Chapter 63

Chapter 63 5.curve-09

By the time Qi Shanyu finished having his wound treated at the hospital, answered the police’s questions, and received a tetanus shot, it was already past two in the morning when he returned to the hotel.

During this time, Ma Mingxi, who had been knocked unconscious by Qi Shanyu, had already woken up. After being handcuffed and questioned by the police, the case was quickly resolved.

As an innocent bystander caught up in the incident, Qi Shanyu also learned the full story from his colleagues handling the case.

Ma Mingxi, suspecting that his girlfriend Song Feifei was cheating on him with the new colleague Bai Yun, planned the accident that caused her to fall off the cliff.

As a hardcore anime fan, Ma Mingxi was obsessed with a very long-running detective animation series. Having watched thousands of episodes, he had learned a few “tricks” from it, even though he couldn’t write poetry himself—he had memorized a lot like “reading three hundred Tang poems; if you can’t write, at least you can copy.”

Two years ago, he had visited Bailing Hot Spring Resort with his family. When he saw the observation platform railing, he thought the cliff and railing looked exactly like a scene from his favorite detective anime. He believed that if he replicated the trick, he could kill someone without leaving a trace.

So when Ma Mingxi developed murderous intent toward Song Feifei, the first place he thought of was this resort.

Coincidentally, the department he worked in was selecting the destination for the staff trip. He simply chose this location and prepared to execute his crime plan.

In reality, Ma Mingxi’s “trick” was very simple.

He planned to pry out all the screws at the base of the railing, then, using triangle principles, tie the unstable railing and nearby objects together with high-tensile fishing line. The line would extend a short distance from the railing.

When the plan was executed, he would lure the unsuspecting Song Feifei to lean on the tampered railing under the pretense of taking photos. Then, from a distance, he would cut the fishing line. With no support, the railing would collapse under Song Feifei’s weight, causing her to fall off the cliff.

To prove his innocence, he even snapped a photo of Song Feifei falling, intending to use it as evidence.

However, he hadn’t anticipated that after a night of heavy snow, the snow at the bottom of the cliff was half a person deep, acting as a natural cushion. Song Feifei was severely injured but survived.

“Setting aside the obvious sabotage of prying out the base screws, completely deceiving the police would have been nearly impossible.”

Hearing this, Liu Yi raised his eyebrows in disbelief. “But what about you? There’s no way he thought Song Feifei was cheating on him with you, right?”

“I… I was just an innocent bystander…”

Qi Shanyu touched the gauze on his hip through his pajama pants. “I really don’t understand what that idiot Ma Mingxi was thinking…”

In classic detective stories, besides the murderer and the victim, there’s always a type of character: the innocent bystander. These characters accidentally stumble upon clues or witness the crime and are killed to silence them, dying mysteriously.

On that snowy night, Ma Mingxi tampered with the railing, then ran into Qi Shanyu in the elevator on his way back.

At the collision, his bag containing crowbars, hammers, and screwdrivers made a clattering noise.

Feeling guilty, Ma Mingxi feared that Qi Shanyu had seen the “tools” in his bag. He also thought that because their eyes met, Qi had recognized him. He believed that since Qi was suspicious of Song Feifei’s fall, he would eventually suspect Ma Mingxi. Combined with the tools in the bag, Qi could expose his scheme.

In reality, Qi Shanyu neither saw the contents of the bag nor recognized Ma Mingxi’s face, yet Ma Mingxi considered him a necessary target to eliminate.

To deal with Qi Shanyu, Ma Mingxi reused a tactic from anime, designing what he thought was a perfect, yet flawed, trap. He even intended to frame Song Feifei’s “partner” Bai Yun, forcing him to commit suicide and solving two problems at once.

However, being a nerd, Ma Mingxi hadn’t realized that committing murder in real life is completely different from anime.

In anime, even a frail girl can wield a brick and kill a strong man instantly, but in reality, a weak person attempting to kill a much stronger one is extremely difficult.

Facing the tall, muscular, and physically capable Qi Shanyu, even a stealthy attack from behind made Ma Mingxi hesitate.

According to his original plan, Ma Mingxi should have lured Qi Shanyu to a room with a recording, attacked his kidney in the dark, and killed him instantly.

But when he actually tried, his hands trembled, his grip wavered, and the sudden darkness made it hard to aim. If he hadn’t already committed to it, he might have given up.

As Ma Mingxi hesitated and acted hastily, Qi Shanyu immediately sensed danger from behind and dodged—the knife pierced his hip instead, and he threw Ma Mingxi to the ground, rendering all of Ma’s “perfect” schemes useless: hanging the body out the window, exploiting surveillance gaps, or framing Bai Yun—all meaningless now.

“That idiot Ma Mingxi even wrote out his murder plan in his encrypted QQ space.”

Qi Shanyu opened his photo album and showed Liu Yi the screenshots provided by the police.

Liu Yi looked at the first line: [I, Ma Mingxi, will commit my first murder today!]

He was overwhelmed by the sheer adolescent delusion, showing a face of indescribable disbelief.

“Honestly, I think Ma Mingxi treated all of this as if it were a game.”

Liu Yi shook his head, running his fingers through Qi Shanyu’s hair. “Anyway, your injury this time is really undeserved.”

He couldn’t help laughing.

“But stabbing a kidney and hitting the butt—don’t know if that’s lucky or just miserable, hahaha…”

Qi Shanyu stayed silent, turning over and burying his messy hair in the pillow in grievance.

Liu Yi climbed onto the bed from the other side, lying next to him, looping an arm around Qi Shanyu’s shoulders, stroking down his back and lightly patting him.

“Seriously, good thing your injury isn’t severe, or I’d be worried sick.”

His voice softened, comforting the young officer. “Really, Liu-ge cares about you. Seeing your hands covered in blood just now scared me.”

“I’m really fine.”

Qi Shanyu turned his head, showing half of his handsome face from the pillow, still a little sulky.

“My clothes were thick, and Ma Mingxi didn’t use much force. The knife only went in less than a centimeter. Even if it had hit somewhere else, the injury wouldn’t be much worse.”

“What are you saying!”

Liu Yi’s hand went under the covers, patting Qi Shanyu’s uninjured butt, making a crisp “pop” through the thin pajama fabric. “Silly words, silly words!”

Qi Shanyu’s hip tingled, his ears flushed. He grabbed Liu Yi’s hand trying to stop him.

Liu Yi struggled, still trying to mess around. They wrestled until gasping for breath, foreheads sweaty, before mutually letting go, curling up shoulder to shoulder and falling asleep.

&&& &&& &&&

Although Qi Shanyu’s injury wasn’t serious, the wound on his butt, still bandaged, prevented skiing or soaking in the hot spring.

Liu Yi kept a close watch, not letting him act alone, even controlling what he ate—otherwise, he might have used the excuse of the wound to help him undress and enjoy the view.

During Qi Shanyu’s recovery at the hotel, a few girls from the C City animation company brought Bai Yun to visit once. They scolded Ma Mingxi thoroughly, then told Liu Yi and Qi Shanyu that Song Feifei had woken up and been moved from the ICU to a regular ward. In ten to fifteen days, she could probably be discharged.

“Really, thank you so much!”

Bai Yun, realizing he had narrowly avoided becoming the third victim, was naturally very grateful to Qi Shanyu, who had subdued the criminal despite his injuries.

He grabbed Qi Shanyu’s hand and shook it vigorously. “If not for you, I’d probably be dead!”

“And,” Bai Yun added, pulling out a bright red banner from the gifts he had brought—nutritional supplements, fruit, and snacks—he unfolded it with a silly smile at Qi Shanyu, “Feifei and I are together now, all thanks to you!”

Liu Yi and Qi Shanyu looked closely. The banner had eight large characters: “Nemesis of Evil, Heaven-Sent Match!”

Author’s Note: This CASE ends here. The next update will start a new story~