Overly Intense [Criminal Investigation] 81

Chapter 81: Symmetry

“Scars, wrinkles, a deviated nasal bridge, deep nasolabial folds.”

“When these descriptions are applied to women, the imagination is blocked, but when applied to men, they are a symbol of sweat. They can compensate for their physical imperfections through social status, strength, and talent.”

“Irregular freedom seems to belong only to men.”

The forensic pathologist stood beside the body, her gloved hands pulling at the skin on the deceased’s face. “Women are trained from a young age to adapt to symmetry. Look at this pair of cushions.”

“There are traces of a woman having lived here.”

…

“Cut!!!”

After the director had shouted into the walkie-talkie, the lights on the set instantly dimmed by half.

Sun Jingyi had not yet recovered from her performance. She gently shook her hands, adjusting her dazed expression. After a few seconds, she let out a breath.

You Ning was also busy. She rushed to the director’s side, confirmed that the shot did not need to be adjusted, and after a brief exchange, she began to direct the scene, shouting, “That’s a wrap for this scene. Prepare to change the set!”

Qin Luo stood at the far end of the studio, leaning against a lightbox with her arms crossed, her gaze fixed on Sun Jingyi.

This actress was indeed beautiful.

Her head-to-body ratio was excellent, and her entire face was not even as big as Qin Luo’s palm. An absolutely photogenic face.

While the crew was moving the set and lighting, the makeup artist quickly applied makeup to Sun Jingyi. The next scene was her dissecting a body in a morgue without air conditioning, so her face had to be sweaty.

But the sweat beads could not affect the lighting. They had to be realistic and distinct. The makeup artist tried again and again on her face with a spray bottle.

The manipulated doll was too fake.

Qin Luo had seen the sweat on Shen Yiyi’s forehead.

That day, she had been sitting in the passenger seat, holding an ice cream bowl. When she had gotten out of the car, she had been blocked by the unreasonable family members. She had looked at her back from a distance, and her T-shirt was completely soaked.

But even though it was fake, Qin Luo was still willing to take another look at Sun Jingyi’s police uniform.

The smallest size of the police department’s examination uniform was still loose on the actress. The costume department had custom-made a set of police uniforms for the production according to her proportions.

“Why don’t you find a stool to sit on?”

You Ning saw the unusually silent Qin Luo. Seeing her in casual clothes, her arms crossed, she looked very oppressive, as if she were unhappy.

Qin Luo shook her head, indicating that she did not want to sit.

“Sit on the lightbox.” You Ning was afraid that her chosen sister was too tired and patted the iron box beside her. “It’s an all-female production. As long as you’re a woman, you can sit on the lightbox.”*

Qin Luo was amused and walked toward the lightbox. You Ning immediately wiped the lightbox clean with her director’s vest. “Do you want something to drink? It’s too hot in the studio.”

Qin Luo waved her hand. “No need. You can go and do your thing.”

“It’ll take them some time to set up the set. There’s no hurry.” You Ning took off her monitoring headphones and clipped her walkie-talkie to her vest. “I’ve read the script you gave me yesterday again. The subtle changes in the lines do enhance the mood of the shot. You’re truly a great screenwriter.”

“Your flattery is too stiff.” Qin Luo was still looking at Sun Jingyi. Seeing that she had taken off her examination uniform vest, leaving only a white T-shirt, she turned to the assistant director and said, “Doesn’t this make Teacher Yi’s skin look too fair?”

“Really?”

You Ning glanced over. “I’ll go and take a look at the monitor when the stand-in is on set.”

The studio was large and the set was small. Once all the departments were crowded together, the voices became noisy. Lifting lights, changing tracks, and resetting props, everyone had to brush past the lightbox to walk into the studio.

“Hey, have you seen the news? The one who died in the live stream last night might have been murdered.”

“Huh? Wasn’t it a suicide?”

“The official blue-bottomed news just released a notice, saying that they’re investigating and have also arrested a few people who were spreading rumors.”

You Ning had to be well-connected to be a scheduler in the production. She could chat with anyone. Hearing the word “rumor,” she immediately grabbed the staff member’s arm. “What’s going on? What rumor?”

“Didn’t the assistant director see the trending topics?”

The set worker had a small fan hanging around his neck. He stopped. “They said that the host who was murdered used to be a medical beauty salesperson and had disfigured many people, so he was retaliated against.”

The marketing accounts were too fast. Qin Luo had just seen the news before she had visited the set. It had only been two hours since filming had started. How could they have even dug up the victim’s work experience?

You Ning clicked her tongue. “That does sound quite hateful.”

“Alright, I’m going to move bricks now, director. We’ll talk later.” The set worker also waved at Qin Luo. “I’m leaving, Screenwriter Qin.”

You Ning looked back at Qin Luo. “I know that the host is from Ranmei. I was the one who told Sister Jia about this.”

Qin Luo had heard Liu Jia mention that You Ning had taken on an advertisement. There were many makeup brands in the Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Shanghai area, and many of Logos’s cooperations were brokered by You Ning. Including the last time Bawanghua had talked to Ranmei about cooperation, it was also You Ning who had given Liu Jia the news.

You Ning kindly reminded her, “Your live stream had an incident last month. You should be more careful now. Live streams are the easiest to have loopholes.”

“Yes.” Qin Luo nodded and looked down at her phone.

She wanted to see what the situation was on the trending topics now.

But she had searched for a long time, and the trending topics were calm. At a glance, they were all entertainment gossip, with no connection to the murder case.

It seemed that the officials had stepped in and had locked the topic’s traffic to prevent the scope of influence from expanding.

But how could the marketing accounts let go of such explosive news? They had changed the keywords and had even created a new tag: #BeautyBlender.

As long as you followed the tag or searched for the word “beauty blender,” the traffic pool was another world.

#BeautyBlender
“This host is a straight man pretending to be gay. He deserves to die.”
#BeautyBlender
“He died just two days after being cursed?”
#BeautyBlender
“There were more than twenty police cars downstairs at six this morning. It was so scary. I heard that the blogger who died last night lived right opposite me.”
#BeautyBlender
“The owners of this building are so unlucky. A while ago, an internet celebrity was violent, and now another internet celebrity has died. But the rent in this complex is 30,000 a month. Only internet celebrities can live here. I’m not even worthy of dying in here.”
#BeautyBlender
Nine-grid photo: “The police have been searching in the grass for half a day.”

Qin Luo’s gaze lingered on the nine-grid photo. A figure in the second photo caught her attention.

She clicked on it and zoomed in. A woman with a low ponytail tied in a bun was squatting on the side of the road, holding a boxed lunch in one hand and giving instructions with the other.

Was Shen Yiyi also involved in this case?

“What are you looking at?” Seeing Qin Luo’s focus, You Ning poked her head over curiously. She saw that the photo on the phone screen was very blurry. With so many police officers, it seemed to be a behind-the-scenes photo from some production. “Which production has started filming? I don’t remember any suspense-themed productions filming in the second half of the year.”

Qin Luo dodged and stood up. “I have something else to do. I’m leaving now.”

“Hey? You’re leaving?” You Ning shouted from behind. “Send me a message when you come tomorrow. I’ll go and get you a comfortable chair.”

***

Ever since the reading group’s celebration had ended, Qin Luo had not been to Logos.

But she had come at an inopportune time today. It was lunchtime, and there were not many people in the company. Seeing that Liu Jia was in a conference call, she had to go back to her office to wait.

She hadn’t been here in a long time. There were many meeting documents on her desk, all about the content planning for the official account and the theme planning for the podcast. There was also a republication agreement for Her Kill from the publisher, and a returned manuscript for her new book.

She had flipped through them a couple of times. The topics were not sharp, and she had no comments.

She picked up her coffee cup and looked at it. It was spotless. Under the cup was a live stream preview for the reading group’s New Year event.

The endless work schedule had made the Qin Luo who had not worked for half a month a little detached, like a fish stuffed into the mud, able to breathe but not to wag its tail.

“Why did you suddenly come to the company?” Liu Jia pushed the door and came in.

Qin Luo asked, “Is the meeting over?”

Liu Jia nodded. “Weren’t you at the production?”

Qin Luo studied Liu Jia’s expression. She was a completely different person from when she had been terrified last night. After just one night, that image of death had been gently stripped from Liu Jia’s memory, which made one unable to come back to their senses.

“Liu Jia, I always feel that someone is watching me.”

Liu Jia was used to Qin Luo’s complaints. “You’ve said that many times over the years. Are you thinking of going into seclusion to write a book again? If you really don’t want to manage Logos, then don’t. Don’t put too much pressure on yourself.”

“That’s not what I wanted to say.”

Qin Luo sighed. She had been prone to overthinking recently due to her bad mood. She didn’t want to affect Liu Jia’s mood, so she changed the subject. “Forget it. I came to find you today for Shang Yi’s matter.”

“Shang Yi?” Liu Jia frowned.

“He’s invested in many projects in the entertainment industry, but his death didn’t cause much of a stir. This is not simple.” Qin Luo took out her phone and showed Liu Jia the contents of an email. “His wife not only changed law firms, but the team that was in contact with us also changed. The assistant who had been with him for many years has also disappeared.”

Liu Jia said, “I saw the email. It’s normal to change law firms. Shang Yi has too many assets to count. Don’t worry. I’m already prepared for a public opinion war. Even if Shang Yi was really involved in a crime, we at Logos can draw a clear line with him.”

Qin Luo said grimly, “It’s good that you’re mentally prepared.”

“Is that all? Are you done?” Liu Jia raised her wrist and looked at her watch. “I have another meeting this afternoon.”

Qin Luo smiled at her friend and gently shook her head.

She had had a lot to say on the way here, but after entering Logos, she was at a loss for words.

Once she entered Logos, Liu Jia’s identity had changed from a childhood friend to a business partner. The other was a shareholder, the boss who managed the company. Whatever she said sounded like she was talking business. So Qin Luo could only suppress her emotions and hide her anxiety.

This had happened many times before. Even so, Qin Luo would still subconsciously run to the company to see her.

But in the past, seeing Liu Jia would make her feel more at ease. This time, the more she saw her, the more panicked she became.

Liu Jia stood up to leave. “Oh right, if you have nothing to do this afternoon, you can sign the books at the company. We’ll need them for the lottery when we resume the live stream.”

Qin Luo asked, “Signature?”

“The live stream with the books will sell a set of your books when it starts. I have to say, your books are really best-sellers.” Liu Jia gave her a thumbs-up. “Not many, ten sets will be enough. I’ll have my assistant bring the books over for you in a bit.”

“Okay,” Qin Luo agreed.

As she walked to the door, Liu Jia remembered something else. “I’ve seen the resumes of your reading group’s team. After the project is completely over, you can just have them move to the live stream department.”