Overly Intense [Criminal Investigation] 93

Chapter 93: Who Can Let Her into Cloud Top

Excuse me, who are you?

The four large characters were clear and distinct. Shen Yiyi heard them clearly. It was You Ning’s voice.

The sourness in her heart outweighed her vigilance. Shen Yiyi was silent on the other end.

Yesterday, after the analysis meeting, she had gone back to her dorm to sleep. In her dream, a woman was holding her and sleeping peacefully. She couldn’t tell if it was Xu Meng or Qin Luo. She could feel the other’s warmth, a warm palm stroking her back, gentle, as if boneless. But she was wearing a silver watch on her wrist, and it was that watch that had woken her up.

It was only three in the morning when she had woken up with a start. She had gone to bed at one.

Her roommate was not there, and the clouds were covering the moon. Besides the shadow and her looking at each other, the room was bare and silent. A strong sense of weightlessness came over her, and her night navigation was lost.

Now, hearing You Ning’s voice.

That sense of weightlessness came again, a swelling from head to toe. Shen Yiyi felt that she was wrapped very, very tightly.

Shen Yiyi hated this emotion. It would affect her judgment, her decisions, and her attitude when talking to others.

Clearly, You Ning had done nothing wrong, but she felt disgust and jealousy, and even a sense of defensive aggression.

She said coldly, “I’m Shen Yiyi. Where’s Qin Luo?”

You Ning was unhurried. “Oh, it’s Director Shen. Please wait a moment.”

You Ning turned and handed the phone over. “Qin Luo, it’s a call from Director Shen from the Institute of Criminal Science. Do you want to take it?”

Ugh—

Qin Luo had vomited until the bile had passed her throat. She held her chest. How could she care about any Director Shen? Only one sentence flashed through her mind: “The fake wine manufacturer is a menace! They must be arrested and sent to jail!”

She squatted on the ground and waved her hand. “Don’t answer. Hang up.”

“Director Shen, Teacher Qin is not available right now. If you have anything urgent—”

“Where are you now?”

Although the October night wind was cool, it did not make a sound.

Shen Yiyi could only judge by the ambient sound that Qin Luo and You Ning were not in a confined space, but the traffic noise was not loud, so she could not accurately judge if they were in a bustling area.

Just now, Qin Luo had also made a vomiting sound…

Shen Yiyi asked in a cold voice, “Did she drink too much again?”

“Director Shen, this… I’m not really at liberty to answer… Why don’t you see—”

Hey?!

The phone by her ear was snatched away by Qin Luo. The force was so great that You Ning almost fell over.

Was it so hard to just hang up the phone?

Qin Luo stood up, leaning against the wall, wretched. There was still a foreign object in her throat, but she suppressed the discomfort in her stomach and tried to make her voice sound steady.

“Is there anything urgent? Why so many calls?”

“I called to ask where you are. It’s dangerous for you to be out alone now. It involves your life safety. I can’t reveal too much about the case on the phone.”

“Really?”

Qin Luo was cold and distant, a stranger. “If it’s not convenient to say, then don’t.”

Fantasy can make a person endure anything.

But after the climax, the fantasy is shattered, and there is no more log table, no post-marital scene, no firelight, no fantasy of breakfast.

Eating grapes or strawberries is as ordinary as her using a comma and a period.

When the paragraph of the article is over, the character behind the sign will stop palpitating, and there will be no more rhythm.

Shen Yiyi said patiently, “Qin Luo, I—”

“I don’t want to hear it.”

Qin Luo didn’t want to hear anything that would disturb her. She reached out and tidied her stray hair. “Don’t call again.”

Ugh—

After hanging up the phone, she turned and bent over abruptly.

Qin Luo was so scared by her own determination that she vomited. An author with too much empathy really can’t be precisely linked to the experience of pleasure, or they will die too.

She had vomited all the alcohol in her stomach, but nothing came out.

“Are you okay?”

You Ning was worried. She reached out and patted her back through her suit. “I’ll go and buy you a bottle of water.”

“No need.”

Qin Luo straightened up and regained her composure. She found a wet wipe in her bag, took one out, and wiped her mouth clean.

She smiled and explained her dry heaving just now, “How could I be in trouble? It’s all President Li’s fault for buying fake wine.”

Lin Puping felt that he was so unlucky. Recently, there had been too many cases, and Director Shen was annoyed and would always lose her temper for no reason. To avoid angering the director, he had specially worked overtime last night to rush the PPT until one in the morning.

Who knew that these old-fashioned laptops at the police station would take two minutes to start up? After adding the projection equipment, the whole thing had lagged and crashed.

The analysis meeting had been stagnant for two minutes.

He had originally thought of waiting, but who knew that he would be pushed away by the director, who had sat in his seat and had started to fix it without a word. But just as he had typed a few keys, the computer had slammed shut with a bang.

“Don’t use the PPT. Just report with the official documents.”

She seemed to have some patience, but not much…

There were too many identification documents. Lin Puping had not sorted them out before he had come to the meeting. He was afraid of being scolded to death, so he had cautiously suggested trying another computer.

He had originally thought he would be in the line of fire, but who knew that Director Shen had actually agreed. But he had run over with the computer, only to see Shen Yiyi standing by the corridor window, staring at her phone screen in a daze.

“Director, I’ve checked. The computer is working.”

“Let’s not have it today.”

…

You were the one who wanted to have it in the first place. Now you’re saying you don’t want to?

“Then…” Lin Puping pointed to his colleagues in the conference room, and then to the computer he had just brought back. “We’re going on vacation in a couple of days. Everyone is on rotation. There’s no time for another analysis meeting.”

Shen Yiyi looked at her watch. “It was overtime anyway. We can have the phase analysis meeting in a few days. We can just notify a small group to participate then.”

“Are you in a hurry to go to the top-floor lab?”

“Please let them know. Let’s get off work early.” Shen Yiyi had no need to inform her subordinates of her schedule. She turned and left, even jogging. She didn’t even take the thin coat from the conference room.

“If it’s not convenient to say, then don’t.”

Fortunately, the public security hall was in the city center, and you could hail a taxi at the entrance.

“I don’t want to hear it.”

Hoo—

Shen Yiyi got into a taxi and took a deep breath in the back seat. She had forgotten that public transportation was dirty and had not wiped her hands with an alcohol wipe.

Because there was something more painful than her mysophobia, like lice in a mane, itchy, but when you can’t scratch it, it’s easy to become painful.

“Don’t call again.”

So this was what it felt like to be sentenced to death…

The driver turned to look at the anxious lady. “Where to?”

“Cloud Top.”

***

The car was parked in the underground garage. Qin Luo submitted the order, and the designated driver rode away on his small car.

Qin Luo leaned back, not getting out of the car for a long time. She had vomited too violently just now, and the burning sensation in her throat had not yet subsided. Her period cramps had also started, and her body was in a fiery pain, as if she had been extensively burned.

Chaos.

It was indeed not easy to have an anxious mentality when dealing with work. Although she was numb to the clinking of glasses, once it was quiet, that anxiety would return. The clinking of glasses, the flow of vision and information, and the outlines of people would produce a fine, chaotic noise from the collision.

It was very loud, and it felt chaotic.

Qin Luo wanted to find a painkiller. She remembered that when Wang Xi was around, she would have cramps every month and would buy them every month. The armrest box was full of painkillers that had been forgotten after taking two pills.

So she bent down to open the armrest box.

A USB drive, a notebook, a pen, a brooch… and the small cards that had been collected and stuck on the windshield wiper for gambling. But there were no painkillers!

Qin Luo rarely had menstrual cramps, so she probably didn’t have any medicine at home either. She sat in the car and opened a food delivery app. The fastest one had just ordered ibuprofen. Then she held her abdomen and got out of the car.

Just as she had closed the car door, her phone rang.

It was the property management.

“Miss Qin, this is the front desk of the Cloud Top Butler Center. The guard said you have a visitor. It’s convenient for you to check the bodyguard system on the app to confirm the other party’s identity.”

“Where did a visitor come from in the middle of the night?”

“The visitor did not provide a name. Please log in to the app to check.”

Qin Luo clicked on the stupid app and checked the visitor record video in the owner’s bodyguard system. It was a picture taken by the guard’s surveillance camera.

The visitor was Shen Yiyi.

She was wearing a black T-shirt, her arms crossed, and was standing quietly on the steps at the entrance.

“Tell her that I’m at home, but it’s not convenient to see guests.”

The front desk said politely, “Okay, Ms. Qin.”

“Oh, and also, help me identify this person’s face. From now on, if she visits, just say I’m not here.”

“Okay, we’ll take care of it for you in a bit.”

Qin Luo suddenly remembered that she had just placed an order. “Oh right, I also ordered takeout.”

The front desk was like a robot. “Okay, we’ll have the butler deliver it for you later. You’ll be notified by text. Remember to check.”

The security manager on duty had to deal with countless marked “dangerous visitors” every day. Some of the owners who lived here were either rich or noble, and the visitors were either asking for help or collecting debts. But this kind of plainly dressed visitor was really rare.

He handled it with ease. “Ma’am, Ms. Qin has asked me to convey that she has arrived home safely, but it’s too late. It’s not convenient to see you today. How about you make an appointment with her another day?”

She had arrived home safely, but what if the house was not completely safe?

But she was standing here now, subject to the access restrictions. The security factor should be quite high…

But who could guarantee that You Ning?

You Ning lived opposite Qi Yingjun, and the criminal tech team’s profile of the killer was female, so she couldn’t escape her own suspect list.

Shen Yiyi asked, “Did Miss Qin go home by herself?”

The manager smiled kindly. “Miss Qin said she has arrived home safely. You can leave now.”

Shen Yiyi couldn’t bring herself to use her police ID to abuse her power.

She could only be anxious, her hands on her hips. “Then I want to know, what is the mechanism of your security system’s warning?”

…

The security manager’s expression began to slow down, and he frowned. “Ma’am, please leave.”

Damn it!!

Shen Yiyi took out her phone, wanting to call Liu Jia, but she didn’t want to act rashly. She didn’t rule out any of the women in Logos besides Qin Luo.

So she called Lu Shimao.

As soon as the call went through, she said, “Little Lu, I need to get into Cloud Top.”

“Huh?! What? Is there a case at Cloud Top?”

Shen Yiyi glared at the manager and covered her phone, turning around. “It’s not that there’s a case at Cloud Top…”

It was a little embarrassing to say it out loud. She thought for three seconds and then said, “Qin Luo lives at Cloud Top.”

“Oh, oh.” Lu Shimao was studying for her exam by lamplight. Two seconds later, she reacted. “The property management won’t let you in? But we’re not at Cloud Top today.”

…

It sounded like a rejection. The twists and turns would make one want to give up. Shen Yiyi didn’t like to ask for help, and she felt a little helpless because of it, so she was silent.

It was quiet for a dozen or so seconds.

Then, a reserved and cold voice sounded on the other end of the line. “Lu Shimao told me about the matter. What are you going into Cloud Top for?”

Hoo, hearing that it was Xue Tong, Shen Yiyi was relieved.

She was very familiar with Xue Tong, especially during the time Lu Shimao was preparing for her exam. They had discussed the matter of choosing a school, and she, Xue Tong, was a reasonable person. As long as she explained the reason clearly, she would definitely help.

“My friend lives at Cloud Top.” But this reason was not sufficient. After all, she was now being denied entry. “We had a fight a while ago, and she doesn’t want to see me now.”

Xue Tong did not say anything.

To her: if the other person did not want to see her, why bother? This kind of forced meeting would only hurt both sides. But she and Shen Yiyi were not friends, and she did not want to persuade her.

“I have two cases on my hands…” Shen Yiyi was very conflicted. It was about the public security system’s recusal policy. If she stepped in today, the regional communication management would very likely monitor her location. At that time, if the case involved Qin Luo, she would not be able to interfere.

She could not not interfere.

She would not let the case develop in an uncontrollable direction, and she would certainly not allow a tragedy to happen again. She did not trust any of her colleagues. It was not impossible that their police force also had careless criminal police officers.

“I’m worried about her safety. I promise you, as long as I confirm that Qin Luo is safe, I will leave immediately.”

“Qin Luo, is that the female writer who writes for the official account?”

Xue Tong knew Qin Luo.

When the secretary’s office had exposed the case of the university professor’s molestation, Logos was the only official account that had not taken money and had the largest exposure, directly pushing the beast to the forefront.

Later, when the Red Dragon secretary’s office had reported, she had remembered this official account. Now she would still look at the posts every now and then. She was a very upright writer.

“Do you know her?”

“I’ve heard of her.” Xue Tong smiled and then changed the subject. “Then you have to guarantee her personal safety, not just from others, but also from yourself.”

Shen Yiyi knew that the other was a person with strict discipline.

“I promise.”

Xue Tong was silent on the phone for five seconds.

“Okay, then I’ll let you in.”