Chapter 85: Surprise

Chapter 85: Surprise

After more than half a month of hard work, the case involving Jiang Chengtao finally came to an end. As soon as they submitted the relevant case files, everyone breathed a sigh of relief.

The process of solving the case wasn't particularly difficult. Yue Lingchuan and the others had experienced much tougher situations before, so this was a walk in the park. The main challenge was the sheer number of victims involved and the complexity of the information that needed to be organized. Each victim's experience, the crime scenes, the autopsy reports, and other details all required careful verification. Most of their time was spent on paperwork, and by the time everything was finished, it was already mid-May.

The May Day holiday had come and gone without them noticing.

In the midst of their busy days, they hadn’t even noticed the holiday had come and gone. It wasn’t until they went to the cafeteria for lunch and found it empty that they belatedly realized everyone else was on vacation.

Only they were still on duty.

Fortunately, the detectives from the neighboring two teams were also with them, which made everyone feel a little better.

"Boss, I want to have a proper meal!" Wei Zhengyi sprawled on his chair in the office, shouting. They had been so swamped that they hadn’t had time for a decent meal. They either ate in the cafeteria or grabbed something quick at a roadside restaurant. Wei Zhengyi couldn’t even remember the last time he had a proper meal.

"Go ahead," Yue Lingchuan said with a wave, sounding magnanimous. "You can eat whatever you want. After that, take two days off, rest at home, and then come back."

Luo Kaiyang’s face lit up at once. "Today is Wednesday. If we rest for two days, it'll be the weekend. That means we'll have a four-day holiday!"

"Hooray, the boss is the best!" Wei Zhengyi cheered.

Shen Qingye couldn’t help but smile too, enjoying the rare moment of relaxation. She leaned back in her chair, sipping tea, watching everyone cheer and laugh, savoring the rare moment of downtime.

"Take a break, rest. Qingye, you really haven't had a proper rest in a long time!" The little creature whispered softly. Shen Qingye looked down. The midday sun was too intense, so she had moved the potted plant to her desk for shade. The little creature was nestled under the newly grown succulent, a small, round figure.

She couldn’t tell if it was her imagination, but the little guy seemed to be thriving under her care. A strange sense of pride washed over her.

Resting her chin on the desk, she reached out and gently tapped it with her fingertip, whispering, "When we take a break, I’ll take you out for some fun too."

During this period, she had been buried in paperwork every day. Seeing her work so hard, the little guy would share amusing anecdotes to cheer her up. Sometimes it was about flowers blooming behind the office building, or someone nearly tripping and falling downstairs.

Though the tales were simple, its delicate voice made them oddly entertaining.

Shen Qingye had been so swamped that she’d left it in the potted plant daily, hardly the picture of a responsible caretaker.

"Yay!" The little creature perked up instantly. "Thank you, Qingye!"

Shen Qingye’s heart warmed, and she gave it another gentle tap. "You're welcome."

The little creature giggled, oddly well-behaved.

Shen Qingye’s eyes crinkled with a smile as she remembered having Su Jinfu’s door repaired. Her smile deepened.

This ability, aside from helping with cases, had also brought her unexpected pleasures.

Yue Lingchuan watched her, amused and slightly exasperated, as she poked the potted plant and murmured to herself.

Meanwhile, Wei Zhengyi and Luo Kaiyang had already picked out a place to eat. Yue Lingchuan leaned back in his chair, in a great mood, agreeing to whatever they suggested.

The commotion caught the attention of those outside. Captain Yang from the first team strolled in leisurely with a cup of tea, looking around. "What's going on? Did you guys wrap up the case?"

"We did," Yue Lingchuan replied, standing up and kicking Wei Zhengyi's chair out from under him. "Have a seat."

Captain Yang hadn't planned to sit down at first, but the case had been tormenting his mind, so he decided to take a break and sat down as suggested. He took a sip of tea and said, "It's good that it's resolved. I see you've been busy with this case for almost half a month. That's quite a long time."

Wei Zhengyi, whose chair was taken, didn't complain and simply sat on the table instead. He couldn't help but say, "Exactly. Jiang Chengtao, that bastard, appeared to be a successful businessman on the surface, but in reality, he was ruthless and had seven murders to his name! The places he chose to dump the bodies were more and more remote—under the river, in cement, and even sealed in abandoned construction pipes... We spent several days just retrieving the bodies!"

"At least we got him," Captain Yang sighed. "Unlike us, it's been almost a week, and we still have no clues."

Shen Qingye's expression changed slightly when she heard this, and she turned to ask, "Is it the headless woman case from a while back?"

Captain Yang replied, "Exactly."

Shen Qingye looked thoughtful.

The headless woman case had caused quite a stir some time ago. Even though Shen Qingye was busy with her own case, she had heard about it.

The person who reported the case was the owner of a karaoke bar. She said the victim, Ruan Hongling, hadn't come to work for two days straight, and her calls went unanswered. Worried, she went to Ruan's place to check on her. After knocking on the door for a while with no response, she called the police. When the police broke in, they found a headless woman's body lying on the bedroom floor, already dead for nearly two days.

Zhou Qiming also turned around and asked, "So there are no clues at all?"

Captain Yang shook his head. "After investigating, we found the victim worked at the karaoke bar, supposedly as a waitress, but actually in a special kind of work. We checked her relationships but found no enemies. The two coworkers she argued with also had solid alibis when the crime happened."

Special kind of work...

Luo Kaiyang thought for a moment and asked, "What about her customers?"

Captain Yang said, "We're looking into them, but so far, no leads."

"We didn't find anything helpful at the scene either. The weapon was a fruit knife from the victim's place, and it didn't have any fingerprints on it."

Wei Zhengyi hissed, "So... if we can't find anything from the people the victim knew... it couldn't be a random person, right?"

"Who knows?" Captain Yang rubbed his temples. "That's why it's so tough. Everyone's been scratching their heads."

Everyone frowned. What they feared most wasn't revenge, love, or extreme violence cases, but ones like this—where the killer might be a stranger.

And if it was a crime of passion, it would be even more troublesome.

A stranger doing it meant the killer might have no link to the victim at all. The killing could have been on a whim, and they wouldn't find any clues around the victim.

In cases like this, they could only hope for witnesses when it happened. Otherwise, with so many people coming and going in the city every day, anyone could be the killer, and it would be impossible to investigate everyone.

Yue Lingchuan pondered for a moment and said, "The killer went through the trouble of cutting off the victim's head after killing her. Either the killer is mentally unstable or has a particular fetish, or the killer harbored a deep hatred for the victim."

If it was the second one, it would probably rule out a stranger. But if it was the former...

Yue Lingchuan shook his head.

Shen Qingye also looked at Captain Yang and asked, "Has the victim's head been found?"

Captain Yang sighed, looking exhausted. "Not yet."

Now, they had no leads on the killer, and the head was still missing.

Shen Qingye pursed her lips and remained silent.

Wei Zhengyi couldn't help but say, "The head isn't small. If the killer carried something that big out, someone should have noticed."

Captain Yang said, "We're currently canvassing the area to see if anyone can provide any leads."

Everyone sighed. Shen Qingye thought that if Captain Yang and his team still couldn't find any clues, she might go to the crime scene herself to take a look.

Given her abilities, Shen Qingye couldn't ignore cases right under her nose, even if she couldn't save the world.

Captain Yang sipped his tea a couple more times before getting up: "Alright, that's enough, I should get going."

"Get some rest!"

Yue Lingchuan stood up to see him off and added, "We were just about to grab a bite, Captain, care to join us?"

Captain Yang waved his hand: "Your celebration dinner? What would I be doing there? There's still a lot of work to do."

Yue Lingchuan didn't press further, saying, "Alright then, I'll have someone bring some food over for you and Uncle Zhang later, so you don't have to go out."

Captain Yang replied, "You think I can't take care of myself? Don't worry about me, aren't you exhausted?"

Yue Lingchuan smiled, and after seeing him off, he turned back to call his team: "Let's go! Time to chow down!"

Wei Zhengyi and Luo Kaiyang immediately cheered, and Shen Qingye also temporarily set the case aside, joining everyone as they headed to a highly-rated and reasonably-priced hotel in the city.

The group ordered a feast, and Yue Lingchuan ordered a few extra dishes, paying extra to have them delivered to the station.

As the dishes kept coming, Wei Zhengyi buried his face in the food, tears streaming down: "Wuwuwu, it's the best following the boss, who would have thought I'd get to eat here one day?"

Luo Kaiyang was even more direct: "Boss, you're my hero!"

Yue Lingchuan watched them wolf down the food, then glanced at the polite Shen Qingye beside him, finding it hard to look, and scolded with a laugh, "Can't even food shut you up?"

Wei Zhengyi was still fooling around, and Luo Kaiyang played along. Yue Lingchuan looked helpless, while Shen Qingye found it amusing.

The group fooled around until the night was deep, and only then did the meal come to an end.

The evening breeze was cool, blowing away the day's heat, brushing against their cheeks, making it particularly pleasant.

Yue Lingchuan followed behind Shen Qingye's car as usual, seeing her home before taking the others back.

By the time he got home, it was already past eight.

The night was like spilled ink, and the cicadas from some tree were singing with a drawn-out sound. The moon was full, bright and clear.

Yue Lingchuan parked his car in the yard, casually took out his keys to open the door, and just as he was about to turn on the light, he caught a glimpse of something in the clear moonlight below, his movement paused, his phoenix eyes narrowing.

The angle of these slippers... was different from when he left.

Looking at the shoe cabinet in the entryway, the scattered car keys were also not placed as usual.

Yue Lingchuan's expression didn't change, but his muscles tensed up subtly. He pretended nothing was wrong and was about to turn on the light when the crystal chandelier in the living room lit up first, and the next moment, a surprised voice rang in his ears:

"Surprise!"

In the bright living room, a beautiful and elegant woman in her forties was standing with her arms open, looking at him with a big smile: "How about it, son, surprised? Unexpected?"

Yue Lingchuan: ...

He closed his eyes and called out helplessly, "Mom."