BL Ch63

After three hours of the special task force meeting at the New Gold District Bureau, police officers from various stations left one by one to return to their duties.

“No.” Peng Deyu said decisively, “The bureau has no shortage of cases to keep you busy; don’t go looking for trouble.”

Ji Lin had waited for Feng Jinmin to leave before sneaking in, hoping his own bureau chief would be more lenient, but he was immediately rebuffed, and his voice rose in frustration, “Why? If Liu Shaojie is really Bai Zhiming’s foster son, I’m confident I can trick him into talking.”

Peng Deyu, packing up the meeting materials, was unrelenting, “I’ll have Xu Sheng go. You don’t need to get involved. The murderer has explicitly said he wants to kill you, and you’re still running around? Save me some worry!”

“Just because he wants to kill me, I should hide like a coward? How can you underestimate me like this!”

“I’m trying to save your life!” Peng Deyu slammed the materials down on the table with a bang, his voice stern and angry, “Xu Sheng knows when to retreat in critical situations, ensuring we have strength for the fight another day. But you, knowing there’s a tiger on the mountain, still choose to go there. I’m not saying that’s bad, but when the enemy is cunning and cruel, your nature makes you an easy target!”

Caught between them, Xu Sheng watched as the two argued heatedly, trying to mediate, “Calm down, Ji Lin. Chief Peng, it’s just an interrogation. What could go wrong in the detention center? If you’re not reassured, I’ll go with Ji Lin, bring a few more people, ensure everything’s safe.”

Peng Deyu was still uncompromising, even exaggerating, “What if the murderer ambushes you on the road?”

Xu Sheng: “…” This sounded like something out of an American blockbuster. The old chief was going to ridiculous lengths to protect his ‘child’.

“Rest assured, I’ll take them there.” A new figure appeared at the conference room door at some point, “In my car, absolute safety.”

Peng Deyu, seeing who it was, gave a wry, angry smile, “The murderer’s targets are you two, and you’ll ride in the same car? So he can kill you both at once?”

Yu Duqiu smiled, “If you don’t let him join the investigation, he’ll soon be a walking corpse. Living timidly or dying bravely, you’d choose the latter too, right? My grandfather told me you were quite courageous and decisive when you were young.”

“Of course, I had both courage and strategy, which is why I won’t let you both go together. This is non-negotiable.” Peng Deyu grabbed his materials and walked out, ignoring Ji Lin’s shouts.

Frustrated with no outlet, Ji Lin slammed his fist on the desk with a bang, his knuckles turning red.

Xu Sheng patted his shoulder in resignation, “It’s okay, I’ll interrogate and tell you the results afterward. Same difference.”

Yu Duqiu suddenly said, “Let’s go, the car’s waiting outside.”

Ji Lin looked up, “Where to?”

“To re-interrogate Liu Shaojie, obviously.”

“But just now…”

“Chief Peng said we can’t ‘go together,’ so we’ll go separately,” Yu Duqiu decided unilaterally, “Xu and I will take the car, you take a taxi.”

Xu Sheng’s expression changed, “Hey, don’t drag me into your misdeeds. If Chief Peng finds out I took you to the interrogation without permission, I’m done for.”

Yu Duqiu: “We won’t interrogate, just listen and learn from outside. You’d tell us anyway, so what’s the difference between hearing it now or later?”

That seemed logical, but Xu Sheng felt something was off. Yu Duqiu pressed his advantage, “Come on, Xu, consider it a ride from me. Don’t you want to ride in my Pullman? Now’s your chance.”

Xu Sheng immediately refuted indignantly, “Mr. Yu, get one thing straight.”

“What?”

“I am not a cop who can be bribed with benefits!”

The Pullman slowly drove out of the New Gold District Bureau’s gate, picking up speed towards Changping, its long body not hindering its lightning-fast pace.

“But I do love cars.” Xu Sheng ran his hand over the luxurious leather seat, relaxing, “I won’t lie, this is my dream car, out of my lifetime budget. Thanks for letting me fulfill that dream.”

The back seats were arranged opposite each other, with curtains drawn, a privacy screen raised, and a starry ceiling opened, creating a secret, romantic space.

“You’re welcome. You’ve worked hard these days on cases that weren’t even yours.” Yu Duqiu, lying on the seat next to him, nodded towards Bai Zhao, “Give Captain Xu a red envelope.”

Bai Zhao: “?”

Xu Sheng, thinking there was a real red envelope, sat up quickly, “Don’t get me in trouble! I’m not taking you there for your car or your money, but because I’ve seen how much Ji Lin cares about this case. I can’t live with myself if I don’t help him, even if it means getting scolded. It won’t cost me any flesh.”

Yu Duqiu smiled with satisfaction, “Captain Xu really is a good cop who cares for his juniors. Just now, I was testing if you were honest and fair. Congratulations on passing the test. Here’s a small red envelope from me personally, please accept.” He then operated his phone.

Xu Sheng’s expression went from speechless to alarmed, “Stop! Don’t fabricate evidence of me taking bribes! Even if it’s just two hundred—”

“Not that much.” Yu Duqiu waved his phone, the screen showing the transaction amount: 5.20.

“To express my affection for you.” Yu Duqiu winked.

Xu Sheng: “…I finally understand why Ji Lin was so irritable recently.”

Yu Duqiu indeed had a knack for driving people crazy.

Inside the car, the Berlin sound system played soothing classical piano music, allowing the tension of recent days to ease. Taking advantage of the early hour, Xu Sheng briefly summarized the morning’s meeting.

“Your American subordinate, Jia Jin, right? We’ve confirmed with the auto repair shop that Jiang Sheng was that missing mechanic. The tracker in your gun was probably hidden by him, and we found similar devices in his rental. But whether he was involved in other cases, we couldn’t conclude.”

Yu Duqiu pondered, retrieving a memory from the vast sea of his mind, “At least he didn’t kill Huang Hanxiang. I remember there was a typhoon those days; he stayed at my place tending to the plants, as Hong Bo mentioned. His tools also don’t match our cold weapon assumptions. I’ll call him ‘the Knight’ for now, strong in attack but lacking organization, similar to Bao Guo’s group.”

Xu Sheng felt his head spinning, unable to resist complaining, “Can you consider those of us who don’t play chess? With all this talk of kings and queens, now knights. Can’t we use a different analogy? Like Gomoku, Ludo? At least I know a bit of Mahjong.”

Yu Duqiu looked at the person opposite, “Bai Zhao, do you find my analogy hard to understand?”

Bai Zhao, expressionless, “It’s clear and concise.”

Yu Duqiu spread his hands, “See? Not hard at all.”

“…” Xu Sheng, outmatched, had to swallow his frustration, planning to study chess rules, “Fine, whatever you say. Anyway, our task force concluded it isn’t an internal leak… I trust my colleagues completely.”

Meaning the problem must be on your side.

Yu Duqiu immediately denied this possibility, “I haven’t told anyone, but I also believe there’s no traitor among you. Otherwise, the Queen wouldn’t have gone to such lengths to frame Ji Lin. That leaves us with one possibility – when you checked the residents of Jiangxue Community, someone saw you.”

Xu Sheng felt his head ache again, “I thought of that too. The night you were kidnapped, the tracking showed the Queen was near Jiangxue Community. He might be a resident or someone working nearby. But that street has several bars, KTVs, and restaurants with high foot traffic at night; checking every person on the surveillance could take a year, not to mention the blind spots.”

Just like investigating who slipped into the backstage dressing room at Pingzhong to place photos, they seemed to hit another bottleneck.

Yu Duqiu touched his lips, the ruby ring on his finger glowing with a deep red light, “Hiding well himself, while sending others to their death.”

Xu Sheng, recalling the young, smiling face from the file, sighed, “Jiang Sheng might have been guilty, but compared to the mastermind behind him, he shouldn’t have been the first to die. I even feel a bit sorry for him. At least he followed the rules to finish university, and we found job applications on his computer. He probably wanted to live a peaceful, ordinary life after this job, but he was forced into this situation.”

Yu Duqiu sighed, “This is what psychology calls the ‘Lucifer Effect’—there’s both good and evil in human nature, and even good people can turn bad under certain conditions. Growing up in that environment, surrounded by criminals, it’s remarkable he still had a desire for an ordinary life.”

“Indeed, but since he’s dead, our words are pointless now.” Xu Sheng sighed for a moment before continuing, “There’s something else, but don’t tell Ji Lin. I’m afraid he won’t handle it well.”

“What?”

“We found blood at that rental in Jiangxue Community.” Xu Sheng hesitated, “Apart from Huang Hanxiang’s… there was Mu Hao’s.”

Yu Duqiu’s expression turned grave, “Wasn’t Mu Hao, like Wu Min, killed by Liu Shaojie and dumped into the sea?”

“Yes, that’s what we thought, but remember, Huang Hanxiang disappeared in a blind spot after leaving Yiqing Bar, and that blind spot leads directly to the back door of the community. The murderer must have lured Huang Hanxiang into the rental, killed him there, then secretly transported his body to the sea. That place was their crime den. On the night Mu Hao disappeared, Liu Shaojie might have stopped there too, letting an accomplice take Mu Hao to that rental, but the surveillance has been overwritten; we can’t check it.”

“Why take his body separately? Doesn’t that increase the risk of being discovered?”

“Not necessarily a body.”

Yu Duqiu’s eyes widened, “You mean… he might not have been dead?”

“No, I mean, when he came out of the alley, he might not have been dead yet.” Xu Sheng looked regretful, “If that’s true, taking him separately might have been because the drug dealers wanted to extract information from him, perhaps details about other police officers involved in the investigation. You might not know, but some drug dealers’ interrogation methods… are quite inhumane.”

Yu Duqiu closed his eyes, his eyelashes trembling slightly, “With his personality, he probably wouldn’t have said anything.”

Xu Sheng nodded, “I think so too; otherwise, more than one cop would’ve been killed. This explains why Wu Min’s body washed ashore, but Mu Hao’s was never found… Ji Lin still holds onto hope, and I can’t bear to tell him that Mu Hao’s body might not be in the sea, possibly disposed of in an even crueler way by the drug dealers.”

The car fell into silence for a moment.

Yu Duqiu didn’t open his eyes for a while, his eyes moving beneath his eyelids, his mind in chaos, when he suddenly felt warmth on the back of his hand.

He opened his eyes to see a large hand from across covering his own.

Bai Zhao said nothing, just gently patted his hand before returning to his original position, continuing to listen quietly.

Yu Duqiu was stunned for a moment, an indescribable feeling swelling in his heart.

Arrogant when he wanted to be, but considerate when he was obedient.

Driving one to distraction.

However, this simple comfort was effective, temporarily clearing the chaos in his mind, highlighting the main puzzle at hand.

“Did you find any evidence related to the Pei family in that rental?”

Xu Sheng shook his head, “Not yet. Ji Lin told me that at the jewelry exhibition, Pei Ming mentioned their business was not doing well. Indeed, if Jiang Sheng had succeeded, the fifty billion would not only have refilled their coffers but also eliminated you, who were developing detox equipment impacting their business—logically, it makes sense, but it’s not emotionally plausible. Even if the Pei family was declining, they hadn’t reached the end of their rope; was it worth taking such a huge risk?”

“It’s not for us to decide if it was worth it.” Yu Duqiu touched his face, the swelling from the beating had gone down, but faint bruises remained, “At the exhibition, Pei Ming did show some wariness towards my project. He definitely has secrets we don’t know about, but whether he’s the King… I’m not sure. From what I know of him, if he wanted me dead, he’d do it decisively because he knows that’s the safest way, not involving all this unnecessary drama.”

Xu Sheng: “Could it be, as Jiang Sheng said on the phone, that the Queen acted on his own again?”

“Possibly. This action was too risky, not like the King’s usual style; it must have been the Queen’s decision. But I’m puzzled, why did the Queen use Jiang Sheng, this knight, only now? He didn’t know the police were onto him; he had no reason for a last stand, still thinking he could escape with the ransom. If I were the Queen, I’d have had Jiang Sheng kill me on his first day of work, then kill Jiang Sheng. He wasn’t that valuable a piece; sacrificing him to take out the King would have been worth it, wouldn’t it?”

Xu Sheng felt a chill run down his spine, “I feel like you understand crime better than the Queen…”

Yu Duqiu waved his hand, “You flatter me.”

Xu Sheng: “…Who flattered you?”

“We might be too close to see clearly; let’s hear what an onlooker thinks.” Yu Duqiu pretended to hold up a non-existent microphone to the only onlooker in the back seat, “You’ve been listening for a while now, any thoughts? Don’t be modest, speak freely. Without you, we might not have found that rental yet.”

Bai Zhao looked down at Yu Duqiu’s clenched fist, saying, “I think this gesture of yours is quite cute.”

Xu Sheng: “…”

He should be under the car, not inside it.

Yu Duqiu was taken aback for a moment, then playfully lifted Bai Zhao’s chin, laughing, “Don’t misuse adjectives, show some respect when talking to your brother.”

Bai Zhao leaned forward, using his uninjured hand to gently grasp Yu Duqiu’s pale wrist, squeezing lightly, “You’re not as strong as me, brother.”

If you closed your eyes and just listened, the imagination would run wild.

Xu Sheng felt an increasingly suffocating, indescribable atmosphere in the air, and he couldn’t take it anymore, roaring in near desperation, “Be—se—rious!”

Bai Zhao, as desired, returned to the topic at hand, saying solemnly, “I think the Queen didn’t kill you earlier because he couldn’t.”

Xu Sheng also turned serious, asking, “How so?”

“Known: The Queen’s first kill was Wu Min, who was just a tool to lure Mu Hao into the alley. After that, ignoring Bai Zhiming’s unclear cause of death, Yu Wencheng’s accidental death, and Dong Yongliang never seeing the Queen, his next kill was Huang Hanxiang, who had just completed his task. Solve for: What do these two victims have in common?”

Xu Sheng: “You’re treating this like a math problem… But I know the answer; they were both killed right after being used, probably because the Queen feared they’d reveal his identity. Our task force analyzed this, but with too few cases, we couldn’t draw solid conclusions.”

“Jiang Sheng is the third case.” Bai Zhao said, “Like Huang Hanxiang, he was a tool used by someone. Whether he succeeded or not, once he stepped into the light, he was doomed to be discarded. Even if he hadn’t died that night, returning to the rental after completing the task, death would have been waiting. As Captain Xu said, on that night, the Queen was near Jiangxue Community, likely waiting for Jiang Sheng to return after his success, to silence him.”

Xu Sheng didn’t fully agree, “Maybe, but I don’t get it. Jiang Sheng was always providing support from the shadows, not very experienced in crime, and this time he even had to recruit two amateurs. The Queen must have known he was likely to fail. How could he ensure Jiang Sheng wouldn’t betray him if caught? Isn’t that just increasing the risk?”

Bai Zhao: “Liu Shaojie was caught too, and he didn’t talk. They must have something the Queen holds over them. For Jiang Sheng… perhaps it was the person he was looking for on the phone.”

Xu Sheng pondered with a frown, “We also thought that person was the key, but we’ve checked Jiang Sheng’s phone and computer; they were cleaned out, leaving almost no useful clues. He graduated last year and returned to China, hadn’t found a job yet, had no family or friends… Who could he be so concerned about?”

Bai Zhao pursed his lips, “Keep looking.”

“Alright, we can only keep investigating. But you haven’t explained what you said earlier: why do you think the Queen couldn’t kill your young master before?”

“That brings us to another common point.” Bai Zhao fixed his gaze on Yu Duqiu, who was deep in thought across from him, “Excluding the assassination attempt in America, all other cases, including Yu Wencheng’s fall, Dong Yongliang’s drugging, the masked kidnapper, Huang Hanxiang’s incident, and the photos in the backstage of the Pingzhong auditorium, were all warnings to intimidate you.”

Xu Sheng: “That’s the part I can’t fathom the most: expending so much effort and energy, creating all these scenarios, just to warn? What were they thinking?”

Bai Zhao shook his head, “We believe there are conservatives among the King’s subordinates, we call them ‘Rooks,’ and the King himself is wary of you, so he doesn’t allow the Queen to kill you. Once free from the King’s supervision and control, the Queen acted without restraint, which is why you faced a life threat only in America.”

Xu Sheng: “Does this relate to this kidnapping case? Also, can you look at me when you talk? Does he have flowers on his face or something?”

“I can’t be entirely sure, but I have a hunch.” Bai Zhao held the hand-shaped microphone, his lips touching the back of Yu Duqiu’s hand, “Before that night, it wasn’t that the Queen didn’t want to kill you; he couldn’t because he knew that within No.1 Palace, besides Jiang Sheng, there was another mole, an informant sent by the King, perhaps… the Rook who has been protecting you from death. That night, the Rook might not have been in No.1 Palace, or didn’t notice Jiang Sheng’s rebellion, or perhaps was in the concert hall but incapacitated.”

“!” Xu Sheng, excited, jumped up from his seat, hitting his head on the starry ceiling with an “Ouch!” and fell back down, now clear-headed, “This is very possible! We discussed this at today’s meeting. When Ji Lin called, the Queen already knew Jiang Sheng was dead, which was too fast. He clearly wasn’t nearby at the time, indicating he had placed an informant, whether it’s through cameras or accomplices, we’re about to investigate. Mr. Yu, what do you think? Have you had any new employees join recently? Mr. Yu?”

Yu Duqiu, after being called twice, slowly rolled his eyes towards Bai Zhao, a satisfied, pleased smile at the corner of his mouth, “How did you address me just now? I quite like it, say it again.”

Xu Sheng stumbled in place, nearly sliding off the seat.

“What ‘just now’! That was minutes ago! Were you even listening this whole time?”

Yu Duqiu withdrew his hand nonchalantly, “I was listening. We have a high turnover of staff, lots of new employees. On the night in question, around fifty to sixty staff members were on duty at No.1 Palace. If you need it, I can send you all the background check materials, but now it seems even background checks might not be reliable.”

Xu Sheng was astonished, “Fifty to sixty? Where did all these people come from?”

Yu Duqiu listed them off one by one, “Butler, drivers, personal bodyguards, residential bodyguards, maids, head chef, sous-chefs, dog trainers, horse trainers, gardeners, gatekeepers…”

“Stop, stop, stop, don’t recite like it’s a prayer.” Xu Sheng felt overwhelmed, “You’re tough, with so many people, how long will it take me to check them all?”

“It might not be a mole; it could be a privately installed camera. I’ll trouble Captain Xu to look into that too; my home, including the landscaping, covers about seven to eight thousand square meters.”

“…” 

This wasn’t just trouble; this was a death sentence!

Xu Sheng didn’t feel like discussing the case anymore, his mind occupied with calculating how much manpower and how many late nights this would take.

After all the calculations, four big words floated in his mind: Life is meaningless.