Blank Charge

The roller shutter of the repair shop was half open, and someone bent down to look inside the shop and asked, “Boss, are we doing business today?”

Jin Zhou, sitting behind his desk, raised his gaze at the sound of the voice. Seeing that it wasn’t the person he was waiting for, he waved his hand dismissively and said, “No.”

Jin Zhou had given Xiao Wu an early leave, so now he was the only one in the shop.

After waiting for a while, a sneaky figure sneaked in from under the roller shutter and looked around, saying, “What kind of crappy place is this?”

The repair shop was naturally not a fancy meeting place, but due to the sudden incident and the urgency of time, Jin Zhou didn’t have time to find another location.

He raised his chin and said, “Close the door.”

Zhang Rui clearly didn’t want to touch the not-so-clean roller shutter, hesitated for a moment, looked at Jin Zhou, and finally realized that Jin Zhou didn’t intend to close the door himself, so he pressed down the roller shutter with his fingertips.

“Where’s your friend?” Zhang Rui flicked the dust off his fingertips and sat down on the sofa in the office area.

The “friend” he referred to naturally meant the lady in cheongsam. Jin Zhou didn’t answer but asked in return, “What about the invitation card?”

“If you don’t tell me clearly today, don’t expect to get the invitation card,” Zhang Rui leaned back on the sofa, crossed his legs, and said, “and by the way what’s your relationship with that journalist Luo?”

The incident of the masquerade ball was reported by Luo Xueqing, and now it was well-known. Zhang Rui couldn’t possibly have not heard about it.

Initially, Zhang Rui didn’t ask Jin Zhou about the purpose of arranging the lady in cheongsam to attend the ball, but as long as he had a bit of intelligence, he could deduce that the exposure of the ball must be related to the lady in cheongsam.

“What kind of relationship do you think it is?” Jin Zhou also crossed his legs, folded his arms in front of his chest, and said calmly, “She’s my friend.”

The reason he could admit it so openly was that Jin Zhou was certain that Zhang Rui couldn’t do anything to him. There was an unreasonable dominance in his tone, making it clear that he wasn’t afraid of Zhang Rui.

“I fucking knew it was you!” Zhang Rui uncrossed his legs, leaned forward, looking like he wanted to get angry but was hesitant. “Boss, you almost got me killed. Do you know that?”

“You are fine though aren’t you?” Jin Zhou asked, seemingly indifferent.

With WanTtai’s cautious nature, after the incident at the masquerade ball, he would definitely suspect every person present at the ball. And those people could roughly be divided into two groups: guests and models.

The guests were invited by WangTai himself, so if there was anything fishy among the guests, it would definitely be WangTai’s own fault.

But the situation with the models was different.

There was Zhang Rui standing between the models and WangTai. If there was a problem among the models, it would undoubtedly be Zhang Rui’s fault and ignorance.

Based on Jin Zhou’s understanding of Zhang Rui, even if he knew the problem originated from him, he would never admit it. Just like with the Patek Philippe watch back then, until the last moment, he would never own up to it.

After the incident, WangTai definitely approached Zhang Rui. If Jin Zhou’s guess was correct, Zhang Rui must have tried everything to cover up the matter.

When WangTai wanted to find the cheongsam beauty initially, Jin Zhou casually made an excuse, saying “she’s busy lately,” and since then Zhang Rui hadn’t contacted Jin Zhou again. He must have found a way to evade the situation.

Originally, Luo Xueqing’s unexpected incident led to the premature exposure of the video. Jin Zhou thought he would get in trouble. However, after so much time has passed, WangTai hasn’t targeted him. It can only be because Zhang Rui has set up a shield in between.

“I’m fine because I’m capable,” Zhang Rui patted his chest, still looking a bit frightened but couldn’t help boasting, “I guarantee with my life that there’s absolutely no problem with the models under my watch. You don’t know how good my acting was back then. If I had acted in ‘Infernal Affairs,’ I would have won an Oscar, I’m telling you.”

Jin Zhou couldn’t help but laugh: “Aren’t you already risking your life?”

“You have some nerve,” Zhang Rui curled his lips, clearly wanting to curse at Jin Zhou but not daring to. He leaned back on the sofa, looking at Jin Zhou and asked, “So? What are you planning to do this time?”

“Going on a New Year’s Eve cruise,” Jin Zhou said cheerfully, “It’ll be lively.”

“Big brother, can you spare me?” Zhang Rui had a headache expression, “If something happens on this cruise again, Mr. Wang will definitely suspect me and I won’t be able to escape this time.”

“He won’t,” Jin Zhou said with a slightly stern expression.

In the end, the reason Zhang Rui was able to deceive WangTai was because there was another shield between him and WangTai – Yang Shiyu.

One was the manager who had organized multiple banquets, the other was a judge attending a banquet for the first time. If it were Jin Zhou, he would also think that Yang Shiyu was more suspicious.

“You say he won’t suspect anything?” Zhang Rui angrily retorted, “what if I go and tell Mr. Wang right now that you’re trying to scheme against him?”

“Go ahead,” Jin Zhou lifted his chin, “And while you’re at it, explain your Oscar-worthy acting skills to him.”

Zhang Rui had already lied to WangTai before, so he and Jin Zhou were tied together like grasshoppers on a rope. Even if he sincerely admitted his mistake and apologized to WangTai, there was no guarantee that WangTai would spare him.

Zhang Rui sighed heavily, giving up resistance, and asked Jin Zhou, “Can your friend be trusted?”

“You mean the cheongsam beauty?” Jin Zhou casually asked, “She’s not my friend, she’s me.”

“What?” Zhang Rui tilted his head to the side in disbelief, staring at Jin Zhou, “No way, you… you’re a man, how? No she was too pretty to be you?”

Zhang Rui exclaimed, “Holy shit,” for a while before finally recovering, looking up and down at Jin.

Zhang Rui exclaimed for a while before recovering, looking at Jin Zhou with a complex expression, he asked, “Hey, what if Mr. Wang wants to sleep with you?”

Jin Zhou casually replied, ” Then I’ll blow his balls off.”

Zhang Rui leaned back again, as if gasping for air, searching for oxygen tanks in every direction.

“Big brother! Can you be a little bit serious? This is such a dangerous situation to be in” he exclaimed.

“Just kidding,” Jin Zhou chuckled lightly, putting away his unserious expression, “Let’s talk about the invitation card. Does it have the guests’ names printed on it?”

“No, it doesn’t,” Zhang Rui took out an envelope from his jacket pocket, “It’s a regular invitation card. This New Year’s Eve cruise is on a much larger scale than the banquet. Many celebrities will attend together with their families.”

Jin Zhou narrowed his eyes slightly. Yang Shiyu, that guy, was playing tricks on him again.

“So, that means,” Jin Zhou paused, pondering his words, “I don’t have to pretend to be a model anymore.”

“That’s right, I beg you, please don’t dress up as a woman! Just pretend to be an ordinary guest, make up a random identity for yourself. And if something really happens, don’t mention that the invitation card came from me.”

As long as Jin Zhou didn’t disguise himself as a model, even if he got into any real trouble, WangTai wouldn’t connect him with Zhang Rui.

“Okay.” Not dressing up as a woman would make it more convenient for Jin Zhou to move around. He took the envelope from Zhang Rui’s hand using his index and middle fingers and said, “I have one more thing for you to help me with.”

“What now?” Judging from Zhang Rui’s expression, he seemed to be regretting accepting Jin Zhou’s settlement proposal in court.

“It’s simple.” Jin Zhou shifted his position, squeezing next to Zhang Rui, hooking his shoulder and whispered something.

The city where Jin Zhou stayed was not near the sea, so it would take three to four hours by car to reach the coast.

He had originally planned to go there early to make preparations, but just as he was about to close the shop, he suddenly received a call from Ren Wenli, saying that they had found several suspects in a series of serial killer cases.

It was only noon at the time, and there was still time before boarding the ship in the evening.

Jin Zhou randomly grabbed a tool from the shop, then arranged to meet Ren Wenli at the first building where the murder took place.

“Take a look, here are fourteen suspects, all of them have connections with the victims’ social circles, and they grew up in single-parent families.” Ren Wenli handed the folder to Jin Zhou, flipping through the information and explaining, “The first one is the one who rides an electric tricycle…”

Before Ren Wenli could finish, Jin Zhou quickly flipped through the A4 printouts in his hand and asked, “Is this all?”

“Yes,” Ren Wenli looked away from the documents and looked at Jin Zhou, saying, “They meet the criteria of being tall, growing up in a single-parent family, and having connections with the victims, these fourteen suspects are the only ones we found in the area.”

Actually, fourteen suspects were already quite a lot, and it would take a long time to investigate them thoroughly.

However, among those suspects, there was no face that Jin Zhou recognized.

He took out a measuring tape, measured the dimensions of the room, and found them exactly as he had imagined.

“What are you measuring?” Ren Wenli asked curiously.

Jin Zhou didn’t answer, pondering for a moment, then put away the measuring tape and said to Ren Wenli, “Let’s go to the two other crime scenes.”

In the end, the results confirmed Jin Zhou’s speculation. All three crime scenes had the same characteristics.

“What are you measuring?” Ren Wenli couldn’t help but ask again.

“Because it’s related to the modus operandi,” Jin Zhou mentioned a name to Ren Wenli, “It’s likely him, investigate this person further.”

“Him?” Ren Wenli frowned suddenly, recalling and said, “we indeed caught him in the convenience store surveillance footage, but he didn’t grow up in a single-parent family.”

“Then it’s best to investigate him more carefully,” Jin Zhou said.

“Okay.” Ren Wenli looked at her watch and said, “But we probably don’t have time today, we can only talk about it tomorrow.”

“No time?” Jin Zhou found it strange, “Are you guys having an operation today?”

It was only noon , clearly not the time for the police to get off work. Even if Ren Wenli wanted to take a day off, she could assign that matter to her colleagues and didn’t have to wait until the next day.

“Not really,” Ren Wenli casually tapped Jin Zhou’s chest with the folder, “I’ll tell you when we find something meaningful.”