Chapter 32: Utterly Baffled

Seeing that he did not move, Fang Si Ting wiped the water droplets from his face. His movements were a bit heavy and somewhat rough, yet they carried a touch of meticulous care.

The tissue also took away some of the foundation.

Xu Nuo bit his lip, looking timid. “Am I too ugly, so you don’t like me?”

“No.” Fang Si Ting said. Unknowingly, that soft, feminine voice sounded pleasant in his ears. “Liking someone has nothing to do with looks.”

“What about gender then?”

He released him and stepped back. He crumpled the tissue and tossed it neatly into the nearby trash can. “It’s getting late. Head home.”

With that, he returned to the office first.

Half an hour later, Xu Nuo opened the door.

“You’re not going home yet?”

Xu Nuo slipped inside. A flash of stubbornness crossed his face, now lightly made up. “You helped me, so I want to help you too.”

“No need.”

“Even just keeping you company is fine.” Xu Nuo sat beside him. This time, he behaved obediently, like a docile little kitten. “You must feel so lonely here all by yourself.”

Fang Si Ting paused his pen.

He sensed Xu Nuo’s gentle gaze upon him and quickly averted his eyes.

The words in the notebook on the desk took him a long while to process.

Five minutes later, he suddenly spoke. “Li Cuicai bought scissors.”

Xu Nuo had been quietly playing on his phone nearby. He lifted his head at the words.

“Li Cuicai purchased scissors in small quantities multiple times that afternoon on the 16th. Since it was cash purchases offline in that urban village area with hardly any cameras, the Vice Squad Officers from the network intelligence team checked many shops before finding the surveillance footage.”

“So you think not only Li Cunhou, but Li Cuicai was also involved in the Lu Jin case.” Xu Nuo was surprised.

“Yes, which makes it even more puzzling.” Fang Si Ting handed him his notebook.

What caught the eye were rows of forceful strokes in standard clerical script, like a model writing tablet.

Yet they lacked personal flair.

Fang Si Ting had a habit of listing out all the known clues with a pen when sorting through a case.

“This is the sequence of events I’ve pieced together so far.” He leaned out of his chair toward Xu Nuo’s side.

As he pointed along the clues on the paper with his pen, glints of light traced over the sleek black body of the steel pen.

“That afternoon on the 16th, Li Cuicai met Li Cunhou to discuss something. Afterward, she bought large quantities of scissors from multiple stores. No scissors were found at her place later, so she probably handed them to Li Cunhou. After they parted, Li Cuicai went home. After dinner, the killer entered her home and murdered her.”

“After parting with Li Cuicai, Li Cunhou took the scissors to Sovereign Cloud Realm Neighborhood, carried out the murder, and staged the scene.”

“Staging the scene must have had guidance from an expert.”

“Expert?”

A chilling glint flashed in Fang Si Ting’s eyes as he coldly spat out two words. “Xiao Fen.”

“It was him…” Xu Nuo murmured. “Any evidence?”

Fang Si Ting narrowed his eyes slightly and did not answer. Instead, he asked, “What do you think of him?”

“Not as good as you.” Xu Nuo said earnestly.

A hint of amusement flickered in his usually stern and sharp eyes. “You’re biased.”

“Do you like this bias?” Xu Nuo blinked at him.

Someone whose heart and eyes were filled with him alone—where all flaws became perfections, all vulnerabilities could be shown openly. No matter how skilled or not, he was always number one. That kind of bias.

Xu Nuo’s gaze was sincere and firm. All the daytime admiration had transformed into fervent love, dazzling brighter than the overhead lights.

Fang Si Ting averted his gaze.

“Inspector Fang.”

He realized they had unknowingly drawn very close, sharing the notebook between them.

The murmur was soft, yet it exploded right by his ear.

“What is it?” He did not look at him, his tone as cold and indifferent as ever.

The lights suddenly went out.

A weight landed on him as someone pounced into his arms.

Fang Si Ting instinctively caught him.

The person in his arms curled up like a little kitten, light and soft.

He steadied the unsteady body, held him, and stood up.

“What’s going on? Why’d the power go out?” Xu Nuo looked up in panic, uneasily scanning the surroundings. “Good thing I’m here tonight, Inspector Fang. What if you’re scared in the dark?”

“Want to see who’s scared right now?”

Xu Nuo chuckled awkwardly and sheepishly released his collar.

Fang Si Ting started to walk away, but resistance came from behind. A hand tugged at his shirt hem, eyes soft with a silent plea, unsure what to do.

With a sigh, Inspector Fang grabbed that hand. “Let’s go.”

Xu Nuo’s face immediately lit up. He twisted his slim waist and took small, quick steps to follow behind.

They had just stepped out when a group of people rushed over.

Xu Nuo frightedly hid behind Fang Si Ting.

“Boss, you’re still here?” Bai Zhu looked surprised at Xu Nuo. “Why haven’t you left? You two…”

“Why are you back?” Fang Si Ting asked.

Bai Zhu then remembered and turned on his flashlight to report. “Earlier, we spotted Ou Yu and Xiao Fen’s tracks and chased them here. We were about to catch them when they drove into the building in a desperate move and went upstairs.”

“To this floor?” Fang Si Ting glanced at the person beside him.

Xu Nuo clung to his arm, shrinking behind him. He uneasily adjusted his glasses and looked around, completely missing the gaze directed at him.

“Not necessarily. We checked all the way up and just reached this floor.”

Just as he finished speaking, the overhead lights came on, and the entire building’s power was restored.

The Action Team searched everywhere but found no one.

Bai Zhu sent people to check upstairs and downstairs twice more before finally calling it off.

Fang Si Ting went downstairs with them but had no intention of leaving. Instead, he headed to the surveillance room to pull up the footage.

He opened the computer, and a screen soon showed two figures running into the building one after the other in the darkness.

Xiao Fen and Ou Yu’s faces were clearly visible.

The timestamp showed it was five minutes before Bai Zhu arrived.

Xu Nuo had been by his side for over twenty minutes before the blackout. It was impossible for him to appear both on camera and beside Fang Si Ting at the same time.

After the building’s power was cut, they knew nothing more.

By now, the people must have left.

“Could they have taken our case files?” Xu Nuo poked his head out from behind him, worried.

“No.” Fang Si Ting shut down the computer. When he looked at Xu Nuo, the light in his eyes had softened. “Let’s head back first.”

++

The Pursuit Team’s focus remained on the Lu Jin case.

On the fourth day, they spent the entire day visiting and investigating everywhere but still came up empty.

Fang Si Ting was certain Li Cunhou killed Lu Jin, but with so many suspicious points and Li Cunhou being such a tough nut, getting him to confess required a decisive piece of evidence that could nail him in one blow.

Xu An personally checked the neighborhood’s and surrounding networks’ surveillance again. Aside from the two instances of maintenance workers driving in and out, there were no other flaws.

Bai Zhu and his men visited the electrical repair company responsible for the neighborhood. One repairman said he had been knocked out, waking up with body aches, but had no memory of the attacker.

The person, the car driven by the repairman, and the clothes provided no useful clues.

Tang Shen’s Forensics Team had the heaviest workload. While helping track other guests’ locations, they investigated the case. Lu Jin’s death scene held much information: scissors, severed fingers, Blood Butterfly, movie poster… After days of overtime checking each one, it was already the fifth day.

The scissors littered the first-floor ground—the most numerous, yielding the least info. Aside from some dust, nothing else.

As for the pruning shears that severed the fingers, after inspection, Tang Shen found only one person’s fingerprints on them.

Lu Jin’s.

“My deduction is that Lu Jin held the scissors in his right hand and cut off his left pinky, ring, and middle fingers himself. Then with his left hand, he cut the three fingers on his right. Finally, he used both feet to secure it and cut off his last four fingers.” Tang Shen said, covered in goosebumps. “We found Lu Jin’s toe prints on the pruning shears. The weapon that stabbed him was the same—only his own fingerprints.”

“What about the movie poster?” Fang Si Ting asked.

He sat in a black leather chair, legs crossed straight, long fingers lazily resting on the notebook on his thigh. A black steel pen was clipped between his right index and middle fingers as his sharp gaze scrutinized all the information on the screen wall nearby.

“Same thing—no valuable info. The movie released a year ago to mediocre reviews—not standout, not total trash. None of the leads, supporting cast, director, or crew connect to this case. Bai Zhu and Xu An investigated thoroughly and only found that Lu Corporation produced it.” Xu An said. “Later, we learned the poster was torn from trash at the neighborhood entrance. Security saw someone posting it, shouted them down, and tossed it in the bin casually. Then the killer picked it up to use as props for the yellow paper.”

“Any leads on the Blood Butterfly mark?”

It seemed like some mysterious symbol, combined with the scene, resembling a ritual.

“If this were abroad, I’d say it’s tied to some religion, but domestically, few have such devout faith.” Peng Xiaoxiao took a sip of coffee. Dark circles ringed her fair face.

Recording the show was more exhausting than regular cases.

Yet it ignited her fighting spirit. Though only thirty-six and a veteran of over a decade in the field, this case made her feel the same bewilderment as when she first took one.

It also stoked her competitive drive.

Over the past two days, she pored through domestic and international case files and psychology materials, trying to crack the killer’s psyche for staging such a scene from a religious angle, but found no leads.

While they met, the Live Stream Chat aired periodic live updates. A college student sat before the screen with a notebook and pen, eagerly reasoning along.

Lü Siming walked over and peeked at what he was watching, immediately cursing. “Wasting time again!”

“Dad.” The young man in his early twenties called helplessly. “You walk so quietly.”

“I’m telling you, don’t slack off just because you’re in university. Criminal investigation has tons to learn. Even after graduation, many are clueless and need heaps of field experience to become competent Vice Squad Officers.” The middle-aged man wagged his index finger in the air, face stern as he lectured. “If you don’t master the theory now, you’ll be lost at scenes later.”

“I’m studying it right now.” His son said helplessly, then excitedly shoved the laptop screen toward him. “It’s a crime variety show. The cases are super intricate. I’ve thought all day and can’t figure out the solution.”

“What’s so hard? It’s all scripted. You can’t spot the cheap tricks—this past two years of school was wasted.” Lü Siming glanced over and happened to see the Blood Butterfly photo on screen.

“What’s this? Serial killings?”

“Dunno. Should’ve squatted in the killer’s live stream. The Program Crew is sneaky—no screen recording allowed. Except for those who watched the killer’s live scene at the time, no one else knows how the crime happened. Hope they release the First Episode live footage after it ends.”

His son finished resentfully, then looked down to see his old man sitting on the floor, staring intently at the laptop on the coffee table.

“Yeah, Dad, you’re a professor and vice dean at Capital Criminal Investigation University. This kiddie crime trick can’t stump you. Tell me, how’d they pull it off? I’ve been losing sleep over it these two days.”

“Quiet, I’m thinking.” Lü Siming cut off his son.

The screen still showed Lu Jin’s crime scene photo.

Based on the current clues, the group discussed but made no headway for now. However, the Li Cuicai case had new progress.

“Wang Guozhi’s here.” Xu Nuo knocked and entered.

Fang Si Ting said “Meeting over” and walked out of the office. As Xu An slid by in his swivel chair, he suddenly shoved a file into his hands.

“Xu Nuo’s file.” He spun around and ducked back into his office.

Fang Si Ting flipped through it. The resume of over twenty years of arduous struggle had been reduced to row after row of cold, hard achievements. His family background, photos from childhood to adulthood—even the certificates from elementary school awards—had all been dug up.

Such a glorious, iron-blooded history. How could it produce a person like this?

A glint of curiosity flashed in Fang Si Ting’s eyes. He tossed the file into the shredder in his office and headed to the interrogation room.