Chapter 5

Chapter 5: Chapter 5 — Money Relationship.

“Cut.”

A legally operated private club, located in the most valuable district of Beijiang, but its liveliness only belonged to the night—like ice cream, once exposed to the sun, it melted away completely.

Hangover-induced headache lingered in thin strands. Bian Shao rolled over on the thick, soft sofa, and what came into view was a mess soaked in large patches of spilled alcohol.

Yesterday, he had been stood up at the last minute, which left him in a bad mood. He called up friends, invited a few young celebrities to come play, and after that, he completely blacked out.

Stretching out his arm and fumbling around, Bian Shao reluctantly picked up his phone to check the time.

3 p.m.

No wonder he was starving and his throat felt like it was on fire.

“Evan, Evan?” After calling for a long while with no response, Bian Shao threw away the call bell and staggered to his feet. “Where are you people? Did you all die somewhere?”

“Here, here!” A man who looked like a manager hurried over at a run, carefully pushing the door open. “Boss, there are two police officers here to see you.”

The room was suddenly flooded with light.

Bian Shao raised a hand to shield his eyes. “Cops? Who caused trouble and got their heads split open again? Blacklist them all.”

The man shook his head, about to remind him that this time it was from the serious crime unit, when a hand had already reached past him and calmly displayed a badge:

“Bian Shao, right? Where were you at 11 p.m. last night?”

Bian Shao sized up the person in front of him.

A stranger. Pretty good-looking. If placed in his club, he could probably be a top performer.

“Drinking, singing, playing cards, sleeping,” Bian Shao replied impatiently. “There are surveillance cameras outside the entrance. Go check them yourselves.”

Nodding, stepping past scattered overturned glass cups on the floor, the so-called “potential top performer”—He Linfeng—bent down and suddenly held a photo up right in front of Bian Shao’s face.

The man’s dull, lifeless pupils instantly scattered away the last traces of sleepiness.

“Fuck!” Bian Shao couldn’t help swearing as he jerked back. “What the hell is that?”

Giving him a horror movie this early in the morning?

Wang Lai followed right behind: “Look again more carefully.”

“According to surveillance, around noon yesterday, the victim Xi Xue got into your car at the north gate of Jiang University, went with you to Yunding Residence, and only left late at night.”

Bian Shao: “…Victim? Xi Xue?”

As if awakened by the words, he suddenly regained energy: “You’ve got it wrong.”

“I only had a purely financial relationship with her.”

Wang Lai: “Financial relationship?” Could the gossip on the forum actually be true?

Xi Xue’s family was wealthy; she shouldn’t be short on pocket money.

Bian Shao: “That’s right.”

“She wanted to buy a pair of collectible sneakers I own and kept messaging me on Weibo for months.”

“She annoyed me to death.”

Wang Lai: “…” Does this guy’s Chinese get taught by a PE teacher?

Very consistent with his stereotype of a pampered rich playboy.

“What? Did I say something wrong?” Bian Shao curled his lips. “That Xi… Xi something was also weird. I said I’d send it by same-city courier, but she insisted on meeting in person.”

“She didn’t even bother to find out who I am? Do I lack the money for a pair of shoes?”

He Linfeng: “But you agreed.”

“Because it was interesting,” Bian Shao said casually, taking the bottle of mineral water handed over by the manager. “Originally, she was eyeing my stuff and even had the nerve to say she’d buy it with money. Anyone would be angry at that.”

“But I went back on my word a few times and messed with her a bit in the middle, and she still didn’t block me. So I thought I’d do a good deed and be generous and just give it to her.”

Then he scrolled through his phone: “Here, this pair. Design is ordinary, color is ordinary too. The only valuable thing is probably the signature on it.”

It was a photo Bian Shao had posted on Weibo two months ago. He was sitting casually on the floor, a huge shoe cabinet occupying the entire wall. Caption: 【Tired of it.】

The pair he was pointing at was in the lower left corner, positioned low and mostly blocked by clutter, almost completely out of frame.

Wang Lai: A textbook display of showing off wealth.

To find the exact pair among that flashy “treasure collection,” Xi Xue must have put in quite a lot of effort.

From the surveillance footage, when she returned to school late at night, the victim was indeed carrying a white paper bag. Unfortunately, the bag was of poor quality, soaked and torn apart by water, and without any visible logo or text, making it difficult to determine what it had originally contained.

—Jiang University’s “Mingxin Lake” is a living water system. Even though forensic analysis had used wind direction, flow rate, and time of death to roughly estimate Xi Xue’s original fall point, the “drift path” still covered a large area.

Silt, debris, and limited manpower made it essentially like searching for a needle in the sea.

If not for Kou Gaoyang discovering that conspicuous gemstone cufflink early on, a few careless people might already have closed the case as suicide or accident.

“In that case, why didn’t Xi Xue get out of the car?” Wang Lai pressed step by step, his thoughts racing. “Don’t tell me it’s because you forgot your shoes at home.”

Unfortunately, his baby face made even a serious expression carry limited intimidation.

Bian Shao cried out in injustice repeatedly: “I swear to heaven, I just gave her a ride. You don’t think I drugged her, carried her upstairs, and kidnapped her, do you? A living person—that would be pretty heavy.”

Wang Lai: “How did you know where she was going?”

Bian Shao: “We chatted.”

“Sir, humans have a thing called a mouth. Talking isn’t hard.”

“And she also took a flyer for my friend’s lecture.”

“Friend?” Wang Lai repeated subconsciously.

“Jian Qing, the one who’s kind of unlucky with the police, you should all be pretty familiar with him.” Then, suddenly remembering his main point, he called out again, “Evan? Has that guy arrived yet?”

The manager, wisely pretending to be mute, shook his head.

Wang Lai suddenly felt like the world had become a little surreal.

Jian Qing… and this non-mainstream guy with ten rings on his hand and piercings all over his ears—they could actually hang out together?

But unexpectedly, He Linfeng was also on the same side as the other party. Seeing his shock, he even raised his eyebrows:

“You didn’t notice? Jian Qing has a healed piercing hole on his left ear.”

Very faint—only visible when you’re close enough.

Wang Lai: ???

Huh?? Huh huh huh? Is that something he was supposed to know?

Putting down the water bottle, Bian Shao turned back and finally looked directly at He Linfeng for the first time since entering the room: “You two know each other.”

The fox-like man smiled faintly. His mouth didn’t open, yet his eyes seemed to say: do you even need to ask?

Bian Shao tugged hard at his collar.

Based on his understanding of Jian Qing, both He Linfeng’s personality and appearance were within the range Jian Qing would keep at a polite distance from—just another rotten peach blossom. What’s he acting so cocky for.

“Xi Xue had a boyfriend who liked playing basketball, so she wanted to buy that pair of shoes as a gift. She scanned my license plate when entering the residential compound—how was I supposed to know which building she lived in?”

“I was with friends the entire night yesterday. Around a dozen of them. You can ask anyone you want. Their contact info is on WeChat—just screenshot it yourselves.”

After rattling everything off like beans pouring out of a bamboo tube, Bian Shao waved them off: “That’s it, right? If there’s nothing else, leave.”

Boyfriend.

Although Wang Lai had already suspected it, he hadn’t expected the final decisive lead to come from Bian Shao—a rich second-generation who had only met Xi Xue once.

“What’s the rush?” The last syllable dragged lazily. He Linfeng even picked a clean spot on the sofa and sat down. “Like a jealous little kid.”

“Just avoiding risk. Afraid mental illness might be contagious,” Bian Shao sneered. “Anyone who likes Jian Qing—every single one of them—is crazy.”

Cough! Afraid that their young master might get hot-headed and end up in the police station again, Manager Evan looked around quickly, then suddenly lit up and deliberately cleared his throat.

Thirty seconds later.

Jian Qing walked in carrying takeout as promised. Inside was a scene of perfect harmony between police and civilians, cooperating in beautiful coordination.

With one’s knee, it was easy to guess Bian Shao was just putting on an act. He didn’t step forward, but he also didn’t leave—he merely nodded as greeting and waited until Wang Lai finished all the questioning.

The latter was almost moved to tears: Look at this! What does it mean to be the “Five-Finger Mountain” of authority! What does it mean to have the aura of a CEO!

“Alright, alright, I’m starving. Evan, send the two officers out,” Bian Shao said as his patience ran out. He opened the lunch box and took a sip of soup. “So good—Fushun Zhai?”

The door closed.

The footsteps of He Linfeng and Wang Lai gradually faded away.

Jian Qing lifted his eyelids slightly: “Mm.”

“You saw it just now,” Bian Shao said, already used to the other man’s ice-cold demeanor, shrugging. “I’ve got nothing to do with Xi Xue’s case.”

Everyone in their circle knew Jian Qing was the most law-abiding second-generation heir among them. If you wanted to befriend him, you had to at least pretend to be human about it.

Otherwise, there’d be no need to keep one’s tail between one’s legs and act like a grandson.

Jian Qing: “You went to Jiang University yesterday?”

“Yeah. Who would’ve thought you were giving a lecture there,” Bian Shao gave a thumbs-up. “Impressive. A cultured man.”

Even though they all went to the same high school, their grades were worlds apart. He had only managed to cling onto the “academic god’s” thigh thanks to his thick skin and constant chatter.

That was also the most correct decision he had ever made.

If it weren’t for Jian Qing back then, he might not even have been able to open his shop, let alone live like he does now—sleeping until he wakes naturally, waiting every day for money to make money.

After carefully studying the other man’s expression, Jian Qing softened slightly and pushed the food forward: “Enough.”

“Eat your meal.”

—According to the terminology of the “transmigrators,” Bian Shao was a native resident, not a character from Beijiang Criminal Investigation Notes. He had known Jian Qing for over a decade, never crossed any line, and was a completely straight heterosexual man.

This gave Jian Qing a great sense of reassurance.

As if, within that grotesque and illusory paper-thin world of abyss-like distortion, he had finally gained a brief chance to catch his breath.

After several consecutive bouts of cold rain, Beijiang had rapidly cooled down recently. Jian Qing, who was naturally sensitive to cold, had put on a pure black long coat when leaving the private club.

If conditions allowed, he preferred to walk.

Because he found it difficult to trust outsiders holding a steering wheel.

Yet someone had been waiting at the entrance like a hunter for its prey for quite some time. A wild-looking jeep was parked there, blocking his path precisely. The window rolled down slowly, and a voice came through—sincere and harmless:

“What a coincidence, Mr. Jian.”

“Let me give you a ride?”

“He Linfeng,” Jian Qing called out the other man’s full name for the first time, stopping in his tracks and lowering his gaze. “What exactly do you mean?”

Desire, liking, love—those scripted clichés of the storyline. No matter who said them, or how many times they were said, he only ever had one answer.

However, He Linfeng froze.

Love at first sight?

Lust for appearance?

It seemed like it, yet also not quite either.

“I just…” He Linfeng frowned, leaning his head out of the car window. After staring at Jian Qing for a long moment, he finally found a relatively accurate explanation:

“I’m interested in you.”

Like a detective encountering an unsolved case, or a cat finding a ball of yarn.

Something that must be unraveled to the very end.