Chapter 13: 13 The Detective Cornered

The moment she received the news that morning, Xu Jinyao had intended to come find Xia Xun.

She had re-watched those surveillance videos repeatedly. The more she watched, the more she felt Xia Xun had deliberately let the police find her traces. She’d also learned from Du Chang that Xia Xun had been a Private Investigator for a long time, and had never before left behind such obvious evidence.

Xu Jinyao could hear the confusion in Du Chang’s words.

Coupled with the night Xia Xun had taken her to the Underground Bar, she grew more and more certain this person knew something—whether about the Serial Case or the Underground Casino.

That was why she had paid a personal visit yesterday.

Although she hadn’t gotten the answer she wanted, it at least confirmed for her that Xia Xun was not entirely ignorant about the Underground Casino.

The taxi pulled up outside the residential complex gates. The two got out one after the other and headed toward the suspect’s home.

Before they arrived, the Crime Scene Investigation Unit had already come by once. To prevent unauthorized entry, the scene was cordoned off with police tape, and an officer was stationed at the door.

“Captain Xu.” The officer greeted her, his gaze falling on the woman behind her, wearing a face mask and hat.

Xu Jinyao nodded slightly and glanced back at Xia Xun.

Wrapped up tightly enough. She must have quite a few enemies, she thought.

“Go get some food first. I’ll watch things here.”

The officer hesitated. “That… doesn’t seem right.”

Xu Jinyao’s face was cold. “That’s an order.”

The officer immediately snapped to attention. “Yes, ma’am!”

Entering the house, Xu Jinyao headed straight for the suspect’s bedroom, meticulously checking every corner of the room.

A long while later, she looked up abruptly to see Xia Xun standing with her arms crossed, looking utterly leisurely. She straightened up. “Do you think you’re taking a stroll in the park?”

Xia Xun spread her hands helplessly. “I’ve already looked everything over.”

“Really?” Xu Jinyao asked. “And what did you find?”

Xia Xun shook her head. “Didn’t find anything.”

Xu Jinyao gritted her teeth. “I really don’t know how you ever managed to become a Private Investigator.”

Xia Xun smiled. “Just making a living. I wouldn’t dare call myself a real detective.”

“Right. I’d guess the biggest cases you’ve investigated are catching cheating spouses?”

Xia Xun nodded, smiling. “Something like that.”

Xu Jinyao didn’t continue the conversation. She stared fixedly for a few seconds, then suddenly rounded the bed to the door and slammed it shut with a bang.

Xia Xun jumped, stepping back. “What? Want to hit me again?”

“I won’t hit you. I have a question for you.” Xu Jinyao advanced a step, her expression severe.

Xia Xun retreated another step. “My Q&A sessions are billed by the minute.”

“I’ll owe it. We’ll settle up later.” Xu Jinyao kept advancing.

“I don’t offer credit services, Officer.”

Soon, Xia Xun was cornered against the wall and had to temporarily declare surrender. “Fine, fine. Ask.”

Only then did Xu Jinyao stop. She spoke coldly. “Where did you go last night?”

“Last night?” Xia Xun’s eyes drifted upward, as if recalling. “I was sleeping at home.”

The expected answer.

Xu Jinyao curled her lips, a smile that didn’t reach her eyes, and pulled out her phone, tapping on a video. “Then how come I’ve never heard you had an identical twin sister who looks exactly like you?”

The video’s lighting was very dim, the figure inside blurry and indistinct. Judging by the angle, it was shot from the living room of the building opposite.

Even though it was just a fleeting silhouette, Xia Xun recognized herself instantly.

She’d suspected someone might spot her, but hadn’t expected the evidence to be captured this way.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” The figure’s features in the video were so blurry, Xia Xun planned to deny it to the death.

“Don’t understand, huh? Then take a look at this.”

The video on the phone paused, then swiped to the next photo. It was the blown-up silhouette from the video. As Xu Jinyao’s swipes got faster, the picture gradually shifted from blurry to clear.

Times had changed. Criminals’ methods advanced, but so did police investigative technology. Sharpening a blurry video screenshot until facial features were clearly visible was just one very minor advancement.

The evidence was ironclad. Xia Xun had to admit it. “I was here.”

Actually, Xu Jinyao had recognized the person in the video the moment she got it. The subsequent sharpening was just to make sure the other party couldn’t deny it.

This video came about by pure coincidence, really.

The suspect had been a voyeur, habitually using binoculars to endlessly watch the residents of the opposite building. To satisfy his morbid curiosity, he’d even set up a camera specifically on his balcony. Later, when his deeds came to light, the resident opposite called the police, leaving a complaint record.

The suspect was given a warning, forced to delete all voyeuristic recordings, and fined. Nothing similar happened again.

But the resident opposite, thinking the punishment too light, decided to fight fire with fire, using a phone to film from their balcony as well. Xia Xun’s silhouette passing through the living room was thus captured in the video.

“I thought he might have already been killed, so I came to confirm it,” Xia Xun said.

She spoke with such certainty, as if she’d long expected the person would come to harm.

As expected.

This person indeed knows something.

“Why did you think he’d already been killed? What exactly do you know?” Xu Jinyao couldn’t help asking.

Xia Xun didn’t elaborate, seeming to hesitate over whether to speak or not.

The answer was obvious. Whether she spoke now or not, suspicion was already on her.

Dwelling on anything else was pointless. Besides, she didn’t want to lie.

So, before Xu Jinyao’s threats could even take effect, the person in front of her had already honestly spilled everything. The frankness was so complete, Xu Jinyao found it hard to believe.

–

Xia Xun had indeed taken a case to investigate a cheating husband. The client was indeed Huo Zhi’s wife, Wu Yalan.

This woman, six years her senior, after enduring a marriage that felt like half a lifetime, had decided to take the initiative and escape the cage.

The first step to escape was finding the key to unlock the shackles—that key was called divorce.

Unlike before, under the current Marriage Law, a simple thing like divorce became a monumental task that peeled off skin and stripped flesh.

Wu Yalan’s request was simple: find proof of Huo Zhi’s infidelity, win the lawsuit, and get a smooth divorce.

From the very first time Xia Xun intervened to save Huo Zhu, she’d known Huo Zhi was a scumbag.

This middle-aged man, who seemed perfectly respectable on the surface, was often a violent drunk behind closed doors. She’d meddled, but meddling only helped for a moment, not a lifetime.

She urged Wu Yalan to divorce, to leave the sea of suffering as soon as possible.

But Wu Yalan’s answer to her was: “He won’t agree. Bringing up divorce will only enrage him. You know how he is. He’s capable of anything. It doesn’t matter if I live or die, but I can’t let Xiao Zhu get hurt. I have to bring him down in one fell swoop. Otherwise, whether I kill him or he kills me, Xiao Zhu will become a Murderer’s daughter. I will never let my daughter be pointed at and gossiped about for the rest of her life.”

A year ago, she took Wu Yalan’s case and started investigating Huo Zhi.

Huo Zhi was excellent at putting on a front. Because his features were decent, he always gave the false impression of being a decent person. If she hadn’t stopped scenes of violence too many times over the past five years, perhaps even she would have been fooled.

Half a year passed without finding any evidence. Wu Yalan refused to acknowledge Huo Zhi’s violent acts, fearing a police record would affect her daughter. The investigation hit a deadlock.

A month ago, Xia Xun leaked a video online showing Huo Zhi beating Wu Yalan on the street, using public pressure to rapidly push the divorce lawsuit forward.

“So, your point is, Wu Yalan was already about to escape her misery. She didn’t need to kill Huo Zhi at this particular time?” Xu Jinyao summarized.

That was the gist of it. Xia Xun nodded.

If Wu Yalan wanted to commit murder, she wouldn’t have waited until this moment to do it.

Xu Jinyao countered, “Perhaps she wanted to copy the previous crimes, using this chance to shift the murder suspicion onto the Killer from the first two cases.”

Xia Xun smiled. “Didn’t you police believe all three cases were committed by the same person? How come you’re changing your tune now?”

It wasn’t that they’d changed their tune. It was that before a case was concluded, anything was possible.

So far, regarding this Serial Case, they hadn’t even found a single piece of concrete evidence, let alone reached a final verdict.

“Do I really need to explain the difference between news reports and official announcements to you?”

Speaking of which, Xu Jinyao paused, suddenly narrowing her eyes. “The case details that leaked online… that wasn’t you leaking them to reporters, was it?”

Xia Xun’s eyes darted around. “What are you thinking? Do I have that kind of power?”

Whether she did or not, Xu Jinyao couldn’t say for sure. But she could tell Xia Xun was dodging the question.

She didn’t press further on that point, instead switching back. “You’ve said all this, but you still haven’t explained why you came here last night.”

Right.

Xia Xun’s mind started to wander again.

When the first case happened, it coincided exactly with the start of Wu Yalan’s divorce proceedings. To ensure every court date passed safely, Xia Xun would hide in the shadows, observing the situation, just in case.

What surprised her was that Huo Zhi not only didn’t fly into a rage, he was even polite and courteous to Wu Yalan, seeming perfectly happy to divorce her.

As for Wu Yalan deliberately provoking him, setting a trap that got him cyberbullied, costing him his job and forcing him to find a new one—he didn’t seem to mind any of it.

In fact, Xia Xun even detected a hint of eagerness in his expression.

This total reversal in attitude came too suddenly. One could even say it was bizarrely sudden.

When she mentioned this to Wu Yalan, the woman agreed, saying she felt the same way.

Both of them sensed foul play, so the investigation continued.

That was when the Bar situation came to light.

“How did you find out?” Xu Jinyao pressed. “Can you stop drawing it out? Get to the point.”

“Text messages.”

Text messages?

“The ones from Huo Zhi’s phone?”

Xia Xun nodded. “There were coded messages in those texts.”

That was something Xu Jinyao hadn’t expected.

She quickly replayed the findings from the cyber division in her mind. The investigation report definitely included a summary of the text message content.