The dinner was drawing to a close. Tang Xin sat beside Fu Xueli, frequently rising to refill drinks for those around her.

The investor for the new film was surnamed Fang, over fifty years old, yet robust and spirited. After a few glasses of wine, his speech remained proper, both narrating and listening with composure.

Today the crew had wrapped filming. Director Cen had drunk happily and was somewhat tipsy. He lit a cigarette. “After filming in these mountains for so long, I’ve grown tired of all those flowers and trees. I still feel that the angular life of the big city has more flavor.”

As he spoke, his glass was refilled again. Director Cen waved his hand. “Once the film passes censorship and the promotional schedule is arranged, I need to give myself a good vacation, take my wife and daughter traveling, relax a bit.”

Someone at the table laughed and remarked, “These days, men like Director Cen who care about their wives are not many. It’s rare.”

When the topic turned to this, the younger people inevitably faced teasing questions about their romantic lives. However, those seated at this table were mostly people with status and position in the industry, so crude jokes were rare.

The young male actor beside her was asked until he became flustered. Fu Xueli swirled her wine glass, her gaze fixed on the bubbles floating in it, not actively participating.

She had been forced to drink quite a bit, slightly tipsy, but her consciousness was still clear—just her head felt somewhat foggy. She quietly waited for this meal to end.

In April in Shencheng, the air still carried a bitter cold. The city’s night remained brilliantly lit, with distant white lights from high-rises and neon signs merging into one under the black canopy of sky.

As soon as she got in the car, Fu Xueli kicked off her high heels, removed her coat, and leaned back against the seat, suddenly relaxing.

Tang Xin closed the car door, turned to pull the seatbelt across and fastened it, instructing the driver they could leave.

“Turn off the sound,” Fu Xueli said.

Hearing this, the driver placed his hand on the steering wheel and with the other hand turned off the music, taking the opportunity to glance at the woman curled up in the back seat.

She was loosely leaning against the car window, supporting her head, her delicate eyes and brows drooping, half-closed.

Her brown, slightly wavy long hair was casually and messily spread out. The gray wool dress with a smooth texture wrapped around her figure, showing off her graceful curves. The extremely narrow edge of bright sequined lace made her skin appear exceptionally white.

—She was truly beautiful, the kind you couldn’t look away from.

“That Director Fang made his fortune in real estate in earlier years. His background isn’t said to be very clean, but he quite appreciates you. Otherwise, how could we have so easily secured Director Cen’s resources back then? And you, when leaving just now, you didn’t even know to say goodbye to him. How bad does that look?”

There were four people in the car. Assistant Xixi sat in the passenger seat, the driver drove attentively. Tang Xin sat beside Fu Xueli, fiddling with her phone, chattering away while selecting photos to post on social media.

The others remained silent.

Fu Xueli started as a model, initially spotted by Tang Xin at first sight. While abroad, she settled the contract in just two or three days, decisively signing her under her own management.

Later, when developing domestically, Fu Xueli gained moderate fame through a viral web series. However, over these past few years, although she maintained some presence, she remained lukewarm in popularity. It wasn’t that she wasn’t good-looking—on the contrary, she became known precisely because of her beauty. Without any persona, purely feminine, alluring yet aloof, her cold beauty lacked human warmth.

It was just that her appearance was too striking, so her acting range was somewhat limited, easily attracting fans but also easily attracting criticism.

But in the entertainment industry, minor success depends on promotion, major success depends on fate—in any case, rushing won’t help. Fu Xueli was good raw material with spirit, so the team had been steadily building her up, trying not to let her rely on scandalous rumors for traffic or to grab attention.

The car drove under the overpass, shadows sweeping past one after another. Outside, it had started raining at some point. The wipers moved left and right, slowly scraping across the glass.

“I’ve said all this, did you hear me?” Tang Xin turned her head.

“Sister, I’m begging you to let me have some peace.” Her head was about to explode. Fu Xueli was very tired, exhausted all over, just wanting to seek a moment of quiet. She was drowsy, too lazy to say another word.

She had stayed up all night filming yesterday, set out early this morning, and traveled all the way from Xiangshan to Shencheng, spending the entire day on the road. After dealing with the banquet, she was already extremely weary.

The rain grew heavier, and there were fewer and fewer people on the road. Wind beat against the trees. The car turned on its yellow headlights, shrouded in rain mist, speeding along.

“—Screech!”

Passing through the overpass intersection, a large truck coming from the opposite direction brushed past them. The driver gripped the steering wheel and slammed on the brakes.

The tires made an ear-piercing noise as they scraped against the ground. The car came to an abrupt stop by the roadside, everyone inside lurching forward.

“What happened, was there an accident?!” Tang Xin steadied herself against the seat back, startled, and quickly asked.

“No, there—there seems to be someone lying on the road ahead…”

—

Sharp police sirens pierced through the deep night’s silence. At 321 North Ningxi Road, the People’s Park overpass entrance was sealed off, police tape pulled up.

The heavy rain had diminished at some point. Police guarded by the police line, stopping the crowd of onlookers who kept pushing inward. Several police cars were parked not far away, with both detectives and reporters present.

The deceased was a young woman, her face unclear in the shadows. She lay half-naked on her back on the ground, her head covered by her skirt. Rainwater mixed with blood, giving off a hot, fishy smell, spreading along the cement ground. There was too much blood to distinguish where the wound was. The victim’s black hair was separated into several strands by the bloody water, stuck to her arms, already without breath.

“Control the scene for me, prevent secondary damage, evacuate all unrelated personnel!” A middle-aged male police officer shouted furiously into his walkie-talkie.

“Who among you called the police?” He caught his breath.

“I did,” Tang Xin immediately replied. She looked away, suppressing the nausea and urge to vomit.

Liu Jingbo’s brow furrowed tightly. He nodded, glancing at the black sedan parked not far away, inside which someone could faintly be seen sitting. He craned his neck to look. “That, that, that—who else is in the car? Have her come down.”

“Well, she’s sick and it’s not very convenient. Can she just stay in the car, officer?” Tang Xin was in a difficult position, trying to negotiate.

First of all, quite a few reporters had rushed here upon hearing the news. If Fu Xueli, this kind of public figure, was photographed at the accident scene, she’d get criticized again…

“What illness? Can this little rain freeze her to death?! This is a very serious murder case. What kind of attitude is sitting in the car? Xiao Wang, go call her down for me!”

“The deceased really has nothing to do with us, officer. We were just passing by and—”

“Stop, stop, stop!” Liu Jingbo impatiently interrupted the driver. “Right now, I ask, you answer, that’s all. Where do all these unnecessary words come from?” After speaking, he turned his head and asked a female officer beside him, “How much longer until Old Qin and the others arrive?”

“Look, aren’t they here now?”

Tang Xin turned her head in the direction they were looking and saw a group of people dressed like doctors.

They wore masks, parted through the noisy, clamoring crowd, showed their credentials, bent down to duck under the police tape, and walked over toward them.

All of them wore white coats, appearing somewhat neat and conspicuous in the crowded, dark rainy night.

The leader was a tall young man. He opened the investigation kit, crouched silently beside the corpse without a word, put on gloves, and lifted the white dress covering the victim’s face.

—

Fu Xueli sat in the car, looking outside. A police officer stood outside. He shone a flashlight into the car, then knocked on the window.

“Miss, please step out for a moment and cooperate with us in taking a statement.”

The moment the car door was pushed open, wind rushed straight into her neck. She shivered from the cold, opened an umbrella, pressed down the ribs to shield her face, and her red high heels touched the ground.

Due to the heavy rain’s washing, mud and stones mixed together, the scene’s traces were mostly destroyed. Rain still fell, and many investigative tasks couldn’t be carried out.

Fu Xueli unhurriedly followed behind that young police officer, head lowered, carefully hiding her face under the umbrella to prevent being recognized by passersby. Along the way were many shallow puddles, and despite walking slowly, mud still splashed all over her calves.

Xixi held an umbrella for Tang Xin, listening to her constant complaints. “Don’t know how late this will drag on. Running into this damn mess, what rotten luck. And we still can’t leave. Later we have to be taken back to the police station to give statements. I have to negotiate a contract first thing tomorrow morning, damn it.”

They stood by the shrubbery, talking, when Tang Xin’s words suddenly stopped.

“It’s like this—we have a few questions we’d like to ask you. This concerns a murder case, so please patiently cooperate with our work.”

Tang Xin smiled awkwardly, but her gaze stopped on the man standing silently beside Officer Liu.

Inside, he wore only a thin blue police uniform, with an ordinary white coat draped outside, a badge pinned to his chest, and nothing else. The hanging hem of his coat was occasionally lifted by the wind, and in this kind of night, he seemed not to know cold.

Xixi had been afraid of doctors since childhood, let alone people who dealt with corpses every day without blinking. She recalled the way he had just examined the corpse without changing expression, and couldn’t help but feel chills, taking two steps back.

“What time approximately did you arrive at the crime scene?”

He saw her small movement but remained unmoved.

This man’s voice had a strange, uniquely low, cold quality like an ice thread—like beer at eight degrees on a table, calm and gentle, without ripples, yet extremely distinctive.

This voice…

Fu Xueli’s hand gripping the umbrella handle tightened. Her brain still retained the residual effects of alcohol, her reactions sluggish. She thought she was experiencing a hallucination.

“Around eight o’clock or so.” Xixi tried hard to recall, answering carefully and cautiously, looking at the person taking notes beside her, afraid of saying the wrong thing.

“Did you move the body?”

“It seems… no.”

“What do you mean ‘it seems no’?! If there is, there is. Just speak honestly and frankly. Think clearly before opening your mouth. Don’t give me—” Liu Jingbo obviously couldn’t contain his explosive temper, opening his mouth with a tirade of scolding.

“Alright, alright.” Someone beside him soothed Liu Jingbo’s emotions.

Xixi was frightened, stammering, almost crying. “I did touch… but it was to see if she was breathing… I really… really didn’t know she was already dead.”

“Mm, don’t be nervous. Continue.”

The young man’s thick black lashes lowered, and he removed the rubber gloves from his hands. There was a kind of casual cleanliness in his movements.

When he asked questions, though he had no expression, even lacking in eye contact, he still gave off an invisible presence. This man truly was the kind of superior goods whose temperament surpassed his appearance.

At this moment, the sound of rain suddenly grew louder, making a rushing sound as raindrops poured down and struck the umbrella surface. Fu Xueli’s hand gripping the umbrella handle tightened, she controlled her breathing, slightly craned her neck, and moved the umbrella upward.

Rainwater blurred the line of sight. The tall young man tilted his head slightly, reaching one hand to his ear, preparing to pull down his mask. Fu Xueli saw his exposed pair of eyes.

The contours were restrained, like starlight at dawn on a street corner, yet also like a demon from hell.

He held a black umbrella and also saw her, only pausing for a second before his gaze slid past flatly.

Indifferent and ordinary, like looking at a stranger’s eyes, revealing no emotion whatsoever.

She froze, probably for a full minute before coming to her senses, calling out his name in disbelief. “Xu Xingchun?!”

When Fu Xueli’s face, which usually only appeared on television screens in every household, was exposed, the gazes of others were immediately attracted to her, their eyes suddenly widening.

Tang Xin raised an eyebrow, her expression unchanged as she looked back and forth between the two. The rest of those present were all slightly shocked.

Wow, a celebrity!

When this greeting was made, Xu Xingchun’s reaction was extremely bland, which made the atmosphere instantly awkward.

Others carefully and silently observed Fu Xueli. Wearing high heels, black straps wound around her slender white ankles. Her skin was like white snow, delicate and tender. Her arms crossed, wearing red lipstick, her whole body seemed to emit light, and even from several meters away, one could smell the seductive scent of mint and rosemary on her. With this noble appearance, how could these police officers who licked blood from knife edges have dealings with such a person?

This sudden reunion had no warning, no buffer. On this chaotic, filthy rainy night, he was gentle, cool, abstinent, and immaculately clean.

Fu Xueli’s brows furrowed tightly, her right thumb forcefully pinching the second joint of her index finger.

The rain kept falling, rushing down from beside them, smashing into the muddy ground at their feet, blooming into small water flowers that vanished in an instant. Xu Xingchun turned his gaze back, distant and indifferent. After two seconds of silence, from her bitten, fresh red lips dripping with color, he slowly raised his lashes.

After a long while.

“Long time no see,” he said without any ripples.