CH 123

The girls were detained together. Xing Conglian wanted his police officers to arraign them, but Lin Chen stopped him.

“We’ll just question them in the detention room.” Lin Chen thought for a bit before saying, “I’ll go in alone.”

Xing Conglian raised his brows. He obviously didn’t expect him to say this. “Don’t push yourself.”

“I know.”

The detention room of the police criminal division was on the negative first floor. Hongjing was originally a humid and rainy city, so there was always a musty and rancid smell in the detention room. Most of the prisoners held there were petty thieves and traffic offenders. The surrounding area was filled with whispers and people retching.

It was thanks to Xing Conglian’s hands that these dainty little girls were held here for more than four hours.

Lin Chen used a key to open the iron door. When they heard the sound of the door opening, all the girls in the room stood up.

But unlike Lin Chen’s imagination, in the dim underground space, those little girls looked furious. Their faces weren’t repentant, and they spoke to him condescendingly. “Okay, Uncle Policeman, can we go now?”

Lin Chen was familiar with the faces of those girls. After all, in his memories, their faces had appeared repeatedly. He still remembered that one of them was wearing pink earrings and the other had a Mickey Mouse doll attached to her satchel. Seeing them again, those memories resurfaced.

Lin Chen glanced at them and sat down on the only bed in the detention room in the same posture as he sat in front of Li Jingtian’s hospital bed. “I’m afraid not yet.”

“Why?”

“What makes you think you can keep us for so long?”

The girls began to chatter again. “We didn’t force her to jaywalk.”

“Because Xu Ran is in the hospital and isn’t out of danger,” he said to the girls.

The girls were stunned. They seemed to have no idea who Xu Ran was.

Suddenly, someone responded, “That’s the chicken?”

“What? It’s none of our business. If she dies, she deserves it.”

“That bitch committed suicide. That has nothing to do with us!” The girl wearing pink earrings said. “Hehe, this is truly divine punishment. It’s retribution, I tell you.”

Suddenly, a short-haired girl said coldly, “Officer, I remember you were also at the scene. Why don’t you think it was you who forced that whore to commit suicide?”

Those words poured into Lin Chen’s ears, but he didn’t feel any anger; just sadness.

He wasn’t prepared to talk about useless nonsense such as love and kindness. “I certainly have an inescapable responsibility for Xu Ran’s serious injury, so I’ll take the responsibility I should bear. For example, making you guys talk.”

“You… What do you want?!”

The girls were quite imaginative. There were some that pulled their shirts and hid by the wall.

“It’s simple. We’ll play a game of questions and answers. The person who gives me the most satisfactory answer can leave first, and the rest will stay here for the night.”

As if to match his words, a drunk driver in the next cell began to vomit, and the violent criminal opposite their cell began to shake the iron door frantically.

The girls were shocked. “I’ll tell my parents. I’ll report you. This is abuse!”

Lin Chen thought, if Xing Conglian was here, he would probably take out a cigarette, narrow his eyes slightly, and say to the girls, “You can try.”

So, he said the same thing.

Without giving the girls time to react, he took out his phone and opened Weibo. He pointed to the post that first appeared, indicating Xu Ran’s location, and asked, “Who is this @EatDrinkSleep?”

The girls looked at each other, as if trying to figure out how to respond.

“I’ll give you three seconds. Three, two…”

When the count reached two, the girl wearing pink earrings suddenly raised her head and said confidently, “It’s me. So what?”

“Congratulations.” Lin Chen didn’t even look at her and instead looked at the remaining girls. “She got the first point.”

“Why did you happen to find Xu Ran’s trail?”

As soon as the girl was about to speak, Lin Chen interrupted, “I don’t want to hear words like ‘it was a coincidence’. I want to hear the truth.”

“Someone sent a private message to @EatDrinkSleep and she asked us to go together,” another girl said.

Humans were very strange individuals. The seemingly unbreakable alliance disintegrated in an instant.

“One point.”

“Someone did send me a private message.” The girl wearing pink earrings named “EatDrinkSleep” gritted her teeth as she responded, looking extremely unhappy that her opportunity was robbed.

“Who?”

“It’s the kind of private message that gets deleted after reading. I forgot the name. She said that she saw a bad woman at the intersection and asked me to find her quickly and that she was waiting for me over there.”

“Do you know that person?” Lin Chen asked.

“I… There are so many Jingtian fans on Weibo. How could I know them all?” EatDrinkSleep looked back at the other girls in the detention room and said, “But it’s not any of them. I know all of them.”

“In other words, none of you knows exactly who the person was who first found Xu Ran?”

“It could be someone from the fan club. Who knows?” EatDrinkSleep grumbled.

The expressions on the girl’s face didn’t seem to be fake. Lin Chen nodded and said to her, “You can leave if you can write down the name of the person who sent you the private message.”

After he finished speaking, he took out a pen and paper and handed them to the girl. After the other party finished writing, she headed towards the door.

Just as she was about to reach the door, the girl who was performing well suddenly stopped and walked back to her companions.

“We’re in this together, so we’re going together!”

This sudden sense of loyalty surprised Lin Chen. He turned his head and looked at the fair-skinned girls in front of him again and said, “Then answer my question.”

His gaze finally fell on the fan club logo on the girls’ chest as he asked the stupidest question ever, “Why?”

Why do you want to do this? Why do you want to hurt Xu Ran? Why can you love someone so much yet hate another equally at the same time?

Hearing this, the girls looked at him as if he were an idiot. Their eyes were filled with the flame of faith.

“We agreed to protect Jingtian until we grow old!”

“We’re not wrong!”

When people were young, they would firmly believe in their own opinions and views, as if their love and hate were incomparable.

Lin Chen shook the key in his hand and walked away from the interrogation room without closing the door.

He walked out to the stairway and found Xing Conglian hadn’t waited for him in the previous place.

He raised his eyes and looked at the police officers that were rushing around. He grabbed one of them and asked, “Where’s Xing Conglian?”

“In the lounge.” The police officer had an angsty expression on his face.

“What’s wrong?” Lin Chen asked.

“Captain Xing was just on the news. He seems to have shut himself in the lounge to watch TV. Do you want to go see him?”

Hearing this, Lin Chen raised his head and looked at the clock on the wall. It was exactly 7:15 p.m.. It shouldn’t have been long since the Hongjing Night News started.

Lin Chen nodded, thanking the other party, and walked to the police lounge.

Of course, Xing Conglian wasn’t the type to sulk alone in the lounge over trivial things like being on the news. When he walked to the door, he could hear an anchor’s sharp voice coming out of the lounge.

Lin Chen knocked on the door and pushed it open. He saw Xing Conglian leaning on the sofa bed while watching the news. His uniform was spread out, his shirt collar was unbuttoned, and he was holding a bottle of mineral water in his hand. There was no light in the room, which made it a bit eerie.

Wang Chao was checking on things on the desk behind him. When he saw Lin Chen enter, he hurriedly made a quiet gesture to him.

Lin Chen didn’t go up to Xing Conglian but instead walked to the teenager, showed him the Weibo name written by the girl just now, and asked, “What’s wrong?”

He didn’t deliberately lower his voice, so this wasn’t considered snooping behind someone’s back.

“The captain was reprimanded by the director just now. Most likely Li Jingtian’s complaint has arrived.”

“Your captain doesn’t seem like someone who would be unhappy because they got reprimanded.”

“Oh, it’s all trivial. An ant can’t shake a tree*, hmph.” Wang Chao carefully opened a post on Weibo and said, “I don’t know what that old man’s thinking, but it could be the online investigation news just now that made him unhappy.”

*(蚍蜉撼树) Idiom referring to a futile effort. || In this context, basically saying these things wouldn’t shake Xing Conglian.

“Hm?”

Lin Chen looked at the news, which showed an opinion poll. The choices were simple: Who do you think is responsible for the stampede in Ansheng International Mall?

The options were: The police, the murderer Xu Ran, Li Jingtian, or Li Jingtian’s fans.

The poll results were obvious. The murderer Xu Ran won with an overwhelming “advantage” of 68.12%, followed by the police with 16.01%, while Li Jingtian’s fans and Li Jingtian ranked third and fourth.

The total number of votes was 15,000. The public appeared to have already made up its mind about the case.

“So, are you using mineral water to relieve your worries?”

Lin Chen looked back at the man on the sofa. Xing Conglian’s eyes had never moved away from the TV screen.

“Good use of that idiom.”

Xing Conglian finally spoke.

Lin Chen walked over and sat down beside him.

The previous news criticizing the work of the police force had passed, and now people were discussing Li Jingtian’s case.

The male anchor was sitting upright as he spoke solemnly. “In fact, regarding today’s stampede at Ansheng International Mall, things are very clear. This is Xu Ran’s retaliation against singer Li Jingtian. In this regard, we randomly interviewed some passersby to hear their views on the case.”

The location of the interview happened to be on the road outside of the municipal hospital.

In the background of heavy traffic, a hurrying old auntie was stopped by the reporter.

“Oh, what’s there to say about this? Let me tell you, this kind of unclean woman is the guilty one. Can the police hurry up and arrest her already!”

“What? A car accident during the arrest?”

“Oh, that’s retribution!”

Within this day, they had heard too many similar words. Just like the fans who guarded their idols and had a clear love and hate, passersby who understood the background differences between Xu Ran and Li Jingtian had come to their own judgments as well.

But now, Lin Chen was almost immune. Those positive and negative analyses, other people’s opinions and views, hardly affected him.

At this moment, the reporter caught a person who looked like a female college student.

“Excuse me, classmate. What are your thoughts on the recent controversy surrounding singer Li Jingtian?”

The girl had a ponytail, and her face was bright. She asked the reporter rhetorically, “Are you sure you want me to express my opinion?”

“Of course. You can speak frankly.”

The girl nodded, faced the camera, and said solemnly, “If a prostitute is sexually assaulted, it is considered self-inflicted or unbelievable. This is a huge challenge in our social legal system. I hope the police can thoroughly investigate it. Even if the prostitute is a criminal suspect in another case, she should be treated with the same fairness under the law…”

The reporter’s face showed embarrassment as the picture was cut off, falling on the girl’s serious face.

Xing Conglian turned his head to the side and said to Lin Chen, “Is this girl also surnamed Lin? Your sister? How come the tone is exactly like yours?”

“I have never said anything so sensible.”

“But you say it in your heart.” Xing Conglian turned off the TV and asked again, “How was the interrogation?”

“Didn’t find any useful clues,” Lin Chen said, “But it seems that someone did lead those girls to Xu Ran. This isn’t a coincidence.”

“How likely do you think that person is Li Jingtian, his manager, or even that little assistant?”

“90% probability with 0% evidence,” Lin Chen said honestly. “They are all at the embassy, so we have no way to search their electronic devices.”

Hearing this, Wang Chao stepped in. “A’Chen, I checked the Weibo account you just gave me. It was newly registered today. The number bound to it is also very strange. It belongs to an 88-year-old lady. At first glance, it looks like someone used another person’s ID card. In other words, the true identity of the account owner can’t be traced.” Wang Chao paused. “I smell a conspiracy!”

“That’s very smart.” Lin Chen tapped the armrest of the sofa lightly with his knuckles. “In fact, even if Li Jingtian induced his fans to chase Xu Ran, it would be difficult for us to hold him criminally responsible for Xu Ran’s accident, unless the driver was also arranged by him.”

“I have reviewed the driver. He’s an honest man with no issues,” Xing Conglian replied.

“If all this was arranged by Li Jingtian in order to use Xu Ran as a scapegoat, the only question is, how can he be so sure that something will happen to her?”

Xing Conglian said, “Indeed, the car accident happened very well and coincidentally. As long as Xu Ran remains quiet, all clues will be broken, but…”

“But?”

“You speak first.”

Seeing Xing Conglian’s eyes looking at him with a burning gaze, Lin Chen thought they were probably thinking the same thing.

“The passerby just told me one thing. In fact, what we have on hand is more than one injury case, and an accident case. There is another case that I think we should continue to investigate.”

“Li Jingtian’s sexual assault case?” Xing Conglian asked.

“Since Xu Ran can’t speak currently, if we want to nail Li Jingtian, I’m afraid we can only start investigating the previous case.”

“Your reason is more than that, right?”

“It’s simple. Because I want to reverse the case for her,” Lin Chen said solemnly.

The author has something to say:

June 1st Small Episode

—-

Children’s Day was on June 1st and was considered an international holiday.

In other words, no matter where you were in the world, as long as you had a child by your side, you had to give him this holiday.

And the most hateful thing was that the United Nations had set the standard for children under the age of 18. Xing Conglian turned his head from side to side and looked at the “child” playing games on the front passenger seat, resisting the urge not to drive him out of the car.

He asked calmly, “Wang Chao, how do you want to celebrate the holiday tomorrow?”

“Oh, that’s simple. In the morning, go to Uncle John’s Pizzeria and eat a 12-inch turkey pizza. After eating, I want to go to the amusement park for a while. In the afternoon, go to the zoo. In the evening, go see the new X-men. Then, watch the fireworks.”

Xing Conglian lowered the car window, took a deep breath of the smog, and calmly asked, “Why didn’t you say you were going to the UN headquarters to hold a celebration?”

“Hey, Captain, we can do that? Why didn’t you say so earlier?”

Xing Conglian was irritated. “Do you not understand sarcasm?”

“But tomorrow is my holiday, and you asked me to make a request, so why are you mocking me?”

The child’s eyes didn’t move away from the game at all. It seemed that he had no desire to seriously answer his question. Xing Conglian parked the car, feeling he shouldn’t have any in-depth discussion with Wang Chao on the issue.

“Hey, are we there yet?” When he had just stopped the car, the child put down his phone in a daze and looked out the window as he asked excitedly.

It was an ordinary house, located in an ordinary and calm community, with a small courtyard with pink and blue daisies on the fence, trying to poke their heads out.

It seemed like there was nothing special about this house.

Xing Conglian looked at his watch. The child had already arranged his “equipment” on the front passenger seat.

“It’s 15:00 New York time.”

“Got it.” The child followed him, right on time.

“Let’s go.” Xing Conglian opened the door and got out of the car.

The next day, when the task was completed, it was deep into the night of Children’s Day, but it wasn’t yet midnight.

The pizzeria, amusement park, and zoo were probably closed. The movie theater did have late-night showings, but looking at the child’s sleepy face in front of the laptop, it seemed like he didn’t have the strength to watch movies anymore.

The night news broadcast on the radio had just finished reporting on a gunfight on the outskirts of the city and was interrupted with breaking news of two child sex trafficking victims under the age of 14 who risked their lives to report a terrorist organization that had imprisoned them at the United Nations General Assembly.

Xing Conglian lowered the volume of the broadcast and looked at the dark street ahead.

Although this was a beautiful holiday, not all children were happy in this world. There were children who didn’t have clothes, children who were suffering, and even some children that were fighting with guns at the moment. This had never been an overly beautiful world.

However, he could still try to make the children around him feel some happiness.

Xing Conglian got out of the car, bought popcorn and two cans of Coke, then made a phone call and drove to the top of a mountain.

Wang Chao was awakened by the sound of an explosion.

He opened his bleary eyes and looked at the fireworks in the dark sky in the distance, then shouted excitedly in the car. His cry almost broke through the roof. “Wow, Captain. I want to make a wish.”

“What do you want?” Xing Conglian opened a can of Coke and clinked it with the child’s.

The teenager closed his eyes and really made a serious wish.

He then opened his eyes and looked at Xing Conglian with a solemn and sincere gaze and said, “I wish, ah, for you to marry a good person so we can be a family.”

At that time, Xing Conglian remembered he was smoking a cigarette as he responded loudly, “Stop reading romance novels.”

But now…

Xing Conglian looked back at the person sitting in the front passenger seat and asked, “How do you want to spend June 1st?”

The man turned his head and looked at the boy in the backseat, who was still playing games, and said, “Listen to him.”

Kinky Thoughts:

Aww, that small episode made my heart melt… Not so much the main story.