Chapter 17

At the front, Cai Chengji and Xiang Yang didn’t have time to dodge. Having worked in this field for so many years, they’d encountered similar situations many times. In their early years, they’d often been scratched into a mess by emotionally distraught family members of the deceased.  

The two men sheepishly shielded their faces, resigned to whatever might come. But just then, a figure suddenly darted out from behind them. In the next second, Pei Shasha found her arms pinned from behind, crying out in slight pain.  

When they looked closely, wasn’t the one restraining her none other than Su Yan?!  

Pei Shasha continued to squirm restlessly, trying to break free, but the more she struggled, the tighter the grip on her arms became.  

After a few seconds, Su Yan leaned close to her ear and said calmly in a measured tone, “Ms. Pei, we deeply regret what happened to your father. However, assaulting a police officer is illegal—punishable by up to three years in prison, detention, or a fine, depending on the severity. I hope you’re aware of that.”  

“Detention centers aren’t fun places. You wouldn’t want to end up there just because of a momentary impulse, would you?”  

Pei Shasha’s expression shifted several times before she finally pouted resentfully and whined tearfully, “Let me go! You’re hurting me!”  

Su Yan narrowed her eyes and released her as instructed. Once free, Pei Shasha rubbed her sore wrists and arms, lowering her gaze to hide her emotions. Xiang Yang then took her aside for routine questioning—since Pei An was her father, she was one of the earliest to arrive at the crime scene.  

Cai Chengji watched as Xiang Yang led her outside the police line and exhaled in relief. He turned to Su Yan and said, “Little Su, as your senior, I have to say—you can’t be this impulsive in the future, understand? What if she had really lost it and sued you?”  

She shrugged indifferently. “Let her sue. I’m just an intern—I don’t even have a police badge number. Besides, does she have the right to assault an officer?”  

“You—” Cai Chengji pointed at her, speechless for a moment before finally waving his hand. “Let’s go see what’s going on with Zhang.”  

Jiang Li was already there, observing Zhang Qishan conduct the preliminary autopsy. When the two arrived, he gave Su Yan a long look but ultimately said nothing. The three of them stood together, their gazes uniformly fixed on the body laid out on the pebbles.  

“No external injuries,” Zhang Qishan announced after measuring the liver temperature. “The victim shows signs consistent with drowning. Rigor mortis suggests time of death was no more than two hours ago.”  

“Drowning? Here?” Xiang Yang pointed at the nearby stream. The creek in Great Peace Village wasn’t deep, but in some spots, it could submerge an adult completely. Still—  

“Pei An knew how to swim, didn’t he?”  

As the saying goes, those who live by the mountains eat from the mountains, and those who live by the waters eat from the waters. Before Great Peace Village developed its tourism industry, the surrounding landscape sustained its households. Even now, many villagers interacted with the stream year-round—nearly everyone knew how to swim.

“What’s so surprising? Haven’t you heard the old saying?” Zhang Qishan pried open Pei An’s mouth: “It’s always the good swimmers who drown, and… with this level of alcohol, even if he fell into water, he probably couldn’t save himself. The exact blood alcohol content will have to wait until we get back to the bureau for testing. We’ll also need to collect and analyze the water in his lungs and compare it with samples from the creek to confirm whether this is the primary crime scene.”

“Hmm.”

Watching Zhang Qishan instruct his team to properly collect Pei An’s body, Jiang Li straightened up and looked around, his expression inscrutable.

Xiang Yang ran a frustrated hand through his short hair: “Well, all our leads have officially dead-ended with Pei An. Team Leader Jiang, seems like someone wants you to close this case?” After all, with the current evidence, everything pointed to Pei An. His death made the case complicated again.

No one would believe Pei An’s death was just a simple accident.

Jiang Li’s face showed no obvious emotion. Perhaps he had anticipated this outcome from the beginning. After a long silence, he finally withdrew his gaze from the rock wall opposite them: “Since the easy path is blocked, we’ll have to take the difficult one.”

“Zhang Liang?” Cai Chengji groaned. “So I have to go back and stare at him like an idiot, seeing who turns into an owl first?” His face twisted into a constipated expression. The guy wasn’t even normal!

Shaking his head with a faint smile, Jiang Li turned to leave. Su Yan quickly followed: “Team Leader Jiang, I formally request your permission to participate in the investigation of the Great Peace Village serial murder case.”

Jiang Li raised an eyebrow: “Haven’t you been participating all along?”

“I want official participation.” Su Yan declared loudly. As an intern, she had mostly been following them as a background presence without any desire to steal the spotlight. But with Pei An’s sudden death, the nature of this case had changed for her: “I request Team Leader Jiang’s permission to participate in all investigative work under police officer supervision.”

“Why?” Jiang Li found her sudden burst of determination amusing. “Did you have an epiphany about pursuing frontline investigative work?”

“No. I feel insulted.” Su Yan lifted her chin slightly, standing ramrod straight. “Pei Shasha’s been putting on an act specifically for me from the beginning, playing multiple scenes—treating me like some prop to advance her premeditated script. And did you see how she looked at me just now? Full of mockery.” What? Did she look down on her for being a woman? Otherwise, why not choose Cai Chengji or even Xiang Yang?

The last person who dared look at her like that hadn’t lasted two more minutes—their head had long since fallen into the desert, buried by the shifting sands.

“But you didn’t let her lead you by the nose either.” Jiang Li seemed to be acknowledging her performance. “You saw through her little game early on.”

Su Yan didn’t show any pleasure at his somewhat awkward praise, standing as stiffly as a soldier requesting orders from a superior: “Requesting Team Leader Jiang’s approval!” This time, she was determined to pry open Zhang Liang’s mouth!

Jiang Li’s eyes flickered, and within two seconds, she agreed: “Alright, but you must remember, you don’t have law enforcement power or related authority. All actions must be conducted under our guidance and approval, and you cannot violate relevant regulations.”

“Yes!”

A clear and resonant female voice carried far across the riverside in the night.

…

After returning to the city bureau, their first task was to bring Zhang Liang out again for continued interrogation. It was close to midnight, and Cai Chengji couldn’t help but feel irritated as he looked at the drowsy man in the wheelchair. They had been working tirelessly for days without sleep, while this guy had been resting and recuperating.

“What’s this? Here to sleep?” He slammed a thick notebook onto the table with a loud bang, which had quite the effect of waking everyone up.

With Jiang Li’s approval, Su Yan once again sat in an inconspicuous corner. She silently observed Zhang Liang, noting his unchanged indifferent attitude. Whether it was due to having rested, there was even a faint, mocking smile on his face.

“Officer Cai, so much anger—haven’t found Pei An yet?” Zhang Liang spoke up. “Getting mad at me won’t help. I’ve already said everything I needed to say.”

“Pei An has been found.” Xiang Yang, compared to Cai Chengji, was much calmer.

“Oh?” Zhang Liang tilted his head. “If you’ve found him, why waste time interrogating me, who’s already told you everything? That doesn’t make sense, does it?”

Su Yan had been holding a pen, flipping it between her fingers as she listened to their exchange. But upon hearing Zhang Liang’s words, she suddenly clenched the pen in her palm.

From the moment Zhang Liang entered the interrogation room today, he had been completely relaxed from head to toe. Even upon hearing that Pei An had been found, he showed no signs of tension. There were only two possible explanations: first, everything he said was true, so he wasn’t afraid of Pei An providing any incriminating testimony; second, he had long anticipated Pei An’s death and was utterly convinced of it.

Now that the police had largely determined that the primary suspect wasn’t Pei An but Pei Shasha, the first explanation was pure nonsense. That left only one possibility—he had known all along that Pei Shasha would act against Pei An. But why?

It was actually quite simple to explain. If Pei An had indeed abused the young Pei Shasha over a long period, leading her to develop an acquired antisocial personality, then in Pei Shasha’s mind, killing him would signify her absolute control over herself. The sense of fulfillment from this would be unprecedented, an irresistible allure for a serial killer like her.

But this also revealed that Zhang Liang’s trust and dependence on Pei Shasha had reached an almost irreversible level.

A soft *snap* sounded as she closed the notebook with the pen inside. She didn’t stay to listen to the rest of the interrogation, choosing instead to leave the room. When she returned to the upstairs office, before she could even sit back at her desk, a voice reached her ears: “Is the interrogation over?”

She looked up and realized Jiang Li had returned from the Technical Brigade at some point. He was now sitting at his desk, his long legs stretched out awkwardly on the desktop as if he were resting with his eyes closed.  

“No, but continuing to listen wouldn’t make much difference. Zhang Liang’s ‘loyalty’ toward Pei Shasha has reached a pathological level. At this point, he still won’t say anything.”  

“So?”  

“So, I’m going to break that ‘loyalty.’” Su Yan curled her lips slightly. “This master-servant dynamic may seem unshakable, but dismantling it is actually easy. Zhang Liang sees Pei Shasha as his only one, but she might not feel the same. Team Leader Jiang, do you remember Lai Xiangming mentioned that Pei Ling was injured while Pei Shasha was present? And judging by the cooling-off periods between the first three cases, do you really think she could have resisted committing crimes all these years just because Zhang Liang was unexpectedly imprisoned?”  

What she needed to do now was find the fragile point connecting Zhang Liang and Pei Shasha’s trust—then reach out and shatter it.