Chapter 72: Returning to the Scene of the Crime

At this moment, a thousand wild horses thundered through Chen Yu’s mind. Interrupting a wedding night was as unforgivable as killing a man’s parents! Su Qingzhu, I won’t let you off for this!

Though such thoughts raged within him, Chen Yu moved instinctively, stepping forward to shield the trembling Liu Hong firmly behind him. He fixed Su Qingzhu with an unwavering stare.

“What are you doing?” he demanded.

“Unauthorized persons, please leave!” Su Qingzhu snapped impatiently.

Chen Yu’s face darkened completely. In a low voice, he asked, “Did Captain Yan send you to lay a hand on my woman?”

“Your woman?” Su Qingzhu echoed, her tone icy.

The words slipped out before Chen Yu could stop himself. Damn, I let that slip! Thank goodness there are no reporters here, or I’d be a laughingstock for life.

Yet, the woman he guarded, Liu Hong, upon hearing “my woman,” felt a ripple in her terrified eyes, and a touch of color returned to her pale cheeks. Staring at Chen Yu’s broad back, the overwhelming terror in her heart was eased by a strange sense of security.

Su Qingzhu, however, only laughed coldly, her scorn undisguised. “Corpse Brother really does have a way with women! I’d like to ask, just how many women do you have?”

Her words stabbed into Liu Hong’s heart like a needle. She froze for a moment. The past few days, rumors about “Corpse Brother” had swept the city—she could hardly be unaware. From that woman Li Qing, to the TV host Lin Bing… She was hopelessly in love; she’d wanted a chance to ask Chen Yu about it, but she preferred to trust her own feelings, to trust this man who gave her such a sense of safety. But hearing it from another woman’s lips now, the blow was all the more devastating.

Su Qingzhu didn’t waste another word. She was done looking at Chen Yu’s infuriating face. Moving with crisp efficiency, she yanked him aside, her movement swift and decisive.

Immediately, the agents behind her stepped forward. With a cold click, handcuffs snapped around Liu Hong’s slender wrists.

“Take her away!” Su Qingzhu ordered.

Two agents escorted the shell-shocked Liu Hong out the door, while Chen Yu, of course, followed closely behind.

The siren wailed as they sped through the city.

Outside the interrogation room at the city’s Criminal Investigation Unit, the corridor was cold and harshly lit. Chen Yu gazed at Yan Zheng’s tired, square-jawed face, his heart a tangle of anger and confusion.

“The results came back so quickly?” he asked. “It really was Liu Hong’s?”

He couldn’t understand it. So much didn’t make sense. Liu Hong’s bewildered reaction earlier was not an act. The feedback he’d received from the “Eye of Insight” skill also confirmed her innocence.

Then why had her hair shown up at a crime scene miles away?

Yan Zheng took a deep drag of his cigarette, exhaling a cloud of frustration. “No mistake. Zhang Fu pulled some strings to speed up the test.”

“Zhang Fu?” Chen Yu felt as if a bolt of lightning had struck his mind. Suddenly, all the scattered pieces fell into place.

“I get it now,” he muttered. “That Sakura Dog is one of Zhang Fu’s men?”

Yan Zheng gave a heavy nod. “I was surprised too.”

Stubbing out his cigarette, Yan Zheng’s eyes were filled with equal confusion. “Some random connection—how did Liu Hong’s hair wind up there?”

“Liu Gang!” Chen Yu’s mind was in chaos, but he clung to this hope like a lifeline, blurting it out.

“It’s likely Liu Gang! He deliberately took his sister’s hair there!”

He’d lost all composure, grasping at wild speculation. Yan Zheng looked up and gave Chen Yu a long, complex look, tinged with both disappointment and understanding.

“Your mind’s a mess now. Calm down. I’m going in to continue the interrogation.”

With that, Yan Zheng pushed open the door to the interrogation room, leaving Chen Yu alone in the cold corridor.

Chen Yu stared at the closed door, the muffled, businesslike questioning of Su Qingzhu drifting out. His heart twisted painfully.

He gave a bitter smile. Indeed, concern clouds the mind.

He understood the look in Yan Zheng’s eyes. Liu Hong was Liu Gang’s biological sister—why would he go to such lengths to frame her? It made no sense. His own thoughts were a mess.

Frustrated, Chen Yu ruffled his hair, leaning against the icy wall, forcing himself to calm down.

If not Liu Gang… then who?

Zhang Fu? Did he order Sanada Gouichiro, the Sakura Country detective, to do it? That didn’t fit either. Zhang Fu’s only goal was to find his daughter’s killer. He had no reason to frame an unrelated woman and muddy the waters—that would gain him nothing.

Wait.

Suddenly, Chen Yu’s chaotic thoughts ground to a halt. His pupils contracted sharply. He straightened up, his agitation replaced by a chilling calm.

The answer was right there.

It wasn’t Liu Gang. It wasn’t Zhang Fu. There was only one possibility left.

That strand of hair really was Liu Hong’s. But she herself had never been to the scene.

How could these two contradictory things be true at the same time?

Unless… Unless the murderer deliberately brought Liu Hong’s hair to the scene after committing the crime!

But why would the killer do that? Why frame Liu Hong?

Faces flashed rapidly through Chen Yu’s mind—Liu Gang, Zhang Fu, Sanada Gouichiro… No. That wasn’t it.

The killer didn’t want to frame Liu Hong. The target was himself.

The killer, lurking in the shadows, knew about his relationship with Liu Hong. That’s why the hair was planted.

It was a trap. An open, blatant trap, set specifically for himself. The killer wanted to use Liu Hong to throw him into confusion, to make him lose his judgment.

What a ruthless scheme!

A cold sweat broke out on Chen Yu’s back.

This opponent was even more terrifying than he had imagined—cruel, calculating, and meticulous to a degree that was almost inhuman.

He had even anticipated every step of Chen Yu’s reactions!

No, he couldn’t keep letting himself be led by the nose.

Chen Yu’s eyes sharpened. He spun around and rushed out of the Criminal Investigation Unit’s building. Flagging down a taxi, he barked, “To the East Suburb Villas!”

…

Half an hour later.

At Zhang Luoluo’s villa.

The place had become a temporary mourning hall. White drapes, the acrid smell of incense, the faint strains of funeral music. Zhang Fu, dressed in mourning clothes, eyes red and swollen, sat quietly at the center of the hall. The face that once commanded storms in the business world now showed only a father’s grief.

A parent sending a child to the grave.

Chen Yu walked slowly into this solemn, mournful place. His arrival immediately drew everyone’s attention. Zhang Fu, clearly surprised, looked up at this unexpected guest.

“Corpse Brother?”

Zhang Fu recognized the internet-famous detective who was all the rage in Jiangcheng these days.

Chen Yu ignored the nickname and walked straight over, bowing slightly. “Mr. Zhang, my condolences. I’d like to take another look at the crime scene.”

“Can’t you see we’re holding a funeral? What case do you think you’re investigating? Get out!” snapped the funeral director, glaring viciously at Chen Yu.

“Let him in,” said Zhang Fu, his hoarse voice suddenly ringing with authority.

He rose and approached Chen Yu, their faces almost touching. Zhang Fu’s bloodshot eyes glinted with a chilling ferocity and madness.

“You’re the one Yan Zheng’s betting on?” he rasped. “You’d better turn up something for me. Your time is running out.”

Chen Yu stared at the face twisted by grief, inwardly startled. What a powerful aura! The pressure was crushing, like a mountain. Anyone of weaker nerves would have wet themselves on the spot from Zhang Fu’s presence alone.

Chen Yu forced a sheepish smile and ignored the threat, striding quickly past the mourning hall, around the sobbing relatives, to the staircase between the first and second floors.

There, at the corner of the wall, on an outlet, a barely perceptible red light was blinking.

That was it.

That was Chen Yu’s target.

He drew a deep breath and reached out, his fingertip gently touching the cold device.

Whoosh!

The [Retrospect] skill activated instantly.

In a dizzying swirl, the world dissolved into formless streams of light. That familiar, hated dark figure materialized once again in Chen Yu’s mind.