CW: continued gore from last chapter
“Xue Yunxin is mine! No one can have designs on her!”
Yes, Li Ai remembered these words. She couldn’t forget them, didn’t dare to forget them! After all, Jiang Qinglan had kicked her fiercely that night. She’d had a taste of that kind of treatment, and it hurt too much! She’d never expected that Jiang Qinglan, who looked somewhat emaciated, could break a grown man’s jaw with her bare hands. And Jiang Qinglan was Jack…all those people from before were killed by her. How had she done it, exactly? Could she have someone backing her?
“Ah! Xiao Ai, you’re here!” Xue Yunxin waved her over. This motion successfully brought Jiang Qinglan’s attention over to Li Ai, and the instant her gaze landed upon her, Li Ai felt a shiver run through her from head to toe!
“Did you two have plans?” Jiang Qinglan asked.
“Ah, I wanted to find Xiao Ai to understand the current situation a little better. The homicide this time confirms a connection.” Xue Yunxin wasn’t stupid. Hu Wenning and Xin Zhiying were both Li Ai’s roommates, and Jing Hezhuang was Xin Zhiying’s boyfriend. They all knew the same person: Li Ai. As a police officer, Xue Yunxin’s instinct was telling her that Li Ai was keeping something from her.
Jiang Qinglan crossed her arms in front of her chest, discerningly sizing up Li Ai. She was very curious about this person in front of her. She was capable of anything, even murder! She could even snatch Xue Yunxin from right beside her! What would she do next? She was very curious!
Li Ai cowered away from the two people in front of her: “Officer Xue, T-Teacher Jiang…”
“Hello, Miss Li Ai.1” Jiang Qinglan revealed a brilliant smile. In the eyes of others, this smile was beautiful, but in Li Ai’s eyes, her smile was the prelude to death!
Xue Yunxin patted Li Ai’s head: “Hi, Xiao Ai. I say, this dress really suits you! What do you think, Qinglan? Is it pretty?”
Before, Jiang Qinglan hadn’t paid attention to what Li Ai was wearing, but after hearing what Xue Yunxin said, she started scrutinizing Li Ai’s outfit.
“Mhm, quite pretty.”
“See, my foresight never lets me down!”
“But, I recall…this dress looks brand-name and pricey. Miss Li Ai, where did you find the money to buy it? From what I recall, your family’s situation was not too well off.”
“I bought it for her.”
“Oh? So it’s like this? Yunxin bought it for you.”
Li Ai’s palms were clammy, and her heart fluttered in panic. She was more alarmed by this situation than killing people! She’d already started imagining how she would die! She still remembered how Jiang Qinglan taught her how to disembowel Hu Wenning last night!
……
“Here, I’ll teach you.” Jiang Qinglan used the dagger to cut open Hu Wenning’s clothing: “Hmm? Have you gotten fat recently, Wenning?” Jiang Qinglan ripped off the tape sealing Hu Wening’s mouth: “What have you been doing recently? Your belly⸺” She rested the blade of the dagger on Hu Wenning’s stomach.
“Why are you this swollen?”
“I’m begging you! Don’t ⸺ Someone! Help me!”
Jiang Qinglan sealed Hu Wenning’s lips, smiling as she said softly: “Hey, you’re yelling so loudly, so you think someone will come save you? Listen to me. You should save your breath. You’ll hurt less in the future that way.” Jiang Qinglan then stabbed the dagger into Hu Wenning’s abdomen. Since this was clearly not enough, she tore a hole in Hu Wening’s stomach.
“Hmmm…looks like I checked the wrong place…” She looked at Hu Wenning: “No worries, you haven’t died yet, we can try it again, okay? I won’t get it wrong this time.”
“What do you want?! Money?”
Jiang Qinglan did not answer her. She stabbed her again, this time in her lower abdomen. Li Ai was standing beside her, watching Jiang Qinglan’s well-practiced, nimble movements. How exactly had she become this adept at disemboweling people? Then…how many people has she killed to become like this?
“Ah⸺it turns out, I didn’t guess wrong, Miss Wenning. You’re pregnant~ You’re really something else. But, you’re so young. Are you really capable of being a mother? As expected ⸺ you’re not.”
……
“Don’t be nervous, Xiao Ai. I’m simply going to ask you a few questions.” Xue Yunxin’s voice brought Li Ai out of her memories.
“O-Okay.”
“Hu Wenning returned to school yesterday. Did she come to see you?”
Li Ai lowered her head and answered quietly: “She did.”
“Then…did she say anything to you?”
“She came looking for money.”
Xue Yunxin’s brow wrinkled: “What? Money?”
“…She said that I killed Xin Zhiying. She wanted me to give her thirty thousand yuan. She made me go meet her in the old fine arts building to hand over the money, or she would call the police. Officer Xue! You know what it looked like last night! I didn’t do it!” Li Ai got more and more upset as she spoke, finally breaking down in tears.
Xue Yunxin pulled out a tissue for her to wipe her tears: “It’s okay, it’s okay…”
“…Officer Xue, they’re all dead…will I be killed next…”
Xue Yunxin wanted to continue asking her questions, but she was stopped by Jiang Qinglan: “Yunxin, it looked like Miss Li Ai has a lot on her mind. You won’t find out anything asking her like this. The students have been terrified by the recent events. You interrogating her like this is a little harsh.”
Xue Yunxin’s lips pressed together. Regardless of how they investigated, fingerprint analysis and surveillance had not yielded any points of uncertainty. The crime scene had been cleaned up, as well. It really was too fucking out of line! Since she had begun her career over five years ago, she hadn’t met a monster like this! Is it possible that this Jack had crawled out of a hole in the ground, like some sort of animal? He definitely wasn’t human!
“Yunxin?”
“It’s okay, Qinglan.” Xue Yunxin patted Li Ai on the shoulder: “Rest assured, I will protect you. Trust in me, and trust in the police!”
Li Ai sighed a deep breath of relief. If Jiang Qinglan hadn’t stopped Xue Yunxin just now, she would have continued her interrogation, and Li Ai would have let the cat out of the bag.
Xue Yunxin left after giving the food to them, saying she had some things to handle.
This was true, as there were some remaining things for her to investigate at the crime scene. When she returned, Li Yang and Song Nuan were ecstatic, jumping for joy. The trainees on the side were watching Li Yang and Song Nuan, who were technically their elders, with confusion.
“What are you guys…doing?”
Song Nuan tilted her head to look at her: “Yunxin! Let me tell you, this time, we’ll be able to ferret out Jack! Look here.” Song Nuan passed her phone over to Xue Yunxin.
Her phone displayed a broadcast, which contained the video surveillance from the school.
In the video, a man furtively snuck into the old fine arts building. The timestamp on the footage was nine o’clock.
“This is…”
“Xiao Qian sent it over. The person in charge said that this was the old fine arts building, which is usually locked and unmonitored. However, there is a surveillance camera on the building facing it. Hu Wenning entered the building at ten past nine. The man entered at nine and left at fifteen past nine. At nine thirty, Li Ai entered the old fine arts building, and then we received her call.”
“…What were these people doing running around an abandoned school building…”
Xue Yunxin looked at the man in the video. He was entirely dressed in black, wearing a black surgical face mask and a bookbag on his back. He walked quickly, with his hands in his pockets. If he was a student, he should’ve already returned to the dormitory, and what student had the free time to stroll around an old school building? However, this video was their only clue now.
Xue Yunxin and Song Nuan were on duty tonight.
Although Li Yang offered to come along, saying that it wasn’t safe for his two female colleagues by themselves, Song Nuan declined. She could beat up five Li Yangs within an inch of their life!
“Here, Xiao Nuan, have some.” Xue Yunxin passed her a steamed bun: “I bought too many.”
Song Nuan talked as she ate: “In my opinion, the man in the video is Jack! It’s been so long, and we finally have a trace!”
“Hmmm…When I read that manhua when I was little, I never expected it to become reality.” Xue Yunxin said: “Foggy City. It was really good, back in the day.” This Jack made Xue Yunxin think of the manhua she read when she was young, ‘Foggy City.’ The background was impractical; it was a story of a killer with a split personality and a public security officer. Back then, Xue Yunxin really liked the killer, Jack. Everyone he killed were notorious villains in Foggy City, and, in the end, he fell in love with a Foggy City public safety officer who opposed him…
Song Nuan’s face emanated coldness: “You bought Jiang Qinglan so many volumes back then. I’ve warned you many times, you should stay away from her, you didn’t hear ⸺ Yunxin, look!”
Xue Yunxin looked in same direction as Song Nuan ⸺ A man was crossing over the wall enclosing the school.
Song Nuan deftly grabbed him and restrained him on the ground: “Looks like this grandaunt2 caught you, Jack!” The man was startled, and he kicked Song Nuan away, grabbed his bag, and started running.
Song Nuan looked at the heroin and syringes that had fallen out of his bag, then yelled to Xue Yunxin: “Yunxin, don’t let him escape! He has drugs in his possession!”
Song Nuan hadn’t reacted before “Pah⸺”! The sound of a gunshot split the silence of the night.
Xue Yunxin’s shot hit the man in the knee, and he fell to the ground with his bag, howling in pain.
Xue Yunxin ran up to him, pulling out her handcuffs: “Behave yourself, or my next shot won’t be to your knee!”
“Si⸺fuck, Hu Wenning didn’t fucking say anything about cops…”
“Stop the nonsense! You’ll be coming with us!”
Xue Yunxin and Song Nuan brought him back to the precinct. Everyone wanted to know, was this man the infamous Jack? But, the obvious result greatly disappointed everyone.
By the time the man had been brought into the interrogation room, he’d already cried for his mom and dad, sniveling and begging for mercy on his life. However, the illicit substances in his bag were already enough for eight hundred deaths.3
“Were you the one who killed Hu Wenning?”
“What? I killed Hu Wenning? You’ve made a mistake! She’s my wife! She’s carrying my child! Wait, wait… what did you say? Killed? Hu Wenning! Wenning! How is Hu Wenning? Ah?! Say something!”
Xue Yunxin looked at the man in front of her and stated the facts: “Hu Wenning was murdered, and we suspect that you are the culprit⸺ Zhao Yang, did you kill Hu Wenning?”
Zhao Yang collapsed into his chair: “Me? I was just selling drugs, I couldn’t kill someone!”
“Last night, you went to North City University’s old fine arts building.”
“Yes, but Hu Wenning sent me a message on WeChat saying that some buyers were there! I waited for a long time before she said to come today instead!”
“By that time last night, Hu Wenning had already been murdered.”
Zhao Yang was bewildered. Yesterday? When he’d broken the lock open yesterday, no one had entered yet. From start to finish, he’d been the only one there…
“I’m telling you, officers, don’t turn me into a scapegoat!”
“Even if you aren’t the murderer, with the amount of drugs in your possession, you’re looking at seven or eight death penalty convictions. Let’s talk, where did you get these drugs?”…
1 JQL calls Li Ai 李艾同学, meaning classmate/student Li Ai. I left it as Miss Li Ai, because Student Li Ai sounds kind of weird…
2 Song Nuan referred to herself as 姑奶奶
3 Selling drugs is Not Good™ in China, with possible capital punishment.
Overall big bruh moment from XYX this chapter.