Overly Intense [Criminal Investigation] 67

Chapter 67: He Was Murdered

He had been dead for seven or eight days, but Qin Luo had not seen his wife once. Only Shang Yi’s legal team had come to Logos twice, and Qin Luo had accompanied them to handle the matter each time.

The company was calm. Some employees would occasionally gossip about the big boss in the break room, but most of it stayed in the break room. They all knew that Shang Yi was a foreign investor. If they talked too much about conspiracy theories, Logos would be in trouble.

Qin Luo also had a headache about Shang Yi’s foreign identity, especially since the cause of his death was unknown. The public security and regulatory authorities would call her every other day.

But no matter how annoying it was, it would be overshadowed by Shen Yiyi.

Shen Yiyi had sent Qin Luo a message after she had returned from her business trip, agreeing to come to Qin Luo’s house for dinner.

Qin Luo had chosen the menu two days in advance, sent it to the butler to buy the ingredients, and had also called the housekeeper to clean up. After finishing her meeting at the company in the afternoon, she had skipped work to go to the police station to pick her up.

They hadn’t seen each other in over a week.

It was still hot in September. Qin Luo lowered the temperature in the car, afraid that Shen Yiyi would feel hot when she got in. Then she flipped down the sun visor mirror and started to touch up her makeup. But before she could finish applying her lipstick, she saw her chosen guest walking slowly toward her.

Shen Yiyi opened the door, and Qin Luo asked, “Is it hot?”

“It’s okay.”

Shen Yiyi’s expression was plain. She was holding a stack of files in her hand. As soon as she sat down in the passenger seat, she started to flip through them. Afterward, she took out her phone and took a picture of the files, her expression serious.

Qin Luo put away the sun visor and wanted to speak, but she didn’t know what to talk about, so she just started the car and drove home.

On the way, Shen Yiyi never looked up from the two pages of paper.

It wasn’t until they had parked in the underground garage and Qin Luo had turned off the engine and sat with her phone for a long time that she finally couldn’t help but ask, “Are you very busy?”

Only then did Shen Yiyi come back to her senses and cover the report. She sat up straight with her hands on top of the report. “The office gave me a document to check at the last minute tonight.”

To be honest, Qin Luo felt that she was really good at empathy.

She had added a piece of firewood under that pot of cold water, but after just two seconds of eye contact with Shen Yiyi, the water had started to boil.

Qin Luo even comforted her, “It will take some time to cook. You can continue to work.”

Shen Yiyi quickly organized the files and pushed open the door to get out of the car.

Qin Luo locked the car. “You can just go to the study to work later.”

The glass door of the underground garage lobby opened automatically. Qin Luo turned and smiled at Shen Yiyi. “I had the housekeeper clean it very well. I’ve specially made a space for you.”

A very large space, a space where you could even lie down.

***

Qin Luo was wearing loungewear and was rinsing some scallions. She was planning to make soup for Shen Yiyi tonight.

As she washed the vegetables, she poked her head out to look at the living room, wanting to know if Shen Yiyi was satisfied with her careful arrangement.

Unfortunately, there was a corner wall blocking the view, and Qin Luo couldn’t see half a figure.

Qin Luo could only focus on the bowl of rice, her fingertips pinching the roots of the spinach.

The temperature in the house was moderate. The sleeves of her long-sleeved loungewear were rolled up to her elbows. She had taken off her watch, but she was still wearing her ring.

She had to type on the keyboard, so she didn’t have the habit of getting her nails done. But sometimes she would be asked to paint them a certain color for an event, but it was usually a nude color. She thought her hands were very standard for a “1,” and she had even specially trimmed her nails before she had gotten off work today.

The water flowed over her fingertips with a crisp sound. Shen Yiyi liked things to be clean, so Qin Luo carefully checked every leaf.

Besides the sound of washing vegetables, there was no other sound in the room. It was no different from a normal, quiet weekday evening.

But Qin Luo rarely went to the trouble of chopping a pigeon.

—She had asked the butler to get a fresh squab, but who knew that he would actually send a bloody pigeon carcass.

Speechless.

Fortunately, the feathers and internal organs had already been cleaned. Qin Luo only needed to chop it into the required ingredients for cooking and throw it into the pot.

Qin Luo’s knife skills were very good. Shen Yiyi had known this since her second year of high school.

She had chosen the most expensive kitchen knife. The blade was thin and particularly sharp, perfect for fine cutting, especially for fat, ligaments, or separating meat.

The biggest taboo in making soup was a big mess. So the pigeon was carefully cut into small pieces.

No head, too much fat, unhealthy.
No wingtips, it would affect the clarity of the soup.
Just a small piece of the breastbone.

Just as she had finished cutting, Shen Yiyi had also finished her work and had run to the island counter, her hands on the table. “Do you need help?”

Qin Luo was washing the knife. She looked up and asked, “Are you done?”

Shen Yiyi nodded and glanced at the clean cutting board, where the pigeon meat was neatly arranged by category.

“Are you making pigeon soup tonight?”

“Yes.”

Shen Yiyi rolled up her sleeves and walked into the kitchen. “Then I’ll help you blanch the water.”

Sure enough, she became active after she had finished her work.

“Okay.” Qin Luo put the knife away, handed over the soup-making work to Shen Yiyi, and turned to prepare the other ingredients.

She turned on the stove and put the meat and bones in the pot. Shen Yiyi stood with her hands on her hips, thinking for a long time before she spoke in the silent kitchen.

“Qin Luo, actually, I came today to ask you for a favor.”

A favor.

Qin Luo’s vegetable-washing movements paused. Then she turned off the water, but she didn’t turn around, just straightened her back.

“Go ahead.”

“It’s about what you said last time… that you could help me find a hospital.” Shen Yiyi didn’t want to turn around either. Her eyes were fixed on the bubbles rising from the bottom of the pot, and her words were broken in half. “My cousin’s condition is not very good, so my family wants to find a good surgeon in Shanghai.”

The “came today” was so sour it made one want to laugh.

Qin Luo had to hide it for a long time before she could stop the fluctuations in her heart. She didn’t want to make assumptions for Shen Yiyi before she answered:

What if Xu Tao had gotten an appointment with the doctor he wanted? Would Shen Yiyi still have come today?

Of course, saving a life was more important than a date. Qin Luo threw the vegetables aside, wiped her hands, and turned around to ask, “Which hospital?”

Shen Yiyi was busy scooping out the blood foam. “My uncle said that the doctor can operate at three hospitals. I can’t remember the names. I’ll send them to you on WeChat later.”

The back in front of her was an unfamiliar ponytail.

“Then do you want me to take you back after dinner?”

Shen Yiyi skimmed off the oil and turned off the heat. “No need to take me. I’ll go back by myself.”

Qin Luo smiled and then turned around.

President Liu’s office at Logos.

President Liu took a sip of her coffee and said in surprise, “Huh?! You two went your separate ways after drinking the pigeon soup?”

Qin Luo did not answer. She sat on the sofa with her legs crossed, holding the reading group’s termination contract in her hand. As she flipped through it, she said, “I’ve asked around about that director’s surgery schedule. You can’t get an appointment for an outpatient surgery at a regular hospital within three weeks, but she has a surgery slot at the international department of the Rick Group.”

“My god, a regular consultation at Rick’s outpatient clinic starts at 1,200. You’re arranging a surgery for her at the international department. Are you crazy?”

“That’s how tight the social medical care is now. You have to wait until you’re on the verge of death.” Qin Luo flipped to the last page. There was a blank space waiting for her signature.

But she gently put the contract down. “If she can accept it, I can pay for it.”

Liu Jia shook her head and took out her phone to look for contacts in her address book. “This sounds the most unreliable. Don’t end up with Xu Sui being cured and you two being dead to each other. I’d better ask around again.”

Qin Luo crossed her arms and stared blankly at her coffee cup.

“Hey~ Sister Wang, it’s Liu Jia. My cousin has a rare kidney disease and wants to come to Shanghai for treatment. I remember your husband is in the urology department. Could I trouble you to…”

Liu Jia leaned back in her chair and sent a barrage of voice messages. Qin Luo leaned back on the sofa and stared blankly.

After a long while, Qin Luo came back to her senses and smiled. “If we’re dead to each other over this little thing, then it means it was bad from the beginning.”

“Huh? What are you muttering about?”

“Nothing, nothing. Who are you sending a message to?”

Liu Jia was still flipping through her address book. “It’s the medical beauty advertiser who placed an ad on our official account. Her husband is also a doctor.”

Qin Luo was not idle either. She also took out her phone and looked for resources in her circle of friends.

“Oh, right.” Liu Jia stopped what she was doing and looked up, saying in a low voice, “Have you heard the details of Shang Yi’s case?”

Qin Luo had no feelings for Shang Yi. She didn’t even look up and just shook her head.

“They said the police forced an autopsy.”

An autopsy?

Liu Jia continued in a soft voice, “I just knew he must have been murdered.”

Qin Luo’s eyelids twitched slightly, and she looked up at the talking Liu Jia.

“Because he’s a foreigner, the case was handed over to the criminal investigation team. The identification center notified his wife. Didn’t Shen Yiyi tell you last night?”

Qin Luo shook her head.

Liu Jia stood up and walked to the sofa, saying with a sense of secrecy, “Oh my, I heard that more than 30 people went to the party that Shang Yi held before he died. That night, including the service and the intermediaries, there were more than 50 people coming and going. So there’s a lot to investigate in this case, and we’ll have to wait for the share transfer.”

Qin Luo put her phone on the sofa. “So what did he die of?”

“It’s because they don’t know how he died that the police forced an autopsy. But it’s definitely not from an external injury.”

“How do you know everything?” Qin Luo frowned.

Liu Jia clicked her tongue. “We in public relations have to be well-connected. Besides, more than fifty people went that night. There are several versions of the story circulating outside now. You’ve always suffered from not liking to gossip since you were a child. If your desire were a little stronger, and you were a little more curious about the world, what would Shen Yiyi be? It would have been Li Yiyi, Wang Yiyi a long time ago… Tsk tsk, and you even made her pigeon soup…”

Director Shen, who had had pigeon soup, was in high spirits on a workday.

She had had two case analysis meetings in the morning, had submitted a equipment procurement plan to the department at noon, and had gone to court in the afternoon without even eating.

Lin Puping was driving, taking the director around the city all day, and he was exhausted.

After work, on the way back, he finally had a chance to gossip a little. “Director Shen, have you heard about the case that Director Hong is handling? I heard it’s a tricky poisoning case.”

Shen Yiyi was also tired. She squinted and said, “September is indeed a small peak for poisoning.”

“Why is it September?”

“There are many factors.” Shen Yiyi pinched her brow and took out her phone to look.

Since she had left Qin Luo’s house last night, the other had only asked her if she had gotten home at nine, and had not sent any other messages. In the days that she had been on a business trip, Qin Luo would say good night to her every day.

Maybe she shouldn’t have asked Qin Luo for help.

But… didn’t Qin Luo want her to ask for help?

Shen Yiyi put down her hand. “I didn’t hear you. What did you just say?”

“Why is September a small peak for poisoning?”

“Because of the seasonal changes, the food chain will also change. September is both a high-temperature season and a season of food chain changes. Most importantly, it’s also the start of the school year, a season of rising workplace pressure, and the autumn harvest season.”

“And the breakup season.”