Genius Detective

Facing Chen Shi's gaze, Chang Juan was speechless. She was extremely flustered at the moment as if she was about to cry in the next second.

Chen Shi continued to ask, "I noticed that you always pause for a long time between conversations, as if you’re waiting for someone's instructions. Whose 'spokesperson' are you? That person understands Chunqin's case very well. Why didn't they report the case themselves instead of speaking through you?"

Everyone's eyes fell on Chang Juan. Some people didn't know the cause and effect of everything, but Peng Sijue had heard about the whole thing before they came here.

Under the pressure of everyone's stares, Chang Juan became more and more nervous and seemed as though she was about to collapse at any time. Then she made an unexpected move. She actually squatted down and cried, "I died tragically!"

Everyone was stunned for a moment. Chang Juan's "acting skills" were really extremely terrible. Her crying was fake, her wails were fake, and there was no emotion behind it at all.

"If you want to act, you should make it more realistic. Do you still want to say that you’re possessed by Chunqin?" Chen Shi said.

"I died so miserably!" Chang Juan continued to "wail", causing some police officers to laugh secretly.

Although her acting skills were poor, she remained in this state for ten minutes, making people tremendously dumbfounded. It was as though she was hiding in an invisible shell to resist all damage from the outside world.

Lin Dongxue whispered, "Forcing her like this will only produce a counterproductive effect. This girl is too introverted."

Chen Shi furrowed his brows. "Can you take off her choker?"

"That isn’t a good idea. She isn’t a suspect. We have no right to do this."

Chen Shi was very discouraged, mainly because he was unwilling to accept that he had no way of finding out the truth. However, he could only give up.

After this saga, it was already 12:00 noon. Chief Zhang saw everyone coming out, and approached them very enthusiastically, saying that he would invite everyone to lunch. Peng Sijue didn't like to join social engagements like these. It would be torture for him to have lunch with strangers. He said, "I'm going to reexamine the body now."

"No way!? Captain Peng, you can do the work in the afternoon. It's time for lunch. Let’s go, let’s go. Give me some face!"

Peng Sijue shook his head. "We will drive over there by ourselves."

The chief had no choice but to follow along, complaining constantly along the way, thinking that the people from the city were really workaholics.

Chen Shi and the rest were divided into two groups and their group went off for a leisurely meal. Chang Juan followed him and Lin Dongxue silently. As it was still the first month of the lunar year, they had trouble finding a restaurant that was open for business. They ordered lotus root slices sandwiched with pork, winter bamboo shoot and cured meat soup, spicy cabbage and other special country dishes. While waiting for the dishes to arrive, the three of them sat in the private room. Chang Juan kept her head down, playing with the tassels of the tablecloth. These small movements revealed that she had serious social phobia.

"Now that there’s only three of us, can you tell me about your history?" Chen Shi asked.

Chang Juan was stunned for a while, and seemed to be receiving the mysterious signal again. Then she calmly said, "Why do you have to keep asking about this? Isn't it more important to solve the case?"

This was obviously the "mastermind behind the scenes" talking. Chang Juan was just repeating their words. It feels like one character was holding another character's script and reading it aloud without emotion.

"Information from unknown sources must of course be suspected. If you really hope that this case can be solved, you should give us a reasonable explanation. Who exactly are you and why are you getting involved in this?" Chen Shi asked, staring at Chang Juan's choker with the camera hole.

There was another silence before Chang Juan said, "Mr. Chen, your behavior is very naive. It's like a cat being attracted by a laser and chasing it endlessly. There are many things in the world that you can't find out the truth about. Please stop asking further. I won't tell you anything. What you’re doing is just hurting this girl in vain..." She pointed to herself blankly.

Lin Dongxue felt that Chang Juan was like a puppet, completely at the mercy of this person. She said angrily, "It's really cruel to hide in the dark and use a little girl as a shield. I warn you, don't play games with the police!"

Chang Juan stared blankly, indifferent, as if on standby.

Soon after, the dishes they ordered arrived one after another. Although they looked very greasy, they were full of distinctive regional flavor after they tried a bite. This was especially true for the homemade cured meat, which was fat but not greasy. The more they chewed, the more delicious it got.

There was also a bowl of rice in front of Chang Juan, but she didn't move her chopsticks. Lin Dongxue curiously asked, "Aren't you hungry?"

Looking at the fragrant food on the table, Chang Juan was clearly salivating, but she just didn't touch her chopsticks. Chen Shi seemed to understand. She was waiting for that person's instructions. Did they even control her eating?

After a minute, Chang Juan picked up the chopsticks, selected some vegetables, and ate them slowly with the rice.

Lin Dongxue whispered, "What kind of strange play is this?"

"Either she’s being threatened..." Chen Shi guessed. He had met plenty of weird and strange people, but it was his first time meeting a living puppet like Chang Juan.

"Chang Juan!" Lin Dongxue said, "From the first time we met to the present, has there been a sentence that came out of you sincerely when it comes to what you have said to us?"

Chang Juan replied, "Every sentence was." She was obviously lying.

Lin Dongxue completely gave in. She really wanted to pull off Chang Juan's choker to see who was "remotely controlling" her.

In the afternoon, Chang Juan followed the two of them like a shadow. Chen Shi and Lin Dongxue went to the bureau, where Chen Shi experienced the differential treatment again. The police who were extremely cordial towards Lin Dongxue treated him politely when he first entered, but then cast him aside thereafter.

The criminal police told Lin Dongxue everything related to the case. At first, the police suspected the unemployed youths who had returned from the Internet cafe, and they questioned them multiple times. The direction of the investigation was then focused on the fishing line from the crime scene. One month passed after only investigating this clue. Later, when investigating the deceased’s interpersonal relationships, they learned that Chunqin seemed to have had an affair previously. Li Tiezhu suspected that it was a co-worker surnamed Jia and had a fierce dispute with him. The police then focused the investigation on Jia...

Listening to these investigation procedures, Chen Shi thought to himself the investigation of this case was slow and poor. They couldn't grasp the key points at all.

"Your investigation is too slow!" Chen Shi said, but no one paid him any attention.

"Aren’t you too slow in investigating the case?" Lin Dongxue repeated. The three policemen answered at the same time. One of them said, "Is this considered slow? I don't know about the speed of the police in the city, but we’re already short on manpower. The equipment is also poor, and a single lead has to be investigated for several weeks. Another point is that we’ve never had such a large criminal case before, and we’re a bit inexperienced."

Another said, "The bureau chief also said that investigating a case requires you to have the attitude that life goes on. It’s possible for such a big and special case to be investigated for decades. If it weren’t for your city bureau leaders suddenly asking about this case, we’d probably still be investigating it slowly!"

Chen Shi couldn't help but say, "Are you holding onto a bunch of old cases?"

Still, no one paid attention to him. Chen Shi was shocked. Turning his head around, he found that Chang Juan was actually laughing at him secretly. There was a hint of sympathetic understanding in her smile. At that moment, she seemed to reveal her true self...