Chapter 2

Chapter 2: Chapter 2: I Think He’s Sick.

Rarely, He Linfeng was stunned for a second.

He had always been extremely familiar with major national criminal cases, but the one Song Xiaotong mentioned only left him with a faint, fragmented impression. He could barely grasp a few distant, scattered pieces.

As if a veil had been placed over his mind.

“Oh, I remember—No. 6 Qingshan Road,” He Linfeng said, suppressing his doubt without showing it. “I didn’t expect it to really be him.”

Song Xiaotong quietly raised a finger: “Of course it’s him. Yuedu Department Store is a famous old building in Beijiang. It’s like a medal of honor for the Jian family’s rise to power.”

He Linfeng: “But the business here… seems pretty average.”

Calling it “average” was already being polite. As soon as the police cars arrived, the potential customers who had been driven in by the weather instantly scattered under the heavy rain.

“Uh… old people tend to be superstitious,” Song Xiaotong said, awkwardly touching her nose as she recalled how she also used to gossip online. “And Mr. Jian’s luck is indeed pretty bad.”

After joining the force, she had specifically checked the relevant files. She clearly remembered that two years ago, because of an injury to his left arm, the other party casually took a taxi in broad daylight—only for the driver to suddenly go insane, slam the accelerator, break through the guardrail, and plunge into the Beijiang River together with the vehicle.

According to supplementary records, the suspect who drowned on the spot had no grudges or conflicts with Jian Qing whatsoever. It was purely a randomly chosen target for venting.

But incidents of such “randomness” happened to him with a strangely high frequency.

Otherwise, Jian Qing would not have become a key monitored subject of the bureau.

This incident today would most likely trend locally again, just like the family extermination case back then. Even though the police tried their best to protect the victim’s privacy, news of the Beijiang financial magnate’s New Year’s Eve murder still spread on the violently fluctuating stock market, flying into thousands of households.

A bloodstained sensational headline—basically the favorite bait of clickbait media.

“In any case, bring him back first for questioning,” He Linfeng said after quickly finishing his selection. He paused, then instructed, “Keep an eye on that Manager Jia.”

He had seen the eyes of desperate criminals many times.

Song Xiaotong: ?

Although she didn’t understand what kind of waves a white-collar office worker could stir up, she still obediently nodded. Only then did she realize: “Consultant He, you’re not coming back with us?”

The casually speaking man waved his hand lazily: “I’ll check out first.”

Five minutes later.

Sitting in the police car, Jian Qing glanced at the medicine bag handed to him.

“Cotton swabs, iodine, band-aids,” He Linfeng explained while fastening his seatbelt with one hand. “Your face—the wound is quite long. If it’s not treated in time, it might leave a scar.”

Jian Qing did not take it.

Based on his past experience, whenever a character from the “original story” appeared early, it usually meant the person’s inner core had been swapped by someone else—transmigrators could exist simultaneously, and they competed against each other.

Otherwise, Jia Xiangyu would not have kept shouting about “picking up leaks.”

But Jian Qing still could not hear conversations between him and the system.

From age six to twenty-eight, he had long since mastered this kind of “mind-reading” that targeted specific individuals, and had successfully concealed it from so-called transmigrators—without exception, without failure.

Except for He Linfeng.

Even at this moment, Jia Xiangyu’s furious, powerless shouting still rang clearly in his ears, even though the other party was separated from him by a car:

【System? System! Aren’t you some high-dimensional intelligent lifeform? Hurry up and get me out! Once I’m out I’ll definitely help you kill Jian Qing!】

【Hello? Hey! Are you there? Speak! Are you really going to let me go to prison?!】

【Fuck! Stop playing dead! You can bring the dead back to life, so helping me jump out of a moving car should be easy too!】

“My hand… is it that good-looking?” After repeated setbacks, the man still did not get angry. He stubbornly held his arm up, wearing that same smiling expression. “Mr. Jian.”

“Consultant He Linfeng He, a semi-administrative position,” thinking they had not properly introduced each other yet, Song Xiaotong glanced sideways and actively helped smooth things over for her senior in plain clothes. “He transferred to Beijiang last month.”

The pupils beneath Jian Qing’s eyelids finally moved slightly: “Thank you.”

It looked like he was accepting the goodwill of the former, but the words were clearly directed at Song Xiaotong.

He Linfeng faintly sensed a kind of double standard: both were police officers, both were newly transferred top students, yet the young man clearly disliked him much more.

But he still thought the way the other person looked at people with his chin slightly raised was quite beautiful.

“Officer Song,” as the red light flickered and the car windows with privacy film were washed over by streaks of white rainwater, inside the small space isolated from the storm, the quietly applying-medicine young man suddenly spoke, “Jia Xiangyu has something wrong with his brain. Please tell your colleagues to be careful.”

Song Xiaotong froze.

Mr. Jian’s personality and demeanor did not seem like someone who would joke. So although she was a bit confused, she still picked up the walkie-talkie to relay the warning.

After a few sentences, crackling noises suddenly came from the other end. In the rearview mirror, the second police car twisted like a snake: “Hiss… you people, you’re still trying to pick the lock?!”

“Don’t grab the steering wheel!”

“Hold him down!”

Beep—

Panicked horn blasts rose one after another, merging into a chaotic chorus.

Song Xiaotong stared in shock.

She had only ever seen suspects daring enough to jump out of moving vehicles in movies.

He Linfeng, sitting steadily in the front passenger seat, remained very calm. He even had time to carefully observe Jian Qing’s expression through another rearview mirror.

Overall, it was as calm as a still well.

As if he disliked being watched, when the gaze shifted toward the back seat, the young man slightly frowned.

In reality, Jian Qing had simply had enough of Jia Xiangyu’s screaming:

【Beep! Escape attempt failed! According to calculations, the probability of the host completing the mission is less than 1%. Initiating unbinding procedure.】

【3.】

—【No!】

【2.】

—【Wait!】

【1.】

【Beep! Transmigration system unbound. Wishing you a pleasant life in the future. Goodbye.】

Along with a series of increasingly faint, profanity-heavy curses filled with “mother”-level intensity, Jian Qing finally regained temporary silence.

But He Linfeng’s mouth in the car did not stop:

“It seems the two of you have quite the relationship.” After all, when he had casually chatted with other employees earlier, he had not heard that Jia Xiangyu had any hidden illness.

In the central rearview mirror, the young man quickly closed his eyes once, a clearly visible expression of disgust.

“Superior and subordinate. Nothing more,” Jian Qing said calmly, already guessing what the other party was probing. “If Consultant He encountered a daytime attacker who tried to assault someone with a knife, he would probably also think that person is sick.”

Song Xiaotong nodded in agreement.

In the time it took to say just those two sentences, the second police car had already brought the situation under control. Traffic resumed flowing. To prevent any further accidents, Jia Xiangyu was directly given the “highest-level treatment” of being tightly bound like a rice dumpling.

When getting out of the car, He Linfeng also deliberately avoided meeting the two of them.

“The interrogation room is this way…” Only half a beat late did Song Xiaotong remember that Jian Qing was a frequent visitor to the bureau headquarters. Clearing her throat awkwardly, she felt deeply that she still needed more training.

But there was no helping it. A living urban legend was standing right in front of her—she inevitably felt a bit nervous.

Unexpectedly, the young man actually stopped walking, turned back, and said, “Thank you.”

Song Xiaotong instantly experienced what it meant to be pleasantly surprised.

It wasn’t that she had any bias toward capitalists, but rather that Jian Qing’s behavior in the car just now felt like shattered ice shards—cold, sharp, and equally irritating to everyone.

Then she secretly glanced at He Linfeng. The latter had a calm expression and, upon entering the building, was immediately led away by Wang-ge.

“As expected of you. Even going shopping, you can still run into a case,” Wang Lai said, his curly hair messy like a chicken nest as he patted his old classmate’s shoulder. “How’s the taste of overtime?”

He Linfeng: “Not bad.” Except for a bit of romantic star alignment.

“Not bad? Then I’ll hand over all the unfinished case reports to you,” Wang Lai said, casually stuffing an empty coffee cup into the other man’s hand. “I’m going to take a statement from President Jian.”

With a baby-face and almond-shaped eyes, at first glance he looked even more like a fresh graduate rookie than Song Xiaotong—someone who could easily be mistaken for a student.

But the moment he spoke, that illusion was completely destroyed.

The reason was simple: that rough voice was unmistakably the voice of a heavy smoker who often stayed up late.

Before being transferred to Beijiang, He Linfeng had originally worked in a neighboring province. Counting carefully, the two of them hadn’t seen each other for three or four years, yet their friendship had not diminished.

Wang Lai was a genuine Beijiang local. When the 2.13 family extermination case happened, he was still in kindergarten. He only remembered the tense atmosphere of panic at the time. After becoming a police officer, however, he had received quite a few cases involving Jian Qing.

For example, today’s freshly emerged “rotten peach blossom.” Just from what Wang Lai could immediately recall, there had been at least five similar cases.

Although Jian Qing’s appearance was indeed quite attractive, the extent to which pursuers—men and women, young and old alike—kept going mad over him was frankly a bit absurd.

The statement template didn’t even need to change.

—Only the suspect’s name did.

“You’re taking Jian Qing’s statement?” He Linfeng asked. “What about Jia Xiangyu?”

“Team Yan,” Wang Lai replied. The most decisive “female demon king” in the entire Criminal Investigation Team and even the whole Beijiang bureau—no matter how stubborn a suspect was, they would obediently confess.

Then he added, “Right, you count as an eyewitness, so you should also recuse yourself. Come along and give a statement first.”

He Linfeng nodded.

From the corner of his eye, not far away, the young man who was cooperating properly with the inspection lowered his voice and said, “Sorry, I had an appointment before. I’d like to make a phone call.”

Since he was the victim, the on-duty officer quickly agreed to this small request.

Due to the distance, He Linfeng only caught a few fragmented syllables. It seemed the plan had originally been to eat together, but from beginning to end, the other party did not mention Jia Xiangyu or the police station, only vaguely saying there was some trouble.

Just an ordinary friend?

He Linfeng subconsciously made a judgment.

By the time he finished recording his “confession” and came out, the clouds had dispersed and the rain had stopped. Jian Qing was already nowhere to be seen in the bureau. He Linfeng made a quick mental calculation—until 8 a.m. the next morning, he had a full fourteen hours of rest.

Worth celebrating.

However, life and holidays are always full of unexpected interruptions. The next morning, just as the sky was barely beginning to brighten, He Linfeng was woken by the buzzing vibration of his phone.

“Jia Xiangyu is dead,” the woman on the other end said without giving any buffer at all, going straight to the point. “Also, there’s a homicide case in the East District. I’ve sent you the location.”

At the same moment.

Beijiang University.

Clear green water rippled slightly. The air was filled with the moist, earthy smell of soil. At the center of the lake, long black hair drifted back and forth like seaweed, covering the girl’s swollen, blood-tinged face. Her dirty skirt spread outward like a fallen lotus.

“—Splash.”

Crowds driven by either fear or curiosity rustled together, scaring away two fish in succession. The murky water churned. Gurgle… a pair of wide, rolled-back eyes surfaced and stared blankly.