Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
“That depends on how you think, officer!” Li Qian took another deep drag on her cigarette.
She then closed her eyes and said, “I admit that my sins are no less than those people’s, but I am also a victim! I was forced to do what I did by the cruel reality of the world. I just wanted to make my life better.”
“Can you be more specific?” Zhao Yu asked. “I sympathize with you, but I also want to know the truth!”
“In order to get roles, I also introduced girls to these higher-ups. I am also a mommy!” Li Qian shook her head as threw her cigarette into the sea. “I bullied newcomers and messed around with other actors. I have been with married guys and sugar daddies. I’m also a drug addict! You don’t have enough fingers to count all of my sins. Are you satisfied now, officer?”
Zhao Yu was speechless.
Li Qian signed, then said, “But, the murderer did not kill me! I’m still alive. That’s the truth.”
( NovelFull ) After that, Li Qian took a deep breath, then went back into the office. Zhao Yu walked to the deck railing and looked out at the dark sea. He was thinking about Li Qian’s words carefully. He felt that if what Li Qian had said was true, the murderer had rules that determined each killing.
All of the people who were killed had sins, but not all of the people who had sins were killed! Therefore, in a sense, the murders were committed not to defend justice, but for pure revenge!
So… Why the hell is the murderer doing this?
While Zhao Yu was pondering the murderer’s motive, the system finally sent him a notification. Today’s Kun Gen hexagram had been completed, and Zhao Yu had achieved 144% rate of completion. As a result, he got a new device called Invisible Arm Shield.
The device could make the user’s arm invisible, allowing it to withstand any attack. Getting such a powerful device made Zhao Yu feel like he was becoming a badas*, just like Captain America!
Although 144% was not low, Zhao Yu knew that, because he had missed today’s duplicate adventure, the completion rate was not as good as it should have been. At this critical moment, Zhao Yu did not dare waste time, so he immediately started a new hexagram. Unexpectedly, it was a Geng Li hexagram.
As Li represented friendship, he figured that he might meet some new friends tomorrow. The Gen gave Zhao Yu confidence, as this hexagram meant that he would probably make more progress on the case!
As this case was quite complicated, in order to stay energetic each day, the Special Investigation Group took turns resting.
So, Zhao Yu took a brief nap on the sofa. After he had slept for only an hour, he woke up and continued his case analysis.
The Forensics Department had just sent over a lot of evidence. For example, they had extracted sedative residues from the deceased victims, proving that they had all been poisoned before they died.
However, due to the varying amount of residues, the extent of comatose symptoms varied from person to person. This was especially the case for Xu You, who was burned by a signal bomb. He had the smallest amount of residue in his body, indicating that he had been in the lowest degree of a comatose state that night.
From this evidence, Zhao Yu predicted that the Xu You’s death might have really been an accident! This was because he did not drink very much water and was not completely unconscious that night. In fact, Xu You might have woken up during the murder!
Then, Xu You most likely fled in panic, and in a hurry, the murderer took out a signal gun and burned him with it! Because of Xu You’s clear and honest background, perhaps his name was not on the murderer’s kill list.
Li Qian and Zhang Yong said that the signal gun was owned by their crew and had been packed in the emergency bag. No one had ever used it before, so no one really paid much attention to it.
The forensics examination found no clear fingerprints on it, which indicated that the murderer had either fired the gun while wearing gloves or had wiped the fingerprints off after killing Xu You.
The Forensics Department kept sending new findings, but there were no new updates from Captain Dou. So far, they hadn’t received any information about Guo Yihang’s whereabouts. Nobody knew where Guo Yihang had gone.
After an exhausting night, it was 6 a.m. and the sun was just rising. Zhao Yu was still filling in the information on the whiteboard as he yawned twice due to his lack of sleep.
“Huh?” At this moment, Zeng Ke suddenly scratched his head, while gazing at the computer screen.
“What?” Wu Xiumin was awoken by Zeng Ke’s outburst.
Zhao Yu also turned to see what was bothering Zeng Ke.
“Oh…” While Zeng Ke stared at the computer screen, he made loud sounds as he typed on his keyboard. He then jumped up from his seat and said excitedly, “Leader, Xiumin, come and have a look! It seems that I’ve found a clue!”
Zhao Yu was surprised and hurried over. Wu Xiumin and Li Qian followed him.
“Leader, look… 255!” As Zeng Ke clicked his mouse, some data showed up on the screen. He then pointed to one of the entries and said, “This is the shooting calendar and the daily schedule of Champion Pictures. Look carefully at this one… ‘Crazy Delivery Woman,’ director Qian Jin, starring Zhang Meiwei, Nanjiang Automobile Group, exclusive sponsorship 2.55 million yuan!”
“255! Is that what it means?” Wu Xiumin frowned. “A movie? Sponsorship funds?”
“I’ve checked on it. It’s a low-budget online movie,” Zeng Ke said. “It was only released online, but it had a pretty good response! At that time, Zhang Meiwei was new in the film industry. It was with this film that she first started to become popular. After that, she entered the mainstream market!”
Wu Xiumin shook her head. “But, what does that mean? Why did the murderer leave this for us?”
Zhao Yu looked at Li Qian and asked her if she knew anything about it.
“Four years ago, I hadn’t yet joined Champion Pictures!” Li Qian shook her head and said, “Zhang Yong, you’ve worked here for a long time. Do you remember this movie?”
Everyone turned to look at Zhang Yong, only to discover that he had already fallen asleep on the desk, and the videos that he had been watching were still playing!
“Zhang Yong!” Li Qian walked over and banged her fist on the desk to wake him up.
Zhang Yong rubbed his eyes and said in a daze, “I knew that one! I also participated in it! It’s a comedy… Quite interesting plot, actually!”
After that, Zhang Yong smiled at the others in silence.
“That’s all?” Li Qian asked.
Zhang Yong nodded, then asked, “Why? What’s wrong with this film?”
Li Qian shook her head. “Come on. Think more. Did anything happen while you were making this film? Did anyone do anything bad? Did any incident occur?”
“Yes! Think hard, as it may be very important!” Zeng Ke said.
“Oh… An accident? I don’t think there was…” Zhang Yong nervously stroked his thin hair, trying to recall anything. “The director was Qian Jin… It was shot four years ago in Yinling City… Zhang Meiwei likes Sichuan cuisine. The more peppers I added, the better…”
Li Qian was not satisfied with Zhang Yong’s silly words and wanted to interrupt him, but Zhao Yu stopped her.
“Qin Hao was a makeup artist in our crew!” Zhang Yong didn’t have any logic and just said whatever he could recall as it came to his mind. “Kang Leming was also in it… By the way, this film was sponsored by Nanjiang Automobile Group. Why did it sponsor it? Oh, this movie was about delivery Woman, so it had soft ads! Express cars are all their brands, so they solely invested in it…”
“Nanjiang Automobile Group…” Zeng Ke repeated the name as he did a quick search online. He then shook his head and said, “It’s closed down now.”
“Go on…” Zhao Yu urged Zhang Yong. “It doesn’t matter what you can remember, as anything might help.”
“Something happened on the first day of shooting. Qiao Ruxue quarreled with the director, but the others stopped them!” Zhang Yong said.
“Qiao Ruxue?” Li Qian shook her head. “Who is that?”
“You don’t know Qiao Ruxue?” Zhang Yong asked. “Oh… That makes sense. Since then, Qiao Ruxue quit acting! But, before that, I thought she was doing well!”
“Why did she do that?” Zhao Yu seemed to have thought of something important, so he asked in a hurry.
“Oh… I heard that Qiao Ruxue was originally the lead actress. But, for some physical reasons, her role was changed.”
“Physical reasons? What do you mean?” Wu Xiumin asked urgently.
“Allergies. She got a lot of pimples on her face suddenly, and because of our tight filming schedule, another actress got her role,” Zhang Yong said.
He then added, “I heard that was the case, but all of the details are not clear to me. I just heard it from others. You can go and ask Kang Leming about it. That fellow should know more about it, and he is such a gossip!”
“I don’t think that there is a need to do that!” At this time, Zeng Ke stopped typing and stared at the rest of the group. He then said, “I just found out that Qiao Ruxue and Guo Yihang were classmates!”
