The Amber Part 5
The living room in Jin Qiu"s place was dimly lit. When Jiang Hu and the others stepped in, the girl"s mother was currently sitting with Jin Qiu on the sofa in wait. The young girl slowly raised her head, looking at the two people Su Junzi brought in, gaze a little s.p.a.ced out.
The lighting wasn"t too good. Likely because Jiang Hu couldn"t see clearly, he subconsciously took off his gla.s.ses, wiping it with the edge of his clothes.
Shen Yexi suddenly saw how Jiang Hu looked without gla.s.ses and was stunned for a moment. He thought, if this person showed up in front of him like this, then he absolutely had to pay special attention to him.
The corners of Jiang Hu"s eyes were very charming. Probably because of his mixed blood, his eye colour was very light. The line of his eyes were very clean but… how should he say it? It just gave people a very cold feeling.
Jin Qiu sharply raised her head to look. For some reason, she actually shrivelled up a little, fingers subconsciously grabbing her mother"s sleeve.
Jiang Hu put his gla.s.ses back on, smiling at Jin Qiu and speaking in a light voice, "Miss Jin, can I ask you a few questions?"
He used this sort of soft intonation. And added on with the shy smile and his polite speaking, the weak points of basically all of the women in the bureau would be attacked. Normally, at this time, Yang Man would have answered any requests. An Yining would probably fight it a little before she too, fell into his hands.
But Jin Qiu curled back into the sofa. Her body language suggested she subconsciously wanted to move further away from Jiang Hu. Then, she hesitated a little, two hands crossed in front of her. She raised her jaw and scrutinized him in alarm before she nodded.
Jiang Hu was a little stunned by her abrupt animosity and guardedness. Shen Yexi snickered in secret as he watched, mentally thinking mean-spiritedly, who asked a brat like you to act stupid for no reason at all. Now you"ve accidentally shot yourself on the foot, huh?
Jiang Hu asked, "Did you have a nightmare last night?"
Jin Qiu was stunned, nodded her head in hesitation.
"Can you tell me?"
"I… I dreamed that… he was tormenting them, hitting them, hearing them scream and cutting open their stomach…" Jin Qiu stopped for a moment, looking at Jiang Hu. "Then… Then, he walked towards me step after step. I started screaming, screaming… Then I woke up."
Shen Yexi collected his ridiculing expression, knitting his brows together.
"In the dream, where were you?" Jiang Hu continued to ask.
Jin Qiu lowered her head and spoke in a low voice. "He put me into a room. There were metal railings everywhere. The metal railings were sealing up the windows. The metal railings were sealing up the door…"
"A room surrounded by metal railings?" Jiang Hu asked.
Jin Qiu no longer spoke and began to cry quietly. Jin Qiu"s mother hugged her shoulders, telling the three with the rims of her eyes red, "I beg you, go and catch that sinful and vile, evil person. Stop asking, stop tormenting her!"
Jiang Hu pursed his lips, no longer saying anything. Shen Yexi nodded and told the mother and daughter on the sofa, "My apologies. We"ve bothered you. We"ll leave right now—Junzi, come out with me for a bit."
Walking out of the residence, Shen Yexi turned his head to glance at the empty window of Jin Qiu"s residence. He lowered his voice to tell Su Junzi, "Stay with them in the Jin residence today. I"ll get someone to switch with you tomorrow. If possible, help us to ask Jin Qiu more questions. I think, she seemed to be hiding something."
Su Junzi was startled. "What do you suspect her of?"
Shen Yexi shook his head. "I find her a little strange. It might be because we scared her, but looking at her, she seemed to be still quite willing to talk to you. Try to ask as much as possible? I"ll send a few more people to guard outside."
Su Junzi nodded. Before Shen Yexi left, he patted him, gaze stopping on the faintly discernible handgun holster on Su Junzi"s waist for a moment. Then he brought Jiang Hu back to the bureau.
Sheng Yao came out of the art alley before hiding in that remote little coffee shop. He called someone over and when he had arranged for the plain clothes for tailing outside the art alley, An Yining had already called him thrice to urge him back. It was only then that he stood up to head back. The sky was already beginning to dim a little.
He exited the art district that had dozens of turns and waterways, and there was a Bentley parked at the entrance. Sheng Yao didn"t give it more attention, directly walking past it. But for some reason, regarding this case, he had an especially odd feeling. He couldn"t say it for sure, but when he was sitting in the coffee shop and waiting for someone, that feeling seemed to have further intensified.
At this time, the car window behind him was suddenly drawn down. Someone called behind him. "Hey, Ah Sir."
In the beginning, Sheng Yao didn"t react to it. It was until he noticed that the bentley was following him slowly that he turned his head around.
The man with the sungla.s.ses sat inside, giving him a beaming sunshine grin. "Ah Sir, are you finished with work?"
"Sir", what do you mean "Sir"? You think you"re filming a Taiwan or Hong Kong drama[1] Sheng Yao unmovingly surveyed this man who took off his sungla.s.ses. He did look rather charming, and from how he looked, he was even rich. But… what was he pestering a police officer for?
"Ah Sir ah, when I hugged your waist earlier, I noticed that there was something hard at the side of your waist. It couldn"t be a real gun, right? That"s cool!" Actually, your waist was also very slender.
"Mn, thanks." The car that he drove here with was parked at a place not far away. Normally, it didn"t matter, but when there was a problem and he encountered this kind of pestering, it really… Mn, made one not sure whether they should laugh or cry.
"How do I call you, Ah Sir? When we meet each other again in the future, to keep calling you Ah Sir and Ah Sir, would be too distant, right?"—Although when the other party flashed his badge earlier, a certain someone already saw it.
Sheng Yao turned around to glance at him and grinned. "You won"t want to see me." That usually meant that you were unluckily dragged into a certain big, heavy case with nasty circ.u.mstances.
Dazzled by his smile, the man with the sungla.s.ses winked hard. "Ah Sir ah, don"t you find me familiar? I"m Shu Jiu. In the future, I still plan on expanding further in this city. If I get to know you, won"t I be able to ask you for help[2]?"
I"m Shu Jiu? Not "My name is Shu Jiu" or, "your humble servant, Shu Jiu and such". As though others would naturally know him. Sheng Yao scrutinized this person. Although his skin had a wheatish complexion, you can clearly tell that it was maintained exceedingly well. There was even a hint of him living like a prince. Mn… His skin color was likely from something intentional, like sunbathing. The hand resting on the car window carried an innate strength. His expression and tone when he spoke, and also their coincidental meeting and the secretive sungla.s.ses…
Sheng Yao asked, "What, you"re in s...o...b..z?"
Shu Jiu"s breath nearly didn"t make it through. He didn"t expect that there was no market for him at all nearing the inland. It took a long while before he asked, falteringly, "Ah Sir, you don"t watch TV?"
Sheng Yao mentally thought, how would I have the time to watch TV…
"Then, how do you know I"m in s...o...b..z?"
"I"m a cop. So I"m probably more sensitive to people"s ident.i.ties." Sheng Yao half-heartedly explained with a beaming smile. He unlocked his car, pulling open his car door and readied to jump in.
"Waitwaitwaitwait, Ah Sir, you really don"t want to consider it?"
"Consider what?"
"About being my bedmate. When I have a specific bedmate, I"m very wholehearted. I absolutely won"t go out and mess around. And I"m physically healthy. I…"
Sheng Yao shook his head.
"Why?" Shu Jiu had been praised and flattered by people often, and it was very rare for him to be rejected again and again by someone.
Sheng Yao thought about it earnestly. Then, he also looked at Shu Jiu in seriousness. He said it in a deadly earnest tone, "I like dainter ones, ones that are more obedient. For types like Mr. Shu, I"m worried that I"ll be on the losing end on the bed."
After he finished, he closed the door and drove off.
Shu Jiu was stunned on the original spot before he complained, as though he suffered a slight blow. "Who was the one who told me that people of the mainland were conservative?"
Sheng Yao? Of course Sheng Yao won"t be angry. The other party didn"t have any ill intentions. It wasn"t like he couldn"t tell. If it wasn"t for this person appearing at the wrong time and him being busy, or if this person was slightly more graceful, he might have nodded. After getting himself out of this interruption, he turned on the police siren, speeding his way back. Other than Su Junzi, everyone had already gathered.
Yang Man and An Yining took turns in questioning Wu Zhida. One banged the table as she insulted and threatened while the other earnestly advised and guided him. Until now, they didn"t manage to get any answers out of him, so they could only temporarily detain him. But because there wasn"t any evidence, they couldn"t detain him for long either.
Yang Man came out of the interrogation room to guzzle water. Once she saw Sheng Yao had returned, she laughed. "You took such a long time? You indulged in pleasure and forgot about your duty, didn"t you. How many pretty girls in the arts did you fool around with?"
Sheng Yao pursed his lips. "Not even half a pretty girl. Instead, there was a muscular and built man who jumped out to recommend his own bed to me."
Yang Man spat. A pair of phoenix eyes widened in saucers. Sheng Yao thought that she was going to joke around with him again, but in the end, he heard the great Miss Yang made a loud wail. "Why don"t I ever encounter something like this? If I knew about this sooner, I"ll have gone! Staying at this place to interrogate this tramp even filled the stomach of your mother here with fire."
Shen Yexi happened to walk in. Hearing this voice, he laughed. "Go do whatever. My cousin sister learns art. That kind of thinking, huh, tsk. Look. Sheng Yao"s face still looks green now."
Sheng Yao laughed and didn"t continue the topic. Then, he asked, "Where"s Junzi?"
"At Jin Qiu"s house, protecting the flower." An Yining answers easily.
Sheng Yao suddenly knitted his brows together and Shen Yexi caught it. "What"s wrong?"
"I don"t know… Jin Qiu—" That odd feeling seemed to have resurfaced again. Sheng Yao wanted to grab onto it, but he couldn"t catch it no matter what. "—is a little strange."
Shen Yexi looked back to glance at Jiang Hu. The latter was stunned, silent. So Shen Yexi concisely briefed Sheng Yao about what happened in the day. Sheng Yao thought about it, taking his car key as he walked out. "Why don"t we do this. Tonight, I"ll go over to keep Junzi company. If by any chance, something happens, we can take care of each other too. You guys can continue investigating. If you make any discoveries, call and inform me."
After finishing, he hurriedly left. An Yining raised an eyebrow, shaking her head and sighing, "Humans are like gales, leaving quick like lightning…"
"Talk business, Yining, how is Wu Zhida?" Shen Yexi interrupted the nonsense she was sprouting on the car.
"A vulgar person." An Yining thought for a bit and summarized him. "He didn"t graduate from middle school before working outside. He was practically someone of a different world from his brother, Wu Ju. The feeling he gives me… is someone who is incapable of doing such a meticulous thing."
When she said the two words "meticulous thing", she gritted her teeth a little.
"And there wasn"t any obvious abuse done to the victims. The results from the forensic pathologist"s report proved that prior to the victims" death, they were under the effects of the drugs, so they were unconscious." Shen Yexi said, "This aspect is different from Wu Ju. One of Wu Ju"s main motivations to kill was abuse. The new killer didn"t have such a motivation, and seem to be practically killing people for the sake of killing people."
"Then, what do you think their motivation is?" Yang Man asked.
Shen Yexi was silent for a while and said slowly, "The feeling that they give me is like they"re commemorating Wu Ju, paying Wu Ju respects."
"There was also another different aspect." Jiang Hu suddenly inserted himself in. "Wu Ju"s victims included men and women. To him, the women who were easier to control seemed to be people to waste his time away on, and men were his main target. While this person…"
He didn"t continue, because everyone already understood—the Amber Killer Number 2"s victims were all dainty, young women.
The author has something to say:
There isn"t much in this chapter. My cla.s.smate came today. Everyone, just make do with this chapter
Translator Notes:
[1]: In police dramas, particularly in Hong Kong, the common way to refer to a police officer is "Ah Sir" (阿sir). I recommend watching Infernal Affairs if you"re interested in HK police dramas. It"s very good.
[2]: It means a little more like, "I could be in your care too", which is something that could be said during polite introduction too. In the raws, it is not explicitly said who would be in whose care, but I personally think it was rather rude and arrogant to say "won"t I be able to help you if we get to know each other".