Chapter 7: The Devil’s Hand
Translator: MintCatnip Editor: Chrissy
Xiang Wan did not get an answer.
In Bai Muchuan’s eyes, she might still be a suspect.
Why would he tell her about the details of the case that could not be disclosed?
Xiang Wan felt an unspeakable amount of shock, bewilderment, and fear about the micro spy camera.
She had no choice but to stay on.
Fortunately, there was no other family member of Bai Muchuan at this villa. Nanny Li was sent by Bai Muchuan’s mother to take care of him when he was transferred from the capital to Jin City. Nanny Li was an easygoing person. She knew very well how to get along with people in a comfortable, peaceful manner which saved Xiang Wan from a lot of embarra.s.sment.
Morning.
Xiang Wan checked her mobile phone then continued to write her story.
Afternoon.
She continued to write her novel then checked her mobile phone.
By dinner time, Xiang Wan looked at the pitiful 3,000 words she wrote in much frustration.
Xiang Wan was not an author who was able to stock up on her chapters. This was because there were too many things that she was interested in. Hence, she was easily distracted. With the police still investigating Zhao Jiahang’s death, the case garnered more and more attention as time went by. Her review and comments section were even livelier than yesterday.
Her mind was full of worry.
She could not concentrate writing her story when the case was not solved.
Fang Yuanyuan: “Urgh, come on! You can coax others with such an excuse, but not me. Even before this case happened, you’re not releasing a lot of chapters as well…”
Her cousin replied with contempt after looking at Xiang Wan’s explanation on her mobile phone.
She tried to convince Xiang Wan to release more chapters to revive her novel while it was still attracting a lot of attention. But after failing to do so, she summed up another reason why Xiang Wan was deemed as a hopeless author.
Fang Yuanyuan: “Unpopular stories, lazy att.i.tude, even the immortals can’t save you!”
Xiang Wan felt somewhat wronged.
Xiang Wan: “Who says I’m lazy? I just wanted to write a quality book. Do you understand quality work? If I’m writing a story about a brainless, sweet, and innocent protagonist, I can upload 20,000 words daily without any problem…”
Fang Yuanyuan: “I’ve been hearing this sh*t from last year till now. Truth is, you’re the one who’s brainless, sweet, and innocent.”
She stabbed Xiang Wan’s weak spot unapologetically.
Fang Yuanyuan: “What’s wrong with those novels about sweet and innocent protagonists? They can write so fast, release so much more, and get more money as well. One year is not even enough for you to reach their earnings for a single day.”
Xiang Wan: “Fang Yuanyuan… don’t insult me like that!”
She sounded weak and powerless in the argument.
Fang Yuanyuan: “Xiang Wan, wake up! People have to adapt to society. You’re totally not suitable for writing online literature. New, strange, fast, feel good factor, eye-catching—these are the actual key points. People read books to kill time, not to look at a world cla.s.sic!”
Xiang Wan went silent.
This was not the first time Fang Yuanyuan had reproached her for failing to grasp the market and audience psychology.
She had to admit. Fang Yuanyuan had a point.
There were times that she also wanted to change.
She tried her best to write her novel, but it still failed. She was desperate as well!
Xiang Wan: “I’m sorry!”
She ruffled her hair, her head almost touching the keypad.
Xiang Wan: “I’ve not been able to write a successful book, and you’ve been unable to hold your head high in the editorial department. Not only that, you’re always helping to clean up after me. But… I don’t want to give up yet.”
Her cousin took quite a while to respond.
Fang Yuanyuan: “If you’ll tell me why you’re at Detective Bai’s place and can’t go to the blind date, I’ll help you coax your mom!”
Xiang Wan: “You want to know?”
She typed the words leisurely.
Fang Yuanyuan: “Yes!”
Xiang Wan: “I’m not telling. I’ll leave you hanging in midair!”
Fang Yuanyuan: “?”
Both Xiang Wan and Fang Yuanyuan had the same youngest aunt. Xiang Wan’s mom had two other sisters. Her mother was the second child who lived her life the worst, while their youngest aunt was the most successful among the three sisters. Only she had the opportunity to get to know young, capable, and talented men.
In the eyes of the youngest aunt, her 26-year-old niece who had no boyfriend, stayed at home all the time, and dealing with the computer all day long—Xiang Wan—was totally a problematic girl.
Sometimes, Xiang Wan was afraid that she might get sent to a rehabilitation programme arranged by her youngest aunt.
So if it wasn’t for Detective Bai’s orders, she would definitely go for the blind date.
However, she needed to account properly to Fang Yuanyuan.
Otherwise, if her mom knew she got involved in a murder case because of her novel, she would most likely faint on the spot.
And when that happened, if Xiang Wan still wanted to continue writing novels? That would be wishful thinking!
After dealing with Fang Yuanyuan, Xiang Wan yawned and refreshed the reviews and comments section of her novel.
There was a comment left about two minutes ago that caught her eye.
“Do your best, I’ll make sure that you’ll be popular! Famous and celebrated! Release your inner demons completely…”
Demons? What kind of demons do I have inside my mind? thought Xiang Wan.
She was shocked.
If this was before the murder, she would most probably think that she had met a childish and self-centered reader. However, at this conjecture, the comment was so nerve-racking that it filled her with apprehension.
The words on her laptop were like the demon in the void, stretching out his finger and beckoning to her with an evil smile…
Xiang Wan was stunned for a while before rushing out of the room.
…
Criminal Investigation Unit.
Inside the conference room of the 720 Special Task Force.
Zhao Jiahang’s death was unlike the deaths of the ordinary folks. He was labeled as a “billionaire”, “philanthropist”, “role model husband”, and many more other positive “labels”. That was why his death attracted a lot of attention from society. With the push of the various media platforms, it brought about an overwhelming amount of attention amongst the public that even the Ministry of Public Security was alerted. They ordered the Munic.i.p.al Bureau of Jin City to set up a special task force to solve the case within a time limit.
Bai Muchuan was still the team lead for the special task force.
They were combing through the details of the case in the conference room and discussion was in full swing.
Bai Muchuan sat quietly on the side, looking at his mobile phone, and had not spoken a word for a long time.
Huang He sneaked a peek at him and saw that he was looking at Xiang Wan’s novel—”Murder The Dream Guy”…
Cough! Huang He was a veteran detective. This Detective Bai from the Central Bureau was appointed to their unit as their captain, but no matter how good he was, the one who knew the best about the unit was Huang He. There were several rookies in the unit, and if they noticed that their captain was slacking off, it might bring about bad influences.
“Boss, everyone wants to hear your views,” he asked.
“Oh?” Bai Muchuan lifted his head. “Has everyone finished discussing?”
“…” Huang He was unable to answer.
“Boss!” A young detective by the name of Tang Yuanchu stood up in agitation. “I think Xiang Wan is the murderer! The woman at the alley and the burning of dead cats are totally self-directed by her in order to confuse and divert our attention!”
“Hm, continue!” Bai Muchuan raised his chin.
“First of all, the woman, Er Niu, was dead about a month ago.”
Not only was she dead, even her household registration account had been written off.
Er Niu was not a local. Her hometown was several hundreds of kilometers away from Jin City. That was the conclusion of the local police station where Er Niu had once lived.
“A woman who has been dead for one month appeared in Xiang Wan’s neighborhood and almost knocked her down? That’s obviously not possible. Same goes to that cat abuse plot.”
“Next, there are a total of six moderator accounts for Xiang Wan’s private QQ chat group,” said Tang Yuanchu as he flipped through the doc.u.ments. “These are the statements of the moderators. They claimed that they have never seen the plot outline about the cat abuse, let alone discourage the author to write about that! Yet Xiang Wan was able to specifically point out the burnt dead cats inside the trash bin outside Zhao Jiahang’s neighborhood… Except that three cats have become two cats, the rest is exactly the same!”
“What does that mean?” asked Bai Muchuan.
“That means Xiang Wan is lying! She might not be the murderer, but she must be related to the murderer!”
“Why is it not the five of them who have lied?”
Is the possibility for one person to lie greater? Or the possibility for a group of people to lie greater?
For the five readers who had not seen each other before, would they say the same thing in unison?
If it was anyone else, the answer was obvious.
Hence, Tang Yuanchu could not understand why their Captain trusted Xiang Wan so much.
Bai Muchuan took a glance at him but did not explain anything. “What about the micro spy camera on Xiang Wan’s door? How do you explain that?”
Tang Yuanchu met his eyes. “If she can tell a lie, she can tell another lie. So of course, she can divert the attention away by making herself look like a victim!”
Bai Muchuan gave a sudden laugh while looking at him. “So you’re trying to tell me that a woman deliberately replicated a murder that’s exactly the same as her novel? She killed a complete stranger just to let her novel gain popularity and then hold her book signing event in jail? Is she a dumb*ss?”
There was silence in the conference room.
The detectives had an enormous amount of work stress. It was normal for them to swear occasionally, so everyone was accustomed to it.
However, Bai Muchuan seldom flared up. This was the first time he spouted a profanity, and it was certainly intimidating.
Tang Yuanchu lowered his head. Even Huang He’s heart almost jumped out of his chest when he heard that. “Boss, don’t forget that Xiang Wan’s a mystery fiction author…”
In other words, he was implying that she possessed a richer anti-criminal and reverse logical thinking than most ordinary people. She could have fully understood how the police worked and orchestrated her act by matching the police’s pace.
Bai Muchuan narrowed his eyes and looked at Huang He. He did not give him a reply.
Huang He was a little afraid of this new boss who had been transferred from ICPO. When his boss stared at him like that, he felt less confident.
“At least for now, we couldn’t find a suspect who’s more suspicious than Xiang Wan…” continued Huang He, “in any case, we should take her in custody to continue the interrogation…”
“Where’s the evidence?” Bai Muchuan stood up slowly. “So we’re relying on guessing to solve the case?”
Everyone was tongue-tied.
Bai Muchuan gave them a glance. “Why don’t all of you just quit and become authors of detective stories? With your ability to make up stories, all of you are guaranteed to become sensational authors!”
Some coughed awkwardly, while some snickered.
“Er Niu is dead!” Bai Muchuan gave a snort. “How did she die? How’s her social life like? Did she have a boyfriend? What did she use to do? Where’s her background check? Has anyone done a field survey? And the five readers, what makes all of you think they won’t lie? Is it really true that lying is tougher for the five of them than one person? What’s the spirit of detectives? Find, the, truth!”
Everyone was stunned.
Bai Muchuan touched his pockets, seemingly searching for cigarettes.
The next moment, he stopped his action. Someone offered him a cigarette, but he rejected and turned to Huang He instead.
“Go to the forensics team and ask them to hurry up with their report!”
“Yes boss!” said Huang as he stood up.
At this time, a voice came from the entrance of the conference room. “No need for that, I’m here!”
…