Chapter 24

Chapter 24 2. Eden Lake-15

Time quickly reached the end of November.

It was Friday. If nothing urgent happened over the weekend, this would be Li Jin’s last day in the Department of Pathological Examination. By Monday, he would rotate to the next department.

All day, Li Jin seemed absent-minded, never sitting still for more than half an hour, always thinking about showing his face in front of Liu Yi one more time.

However, Jiang Xiaoyuan coldly told him that today Liu Yi had gone to the municipal bureau for a meeting, and she didn’t know when he would be back.

Despite pacing outside the director’s office once every hour, by the end of the workday, Li Jin still hadn’t seen Liu Yi, leaving dejectedly, consoling himself that even after leaving the department, he was still an intern at the institute and could always find an excuse to drop by Liu Yi’s office from time to time.

However, when it came to interns, Liu Yi was a complete jerk—he only cared about whether a new strong worker would replace the departing intern. Once he checked with the department that a new intern would arrive, he immediately forgot about the one leaving next week. After a month or so, he probably wouldn’t even remember the person’s name.

So Liu Yi had no idea that today was Li Jin’s last day under him, or that the lovestruck young intern was yearning to bid him farewell in person.

The meeting dragged on unusually long, a jumble of trivial summaries running from morning to 4:30 p.m. Liu Yi sat on the hard conference room chair, relieved when it finally ended, his back stiff as a board.

Not wanting to squeeze into the unstable old elevators of the municipal bureau building with a crowd, he deliberately packed slowly, only leaving the room after everyone else had gone.

Unexpectedly, just as he stepped out, he saw a familiar face in the corridor.

“Hey, Officer Qi, what are you doing here?”

Liu Yi nodded to Qi Shanyu, greeting him, while recalling if he had noticed him earlier among nearly a hundred people in the meeting.

He quickly reasoned that someone at Qi Shanyu’s level probably wouldn’t attend a meeting full of high-ranking officials. Since he wasn’t there for the meeting, he was likely waiting for someone.

“I’m waiting for you.”

Qi Shanyu answered directly.

If it weren’t for his upright expression, Liu Yi might have misunderstood and thought the handsome officer was hinting at something.

“Didn’t you see the text I sent you?”

Seeing Liu Yi look puzzled, Qi Shanyu asked again.

Liu Yi: “??”

He pulled his phone from his pocket and saw a text from Qi Shanyu sent half an hour ago, politely saying he knew Liu Yi would be at the municipal bureau and wanted to treat him to a meal to thank him for his previous help.

Liu Yi had set his phone to silent during the meeting and left it in his bag, so he hadn’t seen it.

“Hmm, you really want to treat me to a meal?”

Liu Yi quickly scanned the message, raised an eyebrow, and gave Qi Shanyu a slightly mischievous smile.

Qi Shanyu’s heart skipped a beat, his eyes instinctively darting aside.

He understood the unspoken meaning behind Liu Yi’s smile.

Just the last Cantonese restaurant Liu Yi took him to cost six or seven hundred yuan. If he treated Liu Yi himself, he’d have to pick a restaurant with roughly double the per-person price to feel appropriate.

But working in his line of work meant long hours and little pay. Plus, Qi Shanyu had to care for his underage younger sister, so while not poor, he wasn’t the type to spend freely. A meal costing a third of his monthly salary would sting a little.

Still, since he offered, he couldn’t back down. He smiled calmly and nodded firmly: “Yeah.”

“Alright.”

Liu Yi smiled, flashing his perfect white teeth, took a few brisk steps, looping his elbow over Qi Shanyu’s shoulder, and led him around halfway, winking: “But where we eat is up to me!”

Forty minutes later, Liu Yi parked his car in the underground lot of a refurbished shopping mall in the old city and led Qi Shanyu to the top floor, entering a restaurant specializing in flavored bullfrog and spicy crayfish.

If Liu Yi hadn’t personally guided him, Qi Shanyu never would have guessed that the stylish and flashy Chief Forensic Officer would pick such down-to-earth, affordable cuisine.

Liu Yi chose a quiet corner, ordered a bullfrog hotpot and eight pounds of crayfish in two flavors, plus a dozen draft beers, then leaned back, lifting his tea cup to sip slowly.

Today he wore a light gray L-brand short jacket, casually unbuttoned over a knit top, accentuating his fair, slender neck and elegant collarbones.

Finishing a cup of light tea, he put it down and smiled: “Officer Qi, such a busy man, how come you have time to treat me today?”

“I’ve wanted to do this for a while, just been a bit busy before.”

Qi Shanyu smiled sheepishly. “Thanks to your forensic institute, Su Ruirui’s case was solved smoothly.”

“Oh, you’re still thinking about that case?”

Liu Yi waved casually. “It’s our duty; we had to investigate thoroughly anyway.”

The case of Su Ruirui being bullied to death and dumped in the lake had, through her biological father and adoptive mother’s deliberate publicity, made headlines and dominated social media, quickly inciting public outrage.

The case was extremely severe, under strong public pressure, with full evidence. The court would likely not hand down a light sentence. Principal perpetrators, accomplices, and negligent school staff would all be held accountable.

“By the way, during interrogation, we got a detail.”

Qi Shanyu started talking while waiting for the food.

“When I investigated at school, the anonymous note saying ‘She was killed’… it was actually thrown to me by Su Ruirui’s roommate, Shen Junting.”

“Oh?”

Liu Yi looked slightly surprised. “It was her?”

Qi Shanyu nodded. “I didn’t expect it either.”

“This is typical guilt psychology, I guess.”

Liu Yi lightly tapped the empty tea cup.

“She feels deep guilt over Su Ruirui’s death, but because of a weak personality and lack of courage, she neither dared to confess nor expose Lin Yuan and the other main culprits. So she chose to secretly give the police anonymous notes… probably thinking it could make up for her role in faking her roommate’s recorded video. If the police still couldn’t solve the case, she could comfort herself that it wasn’t her fault, but the police’s incompetence.”

Qi Shanyu pursed his lips lightly.

In his view, Shen Junting wasn’t as heartless toward the deceased Su Ruirui as the case suggested.

Shen Junting’s personality was very similar to Su Ruirui’s. Unremarkable in appearance and grades, without Su Ruirui, it’s not hard to imagine she herself would have become the class punching bag.

To avoid suffering as Su Ruirui did, she had no choice but to obey Lin Yuan, and over time, blind obedience became a conditioned reflex, leaving no courage to resist.

So Qi Shanyu felt that secretly tossing the paper note was already a brave effort to help her deceased roommate.

But he didn’t intend to probe Shen Junting’s inner world further. Just then, the crayfish and beer arrived, so he stopped talking and began eating.

Being from H Province, he loved spicy food. Compared to baked snails with Cabernet Sauvignon, crayfish and beer suited his taste perfectly.

Unexpectedly, Liu Yi’s skill at peeling crayfish was impressive—his long fingers deftly removed the meat, dipping it in sauce, without getting much oil on his gloves.

“By the way, Su Ruirui’s case has an interesting point.”

Liu Yi peeled several crayfish, drank half a beer, lips tinted red, cheeks slightly flushed.

Qi Shanyu asked, “What point?”

“The 24-hour convenience store recording of Su Ruirui leaving… I recall it was just past midnight.”

Liu Yi tilted his head, taking a sip of beer.

“Yeah, exactly 12:02 a.m.”

“That’s right.”

Liu Yi smiled at the young, handsome officer opposite him: “The day before was Lin Yuan’s 18th birthday, right?”

He continued: “Without that footage, autopsy could only give a rough estimate of death time. Even if evidence showed she was murdered, the defense could argue whether it was before or after midnight.”

Qi Shanyu paused peeling, looking up to listen.

Liu Yi smiled, wagging a finger: “If before midnight, Lin Yuan was just turning 18; after midnight, she was fully 18—an adult, fully responsible, and no longer under juvenile protection in criminal law.”

He winked at Qi Shanyu: “In a way, Su Ruirui got justice in this manner, right?”