The Brain Science Case 116

Chapter 116: Hibernating in the Dim Sunlight – 10

After some of the police force had entered the club and secured the scene, Jinglin, along with the remaining officers, sealed off the parking lot as quickly as possible.

They set up a checkpoint and completely restricted any vehicles from entering. Jinglin left her car outside and found a familiar license plate number in the VIP section of the parking lot.

“Senior Big Head, I found Wu Jianxiong’s car in the basement.”

‘Wu… Wu Jianxiong?’

In her excitement, she failed to notice the surprise in Lu Tingfeng’s tone. “Yes, he’s still here… maybe we can find some evidence of smuggling.” As long as I can catch Wu Jianxiong with my own hands, I’ll definitely be able to find out the whereabouts of Li Yuejiao’s body.

“There’s no one in the car.” She confirmed with her flashlight. “He must still be in the shop.”

‘Wait, you go and meet up with Xiangrong and the others first…’

“Senior… he’s the one who took my mom away.” She growled into her earpiece. “I’m sorry, I can’t wait. If I don’t go now, he’s going to run… I absolutely, absolutely have to catch him.”

‘Don’t be impulsive, Little Zhou…’

She turned off the radio and quickly found the emergency exit she had taken before. As soon as she stepped in, she heard a hurried conversation from upstairs.

“There are police downstairs… go the other way.”

Trying to escape? Jinglin ran up to the first floor, shone her flashlight left and right, and raised her gun to check. She happened to see a tall man right in front of her.

“Don’t move.”

“Uh.” It wasn’t until she moved the flashlight that Jinglin realized the person was Xiangrong. “Senior?”

“You came from the front?”

“Yes, Pan Yuhuan and Dingdang are over there.”

“Then they must have gone this way. Follow me.” She gritted her teeth and ran to the other side of the emergency exit.

The other side led to a bar. After the chaos just now, it was empty. The two of them searched separately with their flashlights.

“Behind the bar.” Jinglin’s sharp eyes noticed a small crack in the wine cabinet. They jumped over and found a secret passage that was only wide enough for one person to pass through sideways.

“There’s a path here?”

“There’s probably more than just this one.”

The corridor was not long, and a small door was right in front of them. Jinglin pushed it open with all her might, and a car was just driving away.

“Senior, look…” what really caught their eye was the other side.

A woman was standing at the corner of the street. She was wearing a hat, holding sunglasses, and was in a striking white suit. She turned, and unexpectedly, her eyes met Jinglin’s.

Jinglin was stunned. That look… for some reason, it felt so familiar.

The woman smiled, and in the next second, she put on her sunglasses, and a black imported car silently slid up to her.

“Wait, don’t move.”

She raised her gun and aimed, but the woman was completely unfazed by the muzzle. The car door opened automatically, and she nimbly got in.

Jinglin pulled the trigger, but the glass easily deflected the bullet. The car sped off, and soon, its taillights were out of sight.

“Tsk, she got away.” Xiangrong squinted. “No, the license plate light is too bright, I can’t see clearly.”

“That woman…”

He turned and found Jinglin covering her mouth, trembling. “Senior?”

“I-I’ve clearly never seen that face before… but her eyes, they give me a very familiar feeling.”

In her shock, she remembered—that outfit was exactly the same as the person in the cosmetic surgery clinic’s surveillance footage.

**

The police found a firearm on Pan Yuhuan and immediately arrested him for violating the firearms and ammunition control act.

As for Dingdang, since she was the owner of the club, she was also taken back to the station for a statement.

This surveillance operation had cleverly defused a possible brawl and had avoided more casualties. Jinglin and Xiangrong had made a great contribution.

But Jinglin, who had returned from the operation, was not happy at all. She was not even as angry as before, but was curled up in her seat, not saying a word. This was a situation that had never been seen before.

“Hey.” Cai Yuwei waved at Xiangrong. “What’s wrong with Jinglin?”

“I don’t know. She’s been like this since we got back.”

“Did you run into Wu Jianxiong?”

“No, we ran into another woman we didn’t know…” Xiangrong briefly described the person’s clothes and appearance, and Cai Yuwei, after hearing it, gasped. “What’s wrong?”

“It’s nothing.” He covered his mouth. “Nothing at all.”

“Hey.”

Jinglin’s sudden call made Cai Yuwei jump. “What’s wrong?”

“I wasn’t looking for you.” She asked Xiangrong, “Is Dingdang’s statement done?”

“It should still be in progress.” Xiangrong pointed to another interrogation room. “Do you want to know who was there today, senior?” He remembered that the precinct police had checked the identity of all the clients.

“I do, but that woman probably won’t be honest. The teacher isn’t back yet… I’ll go and check on the situation.”

It wasn’t until she had turned to the interrogation room that Cai Yuwei held his head and muttered, “It’s over, it’s over. She actually met her…”

“Ah Wei, what are you muttering about?”

He turned and packed up his things. “Nothing at all.”

**

Dingdang’s statement was not yet over. Through the window, her eyes were naturally reflected on the glass, like a mirror.

Jinglin couldn’t help but think of that woman’s eyes, and her seemingly casual smile.

Why could she smile? Especially when she was being aimed at with a gun. An ordinary person would have been scared to death at the sight of a gun… she was not only not flustered, but she even boldly walked away.

That mysterious woman, is she really the same person who had snuck into the cosmetic surgery clinic and was considered the head of “Mountain Wind”? At that moment, she had instinctively linked the two together, but after she had calmed down, she was not so sure. After all, the surveillance footage had only been a fleeting glimpse during the meeting.

She had spent so much effort tracking and investigating, and her previous doubts had not been resolved, but a new mystery had appeared. And in the end, the key was still Dingdang. She might know who that woman was.

About ten minutes later, the statement was finished. Dingdang came out in a small jacket, and in the next second, she met Jinglin, who was waiting outside.

“You…”

“If you want to ask about any of our honored guests’ consumption records, then I won’t say a word.”

Her thoughts had been completely seen through. Jinglin bit her lip, and her defeated expression was completely seen by Dingdang. She chuckled. “You’re really so straightforward.”

It was a rare opportunity to examine her up close. This face was really exactly the same as Sister Lisa’s. Before, in her work, she had almost never mentioned her daughter. Everyone knew she had a daughter, but they knew nothing else. If it weren’t for Pan Yuhuan’s two consecutive incidents, she might never have had the chance to have direct contact with Jinglin.

Although her personality was the complete opposite of Sister Lisa’s, and she was indeed less sophisticated, but if you thought about it, a girl like this was actually quite cute.

“I just want to know, was it you who leaked my mom’s address?”

Still this old question. “I don’t know who Qian Hanliang is. But you have to know, Sister Lisa personally handed Givenchy over to me. It’s not just any club.”

The meaning was that she was deeply trusted by Li Yuejiao. “I see. Then let me ask you again, do you know what happened to my mom?”

“That’s a cute question.” Dingdang gave a complicated smile. “It was on the news. As soon as the news of the murder came out, the hostesses who had been here for a while were all so sad they were about to cry. A lot of people were taken care of by Sister. Besides being sad, I don’t know what other expression I could have.”

“Since you know my mom is dead…” she gritted her teeth and took a step forward, “then do you know that it was Wu Jianxiong who took her from the crime scene?”

Dingdang’s body trembled slightly. “You’re lying.”

“I’m not lying. I saw my mom get stabbed with my own eyes, lying on the bed, with blood all over the floor and the bed. I wanted to call an ambulance, but Wu Jianxiong came up and drugged me and then took her away. When I woke up, she was gone.” At the peak of her agitation, her eyes were filled with tears.

“When I was little, I was almost assaulted by Wu Jianxiong… it was Mom who came back in time to stop him, and I barely escaped. I haven’t seen him since then, until this time. To say that he has nothing to do with my mom’s disappearance, I wouldn’t believe it for a million years.”

Dingdang listened carefully, and she wiped away her tears. “If you really care about my mom, then tell me everything you know.”

Their eyes met, and after a long silence, Dingdang finally spoke. “In that case, then I can only wish you good luck.”

Jinglin’s eyes widened. “What do you mean?”

“I’m not a police officer. It’s not my responsibility to find out the truth of the case. My real responsibility is this shop, Givenchy…” she took a deep breath and showed a free and easy smile that Jinglin had not expected, “to follow my promise to her back then, and to run this shop well. As for everything about the case, I don’t. know. anything.”

“You… Tan Ziying.”

Facing the fist held up before her, she smiled. “This is the Criminal Investigation Division office. I haven’t broken the law. A detective beating a civilian… that would get you in trouble.”

Jinglin clenched her fists, took a deep breath, and forced herself to suppress her anger.

“Can I go now, Officer Zhou?”

Her face was flushed, and she made a small space. Dingdang glanced at her and walked past her.

“To you… not offending your clients and maintaining the business of the shop is far more important than finding the killer of my mom?”

“You’re still too green.” She touched her forehead and sighed with a laugh. “Since you’re Sister Lisa’s daughter, I’ll give you a special piece of advice—don’t just believe what you see.”

Leaving this sentence behind, Dingdang, who felt she had done her duty, left gracefully, leaving behind a frustrated Jinglin and a faint fragrance in the air.

**

Jian Minggui’s screening and investigation had not yet yielded any results, so Fang Zijun had the team members take a break for the time being. Tang Yingli was about to go back to the station from the team room when she unexpectedly ran into Tao Qianya, who had just returned.

“Dr. Tao, you’re not on leave this afternoon…”

“I am.” Tao Qianya’s tone was a little breathless. “But regarding the Lin Pinyi case from before, I’ve made some new discoveries, and I’m anxious to discuss them with you, Teacher. So I came back.”

“Oh?”

The two of them found a vending machine nearby. Yingli drank her coffee and listened to Tao Qianya’s findings from this afternoon.

He first mentioned that he and Huang Yunjia had visited the composer Lin Pinyi had interviewed before his death and had asked about the interview process that day. He mentioned that the conversation with Lin Pinyi had been very pleasant, and that the two of them had a lot of similar ideas. Of course, in his words, he had not felt any dissatisfaction with the current situation or any signs of coercion from Lin Pinyi.

“Whether it was a suicide or a homicide, at least there are no clues in his last work before his death.” Tao Qianya also mentioned that Huang Yunjia had expressed her desire to start a family with Lin Pinyi.

“We should have investigated this case in depth, but now because of the special project, we’ve been paying too much attention to the Mountain Wind organization and have lost our focus on this case.”

“Ah, you’re right.” Crossing her legs, Yingli savored the bitter-sweetness of her coffee and rested her chin on her hand in thought. “Speaking of which… how did the ricin get into Lin Pinyi’s body?”

“I first examined the slide of his tongue, but I found that the tissue around that brown spot did not test positive for any toxins, so I examined his liver tissue, but it’s very difficult to directly test for ricin with a general drug test. Finally, I found signs of pulmonary edema in his lungs, but I quickly found that he had no history of any heart-related diseases.”

If ricin is inhaled, the poisoning process will cause difficulty breathing, coughing, chest pain, shock, and coma, and finally death, and it will leave traces of pulmonary edema in the body—the same symptoms as a heart attack.

Since Lin Pinyi had no history of heart disease, Tao Qianya was able to find traces of ricin.

She still remembered that the information she had searched for before showed that if ricin was ingested, it could take more than a day to take effect, but if it was injected or inhaled, it could kill a person in as little as two to four hours.

If it was within two to four hours, then the time Lin Pinyi was poisoned could be postponed to the night of the incident, that is, after the interview.

“I see… so the direction I’ve been thinking in has been wrong all along.”

“But about the pulmonary edema… I remember I specified it in the autopsy report.”

Yingli was taken aback. “But I didn’t see that.” And with that suspicious pinhole on his tongue, she pushed up her glasses. “That’s not right. I have a feeling someone is deliberately manipulating this case.”

“Deliberately manipulating… what do you mean, Teacher?”

“I thought before that the needle mark on his tongue was to attract the police’s attention.” Yingli looked at him. “Isn’t that right? A conscious person would not let someone stick a needle in their tongue. So we would naturally think that Lin Pinyi was coerced, and that, like the two previous cases, it was all caused by Mountain Wind.”

But the autopsy report proved that Lin Pinyi had died of inhaling the toxin. As long as the ricin was mixed with the drugs he was using, he would naturally be poisoned to death. To create the needle mark, all they had to do was to do it before he fell into a coma, and then they could just wait for the police to automatically focus on “Mountain Wind.”

“So you mean, this case and the organization itself…”

“Perhaps Li Yuejiao never intended for Lin Pinyi to die. Or perhaps they had already reached a cooperation, but this was definitely not what the national security agency wanted to see. A special agent they had trained themselves had ended up being recruited by a criminal organization. Rather than becoming an enemy, it was better to get rid of him first.”

Tao Qianya couldn’t help but shiver. “If that’s the case, then it’s too scary.”

“Instead of scary, it’s more like a matter of course… what we should really be worried about is that in the Criminal Investigation Division, it seems someone is helping to cover up the truth.” Drinking her coffee, Yingli threw the empty can into the recycling bin and stood up. “Now we even have to be careful of our colleagues who are working on the case with us. It’s so annoying…”

He was silent, and Yingli ran her hands through her hair and said, “It’s getting late… I’m going now.”

“Are you leaving work, Teacher?”

“Yes, I’ve gotten enough news for today… my brain is a mess. I should go back and organize it.”

“That’s true. After all, you’re also investigating the connection between Wu Jianxiong and the organization, right?”

“Yes.” She stopped after a few steps. “You can contact Lin Pinyi’s girlfriend directly, right?”

“Yes, I can. What’s wrong?”

“Didn’t I just say someone stuck a needle in his tongue?”

His face changed. “Do you think it was her, Teacher?”

“Let’s put it this way… she said she didn’t know Lin Pinyi had a drug habit, which I was the first to doubt.” Yingli’s lips curved into an ambiguous smile. “I guess she must have cried in front of you and said how good their relationship was, to get your sympathy, right?”

Tao Qianya was dumbfounded. “Teacher, you, you how…”

“You got lipstick on you.” She pointed to her chest. “I remember she works at a hair salon, right? Please send me her contact information later. I’ll go and find her directly after my class tomorrow.” She waved goodbye, leaving behind a still-searching Tao Qianya for the lipstick stain.