Chapter 22

Chapter 22 Chapter 22 Two Dog Barks.

Jian Qing’s apartment rarely had any visitors.

Even Bian Shao, the number of times he came over in a year could be counted on one hand, and he would often be carrying gifts and tonic soups his own mother had stuffed into the trunk, change shoes, drink a cup of hot water, leave the things behind, and then leave.

But tonight, Jian Qing was in a low state, and could only let someone cling to him like a lingering ghost, following behind him all the way, opening doors and the elevator, and even taking the initiative to stand by the buttons: “Which floor?”

Jian Qing gave him a speechless glance.

Every time he waited downstairs until his light turned on before leaving—did he really think he was so careless that he wouldn’t notice at all?

He Linfeng, however, showed no embarrassment at all. Instead, he curved his lips in a pleased smile and pressed down his index finger to light up “7”.

This was the floor Jian Qing had carefully chosen—neither too noisy nor too bright, and if a fire broke out, there would still be a way to escape.

Because previously, the attackers had tried all sorts of tricks to become his roommates or neighbors, and Jian Qing also didn’t like the one-unit-per-floor design, so he simply bought the unit across from him as well and left it vacant without renting it out.

So at this moment, the corridor was especially quiet.

When entering the password, He Linfeng very consciously averted his gaze, only turning back once the door lock popped open.

The interior was quite dim—not because it was midnight, but as if the owner had deliberately created it that way. The moon was completely blocked outside the floor-to-ceiling windows, with only a faint trace of light spilling in from the hallway.

No wonder this person wore glasses, He Linfeng thought. He really treated himself like a nocturnal creature.

“I’ve arrived,” Jian Qing said, standing by the door wrapped in a blanket, politely signaling a dismissal, “You can use the car. Return it whenever.”

He Linfeng remained unmoved. “I’ll leave after you fall asleep.”

Jian Qing: “I can’t sleep if there’s someone here.”

What he said was the truth, but it inevitably came off as overly cold, especially right after they had just fought side by side and saved a life together.

Fortunately, He Linfeng wasn’t very normal either. He nodded honestly and leaned sideways against the corridor wall: “Alright.”

“Then I’ll change places.”

It was obvious he intended to camp outside the door.

Jian Qing: …

He could tell He Linfeng meant well, but he didn’t think he needed any care.

Click.

The door closed.

Less than two minutes later, it opened a small crack again, and a pair of unopened disposable slippers were tossed out.

As if amused by the other person’s behavior, He Linfeng, leaning by the door, let out a silent laugh.

Jian Qing did not intend to bring the blood-stained blanket into the bedroom, and after drawing the curtains, casually threw it into the laundry basket.

When He Linfeng changed into the slippers and came inside, the first thing he saw was the young man’s shirt hem in fragments, beneath which a faint glimpse of pale skin could be seen.

Supple, lean, the moonlight brushing over it, faintly outlining the thin contour of abdominal muscles.

Slender yet full of strength, beautiful beyond reason.

He Linfeng abruptly looked away, feeling that tonight he had made a self-inflicted mistake.

Until the young man lifted his foot to head into the bedroom, he spoke up: “Shower?”

Jian Qing turned his head and stared at He Linfeng, who was walking step by step closer. He decided that if the other dared to say anything like “I’ll help you,” then no matter what, he would definitely give this person a taste of an elbow strike.

But He Linfeng only reached into his coat pocket, took out a plastic-wrapped round object, tore it open, and along with a faint sweet scent said, “Chocolate.”

“Don’t let your blood sugar drop.”

He hadn’t rested well and had emptied his stomach earlier; now with the hot steam, He Linfeng was genuinely worried the person might faint inside.

Gradually getting a sense of the young man’s personality, he raised an eyebrow and added, “It’ll just make things cheaper for me.”

The young man paused, and indeed reached out to take it.

With an ordinary appetite and low desire to eat, apart from necessary proper meals, Jian Qing rarely ate anything at home—let alone stocked candy, chips, or other snacks.

He felt He Linfeng was like Doraemon.

Always able to pull out whatever was needed at the moment from what seemed like an ordinary pocket.

That was one of the few animations in Jian Qing’s memory.

“Splash——”

From the tightly closed bedroom came intermittent sounds of running water. He Linfeng sat on the sofa with his back to the bedroom door, opened a food delivery app, and typed in the keyword “porridge.”

All the results that popped up were “closed” or “accepting pre-orders.”

A medical kit was placed under the coffee table. He Linfeng looked through it—most of the commonly used medicines were already expired, suggesting the owner rarely got sick. Only hydrogen peroxide and band-aids had relatively recent dates.

He could cook, but that certain rule-heavy CEO might not necessarily allow him to open the fridge or enter the kitchen.

So He Linfeng adapted flexibly, ordering stomach medicine that could be taken on an empty stomach, and boiling a kettle of hot water.

The pharmacy was right across from the residential complex. By the time Jian Qing finished tidying up and came out, the delivery had just arrived.

Almost as if by instinct, before opening the door, he draped a towel over his still-damp hair.

He Linfeng indeed did not continue his “Tang Sanzang-like” nagging.

“The water in the cup is hot, be careful not to burn yourself,” he said, bending down to place the takeout bag. He looked toward the young man standing behind the bedroom door in cotton loungewear with a sleepy expression. Then he stepped back two paces, as if he had eyes on his back, changed into his shoes, and jingled the keys in his hand. “I’m taking the car.”

“Go to bed early.”

If he didn’t leave soon, he would probably do something that would make Jian Qing dislike him.

A conversation so ordinary it was completely beyond ordinary.

Jian Qing silently stared at the glass of steaming water on the coffee table. After a long while, he slowly moved, opened the medicine box, and took the pills with water.

Daylight began to faintly break.

Beijiang City- a new dawn once again.

The suspect had not yet been arrested. Worried that Qu Tao might be harmed again, Yan Qiuyu and Song Xiaotong stayed in the hospital all night. Fortunately, she had been rescued in time, and Jian Qing’s bandaging and treatment had been properly done. After a two-hour surgery, Qu Tao officially passed the critical stage and was transferred to a general ward that morning.

Qu Tao’s hometown was a small county near Beijiang. Her parents, upon receiving the police notification, were extremely anxious on the phone and immediately rushed over on the earliest bus.

The anesthesia had not fully worn off. The girl lay on the hospital bed wearing an oxygen mask, still asleep with no signs of waking soon. Around 8 a.m., Yan Qiuyu called two colleagues to take over the shift, and she and Song Xiaotong went home separately to catch some sleep.

2:30 p.m.

The entire Criminal Investigation Team was assembled.

He Linfeng was clearly the most energetic among them, his steps light, his face glowing, as if he were only one step away from humming a little tune.

“Please rein in your tail,” Wang Lai said while opening his computer, exaggeratingly raising his eyebrows. “It’s practically flying up to the sky.”

Feigning seriousness, He Linfeng glanced back. “Is it?”

“You’re that happy just because the murderer was caught?” Yan Qiuyu, who had been busy sending Qu Tao to the hospital and had missed a lot, asked in confusion. “Then when they bring him back, you can interrogate him yourself.”

He Linfeng dragged out his tone. “Alright.”

But Song Xiaotong was surprised. “Caught?”

“Caught,” Zhou Shan, who had been personally in charge of the case, explained. “That guy was actually pretty good at hiding. Relying on the fact that we didn’t know his appearance or identity, he first hid in a blind spot of the surveillance cameras for half the night. After dawn, he pretended to be a resident of a nearby housing complex and squeezed onto an early-morning bus with the people going to work.”

“Later, he booked a high-speed rail ticket to a neighboring province, but on the way he was spotted by a kind-hearted passenger who noticed the blood that hadn’t been washed off his sleeve, and immediately reported him. Now he’s being held by the local police waiting for handover.”

Wang Lai snorted coldly. “Running is useless. Body structure doesn’t change. Especially walking posture and other small habits—once we compare surveillance from around the two crime scenes, we’ll eventually catch him.”

It’s just that it will take quite a long time.

This also confirmed what he had told Song Xiaotong earlier: once contact is made, traces will inevitably be left behind. The more crimes the killer commits, the more flaws he exposes.

He Linfeng: “Are you sure it’s correct?”

Yan Qiuyu nodded. “Ninety to ninety-nine percent certain. Footprints and movement routes match, there are purchase records for surgical knives under his name, and we’re only missing the DNA test results.”

“Oh, and the bite mark on his arm.”

The only inconsistency: based on the records alone, the killer had no medical background at all.

“…Am I really not dreaming?” Song Xiaotong said in disbelief, tapping her forehead. “Especially Brother He—it’s like he descended from the heavens.”

Zhou Shan was also curious and looked at He Linfeng expectantly. “Give us the details.”

He Linfeng briefly recounted the same speculation he had told Jian Qing the night before in just a few sentences. He didn’t mention the chance encounter, nor did he mention the obvious nonsense about tarot cards from someone.

Song Xiaotong was shocked. “And then you just happened to run into the crime scene?!” What kind of luck and probability was that? The murderer wasn’t committing crimes on the main street.

He Linfeng said without changing his expression, “It was Jian Qing.”

“He heard Qu Tao’s cries for help.”

Song Xiaotong recalled briefly what Qu Tao looked like when she was carried into the ambulance the night before, and became even more admiring. “Wow, President Jian really has excellent hearing.”

Excellent hearing.

He Linfeng couldn’t help but mock inwardly. Given the situation at the time, if he had to accept that explanation, then Jian Qing would practically have to be the reincarnation of the legendary “clairaudient.”

“How about it? I told you our urban legend has something mystical about it,” Wang Lai said, only to receive a glare from Yan Qiuyu, then quickly changed his tone. “Of course, I don’t mean superstition or anything like that. I just mean fields—fields. President Jian’s field tends to attract dangerous people.”

Song Xiaotong understood immediately. “Oh, I get it, I get it—fragility aura.”

The kind of character in novels who easily triggers a criminal’s desire to destroy.

But with President Jian’s hidden combat ability, if they actually met bare-handed head-on, it would be hard to say who would destroy whom.

For example, someone like Chen Yang—even with a knife, it would be useless.

Noticing that Wang Lai’s screen was playing four surveillance clips at double speed, Zhou Shan rolled his chair over. “What are you looking for again?”

“Dog,” Wang Lai, who had a baby face, said in an old-fashioned tone, “a little girl was raising a Border Collie. While the owner was livestreaming, it opened the door on its own and ran out, so she went downstairs late at night to look for it.”

“That abandoned park, no one goes there all year round. Normally nearby residents use it to walk dogs during the day. Qu Tao said the weeds inside were too tall and there were no lights. She was originally a bit hesitant and scared, but halfway through she vaguely heard two dog barks, which is why she gathered the courage to walk further in.”

“Was Wu Nan the one imitating it?” He Linfeng suddenly cut in.

Wu Nan—the main suspect in this case, male, 30 years old. The ID photo on his household registration showed a fairly decent-looking man; just from his appearance, he seemed quite friendly and gentle.

Wang Lai immediately shuddered in fright. “How is that possible? The dog ran out on its own—how would Wu Nan have known?”

“Brother Fox He, stop making up ghost stories to scare me.”

A waning moon hung high in the sky. In the shadow-filled abandoned park, a serial killer holding a knife squatted in the bushes imitating a dog’s bark, coldly watching as his prey walked step by step into the trap filled with hope.

…That image was too beautiful for him to even dare imagine.

No matter how you looked at it, it was strange.

Eerie yet ridiculous.

Just like this muddled case that was solved purely by “luck”—every part of it carried a sense of misalignment.