jingtian’s fingerprints or DNA on it, it’s not enough, and I really hope we don’t detect Song Shengsheng’s blood on it.”

Xing Conglian nodded and said, “Go on.”

“With Li Jingtian’s extremely distorted attitude towards Song Shengsheng, he must do everything he can to humiliate him. What could be more exciting than humiliating Song Shengsheng in his most private and proudest place?”

“Right here?”

“Yes.” Lin Chen looked at the clean and tidy recording studio, feeling a bit unbearable. He hoped that the inferences he made were all delusions and that Song Shengsheng had never experienced what he was thinking. “The control room is a mess, but the recording studio is clean and tidy. All the microphones and instrument stands have been moved aside. If I’m not mistaken…”

“The inside is clean and tidy because Li Jingtian often tortures Song Shengsheng inside.” Xing Conglian had a rare tremor in his voice.

Lin Chen looked away but couldn’t help wondering what Song Shengsheng had experienced in that small room. “I know that such inferences are wild, but I have seen the photos of the scene. The brackets were placed like this before the police did their search. Of course, it may also be that Song Shengsheng had cleaned it the day before…”

When Lin Chen said this, he couldn’t continue.

How he wished it was because Song Shengsheng had cleaned the recording studio on a whim the day before.

Xing Conglian said, “Li Jingtian recorded the whole process while torturing Song Shengsheng, and he also intercepted Song Shengsheng’s screams and mixed them into his own song. When CA Entertainment realized this afterwards, but couldn’t find the master tape or were afraid there was a copy, they sent Lu Xu and his brother to Song Shengsheng’s home to take away all the tapes during that time?’

“I’m afraid so.” Lin Chen felt his eardrums tingle again. The entire recording studio seemed to be surrounded by Song Shengsheng’s heart-wrenching cries for help. Although it was extremely uncomfortable, he had to finish. “Song Shengsheng has a habit of recording music tapes at home. He may be alone when recording, so he wouldn’t press pause in time. Perhaps occasionally Li Jingtian would come and find that Song Shengsheng was recording his songs, so he raped him on a whim, and those voices happened to be recorded. Li Jingtian left the tape, or…” Lin Chen took a deep breath. “Li Jingtian specially dragged Song Shengsheng by the hair into the recording room and tortured him over and over again. He forced Song Shengsheng to scream in the bleakest voice and then recorded it. He would play those screams of Song Shengsheng to him over and over again… and even… put those screams and begs for mercy in his album to play to Song Shengsheng again and again.”

“Okay, I understand.” Xing Conglian quickly interrupted him. “Stop thinking about those things just to explain them to me.”

Lin Chen knew his concern, but he still said, “It’s not like if I don’t think about it, they would never appear again.” He looked at the cold floor. “If they happened and really existed, they would always be there.”

“Until justice is sought,” Xing Conglian stated.

“Yes, until justice is sought,” Lin Chen said calmly. “But I have no evidence. Even if the screams in Li Jingtian’s song are really mixed with Song Shengsheng’s screams, as I guessed, those sounds may have been processed by tuning or other mixing methods, so it’s difficult to identify them as Song Shengsheng’s voice. Even if the identification is successful, Li Jingtian can easily say he didn’t know the source of those materials.”

“So the only evidence that Li Jingtian cannot turn over is the complete original tape he recorded when he raped Song Shengsheng.” Xing Conglian said, “And Mu Zhuo is worried that Li Jingtian didn’t destroy that original tape.”

Finally, Lin Chen showed a very cold smile. “Yes, I suspect it’s very likely that CA Entertainment didn’t find the original tape in the end, and even if they did, Li Jingtian must have a copy in his hand.”

Xing Conglian looked at his watch and said, “Then, Consultant Lin, we need to get it out of Li Jingtian’s hands within three and a half hours.”

Lin Chen nodded. “Now we first need a voiceprint identification expert to confirm that there is indeed Song Shengsheng’s voice in Li Jingtian’s album, but…” Lin Chen was a little worried. “The time is too short. Voiceprint identification is a very complicated process, and we may not even be able to find such an expert in time.”

“Coincidentally, I know such a person, and he must have time,” Xing Conglian said.

Lin Chen wanted to ask who it was, but before he could speak, there was a knock on the door.

Wang Chao didn’t push the door directly in, but said anxiously through the door panel, “Captain, Li Jingtian is holding a press conference at the entrance of the embassy. Come out and watch!”

“I see,” Xing Conglian said.

Lin Chen was startled and couldn’t help standing up and walking to the door. The moment he put his hand on the doorknob, he felt his other hand being grabbed suddenly. His figure swayed as Xing Conglian pulled him into his arms and hugged him tightly.

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<<< || Table of Contents || >>>

Author: 长洱 / Chang’er

Translator: Kinky || https://kinkytranslations.com/

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Chapter 139

Naturally, a private home recording studio was different from a regular recording studio, but with Song Shengsheng’s decent income, the equipment he could afford was quite good. Though the recording studio wasn’t large, it actually had everything it needed.

There was a thick layer of carpet on the ground, and the walls were professionally soundproofed with noise-absorbing sponges. Because of the need for quiet, there were no windows. A wall separated the recording studio into two parts: the studio and the control room.

The air was turbid, and the floor outside was full of things that were knocked down by Wang Chao. There were two chairs and some large musical instruments stacked on them. They look scattered and seem to have no use.

As a result, the outside looked extremely chaotic. It was a far cry from Song Shengsheng’s clean and tidy living room and bedroom. Nine years later, the smell of smoke still lingered, and there were still obvious traces left by heavy instruments on the walls and floors.

Lin Chen withdrew his gaze from the wall and looked through the glass window of the control room to the studio.

The scene inside the room was completely different from the outside. The studio was very clean and tidy. There was even a microphone stand in the corner. The music stand was neatly arranged in a row.

Xing Conglian nodded to him, twisted the doorknob, and walked into the studio.

Lin Chen was still standing in the control room. He turned around and continued to observe the rest of the room. Finally, his gaze fell to the back wall of the recording studio.

There were two certificate-like objects hanging in the frame on the back wall, and then in the corner next to the frame, there were two dark gray, semi-open lockers.

The lockers were about one person tall, and there were several baskets in the lower part that weren’t covered by the cabinet door. Lin Chen walked over and moved one of them out.

He found that there were small musical instruments in the baskets, such as maracas, triangles, and the like. There were corresponding labels on each basket. Although a long time had passed and the musical instruments were dusty, the labels were faded, and the handwriting was blurred, Lin Chen could still feel Song Shengsheng’s careful attitude towards these piecemeal instruments.

Then he looked at a pile of things in the corner of the room.

Whether it was a guitar with broken strings, a dilapidated bass, or even things like drum parts, those large musical instruments were thrown randomly at the corner, as if Song Shengsheng suddenly had a split personality, resulting in two different attitudes.

Lin Chen put the basket back in its original position, stood up, and opened the cabinet door.

The moment he opened the cabinet, his hand rested on the handle for a long time.

He thought this was probably what he was looking for.

Rather, it wasn’t correct to say that because what he wanted wasn’t behind the door.

Footsteps sounded from the studio and stopped beside him. Lin Chen felt a hand on his shoulder.

Xing Conglian didn’t say anything. He just put on his gloves, gently brushed the dividers in the cabinet, and said, “Lu Xu’s brother took some CDs from here?”

“Most likely,” Lin Chen replied lightly.

There were three layers of CDs neatly stacked behind the cabinet door. Lin Chen’s eyes moved to the bottom layer, which was empty.

For people who collected books, they should understand that when a certain cabinet became suddenly emptied after being filled with books for so long, the place where the books were taken would be obviously brighter than other places. So what Xing Conglian brushed over was the light-dark boundary of what was missing.

The CDs on the bottom layer had obviously been cleaned up, and the person who did this was most likely Lu Xu’s brother.

Xing Conglian’s finger fell on the label on the side of the cabinet door. He read softly, “From 2003 to…”

There was nothing after “to” because nothing was written on the label.

“2003–2007,” Lin Chen continued.

After he finished speaking, he took down a CD from the top shelf and opened it. The label on the CD shows: “2000.1.3, snow, garbage.”

“Wang Chao?” Lin Chen turned his head and shouted softly.

“Here!” The teenager stood up straight and shouted back in response.

“Can you put this CD in?” Lin Chen handed it over.

Wang Chao snapped his fingers, fiddled with Song Shengsheng’s equipment for a while, and then a singing voice immediately flowed through a pair of high-end speakers.

Although the singing voice sounded distant and ethereal, Lin Chen confirmed that it was Song Shengsheng’s song the moment he heard it.

After all, Song Shengsheng’s voice was truly unique.

Of course, Li Jingtian was a good singer, but he couldn’t match Song Shengsheng. Lin Chen didn’t know whether it was because of temperament or something else that made the difference between them.

Although on this CD, Song Shengsheng seemed to be humming casually, the moment his voice appeared, it seemed to light up the entire room.

Such a metaphor might sound exaggerated, but the moment the singing reached Lin Chen’s ear, he suddenly felt very happy, as if all sadness, melancholy, and bittersweetness had been erased, leaving only pure bliss.

Listening to Song Shengsheng gently humming, Lin Chen looked at the dark gray cabinet in front of him again.

If the CDs contained Song Shengsheng’s songs, then the three-tier cabinets should be regarded as music samples or other music materials that Song Shengsheng made during the five years he was active. There were no years following “2003-“.

So 2007 should be the time of the unfilled label.

If this was ten years ago, this cabinet of things would probably be a treasure fans would flock to in droves. Singers and musicians might even fight for any songs in this cabinet.

But now, ten years later, the CDs were worthless. Except for those fans still checking in on Song Shengsheng’s personal website, no one would take a second look at these demos.

Those neat plastic CD cases were shining under the light, and the things in the box could be rare treasures or garbage. The value of music depended on Song Shengsheng’s reputation. Thinking of this, Lin Chen felt all this was still a bit absurd.

“CA Entertainment sent someone to take away some of Song Shengsheng’s demos, but they didn’t take them all. They still left some. Why?” Xing Conglian questioned.

Lin Chen replied, “There could be many reasons. For example, if they take these demos, they can replace the music made by Song Shengsheng with someone else’s name. Of course, that’s a business motive. But it’s also possible that Song Shengsheng’s demos recorded something unspeakable, so after CA found out, they had to send someone to steal it.”

“I don’t get it!” Wang Chao said.

“It’s normal for you not to understand, because I don’t understand it very well either.” Lin Chen took a deep breath.

Perhaps it was because the singing floating in the dust was so soothing that Lin Chen couldn’t help but close his eyes. Song Shengsheng slowly appeared in his mind, and he began to imagine him wandering in this recording studio.

Song Shengsheng would sometimes lean in front of the floor-to-ceiling window of his bedroom to write songs. If he felt that his new writing was good, he may rush into the recording studio in his pajamas to make a demo. Sometimes he would feel dissatisfied with his work, so he would turn on the table lamp and take out a pen to make some changes to the music score. Among them, the things that satisfied him or had the most commercial value would be included in the album for his fans, while the rest of the music would be thrown into this cabinet and shelved.

Occasionally, during special times, he would take out a CD from the cabinet and listen to it, then ignore it for a long time. This kind of Song Shengsheng was the one that fans would never see, but was absolutely the real him.

Song Shengsheng…

Lin Chen thought, ‘If music can really guide people, then this wonderful music now—tell me. What exactly am I looking for? How exactly should I turn over this case? Please tell me.’

At that moment, the recording studio became quiet. There were no sounds; the music and vocals stopped.

Lin Chen opened his eyes. The blue fluorescent characters on the CD player were still jumping, indicating the CD was still playing.

Then, he heard the sound of the door opening and closing. Someone walked into the room and was talking to Song Shengsheng about tomorrow’s itinerary. Song Shengsheng was a little angry. He said he was recording and asked the other person to get lost. After the other party apologized, they left.

That person who entered was probably Song Shengsheng’s manager…

There was a long blank period before the sound of a door opening and closing sounded. Song Shengsheng walked back to the studio and took something out. After some subtle tuning, a pleasant guitar sound emerged. Song Shengsheng began to accompany himself and continued humming the tune of the previous song.

After that, a beautiful piece of music was played, which could be considered a finished product. At least Lin Chen couldn’t tell the difference.

Accompanied by Song Shengsheng’s song, he once again looked at the pile of broken musical instruments in the corner.

The old musical instruments were illuminated by a very dim light.

Lin Chen suddenly understood something. He searched stiffly for Wang Chao and then said, with difficulty, “Among the materials you compiled for me, has any media reported that Li Jingtian has been to Song Shengsheng’s house?”

“I… I don’t seem to have seen such a report… but…” Wang Chao paused, as if he wanted to stop talking.

“But?”

“This large community used to house many artists under CA Entertainment, and CA’s staff apartments are here too, including Li Jingtian’s and Mu Zhuo’s dorms.”

“So it was very likely that Li Jingtian would often go in and out of Song Shengsheng’s home that year and it wouldn’t be suspicious, right?”

Wang Chao nodded vigorously.

Lin Chen leaned back, propped up the mixer, and looked inside through the glass.

The floors were log-colored, and a microphone stand stood on them. In addition, it was clean without a speck of dust…

Despite their investigation into this case until now, Lin Chen suddenly had the urge not to continue, as if he had gone completely crazy.

“What’s wrong?”

Xing Conglian instantly noticed his abnormality and held his hand to give some reassurance.

“Wang Chao.” Lin Chen tried to control his voice so that it wouldn’t tremble too much.

“A’Chen Gege, tell me what you want.”

“Bring your laptop and play a song.”

“What song?”

“Last night, the song we listened to in the car. The one sung by Li Jingtian and Mu Zhuo; Illi’s most famous single.”

Wang Chao was stunned and didn’t know why Lin Chen had requested this.

Xing Conglian yelled at him, “Go!”

The teenager rushed out like the wind. Song Shengsheng’s singing suddenly stopped, and after a while, the voices of Li Jingtian and Mu Zhuo sounded.

Mu Zhuo was singing in a low voice, while Li Jingtian was backing him. The music was melodious and gentle. After a few seconds, the style suddenly turned, and unbearable screams sounded; agonizing, depressing, and desperate. It was such a realistic scream that it made people no longer believe that there could be any bright screams in the world. Among those screams, there were men, women, old and young, mixed in, as if all the malice in the world instantly poured out leaving only pain.

Tears welled and fell from Lin Chen’s eyes.

“What’s wrong?”

Lin Chen felt someone gently rubbing his cheek with his finger. He looked up and saw the worried, dark green eyes of Xing Conglian.

Lin Chen responded, “Among those screams, there are voices that belong to Song Shengsheng. Li Jingtian mixed Song Shengsheng’s scream into his own song and played them to the world.”

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Kinky Thoughts:

This arc… is really tough to get through.

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<<< || Table of Contents || >>>

Author: 长洱 / Chang’er

Translator: Kinky || https://kinkytranslations.com/

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Chapter 138

While Lin Chen was talking, Lu Xu was in the living room. He was sitting on the armchair in the corner. Because the position was far away, the policemen were talking to themselves, and no one paid attention to him.

This dark corner was like a protective cover that could keep him from touching the bright world over there. Lu Xu felt quite at ease.

After listening to Lin Chen’s analysis of Song Shengsheng and Li Jingtian, Lu Xu didn’t feel touched. He felt the story Lin Chen put together was quite ridiculous. A successful singer was easily overwhelmed by another person? This was too unreasonable. When did God become that unreasonable?

However, when he thought of God, he felt that the story had a semblance of truth. Ah, when did God start talking in the corridor?

There would be good people who would die early in the world, and there would be bad people who wouldn’t. Of course, he hoped to be the latter.

He rubbed his face with both hands and felt the room become quiet again. He raised his head abruptly before realizing that everyone in the living room was staring at him.

“What… What’s wrong?”

“Mr. Lu, tell me. What kind of person is your brother?” Lu Xu heard Lin Chen ask.

Lu Xu was blindsided for a moment. He could only look at the man standing against the light from a distance.

“My brother?”

“Tell us.”

Lin Chen’s eyes looked serene. When listening to what he was saying just now, Lu Xu felt there was a sadness in Lin Chen’s tone, as if he were about to cry, but he didn’t see any redness under Lin Chen’s eyes.

When looking at Lin Chen, Lu Xu had no reason to think of his brother. Of course, his brother wasn’t the same as Lin Chen. They grew up in the slums since he was a child. His parents had died early. In order to eat, his brother taught him how to steal. He didn’t think his brother was evil, and even sometimes felt that he was actually a good person—the kind who would steal ten yuan, give him eight, keep one for himself, and donate the other one to a beggar. But after he gave the beggar uncle the money, they saw him in another place. The uncle was standing at a crayfish stall getting food to go; he was eating and wearing clothes much better than them.

So at that moment, Lu Xu understood it was pointless to be a good person because nice guys always finish last.

“My brother… Well, look at me. He’s not much different, yeah?” Lu Xu stood up from the chair, not wanting to talk about the issue.

But he heard Lin Chen’s voice coming through like water. “You and your brother should have a good relationship. When we first asked you about him, you gave us his nickname, and seemed disdainful towards him, but in actuality, you respect him very much. So tell me, how did your brother die?”

When he first heard Lin Chen ask about his brother, Lu Xu wanted to scold them and say, “It’s none of your business”, but when Lin Chen finished speaking just now, Lu Xu felt a terrible chill go down his spine.

He had no choice but to answer obediently. “Lung cancer. He didn’t have the money to see a doctor and just died like that.”

“Did he like smoking?” Lin Chen asked.

“He did. Such is fate. Even though he likes to smoke, he would never smoke more than two cigarettes a day. He was so afraid of death, yet he still died early.” Lu Xu laughed.

“Recall, how long did it take your brother to go in and out of Song Shengsheng’s house?”

“What?” Lu Xu looked lost for a moment. Why did this question suddenly return to the case and his brother?

“The time when CA Entertainment sent you here to look for something…” Lin Chen added.

“I know… I know…” Lu Xu interrupted. “It’s been too long. How can I remember it?”

He really couldn’t keep up with Lin Chen’s rhythm. This feeling of being stripped naked was too uncomfortable that he didn’t want to continue the topic.

But Lin Chen kept talking. “Lu Xu, did you smoke? You and your brother came to Song Shengsheng’s house under CA’s orders. Your brother sneaked in while you kept watch outside. I think you should be pretty anxious and irritable. When you’re irritable, it’s hard for an old smoker like you not to smoke… so, how many cigarettes did you smoke?”

Lin Chen kept probing.

Lu Xu couldn’t help following his question and recalled the scene at that time.

Indeed, he was annoyed at that time, mainly because sneaking into Song Shengsheng’s house was quite dangerous. After all, Song Shengsheng’s case was on the cusp at that time. If his brother was accidentally seen by the neighbors, it would be over, so he couldn’t help but take out a cigarette and smoke, one after another… It seemed he smoked two. After smoking, he wondered why his brother still hadn’t come out. Then, when he put out his cigarette, his brother came out, which meant he wasn’t in there for that long…

“I… smoked two cigarettes during that time my brother went in, so it should be less than ten minutes,” he replied reluctantly.

“I see.” Lin Chen nodded thoughtfully.

“What do you see?” Lu Xu asked rhetorically.

Lin Chen said, “First, your brother should be a strict and disciplined person. If CA sent him to deal with the scene, then he wouldn’t take away extra things. His purpose was clear. Some people who enter a big star’s home would touch things out of curiosity, but your brother didn’t. You said he only stayed there for less than ten minutes, but at that time you were anxious and tense. When people feel like that, days would seem like years. Therefore, your brother’s exact entry and exit times should be discounted. That is to say, he was probably there for about five minutes.”

Lu Xu was stunned, not knowing how to respond.

Soon, Lin Chen asked again, “Tell me, how big was the bag your brother was carrying at that time.”

“It’s the size of an ordinary backpack.”

After he said this, Lin Chen nodded. He opened the door on the left and said, “Then, let’s get started.”

“Start what?” Lu Xu asked blankly.

“Start looking for what your brother took from the house, stupid!” Wang Chao patted Lu Xu on the shoulder and smiled triumphantly.

“I don’t know what it is. No one knows, so how could you!” Lu Xu couldn’t help but raise his voice.

Lin Chen’s tone was still calm as he patiently explained to him, “Of course I don’t know. In fact, according to the formal process, we have to find someone from the forensic department to test for fingerprints and footprints and then roughly establish that your brother was here. Then, we could build a model of your brother’s actions and infer what your brother did and what he took, but we don’t have that much time right now, so we’ll have to guess.”

Lin Chen stood at the door of the room as he spoke. Wang Chao rushed in first and drew the curtains and opened the window.

The bright sunlight penetrated the room. Its light was so bright on the furnishings that every detail could be seen. There was still a lot of dust floating in the air. Lin Chen stretched out his hand and waved off the oncoming dust, then he looked into the room.

This should be the master bedroom.

There was an iron bed in the middle of the bedroom and a messy blanket on it. Because of the rape case, the comforter and the bed sheets had been removed by the police. There were no photos or picture frames on the bedside table. It seemed that Song Shengsheng was a simple person.

There was a straw mat next to the floor-to-ceiling windows, and a guitar at the other end. Apart from that, there was nothing else in the room.

After Lin Chen looked around, he walked towards the closet that connected to the bedroom.

“Isn’t it here?” Lu Xu asked.

“No.”

“How do you know it wasn’t something in this room that was taken away by my brother?”

“Because the room looked harmonious. It doesn’t look like something is missing.”

“What harmony?”

Lin Chen glanced at Lu Xu. “Because I have seen the photos of the scene. This room is exactly the same as the photos taken by the police at the time. Nothing is missing here.”

“Oh…” Lu Xu said, “Then why did you ask me so many questions? Don’t you already know if you have a picture comparison?”

Lin Chen ignored him and instead turned on the light in the closet.

Song Shengsheng’s closet was more complicated than his bedroom. There were various punk and rock outfits hanging in two rows. There were colors everywhere that didn’t seem to match any pattern at all.

What was more frightening was that the closet must have been the focus of the police search, so all the clothes and accessories were scattered about, looking like a disaster scene.

Wang Chao patted Lu Xu on the back heavily and shouted, “Fatty, don’t question others casually if you don’t understand, especially my A’Chen Gege!”

This feeling of being touted was bizarre. As Lin Chen continued to observe the closet, Xing Conglian stood beside him and turned to the two of them and said, “Okay, shut up.”

“Have you found any important clues?” Wang Chao ran to them in a flash. “A’Chen Gege, do you need me to show you the photos of the scene?”

Lin Chen nodded.

Wang Chao dashed to the living room, then rushed back to the laptop. He was always reliable in this regard and had also sent a copy to Xing Conglian’s phone.

Lin Chen looked at the photo once again.

In fact, although the police had taken live photos of the scene, they couldn’t possibly capture all the details, and even fewer of those photos would actually be included in the file.

Fortunately, the closet had a simple structure that was similar to a hotel’s.

He looked at Xing Conglian and asked, “Captain Xing?”

“One person takes each side,” Xing Conglian replied with a smile.

Lin Chen nodded. Without delay, he and Xing Conglian turned their backs to each other and began to compare the photos with the current closet. They slowly walked from one end of the closet to the other, and finally, they met at the end.

Xing Conglian shook his head and put his phone in his pocket. Lin Chen sighed. He looked at the time in the upper right corner of the laptop. It was now 11:05. They really didn’t have much time.

“Did you find anything?” Wang Chao craned his neck as he asked anxiously when he saw the two of them exiting the closet.

Lin Chen handed the laptop back and said, “Don’t worry. It’s actually not very likely that Lu Xu’s brother took any clothing items. We’re doing this as a just in case.”

“What could it be?” Wang Chao asked.

Lin Chen walked out of the bedroom, glanced at the layout of the house, and walked to the room at the end of the corridor.

He gently put his hand on the door and turned the doorknob gently.

The room was pitch black.

Probably because he felt he had been standing at the door for too long, Wang Chao rushed in and wanted to open the window, but suddenly slammed into something. The teenager screamed in pain as a chain of clanging noises sounded in the room.

Lin Chen raised his hand and pressed the light switch.

With a soft click, warm yellow light covered the room like water, as gentle as music.

When looking at the photos of Song Shengsheng’s house just now, Lin Chen suddenly saw a small room in the photos at the scene, so he walked over.

It was a simple recording studio, and this room was that.

---

<<< || Table of Contents || >>>

Author: 长洱 / Chang’er

Translator: Kinky || https://kinkytranslations.com/

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Chapter 137

“Li Jingtian deeply loves Song Shengsheng,” Lin Chen said calmly.

After he finished speaking, the room fell into a dead silence. A breeze blew up the curtains by the window, as if it were the sigh of the owner of the house.

After a long time, Xing Conglian asked slowly, “What did you say?”

“I said love.” Lin Chen looked into Xing Conglian’s deep eyes as he said it.

Just saying it made it sound so strange, so Lin Chen had to pause for a bit before he continued, “That kind of love, of course, can’t be called love. It can only be labeled as desire made of dirty emotions. You see, many people in the world can say ‘I love you’, but how many can call it love given what he has done to the other person?”

“No, this dance is a bit too fast. Li Jingtian is deeply in love with Song Shengsheng? Why do you say that?”

“I told you, that’s not love.”

“Okay, so what’s this dirty desire?” Xing Conglian took the initiative to correct his statement.

“Actually, as far as the fairy tale <The Nightingale and The Rose> is concerned, Song Shengsheng’s and Li Jingtian’s completely different attitudes towards it reflect their different psychological states. For example, Song Shengsheng loves this story very much. Although I have never heard Song Shengsheng explain his opinions on it, I can see the most superficial point in his love for this story. He agrees with Wilde’s spiritual appeal as an aesthetic. If we have to use the perspective of psychoanalysis, the nightingale itself is the embodiment of Song Shengsheng. He lives and dies for love. He’s not afraid of love and can even sacrifice his life for it. He appreciates the tragic complex. He lives wildly and unrestrained. This is Song Shengsheng…” Lin Chen stood up straight and looked at Xing Conglian. “So, when you see that bouquet of roses and the dead nightingale’s corpse, what do you think is Li Jingtian’s view of this fairy tale?”

“Li Jingtian probably thinks Song Shengsheng, the nightingale, is a moron,” Xing Conglian stressed each word. “No matter how beautiful things are, what’s the use? Aren’t you just being played by me?”

Xing Conglian was extremely blunt. Lin Chen nodded and continued, “Though psychoanalysis is generally related to sex, it’s appropriate to use it here to analyze Li Jingtian’s psychology. Have you ever wondered why the nightingale was stabbed to death by the rhizomes of the roses instead of being burned to death and suffering by other crueler methods?”

When Xing Conglian heard what Lin Chen said, he immediately made a grim expression. Obviously, he had thought of the metaphor.

“In psychoanalytic theory, such sharp blades and slender objects will be regarded as symbols of a sexual organ. If that bouquet of roses is really Li Jingtian’s masterpiece, then Song Shengsheng is the stupid nightingale in Li Jingtian’s mind. Analyze in turn what Li Jingtian’s desire for Song Shengsheng is, and the mystery should be clear, right?”

When he finished speaking, the room was so silent again that even the sound of a pin dropping could be heard.

Since Wang Chao was present, Lin Chen couldn’t elaborate.

He was able to make these inferences all because of what Li Jingtian said when he raped Xu Ran.

Li Jingtian said: “Song Shengsheng is a masochist, and he loved him so much that he even volunteered to go to jail for him.”

For a personality disordered patient like Li Jingtian, the facts he expounded could only be facts that came from his distorted mind and weren’t really objective facts.

Therefore, after restoring Li Jingtian’s delusions, all Lin Chen could see was Li Jingtian’s extraordinary love for Song Shengsheng. For a person with antisocial personality disorder like Li Jingtian, he couldn’t correctly understand such emotions. He admired Song Shengsheng, wanted to vent his desires on him, and he had to vent those desires. The key problem was that he actually fantasized that Song Shengsheng loved him. Didn’t this sound ridiculous?

“Captain… Is this topic forbidden to those under 18? Should I recuse myself?” In the end, Wang Chao trembled as he spoke.

“I recall that you’re already an adult,” Xing Conglian said coldly.

“But, it’s terrible. I’m already about to be hurt by his perverted energy.” Wang Chao rubbed the goosebumps on his arms and said, “So Li Jingtian is chaotic evil¹, while Song Shengsheng is chaotic good². Li Jingtian likes Song Shengsheng to death, and because he can’t have him, he could only destroy him?”

¹Comes from Dungeons & Dragons. Someone who’s chaotic evil has no respect for rules, other people’s lives, or anything but their own desires, which are typically selfish and cruel. They place a high value on personal freedom but have little regard for the lives or freedoms of other people. 
²Someone who is chaotic good does what is necessary to bring about change for the better, disdains bureaucratic organizations that get in the way of social improvement, and places a high value on personal freedom, not only for oneself, but for others as well.

“Although I don’t know what you’re talking about, that should be the case. While debatable, Li Jingtian’s feelings for Song Shengsheng are very complicated or extremely antagonistic. Li Jingtian’s own personality defects make him unable to understand his emotions for Song Shengsheng. At the same time, don’t forget that Li Jingtian is a patient with performance personality disorder. Going back nine years, Song Shengsheng—who was so dazzling and attracted almost everyone’s attention—was also the object of his extreme hatred.” Lin Chen took a deep breath and continued, “Extreme love is intertwined with extreme hatred. Normal people can’t stand it, let alone Li Jingtian?”

“So, did Li Jingtian choose to destroy Song Shengsheng?” Xing Conglian asked.

Lin Chen said, “His destruction of Song Shengsheng is just a result—a result that we’re seeing now—of his love and hate for Song Shengsheng. This is the beginning of everything, and the process of this beginning and the result are what we need to deduce.”

“In between this ‘process’, there’s something that makes Mu Zhuo flustered, which is the evidence we are looking for,” Xing Conglian said.

Lin Chen nodded.

“It’s back to square one, A’Chen. What the hell is this evidence?” Wang Chao scratched his head.

Lin Chen patted him reassuringly and said, “You asked me just now if what Li Jingtian thought was off topic. Of course it’s not. Once you understand Li Jingtian’s feelings for Song Shengsheng, everything he did to Song Shengsheng will become traceable.”

“For example, Li Jingtian joined forces with Mu Zhuo to frame Song Shengsheng.” Wang Chao asked, “Can you see anything there?”

“Let’s put it this way. If Song Shengsheng is innocent, why did his semen appear in Mu Zhuo’s body? In other words, where did this semen come from?”

“This topic has become banned again, A’Chen,” Wang Chao said timidly.

“Look. Fact one, Mu Zhuo conspired with Li Jingtian to frame Song Shengsheng. Fact two, Li Jingtian loves Song Shengsheng to death. So, would Li Jingtian really let Song Shengsheng touch Mu Zhuo?”

“It couldn’t be that Li Jingtian got Song Shengsheng’s sperm by himself, right?” Wang Chao asked tentatively. “Shit, Li Jingtian’s a pervert. He didn’t really hurt Song Shengsheng, right?”

“I have a question for you. Do you know when Li Jingtian and Song Shengsheng met?”

“Eh?” Wang Chao was taken aback.

Lin Chen no longer tried to be vague. “It took three years from Li Jingtian joining CA Entertainment to Song Shengsheng’s case. Among the information you compiled for me, the ‘Fengchun Festival Gala’ in August 2005 published a picture of the two of them attending the same event. In the photo, even if they met in August 2005, there is still more than a year between August 2005 and Song Shengsheng’s case in 2007. Is it possible for a person like Li Jingtian to endure his desires without being able to vent for more than a year?”

Wang Chao was dumbfounded. He opened his mouth wide but couldn’t say a word.

Lin Chen looked at Xing Conglian, who was looking at him with eyes full of unspeakable sadness. Obviously, like him, Xing Conglian remembered the letter.

Li Jingtian said to Xu Ran: The Song Shengsheng you like was also fucked by me like this. He likes it very much. He’s dirtier than you.

Apart from Li Jingtian’s saying that Song Shengsheng liked it, the other information he revealed may be true. Song Shengsheng should have suffered cruel and inhumane torture that no one knew about.

So the question was, how could Li Jingtian control Song Shengsheng?

“What one person can threaten and control over another person is always what they think is the most important thing. The problem is, since Song Shengsheng loves Wilde, he’s most likely not afraid of death. What is he afraid of?” Xing Conglian asked.

“He’s afraid of losing his love forever,” Lin Chen said.

“Could it be that there’s someone Song Shengsheng loves deeply, and Li Jingtian used that person to threaten him? This seems to be getting more and more complicated. The story between A, B, and C suddenly has a D?”

“D always existed.” Lin Chen slowly walked to the photo wall behind the sofa, raised his head slightly, and looked at the dusty photo frames in front of him.

After a while, he knelt on the sofa and wiped one of the photos little by little with the back of his hand.

There weren’t two people in the photo, but many.

The photo was faded and turned yellow due to age. It was probably a fan meeting or concert by Song Shengsheng. The dark background was densely covered with many fluorescent green lights, like a sea of stars in the night sky. In the middle of the picture was a young girl who had her eyes closed. The girl’s eyelashes were long, and a tear hung from the corner of her eye.

This was the picture.

“The fans?” Xing Conglian asked.

“It’s the fans,” Lin Chen said.

Song Shengsheng was so unrestrained. He always maintained relationships with those supermodels and actresses that transcended ordinary people, so it seemed difficult for him to fall in love with someone, but he agreed with Wilde’s tragic view of love; he agreed with his unswerving love until death. This seemed contradictory, but when Lin Chen saw the entire photo wall, he suddenly felt relieved.

Although he didn’t know what chaotic good was, Song Shengsheng was probably this type.

Pursuing freedom, hating restraints, and acting in accordance with one’s own moral principles; it was a combination of a free spirit with a good heart. This was Song Shengsheng, the Song Shengsheng that was a stark contrast to Li Jingtian.

“Could it be that Li Jingtian has a sex tape of Song Shengsheng or some dark history that he can’t talk about? Li Jingtian threatened to make it public, so Song Shengsheng succumbed because he’s afraid it will hurt his fans. Is that what we’re looking for, right?”

Lin Chen nodded.

Xing Conglian pondered for a moment, looking very calm. “Assuming there is such a thing, it should be in Li Jingtian’s hands. Where are we going to find it?”

“Of course, we’re going to Li Jingtian to find it,” Lin Chen said lightly.

---

<<< || Table of Contents || >>>

Author: 长洱 / Chang’er

Translator: Kinky || https://kinkytranslations.com/

---

Chapter 136

The weather was excellent today. Lin Chen was able to find this DVD box due to the bright sunshine from outside.

There was fine dust floating in the air as a beam of dazzling light hit the DVD. Half of the writing on the cover was completely invisible due to the reflection of the plastic cover, while the other half had the words: Oscar Wilde.

Oscar Wilde.

<Best Animated Collection of Oscar Wilde>.

Lin Chen looked through the DVD a few more times and found that this DVD wasn’t a Blu-ray disc, unlike the other DVDs in Song Shengsheng’s collection. It was probably something cheap bought at a street stall. Unsurprisingly, he saw the story of <The Nightingale and The Rose> in the catalog.

“What the hell?”

Wang Chao’s slight exclamation sounded in his ears.

Lin Chen turned his head and saw the teenager craning his neck, peeping at the DVD in his hand.

“This—what’s going on? Why does Song Shengsheng have the complete works of Wilde?” Wang Chao gave a slightly embarrassed cough as he asked.

“I don’t know.”

Lin Chen replied honestly. There were, of course, numerous explanations for such a phenomenon. For example, why did Song Shengsheng have an animated collection of Wilde’s work at home, and this collection seemed to be Song Shengsheng’s favorite DVD. And, why was it that, when Li Jingtian was singing on stage, someone correctly matched the bouquet they gave to <The Nightingale and the Rose>? What was the relationship between the two?

“Song Shengsheng has already been released from prison… He’s not the one that sent the flowers, right?” Wang Chao said casually. “Maybe this DVD belongs to Li Jingtian? Is it possible that this is the key evidence we’re looking for?!”

Wang Chao’s eyes lit up.

Lin Chen was noncommittal. He walked to the DVD player and pressed the on button. Then he realized that this room had been vacant for nine years, so, naturally, no one had paid the electric bill.

Wang Chao quickly took out his phone and paid the electric bill for the house. After a while, the power light turned on and Lin Chen put the DVD into the DVD player and retreated to the sofa.

The TV screen began playing the disc slowly. The pictures that appeared gave the teenager a guess. It was really a cartoon, and the picture quality was slightly yellowed and old looking.

The first story was <The Happy Prince>, which was a typical Oscar Wilde fairy tale. The dialogue was extremely beautiful, but when it came to the animation plot, it wasn’t as interesting. Wang Chao watched it for a while and began to squirm his butt from side to side in discomfort. Naturally, for a teenager who liked One Piece, this kind of thing wouldn’t really resonate with him.

However, to Lin Chen’s surprise, Xing Conglian sat beside him quietly and was watching solemnly.

“A’Chen… Isn’t time tight? Do you need me to fast forward?” Wang Chao couldn’t help but make a suggestion.

“It’s boring, isn’t it?” Lin Chen asked.

“It’s boring. Why does Song Shengsheng like this kind of stuff? Are these really his things? Were all rock and roll kids that weird back then?”

Lin Chen glanced at Wang Chao. How old are you to be saying this kind of thing?

“What?” Wang Chao looked at him inexplicably.

“This is indeed Song Shengsheng’s stuff.” Lin Chen felt helpless, so he could only answer the teenager’s question.

“How do you know?”

“This should be your specialty.”

He handed the DVD box over. The teenager looked at it, turning it upside down several times, and finally smacked his head. “This is a VCD!”

“That’s right.”

“Oh, that should be a disc that Song Shengsheng watched when he was a kid, right?”

Lin Chen nodded.

Although this DVD was obviously from a street stall, as there was no clear barcode on it, they could infer its recording medium based on the time it was released.

The popularity of VCDs peaked roughly around 1995–2000, and based on how old this DVD looked, it probably indicated that it was from that era. Li Jingtian was still in Xinni in the 1990s, so naturally it was impossible for him to buy a Chinese-made VCD.

“But, I still don’t understand.” Wang Chao rubbed against Lin Chen as he handed the DVD box back. “Song Shengsheng likes this kind of boring cartoon, but what does it have to do with Li Jingtian and <The Nightingale and the Rose>?”

“Wang Chao,” Lin Chen said slowly.

“Yes!”

“This should be your specialty,” Lin Chen reminded him. “Search for the keywords: Song Shengsheng, Nightingale, and Rose.”

“That makes sense!” As he said it, he picked up his laptop and went to the dining table, bringing up a cloud of dust.

Not long after, a piece of audio echoed in the room.

Lin Chen muted the TV and let the cartoon continue to play. He walked to the dining table and looked down. It was an interview clip of Song Shengsheng. The video was short. After a lapse of nine years, Lin Chen saw an image of Song Shengsheng again.

The unruly young man still looked so uninhibited. He had a badass hairstyle of that era, wore a black motorcycle leather jacket, and had non-mainstream accessories all over his body. He even revealed a tongue ring when he spoke.

The reporter asked him about the source of inspiration for his new album.

The picture flickered as Song Shengsheng crossed his legs, saying it was from Oscar Wilde’s fairy tales. His tone was casual, but the look in his eyes was serious. Then the reporter asked him which of Oscar Wilde’s fairy tales he liked most. Song Shengsheng replied, “What I like is, of course, for the fans to listen to the album. If I tell you now, won’t that be boring?”

In short, Song Shengsheng was like that. He was never lovable, but he was very good at talking. The reporters who interviewed him loved and hated him. The picture froze on the reporter’s stiff face.

Then the interview ended.

Wang Chao turned around and asked, “A’Chen, what do you think Song Shengsheng likes the most?”

Lin Chen patted Wang Chao’s head and said, “Since you can find this video from the keywords, isn’t the answer obvious?”

“You’re so stupid,” Xing Conglian added sarcastically.

Wang Chao depressingly closed the video from full-screen and returned to the webpage. Only then did Lin Chen discover that this clip was shared by a fan. The website where this video was recorded was Song Shengsheng’s personal website, which fans would still visit every day—”Be With You.”

The title of the post was “The Nightingale and The Rose”, which was how Wang Chao was able to find it. The content was roughly composed of fans trying to guess what Song Shengsheng’s favorite Wilde’s fairy tale was. The original poster posted the inner page of the album’s lyrics. The title song was a song that had nothing to do with The Nightingale and The Rose. The content was full of words like “fuck off” and “fuck”, which were completely inconsistent with Mr. Wilde’s aesthetics, but the poster said the lyrics of the title song were composed of white, yellow, and red, which coincided with the three rose colors in the original fairy tale, so Song Shengsheng’s favorite fairy tale should be this one.

The discussion below was very lively. Some people said that the poster was just being whimsical, while others agreed with their thoughts.

Those who agreed thought that Song Shengsheng’s title song was about idiots who were desperate for love, which matched the metaphor represented by the poor nightingale in the fairy tale.

“A’Chen, what do you think?” The curious Comrade Xiao Wang Chao asked.

“It should be right,” Lin Chen replied.

“Hey, then, if this is Song Shengsheng’s favorite fairy tale, Li Jingtian… Why did Li Jingtian bring a nightingale and roses to the scene of his throat-slitting case? Is Li Jingtian not afraid we would find out about Song Shengsheng based on this?” Wang Chao started rambling. As if he thought of something, he hurriedly said, “Is this a bit off topic for me to ask this now?”

“How could it be?” Lin Chen patted the teenager’s shoulder reassuringly and said, “At least your question is meaningful to me. Although these cases are covered in fog, as long as the crime is committed by someone, then there must be a personal mark in it. Whether it’s the murderer or the victim, each of them has genes, family, growth, and experience, which lead them to make corresponding choices when encountering problems. Corresponding choices will affect their growth experience. Therefore, everything a person does may seem erratic, but in fact, there must be traces in their growth experience, which allows us to see a clear path in the fog.”

“Oh!” Wang Chao shouted seemingly incomprehensibly. “Then, what is the path to this case? Is it the fairy tale?”

Lin Chen looked back at the animation that was still being broadcast slowly on the TV.

The animation just reached the end of the Happy Prince. The swallow died at the feet of the prince, and there were snowflakes floating in the sky. This was truly an ending fit for Wilde.

Lin Chen said to Wang Chao, “In fact, fairy tales are very interesting things. In psychological analysis, psychologists who study the effects of fairy tales believe that these stories that touch us tell us the desires, dreams, and human behaviors we identify with and the people we want to be…”

“Then what kind of person is Song Shengsheng, and what kind of person is Li Jingtian? From a story, can the different psychological states of these two people be inferred?”

“You see, this is the interesting thing about fairy tales. It’s precisely because the narrative of fairy tales uses symbolic techniques that its nature is closer to dreams and to the human subconscious. If myths reflect the collective experience of humans, then fairy tales reflect personal issues. That is to say, fairy tales are more personal.” Lin Chen looked at Wang Chao’s lost gaze. He leaned on the table and spoke as he faced the snow-white sky outside the window. “During this time, I have read some analysis on Wilde’s fairy tales. Although many critics will analyze the social reality reflected in Wilde’s fairy tales repeatedly, in fact, Wilde’s aesthetic philosophy is that art doesn’t express anything except itself. He believes that reality is the enemy of art, and what he pursues is true, pure beauty. Then, what do you think is the difference between Song Shengsheng’s and Li Jingtian’s views?

“I think… Although Song Shengsheng looks very arrogant and cool, he seems to be a very pure and innocent person. He should appreciate Wilde more, and you said earlier that the VCD is what Song Shengsheng has been watching. He just likes this kind of thing.”

“Can’t you pretend to not understand, just a little?” Lin Chen asked with a smile. “How can I go on?”

“But I don’t understand Li Jingtian…” Wang Chao muttered.

---

Kinky Thoughts:

You can read The Happy Prince by clicking on the link. It’s a short story. I won’t give you the analysis just yet until the end of this arc to avoid any spoilers.

---

<<< || Table of Contents || >>>

Author: 长洱 / Chang’er

Translator: Kinky || https://kinkytranslations.com/

---

Chapter 135

The call was short-lived and ended with Mu Zhuo smashing the phone.

No matter who Mu Zhuo called, it was obvious the person on the other line was vigilant and didn’t give Mu Zhuo a chance to say much.

Naturally, they knew that the person on the other end of the phone could only be Li Jingtian.

Verifying this was also simple. Wang Chao quickly checked the call history and nodded at them.

Xing Conglian put down his headphones and said to him, “Consultant Lin, the current situation is a bit ridiculous. We have confirmed the criminal facts of Li Jingtian and Mu Zhuo, but there’s no evidence to convict them. Tell me, what do you think we should do?”

Lin Chen turned his head and looked at the banner on a booth from a distance. The two cartoons embracing each other seemed to be laughing mockingly at him. He turned his head and asked Xing Conglian, “How many years can I be sentenced for a false accusation?”

“Those who cause serious consequences shall be sentenced to a fixed-term imprisonment of not less than three years but no more than ten years,” Xing Conglian replied.

“It seems a bit too light.”

“Indeed.” Xing Conglian paused, then asked, “Does Consultant Lin have any ideas?”

“Just as Captain Xing said, let’s crucify Li Jingtian.”

After he finished speaking, Lu Xu ran over angrily from the other end of the lawn and shouted before he reached them, “Mr. Police Officer, you must teach that little bitch Mu Zhuo a good lesson. It’s best to lock him up for eight to ten years, so that those guys in prison can make his grass bloom!”

Lin Chen rarely agreed with this kind of thing, but, although he frowned at Lu Xu’s request, in a rare moment, he nodded.

If they wanted to convict Li Jingtian and Mu Zhuo, they couldn’t rely on passion or hatred. Lin Chen began to analyze the information revealed in Mu Zhuo’s call. Although the conversation between Mu Zhuo and Li Jingtian was disgusting, this was almost the most important clue they had obtained in the investigation so far.

First, there was no doubt that Song Shengsheng was wrongly imprisoned.

Second, there was no doubt Li Jingtian did rape and treat Xu Ran inhumanely when he was soliciting for a prostitute.

Most importantly, their luck was good. In the phone call, Mu Zhuo revealed that there may actually be critical evidence.

But they didn’t know what key evidence could make Mu Zhuo so terrified.

Lin Chen looked at the time on Wang Chao’s laptop. Before he knew it, he and Xing Conglian had been frequently paying attention to the time. This was a normal reaction that people would make under the pressure of a time limit, just as Mu Zhuo chose to call and question Li Jingtian under pressure.

The pressure he exerted on Mu Zhuo was about Song Shengsheng, so what Mu Zhuo was worried about could only be evidence from that case. But if Song Shengsheng’s case was an injustice due to a false accusation, why was Mu Zhuo worried about the evidence being revealed? The unjust case was nothing more than perjury, so what exactly was it?

As Lin Chen thought about it, he found that there were more people around him. He looked at Lu Xu, who was naturally sitting next to them, and then at Xing Conglian.

Xing Conglian understood and said to Lu Xu, “Doesn’t Manager Lu have to go back to work?”

Lu Xu coughed dryly, and his face flushed. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry. This is my presumptuousness. Since the police are handling the case, I, as an outsider, shouldn’t be here, right?”

Lu Xu slapped himself lightly, and his eyes began to wander again, and his face became bitter. “Captain Xing, I want to go back, but you see, I have already offended the company’s cash cow in order to solve the case. What’s there to go back to?”

“Then resign. With Mr. Lu’s ability, you will certainly be able to find another job,” Xing Conglian said.

“Ha, it’s not as simple as that. You don’t know how powerful Royal One and CA are. If I go back like this, I might just be sunk directly,” Lu Xu continued to plead.

“What does Mr. Lu want?” Xing Conglian asked with a smile. “Have me collect your body or take care of your family?”

“Captain Xing, don’t joke.”

Suddenly, Xing Conglian said in a serious tone, “Lu Xu, I don’t have time to play games with you. Since you know very well that you only have two paths, stop talking nonsense and tell me whether you want to go back to die or continue to cooperate with the police.”

“Of course it’s to cooperate with the police!” Lu Xu almost kowtowed to Xing Conglian.

“Then explain clearly the inside story of CA Entertainment and Royal One and strive to be a tainted witness*.”

*In which a criminal admits guilt and testify as a witness for the state against their associate(s) or accomplice(s), often in exchange for leniency in sentencing or immunity from prosecution.

“This… I’m just a little minion, but I’ll tell you everything I know!”

“Lu Xu, this is meaningless. Is it really because you’re a pimp that you can sit in a high position at CA Entertainment?” Xing Conglian asked sharply.

Lu Xu’s face suddenly paled. In fact, Xing Conglian never gave him a chance to choose from the very start.

“I took a look at your file. Before you organized a prostitution ring, you were in jail for robbery. You stole a backpack and broke the other party’s camera. If I’m not mistaken, the target of your robbery should be a certain reporter. He gathered some evidence that wasn’t conducive to an artist of CA. As Lu Xu, you have been responsible for dealing with some shady things for CA, right?” Xing Conglian said casually, “So, Mr. Lu, have you ever committed murder?”

Lu Xu was already sweating profusely. Even before Xing Conglian pressed him outside the window, he was still glib after recovering. Now, he couldn’t say a word.

The current scene was like a hunter who had cast his net and, after catching his prey, dragged the net a long distance before finally pointing a gun at the head of the prey. This would catch people off guard, not allowing them to give birth to any idea of resistance.

“You… What do you want?” Finally, Lu Xu asked.

Xing Conglian lit a cigarette and handed it over. “Give me some clues. Mr. Lu, help us nail Li Jingtian. If he doesn’t go to prison, believe me, you will have a very hard time.”

“I… I said I can commit perjury, but you don’t want it…”

“Look, Lu Xu. The biggest difference between people like us and people like Li Jingtian, Mu Zhuo, and even you is that we still have something to fear. You don’t believe there’s a god three feet above your head, but I do, so I don’t dare do unseemly things.”

Lu Xu had lowered his head so low that Lin Chen no longer could see his expression. However, Lin Chen thought that people like Lu Xu probably wouldn’t wake up because of Xing Conglian’s words. He was at most thinking about whether it would be worthwhile to cooperate with Xing Conglian.

But as the unhurried hunter said, Lu Xu actually had no chance to choose.

“You want evidence of Li Jingtian’s rape of Xu Ran, but I really don’t have any. All I can say is that Royal One and CA Entertainment are scarier than you can imagine.” Lu Xu still kept his head lowered. In a rare instance, his voice was actually calm and stern. “But I just heard Officer Lin mention Song Shengsheng. In fact, you’re too late. If you found me nine years ago, maybe you can really recover something. But now, it’s really too late.”

“Tell me, what the hell is going on.”

Lu Xu picked up the cigarette handed to him by Xing Conglian, took a deep puff, and slowly revealed a corner of this monstrous conspiracy.

As Xing Conglian said, nine years ago, Lu Xu was a small-time “fixer” of CA Entertainment. The most he usually did was either discipline disobedient trainees, or attack reporters who target artists under CA Entertainment by putting a dead mouse at their front door*.

*Term used basically means threatening them.

Regarding the real inside story in Song Shengsheng’s case, grunts like him wouldn’t know any details at all. However, at the time, news of Song Shengsheng’s rape case was overwhelming. As a fixer, he felt something odd about the company’s policies. The situation would be different if CA was trying to protect Li Jingtian, but at the time, CA directly gave up the opportunity to control public opinion for Song Shengsheng. They didn’t even get a lawyer for Song Shengsheng and instead promoted Mu Zhuo’s image as a strong and unyielding idol singer.

Looking at the company’s attitude, it seemed they were throwing Song Shengsheng away, like useless garbage. From the incident to the actual sentence, Song Shengsheng never once had the opportunity to defend himself in front of the media.

After disclosing his thoughts on the matter, Lu Xu extinguished the cigarette butt on the lawn. Lin Chen knew that the highlight was coming.

“Then what?” Xing Conglian asked.

“About a week after the crime, the company sent us to go to the crime scene again,” Lu Xu said.

“Sent you guys to do what?”

“I don’t know…” Lu Xu took a deep breath. “At that time, I was mainly responsible for being the lookout. It wasn’t me who did the job.”

“So, were you trying to erase evidence or trying to find something?” Lin Chen asked.

Lu Xu shook his head again. “I really don’t know.”

“Who was the person who did the job?” Xing Conglian asked decisively.

“Lao Quezi, my brother. He’s dead.”

Hearing that the key witness was dead, Xing Conglian didn’t show any frustration. He asked, “Did your brother say anything or take anything when he came out of the crime scene?”

Lu Xu looked at the sky and narrowed his eyes, as if he was trying to recall something.

“My brother brought a big bag at the time. When he came out, the bag was stuffed. It really seemed to contain a lot of things, but he didn’t show it to me.”

“Can you tell what’s in it?”

Lu Xu continued to shake his head. His expression didn’t seem fake.

“All right.” Xing Conglian stood up from the ground. “Then let’s go, Mr. Lu?”

“Xing… Captain Xing…” Lu Xu was at a loss. “Where are we going?”

“Of course, to the crime scene nine years ago.”

……

After listening to Lu Xu’s recount, when they got back in the car, Lin Chen recalled how he felt when he learned that Song Shengsheng was accused of sexually assaulting Mu Zhuo.

His emotions didn’t seem to fluctuate. For onlookers like him, major news happened every day, and sexual assault was just one of them. Compared to other things, Song Shengsheng’s case wasn’t even that important.

But even though the case wasn’t important, news about Song Shengsheng was everywhere at that time. Even those around him who didn’t like to gossip would talk about the progress of Song Shengsheng’s case in their spare time.

Some people with a strong sense of justice would angrily scold Song Shengsheng, calling him a beast and wishing to tear him apart, whereas idlers with a weak sense of justice would talk about the recent explosion, wondering what positions Song Shengsheng held Mu Zhuo in during the assault.

Lin Chen thought the voices of those conversations, discussions, and anger were already detached from him. He thought he should have forgotten what happened at that time, but as they got closer to the truth behind Song Shengsheng’s case, those voices suddenly became clear.

Every sentence was crystal clear.

He even clearly remembered what he himself said: “This rape case is pretty standard, but the social effects caused by it are very interesting.”

Thinking about it now, he was actually no different from every onlooker. They all watched the show and thought they were outsiders. This matter was none of their business, so they could evaluate it arbitrarily without fear.

Being fearless was the scariest thing.

In Song Shengsheng’s case, the only ones who felt heartbroken were probably his fans, and Xu Ran was one of those countless heartbroken fans.

In the materials compiled by Wang Chao, Lin Chen also saw that Song Shengsheng’s fan forum was still in operation, and some people would even check it every day, looking forward to the day when their idol would be released after serving his sentence.

Of course, some of those people, like Xu Ran, hoped their idol would be able to seek justice one day. Though originally this was a hopeless prayer, one day, it became possible due to a series of accidental coincidences.

Lin Chen thought that not everything in the world made sense and that not every thought would have an echo, but it was still good to have faith.

Thinking of the bed full of photos that Xu Ran kept until the end and Song Shengsheng’s unrestrained and indulgent smile, Lin Chen suddenly realized he had read so much information about Song Shengsheng, but he didn’t know where this person was now, so he asked, “How is Song Shengsheng doing now?”

The teenager, who was sitting in the backseat chewing on fruit candy, answered his question. “Song Shengsheng’s sentence got commuted last year, and he was released from prison…”

“Then?”

“Then I don’t know where he is.” Wang Chao shook his head. He typed down a line of text and then turned the screen around. “It’s very strange. There are no records of Song Shengsheng since he left prison. There’s no rental history, taxes haven’t been paid, and there’s been no movement on his bank card. It may be because he feels ashamed of being discovered by others, so he’s choosing to lay low.”

On the screen was a photo of Song Shengsheng, taken when he was released from prison. Looking at that photo, a strange familiar feeling flashed in Lin Chen’s heart.

Compared to the rocker youth who was number one in the world a few years ago, Song Shengsheng, who spent eight years in prison, had no semblance of what he looked like back then. He was as skinny as wood, his face was yellow, and his muscles were thin. The light in his eyes had been extinguished, just like that of a dying old man whose flame would go out from a gust of wind.

Recalling what Wang Chao told him, Lin Chen suspected that this person may no longer be in this world.

But in any case, he hoped he could hold on for another six hours.

……

Lu Xu’s car stopped at the entrance of the high-end residential area and the scene of the sexual assault case: Song Shengsheng’s home.

According to Wang Chao, Song Shengsheng’s parents died, and his property remained in his name and had never changed ownership. In other words, although nine years had passed, the crime scene was likely to remain the same as it was after Lu Xu’s brother’s raid.

Unless, Song Shengsheng came back here after he was released from prison.

Xing Conglian took measures to pick the lock. Lin Chen opened the door with some small hope. Sure enough, not all hopes came true. Song Shengsheng had indeed never returned.

After the door of the room opened, there was a stale and decaying smell. The air was dirty and musty.

Song Shengsheng’s home was covered in dust. Every time he stepped, it seemed to splash dust and smoke, making it difficult to breathe.

As soon as Wang Chao entered the door, he couldn’t help but rush to the window and open it as wide as it could go. The sunlight outside suddenly penetrated the house, basking the entire living room in a layer of bright light.

Facing the oncoming light, Lin Chen walked to the window and looked around the living room.

The living environment best reflected a person’s personality.

Despite the furnishings in Song Shengsheng’s home being searched by the police—the utensils were crumbling, the furniture was in disarray, and there were fluorescent labels on the walls and ground, which were probably reminders to collect fingerprints and footprints—after these traces were wiped away, Song Shengsheng’s home wasn’t as messy as it seemed on the surface.

This didn’t look like a home that belonged to a rocker.

The floor was the color of wood, and there weren’t many dark decorations or ironwork in the living room. There wasn’t any graffiti on the walls, and the furnishings were soft and low-key. There was a guitar in the corner and thick stacks of DVDs next to the TV. Lin Chen walked over, ignoring the fact the DVDs were scattered all over the floor, and took a rough look at the DVDs, finding that most of them were cartoons or science fiction movies. Song Shengsheng was probably a person who didn’t have many requirements in life.

For example, he would choose to use the photo wall as a background decoration for the sofa rather than an exotic painting that fringe artists like or how his DVDs were stacked randomly. Lin Chen didn’t find any TV cabinet, or a storage case dedicated to storing them.

Looking at everything in front of him, Lin Chen could imagine how Song Shengsheng casually took off his coat after returning home, went to the refrigerator with bare feet to get a bottle of beer, and then sat in front of the TV and casually flipped through cartoons.

He didn’t care too much about the stigma of watching cartoons as an adult. He was willing to watch the things he liked dozens of times and never grow bored of them.

Lin Chen took out a DVD that looked quite old from the box and turned the disc over. There were many deep and shallow scratches on the back of it.

This seemed to be a film that Song Shengsheng loved.

---

<<< || Table of Contents || >>>

Author: 长洱 / Chang’er

Translator: Kinky || https://kinkytranslations.com/

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Chapter 134

In traditional folklore, there was face reading, and in psychology, there have been studies on first impressions.

Psychologists often say that the first impression of someone would determine the direction of your subsequent interactions, and the influence of this first impression was often greater than subsequent impressions.

For example, when he first met Xing Conglian, Lin Chen’s first impression was that he was really a good-looking and interesting person. Then, when he saw Mu Zhuo, his first impression was that he was a very simple person.

Mu Zhuo had short blond hair, big eyes, and a dimple on his left cheek. Like many rock and roll youths, he wore a lot of strange metal accessories and had sporadic tattoos on his body and arms, but he was still a simple person.

This was reflected in his eyes, and it was also reflected in his messy dressing table. His keys, phone, and wallet were just thrown casually everywhere. Magazines and snacks were spread all over the table, and there were even half-eaten potato chips under the magazines.

It was natural to use the simplest method to deal with simple people.

Lin Chen said bluntly, “The rape case of your former band member Li Jingtian is very suspicious. We suspect that the person who sexually assaulted you wasn’t Song Shengsheng but Mr. Li Jingtian, so now we need you to cooperate with our investigation.”

He spoke in a very businesslike manner, which only made Mu Zhuo’s reaction more typical.

The expression of the young rocker changed drastically. He jumped off the dressing table, grabbed Lin Chen by the collar, and violently shoved him to the wall.

With a loud crash, Lin Chen felt as if his internal organs were about to be displaced.

“Are you kidding me?! You don’t know what I’ve been through!” Mu Zhuo roared in his ears.

Xing Conglian was about to step forward and pull Mu Zhuo away, but Lin Chen slightly shook his head at him.

Being scolded by the victim was a novel experience. Lin Chen carefully observed Mu Zhuo’s face, analyzing every trace of Mu Zhuo’s emotional reaction as he spoke.

He said, “Of course I don’t know what you’ve been through, but you should know it well.” He spoke calmly. “At that time, Song Shengsheng was convicted because the key evidence was male semen fluid that remained in your body, but what I find strange is that there was also lubricating fluid from a condom also detected in the semen. The question is, since Song Shengsheng used a condom, how could it be that you have his semen inside your body?”

Mu Zhuo was taken aback when he heard this. His eyes then flushed like those of an angry little lion. Lin Chen suspected that his crazy roar could be heard in the corridor outside the dressing room. “Are you trying to humiliate me?”

As Mu Zhuo spoke, he clenched his fists tightly.

Before Mu Zhuo could swing, Lin Chen kindly reminded him, “If you hit a police officer, you are suspected of obstructing justice, and you will be detained for not more than 15 days or fined.”

The fist brushed past Lin Chen’s ears and hit the wall beside him. Lin Chen could clearly hear the crisp sound of bones colliding with the wall.

Mu Zhuo said, “Nine years have passed, and I have finally moved on. Why are you trying to force me? Why!” After Mu Zhuo roared, his voice gradually lowered. “Whether it’s A’Tien or me, we’re both victims. Why should we victims be treated like suspects by the police? Is this what you call impartial law enforcement?”

Mu Zhuo finally backed away as tears flowed down his face. Seeing this, the manager raised her phone angrily. “Even if you’re the police, get out, get out! If you don’t get out of here, I’ll post this on Weibo and expose you!”

They didn’t know when it had started but public opinion had become a means of pressure or game. However, Lin Chen didn’t pay attention to her threats. He looked at Mu Zhuo’s face and felt sad.

In fact, before walking into the dressing room, he had also guessed what the stories of Mu Zhuo, Li Jingtian, and Song Shengsheng would be like. Perhaps Mu Zhuo was really a victim, and he misidentified Song Shengsheng because of some misunderstanding, but now Mu Zhuo’s reaction has told him that the real victim in this case should be the man who has been imprisoned for nine years now.

Sometimes real stories were bizarre. Some people who were murdered couldn’t get justice, while others who were innocent went to jail.

Lin Chen didn’t even know how this story would end.

Mu Zhuo’s voice was still echoing in his ears. His eyes were full of anger and timidity.

Lin Chen took a steady breath and said to Mu Zhuo, “You must know that the reason why I dare say these things in front of you means that I’m confident. No matter what, no matter how much time has passed, the truth will eventually come to light.”

After he finished speaking, he patted Mu Zhuo on the shoulder, then turned around and left. Xing Conglian shrugged and exited with him, while Lu Xu stayed inside to deal with the aftermath.

After leaving, Xing Conglian was by his side. They silently walked through the long passageway backstage, and only after they reached the sunlight did Xing Conglian speak. “There seems to be something wrong with Mu Zhuo’s reaction.”

Lin Chen took a deep breath. “His emotional reaction is too exaggerated. The acting is terrible, and he actually showed a guilty expression when he was angry. If Li Jingtian really has any loopholes, it must be Mu Zhuo.” Xing Conglian recalled how Lin Chen wasn’t an expert at micro-expression recognition but could still detect Mu Zhuo’s false emotional reactions just now.

When a rape victim’s victimization experience was brought up to them, their first reaction would often be shame and guilt, rather than anger.

The shame of being sexually assaulted was also the reason why victims often choose not to report the crime. Even a large proportion of victims would blame themselves after being treated inhumanely. They may be angry, but that anger came from shame, not from “Why don’t you sympathize with me”, like Mu Zhuo’s.

“So, Song Shengsheng’s rape case…”

“Although I don’t know what happened back then, I think it should be an injustice.” Thinking of the big star who was once wanton and unrestrained, he didn’t know what has become of Song Shengsheng in these past nine years.

“If Li Jingtian and Mu Zhuo jointly designed Song Shengsheng, why did Xu Ran’s letter say that Song Shengsheng took the blame for Li Jingtian’s crime? Have you ever thought about this question?”

“It’s been too long, so it’s hard to sort out the clues. Now we can only rely on Mr. Mu Zhuo to help us.” Lin Chen shook his head.

“Speaking of which, you lied hard to Mu Zhuo just now. You actually said you have confidence, meaning you have evidence?”

Lin Chen curled his lips. “This is a gamble. Although Li Jingtian cleaned up the evidence in Xu Ran’s case cleanly, letting us hit dead ends wherever we turn, for a rapist like him, it’s impossible he was this meticulous since birth. The earlier the time, the greater the possibility of him making mistakes.”

What he was betting on was that Mu Zhuo had a simple mind and would nervously call Li Jingtian and confirm something under blackmail.

Thinking of this, Lin Chen raised his head and asked Xing Conglian, “Did you install the bug?”

Xing Conglian gave him an OK gesture, but his tone was a little worried. “But the location isn’t good. If Mu Zhuo doesn’t choose to make the call in his dressing room, we won’t be able to monitor it.”

“Didn’t you notice something?”

“What?”

“Mu Zhuo is a very, lazy, person and simple-minded.” It was rare for Lin Chen to sneer. “As a lazy man, how can he leave a place that makes him feel safe and go to a strange place to make a very insecure call?”

“Consultant Lin…” Xing Conglian suddenly said.

“Hm?”

“I found that you’re quite good at calculating people.”

“As are you.”

……

Wang Chao had already set up the listening platform on the grass. The sun was shining brightly, and there was still laughter all around.

When they walked over, the teenager raised his head and said in a serious tone, “Captain, A’Chen, you guys should think carefully. This is unapproved surveillance. No matter what you hear next, it’s inadmissible to the courts as evidence. That is to say, even if you hear Mu Zhuo confide in Li Jingtian the truth about the events of that year, it will have no legal effects. You have to think clearly on this.”

The answer to Wang Chao’s warning was a rhetorical question from Xing Conglian, “What time is it?”

“9:40,” Wang Chao replied.

9:40, which meant their 6-hour time limit was getting closer.

“Then let’s get started.”

Xing Conglian sat down crossed legged and took one of the wireless headsets. Lin Chen sat next to him and picked up the other.

According to his prediction, a simple and impulsive person like Mu Zhuo, after learning that things might have been exposed back then, would certainly be eager to call those in the know to confirm things. Such an interval didn’t even exceed 10 minutes.

Through the monitoring, Lin Chen heard Mu Zhuo impatiently dealing with Lu Xu’s appeasement. He no longer had the previous humility and courtesy but exposed his irritable nature.

Mu Zhuo cursed at Lu Xu, then told the fat man to get out.

Xing Conglian’s bug worked well. He could even hear Lu Xu muttering “bitch” in a low voice after being reprimanded by Mu Zhuo.

In short, the dressing room had gone through a period of turmoil.

Afterwards, when Lu Xu slammed the door and went out, Mu Zhuo’s manager started cursing again.

Ms. Agent first called the upper management of the company to report the situation and said that she hoped the PR department would make a stink of it, but this wasn’t their goal. Although they couldn’t see the situation in the room, with the sound of a chair being thrown, Lin Chen probably guessed Mu Zhuo was venting his anger. After venting, fear would prevail, and Mu Zhuo would start to worry.

After the manager finished making her call, Mu Zhuo impatiently dropped something that sounded like a water bottle, which seemed to stop the manager.

“Get out and leave me alone!”

Mu Zhuo’s acting skills were really bad, to the point that he would use the most old-fashioned rhetoric to send people away.

When his manager wanted to say something more, Mu Zhuo yelled at the other party, “Get out!”

The sounds of footsteps and the door opening and closing followed, indicating the manager had left the room.

The background became quiet all of a sudden.

Mu Zhuo circled the room, seemingly waiting and thinking, and finally, he went to the dressing table, rifled through the messy pile of things, and picked something up.

The sound of buttons being pressed sounded.

Lin Chen felt Xing Conglian glancing at him, as if saying, “Here comes the main attraction.”

After a period of blankness, Mu Zhuo’s anxious voice sounded again. “Hey, don’t hang up. Listen to me!”

Since it wasn’t a phone bug, they didn’t know who the person on the other end of Mu Zhuo’s call was or what he was saying, but what they could infer was that the person on the other line wanted to hang up the moment the call was connected.

Mu Zhuo whispered. “The police just came to me just now and asked me about Song Shengsheng’s case. Didn’t you fucking say you cleaned it up? Why are the police coming to ask me this?”

The person on the other end seemed to say something that made Mu Zhuo choke. Suddenly, he raised his voice. “I’m stupid? It’s my fault? Who told you not to control your lower half and make such a thing happen, you stupid rapist? What kind of woman do you want? Why are you recruiting prostitutes, you fucking dick!”

---

Kinky Thoughts:

This is an extremely heavy subject, but to expand on the psychology aspect of this chapter, studies show that the most common effect of rape victims is self-blame, and with this comes shame and guilt.

There are two main types of self-blame: behavioral self-blame and characterological self-blame. Those who experience behavioral self-blame feel they should have done something differently, and therefore feel at fault. Those who experience characterological self-blame feel there’s something inherently wrong with them, which has caused them to deserve to be assaulted.

There are also many reasons why a rape victim doesn’t come forward, including sociological impact (negative views about them because of what happened to them), victim blaming, and not being believed or taken seriously, among myriad of other reasons.

The effects and aftermath of rape differ among victims, and many develop coping mechanisms that either benefit them, such as social support, or inhibit their recovery. It is best to seek support and professional resources (like counseling) to assist in recovery.

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<<< || Table of Contents || >>>

Author: 长洱 / Chang’er

Translator: Kinky || https://kinkytranslations.com/

---

Chapter 133

Although tempting, Lu Xu’s suggestion was obviously not taken into account.

Xing Conglian frowned and asked Lu Xu, “How can you not know who the customer who placed the order is?”

“Because now, customers all use their phone apps to place orders!” Lu Xu’s tone was inscrutable. “Rich people like to play like this, you know?”

“What do you mean by phone apps?” Xing Conglian asked calmly, as if he really didn’t understand the inner workings, but Lin Chen knew Xing Conglian was as excited as he was now.

Because if Li Jingtian had used his own phone to place the order, then there must be some records of it on his phone, and Wang Chao had gone through that phone because his Weibo account was “hacked”.

Since it was Wang Chao, naturally, there was an absolute possibility that he secretly backed up Li Jingtian’s phone data and usage.

“It means the customer uses their phone to order, and then a text message will be sent to my phone, telling me what kind of girl and which room to send her to. Isn’t this safe? It is said that when the guest departs, arrangements will be made to avoid meeting. Rich people love to do such nasty things all day long, so naturally they would pay attention to personal privacy, especially when they’re shameless.”

Xing Conglian nodded and called Wang Chao. After explaining the situation, Wang Chao asked him something, to which Xing Conglian turned back and asked Lu Xu, “Do you have that ordering software on your phone?”

Lu Xu sighed and said regretfully, “How can I have it? This is a treatment that can only be enjoyed by members who have paid a certain amount of dues and are very trustworthy. I hear that if the client isn’t satisfied after the order, they can leave a bad review and the lady who served them will have her salary deducted. That’s what I’ve been told anyway.”

“Truly keeping up with the times. Copy your text messages and send them to me later,” Xing Conglian said coldly to Lu Xu. He then asked Wang Chao to meet in the basement and hung up the phone.

Xing Conglian sighed regretfully and quickly switched topics, asking, “Do you know where Mu Zhuo is?”

Lu Xu didn’t react for a moment. “Who are you talking about? I don’t seem to have a lady under me named Mu… What?”

“Mu Zhuo.” Xing Conglian pointed to the advertisement on the large LED screen in the commercial plaza opposite of the building they were in. The image of a young man roaring on stage flashed away. “Is he here?”

“Oh him.” Lu Xu’s eyes lit up. “Ah, Mu Zhuo should be in Tianqing Lake on the outskirts of the city right now. Isn’t the Watermelon Music Festival coming up? He’s probably rehearsing there. Why are you looking for Mu Zhuo? Is it possible he’s also one of the guests?”

Lu Xu thought about it for a while.

“Why are you talking so much?” Xing Conglian walked out the door, hooked his finger at Lu Xu, and motioned for him to come out with him.

Lin Chen put down his coffee cup and stood up from the sofa.

When they walked out of the office, there was an instant change. Xing Conglian and Lu Xu seemed like good friends. Xing Conglian hooked his arms around Lu Xu’s shoulders as he faced the concerned eyes staring at the office. Lu Xu had to smirk, as if he were having a normal conversation with the police, and the events of being tortured to extract a confession and almost being shoved out the window never happened.

When they reached the elevator entrance, Xing Conglian shook Lu Xu’s hand and said, “I really appreciate Manager Li’s strong cooperation with our police work. If everyone could actively provide clues to the police like you, then our work would be so much easier.”

“Of course, of course.” Lu Xu finally noticed Xing Conglian’s abnormal attitude. He wanted to withdraw his hand but was still dragged into the elevator by Xing Conglian.

Lin Chen silently followed them.

After the elevator door closed, Xing Conglian instantly changed his expression. He let go of Lu Xu’s hand and wiped it on the neckline of his shirt. “Mr. Lu, look. If something happens to Royal One, will everyone suspect that you’re a mole?” After asking, he took the liberty to answer for him. “I think this is very likely.”

Just when Lu Xu thought everything would pass, he was so frightened his legs went limp again. “Captain Xing, what do you want? I told you everything you wanted to know!”

“Borrow your car to take it out for a spin,” Xing Conglian said casually.

“What?”

The elevator door opened with a ding, allowing the cool air of the parking lot to rush to their faces.

Wang Chao was at the elevator entrance, like an ant on a hot pan*. Seeing them, the teenager said anxiously, “Captain, Captain! Big news!”

*(热锅上的蚂蚁) Idiom describing the appearance of irritability, anxiety, and restlessness.

Xing Conglian raised his chin to Lu Xu and motioned for the other party to lead the way to the car, then asked Wang Chao, “What?”

“Li Jingtian bought a flight leaving Yongchuan at 15:30 to Xinni. He’s going to run away!”

“I know.”

“How do you know? How?!”

“Are you the only one who can surf the internet? There are only two flights a day from Yongchuan to Xinni. One at 9:50 and the other at 15:30 in the afternoon. Of course, I want him to leave during this period.”

Wang Chao turned his head and looked at Xing Conglian in disbelief. “I thought you were just talking about letting him go. What should we do now? Li Jingtian will leave in 6 hours!”

“Naturally, during this time period, we need to find key evidence to convict Li Jingtian.” Xing Conglian spoke nonchalantly.

While talking, they had already reached Lu Xu’s car.

Lu Xu drove a Mercedes-Benz S200. When Xing Conglian saw the car, he let out a “huh” in surprise.

Lu Xu was about to habitually sit in the driver’s seat when Xing Conglian patted him on the shoulder and motioned for him and Wang Chao to sit in the backseat.

Wang Chao showed a look of great reluctance, but under Xing Conglian’s gaze, he could only squeeze into the back seat with Mr. Lu, who was over 200 kg.

Lin Chen fastened the seatbelt on the front seat and heard Wang Chao shout from the back, “Captain, you still need to adjust for the time to get back to Yongchuan. If my math is right, that means we actually only have four and a half hours left to find evidence!”

Xing Conglian was fumbling with the Mercedes-Benz driving system, looking quite interested in the luxury car. “Mr. Wang…” He suddenly backed the car out of the parking space and slammed on the gas pedal.

“What?”

“What’s the situation on the internet now?” Xing Conglian wasn’t following Wang Chao’s line of thinking at all.

“Isn’t it still crazy from yesterday to today?” Wang Chao leaned towards the door on the other side and insisted on keeping his distance from Lu Xu.

Although the speed at which the car was going was a bit crazy and there was a time limit, Xing Conglian was still calm and relaxed. He rolled down the car window, lit a cigarette, and said to Wang Chao, “When you report to your boss, it’s best to be specific.”

“I—I—” Wang Chao suddenly blushed and quickly admitted his mistake. “Sorry, Captain. So far in 20 minutes, the ‘Report on the Xu Ran incident’ has received 3,000+ retweets and 700+ comments. Online comments are still roughly divided into two factions. Although there are signs of an increase in netizens who suspect that there’s something wrong with Li Jingtian, they are still overwhelmed by the vast number of fan comments. Li Jingtian’s fans are organized and planned to get people to give praise and attention to any comments that support Li Jingtian, pushing them to the forefront. They also are saying Xu Ran’s death was completely an accident during the police pursuit of a suspect and has nothing to do with the behavior of the fans… and…” Wang Chao paused for a moment before hesitating to speak.

“And what?” Xing Conglian asked impatiently.

“And, the hot comments are all conspiracy theories saying someone ordered the police to frame their idol and that the police are instructing others to target Li Jingtian all along.”

“Huh, the eyes of onlookers are indeed discerning.” Xing Conglian lamented.

Although Wang Chao was only summarizing, the online remarks would obviously be more heated than what he summed up. Of course, fans would continue to bite others in order to protect their idol, and they have less than six hours.

Lu Xu pulled on his seatbelt, looked at the scenery outside the elevated road, and suddenly said, “Captain, this road is going to Tianqing Lake. You—you just asked me where Mu Zhuo is. Are you really going to search for him?”

“Why? Does Mr. Lu have any objections?”

“I wouldn’t dare!”

Lin Chen raised his eyes and looked at the rearview mirror to where Lu Xu was sitting with an uncertain gaze.

“Mr. Lu, do you have any other clues that you want to provide to the police?” Lin Chen suddenly asked.

“Oh, it’s not that I have a clue. I’m just worried about the captain!” Lu Xu leaned forward and said very doggedly, “Based on what I just heard, you plan to fight with Li Jingtian. In this case, if you go to Mu Zhuo, CA Entertainment may not be happy about it…”

Xing Conglian held his cigarette and asked with a smile, “Whether they are happy or not, what does that have to do with me?”

“This… still has something to do with you.” Lu Xu acted like a loyal dog. “CA Entertainment isn’t like other entertainment companies. In fact, compared to them, CA Entertainment is much more powerful.”

“Mr. Lu, can you please speak clearly?” Xing Conglian dusted off the soot from his cigarette as he asked.

“CA is a veteran in the entertainment empire. For an entertainment company, what they are known for best is to make stars, right?” Lu Xu swallowed and continued, “But what is the essence of making a star? Isn’t it spreading layers upon layers of communication? Let a person or thing become popular—even the bad ones can be good for you. And CA is best at hyping and manipulating public opinion, and they have a very good relationship with the media that they could make an ugly monster reach the top 100 voted most handsome male stars. If you want to go head-to-head with CA, that’s like hitting a stone with an egg*.”

*(以卵击石) Metaphor for underestimating one’s own strength leading to self-destruction.

“They’re that powerful?” Xing Conglian seemed to have thought of something as he replied casually.

“More than that. Didn’t you just say that those fans on the internet are desperately attacking the police… CA must be involved. I know, you have been investigating Xu Ran’s case, but honestly, a beast like Li Jingtian can be whitewashed*, like now. See, his fans are still loyal to him. Isn’t it quite amazing the efforts that CA has put in?” When he said the worst beast, Lu Xu gritted his teeth.

*In terms of the entertainment industry, whitewashing is deliberately misleading people in various ways, causing them to forget a celebrity’s bad past.

“According to Mr. Lu, CA Entertainment is really scary,” Xing Conglian said.

In fact, from the start, a large-scale cleansing of online public opinion on the Li Jingtian incident wasn’t something an individual could do. It wasn’t surprising that there was a large company behind it.

Suddenly, Lin Chen heard Xing Conglian ask, “Consultant Lin, can someone who confounds black and white* remain invincible in public opinion forever?”

*(颠倒黑白) Metaphor for distorting facts and confuses right and wrong. 

Lin Chen thought for a bit and replied, “This involves the issue of communication. Although in theory, there’s no possibility of manipulating every public opinion by 100%, it’s still possible to guarantee an approval rating of more than 70% if done properly.”

“Then wouldn’t this be a good time for us to find Mu Zho?”

“Indeed,” Lin Chen replied.

“Why?”

The person who asked was Wang Chao, so Lin Chen answered patiently. “The reason is simple. Now that Li Jingtian is planning to leave China, either Li Jingtian or CA Entertainment will have to find a proper reason for this matter in order to avoid looking guilty. From current online public opinion, the reason is probably us.”

“What do you mean, A’Chen? What’s wrong with us?”

“Let’s find Mu Zhuo and ask about Song Shengsheng. If I were CA Entertainment, I would probably realize that we have hit a dead end regarding Xu Ran’s case, so we now want to overturn an old case and crucify Li Jingtian. For this kind of established entertainment company, how can such a good opportunity not be used?”

“’Hongjing police persecuted a well-known singer in Xinni. The singer was forced to return to his country after being overwhelmed by humiliation’. Mr. Wang, what do you think of this headline?” Xing Conglian added another knife.

Wang Chao took a deep breath. “Fuck, shameless!”

“Cut the crap.” Xing Conglian pressed out the cigarette butt and solemnly asked, “What about the ‘ordering’ software? Is there any trace of usage on Li Jingtian’s phone?”

Wang Chao frowned and shook his head. “There may be traces of installation and deletion, but I still don’t know. If Li Jingtian’s phone is in my hands, I can restore the data, but I don’t have it.”

He looked annoyed, as if he wished he could travel back a day ago. If he could have completely restored the data on Li Jingtian’s phone at that time, they would probably be sitting in the police station drinking tea underneath the blowing air conditioning by now.

But perhaps there was some unknown reason that made them have to see Mu Zhuo, and this in itself was Xu Ran’s wish.

……

In fact, before meeting Mu Zhuo, Lin Chen still didn’t understand the meaning of such an arrangement.

The time was 9:10 a.m. on May 7^th and the location was on the outskirts of Fengchun, on the banks of Tianqing Lake.

Because of the music festival, a magnificent steel stage was built on the vast grassland by the lake. From a distance, there was an inexplicable sense of awe.

There were music fans stationed on the grass who had come to camp early. They had set up an outing. Some were playing cards, others were chatting, and some were heavily asleep, most likely hungover, but most people in the venue were happy men and women. They were laughing or singing and dancing for self-entertainment, making it seem like this place had become paradise.

There were also some small booths that were selling souvenirs outside the venue. Because it wasn’t time for the performance, the booths selling support gear were half-closed.

Wang Chao walked there curiously and stood in front of a booth. He looked up at the two cartoon characters hugging each other printed on the banner and then became dumbfounded.

Lin Chen also raised his head. If he guessed correctly, the two villains hugging each other are Li Jingtian and Mu Zhuo. In addition, the cartoon avatars were encircled by a heart, and the words “T&M” and “Forever Illi” were marked at the bottom. Although they didn’t know much about current pop culture, it was obvious that this should be something like a fan CP*.

*Couple. You can think of them as “shippers” who pair up two people (usually celebrities or fictional characters) whom they imagine are in a relationship.

“What the hell? Didn’t Illi dissolve long ago?” Wang Chao asked incredulously. “Is this Mu Zhuo’s and Li Jingtian’s gay booth?”

Lin Chen didn’t have time to cover the teenager’s mouth.

A girl who was dozing off in the booth heard this and suddenly woke up. She glared at them with a strange look.

“Sorry.” Lin Chen nodded to the other party and apologized.

He wanted to pull Wang Chao away, but the girl in the booth jumped up excitedly and shouted, “Wait!”

Wang Chao looked strangely back and saw the girl pick up a brochure at the booth, run up to them, and stuff it into his hands. “Young man, you have a good eye. I’ll give this to you. I hope you study hard!”

After the girl finished speaking, she patted Wang Chao on the shoulder.

It was probably the first time he met someone who was more into 2D than himself. The strangeness in his eyes turned into horror. He looked down at the brochure in his hand, neither tossing it nor reading it.

“Hey, what’s that?” Xing Conglian casually took the brochure from Wang Chao and then flipped through a few pages. Sure enough, his eyes also changed. “What kind of relationship do Mu Zhuo and Li Jingtian have?” he asked.

“Isn’t it cute! So cute! Isn’t TianMu so cute*?!” The girl jumped up and asked enthusiastically.

*Clarity: She’s saying isn’t it meng (moe). TianMu = Li Jingtian x Mu Zhuo.

“Of course it’s cute.” Xing Conglian didn’t even know what “TianMu” was, but he lied smoothly.

“Ah, you’re the legendary Uncle Fan.” Upon hearing this, the little girl happily grabbed Xing Conglian’s hand and didn’t let go.

“Yeah, he has liked these two for a long time, since they were in Illi,” Lin Chen seriously lied for Xing Conglian.

“Oh my, you still like Illi. That’s great! It’s really rare to see such a discerning straight guy! Well, this year is Illi’s 10^th anniversary, so maybe we can still expect Jingtian and A’Mu to make a comeback on the same stage, but now that Jingtian is in such big trouble, they may not have the opportunity to go on stage together again. It’s a pity.”

The little girl chattered nonstop. From her words, Lin Chen knew that Mu Zhuo and Li Jingtian had a very good relationship and often went out together, especially after Mu Zhuo was sexually assaulted by Song Shengsheng. Li Jingtian gave him great support. Their friendship had thus been maintained to the present.

Naturally, the public liked this kind of story about relying on and supporting each other to overcome difficulties together. This also made the fan groups of Li Jingtian and Mu Zhuo overlap a lot because their popularity complemented each other. Although the group disbanded, their performances after flying solo were much better than when they debuted.

Listening to what the fan was saying was far more useful than looking for hours of information elsewhere.

“It seems that CA is quite powerful. It’s rare for individuals to develop so well after their group disbanded.” Xing Conglian was dragged by the little girl for a long time before he finally managed to break free. He yawned and looked around. On the empty stage, there were only sporadic staffers debugging equipment. “Mu Zhuo is really dedicated. Didn’t he perform late yesterday and now he’s rehearsing?”

“This is what makes CA so great. Artists have the same working hours as employees and they need to be strictly followed,” Lu Xu said.

Xing Conglian smiled. “A company with strict rules—we generally call them a criminal syndicate.”

Lu Xu only nodded and smiled bitterly.

“Then please tell Mr. Lu, where are we going to find Mu Zhuo?”

“You’re too polite. What are you talking about?” Lu Xu hurriedly answered. “I’ve already called ahead and asked about it. Mu Zhuo is backstage right now, but there’ll be rehearsal soon.”

Before his voice fell, the lights on stage in the distance began to change, and after a cluster of violent, intense flashing lights, a person who they had only seen in advertisements so far suddenly appeared on stage.

Mu Zhuo was nearly 30, but he still looked like a young man. He had blond hair and a tender face. Although he was wearing plain clothes, he had infinite charm when he was holding the microphone.

The sound wasn’t turned on, so Mu Zhuo just walked around holding the microphone with his backup dancers. On the huge, elevated stage, he was as small as an ant, but such a small ant seemed to cast a spell over the audience.

The fans on the lawn also noticed him on stage and started cheering. Even if they couldn’t hear any sound, they were as excited as if they were listening to a real concert.

From start to finish, the cheers swept across the lawn without pause.

At the end of the rehearsal, Mu Zhuo stood panting on stage. The weather was hot, and he was sweating profusely. He seemed a little tired. At this moment, Mu Zhuo’s hand couldn’t help but grip the microphone tightly. Then, his finger began to gently scratch on the microphone’s non-slip sleeve, again and again. After a certain moment, he couldn’t help but close his eyes.

Mu Zhuo’s action was very brief, but Lin Chen saw all this clearly. He looked at Xing Conglian, and like countless times of tacit understanding, Xing Conglian was also looking at him.

“What’s wrong with this?” Xing Conglian asked.

For a while, Lin Chen couldn’t answer Xing Conglian’s question, but the scene in front of him reminded him of many things. “Did Wang Chao bring a bug?” He suddenly asked Xing Conglian rhetorically.

When they looked at the stage again, Mu Zhuo was already laughing and joking with the dancers as he walked down the steps. When he was with his dancers, he didn’t have any celebrity status and was acting as if he were the normal boy-next-door.

Although they had previously lamented how powerful CA Entertainment was, seeing the stars from CA revealed how strict and regular their training system was. Even Li Jingtian or Mu Zhuo were really different from those high-strung little stars.

Furthermore, such a system was evident not only in artist training but also in internal management.

Backstage security was extremely strict. If they didn’t have a “traitor” like Lu Xu, it would have taken a lot of effort for them to see Mu Zhuo.

Mu Zhuo looked like he was in excellent spirits. He had a ruddy complexion. He was drinking water at the moment after he just got off the stage. When he saw them enter his dressing room, he even winked at them.

“Manager Li?” Mu Zhuo politely put down the water cup and greeted Lu Xu. “You had free time to come here?”

Although Mu Zhuo responded well, the attitude of the manager in the lounge wasn’t as polite. “Manager Li, isn’t it clearly stated in the company’s regulations that you shouldn’t bring strangers casually in and out of the backstage?”

Unphased, since Lu Xu was a veteran at dealing with this kind of manager, he said, “What’s with your attitude? See these three? They are all police officers and came to Mu Zhuo to ask some questions.”

“What questions?” The manager instantly became vigilant.

It was probably because the role of a manger was like a lioness protecting her calf. Whether it was Liu Ying or Mu Zhuo’s manager, after hearing their identities, they stopped in front of Mu Zhuo and told them to leave immediately.

“I want to ask Mr. Mu Zhuo something about Mr. Li Jingtian.”

Lin Chen took a step forward, raised his eyes, and took a close look at this flamboyant and unbridled rock and roll youth.

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<<< || Table of Contents || >>>

Author: 长洱 / Chang’er

Translator: Kinky || https://kinkytranslations.com/

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Chapter 132

It was no wonder that Lu Xu didn’t have any record of his identity for four years. Because, after he was released from prison, his name was no longer Lu Xu.

Lin Chen guessed that Xing Conglian had already figured things out by having Wang Chao wait downstairs, but his face was like usual. Before entering the general manager’s office, he took a roll of plastic tape from the secretary’s desk by the door.

The office was indeed empty.

Xing Conglian seemed to have expected this. He slammed the door and locked it, ignoring the shouts of the secretary outside.

At the moment when the office door was slammed shut, there was a brief silence, followed by the subtle sounds that echoed in the office.

Lin Chen looked around, and his eyes fell from the half-open glass window to the wine cabinet at the corner of the office, and finally landed on the European-style leather sofa on the other side of the room.

In fact, people like Li Gaoqiang or Lu Xu weren’t particularly smart, but they had rich life experiences. They lived in the dirtiest pit of society and were best at veiled compliance. In order to survive, they have done many ugly things in the world.

And, because they spent so long in the pit, they often mastered strong survival skills and could live well.

However, if their opponent was Xing Conglian, even foresight wouldn’t be enough.

Lin Chen walked to the wine cabinet and made himself a cup of hot coffee. He stirred in some sugar cubes with a small silver spoon, and then sat down on the leather sofa.

Xing Conglian turned around the office for half a circle. When he walked to the data cabinet, he kicked the iron door.

After a loud noise, a sibilant sound came from inside the cabinet.

“Come out,” Xing Conglian said lightly.

The door of the data cabinet opened abruptly, and a fat man rolled up like a small mountain and was lying on his back on the ground.

Sure enough, it was Lu Xu.

There were bruises and swelling on Lu Xu’s mouth and nose. He repeated the same trick and directly hugged Xing Conglian’s thigh and began to cry. “Captain Xing, I really didn’t know your true identity yesterday, so I did some bad things. Adults don’t really care about such small trifles. Please forgive me!”

Lin Chen took a sip of his coffee.

“Raise your head,” Xing Conglian said faintly.

Lu Xu raised his head obediently. His entire face looked like a mangy dog. As he looked up, he blinked nervously, as if his mouth would never snap back.

Xing Conglian took out the tape and easily sealed Lu Xu’s mouth.

Lu Xu opened his eyes abruptly, completely unaware of what was going on. He screamed twice, and then, seemingly like in those classic cop dramas, he widened his eyes and showed real fear in them. However, Xing Conglian didn’t have the mind to care about this. Before Lu Xu could reach out and tear off the tape, Xing Conglian had used a beautiful grappling technique to hold him back and drag the middle-aged man towards the window.

What happened next was somewhat frightening.

Xing Conglian first pushed the glass window that was on the 25^th floor a little higher, then lifted Mr. Lu Xu and pressed him out the window.

In fact, this wasn’t really a dangerous action since, due to Mr. Lu Xu’s physical attributes, he really couldn’t fall out of the window. However, with the high-rise roaring wind pounding against him like a knife and the blaring honking noises from below, once he looked down, against all reason, it gave him the illusion that he would plummet 25 stories down.

Lu Xu struggled fiercely, slamming his body against the edge of the window, but Xing Conglian’s hand held him firm.

“Mr. Lu,” Xing Conglian got close to his ears and whispered. “Whether you believe it or not, even if I really push you out today, I’ll only sit in jail for a few years at most, but in your situation, you’ll certainly die.”

Naturally, to deal with a hob, they had to be ruthless. Lin Chen took another sip of his coffee.

Lu Xu shouted something and then nodded desperately. Finally, as if the window outside had blown enough, Xing Conglian let go, and Lu Xu fluttered to the floor.

He shivered, and his face was as white as a sheet of rice paper. He was so terrified that he couldn’t even make those disgusting groveling gestures.

Lin Chen glanced at Xing Conglian.

Xing Conglian squatted down and patted Lu Xu on the shoulder and said politely, “What I ask, you answer, just like the game you played last time.”

Lu Xu nodded his head fiercely as if he were pounding garlic. Xing Conglian stretched out his hand and took off the tape. Lu Xu panted suddenly and didn’t even dare to scream.

Xing Conglian took out his phone and started to read something.

“Three weeks ago, on the evening of April 15^th, as Li Gaoqiang, you spent a total of 184,115 yuan using a credit card at the club named Royal One. May I ask if this credit card consumption was used to pay for all the entertainment consumption activities of CA Entertainment artists and employees at Royal One that night?”

Lu Xu kept his mouth shut. At this moment, all he would do was nod his head, as if he had lost his ability to speak.

“Was any money used to pay for sex services provided by Royal One?”

Lu Xu’s eyes rolled in half a circle, and he hesitated. “This…”

“Yes or no. Got it, Mr. Lu?”

“It was all normal alcohol consumption. You have to believe me. Although you know my background, our company…”

Lin Chen finally put the white porcelain cup down on the coffee table. He leaned forward slightly, staring at the fat face on the ground not far away, and said to Xing Conglian, “The answers just now are all lies.”

Xing Conglian shrugged and, without saying a word, pulled Lu Xu up and dragged him back to the window. Lu Xu was so scared that he hugged Xing Conglian’s waist and refused to let go.

Xing Conglian said with annoyance, “I say Mr. Lu, can you stop taking advantage of me?”

Lu Xu hurriedly let go, extremely frightened. He limped to the ground and no longer had any devious thoughts. “It’s… Actually, it’s not… The money wasn’t paid by CA Entertainment…”

Hearing this, Xing Conglian was quite surprised.

“What do you mean?” Xing Conglian asked.

“That… That CA…” Lu Xu looked up at Xing Conglian cautiously and said wretchedly, “It’s little artists from CA, sell… money from selling.”

Xing Conglian tugged at his ears and asked incredulously, “Money from selling?”

“Sell—selling their asses.”

In a rare moment, Lin Chen was also surprised. He looked at Xing Conglian and saw him point at the fat man who was spread out on the ground as he asked him, “Is there something wrong with my hearing?”

“No?”

“What the hell is going on?” Xing Conglian said as he irritably kicked Lu Xu. “Speak clearly.”

“You see, it’s the unspoken rule of the industry. In such a big entertainment company, there are dozens of men and women, and there are those who don’t want to work hard but still want to get ahead, so of course…” Lu Xu shivered. The thumbs on his hands did a kissing motion. “There are some trainees who are resourceful. They can make a little money and get to know a big boss. It’s a win-win. But this isn’t rape. We’re not forcing them since they are willing to do it, really.”

Lu Xu finished.

What he meant was that he was actually introducing CA artists to provide sexual services to Royal One’s customers while earning an intermediary service fee.

Lin Chen felt that his worldview was a little shaken.

Although he had heard of the unspoken rules inside the industry, those things were far from his life. Even if he had seen breaking news about a certain artist being caught at a hotel in newspapers and on TV, it was just a flash of news that didn’t affect his reality, making it seem unreal.

In short, it was probably because the entertainment industry was too glamorous that it separated itself from normal life with an unbreakable film.

On one side of the film were the stars, and on the other side were people watching the drama.

But now, because of this whole case, they seem to have gradually touched the other world. Although they couldn’t break the membrane, they had touched strange things in it.

Xing Conglian’s reaction was faster. “Mr. Lu sure is busy. It’s not easy matching both ends every night, right?”

“It’s not about making a living,” Lu Xu laughed.

But even if Lu Xu was the matchmaker for both ends, why was this so-called prostitution fund paid by Lu Xu to the club?

“What’s the relationship between CA Entertainment and Royal One. Is it a subsidiary of the same company?” Xing Conglian asked.

“This, how can we match CA? They are a large multinational company that’s particularly successful in the entertainment industry. Compared to them, we’re just a small business here. It’s a matter of mutual benefit. Who doesn’t do it?”

“Why are you paying for it?”

“You see, this is actually an account. I don’t know how you found it. If CA directly pays Royal One, won’t it be obvious what’s going on? I’m a middleman. The bosses give me the money, I transfer it there, and then it gets transferred to someone else. The water runs deep. I can go undercover for you if you really want me to look into it.”

Perhaps seeing Xing Conglian suddenly had a good attitude, Lu Xu became weaselly again.

Xing Conglian glanced at him and said, “Financial crimes are not my responsibility.”

“I know you’re here because of Xu Ran’s case. I deserve my bad luck in Xu Ran’s matter. You shouldn’t have asked about Xu Ran. I really didn’t betray you last night.”

Xing Conglian was still polite. “Then I violated a taboo?”

“Xu Ran is a taboo.” Lu Xu got up from the ground, trying to get closer to Xing Conglian, but in the end, he supported himself at the table and didn’t dare to get up again. “Think about it. Although I’m not the boss, what’s the most important thing to a boss that opens such a big club?”

“Please enlighten us, Mr. Lu.”

“Of course, it’s the privacy of the guests!” Lu Xu shook his head as if what he was saying was profound. “You have to make your guest feel safe before others will come to spend their money, right? But Xu Ran actually went to sue a customer. This touched the bottom line. If a club can’t even protect the privacy of a customer, how can the boss keep his doors open?”

Lu Xu’s look became deeper as he fawningly looked at Xing Conglian, as if he knew everything while saying nothing.

However, Xing Conglian already had a clear idea and didn’t dwell on these details. He simply asked, “Answer me directly. Was Li Jingtian at Royal One that night?”

Lu Xu shook his head and asked with a smile, “Do you want me to answer yes or no?”

Like the wise saying, a dog can’t change eating shit*.

*(狗改不了吃屎) Idiom referring to nature is hard to change.

“Tell the truth.”

“The truth is that I really don’t know who ordered her, but if you want me to testify in court, that’s not a problem. I promise that I can lie seamlessly and help you nail that little bitch, Li Jingtian.”

Looking at Lu Xu’s cunning and oily face, Lin Chen looked at Xing Conglian in disappointment and shook his head.

The reason why he shook his head was because all of Lu Xu’s reactions were saying: I’m telling the truth. I really don’t know who was waiting for Xu Ran in the room that night.

Although all clues pointed to Li Jingtian, the club had already cleared all possible evidence for the so-called business in order to protect the privacy of their guests, so they still didn’t have anything substantial that could crucify Li Jingtian.

Lin Chen suddenly felt that Lu Xu’s suggestion just now was very enticing.

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<<< || Table of Contents || >>>

Author: 长洱 / Chang’er

Translator: Kinky || https://kinkytranslations.com/

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Chapter 131

This was a matter of thinking about the case. Previously, they had been looking for traces of whether Xu Ran was at the crime scene. Through testing for bloodstains, fingerprints, or even footprints, it was all to prove this point. If they couldn’t find evidence, they couldn’t prove that Xu Ran was there, and since she wasn’t a criminal, the typical presumption was that she was innocent.

But this case was different. From the beginning, the emergence of online public opinion has presumed Xu Ran’s guilt. The people believed she was a criminal, which forced them to find an alibi for Xu Ran; otherwise, she would be considered guilty.

While it was hard to say, Li Jingtian had designed it almost seamlessly. With Xu Ran dead, naturally, she could no longer argue her case.

The only loophole in this was, coincidentally, Li Jingtian.

Xing Conglian slowly raised his phone and dialed the number for the trace inspection officer.

“Captain Xing, please. I really haven’t finished yet. You’re killing me here!”

Before Xing Conglian could speak, the police officer was the first to cry. His voice was a little hoarse, obvious that he had stayed up all night like them.

“There’s no need to check these things,” Xing Conglian said.

“Ah? What, can we call it a day?” The police officer asked in amazement.

“No, check for fingerprints.”

“Fingerprints where?”

“Clothes,” Xing Conglian said slowly. “Check Xu Ran’s bloody clothes.”

“Uh, Captain Xin, the fabric absorbs water so well that it’s almost impossible to find any fingerprints on it. And whose fingerprints are you looking for on Xu Ran’s clothes?”

“Xu Ran’s bloody coat has two decorative straps on the shoulders. Check to see if Li Jingtian’s fingerprints are there,” Xing Conglian stated clearly.

After a moment of silence on the other end of the phone, there was an excited shout. “I—I—I get it! Great!”

After the police officer on the other end of the line finished yelling, there was the sound of tables and chairs colliding, doors opening and closing, and echoes of running in the empty corridor. For any police officer handling a case, there was nothing more exciting than finding a clue.

Xing Conglian silently hung up and turned off the computer. His expression was calm and cold.

In the room, there was dead silence again.

Lin Chen sat next to him, only to feel mixed feelings in his heart. At this moment, he didn’t know what to say.

However, Xing Conglian was the first to speak. “Go and wake up Wang Chao.”

Lin Chen looked at him hesitantly.

Xing Conglian said, “Time is running out. We have to hurry. We’ll go to CA Entertainment to find Li Gaoqiang later and check to see whether Li Jingtian was at Royal One on the day of the incident. We’ll also meet with Mu Zhuo, who should give us an advance breakthrough in Song Shengsheng’s case.”

“An old case from nine years ago?”

“Doesn’t Consultant Lin have confidence?”

It was rare for Lin Chen to feel relieved. “How can that be?”

After he finished replying, he stood up and looked at the teenager, who was asleep on the opposite side, and said to Xing Conglian, “Carry him to the sofa and let him sleep for a while.”

Xing Conglian was taken aback for a moment, and then showed a disgusted expression, but he still walked over and picked up Wang Chao and slowly put him on the sofa.

The moment Xing Conglian withdrew his hand, Wang Chao suddenly woke up. He opened his eyes wide and looked at Xing Conglian with frightened eyes. “What the fuck, Captain?”

At that time, Xing Conglian was still holding Wang Chao in a princess carry. He quickly pulled his hand away and angrily said, “Shut up and go to sleep.”

Wang Chao groaned and fell asleep again.

Lin Chen found a coat and covered Wang Chao before walking to the teenager’s computer. Before he sat down, he heard slight snoring coming from Wang Chao.

Looking at the teenager’s soft face and long eyelashes covered by black hair, Lin Chen said to Xing Conglian, “The story from last time isn’t over yet.”

Xing Conglian quickly understood what he was referring to. It was rare that they could pick up on things that the other said in just a few words during extremely tense moments without the need for further padding. “When I arrived, half the people had been killed, and the ground was littered with corpses and blood. In a place like Africa, the temperature is relatively high, so the corpses rot quickly. Wang Chao was protected by a group of workers. At that point, a child of his age already knew the truth that people who die will no longer come back, so the first thing he asked after he saw me was: Can I no longer talk to my mother and father?”

Lin Chen looked at Xing Conglian again. In an instant, he was struck by great sadness, but he didn’t regret asking about this; neither then nor now.

“How did you answer?” he asked.

“This question was too difficult to answer. If it were you, Consultant Lin, what would you say?” Xing Conglian asked rhetorically.

Lin Chen thought for a while, then replied, “I would say: Yes, but look, you can still talk.”

Xing Conglian smiled lightly as he lit a cigarette. “Consultant Lin, don’t you think your answer is too esoteric for a ten-year-old child?” He took a puff and exhaled a ring of cyan smoke. “Although your parents are dead, you’re still alive, and you’re still fortunate to be able to speak. More importantly, because you’re alive and able to speak, you have the opportunity to be heard by others—by those who are still alive. They can hear your words that tell the stories of your parents…”

Lin Chen asked, “Then what did Captain Xing say at that time?”

“Oh, I said, yeah kid, so you’re going to hang with me in the future.”

“So he obediently left with you?” Lin Chen asked in disbelief.

“Of course not at first, but then I took him to the biggest local electronics store and bought him the latest computer. Then he was convinced.” Xing Conglian acted like he was rich.

“Really?” Lin Chen asked suspiciously. “Did you really answer him like that?”

“Yeah. I have to analyze the words I say very carefully because there are things that can’t be said.” Xing Conglian coughed shamelessly.

“Did he understand?”

“Of course not. He’s stupid…” Xing Conglian sighed. When he told the story, his tone was relaxed from start to finish, as if he were talking about something irrelevant.

Lin Chen didn’t ask about what came next. He thought that would be the next part of the chapter.

He clicked on the information compiled by Wang Chao and began to look at it.

Although the dead couldn’t speak, the living still had the opportunity to tell their unfinished story for them.

……

When Xing Conglian’s phone rang again, Wang Chao woke up.

The teenager abruptly jumped up from the sofa, as if he wanted to defend his family and country with a heroic sacrifice.

Xing Conglian motioned for Wang Chao to be silent and turned his phone on speaker.

It was a tense moment. The result of the appraisal determined the direction of their subsequent investigations, and even the direction of the entire unfinished story.

“Captain Xing! No! It’s really not!”

The police officer on the other end of the line had obviously finished everything as he was panting heavily.

“What’s not?” Wang Chao couldn’t help asking.

“The two leather decorative straps of Xu Ran’s bloody clothes didn’t have Li Jingtian’s fingerprints!”

The moment he learned the truth, the air suddenly froze.

They all became silent; even the police officer on the other end of the line stopped talking. Wang Chao knew that it wasn’t appropriate to speak now.

After a while, the frozen air turned gel-like and began to flow slowly.

Li Jingtian’s fingerprints weren’t found on the decorative strap on Xu Ran’s shoulders, which proved that she wasn’t the fan that was hugged by him. This further proved she wasn’t at the fan meeting and that she wasn’t the person who slit Li Jingtian’s throat. Further, it proved she was indeed mistaken for the true culprit, and she had died innocently and tragically under the pursuit of Li Jingtian’s fans.

Although they had expected these results, the moment they found evidence to prove it, it was too sad to speak.

It was Wang Chao who finally spoke first. “Then, Xu Ran’s suspicion has been cleared, and she wasn’t at the scene?” The teenager asked with some difficulty.

Lin Chen nodded to him.

“Then what are we going to do next?” Wang Chao asked.

Even the police officer on the other end of the line said, “Captain Xing, with the results out now, what are we going to do?”

In fact, the questions they wanted to ask were all the same. Although the words and expression were different, the underlying question was, with the fingerprints clearing Xu Ran’s suspicion, what should they do with the results?

If this was an ordinary case, the police could just issue a report, but the problem was that the case report for Li Jingtian’s throat slitting case wasn’t so easy to write. First, the police hadn’t determined the true culprit, so it wasn’t appropriate to release this report’s result. It could backfire and become proof of the police’s incompetence or become a problematic position.

Lin Chen looked at Xing Conglian, who was also looking at him.

“What does Consultant Lin think?”

“Release it,” Lin Chen said.

It was rare for Xing Conglian to raise the corners of his mouth. Though he was half-smiling, his eyes remained cold. He said to the police officer on the other end of the line, “I’ll notify the PR department to make an announcement. Thank you for your hard work.”

“But, Captain Xing… This!” The police officer on the other end wanted to say more, but Xing Conglian hung up.

“Captain, what the hell?!” Wang Chao still had a look of confusion. “If we release this result, what if Li Jingtian buys a plane ticket and returns back to his country?!”

“That’s why I need you to immediately monitor movements on his passport,” Lin Chen said calmly.

“What?! Why?”

“Do you think it’s just a problem between us and Li Jingtian right now?” Lin Chen asked rhetorically.

“Isn’t it?”

Lin Chen shook his head. “The question now is, who has more credibility.”

“Is it that complicated?”

“Li Jingtian is a singer who usually has a good reputation. He has many fans and is good at controlling public opinion. We have no tangible evidence to prove his crime right now, so his innocence remains high, while we, the police, have been in an embarrassing situation. Our investigation result is often scrutinized by the public, so how do we win this war of public opinion against Li Jingtian?”

“I don’t know!” Wang Chao thought for a while but was still confused. He turned around and asked, “Captain, you have a bad mind. What are you thinking?”

“We’re going to force him to buy a plane ticket to return home.” Xing Conglian gave him a look as if saying, ‘Why are you so stupid?’

Lin Chen explained, “It’s simple. When we issue the notice proving Xu Ran isn’t a criminal suspect, it’ll have a huge effect on public opinion, pushing Li Jingtian back into the limelight. If Li Jingtian buys a plane ticket to return home at this time, what will that look like?”

“Like…absconding due to guilt?” Wang Chao stared wide-eyed. “You’re so insidious. But will Li Jingtian really leave? If he buys a plane ticket to return home, won’t it be difficult for us to catch him?”

“Which is why this is a double-edged sword.” Lin Chen patted the teenager’s head. “But for us, the benefits of doing so still outweigh the disadvantages. In this kind of thing, we have to take a gamble.”

“Okay! A’Chen, how do we want to bet?”

Lin Chen looked at Xing Conglian and asked, “What does Captain Xing intend?”

“Let’s go to CA Entertainment and find the only possible witness to Xu Ran’s rape case, Mr. Li Gaoqiang.”

“So, is this to force Li Jingtian again?” Wang Chao snapped his fingers as if he finally understood something. “Are you afraid he won’t buy a ticket to return home?”

Xing Conglian picked up his phone and coat on the table but didn’t answer.

……

Lin Chen always felt that the reason why Xing Conglian dared to make such dangerous moves was because he was emboldened, as if whether Li Jingtian was hiding in the Xinni embassy, sitting on a flight back home, or even after Li Jingtian stepped into Xinni’s territory, he had the ability to bring him to justice. Although Lin Chen didn’t know where Xing Conglian’s confidence came from, it was always good to be confident.

It was 7:30 in the morning. They took a taxi from the internet café on the side of Red Street to CA Entertainment.

There were advantages to not having a car. For example, Xing Conglian didn’t need to drive fatigue after staying up all night. For example, they could listen to Mr. Driver, who had nothing better to do than gossip.

After getting in the car, Xing Conglian sat in the front passenger seat and only said one sentence to them before he fell asleep—a deep sleep that couldn’t be shaken.

Wang Chao glanced forward, excitedly twisted his butt, and said, “A’Chen, how about we get out of the car and dump the Captain?”

Lin Chen pretended not to hear. There were gradually more vehicles outside the window. The road was completely different from what it looked like in the middle of the night. Fengchun was much larger than Hongjing, and in terms of scale, it was only slightly worse than Yongchuan. The headquarters of many multinational companies in China were located here, such as CA Entertainment.

When passing by the city center, a huge poster that flashed outside the window attracted Lin Chen’s attention.

The poster showed a young man holding a microphone. He had dyed blonde hair and was lying on the grass, which seemed to extend infinitely, and was laughing. Lin Chen didn’t know if this was intentional or not by the photographer, but the most impressive thing in the entire picture was the small dimples on Mu Zhuo’s cheek.

The infinite magnification of the giant outdoor poster seemed to also infinitely magnify the vigor of the young man. He was so enthusiastic and energetic that it burned one’s eyes.

At the bottom of the huge poster was the line of the same slogan. As the vehicle moved, Lin Chen turned his head and read it softly. “Century Nianhua Stadium, May 6^th, Mu Zhuo is waiting for you.”

“A’Chen, are you talking about that poster?” Wang Chao asked after turning his head around.

“Yes.” Lin Chen looked back, always feeling an inexplicable emotion. When he turned his head to look at the poster again, he couldn’t see anything.

“I found there’s something seriously wrong with CA Entertainment. They like to make everything so big. Even their concert posters are so exaggerated,” Wang Chao said angrily, probably because he remembered Li Jingtian’s huge poster in Ansheng International Mall.

“Hey, sir, are you going to Mu Zhuo’s concert?” Mr. Driver suddenly asked.

“Uh… no. I’m just curious about it,” Wang Chao replied.

“I’ve picked up a lot of music fans these days. Isn’t the Watermelon Music Festival going on? Many people come to our concerts every spring. I also picked up a group of little girls who came for Mu Zhuo’s concert. Is this Mu Zhuo famous?”

“Do you know him?” Lin Chen asked.

“Yes, the little girls I picked up were quite noisy. They told me a lot about him while I was driving them,” the driver said as he gave a thumbs up. “They said he didn’t have it easy. He was raped by a man before, but still persisted and is now quite popular?”

“It seems so,” Lin Chen replied.

“This is worthy of respect. His struggles,” Mr. Driver said with some emotion.

Hearing what Mr. Driver was saying, the young man laughing indulgently on the grass appeared in Lin Chen’s mind again. When he was investigating the case of Song Shengsheng, he also more or less saw the news about Mu Zhuo at that time. Public opinion showed infinite sympathy for him, which was completely different from the treatment Xu Ran was getting now.

This was social prejudice. It was always easy for people to hold an unfair and unreasonable negative attitude towards a certain kind of person or a certain type of group. This was both unreasonable and deeply rooted.

Lin Chen once again remembered the strong singer the driver was talking about. Although it was appropriate to sympathize with the victim in any case, Lin Chen felt something inexplicable when it came to Mu Zhuo. Somehow, he felt that the face gradually coincided with Song Shengsheng’s face.

Due to the traffic jam on the road, it was 8:30 before they arrived. In fact, the timing was quite good, since it gave Xing Conglian more time to rest. At the same time, this was exactly the time when work hours started up.

Xing Conglian opened his bleary eyes and quickly woke up. After getting out of the car, he lit a cigarette, looked at the office building towering into a courtyard, and without saying a word, walked straight in.

Just as he walked through the revolving door, he took out his phone and dialed the number for the PR department of the municipal bureau.

During the time when they got into the taxi and got off, Xing Conglian hadn’t reached out to the PR department once. He seemed to be waiting to strike at the right time, which was the moment when he walked into CA Entertainment.

He said dryly, “Make a statement on the case report of the wounding case in Ansheng International Mall on May 6. The general content is that Xu Ran, the deceased rumored on the internet, was not at the scene of the crime, thus clearing up all rumors…”

The person on the other end of the line didn’t know what to say. What Xing Conglian requested was quite difficult, as they didn’t even have a clear suspect now. If they issued this clarification announcement, it would make the police seem incompetent.

However, Xing Conglian insisted. “It’s fine. Weibo, newspapers, major news outlets—issue it to all of them. Anyway, it’s me who they will scold. What are you afraid of?”

When they reached the front desk, Xing Conglian hung up, gripped the phone, and knocked on the table of the front desk. He then took his badge from his pocket with his other hand and flashed it. “I’m looking for Li Gaoqiang.”

The lady at the front desk was a little startled. She hurriedly put down her powder puff and asked out of habit, “Do you have an appointment?”

Xing Conglian put down his badge and said with a smile, “Sorry, I don’t.”

“Then… Then I will call and ask.”

Xing Conglian stared at the little girl’s face and faintly said, “Wang Chao?”

Comrade Xiao Wang Chao was extraordinarily clever and said directly, “The office of the Public Relations Department is on the 25^th floor.”

Xing Conglian nodded and walked in.

The lobby security had already noticed them, but in broad daylight, no one dared to stop a policeman who came to handle a case, not to mention an entertainment company was much different than an entertainment club. After reporting to the front desk, they went to the elevator entrance unhindered.

At this moment, Xing Conglian gave a wink to Wang Chao.

Comrade Xiao Wang Chao quickly understood. He obediently pressed for the other elevators, and when they opened, he stopped the door gracefully. This was obviously to prevent Manager Li on the 25^th floor from escaping in advance.

Xing Conglian then walked into another elevator with a swaggering appearance, as if he was afraid everyone in CA Entertainment wouldn’t know of their arrival. When they got to the 25^th floor, there were already public relations staff waiting at the elevator entrance.

“Where’s your manager?” Xing Conglian glanced at the name tags on the female staff members that were around the elevator exit. It clearly had the words CA Entertainment Public Relations Department printed on it.

“Our manager hasn’t been at work today. I’m sorry, Mr. Police Officer.”

“It’s okay. We can go to his office and wait.”

How could a person like Xing Conglian be fooled by words like “Our manager isn’t at work”? After he finished speaking, he stepped forward and walked towards the office.

The female staff in the office all looked at each other, wondering what was going on. In the spirit of watching the excitement, many took out their phones and started taking pictures, creating an array of flashing lights in the room.

When Xing Conglian walked past the wall placard of staff members, under the manager’s column, they saw Mr. Li Gaoqiang, whom they hadn’t gotten to meet yesterday.

When Lin Chen looked at the photo embedded on the staff wall, he couldn’t help but sigh.

What a coincidence that Mr. Manager Li looked very familiar, and even more coincidentally, last night, this gentleman was named Lu Xu.

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