CH 85

Translated by: Crooked

Edited by: Dust Bunny 

“How was the interrogation?” Wang Ao was in a pretty good mood, lifting the corners of his mouth in a smile.

Gu Xizhou: “Her mouth was shut awfully tight. She didn’t say anything.”

“En?”

“But I don’t think that she and the people behind her killed the deceased. If I were a criminal, I would definitely kill using the simplest and most direct method. The deceased’s cause of death was blood loss and shock. 

“I took a look at the situation outside Golden Garden. Although it can’t be considered somewhere bustling with activity, there are a lot of inhabitants nearby, and the park is the place they go most often for daily walks. The place the corpse was found wasn’t actually that far from the curb. As long as someone passed by, she could have very easily been rescued.

“The deceased, Tang Xiao’s death shouldn’t have anything to do with her drug dealing. There should be another cause. I think we should change the direction of the investigation.”

“I believe in your ability to investigate cases.” Wang Ao nodded at Gu Xizhou and then said to everyone, “Today, our police station was cursed on the news regarding this matter. I think everyone is aware that it was only good luck that several celebrities forwarded the complete video so the rumors could be contained without delay. Therefore, I’ve decided that we also need our own official platform to face the common people. I see that several other police stations have already done well.”

The one with the most stake in this matter was Lao Guo. If not for the popular celebrities forwarding the video, he would have been blackened as dark as an African. He completely approved of this. “Right right right, what Chief Wang says is right! Today I was miserably scolded by those bastards who mix black and white and invert right and wrong. It’s too hateful.”

Wang Ao heard his words and was very gratified. Previously, their police station wanted a public account, but the old police chief didn’t permit it, and he didn’t argue, either. However, today’s matter made him realize the importance of a public account.

He said, “Today we were really lucky. Now, the question is who’s going to manage this public account. I see that all the other police stations have someone, that is, someone successful and well-known…”

Xiang Yuan added, “A face.”

“Right, a face.” Wang Ao suddenly clapped and said, “What about Xizhou, you can come be our spokesperson!” 

When Gu Xizhou heard this, he immediately retreated two steps. “Why me?”

“You’re handsome, ah,” said Wang Ao, as if it were obvious. Those random forwards weren’t just the celebrities’ fans, there were people who were praising Gu Xizhou’s looks, too.

Gu Xizhou feared that Wang Ao would fix the tone with a single hammer and hastily explained, “Please, Chief Wang, I’m a detective. How could I investigate cases if everyone on the internet knew my face? How could I act like a civilian?”

“Aiya, that’s right.” 

“Also,” Gu Xizhou suddenly looked at Wang Ao, malice in his eyes, and said, “Say, Chief Wang, you’re pretty handsome. Aren’t you especially good-looking? The older the man, the better the flavor!”

Wang Ao: “Ah?”

Gu Xizhou gave Xiang Yuan beside him a meaningful glance, and Xiang Yuan immediately picked up the thread of conversation. “Right right right! You’re the only one who doesn’t need to personally handle cases in our whole department, and you’re handsome! You’re the best choice!”

Wang Ao looked surprised, and it seemed he couldn’t react for a moment. A few of the surrounding officers joined in and began to jeer and cause a scene. 

“Right, ah, you’re all right, Chief Wang! Handsome uncles are all the rage nowadays!”

“Jtlfo Qjcu, sbe ub, yj! Veqfg tjcvrbwf!”

Qjcu Cb ibbxfv j ilaaif ilxf tf vbeyafv ilof. “Efjiis?”

Xe Wlhtbe, Wljcu Tejc, jcv atf batfgr jii rqbxf lc eclrbc: “Efjiis!” 

“Ktfc ifa wf atlcx mjgfoeiis,” rjlv Qjcu Cb fjgcfrais joafg j wbwfca bo rlifcmf.

Qjamtlcu Qjcu Cb ifjnf, Xe Wlhtbe tfjnfv j rlut bo gfilfo. Ktf batfgr vlv fzjmais atf rjwf.

A male police officer from the neighboring department wore women’s clothes and makeup to shoot videos to popularize science and fraud prevention. Thinking about wearing women’s clothing themselves, the crowd of policemen all felt their backs grow cold and their scalps go numb. After imagining every possibility, everyone cooperated completely to dupe Wang Ao.

After Wang Ao returned to his office and locked the door, he sat in front of his desk and pulled out his phone to open the front-facing camera, studying his wrinkles for most of the day. 

The middle-aged woman alleged that she hadn’t killed anyone. Adding that to the deceased’s cause of death, Gu Xizhou and the others also eliminated her as a suspect, but they had no choice but to keep her in custody for the time being. Gu Xizhou dragged his weary body back home and saw a note from Gu Ji Ji stuck on the doorway.

Gu Ji Ji: Did you know you’re on the news?

Gu Xizhou sat on the sofa and said indifferently, “I saw.”

Gu Xizhou had just finished speaking when he heard his cellphone on the table ding. 

With just a glance, Gu Xizhou noticed that it was a notification for the Police WeChat group chat. He reached out to pick up his phone and looked at it.

“[Weibo Link] Chief Wang really set up an account! Look!”

“Isn’t Wang Ao’s profile picture his work ID photo? Hahaha!”

“No, to be accurate it’s his ID photo with Gaussian Blur + whitening and photoshop.” 

“WTF, if Wang Ao sees that, you’re screwed!”

“Relax, Chief Wang isn’t in this group.”

Gu Xizhou opened the blog link and saw that Wang Ao’s first posts were comments about several celebrities: Extremely grateful for your forwards and for helping Jinluo Police Station contain the dissemination of rumors! Your character is praiseworthy.

A few of the celebrities immediately replied to Wang Ao’s comments——You’re most welcome, restraining rumors is everyone’s duty! ^_^ 

Wang Ao was very happy to praise everyone effusively.

Gu Xizhou: “……”

After seeing Wang Ao and the celebrities cheerfully leaving comments, the celebrities also helped forward Jinluo Police Department’s new Weibo account. Gu Xizhou was silent. He thought that these stars might be misunderstanding something…

When Wang Ao got home, he saw his wife watching TV. His wife secretly glanced at him before secretly hiding the remote. Her husband hated her watching these idol dramas the most… and he had a typical straight man line of thought. He thought these male actors were girly and effeminate. 

Strangely, Wang Ao didn’t criticize the TV actors today, and he even casually asked about one actor’s name.

“Oh, it’s him, ah.” After hearing the name, Wang Ao determined this actor had also been one of the ones who’d helped with the forwards today, and he immediately said, “En, this actor is pretty good.”

Wang Ao’s wife: ? ? ?

What’s wrong with my husband? 

Wang Ao didn’t notice his wife’s expression. He silently looked down to reply to the notification on Weibo: My wife likes your TV series a lot.

The next day.

As soon as Gu Xizhou sat down in the office, he began to look over Gu Ji Ji’s notes. It was about the same as his own thinking. The deceased Tang Xiao’s murder case with her sliced chest should be unrelated to the narcotics case. The two cases were independent of one another and shouldn’t affect each other too much.

If they were to change the investigation’s direction, they could only investigate Tang Xiao’s interpersonal relationships, but these people were all very connected to the drug trade. If any of them were asked, it was impossible for them to tell the truth. 

He was reflecting on how to investigate the two cases separately when Fang Zhi, who was sweating profusely, pushed open his office door and came in.

“What’s up?” Gu Xizhou asked.

Fang Zhi’s tone was very anxious. “There’s a new body. She was murdered by cutting her chest apart just like the dead woman from yesterday!”

Gu Xizhou raised his brows and asked, “When was the report received? How come I didn’t know?” 

“About 8 in the morning. It wasn’t in our district!” Fang Zhi hastily explained. “After Qingyang Police Department received the report, they went to the scene to investigate and found the cause of death was just like the deceased, Tang Xiao, so they called to inform us on this side.”

Gu Xizhou stood up and moved quickly, saying, “Let’s go investigate the crime scene! Call Xiang Yuan: he looked at the body yesterday.”

“Okay!”

Gu Xizhou started his land rover and brought the others directly to the crime scene. Just like yesterday, the surroundings were filled with people. Gu Xizhou looked at them carefully. After a moment, several of the Qingyang police officers brought him to where the corpse was found. One of the officers filled him in. “Sir, the one who found the deceased is a scavenger in the area, a mute woman. She immediately reported it to the police after finding the body.” 

“We’ve done some preliminary investigation, and the cause of death was very similar to the corpse discovered in your district yesterday,” said the man. “We think there are two possibilities.”

Gu Xizhou spoke in a low voice. “What possibilities?”

“The first possibility is that this is a serial murder case,” said the Qingyang officer.

Gu Xizhou clearly anticipated this possibility and his face didn’t change, merely asking, “And the second one?” 

“The second possibility is a copycat killer.”

When Xiang Yuan heard this, his eyebrows jumped automatically. If it was a copycat killer, then it meant Gu Xizhou’s investigation would jump from normal mode directly to hard mode, and he’d have to eliminate even more interfering information. Furthermore, Tang Xiao was still connected to drug trafficking, which only caused the trouble to escalate further, changing it to Hell mode.

Regardless of whether it was a serial murder or a copycat killer, this was the most despised type of case for police.

“Lousy.” 

Listening to Gu Xizhou’s grumbling, Xiang Yuan pulled off the white cloth covering the body and carefully examined it.

“How is it?” asked Gu Xizhou.

Xiang Yuan sighed deeply and said, “According to the wound on the deceased, the murderer should be the same person. A more specific conclusion will have to wait until we get the body back and collect some blood samples for analysis.”

“Is her phone still here?” asked Gu Xizhou. 

The police officers nodded. “Yes, there’s a fingerprint lock. We already gave it to the technology department to crack.”

“Then it’s uncertain if the contents have been deleted or not. If you ascertain that the deceased’s information has been erased, notify me immediately.” Gu Xizhou stood up from the corpse’s side and said to the two people he brought, “Let’s go, accompany me on a trip to Jinfen Shijia.”

“Jinfen Shijia?” Gu Xizhou had just spoken when one of the Qingyang police officers looked at him, dumbstruck. Jinfen Shijia was a famous KTV in Ningqing, so it was no wonder that he’d ask this after hearing Gu Xizhou.

Gu Xizhou explained, “The last place the deceased from yesterday went was Jinfen Shijia. There was a record for a taxi in her WeChat.” 

“Oh,” the Qingyang police department’s officers replied. “Okay, after our side cracks the cellphone, we’ll notify you promptly.”

Gu Xizhou thanked them and immediately grabbed his keys, taking Fang Zhi and Xiang Yuan straight to Jinfen Shijia.

After getting in the car, Gu Xizhou glanced at Xiang Yuan sitting in the backseat in the rearview mirror ans asked, “Xiang Yuan, how likely do you think it is that this is a serial murder case?”

Xiang Yuan spoke after a long period of silence. “Very likely. 

“I just saw that the two wounds were cut with the same technique. Furthermore, the two deceased had no signs of a struggle. I estimate that after both of them were drugged by the same person, their chests were cut off, leading to hemorrhaging and death by shock.”

“Oh.”

Xiang Yuan raised an eyebrow and looked at Gu Xizhou. “Just ‘oh’? What did you figure out?”

“What else can I say?” said Gu Xizhou, curling up his lips as he started the car. 

At this time, there was no one parked outside Jinfen Shijia. It looked so empty and lifeless. Who would have thought that this area becomes luxurious and decadent at night, and that the people inside even sold drugs…

Gu Xizhou shook his head. The drug dealing would naturally be investigated by the narcotics department. He didn’t have to worry about it. He had to understand who was together with Tang Xiao that night, who was seen, and what was done.

Crooked: I, for one, absolutely want to see GXZ crossdress