Chapter 119

At the Nancheng City Police Station, past midnight, the entire place was brightly lit, with only the duty detectives and the police who had just returned from patrol.

Everyone in the entire police station wore serious expressions, moving hurriedly. Until that heinous serial killer was caught, no one dared to let their guard down.

Tian Ming’s team had just returned, his mind preoccupied with the case. Hearing that someone had been apprehended by Song Wen’s team, he hurried over to inquire about the situation.

Song Wen simply handed the case over to him and Fu Linjiang for interrogation, then went to his desk to grab some things, pulling Lu Siyu into the storage room.

Lu Siyu was puzzled, unsure of what Song Wen was up to.

Song Wen said, “Did you get injured earlier? Let me take a look.”

Only then did Lu Siyu remember. During the struggle with the man earlier, he had been scratched by the iron nails on the stick. The wound was on the upper thigh on the outer side, above the knee. Lu Siyu lowered his head and said, “It’s just a superficial scratch; it hasn’t been hurting much since half a day has passed.”

“Let me see,” Song Wen said.

Lu Siyu then lifted his skirt. The wound was about five centimeters long, with the deepest part about half a centimeter deep, and it had bled a little. His stockings were also torn.

Song Wen took out iodine and said, “Take off your socks.” Then he looked at it and said, “Sit on the table; I’ll apply medicine to it later.”

Following his instructions, Lu Siyu sat on the table in the storage room, took off his stockings, and when he got to the wound, he found that the sock had stuck to it. He frowned slightly, and as he tried to peel the sock off the wound, he couldn’t help but let out a hiss. It hadn’t hurt when he was moving before, but now, trying to peel the stuck sock off the wound, he felt a bit of pain.

“Let me do it,” Song Wen said, helping him disinfect the wound with iodine, then carefully blowing on it while slowly peeling off the flesh-colored stocking.

Finally, when he had peeled past the wound, Lu Siyu’s hand rested on the table, about to say he could handle it himself. Song Wen took off his shoes and then took off his socks.

With his skirt lifted to his waist, Lu Siyu suddenly realized that his legs were bare from thigh to foot. He felt a bit shy for a moment, instinctively curling his snow-white toes, then grabbed a piece of clothing from the side to cover his legs.

Song Wen thought Lu Siyu might be feeling cold, so he lowered his head and said, “It’ll be fine soon. It might rain tonight, so let me apply the medicine first, then put on a waterproof plaster.”

The bloodstains on his leg were wiped away, and the wound was treated with medicine. The storage room fell into extreme silence, Lu Siyu lowered his head, looking at Song Wen. From this angle, Song Wen’s eyes were downcast, his eyelashes trembling slightly, his lips pursed, his expression serious and earnest.

The two were very close, and Lu Siyu could even feel Song Wen’s shallow breath, making his leg itch a bit.

Lu Siyu’s heart fluttered for a moment. The last time Song Wen had treated his wound seemed to be during the chocolate case, and now, thinking about it, it had been so long…

Song Wen finished wrapping Lu Siyu’s wound and said, “That’ll do for now. It’s best to go to the hospital to have a proper look at this wound, preferably to prevent scarring…” Then he breathed a sigh of relief, packed up his things, and raised his head, only to realize that Lu Siyu was now wearing very little, and those legs in front of him were long, slender, and straight. He had been focused on bandaging just now, but now, recalling it, he seemed to still feel Lu Siyu’s warmth on his fingertips…

What’s worse, Lu Siyu was now dressed in women’s clothing, his wig still on, giving him a kind of allure he hadn’t had before.

In that moment of eye contact, Song Wen suddenly felt dazzled by the light in the room, his face burning. He dared not look directly at Lu Siyu, hastily averting his gaze and saying, “You should change your clothes. The interrogation outside should be almost finished by now; I’ll go check.”

Five minutes later, Lu Siyu finally changed back into his usual men’s clothing and went to the interrogation room.

Tian Ming and Fu Linjiang were discussing the situation with Song Wen.

Tian Ming said, “He confessed. He’s not the culprit; at most, he’s an imitator. The suspect and the victim know each other. The man said he wanted to protect the girl, but that’s not the truth. We found a rope in his pocket; he was planning to dispose of it just now, but we caught him. Seeing the recent reports about someone killing girls by strangulation, he got the idea.”

Fu Linjiang nodded and added, “The man has liked this girl for a long time, but she has rejected him twice before. Today, after they drank at the gathering, he acted impulsively. If you hadn’t intervened, the girl would probably have been in danger.” He sighed, “Although we didn’t catch the main culprit, at least we saved one person.”

Tian Ming frowned. “We’ve been publicizing this for so long, why are people still coming out at night?”

Song Wen said, “Many places are on a 996 schedule, not to mention many night shifts. Unexpected situations happen. Do you want all eligible women in the city to be under curfew? That’s impossible and impractical.”

Tian Ming shrugged. “Well, we’ve done all we can.”

Song Wen lowered his head, steering the conversation back to the imitator, “With the rope and the motive for murder, and his assault on us, try to get him a heavier sentence. At the very least, let the company fire him, and it’s best for the girl to find a new job, somewhere safer.”

With that, Song Wen checked the time, exactly one o’clock. He turned to the others and said, “Let’s call it a day. Lu Siyu was scratched earlier, so I’ll take him to get a tetanus shot. We’ll continue tomorrow.”

Tian Ming said, “Oh, by the way, Commissioner Gu mentioned this afternoon that, in consideration of our recent overtime, except for those on duty, those patrolling at night who arrive before ten in the morning won’t be marked as late.”

Song Wen nodded. “This time, the old man is surprisingly lenient.”

A few people were packing up when a person hurriedly walked in from outside. He was dressed in a suit, with a straight posture, giving off an air of expertise, whether he was one or not.

The person who walked in was Zhuang Yi, who hadn’t been seen for a few days. Song Wen had once thought this consultant had gathered some popularity, ridden the recent trend, and was planning to disappear like that. He didn’t expect him to suddenly appear at the Nancheng Bureau in the middle of the night.

Tian Ming greeted, “Hey, Professor Zhuang, what brings you here so late?”

Zhuang Yi loosened his tie, his face slightly pale, obviously having rushed over in a hurry. “I just finished recording a program today, so I stopped by the Nancheng Bureau to see how things are and to express my condolences to the police colleagues working overtime. Did you have any achievements today?”

Now that the Commissioner Gu wasn’t present, everyone felt more relaxed.

Song Wen replied, “We only caught an imitator.”

Zhuang Yi breathed a sigh of relief and sat down at a nearby table to digest this good news. “That’s good. I don’t know what happened, but my eyelid has been twitching.”

Tian Ming found it strange and joked, “Do you psychologists believe in that too? Left eye fortune, right eye disaster. Which eye is twitching for you?”

Zhuang Yi glanced at him, his expression serious. “Both.” Then he stood up. “Since there’s nothing much going on here…”

Just as he was speaking, the old-fashioned telephone on Tian Ming’s table suddenly rang, the ringtone sounding abrupt in the dark night.

Everyone turned to look at the phone. Tian Ming glanced at Zhuang Yi and inwardly complained about jinxing it. He hesitated whether to answer the phone and looked at everyone, “It’s past midnight, almost one o’clock. Shouldn’t unexpected situations be reported to 110? They wouldn’t call us directly for this… Could it be a prank?”

Fu Linjiang frowned. “Would pranksters use this number?”

Tian Ming said, “Who knows? I’ve received several calls before, even telemarketing calls. Strange people at this hour.”

As he spoke, the phone rang a few more times. Song Wen said from the side, “Answer it. What are you waiting for? There might be relevant clues.”

Reluctantly, Tian Ming picked up the receiver and placed it on speakerphone. “Hello, this is the report hotline for the Nancheng Bureau.”

Zhang Ziqi didn’t dare to be careless and opened the system to record the call.

The room fell silent, everyone waiting for a response from the other end of the line.

No one spoke.

Tian Ming asked again, “Who is this?!”

Still no response from the other end.

Tian Ming lost patience. “Is this a prank? If it is, I’m hanging up.”

Fu Linjiang looked at the monitoring recording device, where the sound file of this call was being recorded. The voice from the other end was a straight line with only some slight fluctuations, indicating that the call was indeed in progress.

Zhuang Yi suddenly frowned and made a quiet gesture to Tian Ming not to hang up. He picked up a pen from the nearby table and hurriedly wrote on a piece of paper: Perhaps it’s the accomplice.

Then, after a moment of thought, he wrote a few more words: Let me take it.

Tian Ming stepped aside from the telephone.

Zhuang Yi leaned in front of the telephone. “Hello, are you there? This is Zhuang Yi,” he tentatively asked.

There was still silence on the other end, but everyone felt that this call was different. In this gap, there was suddenly a muffled thunder outside, and the entire earth seemed to tremble. The people in the room were startled by the thunder, and even the lights above flickered.

After the thunder, Lu Suyu stared at the recording software. Instead of blank silence, there were now some fluctuations, like the sound of breathing…

Song Wen gestured for Zhang Ziqi to quickly trace the phone number, find the owner, and locate the caller.

“I understand you. I know you feel guilty deep inside, and it’s this feeling that prompted you to make this call. Things haven’t reached an irreversible point yet. If you cooperate with the police now, you can stop…” Zhuang Yi continued.

“You’re wrong…” The other person finally spoke, their voice incredibly hoarse, causing Zhuang Yi’s expression to change.

The line’s fluctuations suddenly intensified, and finally, through the speaker, everyone heard a heavy breathing. In the dead of night, it sounded like a lurking beast, sending shivers down their spines. Then there was a series of wheezing sounds, which lasted for several seconds before the call was abruptly ended, replaced by a busy tone.

Lu Suyu, who had been biting his nails with his head lowered, suddenly looked up. “He was laughing just now!”