Yi Ji is an old establishment. Although managed neatly by Yi Jiadong, the old house and its numerous antiques still made it look rather dim.
When Fang Zhenyue led the way in, he smartly dodged the droplets falling from the clothes hung on the wooden racks by residents on the second floor, while Liu Jiaming, following behind, got a shoulder wet.
By now, it was dark outside, and the first wave of dinner guests had left. Yi Jiadong was wrestling with a Jia Mei chicken in the kitchen when he heard the guests and came out with a kitchen knife in hand to greet them.
Seeing that the visitors were colleagues of Yi Jiayi, including the police officer who had escorted his sister home the day before, he became even more enthusiastic. The kitchen knife swung energetically, frightening Liu Jiaming into bending down and not daring to look up again.
Embarrassed, Yi Jiadong put away the kitchen knife and warmly invited the distinguished guests to sit down, quickly distributed the menus, and offered to treat everyone to his specialty dish, lotus leaf steamed black chicken with sticky rice.
“No need, boss, we have to get back to work soon, just a bowl of wonton noodles for each of us,” Liu Jiaming quickly intervened, then smilingly added, “Big Brother Yi, didn’t you say you made pig’s trotter soup for Yi? Serve it up for us to try too.”
“Alrighty,” Yi Jiadong cheerfully agreed and headed back into the kitchen, bustling about with the cooking.
After school, Yi Jiaru, who came to help her brother by washing dishes and serving tea, made her dazzling entry. She served tea and took the opportunity to scrutinize her sister’s colleagues with curious eyes, more intently than a police observing a suspect.
After serving the tea, she lingered unwillingly until Yi Jiayi gave her a look and she finally left reluctantly.
“Your sister?” Liu Jiaming asked with a smile.
“Yes, still studying, with very good academic performance,” Yi Jiayi, seemingly having picked up her older brother’s habit, couldn’t help but brag about her siblings whenever she met someone.
With no other patrons in the dining hall and the dishes yet to be served, everyone’s mind was on the case and they began discussing it again.
“I’ve asked the neighbors around; no one heard a baby cry, nor saw anyone suspicious carrying heavy items, holding a child, or dragging a suitcase,” Liu Jiaming shook his head.
“We’ve checked every household in the building and haven’t found a single clue,” Lin Wangjiu shrugged helplessly.”
“We’ve also set up a watch; there are patrols keeping guard, but so far, there’s been no news.”
“Brother Yue also had people watching places selling baby formula and milk, registering and investigating any suspicious individuals. Now, all we can do is wait.”
This dissected child, not only premature but also deprived of breastmilk, left everyone puzzled about the perpetrator’s motive, fearing the worst for the baby.
Yi Jiayi frowned, sipping water while nervously biting on the edge of her teacup.
The baby was still alive at birth, and judging by the perpetrator’s cautious actions, it seemed he wanted the baby to live.
Sir Fang sent someone to monitor the trade of infant formula and milk, suggesting it might be a way to catch the murderer.
“I think the murderer is most likely the victim’s husband,” Liu Jiaming banged on the desk, “that man said he was away on a business trip for four days, knows nothing when asked. He cries loudly, but doesn’t provide any clues. I think he really doesn’t want us to catch the murderer.” He cursed ‘scum’.
Yi Jiayi shook her head hard internally, that man was indeed scum and deserved to die, but he wasn’t the murderer.
How to tell them that the murderers were two elderly people? It was a dilemma.
“If the murderer was the victim’s husband, then where is his accomplice?” Fang Zhenyue furrowed his brows.
“Accomplice?” Liu Jiaming looked dazedly at Sir Fang.
Yi Jiayi’s eyes lit up.
“The forensic results at the scene do not rule out the possibility of multiple people involved in the crime,” Fang Zhenyue tapped on the table rhythmically, assisting his thought process:
“Firstly, no drugs were detected in the victim’s blood, which means she was conscious before she died.”
“A conscious person wouldn’t just lie down and let you harm her without resisting.”
“If there was only one person committing the crime, there wouldn’t be an absence of signs of a fierce struggle and fight at the scene.”
“The victim was in a state of restricted freedom when her abdomen was cut open. Although something was stuffed in her mouth, there were no signs of her limbs being bound.”
“There must have been someone holding the victim’s hands while her abdomen was being cut open.”
“The perpetrator might have used their legs to restrain one of the victim’s legs, but it would be difficult to manage cutting open her abdomen while also controlling the victim’s other three limbs.”
“I deduce that there must have been at least two people involved in the murder.”
As Fang Zhenyue spoke, his expression was deep and somber, drawing everyone’s attention like a profound abyss.
Yi Jiayi stared intently at Officer Fang, mentally shouting, “Yes! Yes! That’s right, Officer Fang!!!”
Hiding behind the counter pretending to do the accounts, Yi Jiaru who had been stealthily watching caught her elder sister’s expression as she gazed at Officer Fang and couldn’t help but whisper to her younger brother, who was quietly solving math problems at a small table under the counter:
“Sis is practically drooling over that Officer Fang. What a lovesick fool.”
“…” Jiajun kept his head down and continued with his homework.
“I still prefer the cheerful, dashing, and handsome type, obviously very interesting to look at.”
“…” Jiajun was still doing his homework.
“I wonder if there are any cooler and more dashing guys at the police station, like Brother Xiao Ma, charming and loyal, the kind who has an air about him when he walks.”
“…” Jiajun continued with his homework.
“But upon closer inspection, indeed Sir Fang is handsomer. Big sister is really superficial, just judging by appearances.”
“I also prefer Officer Fang’s style,” Jiajun suddenly lifted his head, pressed his mechanical pencil, dropped a comment, and then lowered his head to continue writing.
“Fang…” Jiaru suddenly sensed something odd, staring at her brother with a strange look, wondering what’s going on. He’s a boy; what does he mean by ‘liking Officer Fang’s style’? “???”
Yi Jiaru was about to pull her brother’s ear to ask what he meant by that statement when Fang Zhenyue, sitting in the hall, suddenly cast a glance behind the counter. Although it might have just been a casual look, his experienced gaze, already steeped in the harshness of blade and sword, frightened Yi Jiaru so much that she bowed her head and forgot about interrogating her brother.
When Fang Zhenyue withdrew his gaze, she quickly ran to the kitchen to help her older brother, not daring to peek anymore.
On the other hand, Liu Jiaming was still puzzled by Fang Zhenyue’s words, frowning:
“The gatekeeper is quite sure that the deceased’s husband came back alone.”
“There are many tenants coming and going, making it a messy situation. The old gatekeeper is nearly blind, sitting there just for show, and didn’t provide any useful information.” Lin Wangjiu slumped in a chair, which creaked under his weight.
Dealing with such witnesses is exhausting, as even if they have crucial information in their minds, you need to keep probing in various ways to get it out.
And before actually capturing useful information, there’s a lot of ambiguous information and negative resistance from being questioned too much—
They are innocent people; you can’t just press them for answers.
Having been a detective for decades, Lin Wangjiu was full of complaints, desperately needing some positive energy.
“Tomorrow, the deceased’s husband goes to work, Jiaming will take Gary to visit and check his recent situation. Start investigating him first to try and rule out a crime of passion.
“Uncle Jiu will take Sanfu to visit the neighbors to inquire about the couple’s situation over the past few months, to see if there are any closely related people frequently visiting, and to clarify the network of relationships. We’ll have a meeting tomorrow afternoon to integrate the information and conduct the first round of suspect screening.”
As soon as the wonton noodles were served, Fang Zhenyue quickly issued instructions, wrapping up the discussion temporarily, and started eating with his chopsticks.
At a height of 1.86 meters, having not eaten since the afternoon and now it was past eight o’clock, his stomach was in uproar.
Yi Jiayi picked up her chopsticks slowly, her gaze drifting.
How can she find an opportunity to see the faces of the suspects mentioned by Sir Fang?
The killer won’t shout like a character in a martial arts film, saying “I, Hu Han San, will take your life with just one move today” before killing someone.
Even if Officer Fang and his team list the killer as a suspect, she could at most find out his name, which still wouldn’t match up.
Caught up in her troubles, her chopsticks slowed down, and by the time she refocused, the three men in front of her had almost finished their meals.
She looked up in disbelief: Are these three starving ghosts? What happened to the cool, handsome detective image? Is that gone?
Yi Jiadong served up some soybean and pork knuckle soup, while Liu Jiaming ladled soup and sighed:
“Did we use up all our luck solving the last case within 24 hours? Looking at how things are now, will this case take half a year to solve?”
“Ah, just thinking about having to visit the deceased’s neighbors upstairs and downstairs every day, shamelessly trying to chat with them, feeling around for all sorts of clues, and endlessly investigating only to possibly find that all the leads are useless… I’m going to go gray.”
“Jiayi, is your luck still around? Can you give our Team B a boost? I don’t want to end up like Team A, who’ve been investigating for months and the case is still going nowhere.”
Jiayi, holding her soup bowl, exclaimed with a sigh: I’d like to help too, but how can I? This ability only works with visuals, no captions, it’s got a bug…