“You want to die?”

Xu Xingchun asked again through gritted teeth. His expression revealed little, yet there was a faint oppressive hostility about him.

His body was also completely drenched, his shirt clinging tightly to his physique.

Fu Xueli’s whole body was trembling. Her consciousness unclear, shivering and her face covered in tears—she looked utterly wretched.

Her tongue was thick, her speech not very clear. “That’s right… I do want to die. Now let me go and I’ll go die. Dying would be good. If I die, we won’t have to see each other again.”

The remaining effects of alcohol were at work. But actually nothing could make someone completely drunk—at most it numbed the senses and exposed one’s true nature.

Her grievance and sadness were not subtle at all.

The continuous pain from her shoulder seemed to pierce into her heart. She felt like he was about to crush her, yet suddenly she wasn’t afraid at all.

In fact, Fu Xueli suddenly wanted to laugh.

A bitch’s affectation is always more charming than a lady’s truth.

Xu Xingchun never understood this. After all these years, he hadn’t improved one bit.

He’d lacked love since childhood. Her casual words could cause him extreme pain, bringing him close to the edge of losing control.

Her shoulder-length black hair was wet and scattered, strand by strand clinging to her fair and delicate skin, her eyes black and moist. Her waist was soft as if about to bloom with peach blossoms.

“Don’t touch me.” Fu Xueli forcefully pried open Xu Xingchun’s hand, pushed him away, and stumbled forward.

After just two steps she fell to the ground. Her knees hit the slippery tile floor directly—the pain piercing to the bone.

It really hurt so much.

The kind that went straight from the spine to the scalp.

After catching her breath for a second or two, Fu Xueli knew the person behind her was watching. She bit her teeth, supported herself on the nearby sink, and tried to get up while enduring the pain. Suddenly one arm was violently pulled, and she was scooped up horizontally.

The kitchen.

The moment she was roughly thrown to the ground, Fu Xueli was completely dumbfounded.

Why did this person turn hostile at the drop of a hat?

Not the slightest bit gentle with women?

Her leg still hurt.

Xu Xingchun squatted down, his eyes cold and penetrating, meeting her gaze. “Fu Xueli, you want to die, is that it?”

“…….”

Fu Xueli struggled to retreat backward, tears coming out again.

“There’s a knife right behind you.” Xu Xingchun gently stroked her neck, then with an extremely tender technique, gripped her chin and turned her face. “Go ahead and die. I’ll watch.”

Several seconds of silence.

Fu Xueli bit her pale lips hard. She didn’t dare make any move, cold sweat seeping from her spine.

He leaned over, his chin resting on her shoulder, his breath spraying by her ear. “If you don’t dare to die, then don’t say these kinds of things in front of me again.”

She broke out in goosebumps all over, as if a basin of cold water had suddenly been dumped over her head.

“Wahhh, Xu Xingchun, you’re just a pervert, aren’t you?” Fu Xueli’s mind exploded with a boom. She cried even louder, almost passing out from lack of air. “You bastard, if you dare to die then you die. I’m not going to die.”

—

Shencheng Public Security Bureau conference room.

“Chlordiazepoxide?”

“Right, that’s what was detected in the deceased’s body.” Lin Jin flipped through the case files and materials. “I feel this matter isn’t that simple. When Ming Heqi was discovered, she was lying in the bathtub, wearing a red dress soaking in the water. Due to excessive blood loss, her entire body’s skin had turned blue-purple, but what was strange was that her face was heavily made up.”

Liu Jingbo frowned deeply. “You’re saying she was drugged?”

“What kind of drug is that? I’ve never even heard of it. Can we get a professional explanation?” Xiao Wang was still young and hadn’t seen much, listening on the side feeling very confused.

“This thing is colorless and odorless. After a normal person takes it, the onset time is about 20 minutes, lasting four hours minimum. After consumption, the person is basically in a comatose state.” Lin Jin explained directly.

Liu Jingbo grew more and more puzzled. “Right, I have a very strange point here. You say if you’re going to commit suicide, just commit suicide. But to put on makeup before slitting your wrists, and also take some weird and bizarre drug—just thinking about it is creepy.”

Lin Jin shook his head. “We can’t rule out that the deceased had too low a survival instinct and was also afraid of backing out, so took it before slitting her wrists to reduce the suffering.”

But why the makeup?

To depart looking presentable?

This case gave them somewhat of a headache. After the assistant discovered Ming Heqi’s suicide, the first thing she did was call 120. Only after the doctor arrived did she call the police. After that, Ming Heqi died on the spot despite emergency treatment.

Subsequently, somehow, the news spread too fast, with reporters and passersby all crowding in to watch the excitement. The primary scene was completely destroyed, leaving them very few details to investigate.

A celebrity dying in a hotel attracted attention very quickly. All the media were waiting for news from the police.

Lin Jin stood up rubbing his temples, leaning against the conference table, his voice heavy. “According to the preliminary identification by Team Leader Xu and Old Qin’s side, the deceased’s time of death was approximately around eleven in the morning. But according to the concentration analysis of chlordiazepoxide in the blood, under normal circumstances the medication time should be one to two hours before the death time. In other words, the deceased slit her wrists after the drug took effect.”

“But isn’t that contradictory…” Xiao Wang flipped through photos left from the crime scene. “I don’t know if it’s because the scene was too chaotic, but when we went, we checked several times and never found the tool Ming Heqi used to slit her wrists.”

The method Ming Heqi used to slit her wrists was along the artery. In this situation, only someone with absolute determination to die would do this.

There were no obvious signs of struggle on the body. The wrist was cut by a sharp object through subcutaneous tissue eight millimeters to one point five centimeters deep. The bleeding was very fast. She had already died before being discovered.

Lin Jin continued to ponder. “According to the records provided by the hotel, three people appeared at the door of Ming Heqi’s room on the day of her death.”

“One was delivering takeout and didn’t enter the room. We can temporarily rule that out.”

“One was a young man wearing a mask and black baseball cap. After investigation it should be He Lu. However, according to his testimony, he just visited his girlfriend before departing to Wujiang to record a show, and said that Ming Heqi’s emotions were relatively stable at that time.”

“And one more was the assistant responsible for taking care of Ming Heqi’s life. During the time of the incident she had just gone out to buy things for the deceased.”

“The testimonies of the three people are basically consistent and basically match up with the hotel surveillance.”

Xiao Wang scratched his head. “So that means Ming Heqi committed suicide?”

Lin Jin shook his head. “It’s not that simple.”

“…….”

They discussed all morning without any particularly substantial progress. Before unraveling a series of mysteries, quickly drawing conclusions was impossible.

But solving this case was urgent and couldn’t be delayed too long.

By lunchtime, Xiao Wang packed up a pile of case files, rubbing his sore shoulders as he stood up.

People passed by one after another. Xiao Wang quickly followed behind Liu Jingbo, mysteriously asking in a low voice, “Team Leader Liu, can I ask you something?”

Liu Jingbo glanced at him. “What is it?”

“Well, you see, recently when I go online, so many unfounded things are being spread around. It makes me anxious just watching. About Fu Xueli, that celebrity, you know, right? She’s being cursed at terribly. And then I suddenly thought, she seems to be an old acquaintance of Team Leader Xu.”

Liu Jingbo listened impatiently and interrupted. “What exactly are you trying to say?”

Xiao Wang grinned. “I heard there have been several more cases of crowd drug use at the bathing center and entertainment center over on Han Street. Team Leader Xu should be very busy recently, so how does he have the leisure to specifically handle this matter?”

Although Xu Xingchun was a forensic doctor in the public security system, his primary identity was that of a narcotics officer. His performance had been very outstanding in recent years. During his years of grassroots training, he had cracked over a hundred drug cases. Only last year was he transferred to Shencheng within the system—it was said to be an arrangement from above. They weren’t too clear about it either. In any case, they knew Xu Xingchun was usually especially busy, not even a shadow of him could be seen. Besides forensic work, much of the time he also had to undertake police work related to narcotics.

“So what?” Liu Jingbo asked.

Xiao Wang had a gossipy and dreamy expression on his face. “So I want to ask you! Team Leader Xu and that Fu Xueli—do they really have some kind of unspeakable relationship? Last time, do you know what I saw? In Team Leader Xu’s temporary rest room, I saw Fu Xueli! I was shocked at the time, doubting whether I was blind. So these past few days I’ve been thinking… do you think there’s any possibility that Team Leader Xu is actually a big star’s underground boyfriend?!”

“………”

“It’s also quite embarrassing, but I have an idol I really like, for many years. I was thinking maybe I could ask Team Leader Xu to help me get an autograph or something, hehe.”

Liu Jingbo looked at him like he was looking at an idiot, suddenly smacking him on the head. “Xiao Wang, I’m telling you, you can’t solve many real cases in a year. Turns out all your thoughts are focused on this?”

“Ow ow, don’t hit me, let’s talk nicely!” Xiao Wang muttered while holding his head. “I’m just concerned about Team Leader Xu.”

—

Fu Xueli had a dream.

In the dream she went to dinner with a group of friends. The others went upstairs first, only she alone took the elevator up. After entering, the control panel was full of years.

Before she could pull back her hand, she pressed ten years ago. The elevator door opened and she walked out—a class was in session in the classroom.

Amid the sounds of reading aloud, Xu Xingchun was wearing a clean school uniform, standing at the podium copying notes on the blackboard.

Everyone stared over in unison.

Fu Xueli was immediately very panicked and wanted to go back to the elevator. Turning around, she realized the teaching building didn’t have an elevator—the place from before had turned into a hallway.

She was frightened awake.

She opened her eyes blankly, looking at the ceiling above her head and gasping for breath.

After quite a while she realized—it had been a dream.

It took a few more minutes to gradually gather her thoughts. Just now she had been in the bathroom…

In the bathroom, lifted up by Xu Xingchun around the waist.

Then…

Then…

Then carried to the kitchen, where Xu Xingchun told her to die.

After that she couldn’t remember, damn it.

Fu Xueli’s eyelids were heavy. With effort she propped herself up, lifted the blanket covering her and got out of bed. Barefoot, she pulled open the bedroom door.

Suddenly she smelled a faint fragrance in the air, similar to food.

She walked over and saw a bowl of congee on the dining room table. It had no steam rising from it anymore—she didn’t know how long it had been sitting there.

No need to look to know who had made it.

Fu Xueli pulled out a chair and sat down, brought a spoonful to her mouth, then slowly swallowed it.

One spoonful after another. Although it tasted terrible, she finished it all.

And her heart was full of mixed feelings.

She found her phone on the sofa and turned it on. After spacing out for a while, she made up her mind to dial Xu Xingchun’s number.

“Ring… ring… ring…”

Suddenly there was a faint ringtone in her ear, not far but not near, unable to distinguish the specific direction—probably in the direction of the balcony.

Xu Xingchun hadn’t left?

Fu Xueli felt relieved deep in her heart. She followed the sound, hesitating, and pulled open the terrace door.

Under her gaze, Xu Xingchun pressed his phone, ending the call. He was wearing a thin shirt. The wind on the balcony was very strong.

Fu Xueli stopped in her tracks.

After a long time, feeling both guilty and heart-fluttering.

“Um…” She hesitated for a moment, then spoke.

“The congee from last time—you made that too, didn’t you?”