CH 35

On Yangchuan Road, the police lights flashed, and the ambulance drove away from the scene in less than an hour. The car that had been hit was lying at the side of the road. Fresh blood left behind marks that were extremely clear. People from the nearby housing block were all wrapped in coats and wearing slippers, quietly whispering outside the area that the police had cordoned off. 

Gu Xizhou pulled up the yellow tape and entered the scene. When he arrived, Fang Zhi had already rushed over to the scene. 

When the traffic policemen and district police saw him, they immediately came to report the situation. “The person who reported the incident wasn’t someone in the car, but a passer-by. He was riding a motorbike to work, when he suddenly saw a taxi change lanes on the road, and drive straight into this black Santara, causing the black Santara to roll over. The car had three adults and one child. Sitting at the back was the child and his mother; his mother had been tightly holding him, so he only suffered light injury. The one who had been driving was the child’s grandfather, who died on the spot.”

One of the traffic policemen gave Gu Xizhou the surveillance video they had obtained. The video was similar to the report of the passer-by. The taxi suddenly changed lanes and hit the other party’s vehicle. From the surveillance, it can be clearly seen that the man even drove away. He also opened the window before and glanced at the back, checking that the vehicle was overturned, before turning away and driving off. 

From the video, the man had to be about fifty to fifty-five years old, and his height should not be tall.

Gu Xizhou walked forward. The body in the car had already been transported away, leaving only a large pool of blood.

“The witness is still on the scene?” Gu Xizhou asked softly.

The policeman pointed behind him and said, “Your people are asking about the situation now.”

When Gu Xizhou walked by, Fang Zhi was holding a notebook to write notes.

The witness was a middle-aged man in his forties, wearing jeans and white short-sleeves. Because of the cold weather attacking him on the bike, he added a thin coat to the outside. His face was pale, and he did not seem to have calmed down from the accident just now. His voice trembled when answering questions.

“I’m the security guard for Lianghe Housing Block. I had an early shift today, so I came over on my bike.  As a result, I just saw the two cars in front collide. The car crashed into the other party then drove away to escape. I pulled out my phone and pointed at the car, taking two photos! Then I ran over to see the people in the car, and the driver… he wouldn’t have died…”

Fang Zhi: “What do you mean?”

Luo Jin froze for a moment. “I’m only guessing, but that car came to hit them from the left. Then, what was in front of them was a telephone pole. I saw that the car was about to hit the telephone pole, then it swerved, and flipped over.”

Fang Zhi heard this, and nodded. “Can I see the photos you took?”

“Of course!” The middle-aged man took his phone out and opened the pictures, handing it over to Fang Zhi. He pointed at the picture and said: “It’s this car!”

The taxi was extremely normal, looking exactly like other cars. However, the photo that the middle-aged man had taken was extremely clear. Nonetheless, Gu Xizhou had already checked with the traffic police on the other side, and they had already contacted the car’s owner. The real car had always been in the carpark of the owner’s housing block, and had never left. This car was a fake. 

Fang Zhi said: “We really have to thank you. If not for you promptly dialing 120/110, this car might have no survivors at all.”

The man nodded. “This is something I should have done. Didn’t this happen in front of me for a reason? Who can say they will never encounter an accident? Helping others is helping oneself.”

Fang Zhi continued: “I have to trouble you to transfer the photos to me, and ask you to leave a contact number for us. If you think of anything else, please contact us.”

The man readily gave his contact information and was taken away by the police on the side.

“Gu Ge, looking at the CCTV tapes, there is a high probability of intentional murder. In general, most cars that speed end up tailgating. But this car speeding up, it’s entirely different.” Fang Zhi frowned, visibly unnerved. 

“En, let the traffic police handle the matter of finding the vehicle. Get them to get the CCTV tapes of the surrounding roads as soon as possible in order to find this car, then they can liaise with us again. There is definitely a high probability of murder… let’s go to the hospital to find the victims, and ask if they have any clues.” Gu Xizhou said softly. After all, there were no other clues left here besides the debris left after the crash.

Gu Xizhou drove to the hospital and heard the good news as soon as he arrived. The two people who had been seriously injured were safely out of danger.

The man sitting in the aisle was crying. After hearing that his mother-in-law and his wife were out of danger, he sat in a hospital chair with tears in his eyes, and his eyes were red. The man’s parents also hurriedly rushed over.

Gu Xizhou found him. “Hello, I am a police officer from Jinluo Road. I understand your family’s circumstances right now, but according to the current investigation of the traffic police, it’s suspected that the other party may have intentionally hit you to cause an accident.”

The man in his thirties suddenly became aggravated. “Deliberately hitting people? Intentionally?”

“Qf mjc’a yf mbwqifafis regf jybea atlr, yea ogbw jii atf rlucr, atf batfg qjgas ilxfis rajufv atf jmmlvfca. Ljr sbeg ojwlis boofcvfv jcsbcf gfmfcais?”

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“How about your father-in-law?”

“Definitely not. My father-in-law and mother-in-law are state-owned enterprise workers. After retiring two years ago, they have been helping us with our children at home. We live in a house that I used to stay in when I was single, so we’re surrounded by old neighbors, and have a good relationship.”

“And they are very good, good to everyone, if they see someone in the newspapers who needs donations, they will definitely go to donate…”

Gu Xizhou nodded and looked at the man whose eyes were still red. “Other than recently, has anyone had a disagreement with anyone before?”

The man shook his head, “No.”

Because the man was not in the car at the time, Gu Xizhou found the little boy with the least injuries.

“I, I just remember that he wore a mask and a hat, and I couldn’t see his face.”

Gu Xizhou and Fang Zhi carefully asked about the styles of the hats and masks. After taking notes one by one, they left the hospital and arrived at the police station. In the bureau, Gu Xizhou encountered the forensic officer Xiang Yuan, who had a very good relationship with Gu Ji Ji.

“Wah, knowing that you two haven’t eaten, I’ll be good to you!” Xiang Yuan laughed and handed a packet of buns and soy milk to each of them, saying: “I got up early this morning and saw in the group that something happened last night.”

“I don’t have to use my brain, just have to use my knees to know that you’ve been called to duty again.”

Gu Xizhou had just finished his breakfast, when Xiang Yuan came over to him again and said, “I read the report given by the hospital. The man who drove died because of a vehicle impact and an open trauma to the chest, which is a normal car accident injury. There are no clues to the situation from the corpse or his wounds.”

“Fang Zhi asked me to bring the information to you. He said he would first visit the victims’ workplace and housing block to investigate.” Xiang Yuan said softly, mainly to remind Gu Xizhou that the corpse didn’t hold any clues. 

Gu Xizhou took the information, signalling for Xiang Yuan to leave by himself. He opened the documents and looked at it for a while. The photo that Luo Jin had given to Fang Zhi had been printed and cleaned. Gu Xizhou looked at the picture for a while, and felt a headache coming on. As a demonic cultivator, he was embarrassed. 

He could still cheat in the mission world, but he couldn’t cheat in here?

Gu Xizhou could only place his hope on Fang Zhi, who was currently trying to interview and investigate the people who knew the victims. 

However, Fang Zhi’s investigation turned up the same description as what the son said. The family was full of good people, and they never had any sort of disagreement with anyone. The two elderly folks had retired long ago, and there was no such thing as arguments because of competition. Their daughter had lived a simple and normal life in a single room unit, and had never argued with anyone as well, always speaking in a soft voice. It appeared that tackling this problem from the direction of interpersonal relationships was not feasible. 

The traffic police on the other side also gave their answer. The car drove along the main road after the accident, and finally disappeared in an area where there were no CCTVs. The driver seemed to understand the placement of the CCTVs, so their only hope was to investigate surrounding garages and car shops to see if anyone had recently repaired a taxi. 

Gu Xizhou scratched his head. This was seriously hard. 

Fang Zhi, who failed to obtain any useful information, took off his coat and was a little frustrated. Gu Xizhou saw him after he ended work, and said: “Let’s go, Xiao Fang, I’ll send you home.”

Fang Zhi shook his head: “Gu Ge, I want to look at the information again…”

“Okay.” Gu Xizhou thought for a moment, then wore his coat and left first. 

When he entered the house, Gu Ji Ji had already written a long question on the back of the door–

How’s the situation?

Gu Xizhou saw how anxious he was about the case, and did not tease him. He told him what had happened today, and put the information brought back from the police station on the coffee table in the living room. “Take a look for yourself.”

When Gu Xizhou came out after taking a shower, the lights in the living room were all on, and there was a faint scent of someone in the dim light. He saw the pages of information automatically flipping on the table in the living room, and a pen was annotating it.

A few days ago, Gu Ji Ji had lost his temper, smashing the furniture at home, and lost a lot of things. At first glance, the living room looked large and spacious, but it showed how Gu Ji Ji was a little pitiful. 

Gu Ji Ji’s parents had died on a mission when he was in high school. Now, Gu Ji Ji had also ‘died’, and had his body’s core swapped out. Even though he still existed as a soul, but Gu Ji Ji was trapped in his house, and couldn’t go anywhere. 

It was as if Gu Xizhou could see a man who looked exactly like him, sitting on the sofa in the living room, looking at the information carefully, writing comments carefully, seriously and attentively.

It was a pity that all he saw was a ball of air. 

Gu Ji Ji’s comments were very detailed, but because there really were no useful clues at all, their significance wasn’t great. Even the most powerful police officer couldn’t solve this case. After watching Gu Ji Ji flip through the information over and over, Gu Xizhou felt bored and chose to lie in bed, waiting to see if the traffic police on the other side had any useful information. 

The next day, Gu Xizhou took the documents that Gu Ji Ji had flipped through all night and went to the office. As soon as he put his things down, he saw a Fang Zhi that had suddenly gained a pair of dark eye circles after not seeing him for one night. 

“Gu Ge, morning!”

Gu Xizhou nodded. “You came here so early?”

They had just spoken a few sentences when Gu Xizhou’s phone rang. When he answered, the first line he heard was: “The victims are awake.”

“Go to the hospital!”

After driving to the hospital, Gu Xizhou saw the injured elderly and woman. The old woman was called Niu Dinglan, the woman was Wei Xiaoling, and the dead driver was named Wei Guo, he was Wei Xiaoling’s father.

The victims were lying in bed. Gu Xizhou sat by them and asked about the situation. After asking, both of them also determined that they had no enemy.

This made their investigation stuck in a difficult position. On the other side, Gu Xizhou also received a reply from the traffic police and investigated the surrounding auto repair station, but did not find the corresponding vehicle. Gu Xizhou rubbed his forehead.

“Please, you must find the person who hit us! My husband… it was all for me. At that time, when the car was hit, the telephone pole was on my side… If he didn’t swerve, I… I would have died!”

“Officer, I’m begging you to find who did this!”

The almost sixty-year-old lady was lying on the bed because her neck was injured and she couldn’t move. Her tears wet her clothes, but her mouth kept moving, and she kept mumbling about her husband.

“We will do our best!” Gu Xizhou didn’t dare to guarantee anything, and could only say this helplessly. 

After leaving Gu Xizhou and Fang Zhi from the hospital, he went to the scene of the accident again to check.

…

“Hey, Old Gu, let’s go, get off work and drink!” Xiang Yuan, who was wearing a white coat, leaned on Gu Xizhou’s work with one hand and said to him with a smile.

Gu Xizhou glanced at him and said, “I’m going home.”

“What’s the point in going home?! Go, go, go, Gege is bringing you out to relax, you need to find a young lady to comfort your fragile heart!”

Gu Xizhou: “I’m not fragile.”

“Tch, you’ve been my colleague for so many years, you think I still don’t know you? When you encounter a case, you are always thinking about how to find the murderer. There is no clue in your car accident case, so you must be grumpy. Look at you recently, even refusing to bully me.”

Gu Xizhou glanced at him. “I didn’t.”

Xiang Yuan sneered at him and patted the documents on the table. “Look at these materials, they’ve almost been flipped rotten by you!”

Gu Xizhou: “…” No, it wasn’t me who flipped it!

The one with immense pressure on them isn’t me, it’s Gu Ji Ji!

Three days after the car accident, they still hadn’t found any sort of clue. It was as if that fake taxi had disappeared into thin air.

He rejected Xiang Yuan’s kindness and walked out of his office. Then, he heard several colleagues at the door chatting quietly.

“My Goldie gave birth to four puppies. I can’t raise them. Any of you want to raise one? I’ll give them to you!” one of the girls in uniform whispered.

“I already have one in my family. I’m afraid they’ll fight, so I’ll have to say no.”

The girl also took out her mobile phone to show them pictures of the puppies. Each one was very small and cute, which caused a group of old aunties to coo. 

“How about… you give me one?”

“Huh?” The girl heard a male voice and was stunned. She turned back to see Gu Xizhou not far away. “Eh… Leader Gu, do you, do you want to have a dog?”

Gu Xizhou asked: “Am I not allowed?”

Xiang Yuan, who had just failed to invite Gu Xizhou to drink, came out to see this scene and ridiculed: “Leader Gu, don’t harm other people’s dogs. Giving you one to raise… do you want to starve it?”

Gu Xizhou: “…”

Seeing the girl’s suspicious look, Gu Xizhou immediately showed his determination. “Relax, it will definitely not starve to death. Now, there are machines that feed dogs and cats on a timely schedule, I’ll go and buy one.”

After discussing with the girl, Gu Xizhou drove home. When he reached home, he casually ate something, and watched Gu Ji Ji take the materials from him, flipping through it again.

“You can flip until a flower appears from the flipping pages, but it’ll be useless.” Gu Xizhou rolled his eyes, sitting in the living room and switching the television on. 

His words clearly made Gu Ji Ji extremely dissatisfied, and he was punished with a slap on his head. 

Gu Xizhou: “You’re too much! If it can’t be found, it can’t be found! Don’t think that just because I can’t see you, I can’t catch you, you can do whatever you want!”

Unfortunately, Comrade Gu Ji Ji completely ignored him, and continued to flip through the materials. Gu Xizhou glanced over and sneered: “I see you can flip out a flower?”

“Sigh…” Gu Xizhou looked at the photo the person who reported the incident had taken, and suddenly froze. “Fuck, there’s actually a flower!”

Gu Ji Ji: “?”

Gu Xizhou didn’t bother with Gu Ji Ji, and took out his phone to call the traffic police on that side. “You said that the car plate of the fake taxi has very likely changed by now, right?”

“En, yes.”

“I saw that there’s a flower pillow at the back of the car, can you try to see if any taxis have that flower pillow inside them?”

“Okay, we’ll try it!”