CH 88

Translated by: Dust Bunny

Edited by: Crooked 

You Tianyi’s business was located in south Ningqing. Gu Xizhou parked the car in an underground parking lot.

After leaving the underground parking lot, Fang Zhi lifted his head and looked around. There were three other logos printed on the signboard. “I’ve seen these logos before.”

“These are computer game icons. All three of the big mobile games in the past three years belong to this company.” Gu Xizhou said casually, checking the information that had been sent to him.

In the past two years, mobile games have done better than regular games. Any older game has a flow of over ten million. And if that wasn’t enough, the three games developed by the company founded by You Tianyi and his friends are ranked among the top fifty. It’s not hard to imagine how he could afford to get into such high-end clubs like Jinfen Shijia at will.” 

“Hello,” Fang Zhi said, walking up to the reception desk of the gaming company and taking out his badge. “I am a police officer. I’m looking for You Tianyi.”

The young lady at the desk looked stunned for two seconds, before quickly nodding and picked up the phone at the reception desk to dial an extension, “President You, there are two police officers looking for you, should I send them up?”

The man on the other end said strangely: “Police officers are looking for me? What do they want?”

“They didn’t say. Do you want me to ask them?” The young lady at the front desk asked softly.

“Forget it. Send them up to my office, ba.”

The receptionist got up and made a gesture of invitation, saying, “This way please, follow me.”

“Thanks,” Gu Xizhou said.

The receptionist had already made her way to the elevator and pushed the button. After getting in, the young lady quietly sized up Gu Xizhou and Fang Zhi, asking, “Police… It’s not another child who stole their parents debit card to play our company’s games, ba?” 

Gu Xizhou waved his hand and said: “no.”

The receptionist let out a breath, “As long as it’s not like this. We’ve had parents come running to us before to complain, insisting on a discount.

“They really have no sense. How did the child know the passcode to their parent’s phone? Don’t they know to set up fingerprint locks right away?” the receptionist complained.

Gu Xizhou didn’t reply to her. Fingerprint locks were easier to unlock than a passcode lock. The child could just snuck into their parents’ room while they were asleep and gently pressed it with their finger. 

“Tick.”

“Tick.”

Gu Xizhou heard the sound of a clock as he walked by and lifted his eyes to look at the clock on the wall. It was eleven thirty am.

Receptionist led them to the door of You Tianyi’s office, and ran into a woman just coming out of the office. The receptionist seemed to be afraid of this woman and immediately moved to the side, greeting her in a small voice: “hello, Lan Jie!” 

Lan Jie looked over at her indifferently. She turned to look at Gu Xizhou and Fang Zhi, then she turned around and left with the information in her hands.

Gu Xizhou walked into the office and glanced at You Tianyi, who was busy at his desk.

“It’s you?” You Tianyi raised an eyebrow. He clearly recognized Gu Xizhou and Fang Zhi as the people looking for him in the nightclub yesterday. He waved his hand at the young girl, signaling for her to leave.

Gu Xizhou sat across from You Tianyi, “Is it strange?” 

“No, not at all, but I really don’t know the two women you are looking for. Are they criminals?” You Tianyi sat in the opposite chair and waved his hands to indicate the two people were free to do as they pleased, “It’s no use even if you do look for me. I don’t know them.”

Gu Xizhou sized up You Tianyi’s office. He could see that the owner of the office had pretty good taste. On You Tianyi’s desk was a picture of a young woman.

“Is this your girlfriend?” Gu Xizhou asked casually.

You Tianyi said: “No, this is my wife.” 

“Okay, let’s cut to the chase,” Gu Xizhou said directly, “The girls you saw in the photo yesterday are already dead. I think you’ve seen the news from a few days ago. Tang Xiao was the first to die.”

You Tianyi looked stunned, and said in a dazed voice: “You suspect that I killed them?”

“Please, that day, my wife and I were together. I couldn’t have killed anyone.”

Gu Xizhou waved his hand and said: “Don’t get excited. You didn’t let me finish.” 

“From the time the first deceased person appeared, until early today, every night one more deceased person appears. In these three days, Tang Xiao, Hu Shanshan, and Cao Li have died. Cao Li is a Jinfen Shijia employee. Yesterday, Cao Li identified you and Hu Shanshan as the people in 419 a month ago.”

“I know you are a little unsure of what they looked like, but this can’t change your preference for snake spirit faces. Of the three dead people, we are certain that two of them have had a one night stand with you.

“Me?” You Tianyi furrowed his brows, walked to the side, and locked the door. He was clearly affected by Cao Li’s name. “I know Cao Li, and I made an appointment with her once, but I really didn’t kill anyone! Except for yesterday, I’ve been at home with my wife for the past two days! My wife can prove it… you saw it too, I went out with that younger sister!”

Gu Xizhou nodded and said: “I know, I also don’t doubt that you didn’t kill anybody. I am only certain that you and the murder have some sort of connection. Can you think of who?” 

“Qtb?”

“Tbe tjnf gfijalbcr klat atf qfbqif lcrlvf atf clutamiey. Qtb ilxfr sbe nfgs wemt?” Xe Wlhtbe jrxfv, Coafg qgbofrrlbcji jcjisrlr, atf qfgrbc ktb mea boo atf kbwfc’r mtfrar delaf qbrrlyis vlv la bea bo pfjibers bg gfnfcuf.

Tbe Kljcsl rjlv: “Ktfgf lrc’a jcsbcf.”

Xe Wlhtbe ibbxfv ja atf vfugff bo kfjg bc atf ogjwf bo atf qtbab jcv gfwlcvfv tlw, “Tbe Kljcsl, lo sbe vbc’a mbbqfgjaf, P klii tjnf cb mtblmf yea ab ajxf sbe ab atf qbilmf rajalbc. P atlcx rlcmf sbe xffq atja qlmaegf bc sbeg vfrx, sbe ralii ilxf sbeg klof, yj? Gb sbe kjca tfg ab xcbk?” 

“No, please don’t tell my wife! She can’t know!” You Tianyi said anxiously, “Her heart isn’t good! She can’t take the shock!”

Since this person slept around, Gu Xizhou originally thought for sure that his relationship with his wife wouldn’t be good, but unexpectedly he was very anxious about his wife.

Gu Xizhou let out a long sigh.

As expected, each scumbag has their own characteristics. 

“It’s not that I’m holding anything back. I really do like to find women in the nightclub. That’s what’s happened this year, but I don’t want my wife to find out, so I haven’t contacted any of those women since I made an appointment with them.”

Gu Xizhou raised an eyebrow: “But they gave me your phone number, and you didn’t contact them?”

“En, I have two cards, and two phone numbers. Every time I go to the nightclub, I give them the number you said, “ You Tianyi said.

“Why?” 

You Tianyi: “I was afraid my wife would find out. I didn’t want them to disrupt my everyday life, but it’s difficult to contact people without a phone, so I bought a separate one.”

“You got a phone specifically for hookups,” Gu Xizhou said with a sigh, ignoring You Tianyi’s expression and allowing him to continue.

“The cellphone is here.” You Tianyi took the phone out of a safe and pushed it to Gu Xizhou. “I really have made appointments with a lot of girls. My rule is that I can’t see the same woman more than three times. If we are together too frequently, it becomes troublesome.”

Gu Xizhou took the phone. It only contained text messages and call records. Other than that, there was nothing on it. Clearly this phone was only used to send and receive messages and phone calls. Among them were many unanswered calls. 

“So you can’t think of anyone who would kill for you?”

You Tianyi: “That’s right.”

Gu Xizhou hit the desktop and examined You Tianyi closely, asking again: “In the past few days, you and your wife were at home, and she didn’t leave?”

“No.” 

“Are you sure?”

You Tianyi nodded and said: “For sure, the day before yesterday, I was sick. I remember my wife called me at ten to come eat some fruit. After that we went to bed together and slept until early the next morning. We slept in the same bed. If she went out, I would have known.”

“If you don’t believe me, will you believe my wife?” You Tianyi said. He was so angry it was almost funny. “My wife’s health is no good, so she has to stay home to recover.”

As he spoke, You Tianyi rubbed the space between his eyebrows, feeling that his fever was getting worse and worse. 

At this moment, You Tianyi’s everyday cell phone that was sitting on his desk began to ring.

“Ding, ding, ding.”

You Tianyi gestured for the others not to speak. After answering the phone, he put it down and looked at Gu Xizhou and Fang Zhi and said a little anxiously: “My wife is coming over. Can you avoid this topic for a while? I don’t want her to hear about these things. I will cooperate with your investigation.”

Gu Xizhou glanced at him, and didn’t speak. He caught sight of a beautiful woman coming through the door. 

“Ruan Ruan, why did you come up by yourself?”

Ruan Shuyun winked at him and asked: “Am I disrupting your work? I was at home making lunch and thought we could eat together.”

“I want water!” Ruan Shuyun said sweetly.

Perhaps because You Tianyi was nervous, the glass of water in his hand trembled. If not for Fang Zhi’s quick reflexes, the cup would have fallen to the floor and shattered. 

Fang Zhi returned the water to You Tianyi’s hand.

“Thanks.” You Tianyi said gratefully. After that he handed the water to his wife. He patted his wife on the back and said, “Drink it slowly.”

“En.”

“They have come to find me to ask for my cooperation,” You Tianyi said, turning to his wife to explain. 

Ruan Shuyun took small sips of water, and nodded, “I wasn’t going to ask you, you don’t need to explain. I know you are busy with work, and they are not women.”

You Tianyi gave a strained laugh and turned to speak to Gu Xizhou and Fang Zhi, “Can we talk this afternoon? We have a seafood restaurant downstairs that’s not bad. I’ll ask someone to accompany you. It’s on me.”

Seeing that Gu Xizhou still had something to say, he was afraid Gu Xizhou would say something to embarrass him and interrupted him: “It’s already eleven forty. My home is very close to here, in half an hour, I will come back to continue our discussion.”

“Okay, got it.” 

You Tianyi took his wife and left. Gu Xizhou walked to the door and saw You Tianyi’s secretaries watching them depart, covering their mouths and laughing.

“President You has been so affectionate towards his wife!”

“Right? Before the company started, I heard he was always called little white face and relied on his wife’s salary!”

Gu Xizhou listened for a moment. Fang Zhi who stood next to him was even more dumbfounded and began to question his entire existence. 

Yesterday in the night club, they heard it clearly.

Gun King You Tian Yi… One could imagine what kind of person could be associated with the two characters “gun” and “king”. They didn’t expect You Tianyi’s reputation in his own company to be good.

Clearly You Tianyi was very careful about his one night stands. Only the people in the nightclub knew about the ones he kept hidden on the side.

Gu Xizhou felt like he was right back where he started. 

You Tianyi only made an appointment three times, and only his wife had a steady relationship with him. Then who would kill for him? Or who would kill because they were infected by You Tianyi?

Gu Xizhou wasn’t able to make any sense of the matter.

“President You asked me to take you downstairs to the seafood restaurant. Please follow me,” an employee called to Gu Xizhou and Fang Zhi who were in a daze.

When the three sat down to eat, Gu Xizhou and Fang Zhi talked to the other diners. They discovered that no one in the company seemed to know about You Tianyi’s chaotic relationships. Besides his wife Ruan Ruan, no other women had come to find him at the company. 

“Has President You’s relationship with his wife always been good?” Gu Xizhou asked.

The programmer said: “It has, ah. Ruan Jie is very beautiful, and You Tianyi is pretty handsome. The two of them are golden boys and jade maidens.  They really are a good match. They studied at the same high school.”

Gu Xizhou’s phone pinged and he saw that it was Xiang Yuan sending him the pathology report. He apologized to them saying, “I have to use the restroom.” 

After he left, Gu Xizhou called You Tianyi’s everyday phone, after ringing for a moment, the call connected.

“Hello, may I ask who is calling?” You Tianyi’s wife said.

Gu Xizhou said: “Hello, I am trying to reach President You.”

“One moment, I’ll bring the phone to him.” 

The phone clearly changed hands, “Hello, may I ask who is calling?”

“It’s me.”

At home, You Tianyi worried at a button on his clothing. He had already heard Gu Xizhou’s voice, “Why are you calling? Didn’t I tell you we could keep talking after lunch?”

“Since you care about your wife, why do you still make appointments?” 

“What’s it to you, ba?” You Tianyi said, raising an eyebrow secretly looking at his wife who was putting food on the table. He gave Ruan Shuyun a nod and went out onto the balcony to continue talking.

Gu Xizhou fell silent, and then asked: “Have you and your wife had sex recently?”

You Tianyi: “Fuck, you are sick! I don’t have to answer that!”

After a moment Gu Xizhou muttered under his breath: “Of course not, I only think that if you and your wife haven’t had sex, it’s best if you don’t. After all, you might give her HIV.” 

You Tianyi heard Gu Xizhou and his face turned white asking urgently: “What do you mean?”

Gu Xizhou fell silent for a moment before saying, “It was just recently confirmed that all three of the deceased have HIV. At the moment it can be confirmed that Hu Shanshan made an appointment with you a month ago.”

“AIDS is not my area. Do you have any high risk behaviors? I suggest you go to the hospital for a check up.”

“No, no I won’t.” 

“Are you sure?”

Just as You Tianyi finished, he saw his wife holding the door. She asked: “What won’t you do, what are you talking about?”

You Tianyi’s Adam’s apple bobbed, and he shook his head, “N-nothing.”

“Eat, ba. I’ve been waiting for you!” 

You Tianyi en-ed and hung up the phone. He picked up his chopsticks and put them down again and said, “I never recovered from my cold, I’m afraid of infecting you. I’ll make a bowl and eat it by myself, ba.”

Ruan Shuyun’s dark eyes smiled and curved slightly, like water about to overflow. “That’s not necessary, ba?”

“It is!” You Tianyi said firmly, his heart racing. His mind was full of Gu Xizhou’s words, ‘All three of the deceased have HIV. At the moment it can be confirmed that Hu Shanshan made an appointment with you a month ago.’

Gu Xizhou hung up the phone and returned to the seafood restaurant just in time to hear the programmer and Fang Zhi talking.

“As programmers, it’s not unusual to work overtime 996 everyday, whether it’s a binary tree or bug testing.”

Fang Zhi en-ed and said: “Exhausting.”

The programmer laughed and said, “Being a programmer is actually not that bad. Don’t you know, when Ruan Jie came to work a few months ago she was tired and dizzy.” 

“What does she do?” Gu Xizhou said, walking over.

“An Anesthesiologist. They can’t perform surgery without anesthesia. They are more tired than us, “ the man said.

Fang Zhi: “An Anesthesiologist?”

The two looked at each other. Gu Xizhou stood up, grabbing the programmer by the lapels and saying: “Where does You Tianyi live? We have to go there!” 

“What’s wrong?”

“We are police. We have to get to their residence! Quick!”

“O-okay!” When the man saw their badges, he looked bewildered, unable to understand what was going on.

Gu Xizhou raised an eyebrow and took out his phone. He originally wanted to call immediately, but after some thought, he decided that You Tianyi should be safe for now. His wife should already know that they were watching him. If he called, it might raise her vigilance instead. 

The employee took them straight to You Tianyi’s front door. Gu Xizhou turned to the man and said: “You knock on the door.”

“Oh… What are we doing? Has You Tianyi broken the law?” The man asked in a low voice.

“When it’s time for you to know, you will know. Just tell him something urgent has happened at the company.”

Dong dong dong. 

Dong dong dong.

After knocking twice, they finally heard the sound of a woman’s voice coming from inside the house. “Who is it, ah?”

“Ruan Jie, it’s me, Xiao Zhang. An urgent matter has come up at the company. You Tianyi needs to come back!” the man said.

When she heard Xiao Zhang’s voice, the inside of the house suddenly became dead silent. 

Gu Xizhou gave the man a meaningful look, urging him to continue, “Ruan Jie, open the door! It really is urgent!”

“Come in.”

It seemed like someone looked through the peephole and then the woman opened the door for them.

Gu Xizhou went in. He heard a hissing noise, and looked towards the kitchen to see You Tianyi’s wife cooking, not releasing gas, and his heart relaxed a bit. Gu Xizhou asked: “Hello, sorry to bother you, but is You Tianyi here?” 

“He has a fever and just went to lie down,” she said mildly. “Follow me.”

Gu Xizhou followed Ruan Shuyun to the bedroom and saw You Tianyi lying on the bed sleeping under a quilt, his brows furrowed. Gu Xizhou walked over and patted You Tianyi, “Hey, President You, wake up. You Tianyi?!”

After making sure You Tianyi was still breathing, Gu Xizhou turned to glance at You Tianyi’s wife. He felt like there was something wrong with the president and urgently tried to wake him. He didn’t continue to try and figure out what was wrong.

You Tianyi opened his eyes blearily and looked at Gu Xizhou, “How, how did you get in?” 

“It, it hurts so much…”

Gu Xizhou heard You Tianyi say he was in pain, and used his other hand to pull back the quilt. You Tianyi’s lower body was wrapped in white gauze. His lower body looked like a zongzi, and blood was oozing through the bandages incessantly.

Gu Xizhou looked deeply at Ruan Shuyun and ran to the kitchen, uncovering the lid of the saucepan. The liquid inside was already boiling. He shut off the stove and used chopsticks to clamp off the missing part of You Tianyi’s body…

Fuck, it’s fully cooked! 

Crooked: Bon Appetit, I guess