Lin Dongxue sighed in relief and smiled. "Captain Peng, can you finish your words in one breath? What else did you find?"

Peng Sijue picked up the coffee that had cooled off on the table. "Before that, I want to hear Chen Shi's reasoning."

Lin Dongxue was helpless, but one rank could crush you to death[1]. She did not have the power to order Peng Sijue to do anything, so she could only regurgitate Chen Shi’s reasoning in detail.

After listening to it, Peng Sijue nodded. "As expected of him. He’d rather die than say such melodramatic things. Every single time, he thinks outside the box."

"Captain Peng, listening to the way you both talk about each other, it seems like you two are good friends?"

"But although this reasoning seems perfect, there is a loophole. The lover turned back a few hours later. Why did he come back? Did he come back to commit suicide? If so, then he did not need to kill a witness."

"Maybe he didn’t go back to commit suicide; he probably...Went back to deal with his girlfriend's body."

"What made him give up the idea of suicide?"

"Isn’t it possible that from the beginning, he didn't plan to commit suicide... Well, Captain Peng, don't lead my appetite on; tell me your discovery."

Peng Sijue went back to the main topic. "The number of bacteria in the mouth of the female deceased is far higher than average. That is to say, there is a high probability she kissed someone before death. But, the number of bacteria in the mouth of the male victim is below the average. One more thing; the male victim has a slight oral inflammation. If he had kissed the female victim, the female would have a large amount of streptococcus, helicobacter pylori, etc. in the mouth, but we did not find it in her mouth."

"That is to say, they did not kiss each other."

"It should be said that it is another person who kissed the female victim."

Lin Dongxue was uplifted; Chen Shi’s reasoning was correct. The murderer was the lover, Cheng Chao!

She immediately informed Lin Qiupu of this discovery. Lin Qiupu was still immersed in the frustration of catching the wrong person. After listening to Lin Dongxue, the task force was adjusted to finding the whereabouts of Cheng Chao.

This search took another two days. Cheng Chao seemed to have evaporated from the human world. During the period, they confirmed the true identity of the male victim. He was named Zhang Xiang and was an ordinary white-collar worker in Long'An City.

After a few days of rotations, Lin Dongxue was exhausted. When she got off work, she saw Chen Shi’s car parked outside. Her colleagues joked, “Your boyfriend came to pick you up.”

Lin Dongxue blushed as she got into the car. "Is it on the way?"

"No, I’m here to ask you how the case has progressed."

"Cheng Chao seems to have disappeared."

"Could he have escaped out of town?"

“Impossible; his personal information has been sent to all departments of transportation.”

Chen Shi smiled and took a thermal out. Lin Dongxue opened it and saw that it was a delicious chicken congee, which made her happily surprised.

"I made it when I had nothing better to do in the afternoon. Why don’t you try it? I decided to help you all with some of your work. Today, I went to find An Xu."

"What did you find him for?" Lin Dongxue asked as she ate the delicious chicken congee with its beautiful aroma. 

"I was curious. Didn’t we reason it out before and agree that An Xu may be lying? I found something. Although An Xu is the son of a company's boss, his company seems to not be doing well recently and An Xu himself owes money.”

"Really?"

"I asked him if he knew where Cheng Chao was and he was obviously flustered."

"But, logically, he wouldn’t be helping Cheng Chao? Or is there another hidden reason?"

“Have you noticed that he wore a gold necklace?”

"Yes, I’ve noticed."

"I added him on Weibo and from looking at his previous photos, it seems that this gold necklace was only bought recently."

Lin Dongxue was even more confused. Was this related to the disappearance of Cheng Chao?

"I’m not going to discuss this further with you. I’ll send you home first and I’ll look for him again tomorrow."

"Hey, you shouldn’t keep paying him visits. I am afraid that if he knows anything, he will be scared off by you."

"You’re worrying about my questioning skills?" Chen Shi blinked.

When Lin Dongxue was sent to her residence, Chen Shi drove home. While he was waiting for the red light, he opened Weibo and found that An Xu had made a suspicious post on Weibo, which detailed that there are dangers to prowling out on the streets. If you continue to be a tortoise that shrinks its head back, then you’ll definitely suffer the consequences.

Suddenly, Chen Shi had an epiphany and called Lin Dongxue, but she never answered. At this time, the light turned green. He dropped the phone and immediately went to An Xu’s residence.

An Xu lived in a high-end residential area. When Chen Shi got to the community, he saw a car driving out. The person in the car was An Xu. He immediately reversed and parked the car under a tree’s shadow. After An Xu left, he tailed him.

He dialed Lin Qiupu’s phone and asked curtly, “Do you want to solve the case?”

"What?" Lin Qiupu's tone revealed surprise. 

"I will send the coordinates to you now; send someone to follow my car. The suspect may appear."

Chen Shi directly hung up the phone before Lin Qiupu had the opportunity to answer.

He followed An Xu all the way until An Xu parked near an ATM machine. A person holding a bag got on the car and then the two drove off again.

After tailing them for a while, they came to a secluded road where the car in front suddenly stopped. The two people got off the car and Chen Shi squinted his eyes with full alert. He put his phone in his shirt pocket and also got off the car.

After seeing Chen Shi's face, An Xu smiled. "Oh, I wasn’t sure who it was? It turned out to be the policeman in the morning."

The person beside him wearing a sweater and a hood had their whole face shrouded in the shadows. Chen Shi gestured with his chin, "Your boyfriend?"

"Fuck off!"

"You’re called Cheng Chao, right? No need to hide; I know what you look like."

The young man was stunned before slowly taking off his hood. It was Jiang Mei’s boyfriend, Cheng Chao.

Chen Shi continued, "What is the bag you just brought onto the car? Money? If I didn't guess wrong, An Xu is willing to help you lie because you bought him. Although I don't know how you suddenly became rich, but this is the only reasonable answer."

"You are so smart!" Cheng Chao praised. "You’re like a detective in a novel. Do you want to hear my story?"

"I’ll clear my ears up and listen."

"I have been dating Xiao Mei for two years. I love her very much and she loves me too..."

"Don't talk about her in front of me, it's disgusting!" An Xu violently said.

"Can you not interrupt the story?" Chen Shi looked at An Xu.

An Xu rolled his eyes and went aside to smoke a cigarette while squatting on the side of the road.

Cheng Chao continued his story, saying that he was dismissed by Xiao Mei’s parents because of his background. When he went to her house for dinner that day, her mother asked a lot of hard questions while her father said a lot of ugly words. Cheng Chao couldn’t believe that such a couple would actually have an angel of a daughter.

Xiao Mei didn't know that later on, her father found Cheng Chao and gave him a sum of money to ask him to leave Xiao Mei. It was not too much. Maybe he thought that the 100,000 yuan would make a poor boy change his heart. Cheng Chao certainly did not agree.

Xiao Mei’s father pointed at his nose and shouted that with his connections, Cheng Chao could make a living in Long’an.

Soon after, Xiao Mei’s other pursuer, An Xu, who had a similar background as her, came to his door and taught Cheng Chao a lesson. He also smashed his computer. In it were the paintings and comic strips he had spent a long time creating with a lot of effort. 

Cheng Chao hated this unfair world, but what could he do? He was a poor man…

1. They mentioned that one stripe could crush you to death. This is because the higher your rank in the police force, the more stripes and stars you get.