Chapter 112: A Direction
Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
Bai Muchuan immediately called for a group meeting to a.n.a.lyze the case.
The meeting was held mainly to summarize the clues of the case, a.n.a.lyze them, and decide the direction of the investigation.
Prior to the conference, Tang Yuanchu looked at Bai Muchuan’s indifferent face and hesitated slightly.
“Boss, Teacher Xiang did not come today. Want to give her a call?”
Bai Muchuan halted his steps and asked, “Which day of the week is it today?”
Tang Yuanchu pursed his lips. “Sat.u.r.day.”
In the first place, when they employed Xiang Wan as their advisor, her working hours was supposed to be flexible: if there was nothing, she need not come to work, but if there was something on, she needed to be there… Therefore, even though Tang Yuanchu noticed that both of them might have encountered some problems, he still asked him dutifully about it.
Nevertheless, after Bai Muchuan pondered for a moment, he shook his head. “It’s the weekend after all, there’s no need—”
“I’m here!”
Before Bai Muchuan finished his sentence, Xiang Wan’s smiling voice was heard from the entrance.
The time then was already ten o’clock, which was a big difference from her usual time of arrival to the office.
Tang Yuanchu turned around and looked at her with much surprise at her presence as well as the fact that she was wearing a pair of light, tawny-colored shades.
This was his first time seeing Xiang Wan wearing a pair of shades and found it kinda weird.
Nevertheless, wearing a pair of tawny-colored shades gave her a more scholarly style as she looked like a college student with an air of tranquil around her.
“Teacher Xiang, I was about to call you!”
Tang Yuanchu greeted her with a grin but Xiang Wan lowered her head. “I’m sorry for being late.”
Bai Muchuan took a glimpse at her and turned away. “Prepare for the meeting now!”
…
At the conference room.
Tang Yuanchu sat beside Xiang Wan where he soon noticed that she was especially quiet that day. He couldn’t help taking a few more glances at her.
His seat was exactly at a location where he could see Xiang Wan’s somewhat swollen eyes hiding beneath the gla.s.ses.
Both of them really had a quarrel with each other?
Tang Yuanchu was guessing inside his head and sneaked a peek at Bai Muchuan. Out of curiosity, he turned to Xiang Wan and whispered, “Teacher Xiang, what happened to the both of you?”
Xiang Wan nudged her shades and put on a smile. “What do you mean by that?”
“You and boss…” Tang Yuanchu asked, “No, I’m asking why are your eyes swollen?”
“Oh,” Xiang Wan continued to smile, “I stayed up late to write my novel and might have drank a bit more water that it appeared swollen coz of edema. When I woke up in the morning, I even have difficulty opening my eyes. I worry that I might scare all of you so I specially went to get a pair of shades… is it nice?”
That last sentence was definitely a very creative excuse.
Xiang Wan succeeded in evading Tang Yuanchu’s question. He could only nod his head. “It’s nice.”
Xiang Wan smiled at him and kept quiet.
The relevant personnel entered the conference room one after another.
Pffft! Tang Yuanchu took a look at the entrance of the conference room and gave a chuckle.
“What kind of occasion is it today? Why does everyone like to wear tawny-colored shades…”
Huh? Xiang Wan was bewildered.
Cheng Zheng just entered the conference room, and just like her, he was also wearing a pair of tawny-colored shades, but the hue was much darker to conceal whatever was behind it.
However, it did not have much effect.
This was because Bai Muchuan had hit him a tad too mercilessly that the shades was unable to entirely conceal the bruises that had yet to subside. That face looked so… Hm, a lot of character.
Cheng Zheng was not someone that liked to banter with others. Hence, when he walked into the room, it was all quiet inside. n.o.body asked anything, and n.o.body laughed, either. Everyone was quiet as a mouse and used a certain puzzled expression to gaze at the male leading character, Bai Muchuan, who was responsible for that pathetic sight.
Needless to say, Bai Muchuan’s fighting prowess was not to be reckoned with.
He beat Cheng Zheng into such a state, yet he still managed to look as dashing as ever.
He had no bruise nor any graze on his face except for a scratch on the neck.
Thus, Xiang Wan did not think that the one who beat up Cheng Zheng was him.
She was shocked to see Cheng Zheng looking like that. “What happened?” She asked Tang Yuanchu, “Why did Cheng Zheng…”
Hah? She didn’t know?
Tang Yuanchu buried his head in his arms before turning toward Xiang Wan. “Softer…” he whispered.
“Hm?”
Tang Yuanchu signaled by looking toward Bai Muchuan.
Xiang Wan was suddenly enlightened, but immediately, her heart skipped a beat.
Could it be because of that matter that caused Cheng Zheng to receive a bashing from him? she thought.
Xiang Wan was not someone to avoid trouble. She felt bad about it and repeatedly glanced at Cheng Zheng as he had told her the truth but suffered the consequences instead.
Cheng Zheng sensed her gaze and looked toward her as well.
The two of them looked at each other from both across of the table where Xiang Wan gave him an apologetic smile.
One couldn’t clearly see the expression on Cheng Zheng’s face, but the corners of his mouth curved slightly upward as he sat there quietly without moving.
Bai Muchuan was sitting at one end of the table. He pulled a long face as he looked at the similar colored shades the two of them were wearing as well as the occasional glances they exchanged.
He knocked on the table to get everyone to look at him. “Everyone’s here now. We shall start the meeting to give a simple a.n.a.lysis of the case.”
After a short pause, he looked at Cheng Zheng coldly. “You start first!”
Cheng Zheng’s lips were hit after all, so it was obvious he had no desire to speak.
He swept a cold glance at Bai Muchuan and looked toward his disciple, Mei Xin.
“I’ll start first then!”
Mei Xin got up from her seat understandingly and opened her doc.u.ment folder to do a presentation of the findings.
“At Jinyi Hotel room number 3808, we managed to find and extract a fresh fingerprint from the celebrity, Xie Wanwan’s room. After doing a match against the database, we found a suspect. According to the biometric identification, we could basically ascertain the ident.i.ty of the suspect.”
As she said this, she showed the fingerprint results and sat down on her seat.
“Next, I’ll leave it to Detective Tang to tell everyone about the suspect.”
“…”
Bai Muchuan stayed silent for two seconds before looking toward Tang Yuanchu.
The young lad immediately responded by getting up from his seat, walking toward his captain, and proceeding to do a presentation.
“The suspect is called Kong Qingping, male, 22 years old. He has a criminal record and is currently unemployed. Ever since young, Kong Qingping has a habit of committing theft. As he was a minor and the monetary value of the items he stole was too small, he was released after education and warnings. Later, he became a ‘regular’ that was often seen at the police posts. Most of the community police officers knew him.
“According to our findings, Kong Qingping’s mother is from another province. When his father brought her home, both of them never registered their marriage. It was said that after she gave birth to Kong Qingping, she left when he was only a month old baby. No one knew her whereabouts ever since.
“Kong Qingping’s father was charged for causing bodily harm when he got into a brawl and was sent to jail when he was at the age of five to six years old. Since then, Kong Qingping had been living with his grandmother. When he was 12 years old, his grandmother pa.s.sed away. Subsequently, he dropped out of school and hung out with a bunch of delinquents. He was sent to a Boy’s Home three times for reform and counselling.
“Kong Qingping’s most recent offence was also a case of theft where he got jailed for six months. He was just released on the 12th of last month.
“And, there’s also another situation…”
Tang Yuanchu took a look at Bai Muchuan after he said that.
He appeared to be hesitant with the following presentation, so he inquired with Bai Muchuan by looking at him.
Bai Muchuan had an indifferent expression. “Continue.”
Tang Yuanchu gave a gulp and cleared his throat. “Well, the situation has something to do with our boss.”
“On the night of the theft, our boss was drinking together with Xie Wanwan in a bar located on the third floor of Jinyi Hotel. In the end, he noticed that there was something wrong with his body… It was discovered that boss and Xie Wanwan’s drinks that night were being spiked with a Benzodiazepine type of drug.
“Consequently, we visited a number of pharmacies and private clinics and confirmed that the day before the theft, Kong Qingping had purchased a similar drug at a private clinic near his home…”
Tang Yuanchu put his hand on the mouse to demonstrate a surveillance video.
“This security footage is supplied by a private clinic. The doctor at the clinic said Kong Qingping’s father has been suffering from anxiety, insomnia, mental weakness, and similar symptoms since his release from jail as he frequently visited this clinic. That day, Kong Qingping bought the medicine, a Benzodiazepine type of drug, on behalf of his father…”
And then he played another video footage.
“This is found from the security footage of Jinyi Hotel… Let’s compare the suspect who escaped from Jinyi Hotel with Kong Qingping who was buying medicine at the private clinic. Are they the same person?”
The security footage was magnified to show the face.
Kong Qingping, who appeared in the clinic’s security footage, had his face captured. But the suspect caught by the surveillance camera at Jinyi Hotel showed his lowered head covered by a hood. The face could not be seen clearly at all.
However, judging from the clothing and body shape, it was almost certain that it should be the same person.
“I think that the situation now is basically very clear.” Tang Yuanchu did a simple conclusion. “Ever since Kong Qingping was released from jail, he has not been living honestly. When he found out that the filming crew of ‘The Grey List’ is staying at Jinyi Hotel, he secretly drugged Xie Wanwan as he wanted to steal her doll.”
Xiang Wan furrowed her eyebrows slightly. “Problem is, why did a habitual thief, who has a habit of stealing since young, only take away a doll and not take away Xie Wanwan’s valuables as well?”
She looked at Bai Muchuan after a pause.
“I have one more question to ask you, Captain Bai. Are you okay with it?”
Bai Muchuan pursed his lips tightly. “Go ahead.”
Xiang Wan contemplated for a while. “That doll, is there a secret behind it? Why is it so important to Xie Wanwan? I felt that this is a very important lead to understand Kong Qingping’s motive for only taking away a doll.”
“Furthermore,” not waiting for Bai Muchuan to answer, she continued, “by drugging you, is it because he found out you are together with Xie Wanwan so he drugged you out of convenience or because he had intentionally wanted to do so from the start?”
These two questions were acute and have absolute relevance to the case.
Everyone’s gaze was on Bai Muchuan.
Their gazes, however, also contained their uncertainty about his relationship with Xie Wanwan…
Bai Muchuan squinted his eyes dangerously as he retracted his gaze from Xiang Wan’s face.
“We’ll continue the surveillance and try to hunt down Kong Qingping.”
They would get an answer once they found the suspect.
“Over at the hotel, increase the intensity of investigation. Be sure to investigate thoroughly all the suspicious people that appeared in the hotel that day.”
…