CH 204

When they walked out of the cabin, it was raining heavily outside in Hongjing.

It wasn’t the usual light rain in the city, but a torrential downpour. It seemed to have started after they landed and showed no signs of stopping.

Lin Chen took a deep breath of the damp air mixed with the scent of airport fuel and earth, which still felt comforting to him.

Xing Conglian held his hand, and they looked at each other, unable to express the thousand words they felt.

Wang Chao stumbled and collided with their shoulders. Xing Conglian turned around and caught him. The young man was so exhausted that he looked like he could sleep through the whole planet’s destruction if given a bed.

Xing Conglian pinched Wang Chao’s nose and ears repeatedly for a while, but eventually gave up and carried him on his back towards the exit.

After passing through the immigration checkpoint, Lin Chen noticed that Xing Conglian had pressed the button for the parking lot on the minus one floor.

“Are we going home first?” Lin Chen asked.

Xing Conglian turned his head and glanced at him, smiling. “Are you trying to test me, Mr. Lin?”

Lin Chen didn’t know how Xing Conglian suddenly became a psychologist, but under his gaze, he felt a sense of guilt. “No one has lived at home for so long, so why not go to a hotel first?”

He deliberately raised his tone at the end, but all he got was a faint “Hmm?” from Xing Conglian.

Xing Conglian had an expression of “tell me the truth”, so Lin Chen had no choice but to hold his hand and say, “I don’t want to go to the hospital. I have some psychological trauma.”

“That’s perfect,” Xing Conglian said seriously. “Mr. Lin can use his expertise and do some treatment…like the desensitization therapy?”

“Why are you so difficult to deal with? No wonder I had such a hard time chasing you,” Lin Chen joked.

Xing Conglian laughed out loud. They got off the elevator, and Wang Chao hiccupped on his back.

“You can also find something to do that makes me unhappy, and I’d be more than happy to back you up,” Xing Conglian said.

Lin Chen thought this was a really good idea. He stopped the person and reached into their pocket. Of course, when his hand reached down, Xing Conglian’s face had a moment of subtlety. Lin Chen coughed lightly, took his hand out, and in his hand was Xing Conglian’s work phone, not the one used in Dana.

Xing Conglian’s face immediately looked unpleasant. “Consultant Lin, we don’t have to go to the hospital.”

But before he finished speaking, Lin Chen had already turned on the phone. Xing Conglian showed an unusually ashen expression.

At the moment they entered the parking lot, Xing Conglian’s phone immediately started ringing continuously, and the message tone continued to ring like it would never stop until they reached Xing Conglian’s Jeep. Lin Chen glanced apologetically at Xing Conglian and then realized that the Jeep was the one parked at the Yongchuan subway station. It was unclear why it was now in the underground parking lot of the Hongjing Airport.

Xing Conglian opened the car door, threw Wang Chao into the back seat, and the teenager turned around as if he had found a comfortable place to lie down and began to snore.

“You had someone bring the car back?” Lin Chen asked.

“Yes.” Xing Conglian didn’t immediately sit in the driver’s seat but leaned against the car door and looked at his phone.

“After flying on a plane, you still have to drive home yourself. Don’t you feel tired?” Lin Chen opened the passenger door and fastened his seat belt.

“It’s tiring, but there are important things in the car that can’t be left elsewhere.”

Lin Chen didn’t know what he meant by “important things”, but he remembered the dozens of diamond VIP cards that Captain Xing took out of the trunk, so he decided to keep quiet.

Lin Chen sat in the car for a while and found that Xing Conglian hadn’t entered the car yet.

He didn’t know what Xing Conglian saw on his phone, but after a long time, he finally opened the car door and sat in it. He rested his hand on the gear lever and didn’t move for a long time.

Lin Chen looked up and saw that Xing Conglian’s expression was gloomy. There were probably some not-so-good things in the text messages he received just now.

“What happened?”

“Consultant Lin…” Xing Conglian handed him the phone, which showed the usual briefings from the police station.

——At 10:07 a.m. on June 10th, the identity of the unnamed male body stabbed to death in Hongjing Amusement Park has been confirmed. The deceased is Dr. Tan Kang, the senior president of the R&D department of Zhourui Pharmaceutical…

In the dim space of the car, the phone screen glowed with a faint white light. When he saw the words “Zhourui Pharmaceutical” and “Tan Kang”, he thought it was an illusion caused by the long flight and thinking about the case day and night, but it was obviously not the case. As the key R&D personnel and insider of the Zhourui Pharmaceutical case, Tan Kang was stabbed to death by someone before their plane landed.

Lin Chen’s mind turned over countless speculations, but in the end, he could only say, “They move quickly.”

He glanced at the clock on the car and saw that it was exactly 1:00 p.m. in the afternoon. He was afraid that the police officers investigating the scene hadn’t left yet, so he asked Xing Conglian, “Shall we go and take a look?”

Before Xing Conglian’s gaze swept over, he added in advance, “I’ve recovered from my fever. It should be fine to stay there for a while.”

Seeing that he insisted, Xing Conglian nodded reluctantly and said, “Okay.”

……

Outside the window was the familiar scenery of Hongjing’s streets. Lin Chen leaned against the front passenger seat.

They had only been gone for less than half a month, and the students had not yet started their vacation. There was no change in the surroundings; not even in the configuration and speed of their journey to the scene of the crime.

Wang Chao turned over again in the back seat. Perhaps because he was starving or perhaps because he felt the familiar atmosphere, the teenager suddenly opened his eyes. Hearing the rustling sound coming from the back seat, Lin Chen turned his head and saw Wang Chao taking out a half-opened package of Pocky from the car door storage box and started to eat without hesitation.

Those were the snacks that the teenager had left in the car half a month ago.

Lin Chen couldn’t help but speak up. “It’s been stored for too long. Don’t eat it now. I’ll buy you some when we get out of the car.”

Wang Chao was still in a half-dream state, mechanically nodding his head but still stuffed the snack into his mouth.

“Just eat it. It’s all preservatives. It won’t go bad, and it won’t kill you,” Xing Conglian said indifferently.

“Wait, where are we going?” Suddenly realizing something important, Wang Chao woke up abruptly and asked, “Are you kidding me? We just came back from such a scary place. Don’t we need to take a break for ten or twenty days before starting work again?”

Xing Conglian withdrew his gaze from looking at Comrade Wang Chao in the rearview mirror and asked, “What does he mean?”

“Maybe he’s been spending too much money on in-game purchases lately, so he wants to scam overtime pay,” Lin Chen replied.

Wang Chao shouted, “A’Chen Gege, you can’t do this to me. Are we still good friends?”

Xing Conglian pretended to suddenly realize, “What should we do?”

Lin Chen pretended not to hear Wang Chao’s protest and said, “There’s no other way. If he doesn’t want to go, just forget it. Let’s get out of the car now?”

They were driving on the elevated highway, and Wang Chao looked outside in horror, swallowed a mouthful of saliva, and complained, “A’ChenGege, when did you become like this?”

“Comrade Xiao Wang…” Xing Conglian dragged on, “Why don’t you understand yet?”

“Understand what?”

Xing Conglian spoke in the tone of a sociologist. “When a person’s identity changes, his behavior and way of doing things will also change accordingly.”

“What’s different about my A’Chen Gege?” Wang Chao was very confused.

Lin Chen had already guessed what Xing Conglian was going to say and couldn’t help but shake his head.

But Xing Conglian still smiled and said, “Your A’Chen Gege is now the head of the family, so we have to listen to him, understand?”

……

On the way from the highway to the amusement park, Wang Chao kept studying the term “head of the family”.

The teenager’s face was mixed with various expressions such as “flattering”, “admiration”, “speechless”, and “flunky”, and kept changing. Just before they arrived at the scene, Wang Chao stopped him and asked a very important question, “A’Chen Gege, if I want to call you Boss from now on, do I have to call Captain Xing sister-in-law?”

In any case, this question received a warning from Captain Xing himself in the form of a knock on the head.

Lin Chen was very clear that Xing Conglian brought up the topic of the head of the family just to make Wang Chao not too depressed.

The rain was still falling. Xing Conglian tilted the umbrella towards him, and Lin Chen looked ahead.

In front of him was a familiar, bright yellow warning sign. They were standing outside the waterside gallery where the victim’s body had been taken away. The scene-of-crime officers were hiding under the eaves, looking up at the clean crime scene washed by the rain with a sigh.

The ground markings were washed away very lightly, and the direction and position where the victim fell could be vaguely seen. There was no trace of blood on the small path paved with square bricks. The heavy rain was probably the best way to wash away the evidence.

They stood outside the crime scene for a while, finally catching the attention of the police officers under the eaves.

Two pairs of eyes swept over, and at first, the two officers just stared at them. Suddenly, a shout pierced through the rain curtain.

The voice grew louder and louder, and several people rushed towards them. Lin Chen thought they still underestimated the sudden appearance of horror.

In such a short time, Comrade Zhang Xiaolong had already rushed to their side.

What surprised Lin Chen was that the policewoman didn’t look at Xing Conglian but instead dreamily touched his shoulder with tears in her eyes and her voice trembling. “Lin… Consultant Lin… You’re still alive. That’s great!”

“Thanks to Captain Xing’s help, I’m still alive,” Lin Chen replied.

“You’re welcome.” Xing Conglian nodded in acknowledgment.

Perhaps because the umbrella covered Xing Conglian’s face earlier, Zhang Xiaolong didn’t even realize someone was standing next to her. She was completely absorbed in her own excitement. “It’s good that you’re back… It’s good that you’re back… Just like last time, why do you always encounter these kinds of situations?!” But before she finished her sentence, she seemed to sense something and looked towards his side in disbelief.

“Captain…Captain Xing!”

Captain Xing raised an eyebrow. “Yes, it’s me.”

“You’re back?!” Zhang Xiaolong was even more incredulous.

“Don’t you see that?” Captain Xing said.

“You saved Consultant Lin?”

Xing Conglian was very satisfied with the policewoman’s insight and proudly said, “Isn’t it obvious?”

Zhang Xiaolong’s face turned red. It seemed like if Xing Conglian continued speaking, she would get too excited and faint.

Their colleagues arrived one after another, and they chatted for a while before Lin Chen interrupted and turned his gaze towards the crime scene, asking, “What happened?”

Zhang Xiaolong had grown a lot and quickly took out her notebook from her pocket and got into work mode.

“The victim’s name is…”

Xing Conglian interrupted her. “It’s in the briefing you gave me. Let’s briefly talk about the situation at the time of the crime.”

“This is a vicious murder that took place in a crowded area. According to eyewitnesses, the footbridge was packed with tourists who were going to watch the water magic show. The victim was walking in the opposite direction, from south to north, on the footbridge. After walking less than 10 meters, the victim suddenly fell down. A man holding a child was the first to notice the victim’s abnormality and called on the surrounding crowd to avoid trampling. At first, they thought it was an acute heart attack, but then they saw a large amount of blood flowing out of the victim’s chest…” The female officer spoke softly, and Lin Chen looked towards the water. Even in the rain, he could feel the screams that erupted from the dark footbridge when blood seeped out.

Zhang Xiaolong tapped her ballpoint pen twice and handed her notebook to Xing Conglian. “This is the forensic report from the crime scene.”

[Puncture wound under the third rib on the left side. The wound is about 2.5 cm long. The victim’s heart ruptured, and he died on the spot.]