Overly Intense [Criminal Investigation] 111

Chapter 111: “Then I’m going to work.”

It was already dark. A bowl of mung bean soup. Qin Luo had only had two spoonfuls. It was really hard to swallow.

“So all those revelations were marketed by Liu Jia through Liang Wei’s channels.”

“Yes.”

Qin Luo’s face was pale. She didn’t dare to tell Shen Yiyi that Liu Jia and Liang Wei had reached a preliminary agreement. All the subsequent marketing of the film and television rights of Her Kill had to be agreed upon with Liang Wei’s overseas company, to return the funds that Shang Yi had invested in Her Kill to her.

A consulting fee packaged as copyright marketing from overseas would not be found by the regulatory authorities at all.

Liu Jia had been forced to cooperate with Liang Wei to launder Shang Yi’s money.

Qin Luo couldn’t figure out when Liang Wei had set her sights on Her Kill.

Shen Yiyi had been listening for a long time. The information she had heard from Qin Luo was all based on Liu Jia’s speculation. But from the clues she had, Wang Lu and You Ning knew each other, You Ning and Liang Wei knew each other, and Li Peipei had guided Wang Lu to pursue the truth.

This meant that the four of them were all trying to get what they wanted from Shang Yi.

Wang Lu wanted to know her friend’s whereabouts, Liang Wei wanted a divorce and a division of assets, and Li Peipei wanted freedom. Then what did You Ning want?

At this thought… Shen Yiyi’s mind was uneasy. She couldn’t help but ask, “Are you in contact with You Ning now?”

“She’s an assistant director.”

“Do you like her now?”

Qin Luo was still thinking about Liang Wei’s matter. The topic had suddenly shifted to You Ning, especially the three words “like her” coming from Shen Yiyi’s mouth. Qin Luo was really detached.

Seeing that Qin Luo did not answer for a long time, Shen Yiyi sneered, stood up, and cleared the bowls and chopsticks from the table, taking away the mung bean soup that Qin Luo had not finished.

As she was washing the dishes at the sink, she heard Qin Luo say softly from behind her,

“I just want to end this farce as soon as possible.”

The implication was that before this farce was over, Qin Luo did not want to have any breakthrough in her relationship with Shen Yiyi. She had no energy to pay for other emotions.

Shen Yiyi understood.

After a while, she asked, “Do you have much contact with Shang Yi?”

“The number of times we meet in person is not many. I’ve met him two or three times in the first half of the year because of public welfare.”

“Was that the time you went to Guo Rui’s house to hide?”

“Yes.”

Shen Yiyi drained the water, wiped her hands, and turned to look at Qin Luo. “Did you know he had a heart condition?”

“I knew, but not the specifics.”

“Does he usually have the habit of taking any health supplements?”

“I’m not sure.”

Shen Yiyi recalled that when she was flipping through Wang Lu’s testimony in the archives, Wang Lu had mentioned Li Peipei more than once. “Did your production also film in Chongqing?”

“Yes.” Qin Luo was puzzled. “Why do you suddenly ask this?”

Shen Yiyi did not want to speculate and shook her head.

Seeing her grave expression, Qin Luo suddenly remembered something. “Xin Wuzheng was also in Chongqing at that time.”

“At that time, there was some friction between the filming and the location due to a delay. Xin Wuzheng was there to handle the contract.” Qin Luo remembered the fake Maotai she had drunk that night. Li Wenping had been thanking Lawyer Xin at the dinner table. “I heard that the location’s security guard and the art department had an argument. Wang Lu went to mediate and even fell down the stairs.”

Shen Yiyi had seen it in the testimony.

Wang Lu had claimed that she had met Li Peipei in Chongqing. At that time, Li Peipei was pregnant and had been accidentally pushed. After she had returned to Shanghai, she had had a miscarriage. For this reason, she had even gone to the hospital to visit Li Peipei, which had led to Li Peipei taking the opportunity to say that the child was Shang Yi’s.

Shen Yiyi asked, “When was the last time you saw Li Peipei?”

“I haven’t seen her since I had a fight with Shang Yi at the company.” Qin Luo thought carefully again and shook her head. “I haven’t seen her much since the table read of Her Kill. It’s probably as Liu Jia guessed. She was trapped at home by Shang Yi to prepare for pregnancy.”

Qin Luo wanted to be thorough. She took out her phone and found Zhan Luo’s number. “Wait for me to confirm.”

The call was answered quickly.

Qin Luo asked, “Little Zhan, did you see Li Peipei when you were in contact with President Shang’s team?”

“I did.”

“Do you still remember when the last time you saw her was?”

“Hmm…” Zhan Luo tried hard to recall. After a while, he said, “When you went back to Fengjiang, she came to Logos to deliver the business summary for the reading group.”

Qin Luo asked, “How was her condition at that time?”

“She looked quite haggard and didn’t say much. It seemed that she had just had a miscarriage not long ago.”

Not long after a miscarriage…

How did even Zhan Luo know that Li Peipei was pregnant?

Qin Luo regretted that she had been so focused on the production back then, and then Shen Yiyi had disturbed her concentration, so much so that she had missed so many things around her. “Did you know she was pregnant?”

Zhan Luo laughed at the question. “Sister Qin, she was already showing at that time.”

“Did you find anything unusual in your dealings with her?” Qin Luo put the call on speaker. One more pair of ears meant one more person to think. “For example, was she depressed, or did she mention anything about resigning?”

Zhan Luo said with certainty, “No, everything was very normal.”

“Okay.”

Qin Luo didn’t want to make Zhan Luo worry too much and changed to a relaxed tone. “Then let’s leave it at that. After the reading group’s venue is used up, you can remember to check the venue. You and the accountant can check the wages that should be paid. And the last batch of books for the mountainous areas, you can contact the person in charge to coordinate the logistics. Let me know if anything comes up.”

“I’m hanging up now.”

Qin Luo hung up the phone, put her hands in her pockets, and looked at Shen Yiyi.

Although she had confiscated the mung bean soup, Shen Yiyi had still peeled some fruit for Qin Luo. She held a bowl. “A murder needs a motive.”

For Wang Lu, Shang Yi had at most killed her friend. Revenge for a friend was clearly not enough of a motive for murder. Shen Yiyi had not found any overly intimate relationship between Wang Lu and Teng Chao in the police investigation, and there was no financial tie. Whether Shang Yi was dead or not, the benefit to Wang Lu was not great.

“For Liang Wei, she just wanted to be free from the marriage. She has a good background. Even if the division of the couple’s assets was not equal, she would not have killed him.”

Besides a natural antisocial personality, a woman would generally not use violence unless she was in a crisis.

“For her, no matter how disgusting Shang Yi was, he was still the father of her child. Unless Shang Yi was a threat to the child.”

Qin Luo did not know as much about Liang Wei as Liu Jia did, but from what Liu Jia had said, although Liang Wei did not like conflict, she was definitely not soft when it came to trouble. For example, for Logos, since she had inherited Shang Yi’s shares, it was her responsibility to help Liu Jia save Logos. But she had proposed an exchange condition, forcing Liu Jia to agree to help her launder money.

Qin Luo sat on the sofa, dejected.

She was also in pain. Everyone had a dark side, a secret they wanted to hide.

Even with Shen Yiyi sitting opposite her, Qin Luo could not be completely honest. If the police knew about the matter that Liu Jia and Liang Wei had negotiated, it would be another bottomless pit.

“From the looks of it, Li Peipei’s motive is indeed the greatest.”

If the analysis post was Liu Jia’s speculation, then Shen Yiyi and Liu Jia thought similarly. Li Peipei’s prime years had been wasted on Shang Yi, with no name and no status. Even her career had to be subject to others’ whims. She had gone to jail for love, and after she was released, she had been controlled by Shang Yi again and had been forced to get pregnant. Even Qin Luo had wanted to kill Shang Yi after hearing about it, let alone Li Peipei, who had personally experienced the hardship.

Shen Yiyi analyzed it from the autopsy report.

The poisoner had accurately grasped Shang Yi’s living habits, knew about his underlying heart condition, and understood his medication habits. The killer had even grasped the location of the party and had added a catalytic condition—to make Shang Yi’s emotions fluctuate greatly.

In Wang Lu’s testimony, she had received information about Shang Yi organizing a party a week before the incident and had gotten more specific clues.

Assuming that the person who had sent the message to Wang Lu was the killer, and the purpose was to lure Wang Lu to the villa to have an argument with Shang Yi, to catalyze the effect of the drug, then there were too many uncontrollable factors for the killer. A slight variable would have made it impossible to kill Shang Yi smoothly.

The police’s profile of the killer was that the murder was completed through meticulous planning and careful planning, so the person who had sent the message did not fit the killer’s profile.

They were all unstable variables…

Then what was the most stable condition in this case? What was the relationship between these four people and Qi Yingjun’s case?

Shen Yiyi could not share information about Li Peipei with Qin Luo. She was a police officer, and before she was recused by the police, she had to follow the principles. Therefore, she could only provide some ideas.

“You can find a way to check if there’s a connection between Xin Wuzheng and Shang Yi.”

After Qin Luo said, “Okay,” there was no follow-up.

But it was Shen Yiyi who asked her, “How are we sleeping tonight?”

“Didn’t your roommate move out?”
Shen Yiyi said, “I have mysophobia.”
Qin Luo said, “Of course I’ll sleep in her room.”

For Shen Yiyi, You Ning wearing Qin Luo’s clothes was already the limit of what she could tolerate. Before she had cleaned Lu Shimao’s room, she could not tolerate Qin Luo sleeping on her roommate’s mattress. Even if there was nothing in the room, she would imagine that some smells would get into Qin Luo’s hair.

“No, it’s not clean.” Shen Yiyi showed her bottom line.

Qin Luo was dismissive and stood up to get the cleaning tools from the corner. “Then I’ll go and clean it now.”

Shen Yiyi also stood up. “It’s too late now. It will take a long time to clean.”

Qin Luo stopped, shrugged her shoulders, and looked at her. “Then what? There are two rooms, but we can only sleep in one bed?”

“I’ll sleep on the sofa tonight. When it’s cleaned on the weekend, I’ll sleep in her room.”

This was the biggest concession Shen Yiyi could make. She would rather suffer than to have the shadow squeezing in her head all night. It would whisper, and it would trigger unnecessary emotions.

Qin Luo frowned.

Before, when she had had fantasies about Shen Yiyi, she had only considered her feelings. Now, looking at her mysophobia from a detached perspective, it was like she was terminally ill.

“Your mysophobia is very serious.”

Shen Yiyi was not happy. “Yes.”

Qin Luo asked tentatively, “What if I go and sleep in that bed?”

Shen Yiyi did not answer and walked to Lu Shimao’s room with a cold face, holding a vacuum cleaner.

Qin Luo stood outside the door, watching her vacuum the spotless bedroom. Lu Shimao had already tidied up the room before she had left, so much so that you could see a single hair. Where was it dirty?

“Answer me. What will happen?”

The sound of the vacuum cleaner covered Shen Yiyi’s answer. “It’s never happened before. How would I know?”

Dirt is a threat, an invasion, and is linked to death. Shen Yiyi did not want to admit that a mysophobe is self-deprecating. Dr. Shu had told her since she was a child that, to a certain extent, mysophobia defines the weakness of the self, and one constantly relies on wiping to ensure their own health.

But she did not admit Dr. Shu’s statement.

She was not weak, but her willpower had been temporarily defeated. And after she had turned thirty, she had gradually begun to gain the upper hand in her willpower.

The coat she wore out did not need to be hung on the balcony to air out. The police uniform did not need to be washed twice. She only needed to spray alcohol once when she got home. Besides washing her hands frequently, she could even accept the fact that Qin Luo had kissed someone else.

So, what else did she want?

Qin Luo said kindly, “Logos has an authorized psychological counseling room. I had Liu Jia make an appointment with a counselor for you before. You can go and see one when you have time.”

“No need.”

She was always cold when it came to mysophobia. The last time they had argued at the Korean restaurant, it had also been because of mysophobia.

Qin Luo was puzzled. “Your mysophobia is so serious. How will you find a roommate in the future? It’s only because Little Lu has a good temper. If you had someone like Liu Jia, wouldn’t you two have killed each other?”

Shen Yiyi said calmly, “I’m not looking for a roommate anymore. I’m going to buy a house.”

Buy a house?

Qin Luo was very surprised. Dr. Shen did not seem like a person who needed a home. She was devoted to her work every day and could get a sense of achievement from it. “Why do you suddenly want to buy a house?”

Shen Yiyi turned off the vacuum cleaner and looked at Qin Luo.

“I want to lie flat.”

She wanted to know what a life of lying flat was like.

At six the next morning, Shen Yiyi, who had been lying on the sofa all night, couldn’t sleep. She went out for a run and brought back breakfast.

When she came back, Qin Luo was already up. The two sat at opposite ends of the dining table, eating.

Qin Luo spoke first. “It’s not a solution to stay here long-term.”

“The case has no leads at the moment.” Shen Yiyi took a sip of water and said slowly, “Before the killer is locked down, you can stay here. I can clean up the room tonight.”

“But I don’t have a change of clothes.”

“I’ll go and get them for you after work.”

At this, Qin Luo remembered, “How did you get into Cloud Top last time?”

Shen Yiyi did not intend to hide it. “Little Lu’s girlfriend is also an owner of Cloud Top.”

“Huh?!” Qin Luo pressed, “Little Lu’s girlfriend is an owner of Cloud Top, and she’s still renting a place here with you? Which building is her girlfriend’s? Maybe I know her.”

“You don’t.” Shen Yiyi did not want to reveal Little Lu’s privacy and wiped her mouth perfunctorily, then went to the restroom to wash her hands.

When she came out, she had changed into a shirt and had left a key in the entryway.

“Send me what clothes you want to get. I’ll get them after work.”

Shen Yiyi was putting on her shoes. Qin Luo stood up and walked to the door. She looked at the weather forecast. It seemed that it would rain today. “If it rains tonight, why don’t I pick you up?”

“No need. It’s not safe.”

The two stood in the entryway, looking at each other.

There was expectation in their eyes.

Desire had taken a turn. There was a cramping feeling like a stomachache, a sharp, strange cry in her nerves, triggering a convulsive pleasure. This feeling was very luxurious, extremely private.

Shen Yiyi had never been so eager to lie flat. She wanted to get off work immediately before she had even started, even if she couldn’t sleep soundly on the sofa.

“What do you want to eat tonight?”
“Whatever.”

Even if the dinner Qin Luo wanted was very casual.

“Then I’m going to work. See you tonight.”