Chapter 36 Part 2

20 seconds before the Vice Squad Officers rushed into the club, Ou Yu wheeled someone out of the room.

As expected—another miss.

Fang Si Ting walked out from the crowd, said a few words to Bai Zhu, and left the frame.

++

Three hours until the end of the First Episode.

Fang Si Ting had been sitting in the Abandoned Villa for over 15 hours.

For the Lu Jin case, besides knowing Li Cunhou was the killer and someone else helped clean up, he knew nothing else.

Even whether this person was Xiao Fen or not, aside from scattered indirect evidence, he lacked the most compelling proof to confirm it.

If he were that mastermind behind the scenes, how would he have managed to move Lu Jin’s body into the secret room?

He ran through the crime process again, the one he had repeated countless times.

The footprints started from the villa’s front door, then wandered aimlessly around inside the villa, strolling leisurely. Afterward, he had carried…

If he carried a person around like that, did Xiao Fen even have the stamina? Why not use a more energy-efficient method?

Moreover, the villa’s front door showed no signs of being disturbed at all. It was impossible to enter from there.

No matter how many times he examined it, the result was always the same.

The other possible entry into the house was the bathroom.

But the door between the bathroom and living room, like the front door, showed no signs of being forced open.

Did someone really use a wall-passing technique, or get lured here by ghosts, trapped in a ghost wall illusion until exhausted and collapsing on the living room stool as their sacrifice?

No, impossible. There were no such bizarre spells in the world, and certainly no ghosts.

What he lacked was the mindset, the thinking to come up with such a method.

If it was Xiao Fen, what he was best at was breaking conventional thinking.

Cheerful, erratic, seemingly careless but actually meticulous, always taking the unconventional path.

This was a challenge for him, who always followed the rules.

If he swapped in Xiao Fen’s brain and acted in his style…

He definitely wouldn’t go through the front door.

The floor-to-ceiling windows? The concrete ledge under the eaves outside was covered in dust, with no signs of damage. He wouldn’t have chosen that either.

That left the bathroom.

His sharp gaze quickly scanned everything in sight.

Sofa, floor-to-ceiling windows, front door, stairs, windows.

None of them, none, absolutely not!

Amid his rapid breathing, with the heavy dust, damp mold, and thick bloody stench assaulting his nose, he caught a faint fresh scent.

Fresh, industrial.

A flash of insight pierced his mind, nearly slipping away from his consciousness.

He grabbed hold of it tightly and arrived at the bathroom door.

Sure enough.

He pulled out his phone and forced his breathing to steady.

“Tang Shen, bring the tools and come over.”

Tang Shen had just made major progress on his end. He asked, “Did you find something at the Abandoned Villa?”

“Mm.” His nasal hum carried urgent breaths.

A rare spark of excitement burst in his eyes.

“I’ve cracked the puzzle—if my guess is right.”

At those words, Tang Shen immediately said, “I’m on my way.”

Peng Xiaoxiao’s eyes lit up. She closed her folder and followed without a word.

Fang Si Ting’s Live Stream Chat already had over 53 million people waiting.

【So tense, more than my finals.】

【Should’ve stayed in Brother Fen’s stream. Who knew the Program Crew was so sneaky, not letting viewers record? I’ve been on pins and needles these past days just for this moment.】

【All I can say is the Lu Family’s too powerful. I posted a murder pic online and it got deleted by mods in under two minutes.】

【Fang Yama, don’t let me down.】

【No worries there. If Xiao Fen set up the most genius, bizarre case in the world, then Fang Si Ting is definitely the only one who can crack it.】

Half an hour later, they arrived at the Abandoned Villa.

“Boss, what about your side?”

“Why’d you all come?” Fang Si Ting asked. “How’s the Li Cuicai case going?”

Tang Shen reported solemnly, “We got it. Xiaoxiao and I agree the real killer in this case was Li Cuicai herself—she hired the hitman.”

Fang Si Ting raised an eyebrow, somewhat surprised.

【No way? A simple home robbery, we questioned everyone, suspected them all, and it turns out the victim hired someone to kill herself?】

【Had my lover kill me, then framed my husband who wanted me dead.】

【What a Gone Lover soap opera plot.】

【Speaking of, don’t Fang Yama and Brother Fen make the perfect ‘Gone Lover’ duo? hhhhh】

【Love-hate, enemies-to-lovers? Love it, gimme more.】

“According to Wu Hao’s testimony, the anonymous employer described the pre-crime murder plan, and all the victim details matched Wang Guozhi’s profile.

“Later, Xiaoxiao verified their insurance policies. Li Cuicai’s wasn’t active due to her health issues, which is why Wang Guozhi went nuts at the insurance company. But Wang Guozhi’s was active. He wouldn’t kill over an insurance policy he knew was invalid, but Li Cuicai, another gambling addict, very well might for the payout.

“Wang Guozhi suddenly decided to visit a friend on the 16th. Wu Hao, hearing the employer’s vague description, saw only Li Cuicai home at the Wang Family place, and naturally took her as the target.”

A prompt from the Program Crew came through his earpiece: Congratulations to the Pursuit Team for resolving all doubts in the Li Cuicai case and capturing one of the criminals.

One of them.

No need to guess who the other was.

【It’s really like that? Did the Program Crew mess up?】

【More far-fetched than that warm-up framing Ou Yu for murder.】

【Fans from Brother Fen’s stream confirm: yep, Li Cuicai got used as a gun by Brother Fen the whole time.】

【She ain’t innocent though. Program Crew should release Brother Fen’s stream recording after. When Brother Fen approached her, that Li woman heard there was money for murder and demanded not just cash but Brother Fen help her plot a kill-the-husband scam for insurance. That look on her face—I couldn’t tell if she was acting. If she didn’t know it was a show, if she’d gone to anyone but Brother Fen… terrifying, could’ve been a real death.】

【Yeah, that woman’s rotten. She egged Li Cunhou on to kill in Sovereign Cloud Realm, while following Brother Fen’s plan: disguised as a stranger, lowered her voice to sound male, sent Wu Hao to her own home to kill Wang Guozhi, creating an alibi for her brother. Double-dipping: Brother Fen’s hitman fee plus Wang Guozhi’s insurance. Who’d think reality beats TV? Tried to steal a chicken but lost the rice instead—ended up dooming herself.】

【Epic, truly epic!】

【What’d I miss?! Next round, I’m glued to Brother Fen’s stream, no more jumping.】

【This is just the start—you’ll be more shocked soon.】

【Yeah, what about Lu Jin’s death?】

Tang Shen and the others asked Fang Si Ting too.

Fang Si Ting said, “We all know Xiao Fen knocked out the repairman ahead of time, stole the repair van, had Li Cunhou pose as a power company worker, and struck around 8 PM on the 16th at Jiang Xu’s Villa. That gave him a solid alibi when Lu Jin died.

“Then, he sabotaged the power again, so around midnight the complex security called another worker. He’d just come down from Chessboard Mountain. To stall Jiang Xu, he used Lu Jin’s phone to call him for late-night snacks, buying enough time to move Lu Jin’s body from the villa here.”

“Then how’d he enter the villa?” Peng Xiaoxiao asked, rubbing her nape—it felt chilly.

Fang Si Ting scanned the room and stopped at the bathroom door.

“The only entry in the whole villa was through that long-broken bathroom window. Even Xiao Fen had to come in that way,” Fang Si Ting said. “Carrying Lu Jin would’ve left his footprints on the bathroom floor—too obvious. So he wore Lu Jin’s shoes, wandered the villa to fake entering from the front door, covering those tracks.”

“Impossible. We checked days ago—the bathroom door showed no recent opening,” Tang Shen objected.

“You don’t need to open the door to get in.”

【What, Xiao Fen really knows wall-passing?】

【Some kinda magic?】

【Nah, soul out-of-body—that’s how you pass through doors.】

“We all fell into a thinking trap: to enter or exit, you open the door—with a key or by picking the lock. But we know Xiao Fen used neither, creating the ‘wall-passing’ illusion.”

“So what method did he use?” Tang Shen voiced what most in the Live Stream Chat wondered.

“Simple: Xiao Fen removed the entire door.” Fang Si Ting said.

“What?!” Xu An and the others were stunned.

“Just… that simple?”

“No way!”

“The bathroom door’s old-style, with just upper and lower hinges. To remove it, you open it first—the screws are in the frame,” Tang Shen said. “The lock would’ve shown tampering.”

“Smell carefully—what’s this scent?”

Tang Shen leaned close to the bathroom door, his face turning incredulous.

“This…”

“Take it down,” Fang Si Ting ordered.

Tang Shen fetched the electric saw. Other Vice Squad Officers held the door steady. Once the saw cut through the frame, they saw glue between the frame and wall—special adhesive for installing door frames.

He touched it, sniffed. “Sure enough, it’s fresh!”

Fang Si Ting said, “Xiao Fen didn’t pick the lock—he sawed out the entire door frame to enter. After setting the scene, he glued it back.”

“The glue’s new but faint-smelling, masked by blood and mold. If the frame wobbled, we’d blame age and wear,” Tang Shen said. “The villa had water damage, peeling walls everywhere. I noticed flaking putty by the frame days ago but didn’t think twice.”

“Wait,” Peng Xiaoxiao said, “sawing a door makes huge noise. I asked around the complex—no one reported anything odd.”

“Three or five nearby villas were under renovation, close together. Normal folks can’t pinpoint which, and it was a weekday—few people wandering,” Fang Si Ting explained.

Silence fell.

“Hang on, no second person’s traces in the villa. Wearing Lu Jin’s shoes works for entry, but exit? Lu Jin still had his shoes on when we found him.”

“You forgot the crime scene scissors,” Fang Si Ting said. “Xiao Fen scattered them around the living room and bathroom to step on them when leaving.”

He showed photos. “These scissors are large and thick—a couple stacked make enough for an adult foot. Look closely: though scattered, every few adult steps, some cluster together. Wearing socks, Xiao Fen stepped on them without leaving prints in the dust.”

“So it wasn’t any ritual. The electronics, incense burner, movie poster paper money—all to make the scissors seem less out of place,” Peng Xiaoxiao realized.

Tang Shen examined the photos. The scissors looked random; without Fang Si Ting’s red marks, even he, the expert, would’ve missed it.

“Too impressive,” he marveled. “My oversight.”

Fang Si Ting’s phone rang, cutting him off.

“Boss, shocking news,” Bai Zhu’s voice crackled through, laced with fury.

“We didn’t find those two at Ou Yu’s hideout—instead, we found someone else: Xu Nuo!”

“Why was Xu Nuo there?” Fang Si Ting had a bad premonition.

“Not that effeminate Xu Nuo—the real one! Damn it, we’ve been played these past days!”

Fang Si Ting’s mind went “buzz,” blanking out.

He’d suspected once, but later evidence made him dismiss it.

His brain lagged for a dozen seconds before he contacted Xu An at the United Building, telling him to detain Xu Nuo.

“What do you want him for… Boss, I didn’t see anyone.” Xu An searched everywhere and asked around, but he didn’t spot anyone.

From his tone, he sensed something was off with Xu Nuo and quickly pulled up the office surveillance footage.

“What time did he leave?” Fang Si Ting asked.

“Boss, take a look.”

Fang Si Ting’s phone vibrated as Xu An sent over a segment of surveillance video.

At 10:30 AM—that was fifteen minutes ago—Xu Nuo arrived at the front desk duty room. He seemed to say something to the vice squad officer on duty, who turned to fetch something.

In the instant that person turned away, Xu Nuo suddenly looked up.

In that moment, the eyes beneath the thick-framed glasses stared straight at the camera in the duty room. He grinned, his tongue playfully licking his little canine tooth.

Xu Nuo’s face, Xiao Fen’s smile.

He propped his elbow on the counter, raised both hands toward the camera, and flipped it the middle finger.

Mockery, disdain, playfulness—the arrogance of toying with the entire Pursuit Team in the palm of his hand.

After this provocative gesture, he pressed his index and middle fingers together against his forehead and saluted the surveillance camera.

Goodbye, Mr. Black Cat.