The next morning, Old Zhang invited the deceased’s girlfriend, Du Juan, to the bureau. This was a girl dressed in a very cool fashion. She was wearing a leather jacket covered with metal ornaments and had heavy, smoky makeup on. She crossed one of her legs over the other[1]and sat in a careless manner in the interrogation room while lighting a cigarette for herself. She said, "If you have any questions, then hurry up and ask them. I just got off work and still need to go home and sleep."

Lin Dongxue and Chen Shi were in charge of the interrogation. Lin Dongxue said, "Young lady, your boyfriend is dead, but you don't seem to be very sad!"

Du Juan said indifferently, "Whether I’m sad or not, it’s a personal matter. Do I have to cry here so that you think I'm innocent?"

"We don't have this requirement... I heard that you used to be the girlfriend of Song Yuqiang, the younger brother of the deceased?"

"Awesome, you even found that out! I did have a relationship with Song Yuqiang for a while. He was a boy with character and a very sunny disposition. Once, I had a toothache and he recommended his brother’s clinic to me. As the saying goes, there’s no harm without comparison. After seeing the more mature and charismatic Song Yuwen, I was infatuated with him. In contrast, Song Yuqiang was just like a child who hadn’t grown up... The two of us started dating without any complications. We quickly confirmed the relationship. Love itself is full of uncertainty. I really like this kind of uncertainty. Isn’t the freedom to love used to let people find a more suitable partner before getting married? I think the obligation of marriage imposed on love is crazy.”

"Song Yuqiang said that his brother stole you away."

"Haha!" Du Juan laughed. "He definitely would have said that. Men have to have face. He can't very well say that I left him because he’s childish and ignorant, right?"

"It's not just a problem of how things are phrased and face. It's because he thinks so, so he formed a grudge against his brother. A few days ago, the brothers fought with each other. We want to confirm with you whether this was the case?"

"Yes... Song Yuwen told me that he felt sorry for his brother, so he didn't fight back at all. I comforted him and said that he wasn’t wrong. Nobody is right or wrong when love is involved... You don’t think that the murderer was his brother right?"

"No, we just wanted to confirm this detail."

"Is there anything else you want to ask?" Du Juan yawned. "I really have to go home to sleep. I still have to go to the club to work at night."

Chen Shi and Lin Dongxue whispered a few words and Lin Dongxue asked, "How was your recent relationship with the deceased?"

"It was good... I know how you police think. Whenever something happens to someone, the first person you guys suspect is always the spouse or lover. But I’m different. I’m not that kind of patient woman. If we have any emotional or communication gaps, I would break up with him immediately. I once had a boyfriend who thought that it wasn’t good for me to work at a club and said something that slandered my profession. I proposed breaking up over the phone that very day. Song Yuwen and I were people from two worlds. The age gap was also very large, but he was really good to me, and I liked him very much. Of course, if you have to doubt me, I have an alibi. At the time of the incident, I was working at the club and many people can testify.”

Lin Dongxue said curiously, "I really wouldn’t have thought that you and Song Yuwen would be a pair. You don’t look like people who would be together.”

Du Juan leaned back on the chair and smiled. "You and this uncle are very different too."

"How did you figure it out?"

"Haha, two people who like each other will emit an electric current when they’re together, but the current needs both a high voltage and low voltage to flow. Every couple has one person who is high voltage and one who is low voltage. I was probably the low voltage while Song Yuwen was the high voltage. He usually took good care of me, and I was always very relaxed with him. Sometimes, I felt that we were not like a couple, but more like a brother and sister..."

"Brother and sister?"

"Uh, I can't really say why. He had the aura of an older brother, or maybe he had a bit of a “younger sister complex”. His former girlfriends were all at least five years younger than him. I asked him if he had a sister, but he said he didn’t.”

Chen Shi asked, "Did you hear him mention a younger female cousin named Wanjun?"

"Yes, once he called this cousin and chatted until very late. He had originally planned to keep me company that night. But when that cousin called, they talked for so long that it made me a little unhappy. He told me that this cousin has had a good relationship with him since childhood, and that the two families are relatively close. She’s now studying in Australia, and she rarely calls, blah blah blah. In short, he said that she was just his cousin so that I wouldn’t worry about it.”

"Have you seen her before?"

"I've only seen photos that she posted for her circle of friends on WeChat. I've never seen her in person... Why are you asking this?"

Lin Dongxue responded, "We can't explain to you why we ask every question, or this conversation will never end."

"Okay, okay, hurry up and ask!" Du Juan yawned again. "I really have to go home to sleep."

"Has Song Yuwen hurt anyone before, or does he have any unspeakable secrets?"

Du Juan bit her finger and thought for a long time. "No."

"Well, thank you for cooperating with the investigation."

"Wait!" Du Juan lit another cigarette again. "I don't know if this counts, but once we happened to be watching TV and the news mentioned how many years the sentence would be when a minor is raped. Song Yuwen actually said, ‘If this rapist was willing to work hard to repent and spend his whole life compensating the other party, do you think you’d be able to forgive him?’ I thought that he was just discussing a topic casually and said that if this sort of thing happened to me, I would hack that guy to death when I grew up. He actually got a little bit angry even though he’s normally very gentle. He said, 'Who doesn’t make mistakes? Wouldn’t you even give him the opportunity to make amends?' Recalling it now, he was angry as if for other reasons..."

"What do you think the reason was?"

Du Juan crossed her arms and pondered, "It's not good to talk about the dead. Could it be a girl that he had wronged before?"

Du Juan could only provide these clues. After sending her away, Chen Shi was going to visit the crime scene again, but was told that someone was looking for him. When he went outside, it turned out to be the security guard. He smiled, "I have some clues to provide. I don’t know if this would make up for my crime."

"It depends on whether the clues you provide are important."

"Aiya, Officer, can you be a bit more straightforward? I really don't want to go to jail."

"If I really wanted to catch you, would you still be standing here now?"

Little Sun thought about it and realized he was right, so he went in with Chen Shi. It turned out that he remembered that the deceased had met with an older woman a few days ago and went back to check the surveillance footage. On the night of July 24th, the meeting had indeed been captured.

The older woman seemed to be visiting the deceased. The deceased went to the entrance of the housing district to pick her up and appeared extremely cordial. The two entered the housing district side by side. The older woman stayed there for about half an hour before leaving alone.

In order to confirm the identity of the older woman, Chen Shi called Song Yuqiang. He hadn’t described her characteristics much before Song Yuqiang immediately said, "That was my Second Aunt. The mother of Cousin Wanjun."

1. Like this: https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn%3AANd9GcTB6dgOHdGPJ6S1UextG6K12ci6u70A-mKCtztQbxXlmmIDeM1B&usqp=CAU