Chapter 118: A Targeted Killing
As the group drove toward Yunding Mountain Villa, Jiang Li sent Wu Ming a text message.
Miao Anji gazed out the window, the corners of his mouth turned up in a pleased smile.
Jiang Li glanced at the scorpion crawling on the back of his hand and couldn’t help but stare.
Miao Anji sensed her gaze and turned to look at her with wide-eyed innocence. "Sister, you like it?"
The next second, a cool sensation touched Jiang Li’s hand. The scorpion had crawled onto her own hand. Examining it carefully in the light, she noticed it wasn’t black. "A red scorpion?"
Miao Anji nodded happily. This was his Lifebound Gu, which he had raised from an egg since he was a child.
Zhao Shuo and Lu Xingye shot it a glance.
After watching it for a moment, Jiang Li returned it to him.
The car stopped at the entrance to the villa. Zhao Shuo and Lu Xingye led their team inside.
The manager of the villa had already gotten the news and was waiting for them in the lobby.
Zhao Shuo went ahead, and they soon arrived at a wooden cabin cordoned off with police tape.
"This is the cabin where Li Chang and his friends had their party. They arrived at nine-thirty in the morning and left around eleven at night."
"Did you see any conflicts between them that day?"
The manager looked at the young woman beside him. Zhang Lingling stepped forward and answered honestly:
"Officer, I was in charge of this cabin. They seemed to be having a great time that day. I didn’t see any conflicts. They were just drinking, having a barbecue, and singing some opera."
The manager nodded, pointing to a camera outside. "There’s surveillance outside, but to protect our guests’ privacy, there are no cameras inside the rooms, only in the living room."
Zhao Shuo nodded and led his team to start examining the scene.
Lu Xingye watched the surveillance footage. He had already seen it once after Li Chang’s incident, but watching it on-site was better for analysis.
Miao Anji’s nose twitched, and he began searching the surrounding bushes.
Yu Huannian and Wu Ming had received the news and rushed over as well. When Wu Ming saw Jiang Li, she ran up, wrapped her arms around her, and clung to her tightly.
"Jiang Li, coming here so late... did you find another exciting case?"
Jiang Li nodded and briefly told her what had happened at the police station.
Wu Ming leaned on her shoulder. "It does sound pretty out-there. But even if it was a real haunting, there has to be a medium—like a yellow talisman, a straw doll, a person’s birth characters..."
Wu Ming counted them off on her fingers as she spoke.
’A medium?’
Jiang Li’s eyelid twitched. She glanced at Miao Anji. ’Come to think of it, the symptoms are almost identical to Wu Jianzhang’s and Lin Ye’s.’
’But it definitely wasn’t Xiao Ji. That means it must be a fellow practitioner.’
Meanwhile, Lu Xingye had made some progress. Something was hidden in a crack in one of the cabin’s rooms.
Lu Xingye looked down at the 10mm pearl earring that had fallen from between the floorboards. He put on a pair of gloves, picked it up, and placed it in an evidence bag.
"Brother Zhao, zoom in on the people in the surveillance footage for me."
Zhao Shuo zoomed in, and they clearly saw the pearl on Zhang Qingzhi’s ear.
Lu Xingye glanced at it without a word, and Zhao Shuo continued to play the footage.
"Stop," Lu Xingye said suddenly.
Zhao Shuo reviewed it carefully and suddenly noticed that the pearl earring that was previously on Zhang Qingzhi’s ear was now on Chen Meihua’s.
Zhao Shuo rewound and watched it again. "Here. Zhang Qingzhi and Chen Meihua were in the room for a while. After they came out, the earring was on Chen Meihua’s ear."
Lu Xingye got up and went into the room they had occupied.
"Xingye, look at this. Something was wrong when Ruan Zhixia and the others left."
Lu Xingye looked down at the screen Zhao Shuo was pointing at. In the video, Ruan Zhixia appeared to be drunk and was being supported by Chen Meihua and Zhang Qingzhi.
Previously, their attention had been focused on Li Chang, so they had overlooked Ruan Zhixia.
"Look, in the living room, Ruan Zhixia hadn’t drunk that much. But when she was being helped out, she wasn’t reacting at all."
Lu Xingye continued, "There are no signs of a struggle in the room. It’s highly likely she was drugged."
Zhao Shuo shot to his feet. "I’ll go search the trash."
Lu Xingye stopped him. "It wouldn’t be in the trash can; that’s too obvious. Check the corners of the room, the bushes outside."
Zhao Shuo nodded in agreement. Just as he turned, he saw Miao Anji appear at the doorway.
"Are you looking for this?" Miao Anji held up a crumpled piece of paper. It was torn from a book and had writing on it, clearly from a suspicious source.
"Xiao Ji, you’re a huge help!"
Zhao Shuo quickly took it, photographed it for someone to run a check, and had it sent back to the station along with the other evidence.
As they sat around a table, Zhao Shuo asked about Zhang Qingzhi’s and Chen Meihua’s movements.
After learning of Liu Shan’s death, Chen Meihua had stormed into the police station like a madwoman.
Zhang Qingzhi and Yang Ziyi must have heard the news by now, too.
"If they have a guilty conscience, they won’t be able to sit still."
Back at the station, Zhou Tiancheng used the information from Zhao Shuo’s team to check the road surveillance from a different angle.
"This is Zhang Qingzhi’s car. This stretch is a dirt road with no cameras. The car didn’t come back out for about three hours. Chen Xiang, take a team and go check it out. Be thorough."
Zhou Tiancheng pointed to a dirt road branching off from the paved one.
Ji Qinghe came in from outside. "Chen Meihua is losing control. She’s been cursing out everyone in the opera troupe."
Ji Qinghe sat down and took a sip of water. "To prevent the killer from skipping town, Qin Shu is performing the autopsy overnight."
Zhou Tiancheng nodded, organizing the evidence and clues she had, and looked at the surveillance feed from Zhang Qingzhi and Yang Ziyi’s residential complex.
’If all the deceased were at the party, and we exclude Chen Kai who left early, then only Zhang Qingzhi, Yang Ziyi, and Sun Cong are left.’
’Ruan Zhixia’s disappearance is inextricably linked to them. This was a targeted killing aimed at Ruan Zhixia.’
Zhou Tiancheng took a deep breath, steeling herself. ’If that’s the case,’ she thought, ’I won’t let a single one of these criminals get away.’
At Zhang Qingzhi’s home, she was huddled in Yang Ziyi’s arms, trembling.
"Brother Ziyan, do you think... do you think Ruan Zhixia came back for revenge?
When Wang Hua died, he was screaming Ruan Zhixia’s name. And Liu Shan died at the police station! How can someone just die in a police station?"
Zhang Qingzhi gripped Yang Ziyi’s arm, tears of fear streaming down her face. Ever since she’d returned, the image of Wang Hua going crazy, running out, and getting hit by a car kept replaying in her mind.
Yang Ziyi was silent, his own resolve wavering. ’They’re all dead. Everyone who was there that day is dead. Now it’s just us. And Liu Shan and Wang Hua died at the police station, of all places. This is too strange.’
Yang Ziyi gripped Zhang Qingzhi’s shoulders. "Qingzhi, did you really see it clearly? Is Ruan Zhixia really dead?"
"Of course she’s dead! I saw her take her last breath with my own eyes. It’s a good thing Guo Tianqi wasn’t there that day, or it would’ve been harder to make a move."
A sense of satisfaction washed over Zhang Qingzhi at the thought. For years, Ruan Zhixia had always competed with her for everything—for roles, and even for Guo Tianqi’s affection. ’What was so great about that bitch, anyway?’
Seeing her lost in thought, a flash of displeasure crossed Yang Ziyi’s eyes. "Qingzhi, if I find out you’ve been in contact with Sun Cong again..."
Zhang Qingzhi’s heart skipped a beat. She frantically grabbed his hand. "Brother Ziyan, haven’t I already told you?
I only got close to them so they would help us deal with Ruan Zhixia and Guo Tianqi..."
Just as Zhang Qingzhi finished speaking, the phone beside her rang abruptly.
The sound sent a chill down Zhang Qingzhi’s spine.
Yang Ziyi frowned. ’Who would be calling at three or four in the morning?’
Zhang Qingzhi’s sharp eyes caught the name Sun Cong on the screen, and she was scared out of her wits. She had just mentioned his name, and now he was calling.
Just as Yang Ziyi reached for the phone, Zhang Qingzhi snatched it up. The moment she answered, Sun Cong’s terrified screams erupted from the other end.
"Qingzhi, help me! Help me! Ruan Zhixia is here! She’s come to take my life!
AHHHH!"