Chapter 391: We’re Brothers!
Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
Rest?
How could anyone rest there?
Watching how Meng Chi’s expression suddenly changed, Quan Shaoteng almost burst out laughing.
He also got up from his seat while the corners of his lips perked upwards and left without saying a word.
“I didn’t kill anyone! How can you detain me here forcefully?!” Meng Chi had clearly reached his limit.
He growled angrily at Bai Muchuan and Quan Shaoteng. “This is intentional right? You’re deliberately seeking revenge! Captain Bai, have I offended you in any way at all the other time?”
Bai Muchuan did not even bother to say anything else in return. Quan Shaoteng, on the other hand, turned to face him. “Don’t create a ruckus!” He asked him seriously, “What’s the use of getting angry now?”
Meng Chi remained quiet thereafter. “…”
His shoulders heaved as he panted; such an arrangement really exasperated him.
However, there was nothing he could do.
Quan Shaoteng’s lips formed a smile. “Goodbye!”
Hur! Meng Chi was feeling much bitterness as shown on his expression.
“I want a cigarette, will that do?!” He drawled.
“Does CEO Meng really like to watch detective films?” Quan Shaoteng looked exaggeratedly around the questioning room. “Since when is smoking allowed inside the questioning room?”
“…” Meng Chi refused to speak anymore.
He remained seated within the questioning room and looked at them without moving.
He was also looking at Xiang Wan who was beside Bai Muchuan.
The questioning room was rather stuffy while the air hardly moved. Meng Chi just sat there alone, rooted to the spot.
…
After leaving the questioning room, Quan Shaoteng could no longer stay calm and was cackling in amus.e.m.e.nt.
“Little Bai! You did that on purpose, right?”
Bai Muchuan turned around, not showing much emotion. “What?”
Quan Shaoteng moved his mouth, pointing toward the direction of that pathetic CEO in the questioning room.
“Did you not do that to him on purpose?”
In fact, after questioning him, they could let Meng Chi leave.
By forcefully keeping him to “rest” inside there looked as if they had just conducted a prank on him.
However, Bai Muchuan only returned a sneer.
“This is according to protocol!”
“…”
“Remember! One should never let their own emotions affect them during the investigation!”
“… What the bleep!”
Quan Shaoteng got lectured by him. He shook his head and showed a bitter laugh.
“It’s a good thing that I’ve already determined my relationship with you…”
Eh? Xiang Wan happened to hear that. “What kind of relationship do you both have?”
“Friends!” Quan Shaoteng scoffed, “I’m his friend, yet he’s always pranking me. If I’m not his friend, I’d have died from those pranks…”
“It won’t happen!” Xiang Wan glanced at him seriously. “He’ll only prank humans!”
Eh? What does that mean?
What he heard puzzled him.
Xiang Wan scurried past him to walk beside Bai Muchuan.
After a second, Quan Shaoteng flounced. “In the future, I won’t treat you supper anymore! Little Bai, now that you’ve got a girlfriend, you forgot about your brothers! You even let your girlfriend bully me! No, you both collude together to bully me…”
Bai Muchuan turned his head and ‘dealt another blow’. “You know, you can also get a girlfriend too, right? You can come and bully me if you have the guts.”
“…”
That hurts, buddy!
However, his words made Quan Shaoteng realize something!
He could not win against both of them because he did not have enough “manpower”!
It was because it had been one versus two which placed him at a disadvantage.
…
He took out his mobile phone and scrolled for a long time.
He did not find any female friend who could possibly suit him as his girlfriend.
“… Is it so difficult to find someone to fall in love with?”
That night, Quan Shaoteng was the one who paid for the supper treat.
He had a miserable expression as he turned to Tu Liang and the rest of the team. “I’ve really lost Little Bai!”
“…”
Someone coughed when trying to suppress laughter.
n.o.body dared to continue the topic.
Quan Shaoteng said bitterly, “I’m here in Serious Crime Division One because of Little Bai. In the end, when I’m here, he’s bleeping ‘gone’!”
“…”
Tu Liang harrumphed as he picked up a stick of barbecued spareribs, “Captain Quan hasn’t met a suitable girl yet? When I was as old as you, my kid can already call me ‘daddy’…”
What!?
Quan Shaoteng shot daggers at him.
“Every one of you is trying to rub salt into my wound, huh?”
Ding Yifan lifted his head. “I’m only interested in the kebab. Besides, I don’t have salt!”
Hmph! Quan Shaoteng snorted as he looked at Bai Muchuan and Xiang Wan who was sitting on the other end, eating kebab he had bought and was talking softly amongst themselves. Both of them seemed immersed in their own world that no one else could join in.
“D*rn!” He took a big bite at the spareribs. Now he felt even lonelier. “I want a transfer back!”
“Please don’t, Captain Quan!” Tu Liang persuaded, “Isn’t it the same anywhere else? At least the dog food here is quite nice, isn’t it?”
“Who says so?” Quan Shaoteng snorted arrogantly, “Over at Red Thorn, all of them are bachelors. Absolutely no dog food there!”
“… Cough, cough, cough!”
Ding Yifan choked and immediately reached out to get water.
“Captain Quan, pardon me for saying this,” said Tu Liang in a tone as if he was offering advice, “this is not the best solution to solve this problem! You should try to get a girlfriend and flaunt back! Won’t it be better to get your revenge instead?!”
Quan Shaoteng appeared dazed for a moment. He was holding a kebab on his hand as he sank deep in his thoughts.
What they were saying was starting to make sense.
…
“This young fellow Salimu must be so bored in the hospital.”
Tu Liang’s sudden remark pulled Quan Shaoteng back from his thoughts.
At this time, Salimu was still recuperating in the hospital. If they mentioned his name, it must be due to the Gossip chat group Quan Shaoteng had created.
Quan Shaoteng unlocked his mobile phone to take a look.
At the chat group, Salimu started off by asking: “h.e.l.lo! Is Mei Xin here?”
Mei Xin then responded, “?”
Salimu replied right away, “How old are you this year? I saw your WeChat Moments about a pair of back views. Heheh, I’m really curious… Who is that guy?”
… Is he digging for gossip?
Mei Xin seldom chatted in the chat group.
Everyone thought she would not reply.
n.o.body expected that she would do so. “A dead person!”
It shocked Salimu. “Ah! Dead? I’m sorry!”
Mei Xin replied simply with another “?”
Salimu chatted back, “Isn’t that guy your boyfriend?”
Mei Xin responded lazily. “… Nope.”
Salimu was quick to respond again. “So who’s that person with you in that picture?”
Mei Xin gave a vague reply. “That’s not me.”
Salimu responded again with a rather inquisitive att.i.tude. “Ah? You’re not in the picture? Then why did you post it in your WeChat Moments? Then again, the picture is really nice. The angle and the back views as well as the background are actually quite artistic. Is that why you posted it?”
Mei Xin responded with an uncharacteristically lengthy chat. “Nope, the reason why I posted it is because I did the autopsy for both of them. It was my first autopsy. I want to keep it as a memento!”
Salimu couldn’t believe what he had just read. “…”
It was the only picture she had on her WeChat Moments.
And it was because of this reason?
Salimu, who failed in his attempt to please a girl, could not say another word.
Everyone else who was there eating their kebab said nothing either. They just felt like laughing.
Quan Shaoteng looked at the beef kebab he was holding and cleared his throat. Next, he put back the beef kebab he had not eaten and puffed a sigh. In the next instant, he suddenly laughed self-mockingly.
“Seems like I’m not the only one in our team destined to be single!”
“Mm?” Tu Liang swept a glance at him and picked the beef kebab while chewing it slowly.
Quan Shaoteng frowned a little as he watched how he ate.
In no time, a somewhat conceited smirk appeared on his face.
“That Mei Xin! Don’t you think she’s even in a more precarious position than me when it comes to being single? If I want to pick up girls, I can do that easily… But she’s different. For a girl like her, who would dare want her? Tch, tch, who wants to have nightmares every day!?”
“…”
n.o.body spoke.
Tu Liang’s facial expression seemed odd.
Ding Yifan’s eating speed obviously slowed down too.
They were stealing glances at him.
There was a moment of dead silence between all of them.
Quan Shaoteng suddenly felt something amiss and turned his head.
“…”
Mei Xin was standing not too far away behind the group. She seemed rooted to the spot and her cold face was expressionless.
In just a split second, Quan Shaoteng’s expression went from his initial shock to being frozen on the spot.
Actually, he held no bad feelings for Mei Xin. That earlier sentence was simply a casual remark he said for fun. However, as she overheard it, the situation got more awkward than he had antic.i.p.ated.
“My apologies…” He was always unrestrained and carefree, but at that moment, he seemed really uneasy. “Mei Xin, I’m always… joking around like this. In my heart, you’re the same as the group of brothers to me. We’re all brothers, don’t take it to heart okay…”
Right, we’re brothers!
Mei Xin’s eyelid twitched when she heard that. She nodded her head to express her understanding.
“Captain Bai, Captain Cheng asked you to come to the Forensics Department for a while!”
…
She was there to look for Bai Muchuan.
After she pa.s.sed the message, she left emotionlessly.
“I’m finished!” Quan Shaoteng groaned, “My pride hurts!”
“You won’t!” Bai Muchuan got up from his seat and glanced at him casually. “You don’t have that, to begin with!”
He left as well!
It bewildered Quan Shaoteng.
To him, to be caught red-handed while joking about another person was a failure beyond all forms of mistake he could possibly commit.
“D*rn! Why couldn’t I control my mouth?”
He rubbed his temples. While he was still feeling uncomfortable, he looked at Xiang Wan.
“Well, do women tend to… take such things to heart?”
Xiang Wan smiled. “She won’t. After all, we’re all brothers!”
Quan Shaoteng was dumbfounded. “…”
…
Eating supper was a break for the team.
This was because every one of them needed to work throughout the night.
When there was a new clue, they had to work overtime for investigation.
When Bai Muchuan arrived in the Forensics Department, Cheng Zheng pa.s.sed him a report.
“The latest autopsy report showed that the time of death of the unidentified corpse was three hours earlier before the time Xiang Wan got abducted to Wen Xin Nunnery…”
In his area of forte, Cheng Zheng’s level of persistence was similar to having an Obsessive Compulsive Disorder in order to ensure that everything was tested and verified.
The facilities and forensic equipment in Xi City was not as advanced and complete as what Serious Crime Division One had in the Capital. Moreover, the location of where they found the unknown corpse was rather special. On the day Xiang Wan got abducted, it was snowing. Hence, all these external factors could have affected the accuracy of determining when the deceased had died. He had suspected that, but he was unsure. After their a.n.a.lysis meeting, he sent the information to their colleagues at the Capital where they derived a conclusion after a comprehensive a.n.a.lysis.
Bai Muchuan looked at the report. “Do you think the conclusion is accurate?”
Cheng Zheng shrugged his shoulders. “It should be!”
Bai Muchuan replied thereafter, “You’re not someone who says ‘should’!”
Cheng Zheng responded with an excuse. “It’s because I’m not in the Capital—”
He was the same as Bai Muchuan on this aspect. The person whom he believed the most was himself.
Since this was not what he had concluded, he did not dare to give anyone a 100 percent guarantee.
Such a conclusion could ascertain that Xiang Wan was right…
The unknown corpse was not the man she met at Wen Xin Nunnery!
There was silence for a moment.
Cheng Zheng asked Bai Muchuan, “Any findings at your end?”
Bai Muchuan huffed a heavy sigh. “Ye Lun and those who are present during their fight are now on their way to Xi City! Ha.s.san is the one escorting them over. There’s also a problem. According to what Ha.s.san got after interrogating Ye Lun, between Yu Ning and Ye Lun, at least one of them is lying…”
“Mm?” Cheng Zheng did not take part in the interrogation and did not know what had happened.
Bai Muchuan looked at him.
“Yu Ning claimed that both of them got hurt after their fight,” he grunted, “then the film crew got a doctor to attend to their injuries…”
Cheng Zheng narrowed his eyes. “What did Ye Lun say?”
Bai Muchuan’s cold eyes narrowed slightly. “Ye Lun claimed that Yu Ning was not hurt at all during the fight. At that time, he said he only gave Yu Ning a punch, but the latter flared up and picked up something to retaliate. He also claimed that Yu Ning was so savage as if he wanted to take his life. He could only defend himself and could not retaliate. He argued that he was the only one who got hurt…”
…