Translator: MintCatnip | Editor: AtlasStudios /Atlas Studios

  At half past nine in the morning, Bai Muchuan came out of his office without needing Xiang Wan to wake him up. He adjusted his attire, brushed his hair and called for a case analysis meeting.

  Frankly, if he was not that good looking, Xiang Wan wanted to tell him he had been too self-indulgent in solving the case.

  The Criminal Investigation Unit was consisted of different teams. Every team would get ahold of different clues and leads. It was therefore crucial to meet up and share their information with each other, collate, summarize, and decide on the next course of action.

  From what they have gathered from Jia An’s death scene last night, a lot of information were collected and collated. After summarizing and analyzing, the end result was not much different from their expectations. All evidence proved that Jia An was the one in the film crew of “The Grey List” that murdered Mao Guigui.

  After Jia An disappeared from the filming set, he had been staying in Zhao Dequan’s villa in the suburbs.

  The police searched his room and found some amounts of marijuana, several real bullets, and an appalling video from his mobile phone……

  It was a video showing how Mao Guigui’s head was being cut.

  In the video, besides Mao Guigui, there was no one else. Jia An’s voice could be heard in the video, though. The video showed Mao Guigui being tied up, her eyes were wide-opened as she screaming desperately when the chainsaw went toward her neck……

  Bai Muchuan sent Xiang Wan a text message before the video was shown in the digital conference room.

  “You better go to the ladies or go do something else?”


  “.…… Why?” Xiang Wan shot a puzzled glance at him.

  “Girls should not look at all these weird, spooky stuff.”


  “It’s okay,” replied Xiang Wan, “I’m working in this industry now. I’ll need to get used to it……”


  Bai Muchuan took a look at her and did not message again.

  And so, Xiang Wan saw the most frightening video ever in her life.

  Xiang Wan had been with the team for quite some time already and had seen various kinds of pictures and information. She had already started to get numb from those bloody scenes and felt that she should be fine. But when she actually saw the chainsaw cutting the head and compared it against a horror film, the scale of horror was no match for the actual real life murder scene.

  Xiang Wan lowered her head and covered her mouth.

  Even though this was just a video, she seemed to be able to smell the blood that was splattering all over……

  Psychological hints are too frightening, she thought to herself.

  “This video could not prove that Jia An was the one who murdered Mao Guigui. However, it was for sure that Jia An was definitely related to the case.”


  “That day, Tang Yuanchu, He Wencai, Wang Chengming, and Xiang Wan were patrolling along the Avenue of Stars. Jia An was the one who made used of Chen Liu to attract the attention of the police for the sake of kidnapping Mao Guigui. However, Mao Guigui was 168 centimeters tall and weighed 50 kilogrammes. I don’t think Jia An could have kidnapped Mao Guigui without anyone noticing……”


  “I don’t agree!” Someone raised an objection. “Let’s not forget the fact that Jia An was also well-versed in martial arts, on top of being a props master.”


  Being a martial arts master meant that Jia An had real fighting skills. A man like him would not be afraid of dealing with a young university student like Mao Guigui. Moreover, this was a case of premeditated murder.

  The detectives expressed their own opinions toward the case.

  Only by discussion, they could think more deeply about the problem, brainstorm, and find loopholes in their conjectures.

  Many murder cases had been discussed using this method.

  “No doubt, we have affirmed that Jia An is related to Mao Guigui’s case. But the main problem is…… what is the relationship between him and Mao Guigui? Why must he kill Mao Guigui?”


  “There’s more. After Mao Guigui died, Jia An placed a real bullet in the gun. Why did he do that? Who did he want to kill? Ye Lun, Yu Ning, or Xie Wanwan?”


  These problem were currently what was bothering them.

  They were unable to find Jia An’s motive for killing Mao Guigui.

  Moreover, they could not find Jia An’s motive for killing Ye Lun, Yu Ning, or Xie Wanwan either……

  “What had prompted him to do so?”


  Is it the destruction of humanity or the loss of morality? Xiang Wan’s lips twitched when she thought of this sentence.

  And Bai Muchuan noticed this little gesture of hers.

  He looked over expressionlessly. “Teacher Xiang, share with us your views.”


  Since she was being called upon, she had to express her views as an advisor to the team and earn their respect.

  “I have summarized my own viewpoints and would like to share with everyone here.” Xiang Wan got up from her seat solemnly, lowering her head as she flipped her notebook to organize her thoughts.

  Bai Muchuan gestured for her to sit down when she got up. “Just sit down and talk. We’re all a team.”


  Xiang Wan smiled shyly and nodded to everyone as she sat down and cleared her throat. “First of all, I need to make a point that—Jia An is definitely not the mastermind of the case.” She said this firmly as she looked at everyone. “Someone who can plan all these so meticulously will not allow himself to be killed so easily.”


  Everyone nodded their heads.

  “Hence,” continued Xiang Wan, “the two seemingly crucial points that Detective Xie raised earlier become not so important anymore.”


  Xie Hui looked over with doubt in his eyes.

  Xiang Wan looked at him with a polite smile. “Jia An need not have any motive to kill Mao Guigui, Ye Lun, Yu Ning, or Xie Wanwan…… He was being instigated or was being threatened that he must do it, by crook or by hook…… Of course, Jia An was someone who was easily threatened for he had a long history of smoking marijuana. A habit that he never managed to kick. Just this point alone was easy for someone to manipulate him.”


  Everyone nodded their heads once again.

  Bai Muchuan lifted his arm and looked at her. “Continue.”


  Xiang Wan looked at everyone and continued after a brief pause, “We can use an equation to set it up.”


  “Equation?”


  “Yes! Firstly, we assume the mastermind behind Jia An as Mr. X. Then, we will have Mr. X instigating Jia An to make use of Dong Bu’s gambling habits and debts to frame Ye Lun. At the same time, he got Jia An to get Chen Liu, who had a low IQ, to attract the attention of the police so he could kidnap Mao Guigui…… With that, this whole case will seem reasonable.”


  Everyone fell silent.

  After a while, Tang Yuanchu blurted a question. “Teacher Xiang, is your Math good?”


  Xiang Wan: “.……”


  Tang Yuanchu: “That doesn’t seem to give me an equation?”


  Cough! Xiang Wan felt a little awkward. “That’s the general idea. Do you understand what I’m trying to say?”


  “Not really,” Tang Yuanchu shook his head, “are you trying to say that the mastermind’s aim is Ye Lun?”


  Of course not.

  At least, not totally.

  If the mastermind was trying to target Ye Lun, there was no need to follow her novel and make it seem like it was moving in the same direction?

  Nevertheless, it was not suitable for her to talk about this in the meeting. Xiang Wan took a look at Bai Muchuan, who returned her gaze.

  “From the surface of the case, it is indeed the case. This series of things could have started from the conflict between Xie Wanwan and Ye Lun. With that, Kong Qingping’s death, Cao Mengjia’s suicide…… and so on, we can see that Ye Lun has a role in it, especially in Mao Guigui’s death and her crazy celebrity chasing behaviors. Dong Bu’s statement and the surveillance footage of a man suspected to be Ye Lun visiting Mao Guigui’s hotel room had directly pushed him as the prime suspect of the case.”


  “However,” asked Xie Hui, “we did not have enough evidence to pin the crime on him…… Hence, the gun prepared by Jia An…… his target is actually Ye Lun?”


  “The gun with the real bullet was being held by Ye Lun,” said Xiang Wan, “.…… if I’m not wrong, his mission was to make Ye Lun the prime suspect.”


  After a pause, she made eye contact with Bai Muchuan. “If at that point in time, Captain Bai had not stopped the filming, who would Ye Lun shoot at? According to the script, Yu Ning would be the one being shot. However…… no matter who got killed, Ye Lun would be a suspect. Even now, he is still a suspect although Jia An has died; he could not clear our suspicions.”


  “Why do you say that?”


  “Logically, the most possible person to instigate Jia An to kill, should be Ye Lun.”


  “Hm.” Bai Muchuan nodded his head. “How do you explain about Zhou Dequan?”


  Zhou Dequan……

  Xiang Wan recalled the fat man with a pot belly who smiled like the Smiling Buddha.

  “Of course……” Xiang Wan took a glance at Bai Muchuan as she said her words slowly and with a little hesitation. “There’s definitely a problem with Zhou Dequan, we all know that. But we don’t have evidence against him. He let Jia An stay in his house as he’s Jia An’s brother-in-law after all…… He could always say that before Captain Bai appeared, he did not know that Jia An had committed all these crimes…… Besides……”


  She couldn’t continue talking.

  She did not know if she should finish what she wanted to say.

  Bai Muchuan noticed that and he knocked on the table.

  “This is a case analysis meeting, anyone in the team can speak casually.”


  “Okay,” Xiang Wan considered for a moment before continuing, “from what we know so far, the one who seemed to be the prime suspect was Ye Lun, but he doesn’t look like the prime suspect anymore. Zhou Dequan, at the moment, is the new prime suspect as he’s a successful businessman, has backing, and has ability to do that…… However, I feel that he is not the one at the end of the food chain. He’s just a low-ranking leader of a criminal organization, and the top-ranking members of the organization might be people we can’t afford to mess with.”


  She had discussed this problem with Bai Muchuan.

  Her earlier hesitation was because she was wondering if she should say it at the meeting or not.

  After all, if Zhou Dequan could be considered a big fish, there was an even bigger “fish” behind.

  When all these were being laid on the table, a lot of things would become complicated.

  Hence, she used the words “I feel that”, to get Bai Muchuan out of the picture.

  “Teacher Xiang has said what I wanted to say.” Bai Muchuan looked at Xiang Wan deeply for a moment. “But for now, these are only our guesses. Jia An’s dead and the case……”


  At this moment, Little Liu came in to the meeting room. “Captain Bai, Commissioner Wang is looking for you!”


  Commissioner Wang had called via their internal line. Bai Muchuan looked at everyone and wanted them to continue with the discussion and followed Little Liu outside.

  After about more than 10 minutes later, he came back with a gloomy face and sat down on his seat for a long time without saying a word.

  “Captain Bai, what happened?” Tang Yuanchu, being the most forthright of all, immediately asked.

  “Commissioner Wang asked about our progress on the case,” said Bai Muchuan, “and, the initial act of Zhou Dequan’s ‘unlawful detainment of a detective’ has now become ‘get rid of a pest for the society’.”


  The meeting room was instantly quiet all of a sudden.

  After a short pause, Tang Yuanchu asked in a softer tone, “I have a question which I wanted to ask since yesterday. Captain Bai, you let them detain you deliberately, right?”


  Bai Muchuan raised an eyebrow. “Why do you think this way?”


  “If you don’t get detained deliberately,” Tang Yuanchu gave it a thought. “How are you going to get evidence and get to know his true colors?”


  Bai Muchuan furrowed his eyebrows, but he did not deny nor agree to what Tang Yuanchu said. “Everyone, do work harder! If we can’t get ahold of the fish, he’s going to come back for revenge!”


  “Yes, Sir!”


  Everyone answered at the same time, but their voices sounded a little weak.

  Everyone might have the heart to get the tiger, but whether they could actually do it as well as the unexpected things that might happen during the process of catching the tiger…… would all these affect their work…… Nobody could tell.

  The complex network of social relationships in the case was a pain.

  After the meeting was over, Tang Yuanchu followed Bai Muchuan silently to his office. “Boss, there’s something…… I didn’t ask earlier just now,” Tang Yuanchu said after closing the door.

  Bai Muchuan gave him a glance. “What is it?”


  Tang Yuanchu seemed a little hesitant. “It’s about Brother Huang…… Everyone said he’s now with Zhou Dequan…… I couldn’t accept that.”


  Bai Muchuan furrowed his brows and looked at Tang Yuanchu’s young looking face.

  “Believe in yourself.” He gave a faint smile……

  That day was the Mid-Autumn Festival.

  It was a festival of family reunion, but the atmosphere of the whole office was somewhat dull all morning.

  When it was about noon, some officials arrived from the Municipal Office.

  The officials were the respective leaders conveying their greetings and extending their regards about the police officers who would be on duty on this festival.

  There were mooncakes, rewards, and overtime pay. They also commended everyone for the hard work put in on solving the case.

  From the leaders’ point of view, this mystery case was basically solved.

  Jia An had been brought to justice although he had died…… From the looks of it, it was perfectly solved.

  But precisely because it was too perfect, it had the same problem as the 720 case as well as the case of the fountain goddess—there were doubts that were not known but enough evidence and a clear murderer……

  However, to the detectives, this case was not solved at all–


  The canteen had added more variety of food to celebrate the festival with everyone and everyone started to prepare to go out for duty.

  The Mid-Autumn Festival Gala was a major event hosted by respective media companies in Jin City. All of them needed to go on duty that night.

  It was Xiang Wan’s first time participating in such an event. She wore her police uniform and kept looking at herself in the mirror……