Overly Intense [Criminal Investigation] 131

Chapter 131: The Member

“Did you see Li Peipei in prison at that time?”

Qin Luo had already forgotten about the matter from five years ago.

The book signing was one of Qin Luo’s most important jobs besides the member’s day. The longest standby time was up to 20 hours, and she couldn’t even squeeze out time to sleep. How could she have time to remember the fans at the book signing?

There was no other way. Qin Luo had to call the Wang Xi who had just left back again.

Wang Xi was as busy as a spinning top. On one hand, she was assigning tasks to the department heads, and on the other, she was thinking about how to answer the question. “But in my impression, she really likes Sister Qin.”

Wang Xi had always had a good impression of Li Peipei. Whether it was her sense of boundaries or her work efficiency, she was always more efficient than the other assistants. And Li Peipei would care about the trends of Logos and would also give many novel suggestions for the department’s decisions. She was aware of the trends and was a very serious partner. “She would often ask me about your career trends.”

Shen Yiyi said bluntly, “Recall the situation at the provincial prison.”

“Which time?”

Qin Luo had been to the provincial prison more than once. For the sake of her creation, she had visited many times, hoping to feel the mentality of the criminals through her own observation and to try to understand their motives for committing the crime. It could be said that Her Kill had cost Qin Luo a lot of effort. To increase its authenticity, she had even used the stories of the reading group’s members. For example, the manager of the empowerment tea garden, Sister Ni, was the prototype of the second story.

Qin Luo had no impression of a character like Li Peipei.

She only remembered that before the book signing at the provincial prison, she had brought the reading group’s team and social volunteers to the prison for a reading week activity. The activity had opened up many projects, and Qin Luo had only participated in the reading roundtable and the lecture.

The roundtable discussion was a traditional activity of the reading group. Members were recruited to participate based on a theme, and then a roundtable discussion was opened.

The roundtable represented equality and open communication. Regardless of their position, age, or gender, there was no fixed leader. Everyone just shared their views on a specific theme. After the roundtable activity, the volunteers would open a chat room based on the theme. The volunteers would follow up on the topic in the group, evaluate the feedback, and organize the theme for the next roundtable discussion.

Because it was a roundtable activity held in a prison, there was no chat room after the end of the day, and there was no subsequent follow-up. It was difficult for Qin Luo to recall if there had been any arguments or debates during the roundtable discussion at that time.

But she had indeed been attracted and moved by the stories of the criminals during the roundtable discussion, and had even felt a sense of sympathy.

Sympathy for a criminal would cause the identities of the victim and the perpetrator to be intertwined, and would cause society to deprive them of their due moral subjectivity.

This had made Qin Luo feel disappointed in herself, and she had even begun to reflect on the original intention of her creation. The criminals in her writing were all reluctant resisters, not real, flesh-and-blood, decisive criminal subjects. This was also a kind of discrimination.

“I remember!!!” Seeing that Sister Qin couldn’t say anything, Wang Xi took the initiative to say, “On the last day of the reading roundtable, Sister Qin talked about…”

She was stuck at a key point but couldn’t say the title of the book. Wang Xi only hated that she had been with Qin Luo for so many years but had not wanted to read an extra book. She slapped her forehead and thought for a long time.

“Notes from the House of the Dead.”
“Notes from the House of the Dead.”

Shen Yiyi and Qin Luo said it almost in unison.

Wang Xi clapped her hands. “Yes, yes, yes!”

Qin Luo was awakened by the title of the book and gradually came back to her senses. Fragments of memory flooded into her eyes. That day, she was wearing all black, and the classroom desks and chairs were arranged in a circle. She was sitting in the very center, and her field of vision was full of orange prison uniforms.

“‘True humanitarianism is not above ideals, but in the ruins.’ Freedom is not just leaving the cage, but preserving the fantasy. Even in the most boring and torturous environment, a person must still maintain reading and thinking. Reading is not to recognize black and white and goodwill, but to preserve the kindling that keeps the soul burning.”

That was the first time her speech had ended without applause, without jeering, but with a dead silence.

It was also the first time that Qin Luo had felt that reading sometimes had its limitations. Therefore, after it was over, she had donated three hundred copies of Notes from the House of the Dead to the prison at her own expense.

Qin Luo frowned and asked Shen Yiyi, “How did you know?”

“There was a copy of Notes from the House of the Dead in that cardboard box.”

…
…

The room was silent. Wang Xi gasped.

Qin Luo’s face was stern, her expression frozen, her eyes dazed.

Finally, she reacted.

—The owner of that box was probably the shadow that had been staring at her, making her feel a sense of crisis at all times.

Qin Luo: “Do Zhan Luo and Li Peipei know each other?”
Wang Xi’s eyes also widened. “Did he put the photo album there?”

Qin Luo hesitated, her thoughts already fragmented. The shadow that had appeared in front of her was strangely dazzling, blurry and following her, every time the two looked at each other, every time they talked.

The images in her head were piling up more and more.

Zhan Luo was squatting outside the police station, eating a boxed meal, carefully checking the cameras in the hotel, stopping the troublemaking tea farmers for her, and including beating that sexually harassing photography executive.

Qin Luo knew that she had seen it, but she instinctively refused to believe that it was real.

Shen Yiyi was about to speak when her phone rang.

Shen Yiyi thought it was a feedback on her police report. She looked down and saw that it was Lu Shimao.

Lu Shimao did not waste any words with Qin Luo and gave her the answer on the phone. “Sister Shen, you’re right. Your friend’s entryway has also been monitored.”

…

Qin Luo was dumbfounded.

On the other end, Lu Shimao asked, “Should I dismantle it? Or should I just help you call the police?”

Shen Yiyi had a target and immediately made a decision. Liu Jia’s disappearance was definitely related to the camera. She knew that there was no time to waste now. “Dismantle it, and call the police! Immediately!”

She was even thinking about whether she could find a technician through her personal connections.

Shen Yiyi asked on the phone, “After you’ve dismantled it, can you reverse-invade the upload node to find the cloud storage?”

Lu Shimao could hear the urgency in Shen Yiyi’s voice. She said with difficulty, “Unless the police immediately send a letter to the product platform, I’m afraid… it will be difficult to complete it within a week.”

The real world always lacks a divine touch.

Shen Yiyi was not Ma Liang. She said with disappointment, “Forget it.”

Spending time on the surveillance now had a very low rate of return. The surveillance could only be used as evidence later. The most important thing now was to find Liu Jia. Shen Yiyi quickly connected with Lu Shimao on the phone about the case, informed her of the time of the disappearance, and gave her Qin Luo’s phone number, so that she could be contacted directly if there were any problems.

Seeing that Shen Yiyi had hung up the phone, Qin Luo said in a deep voice, “The surveillance was installed by Zhan Luo.”

Even if she was unwilling to believe it, she had to admit Zhan Luo’s existence at this moment.

Qin Luo regretted it, and even blamed herself for being so stupid. Why hadn’t she thought that the person who could smoothly pass the security list and freely enter and exit Cloud Top must be someone close to her?

Why had she never suspected Zhan Luo?

Shen Yiyi did not want Wang Xi to be present. She sent Wang Xi away again. “You can continue to look for the list. I’ve already called the police. When the police arrive later, you can just bring them to the office.”

After Wang Xi had left, Qin Luo sat down on the sofa, her whole body stiff, with a look of helplessness.

Only the two of them were left in the office. Only then was Shen Yiyi at ease. “Zhan Luo and Li Peipei know each other.”

This was the only possibility.
And only this possibility.

“Only if they know each other can they have a common goal and be able to commit the crime together.”

Although Shen Yiyi did not like to speculate, based on her many years of experience in solving cases, if Liang Wei was not the one who had committed the crime in Shang Yi’s case, then the greatest possibility was Li Peipei. Only someone close to him could easily get their hands on the drugs that Shang Yi was taking, could tamper with the drugs without being noticed, could accurately know his itinerary, and could push the events forward in order, until his death.

Perhaps, that day was not the day they had set for Shang Yi’s death.

It was You Ning who was afraid that Lu Xi would be involved in the couple’s fight and that Lu Xi would be killed by Shang Yi, so she had advised Lu Xi to give up on pursuing the answer. Liang Wei had many ways to get out of it. Lu Xi giving up did not mean that she could not get a divorce and get the money. A Liang Wei with a background would definitely have a backup plan.

The one who did not agree to the plan falling through could only be the Li Peipei who was fighting with her back to the wall.

You Ning had said that when Li Peipei and Lu Xi had met in Chongqing, the production had had a very serious argument. Qin Luo had also said that Xin Wuzheng was handling the site contract at that time, and he was also at the scene.

Perhaps Xin Wuzheng had heard something he shouldn’t have.
He had accidentally learned of Li Peipei’s plan.
Or…

Based on the clues at hand, Shen Yiyi could not deduce why Liu Jia would be involved in this murder case. Unless Liu Jia was an obstacle to Li Peipei, an object that had to be fought to the end, otherwise it would not constitute a motive for the crime, and she would have no need to kill Liu Jia.

Why take Liu Jia away?
Why did Zhan Luo help Li Peipei?
And how did they know each other?

Qin Luo’s eyes were blank, and she said in a hollow voice, “It was the reading group.”

“Five years ago, when we had just moved to Shanghai, Zhan Luo was one of the first male volunteers to be recruited.” Qin Luo’s movements were half a beat slow. She slowly turned to look at Shen Yiyi. “I remember now.”

She remembered that the original intention of the reading group was to let more low-educated women get employment opportunities and to give them a space to learn. Therefore, the recruitment of employees from the society had been restricted by gender.

And a week after the recruitment information was released, the comment section had been attacked and had fallen by the same user. There had even been people who had debated with the human resources department in the reading group’s hall. Later, when Qin Luo had learned of this matter, she had also felt that the gender restriction was too strict, and that there would be a shortage of logistics and physical labor positions. Qin Luo did not want to waste manpower on logistics, so she had agreed to open up male volunteers.

Qin Luo remembered that Wang Xi had said that when Zhan Luo had first come five years ago, he was not very diligent and would only occasionally participate in activities. At first, he was on duty to maintain order at the activity venue, and he would transport and drive. Later, he had gradually become a colleague.

“Perhaps…”

Shen Yiyi said for Qin Luo, “Perhaps Li Peipei was also a member of the reading group.”

If Li Peipei had seriously listened to Qin Luo’s speech at the book signing in prison, and had seriously thought about her future life during her time in prison, then she would definitely have wanted to take control of her own life after she was released. It was just a pity that Shang Yi had not given her this opportunity. Through various pressures from work and family, he had controlled her life. Then the Li Peipei who had a faith and persistence would have the determination to kill Shang Yi.

Motive.

When a person’s faith or worldview is firm enough, she will use it as a benchmark to judge the reliability of all her actions, to please herself, to be herself, and her way of expressing herself is even higher than the law and moral conventions.

Because in her perspective.
Killing is not “evil,” but a “necessity of struggle.”

As the logical system is constantly improved, morality loses its binding force, and faith greatly eliminates her hesitation, fear, and guilt. It is not for personal emotions that she kills, but “with a reason.” This reason is for a higher purpose—to liberate herself.

The so-called “instrumental rationality.”

Qin Luo raised her eyebrows and said with incomprehension, “I can imagine Li Peipei killing Shang Yi, but what about her killing a lawyer and an internet celebrity?”

“Why did she kill Liu Jia?”