WXRG Chapter 15 – Old Case

“The knife was stolen by me.”

The boy’s full name was Li Kang. He sat on the opposite chair in the interrogation room, wrapped up in an oversized school uniform. There was a dark spot on the cuff, from the blood that accidentally stained it just now.

“The previous one was too. Xiao Liang (the young boy in the convenience store) and I are friends, I often go over to play with him. I know there are no surveillance monitors in the grocery store, so I stole a knife, and he wouldn’t notice.” He also knew the importance of not leaving behind clues, “If I left behind a purchase record, you guys would easily find me.”

“Maybe because too many were killed, stray cats don’t gather in the factory anymore recently. That day I was going home from the factory empty-handed, the window of Grandma Wang’s house wasn’t closed, her cat lying on the windowsill. While catching the cat, my phone dropped and I didn’t have time to pick it up.”

“I knew that if the phone was left at the crime scene, you guys would definitely find me, and I couldn’t have no reason for showing up at her house, so I took the wood carving on the cabinet.”

“Why pick a cat? ……Because the cat and my brother are the same size.”

Li Kang didn’t seem to be scared of getting caught, not seeming nervous either. Since he was at the age of puberty, he had acne on his face, a very ordinary face, looking no different from the countless students sitting in a classroom. Li Guangfu, who had been shouting the words ‘it can’t be my son, there must be a misunderstanding’ through the glass, gradually fell silent.

Li Kang’s stepmother was a workshop worker. Originally she was working the evening shift today, rushing over as soon as she received the news, crying and cursing through the glass.

And Li Kang raised his head slightly, a smile tugging at the corner of his lips: “I already knew that he and that woman were together secretly before my mother died. Once my mother died, he couldn’t wait to remarry. Since the day he was born, I’ve wanted to kill him.”

“Bang!”

The woman banged on the glass window with her fist several times.

The room’s soundproofing was very good, making it so that what the woman was shouting couldn’t be heard, only able to vaguely make out the second half of the sentence by reading her lips: ‘……you bastard.’

Only then did Li Kang’s plain features shift. He ignored the woman shouting outside the door, saying: “The knife shouldn’t have slit his arm just now, I should have slit open his throat first.”

In the interrogation room, Ji Mingrui sat across from the boy, shocked speechless by the child’s undisguised malice.

After Li Kang was led out, the woman rushed forward regardless of anything blocking her: “He’s your younger brother— he’s not even a year old—”

During the tussle, the school uniform collar shifted slightly, revealing a very ordinary silver necklace on Li Kang’s neck. Based on the shape of the corners revealed, the pendant is likely a cross.

The three members of the team had just entered the office, typically spending their days on trivial matters in the neighborhood, coming face to face with a case for the first time.

Before the very ordinary cats who died, Li Guangfu, Li Kang, and the woman who entered their family later lived in the Haimao community. They typically appeared to be an ordinary family, no one thought that there would be such a “secret” hidden within such an ordinary family.

Ji Mingrui scribbled a few words of conclusion in the interrogation book; when Wu Zhibin arrived overnight, he handed the remaining parts of the process over to the more experienced Bin-ge.

He closed the book and left, moving a chair and sitting outside.

Across from him sat the two other participants of the case. It was already late at night and, of the two, one couldn’t hold on. The participant surnamed Chi skillfully found a place to sleep on the sofa. He likely thought it was too noisy, a wrist pressed against his ear. Due to his mysophobia, the fact that he felt unsafe was clear, both of his hands completely hidden in the wide sleeves.

The other participant was sitting next to him flipping through a magazine, even greeting him upon seeing him come out: “Officer Ji.”

Xie Lin pressed his finger against his lips, adding another sentence: “He’s asleep.”

This situation was familiar; it had been Ji Mingrui writing their notes not so long ago.

Only at the time the two people had been referring to each other as suspects, and now the real culprit had been arrested, confessing to his crimes in the interrogation room.

Ji Mingrui began to take notes: “How were you guys able to tell that there was a problem with the phone call?”

Regardless of how much of a smooth talker Xie Lin was, it was hard to explain the reasoning behind this. It was as if he figured out that someone was thirsty and needed to drink water; there was nothing much to say about things such as eating and drinking water.

“Intuition, I guess.”

Ji Mingrui: “……”

After this incident, Ji Mingrui faintly felt that although it was said to be intuition, it was more like a dangerous talent.

Ji Mingrui then asked: “Who kicked the door?”

“Him,” Xie Lin said, “I originally asked him to pretend to be the property owner with me, but he really didn’t seem like one.”

Ji Mingrui agreed wholeheartedly: “Yes, his acting skills are quite bad, otherwise I also wouldn’t……” I also wouldn’t be unable to find any information on him after graduating from the Film Academy.

Before Ji Mingrui had the chance to finish speaking, Chi Qing had always been a light sleeper, the hand covering his ear moved, half-opening his eyes.

Ji Mingrui’s words took a 180 degree turn: “……But in fact he also has his remarkable parts. Although he can’t play the role of a normal person, he really comes to life when he plays the role of a villain.”

Chi Qing sat up and said: “Did you think I didn’t hear what you said before.”

In fact, counting the few roles Chi Qing had successfully auditioned for, there really weren’t many of which were good people.

In the early years, in order to improve his good friend’s broadcast volume, Ji Mingrui watched every single episode. Figuring out where his good friend is in most of the scenes that have nothing to Chi Qing could also be considered the fun of binge watching.

Most of them are gloomy behind-the-scenes villains, the characters seeming like they’re very important, but actually having very little scenes.

Xie Lin caught the key word: “Act?”

Ji Mingrui: “You might not believe it, but he’s a graduate of the Film Academy for Acting. All in all, he studied acting for four years.”

Xie Lin thought back to the car, the phrase ‘I’m the property owner’ that was unacceptable in demeanor and tone, and laughed: “It’s really hard to believe.”

Chi Qing ignored them: “Can I go.”

Ji Mingrui handed the pen to Xie Lin: “Sign here, then both of you can go back.”

Chi Qing had his hands tucked in his sleeves the whole time. When Xie Lin finished signing, he stretched out his hand slightly, skillfully taking a tissue from the side, and took the pen that Xie Lin handed over through the tissue.

“No need to be this disgusted,” Xie Lin said, “Are all mysophobic people like you?”

“It’s that mine is more severe,” Chi Qing admitted frankly, putting the pen back in his hand after signing, balling the tissue up as he said, “……So regardless of when, stay away from me.”

And so the two of them finished cooperating, returning to their previous states.

As if Xie Lin couldn’t understand the four words ‘stay away from me’: “Let’s go, I’ll drive you.”

“……”

“What’s with your expression, it’s not like you didn’t just ride it.”

Chi Qing: “I didn’t have a choice then.”

When Wu Zhibin left the interrogation room, he heard this conversation. Before he even entered, he bumped into Chi Qing who had pushed the door open to walk out.

Xie Lin called out before behind him: “You probably won’t be able to get a taxi at this time. I’m only driving you back, your eyes are bloodshot from tiredness.”

Chi Qing: “Since you like to drive people home so much, why don’t you change jobs and become a driver.”

Chi Qing had just slept for those ten minutes just now, and was more tired after getting up, his eyes bloodshot. His looks were easily recognized, black hair covering the eyes in a somewhat wanton manner, red lips, hands in pockets, eyelids drooping lifelessly, seeming as if he was ignoring everyone.

Xie Lin instead greeted Wu Zhibin: “I’m going first.”

Wu Zhibin paused with his cane, however he wasn’t looking at Xie Lin but Chi Qing.

Behind Wu Zhibin, Su Xiaolin was still talking to Jiang Yu with a notebook in her arms: “He’s still a kid, how could he have this kind of idea?”

Even after Chi Qing left, Wu Zhibin stood still in the doorway, only coming back to his senses after Ji Mingrui called out a singular ‘Bin-ge’: “That was your friend?”

“Ever since the first meeting, I’ve felt that this kid looked familiar.”

Ji Mingrui was a bit surprised: “Have you seen him on TV? Although he’s not famous at all, he still has several works.” He spoke familiarly about it: “He played the suspect who appeared for three seconds in the beginning of Pursuit, and also the villain of the third story of The Legend of Xiuxian. Uh, after all they’re not any good roles……”

Wu Zhibin typically didn’t watch dramas at all.

He had seen all kinds of criminals and major cases over so many years.

He didn’t pay much attention to Chi Qing the last time they met, only listening to Xie Lin’s analysis then hurrying to order Ji Mingrui and the others to investigate Haimao, not feeling that he was familiar until today.

Exactly where did he see him……

Wu Zhibin asked: “What’s this friend of yours’ name?”

 Ji Mingrui thought that after Chi Qing searched for so many years, he finally found a fan of his dramas, enthusiastically introducing him: “Chi as in error, Qing as in dark blue, Chi Qing.”

Wu Zhibin returned to the office with the material in hand; after sorting through the materials, he suddenly remembered Su Xiaolan saying ‘he’s still a kid.’

Kid.

Wu Zhibin chewed on that word, carefully thinking back on Chi Qing’s features. After a while, he suddenly grabbed his car keys and got up, driving all the way to headquarters. There were still a lot of people in the General Bureau at the time, working overtime on cases. When he was seen by someone, the word at hand was put down and he was greeted: “Bin-ge.”

Wu Zhibin tapped his cane on the ground, nodding his head at them.

He hadn’t returned to the headquarters for some time; he greeted them briefly, walking toward the headquarters’ archives room.

All past cases were sealed up in the headquarters’ archives room. The archives room had encryption permission; as he walked over, he took out his identification card and scanned it, the electronic door automatically opening after reviewing the visitor’s information.

He walked to the last door, indicating that the case files stored here were highly encrypted.

Wu Zhibin rummaged through the rack of case files, finally finding a stack of yellowed files in the corner.

On the cover was written: 2.18 Child Kidnapping Case.

This was 10 years ago. Winter of 2011.

Wu Zhibin stood in the archives room and fell silent briefly. Then he turned the pages one by one, stopping when he turned to the second to last page. In the column of survivors, he found two words: Chi Qing.

A slightly yellowed page was attached to the side.

The features of the teenager in the photo were not fully grown up, but he could still make out the remarkable appearance in the outline, delicate eyebrows, and extremely dark pupils. That face gradually overlapped with the face he saw just now.

The file read: After being sent to the doctor, the victim was found to have symptoms of deafness and auditory hallucinations. After eliminating other possible causes, it is suspected to be a psychological reaction. The suspected psychological reason stems from the body’s excessive stress response after being subjected to a huge shock.

The person recording was clearly keeping up with the situation, the next line written with a different technical pen: The auditory hallucinations disappeared after three months; he has been cured and discharged from the hospital.

The last portion of the file was the psychological evaluation column.

In the psychological evaluation column, there was a very ambiguous sentence written: Although there are no abnormalities, long-term follow-ups are still recommended.

The author has something to say:

Sorry, sorry, sorry, Thomas slide kneeling.

Let’s take a look at the plot behind everything, it’s overdue!