Overly Intense [Criminal Investigation] 171

Chapter 171: The Red Silk · La Soie Rouge

Shen Yiyi had never thought that the footprint she had been pursuing for more than twenty years would find its source because of a sculpture. The shadow that had accompanied her through countless nightmares had detached from its mold, had a height and a weight, and even a name.

But the Shen Yiyi who had gotten the answer was calmer than she had imagined. On the contrary, Qin Luo was so excited that she had not slept all night. Finding a legal team had become her top priority. For this reason, Qin Luo had decided to return to Shanghai with Shen Yiyi.

Shen’s father had not stopped her.

Perhaps it was a father’s sensitivity. He had clearly also noticed that something was wrong with his daughter. Compared to his breakdown and excitement when he had learned that the shoe print had an owner, a breakthrough piece of evidence, his daughter had just sat in a corner of the sofa, calmly accepting the approach of the truth, which had made him feel oppressed.

“Find a law firm with overseas negotiation capabilities. If the criminal is really Zhao Kang, then we can’t expect the criminal investigation team.”

Liu Jia was worried on the phone. “If that doesn’t work, you can go and find You Ning.”

“That’s true.” Qin Luo glanced sideways. Shen Yiyi was staring out the window in a daze. “Then I’ll make an appointment to meet with her as soon as possible and talk to her. I hope she hasn’t gone back to Hangzhou.”

“Shen Yiyi… how is she?” Although this news was worth being happy about, Liu Jia could hear that Qin Luo was not in a good mood. The only reason why Director Qin would be in a bad mood was that her precious girlfriend was also not in a good mood. “This kind of thing can’t be comforted. You shouldn’t say too much. Just wait for her to figure it out on her own.”

That night, when Qin Luo got home, she had called You Ning. The other was also very fast and had contacted several lawyers with overseas negotiation capabilities in the middle of the night. After a few days of discussion, Qin Luo had finally decided to entrust them to assist in finding the materials, to get the customer information of Carette & Fils, or the shoe print materials, as quickly as possible through investigation.

At the end of March.

The law firm had spent a month to complete the collection of the auxiliary materials, and then Shen’s father had submitted the case filing application again. This time, the criminal investigation team had reviewed it very quickly.

Finally, before the summer had arrived, the criminal investigation team had contacted Shen Yiyi by phone and had invited her back to Fengjiang to cooperate with the investigation.

For two months, Shen Yiyi had acted like an outsider.

She had calmly returned to her unit to work, had not said a word about the case, the channel had stopped operating, and she had even worked overtime like crazy to make up for her leave and had rarely returned home. She had suddenly returned to the life mode of the past dozen or so years, to that kind of boring life, from a frantic search for the truth to now, a puppet who was avoiding the truth.

Qin Luo was anxious, but she was helpless.

“The criminal investigation team has a breakthrough piece of evidence. Why isn’t she going back to Fengjiang?”

Guo Rui had heard this news and had driven over on the weekend. She had originally thought that Shen Yiyi would be happy about this, but she had learned from Qin Luo that Shen Yiyi had refused the criminal investigation team’s appointment on the grounds of a business trip.

Liu Jia said glibly, “She’s not even going home. Why would she go back to Fengjiang?”

Guo Rui looked at Qin Luo, her face full of shock. “Really?”

“Yes.” Qin Luo shrugged her shoulders. Thinking of her girlfriend who had been avoiding her for two months, her migraine would unconsciously act up. She sat cross-legged between the two of them. “Not only to me, but also very cold to her father.”

In the days that Shen Yiyi had not been home, Qin Luo had picked up a drinking habit again. Every night before she went to bed, besides sending a good night message to Shen Yiyi, she also had to swallow a few glasses of whiskey to fall asleep.

While her friend was still here, Qin Luo simply wanted to have a good drink. She drank one glass after another. “I think I need to see a psychologist. If this goes on, I’ll also get depressed.”

Qin Luo couldn’t figure it out. “Clearly, the chain of evidence is already eighty percent complete. As long as Shen Yiyi is willing to go back to Fengjiang to cooperate with the investigation, she can get a truth…”

Isn’t the truth of the case what she has always wanted?

“I don’t understand.” At this thought, Qin Luo shook her head. “I really don’t understand her.”

Guo Rui did not know how to comfort her. She gently patted Qin Luo’s shoulder and took a few sips of wine with her. But it was Liu Jia, who had a language impairment, who was lying on the sofa, half-dead, and said,

“For you, it’s finding the truth. But for Shen Yiyi, she has exhausted all the options she could have in her life.”

“Childhood, studies, work, and love life.”

Liu Jia looked at the ceiling, her mind a blank. She recalled the cold basement, the moment she had been slowly deprived of oxygen. “The truth is just an investigation report to her.”

“Has she not seen enough case closure reports?”

Qin Luo did not refute. She took a sip of her wine and gently patted Liu Jia’s wrist.

“Zhan Luo has already been executed. I sometimes still dream of him.” Liu Jia’s voice was also calm. “If no one had caught him, I probably wouldn’t have been able to remember too many details at that time. I think I would have lived with hatred. But the fact that the police caught him has made me feel self-blame. I often ask myself what I did wrong, why I was treated like this, and why it had to be me.”

Liu Jia turned to her side, her voice unusually calm:

“Why did I have to pay the price to get the truth of the case?”

The living room fell silent. Under the dim light, Qin Luo and Guo Rui were drinking one mouthful after another. Liu Jia was curled up on the sofa, listening to the TV, from the news to the commercials.

Di di di—

The door was suddenly opened. The three of them turned to look at the entryway.

They saw Shen Yiyi with a tired face. She hadn’t even sprayed alcohol. She had changed into her slippers and had walked into the restroom. When she had come out, she had only then seen that Guo Rui was also there and had tried to smile at her.

Qin Luo was concerned, but her tone was cautious. “Do you want to rest?”

Shen Yiyi shook her head. “My dad sent me a message.”

Liu Jia was more at ease than Qin Luo. She held out her arm and waved at her. “Don’t think so much. It’s rare for everyone to be together. Come and have a drink.”

Guo Rui also said, “It’s rare for me to come to Shanghai to see you. Come quickly.”

Shen Yiyi did not refuse and sat down as invited. Seeing that she was rarely willing to socialize, Qin Luo immediately stood up and went to the kitchen. She took out all the instant food that could be eaten with a drink from the refrigerator, made a plate of fried dumplings, and roasted a few skewers of yakitori. The four of them sat cross-legged on the rug. It was Guo Rui who first started to talk about the past. Liu Jia followed closely behind Guo Rui and talked about how Qin Luo had been crying and laughing, clinging to her after her breakup at eighteen. After she had finished speaking, she had put her arm around Shen Yiyi’s shoulder. She was half-joking, half-serious, and had asked her to apologize.

“I’m sorry.”

Guo Rui’s movements paused. Liu Jia stopped swallowing, and Qin Luo slowly turned her head to look out the window.

Only Shen Yiyi held up her glass and drank all the remaining wine. She could not express her regret for the past. The only thing she could say was this “I’m sorry.”

A belated “I’m sorry” was not just for Qin Luo, but for everyone.

After that, they had been drinking and chatting until the early morning. Liu Jia was still the same intelligence center, and had shared the news of their old classmates getting married and starting their careers. Guo Rui had also shared some of her recent situation. Only Shen Yiyi had not said anything more and had quietly listened.

This was the first time Qin Luo had seen Shen Yiyi drunk. Her whole body was as soft as a cotton candy, and she was leaning on her shoulder, whimpering in her throat.

A soft and gentle voice could easily win people’s hearts. Qin Luo leaned close to her ear, trying to hear her needs clearly. If Shen Yiyi said she wanted to sleep, then she would have a reason to carry her back to the bedroom. At this thought, Qin Luo also felt it was ridiculous. They were clearly in a relationship, but they always had to maintain a certain caution.

“I’m sorry.”

Qin Luo’s approach had made Shen Yiyi smell a familiar scent. She had repeated that apology in her mouth, and then her chin had arched into the crook of Qin Luo’s neck, looking for an angle to hide, and then she had closed her eyes.

The sky outside the window was already light. The dawn was shining on the river, and a thin mist was rising.

Qin Luo sat on the rug, her head against hers. The alcohol and the all-nighter that she had not been able to touch in her adolescence had been realized after she had turned thirty. Qin Luo was silent. It wasn’t until the light had grown stronger that she had responded to her apology.

“I knew you would also be sad.”

***

Shen Yiyi really hated summer, especially the summer in Fengjiang.

A luxury car was parked in the courtyard of the Fengjiang police station. A damn cicada had peed on the front windshield. Wang Xi cursed and turned on the windshield wipers, complaining, “So the leader came to pick someone up just to have them sit in the car and wait for half an hour?”

Qin Luo glared at her. “Say a few less words.”3

Shen Yiyi had agreed to see the investigation team. It was an old leader from the provincial department who had called, saying that now that the case had passed the evidence review and had been reopened, the whole country was paying close attention, especially the criminal investigation team of the prefecture-level city. They had specially had the political commissar personally connect with the victim’s family.

Shen Yiyi could not refuse the concern of the provincial department’s leader and had only then agreed to come back to participate in the case meeting.

In these past few days, it had been Shen’s father who had been in contact with the police. Most of the time, it was Qin Luo who had accompanied Shen’s father to be investigated. Shen Yiyi had only occasionally cared a couple of times on WeChat, but once they had started to talk about the progress, she would always avoid it.

“I’m sorry, Director Shen. I’ve kept you waiting.”

The political commissar of the criminal investigation team was named Zou. He was in his fifties and used a professional title with Shen Yiyi.

“Long time no see.”

The man standing next to Political Commissar Zou also held out his hand to Shen Yiyi.

Shen Yiyi recognized Zhou Zhengguo, the young police officer from the police station back then. He and his master were the first to arrive at the scene back then. It was he who had given her a police uniform to cover her eyes, and it was also he who had carried her out of the pool of blood at the crime scene.

In the blink of an eye, more than twenty years had passed. The intern police officer from back then had become the captain of the brigade.

Shen Yiyi hated shaking hands. She pretended to tie up her hair, which was about to fall loose, and smiled, her posture feigning high spirits, to gather her almost-broken self.

“Long time no see, Captain Zhou.”
Zhou Zhengguo said, “Just call me Brother Zhou like before.”

Shen Yiyi scanned the administrative office building. “It’s been so many years. Are you still working in this building?”
“It’s hard enough to get money for a case, let alone moving the building.” Zhou Zhengguo smiled helplessly. “But we’ve expanded the parking lot and so on, and the cafeteria in the back has also gotten bigger.”

Shen Yiyi had not expected to be talking about these polite things with the investigating police officer after so many years. She shrugged her shoulders, not knowing how to continue.

Seeing this, Qin Luo interjected. “The sun is too strong outside. Why don’t you lead the way, Political Commissar Zou? We can talk in your office.”
“Right, right, right. Let’s talk in the office.” Political Commissar Zou patted Shen Yiyi’s shoulder. He had a sense of familiarity that had come from nowhere. He called her Little Shen affectionately. “I heard from Director Wang that you used to work under him. It’s amazing that you could get into Shanghai to be a director at such a young age. As expected of…”

The municipal building always liked to build long flights of stairs. The common people had to climb them step by step.

Shen Yiyi clearly remembered that there were twenty-three steps in front of this building. The last time she had come, she had just turned twenty-five. The time, from the day she had known that this building was called the criminal investigation building, had been stretched from one day to several months. To this day, it was about nine thousand days, twenty-five years and three months, and it was still summer. In these thirty-plus years, she had only lived in one question. She did not know if she still dared to leave this question.

Her scattered hair was finally tied up. Shen Yiyi finally finished climbing the stairs, and her footsteps stopped in front of the door.

She turned and looked back, and found that the truth was not the elephant that had been put in the refrigerator. There was no simple way to get rid of the past by just walking forward.
Never.

Suddenly, her hand was held tightly by Qin Luo. Shen Yiyi came back to her senses and saw that Qin Luo had also stopped with her.

“Let’s go. Let’s figure it out first, and then we’ll think about other things.”