“Have you figured it out, Ah Xu?” Yin Feng asked.

His tone made You Mingxu glance at him sideways. It felt like the little brother she’d always kept under her thumb was daring to put himself on equal footing.

She asked impatiently, “What?”

For the first time, Yin Feng’s gaze became profound as he said, “After the killing, he dragged them all to the kitchen, piled them together messily, then covered them with a table. He did not need to conceal the victims’ identities, so I believe this behavior represents the killer’s fear and guilt afterward.”

You Mingxu remained silent. It was a strange feeling – Yin Feng’s deduction made sense. And because of this glimpse into the killer’s psychology, the previously vague image of the murderer seemed to become more concrete.

“So, the likelihood that the killer knew Xie Huifang is higher,” Yin Feng said. “He’s among the people you’ve investigated; you must have missed something.”

You Mingxu frowned silently.

Suddenly, Yin Feng smiled brightly and said, “Of course, there’s another possibility, though very small – as you said, he is a stranger. Although he’s far from being an organized killer and hasn’t figured out his ultimate motive, he still has some psychological distortion.

Xie Huifang was his carefully chosen target. He projected his hatred, fear, and guilt onto her. In other words – he killed her as a substitute for someone else. Xie Huifang served as a proxy. In real life, he might be unable to resist the person he truly hates.”

You Mingxu’s thoughts seemed to sink into the vague figure Yin Feng described – a dark, twisted, terrified, suppressed face seemed to appear before her eyes.

But when she looked up, she saw an unfamiliar face.

Perhaps due to his excitement in explaining, though his hair was still fluffy and his features still handsome, Yin Feng’s smile and the gleam of excitement, insight, and maturity in his eyes were different.

You Mingxu froze.

She knew that in that instant, she had seen that person.

But her complex gaze now made Yin Feng quickly pull his mind away from the case. He felt something odd about the way Ah Xu was looking at him. So he reached out and pinched her cheek gently.

“Ouch,” You Mingxu said reflexively.

He stared at her intently. You Mingxu suddenly came to her senses and swatted his hand away. He lowered his head with a smile and asked, “Do you want to pinch my face?” then leaned forward.

“No!”

Seeing his familiar foolish expression, You Mingxu felt inexplicably relieved. Yet strangely, a trace of irritation began to grow. Perhaps trying to shake off this feeling, she said, “If as you say, it’s more likely someone she knew. But we’ve investigated everyone connected to her. No one had an obvious motive.”

Yin Feng shook his head and said, “Everyone has different backgrounds and psychological conditions. What might seem insignificant to you, not enough for a motive, could be magnified infinitely by someone who’s been psychologically suppressed for a long time, enough to make them disregard everything and kill with abandon.”

You Mingxu lowered her head in thought again.

Yin Feng stared at her for a while, then leaned in again and said, “Looks like I’m quite clever, don’t you think?”

You Mingxu answered objectively, “Not bad.”

He just blinked, then straightened up and continued walking, kicking stones on the ground, a slight smile playing around his eyes.

“So now, am I quite useful to you?” he said. “You haven’t been raising me for nothing?”

You Mingxu hadn’t expected him to still remember this – hadn’t he seemed quite proud when he told everyone she was raising him that day?

She smiled, deliberately teasing him: “Whether you’re useful or not, we’ll need more testing before concluding.”

He fell silent.

You Mingxu reached out to pat his head and said, “I’m just teasing. You’re very useful – there’s much you’ve said that I don’t understand. And I’m not raising you – you’re spending your own money. Don’t you know you’re very wealthy?”

Yin Feng stopped.

You Mingxu also stopped walking.

He suddenly took one of her hands, lowered his head, and with his eyes closed, gently nuzzled her palm.

You Mingxu froze. The man before her was too handsome and pure; his gesture of bowing his head to her seemed as natural as breathing. The tingling sensation in her palm continued, and gradually, that delicate feeling became like a burning thread, shooting from her palm straight to her heart, as if something had silently exploded. You Mingxu yanked her hand away and shouted, “What are you doing?”

Yin Feng looked up, bewildered: “Don’t… don’t you want to pet me? You were just praising me so much.”

You Mingxu remained silent for a moment, then continued walking forward as if nothing had happened. Yin Feng immediately caught up, having already forgotten what just happened, happily taking long strides, hopping and skipping beside her. Sometimes he would playfully tug her ponytail, then run away. When she ignored him, he’d come back. Sometimes he’d deliberately fall far behind, waiting until she impatiently looked back before breaking into a huge smile, assuming a sprinter’s starting position, and catching up in one burst.

You Mingxu had been walking normally, eyes straight ahead with purposeful strides, but his antics almost made her forget how to walk.

For a moment, she felt like she was back in school, being pestered by an annoying boy from the next class…

By the time they were nearly home, Yin Feng had finally settled down and walked quietly beside her. After a while, he said, “Ah Xu, so we’ve agreed, I’ll follow you on cases from now on.”

You Mingxu looked up at the surrounding high-rises with their scattered lights and smiled, saying, “You won’t always follow me.”

He bit his lip: “Why not?!”

You Mingxu said, “Because one day you’ll wake up and recover your memories. When you remember everything and are completely well, heh, you’ll turn and leave without a backward glance. By then, you definitely won’t want to see me, this little police officer who’s witnessed all your embarrassing moments.” She chuckled softly after speaking.

But Yin Feng couldn’t laugh at all. He looked at her for a long while and said, “Ah Xu, I won’t be like that. No matter what I become, I won’t be like that. I’ll always stay with you. If I can’t keep that promise in the future, I’ll jump off a building to prove it to you.”

You Mingxu thought, what good would it do me if you jumped off a building, and why would I want you following me around forever? Knowing he couldn’t understand the future now, she simply smiled and walked toward the building entrance.

He followed silently behind her, and after a while, spoke again, his tone stiff: “I just made a decision.”

You Mingxu: “What decision?”

He hurried to catch up, gripping the stair rail beside her, almost urgently pursuing her: “I want to change my name. I won’t be called Yin Feng anymore. I’m different from that person before, so you won’t keep thinking I’ll turn into his annoying self.”

You Mingxu laughed and asked, “Then what name do you want?”

Looking at her expression, he said, “I thought of a name these past couple of days – ‘Yingjun.’ How about ‘You Yingjun’? Using your surname.”

You Mingxu paused for a moment, covered her mouth with her hand, but still couldn’t help laughing, finally breaking into full-throated laughter. Seeing her laugh so heartily, Yin Feng couldn’t help but laugh along.

You Mingxu hadn’t laughed so hard in a long time. By the time they reached their door, her cheeks hurt from smiling. She patted his shoulder and said, “Alright, from now on I’ll call you Yingjun, You Yingjun.”

Yin Feng showed a satisfied smile and nodded.

You Mingxu was still smiling as she took off her shoes to enter the house. Just then, her phone rang. Seeing it was from the bureau, she immediately answered.

“There’s just been a murder near the Lushan Factory!”