515 Return to B City

“Why are you looking at me like that?” Zhang Shanfei spread his arms innocently. “Does it not make sense? You often hear this on the news: siblings squabble and some even disowned their parents over properties, forcing the parents to buy houses. To kill for a house, I wouldn’t be surprised if it was reported in the news.”

“My God, who will save him from his views!” Fang Zhitong from their team covered his eyes with his hands. He could not bear to look at Zhang Shanfei.

“What’s the matter? Just because the killer’s a pervert doesn’t mean that one wouldn’t commit murder for a house!” Zhang Shanfei bared his teeth. “Mr. Qi, what do you think?”

Qi Youxuan nodded slightly. “There are countless reasons for someone to commit murder. Some do commit murder over trivial matters, so it’s hard to say for sure.”

Zhang Shanfei did not say anything else but smugly tilted his chin and raised his eyebrows at Fang Zhitong with a what-do-you-think-of-me-now look on his face.

“Let’s wait for Chengwei to return. If Liu Mingyue’s alibi pans out, these speculations are worthless,” concluded Yang Shaoqun.

Zou Chengwei returned soon with the surveillance video footage and the check-in register from the hotel. Both confirmed Liu Mingyue’s alibi.

“I interviewed Shi Chenzhong’s wife, Li Weixin. She knew about Shi Chenzhong and Xiong Shishi. She’s been a full-time housewife for the past seven years, and if she were to reenter the workforce, it’d be hard work and for low wages. She won’t make it; she doesn’t have high-income skills. The allowance that Shi Chenzhong gave her is quite substantial, so her material needs were well taken care of. She pretended not to know about Shi Chenzhong’s affair and bore with it—as long as Shi Chenzhong provides for the family. She also knew that the other woman had a family of her own. She wouldn’t get a divorce and marry an old geezer like Shi Chenzhong; the woman just wanted money to support her family. It’s because of this that she turned a blind eye to it.”

“Li Weixin thought she wouldn’t have the financial means to divorce Shi Chenzhong. She wouldn’t be able to bear the legal costs. The Shi family values her son a lot and won’t surrender custody that easily, even if Shi Chenzhong is in the wrong. The legal battles will inadvertently affect her son. If custody is awarded to Shi Chenzhong, it’ll be hard to even see her son again. It’s better to live like this. They’re also getting old. Why court trouble?” said Feng Songwei, shaking her head.

“I have to say, they’re both made for each other. They both have the same bizarre mentality,” Zhang Shanfei tutted.

“Having said that, she’s still suspicious. Love kills,” speculated Fang Zhitong while rubbing his chin.

Feng Songwei shook her head. “She went with Shi Chenzhong to the hospital last night with their son. I confirmed that both she and Shi Chenzhong were at the hospital at the time. She didn’t have time to go to the resort to murder Xiong Shishi.”

“Then the three people with the most likely connection to Xing Shishi all have alibis. What else is there to investigate?” said Zou Chengwei irritably.

“Although Xiong Shishi did have some colleagues that she didn’t get along with, there wasn’t enough resentment to murder someone,” said Fang Zhitong.

It had been three days and not much progress has been made with the case. It was about time for Wei Muran to return to B City for duty—she could not stay in T City.

Qi Youxuan undoubtedly would be going with her. No matter how much Yang Shaoqun pleaded, Qi Youxuan had made up his mind not to stay.

Nonetheless, since they did collaborate, at least Yang Shaoqun considered it. On the day Qi Youxuan and the gang were due to leave, Yang Shaoqun and his team came to personally send them off at the airport.

Xiao Yiqing was very reluctant for them to leave so quickly and hugged Wei Muran and the other girls. The four girls were cuddled together in a group, it looked a little weird.

“You’ve only been here for a few days! And Muran didn’t even enjoy much at all and worked on a case,” grumbled Xiao Yiqing.

Wei Muran also felt sorry for accidentally detaching herself from the group, inadvertently ruining the fun for the others.

“Let’s get together again during the Spring Festival!” said Wei Muran.

Cheng Xicheng had always loved traveling and immediately suggested, “Why not go out of the country during the Spring Festival Holidays? We’re already too familiar with T City and B City. We won’t know what to do even if we got together, so might as well visit other destinations. Let’s go to an island, maybe Palau. Even cell phone signals are poor there, we won’t come across any murders there.”

Being Cheng Xicheng’s best friend and classmate throughout kindergarten to high school, Qi Youning nodded her head enthusiastically. “Er Cheng’s suggestion is excellent. You guys would have seven days of vacation. Er Cheng and I would be on winter break, which is even longer. We can leave on the second day of the Spring Festival. We can even stay a few more days. You guys just need to apply for a few extra day’s leaves.”

“Okay, let’s discuss more on WeChat when we get back,” chirped Xiao Yiqing.

Xiang Haorui suddenly appeared out of nowhere and gently rested his hand on Xiao Yiqing’s head and rubbed.

Feng Songwei detached herself from the police group and walked in front of Qi Youxuan. Flustered, she whispered shyly, “Mr. Qi, would it be convenient for you to leave me your contact information. I’d like to learn from you.”

Behind her, Feng Songwei’s police colleague’s expression changed slightly and some were even uneasy.

It was clear that Qi Youxuan and Wei Muran were a couple, yet she had proactively asked for his number. Was she trying to break them up? It was bad enough if one intended to steal a person’s boyfriend behind their backs, let alone to Wei Muran’s face.

This gave others the impression that one possessed poor characteristics. It would be disgraceful to seduce a married man. It does not matter if they are married or not, this behavior was disdainful. Not to mention, although Wei Muran was not officially on the case, she also spent a few days in the same office with them and shared her thoughts which resulted in a few breakthroughs for them.

It had only been a few days but everyone has gotten to know each other. Although Qi Youxuan’s personality was not too likable, Wei Muran was really congenial. Everyone liked to befriend her. She was willing to help with anything. She was not treated as an outsider from a different precinct, or that she poses any threat.

As her friend, it made it even harder to accept Feng Songwei’s behavior. They never took Feng Songwei for such a person.

Was it not distasteful of Feng Songwei?

Stealing a friend’s boyfriend. What if it cost them their friendship with Wei Muran?

Feng Songwei was embarrassing their entire team.

Usually, Feng Songwei was just a little coy. It was common for them to do the heavy lifting. These macho-men also thought that it was not good for girls to perform these types of tasks. As men, they looked out for her. When working on cases, Feng Songwei was straightforward and did things neatly.

Who would have thought that she was such a person?

After all, they were only her colleagues hence they cannot really say much. However, perhaps they might be more wary of how they would treat Feng Songwei in the future.

This girl’s character was way off!

Qi Youxuan looked at her coldly and wanted to ignore her. Just as he was about to decline, Wei Muran rushed over and stood next to Qi Youxuan. She then took out a pen and paper from her bag and jotted down an eight-digit number and handed it to Feng Songwei. “This is my direct line. If you encounter any cases that you don’t understand, just give me a call.”

Feng Songwei was shocked.

She smiled stiffly and accepted the phone number. Wei Muran then said, “If you need to look for my boyfriend, I can help to convey it.”

Qi Youxuan, who originally had a cold expression, grinned and wrapped his long arms around Wei Muran’s shoulders. He highly appreciated and praised her for being protective of her husband. His fingertips bounced atop her shoulders as if playing the piano.

“I’m sorry, it’s a custom in my family to not give out our phone numbers to random women,” Qi Youxuan snarked.

Since Feng Songwei had no shame, he did not mind humiliating Feng Songwei.

Sure enough, Feng Songwei froze, her face green and pale, obviously humiliated.

Wanting to regain some dignity, she opened her mouth and stammered, “I just want to learn so that it’ll help me with cases in the future. Don’t… Don’t get me wrong.”

Qi Youxuan and Wei Muran smiled but remained silent. They made it obvious that they did not fall for her words and shut her down.

This behavior further cemented her attempt to seduce Qi Youxuan.