What Yi Jiayi saw in the virtual reality footage were five lanky young men, ranging in age from teenagers to their twenties.
They treated the deceased as if they were little cats or dogs, brutally beating and mocking them, like a child unaware, tearing off a spider’s legs, always smiling, showing no panic, no sympathy, no fear.
What Yi Jiayi felt was only the most primitive malice, a kind of beastly desire for violence.
The murder scene overlapped significantly with the gruesome corpse scene described by Xu Junhao. The only difference was that in the scene she saw, more than just the deceased were abused and humiliated.
Another young man was also there, his head caved in, lying aside.
In the murder, two young men tied a large rock to the young male victim’s body, discussing to sink both him and the female victim into the lake, intending to make them a pair of deep-water mandarin ducks.
One of the young men even complained that they only found one large rock…
As Yi Jiayi sought important information in the footage, she returned to the small administrative office, only to receive a call from Qiu Sushan as soon as she sat down.
She reported that the collection was complete, the review was mostly fine, and asked Yi Jiayi to come and pick it up.
The Bi Street murder case report was only missing the major case team’s input; once collected, it could be compiled into a folder for submission, waiting to be used at trial.
Yi Jiayi tried to gather herself and went downstairs to meet Inspector Qiu, but her emotions were still not entirely settled. Therefore, the young policewoman Qiu Sushan met was not the warm young girl described by Fang Zhenyue and others, but a girl with a melancholic gaze and a somber mood.
Qiu Sushan had intended to probe into Yi Jiayi’s background, but the low pressure the young policewoman brought into her office made it difficult to carry out her prepared approach.
It was as if the pitch was set too high, only to find that the song to be sung was Leslie Cheung’s “Silence is Golden,” putting her in a dilemma.
It’s strange how such a young girl could lighten the mood of Major Case Team B so significantly.
It’s hard to accept that those delightful treats were prepared by such a melancholic young lady.
Looking at it, it’s simply inhumane for Fang Zhenyue to have such a young woman running logistics for him.
If Yi Jiayi was all sunshine, needing to radiate a bit, needing others to draw some excess light and heat, that would be one thing. But look at Yi Jiayi, does she seem bright and sunny?
Clearly, Yi Jiayi needs more sunshine, lacks brilliance.
Qiu Sushan, seeing Yi Jiayi’s sorrow as if she had been harshly bullied by society, was secretly convinced that it was all due to Fang Zhenyue’s manipulation.
Looking back, she needed to have a serious talk with those men; if they valued the girl’s sharp intuition, they should lead her properly, teach her properly.
Not to exploit Yi Jiayi’s eagerness to learn, squeezing the last drop of sweetness from her.
After several turns of thought, Qiu Sushan discarded all the tests and trials she had originally prepared.
Upon receiving the Bi Street murder case report from Yi Jiayi, Qiu very graciously thanked her.
Yi Jiayi responded very appropriately, “No need to thank me, madam. It’s what I should do.”
Qiu Sushan, probably worn out from dealing with Fang Zhenyue’s confrontations, found her heart softened by the polite young policewoman, Yi Jiayi.
She took out a sheet of paper, listed a few names on it, and handed it to Yi Jiayi:
“These are the cases I’m planning to reassign to Team B to reopen. The related old reports, files, and other documents for these cases are not in the archive but should still be in your office, unsorted.
“Please find them and give them directly to Officer Sergeant Fang.”
“Yes, madam,” Yi Jiayi took the list handed over by Qiu Sushan, which contained three long-unsolved cold cases.
Standing up, Yi Jiayi stared at the list on the paper, then looked back at Qiu Sushan, and a thought suddenly struck her:
Could she… mix the King’s Park body-dumping case files with the ones Madam asked her to sort and hand them all to Officer Fang?
“I will arrange all the files and hand them to Sir Fang, and will convey your orders diligently, asking Sir Fang to reinvestigate these cases,” said Yi Jiayi, bowing politely to Qiu Sushan, making it clear she would relay Madam’s orders, hoping Madam would not need to repeat the same to Officer Fang.
This would allow her to create an information gap, then deceive and confuse…
“OK.”
Qiu Sushan was someone who was more receptive to gentleness than harshness. Facing the tough Fang Zhenyue, she often couldn’t help but retort sharply.
However, facing the earnest, well-behaved, and melancholic young lady Yi Jiayi, she couldn’t suppress her natural maternal instinct, managing a barely passable smile.
Yi Jiayi maintained this expression as she left the office, only relaxing her face with a stiff rub once the office door closed behind her.
If such a young lady were really transferred to the Major Crime Team B, wouldn’t she be bullied to the bone by those brutes?
She trusted Fang Zhenyue’s judgment in people, but not his discretion in using them.
Applying for a transfer on his behalf wasn’t entirely out of the question, but she’d likely need to be more attentive, watching over and protecting, to prevent Fang Zhenyue from leading the charge in mistreating women, making people think the oily police station specialized in such acts.
Imagining herself like a mother hen looking after Yi Jiayi, becoming Yi Jiayi’s mentor and guardian in her career and life, Inspector Qiu’s image was, for once, tall and commanding.
Thus, Qiu Sushan began to enjoy this preemptive connection, fully placing Fang Zhenyue in the position of an imaginary enemy.
…
In the office of the Major Crime Team B, the ‘big villain’ Fang Zhenyue stared at the red circle on the whiteboard, deeply troubled.
Lin Wangjiu flatly refused to erase the whiteboard, fearing to anger the ghost who drew the circles.
Who would have thought that the little policewoman, whom Qiu Sushan imagined as melancholic, obedient, and pitiable, turned out to be the mastermind playing the B Unit detectives for fools?