Ji Feng had to clarify: "I brought it."
Jian Jing: "The air?"
"Just kidding, pigeon soup is pretty good for health." Ji Feng hastily handed her a kraft paper bag, "Photocopies of the case files, the originals have been submitted to the prosecutor's office."
Jian Jing: "That's it?"
He took back his hand: "Don't return it to me."
She firmly held down the bag.
Ji Feng tried hard to pull it back for half a day, but didn't get it back, letting go: "Alright, it seems you've recovered well."
Jian Jing opened the kraft bag and quickly glanced over the words.
The content was consistent with Wang Shi's memory. Her father used to be a worker in a state-owned enterprise. Due to the wave of layoffs, he lost his job. The enterprise was transformed into a private enterprise. He managed to connect relationships and successfully returned to work, and was later transferred away by the company.
Not long after, his mother fell critically ill and needed a lot of money. So his father embezzled public funds and abandoned his mother and son, disappearing without a trace.
"Just based on this, there really doesn't seem to be anything wrong with him." Ji Feng clicked his tongue in wonder, "What was the deal with him and his mother? Do you know the answer now?"
Jian Jing felt heavy-hearted: "He loved his mother very much, and his mother loved him very much too. His father was a scumbag." She shook the pages and said sarcastically, "His so-called 'connecting relationships' was coercing his wife into prostitution."
At this point, even Ji Feng couldn't help sighing: "No wonder."
When investigating Wang Shi's hometown, acquaintances were always evasive, hesitant to speak. So this was the other reason.
"His father was probably killed by him, and the one who took the money was most likely him as well." Jian Jing calculated with her fingers and shook her head, "He was only in junior high at that time."
Ji Feng glanced at her: "Teacher Jian, you seem to sympathize with him a little?"
"You can sympathize when someone is dead." Jian Jing said.
He said, "I see, when someone is dead, anything can be said, right?"
Jian Jing heard the subtext and raised her brows: "Hmm?"
Ji Feng smiled: "The gun."
She pretended to be surprised: "What gun? Oh, his gun, sunk into the sea."
He chuckled: "You think I can't tell the difference between revolver bullets and semi-automatic bullets? What a coincidence, the one that killed him was also a .38 revolver bullet, just compatible with Wen Hui's boyfriend's purchased revolver?"
She spread her hands: "Anyway I don't have it."
"Of course you don't have it." He said, "You can't have it in the future either."
Jian Jing glanced at him.
Ji Feng looked back, his expression unchanged, as if he hadn't implied anything.
The two reached a tacit understanding in their exchange of glances.
"Ahem." Jian Jing cleared her throat and held out her palm.
Ji Feng: "......" He groped his pocket and finally took out a piece of chewing gum.
Jian Jing slapped his hand away and said unhappily: "Where are my things? The case is closed, shouldn't you return them to me?"
"Oh, I almost forgot." Ji Feng laughed out loud, and took out her watch and tracker from his coat pocket, "Speaking of which, where did you buy this? The signal is pretty good, and it's waterproof too."
Jian Jing grabbed them and immediately hid them: "A friend gave them to me."
"What friend, introduce me to them." He said.
"No way." She ordered him to leave, "Go back quickly, I want to sleep."
Ji Feng casually asked, "Not having a midnight snack?"
Jian Jing: "Actually..."
Ten minutes later.
Ji Feng left the ward and greeted the nurse on duty, "Thanks for being flexible, I'm leaving now."
"You're welcome." The nurse smiled and said, "Patient 809 is much better now, Detective Ji can come during the day next time."
Ji Feng asked: "When will she be discharged?"
"Her family requested two more days of observation." The nurse replied.
He nodded. The elevator arrived, he waved goodbye and got into the elevator casually.
The elevator went down one floor and stopped, the door opened.
A girl wearing a mask and knitted hat walked in and urged: "Hurry up, the nurses do room checks at midnight. If they find out I'm not in my room, Chairman Kang will confine me for another week for sure."
Ji Feng insincerely: "How miserable."
"I want barbecue." She was heartbroken, "Crucian carp soup, chicken soup, pigeon soup, pig’s trotters soup, Chairman Kang's aunt must be from Guangdong."
Ji Feng: "There's no barbecue nearby."
Jian Jing said: "Didn't you drive here?"
"I haven't been home in half a month. I'm going home early today." Ji Feng negotiated, "There's a pretty good noodle shop nearby. Let's just have some yellow croaker noodles then I'll go home, ok?"
She thought about it and compromised: "Alright."
The night wind was cold, but the noodle shop was brightly lit, still doing good business with customers sitting here and there.
A TV hanging in the corner was playing a popular ancient idol drama. The content was boring and the martial arts awkward. Its only purpose was to add some liveliness to the cold night.
The boss glanced at Ji Feng and asked, "Still snow vegetable yellow croaker?"
"Yeah yeah." He paid, "What do you want?"
Jian Jing: "Same for me."
Snow vegetable yellow croaker noodles were the signature dish of the shop. The snow vegetable was cut thinly, with some chili peppers, served steaming hot. The fish was fresh, the noodles chewy. Drinking it warmed up the whole body.
After surviving disaster.
Jian Jing was fully satisfied after the midnight snack. She secretly snuck back to the eighth floor.
Taking advantage of the nurse lowering her head to organize medical records, she activated her stealth mode and snuck back into her room to sleep at ease.
Seeing the lights go off, Ji Feng yawned, slowly started the car, and went home.
*
On the ninth day of hospitalization, Kang Mu Cheng finally couldn't resist Jian Jing's pleading and agreed to discharge her.
"No need to rush back to school, rest for a few more days." He picked her up in person and didn't forget to remind her, "The most important thing is to recover well."
Jian Jing said: "I plan to finish writing Evil Doctor 3 in the winter."
Kang Mu Cheng was surprised: "You have ideas already?"
She nodded. After experiencing so many cases, she never lacked inspiration. She just didn't focus on it before, and was too lazy to write. Now that past grudges were resolved and threats were gone, she felt much more relaxed. It was time to get back to work.
"Take it slow writing." Kang Mu Cheng was very concerned. Although Jian Jing looked lively and active, whenever he thought about the horrible impact the people who kidnapped her had on her, he couldn't believe she had fully recovered. "Or, don't write crime themes for now, try something else."
He compromised greatly: "Romance is not unacceptable either."
Jian Jing pursed her lips, but still couldn't help it: "Pffft."
Chairman Kang was just too cute - although this adjective wasn't very appropriate - but his reluctant expression and meaningful glance were really rare.
She could almost recount his thought process: Although your talent isn't in love stories, and given your current situation, it's not suitable for you to change genre, although... sigh, but if you want to write it, it's not unacceptable.
Kang Mu Cheng: "That funny?"
"No no." She quickly shook her head.
The car slowly drove into the residential area. Kang Mu Cheng helped carry her luggage upstairs, checked inside and out, before reluctantly leaving.
After he left, Jian Jing finally sauntered into the study and took down the Evil Doctor poster hanging on the wall.
Behind the wall were sticky notes, photos, and colored strings representing logic, plastered all over.
This was the script she had written at home a month ago.
From finding Jiang Bai Yan, him seeing the facial composite which led him to think of the psychologist, to her completely changing the entire plan, getting Jiang Bai Yan to "sell her out" in exchange for Wang Shi's trust...looking back now, it felt like ages ago.
Jian Jing held complicated feelings as she tore them down one by one and threw them into the paper shredder, watching them become a messy pile of paper strips.
It was all over.
She dusted off her hands and started calculating the budget for this stage play, The Withering Rose.
First were the two special cards that played a big role.
[Name: Special Card - High Tech Smartwatch (Main Component)]
[Description: An imaginatively engineered high tech product, waterproof, fireproof, shockproof, magnetic-proof, ultralight and super comfortable, with multiple basic functions like time, astrology, temperature, humidity, compass, timer, zero error]
[Note: This product can be combined with other cards for use. Consume 5 Courage to duplicate a new appearance or enable Bluetooth connection with ordinary electronic devices]
[Name: Special Card - Tracker (Component)]
[Description: High tech component, satellite positioning device, with adaptive camouflage appearance, can be attached to various materials, waterproof and fireproof]
[Note: Requires binding with main component for use. Consume 10 Courage to enable automatic navigation]
The appearance of the watch was plain black, but even just for daily use, its performance far exceeded ordinary watches.
Jian Jing couldn't bear to let such a treasure gather dust, and immediately put it on.
However, this thing would pass before Ji Feng's sharp eyes. Seeing her wearing this watch frequently, he would definitely become suspicious.
"Let's give it a new look," she said.
The system popped up a DIY panel, not much different from the appearance systems in games that tricked people into topping up. First select the basic model, then the layout, and finally adjust the color.
Jian Jing chose the pink and white sweet cool style without hesitation.
The new accessory was synthesized and printed onto the watch.
So the high-tech electronic watch lost its previous clunky square shape and became nimble and sweet. No matter what dressing style, it matched very well.
She would put away the locator for now.
Three props cards, a gas cylinder, a signal smoke bomb, and an oxygen cylinder, plus turning the glasses into contact lenses. The printed appearance cost a total of 20 courage points.
Plus the 10 points for the anti-hypnosis, 30 in total.
Fortunately the returns were considerable.
[Mission Name: The Withering Rose (Completed)]
[Mission Reward: 30 courage points, 20 special contribution points]
[Note: Courage points can be used to draw regular cards, 5 points each time; contribution points can be used to draw special cards, 10 points each time]
In addition, one high fashion dress was returned.
Jian Jing's heart ached every time she thought of this.
She also realized a truth from this: it's better if things like this happen in other people's homes...
*
At nine o'clock in the evening, Jiang BaiYan finished shooting the last scene of the day and happily got off work to go home.
In a few days, The Rose Gold would finish shooting.
He looked forward to this drama, more than any other time before.
"Meow~" As soon as he got home, Pudding meowed and rubbed against his legs. Jiang BaiYan picked up the fat ginger cat and stroked its head: "No, your weight hasn't gone down yet."
Pudding looked aggrieved: "Meow."
He was ruthlessly unmoved.
Pudding could only slink away.
Jiang BaiYan took off his overcoat, rolled up his sleeves, and started to clean the cat litter, change the water, and tidy up the toys. Then he picked up the kettle and went to the balcony to water the plants, loosening the soil for some, and pruning the branches.
After going through the daily routine, he heated up a cup of milk for himself, and as he drank it, he opened gifts.
There was a beautiful box on the sofa, he didn't know who sent it.
He untied the ribbon and took out a combination lock box.
There was also a letter.
"Oh?" Jiang BaiYan put down the milk cup and held up the letter to read under the lamplight.
He saw a line that sounded very much like a drama line: "If you're reading this letter, it means I'm already dead..."
"Whoa." He laughed and broke open the wax seal to slowly read the letter.
The letter was very short, only one and a half pages, but he spent a full twenty minutes reading it, zoning out several times before he finished the content.
After reading, he finished the milk, and rummaged through boxes and cabinets to find an aromatherapy gift set someone had given him. He took out a lighter from inside.
He lit the envelope on fire and threw it into a ceramic cup, watching as the paper was engulfed by the flames.
It turned into a cup of ashes.
He went to the kitchen and got a cup of water, pouring the ash and water together down the drain.
Then, "Pudding," he called.
The ginger cat ran over, head tilted.
Jiang BaiYan lifted it onto the counter, grasped its paws, and nudged the cup.
Crash!
The cup fell off the counter, smashing into pieces.
Pudding's fur stood on end as it leapt away in shock.
Jiang BaiYan smiled and said, "It's okay."
He crouched down, threw the shards into the trash can, the corners of his lips unconsciously curving up slightly.