Overly Intense [Criminal Investigation] 79

Chapter 79: Overly Intense “Ahhhhhhhhh, finally, the white moonlight is offline.”

…

Overly Intense

“Ahhhhhhhhh, finally, the white moonlight is offline.”

The phone screen was no bigger than a palm. Shen Yiyi had been holding it and looking at it for almost half an hour. Lin Puping had @-ed Director Shen twice in the work group chat, but had gotten no reply. Finally, he couldn’t help but knock on her office door.

“Director Shen, the legal department said that the autopsy application for the foreign victim is already under review.”

He only dared to stand outside the door and say, “It seems that the family has requested a third party to be present for the identification. Director Hong said he wants you to take over.”

Shen Yiyi came back to her senses. “Foreign?”

Lin Puping explained in a simple and easy-to-understand way, “It’s the one that’s been frozen in the funeral home for many days, your classmate’s boss.”

“Oh.”

Lin Puping said, “Director, are you up for it?”

Handling a case with such a difficult family was a thankless task for a forensic pathologist, especially since the deceased was a rich big boss, and the case’s background involved share transactions, insurance compensation, and other interest disputes. The identification results would definitely be endlessly questioned and reviewed.

The old hands in the police force all understood the ins and outs of it. No one liked to get involved in such a case, so it was the best choice for Director Hong to pass it on to the young director. After all, Shen Yiyi’s business and gender were the best shields.

But Director Shen had just had an appendectomy… and looked very haggard.

Thinking of Director Shen’s sudden acute appendicitis last week, Lin Puping couldn’t help but worry. Although the director was usually swift and decisive in her work, when she got sick, she would collapse.

One second she was talking to the local police officer, and the next she had fainted at the scene. It wasn’t until she was sent to the emergency room for surgery that he knew that Director Shen had no relatives or friends in Shanghai.

He kindly reminded her, “At least you’ve had surgery. You can actually take sick leave and rest for a while. Maybe by then, you won’t be around, and Director Hong will be able to handle it himself.”

Shen Yiyi’s silence was her answer.

Lin Puping was used to Director Shen’s focus when it came to work. The director must be studying the toxicology report. He didn’t dare to disturb her any further. “Then if there’s nothing else, Director, I’ll be off work.”

Only then did Shen Yiyi reply with a cold “mm.”

Her attention had been completely captured by the photo. She zoomed in on the photo with two fingers. The blurry pixels at the corners pieced together a rough outline of a back.

That was Qin Luo. She wouldn’t be mistaken.

Shen Yiyi found it amusing. She was actually slacking off at work, and had found this assistant director’s social media from the 124 friends that Liu Jia had followed. And from the time the Her Kill project had landed, she had read all the related posts without missing a single one.

In this new panoramic prison, a person could take any form. An image was just an asset given to an individual by the internet. It could be used for transactions, and also for surveillance.

Although flipping through social media was a waste of time.

But with these eighty-something posts, Shen Yiyi could basically judge You Ning’s personality and life trajectory.

27 years old, a third-generation rich kid, with some achievements in the film and television industry, loves to play but is ambitious, the type who is willing to burn her bridges for a goal.

And it just so happened that her current goal was Qin Luo.

Shen Yiyi leaned back in her office chair. The photo helped her reconstruct the scene from ten minutes ago when You Ning had just taken Qin Luo home, and had for the first time gotten some kind of emotional feedback from Qin Luo.

Her expression gradually became solemn. Shen Yiyi’s fingers were flipping through the screen.

The day before yesterday, she had posted a photo of a dinner party celebrating the start of the production.
The day before that, she had posted a photo with a DJ at a bar.
And last week, she had posted a photo of the production’s boxed lunch and the milk tea that the actors had treated them to.
Including… the table read photo from last month.

There was no Qin Luo in any of the photos, but every single one of them could be connected to Qin Luo.

“Are you sure this is what you really think?”
“Let’s not see each other anymore in the future.”

…

Her own voice had actually come out of the shadow’s mouth.

…

Shen Yiyi was so scared she threw her phone. She was still wearing a medical abdominal binder, and the wound was throbbing from the excessive movement. Her nerves were clutching the oxygen in her throat, and she was instantly petrified.

But even with such obvious pain, she still couldn’t get the images out of her head. She remembered the shadow and Qin Luo standing side by side by the hospital bed, and today, Qin Luo was standing on the stage, and the shadow was in the audience, applauding her.

Shen Yiyi took out her laptop bag from the drawer, opened her email to check, and wanted to know if there was any feedback on the data she had sent to the third-party identification agency.

Unfortunately, there were no new unread messages.

High-precision digital scanning and three-dimensional modeling technology to restore the footprints at a crime scene was a very mature criminal investigation method in this day and age. It might only take a few days, but restoring a footprint photo from 1998 was somewhat inestimable.

After all, the pattern of the sole, the wear and tear, and other minor features all required a variety of data support.

And the criminal investigation methods of twenty-five years ago simply did not have so many requirements.

Shen Yiyi was used to this kind of disappointment and opened the Xianyu market.

The post she had published a few days ago asking to buy old newspapers had only been viewed by 8 people, including an advertiser for a custom newspaper proposal.

It was actually quite normal for no one to care about old newspapers.

When news becomes history, an obituary can only seep out the rain that had not yet fallen that year.

Shen Yiyi sat in her chair and took a deep breath, trying her best to remain calm. After all, she had lived like this for more than a decade.

But she didn’t know why recently, the more clueless she was about her mother’s case, the more anxious she became. And in her anxiety, Qin Luo’s outline became clearer.

Especially today.

Qin Luo, under the spotlight, had once again made her feel at ease. Her figure was like a tranquilizer, relieving the messy oral stage she had had after losing her mother. She could even forget the pain in her abdomen.

She shouldn’t have listened to Guo Rui today and gone to congratulate Qin Luo.

Shen Yiyi was in a daze, looking at the proposal advertisement, cursing herself in her heart, and unconsciously opened WeChat.

Qin Luo would probably post about the anniversary celebration on her Moments. She wanted to know how many of Qin Luo’s nine-grid photos You Ning could occupy.

When she clicked on her profile picture, a white bar appeared on her Moments. Only then did Shen Yiyi realize that she had been blocked.

It was normal to be blocked. After all, she was the one who had said they shouldn’t see each other again… She shouldn’t be hung up on this, but a faint sourness welled up in the pit of her stomach. The feeling wasn’t overwhelming, but it seeped through her, until Shen Yiyi leaned back in her office chair, looked up at the ceiling, and for a moment, even her seventeen-year-old goal felt less important.

At the end of September, the autumn rain was continuous, and it had been raining for a whole week.

In the week after the reading group’s anniversary celebration, besides going to the production twice, Qin Luo had been hiding from the rain at home. Liu Jia had called her several times to come to Logos for a meeting, but Qin Luo had postponed them all. She wanted to disappear from Logos as quickly as possible.

Liu Jia had naturally noticed Qin Luo’s intention and had specially postponed a social event to go to Qin Luo’s house to talk on a Friday night.

“You made soup for Shen Yiyi, and then you order takeout for me?”

Qin Luo was curled up on the sofa, a glass of unfinished whiskey by her hand. “It’s good that you have something to eat. Don’t be picky.”

“A little drink is good for you, but too much is bad for you,” Liu Jia reminded her.

Qin Luo said, “What did you want to talk to me about today?”

“Director Qin doesn’t like to go to work, so I’m here to report on my work.”

Qin Luo took a sip of her drink. “You seem to be in a good mood. I guess Logos’s partners have gradually returned to normal.”

“First of all, congratulations on clearing our name of the suspicion of selling fake goods. The police gave a notice the day before yesterday, and the relevant departments also gave the investigation results. With the public relations promotion, our live stream department has gradually resumed broadcasting. Yesterday, the total turnover of all the live stream rooms was 8 million! Yay!!”

Qin Luo raised her glass, took a small sip, and toasted.

“Damn it, so boring!” Liu Jia complained and then continued, “Secondly, Ranmei is full of black material, and Bawanghua has stopped broadcasting.”

Qin Luo nodded in congratulations.

Liu Jia stuffed a mouthful of chicken breast into her mouth. “The funniest thing is that Ranmei not only didn’t stop, but they even signed two new male beauty bloggers. Hahahaha, they’re being cursed to death.”

Qin Luo was not interested in this news and closed her eyes to rest.

Seeing that Qin Luo didn’t want to listen, Liu Jia took out her phone and walked toward Qin Luo. “Don’t close your eyes. I’ll show you the bullet screen of those two male hosts. It’s hilarious.”

Qin Luo was shaken, and the drink in her hand almost spilled. She had to open her eyes and look at the screen.

On her phone, a makeup-free man with a wig was wearing women’s clothes and selling beauty blenders in a live stream room.

Qin Luo blinked. “Hmm, it’s so borderline. Isn’t the platform going to ban it?”

Liu Jia had a look of watching a show. “I don’t know. It’s only been a week, and Ranmei’s official account is already a bloody mess. But I heard that this boy’s beauty channel was quite good before. Ranmei signed him for a high price.”

Qin Luo took another careful look.

His features were delicate, and with a wig, he did have a soft and beautiful look. But there were skeletal differences between men and women. No matter how much you embellished it, you could still tell the gender difference from the angles.

In the live stream room, the boy was patting the beauty blender hard, and then he took out a new beauty blender and put it in a basin of water.

Liu Jia had not adjusted the volume. Qin Luo could not hear his sales pitch, but she could tell from his actions that he was working very hard. He had even deliberately put the beauty blender in his mouth to sell it.

The frantically jumping bullet screen, the sarcastic and cheering words, the high-intensity fill light.

Every pixel was collapsing.

Although there was no sound in the live stream room, Qin Luo felt it was noisy.

“Damn it, he’s working so hard.” Liu Jia was attracted by the other and stared at the screen, like a rabbit that had fallen into a trap.

So boring.

Qin Luo turned her head away, refilled half a glass of wine, and felt that the taste was not good after drinking it. She pushed Liu Jia away and was about to go to the refrigerator to get some ice.

Liu Jia was amused. “Ah… how did he fall down? What kind of new live stream trick is this?”

Two seconds later, Liu Jia’s tone changed again. “Hey, where did he go?”

Qin Luo shook her head, lamenting how quickly human emotions could be manipulated.

“Damn it!! No way?”

Besides shock, Liu Jia’s tone was also mixed with tension and fear. Qin Luo could hear it, so the hand that was about to open the refrigerator paused for a few seconds.

She turned to look at Liu Jia.

She saw Liu Jia covering her mouth, her voice already as sharp as a siren:

“Huh? No way? He’s dead?”

Dead?

Qin Luo had a moment of doubt. After all, online gimmicks were everywhere. To the world, swallowing a beauty blender was nothing.

But if a person died, things would be different.

Qin Luo closed the refrigerator door and quickly walked toward Liu Jia.

“Ahhhhhhhhh, damn it!”

Liu Jia covered her eyes. The man on the screen slowly raised his head.

His long golden hair was flowing, and blood was flowing from his seven orifices. He opened his eyes wide, and red came out of his irises. In an instant, the screen was filled with rusty noise.

Bang—

The person fell to the ground.

The screen also went black.

All that was left was a notification:

“This live stream has violated the relevant regulations and is now banned.”