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墨書 Inktalez
Xing Yishen must be a straight man.
He didn’t know how to comfort me, so he just bought me cotton candy from an old lady on the street.
As for me, my emotions come and go quickly; a little food can lift my spirits.
“So you’re afraid of hospitals because of this?”
He probably recalled how I hurried to leave the hospital last time.
“Yeah,” I joked, “while others are afraid to go to the morgue, I’m afraid of the ICU.”
“Can you see me there?”
I looked him over carefully and shook my head. “No, I can only see that person when they’re about to die.”
“More or less, that No-Face should be the killer. As for the motive, my colleague is interrogating that girl’s friends.”
Xing Yishen bought a bag of grilled sausages from the roadside and handed it to me.
“Why are you telling me this?”
He glanced at me. “Because you’re in danger too. There’s still no progress on Zhang Yi’s case. It’s better for you to know more.”
After eating and wandering around, we returned to the cat café.
“Song Yu?” Shenh Wei popped out from the flower shop, looking worried. “I heard something happened on South Street and was just about to look for you.”
“I’m fine.”
"That's good to hear." Shenh Wei glanced at me, his expression turning awkward. "Is this... your boyfriend?"
"No," I replied.
Xing Yishen shot me a look but said nothing.
Shenh Wei perked up again. "We just received a fresh batch of flowers; you can take some home."
"No need, the ones you gave me a couple of days ago are still blooming," I said.
Shenh Wei continued tidying up inside the flower shop.
Xing Yishen's gaze was a bit strange. "Does he always give you flowers?"
"What's it to you?"
He snorted, "Be careful; there's no such thing as a free lunch."
I mimicked his snort. "Single man, single woman—it's none of your business."
As I opened the door, I waved at him with the bag in hand.
He suddenly rushed over, looking anxious. "Song Yu, you can't be alone tonight."
"Officer, please don't tell me you're trying to play the rogue," I said, looking up at him with an innocent smile.
The screen on my phone lit up in front of me.
"I just received the news; the preliminary autopsy results are out."
"There are also hallucinogens in Qi Qi's body, consistent with Zhang Yi."
A series of murders.
Fourteen days have passed.
No-Face's next target should be me.
April 14.
I can't shake the feeling that this date is too coincidental.
Xing Yishen wanted me to go to the police station with him, but I was reluctant, so he decided to stay overnight at the cat café.
In front of a group of cats, I finished my late-night snack while a few orange cats kept pawing at the floor. I smiled and refilled their food.
Xing Yishen was on the phone the whole time.
I had my late-night snack while he was on the phone.
I took a shower while he was on the phone.
I played with the cats, and he was still on the phone.
After he finished his call, I got ready for bed.
"The room needs some ventilation," was the first thing he said.
I adjusted the bed sheets and replied, "Actually, I was just about to ask you why you were making a phone call in the cat's litter box. I thought you had that kind of habit."
Xing Yishen choked a bit, sniffed at his own scent, and furrowed his brows tightly.
"The bathroom is over there."
It was unprecedented for me to actually let a man take a shower at my place, and I even found my dad's old clothes for him.
In the box were a few scattered items.
Among them was his badge; I ran my fingers over the raised numbers, which still shone brightly after all these years.
When I was little, I once asked him if I could also become a police officer when I grew up.
He had patted my head with a fond smile and said that if he were alive, he would protect me for life; if he were gone, he wouldn’t want me to restart his badge number.
To be honest, I really missed him.
The bathroom door opened, and Xing Yishen emerged with a flushed face.
I thought carefully; there shouldn’t be anything inappropriate in the bathroom.
"What’s wrong?"
"Nothing," he shyly shook his head. "Wearing my idol's clothes makes me a bit excited."
I remained silent.
"Don't you think you look like a pervert right now?"
Xing Yishen was tall, and the clothes fit him well, showcasing his solid muscles.
My dad used to be like that, always bragging about how his impressive looks attracted my mom.
I had never met my mom; she passed away during childbirth.
Afterward, my dad raised me alone, trying to shield me from any hardships. He pretended not to notice the advances of those beautiful aunts.
"Tonight, sleep well. I'll be on the couch in the living room. Call me if you need anything." Xing Yishen finally returned to normal.
"And during the day, we need to stick together. Your cat café will have to close for a few days."
Outside, it was pitch black, and I nodded in agreement.
I suddenly realized that I had quite the knack for getting caught up in trouble, just like Conan—wherever I went, things seemed to get sealed off. Now even the cat café had to shut down.
I wondered when this situation would come to an end.
I saw A Shuang's demise approaching.
But it was Qi Qi who ended up dead.
They had swapped their movie tickets.
It is not hard to imagine that No-Face's original target was A Shuang.
Once I thought of this, Xing Yishen naturally came to the same conclusion.
The next morning, Xing Yishen told me the results of their overnight interrogation.
"There were originally three screening rooms in the secret chamber, but one broke down yesterday, so the boss sent us to Rooms Two and Three."
"No-Face took the victim back to Room One to commit the crime."
"We did not find any valid fingerprints or biological information at the scene."
"The time of death was last night at 10 PM."
"We checked A Shuang and Zhang Yi; they do not know each other."
"Oh, and one more thing: the clock in the store is five minutes fast."
I looked up and met his gaze.
Five minutes fast.
This meant that our calculations about the time had always been wrong.
So when we rushed in to look for Qi Qi, she had already been dead for five minutes.
The time difference was enough for No-Face to escape.
The cat café hung up a sign indicating it was closed for business.
After feeding the cats and cleaning up, I went to the police station with Xing Yishen.
The atmosphere at the police station was tense; it seemed that officials from the provincial department had arrived, as I spotted several older officers in white shirts along the way.
Fei Ji Tou and Mr. Loudshirt were questioned as usual and then released.
A Shuang stayed at the police station to communicate with the school and handle confidentiality matters.
The two cases were officially merged for investigation.
The media's ability to sensationalize stories had become increasingly sophisticated, turning the two cases into something almost mythical, with all sorts of outrageous speculations circulating.
"Sister, I'm really scared..." A Shuang cried when she saw me, unable to hold back her tears.
I handed her a tissue, unsure of how to comfort her.
Xing Yishen sat nearby, flipping through the photos and clues collected from the scene, his brow furrowed in concentration.
"If I hadn't agreed to switch tickets, Qi Qi wouldn't have died..."
"Why does it always have to be like this?"
"It's my fault... I caused their deaths..."
She cried in heaving sobs, as if touched by some painful memory.
Catching the keywords, I asked, "Every time? Them?"
"I... I was trafficked seven years ago," A Shuang stammered, her eyes red from crying. "Later, I became a hostage..."
"There was an older sister who gave me the chance to survive."
"And a police officer who sacrificed himself to save me..."
Seven years ago.
In an instant, I felt as if I had fallen into an ice cave.
Xing Yishen suddenly sat up straight. "Seven years ago, the major trafficking case in Jin City? You were the last little girl rescued?"
A Shuang nodded.
Xiong Er hurriedly pushed the door open. "Boss, there's a new breakthrough regarding Zhang Yi's identity!"
Seven years ago.
In Jin City, a group of detectives raided a major trafficking crime den. The last criminal casually grabbed two little girls and tossed them into a car as hostages, driving away.
Song Lian, as the captain of the detective team, demanded to exchange himself for the hostages.
The criminal agreed.
Song Lian and that criminal were long-time archrivals. Over the years, their encounters had always been a game of cat and mouse—he escaped, and Song Lian pursued him relentlessly, as if he had wings but could never truly fly away.
The criminal had one demand: they must leave one of the two hostages alive.
A Shuang was young, only thirteen at the time, and she cried incessantly.
In the end, naturally, A Shuang survived.
The car plunged off the bridge into the river from the western suburbs.
After three days of searching, they finally retrieved the vehicle downstream. The windows and doors were locked tight, and there were no survivors.
When I saw Song Lian's body, it was bloated and unrecognizable, but I knew it was him.
Before committing his crimes, the criminal had changed his only daughter's household registration and name, sending her to be raised by another family.
It was hard to believe.
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