The door was half-closed.
Xiang Wan delayed for a while before lowering her head and knocking on the door gently.
There was no sound inside.
Xiang Wan pushed the door a little.
There was nobody inside.
She had contemplated about what to say before she knocked on the door but seemed like she had wasted her time.
Bai Muchuan was not inside the office.
She was holding her resignation letter as she looked down at her phone.
“Teacher Xiang…”
Tang Yuanchu came from behind and looked at her in surprise. “You’re looking for Captain Bai?”
“Mm.” Xiang Wan’s finger pointed at the door and smiled at him. “Captain Bai’s not here?”
Uh! Tang Yuanchu was about to speak but laughed after looking at her for a few seconds.
“You didn’t know that Captain Bai has gone out in afternoon? He and Xie Hui had gone to pay Xie Wanwan a visit to understand more about the case.”
‘Oh, I didn’t know.” Xiang Wan smiled awkwardly. “I’ll get going then…”
Tang Yuanchu pointed to her hand and asked warmly, “You have something to give Captain Bai? I’m going over later, I can help you pass it to him…”
Help pass it to him…
Xiang Wan thought for a moment and felt that it was better to give her resignation letter personally.
She shook her head with a smile and thanked Tang Yuanchu. She took her laptop bag and left quietly.
When she was out of the building, Cheng Zheng’s car appeared in sight.
“Are you going home? Hop on, I’ll drive you back.”
Xiang Wan furrowed her brows slightly. Then she saw Tang Yuanchu as well as other detectives coming out of the building. “I’m meeting Yuanyuan to go shopping, and it’s not really on the way. You can go back first, Captain Cheng! Bye…”
She waved at Captain Cheng then walked away, disappearing into the crowd with her laptop bag.
Cheng Zheng watched her slim back view for a moment and chased after her. When the car went past her, he pressed the horn and the car sped off into the distance.
…
In the middle of September, it was the time where autumn officially replaced summer in Jin City.
The sun was still bright at noon where it made the earth stuffy and hot. At dusk, however, the sky kept its scorching rays and it began to rain.
Xiang Wan lifted her head to look at the sky. Some scattered raindrops landed on her face, she quickly checked the weather forecast for the day.
For the upcoming week, there would be moderate to heavy rain.
Usually, Xiang Wan would just watch and forget about the rain forecast.
But it was different that day.
Due to the drizzle as well as the fact that it was the peak hour, it was not easy to get a cab.
Furthermore, as she was wearing a skirt, she couldn’t even ride a shared bicycle…
After waiting for over ten minutes, she canceled her cab booking.
When Cheng Zheng was choosing a house, he must have thought about how he could get to work. Her current residence was not that far from her workplace… Why not just walk back? It was only about the distance of about two metro stations.
Once Xiang Wan had this thought, she immediately acted on it.
After leaving school, she seldom walked on the road as if without a purpose. As she walked past the crowds, quietly thinking about life and her future, her restless mind gradually calmed down.
Would it really be a good choice to tender her resignation at the moment?
Like a deserter, she might have felt good temporarily and there would only be embarrassment when she looked back about it one day—she had gotten nothing done and left like a clown scurrying away from the audience. Even she would despise herself if she really did this.
Moreover, when she accepted the job, she had wanted to learn more about profiling and gain more experiences so she could write her novel better. It was not because of Bai Muchuan at all.
How could she forget about what she had wanted to do?
Even if Bai Muchuan did not let her participate in the investigations, she could still get information about the case, which would still be faster than reading them on the internet. Wouldn’t it still be better than writing at home alone, behind closed doors?
She could still learn, just that the methods had changed.
If he didn’t want her to be directly involved in the case, wouldn’t it also mean she had more time to write? Why was she upset about it then?
By thinking that day, the gloom was suddenly lifted from her heart.
When she looked up, the light rain gradually became gentle and fell on her, comfortable and carefree.
Sure enough, when one encountered something troubling and think from a different angle, one might suddenly be enlightened.
Xiang Wan smiled and hummed a tone leisurely.
Once her mood changed, everything looked good; even the smell from the roadside food stand was more attractive than usual.
She was a little hungry.
She stopped and turned to a barbecue food stand to get something to eat.
At this moment, however, the corner of her eye saw a car following her and slowed down when she turned. Yet it suddenly sped up when Xiang Wan turned to look at it and disappeared into the main traffic…
Could it be someone was stalking her?
Xiang Wan narrowed her eyes for a while, but she didn’t see clearly and was a little confused.
The surrounding was as usual, full of strangers and unfamiliar faces.
Hah!
She laughed.
She might have been paranoid!
She was not a big shot, who would make the effort to stalk her?
“Uncle, I want a hashbrown and this, a serving of stinky tofu…”
The smell of the food was so delicious that Xiang Wan directly ate them as she walked back.
When the food went into her stomach, she felt warm all over.
The sky was starting to get dark when she was nearing her neighborhood.
The drizzle rain did not stop but gradually started to get bigger.
At the entrance of the neighborhood, Fang Yuanyuan stood by the roadside with an umbrella, on and off she would stand on tiptoe as if she was looking for something amidst the passing cars.
Xiang Wan stopped as she was puzzled by her behavior. She walked over to her. “Yuanyuan, what are you doing here?”
Fang Yuanyuan turned around and was stunned for a moment before quickly sheltering Xiang Wan with the umbrella. She did not expect that Xiang Wan would walk back home.
“What are you doing? Why didn’t you pick up the phone? You’ve scared me to death. I thought something happened to you…”
Eh? Xiang Wan quickly took out her mobile phone in her bag.
True enough, there were a lot of missed calls.
Besides Fang Yuanyuan, there were two other person who called her.
One was her mom, and the other person was Cheng Zheng.
“…”
Xiang Wan checked her phone. “My bad, I didn’t know that the phone has been switched to silent mode.”
Speaking of which, she looked up. “Why did they call me so many times?”
“It’s all because of you. Why didn’t you let me know beforehand about your lie as it involved me? I was on my way home and I happened to meet Cheng Zheng. He asked me why didn’t I go shopping with you… I was totally taken aback… So the lie got busted.”
“…”
“In the end, I called you up, but you never picked the phone. That worried me and I called up your mom to check if you visited her.”
“…”
She just took a walk home and so much had happened?
Xiang Wan rolled her eyes when Fang Yuanyuan continued to ramble on. “Consequently, I started to get nervous and called Cheng Zheng. He suggested me to call up Bai Muchuan and even gave me his number…”
Xiang Wan’s heart skipped a beat upon hearing that name.
“You called him?”
“Uh! I did.”
“…” Xiang Wan gasped. “What did he say?”
Fang Yuanyuan just continued talking without observing her expression. “What can he say? He said you’re not with him.”
“That’s all?”
“That’s all.” Fang Yuanyuan glanced at her, pouting. “Why? What else do you want?”
Xiang Wan: “…”
Indeed, what else do I want?
The missed calls were proof enough that he was not concerned about the safety of his subordinate, she thought.
Xiang Wan paused for a moment, and under Fang Yuanyuan’s umbrella, she decided to call her mom.
“Hello, Wanwan!” The moment Tan Yunchun heard her daughter’s voice, her anxious mood alleviated instantly. “What’s the matter with you? Where did you go? Yuanyuan and myself have been so worried…”
Xiang Wan gave Fang Yuanyuan a glare then spoke in cheerful tone, “Mom, don’t worry. I’m perfectly fine. I didn’t go anywhere. It was just that my phone has been switched to silent mode and I didn’t know about it. That’s why I didn’t pick up the calls… .”
“Oh alright. But the job that you’re doing now, how can I not worry about it? You need to deal with criminals all the time. You don’t even know that mom couldn’t sleep well these days just from thinking about your job…”
Pffft! Xiang Wan laughed. “When I’m a full-time author, you said being an author is not good as the income is not stable, is not in much contact with society and sooner or later I’ll become a nutcase. Now that I have a proper job, you’re still not satisfied…”
“It’s not that I’m dissatisfied. Aye, lass, mom’s worried about you. Didn’t another major case just happened in Jin City? Mom’s really worried!”
“Don’t worry, mom.” Xiang Wan paused for a while and laughed. “I don’t work with criminals. I work in an office, look at cases, and write analysis reports. It’s similar to an administrative officer in an office. You understand now?”
“Really?” Tan Yunchun could not quite believe it.
“Really, I promise!”
Hearing her laughter in a carefree, relaxed tone, Tan Yunchun laughed as well.
“Alright then, make sure you work hard and get along with your colleagues. Talk lesser and do more work, don’t be afraid of doing more work than you should. If you don’t encounter all of these when young, you might regret when you’re old!”
“…” These words… Mom thought of them herself?
Xiang Wan listened and couldn’t help giving herself a facepalm. She exchanged glances with Fang Yuanyuan and the two couldn’t resist chuckling.
“Okay mom! I just came back home and I’m wet from the rain. I need to get a bath now so we’ll talk again another time.”
“Why didn’t you bring an umbrella with you whenever you go out? You just don’t know how to take care of yourself. Hurry and go then…”
However, Tan Yunchun suddenly puffed a sigh and remembered something. “Hold on a moment, when are you going to bring Little Cheng back for a meal? Your youngest aunt just asked me yesterday how are you getting along with Little Cheng? I don’t know how to answer her. Your nonchalant attitude… when will we not worry about you?…”
“Mom!” The moment she heard this, she felt her head aching.
“I’ve already talked to Cheng Zheng. We are just friends and we won’t go anything beyond that…”
“Ah? What did you say?”
“Just as what you’ve heard. Your ear is still good.”
“…” Tan Yunchun paused for a moment. “What did Little Cheng say?”
“He’s the one who suggested it. He said we’ll be friends and I’ve agreed. Isn’t this good?”
For this matter, Xiang Wan was somewhat right to say that.
Ever since she rejected him for the third time, Cheng Zheng did say to become friends.
And it was also what Xiang Wan could accept. Being friends was certainly harmonious and more relaxed for both of them.
“Sigh!”
Tan Yunchun heaved a heavy sigh on the other end of phone.
“Good grief! Such a fine man, where are you going to find another one like him…”
She could sense that her mom would be nagging any moment and shuddered at that thought. “Oh mom! I’m getting colder now. I need to hurry up and go for a bath. That’s it then, bye!”
After that, she quickly hang up and heaved a relieved sigh.
Fang Yuanyuan was also relaxed. “Seeing you like that made me saw my future. It’s too scary…”
Xiang Wan gave her a glance. “What do you mean by your future, it’s basically your present, alright?”
Fang Yuanyuan: “…”
Their family did not know that she was still in a relationship with Huang He.
If this matter was kept under wraps, it would be peaceful.
But once their family knew about it, she couldn’t imagine what would happen.
Maybe the rain had affected the mood, Fang Yuanyuan also gave a sigh as she looked at the thin layer of rain.
“I don’t like the autumn and the rain. Look at those leaves, they were originally good but fallen to the ground now. The weather earlier was good but suddenly desolate in the rain, it made me quite uncomfortable.”
Xiang Wan walked alongside her in silence. After awhile, she held Yuanyuan’s shoulder with her arm.
“It will be better. Think about it from a different angle, maybe the heavens wanted to put your relationship with Huang He to test?”
Fang Yuanyuan was a positive and optimistic person. After being comforted by her, she laughed.
“Hm, I can only think of it this way. But, what’s going on between you and Detective Bai?”
“Nothing’s going on…”
“When I called him today, I was really worried. He didn’t call you up?”
Xiang Wan looked at the phone she was holding in her palm and smiled.
“I already said it’s okay. Why should he look for me anyway, on what basis?!”
“I feel that the two of you… seems weird.”
“Which person you don’t think is weird?”
“You’re right. Didn’t we always say that there are three types of weird people? The first group are the romance fiction editors, the second group are the romance fiction authors, the third are the romance fiction readers…”
Pffft! “What the!”
…
The rain persisted through the night.
When the new day began, there was still foggy and raining outside.
In the early morning, Xiang Wan opened her windows. The trees and plants in the neighborhood were all wet, the whole area was washed by the rain, and was clean and clear.
Huff! As she breathed in the fresh air into her lungs, Xiang Wan felt refreshed.
When she got out from the bedroom, Fang Yuanyuan had already eaten breakfast.
Xiang Wan was stupefied.
She thought that after yesterday’s lie, as well as the rainy weather, Cheng Zheng should not have come.
“Morning!” As usual, Cheng Zheng was sitting on the sofa at his usual spot, wearing his usual expression. It was as though nothing had changed.
Xiang Wan was silent for a moment and smiled politely. “Morning, Captain Cheng. Seems like the rain could not stop you from having your morning jog?”
Cheng Zheng said, “I’m used to it! I’ve persisted for more than ten years.”
Xiang Wan nodded her head in surprise and went back to her bed to get some cash and she placed them on the coffee table. “Captain Cheng has been buying us breakfast for the past few days. Me and Yuanyuan feel embarrassed if we don’t pay you back. Please take this money, treat it as our share for the breakfast.”
Cheng Zheng lifted his head and looked at her indifferently.
“We are friends as well as neighbors. There’s really no need for this?”
“Precisely because we’re friends, we can’t always be taking advantage of you, right? Otherwise, how are we going to be friends in the long term?”
She had a calm smile on her face, but there was insistence and stubbornness in her eyes.
Cheng Zheng nodded his head as acceptance. “I’ll accept it then.”
Xiang Wan eased up when he did so. “Thank you! And I’ve decided with Yuanyuan that in order to hone our cooking skills, from tomorrow onwards, we will take turns to prepare breakfast, so…”
Fang Yuanyuan had a face full of questions and looked at her with a dumpling still inside her mouth. “Hey…”
Xiang Wan returned a stare at her and continued to smile at Cheng Zheng. “So we won’t be troubling Captain Cheng.”
Cheng Zheng glanced at her and then at Fang Yuanyuan, nodding his head as if he did not take it to heart.
“Alright. I think it’s great to make breakfast. It’s more nutritious, If that’s the case, then I won’t buy breakfast anymore…”
Xiang Wan’s uneasy heart was about to rest when she heard Cheng Zheng’s voice. “Then I’ll come over to your house tomorrow for breakfast. Occasionally, when both of you couldn’t get up in time, I can help out too.”
“Captain Cheng…”
“We are neighbors as well as friends, I should do that.” Cheng Zheng raised an eyebrow. “Or you’re not willing to let me come for breakfast?”
“…”
Is this what it meant by a taste of my own medicine?
Xiang Wan realized that her level was not high enough.
Or rather she had underestimated Cheng Zheng’s stubbornness toward this matter.
Nevertheless, for a man who had the tenacity to jog every day, he could persist on doing anything.
Fortunately, Cheng Zheng didn’t make it too difficult for them. From beginning till end, he never showed too much affection for her, only treating her as a friend and colleague.
When they arrived at the office, Cheng Zheng went to park his car, while Xiang Wan went straight to the office and noticed that the atmosphere was heavier than usual.
Usually, she would see her colleagues joke around while having their breakfast to lighten the mood. That morning, however, everyone was very quiet, and there was no communication between them.
Xiang Wan felt a little weird as she walked to her desk, placed her laptop on the table, and asked the colleague who sat beside her.
“What happened? Everyone’s a mute today?”
Sitting beside her was a newcomer who just completed his military service and came back to Jin City to look for a job. He joined the Criminal Investigation Unit later than Xiang Wan and everyone called him Little Liu. Hence, he was not very familiar with the processes and interpersonal relationships in the team.
He shook his head. “I don’t know.”
Xiang Wan asked, “Why aren’t you talking with them?”
Little Liu replied, “Everyone’s not talking, so I dared not talk, either.”
On second thought, he took a look at Bai Muchuan’s office and squeezed his eyes. “Well, Boss came in looking all dark and brooding, everyone felt cold and chilly on their back. Who would dare to talk?”
Xiang Wan nodded her head and opened her laptop to check her email.
There was no new email.
Bai Muchuan did not reply anything about the profiling analysis she wrote.
Xiang Wan lifted her head to look at his office and closed her email.
That day, she did not get to see Bai Muchuan.
He seemed to be avoiding her deliberately. She knew that, so she did not look him up either and would not ask for the reason. What she could do was to write her views and deductions into her novel “Murder The Dream Guy”. This little desk had become the battleground for her powers of reasoning.
By using a real case as basis, she had a more realistic touch in her writing.
She focused on her story and was able to write the plot smoothly. The number of subscriptions were growing steadily as the number of words increased. This was a healthy growing trend.
Xiang Wan was very satisfied about her writing.
She had a desire for the success of the novel.
She knew very well that to a woman, having a good career was more important than having a good boyfriend. She need to have the ability to support herself.
She did exactly what Bai Muchuan had said. Without him, she would still carry on living her life.
At least, it was like this on the surface.
Subconsciously, she actually agreed with Bai Muchuan’s views. No matter love or marriage, it was an equivalent exchange. Only when she could stand firmly on her own feet would she have the strength to pursue what she want. Otherwise, even if she had luck on her side, she would not be at ease…
Nothing would beat the stability of using the money that she earned by herself.
Sometimes, she did not know if there was something wrong in her brain.
She was reasonable at times, but she also had the tendency to overthink things, and had a strong personal consciousness.
Thus, rather than saying she had rejected Bai Muchuan, it was more accurate to say that she had rejected herself for not being good enough for him.
The feelings of young people, the two who were unable to find the sense of security they wanted yet they were unwilling to bend their knees… Even if they might have been together for now, the relationship would not be able to go on in the future.
She felt at ease and devoted herself to her work.
Thus, Bai Muchuan was though a silhouette that was pasted in her heart. He was constantly there but no longer constantly missed.
Everyday, she would come to work in high spirits and look for Tang Yuanchu to understand about the case. Then, she would do her own work. Prior to leaving office, she would send him her profiling analysis when she felt there was a need.
Bai Muchuan never replied to her.
Not even once.
The emails were as if stones thrown into a lake, and she would never get a reply.
She did not even know if he did read them or not.
However, Xiang Wan no longer minded it.
When she got the information from Tang Yuanchu, she would fully immerse herself in the case.
At present, according to Xie Wanwan, the person who contacted her was Cao Mengjia.
Cao Mengjia wormed her way through her fan club and came to Jin City with her fan club members. When they clashed with Ye Lun’s fans, she was the one who suddenly aimed the knife at Xie Wanwan and stabbed the female assistant, Yu Hui, instead. Later on, she threatened Xie Wanwan with the voice recordings inside the doll to do a live-streaming of her suicide. Otherwise, she would spill the beans and let the whole world know of her dark secrets. As for why she made Xie Wanwan do that, it was a mystery as Cao Mengjia did not disclose that information.
With regards to this point, Xiang Wan had her doubts.
She had once tried to imagine she was Xie Wanwan herself and wondered if she would commit suicide. She wanted to know if she would submit to the perpetrator and kill herself in order not to divulge her tormenting past.
The answer was “No”. She would not kill herself.
Not only would she not commit suicide, she would also cooperate with the police to catch the perpetrator…
Nonetheless, she was not Xie Wanwan. She did not personally experience what she had gone through, and therefore, she was unable to fully empathize with her.
Hence, on this point, she marked it open as there were doubts about it, and worth more in-depth research.
The next doubt was how did Cao Mengjia manage to get out of Grand Orchid Pavilion without being captured by the surveillance cameras? How did she leave the place after killing someone, and how did she get ahold of the doll to deal with Xie Wanwan?
According to the investigations, from when she was a child, Cao Mengjia was not outstanding, but she was an obedient child. She was not a competitive student but she had good behavior, and her results were average if not slightly better. She studied in a university in the capital and did not seem like someone who would travel so far to come kill a person.
Besides, from the investigations, she and Xie Wanwan did not have any overlapping social relationships at all.
Perhaps the only thing that went a little too far was her celebrity chasing behaviors.
Her roommates had specifically expressed that they never heard of Cao Mengjia saying she liked Xie Wanwan. They only knew that she was a die-hard fan of Ye Lun.
So how obsessed was she with Ye Lun? She was unable to tolerate anyone commenting anything bad about Ye Lun.
However, this behavior changed after she fell in love. For a certain period of time, her roommates did not hear her mention Ye Lun. But with regards to her boyfriend, she had done a good job in keeping him a secret as they said they did not know him as they have never seen or met him…
However, from Ye Lun’s interrogation statement, he said that he did not know Cao Mengjia. He had never been in contact with the fans that created trouble that night. He did not even know that they wanted to seek out Xie Wanwan, and it was definitely impossible to instigate them to do so.
For this, he specially indicated that he had no personal feud or held a grudge against Xie Wanwan.
That night at Grand Orchid Pavilion, Xie Wanwan apologized to him. She explained her poor behavior that day was due to her feeling unwell. He immediately expressed that he did not mind at all.
He did not bother with the comments online and immediately made a post in Weibo to Xie Wanwan that he was willing to restrain his fans’ behavior.
That night, the two of them shook hands as reconciliation. They even discussed about the filming scenes about “The Grey List”.
With regards to this aspect, they did receive Xie Wanwan’s confirmation.
Due to that, the police no longer held anything substantial to prove that Ye Lun had something to do with the case.
Hence, after the day they interrogated him, Ye Lun went back to the filming set to carry on shooting his scenes.
With that, this case seemed to have ended at Cao Mengjia’s death.
Dead men tell no tales?
That day afternoon, Xiang Wan wrote a chapter in the office.
“The dead female university student had once aspired to become the female supporting character of ‘The Grey List’ who would go to great lengths for the sake of her boyfriend. She came to Jin City from the capital, travelling over several thousand miles. She was alive when she came, but left as a corpse… As for her boyfriend, he never felt pity for her death. He had used her. After her death, he continued to live his glamorous life…”
After uploading the chapter, she sent her profiling analysis she wrote today to Bai Muchuan’s email before packing up her things and preparing to leave for the day.
Tang Yuanchu just came out from Bai Muchuan’s office and asked with a grin. “Teacher Xiang, going back now?”
Xiang Wan lifted her head and gave a laugh. “Yes, is there anything you need me to do?”
“No. We’re going out for dinner…”
Tang Yuanchu had said “we”. Xiang Wan furrowed her eyebrows slightly but did not ask who were the ones going for dinner. Tang Yuanchu seemed somewhat awkward to invite her. “Teacher Xiang, want to come with us?”
“Are you treating?” Xiang Wan teased with a faint smile.
“Ahem, Captain Bai’s buying. Xie Wanwan is discharged today…” Tang Yuanchu suddenly realized that he had talked too much and laughed awkwardly. “It’s just the few of us anyway. Let’s go together?”
“Thanks.” Xiang Wan smiled at him. “But I have something on today. I’ll definitely be there the next time you’re buying dinner.”
“Heheh, of course, of course.”
“See ya!”
Xiang Wan hurriedly took her laptop bag and walked faster than a rabbit.
Tang Yuanchu seemed stunned and shook his head before noticing Bai Muchuan who was standing not too far away.
“Captain Bai, let’s go…”
Bai Muchuan’s eyes were so cold and solemn as he turned to walk away. “Why are you in such a hurry?”
“Urgh…”
The door was half-closed.
Xiang Wan delayed for a while before lowering her head and knocking on the door gently.
There was no sound inside.
Xiang Wan pushed the door a little.
There was nobody inside.
She had contemplated about what to say before she knocked on the door but seemed like she had wasted her time.
Bai Muchuan was not inside the office.
She was holding her resignation letter as she looked down at her phone.
“Teacher Xiang…”
Tang Yuanchu came from behind and looked at her in surprise. “You’re looking for Captain Bai?”
“Mm.” Xiang Wan’s finger pointed at the door and smiled at him. “Captain Bai’s not here?”
Uh! Tang Yuanchu was about to speak but laughed after looking at her for a few seconds.
“You didn’t know that Captain Bai has gone out in afternoon? He and Xie Hui had gone to pay Xie Wanwan a visit to understand more about the case.”
‘Oh, I didn’t know.” Xiang Wan smiled awkwardly. “I’ll get going then…”
Tang Yuanchu pointed to her hand and asked warmly, “You have something to give Captain Bai? I’m going over later, I can help you pass it to him…”
Help pass it to him…
Xiang Wan thought for a moment and felt that it was better to give her resignation letter personally.
She shook her head with a smile and thanked Tang Yuanchu. She took her laptop bag and left quietly.
When she was out of the building, Cheng Zheng’s car appeared in sight.
“Are you going home? Hop on, I’ll drive you back.”
Xiang Wan furrowed her brows slightly. Then she saw Tang Yuanchu as well as other detectives coming out of the building. “I’m meeting Yuanyuan to go shopping, and it’s not really on the way. You can go back first, Captain Cheng! Bye…”
She waved at Captain Cheng then walked away, disappearing into the crowd with her laptop bag.
Cheng Zheng watched her slim back view for a moment and chased after her. When the car went past her, he pressed the horn and the car sped off into the distance.
…
In the middle of September, it was the time where autumn officially replaced summer in Jin City.
The sun was still bright at noon where it made the earth stuffy and hot. At dusk, however, the sky kept its scorching rays and it began to rain.
Xiang Wan lifted her head to look at the sky. Some scattered raindrops landed on her face, she quickly checked the weather forecast for the day.
For the upcoming week, there would be moderate to heavy rain.
Usually, Xiang Wan would just watch and forget about the rain forecast.
But it was different that day.
Due to the drizzle as well as the fact that it was the peak hour, it was not easy to get a cab.
Furthermore, as she was wearing a skirt, she couldn’t even ride a shared bicycle…
After waiting for over ten minutes, she canceled her cab booking.
When Cheng Zheng was choosing a house, he must have thought about how he could get to work. Her current residence was not that far from her workplace… Why not just walk back? It was only about the distance of about two metro stations.
Once Xiang Wan had this thought, she immediately acted on it.
After leaving school, she seldom walked on the road as if without a purpose. As she walked past the crowds, quietly thinking about life and her future, her restless mind gradually calmed down.
Would it really be a good choice to tender her resignation at the moment?
Like a deserter, she might have felt good temporarily and there would only be embarrassment when she looked back about it one day—she had gotten nothing done and left like a clown scurrying away from the audience. Even she would despise herself if she really did this.
Moreover, when she accepted the job, she had wanted to learn more about profiling and gain more experiences so she could write her novel better. It was not because of Bai Muchuan at all.
How could she forget about what she had wanted to do?
Even if Bai Muchuan did not let her participate in the investigations, she could still get information about the case, which would still be faster than reading them on the internet. Wouldn’t it still be better than writing at home alone, behind closed doors?
She could still learn, just that the methods had changed.
If he didn’t want her to be directly involved in the case, wouldn’t it also mean she had more time to write? Why was she upset about it then?
By thinking that day, the gloom was suddenly lifted from her heart.
When she looked up, the light rain gradually became gentle and fell on her, comfortable and carefree.
Sure enough, when one encountered something troubling and think from a different angle, one might suddenly be enlightened.
Xiang Wan smiled and hummed a tone leisurely.
Once her mood changed, everything looked good; even the smell from the roadside food stand was more attractive than usual.
She was a little hungry.
She stopped and turned to a barbecue food stand to get something to eat.
At this moment, however, the corner of her eye saw a car following her and slowed down when she turned. Yet it suddenly sped up when Xiang Wan turned to look at it and disappeared into the main traffic…
Could it be someone was stalking her?
Xiang Wan narrowed her eyes for a while, but she didn’t see clearly and was a little confused.
The surrounding was as usual, full of strangers and unfamiliar faces.
Hah!
She laughed.
She might have been paranoid!
She was not a big shot, who would make the effort to stalk her?
“Uncle, I want a hashbrown and this, a serving of stinky tofu…”
The smell of the food was so delicious that Xiang Wan directly ate them as she walked back.
When the food went into her stomach, she felt warm all over.
The sky was starting to get dark when she was nearing her neighborhood.
The drizzle rain did not stop but gradually started to get bigger.
At the entrance of the neighborhood, Fang Yuanyuan stood by the roadside with an umbrella, on and off she would stand on tiptoe as if she was looking for something amidst the passing cars.
Xiang Wan stopped as she was puzzled by her behavior. She walked over to her. “Yuanyuan, what are you doing here?”
Fang Yuanyuan turned around and was stunned for a moment before quickly sheltering Xiang Wan with the umbrella. She did not expect that Xiang Wan would walk back home.
“What are you doing? Why didn’t you pick up the phone? You’ve scared me to death. I thought something happened to you…”
Eh? Xiang Wan quickly took out her mobile phone in her bag.
True enough, there were a lot of missed calls.
Besides Fang Yuanyuan, there were two other person who called her.
One was her mom, and the other person was Cheng Zheng.
“…”
Xiang Wan checked her phone. “My bad, I didn’t know that the phone has been switched to silent mode.”
Speaking of which, she looked up. “Why did they call me so many times?”
“It’s all because of you. Why didn’t you let me know beforehand about your lie as it involved me? I was on my way home and I happened to meet Cheng Zheng. He asked me why didn’t I go shopping with you… I was totally taken aback… So the lie got busted.”
“…”
“In the end, I called you up, but you never picked the phone. That worried me and I called up your mom to check if you visited her.”
“…”
She just took a walk home and so much had happened?
Xiang Wan rolled her eyes when Fang Yuanyuan continued to ramble on. “Consequently, I started to get nervous and called Cheng Zheng. He suggested me to call up Bai Muchuan and even gave me his number…”
Xiang Wan’s heart skipped a beat upon hearing that name.
“You called him?”
“Uh! I did.”
“…” Xiang Wan gasped. “What did he say?”
Fang Yuanyuan just continued talking without observing her expression. “What can he say? He said you’re not with him.”
“That’s all?”
“That’s all.” Fang Yuanyuan glanced at her, pouting. “Why? What else do you want?”
Xiang Wan: “…”
Indeed, what else do I want?
The missed calls were proof enough that he was not concerned about the safety of his subordinate, she thought.
Xiang Wan paused for a moment, and under Fang Yuanyuan’s umbrella, she decided to call her mom.
“Hello, Wanwan!” The moment Tan Yunchun heard her daughter’s voice, her anxious mood alleviated instantly. “What’s the matter with you? Where did you go? Yuanyuan and myself have been so worried…”
Xiang Wan gave Fang Yuanyuan a glare then spoke in cheerful tone, “Mom, don’t worry. I’m perfectly fine. I didn’t go anywhere. It was just that my phone has been switched to silent mode and I didn’t know about it. That’s why I didn’t pick up the calls… .”
“Oh alright. But the job that you’re doing now, how can I not worry about it? You need to deal with criminals all the time. You don’t even know that mom couldn’t sleep well these days just from thinking about your job…”
Pffft! Xiang Wan laughed. “When I’m a full-time author, you said being an author is not good as the income is not stable, is not in much contact with society and sooner or later I’ll become a nutcase. Now that I have a proper job, you’re still not satisfied…”
“It’s not that I’m dissatisfied. Aye, lass, mom’s worried about you. Didn’t another major case just happened in Jin City? Mom’s really worried!”
“Don’t worry, mom.” Xiang Wan paused for a while and laughed. “I don’t work with criminals. I work in an office, look at cases, and write analysis reports. It’s similar to an administrative officer in an office. You understand now?”
“Really?” Tan Yunchun could not quite believe it.
“Really, I promise!”
Hearing her laughter in a carefree, relaxed tone, Tan Yunchun laughed as well.
“Alright then, make sure you work hard and get along with your colleagues. Talk lesser and do more work, don’t be afraid of doing more work than you should. If you don’t encounter all of these when young, you might regret when you’re old!”
“…” These words… Mom thought of them herself?
Xiang Wan listened and couldn’t help giving herself a facepalm. She exchanged glances with Fang Yuanyuan and the two couldn’t resist chuckling.
“Okay mom! I just came back home and I’m wet from the rain. I need to get a bath now so we’ll talk again another time.”
“Why didn’t you bring an umbrella with you whenever you go out? You just don’t know how to take care of yourself. Hurry and go then…”
However, Tan Yunchun suddenly puffed a sigh and remembered something. “Hold on a moment, when are you going to bring Little Cheng back for a meal? Your youngest aunt just asked me yesterday how are you getting along with Little Cheng? I don’t know how to answer her. Your nonchalant attitude… when will we not worry about you?…”
“Mom!” The moment she heard this, she felt her head aching.
“I’ve already talked to Cheng Zheng. We are just friends and we won’t go anything beyond that…”
“Ah? What did you say?”
“Just as what you’ve heard. Your ear is still good.”
“…” Tan Yunchun paused for a moment. “What did Little Cheng say?”
“He’s the one who suggested it. He said we’ll be friends and I’ve agreed. Isn’t this good?”
For this matter, Xiang Wan was somewhat right to say that.
Ever since she rejected him for the third time, Cheng Zheng did say to become friends.
And it was also what Xiang Wan could accept. Being friends was certainly harmonious and more relaxed for both of them.
“Sigh!”
Tan Yunchun heaved a heavy sigh on the other end of phone.
“Good grief! Such a fine man, where are you going to find another one like him…”
She could sense that her mom would be nagging any moment and shuddered at that thought. “Oh mom! I’m getting colder now. I need to hurry up and go for a bath. That’s it then, bye!”
After that, she quickly hang up and heaved a relieved sigh.
Fang Yuanyuan was also relaxed. “Seeing you like that made me saw my future. It’s too scary…”
Xiang Wan gave her a glance. “What do you mean by your future, it’s basically your present, alright?”
Fang Yuanyuan: “…”
Their family did not know that she was still in a relationship with Huang He.
If this matter was kept under wraps, it would be peaceful.
But once their family knew about it, she couldn’t imagine what would happen.
Maybe the rain had affected the mood, Fang Yuanyuan also gave a sigh as she looked at the thin layer of rain.
“I don’t like the autumn and the rain. Look at those leaves, they were originally good but fallen to the ground now. The weather earlier was good but suddenly desolate in the rain, it made me quite uncomfortable.”
Xiang Wan walked alongside her in silence. After awhile, she held Yuanyuan’s shoulder with her arm.
“It will be better. Think about it from a different angle, maybe the heavens wanted to put your relationship with Huang He to test?”
Fang Yuanyuan was a positive and optimistic person. After being comforted by her, she laughed.
“Hm, I can only think of it this way. But, what’s going on between you and Detective Bai?”
“Nothing’s going on…”
“When I called him today, I was really worried. He didn’t call you up?”
Xiang Wan looked at the phone she was holding in her palm and smiled.
“I already said it’s okay. Why should he look for me anyway, on what basis?!”
“I feel that the two of you… seems weird.”
“Which person you don’t think is weird?”
“You’re right. Didn’t we always say that there are three types of weird people? The first group are the romance fiction editors, the second group are the romance fiction authors, the third are the romance fiction readers…”
Pffft! “What the!”
…
The rain persisted through the night.
When the new day began, there was still foggy and raining outside.
In the early morning, Xiang Wan opened her windows. The trees and plants in the neighborhood were all wet, the whole area was washed by the rain, and was clean and clear.
Huff! As she breathed in the fresh air into her lungs, Xiang Wan felt refreshed.
When she got out from the bedroom, Fang Yuanyuan had already eaten breakfast.
Xiang Wan was stupefied.
She thought that after yesterday’s lie, as well as the rainy weather, Cheng Zheng should not have come.
“Morning!” As usual, Cheng Zheng was sitting on the sofa at his usual spot, wearing his usual expression. It was as though nothing had changed.
Xiang Wan was silent for a moment and smiled politely. “Morning, Captain Cheng. Seems like the rain could not stop you from having your morning jog?”
Cheng Zheng said, “I’m used to it! I’ve persisted for more than ten years.”
Xiang Wan nodded her head in surprise and went back to her bed to get some cash and she placed them on the coffee table. “Captain Cheng has been buying us breakfast for the past few days. Me and Yuanyuan feel embarrassed if we don’t pay you back. Please take this money, treat it as our share for the breakfast.”
Cheng Zheng lifted his head and looked at her indifferently.
“We are friends as well as neighbors. There’s really no need for this?”
“Precisely because we’re friends, we can’t always be taking advantage of you, right? Otherwise, how are we going to be friends in the long term?”
She had a calm smile on her face, but there was insistence and stubbornness in her eyes.
Cheng Zheng nodded his head as acceptance. “I’ll accept it then.”
Xiang Wan eased up when he did so. “Thank you! And I’ve decided with Yuanyuan that in order to hone our cooking skills, from tomorrow onwards, we will take turns to prepare breakfast, so…”
Fang Yuanyuan had a face full of questions and looked at her with a dumpling still inside her mouth. “Hey…”
Xiang Wan returned a stare at her and continued to smile at Cheng Zheng. “So we won’t be troubling Captain Cheng.”
Cheng Zheng glanced at her and then at Fang Yuanyuan, nodding his head as if he did not take it to heart.
“Alright. I think it’s great to make breakfast. It’s more nutritious, If that’s the case, then I won’t buy breakfast anymore…”
Xiang Wan’s uneasy heart was about to rest when she heard Cheng Zheng’s voice. “Then I’ll come over to your house tomorrow for breakfast. Occasionally, when both of you couldn’t get up in time, I can help out too.”
“Captain Cheng…”
“We are neighbors as well as friends, I should do that.” Cheng Zheng raised an eyebrow. “Or you’re not willing to let me come for breakfast?”
“…”
Is this what it meant by a taste of my own medicine?
Xiang Wan realized that her level was not high enough.
Or rather she had underestimated Cheng Zheng’s stubbornness toward this matter.
Nevertheless, for a man who had the tenacity to jog every day, he could persist on doing anything.
Fortunately, Cheng Zheng didn’t make it too difficult for them. From beginning till end, he never showed too much affection for her, only treating her as a friend and colleague.
When they arrived at the office, Cheng Zheng went to park his car, while Xiang Wan went straight to the office and noticed that the atmosphere was heavier than usual.
Usually, she would see her colleagues joke around while having their breakfast to lighten the mood. That morning, however, everyone was very quiet, and there was no communication between them.
Xiang Wan felt a little weird as she walked to her desk, placed her laptop on the table, and asked the colleague who sat beside her.
“What happened? Everyone’s a mute today?”
Sitting beside her was a newcomer who just completed his military service and came back to Jin City to look for a job. He joined the Criminal Investigation Unit later than Xiang Wan and everyone called him Little Liu. Hence, he was not very familiar with the processes and interpersonal relationships in the team.
He shook his head. “I don’t know.”
Xiang Wan asked, “Why aren’t you talking with them?”
Little Liu replied, “Everyone’s not talking, so I dared not talk, either.”
On second thought, he took a look at Bai Muchuan’s office and squeezed his eyes. “Well, Boss came in looking all dark and brooding, everyone felt cold and chilly on their back. Who would dare to talk?”
Xiang Wan nodded her head and opened her laptop to check her email.
There was no new email.
Bai Muchuan did not reply anything about the profiling analysis she wrote.
Xiang Wan lifted her head to look at his office and closed her email.
That day, she did not get to see Bai Muchuan.
He seemed to be avoiding her deliberately. She knew that, so she did not look him up either and would not ask for the reason. What she could do was to write her views and deductions into her novel “Murder The Dream Guy”. This little desk had become the battleground for her powers of reasoning.
By using a real case as basis, she had a more realistic touch in her writing.
She focused on her story and was able to write the plot smoothly. The number of subscriptions were growing steadily as the number of words increased. This was a healthy growing trend.
Xiang Wan was very satisfied about her writing.
She had a desire for the success of the novel.
She knew very well that to a woman, having a good career was more important than having a good boyfriend. She need to have the ability to support herself.
She did exactly what Bai Muchuan had said. Without him, she would still carry on living her life.
At least, it was like this on the surface.
Subconsciously, she actually agreed with Bai Muchuan’s views. No matter love or marriage, it was an equivalent exchange. Only when she could stand firmly on her own feet would she have the strength to pursue what she want. Otherwise, even if she had luck on her side, she would not be at ease…
Nothing would beat the stability of using the money that she earned by herself.
Sometimes, she did not know if there was something wrong in her brain.
She was reasonable at times, but she also had the tendency to overthink things, and had a strong personal consciousness.
Thus, rather than saying she had rejected Bai Muchuan, it was more accurate to say that she had rejected herself for not being good enough for him.
The feelings of young people, the two who were unable to find the sense of security they wanted yet they were unwilling to bend their knees… Even if they might have been together for now, the relationship would not be able to go on in the future.
She felt at ease and devoted herself to her work.
Thus, Bai Muchuan was though a silhouette that was pasted in her heart. He was constantly there but no longer constantly missed.
Everyday, she would come to work in high spirits and look for Tang Yuanchu to understand about the case. Then, she would do her own work. Prior to leaving office, she would send him her profiling analysis when she felt there was a need.
Bai Muchuan never replied to her.
Not even once.
The emails were as if stones thrown into a lake, and she would never get a reply.
She did not even know if he did read them or not.
However, Xiang Wan no longer minded it.
When she got the information from Tang Yuanchu, she would fully immerse herself in the case.
At present, according to Xie Wanwan, the person who contacted her was Cao Mengjia.
Cao Mengjia wormed her way through her fan club and came to Jin City with her fan club members. When they clashed with Ye Lun’s fans, she was the one who suddenly aimed the knife at Xie Wanwan and stabbed the female assistant, Yu Hui, instead. Later on, she threatened Xie Wanwan with the voice recordings inside the doll to do a live-streaming of her suicide. Otherwise, she would spill the beans and let the whole world know of her dark secrets. As for why she made Xie Wanwan do that, it was a mystery as Cao Mengjia did not disclose that information.
With regards to this point, Xiang Wan had her doubts.
She had once tried to imagine she was Xie Wanwan herself and wondered if she would commit suicide. She wanted to know if she would submit to the perpetrator and kill herself in order not to divulge her tormenting past.
The answer was “No”. She would not kill herself.
Not only would she not commit suicide, she would also cooperate with the police to catch the perpetrator…
Nonetheless, she was not Xie Wanwan. She did not personally experience what she had gone through, and therefore, she was unable to fully empathize with her.
Hence, on this point, she marked it open as there were doubts about it, and worth more in-depth research.
The next doubt was how did Cao Mengjia manage to get out of Grand Orchid Pavilion without being captured by the surveillance cameras? How did she leave the place after killing someone, and how did she get ahold of the doll to deal with Xie Wanwan?
According to the investigations, from when she was a child, Cao Mengjia was not outstanding, but she was an obedient child. She was not a competitive student but she had good behavior, and her results were average if not slightly better. She studied in a university in the capital and did not seem like someone who would travel so far to come kill a person.
Besides, from the investigations, she and Xie Wanwan did not have any overlapping social relationships at all.
Perhaps the only thing that went a little too far was her celebrity chasing behaviors.
Her roommates had specifically expressed that they never heard of Cao Mengjia saying she liked Xie Wanwan. They only knew that she was a die-hard fan of Ye Lun.
So how obsessed was she with Ye Lun? She was unable to tolerate anyone commenting anything bad about Ye Lun.
However, this behavior changed after she fell in love. For a certain period of time, her roommates did not hear her mention Ye Lun. But with regards to her boyfriend, she had done a good job in keeping him a secret as they said they did not know him as they have never seen or met him…
However, from Ye Lun’s interrogation statement, he said that he did not know Cao Mengjia. He had never been in contact with the fans that created trouble that night. He did not even know that they wanted to seek out Xie Wanwan, and it was definitely impossible to instigate them to do so.
For this, he specially indicated that he had no personal feud or held a grudge against Xie Wanwan.
That night at Grand Orchid Pavilion, Xie Wanwan apologized to him. She explained her poor behavior that day was due to her feeling unwell. He immediately expressed that he did not mind at all.
He did not bother with the comments online and immediately made a post in Weibo to Xie Wanwan that he was willing to restrain his fans’ behavior.
That night, the two of them shook hands as reconciliation. They even discussed about the filming scenes about “The Grey List”.
With regards to this aspect, they did receive Xie Wanwan’s confirmation.
Due to that, the police no longer held anything substantial to prove that Ye Lun had something to do with the case.
Hence, after the day they interrogated him, Ye Lun went back to the filming set to carry on shooting his scenes.
With that, this case seemed to have ended at Cao Mengjia’s death.
Dead men tell no tales?
That day afternoon, Xiang Wan wrote a chapter in the office.
“The dead female university student had once aspired to become the female supporting character of ‘The Grey List’ who would go to great lengths for the sake of her boyfriend. She came to Jin City from the capital, travelling over several thousand miles. She was alive when she came, but left as a corpse… As for her boyfriend, he never felt pity for her death. He had used her. After her death, he continued to live his glamorous life…”
After uploading the chapter, she sent her profiling analysis she wrote today to Bai Muchuan’s email before packing up her things and preparing to leave for the day.
Tang Yuanchu just came out from Bai Muchuan’s office and asked with a grin. “Teacher Xiang, going back now?”
Xiang Wan lifted her head and gave a laugh. “Yes, is there anything you need me to do?”
“No. We’re going out for dinner…”
Tang Yuanchu had said “we”. Xiang Wan furrowed her eyebrows slightly but did not ask who were the ones going for dinner. Tang Yuanchu seemed somewhat awkward to invite her. “Teacher Xiang, want to come with us?”
“Are you treating?” Xiang Wan teased with a faint smile.
“Ahem, Captain Bai’s buying. Xie Wanwan is discharged today…” Tang Yuanchu suddenly realized that he had talked too much and laughed awkwardly. “It’s just the few of us anyway. Let’s go together?”
“Thanks.” Xiang Wan smiled at him. “But I have something on today. I’ll definitely be there the next time you’re buying dinner.”
“Heheh, of course, of course.”
“See ya!”
Xiang Wan hurriedly took her laptop bag and walked faster than a rabbit.
Tang Yuanchu seemed stunned and shook his head before noticing Bai Muchuan who was standing not too far away.
“Captain Bai, let’s go…”
Bai Muchuan’s eyes were so cold and solemn as he turned to walk away. “Why are you in such a hurry?”
“Urgh…”
