Peng Sijue and his subordinates began to survey the scene. There were many fingerprints and footprints of outsiders found in the deceased's house. Within the two hours of his death, he kept receiving messages from his friends on his phone. There were three people who had invited him out to have fun.

It seemed that Gu Daqiang was a very social person, so these fingerprints and footprints on the scene were totally useless.

The focus was on the window frame and Gu Daqiang’s body.

However, the surveillance footage held a clue. A man who was well-wrapped up in clothing had entered the housing district around 7:00 in the evening. After Gu Daqiang fell down from the building, the man left silently.

Chen Shi asked Old Zhang, "Old Zhang, do you suspect anyone?"

Old Zhang shook his head, "Ah Zhen's death was determined to be suicide, and the case was closed directly, so there was no in-depth investigation. Two guys had come over that night though."

"Besides Gu Daqiang, who was the other one?"

"He was called Liu Qin, but it’s impossible for it to be him. I smelled alcohol on him that night and found out that he was drinking and driving, so he was taken directly to the bureau.”

"Is he still there?"

"He’s being detained by the traffic police right now!"

Chen Shi asked Lin Dongxue to make a phone call to confirm this and Old Zhang continued, "But this Liu Qin might have been the direct cause of Ah Zhen's death. That night, Ah Zhen had sent him messages and he said a few things. I’ll show you the chat history."

Old Zhang took out his mobile phone with the photos of the chat history. As Ah Zhen's mobile phone was already badly shattered at the time, the text wasn’t too clear, but they could still make out the gist of it.

At first glance, it was just ordinary conversation. However, after careful consideration, one will discover that Ah Zhen was asking him for help. Maybe she had already reached the uppermost-limit of despair. Liu Qin had closed the door with a few words and pushed her into the abyss.

Chen Shi shook his head. "People don't know how to regret until a tragedy occurs."

"That’s so true. Liu Qin was very emotional afterwards. He said that he had killed Ah Zhen and was willing to pay for it with his life."

"I'll go and see him!"

Chen Shi and Lin Dongxue went to the traffic police department. Seeing the police come to him, Liu Qin wasn’t surprised. He was still immersed in his sins. Chen Shi was very straightforward. "Your friend, Ah Qiang, is dead."

"How did he die?!"

"He fell from a building."

"Was it suicide?"

"I'm afraid it's not that simple. We want to talk to you, but it's not convenient here. I'll help with your bail."

After going through the formalities, Liu Qin was released, holding a box of his personal belongings in his arms. He immediately searched for his phone inside, and looked at it, before putting it into his pocket.

The three went to a teahouse outside the city's traffic police bureau. They didn’t order anything and just found a secluded place to sit down. Chen Shi asked, "What exactly is the relationship between the three of you?"

"University classmates. Ah Zhen and I were from the same department while Ah Qiang was from another department."

"Did the two of them start dating then?"

"To be more accurate, I was the one who set them up. My relationship with Ah Zhen is like that of close female friends[1]. She had become infatuated with Ah Qiang after seeing him at a sports meet. She had a crush on him for a year, but she was so introverted that she would never say out loud who she liked in a lifetime. As a friend, I couldn’t stand it anymore, so I found Ah Qiang through people from my hometown and told him. Ah Qiang took the initiative to look for her. You’ll never know how shy Ah Zhen was. Facing the person she loved, she was terribly nervous and acted extremely cold. At that time, Ah Qiang thought I was playing with him and that this girl wasn’t interested in him at all. After a lot of twists and turns, these two got together. From then on, the stage for today’s events was basically set. One had extremely low self-esteem and the other was vibrant, cheerful and outgoing. Ah Zhen always felt that she wasn’t worthy of Ah Qiang, and always worried that he was too close to other girls. Her kind of insecurity got to the point where she’d overthink as soon as Ah Qiang was out of her sight. However, I know that she had an unfortunate childhood: she had come from a divorced family, so the two were always quarreling when they were together. Ah Qiang complained to me that she was too suspicious of him and that he was almost at the end of his rope."

"You seem to be friends with both these people at the same time. Between these two, who do you prefer?"

"Ah Zhen!"

"You like her too?"

Liu Qin smiled and shook his head. "My fondness is just out of sympathy and concern. In fact, I have a boyfriend."

"You have a boyfriend?"

"It's already the year 9102[2], is it strange?"

"It’s not strange. It’s not strange."

"However, I became closer to Ah Qiang after we graduated, because we were working at the same company. On the day of the incident, we had just been with a client. We were both physically and mentally exhausted, and were drinking in a bar... I was so stupid. Ah Zhen sent me a message. I should have noticed something, but I had too much to drink and my brain was muddled. I randomly consoled her like a dick. I thought that she was alright, who knew…” Liu Qin held his head in pain.

"I saw Ah Qiang's testimony from that day. What had happened exactly between them?"

"The two of them each had their own version of the story regarding that matter. Ah Qiang said that he had gotten friendly with the new girl only after breaking up, but Ah Zhen said that he had been cheating on her. As far as I know, Ah Qiang had long exchanged flirting glances with Lili. Yes, he was already impatient with Ah Zhen at that time, and a person as sensitive as Ah Zhen definitely would have been aware of it."

"When did this happen?"

"About six months ago."

"This may be presumptuous, but who do you think would kill Ah Qiang to avenge Ah Zhen?"

"I don't know, but I’m sure that if this person was taking revenge for Ah Zhen, then the next one will definitely be me."

"Revenge is just a hypothesis. The case is still unclear, but you should be careful and keep in touch with us."

Liu Qin nodded. "Ah Qiang's private life was quite chaotic. I mean, there were many girls who had ambiguous relations with him. You can investigate in this direction."

"Was there anyone in particular who cared for Ah Zhen?"

"Her mother and her elder brother."

"Do you know their contact information?"

"Let me search for it!"

Later, the two bid him goodbye. Chen Shi looked at the time and it was getting late. "Let’s investigate again tomorrow!"

Over the next two days, the police sorted through the interpersonal relationships surrounding Ah Zhen and Ah Qiang and found no obvious suspects. The only person who had a grudge with Ah Qiang was Sun Jun.

According to Ah Qiang’s classmates, Sun Jun had said something at the banquet on the eve of graduation, been beaten up by Ah Qiang and badly injured. Sun Jun had thrown down the gauntlet and said that he would do away with Ah Qiang sooner or later.

Sun Jun held no serious jobs after graduation and also acquired a gambling addiction. It was said that he’s been hiding from his creditors.

On the afternoon of September 25th, the police found Sun Jun's residence. Lin Dongxue and Chen Shi went over to his residence and knocked on the door a few times. However, no one answered. Lin Dongxue asked, "Why are people who gamble and take drugs always the biggest suspects?"

"This kind of people can't control themselves. They could do anything."

"Okay, it seems that he’s not at home, or he has moved away. We’ve come out empty-handed again."

"Let's go in and have a look."

"That's not a good idea!"

"I don't know how slow following the normal procedure would be. I can't wait."

Seeing that no one was around, Lin Dongxue agreed. When Chen Shi opened the door, the two were stunned for a moment. A man hung from the beam of the room and swayed like a wind chime...

1. Common term used to describe best/close female friendships was used here.

2. Chinese people reverse the year sarcastically when asking why the other party is so conservative when it’s a new century.