Jiayi pedals her bike facing the morning sun. The cool breeze brushes past her ears, neatly arranging her short hair.
As she turns a corner, the breeze, gentle as an elder sister, morphs into a mischievous younger brother, messing up her neatly combed hair, forcing her to steer with one hand while swiftly tucking her disruptive locks behind her ears.
Upon reaching the police station, she quickly locks her bike and rushes into Office B, unable to wait to share the freshly obtained and still warm interrogation transcript.
Walking from the garage to the police station while reading the newspaper, You Zhaohua feels a breeze and looks up just in time to see the slender back of the policewoman dart into the main entrance of the station, disappearing from view.
You Zhaohua doesn’t even get a chance to greet Jiayi.
He pinches the newspaper in his hands, his features subtly creasing.
The morning sun gently spreads across the rough texture of the paper, warming the page he is reading. Boldly printed on it is:
[Is she a brave heroine or just a faux ace of the serious crime unit: Unveiling Detective Yi]
[…According to Ms. Qin Mouliang, who claims to have been falsely accused, Officer Yi has been targeting her. Despite having sufficient evidence pointing to the real suspect, Yi instead continuously harasses their victimized relatives and friends… The so-called justice policewoman is merely a waste of police resources, disrespecting forensic science and legal medicine, an egomaniac. Previously hailed in newspapers as a detective with a sense of justice for the innocent, now she is seen as an incompetent officer causing suffering to the innocent… What is the truth, we await a detailed response from the police.]
…
Jiayi bursts into Office B, panting heavily, slaps a hand on Sanfu’s back before he has a chance to glare and scold, and triumphantly slams the other hand holding the witness statement on the table:
“First-hand material, sir, Tu Guisheng’s suspicion has been completely cleared. The eyewitness says they saw the perpetrator, and it was a woman!”
Sanfu turns around, staring in disbelief at Jiayi, then hurriedly picks up the transcript and begins to read intently.
How could it be that an eyewitness, who seemed nonexistent just a night ago, suddenly appears?
And… there are two of them?!
“Has Tu Guisheng’s suspicion been cleared? I just received the forensic report saying both Tu Guisheng and Qin Hongliang had similar amounts of sleeping pills in their system, making it hard to say who drugged whom,” Gary walks in just in time to hear the good news and bends over next to Sanfu to read the new statement together.
“This… who would have thought… picking up trash at 4:30 AM…” Gary trails off, then suddenly pauses, tilting his head in confusion as he looks toward Jiayi, his expression gradually turning to one of shock:
“You weren’t possibly wandering around there at 4:30 AM, were you?”
“Give it a try,” Jiayi’s big eyes look expectantly at Gary, waiting for praise.
“So impressive I want to kowtow to you, Sister Jiayi!” Gary, living up to expectations, indeed exclaims loudly in admiration.
“Fair enough,” Jiayi chuckled, indicating her satisfaction.
Fang Zhenyue entered the office and began updating the information on the whiteboard with a report from the forensic department:
[Blood type found at Tu Guisheng’s home matches the victim Zhao Meini]
[The found hair matches Zhao Meini’s characteristics.]
[Partial fingerprints found on the clock match those of Qin Hongliang’s left thumb. Confirmation rate: 75%]
[Fingerprints found on the wall next to the clock match Qin Hongliang’s right hand fingerprints. Confirmation rate: 99%]
“Brother Yue, Tu Guisheng’s height and gender don’t match the confession Jiayi got this morning. He’s been ruled out as a suspect,” Liu Jiaming reported with a smile after Fang Zhenyue finished updating the forensic information on the whiteboard.
“Clara’s also ruled out; her hair style and color don’t match the confession either,” Gary reported eagerly.
“It matches Qin Hongliang,” Jiayi added.
“Also, there’s an important piece of information about rubber gloves,” Jiayi raised her eyebrows. “Brother Yue, can we apply for a search warrant now?”
Hoping to find rubber gloves or other evidence at Qin Hongliang’s home.
“We should be able to get the warrant this time,” Fang Zhenyue said with a smile after receiving the confession from Sanfu, then turned to instruct Liu Jiaming to request a search warrant from Qiu Sushan.
Half an hour later, Team B mobilized, waking Qin Hongliang from her dreams with a search warrant in hand, and turned her room upside down.
Qin Hongliang’s room was as neat and tidy as Jiayi had anticipated, organized neatly in a group of six.
Although the investigators didn’t find any more clues or the anticipated rubber gloves in the room, the significant step of obtaining the search warrant also started making Qin Hongliang uneasy.
She wondered what new evidence the police had obtained that convinced the court to issue the search warrant.
Of course, no one would satisfy Qin Hongliang’s curiosity. After the search ended, the forensic team professionally took some items.
Back in the office, a new round of discussion began.
“No more clues, so we’ll just have to organize these existing ones into evidence,” Uncle Jiu looked at the writings on the whiteboard and continued:
“These pieces of evidence are enough. We have eyewitness confessions, testimonies from Clara, Tu Guisheng, Sister Yun, and others, perfect circular reasoning, a complete profile sketch of Qin Hongliang, and her motive for the crime. An 80% chance of winning is good enough.”
At this stage in other groups, the case could be considered closed.
Although they didn’t obtain Qin Hongliang’s testimony, which was regrettable, her chances of gaining the jury’s support in court were probably not high.
But Fang Zhenyue frowned and did not immediately respond to Uncle Jiu’s comment.
Jiayi looked at Brother Yue, knowing he always strove for perfection and wanted a 99% success rate before submitting anything to the Department of Justice. He did not want Qin Hongliang to escape.
As everyone was sorting through the evidence and discussing, Fang Zhenyue suddenly said:
“If there’s no core evidence, we’ll fabricate some.”
Uncle Jiu and the others looked up in shock at Fang Zhenyue.
Really?
Was Brother Yue, who would stop at nothing to solve a case, finally ready to jeopardize his own job?
“Brother Yue, think twice. Submitting false evidence to the Department of Justice is illegal,” Liu Jiaming said despairingly, not wanting to lose his dad—no, he didn’t want to miss his afternoon tea!
“What are you thinking? It’s about providing false evidence to Qin Hongliang!” Fang Zhenyue smacked Liu Jiaming on the head, and turning around, he noticed everyone else sighed in relief.
“…” Did everyone really see him as such a lawless person?
…
In the following half-day, Jiayi went again to visit the elderly couple and gathered more details about those rubber gloves.
Sanfu also called Clara, who found several pairs of rubber gloves frequently used by Qin Hongliang at home. Confirming they were similar to what Sanfu had mentioned, she quietly took a pair to the police station.
Once they communicated with the forensic technicians, the detectives discovered that each technician, led by Brother Da Guangming, was an expert at forgery!
They were familiar with the shapes of various items and understood how different conditions affected them. Following the details provided by Team B, they modified the new gloves.
Everyone speculated what Qin Hongliang might have done with these gloves, ensuring the technicians wouldn’t miss any details.
Among them, Jiayi’s deductions were particularly meticulous and reliable.
She not only recounted the moment Qin Hongliang put on the gloves but also what he touched afterward and how many times she washed them.
She was a profiling genius with impeccable logic.
The forensic department nicknamed her “Profile Logic Prodigy King”!
It took Jiayi a while to realize that ‘Profile’ meant profiling, ‘Logic’ was logic, ‘Prodigy’ was genius, and ‘King’ was king.
Well, the forensic team might be strong in science, but they were terrible at nicknames.
In the afternoon, amidst the detectives’ anxious anticipation, the forensic department finally completed their proudest creation: the 【fabricated evidence】, and during the handover to Major Crime Team B, they made it clear that if there were any issues, it had absolutely nothing to do with the forensic department.
Especially not with Brother Da Guangming.
Fang Zhenyue patted Da Guangming’s shoulder and said, “Don’t worry, if there’s a treat, you’re included. But if there’s blame to be taken, it won’t come near you.”
“With you saying that, I can rest easy,” Da Guangming nodded and smiled. Fang Zhenyue was indeed a friend worth having.
…
After getting the rubber gloves, Fang Zhenyue showed them to the other detectives who all thought there were no issues. Sanfu immediately made a call to summon Qin Hongliang.
This summons was a custodial one, she couldn’t refuse, and she wouldn’t be allowed to leave after the interrogation.
While waiting for Qin Hongliang, everyone felt uneasy.
Jiayi couldn’t help but ask Fang Zhenyue again, “Brother Yue, what if Qin Hongliang actually took the real rubber gloves home and burned them? Then she’d realize immediately that the gloves we prepared are a trick to deceive her.”
She hadn’t seen how the murderer disposed of the rubber gloves in her psychic impressions, and it was possible Qin Hongliang might have burned them.
“If it fails, then we’ll submit the other existing evidence to the Justice Department,” said Fang Zhenyue, suddenly smiling with unexpected confidence.
When his eyebrows relaxed, he looked effortlessly charming, exuding a confident allure that was uniquely magnetic.
He explained:
“After killing, Qin Hongliang wouldn’t go straight home. She would return to Tu Guisheng’s home, pretending to have just woken up. She’d then dine with Tu Guisheng, handling this ‘time witness’ before she could go home. There’s an eighty percent chance she wouldn’t bring the murder-worn rubber gloves back to Tu Guisheng’s place, as it would be too risky.
“If I were her, after setting up the crime scene and all the traps, feeling certain of my control.
“To her at that time, those rubber gloves posed no threat at all. Throwing them away far from the crime scene, they were unlikely to be discovered. Especially given her arrogance, assuming most detectives were incompetent, even if they thought of the rubber gloves, they’d probably have been processed at the dump by then…
“Eleven, we will win.”
He had thoroughly analyzed and thought through the situation, trusting his own reasoning.
In this high-stakes gamble, they stood a good chance of winning.
…
20 minutes later, Qin Hongliang arrived at the police station, brought into the interrogation room by Sanfu.
Before Jiayi entered the interrogation room, Liu Jiaming pointed at a stain on her chest—it was sauce from the fishballs they had eaten at an elderly couple’s home that morning. The most formidable policewoman had a drop of the tastiest fishball sauce on her shirt.
Returning to the office, she put on a tailored blazer, making herself look more serious and trim.
Digging out a bright red lipstick she had bought on a previous holiday, she covered her naturally soft lips, making her appearance even more commanding.
Pressing her lips together and furrowing her brows, she managed her expression before entering the interrogation room with a cold demeanor and an imposing presence.
This time, the detectives had gathered more evidence and collectively set the most meticulous and dangerous trap for the beast, Qin Hongliang.